South Africa: Energy Crisis Committee releases progress report Government has announced a series of interventions aimed at solving the countrys worsening power crisis and easing the ongoing load shedding. Through the Presidency, the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM) on Saturday released a six-month update on progress in the implementation of the Energy Action Plan. Among these are Eskoms programme to buy power from companies with available generation capacity through a standard offer. The first contracts are expected to be signed in the coming weeks, the Presidency said in a statement. Another intervention contained in the document will see government departments cutting red tape and streamlining regulatory processes for energy projects. This will include reducing the timeframe for environmental authorisations and registration, while negotiations are underway to secure a potential 1 000 MW from neighbouring countries starting this year. The declining energy availability factor of Eskoms fleet reflects the cumulative impact of historical underinvestment in maintenance and assets, exacerbated by flaws in the design of new power stations in the last decade, the NECOM said. To respond to the severe impact of load shedding on households, small businesses and the economy as a whole, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced measures in 2022 to improve the performance of existing power stations and add new generation capacity. The NECOM, a body run by the Presidents Office, was established to coordinate governments response and ensure swift implementation of the plan. President Ramaphosa convened a special meeting over load shedding as Eskom implemented extended Stage 6 load shedding. He cancelled his travel plans to Davos, Switzerland, in order to deal with the crisis. According to the Presidency, the Head of State has also engaged with a wide range of stakeholders and leaders to ensure a collective response to this national challenge. Steps taken to follow through on the commitments announced by the President include: - Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act has been amended to remove the licensing requirement for generation projects, which will significantly accelerate private investment. - Since the licensing threshold was first raised to 100 MW, the pipeline of private sector projects has grown to more than 100 projects with over 9 000 MW of capacity. The first of these large-scale projects is expected to connect to the grid by the end of this year. - The NECOM has instructed departments to cut red tape and streamline regulatory processes for energy projects, including reducing the timeframe for environmental authorisations to 57 days from over 100 days. Reduce the registration process from four months to three weeks and ensure that grid connection approvals are provided within six months. - Project agreements for 19 projects from Bid Window 5 and six projects from Bid Window 6 of the renewable energy programme, representing 2 800 MW of new capacity. These projects will soon proceed to construction. - A new ministerial determination has been published for 14 771 MW of new generation capacity from wind, solar and battery storage to accelerate further bid windows. - An additional 300 MW has been imported through the Southern African Power Pool, and negotiations are underway to secure a potential 1 000 MW from neighbouring countries starting this year. - Eskom has developed and launched a programme to purchase power from companies with available generation capacity through a standard offer. The first contracts are expected to be signed in the coming weeks. - A team of independent experts has been established to work closely with Eskom to diagnose the problems at poorly performing power stations and take action to improve plant performance. In addition, the Presidency said six power stations have been identified for particular focus over the coming months through a comprehensive Generation Recovery Plan. President Ramaphosa said: South Africans are right to demand immediate action to address the devastating impact of load shedding on our lives and the economy. The Energy Action Plan provides a clear way out of this crisis. We do not need any new plans we are focusing on implementing this plan fully and effectively to achieve energy security for all South Africans. The President has further instructed law enforcement agencies to ramp up efforts to protect electricity infrastructure, while government has committed to deal with criminal syndicates and address theft and sabotage at several power stations. The Presidency said addressing the ongoing shortfall in electricity remains governments single most important priority. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2023-01-21. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. China goes all out to ensure security of industrial, supply chains 11:11, January 21, 2023 By Zhong Yin ( People's Daily A worker performs pre-delivery inspection for vehicles that have just rolled off the production line in a work shop of a production base owned by Chinese automaker BAIC Motor in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, Jan. 14, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Zhang Jingang) China is seeing accelerated resumption of work and life as it implements its optimized COVID-19 response measures. It gives a leg up to the country's economic recovery and further makes global industrial and supply chains stable and unimpeded. Since the onset of COVID-19, China has worked to address both targeted epidemic control and economic and social development. It optimized COVID-19 control in light of the evolving situation and achieved remarkable progress. This not only stabilized the fundamentals for economic and social development to the largest extent but also made important contributions to maintaining unimpeded global industrial and supply chains and to promoting global recovery. China's average annual economic growth stood at 4.5 percent in the past three years, which is obviously higher than the global average. In 2021, the country's foreign trade in goods hit a historical high of $6 trillion. Between January and November 2022, China's foreign trade in goods increased 8.6 percent year on year. In a word, China's progress in the fight against COVID-19 and economic development is self-evident and can withstand the test of history. The optimized measures will continuously make COVID-19 response more science-based, targeted, and effective, and will also further spur stable economic growth. The Chinese economy enjoys strong resilience, potential, and vitality. The fundamentals sustaining its long-term growth remain unchanged. Products are manufactured in a workshop of Shanghai Gripp Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Jan. 10, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Jiang Huihui) Meanwhile, China has rolled out a series of policies that are expected to assist economic recovery. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology tailored targeted measures for major corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), encouraging the former, especially state-owned ones, to play their role in supporting the industrial chain and driving the development of relevant sectors. Shanxi province in north China released 29 measures in seven aspects, focusing on coordinating work resumption, smoothing the industrial and supply chains of the manufacturing sector, and speeding up the appropriation of government funds. Northwest China's Gansu province strictly follows the optimized measures of COVID-19 control and has made a "white list" of enterprises on the industrial and supply chains of major industries. The above measures have accelerated economic recovery across China, ensuring the security and stability of industrial and supply chains. The momentum for rapid economic rebound is being gathered and released. China boasts the world's most complete industrial system. It accounts for 30 percent of the global manufacturing output and remains an important manufacturing hub of the world. Optimizing its COVID-19 response will help China strengthen the resilience and security of its industrial and supply chains, and also make the world economy more stable and certain. Power batteries are manufactured in a modern equipment industrial park in Ordos, north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Jan. 15, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Wang Zheng) International media have captured the positive signal heralding China's positive economic development, and the world has enhanced expectations for China's economic growth and the positive global spillover effects of such growth. According to a survey recently launched by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, which involved over 160 foreign enterprises in China and foreign chambers of commerce, 99.4 percent said they were more confident in China's economic prospects in 2023, and 98.7 percent said they would maintain and expand their investment in China. Just as a foreign media outlet said, China's optimization of COVID-19 response, while lighting hopes for the country's own economy, will also increase the possibilities for the world economy to make a soft landing. China's development benefits the world. A German auto spare parts manufacturer said China is the world's largest auto market, which is dynamic and resilient, and it is confident in the prospects of the Chinese market, noting it would continue expanding its investment in the country. China boasts huge market potential, enjoys obvious advantages in the supply chain and is taking firm steps to expand opening up. It is an indispensable part of economic globalization. As the country's optimized measures of COVID-19 response continues taking effects, the Chinese economy will embrace a brighter future, and inject stronger momentum and confidence in the global economic recovery. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Kou Jie) Gov. Ned Lamonts choice for transportation commissioner told legislators this week that his greatest challenge is finding new professionals to oversee the rebuild of Connecticuts aging highways, bridges and rail lines. While a key legislative panel unanimously endorsed the nomination of Garrett Eucalitto of New Haven, the states construction industry also threw its support behind the transportation policy veteran, arguing he is best suited to accelerate long-overdue capital projects. Eucalitto is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable transportation leaders that I know, Don Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, testified before the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee. He is likely one of the best in the country. The association, which represents most major businesses linked to transportation infrastructure work, has been critical of the Department of Transportations failure to launch more projects in recent years, despite a huge infusion of funding. Shortly after winning reelection to a second term, Lamont tapped Eucalitto in November to succeed retiring DOT Commissioner James Giulietti. But Shubert said Eucalitto, who has two decades of experience in transportation policy and administration including serving as the DOTs deputy commissioner since January 2020 understands the challenges better than anyone else. Between October 2017 and January 2020, Eucalitto was a transportation program director for the National Governors Associations Center for Best Practices. But for five years prior, he worked in Gov. Dannel P. Malloys administration in the Office of Policy and Management, the chief budget and policy planning agency. And for most of that time, Eucalitto, an undersecretary, oversaw financial issues tied to transportation. In other words, according to Shubert, Eucalitto understands state fiscal policy as well as the inner workings of the DOT and knows how to work with the legislature. Garrett is the most established administrator of transportation programs in Connecticut, Shubert said. He has worked earnestly to attain his status as a respected professional in his agency and across the country. Eucalitto said the department is using new outreach strategies to recruit engineers, planners and other professionals from out of state. We know weve tapped the talent we have here, he told the committee. We need to look outside of our boundaries. The DOT has slightly fewer than 3,000 employees now, fewer than it had 13 years ago when a legislative investigation concluded it was struggling to get projects done on time and under budget. Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, urged Eucalitto to pay close attention to the staffing issue, saying legislators would support requests for additional personnel. FILE State Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney meets with reporters outside the Senate chamber June 9, 2021, in Hartford, Conn. (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant File) Recalling a conversation with a former state transportation commissioner, Looney said the department has been hollowed out from within over the past two decades and cant perform many core duties because of staffing issues. The new commissioner added that the private industries that support Connecticuts transportation capital program also need more skilled tradespeople. We need to build that pipeline for the foreseeable future, he said. Labor leaders also say the department needs more engineers and other professionals if it hopes to rebuild Connecticuts aging infrastructure at a faster pace. Despite a huge increase in sales tax receipts dedicated to the state budgets Special Transportation Fund since 2015, borrowing to support capital projects during Lamonts first term was largely unchanged from the previous four years. Connecticut borrowed an average of $744 million per year between 2019 and 2022 to fix its transportation infrastructure. Thats just 2.6% more than the $725 million bonded annually between 2015 and 2018 under Malloy. The Special Transportation Fund covers the debt payments on that borrowing as well as public transit program costs and DOT operating expenses. Adding staff, getting more projects underway and accelerating the capital program will become even more crucial in the near future if Connecticut hopes to maximize increased transportation aid from Washington. Youre going to be in the middle of a storm, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, who co-chairs the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee, told Eucalitto. The much-touted $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure initiative passed in late 2021 does guarantee $5.4 billion for Connecticut over the next five years for highway, bridge, transit and other projects. But states also can apply for much more funding, specifically a share of a $12.5 billion Bridge Investment Program and a roughly $16 billion pool for major transportation projects that will provide significant economic impacts. And Duff said Connecticut is going to want to maximize its share of federal funding, adding that Eucalitto is an excellent nominee to lead the transportation department. Eucalittos nomination now heads to the state Senate for final consideration. Keith M. Phaneuf is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2023 (c) The Connecticut Mirror. If you only read conservative and centrist pundits, youd think the District of Columbia is about to embark upon a frightening experiment to weaken or abolish criminal penalties for violent crime. Fox News has devoted frenzied coverage to the claim that D.C. is softening its criminal laws. Republican politicians like Sen. Tom Cotton have seized on the story, as have conservative commentators like Erick Erickson, who cited it as evidence that Congress should abolish self-governance in the District. The Washington Post editorial board opined that a new crime bill could make the city more dangerous, claiming it would tie the hands of police and prosecutors while overwhelming courts. This coverage all repeats the same two claims: that D.C. is poised to slash prison sentences for violent offenses, and that these reforms will lead to more crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Neither of these claims is true. The legislation that D.C. passed in January is not a traditional reform bill, but the result of a 16-year process to overhaul a badly outdated, confusing, and often arbitrary criminal code. The revisions goal was to modernize the law by defining elements of each crime, eliminating overlap between offenses, establishing proportionate penalties, and removing archaic or unconstitutional provisions. Every single change is justified in meticulous reports that span thousands of pages. Each one was crafted with extensive public input and support from both D.C. and federal prosecutors. Eleventh-hour criticisms of the bill rest on misunderstandings, willful or otherwise, about its purpose and effect. They malign complex, technocratic updates as radical concessions to criminals. In many cases, criticisms rest on sheer legal illiteracy about how criminal sentencing actually works. Advertisement The D.C. bill is not a liberal wishlist of soft-on-crime policies. It is an exhaustive and entirely mainstream blueprint for a more coherent and consistent legal system. Efforts to revise the Districts criminal code began in 2006. Lawmakers recognized that D.C.s criminal laws were a messthe product of legislation enacted by Congress in 1901 and tweaked in piecemeal fashion ever since. Countless jurisdictions across the country overhauled their criminal codes beginning in the 1960s, and the city council acknowledged that D.C.s was overdue for a fresh look. In 2016, the council finally commenced the project in earnest by creating the Criminal Code Reform Commission (CCRC). Councilmembers directed the commission to pore over the books, identify existing problems, and recommend comprehensive solutions. Advertisement Advertisement The CCRC consisted of staff attorneys and an advisory group of experts. The latter included representatives from the U.S. attorneys office and the D.C. attorney generals office, separate entities that prosecute all crimes and misdemeanors committed in the District. The commission held dozens of public meetings over four years, then published minutes and audio recordings from each one. In 2021, it published hundreds of pages of recommendations accompanied by thousands of pages of commentary. It also published well over 2,000 pages of appendices containing every draft document, study, chart, table, and data compilation used in its work. This massive array of materials allows an interested reader to learn exactly how the commission carried out its mandate in painstaking detail. Advertisement Advertisement At the end of the process, the advisory group voted unanimously to submit its recommendations to the council. To reiterate, that group included representatives from the two offices that prosecute crimes in D.C. The D.C. Council unanimously passed the billknown as the Revised Criminal Code Act, or RCCAafter making relatively small changes. The U.S. attorneys office did not oppose final passage and the D.C. attorney general affirmatively supported it. Yet Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the bill, expressing the spurious concerns echoed on Fox News. The council easily overrode her veto. It will take effect in 2025. Advertisement Advertisement What problems did the RCCA address? Where to start: One of the biggest issues is that the old code fails to identify the elements of countless offenses. These omissions force the D.C. Court of Appeals to fill in the blanks, creating ongoing uncertainty about what the law requires. Some offenses are, on the page, incredibly broad; a kidnapping statute that carries a 30-year maximum sentence, for instance, could encompass giving someone an unforeseen hug. Others are vague, like simple assaulta commonly charged offense whose elements are not defined in the current code. This confusion makes it more difficult to combat crime: Prosecutors are less likely to bring charges when they arent sure what theyll need to prove to secure a conviction. The RCCA ensures that each offense is defined so that courts, prosecutors, and defendants know what is (and what isnt) criminal conduct. Advertisement Vague crimes also lead to inconsistent and arbitrary sentences. Consider the example of robbery. In the current code, theres a single robbery statute with a maximum penalty of 15 years. It covers everything from nonviolent pickpocketing to beating someone up so badly that theyre hospitalized. Even snatching a pizza from a delivery driver and refusing to pay qualifies as robbery under the current code. And the penalty for the offense doesnt change if the offender was armed (though other gun offenses may apply). The RCCA, by contrast, divides the crime into armed robbery and unarmed robbery, then breaks each category into first-degree, second-degree, and third-degree offenses. Advertisement Advertisement Third-degree unarmed robbery covers conduct that involves verbal threats or minor injuries like a bruise; the maximum sentence is two years. Second-degree unarmed robbery covers more serious injuries like a broken arm; the maximum sentence is four years. First-degree unarmed robbery covers life-threatening injuries; the maximum sentence is 14 years. These sentences are much higher if the person has a weapon, imposing a maximum penalty of 20 years on top of the sentence for additional weapons offenses. Advertisement This nuance is not reflected in the discourse. A critic of the RCCA could claim that the maximum sentence for robbery has dropped. In a misleading sense, thats true: A pickpocket who wouldve faced a max of 15 years now faces a max of two. But in reality, the RCCA has brought the penalty in proportion to the severity of the crime by creating gradations. It reserves longer sentences for people who commit worse crimes. First-degree armed robbery is punishable by 20 years in prison, a sentence Fox News recently characterized as a slap on the wrist. That person is also subject to punishment under a separate chapter that covers weapons offenses. A thief who grabs a womans wrist then runs away with her purse deserves to be punished. They do not deserve the same punishment as a thief who beats that woman half to death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These changes are not driven by any kind of philosophy about decarceration; they are driven by data. Judges have immense discretion in sentencing and rarely if ever impose maximum statutory penalties. To see which sentences judges are actually imposing, the commission looked at average sentences in other jurisdictions, and acquired data from the D.C. Superior Court covering every adult case from 2010 to 2019. It crunched the numbers to identify what sentences D.C. defendants faced in the real world, then based its revisions on these figures. So, for example, the median sentence handed down for robbery in D.C. was 33 months. The harshest sentences reached about nine years. Thats well below the maximum penalty under the current code and the revised code. The revision brings the statutory penalties closer to real-world sentences, but still gives judges ample discretion for extreme sentences. Advertisement Advertisement Consider a crime thats currently spiking in the District: carjacking. Under the current code, the maximum sentence for armed carjacking is 40 years. Thats the same penalty as second-degree murder, and more than double the penalty for second-degree sexual assault. It is wildly disproportionate to the offense by any standard. No onenot even the most violent and incorrigible offendersis sentenced to 40 years for carjacking in D.C. The most conservative, tough-on-crime judge would never dream of handing down anywhere close to a 40-year sentence for a single carjacking. Rather, the harshest penalties handed down today run about 15 years. In recognition that some rare cases may warrant even longer sentences, the RCCA authorizes a 24-year maximum sentence for carjacking. Thats nine years longer than the lengthiest sentences today. Advertisement But even the 24-year figure misrepresents how harsh carjacking and other sentences can still be. The RCCA allows judges to stack sentences in some instances by running them consecutively. It also includes sentence enhancements for offenders who are armed or who have a criminal record (to give just two examples). A felon who commits armed carjacking can be charged not only with armed carjacking but also with possession of a firearm by an unauthorized person and carrying a dangerous weapon. And their sentence can be enhanced due to the prior convictions. Under the new code, a carjackers sentence can easily stretch beyond 30 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats if the carjacker does not kidnap or kill the victim. Tack on kidnapping or homicide, and the carjacker effectively faces a life sentence. Advertisement Thus, when pundit Matt Yglesias tweeted that it was odd for D.C. to reduce the penalties for carjacking, his claim was technically accuratebut, in every important sense, profoundly wrong. Judges can impose the same sentences they are handing down today. Violent carjackers can still be condemned to die behind bars. Their sentences will simply align more closely with the penalties on the books. You might ask, then: Why bother to change these sentences in the first place? In addition to the problems with vague and unconstitutional provisions, the new code puts crimes and punishments in a more logical order. Stealing a car should not have the same penalty as taking a human life. And thats just one of many baffling examples. For instance, the existing code imposes a higher penalty for threatening to destroy someones property than for actually destroying it. This kind of disproportionality erodes faith in the system, creating a situation where lesser crimes can carry higher penalties. Advertisement As these examples illustrate, the notion that the RCCA softens penalties for violent crimeespecially carjacking and gun offensesis false in every way that matters. To the contrary, the law increases penalties for a variety of crimes in ways designed to make their prosecution easier. The max penalty for several sex offenses is significantly higher under the RCCA. So is the max penalty for possessing an assault rifle, ghost gun, large capacity magazine, or bomb. And the max for attempted murder surges from five years to 22.5 years. Advertisement The RCCA even introduces a new crime, endangerment with a firearm, to solve a problem that bedevils police and prosecutors: When an individual fires a gun in public, it can be difficult to prove that they were trying to injure or kill someone. Charges for attempted assault or murder come apart when prosecutors cannot prove intent. So the new offense makes firing a gun in public a standalone felonyimposing tougher penalties on gun crimes, not lighter ones. Advertisement Advertisement One change thats drawn outsized attention is a reduction in the maximum penalty for being a felon in possessionthat is, possessing a gun when you have a prior felony conviction. The RCCA drops the max for the charge from 15 years to four, for several reasons. First, being a felon in possession is not a crime of violence. It applies when an individual merely owns a gun, even if its sitting unused in their closet. If they ever carry or use it, the penalties shoot up dramatically. Second, no court hands down a 15-year sentence for possession alone, because its wildly disproportionate to the offense; the vast majority of people are sentenced to far less than four years. In the decade covered by the commissions study, the minuscule number of people who did receive a sentence over four years were all convicted of an additional offense, like robbery, and had a prior conviction. And remember, under the RCCA, judges can stack sentences for these other crimes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Finally, the new code includes separate offenses based on what the felon does with their gun. If they carry it outside, for instance, they face up to four more years in prison, on top of the four years for possessing it in the first place. Possessing a firearm with a prior conviction is bad. Carrying it in public is worse. Using it to commit a crime is a different category altogethera violent crime. The RCCA recognizes these differences and scales sentences accordingly. That should not be controversial. Critics of the bill have tried to make this particular revision sound radical by claimingas Pete Hegseth said on Fox Newsthat the four-year max applies to someone who commits a violent crime, a felony, even with a handgun. But that is flatly false. Advertisement Advertisement Whats so frustrating about the spigot of misinformation about the new law is that the RCCA is not, and has never been, designed to reduce incarceration in D.C. The District has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country, yet the commission was not instructed to consider mass incarceration when revising the code. Its revisions are thus in line with uncontroversial moves conducted in red and blue jurisdictions alike since the 1960s. Other changes are just plain-vanilla criminal justice reforms espoused by mainstream Democrats like President Joe Biden. For instance, the bill abolishes most mandatory minimum sentences, relics of the 1980s that create extreme racial disparities. (It retains several, including for first-degree murder.) Mandatory minimums are opposed by Biden himself and strongly discouraged by Attorney General Merrick Garlands Justice Department. The U.S. Attorney for D.C. agreed with eliminating almost all mandatory minimums in the D.C. code, including for carjacking. The RCCA also restores jury trials for misdemeanor offenses, which D.C. only eliminated in the 1990s due to judicial budget cuts. (The current lack of jury trials rests on dubious constitutional ground.) And the bill allows individuals to petition for release after 20 years incarceration if they can prove full rehabilitation, expanding a widely hailed second look program that currently applies only to young offenders. The notion that these or any other reforms in the RCCA could increase violent crime is not borne out by data. It is abundantly clear that ultralong prison sentences do not deter criminal behavior. To the contrary, there is evidence that shortening sentences can reduce crime, since longer sentences appear to increase the odds of recidivism. Perhaps the RCCA should reduce penalties across the board, but thats a debate for another day. The new code will not make D.C. more dangerous. It will make D.C.s criminal legal system more coherent and consistent. The smears against it by politicians and media figures do not withstand any serious scrutiny. Those attacking the RCCA are either too ignorant to learn what it really does or too dishonest to care. Theyre trying to George Floyd me, Keenan Anderson said as Los Angeles police pinned him to the ground on Jan. 3. While he was on the ground, they tased him six times over the course of 42 seconds. Anderson died in the hospital hours later, likely resulting from the incident, yet his story hasnt received as much attention as other police-involved killings of unarmed Black meneven though he is the cousin of one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, Patrisse Cullors. Advertisement The relatively muted response raises questions about whats happened in the past two and a half years, since George Floyds murder sparked a national reckoning over race and policing. Has the public gotten busier since then? Crueler? More fickle? More tolerant of violence? More futile in our response to it? Jahan Jones wrote for MSNBC. Where are the black Instagram squares, the corporate news releases claiming to stand for racial justice, the social media posts about white folks listening and learning about their privilege? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The underlying issue certainly hasnt gone away. Just days into the new year, Anderson was the third person of color killed by the LAPD alone. An ongoing analysis by The Washington Post found Black Americans are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americansand in 2022, police killed the highest number of people on record. Advertisement To get some perspective on what has changed, and what hasnt, since George Floyds murder, and the challenges facing efforts to end police violence, I spoke to Dr. Phillip Goff, co-founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity and a professor at Yale University. Heres our conversation, lightly edited and condensed for clarity. Shirin Ali: Why do you think the reaction to Keenan Andersons death was more muted in comparison to similar cases, like George Floyd or Philando Castile? Phillip Goff: I think that is because we were distracted by a bumblebee. Weve got George Santos, we have the failed attempts to choose a House speaker, the debt ceiling has hit. Were distracted. Were not paying attention to whats happening to Black people because theres anything else in the news. If you think about the names that you listed, all of them came at a time when there was space in the media ecosystem for a story about it. The other piece is that many of those stories had video attached, and the video was shocking. And the individual died right there at the scene. This is an individual who died in a hospital of cardiac arrest after multiple tasings. To the degree that there is video, it is not nearly as sensational, and its happening at a time when we have a fairly saturated set of systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During his encounter with police, Anderson called out for help. Thats something weve seen in many police-involved killings, but more often than not the plea goes ignored. What do you make of that? Thats 1,000 percent correct. We see in some of our own research, Black folks are two to four times more likely to have force used on them than white folks in this country. We see the folks with serious mental illness are sometimes up to 12 times more likely to have force used on them than folks without. We probably shouldnt have armed responders to folks in mental crisis. But since we do have armed responders as the primary first responders to folks in mental crisis, they cannot possibly be trained to deal with them and de-escalate them the way that folks who have taken years of schooling and countless hours of training are taught to. We ended up with violence and punishment in response to mental health crises in places where we dont need it. Advertisement Im not suggesting that Keenan Anderson was in a mental health crisis per se. But, he literally said, please help me as the first words that are caught on camera. The result on the other end of it is that they tased him literally to death, because, according to police reports, he got scared that he might get killed by cops and so ran away. If you have ever been not quite in your right mind, and you did a thing that under other circumstances you wouldnt do because you were scared, right? I think that if anybody hasnt ever done that they havent lived around humans. So it is absolutely the case that there are patterns of folks who are seeking help, who end up with law enforcement as the primary first and only responders and end up in a terrible situation, sometimes even in death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How is it that we dont have other ways to help folks out? Its not just a pattern of traffic stops, its a pattern across the country when youre living in places where you are vulnerable and you are asking for help. We have decided not to fund helpers, except when they come with the capacity to take life. Most recently, the police killing of George Floyd started this national conversation about police reform. Do you think theres been significant progress since then? George Floyds lynching in 2020 sort of reignited a conversation weve been having, since the founding of the country. I dont want anybody who reads this story to think that there was nothing, and then in 2020, all of a sudden it all started. Almost everybody remembers Ferguson, which was prior to that. Many people will also remember Trayvon Martin, which was both about policing and not about policing, and was a mere couple years before that. Many of your readers will remember the early 90s and what happened in Los Angeles after the verdict in the Rodney King beating. We actually do this in this country every 20 to 30 years. Before Rodney King, there was the Kerner Commission report in the late 1960s that said the reason we have these terrible incidents around race and policing is because we have systematically underinvested in the communities that tend to have a disproportionate number of descendants of former slaves. Advertisement Advertisement So its a cycle that we go through. Were currently in this period of the cycle that happens every 20 to 30 years, where were in the process of mass forgetting. In another 20 to 30 years from now, unless somehow the cycle has picked up speed, were going to say, oh, I remember that person and when they were killed and when that started it. George Floyd just reignited a pattern that we have in the United States. That said, I do see at every 30-year interval, there are real changes, and we do a disservice to the men and women who spend their lives dedicated to making those changes real, not to acknowledge them. Advertisement Advertisement Weve seen places focus on reducing our reliance on systems of punishment when systems of care can prevent that need. In Denver, the STAR program, which sends out mental health responders instead of law enforcement, has been an overwhelming success, and many places have replicated that. Berkeley, California, was the first to eliminate police responses to low-level traffic incidents. Philadelphia and Seattle caught wind of that and tried to replicate it. Pittsburgh and Los Angeles tried to replicate what Philadelphia has done, but Los Angeles only did a pilot program. If that program were city-wide, Keenan Anderson might be alive today. Advertisement Advertisement But those elements where were ending the reliance on systems of punishment, where theyre unnecessary or systems of care can replace them and prevent the need, thats good news. In St. Louis, Missouri, theyre doing that kind of work where theyre using the same sort of philosophyinstead of sending police theyre sending help. All of these local successes are great. What well need as a nation are leaders to aggregate those successes up and start telling those stories. Otherwise, we end up with what we almost ended up with in the midterms: people fearmongering about crime, saying that policing is the only answer when police themselves know better, and then using that as a political cudgel and forgetting the very communities that are asking for something different. Advertisement In what areas do you think there still hasnt been enough change? Oh, in all areastheres no place where I feel like, oh, yeah, were done with that. Id say that there are some local communities that have got the right amount of urgency, indignation, and rigorousness in terms of analysis and implementation of policy. Theyre making some headway, but we are still generations away from making the kind of headway where we can say we have done all of the care that we can do. We have to fundamentally rethink how were setting up our society, if we want to solve these problems, because these arent just problems of policing and public safety. What we saw in 2020 was the past-due notice for the unpaid debts owed to generations of Black people for 400-plus years in this country. If all we end up doing is adjusting policing, we havent even addressed the root cause of these issues. So nowhere are we close to being done. Advertisement Advertisement How have efforts to implement police reforms and address racial inequities been stymied over the years? Its not that there are people who want to change things and then there are people who are neutral. There are people who want to change things, and there are people who like the way things are. We used to have some protections for voting rights for Black people, and they needed to be spelled out explicitly because there were folks who were murdering folks who were trying to vote. The people who were doing the murdering had kids and were elected to public office, and many of them were also law enforcement. They didnt come out of the ether whenever the protesters showed upthose are citizens, they vote, they give money to causes. Advertisement So weve got a governor in Florida who does not want people to learn about segregation in Florida, and racial violence in Florida, because if people learned about the truth, it would be harder for them to erect their entire political apparatus, right? We have people who think the best way to manage vulnerable Black communities is to lock them up or commit acts of violence whenever they are in a place where they shouldnt be, where they violate a law that was made to give them opportunities to lock the folks up. Advertisement Advertisement There are people who genuinely believe thats a good idea, and many of them will tell you, honestly in their heart, that it has nothing to do with race. That its just the right way for society to work. So for sure, there are constant, organized, and well-funded efforts to move things in the wrong direction on these issues that persist. Advertisement The short answer to your question is not just yes, but hell yes. At every point in time, both while the protests are going, while progress is being made, and while there is a lull in that. Advertisement Is there anything within this moment that gives you hope? I like to say that hope in the face of reality is a revolutionary act, and you try to be a revolutionary every day. If you give up hope, you should probably get out of the way of the people who are going to fuel the change that needs to come. So I have to hope every day. The things that are giving me hope right now, theyre young people being activated to this stuff, who are going to learn not just about the principles that are unnecessary to replace the systems that weve got, but about the logistics that are necessary to put the policies in place. Im excited about them. Im a professor, so I get to talk to students all the time. Students are always energizing for the work that I do. Police chiefs have been saying for a couple of decades now: you use us for everything and blame us for everything, stop doing it. But now, we got activists saying it and we got electeds saying it. There are countless folks around the country who are trying to figure out how we shrink our reliance on systems of punishment and increase our reliance on systems of care. The Center for Policing Equity has the unlocking democracy learning communities. Its 20 different municipalities who are trying to do that in four different areas of mental health, cops in schools, traffic accidentsexactly like the Keenan Anderson incidentand street violence. These are five elements in each of the five municipalities trying to shrink their reliance on systems of punishment. None of it is perfect, and theres going to be a whole bunch of folks who get it wrong. But that is a commitment to this idea that we have to find new ways and new systems, thats going to make the uprisings that come 20 or 30 years from now so much more effective at getting political change than the ones that weve seen over the last 20 to 30 years. Tennessee will host Texas Jan. 28 at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tipoff between the Vols and Longhorns is slated for 6 p.m. EST. ESPN will televise the SEC/Big 12 Challenge matchup. ESPNs College GameDay pregame show will broadcast live at Tennessee ahead of the matchup. The show will air from 11 a.m.-noon EST. ESPN College GameDay features hosts Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, LaPhonso Ellis and Seth Greenberg. The University of Tennessee provided the following information regarding College GameDay. Fans can begin lining up to be part of the live audience starting at 7 a.m. EST. UT students are asked to lineup at the student gate, while general fans will enter at Gate D. Both gates will open at 9:30 a.m. EST, and game tickets are not required to take part in Saturday mornings in-arena festivities. Free parking will be available in the G10 garage, directly east of the arena. Vehicles must be cleared from the garage by 1 p.m. EST, with digital parking permits required for re-entry. Story originally appeared on Vols Wire Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday knocked the United Arab Emiratess (UAE) completely ridiculous appointment of a state-run oil company chief to lead United Nations climate talks in Dubai at the end of this year. Lobbyists have been influencing these conferences since forever, and this just puts a very clear face to it. Its completely ridiculous, Thunberg said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forums annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, according to CNBC. Climate activists including Thunberg have critiqued the choice of Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., to helm the COP28 climate talks at the end of the year, arguing that al-Jabers crude oilpumping company is a conflict of interest. The UAE, which is one of the planets top oil producers, has also come under scrutiny as the host of the U.N. climate talks, since fossil fuels are the main driver of climate change. John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, said earlier in the week that he backs al-Jaber as the COP28 host, calling the UAE pick a terrific choice and highlighting that al-Jaber has been involved in a number of renewable energy projects. The UAE has promised to be carbon neutral by 2050, despite plans to up its output of crude oil. Thunberg was escorted away from the site of a protest against the expansion of a coal mine in Germany earlier this week and was detained by Germany police with other demonstrators. Days later, she was at the swanky Swiss town of Davos for the World Economic Forum, participating in the panel with fellow climate activists. This years Conference of Parties, or COP28, is set to be held in Dubais Expo City from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Its mock draft season, and NFL.coms Daniel Jeremiah has a pick for the New England Patriots, with the draft itself just a little over three months away. Jeremiah has the Patriots selecting a versatile playmaker out of the University of Alabama with defensive back Brian Branch at No. 14 overall. Branch can play both the safety and corner position, and that versatility is something New England could use on defense. Branch had a productive career for the Crimson Tide. In 2022, he recorded 90 tackles, three sacks, and two interceptions. New England could use some help on the backend of the defense, especially with the potential retirement of safety Devin McCourty. Branch would be able to slide into that safety spot and add continued depth. Jeremiah wrote: Branch is one of my favorite players in this draft class. Hes an outstanding nickel defender with the versatility to move around the secondary. It will be intriguing to see how New England approaches the draft, as they enter a crucial 2023 season. Branch could give the Patriots that defensive spark they need. List Patriots' top 10 highest-graded offensive players in 2022, per PFF Story originally appeared on Patriots Wire https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/iranian-man-who-publicly-decapitated-his-child-bride-to-serve-only-eight-years-in-prison-1106540924.html Iranian Man Who Publicly Decapitated His Child Bride to Serve Eight Years in Prison Iranian Man Who Publicly Decapitated His Child Bride to Serve Eight Years in Prison In a 30-second video released by an Iranian media website on February 5, 2022, an Iranian man, Sajjad, was seen grinning as he paraded the decapitated head of... 20.01.2023, Sputnik International 2023-01-20T23:47+0000 2023-01-20T23:47+0000 2023-01-21T04:13+0000 world iran iranian parliament murder sexism honor killing /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/14/1106540776_0:146:421:383_1920x0_80_0_0_a69c84426c82feab42b1e57dff155587.png An Iranian man named Sajjad Heydari was sentenced on Wednesday to eight years and two months in prison after he beheaded his 17-year old wife in February 2022.The wife, identified as Mona, had been forced to marry Sajjad, her cousin, after her father obtained a legal certificate---as the minimum age for marriage in Iran is 13 for girls and 15 for boys. Mona gave birth to a son when she was just 14, and after being a victim of domestic violence she fled her home in mid-2021 to live in Turkey.She then returned home after she received assurances from her father that she would be safe; however, she was beheaded by her husband and her brother-in-law in February.The short sentence for the honor killing, an act of violence in which primarily women are the victims and are killed by their male relatives, has sparked outrage in the country. The killings are only punishable in Iran by up to 10 years in prison unlike murder, which carries a sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty. Massoud Setayesh, who is a spokesman for Irans Judiciary, confirmed Sajjad was convicted of stewardship in intentional murder, intentional assault, and disturbing public order. The victims brother-in-law was convicted of being an assistant in an intentional murder. Mona's brother-in-law will receive just 45 months in jail for assisting in her murder. Monas family had pardoned her killer as opposed to demanding Irans Islamic law of retribution: qisas, which would have found Sajjad to be punishable by death. Her father claimed he had not consented to the killing. https://sputnikglobe.com/20221214/un-economic-council-expels-iran-from-commission-on-status-of-women-after-aminis-death-1105467227.html iran Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg iran, decapitation, child bride, prison sentence https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/two-year-review-what-campaign-promises-has-biden-kept-since-clinching-white-house-1106538302.html Two-Year Review: What Campaign Promises Has Biden Kept Since Clinching White House? Two-Year Review: What Campaign Promises Has Biden Kept Since Clinching White House? Today marks the second anniversary of President Joe Bidens inauguration. Biden, like all Presidential candidates, made countless campaign promises to voters. 2023-01-20T23:24+0000 2023-01-20T23:24+0000 2023-01-20T23:18+0000 joe biden biden administration campaign promises analysis /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/0c/17/1091759994_0:0:1600:901_1920x0_80_0_0_3866683e6bcd443c4bf5a51db9ea69d4.jpg It is worth noting that, assuming the fealty of his party, Biden had more power in his first two years of office than he is likely to ever have again. Throughout 2021 and 2022, Democrats held both chambers of Congress and the White House, although it wasnt complete control since Republicans could still filibuster in the Senate.As such, if the Democrats were unable to pass meaningful legislation to fulfill a promise in 2021 or 2022, this article will designate those promises as failed or broken, rather than in progress or stalled.For example: while it is still technically possible for Democrats to codify Roe v. Wade, it will be virtually impossible for that to happen while Republicans control the House and can utilize the filibuster in the Senate. Such a promise is considered broken because it is unfulfilled, and will likely remain that way for the rest of Bidens first term.Promises that the Biden administration attempted to pass but was unable to will be considered failed. The Congress that preceded Bidens presidency was split, with Republicans holding the Senate and Democrats holding the House. When the 117th Congress came into office along with President Biden, Democrats held both chambers. If anything, it should have been easier to pull through on campaign vows than he expected as a candidate.Part of making promises is making sure you can deliver on them. The Democrats held more power in 2021 and 2022 than they had since former US President Barack Obamas first term in office. If Biden didnt deliver something he promised, that is the result of his failure to corral his party or understand the political reality in Congress. There is no A for effort in politics, either you helped the people you promised to help or you didnt. If you couldnt deliver, you shouldnt have promised.Promises Biden either completely ignored while in office, only paid lip service to, or actively worked against will be classified as broken.It would take a War and Peace-sized tome to cover every campaign promise made by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. So instead, we will break down Biden's first two years in office by major issues and discuss what the American president said he would do and what he did.COVID-19Without a doubt, the pandemic dominated discussions in the lead-up to the 2020 election, with Biden making a multitude of promises about bringing the COVID-19 fallout to an end. During a September debate with then-President Donald Trump, Biden claimed Trump had no plan indicating that he instead had a plan of his own to end the pandemic.In an archived, March 16-dated campaign website, Biden laid out what that plan entailed: "A decisive public health response that ensures the wide availability of free testing; the elimination of all cost barriers to preventive care and treatment for COVID-19.However, that promise vanished from the website after Trump signed the first coronavirus spending package, which included free testing for most patients.But it was under the Biden administration in 2022 when the government announced it would stop providing free COVID-19 tests, along with therapeutics and vaccines that combat SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the respiratory illness.This is because the Biden White House is set to declare the end of the public health emergency in April this year, halting government funds for COVID testing, prevention, and treatment.Biden took significant flak for saying in September 2022 that the pandemic is over while hundreds of Americans are still dying from the disease daily.Biden also promised to never raise the white flag with COVID-19, promising to defeat it. But, two years into office the disease still rages on, and help from the government is no longer forthcoming. It seems Americans are on their own when it comes to combating COVID-19 under the Biden administration.Biden also pledged to make a nationwide mask mandate, but dropped that promise almost immediately, instead only requiring masks on federal property.The US president did fulfill some of the promises he made about COVID-19. He reached his vaccination goal with ease and did restore the National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which was established under Obama and eliminated by the Trump administration, but those small victories pale in comparison to the rest of his COVID-19 response, specifically in year two, when the Biden administration seemed to give up.Verdict: BrokenEducationBiden made four significant promises concerning education: Make community college and high-level training programs free, universal preschool for three and four-year-olds, more funding for historically Black colleges and universities (HSBU) and minority-serving institutions (MSI), and eliminate student loan debt (how much depends on when you listened to him on the campaign trail).Biden did put the first three of those provisions into his Build Back Better Plan, but the bill languished in the Senate and never cleared the chamber. Democrats instead settled on a much smaller bill; however, it ditched any mention of free community college or training programs, universal preschool, and lowered the amount of funding for HBCUs and MSIs from his initial promise of $70 billion ($45 billion in the Build Back Better bill) to a partly $2 billion.Meanwhile, Biden waited until midterm season to take any action on student loan debt, issuing an executive order in August; however, unlike his promises during the campaign, the Biden administration decided to mean-test the program, limiting it to people with incomes of less than $125,000 a year.While that limitation sounds reasonable, it opened the program up to legal challenges from those who were not eligible. The program has been delayed by the courts, and is set to head to the conservative-leaning Supreme Court in February. It is unclear how they will rule but at least some of the issues could have been avoided if the Biden administration didnt decide to limit who got the relief.Biden made some efforts to fulfill his promises, but ineptitude prevented them from succeeding.Verdict: FailedCriminal Justice ReformDuring the campaign, Biden made sure to distance himself from the defund the police movement as much as he could. To the contrary, he promised more money for cops, a campaign promise we can definitively say he fulfilled. The Biden administration not only encouraged municipalities to spend unspent COVID relief funds on police, his 2023 budget proposal included $32 billion in new funding for law enforcement.As for actual police reform, rather than funding, Biden was more than glad to capitalize on the Black Lives Matter movement during the primary campaign and promised to bring justice for George Floyd and reform the police, eliminating practices such as chokeholds.During the campaign, Biden promised to create a commission to address policing issues. But, the Biden administration abandoned that plan, which he could have done with a stroke of a pen, and instead focused efforts on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.Predictably, that bill stalled in the Senate and will likely never pass. To save face, the Biden administration issued an executive order on the second anniversary of Floyds death, although that order was largely ceremonial and reiterated existing policies and did not meaningfully impact the nations 18,000 local police forces. While it did ban chokeholds by federal agents, it did not incentivize local police stations to follow suit. Additionally, its national database of police misconduct is only mandatory for federal agencies but not state or local forces.Biden also promised to eliminate cash bail, but that issue has been largely ignored once in office.His promise to decriminalize marijuana has likewise fallen by the wayside as his move to pardon and expunge federal marijuana convictions only affected a tiny sliver of the population. Biden did instruct his attorney general and the secretary of Health and Human Services to review marijuanas class I classification. That would be a good first step towards federal decriminalization, but there has been no visible movement on that since.Abandoning the commission, which would have been easy in favor of a bill that was always unlikely to pass, and then cynically signing an executive order on the date of Floyds death to save face, showcases such incompetence that it is tempting to call it intentional, especially when combined with Bidens increase in police funding.But since it is impossible to know what conversations the Biden administration had while making these decisions, we will give him the benefit of the doubt and say that for now, it was a failure.Verdict: FailedCodify Roe v. WadeTo be completely fair to Biden, he was never a big supporter of abortion rights. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s when he was a senator, Biden consistently voted against using federal funds for abortions and also voted in 1983 to prohibit federal workers from using health insurance for abortion services.Still, Biden continually said his position on abortion had evolved and during the primary campaign called Roe v. Wade the law of the land and promised to push laws codifying it if the Supreme Court threatened it.Last year, the Supreme Court not only threatened it, but essentially eliminated it in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case. Despite the decision being leaked to the press months before it became official, Democrats and Biden sat on their hands and used the issue to motivate their base in the 2022 midterms.Biden promised at that time to codify Roe v. Wade after the midterms if voters delivered for him - although that was not quite a campaign promise since Biden was already elected, it ranks as an election promise as it was made just before the midterms.Immediately after the midterms, even before some races were called, Biden admitted he didnt think there were enough votes in Congress to codify abortion rights. While passing legislation would have been difficult before the midterms, it is all but impossible now. Rather than making a last push before losing control of Congress, Democrats instead lamented that their defeat after the midterms was simply not as bad as expected.Verdict: BrokenHealth CareBiden made a few promises about health care outside of COVID itself. He was one of a smattering of Democratic primary candidates who definitively shunned Medicare for all, promoting instead the same public-option candidate-era Obama promised before he settled with a government-managed marketplace of private insurers.Senate Democrats did introduce a bill but it has stayed in committee ever since, and there seems to be no push by Democrats to bring the issue up again.Bidens other major health care promise was to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. On this issue, Biden did deliver, albeit heavily delayed. In August, legislation passed that rescinded a previous law that prevented Medicare from negotiating drug prices. It wont go into effect until 2026 and we wont know what drugs are included until this fall, but it has passed.Verdict: Partially DeliveredDiversity in the GovernmentBiden promised to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and he ultimately delivered on that promise. He's also delivered on holding a diverse cabinet - at least in highly visible positions.Biden also reversed a ban on transgender Americans in the US military, also fulfilling a promise to direct federal resources to protect transgender women, including enhanced support for the National Center for Culturally Responsive Victim Services. Grants were funded by the Office on Violence Against Women for transgender-serving organizations, among other programs.While Republican states are introducing anti-transgender legislation at a rapid pace, the Biden administration has done more than past administrations to protect transgender people. Whether that is enough to combat the rise in transgender hate is another question, but there is little argument that can be made against Biden fulfilling his promise to increase diversity and use federal resources to protect transgender people.Verdict: DeliveredForeign PolicyBiden promised to end the forever wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East and end our support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.Biden ended the war in Afghanistan, but that was already planned by Trump; in fact, Biden extended the war from Trumps planned withdrawal in May 2021 to September 2021 to give forces and allies in the area more time to prepare. However, the withdrawal was a highly publicized failure with allies being left behind and the Taliban quickly overwhelming the US-backed Afghan government. It is hard to imagine it would have been much worse if the US had stuck to its treaty with the Taliban and left in May as the previous administration promised.On Yemen, Biden has done a complete 180-degree turn. After promising to make the Saudi government pariah, he has not only authorized the sale of billions of dollars in weapons, he also told the Justice Department to extend immunity to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for his role in the alleged torture and murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Then there are the US' deteriorating relationships with both China and Russia. When voters filled out their ballot for Biden and his promise to "elevate diplomacy," proxy-wars and dangerously aggressive actions were not likely what they had in mind.Verdict: BrokenWorkers RightsBiden promised support for unions. He as recently as June, vowed to be the most pro-union president in American history. His campaign website gave pages of lip service to unions, promising to support them and providing facts and figures about how important unions are to economic equality and workers rights.That all went out the window once he sided with the railroad companies and forced rail workers back to work last December. Rail workers, who had been working with no paid sick leave, were threatening to strike unless they got sick leave. Congress, led by Democrats, ultimately passed a bill preventing rail workers from striking. More Republicans voted against the bill than Democrats and Biden quickly signed it.The bill originally included seven paid sick days for rail workers - about half of what rail workers were demanding, but even that was stripped from the bill. A separate bill was written specifically to provide seven paid sick days, but that predictably failed. Rail workers were forced to continue working without significant progress being made to address their concerns.You cannot claim to be pro-union while signing and promoting legislation that prevents a union strike and force union workers to accept a deal they didnt agree to.Verdict: Broken https://sputnikglobe.com/20221215/covid-claimed-15-mln-additional-lives-in-2020-2021-who-study-says--1105474500.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20221022/us-judge-temporarily-blocks-bidens-federal-student-loan-forgiveness-initiative-1102521476.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20220525/biden-signs-police-reform-executive-order-on-second-anniversary-of-george-floyds-death-1095780425.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20220823/us-federal-abortion-ruling-rises-in-voter-importance-as-fall-elections-loom---poll-1099918919.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20220817/senator-manchin-claims-us-inflation-reduction-act-wont-bring-down-prices-soon-1099700533.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20220225/joe-biden-to-nominate-ketanji-brown-jackson-as-first-black-woman-on-supreme-court-1093375175.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/collective-west-promotes-regime-change-in-russia-at-davos-1106538051.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20221204/rail-workers-fume-after-biden-betrayal-blocks-possible-strike-for-sick-days-1105016466.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Ian DeMartino Ian DeMartino News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ian DeMartino joe biden, campaign promises, report card, two years, kept promises, broken promises https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/biden--top-inner-circle-reportedly-tried-to-cover-up-classified-docs-discovery-1106544662.html Biden & Top Inner Circle Reportedly Tried to Cover Up Classified Docs Discovery Biden & Top Inner Circle Reportedly Tried to Cover Up Classified Docs Discovery Joe Biden and his top inner circle reportedly tried to cover up classified documents discovery. 2023-01-21T06:07+0000 2023-01-21T06:07+0000 2023-01-21T06:07+0000 americas us joe biden biden classified files us justice department national archives and records administration (nara) merrick garland /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/15/1106544326_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_c7f07e2cc51c8d8e2f762904727758bd.jpg President Joe Biden and a handful of close advisers deliberately concealed the discovery of the first batch of classified documents dating to his time as vice president on November 2, 2022, from the public for 68 days, according to a US report.After the cache of sensitive papers was found hoarded in Bidens former office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement think tank in Washington just before the US midterm elections, the Biden team allegedly hoped they could dodge any political fallout. By handing over the documents quietly to officials at the National Archives and Records Administration, they hoped to sweep the incident under the rug and not have to come clean about it to the public.A very narrow circle of people was initially involved in all discussions on the matter, according to sources cited by the outlet. Besides the 80-year-old president, the group purportedly included Bob Bauer, the presidents top personal lawyer, Anita Dunn, Bidens senior adviser and Bauers wife, White House counsel Stuart Delery, and Richard Sauber, a White House lawyer overseeing response to investigations.At no point did the "crack team" dealing with the potential mishandling of classified documents seriously consider "preemptively" going public with the damaging discoveries.Gamble That BackfiredA careful strategy had been crafted by Biden's inner circle from the moment when his lawyers stumbled upon classified documents when clearing out a former office of the Democrat at the Washington think tank with the University of Pennsylvania back in November. The files dating to Biden's tenure as vice president under Barack Obama and reportedly including intelligence reports relating to Ukraine, Iran and the UK, dated between 2013 and 2016, 2022, were turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration. As we now know from statements made by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who appointed former DoJ official Robert Hur as special counsel in the Biden documents case, the Archives alerted the Justice Department of the discovery made at the Penn Biden Center on November 4. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began an assessment of whether the sensitive documents had been "mishandled" five days later. On November 10, the presidents legal team made contact on the matter with their counterparts at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).The Biden team reportedly justified their decision to avoid public disclosure by arguing that coming across classified documents after an individual had long left office was not unusual. Going public, they argued at the time, would only result in unwanted political scrutiny, the report stated. Instead, their goal, according to insiders, was to win the trust of Justice Department investigators. Hoping to deflect any unpleasant legal fallout, the Biden team was ostensibly eager to show that, unlike the case with Donald Trump and classified docs found at Mar-a-Lago, they were cooperating fully. Weighing in on the fact that It took such a long time to finally carry out a search at Joe Biden's homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach after the documents surfaced at the Penn Biden Center, the report implied that the "strategists" believed there was no urgency and nothing else marked "classified" would be found. After US Attorney General Merrick Garland designated John Lausch, the US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, to lead the probe into the discoveries in November 2022, the presidents advisers were in regular contact with the Justice Department, according to Bob Bauer. In mid-November, a senior Justice Department official was described as telling the Biden team they needed to search other locations where similar documents might be found.Obviously, the hope that the discoveries would be limited to those at the think tank flew out the window when on December 20 more classified documents were unearthed in the garage of Bidens home in Wilmington, Delaware. Furthermore, later, a third batch of docs bearing classified markings was discovered on January 11 at Joe Biden's personal library at his residence in Wilmington.Just how well the public relations strategy adhered to by the Biden team worked became evident after a US outlet reported on the November find on January 9, thus forcing their hand. Accordingly, Sauber made a statement, saying:Thus, it was only on January 9, 2023, that the White House publicly acknowledged the discovery of the classified documents, adding that it was cooperating with investigators. Eventually, on January 12, AG Garland appointed Robert Hur, the former US attorney for the district of Maryland, as special counsel.Amid the ensuing hue and cry, Joe Biden's team has been accused of a cover-up by the Republicans, who condemned the president for being a hypocrite as he earlier slammed former US President Donald Trump for storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.Meanwhile, White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has been fending off an avalanche of questions from reporters. Biden himself has deflected probing by the press, only saying:The outcome of the investigation by the special counsel into the potential mishandling of classified documents by Joe Biden may finally show whether his inner circle's option to keep silent for so long paid off. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230114/top-secret-docs-among-cache-of-reportedly-20-classified-files-found-at-biden-locations-1106303919.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230113/who-is-special-counsel-robert-hur-leading-probe-into-bidens-handling-of-classified-docs-1106271769.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/biden-on-mishandling-classified-docs-i-have-no-regrets-1106509506.html americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko joe biden and his top inner circle, reportedly tried to cover up classified documents discovery, handling of classified documents, dodge political fallout, sweep the incident under the rug, avoid public disclosure, mishandling of classified documents, special counsel investigation, potential mishandling of classified documents by joe biden https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/hundreds-warsaw-residents-protesting-polish-involvement-in-ukraine-crisis-1106557585.html Hundreds of Warsaw Residents Protesting Polish Involvement in Ukraine Crisis Hundreds of Warsaw Residents Protesting Polish Involvement in Ukraine Crisis everal hundred people are taking part in a protest organized by the patriotic organization "Compatriots Comrades 2023-01-21T15:29+0000 2023-01-21T15:29+0000 2023-01-22T17:53+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine poland russia ukraine protest /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/0b/13/1090868713_0:55:2000:1180_1920x0_80_0_0_034aecddc44b33e1c4c0ad51d85220d6.jpg The participants, carrying Polish flags and banners with slogans "Who wants Polish blood, get out!", "Poland chooses peace!", gathered in Warsaw's downtown and were marching toward Sigismund's Column. Some protesters were also carrying banners with phrases in Russian.In their statement, the organizers of the march expressed their dissatisfaction with what they see as "Polish-language politicians and the Polish-language media pounding into the heads and hearts of Poles with pro-war propaganda."Polish officials claim that their country is the world's second biggest donor in terms of military assistance to Ukraine, outpaced only by the United States. Poland supplies Ukraine with tanks, artillery, drones, other weapons and ammunition.Western countries ramped up their military support for Ukraine after Russia launched a special military operation there on February 24, 2022, responding to calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. In April 2022, Moscow sent a note to NATO member states condemning their military assistance to Kiev. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that any arms shipments on Ukrainian territory would be "legitimate targets" for Russian forces. poland russia ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International is poland involved in ukraine crisis, how many polish soldiers fight in ukraine, polish troops in ukraine, protests, polish protests against sending troops to ukraine https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/i-am-tired-of-this-sshow-washington-and-kiev-fume-as-berlin-holds-off-on-tanks-for-ukraine-1106552205.html 'I am Tired of This S***show': Washington and Kiev Fume as Berlin Holds Off on Tanks for Ukraine 'I am Tired of This S***show': Washington and Kiev Fume as Berlin Holds Off on Tanks for Ukraine The US and its allies have put pressure on Berlin to become the first continental European NATO power to send large quantities of heavy main battle tanks to Ukraine, despite fears that doing so would escalate tensions with Moscow. 2023-01-21T11:30+0000 2023-01-21T11:30+0000 2023-01-21T12:59+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine leopard 2 tank ukraine germany us transfer delivery /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/105281/47/1052814759_0:0:3505:1972_1920x0_80_0_0_e7a39e35eab2bff470a97970c5f4570a.jpg You may have heard the German minister of defense say earlier that theyve not made a decision on the provision of Leopard tanks, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Friday at a subdued joint press conference with Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley following a lengthy meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.What we're really focused on is making sure that Ukraine has a capability it needs to be successful right now. So we have a window of opportunity here between now and the spring when I whenever they commence their operation, their counteroffensive, and thats not a long time. And we have to pull together the right capabilities," Austin said.The Pentagon chief added that he had "no announcements" on the supply of the US' gas-guzzling jet engine-powered M1 Abrams tanks to Kiev, either.Ukrainian officials did not hide their disappointment with Germanys perceived indecisiveness. Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk, the ex-ambassador to Germany who was recalled over an endless string of insults of German officials, demanded that Berlin "stop hiding behind" Washington and "put an end to this crazy Punch and Judy show around Leopards today at Ramstein and clear the way for a global tank coalition to empower Ukraine to kick out Russian troops."Calling Berlins calculation not to send tanks before the US does an embarrassmentdisgrace and huge disappointment, Melnyk also attacked Berlin over the 1 billion euros in promised military aid, complaining that all those weapons were already advertised in previous aid packages. What a fudge, he wrote.Freshly appointed German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has promised to check the Bundeswehrs armory to determine how many Leopards it has and how many could be sent to Ukraine, but offered no firm commitments on deliveries. "Its not prejudging the decision it's simply preparing for that day that might come," Pistorius said Friday on the sidelines of the meeting at Ramstein. The minister added that there were many allies within NATO who share Berlins apprehensions on sending tanks to Kiev.Bundestag Defense Committee Chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann slammed Pistorius position, saying it was "alarming that it took a new defense minister to check how many Leopard tanks we have, only now, 11 months" into the conflict in Ukraine.Berlin's Western partners also grumbled over the Scholz governments apprehensions, some privately, some openly. "American partnership and a new defense minister provided the perfect cover for Scholz to move on this. But he dodged it, infuriating half his partners," one anonymous Western diplomat in Berlin said."I am tired of the s***show of who is going to send tanks and when they are going to send them, hawkish South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham vented Friday. To the Germans: send tanks to Ukraine, because they need the tanks. It is in your interest that Putin loses in Ukraine. To the Biden administration: send American tanks so that others will follow our lead," he urged.Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal echoed Graham's frustration, demanding that NATO allies "stop the confusion and the chaotic debate about who sends tanks and when."Former Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleg Soskin accused Kievs Western patrons of "fooling" Ukraine, alleging that the Russian president had intimidated them to such an extent that Biden this wax mummy from Madame Tussauds, and Scholzwill not give us anything.Soskin also dismissed Washingtons assertion that Abrams tanks are too heavy and difficult to maintain in the Ukrainian environment as excuses. "Germany tells us: We will not give you Leopards. Biden says: We wont give you Abrams. Theyre heavy. This is nonsense," he said.Why is Germany Hesitant?Commenting on the debate over tanks, Uppsala University Professor of Peace Studies Maria Cristina Rosas suggested that Berlin is showing that it doesnt want to get sucked any further into the conflict militarily, and wants to focus on humanitarian issues instead.Germany doesnt want problems with Russia thats the reality. If Germany sends tanks, it will become too involved in the conflict, which will exacerbate the already difficult relationship with Russia. Its one thing to be Germany and have Russia as a neighbor, and another to be the United States and have the Atlantic Ocean between them," Rosas explained.What are Leopards?Developed during the final decade of the Cold War and operated by nearly two dozen countries around the world, the Leopard 2 is a heavy diesel-powered third generation main battle tank featuring composite armor, anti-mine protection, a 120 mm main gun, and 2x7.62 mm MG-3 machineguns. Of the estimated 3,600 produced, about 2,000 are operated by about a dozen European countries, among them the Nordic countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Turkey also operates them. Germany operates just a fraction of the Leopard 2s in service, with its inventory consisting of just 328 tanks.Leopard 2s were used by NATO forces during the occupation of Afghanistan, and Turkish forces used them in anti-Kurdish operations in Syria. At least two Leopard 2s were destroyed by improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan, with at least eight Turkish ones knocked out by IEDs and ancient Soviet-made AT-5 Konkurs and AT-7 Metis anti-tank missiles in Syria.The Leopard 2s' American "cousins" have fared little better in active conflict zones. While just 23 were damaged or destroyed during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, over 500 were wrecked or suffered damage severe enough to require them to be shipped back to the US for repairs following the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Since 2014, the self-proclaimed Daesh* caliphate captured at least nine Abrams tanks from the Iraqi Army, with the terrorists releasing footage of the destruction of an Abrams using an anti-tank guided missile.* Daesh, also known as IS / ISIS / Islamic State is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/germany-denies-giving-us-ultimatum-on-ukraine-tank-supplies-1106533422.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/taking-on-russia--china-biden-needed-only-two-years-to-push-world-to-verge-of-war-scholars-say-1106536013.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/pentagon-chief-urges-allies-to-dig-deeper-for-ukraine-as-west-mulls-funneling-more-weapons-to-kiev-1106522136.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230116/stoltenberg-crucial-phase-of-ukraine-conflict-calls-for-heavy-arms-supplies-1106386091.html ukraine germany Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov germany, ukraine, us, tanks, leopard 2, main battle tank, tank, delivery, supply, debate, how many tanks in ukraine, why germany won't send tanks to ukraine Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/investigation-ongoing-into-terrorist-attack-on-head-of-russian-house-car-prime-minister-says-1106546579.html Investigation Ongoing Into Terrorist Attack on Head of Russian House, CAR Prime Minister Says Investigation Ongoing Into Terrorist Attack on Head of Russian House, CAR Prime Minister Says In this article, the Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, Felix Moloua, says that the investigation is still ongoing into the attempted assassination of Dmitry Syty, the head of Russian House in CAR. 2023-01-21T06:25+0000 2023-01-21T06:25+0000 2023-01-21T06:25+0000 africa central africa central african republic terrorist attack felix moloua /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/0c/10/1105517493_0:55:1020:629_1920x0_80_0_0_fce74ed754e6c8d9785c151f1f07409a.jpg "The investigation is ongoing. Today we do not have any information, it is all still under investigation. We will wait for the conclusions and see," Moloua said. The prime minister added that he was glad that the head of the Russian House in CAR was recovering. In December 2022, Syty was hospitalized in Bangui after an assassination attempt. The police told Sputnik that the Russian diplomat received a bomb in a parcel and it exploded on a table in his office when he was going through his mail. Syty had received threats prior to the attack. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/russian-defense-ministry-discusses-bilateral-cooperation-with-car-prime-minister-1106516041.html africa central africa central african republic Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International dmitry syty, dmitry sytyi, prime minister of the central african republic, felix moloua, assassination attempt on dmitry syty, assassination attempt, car, terrorist attack United Nations Fails to Act on Resuming Russia's Ammonia Exports - Moscow The United Nations has not helped to normalize exports of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers, as the Black Sea Grain Initiative is hardly progressing and there are no results in the implementation of the Russia-UN memorandum, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. "If the implementation of this strictly humanitarian initiative meets with such difficulties, the UN cannot be said to have helped normalise our exports of agricultural products and fertilisers. Talk about the threats of hunger and global food security is just a cover for servicing the commercial contracts of Ukrainians and the economic interests of the Western beneficiaries," the ministry said in a statement. The department added that the Memorandum of Understanding between Russia and the UN on promoting Russian food products and fertilizers to the world markets was mentioned only in one paragraph of the organization's bulletin. "UN officials have nothing to say (as distinct from the Black Sea Initiative) about specific results of implementing the said agreement. Against the backdrop of numerous declarations by Washington, Brussels and London that unilateral sanctions do not apply to food and fertilisers, they are simply assuring the public of the continued efforts to ensure relevant withdrawals. If there are no restrictions, what is the need for withdrawals," the statement read. In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the UN made no effort to resolve the issue with the resumption of ammonia transit via the Tolyatti-Odesa pipeline. "The UN officials, who are vigorously calling for increasing grain export from Ukraine, are doing nothing to resolve this issue. They refer to some talks, although it is not clear who is taking part in these talks and what they concern, since no representatives from Russia are involved in any such thing," the statement read. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/more-people-injured-in-peru-as-violent-protests-continue-ombudswoman-1106553900.html More People Injured in Peru as Violent Protests Continue: Ombudswoman More People Injured in Peru as Violent Protests Continue: Ombudswoman Violent protests are still ongoing in Peru, with more police officers and demonstrators injured and 120 highways remaining blocked across the country 2023-01-21T12:12+0000 2023-01-21T12:12+0000 2023-01-21T12:12+0000 americas peru protests /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/14/1106515049_0:57:3073:1785_1920x0_80_0_0_b9d05893fa826ada09775cbac29eef41.jpg "We are witnessing ongoing violence there were 145 blocked roads yesterday [on Thursday], today [on Friday] there are 120. The country is in an abnormal state The situation is critical there cannot be winners and losers, as 54 people have already died. We need to resolve the issue through dialogue," Revollar told Peruvian broadcaster on Friday. Six injured, including one seriously wounded, have been hospitalized in the city of Puno, the ombuswoman said, adding that four police officers from this area had also been sent to the central police hospital. Violent attacks continued across Peru on Friday. The most fierce protests took place at the airport of the city of Arequipa and the Antapaccay copper mine located in the Cusco region, Peruvian Defense Minister Jorge Chavez was quoted as saying by the broadcaster. Security forces detained at least seven demonstrators that day, bringing the total number of detentions since the start of the riots to 378, according to Interior Minister Vicente Romero. Moreover, train traffic in the direction of the world famous Inca citadel Machu Picchu has been temporarily suspended as protesters demolished the railways leading to the site. As a result, over 400 tourists, mostly foreigners, got stuck there, Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Luis Elguero said, adding that the concessionaire company had already begun repair work. A wave of protests hit Peru after the country's parliament impeached former President Pedro Castillo on December 7, 2022. Castillo was arrested on charges of a coup attempt and crimes against the state as he tried to dissolve the parliament and rule by decree before the impeachment vote. Then-Prime Minister Dina Boluarte was appointed the country's new leader. Demonstrators have been denouncing the post-impeachment government, calling for an immediate presidential election, the dissolution of the country's parliament and the resignation of Boluarte. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230115/state-of-emergency-introduced-in-perus-several-regions-for-30-days-amid-protests-1106332050.html americas peru Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International violent protests, demonstrators injured, situation is critical https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/mystery-sponsors-helped-bail-disgraced-ex-ftx-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-out-of-jail-1106556320.html Mystery Sponsors Helped Bail Disgraced Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Out of Jail Mystery Sponsors Helped Bail Disgraced Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Out of Jail Two mystery sponsors contributed to bailing out of jail the ex-CEO of collapsed crypto-empire FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried. 2023-01-21T14:54+0000 2023-01-21T14:54+0000 2023-01-21T14:54+0000 us sam bankman-fried americas crypto currency crypto-trading exchange fraud bail /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/15/1106555877_0:207:2907:1842_1920x0_80_0_0_f91a48d934a8f8049d332f7161149932.jpg Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has managed to stay of jail thanks to hefty contributions from two anonymous sponsors, according to a court filing.Bankman-Fried, who is facing convictions on a generous buffet of fraud charges, is currently awaiting trial in a Manhattan federal court, residing under house arrest at his parents' California home. One of the two unnamed sponsors posted $500,000, with the other posting $200,000 towards guaranteeing the alleged fraudster's $250 million bond, settled in December, 2022. Besides these two bail backers, the bond was also secured by Bankman-Fried's parents, who offered their Palo Alto home, estimated to be worth $4 million, as collateral.Details about the contributors were disclosed by Christian Everdell, one of Bankman-Fried's defense attorneys, to be subsequently included in the bail condition documents by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.Earlier in January, some media outlets urged the judge overseeing the case to unseal the names of the two backers, arguing that there was "no dispute" it would be in the public interest. However, Bankman-Fried's lawyers have insisted on secrecy to guarantee their "privacy and safety." The legal team pointed to how Bankman Fried's parents were allegedly exposed to threats and harassment for their financial role in bailing their son out.Sam Bankman-Fried has been accused of orchestrating "a years-long fraud" to divert funds from his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to pay debts at his other company, Alameda Research. The latter is a crypto hedge fund that he was also in control of. According to court filings, prosecutors estimate Bankman-Fried defrauded more than one million customers. The crypto businessman was arrested in the Bahamas, where he fled after stepping down on December 12 as CEO of the company. He was then extradited at the request of US authorities, and released last month on a $250 million bond, with his criminal trial set to begin on October 2. If convicted, Bankman-Fried faces a prison sentence of up to 115 years. The founder of the collapsed crypto empire himself has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230103/former-ftx-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-pleads-not-guilty-to-federal-fraud-charges---reports-1106018906.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230118/ftx-recovered-55-billion-in-assets-but-missing-415-million-in-hacked-crypto-1106442725.html americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko two mystery sponsors, helped post bail, bailing out of jail, ex-ceo of collapsed crypto-empire ftx, sam bankman-fried, unnamed sponsor posted $500,000, another bail sponsor contributed $200,000, bail backers https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/paris-protests-against-pension-reform-turning-into-fierce-unrest-1106560780.html Paris Protests Against Pension Reform Turning Into Fierce Unrest - Videos Paris Protests Against Pension Reform Turning Into Fierce Unrest - Videos Demonstrators protesting the planned pension reform in Paris have started setting trash cans on fire, breaking traffic lights and blowing up firecrackers 2023-01-21T18:46+0000 2023-01-21T18:46+0000 2023-01-23T09:36+0000 world france paris protests pension reform pension video /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/13/1106489951_0:268:3071:1995_1920x0_80_0_0_a01f565c97f60c0c04f4f6934eec975d.jpg Black block radicals are also smashing bank windows and cash machines. Some rioters are throwing glass bottles into the police, while chanting "Down with capitalism" and "Macron, we will fight till the end!". The protest against the pension reform was organized by 11 youth organizations and the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party led by Jean-Luc Melenchon. The demonstration began at the Place de la Bastille in the French capital at 13:00 GMT earlier in the day, with the protesters heading towards the Place de la Nation. The participants are carrying banners of the LFI, the left-wing New Ecological and Social People's Union alliance of political parties, and the far-left New Anticapitalist Party. Earlier in January, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne unveiled a draft of the controversial pension reform that the government plans to adopt in 2023. According to the draft, the French authorities will gradually raise the retirement age in the country by three months a year from September 1, 2023. By 2030, the retirement age will reach 64 years. France's leading trade unions announced nationwide strikes against the pension reform from January 19. Over 200 demonstrations were held across the country on Thursday, with the largest protests taking place in Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille and Nantes. The demonstration was joined by nearly 1.12 million people, with 80,000 of them reportedly in Paris alone. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/protesters-gather-in-paris-to-demonstrate-against-pension-reform-1106546891.html france paris Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International paris protests against pension reform, french demo against pension reform, anti-macron protests https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/polygraph-test-mowing-down-us-border-patrol-agent-applicants-1106560928.html Polygraph Test Mowing Down US Border Patrol Agent Applicants Amid Crisis Polygraph Test Mowing Down US Border Patrol Agent Applicants Amid Crisis The Biden administration has faced a migration crisis throughout its first two years in office. Former President Donald Trump has accused Biden of causing the crisis by revoking a series of hardline anti-immigration measures. 2023-01-21T19:24+0000 2023-01-21T19:24+0000 2023-01-21T19:33+0000 americas border us border patrol us-mexico border us customs and border protection (cbp) polygraph test /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/0c/1c/1105842111_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_49de36264e8916cba10aba2f27999cea.jpg The US Border Patrol is facing the prospect of staff shortages in the thousands in the coming years amid inexplicably stringent testing of qualified applicants by companies contracted to conduct polygraph tests, a senior official from the National Border Patrol Council the agencys official union, has complained.Were losing a lot of people, including those who have prior military service, who have active security clearances, and they fail a CBP polygraph, NBPC vice president Jon Anfinsen told US media Saturday. It doesnt make any sense, he added.Customs and Border Patrol has required polygraph screening since 2012, with the measure designed to weed out undesirable candidates. Proponents of the polygraph have praised the practice, citing the danger to national security and public safety of hiring agents who have not been properly vetted.However, opponents of polygraphs say they can be unreliable, are inadmissible in court, and cite laws banning their use by private companies for these and other reasons.Customs and Border Patrol has been calling for the relaxation of admission rules since 2017 amid a surge of expected hiring. Media reported at the time that up to two-thirds of candidates applying to serve as border agents, including people who previously worked in government security jobs with top clearances, and former agents who left the Border Service but reapplied years later, were failing their polygraph tests, leaving literally thousands of jobs unfilled.Weve got plenty of applicants. They just cant get through the whole process, Anfinsen said.The CBP has assured that the percentage of candidates who pass to the next phase of the pre-employment vetting has increased over the years due to our refining our polygraph exam to focus on our agencys needs. However, Anfinsen said that at the moment about 50 percent of candidates are still failing.Were losing a lot of really great people because of this polygraph portion, the union official complained, noting that rejected candidates go on to other jobs where theyre not treated like a criminal during that portion of the hiring process.Former agent Tracy Anderson Torres, a veteran former agent with 11 years of service under her belt who left in 2015 but failed the polygraph while reapplying in 2018, told media that her examiners openly accused her of engaging in criminal activity, and telling her shed failed the polygraph "bad; like, serial killer bad, with her application scrapped, and no opportunity to appeal.Anfinsen complained that hes never ever heard of an instance where a polygraph examiner was sanctioned for their behavior or anything like that, with the end result being that people just dont get hired.The CBP spent over $7 million on polygraph services in 2021 and 2022, with the Capital Center for Credibility Assessment Corporation, a Virginia-based company run by former government employees, receiving most of this money.Notwithstanding the ongoing crisis at the US's southern border, Border Patrol agent numbers have actually been dropping in recent years, from 19,740 in 2020 to 19,536 in 2021. Thats down from over 21,000 in the early 2010s. Anfinsen warned that about 13,000 employees of Customs and Border Patrol will be retiring in 2028, meaning massive shortages in staff if the polygraph rules arent fixed and fixed soon.The US is facing the worst border crisis on its border with Mexico in living memory. Border encounters topped 2 million in 2022, an all-time high.Former President Donald Trump, his allies, and other detractors of President Bidens handling of the crisis have attacked the current administration for its decision to slash nearly a dozen immigration-related measures by its predecessor. The leaders of Mexico and Guatemala have also rapped Biden, accusing him of encouraging migrants and human smugglers with his rhetoric.In his first weeks in office, Biden promised to end harsh and extreme immigration enforcement, and scrapped the Remain in Mexico policy which required those seeking asylum in the US to stay in Mexico until their immigration court dates. Biden also announced a stop to construction of Trumps steel and concrete border wall in favor of a smart border featuring biometrics, autonomous surveillance towers, iris scanning, DNA analysis and other high-tech equipment, and dangled the prospect of eventual citizenship for illegals already living in the United States. The border crisis has caused a surge in criminal activity in border communities, overwhelmed government and private agencies providing assistance to newcomers, and has been accompanied by a spike in criminal human and drug smuggling.This week, House Republicans announced plans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his alleged mismanagement of the border crisis. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230109/why-is-bidens-immigration-policy-failing-1106172744.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20221227/us-supreme-court-blocks-biden-from-rescinding-trump-era-title-42-border-expulsion-policy-1105832181.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230118/us-house-republicans-preparing-to-impeach-homeland-security-secretary-mayorkas-1106443041.html americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov border, border crisis, us border, border patrol, us customs and border patrol https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/pompeo-claims-ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-secretly-plotted-to-remove-pence-as-vp--1106543735.html Pompeo Claims Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Secretly Plotted to Remove Pence as VP Pompeo Claims Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Secretly Plotted to Remove Pence as VP Ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has alleged in his forthcoming book that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner schemed to kick then-Vice President Mike Pence to the curb for the 2020 presidential election. 2023-01-21T04:00+0000 2023-01-21T04:00+0000 2023-01-21T03:54+0000 americas mike pompeo nikki haley jared kushner donald trump ivanka trump us politics /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/04/01/1094375694_469:584:3072:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_6d9e8bff5f54c6536babb717a12a57e2.jpg Ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has alleged in his forthcoming book that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner schemed to kick then-Vice President Mike Pence to the curb for the 2020 presidential election. The excerpt, which was first revealed by The Guardian, claims that Nikki Haley, a former United Nations ambassador (and a former governor of South Carolina) had been presented as an alternative option.Before resigning from the Trump administration in October of 2018, Haley had a private meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, he writes. According to Pompeo, John Kelly, who was Trumps chief of staff at that time, believed Haley had her meeting with Trump while being accompanied by Ivanka and Kushner. It was during this meeting the three allegedly presented Haley as a possible number two to the president.The story is just one way in which Pompeo hits out against the former ambassador. He also criticized her role as an ambassador to the UN, saying its a job that is far less important than people think, questioned her commitment to public service, and ridiculed her for resigning or, as he writes; flat-out threw in the towel.In response to Pompeos claims, the former South Carolina governor dismissed the allegations as gossip and told Fox News that she never had a conversation with Jared, Ivanka, or the president about the vice presidency.The political dispute stretches beyond the scope of gossip, however, with both Haley and Pompeo teasing that they may run for the White House in 2024, with Haley even suggesting during her Fox News interview that she is prepared for a bruising 2024 Republican primary.I think we need a young generation to come in, step up and really start fixing things, said Haley, who is 51-years-old. Can I be that leader? Yes, I think I can be that leader.May the best woman win, she added. americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg mike pompeo, jared kushner, ivanka trump, nikki haley, plotting, 2020 presidential election https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/ramstein-summit-showed-lack-of-unity-unclear-goals--no-post-war-ukraine-plan-military-experts-say-1106558413.html Ramstein Summit Showed Lack of Unity, Unclear Goals & No Post-War Ukraine Plan, Military Experts Say Ramstein Summit Showed Lack of Unity, Unclear Goals & No Post-War Ukraine Plan, Military Experts Say The so-called Ukraine Contact Group, a grouping of arms providers led by Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, held a meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on January... 21.01.2023, Sputnik International 2023-01-21T17:43+0000 2023-01-21T17:43+0000 2023-04-13T12:45+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine us opinion russia ukraine nato ramstein airbase ramstein military base weapons military aid /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/14/1106521819_0:0:3071:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_aa6007a0dd01db680efe00ae69616dfb.jpg "The recent meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group and arms dealers, American and European military officers, and the American State Department, Intelligence, and military industrial complex that occurred at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, is a sign of extreme desperation and inevitable admission of failure by the United States and its allies. It is a last ditch effort of the West as a whole to put on a brave face or perhaps an insane one and try and delude themselves into believing that the tides of war are somehow going to shift in Ukraines favor," Scott Bennett, a veteran of the 11th Psychological Operations Battalion of the US Army and former State Department counterterrorism analyst, told Sputnik.The Ramstein gathering brought together more than 50 defense leaders. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that Russia was preparing for a long war and urged his Western peers to urgently provide more weapons to Kiev to ensure its victory."Like most wars, this is likely to end at the negotiating table," Stoltenberg said, but what happens in negotiations is directly linked to what happens on the battlefield, so we need to deliver more weapons to Ukraine now."The summit came at a time when the Russian military managed to liberate Soledar and a number of other settlements in the Donbass region and kicked off an offensive in the Zaporozhye region. Washington reportedly recommended that Kiev not cling to defending the town of Bakhmut (Artemovsk) in Donbass and instead focus on undertaking a major counteroffensive against advancing Russian forces.Battle Tank Dilemma Exposes Cracks in AllianceThe NATO chief praised member states' willingness to provide air defenses, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored vehicles to the Kiev regime and stressed that they need to ramp up the production of weapons and ammunition to rapidly replenish stockpiles. However, Germany's reluctance to provide its Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Kiev popped up as an unpleasant surprise for Kiev and NATO leaders.The ability to form a consensus in the West has been seriously weakened by domestic problems, economic recession, and very poor intelligence being provided to Western politicians about what has been and is happening in Ukraine and in Russia, according to retired Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense.For his part, Bennett noted that Berlin's cautious stance stems from the fact that Germany has suffered the most from the US-UK sanctions war against Russia. The US security expert suggested that "most likely Germany sees its own population rising up in rejection of the endless Ukraine war and suicide that is occurring within the Germany energy and other sectors of its economy.""Germanys businesses are shutting down for lack of heat and energy, and this will result in the collapse of the German government, which may then translate into other similar movements in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom," Bennett noted. "I think were on the verge of seeing Germany finally collapse in its support for the American-Ukrainian war against Russia, for Germany has suffered more than any other European nation, with tremendous loss in its energy sector because of the United States' destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline and the shutting down of Russian-German industry because of the lack of energy and the desperation and outrage that is increasing among German citizens, which is also replicating in other parts of Europe."What's the West's Endgame in Ukraine?One might wonder what Kiev and the West are trying to achieve in the ongoing conflict and what their endgame is, according to retired Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski."If one is less cynical, perhaps the US is simply extremely poorly led, both militarily, intelligence agency-wise, and politically, and is seeking an external war to divert domestic attention from larger economic problems and pump the domestic arms industry," the retired lieutenant colonel continued.She referred to multiple reports saying that the US and European manufacturers are not "able and will not be able for several years to produce the ammo and equipment and systems at the rate the Ukrainian 'blood pump' is consuming those resources."US media and think tanks revealed last year that while Washington was generously giving Ukraine dozens of different munitions and weapon systems, some US inventories have already reached the minimum levels needed for war plans and training. In particular, some sources cited concerns about US stockpiles of 155 mm artillery ammunition, HARM anti-radiation missiles, GMLRS surface-to-surface missiles, and the portable Javelin anti-tank missiles, to name but a few.Earlier this month, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro was cited as saying that it may soon become challenging for the US to continue to arm itself and provide weapons to Kiev at one and the same time, if military production doesn't increase. What's worse, the "burn rate" of weapons in Ukraine exceeds replacement capacities, the US media notes.Likewise, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell admitted in September 2022 that "the military stocks of most [EU] member states has been, I wouldn't say exhausted, but depleted in a high proportion, because we have been providing a lot of capacity to the Ukrainians.""A case has not been made to the American people that exhausting our defensive capability, even if only for a few years, is a price worth paying for endless war in an already largely defeated Eastern European country," Kwiatkowski noted.Post-War Ukraine & UkrainiansYet another problem overlooked by the participants of the Ramstein gathering is their failure to formulate a post-war Ukraine strategy, according to retired Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski.According to the US military experts, the coming months may see Moscow take control over the parts of formerly eastern Ukraine which have pledged allegiance to Russia. However, it's completely unclear what Western powers will do in western Ukraine and how they will address the needs of Ukrainians."The hard truth is no one is actually working for Ukrainians, to resolve the security situation, and to restore peace," retired Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski said. "Russians stepped up in the east, and addressed a longstanding security situation that was designed and encouraged by US and German politicians since before 2014. But who stands up for western Ukraine? Certainly not Zelensky, a Western puppet. Not the progressive global left in Davos. Not Washington." https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/i-am-tired-of-this-sshow-washington-and-kiev-fume-as-berlin-holds-off-on-tanks-for-ukraine-1106552205.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/germany-to-decide-on-supply-of-tanks-to-kiev-by-third-countries-on-friday---minister-1106508588.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/weapons-sent-to-kiev-could-take-us-nearly-half-a-century-to-replenish-retired-officer-warns-1106534777.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230119/analysts-pentagons-lost-equipment-fiasco-will-worsen-as-us-funnels-arms-to-ukraine-without-audit-1106501865.html russia ukraine donbass Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Ekaterina Blinova Ekaterina Blinova News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ekaterina Blinova ramstein summit, raimstein ukraine meeting, leopard tanks to ukraine, germany ukraine weapons, german economy slump, eu recession, us may run out of weapons, bakhmut offensive, capture of soledar https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/russia-vows-to-retaliate-against-french-media-after-rt-france-bank-accounts-frozen-1106550353.html Russia Vows to Retaliate Against French Media After RT France Bank Accounts Frozen Russia Vows to Retaliate Against French Media After RT France Bank Accounts Frozen Moscow has vowed to retaliate against French media in Russia after RT France bank accounts were blocked in the EU country. 2023-01-21T10:21+0000 2023-01-21T10:21+0000 2023-01-21T17:22+0000 world russia rt france /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/104386/62/1043866271_0:85:3223:1898_1920x0_80_0_0_e281de1f62471a5c66da716e7f90b762.jpg Moscow has vowed to retaliate against French media in Russia after RT France's bank accounts were blocked in the EU country.The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that France would "remember" these measures unless the authorities do not stop "terrorizing" Russian journalists.The news about the frozen bank accounts of the RT France broadcaster's desk was announced by Ksenia Fedorova, the broadcaster's editor-in-chief. Fedorova explained that when they approached the bank for clarification, it referred them to the authorities' order. Despite the fact that RT France does not appear on the sanctions list and has the right to work in France, such a decision actually paralyzes the work of the media, she added.In early December 2022, the French Council of State ordered the media regulator Arcom to reconsider its decision to continue broadcasting Russian TV channels Rossiya 1, NTV, and Channel One in Russia and Ukraine by the French satellite operator Eutelsat at the request of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).In March 2022, the European Union banned the broadcasting of any content from RT and Sputnik channels in retaliation for the special military operation launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.Relations between Russian media and the West have become increasingly difficult in recent years. In November 2016, the European Parliament adopted a resolution stating the need to counter Russian media, with Sputnik and RT cited as the main threats in the document. russia france Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International bank accounts of the rt france, retaliatory measures against the french media https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/turkey-cancels-swedish-defense-ministers-visit-over-disgusting-demonstrations-1106548681.html Ankara Cancels Swedish Defense Minister's Visit Over Planned Quran Burning Outside Turkish Embassy Ankara Cancels Swedish Defense Minister's Visit Over Planned Quran Burning Outside Turkish Embassy Istanbul has cancelled the planned visit of Sweden's defense minister over disgusting demonstrations against Turkey. 2023-01-21T10:08+0000 2023-01-21T10:08+0000 2023-01-21T10:51+0000 world sweden turkiye rasmus paludan quran kurdistan workers' party (pkk) recep tayyip erdogan /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/105433/44/1054334433_0:100:1920:1180_1920x0_80_0_0_ce6525a3e4093d76ec244f830189459d.jpg A scheduled visit to Turkey by Sweden's defense minister Pal Jonson has been cancelled in connection with planned demonstrations in the Swedish capital over the weekend. The trip was part of efforts by Sweden to overturn Ankara's objections to its NATO bid.Sweden has been bracing itself for several demonstrations in Stockholm. The leader of Danish political party Stram Kurs (Hard Line), Rasmus Paludan, earlier received permission to burn a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on 21 January. The Danish-Swedish politician is a notorious Quran-burner and has carried out such actions before.According to Paludan, this will be done to support freedom of expression which, he argues, is "missing here and there". Paludan branded the Turkish President an "Islamist dictator", a view shared by Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson.Turkey summoned Swedens ambassador in Ankara to object to Paludans planned provocative action "in the strongest terms", a diplomatic source was cited as saying. Ibrahim Kaln, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, went on Twitter to condemn what he said was clearly a hate crime. "Allowing this action, despite all our warnings, is encouraging hate crimes and Islamophobia," he added.Also on Saturday, groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), labeled as terrorist by Ankara, were planning to hold a demonstration in central Stockholm. Earlier in January, Swedens ambassador to Turkey was summoned after PKK supporters demonstrating in the Swedish capital hung an effigy of Erdogan by its feet. That incident prompted the Turkish Prosecutor General's Office to open a criminal case into the rally.Regarding the Quran-burning, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom refused to speculate on how Paludan's police-authorized protest might affect Sweden's bid to join NATO, telling media on 20 January that "everything that prolongs the process unnecessarily is of course something we take very seriously."Sweden, along with neighboring Finland, needs Turkey's consent to join NATO. In May 2022, the two countries abandoned decades of military non-alignment and applied to join the alliance, because they felt the security situation in Europe had changed. However, consideration of the bids was initially blocked by Turkey because of Helsinki and Stockholm's long-standing support for the PKK.In a breakthrough move, Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a security memorandum in June 2022 that launched negotiations on accession of the two Scandinavian countries to NATO. The sides agreed to boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism, including measures against the PKK, and lift restrictions on arms exports to Turkey. Turkey and Hungary are the only countries out of the 30 members of the alliance not yet to have approved the membership of the two new candidates. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/turkish-foreign-ministry-summons-swedish-ambassador-over-planned-burning-of-quran---source-1106542210.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230117/turkish-defense-minister-says-sweden-finland-not-meeting-requirements-to-join-nato-1106421347.html sweden turkiye Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko istanbul cancelled visit of sweden's defense minister, disgusting demonstrations against turkey, burning the quran in stockholm, leader of danish political party stram kurs, rasmus paluda, kurdistan workers' party, pkk, sweden's nato bid, turkeys consent to join nato https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/turkish-foreign-ministry-summons-swedish-ambassador-over-planned-burning-of-quran---source-1106542210.html Turkish Foreign Ministry Summons Swedish Ambassador Over Planned Burning of Quran - Source Turkish Foreign Ministry Summons Swedish Ambassador Over Planned Burning of Quran - Source Turkeys Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Swedish ambassador in connection with the upcoming action of burning the Quran in Stockholm, a diplomatic source in Ankara told Sputnik. 2023-01-21T01:24+0000 2023-01-21T01:24+0000 2023-01-21T01:18+0000 world sweden turkiye summoning ambassador quran koran burning /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/105418/77/1054187730_0:48:1920:1128_1920x0_80_0_0_669f472b1af54ac13f53a66eda221c3c.jpg Media reported on Friday that the leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs, Rasmus Paludan, had received permission to burn a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, January 21. The source added that insult to sacred values cannot be defended under the guise of "democratic rights" and the Turkish foreign ministry strongly condemns such provocative acts and is waiting for Sweden to withdraw the permission for the burning of the Quran. The diplomatic source also told Sputnik that on Saturday, groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), labeled as terrorist by Ankara, were planning to hold a demonstration in central Stockholm on Saturday. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week that Ankara expected Sweden to take specific steps against the PKK, rather than just condemn protests of its members and supporters in Stockholm. Earlier in January, PKK supporters held a demonstration in the Swedish capital, hanging a figure of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by its feet. The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara in protest of the PKK rally. In addition, the Turkish Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case in connection with the demonstration. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230113/turkey-scolds-sweden-over-hanged-erdogan-effigy-in-stockholm-1106268815.html sweden turkiye Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International turkish foreign ministry, summons, swedish ambassador, quran, planned burning https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/twitter-lost-80-of-its-workforce-under-elon-musk-reports-say-1106544915.html Twitter Lost 80% of Its Workforce Under Elon Musk, Reports Say Twitter Lost 80% of Its Workforce Under Elon Musk, Reports Say The number of employees at Twitter has decreased by about 80% since US entrepreneur Elon Musks multibillion-dollar acquisition, CNBC reports citing internal company records. 2023-01-21T05:01+0000 2023-01-21T05:01+0000 2023-01-21T06:30+0000 world twitter elon musk employees /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/0b/03/1103529442_0:31:3001:1719_1920x0_80_0_0_3d1208d55b1477b573164876650efaea.jpg Before Musk finalized the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late October, 2022, the San Francisco-based company had about 7,500 employees, but that number has gone down to approximately 1,300 active employees, media said on Friday. Twitter now has fewer than 550 full-time engineers and the trust and safety team includes fewer than 20 full-time employees. The company also has around 1,400 non-working employees who are still being paid. In addition, about 75 of the companys 1,300 employees are on leave, including 40 engineers, media specified. Musk has changed the company's day-to-day operations, including the termination of Twitter executives who were responsible for the platform's privacy, cybersecurity and censorship. Musk has reportedly authorized about 130 people from his other businesses, including Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Company, to work at Twitter. In December, US media reported that Twitter had stopped paying rent for office space for several weeks to cut costs. Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International acquisition of twitter, number of employees at twitter https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/weekly-news-wrap-up-macron-issues-warning-to-europe-davos-plots-did-fbi-kill-mlk-1106541865.html Weekly News Wrap-Up; Macron Issues Warning to Europe; Davos Plots; Did FBI Kill MLK? Weekly News Wrap-Up; Macron Issues Warning to Europe; Davos Plots; Did FBI Kill MLK? French President Emmanuel Macron has issued a stark warning to Europe regarding their freedom from complete US domination. 21.01.2023, Sputnik International 2023-01-21T11:14+0000 2023-01-21T11:14+0000 2023-02-03T08:29+0000 the critical hour church evo morales ukraine emmanuel macron nato medicare radio /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/15/1106541719_0:0:1920:1080_1920x0_80_0_0_96d5c7754b9ff2cfd7c606ee21e6765f.png Weekly News Wrap-Up; Macron Issues Warning to Europe; Davos Plots; Did FBI Kill MLK? French President Emmanuel Macron has issued a stark warning to Europe regarding their freedom from complete US domination. Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. French President Emmanuel Macron has issued a stark warning to Europe regarding their freedom from complete US domination. Also, A German general has a frank interview about the Ukrainian crisis and the CIA director has met with Ukrainian leaders.Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of Economics and Politics at St. Mary's College in California, joins us to discuss this week's important economic stories. Medicare Advantage is a neoliberal privatization plan for medicare. Also, the richest one percent took home two thirds of global wealth in 2020.Dr. Gerald Horne, Professor of History at the University of Houston, TX, author, historian, and researcher, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. Joe Biden has a disturbing message regarding Julian Assange. Also, South Africa will host a naval exercise with Russia and China and Florida has killed African American curriculums in schools.Dr. Colin Campbell, DC Senior News Correspondent, and Dan Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "America's Undeclared War," join us to discuss this week's important news stories. A group of liberals has penned a neocon pro-war letter about Ukraine. Also, Washington is still orchestrating coups in Latin America and the US helped grow the Nazi regime in Ukraine.Steve Poikonen, national organizer for Action4Assange, and Jim Kavanagh, whose work can be found at Jim Kavanagh's Substack, thepolemicist.net and Counterpunch, come together to discuss this week's important news stories. Scottish children will be surveyed on their gender. The FBI's crusade against Dr. Martin Luther King was abominable. Also, the GOP has not created a Church commission-style committee as they have argued.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. ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Garland Nixon https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/02/13/1082125302_0:0:239:239_100x100_80_0_0_d5d43c970b0740f228597fbcdb4ffd66.jpg Garland Nixon https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/02/13/1082125302_0:0:239:239_100x100_80_0_0_d5d43c970b0740f228597fbcdb4ffd66.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Garland Nixon https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/02/13/1082125302_0:0:239:239_100x100_80_0_0_d5d43c970b0740f228597fbcdb4ffd66.jpg church, evo morales, ukraine, emmanuel macron, nato, medicare, , radio https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/west-begins-to-realize-refusal-of-russian-fertilizers-bad-choice-senior-russian-official-1106545348.html West Begins to Realize Refusal of Russian Fertilizers Bad Choice: Senior Russian Official West Begins to Realize Refusal of Russian Fertilizers Bad Choice: Senior Russian Official Unfriendly countries started to realize that abandoning Russian mineral fertilizers would not end well and the West is already easing up on its rhetoric to resume trade 2023-01-21T05:42+0000 2023-01-21T05:42+0000 2023-01-21T05:42+0000 russia russia fertilizer trade grain /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/0b/17/1104571667_0:18:2955:1680_1920x0_80_0_0_95b3967bf23e79978fb2ec03ac73f023.jpg "As for mineral fertilizers, my observations over the last year showed that unfriendly states have begun to realize that it is impossible to refuse mineral fertilizers, including Russian, as it will end badly. There are already some changes in the official position of unfriendly countries in order to resume such trade and the rhetoric is softening," Abramchenko said. On July 22, 2022, the deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations was signed by Ukraine and Russia to unblock shipments of grain, food and fertilizer in the Black Sea despite hostilities. The agreement was initially set to expire on November 19, with a possibility of extension if signatories consent. It was extended for 120 days on November 17. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that most vessels carrying Ukrainian grain do not reach the world's poorest countries and have ended up in Europe. Putin has also voiced concerns that Russian grain and fertilizer products are not entering the global markets as stipulated by the agreement. According to Russian Ambassador to Turkey Alexei Yerkhov, Latvia, Estonia and Belgium continue to keep Russian agricultural products in ports, while the resumption of ammonia supplies is blocked by Kiev. russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International russian mineral fertilizers, resume trade, unfriendly countries https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/what-is-the-sukhoi-su-35-super-flanker-and-how-many-does-russia-have-1106559230.html What is the Sukhoi Su-35 Super Flanker and How Many Does Russia Have? What is the Sukhoi Su-35 Super Flanker and How Many Does Russia Have? What are Su-35s characteristics? When were the aircraft introduced? And why does Iran want to get its hands on them? Sputnik explains. 2023-01-21T18:00+0000 2023-01-21T18:00+0000 2023-01-21T18:00+0000 military iran russia su-35 sukhoi fighter jet jet fighter jet /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/15/1106558914_0:96:1436:904_1920x0_80_0_0_75acee6d96223187f017c72cf116e1cb.jpg A US State Department spokesperson expressed concerns last month over the unprecedented level of military and technical support between in Russia and Iran that was transforming their relationship into a full-fledged defense partnership.White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby echoed these sentiments in a press briefing, citing the training of Iranian pilots to operate Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighters, which he said would significantly strengthen Irans air force relative to its regional neighbors.What are Multirole Fighter Jets?First things first: Let's get definitions out of the way. The Russian military defines "multirole fighters" as aircraft designed and equipped to destroy both enemy aircraft and ground forces, including using stealth technology, if applicable. Multirole fighters differ from so-called "frontline fighters" designed primarily for air superiority missions (with a secondary fire support role), and interceptors meant to protect ground forces from enemy aircraft and cruise missile attacks at long ranges.Russias experience with multirole combat aircraft goes back to the interwar period and the Soviet Unions development of the Polikarpov R-5 reconnaissance/light bomber aircraft, and the Polikarpov Po-2 all-weather multirole aircraft - a mass-produced biplane built from the late 1920s until 1954 and used for missions including pilot training, ground attack, and reconnaissance. Nazi Germany, the United States, and Britain each experimented with their own successful multirole planes, like the Junckers Ju 88 and the de Havilland Mosquito.With the advent of jet engine technology and missiles, and the beginning of the Cold War, the design of multirole aircraft became more complex and significantly more costly. It wasnt until the mid-1970s that a joint Italian, British, and West German design known as the Panavia Tornado was created as a do-it-all aircraft capable of interdictor/strike missions, reconnaissance and electronic warfare, and the interception of enemy jets. The US and the USSR followed suit with the Lockheed Martin F-16 and Mikoyan MiG-29 multirole jets in the late 1970s and early 1980s, respectively. Both of the latter have enjoyed a series of upgrades, and are expected to remain in service with dozens of militaries around the world for decades to come.What is the Su-35, When Was It Created and When Did It Enter Service?The Su-35 is a deep modernization of the T-10 the platform on which the Soviet Su-27 all-weather supersonic heavy multirole fourth-generation multirole fighter was built. The Su-35s connection with its Soviet big brother is hinted at by the early name of the modernization project the Su-27M. The Su-27M was tinkered with between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s, and differed from the base Su-27 with the canards in front of its wings for increased maneuverability, and a rear-facing air brake. These features were deleted in the Su-35, but the canard is used by the Su-34, a fighter-bomber/strike bomber variant of the Su-27.Full-scale development work on the Su-35 by the Sukhoi Design Bureau began in the early 2000s, with the plane envisioned as a 4++ generation aircraft (4+ generation typically means upgraded armaments, onboard avionics equipment, radar, etc. while 4++ usually means the incorporation of weapons and systems found on next-gen aircraft). The Su-35 was bestowed the NATO reporting name "Flanker-E" or "Super Flanker" a nod to its Su-27 "Flanker" origins.The Su-35 is piloted by a single airman, and features twin AL-41F1 engines with thrust-vectoring nozzles allowing for supermaneuvrability i.e., the ability to perform maneuvers which are not possible using only traditional aerodynamics-based techniques. The aircraft has a top speed of up to 2,500 km per hour (Mach 2.3). It features a high-precision phased antenna array radar with a range of over 400 km and maximum deflection angle of up to 120 degrees, onboard electronic warfare equipment, and two optional outboard fuel tanks which increase its maximum range from 3,600 to 4,500 km. The onboard computer allows the Su-35 to detect and target up to four ground or 30 air targets, and engage between two and eight targets simultaneously, depending on the missile used. Speaking of the weapons complement, it includes a 150 round 30 mm aircraft gun, an eight-ton useful combat load, and 12 weapons hard points for short, medium, and long range air-to-air, air-to-ground, and anti-ship missiles, and two types of unguided munitions.The first prototype of the Su-35 appeared at the 2007 MAKS air show outside Moscow. Its first flight took place in 2008, and in 2009, the Russian Air Force contracted Sukhoi to supply it with 48 Su-35s, delivered in full by late 2015.How Many Su-35s Does Russia Have?The Russian Air Force now operates at least 93 Su-35 aircraft across eight different air bases inside Russia, plus four which are stationed at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria.How Much Do Su-35s Cost?The Russian Defense Ministry has been tight-lipped about the per unit cost of a single Su-35 for the internal market. However, Russian business media reported in 2015 that the military had contracted the United Aircraft Corporation, Sukhois parent company, to build 48 Su-35s for about 100 billion rubles meaning a per unit price tag of around two billion rubles (about $29.3 million US at the current exchange rate).Have Any Su-35s Been Lost in Ukraine?Su-35s made their combat debut in Syria in 2016, and have provided cover to other aircraft on bombing missions, and secured airspace over the countrys northwest.The escalation of the long-running conflict in Donbass into a full-on NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine in 2022 has been accompanied by an intense information war online. Russian Su-35s have taken an active part in the suppression of Ukrainian air defenses, and have claimed at least a dozen victories in air-to-air combat against Ukrainian aircraft. Claims of how many Su-35s may have been lost in the fighting vary dramatically, with the Ukrainian General Staff claiming in August that Russia had lost up to two squadrons, i.e. 24 planes, by that point. US media offered a more modest appraisal, suggesting in the summer that up to two Su-35s had been lost. Ukrainian media published footage in March of the wreckage of a jet they claimed was an Su-35 in a field in the Kharkov region, as well as a video of its purported captured pilot. Western media reported that pieces of the wreck were sent to labs in the UK and Nevada for analysis, citing this as a major propaganda coup for NATO.The Russian military has not confirmed the loss of any Su-35s in Ukraine, and judging by the videos alone, all thats clear is that the wrecked plane appears to be a derivative of the Su-27 family (which Ukraine, incidentally, also has). In other words, the Su-35s losses over 11 months of operations in Ukraine are either zero or one.What Countries Besides Russia Operate the Su-35?The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force is the only air force besides Russias with Su-35s in service. Russia and China inked a $2 billion contract for 24 Su-35s in 2015, with the planes fully delivered by 2018. The US slapped sanctions on Chinese entities over the purchase under Washingtons "Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act." China has not bought any additional Su-35s, instead focusing on its domestically produced Shenyang J-16 (a derivative of the Shenyang J-11 air superiority fighter which was derived from the Su-27).Why Does Iran Want Su-35s?Irans expected delivery of up to two dozen Su-35 jets comes shortly after Egypt backed out of a contract to purchase the jets under pressure from the US, with media reports suggesting that the Su-35s slated for delivery to Egypt are being diverted to Iran instead. Russian and Iranian officials have not confirmed this information.In any event, the Russian 4++ generation aircraft will be a welcome addition to Irans Air Force, which due to decades of sanctions pressure has been left with a sparse inventory of aging combat aircraft, including US-made F-4 Phantom IIs, F-5 Tiger IIs, F-14 Tomcats, French Mirage F1s, Chinese Chengdu J-7s (a license-built MiG-21), and Soviet-made MiG-29s and Su-24s. According to media reports, Iran has been on the lookout for modern Russian or Chinese-sourced multirole jets for about a decade, with the October 2020 lifting of a United Nations arms embargo untying Tehrans hands for the purchase.The Islamic Republic has prided itself on its defense-industrial base, which has produced a range of advanced missile systems, cutting-edge radar technology, and a fully autonomous defense electronics sector. In accordance with its self-reliance philosophy, the nation has experimented with options for homegrown aircraft, introducing the HESA Kowsar fighter/trainer in 2018, and the IAIO Qaher-313, a stealth fighter first shown in 2013 thats thought to be in development. The Su-35 will be sure to provide Iranian airmen, commanders, and military engineers food for thought about the future development of the domestic aircraft industry, and the Iranian Air Force's tactical and strategic capabilities. More on this below.How Does the Su-35 Match Up Against the F-35?The Su-35s 4++ generation engine, radar, and weapons package makes it a serious competitor against top US planes, including not only the F-16 and F-22, but Lockheed Martins monster $1.7 trillion F-35 Lightning II multirole jet as well. While it is outclassed by the F-35 on stealth and avionics, the Su-35 features superior maneuverability, a higher top speed (2,400 km vs. 1,960 km per hour), and longer range (3,600 km vs. 2,800 km).While they are marketed as stealth fighters, F-35s can be detected using some radar types, including, reportedly, the Su-35s onboard Ibris-E. Given the F-35s sleek radar cross section (RCS) of as little as .005m2, the Ibris-E could hypothetically detect it up to 90 km away, which is below the F-35s ability to hone in on the Su-35 up to 150 km away. However, according to Hellenic Air Force Colonel (ret.) Konstantinos Zikidis, when accounting for maneuverability and countermeasures, such as chaff dispensers or jammers, and "beaming maneuvers" (i.e. flying perpendicularly to the source of a radar or oncoming missile to avoid or complicate detection), an F-35 could be outclassed by a competent Su-35 pilot.Accounting for the existence of advanced radar technology, air defense forces could hone in on incoming F-35s well before they reach their target zones. Iran, incidentally, is a major power when it comes to advanced radars, with its Matla-ul-fajr (lit. "Rise of Dawn") VHF 3D radar featuring a range of up to 480 km, and operating in 100 different frequencies to prevent jamming. Working in coordination with its dense network of ground-based radars and missile systems, such as the Bavar 373 and the Khordad 3, Su-35s in Irans arsenal should help the Islamic Republic make short work of any adversaries foolish enough to attack. https://sputnikglobe.com/20220924/turkey-could-consider-buying-russias-su-35-if-deal-on-us-f-16-fails-defense-agency-1101164633.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20221212/nine-months-into-special-military-operation-are-dogfights-over-ukraine-making-russian-aces-1105394907.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/shock-and-awe-why-russias-sukhoi-su-35-fighters-are-nightmare-for-irans-adversaries-1106503010.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20221129/israel-and-us-to-simulate-strike-on-iran-nuclear-program-during-air-drills--1104827287.html iran russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov su 35 , su-35 , sukhoi su-35 , russian su-35 , su 35 jet , su-35 fighter jet, su-35 fighters , how many su-35 does russia have , how much su 35 cost, how many su-35 does russia have, su-35 vs f-35, su-35 iran, iran, russia, iranian su-35 https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/white-house-chief-of-staff-ronald-klain-may-reportedly-resign-in-coming-weeks-1106561532.html White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain May Reportedly Resign in Coming Weeks White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain May Reportedly Resign in Coming Weeks WH Chief of Staff Ronald Klain may step down in the coming weeks, as a search of a successor being underway, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing US senior administration officials. 2023-01-21T21:22+0000 2023-01-21T21:22+0000 2023-01-21T21:22+0000 americas white house white house chief of staff joe biden biden classified files ron klain /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/03/01/1082223583_0:141:3143:1908_1920x0_80_0_0_b5001f851a457fed2e91dda2eded0593.jpg Klain has been privately telling his colleagues since the 2022 November midterm elections that after a "nonstop stretch" at US President Joe Biden's office since the 2020 election campaign, he was ready to "move on" and that the search for a replacement was underway, the newspaper reported. The report did not specify whether Klain's successor had been already chosen or when the decision was expected to be announced, but said that the resignation might take place after Biden's State of the Union address scheduled for February 7. Klain would presumably stay in office for a transition period to transfer the tasks to the next chief of staff, the report also said. "White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is expected to step down in the coming weeks, CNN has confirmed," CNN chief domestic correspondent Jim Acosta tweeted. Klain's decision to step down is reportedly unrelated to the ongoing investigation about classified documents found at Biden's private office and Delaware residence. Earlier this month, the US government publicly acknowledged it has undertaken an investigation into Biden's mishandling of classified materials after his lawyers discovered sensitive documents in the presidential think-tank office and residence. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/biden--top-inner-circle-reportedly-tried-to-cover-up-classified-docs-discovery-1106544662.html americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International ron klain, white house, biden, biden administration https://sputnikglobe.com/20230121/why-did-a-million-people-join-day-of-protests--strikes-in-france-1106552864.html Why Did a Million People Join Day of Protests & Strikes in France? Why Did a Million People Join Day of Protests & Strikes in France? A Million people joined the day of protests and strikes in France on January 19, triggered by the government's pension reform plans. 2023-01-21T13:43+0000 2023-01-21T13:43+0000 2023-01-21T13:53+0000 france strikes emmanuel macron pension reform sputnik explains /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/01/15/1106551767_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_9d90380cafcc09f7929dcfd8dac3fc4c.jpg A single day - January 19 - witnessed over a million protesting people take to the streets of cities across France, while trains ground to a standstill, plane flights were impacted, and Paris' subway was disrupted as part of a nationwide strike. For the first time in over a decade, France's "Day of Rage" reconciled and brought together practically all of the country's leading labor organizations. Furthermore, French unions have announced new nationwide strikes and protests for January 31.So what is it that prompted people in Paris, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, and other major cities to pick up placards and flood the streets of their hometowns?Why Are People Protesting in France?It is President Emmanuel Macron's plan to carry out a pension reform that has got protesters across France up in arms. Contentiously lying at the heart of the legislation is the proposal to raise the retirement age, as well as make people contribute more years of employment in order to receive a full pension."The way things are going, we'll be almost unable to walk or live by the time we're given the right to retire," insisted another indignant participant in the mass action.According to General Confederation of Labor (French: Confederation Generale du Travail, CGT) trade union leader Philippe Martinez, the pension reform "bundles together everyone's dissatisfaction" with the government. "We all agree that the reform is unjust," he added.When Do French People Retire?French people retire earlier than in many neighboring countries. For example, according to the Pensions Advisory Council, the average age in France to begin using retirement funds was 62.6 for women and 62 for men in 2019. By comparison, in Italy, the average age for the sexes was 63 and 64, and in Germany it was 66.What is Macron's Pension Reform About?As far back as during his 2017 presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron called for reforms to France's pensions' system. Macron's government has underscored the need to "bring into alignment" the existing multiple private sector and public sector pension schemes. Gradually raising the minimum retirement age was at the heart of the proposed overhaul. However, the plans were put on the backburner after they triggered waves of protests in 2020. Macron cited the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, saying such reforms would be ill-timed.Accordingly, now the plan has been returned to with fresh zeal. The idea is to raise the retirement age from 62 to as late as 65. Furthermore, the number of years you need to work to have a full pension would be progressively increased, and faster than before: 43 years instead of 41.5 by 2027 instead of 2034. What Else is in Macron's Pension Reform?The government revealed that it will index about two million pension benefits, allowing them to reach 85 percent of the subsistence level and amount to 1,200 euros ($1,288) per month for those who have completed the minimum working experience of 43 years required. The reform provided for an earlier retirement for those who started working at an early age, with the bill assuming that maternity leave for women will also be included in the calculation of working years.How Does French Gov't Justify Need for Pension Reform?Emmanuel Macron has insisted that the pension reform is vital if there is to be any hope of salvaging a "failing system"The president previously ruled out either slashing pension payments or allocating additional funds to the system. The French prime minister also stressed the need to "maintain a balance" between the ratio of working citizens and growing number of pensioners in the country. According to media-cited data, from four workers per one retiree about 50 years ago, there is now approximately 1.7 per retiree today, with the trend anticipated to continue. Has Pension Reform Been Attempted in France Before?France boasts a decades-long history of stabs at reforming its pension system. As one can guess, it has witnessed just as many protests resisting such intentions.As far back as in 1982, President Francois Mitterrand brought down the retirement age to 60 from 65. However, over a decade later, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Alain Juppe sought to increase the retirement age for civil servants and make 40 years of work contribution a requirement for a pension in the private sector. This triggered immediate response from trade unions, which summoned a general strike that brought train and metro operations to a standstill for three weeks. As a result, the plans were ditched by the government.Nicolas Sarkozy elevated the retirement age to 62 from 60 in 2010, with full pension only for those who had worked at least 41.5 years. Despite massive protests, the reform was enacted.Francois Hollande waded into the pension fray four years later, gradually increasing the number of years of contributions required for a full pension to 43.What Happens Next?The proposed pension reform is yet to be adopted in parliament, where President Emmanuel Macron does not have an absolute majority. The French president has insisted he will press ahead with the plans. During a news conference at a French-Spanish summit in Barcelona, Spain, Macron said that "we must do that reform" to "save" the pension system."We will do it with respect, in a spirit of dialogue but also determination and responsibility, he added.What do French Trade Unions Say?Trade unions have argued that the proposed pension overhaul will jeopardize hard-fought workers' rights. What the unions propose instead is either slapping a tax on the wealthier citizens, or increasing payroll contributions from employers to finance the pension system. A majority of the French people also opposes the reform, recent polls have shown. 66 percent oppose raising the retirement age, while 60 percent oppose increasing the length of contribution required for a full pension, according to a survey by OpinionWay.Amid what appears to be a stalemate on the issue, eight leading unions held a meeting on January 19 in the wake of the mass protests. In their statements, they vowed to push on with attempts to force the government to scrap the pension reform plans. Another day of mass strikes and protests has been planned for January 31, according to France's trade unions. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230119/1106488751.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230111/france-plans-to-rise-retirement-age-to-64-years-by-2030---prime-minister-1106212746.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230120/more-than-1-million-people-gathered-to-protest-against-pension-reform-in-france-1106509386.html france Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2023 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko france protests, strikes in france, why are the french protesting, why are the french striking, what caused the unrest in france, why are people protesting in france, when do people retire in france, what is macron's pension reform about, Organizers with the Ontario Select Yearling Sale have announced the sale will not resume this year. Winbak Farm started the Ontario Select Yearling Sale in 2020 to allow bidders to still see the yearlings and have as much of a normal sales experience as we could with the COVID restrictions in place, said Pat Woods, Winbak Farm of Canada Manager. The Ontario Select Yearling Sale was held at Winbak Farm of Canada and held for three consecutive years (2020, 2021 and 2022). We would like to thank the breeders and yearling buyers who supported us having the Ontario Select Yearling Sale at Winbak Farm Of Canada, said Woods. We wish them continued success and hope to see them at the London Yearling Sale in 2023. Now that the London Yearling Sale is back in person and had such a successful season in 2022, we are excited to join. Winbak Farm is proud to be a part of the 2023 London Classic Yearling Sale and look forward to working with Greg Blanchard and his team, said Joe Thomson, Winbak Farm Owner. We have decided to reunite with the London Yearling Sale since COVID protocols are lessened and the sale is back live at the Western Fair Agriplex, which is a wonderful venue. The London Classic Yearling Sale will be held on Oct. 17 and 18. We are pleased to welcome the Winbak Farm consignment back to London this Fall, said Greg Blanchard, London Classic Yearling Sale Manager. After a successful first year, we are excited to be able to grow our sale offerings and have all of the top breeders and consignors under one roof for year two. The Winbak Farm yearling lineup can now be found at the farm's website. Winbak Farm has continually been a leading breeder in the Ontario Sires Stakes program, said James Ladwig, Yearling Manager. The 2023 Ontario-sired yearlings already look strong and ready to race. The 2023 Winbak Farm Ontario-eligible yearlings are sired by: Archangel, Betterthancheddar, Bettors Delight, Green Manalishi S (first crop), Jimmy Freight, McWicked, Muscle Mass, My MVP, Resolve, Shadow Play, Sportswriter, Stag Party, The Bank, and Trixton (first Ontario crop). Sale assignments will be posted closer to sales time. We thought Greg Blanchard and his team did a wonderful job with the management of the sale, said Jack Burke, Winbak Farm General Manager. We plan on bringing a strong Ontario-Sired lineup to the sale. The Ontario Sires Stakes program is one of my favourites, said Thomson. You dont want to miss this sale and the lineup that we will be selling. (with files from Winbak Farm) As one star from western Canada aims to keep harness racing's longest active win streak alive on Sunday (Jan. 22) at Cal Expo, another star from western Canada will make his return to California and look to start a new win streak of his own. The $30,000 Alan Horowitz Final and the $15,800 Jack Williams Final share the spotlight on Sunday nights Cal Expo program. There will be 12 races presented under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set for 4:55 p.m. Cal Expo welcomes back leading western Canada pilot Brandon Campbell, who will be in town Sunday to drive for trainer Travis Ellis in the Alan Horowitz and Jack Williams finals. Campbell will guide Flying Officer in the Horowitz and sits behind HF Flower in the Williams. The 39-year-old Campbell ended 2022 as the first driver with a $2 million season competing exclusively in Western Canada. He last drove at Cal Expo in 2006. "They are short drivers there so the owners of the Ellis stable are flying me there for the day," Campbell told Trot Insider. "I think it's just a one-time deal; I might go down a couple more times for stakes...just have to see how this trip wears on me." Campbell has a full dance card of 12 drives on Saturday (Jan. 21) at Century Mile, including three from his own stable, before heading to Sacramento on Sunday. He's not planning to take any of his own horses stateside for a stint in the sunny south. The competition for Campbell in the Horowitz includes Ideal One, who captured the second leg of the Horowitz on December 26 and goes about his business for William Neumeister and trainer Bob Johnson with Shawn Thayer at the controls. A 12-year-old Australian bred, Ideal One went coast-to-coast in his Horowitz leg score and was making his 25th trip to the winners cirlce from 165 lifetime starts with $161,000 in the bank. He has a 1:52.4 mark that was established at Scioto Downs two years ago. Villa For Rent also accounted for a Horowitz leg on December 18 and looms large with the scratch of Nebble Hanover from this cast. Racing for Benvenga Racing and Robin Gostovich, he takes his lessons from Kathie Plested and will once again have the services of Mooney Svendsen for Sundays assignment. Villa For Rent was a game winner in last months score after being used early to the lead and then shuffled midway before coming home smartly for the decision. Rounding out the field are Rockinscience, Flying Officer, Prom Queen, Some Playa, Pecorino, Rockin Jimmy Brown and Impressive Art. Looking at the Williams, there are more connections to western Canada. Princessofthedawn is a four-year-old daughter of Mystician who arrived at Cal Expo from her Alberta winless in 10 starts but has been unbeaten and untested in her four solid appearances over this layout. Owned by Tamara Wainscott and Rick Cisco, trained by Cisco and guided once again by Rene Goulet, she is looking to parlay a December 26 victory in the Funicello/Holt Final to Sundays Wilson finale. In that last score, Princessofhedawn left to find an early pocket, was back to the lead down the backside and took complete control of the Funicello/Holt, reporting home with three and three-quarter lengths to spare over the sloppy track. Salary would appear to be an excellent fit in this cast for owner/trainer Kelly Crump and pilot Brad Irvine. She started off this meet with a solid tally in November and has been meeting some tough customers since with a trio of exacta completions and a place finish in the last four. Completing the cast, from the rail out, are Aint She Special, Bekkums Fancy Star, HF Flower, Sierra Mystique, Snoah and Muffin Top. The Open Pace finds Dancin Lance and Major Attribute in a rematch, while the Filly and Mare Open Pace will find 2022 O'Brien Award finalist Divine Art stepping up in class while seeking her 15th straight victory for owner / driver / trainer Gerry Longo. (with files from Cal Expo) Nebraska has a rich heritage of military service. Over the years, thousands of Nebraskans have answered the call and served our country heroically. I am proud that many young Nebraskans want to continue this important tradition of service to our country. Each year, my staff and I review applications from high school students across Nebraska who are interested in attending one or more of the countrys five distinguished military academies. The five academies are the U.S. Military Academy (West Point, New York), the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Maryland), the U.S. Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, Colorado), the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (New London, Connecticut), and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point, New York). All of the military academies, except the Coast Guard Academy, require a nomination from a U.S. Senator or a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to accept a students application. This year, I am honored to nominate 18 young men and women to one or more of the service academies for the Class of 2027. Each of these students has an excellent academic record, proven leadership skills, and a desire to serve our country. I am confident that they would be exemplary officers in the United States military. As Nebraskas senior senator, I have nominated hundreds of men and women to the service academies since 2013, many of whom were accepted and serve our country in incredible ways. My nomination is only the beginning of the journey for these outstanding candidates. Students also submit applications to the academies themselves, which will conduct a rigorous review of their credentials. The academies have high standards for acceptance to ensure they continue to produce quality military officers. It is my hope that the highly selective admissions staff at these schools recognize our young Nebraskans as some of the best and brightest in our country. Students at the academies receive an education equal to our countrys most respected universities, coupled with training that molds Americas young people into tomorrows leaders. Eager men and women are transformed into informed, courageous officers, ready and able to serve. Academy graduates serve for a minimum of five years, after which some remain in military service, and some move on to civilian leadership positions. The military training and classroom instruction provided to academy cadets and midshipmen shape their characters as officers and as civilians. Reading the applications of our young leaders fills me with optimism for our state and our country at large. We are headed toward a bright future forged by these Nebraskans. It is my pleasure and privilege to nominate 18 exceptional young men and women to the five military academies this year. I know these students will represent both the United States and Nebraska with dignity during their service. I hope to hear from more future leaders during the nomination process for next year. To learn more about the academies, visit their websites: https://www.westpoint.edu/, https://www.usna.edu/, https://www.usafa.edu/, https://www.usmma.edu/, https://uscga.edu/. To apply for a nomination, please contact my Omaha office at (402) 391-3411 or email AcademyNom_Fischer@fischer.senate.gov. Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week. Monument Business and Professional Women (BPW) gathered this week to honor the winners of the 2022 Woman of the Year, Young Careerist, and Employer of the Year. Awards were presented by President Mary Winn and last years Woman of the Year Ally Berggren. BPW is a non-profit organization that promotes programs and policies to support the needs of working women. The Midwest Theater has depended on Harriet Adens hard work and expertise for many years. Shes served as bookkeeper, historian, and has a volunteer team that works concessions and organizes ushers for all live events. One theater employee states, Harriet does anything and everything that needs to be done. Scottsbluffs Lied Library benefited from Adens service as president and treasurer of the Friends of the Library Board. She continues as a volunteer; she works all three days of the annual book sale. She attends the First United Methodist Church of Scottsbluff and helps organize volunteers for its many activities, runs the churchs soup kitchen commitment by gathering ingredients and organizes volunteers to help distribute the food, and is also in charge of the Senior Lunch served monthly. A devoted member of P.E.O. Chapter HN, Aden has served as treasurer and continues to write the Chapter Chatter emails to keep the members informed. Her service and character are aptly described by one of her P.E.O. sisters as someone who is A quiet reserved helper always helping others without attracting attention to herself. Alexandria Schluter was honored as the Young Careerist of the Year. Schluter has been in the service industry since she was 11 years old when she worked in the dish pit at her familys restaurant, The Emporium. She graduated from Scottsbluff High School in 2009 and then set off to explore the world. She spent six years in Paris giving walking and bike tours for Gourmet Food & Wine tours while completing her degree in global communications from Paris American University. Schluter developed a deep love for European culture through the food and wine. In 2018 she moved to New York City where she was a server for the high-end restaurant, Eataly. When the pandemic hit, she decided to move back to Scottsbluff for a couple of months. Those months have turned into years, and she has taken over the Emporium Empire. She started with Mainstreet Market and Regional West Medical Center and then added a food truck and, most recently, Gerings Emporium Express: Beans and Bottles. Due to her connections in Europe, Alexandria is able to offer wines that are not available anywhere else in Nebraska. She offers a charcuterie menu and a cozy seating area that supports Schluters desire to bring a feeling of togetherness and sharing to the community. Gering Public Schools was named as BPWs 2022 Employer of the Year. The school district is one of the leading female-friendly employers in the area, currently employing over 130 women. Half of the districts administrative leadership team, composed of building principals and central office leadership, are female. Accepting the award on behalf of the district: Superintendent Nicole Regan, Director of Curriculum and Assessment Kory Knight, Director of Business and Finance Stacy Rodriguez, and Director of Community Engagement Jennifer Sibal. Regan was hired as superintendent in 2021 and has really found a home in Gering and has become involved in several community organizations and activities. She said that her staff really feels like a family. <&rule> An exceptional time to donate blood and platelets is in January, to recognize National Blood Donor Month. West Nebraska Blood Center encourages donations during this time from both new and previous donors. First time donors who may be nervous can donate in a relaxed environment. When calling for an appointment, let us know so we can help you succeed in your first donation. Blood donation is a free gift that only takes a little bit of your time, but it is a critical resource for patients in need, said Katie Gasseling, MLS (ASCP), clinical laboratory supervisor. Regional West and West Nebraska Blood Center are grateful to all of our donors, mobile coordinators, volunteers and in-house staff who take time out of their busy schedules to help save the lives of others. The donation process usually takes less than one hour. Donors will complete a donor registration form, health history and mini-physical (i.e., temperature, blood pressure and pulse). It is helpful to eat and drink plenty of fluids before donating blood. The blood collection takes approximately eight to 10 minutes, after which you will be given juice and a cookie. Donating blood or platelets is a simple and safe process. Donors must be in good health, be 17 years of age or older and weigh more than 115 pounds. Walk-ins to donate blood are accepted, but appointments are preferred. Located at 313 West 38th St. in Scottsbluff, West Nebraska Blood Center is open Monday through Wednesday and Friday 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To schedule an appointment or to learn more, call 308-630-2477. A firearm was found in an unattended book bag at Statesville High School on Friday prompting a security alert. The Iredell-Statesville Schools, in a news release, said an employee found the unattended book bag in a classroom. In examining the book bag, a firearm was found and was immediately secured. The school was placed on a security alert to allow the Statesville Police Department to continue its investigation. A security alert is issued when there is a potential danger that could create a situation on campus and precautions must be taken, the system said. All exterior doors are locked and movement is limited inside the school building. A traffic stop for speeding led to the arrests of two people and the seizure of 264 grams of methamphetamines, said Iredell Sheriff Darren Campbell. Scottie Lewis Pawelski, 26, of Lipton Lane, Statesville, and Barbara Danielle Alexander, 33, of Purlear, were each charged with felony trafficking methamphetamine by possession, felony trafficking methamphetamine by transport, felony possession with intent to manufacture/sell/deliver Schedule II and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. Pawelski was also charged with felony maintaining a vehicle for sale or use of a controlled substance. A magistrate set bond at $750,000 each. Campbell said deputies Nate Hodges and Patrick Ferguson were patrolling on West Memorial Highway near Union Grove Wednesday and a car passed them traveling over the posted speed limit. He said the deputies followed to a safe location and then stopped the vehicle. Pawleski and Alexander acted nervous when the deputies approached and Hodges used his canine, Levi, to sniff the vehicles exterior, Campbell said. He said the dog gave a positive indication for the presence of narcotics in the vehicle. Deputy Jonathon Garcia assisted in the search of the vehicle. Campbell said 264 grams of methamphetamine, along with multiple items of drug paraphernalia, were found. He said deputies found ammunition in Pawleskis pants pockets as well as two holsters for handguns in the vehicle. The Narcotics Investigation Unit was contacted and deputies got a search warrant for Pawleskis residence. Campbell said two pistols and marijuana were found in the residence. Pawleski is on post-release supervision from the North Carolina Department of adult Corrections for felony trafficking Schedule II and the DOC has validated that he is a member of the 83 Hoover Gang, Campbell said. Pawleskis history includes felony possession with intent to sell or deliver marijuana, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver methamphetamine, felony maintaining a vehicle for the sale or use of a controlled substance and misdemeanor charges of assault, assault on a governmental official and receiving stolen goods. Alexander, Campbell said, is currently on probation in Wilkes County. Her history includes felony obtaining property by false pretense and misdemeanor charges of assault on a governmental official, larceny, financial card forgery, resisting a public officer, shoplifting aid and abet larceny and driving-related charges. Classes offered for the spring semester at Virginia Techs Lifelong Learning Institute range in topics from art and photography, to history, literature, writing, and more. LLI is a member-driven volunteer organization that draws on local resources throughout the New River Valley to provide intellectual, cultural and social experiences for adults age 50 and older. Membership is $60 per term and comes with a number of free events each semester. A total of 31 classes are featured in the spring 2023 catalog; seven are being offered online, 23 in-person and one in a hybrid format. Classes cost up to $35, and some require additional materials fees. Registration opens at 10 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 6, and classes begin Feb. 20. There are five field trips planned, including to visit Charlie Brower, Floyd County artist and creator of the Out There Studio and Sculpture Trail. LLIs online Spring Program Preview is set for 10-11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 31. Registration is not required for the preview session. The Zoom webinar link can be found online, alongside detailed course descriptions and more information, at www.cpe.vt.edu/lifelonglearning. With additional questions, call (540) 231-1725 or email lifelonglearning@vt.edu. The suspected gunman in Thursdays shooting that sent multiple schools into lockdown has been identified as 21-year-old Longview resident Asa McVay Keith Kelley. According to booking records, Kelley was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and unlawful possession of a firearm. Kelley was in Cowlitz County Jail as of Saturday morning. Longview police spokesperson Capt. Branden McNew said officers responded to the 200 block of Baltimore Street five blocks away from St. Helens Elementary around 1:30 p.m. Thursday after receiving multiple emergency calls regarding gunfire. McNew said police found enough evidence that a shooting occurred after police arrived in an alley and took Kelley into custody near the 700 block of 33rd Avenue after a brief standoff. Longview Public Schools R.A. Long High School, Monticello Middle School and Olympic Elementary schools delayed the release of students due to the shooting. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Elon Musk told jurors that he tweets about Tesla and memes, but to be wary of connecting the car company's share price with comments he fires off on the platform. Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the stand in a California fraud trial on Friday, accused of lying in tweets about taking the auto company private, punishing investors. Musk was called to testify by lawyers for angry investors who accuse him of costing them millions of dollars in 2018 with untrue tweets about having funding secured to buy out shareholders at $420 a share. The multi-billionaire's tweets sent the Tesla share price on a rollercoaster ride and Musk was sued by shareholders who say the tycoon acted recklessly in an effort to squeeze investors who had bet against the company. Musk, who bought Twitter itself in October, downplayed the power of his tweets noting under questioning that he once posted that he thought Tesla share price was too high, and "it went higher, which is counter-intuitive." "What I'm trying to say is that the causal relationship is clearly not there simply because of a tweet," Musk said in a testimony that lasted only thirty minutes and was to be continued on Monday. The hearing on Friday began with Harvard law and business professor Guhan Subramanian, who was called as an expert witness by the plaintiffs. He called Musk's tweeted proposal to take Tesla private as "illusory" and "just wrong" in how it deviated wildly from the way such mega-deals usually take place. "All I can say is this is just wrong; as a matter of deal process... this isn't correct," Subramanian said while being questioned by a defense lawyer about Musk's tweets. 'Reckless' words Testimonies in the trial opened Wednesday with a lawyer for the upset investors telling jurors Musk lied about having funding in place. Lawyer Nicholas Porritt, who represents lead plaintiff Glen Littleton and other Tesla investors, said Musk's tweets cost "regular people" to lose millions of dollars. Nicholas Porritt, who represents lead plaintiff Glen Littleton and other Tesla investors, said the tweets cost "regular people" to lose "millions and millions of dollars." Called as the first witness, 71-year-old Littleton told jurors he was heavily invested in Tesla in 2018 in a way that banked on the share price climbing to $500 or more. Littleton testified that he was "pretty shocked" by Musk's tweet about taking the company private at $420 a share because it threatened almost all the money he had invested in Tesla. "It was going to pretty much wipe me out," Littleton said. Littleton told jurors he scrambled to save what he could of his investments, getting out of most of his positions at a huge loss. Musk is expected to continue testifying at trial on Monday, when his lawyers will get a chance to refute the accusation that he was being deceitful. The case revolves around a pair of tweets in which Musk said "funding secured" for a project to buy out the publicly traded electric automaker, then in a second tweet added that "investor support is confirmed." Porritt told jurors that Musk had selected the $420 share price in the tweet "as a joke" and that the funding to take Tesla private was never locked in, nor credibly pursued. In his own opening remarks, Musk attorney Alex Spiro said that even though the tweets may have been a "reckless choice of words", they were "not fraud, not even close." The fraud trial is expected to last three weeks. 2023 AFP This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivers his State of the Commonwealth address to a joint session of the Virginia legislature in the House chamber in Richmond, Va., Jan. 11, 2023. Amazon Web Services plans to invest $35 billion in new data centers in Virginia under a deal with the state, Youngkin announced Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/John C. Clark, File Amazon Web Services plans to invest $35 billion in new data centers in Virginia under a deal with the state, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday. Millions of dollars in incentives to close the deal still require legislative approval, but General Assembly leaders in both parties expressed support in a news release issued by Youngkin's office. Still, data centers have become a politically volatile topic, particularly in northern Virginia, where the structures are increasingly common and where neighbors are voicing noise and environmental concerns. Data centers house the computer servers and hardware required to support modern internet use, and demand continues to increase. But the data centers require high-powered fans and extensive cooling capacity that can generate noise. They also consume huge amounts of electricity that can require construction of high-voltage transmission lines to support them. Bills proposed in the legislature this year would increase regulate where centers could be located. The governor's office said the locations of the data centers, to be built by 2040, will be determined at a later date. But tech companies prefer northern Virginia because it is close to the historical backbone of the internet, and proximity to those connection points provides nanoseconds of advantage that are of importance to tech companies that rely on the servers to support financial transactions, gaming technology and other time-sensitive applications. Spencer Snakard, president of Protect Fauquier, speaks Aug. 29, 2022, at a rally near Manassas, Va., protesting a newly built data center for Amazon Web Services. AWS plans to invest $35 billion in new data centers in Virginia under a deal with the state, Youngkin announced Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Matthew Barakat, File Bill Wright, a Prince William County resident who opposed a massive data center expansion recently approved by the county's Board of Supervisors over considerable community opposition, said Friday's announcement shows that "the influence of big tech money has become intoxicating to our politicians." He said that he does not object to data centers in and of themselves and hopes that the state will place them in areas that don't harm the environment, and in rural areas where jobs are needed. But he expressed skepticism that the state is willing to stand up to tech companies that want the centers in northern Virginia. "Northern Virginia is being overwhelmed by these things," Wright said. "We may as well start calling ourselves the Commonwealth of Amazon." Suzanne Clark, a spokeswoman the the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, said Amazon Web Services is exploring several site locations "in collaboration with the Commonwealth" but did not specify any sites. Northern Virginia has been a tech hub since the formation of the internet, and now hosts more data centers than the next five largest U.S. markets combined, according to the Northern Virginia Technology Council. They have also proven to be a cash cow for local governments that embrace themdata centers now provide for more than 30 percent of the general fund budget of Loudoun County, a suburb of the nation's capital with more than 400,000 residents. Another data center opponent, Elena Schlossberg with the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, expressed dismay that Youngkin felt emboldened to announce a data center deal in a year when state and local officials are all on the election ballot in Virginiaand as community concern over data centers is growing. Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy discusses a new initiative during AWS re:Invent 2019 on Dec. 5, 2019, in Las Vegas. AWS plans to invest $35 billion in new data centers in Virginia under a deal with the state, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Credit: Isaac Brekken/AP Images for NFL, File "That is just mind-boggling that he does not see that communities are uniting" in opposition to data centers, she said. In a tweet, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said $35 billion represents the largest capital investment in Virginia history. In terms of jobs, the governor's office said it is expected to generate more than 1,000 jobs across the state. That pales in comparison to the 25,000 jobs associated with Amazon's decision in 2018 to build a second headquarters in Arlington County. The deal calls for Amazon to receive incentives from a new Mega Data Center Incentive Program, as well as a grant of up to $140 million for workforce development site improvements and other costs. Both will require legislative approval. The exact amount of the grant under the incentive program will depend on how many jobs are created, according to the enabling legislation under consideration by the General Assembly. It will also include temporary exemptions from a sales and use tax levied on data centers in Virginia. State Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, is sponsoring legislation that would restrict the placement of data centers near natural or historic resources. Petersen said Virginia risks being overwhelmed by data centers if protections aren't put in place. "In my opinion, the data centers are short-term financial gains with long-term environmental consequences. Industrial buildings with no actual workers are not the economy of the future," he said. "In fact, they may well be obsolete in a decade. Meanwhile, we are losing valuable farmland and historic sites." An Amazon Web Services spokesman declined to comment on the record over how many data centers are planned and Amazon's preferences for where to locate them. 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. A Brazos County jury awarded $69 million dollars in compensatory damages this week to the family of Texas A&M student Carly Beatty, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in September 2019, according to court documents obtained by The Eagle. Suzanne and Robert Beatty, the parents of Carly Beatty, said their daughter was like no other. She honestly was amazing and I think that is what makes her death so hard. We called her our sunshine and she truly was sunshine. She could light up a room; she showed kindness everywhere she went, Suzanne Beatty said Friday. She really had a gift for sensing when people were hurting. She always tried to bring a smile to peoples faces. She was humble, kind and genuine. We loved her fiercely, but she loved us just the same. The Beatty family filed a wrongful death case against Pedro Puga in district court. The two-day trial ended Wednesday. The judge was John Brick of the 272nd District Court of Brazos County. Puga was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Feb. 21, 2022, in a criminal case stemming from the accident. He was charged with manslaughter and accident involving death, both second-degree felonies with punishment of two to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors consulted with the Beatty family and Puga pled guilty to both charges. Puga had an affirmative deadly weapon finding added to his manslaughter charge which guaranteed he must serve half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. Puga was in the courtroom Wednesday when the verdict was announced in the civil trial. According to court documents, Suzanne Beatty and Robert Beatty each asked for a total of $34.5 million in compensatory damages, including $20 million for future mental anguish, $10 million for future loss of companionship and society, $3 million for past mental anguish and $1.5 million for past loss of companionship and society. The 12-person jury gave a unanimous verdict that Puga was the sole person responsible for Carly Beattys death and agreed there was clear and convincing evidence that he acted with gross negligence. The jury also awarded Carlys parents $250,000 in exemplary damages, which includes punitive damages. With its verdict, the jury sent a clear message that this community will not tolerate intoxicated drivers needlessly and recklessly endangering the lives of others, said Michael Stacy, the Beatty familys lead trial attorney, in a statement. The verdict was a reflection of the remarkable but short life of Carly Beatty and the magnitude of Suzanne and Robert Beattys loss. This case was never about money for the Beattys. The wrongful death case was pursued because they wanted Mr. Puga to know about the beautiful, kind, young womans life that he took. Most important, the Beattys hope that the message sent by the jury will deter similar conduct in the future and spare other parents from their worst nightmare the loss of a child. On Sept. 14, 2019, Carly Beatty, a Frisco native who was a 19-year-old sophomore at Texas A&M, was walking to her townhouse with two roommates when Puga lost control of his vehicle, struck Beatty and continued to drive. The accident occurred on Texas Avenue just north of University Drive around 2 a.m. A 911 caller was already speaking with operators to report a drunk driver when the incident occurred. Puga was found in the Tejas Center parking lot behind H-E-B in Bryan. He fled responding officers on foot and threw a backpack with a handgun inside into bushes during the chase. Puga later was found to have a blood-alcohol concentration of .032 four times the legal limit and he also tested positive for multiple drugs. Carly Beatty was stabilized by paramedics and responding officers before she was taken to CHI St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan and later life-flighted to Houston, where she died from her injuries a week later. In an effort to honor Carlys life, her family started scholarships in her name and lead a nonprofit organization called Carlys Way, with two goals of ending drunk driving and providing animal rescue services. Carly was studying veterinary science at A&M and hoped to get into the veterinary program. It is all in honor of Carly. It is difficult at times because she is not with me, but I really feel like every time we help an animal, it is Carly who is actually doing it, Suzanne Beatty said. We are fulfilling her dreams so that makes me feel like we are doing something to honor her. Carly had a passion for animals since the day she was born and she wanted to give them an opportunity to experience love, Suzanne said. I read to her a lot and when she was 2-years-old; I would let her pick out books and she would always pick out books about animals, Suzanne recalled. I started doing animal rescues when she was about 5, and I actually took her with me to the shelters to rescue animals and we fostered. She was a huge part of fostering and rehabilitation throughout her whole life. Through Carlys Way, Suzanne said she hopes she can continue to help every animal possible, raise money and awareness of animal cruelty, and protect those without a voice, which is something Carly said a lot. I also want to do whatever I can to stop parents from having to go through what we have gone through, Suzanne Beatty said. We promote not driving while intoxicated and talk about those things as well because to me that is also just as important. In todays society, this shouldnt be happening as much as it does. We would like it to stop and have no more victims. Suzanne said she wants people to continue Carlys legacy and know how special she was. Carly was an amazing girl and she was definitely going to change the world, she said. It is just sad that she is not going to be a part of the world now, because I would have loved to have seen what she was going to do. The Bryan and College Station school districts each received an unsolicited donation of $1 million from the Donald and Donna Adam Family Foundation. The boards of both school districts unanimously approved and expressed gratitude for the generous donation at their Tuesday board meetings. The donations will help support the Bryan ISDs and College Station ISDs efforts to implement enhanced safety and security measures at schools, such as upgrading security vestibules, hiring more school resource deputies and installing state-of-the-art security equipment, a press release from the foundation said on Wednesday. The donations will also contribute to potential expenses required to meet the Texas Education Agencys proposed School Safety Standards rule if approved by the Texas Legislature. Assistant Superintendent of Business Services for the Bryan school district Kevin Beesaw said it was a timely donation with the Texas Legislature going into session. On Nov. 3, the TEA proposed a new rule to enhance security measures throughout Texas public schools in response to the tragedy that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde in May 2022. The proposed School Safety Standards rule is an amendment to 19 Texas Administrative Code [TAC] Chapter 61 School Districts, and states that, if approved by the Texas Legislature, public schools will be required to install new security mechanisms and have a process in place for weekly exterior door checks and twice-yearly facility checks. This will be very helpful for us to have these funds to be able to fill the gaps or do anything else that we feel is necessary and needed for safety in our school district, Beesaw said. Because the total cost of these upgrades are unknown, the foundation said they will be communicating with the districts as well as security experts and grant each district up to $1.5 million with a total possible donation of $5 million. The Bryan school district operates 22 school sites, with a 23rd school planning to open in the fall, while the College Station school district has 19 different campus sites. In the wake of the tragedy at Robb Elementary in Uvalde last year, our family felt called to do something to help protect the most precious possession in our lives our children from any harm, Donna Adam said in the press release. Donald Adam also outlined his familys desire to assist the community with finances to ensure no stone is left unturned. Many in our community are experiencing or anticipating difficult financial times, he said in the press release. We hope that, in addition to helping protect our students, these donations will help lessen the potential financial hardship for our entire community, who would otherwise be covering expenses of upgraded security for the school districts through increased taxes. Matt Nash, representative of the foundation, spoke on behalf of the Adam familys legacy of giving back in front of the Bryan school board on Tuesday. Mr. and Mrs. Adam have always had a passion for helping this community whether it be through their foundation, American Momentum Bank, Miramont Country Club or other affiliated companies they continue to give back to this community, Nash said. In College Station, Deputy Superintendent and Chief Administrative Officer Molley Perry presented the news to the board and thanked the foundation for its generosity. As you all know, school safety is always on our minds, Perry said. We as administration have found great value in what weve been able to do through the generosity of taxpayers through bonds over the years, but this will allow us to go above and beyond what we have already done and what we have planned for the immediate future, and so for that we are exceptionally grateful. A Bryan man was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for domestic violence charges from January 2020, according to the Brazos County Attorneys Office. Dominique Lovings, 30, pleaded guilty for charges of violation of bond conditions by assault, continuous violation of bond conditions, and assaultstrangulation with a prior conviction, according to the Brazos County Attorneys Office. He also pled guilty to state jail felony interference with an emergency call with a prior conviction and was sentenced to 15 months in a state jail facility. On Jan. 14, 2020, Bryan police officers responded to a 911 call that reported Lovings had strangled the mother of his children, according to the Brazos County Attorneys Office. Dispatchers said they heard Lovings admit he assaulted the woman during the call and that he threatened her if she reported the incident to police. Upon police arrival, Lovings was not present at the scene of the incident. The victim told police Lovings got angry with her when she tried to leave for work and that she was able to get away from him when the person who was driving her to work arrived. On Feb. 21, 2020, police said the same woman reported that Lovings had strangled her the day before according to the Brazos County Attorneys Office. After Lovings was arrested for these offenses, a judge issued bond conditions that Lovings could not possess a firearm, have any contact with the victim of the offense, or commit any act of domestic violence. Lovings was arrested on Jan. 2 for violating his bond conditions after College Station police received a call that he had assaulted his new girlfriend, according to the Brazos County Attorneys Office. He also violated the bond conditions by possessing a firearm and contacting the victim of his previous assaults. LINCOLN York County Sheriff Paul Vrbka has agreed to pay a $1,000 penalty for wearing his uniform while appearing in a 2022 campaign advertisement for gubernatorial candidate Charles W. Herbster. The penalty is part of an agreement reached between the sheriff and the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission in December and approved unanimously by commission members on Friday. Under the agreement, the commission found that Vrbka had violated a state law barring the use of public resources for campaign purposes. The public resource in this case was his uniform. Vrbka was one of three elected sheriffs and a captain who wore their uniforms and badges while endorsing Herbster, who was one of the leading contenders in the GOP gubernatorial primary last year. The advertisement ran on television stations in February and March last year. According to the settlement, Vrbka said it was not his intent to violate state law and, had he known it would be a possible violation, he would not have agreed to appear in the ad. He could have faced a maximum penalty of $5,000. The commission said it decided on the lower figure because of his willingness to resolve the matter. The Herbster ad also featured Seward County Sheriff Michael Vance, Lincoln County Sheriff Jerome Kramer and Capt. Josh Gillespie from York County, all of whom appear in uniform and badges. Frank Daley, the executive director of the commission, said he could not comment on whether a complaint had been filed or an investigation started against any of the other three law enforcement officials. But he said the commission has not issued an order concerning any of them. Nebraska law states that public officials and employees cant use or authorize the use of public resources for the purpose of campaigning for or against a candidate or ballot question, with some exceptions. A commission opinion issued in 1994 said a sheriffs uniform was a public resource. Herbster lost in the primary to Jim Pillen, who went on to be elected governor in November and to take office earlier this month. I have some interesting news to pass alongthe deluxe signed and numbered slipcased edition of one of my favorite books is suddenly available, in limited supply. It's not a reprintit's part of the first edition. The book is High Plains Farm by Paula Chamlee. The project is simple to explain: it's a selection of a large project Paula did to document the prairie farm where she grew up. She used an 8x10 view camera and made contact prints on silver chloride contact-printing paper. The entire project comprises 299 photographs and a full set is housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the gift of a collector when Roy Flukinger was Department Head and Senior Curator of Photography and Film there. Eighty-one of the pictures are featured in the book. The pictures are quiet, loving, nostalgic, and elegiac. I think it's fair to say that it's one of the best books of authentic Americana; of the West; of Texas; of large format; of documentary photography; and on the subject of home. I also love the essays in it. I'd personally rank it among the best books of American documentary photography of the second half of the 20th century. To me the pictures made me feel like I actually know the place in person. The farm is way out on the vast Texas plains, high up in the panhandle, in territory once controlled by the Comanche and the Kiowa. It goes without saying that the work is deeply personal. When the photographs were made, Paula's parents, then in their 80s, were still farming the 1,100 acres by themselves. Paula's parents, who are pictured in the book, are gone now, the old family farm sold. (Her mother lived to be 101.) Paula herself is in her 70s now, I believe. She's a lovely person and a lovely soul, and an accomplished artist. The show and the book got a tremendous amount of press and attention when it was published in 1996. The exhibition was shown in many major museums, and it traveled for years. It was featured on PBS. Of course I own the standard hardcover, purchased around the time it came out. The deluxe edition, which I didn't know existed until a few days ago, was originally meant for collectors who bought a set of 12 original prints of their own selection; it was included as a complimentary addition to their purchase. Later, the deluxe edition and a print were available for something like $750. I don't think the signed and numbered deluxe edition copies have ever been available alone. Now they are. I spoke to Paula this afternoon, and she has right around 100 copies left, sitting in storage at the Pennsylvania arts compound and home she and Michael built together. The price is $95 for the remaining standard hardcovers like I have, and $250 for the last copies of the deluxe edition. Both contain the same printed matter, so the pictures are identical in both, and the paper is the same. Paula and her late husband Michael A. Smith were and are book publishers who never made, or make, compromises with excellence; all their books are extremely, some might say fanatically, well printed. The pictures were printed by Gardner Lithograph in California. I also enjoyed Paula's discussions in the book about making the pictures. This is not a TOP sale and I'm not receiving anything for sales. I've had to lash myself to the mastI would really love to have one of the deluxe editions. But I already own the standard edition and my bookcases are full and then some. It's just one of my longtime favorite books and I wanted to pass the tip on to you. Here's the order page for both editions. Mike Flickr page / New Yorker author page Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.) Featured Comments from: Breaking: Thousands of new Chinese spy balloons fly over U.S., painted with Biden 2024 campaign posters New rule: calling Chinese spy balloons Chinese is deemed racist Breaking: Biden promises to shoot down Chinese spy balloon as soon as it gets as high as Hunter Hurricane Update: Fears arise that Gov. 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Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib should be traveling around the world without an accompanying male relative Dem candidates call for the Beatles' song 'Get Back' and the 'White Album' to be banned; surviving two white guys of the group must pay reparations Bond's number is up: next 007 will be a black woman, played by Barack Obama NYT: moon landing was one small step for Man, one giant leap for White Male Supremacy HURRICANE WATCH: Tropical storm Barry has records sealed, once offshore expected to change name to Barack Trump politicizes the 4th of July, declares it henceforth to be called the 45th of July, or July the Trumpth Barack Obama critical of Trump for failing to insert 'I, me, my' into his 4th of July speech: "very unpresidential!" 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Jerry Brown single-handedly stops wildfires in his state by issuing an immediate statewide ban on wildfires San Francisco closes all Planned Parenthood clinics after sting operation catches employees using plastic straws Vegan mother undergoes experimental surgery to force her breasts to produce almond milk With none of his emails answered, frustrated Nigerian man commits suicide and leaves $100bn fortune to charity California gives new meaning to strawman argument as caped Strawman battles supervillains in restaurants, bars, and fast food joints Violence increases in Mexico as cartels switch from smuggling drugs to plastic straws to San Francisco Obama proposes a Paris Economic Change agreement among nations to address how world will cope with future runaway economic warming Stormy Daniels plans border visit to give migrant children freebies San Francisco: man dumping off 20 lbs of human waste in plastic bag on street corner cited for using non-biodegradable plastic bag BREAKING: ICE renamed Planned Citizenship, immediately absolving it of all criticism Senate Democrats demand Supreme Court nominee not be unduly influenced by U.S. Constitution BREAKING: In 2018, Obama and Biden can finally celebrate Recovery Summer IG Report: the FBI broke the law, but since there was no criminal intent, no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case Pelosi on Trump's MS-13 "animals" comments: "Four legs good, two legs bad" Iran nuclear talks set to resume between the United States and John Kerry Report: The Mueller investigation has finally determined that the lyrics to Louie Louie are not about Trump and Russian collusion MARKETS: Demand for carbon credits spikes as Hamas seeks to undo damage to Earth's atmosphere caused by burning 10,000 tires on Gaza border BREAKING: After state reassignment surgery Pennsylvania will henceforth be known as Transylvania Experts: If we don't act now, unicorns will be extinct in just ten years. 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Maxine Waters for two unnamed members of the State Duma Ikea founder dead at 91; his coffin arrived in a box with confusing instructions and took 3 hours to assemble This Thanksgiving ex-president Obama continues with his tradition of apologizing to turkeys everywhere for the injustice they suffered since America's founding Oslo, Norway: 2017 Nobel Peace Prize goes to advocacy group about which you'll forget immediately after reading this headline Cambridge, MA, library to replace racist 'Cat in the Hat' with inclusive 'Che in a Beret' Millions of men worldwide eagerly await broadcast of Hugh Hefner's funeral, solely for the articles Bill Gates offers to pay for Trump's wall on condition he gets to install Windows Bernie Sanders introduces single-payer public transportation bill to end America's unequal, unfair, and expensive private transportation system DNC embroiled in controversy after official Twitter account accidentally 'likes' pictures of US Constitution and Bill of Rights Hurricane Irma hits Cuba, causes millions of dollars worth of improvements to property and infrastructure Climate study: extreme weather may be caused by unlicensed witches casting wrong spells in well-meaning effort to destroy Trump Ex-president Obama declares Irma "Hurricane of Peace," urges not to jump to conclusions and succumb to stormophobia CNN: Trump reverses Obama's executive order banning hurricanes ISIS claims responsibility for a total solar eclipse over the lands of American crusaders and nonbelievers When asked if they could point to North Korea on a map many college students didn't know what a map was CNN: We must bring America into the 21st century by replacing the 18th century Constitution with 19th century poetry Pelosi: 'We have to impeach the president in order to find out what we impeached him for' BREAKING: As of Saturday July 8, 2017, all of Earth's ecosystems have shut down as per Prince Charles's super scientific pronouncement made 96 months ago. Everything is dead. All is lost. Life on Earth is no more. DNC to pick new election slogan out of four finalists: 'Give us more government or everyone dies,' 'Vote for Democrats or everyone dies,' 'Impeach Trump or everyone dies,' 'Stop the fearmongering or everyone dies' Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" is humanity's last chance to save the Earth before it ends five years ago Experts: The more we embrace diversity the more everything is the same BOMBSHELL: TMZ offers Kathy Griffin $5 mil to keep any future sex tape private DEVELOPING: CNN, WaPo, NYT anonymous sources say Vladimir Putin may have ties to Russia BREAKING: Manning and Snowden have come out with strong condemnation of Donald Trump leaking classified information to Russia Gun store goes into lockdown over report an "active university professor" roving the grounds Dozens injured at Ralph Lauren & Louis Vuitton headquarters after Ivanka calls in missile strikes on rival fashion houses BOMBSHELL: Evidence proves Donald Trump conspired with his campaign to defeat Hillary Clinton University ranked "very intolerant of free speech" fights the accusation by banning the study and all involved Concerned that Russians don't consume enough alcohol in the month of March, Russia's Orthodox Church makes St. Patrick's Day official holiday Grassroots group calls for "The Million Regulators March" on Washington, supported by all who fear the loss of their betters telling them what to do Experts: Starbucks CEO Schultz's hiring of 10,000 Muslim refugees likely to blow up in his face Will the groundprog be frightened by its own shadow and hide - or will there be another season of insane protests? Trump signs executive order making California and New York national monuments; residents have two days to vacate Women's March against fascism completed with 400,000 fewer deaths than anticipated Feminist historians uncover ghastly concentration camps where so-called "housewives" were forced to live inauthentic lives slaving away in kitchens Dictionary of the future: Global Warming was a popular computer simulation game, where the only way to win was not to play "Anti-fascist" groups violently protest misspelling of their original name, "aren't-we-fascists" Post-inauguration blues: millions of democrats distraught as the reality of having to find real jobs sets in "Journalism is the continuation of war by other means" is exposed as a fake quote by mainstream media journalists Congressional Democrats: "We cannot just simply replace Obamacare with freedom because then millions of Americans will suddenly become free" Schoolchildren jailed for building only white snowmen Obama's reckless attacks on Russia serve as recruitment tool to create more Russian hackers Hillary: "I lost, so I'm going to follow our democratic traditions, poison the wells, and scorch the earth" Children in Venezuela cook and eat their Christmas toys Hillary: "I can hack Russia from my bathroom" Hillary suggests to counter "fake news" with government newspaper called "Truth" ("Pravda" for Russian speakers) BREAKING: Millions of uncounted votes found on Hillary's private voting machine in her Chappaqua bathroom New York Times: Fidel Castro world's sexiest corpse After years of trial and error, CIA finally succeeds with the "waiting it out" technique on Fidel Castro Post-election shopping tip: look for the PoliticsFree label at your local grocer to make sure you don't buy from companies that don't want your business anymore In Hillary's America, email server scrubs you Obama transfers his Nobel Peace Prize to anti-Trump rioters Democrats blame Hillary's criminal e-mail server for her loss, demand it face prison Afraid of "dangerous" Trump presidency, protesters pre-emptively burn America down to the ground Clinton Foundation in foreclosure as foreign donors demand refunds Hillary Clinton blames YouTube video for unexpected and spontaneous voter uprising that prevented her inevitable move into the White House Sudden rise in sea levels explained by disproportionately large tears shed by climate scientists in the aftermath of Trump's electoral victory FBI director Comey delighted after receiving Nobel Prize for Speed Reading (650,000 emails in one week) U.N. deploys troops to American college campuses in order to combat staggeringly low rape rates Responding to Trump's surging poll numbers, Obama preemptively pardons himself for treason Following hurricane Matthew's failure to devastate Florida, activists flock to the Sunshine State and destroy Trump signs manually Tim Kaine takes credit for interrupting hurricane Matthew while debating weather in Florida Study: Many non-voters still undecided on how they're not going to vote The Evolution of Dissent: on November 8th the nation is to decide whether dissent will stop being racist and become sexist - or it will once again be patriotic as it was for 8 years under George W. Bush Venezuela solves starvation problem by making it mandatory to buy food Breaking: the Clinton Foundation set to investigate the FBI Obama captures rare Pokemon while visiting Hiroshima Movie news: 'The Big Friendly Giant Government' flops at box office; audiences say "It's creepy" Barack Obama: "If I had a son, he'd look like Micah Johnson" White House edits Orlando 911 transcript to say shooter pledged allegiance to NRA and Republican Party President George Washington: 'Redcoats do not represent British Empire; King George promotes a distorted version of British colonialism' Following Obama's 'Okie-Doke' speech, stock of Okie-Doke soars; NASDAQ: 'Obama best Okie-Doke salesman' Weaponized baby formula threatens Planned Parenthood office; ACLU demands federal investigation of Gerber Experts: melting Antarctic glacier could cause sale levels to rise up to 80% off select items by this weekend Travel advisory: airlines now offering flights to front of TSA line As Obama instructs his administration to get ready for presidential transition, Trump preemptively purchases 'T' keys for White House keyboards John Kasich self-identifies as GOP primary winner, demands access to White House bathroom Upcoming Trump/Kelly interview on FoxNews sponsored by 'Let's Make a Deal' and 'The Price is Right' News from 2017: once the evacuation of Lena Dunham and 90% of other Hollywood celebrities to Canada is confirmed, Trump resigns from presidency: "My work here is done" Non-presidential candidate Paul Ryan pledges not to run for president in new non-presidential non-ad campaign Trump suggests creating 'Muslim database'; Obama symbolically protests by shredding White House guest logs beginning 2009 National Enquirer: John Kasich's real dad was the milkman, not mailman National Enquirer: Bound delegates from Colorado, Wyoming found in Ted Cruzs basement Iran breaks its pinky-swear promise not to support terrorism; US State Department vows rock-paper-scissors strategic response Women across the country cheer as racist Democrat president on $20 bill is replaced by black pro-gun Republican Federal Reserve solves budget crisis by writing itself a 20-trillion-dollar check Widows, orphans claim responsibility for Brussels airport bombing Che Guevara's son hopes Cuba's communism will rub off on US, proposes a long list of people the government should execute first Susan Sarandon: "I don't vote with my vagina." Voters in line behind her still suspicious, use hand sanitizer Campaign memo typo causes Hillary to court 'New Black Panties' vote New Hampshire votes for socialist Sanders, changes state motto to "Live FOR Free or Die" Martin O'Malley drops out of race after Iowa Caucus; nation shocked with revelation he has been running for president Statisticians: one out of three Bernie Sanders supporters is just as dumb as the other two Hillary campaign denies accusations of smoking-gun evidence in her emails, claims they contain only smoking-circumstantial-gun evidence Obama stops short of firing US Congress upon realizing the difficulty of assembling another group of such tractable yes-men In effort to contol wild passions for violent jihad, White House urges gun owners to keep their firearms covered in gun burkas TV horror live: A Charlie Brown Christmas gets shot up on air by Mohammed cartoons Democrats vow to burn the country down over Ted Cruz statement, 'The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats' Russia's trend to sign bombs dropped on ISIS with "This is for Paris" found response in Obama administration's trend to sign American bombs with "Return to sender" University researchers of cultural appropriation quit upon discovery that their research is appropriation from a culture that created universities Archeologists discover remains of what Barack Obama has described as unprecedented, un-American, and not-who-we-are immigration screening process in Ellis Island Mizzou protests lead to declaring entire state a "safe space," changing Missouri motto to "The don't show me state" Green energy fact: if we put all green energy subsidies together in one-dollar bills and burn them, we could generate more electricity than has been produced by subsidized green energy State officials improve chances of healthcare payouts by replacing ObamaCare with state lottery NASA's new mission to search for racism, sexism, and economic inequality in deep space suffers from race, gender, and class power struggles over multibillion-dollar budget College progress enforcement squads issue schematic humor charts so students know if a joke may be spontaneously laughed at or if regulations require other action ISIS opens suicide hotline for US teens depressed by climate change and other progressive doomsday scenarios Virginia county to close schools after teacher asks students to write 'death to America' in Arabic 'Wear hijab to school day' ends with spontaneous female circumcision and stoning of a classmate during lunch break ISIS releases new, even more barbaric video in an effort to regain mantle from Planned Parenthood Impressed by Fox News stellar rating during GOP debates, CNN to use same formula on Democrat candidates asking tough, pointed questions about Republicans Shocking new book explores pros and cons of socialism, discovers they are same people Pope outraged by Planned Parenthood's "unfettered capitalism," demands equal redistribution of baby parts to each according to his need John Kerry accepts Iran's "Golden Taquiyya" award, requests jalapenos on the side Citizens of Pluto protest US government's surveillance of their planetoid and its moons with New Horizons space drone John Kerry proposes 3-day waiting period for all terrorist nations trying to acquire nuclear weapons Chicago Police trying to identify flag that caused nine murders and 53 injuries in the city this past weekend Cuba opens to affordable medical tourism for Americans who can't afford Obamacare deductibles State-funded research proves existence of Quantum Aggression Particles (Heterons) in Large Hadron Collider Student job opportunities: make big bucks this summer as Hillarys Ordinary-American; all expenses paid, travel, free acting lessons Experts debate whether Iranian negotiators broke John Kerry's leg or he did it himself to get out of negotiations Junior Varsity takes Ramadi, advances to quarterfinals US media to GOP pool of candidates: 'Knowing what we know now, would you have had anything to do with the founding of the United States?' NY Mayor to hold peace talks with rats, apologize for previous Mayor's cowboy diplomacy China launches cube-shaped space object with a message to aliens: "The inhabitants of Earth will steal your intellectual property, copy it, manufacture it in sweatshops with slave labor, and sell it back to you at ridiculously low prices" Progressive scientists: Truth is a variable deduced by subtracting 'what is' from 'what ought to be' Experts agree: Hillary Clinton best candidate to lessen percentage of Americans in top 1% America's attempts at peace talks with the White House continue to be met with lies, stalling tactics, and bad faith Starbucks new policy to talk race with customers prompts new hashtag #DontHoldUpTheLine Hillary: DELETE is the new RESET Charlie Hebdo receives Islamophobe 2015 award; the cartoonists could not be reached for comment due to their inexplicable, illogical deaths Russia sends 'reset' button back to Hillary: 'You need it now more than we do' Barack Obama finds out from CNN that Hillary Clinton spent four years being his Secretary of State President Obama honors Leonard Nimoy by taking selfie in front of Starship Enterprise Police: If Obama had a convenience store, it would look like Obama Express Food Market Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males NASA: We're 80% sure about being 20% sure about being 17% sure about being 38% sure about 2014 being the hottest year on record People holding '$15 an Hour Now' posters sue Democratic party demanding raise to $15 an hour for rendered professional protesting services Cuba-US normalization: US tourists flock to see Cuba before it looks like the US and Cubans flock to see the US before it looks like Cuba White House describes attacks on Sony Pictures as 'spontaneous hacking in response to offensive video mocking Juche and its prophet' CIA responds to Democrat calls for transparency by releasing the director's cut of The Making Of Obama's Birth Certificate Obama: 'If I had a city, it would look like Ferguson' Biden: 'If I had a Ferguson (hic), it would look like a city' Obama signs executive order renaming 'looters' to 'undocumented shoppers' Ethicists agree: two wrongs do make a right so long as Bush did it first The aftermath of the 'War on Women 2014' finds a new 'Lost Generation' of disillusioned Democrat politicians, unable to cope with life out of office White House: Republican takeover of the Senate is a clear mandate from the American people for President Obama to rule by executive orders Nurse Kaci Hickox angrily tells reporters that she won't change her clocks for daylight savings time Democratic Party leaders in panic after recent poll shows most Democratic voters think 'midterm' is when to end pregnancy Desperate Democratic candidates plead with Obama to stop backing them and instead support their GOP opponents Ebola Czar issues five-year plan with mandatory quotas of Ebola infections per each state based on voting preferences Study: crony capitalism is to the free market what the Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity Fun facts about world languages: the Left has more words for statism than the Eskimos have for snow African countries to ban all flights from the United States because "Obama is incompetent, it scares us" Nobel Peace Prize controversy: Hillary not nominated despite having done even less than Obama to deserve it Obama: 'Ebola is the JV of viruses' BREAKING: Secret Service foils Secret Service plot to protect Obama Revised 1st Amendment: buy one speech, get the second free Sharpton calls on white NFL players to beat their women in the interests of racial fairness President Obama appoints his weekly approval poll as new national security adviser Obama wags pen and phone at Putin; Europe offers support with powerful pens and phones from NATO members White House pledges to embarrass ISIS back to the Stone Age with a barrage of fearsome Twitter messages and fatally ironic Instagram photos Obama to fight ISIS with new federal Terrorist Regulatory Agency Obama vows ISIS will never raise their flag over the eighteenth hole Harry Reid: "Sometimes I say the wong thing" Elian Gonzalez wishes he had come to the U.S. on a bus from Central America like all the other kids Obama visits US-Mexican border, calls for a two-state solution Obama draws "blue line" in Iraq after Putin took away his red crayon "Hard Choices," a porno flick loosely based on Hillary Clinton's memoir and starring Hillary Hellfire as a drinking, whoring Secretary of State, wildly outsells the flabby, sagging original Accusations of siding with the enemy leave Sgt. Bergdahl with only two options: pursue a doctorate at Berkley or become a Senator from Massachusetts Jay Carney stuck in line behind Eric Shinseki to leave the White House; estimated wait time from 15 min to 6 weeks 100% of scientists agree that if man-made global warming were real, "the last people we'd want to help us is the Obama administration" Jay Carney says he found out that Obama found out that he found out that Obama found out that he found out about the latest Obama administration scandal on the news "Anarchy Now!" meeting turns into riot over points of order, bylaws, and whether or not 'kicking the #^@&*! ass' of the person trying to speak is or is not violence Obama retaliates against Putin by prohibiting unionized federal employees from dating hot Russian girls online during work hours Russian separatists in Ukraine riot over an offensive YouTube video showing the toppling of Lenin statues "Free Speech Zones" confuse Obamaphone owners who roam streets in search of additional air minutes Obamacare bolsters employment for professionals with skills to convert meth back into sudafed Gloves finally off: Obama uses pen and phone to cancel Putin's Netflix account Joe Biden to Russia: "We will bury you by turning more of Eastern Europe over to your control!" In last-ditch effort to help Ukraine, Obama deploys Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson's Rainbow Coalition to Crimea Al Sharpton: "Not even Putin can withstand our signature chanting, 'racist, sexist, anti-gay, Russian army go away'!" Mardi Gras in North Korea: "Throw me some food!" Obama's foreign policy works: "War, invasion, and conquest are signs of weakness; we've got Putin right where we want him" US offers military solution to Ukraine crisis: "We will only fight countries that have LGBT military" Putin annexes Brighton Beach to protect ethnic Russians in Brooklyn, Obama appeals to UN and EU for help The 1980s: "Mr. Obama, we're just calling to ask if you want our foreign policy back. The 1970s are right here with us, and they're wondering, too." In a stunning act of defiance, Obama courageously unfriends Putin on Facebook MSNBC: Obama secures alliance with Austro-Hungarian Empire against Russias aggression in Ukraine Study: springbreak is to STDs what April 15th is to accountants Efforts to achieve moisture justice for California thwarted by unfair redistribution of snow in America North Korean voters unanimous: "We are the 100%" Leader of authoritarian gulag-site, The People's Cube, unanimously 're-elected' with 100% voter turnout Super Bowl: Obama blames Fox News for Broncos' loss Feminist author slams gay marriage: "a man needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" Beverly Hills campaign heats up between Henry Waxman and Marianne Williamson over the widening income gap between millionaires and billionaires in their district Biden to lower $10,000-a-plate Dinner For The Homeless to $5,000 so more homeless can attend Kim becomes world leader, feeds uncle to dogs; Obama eats dogs, becomes world leader, America cries uncle North Korean leader executes own uncle for talking about Obamacare at family Christmas party White House hires part-time schizophrenic Mandela sign interpreter to help sell Obamacare Kim Jong Un executes own "crazy uncle" to keep him from ruining another family Christmas OFA admits its advice for area activists to give Obamacare Talk at shooting ranges was a bad idea President resolves Obamacare debacle with executive order declaring all Americans equally healthy Obama to Iran: "If you like your nuclear program, you can keep your nuclear program" Bovine community outraged by flatulence coming from Washington DC Obama: "I'm not particularly ideological; I believe in a good pragmatic five-year plan" Shocker: Obama had no knowledge he'd been reelected until he read about it in the local newspaper last week Server problems at HealthCare.gov so bad, it now flashes 'Error 808' message NSA marks National Best Friend Day with official announcement: "Government is your best friend; we know you like no one else, we're always there, we're always willing to listen" Al Qaeda cancels attack on USA citing launch of Obamacare as devastating enough The President's latest talking point on Obamacare: "I didn't build that" Dizzy with success, Obama renames his wildly popular healthcare mandate to HillaryCare Carney: huge ObamaCare deductibles won't look as bad come hyperinflation Washington Redskins drop 'Washington' from their name as offensive to most Americans Poll: 83% of Americans favor cowboy diplomacy over rodeo clown diplomacy GOVERNMENT WARNING: If you were able to complete ObamaCare form online, it wasn't a legitimate gov't website; you should report online fraud and change all your passwords Obama administration gets serious, threatens Syria with ObamaCare Obama authorizes the use of Vice President Joe Biden's double-barrel shotgun to fire a couple of blasts at Syria Sharpton: "British royals should have named baby 'Trayvon.' By choosing 'George' they sided with white Hispanic racist Zimmerman" DNC launches 'Carlos Danger' action figure; proceeds to fund a charity helping survivors of the Republican War on Women Nancy Pelosi extends abortion rights to the birds and the bees Hubble discovers planetary drift to the left Obama: 'If I had a daughter-in-law, she would look like Rachael Jeantel' FISA court rubberstamps statement denying its portrayal as government's rubber stamp Every time ObamaCare gets delayed, a Julia somewhere dies GOP to Schumer: 'Force full implementation of ObamaCare before 2014 or Dems will never win another election' Obama: 'If I had a son... no, wait, my daughter can now marry a woman!' Janet Napolitano: TSA findings reveal that since none of the hijackers were babies, elderly, or Tea Partiers, 9/11 was not an act of terrorism News Flash: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) can see Canada from South Dakota Susan Rice: IRS actions against tea parties caused by anti-tax YouTube video that was insulting to their faith Drudge Report reduces font to fit all White House scandals onto one page Obama: the IRS is a constitutional right, just like the Second Amendment White House: top Obama officials using secret email accounts a result of bad IT advice to avoid spam mail from Nigeria Jay Carney to critics: 'Pinocchio never said anything inconsistent' Obama: If I had a gay son, he'd look like Jason Collins Gosnell's office in Benghazi raided by the IRS: mainstream media's worst cover-up challenge to date IRS targeting pro-gay-marriage LGBT groups leads to gayest tax revolt in U.S. history After Arlington Cemetery rejects offer to bury Boston bomber, Westboro Babtist Church steps up with premium front lawn plot Boston: Obama Administration to reclassify marathon bombing as 'sportsplace violence' Study: Success has many fathers but failure becomes a government program US Media: Can Pope Francis possibly clear up Vatican bureaucracy and banking without blaming the previous administration? Michelle Obama praises weekend rampage by Chicago teens as good way to burn calories and stay healthy This Passover, Obama urges his subjects to paint lamb's blood above doors in order to avoid the Sequester White House to American children: Sequester causes layoffs among hens that lay Easter eggs; union-wage Easter Bunnies to be replaced by Mexican Chupacabras Time Mag names Hugo Chavez world's sexiest corpse Boy, 8, pretends banana is gun, makes daring escape from school Study: Free lunches overpriced, lack nutrition Oscars 2013: Michelle Obama announces long-awaited merger of Hollywood and the State Joe Salazar defends the right of women to be raped in gun-free environment: 'rapists and rapees should work together to prevent gun violence for the common good' Dept. of Health and Human Services eliminates rape by reclassifying assailants as 'undocumented sex partners' Kremlin puts out warning not to photoshop Putin riding meteor unless bare-chested Deeming football too violent, Obama moves to introduce Super Drone Sundays instead Japan offers to extend nuclear umbrella to cover U.S. should America suffer devastating attack on its own defense spending Feminists organize one billion women to protest male oppression with one billion lap dances Urban community protests Mayor Bloomberg's ban on extra-large pop singers owning assault weapons Concerned with mounting death toll, Taliban offers to send peacekeeping advisers to Chicago Karl Rove puts an end to Tea Party with new 'Republicans For Democrats' strategy aimed at losing elections Answering public skepticism, President Obama authorizes unlimited drone attacks on all skeet targets throughout the country Skeet Ulrich denies claims he had been shot by President but considers changing his name to 'Traps' White House releases new exciting photos of Obama standing, sitting, looking thoughtful, and even breathing in and out New York Times hacked by Chinese government, Paul Krugman's economic policies stolen White House: when President shoots skeet, he donates the meat to food banks that feed the middle class To prove he is serious, Obama eliminates armed guard protection for President, Vice-President, and their families; establishes Gun-Free Zones around them instead State Dept to send 100,000 American college students to China as security for US debt obligations Jay Carney: Al Qaeda is on the run, they're just running forward President issues executive orders banning cliffs, ceilings, obstructions, statistics, and other notions that prevent us from moving forwards and upward Fearing the worst, Obama Administration outlaws the fan to prevent it from being hit by certain objects World ends; S&P soars Riddle of universe solved; answer not understood Meek inherit Earth, can't afford estate taxes Greece abandons Euro; accountants find Greece has no Euros anyway Wheel finally reinvented; axles to be gradually reinvented in 3rd quarter of 2013 Bigfoot found in Ohio, mysteriously not voting for Obama As Santa's workshop files for bankruptcy, Fed offers bailout in exchange for control of 'naughty and nice' list Freak flying pig accident causes bacon to fly off shelves Obama: green economy likely to transform America into a leading third world country of the new millennium Report: President Obama to visit the United States in the near future Obama promises to create thousands more economically neutral jobs Modernizing Islam: New York imam proposes to canonize Saul Alinsky as religion's latter day prophet Imam Rauf's peaceful solution: 'Move Ground Zero a few blocks away from the mosque and no one gets hurt' Study: Obama's threat to burn tax money in Washington 'recruitment bonanza' for Tea Parties Study: no Social Security reform will be needed if gov't raises retirement age to at least 814 years Obama attends church service, worships self Obama proposes national 'Win The Future' lottery; proceeds of new WTF Powerball to finance more gov't spending Historical revisionists: "Hey, you never know" Vice President Biden: criticizing Egypt is un-pharaoh Israelis to Egyptian rioters: "don't damage the pyramids, we will not rebuild" Lake Superior renamed Lake Inferior in spirit of tolerance and inclusiveness Al Gore: It's a shame that a family can be torn apart by something as simple as a pack of polar bears Michael Moore: As long as there is anyone with money to shake down, this country is not broke Obama's teleprompters unionize, demand collective bargaining rights Obama calls new taxes 'spending reductions in tax code.' Elsewhere rapists tout 'consent reductions in sexual intercourse' Obama's teleprompter unhappy with White House Twitter: "Too few words" Obama's Regulation Reduction committee finds US Constitution to be expensive outdated framework inefficiently regulating federal gov't Taking a page from the Reagan years, Obama announces new era of Perestroika and Glasnost Responding to Oslo shootings, Obama declares Christianity "Religion of Peace," praises "moderate Christians," promises to send one into space Republicans block Obama's $420 billion program to give American families free charms that ward off economic bad luck White House to impose Chimney tax on Santa Claus Obama decrees the economy is not soaring as much as previously decreeed Conservative think tank introduces children to capitalism with pop-up picture book "The Road to Smurfdom" Al Gore proposes to combat Global Warming by extracting silver linings from clouds in Earth's atmosphere Obama refutes charges of him being unresponsive to people's suffering: "When you pray to God, do you always hear a response?" Obama regrets the US government didn't provide his mother with free contraceptives when she was in college Fluke to Congress: drill, baby, drill! Planned Parenthood introduces Frequent Flucker reward card: 'Come again soon!' Obama to tornado victims: 'We inherited this weather from the previous administration' Obama congratulates Putin on Chicago-style election outcome People's Cube gives itself Hero of Socialist Labor medal in recognition of continued expert advice provided to the Obama Administration helping to shape its foreign and domestic policies Hamas: Israeli air defense unfair to 99% of our missiles, "only 1% allowed to reach Israel" Democrat strategist: without government supervision, women would have never evolved into humans Voters Without Borders oppose Texas new voter ID law Enraged by accusation that they are doing Obama's bidding, media leaders demand instructions from White House on how to respond Obama blames previous Olympics for failure to win at this Olympics Official: China plans to land on Moon or at least on cheap knockoff thereof Koran-Contra: Obama secretly arms Syrian rebels Poll: Progressive slogan 'We should be more like Europe' most popular with members of American Nazi Party Obama to Evangelicals: Jesus saves, I just spend May Day: Anarchists plan, schedule, synchronize, and execute a coordinated campaign against all of the above Midwestern farmers hooked on new erotic novel "50 Shades of Hay" Study: 99% of Liberals give the rest a bad name Obama meets with Jewish leaders, proposes deeper circumcisions for the rich Historians: Before HOPE & CHANGE there was HEMP & CHOOM at ten bucks a bag Cancer once again fails to cure Venezuela of its "President for Life" Tragic spelling error causes Muslim protesters to burn local boob-tube factory Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: due to energy conservation, the light at the end of the tunnel will be switched off Obama Administration running food stamps across the border with Mexico in an operation code-named "Fat And Furious" Pakistan explodes in protest over new Adobe Acrobat update; 17 local acrobats killed White House: "Let them eat statistics" Special Ops: if Benedict Arnold had a son, he would look like Barack Obama AD GOES HERE Eight months after the reality television show Dirty Jobs made a visit to Southern Illinois, the episode showcasing host Mike Rowes day of work at J & S Scents in Anna will air this weekend. According to the Discovery Channel website, in the program, Rowe travels to Anna, Illinois to collect deer urine for Americas buck hunters. J & S Scents owner Jeff Williamson said Rowe and a crew of 18 visited his Union County business on April 14, spending six or seven hours filming what would become a 20-25 minute segment, set to air at 7 p.m., Sunday on the Discovery Channel. Williamson said he has not been given an opportunity to preview the show, so he and a group of family and friends will be watching along with the rest of the nation Sunday evening. J & S Scents is a leading supplier of deer urine, sold to hunters looking to a bag a trophy. The product is used to mask human scents and to attract deer. Williamson said Rowes visit was just like any other day. We started out collecting the deer urine and did all of normal processes we do with it. We cleaned floors, cleaned the drain pits, filtered the urine and then he bottled the deer pee, Williamson said. He explained that Rowe also had the honor of filling the very first container of a new product called Squeeze-a-Pee, a deer attractant packaged in a tube. Deer have a tremendous sense of smell, Williamson said, in explaining his companys products. Hunters put deer urine around the area where they will be hunting, Williamson said, adding that hunters spray the scent around deer stand locations as well as their boots when walking to and from the deer stand. It masks other odors and makes deer think other deer are in the area. Besides having free help for a day at the business, Williamson said meeting the shows host was a highlight of the filming. I've watched probably every episode and never dreamed I would ever get to meet the man, but I'll tell you one thing about him - what you see of Mike Rowe on TV is exactly how he is in real life. He is very intelligent, genuine and kind, Williamson said. He made it all very easy. Williamson said the chance to showcase his company on national television is a great opportunity. Getting our business out there is pretty exciting. Im really hoping thatll build our business up, he said. Producers of the show cautioned Williamson to be prepared for lots of website traffic and orders once the show is broadcast. To that end, he said the business already has made preparations to expand production. This is almost a dream to me. I am excited to watch it, he said. ELLOREE A Ridgeville man is accused of stealing an SUV as it was being washed by the owners father. The SUV crashed into a yard as it was being chased by Elloree police. Montana Zohn Dishong, 29, of 185 Brown Deer Run, Ridgeville is charged with possession of a stolen vehicle valued more than $2,000 but less than $10,000, possession of a stolen vehicle valued more than $10,000, grand larceny valued $10,000 or more and failure to stop for blue lights. The theft occurred at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 13 as a man was in the process of washing his daughters 2015 Chevrolet Equinox at the carwash located at 2861 Cleveland Street, Elloree Police Chief Shawn Murphree said. Someone driving a 2005 silver Nissan Frontier circled the carwash twice, Murphree said. The man went to get quarters from a machine at the car wash when he saw someone get out of the pickup and into the SUV and speed away, Murphree said. The man saw that the keys were in the ignition of the Frontier, so he took off in the truck and pursued the person driving his daughters SUV. By that time, one of the mans family members was able to flag down an Elloree officer. The man parked the Frontier at the nearby Family Dollar and the officer then chased the SUV. Murphree alleges the SUV continued on Old Number Six Highway toward Santee at speeds exceeding 90 mph. It then turned onto S.C. Highway 267, reaching 110 mph before it crashed in a yard on Antioch Road. After crashing into the yard, the person in the SUV allegedly tried to run into the woods. Its lucky nobody got killed, Murphree said. He just upset the whole community, he added. Officers took the suspect into custody and transported him to the Regional Medical Center to get checked out before taking him to the Orangeburg County Detention Center. Murphree said the Frontier had been reported stolen in Walterboro. Dishong was also was also sought by the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services for allegedly violating his probation, Murphree said. He was also out on bond in Pickens County on charges of second-degree burglary and petit larceny. He aint going to come to Elloree and commit crimes like that, Murphree said. Im going to ask for the highest bond available and the maximum penalty, he added. Murphree also charged Dishong with third or subsequent driving under suspension. Dishong is being held at the Orangeburg County Detention Center on a $1 million bond set by Elloree Municipal Judge Lauren Davis. If convicted, Dishong faces up to 20 years in prison. The S.C. Highway Patrol, Santee Police Department, Holly Hill Police Department and Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office assisted with the case. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources has announced a public meeting on Feb. 15 in Orangeburg to introduce the draft Edisto River Basin Plan to the basins stakeholders. The meeting will be held 6-8 p.m. at the Orangeburg Department of Public Utilities Operations Center, 352 Sprinkle Ave. The draft plan was developed over a two-and-a-half-year period by the Edisto River Basin Council, a working group of stakeholders with water interests in the basin, under the guidance of the South Carolina State Water Planning Framework published in 2019. The plan is the first of eight River Basin Plans scheduled to be completed over the next several years for each of the eight planning basins in the state. The draft Edisto River Basin Plan includes an assessment of current and future water availability in the basin and documents water management strategies that can help ensure water is available for all future uses in the basin for the next 50 years. The draft Edisto River Basin Plan is available for review and download on the SCDNR website at https://hydrology.dnr.sc.gov/edisto-river-basin-plan.html. The public meeting will serve as a venue for presenting the draft plan to the basins stakeholders and for soliciting public comments on the plan. Public comments will be accepted from Feb. 15 through March 17, with submission instructions found at the website noted above. Download a copy of the South Carolina State Water Planning Framework and learn more about the South Carolina river basin planning process at: https://hydrology.dnr.sc.gov/state-and-river-basin-planning.html. Dr. Jason Cundiff stands alone among doctors in robotics general surgery. Described as a pioneer in the field, he has performed more than 3,000 robotic surgical procedures and has presented and lectured nationally in 30 states on the topic. His experience in robotics procedures is matched by few others nationally and now Orangeburg's Regional Medical Center can claim him as one of their own. Cundiff has been hired by RMC to help lead its surgical robotics team with the intention of building a robotic surgery-based center of excellence to provide the best possible care for the patients. He joined the hospital in November. There is no discernable reason why they (patients) shouldn't have the same level of advanced surgical care available to them in their hometown that they have in larger metropolitan areas, Cundiff said. They are not only going to get equal but in some cases they are going to get an advanced form beyond what is happening in Greenville, Columbia or Charleston. General surgery is currently undergoing a robotic surgery revolution, Cundiff said. He sees RMC leading the way in the state in emergency general surgery with a focus on acute care robotics. The capability to perform minimally invasive surgery with better outcomes on significantly more patients has never been greater for surgeons utilizing the da Vinci robotic system, Cundiff said. It has quickly become the standard of care in colorectal procedures, both ventral and inguinal hernia repair and complex abdominal procedures. Most recently, acute care surgery has become the latest field revolutionized by exclusive use of robotics in that patient population, Cundiff said. As part of the RMC staff, Cundiff will be tasked with continuing to develop and implement all the hospital's robotic programs. Cundiff said the surgeons at the RMC Center for Robotic Surgery currently have experience in all facets of robotic abdominal surgery, including foregut, abdominal and inguinal hernia, colorectal and complex abdominal surgery involving the pancreas and biliary system. I believe that exclusive use of the robotic system in our practice allows for a much higher standard and expectation of improved outcomes in our patient population, he said. The benefits are smaller incisions, less pain, quicker recovery times and shorter hospital stays. To me, what is even more important, these cases have lower rates of incisional infection, lower rates of hernias coming from the incisions and lower rates of hernias redeveloping when the operation is a hernia repair, he said. RMC currently also provides robotic-assisted orthopedic surgery, gynecologic surgery and other specific surgical procedures, including gallbladder, reflux and ventral hernia repair. South Carolina is a couple years behind the national curve of incorporating robotics into that field. Even in Columbia and Charleston, they are not doing the degree of minimally invasive surgery that we are doing now that I bring with my practice, Cundiff said. I have actually trained and proctored robotics to emergency surgeons at USC and MUSC in the past. They are building that capability, but we have that capacity, which is very surprising. RMC says Cundiff is the most experienced robotic surgeon in the state and more experienced than 99.9 percent of robotic surgeons nationally. He is also touted as the most experienced robotic acute care surgeon in the entire country. When he is not doing surgery, Cundiff is a national lecturer, instructor and training proctor. Cundiff received his medical training from the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and then his residency from Louisiana State University - New Orleans in general surgery. He received his fellowship training at the University of Washington Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery. Cundiff is certified by the American Board of Surgery. Cundiff comes to RMC Cundiff said he was introduced to the RMC in April 2022 when he was doing a presentation in Columbia on robotics surgery. The presentation was attended by Orangeburg surgeon Dr. Mauricio Bassante and RMC Chief Operating Officer Sabrina Robinson. I had been wanting to change my practice venue, Cundiff said. I was doing mostly robotic emergency surgery, which was great and it is one of my big specialties, but I had started to miss some of the elective procedures and I wanted to have maybe more of a balanced practice. Bassante and Robinson told him about the opportunity at RMC. It really seemed like a wonderful opportunity because it is a very underserved area and I really liked the idea of coming to an underserved area where we could build something and on top of that we could also have a place to kind of build something from new, Cundiff said. In addition to serving RMC, Cundiff also serves part time at the Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Columbia. It was a great combination of being able to serve two underserved populations in my new practice, Cundiff said. Cundiff said when he heard about RMC, he also heard about the hospital's plans to partner with the Medical University of South Carolina. I thought it was a fantastic addition, because to be able to collaborate with MUSC from an academic standpoint and be able to have a referral arrangement for the really complex cases and to have that seamless care available, I thought was a fantastic development, Cundiff said. Anytime you have a university that is willing to come in and provide guidance and academic collaboration, it only helps the center, especially if there is motivation within the center to elevate the level of care. Plans to develop a center of excellence As part of his plans at the RMC, Cundiff is looking to develop a center of excellence in robotic surgery where patients can receive all their surgical needs. We have the capability to take care of these complex cases and emergency cases which are complex in a way we have not had previously, Cundiff said. I think it is a game-changer. Developing a center of excellence practically means that every patient that comes into RMC will be evaluated based upon robotics intervention, he said. The center will track all data and outcomes to ensure decisions are scientifically guided. It also means being a teaching institution, he said, noting doctors will come to RMC to learn robotic surgery techniques. He said another part of the center will focus on reducing post-operative narcotics, which is a part of minimally invasive surgical techniques. Finally, the center would be a leader in robotics surgical advancements. It is keeping up to speed with the advancement, Cundiff said. This is an evolving field. It is our duty to keep up to speed with what is coming and be on the cutting edge." Cundiff hopes to have the center completely certified and officially recognized by the Surgical Review Corporation within the next six months, but in the meantime the RMC will be a center of excellence by substance. Cundiff has further big plans for RMC. He eventually within a year foresees having a fully functioning thoracic oncology program that would include thoracic robotic surgery and lung cancer screening programs. He said the program would do biopsies with intuitive ion bronchoscopy. It will take a little bit of time to get there, but we have privileges to do that sort of surgery but that is kind of the last phase of it, he said. Cundiff is joined with Bassante, Dr. Thomas Chow and Dr. Michael Hill in providing robotics surgery at RMC. I think we have everything we need. As the volume goes up, we are eventually going to need a second system, Cundiff said. There are benchmarks established for that, but we really have the space. Medical mission trips Beyond his work at RMC, Cundiff is planning to build on a nonprofit organization he started in the state of Washington in 2010 following the earthquake in Haiti. Cundiff and his team went to the country and did surgeries for three straight weeks. Since that time, he has taken two to three trips annually and has visited countries such as South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru. The new nonprofit will be named Palmetto Surgical Outreach and will be based in Orangeburg. Cundiff is planning a five-day trip to Honduras in April. He says the plans are to do 40 surgeries during the trip at a public hospital in Honduras. Though the surgeries will not be done robotically, Cundiff said the residents of the country will receive the same quality of care as is received in the United States. He or his team plans to go to the country every four months. We are going to start the whole process of incorporating people from this community into these mission trips, he said. It really breaths a communal sense when you have operating folks, nurses from the floor and surgeons from the hospital. You really get a closer bond. Cundiff also plans to reach out to South Carolina State University and provide an internship with their premedical students that would provide them with an opportunity to go on the medical mission. For Cundiff, there is nothing more satisfying than helping to improve the quality of life for those who are not able to receive health care, including children. It is truly life changing, Cundiff said. CHEYENNE A bill that would restrict classroom instruction around gender identity and sexual orientation easily cleared its first vote Friday in the Senate Education Committee. Senate File 117, Parental rights in education, would ban classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, or more generally in a way thats not age or developmentally appropriate. It would also give parents more authority to opt kids out of health services and questionnaires, among other things. The measure would also direct school districts to create procedures for parents and guardians to file complaints if they believe the district isnt complying with these requirements. It would take effect in July if it becomes law. The bill cleared its first reading with a 4-1 vote. Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, voted no. It still has several votes in the Senate and House to pass through before it can go to the governors desk. Given the composition of the 67th Legislature, it likely has a fair chance of making it through these hoops, though the governor could use his veto power to reject it. The bills sponsor, Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, said told the Star-Tribune earlier this week that he decided to bring the legislation in response to what he sees as a statewide concern around what kids are being taught in schools. During the committee meeting on Friday, he said his proposed legislation acknowledges the rights of the parents and keeps the districts and parents working together. Senate Education Committee Chairman Charles Scott, R-Casper, added an amendment to the bill that would broaden the scope of exceptions if sharing information with a students parents or guardians would result in abuse. Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, also added an amendment that brings in an existing state statute around parental rights. Classroom instruction Many of those who opposed the bill argued that restricting classroom instruction around gender identity and sexual orientation would discriminate against LGBTQ students and their families, arguing, as Wyoming Education President Grady Hutcherson did, that students wouldnt even be able to say that they may have two dads, for example, or two moms. But Sen. Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, asked multiple speakers repeatedly where they saw language indicating that the bill is meant to discriminate against a particular group of people. Its a bit of a slippery point to pin down. The bill doesnt explicitly target LGBTQ individuals or identities. But there have been other debates around the state where some suspected that the root of the conflict revolved around targeting LGBTQ individuals, while others denied that, as well as events that have questioned the legitimacy of LGBTQ identities. During the months of debate in the Natrona County School District regarding two LGBTQ-related books that some described as pornographic, for instance, those who argued against keeping the books in question said their position had nothing to do with specifically targeting LGBTQ identities. Some of the people who argued in support of keeping the books, however, expressed that they had a hard time believing that. Former state superintendent of public instruction Brian Schroeder held a conference back in October meant to address what he described generally as the sexualization of minors in schools. Several speakers during the conference talked specifically about their concerns around transgender issues and the use of alternative gender pronouns. In any case, Nathan Winters, president of the Wyoming Family Alliance and a former lawmaker, said that gender identity and sexual orientation should be topics that are reserved for parents to speak about with their children. It should be something where the default position of anyone in school would be (to ask), Well, have you talked to your parents about this? Winters testified. Those arguing against the bill pointed to potential issues that could extend beyond the LGBTQ community, noting that the topics of gender identity and sexual orientation could cover a vast array of teaching material. The language states: gender identity and sexual orientation are off limits for folks. But everybody has a sexual orientation. Everybody has a gender identity. No one is absent from that, Sara Burlingame, executive director of Wyoming Equality, the states largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said. Janet Farmer, reading the testimony of an acquaintance, pointed out that reading a childrens book about mom and dad is a discussion of gender and identity orientation. Youre significantly limiting what teachers could do in the classroom, Farmer said. Parental involvement The bill would also require school personnel to report changes in students well-being or use of services to parents and guardians, under most circumstances, and to encourage students to discuss issues related to their well-being with their parents and guardians. In addition, schools would have to share information with parents and guardians about health care services and well-being questionnaires for students at the school. Parents and guardians would be allowed to decline having their students use those services or fill out questionnaires. Some who spoke against the bill focused on this part of the legislation and the potential problems it could present in cases where a student is being abused at home, or if they arent legally bound to their parents anymore. Wyoming Education Association Government Relations Director Tate Mullen argued that basic school health screenings often act as the front line for detecting abuse and neglect in households. Those types of parents who may be guilty of abuse or neglect would opt their children out of that health screening, he said. Scotts amendment did expand exceptions to the bill in the case that school personnel believed that taking a certain course of action would result in abuse, as defined under state statute. Rothfuss asked for would to be changed to may, but the change didnt go through. In some cases, schools might not legally be allowed to share information about some students with their parents, Janet Farmer, Wyoming director of the National Association of School Nurses and a Cheyenne school nurse, explained. As I worked as a high school nurse, we would have students who were becoming parents, both girls and boys. It was reiterated to me several times that we could not pass that information on to parents, because now the student is a parent, and that student is in charge of their own personal health, she said. The same thing applies for homeless youth, Farmer continued. We cannot speak to the homeless youths parent, she said. That is a federally mandated statute, and states cannot supersede that. Farmer said that state law also gives unaccompanied youth who are 16 and older the right to consent to housing and health services. National debate The question around what kids are being taught in Wyoming schools is a topic that became a particular flashpoint during last years midterms. Many school board candidates focused their campaigns around concerns that kids are being exposed to school materials that are pornographic. In October, Schroeder, who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump but ended up losing his primary race to current Superintendent Megan Degenfelder, hosted an event that focused on what he described as the sexualization of minors in schools. He told the Star-Tribune that he considered the topic to be the most pressing issue in education at the moment. The event was attended by roughly 150 people. But the focus on this particular topic started outside of Wyoming. Much of the language in the bill is the same as that in a Florida law critics call the Dont Say Gay bill. The law, which was championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also bars educators from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, and in general teaching material that isnt considered age appropriate. That legislation has been the subject of a lawsuit, with plaintiffs arguing that its unconstitutional and has a chilling effect on First Amendment rights, particularly for LGBTQ individuals, and that it violates equal protection rights. Many of those who spoke against the bill on Friday pointed out that learning about gender identity and sexual orientation isnt part of K-3 curricula in Wyomings public schools anyway. Why are we trying to pass legislation that doesnt have anything to do with Wyoming? Hutcherson asked lawmakers. This argument has come up around other legislation in Wyoming before. People have countered that, though these arent currently issues that really impact Wyoming, the state needs to take preventative measures to make sure it stays that way. Its always wise when you see something happening elsewhere to ask if you are prepared in your own backyard, Nathan Winters said. It is always better to have good government in place, and this bill is simply good government. Some want to expand the scope of the bill. Erin Waszkiewicz, vice chair of the Laramie County Moms for Liberty chapter, asked lawmakers to consider expanding the scope on several fronts. One revision she requested would expand the ban on classroom instruction around gender identity and sexual orientation beyond the third grade. Children are very impressionable, my 13-year-old daughters very impressionable. I think we all know the fact that our brains arent fully developed until were in our mid-twenties, so Im not sure third grade makes the cut in my opinion, she argued. Rothfuss, however, argued that clamping down on classroom learning isnt the right approach, and that it could shut out different worldviews. It seems that the solution is not less speech, its more speech, and its not less teaching, its more teaching, and its not less engagement, its more engagement, Rothfuss said. This bill seems to say that were going to start with the most restrictive approach, he said later on. <&rule> PHOTOS: Opening day of the 67th Wyoming Legislative Session 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins Rep. Jeanette Ward 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins 67th Wyoming Legislative Session begins CHEYENNE Amid worries about dark money and unclear financial influences on Wyomings elections, a bill that would clamp down on some federal political action committee activities in the state is advancing through the Wyoming Legislature. In September, Campbell County Clerk Susan Saunders filed a complaint against Coal Country Conservatives Political Action Committee over concerns that the PAC was not being transparent about how it was spending its money. She asked the secretary of state and the Federal Election Commission to investigate the matter. The Secretary of States office ended up dismissing Saunders complaint but in the process revealed a pretty big loophole in Wyoming statute. That loophole allows federal PACs like Coal Country Conservatives to skirt around state reporting requirements since they already have to comply with federal reporting laws. But this particular PAC was spending money not only in Wyomings U.S. House race, but also in numerous other races from the statewide to the precinct level. Many of the candidates that the PAC supported ended up winning their elections. It was too late for the joint corporations committee to sponsor a bill before the legislative session that would close this loophole. So, Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, decided to sponsor Senate File 40 instead along with co-sponsors Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas and Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne. The bill would specify that federal PACs are only exempt from the states election reporting requirements if they are exclusively making contributions or expenditures for federal candidates or federal issues. It passed unanimously through the Senate Corporations Committee and has succeeded on two readings in the full Senate. But it still has to go through several more votes before becoming law. The proposed legislation comes amid concern about outside influences on Wyomings elections and desire for more transparency around where money is coming from. In light of these concerns, the committee also moved along a resolution requesting U.S. Congress to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow the public identification of sources of political contributions or expenditures in campaigns. The amendment would also limit or prohibit corporations and other entities that are not natural persons from making campaign contributions. KTM's one millionth motorcycle built at the Bajaj Auto's plant in Chakan, Pune. (DC Image) PUNE: KTM India has achieved a major milestone on Friday as it rolled out the one millionth unit from the Bajaj plant here in Chakan. An Adventure 390 became the millionth KTM manufactured in India almost 12 years after the first unit was rolled out at the Chakan plant from where the motorcycles are also sent to over 100 countries, including the likes of Germany, Switzerland and Norway. The motorcycle makers have completed building the second half million of their million bikes built in India, in half the amount of time they had taken to build the first half million. In an attempt to further strengthen their partnership, Bajaj and KTM are planning to work together to develop a 48-volt electric two-wheeler in India. The joint venture between KTM, which claims to be the worlds No. 1 premium motorbike brand, and Indias auto major Bajaj Auto is 50.1:49.9. The two companies also aim to take Bajaj Autos EV scooter platform Chetak Technologies to the European market. Stefan Peirer, the CEO of KTMs parent company Peirer Mobility AG, said his companys push towards building strong brands across the world was well received and recognised by Bajaj Auto in India which has led to the strong partnership to produce world-class products and remain the leaders in the two-wheeler market. Bajaj Auto MD and CEO Rajiv Bajaj concurred with Stefan Peirers opinion and said the partnership will result in the development of many more products, including electric vehicles. I will ask all our employees to be better versions of themselves everyday at work. Today the one-million milestone has been achieved and Im sure there will be many more such milestones in future, added the Bajaj Auto CEO. Urged to do something about the states lagging housing stock, a legislative committee voted Tuesday to set aside $5 million for a new infrastructure grant. The grant, which would be funded by Wyomings remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) relief money, is a kind of counter-offer to one of Gov. Mark Gordons December budget proposals. In a letter to the Joint Appropriations Committee, Gordon originally asked for $15 million in relief money for unmet housing needs. The plan, at the time, was to use the funds to create a grant for low- and middle-income housing projects. It would have been administered by the Wyoming Community Development Authority, a housing organization known for lending low-interest mortgages to first-time homebuyers. But the Joint Appropriations Committee nixed the idea, in part due to concerns about the programs feasibility. Relief money has to be obligated by 2024 and spent by 2026, and the prospect of standing up a new program on those deadlines made lawmakers uneasy, Rep. Tom Walters, R-Casper, told the Star-Tribune earlier this month. Since then, some lawmakers and advocates have been working to get at least some money for housing into the ARPA budget. Two groups sent letters to the committee asking it to reverse course: the Wyoming Economic Development Association, and a coalition of Wyoming residents working to address housing issues. During an Appropriations Committee meeting on Tuesday, Rep. Trey Sherwood, R-Laramie, brought an amendment creating the new infrastructure grant. Sherwoods amendment looks a bit different from Gordons original recommendation. The $5 million could be used to fund things like water, sewer and utilities projects. But unlike the governors proposal, the money couldnt be used for construction, land or administrative costs, Sherwood said in an email. But even with that comparatively limited scope, the grant is bound to receive plenty of applicants, said Betsey Hale, the Wyoming Economic Development Associations secretary and legislative committee chair. In many cases, new infrastructure precludes new housing. For communities to sprawl, they have to drag utilities out to new land. And with materials costs going up, thats getting more and more difficult for developers to afford. Its one of those costs that are really, really substantial in a housing development, Hale said. And so having the flexibility to use (the money) for infrastructure is actually very good. The $5 million would go to the Office of State Lands and Investments existing local government grant program, which was originally given $50 million in relief dollars last year. That means the state wouldnt have to roll out a new program to get the money out the door. The fact that the money would go toward community infrastructure something everyone shares may have also made the proposal more palatable this time around, Hale said. Its a great way for taxpayer dollars to stay in your community, to stay in the state of Wyoming, because the infrastructure never goes away, she said. The Wyoming Economic Development Association is hoping the grant serves as a sort of pilot for future housing initiatives. Where this ended up is a good solution to start the conversation and get some of these demonstration projects, hopefully moving so we can see whats next, said Sara DiRienzo, the groups executive director. The proposal could be subject to further revisions as it makes its way through the state house. Once it leaves the Joint Appropriations Committee, its expected to head to the House of Representatives next. Should the amendment pass into law, itd be Wyomings first time dedicating ARPA money to housing issues. There was a similar push last year in budget recommendations ahead of the 2022 session, Gordon initially asked for $25 million in ARPA dollars for housing. But that idea, too, was axed by the Joint Appropriations Committee. As of Thursday, at least 31 states have allocated relief money for affordable housing needs, according to a survey by the National Council of State Housing Agencies. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. A 69-year-old woman, who had withdrawn $17,000 at a bank in Valsayn, was robbed of her money As I get older, I am starting to understand my grandparents better. I have seen things grow The new Grand i10 Nios establishes a new segment benchmark with first-in-segment - 4 Airbags (as standard), 6 Airbags as an option and more than 30 advanced safety features, Garg said. By Arrangement PUNE: Hyundai Motor, Indias second biggest car maker, said India, which surpassed Japan to become the third largest auto market globally, would continue the growth trajectory this fiscal too. Driven by surging demand for SUVs, Indias car industry clocked 24 per cent YoY growth to drive past a record 3.8 million units in a year while Hyundai, Tata Motors, Kia and Skoda logged their best-ever annual sales. In the calendar year 2022, Hyundai sales were at its highest-ever level in domestic sales at 5,52,511 units with a growth of 9.4 per cent over last year. Despite global headwind, Russia-Ukraine war, the US recession, India continues to be a resilient economy and growing, Tarun Garg, COO Sales, Marketing, Service & Product Strategy at Hyundai Motor India told Financial Chronicle on the sidelines of the launch of a new version of its hatchback car, the Grand i10 Nios, at an introductory price of Rs 5.68 lakh at pan India showroom. The Grand i10 NIOS is available in four variants Era, Magna, Sportz and Asta. It competes with the likes of Maruti Suzuki Swift and Tata Tiago. This compact high segment where Nios comes is an important segment and growing. It comprises over 31 per cent of the total market, Garg pointed out. He said nearly 42 per cent of Hyundai i10 hatchback owners last year were first time buyers in the country. Hyundai sold over 1 lakh units of i10 Nios units last year. The new Grand i10 Nios establishes a new segment benchmark with first-in-segment - 4 Airbags (as standard), 6 Airbags as an option and more than 30 advanced safety features, Garg said. The new Grand i10 NIOS combines safety, comfort and style with a host of best-in-segment features, including sporty and bold fascia, connected design LED Tail Lamps, Cruise Control ,Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (Highline), Child Seat Anchor (ISOFIX) and Fast USB Charger [Type C] making it attractive for new-age millennials. Mechanically, the updated Grand i10 NIOS is identical to the outgoing version. It is available with a 1.2-litre petrol engine that makes 82 BHP and 114 Nm. The engine is paired with either a 5-speed manual or a 5-speed AMT. The car is also available with a factory-fitted CNG kit. A man wanted in connection with a shooting last year near the University of Arizona in which one man was killed and another was wounded was arrested Friday in Iowa, police say. Investigators had been looking for Trevontea Howard-Brown, 23, after they say he shot and killed Harrison Weber, 24 and wounded another man during an April 2022 confrontation near campus. On Friday morning the US Marshals Services and local police in Iowa went to arrest Howard-Brown at a house. He was taken into custody after briefly barricading himself in the house, police said in a news release. Howard-Brown was booked into the Floyd County jail and is awaiting extradition to Tucson, police said. In the Tucson shooting, a police officer was flagged down near North Park Avenue and East Second Street following gunfire in the area. Weber was pronounced dead at the scene and another man who was also shot was taken to a hospital. Police said at the time that the shooting occurred during a confrontation between two groups of people. As governor in 1980, Bruce Babbitt prodded southern and central Arizona farmers into accepting the first limits ever imposed on their groundwater pumping. Today, he says a different band of farmers will have to give up water again this time by selling off their rights to it. Babbitt helped usher in the pioneering Arizona Groundwater Management Act in 1980 after pushing the big water interest groups of the time cities, farms and mining companies to the table. Probably his biggest accomplishment was coaxing a very reluctant group of farmers to accept the reality that their days of runaway pumping of groundwater were done. The law created state-regulated active management areas surrounding Tucson, Phoenix and other urban areas. In most cases, those areas were required to reach safe yield a balance between groundwater pumping and replenishment by 2025. For Pima, Maricopa and Pinal counties, the law also required that all new subdivisions prove they have an assured water supply for 100 years before homebuilders could start selling lots. To do that, builders must show their pumping won't lower the aquifer by more than 1,000 feet in Pima and Maricopa counties and 1,200 feet in Pinal County. Now a former U.S. Interior secretary, Babbitt says a different group of farmers those working along the Colorado River must eventually accept the idea that some will have to sell out to cities to insure there's enough water left for urban growth to continue. It's a highly controversial idea, one that rural riverfront communities have mostly staved off. But Babbitt says the need to buy and retire farms' river water rights is now "the elephant in the room," one that must be confronted even as "nobody talks about it." The 1980 act was born of a series of crises: declining water tables in and around cities; farmers threatening water supplies of cities and mines with lawsuits; and the federal government threatening to cancel construction of the multi-billion-dollar, 336-mile-long Central Arizona Project canal if something wasn't done to upgrade the state's groundwater laws. Today, different crises await the threat of major cutbacks of CAP deliveries due to a drying Colorado River; state shutdowns of new homebuilding in areas where groundwater supplies are deemed inadequate; and falling water tables and drying wells in rural areas. The Arizona Daily Star asked Babbitt how he thinks new Gov. Katie Hobbs, a fellow Democrat, and the Republican-controlled Legislature should handle this round of water woes and whether there's much of a chance to fix them at all. Babbitt, 84, now a private citizen, lives in Washington, D.C., while considering himself "a loyal and avid Arizonan." After exiting as governor in 1987, he served as Interior Secretary from 1993 to 2001. He has also worked as an attorney in private practice, representing a wide range of clients involved in environmental issues, and has sat on the board of the environmentalist World Wildlife Fund. Here's what he told the Star this month in an interview: Q. Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke was asked if this year can be a rerun of 1980. He replied: "That remains to be seen. That was a different time, with different pressures and a different Legislature. The challenge now is a diminished supply from the Colorado River. In 1980, we anticipated a new supply from the Colorado River." Could we be in for another round of groundwater law overhauls now? A. Im not a prophet. I just dont know. In history, large reforms are usually triggered by some kind of crisis. The problem today centers on the Colorado River and the Central Arizona Project water supply. This crisis should motivate the Legislature to act soon. I think the emerging issue in all of this is going to be agriculture. Q. Why? A. I believe there is enough water in Arizonas Colorado River entitlement to support growth in Arizona for the next century. It's 2.8 million acre-feet. Where is that water being used today? More than a million acre-feet is being used along the river and in the Yuma area, almost all of it for agriculture. Thats where the sustainable water supply of Arizona lies. If were going to continue to grow in urban areas, we have to continue doing all the things were doing, like conservation, increased efficiency. (But) we're going to have to come to some consensus about how a substantial portion of that river use is going to be fallowed and/or retired and brought into Central Arizona through the CAP canal. Thats the elephant in the room. And its a discussion that is off limits right now. Nobody talks about it. If were gong to continue to grow and develop, we will need a sustainable supply. Q. Why is our growth more important than rural farming economies? A. Approximately 75% of the water used in Arizona goes for irrigated agriculture. Agriculture generates less than 5% of Arizona GDP. That suggests the need for some rebalancing between agriculture and urban and industrial uses. Q. Every time the idea of buying out farm water rights has been brought up, a huge protest erupts from rural residents who say it will dry up their economies, and that's usually the end of it. A. Im just telling you that its a decision that we have to make, one way or the other. We need to have a wide-ranging statewide debate about how it is we apportion the future between urban growth and agriculture. Q. What's your reaction to Gov. Hobbs' opening water gambit creation of a new Water Policy Council and of an Office of Resiliency to coordinate water issues, and a plan to update the 980 groundwater law to close what she called "groundwater poaching loopholes?" A. its an excellent call to action and sets the stage and specifically mentions all of the important issues. The next step is making some specific proposals and getting discussion going and that will take some time. Q. What would be your first choice for updating the groundwater law? A. The most important one is to patch the holes in the bucket. There are still a significant number of groundwater users who have no replenishment obligations (meaning they aren't required to replenish the aquifer with as much water as they pump from it), who are just draining the groundwater. That includes mining and includes dairies. It includes most categories of industrial users. It includes subdivisions that were in place before enactment of the groundwater law. Those need to be dealt with as a priority item. Q. Homebuilders say the ADWR's recent decisions, closing off parts of Buckeye and Pinal County to new housing due to lack of groundwater like a big housing project proposed by the Howard Hughes Corp., will deprive people of affordable housing and raise home costs. A. Buckeye and the Hughes development, they are complaining they cant meet Part 1 of the assured water supply requirements: physical availability, and thats going to prevent development. All they have to do is develop in an area where there is a water provider where there is a designation of assured supply. There is a lot of land in the Phoenix and Tucson active management areas which is open to development. Its not somehow cutting off our development future. All it is saying to developers is that you cant do it where there is not a 100-year groundwater supply and the ability to carry out your legal obligation to replenish the aquifer. What you cant do is go out in some remote area where you cant meet those two tests. Q. But homebuilders say that building closer to Phoenix and Tucson will still hurt affordable housing, by increasing land buying costs and because cities have tougher regulations than unincorporated areas. A. There are several hundred thousand acres of undeveloped land with assured water supplies within the Phoenix and Tucson active management areas. Locating development on these lands will not have a significant effect on housing costs. Q. The governor wants to bring rural Arizona under groundwater regulations. Would you agree? A. Of course weve got to deal with rural Arizona. We need a comprehensive law for rural Arizona. That does not mean simply amending the existing Groundwater Management Act, because the existing Groundwater Management Act a has a fair number of issues that may not be specifically applicable to rural Arizona. We've really got to take a fresh start in rural Arizona. The Irrigation Non-Expansion Area (where no new irrigation is allowed) provision in the existing act is not adequate for rural areas. It cant be invoked by petition. Its got some ambiguity about what the criteria are for imposing an INA. Q. Anything else that should be in new legislation to assure new development has enough water? A. The other thing that is not specifically related to the Groundwater Management Act is reform of the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District (called CAGRD for short, it's a three-county agency that buys and recharges renewable CAP water to compensate for pumping done by new homes lying outside cities with their own CAP water rights). Thats really going to be an important issue. CAGRD isnt going to work for large developments outside cities with state-designated assured water supplies. CAGRD, in my judgment, does not have an adequate projected future sustainable replenishment program to support the large developments. The important reform is to say, "CAGRD is not a workable supply solution for large scale developers in the Phoenix and Tucson management areas. Large scale developers must bring their own replenishment supplies to comply with safe yield goals." Q. What could force the big water players like developers, farmers and cities to the table this time like in 1980? Organizers of Pima Countys annual count of unhoused individuals are looking for volunteers to assist with interviews, support and more during Wednesdays survey. More than 300 volunteers are needed to help with the 2023 Everyone Counts! Point in Time Street Count on Jan. 25. No experience is needed but volunteers are required to watch a recorded training session and should be comfortable using an app on a smartphone. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires every municipality that receives federal funding for homeless assistance to take an annual count of people experiencing homelessness who are without shelter, as well as those staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing and safe havens on a single night. Each count is carried out independently in communities across the nation. The counts help to inform a national understanding of homelessness but also help city and community groups provide services to people in need. Officials say the count is especially important this year, as the pandemic made it impossible to collect accurate data during the past two years. Its being conducted by the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness and Tucsons Housing and Community Development Department. The count is also different this year in that it will involve an actual number as opposed to the estimation the federal government allowed participants to use last year, said city spokesman Andy Squire. The count was canceled in 2021. Based on that, it actually was likely higher than what we are going to see in this point-of-time count, Squire said. Last years estimate indicated 2,227 people were unsheltered or living in emergency shelters, transitional housing or safe havens. That number was up from 1,324 in 2020, when officials were last able to conduct a physical count, according to the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness. The physical point-in-time count may not be more accurate, but it is the approved federal methodology that we have to use, Squire said. Squire said several factors have to be taken into consideration when looking at the results of the actual count, including that its extremely unlikely that canvassers will find every person in Pima County who is experiencing homelessness. The physical manifestation of houseless person activity we have in our community is hugely evident, and its far greater than its been in the past, he said. But there are places people are staying that we just dont know about. Some people could be roaming about or not able to communicate for whatever reason, so we may not get an accurate image of if a person is really homeless. Checking places people seek shelter During the count, teams of volunteers will visit camps in washes and the desert, bus stops, meal sites, abandoned buildings and other areas where people seek shelter. Volunteers will interview people to collect data. Assisting with the count will be the citys Housing First and Community Safety Health and Wellness teams, which recently moved into a new office space on Tucsons south side. The Community Safety Pilot Program was approved by the mayor and council in June 2020 and was charged with coordinating community safety efforts across city departments and with nonprofit partners. The program became permanent in 2021, with the city hosting forums and conducting surveys to expand community input. Now, Community Safety Health and Wellness is an umbrella for several preexisting teams, including Housing First; the Tucson Police Departments Homeless Outreach Team, Substance Use Resource Team and Mental Health Support Team; and the Tucson Collaborative Community Care program, made up of staffers from the Tucson Fire Department and Tucson Medical Center. The program has also formed specialty teams related to care coordination, community outreach and violence interruption, a strategy that focuses on reducing homicides and shootings in communities by building relationships with people at the center of much gun violence. The program now aims to provide nonenforcement responses to nonemergency 911 calls, often related to mental health, substance use or homelessness. It also coordinates with city departments and community partners to prevent crises related to the same factors. New hub El Pueblo Community Safety Hub is 23,000 square feet of office space formerly leased by the Arizona Department of Economic Security. The building sat vacant for years until the city was able to acquire and retrofit the building. The 17 employees working in the building occupy one-third of the space, with plans in the works to bring in other community safety teams from the Tucson Fire Department and Tucson Medical Center. The building is next to the Roy Laos Transit Center, which city officials say will be helpful when the teams begin to offer direct services to unsheltered people and others experiencing crises. For now, the hub is not open to the public but that will likely change. Dozens of city and community safety employees turned out for an open house Tuesday night. Sarah Launius, Community Safety Health and Wellness director, said there had been some stumbles and falls during the teams first few years, with many of the challenges they were tasked to address amplified by the pandemic. We are moving really, really quickly and growing and expanding and building upon some of our tried-and-true best practices in the city and trying to stretch as best we can to meet the really unique needs that we face right now, she said. Housing First Director Brandi Champion said shes never encountered a local government that is so proactive and inclusive. Leadership at the city really just puts their ideas out, listens to yours, we come up with a plan and then they get out of the way and let us do it, Champion said. Were really excited, said Launius, to use this as a space where we can bring thought partners together and try to do some thoughtful problem-solving that really is grounded in the needs of the folks were working alongside. About 30% of the people the Community Safety Health and Wellness team works with are experiencing homelessness, Launius said. The rest are experiencing other kinds of crises, although not always in the extreme sense. Crisis can happen often. Were working to make sure people have the support network they need to stabilize, she said. The population we work with is folks who are in highly marginalized communities and who have complex social service needs. Her team focuses on ongoing engagement and helping individuals navigate available services, and outreach is also an important part of the job, Launius said. The idea is to meet people where theyre at and get them stable and help them sustain that, she said. It's only the third week of January and we've already welcomed at least four new restaurants to Tucson's vibrant food scene. Since 2023 kicked off: FireTruck Brewing Company broadened its footprint into the pizza business, opening FireTruck Pizza Company in the former location of Dry River Company on the east side, 800 N. Kolb Road. Patricia Schwabe expanded her restaurant empire with Blue Front, 110 E. Congress St., serving American comfort foods downtown. A small outdoor bar, appropriately dubbed Minibar, can now be found at the MSA Annex, 267 S. Avenida del Convento. After a long wait, the second location of Borderlands Brewing Company opened up in the quaint Sam Hughes neighborhood, 2500 E. Sixth St. with a menu created by local celebrity chef Maria Mazon. As we say hello to our newest eateries, we know they're only a sliver of what's to come. Here are 13 restaurants expected to open in 2023, plus a handful of new-ish spots we're excited to try. Basqueria 350 E. Congress St. A tapas restaurant is slated to open downtown this summer, created by Urban Pita's Freddy ElMesselmani. Basqueria will have a focus on tapas, or pinchos, from the Basque country of Northern Spain and Southern France. "The idea of tapas is you are sharing plates, while hanging out, drinking," ElMesselmani said last year. "You will go in there, have small bites, maybe a couple of drinks and move on to the rest of your night." Agave House 943 E. University Blvd. Main Gate Square is home to several sit-down restaurants: pasta, burgers, pizza. What's missing? The folks behind Gentle Ben's Brewing Co. will soon open Agave House, a sit-down Mexican restaurant in the space that most recently housed The Dutch (which moved to Tucson's east side last year). "Theres been a lot of growth in the area and I see it as a lot of opportunity," co-owner Richard Fifer said last year. "Its a lot to bite off in one time, but the opportunity wont come around again." Comida Park 4100 S. Palo Verde Road When it was announced last year that a food truck park would be opening at the Tanque Verde Swap Meet, it was incredibly clear that Tucson was excited. Now nearly a year later, the park is officially opening. The grand opening of Comida Park will take place Feb. 10-12, featuring at least 18 food trucks. The list includes Eggroll Masters, making 48 different kinds of egg rolls; Sushi Bomb, selling Mexican-style sushi; Pupuseria Rositas with Salvadorian food; and Banhdicted, serving up banh mi and Vietnamese coffee. Dandelion Cafe 196 N. Court Ave. The Presidio San Agustin del Tucson Museum is getting a cafe this year, serving grab-and-go sandwiches and salads, plus charcuterie boards. Dandelion Cafe is managed by the Schneiders the family behind favorites like LaCo and Noodies. "This project has been several years in the making. It has been a joy to work with Rio Nuevo to revitalize this historic building and we are thrilled to work with the Schneider family and have the Dandelion Cafe in our new space," museum director Amy Hartmann-Gordon said in a press release. Doughbird 2960 N. Campbell Ave. From the Tucson-born Fox Restaurant Concepts comes Doughbird, said to be an "offbeat combination of house-made pizza and tender, juicy rotisserie chicken." The new eatery will open in the space that was once home to Old Chicago Pizza. Doughbird already has one location in Phoenix. El Jefe Cat Lounge Cafe 3025 N. Campbell Ave. Come for the coffee, stay for the cats. El Jefe Cat Lounge is space where you can do nothing but play with the 30-ish adoptable cats. The lounge is now gearing up to open a cafe next door, where you'll be able to order coffee and treats and bring them over to the cat lounge. The cafe is expected to open early this year. Flower Child 2960 N. Campbell Ave. Setting up right next to Doughbird is another eatery from restaurateur Sam Fox. This one's dubbed Flower Child, which has several locations across the country. The restaurant's motto is: "healthy food for a healthy world." Register for more free articles. Log in Sign up "Were always looking for great opportunities to grow in Tucson and finally found the perfect location for these two restaurants," Fox, who is a Tucson native, said last year. "Its been a longtime goal of ours to bring Flower Child to Tucson, and we are excited to be able to do it alongside Doughbird, a concept that we are just beginning to grow." Luna y Sol Cafe 137 W. 29th St. A coffee shop is coming to South Tucson, but it's so much more than that. Selina and Abraham Barajas are the founders and owners of Luna y Sol Cafe, named after their young daughters, Sofia Luna and Mia Sol. The couple expects to open the cafe in the fall. Betty Villegas, director of housing and community development for South Tucson, said last year that the cafe will fill a void in the city. "I am really excited about this coffee shop. We don't really have a place to have meetings or to gather around here. This is a great opportunity for the residents to have a place to meet with neighbors and organizations," Villegas said. "This coffee shop is more than just a business for Selina. It is a way to build community." Monsoon Chocolate Cafe + Market 3660 E. Fort Lowell Road Monsoon Chocolate is known for its beautifully crafted bon bons and other chocolate goodies at its flagship location, 234 E. 22nd St. The treats will soon be available in midtown as the shop prepares to open its second location. "We have been working on this for literally years and we finally found the perfect midtown spot," the shop said on Instagram. Screwbean Brewing 103 N. Park Ave. A new brewery is on its way to Tucson, just south of the University of Arizona. Screwbean Brewing, named after the screwbean mesquite tree, will run a seven-barrel brewhouse with six to 10 beers on tap and coffee served in the mornings. "We hope to be a real local kind of gathering place during the day, as well as in the evenings," owner Matthew Taylor said last year. Sonora Moonshine Company 124 E. Broadway Expected to open this spring, Sonora Moonshine Company will have a speakeasy-style bar, a focus on agave-driven spirits and a food menu created by Boca Tacos' Chef Maria Mazon. The concept comes from Es Teran, the chief executive of Borderlands brewing. "I come from Sonora," Teran said last year. "A lot of my family is involved in the agave making process of spirits. We wanted to make a unique style of restaurant that caters to that agave component." Stacks Book Club 1880 E. Tangerine Road Stacks Book Club started as a pop-up bookshop, eventually evolving into a brick and mortar expected to open this April. While not exactly an eatery, Stacks will also serve as a cafe, serving up coffee, beer and wine to go. "Tucson has lots of great bookstores and lots of great cafes. For us, there is something about combining the two that makes being in that kind of space really liberating," co-owner Crispin Jeffrey-Franco said last year. Tabu 128 E. Congress St. Latin-fusion restaurant Tabu is expected to open downtown this year with live music and a mixologist-driven cocktail menu. The food will be inspired by Mexico City and other culinary spots in Sonora. "Were trying to do something different in Tucson," co-owner Zeus Sainz said last year. "We want to bring what Tucson does not have yet." Food we're excited about in 2023 There are lots of spots that are already open, but still new-ish to Tucson. As a lil bonus, we thought we'd lay out some of what we're excited to try this year. Our Eat + Drink coverage is supported by: Resolve to give your family healthy water Restaurants, breweries and coffee shops know that clean, pure water is crucial. This new year, you too can get that at home with Kinetico Quality Water, which removes more contaminants than any other system. Save up to 20% off a Kinetico K5 drinking water station (restrictions apply) or call today for your free water analysis. Visit KineticoTucson.com. What does "supported by" mean? Click here to learn more. Based on a fascinating but heavily altered true story, the 95 minutes long movie is strong on emotions, content, and performance. (Photo: Twitter) When it comes to the portrayal of the bond between humans and mans best friend, a dog, movies like Hachiko, Call of the Wild have set a benchmark. Having a dog in the movie is a sure-shot formula to elicit that aww, he is so cute reaction from the audience. In reality, while having a pet reinvigorates you, losing the same can drive you to the brink. Dealing with the same theme is Dog Gone on Netflix. Based on a fascinating but heavily altered true story, the 95 minutes long movie is strong on emotions, content, and performance. Fielding Marshall (Johnny Berchtold) is a graduate who is yet to find his calling. One day, he chances upon, a pup in a pound and decides to raise him. However, Fieldings parents, especially his father John, are not comfortable with their son having a dog as they think he is not mature enough to care for him. Fieldings mother slowly warms up to Gonker, as he is fondly called. He reminds her of Oji, a dog she had as a kid. Slowly, even Fieldings father (a brilliantly cast Rob Lowe) and Gonker too get along well. As fate would have it, this happy time is rudely interrupted when Gonker takes ill and vets tell Fielding that he would need a shot every 30 days for the rest of his life. This diagnosis sets the tone for another twist in the tale. Once out with Fielding, Gonker gets lost as he goes chasing a fox. Now, Fielding is engulfed with guilt that he proved his fathers assessment of him right and put Gonker in danger. He is also battling a serious ailment. But putting it aside, he embarks upon a journey to find Gonker back as he needs to find him before the next shot is due, which is just 20 days away. Ginny Marshall, the mother, played by Kimberly Williams-Paisley too gets into action mode and sets up a command center at home to force multiply Fielding and his fathers efforts to trace Gonker. The hunt proves to be a bonding exercise for the sometimes-at-loggerheads father and son. They both start understanding each other well. Surprisingly, this forms the major portion of the story. The father-son story takes the centre stage and the duo goes through a whole gamut of emotions. You get Gonker in the first 30-40 minutes and then in the last 10 minutes but he is still the raison detre of this wonderful drama. Dog Gone literally tugs at the audiences heartstrings. Dog movies generally do. However, giving due credit to the screenplay, its not only Gonkers track but also the father-son story that makes your heart melt. Its kahani ghar ghar ki and hence everyone can connect with it easily. Its here where you find some high moments of the movie. Michael Martinezs camera work treats us to some fantastic verdant landscape as not only the Marshalls but the entire town gets into a search mode for Gonker. The strength of the story by Nick Santora lies in the fact that Gonkers angle is used as a backdrop but at the same time it emerges as the major plot. And still, enough room is left for human emotions captured poignantly by Stephen Herek, the director. Thanks to a heart-warming story and genuine performances, Dog Gone warms the cockles of not only dog parents but also those who do not have pets. It tells us about the importance and power of love and bonding humans have among themselves and with their pets without getting preachy. In this dog-eat-dog world, if you are feeling dog-tired, Gonker and co.s decent family drama is bound to make you feel good. So, stop barking up at the wrong tree and enjoy the canine carnival playing on Netflix. An ex-Tulsa County sheriffs deputy has been indicted on allegations that he stole more than $1,000 worth of ammunition from his former employer. Michael Bonin, now a sergeant for the Osage County Sheriffs Office, has been placed on suspension pending further investigation and the outcome of this criminal case, Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden said. In reference to Sgt. Bonins arrest, we will refrain from making any comment, as it pertains to an incident prior to his employment with our office, Virden said. The state multicounty grand jury returned the indictment against Bonin, 45, on Jan. 13, charging him with second-degree burglary and grand larceny. Bonin was arrested and posted $5,000 bond to be released from the Tulsa County jail the same day he was charged. Court documents say Bonins indictment was sealed until his arrest due to his position as a law enforcement officer assigned as a commander of a SWAT unit with access to firearms and ammunition, which prosecutors successfully argued could pose a significant threat to public and officer safety during his arrest. The documents allege that Bonin broke into the ammunition storage facility at the Tulsa County Sheriffs Offices shooting range to steal ammunition between Sept. 1, 2020, and March 1, 2021. Tulsa County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Casey Roebuck said Bonin was hired as a deputy in 2005. He was suspended without pay in early April 2021 and terminated on May 12, 2021, due to allegations of criminal activity, according to internal memos the office provided to the Tulsa World. Virden was not immediately available to respond when asked about Bonins Osage County hire date. Since this occurred, TCSO has implemented strict control measures to track our ammunition, Roebuck said in an email. A security camera system has also been added to our facilities at our range. Second-degree burglary is punishable by up to seven years in Oklahoma Department of Corrections custody, the indictment states, and grand larceny carries a maximum term of five years and a $5,000 fine. Featured video: Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy Oklahoma lawmakers prefiled almost 3,100 bills and joint resolutions for the first session of the 59th Legislature, which gavels in Feb. 6. This years total includes 1,116 Senate bills, 18 Senate joint resolutions, 1,901 House bills and 44 House joint resolutions. Those measures will now be assigned to committees in their chambers of origin, with committee chairs generally given the power to decide which are taken up and which are not. Joint resolutions are similar to bills but are rarely used for anything except legislative referenda placed on statewide ballots. These are usually constitutional amendments, which must be submitted to a vote of the people, but occasionally legislators will send a proposed change in statute to the ballot voluntarily. Oklahoma Senate and House of Representatives rules require that most bills and joint resolutions be filed before the start of the session. This years deadline was Thursday. There are exceptions to the prefiling rules. The House speaker and the Senate president pro tem can introduce bills anytime, as can some of their chief lieutenants. Budget and appropriations bills generally are not filed until near the end of the session. A large share of House bills more than 400 this year are shell bills, which means they contain no substantive language. These are essentially spares to address issues that may develop during the session, although in some cases shell bills are placeholders for planned legislation that misses the prefiling deadline. Shell bills are put into play with committee or floor substitutes that replace pro forma language with the actual legislation. The Senate does not allow shell bills but has more liberal rules concerning amendments. Unlike the U.S. Congress and the Senate House rules require that amendments be germane to the bills original subject. So multiple House shell bills are filed for all 93 titles and subtitles of the Oklahoma Statutes. Of the near 3,100 bills prefiled, most will be sidelined in less than a month and only about 400 will eventually make it into law. Because the Legislature operates on a fixed timeline, gaveling in on the first Monday of every February and adjourning no later than the last Friday in May, it sticks to a strict succession of deadlines. This, too, is unlike the U.S. Congress. The first deadline is March 3, when bills and joint resolutions that have not been passed from committees in their chambers of origin are considered dormant. Because this is the first year of a two-year legislative cycle, those bills can be brought back next year except for those voted down on what is called final action. A negative final action also bars other measures on the same subject from being heard during the two-year legislative cycle, so committee and floor votes are rarely taken unless the author is confident of the outcome. Featured video: Tulsa-area state legislators and how to contact them Sen. Nathan Dahm Sen. Dana Prieto Sen. Jo Anna Dossett Sen. John Haste Sen. Todd Gollihare Sen. Kevin Matthews Sen. Joe Newhouse Sen. Dave Rader Sen. Cody Rogers Rep. Meloyde Blancett Rep. Jeff Boatman Rep. Amanda Swope Rep. Suzanne Schreiber 032823-tul-nws-davis-dean Rep. Mark Tedford Rep. Scott Fetgatter Rep. Ross Ford Rep. Regina Goodwin Rep. Kyle Hilbert Rep. Mark Lawson Rep. T.J. Marti Rep. Stan May Rep. Monroe Nichols Rep. Clay Staires Rep. Terry O'Donnell Rep. Melissa Provenzano Rep. Lonnie Sims Rep. John Kane Rep. Mark Vancuren Rep. John Waldron Check out our latest digital-only offer and subscribe now Meetings and events: The Tulsa County Republican Partys biennial precinct meetings will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at 14 locations across the county. Precincts are divided among the locations based on state House of Representative districts. Held every two years, precinct meetings are the first step in a process that includes the county and state conventions and ultimately the 2024 National Republican Convention. This weeks meetings include the election of precinct officers, designation of delegates to the county and/or state convention, and submitting recommended changes to the state party platform and/or state party rules. Meeting locations are: HD 9, 11 and 74 New Life Church, 12215 N. Garnett Road, Collinsville. HD 16 & 24 New Beginnings Church, 4104 E. 151st St., Bixby. HD 72 & 73 Central Library, Greadington Learning Center, 400 Civic Center. HD 77 & 78 Memorial Drive United Methodist Church, 7903 E. 15th St. HD 29 & 66 Charles Page Library, 551 E. Fourth St., Sand Springs. HD 30 & 68 Heartland Church, 4506 S. Vancouver Ave. HD 71 Spirit Life Church, Life Cafe, 5345 S. Peoria Ave. HD 70 The Embassy Church, 7100 E. 31st St. HD 79 LaFortune Community Center, Multipurpose Room, 5202 S. Hudson Ave. HD 23 & 75 Battle Creek Clubhouse, 3200 N. Battlecreek Drive, Broken Arrow. HD 76 & 98 Waters Edge Event Center, 3304 S. Elm Place, Broken Arrow. HD 69 Christ Church Episcopal, 10901 S. Yale Ave. HD 67 TCC Southeast Campus, Student Union, Building 9, 10300 E. 81st St. HD 80 Evergreen Baptist Church, 10301 E. 111th St., Bixby. Visit tulsagop.net/precinct-meetings for more information or contact the Tulsa GOP office at 918-627-5702 or tulsarepublicanparty@gmail.com. Democratic precinct meetings are March 16. Russian front: After his resolution (and press release) opposing the use of Fort Sill to train Ukrainian troops drew the wrath of state Senate leadership, Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, filed another resolution (and press release) offering Oklahoma as a site for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. Outdoorsy: The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department said the industry generated a record $10.1 billion in direct spending during 2021, despite the lingering pandemic of that year. The state said employment in the tourism sector was up 4.6% that year and contributed $748 million in state and local tax revenue. A few days after releasing the economic figures, the department said it will release a Request for Information regarding operation of state park restaurants, which have been shuttered since a contract with Swadleys was canceled last spring. Southeastern Oklahoma lawmakers, meanwhile, signaled their intention to continue their pressure on the department to reduce or eliminate admission fees at state parks and to maintain or expand state parks in the region. Sen. George Burns, R-Pollard, for instance, filed three bills on those issues. Bottom lines: The American Federation for Children, an organization closely tied to former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, endorsed bills to channel state tax money to private schools filed by state Sens. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, and Shane Jett, R-Shawnee. Oklahoma ranked 10th for tax revenue volatility over the past 20 years, according to Pew. Former state Adjutant General and Public Safety Commissioner Michael Thompson has been chosen to the Oklahoma State University Hall of Fame. Gov. Kevin Stitt spent one day last week in Las Vegas at the Shooting, Hunting Outdoor Trade Show, also known as SHOT, talking to related businesses about Oklahoma. State Sen. Cody Rogers, R-Tulsa, filed legislation that would make it easier for parents to sue public schools over matters related to personal and public health and well-being. Workers in 17 of Oklahomas 30 most common occupations dont earn enough to afford modest housing, the Oklahoma Policy Institute reported. Chief Medical Examiner Eric Pfeifer said his office must have more staff to meet national accreditation standards. Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World Featured video: Tulsa-area state legislators and how to contact them Sen. Nathan Dahm Sen. Dana Prieto Sen. Jo Anna Dossett Sen. John Haste Sen. Todd Gollihare Sen. Kevin Matthews Sen. Joe Newhouse Sen. Dave Rader Sen. Cody Rogers Rep. Meloyde Blancett Rep. Jeff Boatman Rep. Amanda Swope Rep. Suzanne Schreiber 032823-tul-nws-davis-dean Rep. Mark Tedford Rep. Scott Fetgatter Rep. Ross Ford Rep. Regina Goodwin Rep. Kyle Hilbert Rep. Mark Lawson Rep. T.J. Marti Rep. Stan May Rep. Monroe Nichols Rep. Clay Staires Rep. Terry O'Donnell Rep. Melissa Provenzano Rep. Lonnie Sims Rep. John Kane Rep. Mark Vancuren Rep. John Waldron Check out our latest digital-only offer and subscribe now The Vietnamese diaspora has spread across world, except maybe Antarctica. Over the past 50 years, Vietnamese people have left their motherland to plant new roots in Europe, the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Aside from western countries, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of Vietnamese people live across Asian countries and territories such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines. Current estimates put the number of people in the Vietnamese diaspora at about four million. Not only do Vietnamese people live in these countries, but they have certainly made their mark. On a recent visit to Vietnam, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said, I know that Vietnamese people in Israel are good at cuisine and enduring in the military. Au Co, considered the mother of Vietnamese civilization, when taking her fifty children to settle in the snow covered mountains of northern Vietnam, could never have imagined just how much her people would grow, develop, and spread. The diaspora There is a growing number of Vietnamese who are taking an interest in finding job opportunities in other countries and using their time to travel, do business, and socially integrate into foreign cultures. Dr. Ly Qui Trung is one of these people. Dr. Trung is known for building the Pho 24 brand in Ho Chi Minh City. After selling his store chain to a foreign partner, he and his family has settled in Australia, where they continue to maintain their passion for Vietnamese cuisine while their children attend school. Over the past five years, Trung has built two restaurantsBon Bistro and Nang (sunlight)in Sydney, as well as involve himself in many business and social projects in both Australia and Vietnam. He is also a teacher, an author, and an inspiration to younger generations thanks to his dedication to sharing his business knowledge with younger Vietnamese people. Recently, he gathered a group of 30-year-old Vietnamese entrepreneurs in Sydney who had moved to Australia to set up businesses. He also provides consultancy to start-ups in Vietnam, Australia, and some European countries. Quan Nguyen is another Vietnamese who has planted roots overseas. Nguyen gave up a civil servant job in Vietnam and to study law in Australia. After five years, Quan had earned both a masters degree and a doctorate. He works in both the law and business sectors. Nguyens current business is related to his familys woodworking business. Specifically, he manufactures wooden toys for schools and furniture for houses. He and his family have expanded their carpentry shop in a suburb of Ho Chi Minh City to export products to Australia. They also sell products to buyers in the U.S. and other countries around the world. In the future, he hopes to open a law office in Vietnam to provide consultancy on business law and other legal matters. According to Nguyen, whether living in our country or other countries, being able to do what I like, contribute to my family and society, and promote global values are my responsibility and give me great happiness. Many young people who have started business in Vietnam after studying abroad have managed to maintain close international relations that have helped them expand their networks. Bui Hai An, an electrical engineering graduate at the National University of Singapore, spent some time working for a few multi-national companies in Singapore before moving back to Ho Chi Minh City to create TGM a company that specializes in skills training. He has also established an international joint stock company named Silicon Strait Saigon (SSS) with other young stakeholders from the U.S. and Singapore. SSS specializes in hi-tech investment and trading, and is considered by many experts to be a creative start-up model. Hai An was invited to attend a meeting between former U.S. President Obama and young entrepreneurs during a visit to Vietnam although An did not graduate from a university in the U.S.. Following the success of SSS, he co-founded and is managing digital bank Timo. Moving citizens Phung, a financial expert who earned an MBA in the U.S. and has worked for many multi-national companies overseas and in Vietnam, has plans to settle in Canada because she wants her children to experience a more modern version of education. This sentiment has been echoed by many Vietnamese who live abroad. Phung, however, affirmed that she has no plans to completely break ties with her homeland. She and her husband have no plans to sell their apartment in Vietnam and keep close contact with all of their friends from home. After settling in Canada, they will seek jobs which can facilitate their travel between the two countries. Is it easy to live and work globally? Thats a difficult question to answer. Life in the 2020s has been relatively good thanks to the impacts of technologicalization and globalization. There is a growing trend of people from all countries moving abroad and maintaining several residences at once. They are considered experts who can settle for a short or long time in one or many countries while still keeping contact with their motherlands. The legal systems of many countries have been amended to meet the demand of intercontinental human resources, specifically accepting multi-nationals and relaxing residence regulations to allow foreigners to come to their countries to live, work, and pay taxes. In developing countries, the brain drain conception has been gradually considered as having more brain. Residents working abroad have sent home not only remittances but also technologies, experience, and new connections. At present, many countries are orienting their young people to become global citizens while keeping one eye pointed towards their homelands. Vietnamese youngsters at home or in other countries are patient and creative and will nurture dreams to make Vietnam and the world as a whole prosperous, fair and sustainable. The number of Vietnamese people living in other countries as experts and investors will increase as many industrial countries continue to open their doors to these people. It is obviously not easy to achieve success. Those who move abroad must strive to adapt to the climate, living environment, culture, and laws in other countries. They must also get used to living in two different houses, two societies, and two countries. There are many practical ways and activities to support such Vietnamese people, such as offering visa waivers and organizing many meetings and forums to boost cooperation projects in business, research, teaching, and social works. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The Vietnamese diaspora has spread across world, except maybe Antarctica. Over the past 50 years, Vietnamese people have left their motherland to plant new roots in Europe, the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Aside from western countries, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of Vietnamese people live across Asian countries and territories such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines. Current estimates put the number of people in the Vietnamese diaspora at about four million. Not only do Vietnamese people live in these countries, but they have certainly made their mark. On a recent visit to Vietnam, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said, I know that Vietnamese people in Israel are good at cuisine and enduring in the military. Au Co, considered the mother of Vietnamese civilization, when taking her fifty children to settle in the snow covered mountains of northern Vietnam, could never have imagined just how much her people would grow, develop, and spread. The diaspora There is a growing number of Vietnamese who are taking an interest in finding job opportunities in other countries and using their time to travel, do business, and socially integrate into foreign cultures. Dr. Ly Qui Trung is one of these people. Dr. Trung is known for building the Pho 24 brand in Ho Chi Minh City. After selling his store chain to a foreign partner, he and his family has settled in Australia, where they continue to maintain their passion for Vietnamese cuisine while their children attend school. Over the past five years, Trung has built two restaurantsBon Bistro and Nang (sunlight)in Sydney, as well as involve himself in many business and social projects in both Australia and Vietnam. He is also a teacher, an author, and an inspiration to younger generations thanks to his dedication to sharing his business knowledge with younger Vietnamese people. Recently, he gathered a group of 30-year-old Vietnamese entrepreneurs in Sydney who had moved to Australia to set up businesses. He also provides consultancy to start-ups in Vietnam, Australia, and some European countries. Quan Nguyen is another Vietnamese who has planted roots overseas. Nguyen gave up a civil servant job in Vietnam and to study law in Australia. After five years, Quan had earned both a masters degree and a doctorate. He works in both the law and business sectors. Nguyens current business is related to his familys woodworking business. Specifically, he manufactures wooden toys for schools and furniture for houses. He and his family have expanded their carpentry shop in a suburb of Ho Chi Minh City to export products to Australia. They also sell products to buyers in the U.S. and other countries around the world. In the future, he hopes to open a law office in Vietnam to provide consultancy on business law and other legal matters. According to Nguyen, whether living in our country or other countries, being able to do what I like, contribute to my family and society, and promote global values are my responsibility and give me great happiness. Many young people who have started business in Vietnam after studying abroad have managed to maintain close international relations that have helped them expand their networks. Bui Hai An, an electrical engineering graduate at the National University of Singapore, spent some time working for a few multi-national companies in Singapore before moving back to Ho Chi Minh City to create TGM a company that specializes in skills training. He has also established an international joint stock company named Silicon Strait Saigon (SSS) with other young stakeholders from the U.S. and Singapore. SSS specializes in hi-tech investment and trading, and is considered by many experts to be a creative start-up model. Hai An was invited to attend a meeting between former U.S. President Obama and young entrepreneurs during a visit to Vietnam although An did not graduate from a university in the U.S.. Following the success of SSS, he co-founded and is managing digital bank Timo. Moving citizens Phung, a financial expert who earned an MBA in the U.S. and has worked for many multi-national companies overseas and in Vietnam, has plans to settle in Canada because she wants her children to experience a more modern version of education. This sentiment has been echoed by many Vietnamese who live abroad. Phung, however, affirmed that she has no plans to completely break ties with her homeland. She and her husband have no plans to sell their apartment in Vietnam and keep close contact with all of their friends from home. After settling in Canada, they will seek jobs which can facilitate their travel between the two countries. Is it easy to live and work globally? Thats a difficult question to answer. Life in the 2020s has been relatively good thanks to the impacts of technologicalization and globalization. There is a growing trend of people from all countries moving abroad and maintaining several residences at once. They are considered experts who can settle for a short or long time in one or many countries while still keeping contact with their motherlands. The legal systems of many countries have been amended to meet the demand of intercontinental human resources, specifically accepting multi-nationals and relaxing residence regulations to allow foreigners to come to their countries to live, work, and pay taxes. In developing countries, the brain drain conception has been gradually considered as having more brain. Residents working abroad have sent home not only remittances but also technologies, experience, and new connections. At present, many countries are orienting their young people to become global citizens while keeping one eye pointed towards their homelands. Vietnamese youngsters at home or in other countries are patient and creative and will nurture dreams to make Vietnam and the world as a whole prosperous, fair and sustainable. The number of Vietnamese people living in other countries as experts and investors will increase as many industrial countries continue to open their doors to these people. It is obviously not easy to achieve success. Those who move abroad must strive to adapt to the climate, living environment, culture, and laws in other countries. They must also get used to living in two different houses, two societies, and two countries. There are many practical ways and activities to support such Vietnamese people, such as offering visa waivers and organizing many meetings and forums to boost cooperation projects in business, research, teaching, and social works. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Police in northern Vietnam have broken up a transnational drug ring and confiscated a large amount of narcotics and weapons. The Department of Public Security of Dien Bien Province confirmed on Friday that it had coordinated with the anti-drug police division of the Ministry of Public Security and police in northern Laos in order to break up the drug racket, which smuggled drugs from Laos into Vietnam. They identified 15 suspects in the case, who hail from the Vietnamese provinces of Dien Bien and Lai Chau and the Lao provinces of Oudomxay and Phongsaly. This supplied photo shows a police officer questioning a suspect in a transnational drug ring operating in northern Vietnam and Laos. Nine suspected have been arrested, including Phan Sin Khi, Vang A Va, Thao A Mang, Vang A Tung, Vu A Tung, Vang A Thanh, La Kham Ma Vong, Vang A Chu, and Hay Tho. The suspects testimony showed that they had traded and transported 412 bricks of heroin, 28kg of opium, and 3kg of methamphetamine from Laos to Vietnam since August 2022. Officers seized 38 bricks of heroin, 3kg of methamphetamine, a gun, and 157 bullets of all kinds upon the arrest and a raid at the residences of the suspects, who are now being investigated for cross-border drug trafficking. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Police in northern Vietnam have broken up a transnational drug ring and confiscated a large amount of narcotics and weapons. The Department of Public Security of Dien Bien Province confirmed on Friday that it had coordinated with the anti-drug police division of the Ministry of Public Security and police in northern Laos in order to break up the drug racket, which smuggled drugs from Laos into Vietnam. They identified 15 suspects in the case, who hail from the Vietnamese provinces of Dien Bien and Lai Chau and the Lao provinces of Oudomxay and Phongsaly. This supplied photo shows a police officer questioning a suspect in a transnational drug ring operating in northern Vietnam and Laos. Nine suspected have been arrested, including Phan Sin Khi, Vang A Va, Thao A Mang, Vang A Tung, Vu A Tung, Vang A Thanh, La Kham Ma Vong, Vang A Chu, and Hay Tho. The suspects testimony showed that they had traded and transported 412 bricks of heroin, 28kg of opium, and 3kg of methamphetamine from Laos to Vietnam since August 2022. Officers seized 38 bricks of heroin, 3kg of methamphetamine, a gun, and 157 bullets of all kinds upon the arrest and a raid at the residences of the suspects, who are now being investigated for cross-border drug trafficking. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Jennifer Preston has appeared in Amazons "Wheel of Time," ITVs "Coronation Street" and "Emmerdale," BBCs "Casualty" as well as in several award-winning features and short films, including a recent comedy for Film4. She also wrote, co-produced and starred in the award-winning short film "Milo." Jennifer shares some of her favourite projects with us and tells us what shes working on next. Acting beginnings Kate: Jennifer, please tell us about your acting beginnings? Jennifer Preston: Stage was where I started my acting career. I was a junior equity member at 14 and played Dunyasha in Chekhovs "The Cherry Orchard" directed by RSCs Bill Wilkinson. I was regularly working on stage (both comedy and drama) until I left school. However, I couldnt fund drama school at that point in my life so took a different path. I ended up doing a Law and German degree and going into Banking! Although it took me off course for a while it was terrific life-experience for when I returned to acting seven years ago. I studied for a year at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and worked with students and teachers at Prague International Film School, helping me develop essential skills. Ive been lucky to regularly work, mainly in Film and TV since then, and am repped by an incredible agent, IAMs Helen Kelly. I have both American and British passports and switch easily between accents. Thats been very useful! Inspiration Who inspired you to become an actress and why? I was inspired by my mums love of old Hollywood. Katharine Hepburn, and Bette Davies were two of my favourites. Katharine was a trailblazer, committing to working on female-led films even when they werent commercially successful. Bette was one of a kind, refusing to fit stereotypes of the time, instead playing complex, often unlikeable characters. Actings developed into something far more naturalistic, but these womens screen presence, resilience and work ethic still inspire me today. Best project to date What are your best projects to date? Ive been lucky to work on varied projects with super-talented teams. My first lead feature film role, "Susan," by Mahmoud Shoolizadeh, won me 4 best-actress awards. Its a beautiful film about the traumatic effect of PTSD on a marriage. I won best supporting actress for the feature "British Made" where I play the alcoholic mother of a radicalised ex-offender. We won 18 awards for the BFI-premiered short Nora depicting the state of the NHS. Two great horror films to mention are the feature film "Hosts" (named in Harpers Bazaar's annual Top Ten Best Horror Films), and the critically-acclaimed "The Stranger" where I play lead role Amanda, due for UK release in 2023. Recent TV roles include Mistress Grinwell in the Amazon Original series "Wheel of Time" and appearances in "Coronation St," Emmerdale" and "Casualty." Can you tell us about your writing work youve done? I wrote and co-produced a short drama Milo about grief and mental health. Weve received several awards, including Best Film and Best Actress. We worked with mental health and bereavement charities to develop the film, working with schools to create a teachers pack to help teens and young adults discuss loss. Upcoming projects Any upcoming projects you look forward to? Im excited to return soon to Prague for performance capture for the famous Warhorse studios on a popular video game. And there are four projects which Im especially excited to see released in 2023: The Horror Anthology "Lore," where I play opposite Ben Crompton ("Game of Thrones") in the lead role of a mother, protecting her son from a vengeful ghost. The film Charlotte is a thriller by Georgia Conlan where I play the social worker of a convicted paedophile. I play Chief Constable Wilbury opposite Edward Hogg, in the feature "The Lonely Musketeer," and I play an eccentric commune leader in the brilliant short comedy "Pyramid of Disunion" for Film4. Having returned to acting as a more mature actor, I feel very privileged to be working in this amazing industry. Excited for what's to come! China sees accelerated recovery of culture, tourism consumption 11:16, January 21, 2023 By Wang Ke, Cao Wenxuan ( People's Daily People take a night tour at the Confucius Temple Resort in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province, Jan. 8, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Fang Dongxu) China, the most promising consumption market in the world, is seeing a dramatic rise in the culture and tourism sector as the Chinese New Year, the most important festival of the year for Chinese people, approaches. The demand for cultural and tourism products is increasing at an accelerated rate, boosting confidence in the recovery of the industry and guiding its innovative development. "There are more and more visitors coming to Sanya. I received three batches of tourists this morning alone," said Wang Yu, who works in the tourism industry in Sanya, south China's Hainan province. According to statistics released by Sanya Phoenix International Airport, the airport handled 929,000 passengers in the first 15 days of January this year, up 15.3 percent year on year. A report on tourism consumption during the 2023 Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, issued by Tongcheng Travel, a market leader in China's online travel industry, said there has been a significant rise in traveling demand during the Chinese New Year period this year, especially for medium- and long-distance trips. The Spring Festival travel rush officially started on Jan. 7. The number of ticket orders received by Tongcheng Travel for trains departing on the Chinese New Year's Eve and a day before surged 31 percent from a year ago, ranking first in the past three years. Between Jan.1 and 8, the consultation volume for long-distance travel products scheduled for the Spring Festival vacation increased nearly 20-fold. Besides, the search volume for hot destinations, such as Xishuangbanna, Changbai Mountain, Sanya, and Xiamen, more than doubled from a year ago. Tourists pose for pictures at a miaohui, literally a temple gathering or temple fair, in Xiangyang, central China's Hubei province, Jan. 18, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Yang Dong) The per-customer transaction of travel products scheduled for the Spring Festival period has increased by over 70 percent from a year ago, and the numbers of hotel and tourist site ticket bookings have increased by nearly 20 percent, said Alibaba's travel portal Feizhu. There is also a significant rise in the distance and duration of trips as well as the number of travel companions, according to Feizhu. Besides, the bookings for high-end hotels also improved by nearly 30 percent, and those for rural B&Bs increased by over 100 percent. Li Donghan, owner of a B&B hotel in Dali, southwest China's Yunnan province, told People's Daily that all rooms had already been booked for the Spring Festival period. The man has cooperated with local farmers to sell local specialties and artware at his B&B. "There are around 7,000 B&B hotels in Dali. A large portion of the rooms have been booked for the period from now to the Spring Festival vacation, and the figure is over 90 percent in some high-end B&B hotels," said Li Haizhong, head of the homestay association of Dali. In a theater near the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Lintong district, Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi province, a show about the renowned Terracotta Warriors is chased after nowadays. Qiao Lida, who manages affairs for the show, told People's Daily that the show was first staged at the end of 2022 and has played to a full house almost every time. "To meet the demand for tourists, we'll for the first time keep playing the show during the Spring Festival," Qiao said. Yachts sail on sea in Sanya, south China's Hainan province, Jan. 13, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Ye Longbin) The demand for culture and tourism consumption in China is upgrading thanks to the accelerated integration of the culture and tourism sectors and the constant development of the market. Market entities on the supply side are closely following the new trend of the consumption upgrading to offer new and higher-quality products and services that better meet the demand of tourists. "I never thought that I could visit the Weishan Lake tourist site for free," said Li Xu, a university student from Jining, east China's Shandong province. The tourist site offered 10,000 free tickets for university students returning to the city during the winter vacation, and is staging a series of splendid activities such as fireworks shows and lantern fairs. Local authorities across China have rolled out policies to support the recovery and expansion of culture and tourism consumption. Shanxi province's culture and tourism department recently unveiled a list of tourist sites that offer ticket discounts ranging from 20 percent to 90 percent. A total of 106 sites were on the list. The tourism authorities in southwest China's Guizhou province said tourists visiting the province between Dec. 16, 2022 and Feb. 28, 2023 can enjoy free tickets of tourist attractions, as well as 50 percent discounts on expressway tolls and hotel expenses. An official with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said new policies will be launched to further relieve tourism enterprises' burden, boost the tourism industry, and promote consumption, so as to vitalize the industry's confidence and make it more energetic. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Kou Jie) JDS candidate for Sindagi Assembly Constituency, Sivananda Patil (Twitter) Bengaluru: Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) candidate for Sindagi Assembly constituency, Sivananda Patil passed after late on Friday night after suffering a cardiac attack, former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said on Saturday. Shivananda Patil, 54, was recently announced as the party's candidate from Sindagi constituency for the next assembly elections. Patil was immediately rushed to the hospital where he died on Friday night. Kumaraswamy in a tweet condoled the sudden demise of Patil. "The untimely death of Mr Sivananda Patil, the party candidate for Sindagi Assembly Constituency @JanataDal_S has deeply shocked me. I am personally deeply saddened by the passing away of Mr Sivananda Patil. I pray that his soul rests in eternal peace and that the family is given the strength to bear the grief," the Minister tweeted in Kannada. "Mr Patil, who retired after selfless service in the army, had an irrepressible desire for social service. He had excellent organizational skills, and dynamism and became very dear to me within a short time of his acquaintance," Kumaraswamy said. The JD(U) also expressed its grief over Patil's demise tweeted, "Deeply saddened to report that Mr Sivananda Patil, JDS candidate for Sindagi Assembly Constituency passed away untimely due to heart attack. On this occasion, we pray that his family gets the strength to bear this grief. Let us pray for the departed soul to rest in peace." Sivananda is survived by his wife, son and daughter. Norovirus is causes vomiting and diarrhoea. (Getty Images) The UKs health watchdog has issued a warning that cases of the vomiting bug norovirus are surging this winter. The UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) said cases are rising the most quickly in over-65s, and have urged the public to practice good personal hygiene. Norovirus, commonly known as the winter vomiting bug, is a virus that causes sickness and diarrhoea. Other symptoms include a headache, aching arms and legs, and a high temperature. Norovirus cases are rising and lab reports are currently about 1/3 higher than what we would see at this time of year, the UKHSA said on Thursday. Read more: Hospitality closures exceed Covid-hit 2021 levels as energy bills soar Rates have increased most in those 65 and over, however, we haven't seen an increase in care home outbreaks. "Protecting yourself against norovirus is key and can be done in many simple ways. "Practicing good hand hygiene like washing your hands after using the toilet or after an episode of illness and before eating for preparing food is a great way to avoid getting ill." The data shows that the number of cases in the final week of 2022 and the first week of 2023 were 34% higher compared to the same two-week period in the five years prior to COVID. The NHS is already under unprecedented winter pressure. (PA) The watchdog also say the majority of outbreaks were reported in care home settings. Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, told MailOnline that rising cases will "exacerbate" the pressure on the NHS as multiple trusts declare critical incidents due to winter pressures. "The NHS continues to be under significant strain and things remain finely balanced as we try to manage the levels of pressure colleagues are facing and prepare for further difficult winter months ahead," he said. "Increases in cases of norovirus will exacerbate problems in the whole health and social care system considering the impact this has when it makes its way into hospitals." Story continues Read more: How close to death do you need to be to get an ambulance in England? He added: "This involves bed closures, infection among seriously unwell people and staff absence, so it is very worrying to see any increase in cases of the virus given the fragile state of play." The rise in norovirus cases comes after the NHS has already been struggling with a worse than average flu season, combined with the fallout from COVID. Dr Stephen Powis, NHS national director, earlier this month urged the public to make sure they have had their flu jabs if they are eligible. "We knew this winter would be one of the most difficult in the history of the NHS and I want to thank staff for all their hard work in caring for and treating so many patients while dealing with record demand on services, including the enormous pressure from flu and COVID," he said. Watch: Minister Confronted With Damning Graph On NHS Funding Shops in Croatia fined for unfair price rises after the country switched to the Euro Shopkeepers in Croatia have been accused of cashing in on currency confusion by unfairly bumping up prices since the country switched to the Euro. Croatia became the 20th country to join the Eurozone on 1 January. Some experts say shops are rounding up euro-denominated prices or suddenly hiking prices by up to 50 percent, rather than merely converting their prices using the designated conversion rate of 7.53 kuna to 1 euro. While retailers say prices were largely unaffected by the changeover and blame inflation, the government openly sided with the public and announced measures to combat price hiking, including sending inspectors to stores and service providers, as well as demanding large retail chains to report prices of every single product on a bi-weekly basis. On Friday 20 January, the state inspectorate said that after checking about 1,000 stores in the two weeks prior they found unjustified price hikes at about a quarter of the establishments, issuing more than 240 fines. Croatia joined Eurozone At the same time, latest data showed the Croatian inflation rate was 13.1 percent in December, slightly slowing from the all-time high of 13.5 percent observed the month before. The price of nearly everything rose through most of 2022, inflation has been blamed on rising energy costs and supply chain disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. When I look at just the most basic necessities, like butter, bread, milk, the prices are unbearable now. It's not the increase they warned us about, it's 10 or 20 percent, said pensioner Damar Arbanas. Everything went up drastically. In spite of everything they told us earlier, it's unbelievable. I've seen some comparisons with Slovenia and how it went in other eurozone countries, but that was all nonsense clearly. Taiwan offers China help again to deal with COVID surge View of a funeral home as COVID-19 outbreak continues in Shanghai TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan has again offered to provide China with assistance to help it deal with a surge in COVID-19 cases but Chinese authorities have not yet responded, official Taiwan media reported late on Thursday. China scrapped its stringent COVID controls last month after protests against them, abandoning a policy that had shielded its 1.4 billion population from the virus for three years. Victor Wang, Head of Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre, told the official Central News Agency it sent an email to Chinese authorities this week and asked how Taiwan could help with the surge of cases in China. Rising cases in China has sparked concerns from the World Health Organisation that Beijing was under-reporting virus deaths. Wang said Taiwan has also sent an email to China in early December to "remind" authorities there about an community outbreak and severe cases among children. China, which claims the island as its own despite strong objections of the democratically-elected government, views Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen as a separatist and has refused to talk to her administration since she took office in 2016. In a New Year address earlier this month, Tsai for the first time offered to provide China with "necessary assistance" to help it deal with a surge in COVID cases, but said Chinese military activities near the island were not beneficial to peace and stability. Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan said Taiwan could offer medication or vaccine to China but it's not clear if Beijing would accept it, according the Central News Agency. Taiwan and China have repeatedly sparred over their respective measures to control the spread of COVID. China has been ramping up pressure on Taiwan to assert its sovereignty claims, including almost daily Chinese air force missions near the island over the past three years. Taiwan vows to defend itself, saying only its people can decide their own future and that Beijing's claims are void as the People's Republic of China has never governed the island. (Reporting By Yimou Lee; Editing by Michael Perry) MADRID (Reuters) - Thousands of people packed into central Madrid on Saturday to protest against the Socialist government and accuse it of undermining the constitution, in a rally backed by rightist parties. Protesters massed in the Plaza de Cibeles in front of City Hall, waved Spanish flags, called on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to resign and shouted out "traitor". More than 100 groups - including the conservative opposition Popular Party, centre-right Ciudadanos and the far-right Vox - called the rally under the slogan "For Spain, for democracy and the constitution". Speakers attacked the government for a string of policies and decisions, ranging from the release of Catalan independence campaigners to its pacts with regional separatist parties. Around 30,000 people took part, according to local government estimates. Vox leader Santiago Abascal, the only party leader to attend, told the crowd the government had trampled the constitution by locking up Spaniards, in a reference to COVID lockdowns. Around 200km (120 miles) away in the northwestern city of Valladolid, Sanchez told a Socialist rally that the protesters in Madrid were defending a "uniform" and therefore "discriminatory" Spain. In June 2021, Sanchezs government pardoned the nine jailed leaders of Catalonias failed 2017 independence bid "in the spirit of dialogue". Its recent decision to replace the crime of sedition with a lesser crime was opposed on the right. (Reporting by Elena Rodriguez, Jessica Jones and Michael Gore, Writing by Jessica Jones, Editing by Andrew Heavens) ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned Sweden's ambassador on Friday over authorities' permission of a protest near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm scheduled to be held on Saturday, a source from the Foreign Ministry said. The source said the Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the "provocative" protest, which they said includes burning of the Muslim holy book the Koran, and conveyed Ankara's expectation for reversal of the permission for the demonstration. The Foreign Ministry also told Sweden's envoy that granting permission to a separate protest that is to be staged on Saturday by a group sympathetic to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is a violation of agreements between the countries, the source said. The incident comes at a sensitive time in bilateral relations when both Sweden and Finland are seeking Turkey's approval of their bids to join NATO. The two Nordic states applied last year to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but their bids must be approved by all 30 NATO member states. Turkey and Hungary have yet to endorse the applications. Last week, Staffan Herrstrom, Sweden's ambassador to Turkey, was summoned to the ministry over an incident in Stockholm in which an effigy of President Tayyip Erdogan was strung up. Sweden condemned the incident, but Turkey said it needs to take a clear stance against terrorism. (Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Leslie Adler) Federal and state agencies in the US have joined the search for Julian Sands, using mobile phone forensics to help pinpoint the location of the British actor. Both national and state officials are now working with the San Bernardino County Sheriffs office, one week on after the actor was first reported missing in the southern Californian mountains. As of Friday, ground crews were still unable to continue their search efforts, due to evidence of avalanches in the area, and authorities said there was still no time set for when they would begin. The involvement of federal and state agencies marks a step up in the search for Sands which is to continue via helicopter only for now. The county sheriffs department previously revealed that pings from the actors phone appeared to show he had been on the move heading further into the mountainous area of Baldy Bowl on the day he was reported missing January 13. We are working with state and federal agencies that have cell phone forensics to assist us in pinpointing a location, but so far no new info has been developed, a spokesperson from the department told the PA news agency. Both national and state officials are now working with the San Bernardino County Sheriffs office, one week after Sands was first reported missing (Ian West/PA) The department previously told PA there was still no hard deadline and no date set for calling off efforts and the incident is still being classified as a search and rescue operation. On Thursday, Sands family towed his car from a car park where it was discovered during the search. Mount Baldy residents noted the extreme conditions but said they would not rule anything out in the mission to find Sands. San Bernardino County Fire Department captain Rodd Mascis told PA that the search for missing hikers in the area was sadly regular and could be like finding a needle in a haystack. The department is not involved with the search for Sands, which is being handled by the County Sheriffs departments search and rescue teams. But speaking at the scene of a callout to help another fallen hiker, Mr Mascis said: It truly is enter at your own risk. Story continues Most people come equipped for the day but coming up against the elements is very difficult after a couple of days. Youve got to be careful, its a beautiful area, but with every step that danger increases. Mr Mascis added that the mobile phone pings were a positive sign and that stranger things had happened, referring to success in the search for Sands. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department previously urged hikers to think twice and heed warnings, saying its search and rescue teams had responded to 14 calls on Mount Baldy and in the surrounding area over the last four weeks. Born in Yorkshire, Sands breakout role came as the free-spirited George in the period drama A Room With A View, in which he starred opposite Helena Bonham Carter. He later made the move to the horror genre, featuring in films such as Leaving Las Vegas, Warlock and Arachnophobia. He has enjoyed success on the small screen too, with parts in Smallville and high octane US drama 24, with Kiefer Sutherland. More recently he played the chief medical officer in the 2021 Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi-led drama Benediction. He has lived in Los Angeles since 2020. From 1984 to 1987 Sands was married to future Evening Standard and Today editor Sarah Sands, with whom he has a son. He also has two daughters with journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, whom he married in 1990. The Regent Centre's new screen arriving at the venue from Southampton docks early on Monday (Image: Regent Centre) THE curtains will part today on a new 60,000 screen which could transform the movie-going experience at Christchurchs Regent Centre. Audiences for todays showings of Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody should see the 32ft wide picture look substantially brighter and sharper. The new screen was built in Canada to specifications laid down by the venue and was imported via Southampton docks earlier this week. Gary Trinder, chairman of the Regent Trust, said the centres old screen had started to present mechanical problems when it was rolled down between a live show and a film screening. There were also folds starting to show when films were projected. A decision was made to buy a new screen. The specifications of the new screen are far higher than the old one, he said. Im fairly excited myself to see what the new one is like and Im sure people will notice the difference, even if youre not a technologist. The big thing will be that its a new screen so that its great at reflecting images and it has black masking all around, so the image will be much sharper and brighter." Four technicians were still on the site on Thursday getting the new screen ready. They were saying it will look like youve had a brand new projector as well, said Mr Trinder. There are no cinema screen manufacturers left in the UK so a Canadian company was picked for the job. The specifications took six months to put together for this screen, toing and froing between the Regent and people in Canada, said Mr Trinder. Its been imported at Southampton and was brought down here on Monday on an articulated lorry. The screen has been installed by Powell Cinema Engineers and, like its predecessor, will be rolled down by electric motors. The upgrade was planned before the first Covid lockdowns forced entertainment venues to close. The centre was kept afloat during the pandemic by a total of 370,000 in grants from the British Film Institute. Story continues The grants we were given meant we came out of Covid as healthy as we had gone into Covid. It was because they felt it was a viable business and they supported it to the tune of making up for our losses, said Mr Trinder. The Regent is stepping up its film programming, which includes its Kids Club weekend films at 3.50 a ticket and its Silver Screen season of recent releases for 5 including a hot drink. It also hosts the Dirt in the Gate season of classics and cult movies shown on traditional 35mm film. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 12: Laura Prepon attends "That '90s Show" S1 premiere at Netflix Tudum Theater on January 12, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Netflix) Laura Prepon, who played Donna in That '70s Show, stepped behind the camera for the reboot Netflix series That '90s Show, and she's getting praise from her Point Place, Wisconsin family. I was very proud of her, I was immensely proud of her and I was nervous for her, because that's who I am, Debra Jo Rupp, who plays Kitty Forman, told Yahoo Canada. If she got a little bit nervous, because the first time in a new job, I would pick up on that and I just wanted her to do really good." What was great about having Laura as the director is that she could work with those kids and she knew what the kids were going through. She could really communicate with them. She was amazing. I would work with Laura Prepon as the director anytime. Laura has always been so bossy and mean that it was just easy to accept, Kurtwood Smith, who plays Red Forman, joked. "No, she's a sweetheart and she's very smart. We had no problems dealing with her as a director and it's wonderful to see her back playing Donna. She'd had some experience, she had done some directing on Orange is the New Black, and I had actually done a little short film with her. I knew she knew what she was doing." (L to R) Laura Prepon as Donna Pinciotti, Callie Haverda as Leia Forman in episode 110 of That '90s Show. (Patrick Wymore/Netflix) Prepon not only made an impact on Rupp and Smith as a director, but she was able to really establish a bond with her new, younger co-stars as well, particularly Callie Haverda who plays Leia Forman, Eric and Donna's daughter. Having all of the legacy cast come back was insane, but I did get some really sweet moments with Laura, Haverda said. Some really, really nice moments with Laura, just being able to bond with her,...just kind of connecting with her and getting to know her better was really nice. While we see Prepon throughout the series as Donna, her directing skills are on display in the final two episodes of the series. In these episodes, she got to work behind the camera as the story starts to shift to Leia's big move from Wisconsin back to Chicago for the school year, amid the beginning of a possible love triangle. Prepon was also the director when we got the return of Jim Rash as Fenton, Fez's nemesis, in the last episode. One of the best cameos in the whole series. While we don't know what the future has in store for That '90s Show, we'll be interested to see if more of the legacy cast members try their hand at directing as the series continues. Joe Biden speaks to the press during a visit to California (AP) Joe Biden said there was no there there following the discovery of classified documents at his home and former office. Mr Biden used the phrase, first coined by the writer Gertrude Stein, as he dismissed the scandal during a visit to storm-ravaged California. The White House was in rare crisis mode last week as it emerged that lawyers for the president had found classified material at his think-tank in Washington DC and home in Delaware. We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place, Mr Biden told reporters during a tour on Thursday of the damage caused by violent winter storms. We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department. Mr Biden insisted that he was fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly. I think youre going to find theres nothing there, he said. Theres no there there. Stein used the phrase in her 1937 book Everybodys Authobiography to describe returning to her hometown of Oakland, California. It has since become a popular phrase on Capitol Hill and is used to refer to something that is unsubstantial or unimportant. First, it emerged that a small number with classified markings had been found in November in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center thinktank in Washington. The president claimed that he was surprised when he was informed about them. His lawyers did what they should have done when they immediately alerted the National Archives, he said. I dont know whats in the documents. Then came news that a second batch of classified documents had been discovered in the garage at Mr Bidens home in Wilmington, Delaware, and one additional classified page was found in his personal library there. Mr Biden expressed frustration that the documents matter was coming up as he surveyed coastal storm damage, telling reporters that it bugs me that he was being asked about the handling of the classified material even as we have a serious problem here in California. Story continues Why you dont ask me questions about that? he pressed. Biden said Thursday he has no regrets over how and when the public learned about the documents. Im following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do, he said. BJP legislator M. Raghunandan Rao on Friday appealed to the judiciary to take a decision on the issue of IAS and IPS officers allocated to Andhra Pradesh who still working in Telangana.. Twitter HYDERABAD: BJP legislator M. Raghunandan Rao on Friday appealed to the judiciary to take a decision on the issue of IAS and IPS officers allocated to Andhra Pradesh who still working in Telangana. He told reporters that the Supreme Court decision on the issue of all-India service officers place of posting was clear, and that the officials have no say in seeking options of their choice. He said he had lodged a complaint with the Prime Ministers Office and the Union department of personnel and training on this issue, and received an acknowledgement from the PMO that his complaint had been received and was being processed. There are 15 all-India service officers assigned for AP working in Telangana. Just as former chief secretary Somesh Kumar was sent to his assigned AP state, the others too should be sent, he said. He appealed to the state judiciary not to treat appeals filed by the officiails individually but to treat them as one case and dispose it of appropriately, in the light of SC judgment. On the Miyapur land scam, Raghunandan Rao urged Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari to implead the state in the January 23 hearing of the special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Ranga Reddy district collector in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court orders allowing the sale of eight acres in Survey No 78 of Miyapur. I had highlighted this issue a few days ago. I urge the Chief Secretary to also have the Ranga Reddy collector file an SLP in the other 40 acres of land that is under dispute. Just as the eight acres are claimed to be government land, the 40 acres claimed by the Andhra Pradesh BRS chief Thota Chandrashekar is also government land. There should not be two types of justice for different people, Raghunandan Rao said. Gojek offers training as well as digital and financial tools With a ramshackle beverage and snack cart located in Tan Binh district in Ho Chi Minh City, 55-year-old Le Thi Yen is the breadwinner of her 5-member family. The vendors eldest son has his own family but the couple, who used to engage in the tourism sector, have been unemployed since the pandemic peak. Meanwhile, Yens youngest son has just entered a university, financially burdening the woman. Yen said her business comes largely from the purchase of students and workers who are limited in spending. In the past, she had a fairly stable business. However, keeping it this way was becoming increasingly difficult. The pandemic greatly dented the pockets of everyone, making it harder for us to maintain the business, Yen said. All spending has depended on me but my income remains unstable due to limited sales. If Im lucky enough, my sales could be about VND1-2 million ($45-90) a day, but the profit is meagre after input costs are excluded. I have lost sleep for many months. Realising that the business was no longer the same as before, and with her health condition also going down, Yen several times thought about online business to expand the customer network, and lessen the time of running back and forth delivering drinks to customers. However, because she did not know much about the technology and how to operate an online food shop, she was afraid to go digital. Moreover, her sons also did not want her to do so, for fear that she may get deceived. In another case, the family restaurant of 62-year-old Le Thi Kim Anh also faced a similar plight. Her family set up a counter and chairs in front of her house in Phu Nhuan district in Ho Chi Minh City, selling traditional Vietnamese dishes such as vermicelli and noodles with different daily menus. Although she has been in business for a long time, Anh has always operated the restaurant in the traditional way, serving dine-in guests only. She prepares food and her daughter helps serve the guests, tidy up, and collect the money. Anh said that during the pandemic peak, her family had to close the shop temporarily, thus meaning great losses of income. Things became even more difficult when the restaurant was reopened but people did not come as expected. Her sales were going down drastically. Like Yens case, Anh and her daughter were afraid to move to an online platform as they had no knowledge about product pricing and how to run business effectively on the apps. We completely dont know how the apps operate and how they can benefit us. Im also quite old, and we have only ever used a phone when it comes to communication, she said. I did try the online food delivery service and found it was very convenient, but when I came up with the idea of signing up to become a merchant of the apps, I didnt know where to start. In order to empower and upskill female entrepreneurs to leverage e-commerce to access new income-earning opportunities and help reduce barriers to socioeconomic growth, in November 2022, Gojek cooperated with the Ho Chi Minh City Womens Union to organise a business skills training course for 200 female micro-merchants, focusing on the topics of financial planning, business management, and how to run an online shop. This is part of the project titled Small shops weather big storms, which is an inclusive initiative launched in 2022 by Gojek to help micro-entrepreneurs improve their livelihoods by going digital. Joining the course, Yen, Anh, and many other food stores owners have been provided with new knowledge, and have gained more confidence to put their products up for sale online. After the training, I realised that my way of running business before was inefficient. This course has helped me know how to take notes and keep track of the business in a methodical and systematic way so that I can manage profits and losses, Yen said. Besides the training, Gojek has also built an online repository of digital and financial tools, which will help tens of thousands of micro-merchants in Vietnam to successfully set up and run a small food business online. Following the completion of the training series, female entrepreneurs can start their own food business on GoFood, Gojeks online food delivery platform, and reach millions of consumers who are transacting on the Gojek app. In addition, Gojek will support these merchants, helping them to accelerate their online business journey through personalised onboarding assistance and exclusive marketing campaigns, as well as favorable incentives. A Gojek representative shared, We have helped tens of thousands of merchants, 90 per cent of which are medium-, small- and micro-ones, to grow their business online. We hope that our efforts to will help them to build more resilient businesses and, in turn, contribute to the resilience of our economy. Gojek shakes hands with MoMo Gojek and MoMo have announced a strategic partnership, integrating the latters wallet on the Gojek app in Vietnam. Gojek launches GoCar XL Protect 7-seater ride-hailing service To further honour its commitment to health and safety, Gojek Vietnam announced the launch of GoCar XL Protect, its new 7-seater ride-hailing service, in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi on May 4. Gojek Vietnam leveraging tech to remove lifes frictions Mobile on-demand platform Gojek has been growing from strength to strength since its inception in Vietnam in 2018, proving its strong position as a growth partner for drivers and merchants. Gojek launches new campaign to support digitalisation for micro-entrepreneurs Gojek, Southeast Asias leading on-demand platform, launched the Small Shops Weather Big Storms campaign in Vietnam on November 1, an inclusive initiative to help micro-entrepreneurs improve their livelihoods by going digital. Vi, who has almost 20 years of experience working in the field of finance and investment credit, discussed credit financing for renewable energy initiatives, including wind and solar, at the event. She said the spectrum of electricity investment in Vietnam could be divided into three categories: foreign investors, Vietnamese corporate entities that can arrange credit with domestic and foreign banks, and businesses that have not yet had the opportunity to arrange capital but wish to. During 20172019, international investors could obtain capital inflows at a cost of around 45 per cent, but Vietnamese firms had to obtain capital from local banks at a cost of 1115 per cent of total capital expenses. Therefore, local investors were pressured to invest much more than their international counterparts. In addition, Vietnamese organisations and businesses continue to need assistance in gaining access to credit, owing to the fact that international banks do not lend to local businesses due to inadequate credit ratings. As a result, to obtain overseas loans, Vietnamese businesses will need to obtain letters of credit guarantee from Vietnamese banks. However, only a few significant businesses in Vietnam are capable of doing so. The majority of surviving businesses will adopt the general contractor structure. With this approach, the majority of general contractors are from China, and they will offer businesses a two- to three-year wait. According to Vi, when projects take around two years to accomplish and the state provides, it is also time for the general contractor to be paid. However, when the feed-in tariff price is not current, there is no money to reimburse the general contractor, which forces them to redirect debts while the enterprise's loans are paid off. Hong Kim Vi, Thailand's Super Energy Group's deputy general director of public relations "Therefore, in the future, we should not assert that foreign companies will dominate Vietnam's electrical sector. Substance determines awareness. We do this without spending any money, and we even employ contractors. If we fail to repay the debt within two to three years, distraction is likely to occur, but is unlikely to dominate," Vi said. Reports show that there is now an interesting trend in the merger and acquisition sector. Instead of exploring and investing in new projects in Vietnam, Vi is concerned that foreign investors from Europe, the United States, and many Asian nations would acquire and sell COD enterprises in Vietnam. "When Vietnamese firms are cash-strapped, this is a wonderful chance. Instead of investing in new enterprises and taking risks, they will purchase at a discount if the price is pressed," she said. Vi said that based on her job experience at Super Energy Group, that a 76-megawatt renewable power plant of this company in Thailand gets paid up to 16 cents per MWh and generates all the country's energy. Similarly, the price of power in Korea is around 9 to 10 cents. Consequently, Vi is afraid that if Vietnam solicits international investors, those investments will be moved to other nations due to the high price of power in Vietnam relative to the opportunity cost. Vi also said that in offline meetings of foreign investors, "they often make fun of Vietnam; why should they purchase power from Laos?" In the meantime, many enterprises in Vietnam want to switch on power but are unable to do so. However, the price of power in Laos is around 6-7 cents, which is a little less than the price of electricity bought in the nation, which is approximately 12 cents. "However, by purchasing power domestically, we are assisting Vietnamese employees in finding employment. Money is still flowing throughout our nation. When investors have surplus funds, they reinvest in the nation. In contrast, if I purchase power from other nations, we export foreign cash and create employment for their citizens," Vi said. She believes that professionals, while calculating and planning, will determine how to make Vietnam's investment climate more appealing, attract investors, and prevent local money from leaving the country. "It is vital to design a strategy that balances the interests of the government, businesses, and the public," she added. Moreover, numerous comments, debates, ideas, and disappointments over the growth of renewable energy were expressed at the conference by numerous experts. The conversation centred on tales of significant blockages in policy procedures and shortcomings in the implementation process, as well as the challenges firms face in gaining access to credit or financing. The 2022 Vietnam Renewable Energy Network by VCCI Transitional initiatives Regarding the pricing concerns of transitional power projects, Phan Cong Tien, a specialist in electricity and renewable energy market research, said that based on the already implemented policy, we should not compare transition projects with feed-in tariff projects. Due to the fact that transition projects will become future projects, there is no possibility to deploy them at present pricing, future projects will not have any investors. According to Tien, the electricity price of power plants relies on two factors: the investment cost, which is the cost of creating the project's asset value, and the electricity production, which varies by area for renewable energy projects. Consequently, the crucial problem is determining how much the value of the invested assets is or if the stakeholders have a solution from which to establish the power price. He suggests that investors employ an independent auditor to establish a project's true asset value. This asset's value will increase concurrently with production based on comparable construction and projections used to compute power costs. Meanwhile, Tran Minh Tien, a representative of the investor in four out of 62 key transition projects, said that the entire capacity of these four projects, 160 MW, valued at approximately $300 million, was completed a few days after October 31, 2022, and has had to be halted ever since. "With this $300 million, we have received no income for almost a year," he said, adding that other investors in 62 projects without a pricing system are in a similar scenario. Tien said that the enterprise's investment capital had been created in large quantities, as occurs when state policy emphasises the production of renewable and clean energy. However, when it comes to execution in the real world, this could be extremely temporary. After the policy expires, there is no longer any funding for unfinished initiatives. In reality, however, this delay is mostly because the pandemic delayed projects. Moreover, as a project using foreign financing, this company said that there were stricter procedural requirements. For instance, clearing and compensating land might be difficult with minimal assistance from the state. Enterprises cannot conceive that the compensation and clearance costs of a project would exceed $4.26 million. In addition, companies have had to pay extra for preservation and security after the project's completion more than a year ago, after it was halted. "I don't know whether the equipment and machinery can work if they continue to sit and idle in the sun," Tien added. Billion-dollar challenge begins to establish a greener Vietnam To follow suit with its previous net-zero carbon commitments and accelerate the energy transition towards green and sustainable sources, Vietnam is now making long-term planning to use public and private finance for the energy transition. Responsive shift required in Vietnams energy policy Despite improvements in energy regulations, coal-generated electricity will persist for many years to come. Dr. Ngo Duc Lam, former deputy head at the Institute of Energy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, explained to VIRs Van Nguyen about the countrys established and ambitious objectives for renewable energy. ACEN continues to bolster renewable energy capacity in Vietnam Filipino power producer ACEN, Ayala groups listed energy platform, continues to strengthen its renewable energy capacity in Vietnam after the company and BIM Group received financing worth $107 million. Officials and mediapersons travel on a mud road through the Amrabad forest on Friday. (Deepak Deshpande/DC) HYDERABAD: The much anticipated Amrabad tiger reserve ecotourism activities are about to start after a gap of over a year, with the objective of providing visitors a memorable and enjoyable experience. The visitors to the Amrabad tiger reserve, one of the largest tiger reserves in the country, will be able to enjoy new facilities, which include eight new safari vehicles and six new mud and tree cottages, starting on January 26. The newly inaugurated mud and tree cottages, in the middle of the natural landscape, give a scenic view of the mountains with fresh air and soothing quiet spaces, a perfect getaway for nature lovers, which can also be combined with a wildlife safari. A general safari which starts at Farhabad gives a sneak peek into the wildlife, which is of about 14 kms, while the tiger safari starting at Gundam, makes an explicit trip of 16 kms to the tiger habitation zone in the reserve. Environment minister A. Indrakaran Reddy officially inaugurated these facilities on Friday at Mannanur in the tiger reserve. At the event, a book titled The Tiger Book of Amrabad Tiger Reserve was released, featuring 26 pictures of tigers that were captured by cameras placed inside the boundaries of the reserve. Apart from the existing 400 cameras, 10 additional CCTV cameras have been installed. Nearly 10 guides from the Chenchu tribal community were felicitated by the minister. We erected the plastic segregation and baling unit to recycle plastic in the reserve area to create a plastic free zone in an effort to support responsible environmental tourism. Additionally, we have set up a health clinic and are promoting employment for local women through a jute bag manufacturing facility, he said. "We want to develop the Chenchu community that supports the growth of wildlife. Initiatives such as the educational programme will help create more awareness in the visitors about the idea of eco-tourism, Rohith Gopidi, Nagarkurnool district forest officer, told Deccan Chronicle. The reserve also has an environmental education centre which gives an interesting insight into wildlife species, the life of Chenchu tribals. The reserve also has a separate theatre room which runs documentary videos on the forest and wildlife. The tourism services can be booked from the website of the tiger reserve, which comes with a number of packages one can choose from. Mobile World Investment JSC (MWG) announced its 2023 business direction last month, identifying positive growth in revenues and profits as the most important goal instead of focusing on increasing the number of new stores, as in the previous two years. MWGs retail chains will only open new stores in areas with strong potential to bring in profits within three months of opening. Although it has not set a specific target for the number of new stores, it will focus on increasing revenue at each, and controlling operating costs to increase profit. Shoppers at a supermarket (Photo: VNA) The corporation is the largest retailer in Vietnam based on size, revenues, and profit, and currently operates three retail chains Mobile World, Dien May Xanh, and Bach Hoa Xanh, with nearly 4,000 stores. However, the retailer has not achieved total success as Bach Hoa Xanh, specialising in fresh food and essential consumer goods in the southern market, is struggling. Last year, the chain was forced to close more than 400 stores. The brand encountered problems with unclear selling prices and questions about product quality, which angered customers and saw profits drop sharply. Meanwhile, Masan Group has not announced a development plan this year, but the local retailer has said it would continue to expand its scale and improve its profit margin by upgrading product quality. WinCommerce is the bright spot in Masans retail system with its outstanding advantage in market share and as the only retail platform that develops supermarket and multi-convenience store models. WinCommerce occupies top position in the Vietnamese market, with approximately half of small supermarkets and convenience stores nationwide. In 2022, WinCommerce opened 477 new Winmart+ stores and four Winmart supermarkets, bringing the number of Winmart and Winmart+ supermarkets to 132 and 3,000, respectively. The development of The CrownX is also a way for Masan to expand its influence in the retail sector. Last year, Masan launched nearly 100 Win Life stores under a new model, integrating products from WinMart, Techcombank, Phuc Long, and Dr. Win, contributing to increasing the monthly revenue of stores under the new model by approximately 20 per cent. The company plans to open more than 1,500 new points of sale, bringing the scale of the whole chain to 5,000 supermarkets and stores in 63 cities and provinces in 2023. If successful, WinCommerce will surpass MWG to become the largest retail platform in Vietnam by the end of this year. Nguyen Thi Phuong, deputy general director of WinCommerce, said, Towards the goal of serving 100 million Vietnamese consumers, we will continue to expand our coverage and develop WinMart+ stores in suburban areas and the Win Life ecosystem in urban areas. Meanwhile AEON, a retailer from Japan famous for its slow and steady strategy, has also begun new changes. First is the standardisation and expansion of the AEON MaxValu supermarket system, followed by the opening of a new compact general merchandise store model and promoting AEON in-house brands manufactured in Vietnam. Our vision is to become an indispensable retailer for local consumers as a Vietnamese enterprise, said AEON Vietnam general director Furusawa Yasuyuki. AEON is also focused on digital transformation, especially through our A-Point system, which integrates with other AEON affiliates and our e-commerce website. By the end of 2022, AEON boasted around 200 stores in Vietnam, including six shopping centres and supermarkets. The company plans to triple the number of trade centres in Vietnam by 2025. Meanwhile, Thai giant Central Retail announced an additional investment of nearly $850 million in the Vietnamese retail market in the 2022-2026 period. Central Retail is pouring in capital to boost sales in Vietnam to $2.8 billion, aiming for an omnichannel business in the food and shopping mall sectors. Central Retail plans to expand points of sale in Vietnam from 40 locations to 55. Contrary to some aggressive expansion plans, South Korean group Lotte has not made any special moves, although in the middle of last year, it declared Vietnam its third-most important market after its home country and Japan. Lotte currently owns 15 shopping centres and Lotte Mart supermarkets in Vietnam, and the group plans to open another Lotte Mall in Hanoi this year. According to the General Statistics Office, retail was one of the industries with the fastest recovery last year, with a growth rate of 10.1 per cent in 2022. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnams retail industry has a market size of $142 billion and is forecast to increase to $350 billion by 2025, contributing 59 per cent of the countrys GDP. Although experts forecast that the economy in 2023 will face many difficulties due to the economic downturn, Vietnams retail market has remained vibrant thanks to income growth, a strong recovery of tourism and related industries, and growth momentum from the consumer demand. Vietnam's retail market to rise by $163.5 billion over next five years The retail market in Vietnam is estimated to increase by $163.5 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 11.4 per cent between 2022 and 2027, according to a report by market research company Technavio. Retail sector exceeds pre-pandemic performance A recent survey of retail businesses by Vietnam Report revealed that about 54 per cent of all retail enterprises reported business performance equalling to or exceeding pre-pandemic results. Sembcorp has made significant progress by growing its industrial property portfolio. How can its achievements be assessed? Charles Chong, head of Sembcorp Development in Vietnam Since Sembcorp started Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) in 1996, we have diversified our industrial property portfolio. With VSIP, we pioneered the integrated township and industrial park concept. In 2022, Sembcorp launched a new smart and sustainable VSIP and obtained a licence for our 12th VSIP, to be developed in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. Sembcorp has also completed ready-built warehouses in Haiphong city and Hai Duong province, both in the north. We are working with Vietnam in its industrialisation and urbanisation journey. We are proud that our projects have brought us closer to the Vietnamese people by generating good employment opportunities, catalysing growth in provinces, establishing communities in new places, and taking care of the disadvantaged in our communities. In 2022, Sembcorp started its first modern ready-built warehouse in the central province of Quang Ngai. Why did you choose this location for this key project? We strive to expand our industrial portfolio across Vietnam with a clear vision to provide manufacturers with quality properties in strategic locations. We already established VSIP Quang Ngai in 2013. We have taken a decisive step to become an early mover in modern warehouse development in Quang Ngai because we believe there is demand. Manufacturers are increasingly moving into Central Vietnam to set up their production bases, as public infrastructures and connectivity have become much improved. Pro-investment government policies are also serving as attractive incentives. In general, Central Vietnam is becoming a competitive region for manufacturing funding. Agreements have been signed with partners to build and operate a rooftop solar solution in Sembcorp Logistics Park. How does this development align with your solutions for renewable energy in Vietnam? We signed an MoU with Vietnam-Singapore Smart Energy Solutions. It seeks to deliver economic and environmental benefits to customers through the provision of rooftop solar solutions. It is also a subsidiary of Sembcorp, established to operate solar energy infrastructure to support our industrial properties. While Vietnam continues to record strong overseas investment inflow for manufacturing and processing, industrialisation should proceed with sustainable energy sources, which are required for companies competitiveness and brand reputation. Sembcorps rooftop energy solutions help manufacturers both international and local to operate green factories and warehouses with clear economic and environmental benefits such as lower electricity tariff and lower carbon footprint, which enables them to meet environmental, social, and governance goals. Vietnam has committed to be net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. How can Sembcorp contribute to this ambitious strategy? As governments all worldwide make pledges to reach net-zero carbon emissions, we should expect regulations to follow requiring companies to reduce their carbon footprint. This is a structural change that offers Sembcorp opportunities to offer our solutions for more sustainable development. Sembcorp is focused on delivering innovative solutions that support the energy transition and sustainable development. Early in 2022, we announced new smart and sustainable industrial parks when we launched VSIP Binh Duong III, which will also apply to all new VSIPs. The new modern ready-built warehouses in Quang Ngai and Nghe An provinces are sustainable warehouse buildings that take reference to building standards from Vietnams Green Building Council. Sembcorp is also making good progress in solar rooftops for industrial properties in Vietnam, with 93MW gross capacity installed and under development. These solutions are intended to support Vietnams growth in a sustainable way. Increasingly, governments and businesses are looking for greener solutions to support sustainable development. They expect to work with like-minded providers like Sembcorp that have a proven track record in robust urban solutions. After more than two decades, Sembcorp has developed 11 VSIPs from north to south in Vietnam, generating $17 billion of investment and creating more than 300,000 employment opportunities. As part of the groups strategy to transform its portfolio from brown to green, Sembcorp is scaling up investment as part of Vietnams National Climate Change Strategy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Sembcorp Industries pioneers in ready-built warehouses in central Vietnam Sembcorp Industries celebrates another milestone as it opens its newest warehouse facility in Quang Ngai, making Sembcorp the pioneer in modern ready-built warehouses in central Vietnam. Sembcorp set to break ground on first ready-built warehouse in Central Vietnam Located in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in Quang Ngai province (VSIP Quang Ngai), Sembcorp Logistics Park is the first ready-built warehouse to provide modern warehousing spaces, promoting operational efficiency and supply chain resilience. A student accused of slashing an officer with scissors during a search at China Spring High School remained in jail Friday on several charges related to the incident and drug possession, as well as a warrant from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. China Spring Independent School District police Wednesday arrested Robert Jesus Hernandez, 17, of China Spring, on charges of first-degree felony assaulting an officer, two lesser felony drug possession and delivery charges, and resisting a search, according to affidavits. His bail was set at $37,000 for the local charges, and he was being held without bail on the state charges, which have not been specified. The incident began when a China Spring ISD officer saw Hernandez pass a vape pen to another student and took him to the vice principals office to search him for more contraband in the presence of China Spring ISD Police Chief Shanna Sanders, the affidavit says. Hernandez grabbed a pair of scissors from the VPs desk and slashed (the officer) on the left hand, the affidavit says. (The officer) and Chief Sanders were able to subdue Hernandez. Sanders and the injured officer wrestled Hernandez into double-locked handcuffs, the affidavit says. Two other officers arrived and the four conducted a search of Hernandez, finding four full marijuana vape oil containers of 1 gram each, and an additional partially used container of the same type, the affidavit says. Officers also found $400 cash, suspected to be proceeds from sales of marijuana vape oil to fellow students, the affidavit says. American Medical Response treated the injured officer. Another officer took Hernandez for booking at McLennan County Jail, where he remained Friday. Being without high-speed internet service has become akin to desertion on a desert island. That in mind, the Texas Comptroller's Office prepared a map showing where broadband service is good, lacking or nonexistent, giving state officials data they need for funding decisions. McLennan County, generally speaking, is holding its own. For McLennan County, the Texas Broadband Development Map shows 81,280 locations served by broadband, while 7,441 locations are underserved. The map shows only one location in the county without broadband service, but it is not specifically identified. It also includes areas where providers did not submit data. Comptroller's Office spokesperson Chris Bryan said "locations" on the map refer to residences and buildings, or possibly clusters thereof. A broader view of the map reveals high-speed availability concentrated within the heart of McLennan County, including Waco and its environs, while areas bordering Hill, Limestone, Bell and Coryell counties are underserved. The map defines a served location as one where maximum available internet speed is greater than or equal to 100 megabits per second for downloads and 20 megabits per second for uploads. An underserved location is one where maximum speed is between 25 and 100 Mbps for uploads, and between 3 and 20 Mbps per second for downloads. The map shows the speeds of available connections. It does not show whether a connection of a given speed is actually in use. Speeds the map defines as underserved meet the Federal Communication Commission's definition of broadband. "The FCC's current definition of high-speed internet as 25/3 mbps is becoming rapidly obsolete," Comptroller Glenn Hegar said in a press release. "One of the things we learned talking to stakeholders around the state last year was that to be truly competitive, communities need internet that is faster than the FCC's definition of high-speed broadband." Hegar said for that reason, the Comptroller's Office designed the map to show coverage at various speeds, including overlays that reflect the changes. "We also heard that reliability was a constant concern for certain types of technology, so we want to show stakeholders and lawmakers what type of technology is available in their areas. This functionality will be crucial as lawmakers and the BDO work to prioritize funding in the coming year." BDO is the Texas Broadband Development Office. McLennan County Commissioners Court recognizes the importance of broadband service, County Administrator Dustin Chapman said. He said commissioners asked the county's grant consultant, TLC Engineering, of Houston, to look into grant availability for broadband projects. "They should be making a presentation to court in February about a variety of projects," Chapman said by email. He said neither commissioners nor County Judge Scott Felton have said how much they want to spend. "Judge views this a communitywide issue, and the county will look at potentially partnering with other entities," Chapman said. The Waco-based Texas Farm Bureau also views broadband as a priority, spokesperson Gary Joiner said. "Expanding broadband and cellular access to provide more opportunity in rural areas is a Texas Farm Bureau priority for both the 88th Texas Legislature and the first session of the 118th Congress," Joiner said. With grant money at stake, the Texas Comptroller's Office said it pursued data the federal government and Texas Legislature could rely on. "For this initial batch of data, we leaned heavily on coverage information provided by ISPs (internet service providers), and we followed federal guidance for speed and eligibility," Hegar said in the press release. "However, the ISP advertised speeds submitted to us don't necessarily match test speeds on the ground, which is a prime example of the types of flaws that are now more apparent in the federal mapping process and in the definition of broadband services. "This is most apparent when you review the speed range layer of the map and see significant areas of the state ineligible for funding under state law, but that clearly have insufficient high-speed broadband service to be competitive in today's modern world." He said the state used a definition of high-speed internet that mirrors the FCC's definition, but his office realizes the speeds are inadequate in some areas. "That's why we are committed to regularly updating the state map. "There will be multiple opportunities to challenge the accuracy of the data, and I encourage the public, stakeholders and legislators, as well as service providers and other vendors, to engage with us," Hegar wrote. The federal infrastructure act that passed last year includes $65 billion for broadband projects, with funding available to communities that qualify. State Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, whose district includes much of Waco, said he plans to meet next week with the Comptroller's Office to talk specifics. He said information provided by ISPs "is oftentimes notoriously unreliable. Someone may say southeast McLennan County is served, but it is far from it. The Comptroller's Office is getting initial information out there, and hopefully customers will call and efforts will be made to update the map." Anderson said movement should come this session on a bill he authored, and which the Legislature passed, that expedites broadband installation by using existing lines and power poles, "and through fibers not being used." A movement known as the Convention of States (COS) has been gaining traction across the country. The movement seeks to bring delegates from all 50 states to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution by invoking Article V. Nineteen states have passed legislation approving such a convention, and an additional 21 have active bills in their legislatures. While the movements goals are noble, its ends dont justify the means. Fortunately, Edmund Burkes brand of conservatism can lend some valuable insights on achieving similar goals, albeit in a pragmatic and piecemeal fashion. Burkes conservative philosophy can essentially be summed up in one sentence: All change is not change for the better; proceed with caution. According to Burke, our approach to human affairs should be done with mistrust to both a priori reasoning and revolution (revolution meaning abruptness), and that we ought to put our trust in experience and in the gradual improvement of tried and tested arrangements. Pragmatism and incrementalism should reign supreme. The COS and its unconventional approach are antithetical to Burkean conservatism. Traditional conservatism prizes slow, gradual and step-by-step changes. The COS movement eyes the abrupt and expedient route, which could result in unforeseen consequences. Conservatives are not stuck with the COS option. Today, 200 years after Burkes death, his method remains a helpful guide to changing our cherished Constitution. Our republic, with its democratic institutions of checks and balances, is, by its very nature, meant to be slow and deliberate. People often gripe and moan about how checks and balances result in nothing getting done, but they ensure prudent decisions. For a policy or amendment to become law, it should have to pass through the gauntlet of democratic guardrails. This is especially true of a proposed amendment to the Constitution, given that it will affect all 330 million citizens. If friction arises, then the policy or amendment should go back to the drawing board, meaning more deliberation and further compromise. Careful consideration of such proposals guarantees that one side wont get more than the other, which is especially important in todays partisan political environment. Changes will be gradual as opposed to sweeping. Further, a tried-and-true Burkean avenue to amending the Constitution already exists. Article V, the article that allows for the calling of a convention, provides that an amendment to the Constitution can be made only if approved by two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and three-quarters of state legislatures. Thirty-four states are needed to call a convention, but 38 states are needed to pass proposed amendments at the convention. These 38 states would represent the three-quarters of legislatures required, so the two-thirds of Congress needed is an added layer of deliberation and pragmatism that Burkean conservatism advocates. Also of importance is todays hyper-partisan era. If states called a constitutional convention today, delegates would push for their respective partisan desires. Proposed amendments should be indicative of moderation, not partisanship. Expedited and partisan measures do not align with traditional conservatisms pragmatic and piecemeal ways. At the end of the day, the COS movement has valid and legitimate reasons for wanting to invoke a constitutional convention. Unelected bureaucrats run amok in Washington, trashing our values and trampling our constitutional rights. However, the movements desire to invoke Article V of the Constitution is the nuclear option, which should be done only in the case of a runaway government. For now, the Burkean path of deliberation and compromise leading to gradual and incremental change represents the best way forward. 50 Years Ago (Jan. 18, 1972) Tom Potter has been hired as a deputy sheriff, according to Sheriff Joe Divis this week. He replaces Dale Hradec, who quit last month. Potter, a lieutenant on the North Bend Police Department before coming to Wahoo, was also with the reserve police in a Fremont for one year, and has had experience in police work. 25 Years Ago (Jan. 15, 1998) By a vote of 6-1 in favor, the Saunders County Board of Supervisors approved spending funds to prepare a proposal for the states new prison. The vote came Tuesday after several weeks of discussing the project. The Saunders County Prison Site Selection Committee has estimated it could cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to prepare the proposal. Within that proposal will be the stipulation that the new prison would be located on ARDC land in the southeast corner of Section 32 the county subject to the Board of Regents approval. Prior to the vote, the board discussed a letter from the Lower Platte North Natural Resources District. In that letter the possibility of a rural water district to include a prison site was mentioned. LPNNRD Board Chair Dave Shelso wrote that the district is willing to commit to the leadership and formation of a rural water district for the site with the following conditions: 1. Section 32-14N-9E of the county is chosen for the prison by the state. 2. The rural water district will be funded entirely by grants and user fees (the state) on a break-even basis. The site currently in question is different than the site previously discussed as a potential prison location. The committee had previously discussed Section 17 of the county. Now the land in question is in Section 32 and located on the southeast corner of the University of Nebraskas land near Highway 63. This new location would give access to a highway, eliminating the need for extensive road construction, and still allow for the required buffer zone around the prison. These new developments were all discussed by the board before they made their decision. Because of the LPNNRDs commitment and the possibility of a rural water district, this would alleviate some of the cost to the county. The remaining cost to the county, should the prison locate there, would be approximately $1 to $2 million for a sewer system. The board discussed ways to finance that amount through the use of revenue bonds. Revenue bonds are issued for projects such as sewer systems. The bonds are then paid back through user fees by the investor, in this case the state. Dan Duncan, director of the ARDC where the land is located, spoke to the board about his position toward the new site and where the university stands on the land transfer issue. He restated that the university has told the prison committee a recommendation will be made to the Board of Regents regarding the transfer of land only if the county board agrees to provide funding for the infrastructure needed at the site. I have no idea what will happen at the Regents, Duncan said. Decisions are made after either lengthy discussion or one minute. Yutan has received word from the state that they have been proclaimed a city of the second class. During a special meeting Monday night, the village board accepted the proclamation from the Secretary of State reorganizing Yutan from a village to a city of second class. Last October, Yutan annexed Sanitary Improvement District No. 2, also known as the Timbercrest subdivision. That increased the official population to 1,064, enough to qualify to be a city of the second class. A mayor and a city council. The board passed Ordinance 543, determining the city will be divided into two wards with the boundary being Second Street. Two council members will be elected from each ward, for a total of four council members. A mayor will be elected from the entire town In May, Yutan will elect the council members and mayor. Until then, the village board will remain in place. Joe Koenig will be a part of that village board until the May election. He was named to the board to replace Bruce Cate, who resigned recently. 10 Years Ago (Jan. 17, 2013) A tort claim, filed against the Lower Platte Natural Resources District has been denied. The board of directors voted unanimously Monday afternoon to deny the claim filed against the district by the parents of Bayden Martinez. Martinez drowned last June in the spillway structure of the Lake Wanahoo dam. The 11-year old boy from Wahoo had disappeared the evening before his body was found and was believed to have gone fishing unaccompanied in the area below the dam. The drowning reportedly came about after Martinez was sucked into a concrete pipe. In September, Raul Martinez and Danelle Rush filed a $1 million claim against the NRD, claiming the district failed to warn the public of a dangerous condition in the spillway. The NRD had the option of accepting the claim, denying or doing nothing. If no response came for six months, the parents had the right to file a lawsuit against the NRD In September, the boys parents also filed a lawsuit against Lake Wanahoo project engineers, Olsson Associates. A downtown Wahoo property owner has 90-days to abate a building declared unsafe. The Wahoo City Council determined Jan. 11 the building at 539 North Broadway was unsafe and a public nuisance in its present condition based on five defects. Property owners Gaylord and Deyo Anderson were given 90 days to complete the remedies of the situation. The city council ruled defects making it unsafe were exterior conditions that allow water to get into the basement of the building; several doors and windows are inoperable and back fire escape stairs not securely attached to the building; loose plaster and flooring due to water damage; mold and damp conditions in basement; and utility connections that have been disconnected for an extended period of time. The ruling was based on testimony by Building Inspector Travis Beavers, former Mayor Jerry Johnson and City Administrator Melissa Harrell. The remedies prescribed included guttering on the west side of the building, repairs to parepets, grading and sloping of ground away from building, removing mold and moldy furniture from basement and replacing water damaged ceilings and floors. Gaylord Anderson did not dispute that guttering and grading was needed at the building. But he pointed out to the council that some of the work that the city wanted had already been started, including repairs to the roof, west wall and fire escape. He said repairs to the roof were also completed and a recent rain produced no moisture inside of the up- stairs apartments. Anderson pointed out that some of the doors were inoperable only because they were nailed shut to keep out a former tenant that still had a key and that the boards could easily be removed. Weve been trying to do what we can with the amount of time and finances we have available, Anderson added. Several City Council members pressed Anderson that if the standard 90 days was not adequate to provide an alternative. Anderson said, before the utilities had been turned off several years ago, he had someone living in the upstairs apartments that was to complete some of the repairs, but didnt. He also pointed out that his work will take him out of town in the coming month and he would not be able to stay focused on the project. After hearing that first contact about the building was made with Anderson in February 2010, City Council Member Mike Lawver said it was probably time to start working toward remediation on a time frame. Youre here tonight saying you dont want a 90-day window, but yet its been almost three years, he said. How long do you let it go? Beavers confirmed that Anderson has addressed some of the issues at the building. Beavers added that a major issue with the moisture damage inside of the building, especially in the basement, is that the building shares a common wall with the building next to it. The council voted four to one to declare the building unsafe and give the property owner 90 days to complete the remedy list. Council Member Kevin Dunbar said he voted no because he thought Anderson should get some credit for the work that has already been completed. NORFOLK A number of scholarships are available to high school seniors with Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company (NNTC) services at home thanks to the Foundation for Rural Service (FRS). The FRS is the non-profit arm of the National Rural Broadband Association (NTCA). The NTCA is a national membership association with the goal of improving communication services, like broadband, in rural America by advocating for rural providers in Washington, D.C. Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company is a proud supporting member of both organizations. NNTC supports the FRS mission by assisting in providing scholarship opportunities to customers. To be eligible for a scholarship through the FRS with NNTC as a sponsoring company, the applicant must: Be a 2023 graduating high school senior Be a U.S. citizen Have NNTC phone, TV and/or internet at home Have been accepted by a two or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school Have a GPA of at least 2.0 Express an interest in returning to a rural community after graduation The value of the scholarships range from $500-$7,000, based on a variety of criteria. One application qualifies a student for all available FRS scholarships. Since 1994, the FRS has awarded more than $1.5 million in scholarships to over 700 students. Past NNTC recipients include: 2022 Taya Schmaderer (Stuart Public Schools) of Stuart $2,500 2019 Elsie Magwire (Boyd County Public Schools) of Spencer $2,500 2016 Gage Gibney (North Bend Central) of Morse Bluff, $2,500 2016 Jaden Schafer (Stuart Public Schools) of Stuart, $2,500 Information and instructions on how to apply can be found on NNTCs website: www.nntc.net under About Us. Applications are due online by Feb. 8. Scholarship recipients will be announced in May. An Omaha man serving a life sentence at the Nebraska State Penitentiary was sentenced to an additional three to four years after getting caught in prison with a shiv. Lancaster County District Judge Kevin McManaman sentenced 43-year-old Phillip Figures on Thursday for possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person. He pleaded guilty. "I just want to get this over with, your honor," he told the judge, appearing by video. Prosecutors said prison staff discovered the handcrafted, bladed weapon Oct. 5, 2021. Defense attorney Kyle Flentje argued for a concurrent sentence, saying Figures already is serving a life sentence, accepted responsibility quickly and entered a plea quickly, not wanting to waste anyone's time. McManaman said no violence resulted, but a weapon like that is capable of it, he said. "The folks that live there, the folks that come to work there, they need to be safe and secure," he said before sentencing Figures to the top end for the charge. According to court records, Figures received a life sentence for first-degree murder, plus 40 to 50 years for use of a firearm to commit a felony in the killing of Fredrick Green in Omaha on July 15, 2018. At trial, the state alleged that Figures ordered another man to kill Green to ensure that Green wouldn't snitch to the police after he caught the two men trying to burglarize his house. The jury found him guilty. PhotoFiles: The blizzard of 1948-49 in Nebraska Only way out Ghost Town Delivering Milk Pattern in the snow Cattle Graze Finding the chicken coop Lending a hand Stranded Locomotives Snow covered windmill The owner of a Lincoln business who failed to pay payroll taxes for a decade was sentenced for it Thursday in U.S. District Court. Christopher Weaver, a 49-year-old Hallam man, is the owner of Structural Enterprises Inc. (SEi), which is in the business of construction, contracting and heavy machinery rentals. In 2021, Weaver was indicted on 32 counts of the willful failure to pay the tax. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a single count as part of a plea deal. In court Thursday, Weaver said briefly: "I did as much as I could to remedy the situation that I got myself into." His attorney, Bob Creager, said Weaver since has gotten caught up with the IRS, paying more than $8 million he and his business owed since 2010, even though he only could be charged for 2015-2020 because of the statute of limitations. "We know that everything is paid, all the way back beyond the statute, both sides, penalty, interest, everything," Creager said. He argued Weaver should get a reduced sentence for his extraordinary efforts to make things right. Creager said while you can't ignore your tax obligations for 10 years, especially if you happen to be a big, successful company where payroll taxes get into the millions, people also should get credit for taking responsibility. He said after the mother of Weaver's daughter died, Weaver ignored a lot of things that he shouldn't have and got behind. It got to the point where Weaver knew he was in trouble for not paying and thought paying at that point would get him in trouble. "The worse it got, the worse it got. Until, here we are," Creager said. But, he said, in his 45 years practicing he's never seen anyone take responsibility the way Weaver did. He kept the money in a trust account and had the records and had all the payroll tax obligations paid before he was indicted. Then he started dealing with the corporate responsibility and paid the penalties and interest, he said. "Mr. Weaver's not a bad person," Creager said. "He just is a hardworking man who made a mistake. Did the best to fix it." On the other side, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Packard argued for a two-year prison sentence, saying Weaver got credit for his efforts to pay restitution as part of the deal, which dismissed 31 counts and capped his exposure at two years' incarceration. Packard said the defense argument that going to prison could impact Weaver's employees was almost offensive given that for 10 years Weaver took taxes from their paychecks and failed to pay it to the IRS for their benefit. "In this case, the real victims here were his employees," Packard said. U.S. District Judge John Gerrard said Nebraska has been seeing a load of these cases recently. Some where the funds have been used for nefarious purposes. Or where it has gone on for years. "There does have to be punishment in a case like this," he said. "You can't just not pay taxes for 10 years and expect to walk away." In Weaver's case, he said, there were problems at home and Weaver buried his head in the sand. But he didn't spend the money and since has paid it back, the judge said. All past taxes, interest and penalties beyond the statute of limitations. More than $8 million in all. Gerrard sentenced Weaver to a 12-month split sentence, with six months of community confinement and six months' home detention with electronic monitoring and recommended work release. And he fined him $10,000. What's coming from your wallet in the Lincoln area: See the breakdown here Ag Society Ag Society JPA City of Lincoln Jail JPA city and jail JPA county Lancaster County LPS Public Building Commission Railroad Safety Transportation District SCC Police and fire pensions LPS 1999 bond 2006 LPS bond 2014 LPS bond LPS Capital Purpose Fund Sarpy County is investing $5.3 million into an industrial park near the Nebraska Crossing outlet mall to spur development along the Interstate 80 corridor. The Board of Commissioners approved an interlocal agreement committing to the project, which also includes the City of Gretna, Heimes Group LLC and Sanitary and Improvement District 364 at the countys Jan. 10 board meeting. The county will spend $5.3 million upfront but projects a net final cost of $2.9 million to taxpayers once the site is fully developed. The investment will pay to improve Platteview Road from Nebraska 31 east to 210th Street. Heimes, a construction contractor, is working on about 58 acres northwest of 214th Street and Platteview Road within the City of Gretnas zoning jurisdiction, while the county controls Platteview Road east of Nebraska 31. Brian Diedrichsen, managing principal of real estate with NewStreet Properties, which is part of the development team, told the board that grading is complete and that a building should start going vertical soon. This project should handle 2 million square feet of industrial development, Diedrichsen said. Currently, we have, in theory, four buildings planned. The first to be built would be a 400,000-square-foot industrial building, with foundations being put in around May. The building would be finished by early 2024. Diedrichsen said that theyre pursuing three opportunities for who would ultimately move into the space. A roughly 25-acre site on the property is under contract to be sold to a user with a similar construction schedule, Diedrichsen said. Their first phase would be about 100,000 square feet, finishing construction around mid-2024. Diedrichsen said he expects the first building to be about $35 million in investment with a total project investment once all buildings are erected of around $150 million to $200 million. The countys existing plans already call for $3 million in the current fiscal year and $8 million next fiscal year for Platteview Road improvements, allowing the county to make further investments in planning and design of the expressway in addition to the Gretna Logistics Park spending. Platteview Road is a two-lane corridor, which doesnt really accommodate development, Deputy County Administrator Scott Bovick told the board. Three lanes, that have been flattened out, are planned for the area given the proposed development. Top Journal Star photos for January 2023 The TTD officials have also lodged a complaint with the police over the drone videos of the prohibited area circulating widely. (Representational Photo:AFP) ANANTAPUR: Drone visuals capturing the prohibited fly zone of Tirumala temple went viral on social media while the TTD authorities have called for a detailed enquiry by the vigilance wing. The TTD officials have also lodged a complaint with the police over the drone videos of the prohibited area circulating widely. The vigilance wing of the TTD has sent the alleged drone videos to the forensic lab even as there are no chances of using drone cameras in the prohibited fly zones. The entire hill temple is under 24x7 CC cameras surveillance. Reportedly, a person shared the video on instagram two days back and circulated it on other social media platforms. Based on preliminary reports, TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy observed that a Hyderabad-based social media group was found responsible for this highly condemnable mischief. There is no chance to shoot videos through drone cameras in Ananda Nilayam premises as per Agama Shastra. It is suspected that still pictures were used to make the video and present it as an original shoot, Reddy said. The chairman said that stringent action would be taken against all those involved in making and circulating the videos. TTD's chief vigilance and security officer D. Narasimha Kishore said that there was no chance of such drone camera visuals since the entire temple is under a high-security zone. Tirumala police had registered a case based on a complaint by the TTD authorities. CHARLES CITY U.S. Marshals have arrested an Arizona man on suspicion of murder in Charles City, according to a press release from the Tuscon Police Department. On Friday morning, members of the U.S. Marshals Service and the Charles City Police Department located 23-year-old Trevontea Howard-Brown at a residence. Howard-Brown reportedly barricaded himself into the residence, but was taken into custody and booked into the Floyd County Jail on a first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder charge. He is currently awaiting extradition back to Arizona. Howard-Brown was wanted for murder in a killing that took place near the University of Arizona campus in Tuscon on April 28. At approximately 2 a.m. that day, police found Harrison Weber, 24, with gunshot trauma along with a second victim, a 21-year-old man, after an officer was flagged down near the university regarding a shooting. Harrison Weber died at the scene. It is believed the shooting arose after a confrontation between Howard-Brown and the victims. Howard-Brown was identified as a suspect but went on the run, eluding law enforcement for nearly nine months. The Tucson Police Department sincerely appreciates the assistance of the US Marshals Service Tucson Fugitive Task Force, US Marshals Service Northern Iowa Fugitive Task Force, and the Charles City Police Department as well as the Tucson community and our local media partners, the release said. WAVERLY The Waverly Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors recently presented one local church with a Progress Awards and also held ribbon cuttings for two new businesses, presenting them with First Dollar Awards. The Ambassadors presented Trinity United Methodist Church at 1400 W. Bremer Ave. with a Progress Award to celebrate their current pastor, Kwang Song, who was appointed to pastor the church in July 2022. He attended seminary in Chicago, Illinois, and served the Korean United Methodist Church in Iowa City prior to serving in Waverly. You can find more information about the church on their website, www.trinitywaverly.org. The Ambassadors presented Nick Graham, owner of the Red Fox Hotel and Event Center, with a First Dollar Award and a ribbon cutting celebrating the opening of the business at 1900 Heritage Way. Graham purchased the building and renovated it from top to bottom. For more information or to reserve a hotel room, please visit their website at www.redfoxwaverly.com. The Ambassadors presented a First Dollar Award and held a ribbon cutting for the Waverly Market, located at 123 E. Bremer Ave. Tim and Rebecca Lalk received the award for the business they have been operating as a makers market for small businesses to rent space since November. For more information, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087570633839. The Waverly Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors Program serves as a public relations arm of the Waverly Chamber by welcoming new businesses, recognizing business expansion efforts, and recruiting new members to the organization. For more information, please contact the Waverly Chamber of Commerce at (319) 352-4526 or waverly@waverlychamber.com. RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany Ukraine will have to wait longer to find out if it will get advanced German-made battle tanks. A dispute over sending the tanks from Western allies to help Ukraine against Russia's invasion played out both in public and private on Friday, as more than 50 defense leaders meeting in Germany failed to hammer out an agreement stalled by Berlin's hesitation. Failure to reach agreement on what has become an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders largely overshadowed commitments from a number of nations including the U.S. to send billions of dollars in equipment and weapons to the war effort. While U.S. and NATO leaders denied any dissension in the ranks and praised Germany for its widespread weapons and training contributions to Ukraine, a smaller group of leaders met privately with the Germans to try to find common ground. They were unable to forge a consensus on sending the German-made Leopard tanks. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said Friday that 15 countries that have the Leopards discussed the issue but no decisions were made. He called the meeting a "good discussion among allies" and said the matter would be discussed again at future talks. Germany would need to agree for the tanks to be given to Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO. Despite pleas from Ukrainian officials, Germany so far has resisted mounting pressure to quickly supply Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv, or at least clear the way for other countries to deliver them from their own stocks. Asked at the close of the Friday meeting whether Germany was "doing enough," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin responded, "Yes, but we can all do more." "They are a reliable ally and they've been that way for a very, very long time," he said. "And I truly believe that they'll continue to be a reliable ally going forward." Austin also downplayed the immediate importance of tanks, noting the U.S. Stryker combat vehicles and Bradley armored vehicles that are being sent would give Ukraine new capabilities in the war. "This isn't really about one single platform," he said. The defense leaders heard an impassioned plea for more military aid from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Speaking via video link, he told the gathering that "terror does not allow for discussion." He added, "the war started by Russia does not allow delays." Germany acknowledged there had been no resolution. But, speaking to reporters outside the conference hall, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, "We will make our decisions as soon as possible." Pistorius said he had ordered the ministry to look into Germany's tank stocks so he can be prepared for a possible green light and be able to "act immediately." He added that Germany will "balance all the pros and contras before we decide things like that. I am very sure that there will be a decision in the short term but I don't know how the decision will look." The issue, however, has grown increasingly complicated. The U.S. has resisted providing its own M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing extensive and complex maintenance and logistical challenges with the high-tech vehicles. Washington believes it would be more productive to send German Leopards, since many allies have them and Ukrainian troops would need less training than on the more difficult Abrams. U.S. and German officials have given mixed signals about whether the U.S. and German decisions are linked. A U.S. official familiar with White House thinking said Germany has expressed hesitance to providing its tanks unless the U.S. sends Abrams. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private Biden administration deliberations, added that there was some bewilderment in the administration over the German position, since Britain, another NATO ally, already agreed to provide Challenger 2 tanks. Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesman for the German government, denied that Berlin has demanded that the U.S. supply Abrams tanks alongside any shipment of Leopards. Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman said deployment of Western tanks would trigger "unambiguously negative" consequences. "All these tanks will require both maintenance and repairs, and so on, so (sending them) will add to Ukraine's problems, but will not change anything with regard to the Russian side achieving its goals," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a media briefing. Russia claimed Friday to have captured a village in eastern Ukraine as part of its monthslong push toward the city of Bakhmut. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the village of Klishchiivka, five miles south of Bakhmut, had been liberated. The claim couldn't be independently verified, and Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment. Taking Klishchiivka would be a minor breakthrough, but the Kremlin is hungry for good news after months of setbacks. Bakhmut would be a bigger prize that could allow Russia to disrupt Ukrainian supply lines in the east and threaten other Ukrainian-held cities. However, U.S. officials have begun to nudge the Ukrainians to shift focus away from Bakhmut and focus on preparation for an offensive in the south, according to an official familiar with the views of President Joe Biden's administration. SIEM REAP, Cambodia A group of 15 Ukrainian deminers just finished a week of training in Cambodia, where experts who have cleared minefields from one of the world's most contaminated countries shared their expertise with the relative newcomers to the dangerous job. Cambodia is still strewn with mines from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998, while the problem in Ukraine is a new one since Russia invaded last year. Ukrainian deminer Stanislav Kulykiusky said that his team was grateful for the training, saying that at home already 64 deminers had been injured and 13 killed in the line of duty. "It is a very difficult situation," he said. The NGO Landmine Monitor in its 2022 report listed both Cambodia and Ukraine among the nine countries with "massive" mine contamination, meaning they had more than 38.6 square miles of uncleared fields. Kulykiusky said the main challenge for Ukrainian deminers is the scale of the job but it is critical to ensure all mines are removed before people return to villages and farms. "This is a precondition of the recovery," he said. Cambodian deminers are among the world's most experienced, and several thousand have been sent in the past decade under United Nations auspices to work in Africa and the Middle East. The team of Ukrainians trained at different sites this past week, learning to use an advanced Japanese mine detector known as the Advanced Landmine Imaging System. Developed at Tohoku University, the hand-held device consists of a metal detector with an integrated ground-penetrating radar that can help deminers detect and identify buried mines. On Friday, the group visited a museum dedicated to explaining the different landmines and unexploded munitions found in Cambodia, then took part in practical training at a site nearby. On Saturday, the Ukrainians had a day off of training to visit Cambodia's famous Angkor Wat temple complex before returning home. The training will continue, however, with regular video conference calls, and a team of three to five Cambodian experts will travel to Poland in April to train more Ukrainians, said Oum Phumro, deputy secretary general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center, the government agency that oversees the clearing of landmines and unexploded ordnance in the country. He said Cambodia also was giving Ukraine experienced sniffer dogs and training them on how to use the dogs to detect mines. "Our deminers have experience clearing mines for about 30 years and we have trained many countries," he said. "Today we are proud that we are training Ukrainian deminers." Photos: Scenes from Kyiv helicopter crash that killed 18 The Biden administration has touted the return of diplomacy while failing to meaningfully deliver on this tenet in many ways. Instead of speaking softly while carrying a big stick, as former President Teddy Roosevelt sought to do, President Joe Biden and his administration speak harshly against our adversaries while failing to follow through with the necessary hard actions. Call it Biden's big "schtick diplomacy. Ironically, the administrations mostly risk-averse approach serves only to heighten risks for Americans and other freedom-loving people worldwide. Because of this less-than-satisfactory strategy and performance, Biden gets a "D" on his foreign policy approach and execution. His administration prioritizes avoiding potential negative consequences over aggressively pursuing positive outcomes for America and her interests. As a result, the country passes the halfway point of Biden's four-year term ill-prepared to face myriad threats. This includes a militarized, ambitious and malicious China. It includes the likelihood of a protracted proxy war in Ukraine, and Iran and North Koreas increasing nuclear threat. Such unstable footing is unsurprising for an administration that took 629 days to release its national security strategy. It now has little time to waste attempting to execute its well-written but diffuse focus. It is a strategy that accurately paints a world betwixt autocracy and democracy but fails to realistically assess the current stagnation of U.S. power abroad and attempts to prioritize everything, which means a focus on nothing. Moreover, whatever blueprint exists for follow-through is likely to be disrupted by a new Republican-controlled Congress and its commitment to investigate the catastrophic and cataclysmic Afghanistan withdrawal, which resulted in the death of 13 service members and many Afghan civilians. Already, Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, submitted a 10-page letter broadcasting the intent to probe every aspect of the withdrawal. So the administration will be forced to litigate the past rather than address the present and future demands. Other blunders, such as the failed Iran nuclear deal pronounced dead by Biden himself, do not project confidence to our allies (or to American citizens) that Biden is capable of achieving his goals (or that his goals are in line with Americas interests). As Iran poses a significant threat in the region, it will be incumbent on the administration to reassess its approach and chart a new course. We face problems closer to home as well. With record-high illegal border crossings, topping more than 2.7 million in 2022, the complex issue of immigration can no longer be ignored by an administration that initially attempted to paint those focused on border security as extreme. Besides the influx of people causing destabilization, fentanyl is flowing into our communities. Biden performance is completely failing yet. Japan and other Indo-Pacific relationships are solidifying and strengthening partnerships that will be critical during the necessary pivot to China as the greatest threat to America. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is more united than ever, and parts of western Europe seem finally to be taking stock of their responsibility for security. Sweden and Finland are applying for NATO membership. Yet these security shifts are just as likely due to our allies recognition of declining American power and the subsequent vacuum as they are the current leadership. Perhaps symbolic of this is Germanys recent abnegation of its promise to raise military spending to at least 2% of its economic output, a promise made early last year in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. So when all is said and done, President Bidens foreign policy report card from the last two years represents a dangerous trajectory. If his administration changed its focus to effectively position America to meet the rising threats to her power and stability in the next two years, he might hope for a higher grade by 2024. The job of any president includes many roles, but guarding the safety and security of the republic is paramount. If Biden fails this course, America and her interests are at risk. This is a failure that cannot be tolerated. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation. In Kupyansk direction, aviation and artillery of the Western Military District (WMD) have hit units of the 103rd Territorial Defence Brigade near Berestovoye (Kharkov region). More than 35 Ukrainian servicemen, 1 armoured fighting vehicle and 2 motor vehicles have been destroyed. In addition, 1 AFU artillery munition warehouse has been destroyed near Olshana (Kharkov region). In Krasniy Liman direction, artillery fire from the Central Military District (CMD) has hit units of the 111th Territorial Defence Brigade near Torskoye and Terny (Donetsk Peoples Republic). More than 20 Ukrainian servicemen, 1 infantry fighting vehicle, 1 D-20 howitzer, and 1 U.S.-manufactured AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar station have been destroyed. In Donetsk direction, volunteers of assault detachments, supported by Operational-Tactical and Army Aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Southern Military District, have liberated Dvurechye (Donetsk Peoples Republic). The AFU suffered up to 50 servicemen killed and wounded, 2 armoured combat vehicles, 3 pickup trucks and 2 D-20 and D-30 howitzers. In addition, 1 warehouse of the AFU artillery munition has been destroyed near Vodyanoye (Donetsk Peoples Republic), and 1 U.S.-manufactured AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar station has been destroyed near Malinovka. In Zaporozhye direction, as a result of the offensive actions, units of the Eastern Military District (EMD) have taken more advantageous lines and positions. More than 30 fighters, 2 armoured fighting vehicles, 2 pickup trucks, 1 Akatsia self-propelled howitzer and 1 D-20 howitzer have been destroyed during the day. Operational and Tactical Aviation, Missile Troops and artillery of groups of troops (forces) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have neutralised the command post of the 36th Separate Rifle Battalion of Territorial Defence near Kotlyarovka (Donetsk Peoples Republic), as well as 67 artillery units at firing positions, manpower and military equipment in 95 areas. Fighter Aviation of Russian Aerospace Forces has shot down 1 Su-24 airplane of Ukrainian Air Force near Vladimirovka (Donetsk Peoples Republic). 1 Mi-8 helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force has been shot down by anti-aircraft defence forces near Lozovaya (Kharkov region). Also during the day, 14 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been destroyed near Kovalyovka, Kremennaya, Naugolnoye, Novovodyannoye, Ploshchanka, Nezhurino, Zmiyovka, Chervonopopovka (Lugansk Peoples Republic), and Novokazankovatoye (Zaporozhye region) and Blagodatnoye (Donetsk Peoples Republic). In addition, 3 HIMARS and Uragan multiple-launch rocket systems, and 1 HARM anti-radar missile have been intercepted near Vasilyovka and Grozovoye (Zaporozhye region). In total, 375 airplanes and 203 helicopters, 2,922 unmanned aerial vehicles, 401 air defence missile systems, 7,589 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 985 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS, 3,883 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 8,128 special military motor vehicles have been destroyed during the special military operation. #MoD #Russia #Ukraine #report @mod_russia_en WtR We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form The process of fixing meters to the farm connections would begin in Srikakulam district and later be taken up by the rest of the districts. The entire expenditure on fixing meters would be borne by the state government. (File Photo: PTI) Visakhapatnam: The three-day public hearing conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC), which was presided over and conducted by C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, concluded on Saturday. Reading out the government statement at the public hearing, deputy energy secretary B.A.V.P. Kumar Reddy said state power distribution companies were also among the power companies with the lowest distribution losses. However, the state power companies were facing high fixed charge debts to the tune of Rs 84,183 crore and losses over Rs 29,928 crore, Reddy said. Under these conditions, the government was taking steps to reduce losses, ensure quality power to consumers, and provide free power to some sections. He also took measures to purchase power at reduced rates and resort to good governance while implementing central and state government schemes. Regarding the fixing of meters to the agricultural connections, Reddy said the state government launched free nine hour power to the farmers in the financial year 2021-2022 and decided to fix meters to all the connections. The process of fixing meters to the farm connections would begin in Srikakulam district and later be taken up by the rest of the districts. The entire expenditure on fixing meters would be borne by the state government. Similarly, in order to modernise the power supply process and reduce transmission losses, the central government sanctioned Rs 13,404 crore, which includes the fixing of smart meters and training the personnel in the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS). The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science has partnered with technology juggernaut Meta. The museums board of trustees held a special meeting Friday to address the collaboration. The board voted unanimously to approve Metas proposal to grant the company the naming rights for the Space Sciences wing of the museum, including the planetarium, for a period of five years. In return, Meta which owns Facebook and Instagram will provide the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Foundation with a $300,000 grant, which will go toward expanding educational programming. The funds will be recorded in the foundations current fiscal year, and the contract and term are now in effect. Theyve been great partners, both the Department of Cultural Affairs and the museum team, so were really excited, said David Williams, community development manager at Meta. The board also approved offering free museum admission for one month per year for all Valencia County residents during the same five-year period. Los Lunas the county seat of Valencia County houses Metas data center. The campus currently employs 250 people and the site supports 1,100 construction workers through the building process. After completion, Williams said that Meta anticipates 400 on-site jobs to be filled. This is our home, Williams said. We really want this community to thrive and see our education partners and small businesses excel. The process to strengthen a connection between the museum and Valencia County residents has been in the works since 2021. Meta had partnered with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science for environmental education programs and received great feedback from Valencia County teachers and students. The company primarily focuses its connection with the county on technology and elevating STEM education, and wants to continue to expand the communitys access to resources. We had conversations with the museum staff about how to continue to leverage these types of opportunities, Williams explained. This focus of sponsored classroom supported field trips to the museum for students who especially may not otherwise have an opportunity to go have that immersive experience. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science aims to disperse the grant money in order to better the overall museum experience. The museums executive director, Anthony Fiorillo, said that roughly half of it is going to go to execute the education outreach component. Theres somewhere around 53 schools in Valencia County that will be impacted, and well be doing some programming there and bringing those constituents here, he said. Fiorillo added, Then theres another part of it that will be dedicated to the actual space sciences area, some upgrades there. The funding will help bring more contemporary updates to the exhibits and planetarium programs, including a plan to purchase at least one new show per year for the duration of the five-year agreement. The museum will be able to accommodate future exhibitions better, as well as connect to more research. With this expansion, the overall experience for visitors and community outreach remain priorities for the museum. With Meta, that relationship gives us some resources to start to deliver to another county, Fiorillo said. We hope this is just the first step of many. Both Meta and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science hope the museums reach can keep expanding beyond Bernalillo and Valencia counties. One of the things that weve also included as part of our partnership are our new tools and virtual reality programs for the museum to be able to get out to some of our more rural communities as part of their mission in education, Williams said. We here have the mindset and appreciation that this museum is the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science were here to serve the entire state, Fiorillo added. I dont think we could have asked for a more ideal partner in this. I think Meta and this museum are very well-aligned on this and whatever future developments may be ahead. At grocery stores around the state, colorful displays of salsas, chiles, spice mixes, chips and other products made in New Mexico beckon shoppers to buy local. And one Albuquerque-based, family-owned business is proud to be instrumental in that. We really nurtured and developed all the sales for local products, Debi Bartucci, president of Statewide Products, told the Journal. Were going to take credit for that. The nearly 55-year-old wholesale food distributor buys snack foods such as cookies, pretzels and jerky from manufacturers, and sells them to grocery stores. In addition to physically placing items on store shelves, the company runs in-store demonstrations and other promotions to build awareness for the brands it represents. Its not just getting the product and putting it on the shelf. Thats not how we do our business, Bartucci said. We take a complete look at the market, and then we advise people. Statewide Products is a resource for the food manufacturers it works with, helping with pricing, testing, certification, or label design if needed, said Zane Van Winkle, chief financial officer of the company. Founded in 1968, the business started when Joe Smith, Bartuccis father and Van Winkles grandfather, brought Pepperidge Farms brand cookies to stores in New Mexico. In the beginning, the company focused on specialty brands. But, in the 90s, as larger master distributors took over those lines, Statewide Products moved into snack foods and then local items, Bartucci said. We have to change, Bartucci said. As our business changes and grocery store needs change, we have to change with it. The reason weve been successful, I think, is that we adapt. When it comes to local, Statewide Products started with just a couple of items from a handful of such brands as Sadies of New Mexico and Chile Grande. As those products gained popularity, and other restaurants and manufacturers in the state wanted to be in area stores, Statewide Products changed its approach. Instead of pitching individual local brands to stores and vying for shelf space for each of them, the company began presenting several brands together as a local products program. Sales increased and stores created sections specifically for local goods. As more manufacturers started making multiple products, Bartucci said Statewide Products was able to grow and grow. Local business is huge (and it) makes millions of dollars in sales now, Bartucci said of the niche her familys company helped create. Why do you think local has been successful and youve seen such growth? Bartucci: In New Mexico, food is such a part of our culture that consumers want local products. They want to support their local community. I mean, its just kind of a movement now. I think that consumers really demand local products, and it continues to grow. It grows double digits almost every single year. Why was it difficult to get that started? Bartucci: We had to convince the grocery stores that local products were a viable category. When youre a smaller manufacturer, or distributor, you have to be very tenacious. And you have to prove your worth, really. How did you prove your worth? Bartucci: Based on sales. Im very analytical with sales data. You have to sell your program. Its with anything, you have to be a salesperson. What are some of the key moments in the companys history? Bartucci: I would think one of our key moments was when we became a Synders (of Hanover) distributor. Why was that a key moment? Bartucci: That was really when we changed from being specialty to snack food. It just really changed the whole profile and direction of our company. When you look at what category youre servicing, you dont want to service so many categories that youre all over the store because thats not efficient. So that allowed us to expand in the chip or salty food snack category. We kind of moved in that direction and thats really been our direction since the mid-90s. Whats on the horizon for Statewide Products? Van Winkle: Were actively looking to expand the territories that we can provide service to. Were hoping to begin servicing some accounts out of state. Were looking to expand the local New Mexico section to our bordering states and see if we can get traction in those areas. Were always looking for ways to provide better service to our accounts, looking for new high-quality manufacturers to partner with and bring to the market. We have a growing e-commerce channel that is actually open to the public so, no matter where they are away from New Mexico, they can go online and purchase their favorite New Mexico-made food products. And we plan to keep growing that. New hires for an organization. Helping Native American artisans get their work on e-commerce sites. Those are just some of the areas in which small businesses organizations are planning to use federal money they received through the Omnibus Appropriations Agreement for fiscal year 2023. At a Wednesday press conference, Sen. Martin Heinrich announced $774,000 for small business organizations including WESST, the New Mexico Minority Business Development Agency Business Center and the New Mexico Small Business Development Center to help with small business development, particularly in underserved communities. Each of these awards is important, but what its really about is its growing our economy in the state to fully take advantage of all the talent that we have, of all the entrepreneurship that we have and grow those to their potential, Heinrich said. And then our entire state really reaps the rewards of that. WESST, an organization that aids in business incubation, consulting, training and access to capital, received the largest slice of the federal funding, including $233,000 for the hiring of bilingual business trainers for a new center in Hobbs; $80,000 to hire a project manager for the organizations Money Learning Lab; and $78,000 for a statewide director for its craft entrepreneurship initiatives. Agnes Noonan, the president of WESST, said at Wednesdays news conference that the money will help with the organizations efforts in southeastern New Mexico. The demographics of Hobbs have changed incredibly, Noonan said. There are many native speaking Spanish speakers who are looking for help, and we intend to provide it. The New Mexico Minority Business Development Agency Business Center, led by Gabriela Marques, received $200,000 to hire two full-time business advisers. The New Mexico Small Business Development Center received $125,000 to help Native American business owners create their own e-commerce sites, and $58,000 for entrepreneurship training for incarcerated individuals. Russell Wyrick, the state director for the NMSBDC, said it was the second consecutive fiscal year the organization had received federal funding for its initiatives. This e-commerce project funded for both fiscal years will help these artisans receive true value for their work rather than having to sell it at a super discounted (rate) and not reap the benefits, Wyrick said. SWAT team officers who were responding to a call about a 45-year-old man armed with a gun in the South Valley on Monday found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the house. Jayme Fuller, a spokeswoman for the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office, said around noon on Jan. 16 deputies were called to the 600 block of Nowicki SW, near 2nd and Valley High SW. Upon arrival, deputies contacted a male and female subject as they exited the residence and advised their son was armed with a gun, Fuller said. Deputies learned at least one round was fired inside the house and confirmed charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Fuller said the initial round had been fired before deputies arrived. They set up a perimeter, began announcements for him to exit and called in the SWAT team and the Crisis Negotiation Team. The male subject refused to comply, and chemical munitions were introduced into the home, Fuller said. After hours of attempts to gain compliance, New Mexico State Police deployed a drone into the residence and discovered the male subject unresponsive. She said around 8 p.m. the SWAT teams medical personnel entered the house and declared the man dead. The Office of the Medical Investigator determined he had shot himself. The Multi-Agency Task Force is investigating the incident. Copyright 2023 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Just two days before he was arrested for his alleged role in a string of shootings targeting Democratic elected officials homes, Solomon Pena was elected to a leadership position within the Republican Party of Bernalillo County. But a state Republican Party spokesman said Friday that efforts were underway to remove Pena as both a county party ward chairman and GOP State Central Committee member. Such an effort could require a full vote of county party insiders, however, if Pena does not agree to step down. He was elected, and I wish our rules allowed us to fire him but they dont, said Janice Arnold-Jones, a former state legislator and Albuquerque city councilor. Several top county party officials this week declined to answer Journal phone calls and emails about the matter, including county party chairman John Rockwell. But Arnold-Jones confirmed Pena was elected as a ward chair at the county partys biennial convention that took place Jan. 14. He was one of about 25 ward chairs elected, though a full list had not yet been posted on the county partys website as of Friday. Ward chairs are elected for two-year terms and typically help organize party efforts within a designated area. In Penas case, he was unopposed and the ward he was elected to represent covers a heavily Democratic area in Albuquerques South Valley. While county party officials have been tight-lipped about the situation, the county party posted a statement on its website saying it was deeply troubled by the reports of Penas criminal charges. The Republican Party of Bernalillo County does not endorse or condone such acts of violence, the statement says. Mr. Penas actions do not reflect the heart or attitude of the Republican Party toward our neighbors, and we are relieved that no one was injured. Pena, who ran for a state House seat last year, was arrested Monday by Albuquerque police officers after a SWAT team swarmed his condominium complex. Authorities allege he was the mastermind in a string of drive-by shootings over the course of a month that targeted the homes of Bernalillo County Commissioners Adriann Barboa and Debbie OMalley, new House Speaker Javier Martinez and state Sen. Linda Lopez. No one was injured in the incidents, but in one of the reported shootings bullets pierced the bedroom where Lopezs 10-year-old daughter was sleeping. The case has drawn national attention in recent days, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called the alleged crimes a despicable act of political violence in her State of the State Address on Tuesday. Asked to resign The state Republican Party issued a statement after Penas arrest saying he should be held accountable if the charges against him are validated in court, but party officials had largely deferred to county party leaders until Friday about Penas recent election as ward chairman. A GOP spokeswoman said Friday that Rockwell had confirmed to state party officials the process to remove Pena as both a ward chairman and GOP State Central Committee member had been initiated, though she did not provide details. Republican Party spokeswoman Ash Soular also said Rockwell had affirmed that Pena would not serve in either position. Arnold-Jones said Friday county party officials had asked Pena through his attorney to resign, but had not yet received an answer. If Pena declines to resign voluntarily from his position, the Republican Party of Bernalillo County would have to call for a new meeting to remove him, Arnold-Jones said. Structurally, its an issue theres no doubt about it, Arnold-Jones told the Journal. Penas attorney did not immediately respond Friday to questions about whether Pena would relinquish his ward chairman position. Pena jailed pending hearing Pena is currently in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center, after a Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court judge ruled this week he would be held pending a detention hearing. Prosecutors in the case are seeking to have Pena detained until trial on several counts each of shooting at a dwelling or building, shooting at or from a motor vehicle, being a felon in possession of a firearm and conspiracy, among other charges. Albuquerque Police Department officials have also said the agency is investigating potential illegal activity regarding Penas campaign contributions during his bid for the state House District 14 seat last year. Pena lost the race to incumbent Democratic Rep. Miguel P. Garcia by a landslide, but later said on social media he believed the election was rigged. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Raul Torrezs office also confirmed it has opened an investigation into Penas campaign donations and whether such contributions might be connected to criminal activity. The office has assigned both prosecutors and investigators to this matter who will work in collaboration with our state and federal law enforcement partners, Attorney Generals Office spokeswoman Lauren Rodriguez said. Before running for office last year, Pena served nearly seven years in prison after being convicted in 2008 of stealing large amounts of goods from several Albuquerque retail stores. But he had completed his sentence and a five-year probation period before deciding to enter the political arena. The TD spokesperson and former Pithapuram MLA SVSN Varma said the government employees approached the state governor and sought a law on timely payment of salaries. By Arrangement KAKINADA: The opposition Telugu Desam has urged the Union Government to declare a financial emergency in Andhra Pradesh, saying the government is so stressed it is not in a position to pay salaries and pensions of government employees. The TD spokesperson and former Pithapuram MLA SVSN Varma said the government employees approached the state governor and sought a law on timely payment of salaries. It is proven that chief minister Jagan Reddy is unable to run the government and the state and even the common fund and Provident Funds are being diverted to feed the welfare schemes. He said a financial emergency should be declared to save the state. Government employees were not able to celebrate the Sankranti festival with their relatives and family members happily, due to non-payment of their salaries. The TD spokesperson said that while as chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu had given 42 per cent fitment to the employees. TD would render its support to employees to press their issues. The state government diverted Rsss500 crore of the funds to other heads, he said. TD state organising secretaryVanamadi Venkateswara Rao said Jagan Reddy plunged the state into deep debts and he was not able to create wealth, but spent funds lavishly without thinking of the state's position. Copyright 2023 Albuquerque Journal COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have declined in recent weeks and the University of New Mexico Childrens Hospital is under its licensed capacity for the first time in months. The decline in respiratory illnesses is welcome news for hospitals. Rooms for children in New Mexico hospitals have been in high demand since late October due to a surge in COVID, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. Dr. Anna Duran, chief associate medical officer of the UNM Childrens Hospital, said this week the hospital was operating at about 85% to 90% of its licensed capacity. The hospital recently hosted a 14-member National Disaster Medical System team that was dispatched to help care for an influx of sick children. Things are definitely settling down, Duran said. From a capacity standpoint, its nice to have some breathing room. There were still hospitals throughout the state that had no available childrens beds on Thursday. But, overall, there were 126 various types of beds for children available in New Mexico, according to Health Department data. Duran said hospital officials are monitoring human metapneumovirus, a common respiratory virus that is spreading in the state. Meanwhile, COVID cases are also on the decline. During the week ending Jan. 16, the New Mexico Department of Health reported 1,252 new COVID cases. During that same time, 73 people with COVID were admitted to hospitals throughout the state. That marked a 47% decline in cases from the week ending Dec. 19. A total of 113 people with COVID were admitted to hospitals the week ending Dec. 19. New Mexico on Thursday reported five more COVID-related deaths, pushing the statewide toll to 8,907 since the start of the pandemic. New Mexico is experiencing a downward trend in the number of cases as determined by laboratory test results following the winter holidays, Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokeswoman for the Health Department, said in an email. However, these case counts do not include home testing results for which we have no data and individuals with very mild cases of COVID-19 may forego any testing. Detectives were called to a fatal shooting in Southeast Albuquerque early Saturday morning and, hours later, a persons body found in a field on the West Side. Both incidents are being investigated as homicides. Chase Jewell, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said officers were called around 4 a.m. to a shooting near Dallas and Bell SE, south of Zuni. Officers located one individual who had succumbed to a gunshot wound on scene, Jewell said. Then, Saturday afternoon, another call-out. Gilbert Gallegos, another APD spokesman, said officers were called sometimes before 3:45 p.m. to reports of a body in a field northwest of the Flying J Travel Center on 98th Street, south of Interstate 40. No other information was immediately provided. Instagram Celebrity The Scary Spice was left embarrassed when the Duke of Cambridge pinned her MBE medal on her chest while she was wearing a dress with a 'big slit' across the cleavage. Jan 21, 2023 AceShowbiz - Melanie Brown was left red-faced when meeting Prince William while wearing a revealing dress. The Spice Girls star, 47, received an MBE from the Prince of Wales - who was at that time known as The Duke of Cambridge prior to the death of Queen Elizabeth - at Buckingham Palace last year for her charity work for vulnerable women as a patron for Women's Aid but recalled her surprise when he pinned the medal onto her chest because she was wearing a dress designed by her former bandmate Victoria Beckham which had a "big slit" across the cleavage. "It was quite embarrassing, actually, because I didn't realize the medal actually goes here on your chest. And Victoria [Beckham] designed my dress, mine and my mum's dress for the occasion. And she put a big slit right there. I was like, 'Oh, sorry.' I think she knew! She did a number on me!" she said when speaking on "Live with Kelly and Ryan". Victoria Beckham At the time, the "Say You'll Be There" hitmaker - who accused her ex-husband Stephen Belafonte of being abusive when they split in 2017 - admitted it was even more "amazing" because she was receiving the honour as Melanie Brown and not Scary Spice. She explained, "I felt like it was the most incredible day of my life. It felt amazing that it was me, Melanie Brown, a working-class girl from Leeds, and not Mel B the Spice Girl who had received the award." Mel added how important it was for her to use her "loud voice" to shine a spotlight on her fellow survivors of domestic abuse. She added, "The MBE was for all women and especially for my late dad, because I promised him on his deathbed that I would leave my husband, and if it wasn't for that I wouldn't be here now." "It's all about making something terrible into something positive and about women supporting other women. I have got a loud voice; so many women suffer in silence and it's an honour for me to be their voice." You can share this post! Instagram Music James Hetfield and his bandmates are determined to 'communicate about the darkness we feel inside' with their latest single from upcoming album '72 Seasons'. Jan 21, 2023 AceShowbiz - Metallica address "the taboo word suicide" with their new single. The heavy metal band have just released "Screaming Suicide", the second single from their upcoming album "72 Seasons", and they've also explained the ambition behind the track. "The intention is to communicate about the darkness we feel inside. It's ridiculous to think we should deny that we have these thoughts. At one point or another, I believe most people have thought about it. To face it is to speak the unspoken. If it's a human experience, we should be able to talk about it. You are not alone," they said in a statement. The band's new album will be released in April, and frontman James Hetfield previously explained their inspiration behind "72 Seasons". The 59-year-old star said, "The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told 'who we are' by our parents." "A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry." Metallica previously announced plans for a huge tour in 2023 and 2024. The "Enter Sandman" rockers will embark on the mammoth tour in support of their new album, which will see them play two shows in each city with different setlists. The jaunt spans 2023 and 2024, and is due to kick off in Amsterdam on April 27. You can share this post! Netflix Celebrity Prior to this, an old interview of the Big Cat Rescue CEO resurfaced online, featuring the animal rights activist revealing that her husband is alive and well in Costa Rica. Jan 21, 2023 AceShowbiz - The family of Carole Baskin's "dead" husband has broken silence amid claim that Jack "Don" Lewis, who is long presumed dead after his disappearance in 1997, is "alive and well" in Costa Rica. In a statement on Friday, January 20, Don's daughters accused Carole of lying. "It's simply not true," the daughters declared to The Post. They also claimed that the "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness" star, who was accused of murdering Don, manipulated a letter seen on Netflix's "Tiger King 2" to create "a different narrative" about Don's disappearance. The statement arrived after an old interview of Carole resurfaced online. In her 2021 interview with ITV's "This Morning" talk show, the 61-year-old animal rights activist revealed that her husband is alive and well in the country. "One of the really exciting things that came out of 'Tiger King 2' is that they produced a letter from Homeland Security and it says that a special agent in charge with the FBI at Homeland Security reached out to the sheriff's detective George (Jorge) Fernandez, which means this had to have happened after 2002, because Homeland Security wasn't even around until 2002," she told the outlet at the time. The Big Cat Rescue CEO continued, "They said my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and well in Costa Rica. And yet all of this drama has been made about me having something to do with his disappearance, when Homeland Security has known where he is." Don disappeared without trace from his Tampa, Florida home at the age of 59 in August 1997. He was declared legally dead in 2002 and would be 84 if he's still alive today. Also denying the claim was Joe Exotic, who believed that Carole killed her husband. "Don Lewis is NOT alive," he said in a comment underneath The Shade Room's Instagram post. Internet users were also skeptical with Carole's claims. Some Internet users were also skeptical. "If homeland security found him, I'm sure they would have made some sort of statement. Especially considering how big this show was," one person commented. "Key words to pay attention to 'She announced.' Nawl now. Let Don speak for himself," one other said, with someone trolling Carole, "So he hates u sooo bad he faked his death to run away & be with the Prostitutas in Costa Rica." You can share this post! Music Aside from 'ATLANTIS', the Ohio rapper's fifth studio album boasts other 24 songs and features guest appearances from the likes of Future, Lil Baby, Juice WRLD and Travis Scott among others. Jan 21, 2023 AceShowbiz - Trippie Redd just released a new album titled "MANSION MUSIK". To celebrate the Friday, January 20 release, the Canton-born rapper treated fans to a music video for one of its tracks, "ATLANTIS" ft. Chief Keef. The Nolan Riddle-directed clip finds Trippie, born Michael Lamar White II, delivering his bars underneath dark skies. The 23-year-old then joins his collaborator rapping his own verse in a room full of graffiti. "Chillin' in a mansion/ Crib with expansion/ All my diamonds dancin' (Yeah), my crib look like Atlantis/ Pull up outstandin', know we livin' lavish," Trippie spits in the opening. "I cannot panic, went and bought a Patek/ Up like a spaceship, you up like a attic/ Up my race, like I'm off a Addy." Chief, meanwhile, offers steamy lines. "My lil' b***h got wet, wet, my other b***h got wetter/ Put my watch next to that p***y to see which one was wetter/ Let off fifty, that's a massacre, let off fifty then skrrt/ Way before I was a soldier, I was puttin' in leg work." Aside from "ATLANTIS", Trippie's fifth studio album boasts other 24 songs. The project also features guest appearances from Future, Lil Baby, Juice WRLD, Travis Scott (II), Nardo Wick, BIG30, LUCKI, Rich the Kid, Summrs, Fijimacintosh, Rylo Rodriguez, Ski Mask the Slump God, G Herbo (Lil Herb), Rob49, DaBaby, Lil B and Kodak Black. "MANSION MUSIK" is a follow-up to Trippie's 2021 album, "Trip at Knight". The complete edition of the record contains "Betrayal" ft. Drake, "Holy Smokes" ft. Lil Uzi Vert as well as "Danny Phantom" with the late XXXTentacion. You can share this post! Instagram Movie While regretting the way she portrayed her cheerleader character in the 2000 movie, the actress hasn't given up hope for a sequel despite the project being in development 'forever.' Jan 21, 2023 AceShowbiz - Gabrielle Union is still developing a "Bring It On" sequel. The 50-year-old actress starred as cheerleader Isis, the leader of cheer team The Clovers, in the 2000 movie "Bring It On" and Gabrielle has revealed that she wants to bring The Clovers back to the big screen with their own story. "We've been developing a sequel forever. But for folks who don't exactly understand how long development can take in Hollywood, that could be five minutes or 50 years," she explained to Variety. Gabrielle previously revealed that she and her fellow Clovers - R&B girl group Blaque members Shamari Fears DeVoe, Brandi Williams, and the late Natina Reed - were asked to return to shoot additional scenes after test audiences requested more screen time for them. She said, "Story time. So we shot these snippets after the movie wrapped because once test audiences saw the movie, they wanted more of the Clovers. We shot these only for the trailer, not for the movie to make people think we were in the movie more than we were. The end." And, she admitted to having regrets about how she portrayed her character. She said, "I was given full reign to do whatever I wanted with Isis in 'Bring It On', and I chose respectability and to be classy and take the high road because I felt like that would make her be appropriate - the right kind of Black girl." "Black girls aren't allowed to be angry - certainly not demonstratively angry - and I muzzled her. I need to come to grips and acknowledge where I failed Isis. When given full control, I made her 'appropriate.' I would have read the Toros for filth, as well as allowed her to be angry and allowed her her full humanity. Part of being a full human is the ability to express rage when harmed." The movie, directed by Peyton Reed, follows Toro cheer captain Torrance Shipman (Kirsten Dunst) of Rancho Carne High who learns that the former captain of her squad had been stealing routines from the Clovers, a rival cheer team from East Compton. You can share this post! The inquiry concerned a complaint made on 25 May, 2018 by a German data subject about the WhatsApp service. In advance of 25 May 2018, the date on which the GDPR came into operation, WhatsApp Ireland updated its Terms of Service, and informed users that if they wished to continue to have access to the WhatsApp service following the introduction of the GDPR, existing (and new) users were asked to click agree and continue to indicate their acceptance of the updated Terms of Service. (The services would not be accessible if users declined to do so). WhatsApp Ireland considered that, on accepting the updated Terms of Service, a contract was entered into between WhatsApp Ireland and the user. It also took the position that the processing of users data in connection with the delivery of its service was necessary for the performance of that contract, to include the provision of service improvement and security features, so that such processing operations were lawful by reference to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR (the contract legal basis for processing). The complainant contended that, contrary to WhatsApp Irelands stated position, WhatsApp Ireland was in fact seeking to rely on consent to provide a lawful basis for its processing of users data. They argued that, by making the accessibility of its services conditional on users accepting the updated Terms of Service, WhatsApp Ireland was in fact forcing them to consent to the processing of their personal data for service improvement and security. The complainant argued that this was in breach of the GDPR. Following a comprehensive investigation, the DPC prepared a draft decision and submitted it to its peer regulators in the EU/EEA, also known as Concerned Supervisory Authorities (CSAs) in accordance with Article 60 GDPR. Notably, the DPC found that: 1.In breach of its obligations in relation to transparency, information in relation to the legal basis relied on by WhatsApp Ireland was not clearly outlined to users, with the result that users had insufficient clarity as to what processing operations were being carried out on their personal data, for what purpose(s), and by reference to which of the six legal bases identified in Article 6 of the GDPR. The DPC considered that a lack of transparency on such fundamental matters contravened Articles 12 and 13(1)(c) of the GDPR. The DPC, having already imposed a very substantial fine of 225 million on WhatsApp Ireland for breaches of this and other transparency obligations over the same period of time, did not propose the imposition of any further fine or corrective measures, having done so already in a previous inquiry. All 47 CSAs agreed with this element of the DPCs draft decision. 1.In circumstances where the DPC found that WhatsApp Ireland did not, in fact, rely on users consent as providing a lawful basis for its processing of their personal data, the forced consent aspect of the complaints could not be sustained. From there, the DPC went on to consider whether WhatsApp Ireland was obliged to rely on consent as its legal basis in connection with the delivery of the service, including for service improvement and security purposes. Here, the DPC found that WhatsApp Ireland was not required to rely on consent. No CSA raised an objection to this analysis and, accordingly, this element of the complaint has been rejected. The German Supervisory Authority with which the complaint was originally lodged is now responsible for adopting a separate decision for those parts that have been rejected and notifying it to the complainant and informing WhatsApp Ireland in accordance with Article 60(9) GDPR. The DPC went on to consider whether, in principle, the GDPR precluded WhatsApp Irelands reliance on the contract legal basis it asserted and concluded it was not precluded. Six of the 47 CSAs raised objections and took the view that WhatsApp Ireland should not be permitted to rely on the contract legal basis on the basis that the delivery of service improvement and security could not be said to be necessary to perform the core elements of what was said to be a much more limited form of contract. The DPC disagreed, reflecting its view that the WhatsApp service includes, and indeed appears to be premised on, the provision of a service that includes service improvement and security. In the view of the DPC, this reality is central to the bargain struck between users and their chosen service provider, and forms part of the contract concluded at the point at which users accept the Terms of Service. Having engaged with the CSAs, it became clear that a consensus could not be reached. Consistent with its obligations under Article 60(4) GDPR, the DPC then referred the matters in dispute to the European Data Protection Board (the EDPB). The EDPB adopted its determination on 5 December 2022. The EDPB determination rejected a number of objections raised by the CSAs. They also upheld the DPCs position in relation to the breach by WhatsApp Ireland of its transparency obligations, subject only to the insertion of an additional breach (of the Article 5(1)(a) fairness principle). However, the EDPB took a different view to the DPC on the legal basis question, finding that, as a matter of principle, WhatsApp Ireland was not entitled to rely on the contract legal basis as providing a lawful basis for its processing of personal data for the purposes of service improvement and security. The final decision adopted by the DPC on 12 January 2023 reflects the EDPBs binding determination, as set out above. Accordingly, the DPCs decision includes findings that WhatsApp Ireland is not entitled to rely on the contract legal basis for the delivery of service improvement and security (excluding what the EDPB terms as IT security) for the WhatsApp service, and that its processing of this data to-date, in purported reliance on the contract legal basis, amounts to a contravention of Article 6(1) of the GDPR. In terms of sanctions, and in light of this additional infringement of the GDPR, the DPC has imposed an administrative fine of 5.5 million on WhatsApp Ireland, and ordered that WhatsApp Ireland must bring its processing operations into compliance with the GDPR within a period of 6 months. Separately, the EDPB has also purported to direct the DPC to conduct a fresh investigation that would span all of WhatsApp IEs processing operations in its service in order to determine if it processes special categories of personal data (Article 9 GDPR), processes data for the purposes of behavioural advertising, for marketing purposes, as well as for the provision of metrics to third parties and the exchange of data with affiliated companies for the purposes of service improvements, and in order to determine if it complies with the relevant obligations under the GDPR. The DPCs decision naturally does not include reference to fresh investigations of all WhatsApp data processing operations that were directed by the EDPB in its binding determination. The EDPB does not have a general supervision role akin to national courts in respect of national independent authorities and it is not open to the EDPB to instruct and direct an authority to engage in open-ended and speculative investigation. The direction is then problematic in jurisdictional terms, and does not appear consistent with the structure of the cooperation and consistency arrangements laid down by the GDPR. To the extent that the direction may involve an overreach on the part of the EDPB, the DPC considers it appropriate that it would bring an action for annulment before the Court of Justice of the European Union in order to seek the setting aside of the EDPBs direction. The Good Creator Co. hosted the second episode of Actors Circle, a show that empowers and enables creators to make it to the big screen, featuring actor Aparshakti Khurana. Held on January 15 at All Saints Mumbai, the show was hosted by Malini Agarwal aka MissMalini, Co-founder, The Good Creator Co., with an audience of 10 enthusiastic creators from the industry. For each episode of Actors Circle, MissMalini invites 10-15 young creators to join her, learn the ropes, ask questions and create fun content while interviewing the celebrity guest. The goal of the show is to empower and enable creators to make the leap to the big screen and live their Bollywood dream. Malini Agarwal, Co-founder, The Good Creator Co, said, It gives me great joy to present an event this exciting and interesting with actors like the versatile Aparshakti Khurana this time. Encouraging the influencers through unique and fun filled interactive sessions is something I love being a part of. Aparshakti Khurana, Actor added, Actor's Circle is a fantastic idea and a special technique to motivate the aspiring influencers to enter the world of big screen entertainment. Collaborating with MissMalini was enjoyable. She has motivated the influencer community and influenced a great deal of individuals. wishing to continue motivating and igniting the flames of brilliance throughout the nation. The event was a roaring success with an engaging lineup of conversations, featuring an unfiltered interview with Aparshakti Khurana, an epic discussion about his journey, and some quick fun games. There is something wrong with a regime that requires a pyramid of corpses every few years. George Orwell We have the receipts: New York Times headlines from the 1930s prove the left has always made promises of progress, but only delivered death. Do you ever feel like youre seeing history repeat itself and yet you cannot wake people up to the danger? This can be maddening at times, especially when you look back at records from the period before WWII, and you see the same themes, propaganda, and lies. Meanwhile, the fascist far-left the party of projection keeps up with their constant barrage of BS. They must do this because deception is the only way they can attain power. Dividing people by sowing chaos and confusion until they can consolidate enough control. Getting to a point where they can control free speech and punish those who dare speak out. Horrifying, and were almost to that point now. They have lies that make no sense like modeling the entire political spectrum as Liberal-Conservative; claims that fascism belongs on the far right or that anarchism belongs on the far left. Repeating the same lies until they can bluff their way into pretending its the truth. They wont have a straight answer if you ask how one would place a totalitarian ideology on the pro-freedom side of the political spectrum that values liberty and limited government. As will be the case if you ask how an ideological concept that means no ruler would sit alongside an ideology based on a dictatorship with centralized, totalitarian control. If they push the absurd Liberal-Conservative political scale, ask them if Stalin was a liberal. Then watch as they tie themselves up into knots with bizarre excuses about the political spectrum being a horseshoe or ring shape for absolutely no reason. Repeating history. Modern civilization has gone through the same horrible events either because of the outright lie that socialism has never really been tried before or this time its going to be different because the fascist far-left is saving the planet. No one wants to take the time to learn the hard lessons of history and what not to do. Put a bunch of fascist far-left megalomaniacs in charge of the economy and the world? No problem! Just dont ask them about chromosomes and or to define what a woman is. That worked out so well the last time we tried it, with millions dead, and utter devastation around the world. Each time the sequence starts the fascist far-left takes over, asserts tight control, and then starts piling up bodies like cordwood. It doesnt matter if its for the cause of Lebensraum or reducing the population to save the planet from global cooling (or was that global warming this week?). There is something seriously wrong with an ideological cult that worships nationalism or internationalism interchangeably and death, Patria o Muerte (Homeland or Death). History always repeats itself because its based on the same human frailties and motivations. See if you pick up some of the glaring similarities between what is happening in Davos with the WEF, and the last time, the fascist far-left tried one of their grandiose schemes of Utopia. Start with this glowing report on Italys Corporative State from World Problems in Review, April 1927: Fascist Italy is on the eve of making a daring social experimentthat of bringing into being the so-called Corporative State. To understand this experiment, it is necessary to keep in mind what constitutes the foundation of the Fascist doctrine, which may be thus defined: (a) The interests of all classes must be subordinated to the supreme interest of the State; (b) The interests of the employers, as much as those of the men, must be subordinated to the interests of production; (c) The State has the right and the duty to intervene and to regulate all these interests. The individual is thus to be absorbed in the Corporation and the Corporation in the State. The new system is not yet in operation, but almost all the preparations for the experiment have now been made. Everyone wasnt exactly pleased with this daring social experiment at the time. William Green, President of The American Federation of Labor condemned the growing autocracy and enslavement in the socialist nations of Russia and Italy, published in the 1927-06 edition of Current History: The Charter of Labor promulgated by the Italian Government on April 21, 1927, indicates that Premier Mussolini has not abandoned his Socialist philosophy. The world is watching with apprehension the performance of autocratic government in two countries, Russia and Italy. Regardless of what group may constitute the autocracy, the substitute of State control for voluntary institution means loss of freedom. Remember that fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer. People can own private businesses, but they are tightly controlled by the state. Under fascism, the state, through official cartels, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Planning boards set product lines, production levels, prices, wages, working conditions, and the size of firms. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Collectivist ideologies are variations of the same societal slavery. These public/private partnerships as we call them now were epitomized by the definitional relationship between the government and corporations promulgated in the La Carta del Lavoro (Labor Charter) of 1927 and in particular one part of section VII: L'organizzazione privata della produzione essendo una funzione di interesse nazionale, l'organizzazione dell'impresa e responsabile dell'indirizzo della produzione di fronte allo Stato. Translated this reads: Private organization of production being a function of national interest, the organization of the enterprise is responsible to the State for the direction of its production. Far-left fascists always conveniently forget these historic facts and base their facile assertions on a bunch of made-up subjective criteria; then they just say those subjective criteria apply to whatever the freedom community happens to be doing at the moment. Meanwhile, they regurgitate the same old lies to trap a new generation into societal slavery. Do any of the following far-left themes sound familiar even though they are paired with historical names that are now reviled? Such as this headline and short segment from a March 1, 1934 piece in the New York Times: GIBBS SAYS HITLER HAS CURED DESPAIR; Finds Unemployment Relief Has Effected Moral Rescue of German Destitute Classes. PEOPLE CAN HOPE AGAIN Youth Regards System as a Splendid Adventure, Though Propaganda Gets Tedious. Berlin, Feb. 28 (By Wireless). -For three days since I have been here Berlin has been a city celebrating as a great victory the day fourteen years ago when Adolf Hitler started his campaign with a small group of friends in a beer hail in Munich, where last Saturday he made a speech as the ruler of Germany. Does some of that sound shockingly familiar? Change out a few names and that might sound like the New York Times of today. Then consider this New York Times headline from the socialist holiday May Day, 1934, with a socialist workers party inaugurating a collectivist labor code with the slogan The Common Good Before the Good of the Individual they believed in it so much they stamped it on their coins: NAZIS INAUGURATE LABOR CODE TODAY; ' The Common Good Before the Good of the Individual' Is Slogan of New System. STATUS OF JEWS AN ISSUE Law Says They May Be 'Leaders' in Their Businesses, but Public Opinion Protests. BERLIN, April 30. -- The new Nazi labor code with its system of "leaders and followers, confidential shop councils, courts of honor and labor trustees" goes into effect tomorrow. In connection with the May Day observance. We know that this is preaching to the choir because you already know a lot of this. The key is that you must take what you have learned and look at the same sources to see other examples of the fascist far-left doing this in the past. Then you must present what you know to others to warn them, a guerrilla information war if you will. Ask leftists those questions we presented earlier; they wont have any good responses. We know the fascist far-left is on the wrong side of history, now we have to let everyone else know that as well. D Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history, the director of communications for a civil rights organization, and a long-time contributor to conservative websites. Find him on Substack. Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required. An incident from 100 years ago has a remarkable echo in the mRNA injection reality of today. After radium's discovery by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, one of its commercial applications was in the production of radiant watches for seeing time in the dark. The U.S. Radium Corporation (USRC) extracted radium from carnotite ore and produced luminous paints first in Newark and later in Orange, New Jersey. From 1917 to 1926, these paints were used to paint watch dials at the company's factory. In her 2018 book The Radium Girls, Kate Moore goes beyond statistics and anecdotes to the original sources to bring the young women who painted these watch dials to life. Among the hundreds of watch dial painters over the years, there were Katherine Schaub (who started working at age 14); Marguerite Carlough; Grace Fryer; Hazel Kuser; and sisters Albina Maggia Larice, Mollie Maggia, and Quinta Maggia McDonald. These young women felt excitement and pride working with the beautiful radium paint and earning substantial wages, which some used for stylish clothes and others used simply to support their families. The painters enjoyed genuine camaraderie in the studio, and working with the fluorescent radium was fun. Even though the painters were brushed off after every shift to conserve every grain of the expensive radium dust, some painters had a slight glow as they walked home at night. The painters were instructed to point their brushes before dipping them in the paint in a technique known as "lip, dip, paint." They were told that the paint was totally harmless. The women painted for years while the radiation slowly, steadily, and silently sickened them. Mollie Maggia went to the dentist in 1921 with a bad tooth. That tooth was treated, but then other teeth decayed rapidly. She suffered not only from the pain, but also from the unique smell of the rotting teeth and gums. Soon Mollie's jaw broke off in pieces. Her whole face was a large abscess from ear to ear, and the pain had spread to other bones. On September 12, 1922, the radiation that had been destroying her body ate away at her jugular vein, and Mollie bled to death. It was claimed that her death was from syphilis, even though that was an impossibility. Many other painters met similar gruesome deaths. Hazel Kuser's husband Theo and Theo's father both spent their life savings and impoverished themselves in a fruitless effort to diagnose and treat Hazel. By 1927, over 50 workers had died from radiation poisoning. Meanwhile, in 1923, the New Jersey Department of Labor was contacted about conditions in the plant, but it took no action against the company. In 1924, Hazel Kuser's mother wrote to USRC threatening a lawsuit. This letter and the ongoing difficulty of hiring new staff prompted the company to call in Dr. Cecil K. Drinker of the Harvard School of Public Health to conduct a study of the plant and the workers' conditions. USRC sent a summary of the resulting study to the Department of Labor along with one out-of-context chart, claiming that its conclusion was that all of the workers were in perfect health. In reality, the study correctly identified radium as the source of the harm. Radium had a "similar chemical nature" to calcium, which caused it to be deposited in bones, destroying them from the inside. No worker's blood was entirely normal even that of a new hire of two weeks. Later, when Dr. Drinker was told about the false summary, he replied that he was understanding of the company's position and refused to publicly contradict it. The company doubled down and continued operations. Eventually, a group of the injured workers successfully sued USRC, establishing legal precedents and spurring regulations governing labor safety standards. The parallels between the radium paint fraud against the workers and our current COVID-19 mRNA fraud are numerous. Disease and death: The first and most significant item in common is that both novel products undeniably cause disease and death. It appears that the shots may not be as uniformly toxic as the radium paint (I pray that this remains true), but these shots are clearly harming and killing some people in large numbers. A comprehensive catalogue of information about the shots can be found on this excellent website Totality of Evidence. For a succinct summary of the stark numbers and smoking guns, see former BlackRock executive Ed Dowd's website. Studies show that adverse events in the VAERS database track closely in time to the number of administered shots. Possibly more troubling than those deaths is the evidence that shot injury is not limited to the immediate aftermath of the injection. The CDC website shows that excess deaths have tracked above their upper bound threshold for many months. During this same time, the number of shots administered has dramatically gone down, making near-term vaccine effects unlikely to be the cause. In ordinary times, it is fairly rare for the excess deaths to ever get above this threshold. These continued excess deaths are worrisome and could be a sign that something latent from the shots is continuing to harm people, just as the radiation silently ate away at the bones of the watch dial painters. Doubling down on the fraud: The mountain of lies by USRC and the lack of any effort to protect, warn, or help the painters is unbelievable and heartbreaking. Just as USRC had done, our COVID masters have doubled down on the "totally safe" fraud even while the body of contrary evidence explodes. Ed Dowd talks frequently in interviews about his experience on Wall Street and how companies continue engaging in blatant fraud long after it becomes obvious, stopping only when they are forcefully stopped. While the shots are documented to be not effective, we still get assaulted by admonitions to get injected such as this rancid holiday health alert and this odd ad. Reluctance to see the truth: For some time after they and their coworkers began to experience symptoms, the watch dial painters continued painting, choosing to believe their employer's word that the paint was harmless. They needed their wages and they were likely afraid to face the fact that they had already received a life-threatening injury. Similarly, those who have taken the Pfizer and Moderna injections can continue living in denial that they have put themselves or their loved ones at risk as long as they ignore the truth, even though acknowledging the danger from the shots could be the first step in mitigating their effects. Compliance of experts and government regulators: With the painters, the Department of Labor, local health authorities, and the Harvard School of Public Health (all of whom should have been protecting the workers) either sided with the company or looked the other way. In our time, government regulators, the medical establishment, the press, the military, corporations, religious leaders, and experts worldwide speak with one voice about the safety of the jab and the need to keep taking it. It is the worldwide nature of the power play of the forced COVID-19 shots that distinguishes it from the smaller, more contained industrial evil inflicted on the watch dial painters. Indeed, the huge scope itself makes the fraud hard to believe and seemingly impossible to stop. Kate Moore's book can bring one to tears over the suffering and deaths of young women from a century ago. The radiation victims' numbers are dwarfed, however, by the huge number of innocent people in our time with names, lives, and loved ones who have been killed or disabled by the shots. The perpetrators pushing the shots are not subject to persuasion and will not stop voluntarily. We must use every legal means at our disposal to put the wheels of justice in motion to end this barbarous chapter of "public health." Image: qimono via Pixabay, Pixabay License. The New Year brought to Colorado a celebration of an effective tax policy and a new take on an old idea to empower citizens more, both from the famous -- or infamous -- tax cutter who created the tax policy. One could characterize Douglas Bruce as a fearless bulldog and patriot. His enemies, mostly Democrats, would use other words, and they have. It was Saturday, January 14, 2023, and Bruce was in the venue in Lakewood as friends gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) Amendment to the Colorado Constitution with hundreds of conservatives from various political camps: Republican, unaffiliated, and Libertarian. The party was the brainchild of beloved Jefferson County tax fighter and petitioner Natalie Menten and sponsored by Denvers Independence Institute. Menten said she meant to create a small party, but it morphed into a noisy, raucous affair with a super potluck to feed the guests, alcohol with which to toast the anniversary, and decorations. Tickets for the party cost $8.15 each because TABOR has put $8.15 billion back into the pockets of Coloradoans over the 30 years. Another reason to celebrate was that TABOR has been the bane of tax-and-spend Democrats in Colorado. They hate it because TABOR makes politicians ask the citizens before they can raise taxes and it refunds money to the taxpayers if there is a surplus. A presentation interrupted the hearty partying and featured a time to shine the spotlight on those who had petitioned to get TABOR on the ballot so the voters could vote for it, including Menten, former state representative Penn Pfifner, and Fred Holden, a public policy specialist, teacher, and author. When Bruce stood for recognition as the creator of TABOR, he began speaking about a new project that he deems even more important than TABOR: the Petition Rights Amendment (PRA). He said that this project in Colorado would be ten times more impactful than TABOR because it is about more than money and that, eventually, it could be copied by other states. Bruce had an assistant hand out a paper with details on the who, what, and why of the project. Its worth sharing some of what Bruce wrote, including some of his prefatory remarks, which show his passion for the future of the USA: Our country is at risk. The conservative Right must defeat the Radical Left. Our parents fought fascists and communists; we must fight them again. This is our moral duty, the call to action of our generation. Freedom is not free. Our Founding Fathers gave us the tool to win -- the First Amendments eternal wisdom. Peaceful citizen protest by petition will always prevail. The Petition Rights Amendment restores the 1910 law politicians have cynically eroded as their revenge for TABORs win in 1992. Read PRAs Fifteen Facts to see how far our right to petition has declined. PRA is short, simple, and fair. It allows petitions to all local districts; we now have no right to petition a school district or county. We have the least time to petition of any state. The state calls nearly all bills emergencies, and thus unstoppable by petition (35,000 lies since 1933). The state, no longer neutral, is now openly hostile to petitions. What will be Petition Rights do for Coloradoans? According to Bruce, the amendment will allow petitions to counties, schools, and special districts; will allow review of each petition entry, not a mere 5 percent to reject; have one election day each November for all petitions; reduce many pages of petition law to only 380 words. The PRA is only for Colorado at this time. However, service group members from other states could come to Colorado to help get the amendment on the ballot for November 2023. Anyone interested in helping can go to the PRA website for more information and to make contact. Bruce said that Colorado patriots statewide can put PRA on the 2024 ballot by 500 citizens each collecting 400-plus entries in two weekends at Walmart exit doors. Those passing the petitions could be paid and earn good money and bonuses. Citizen petitions can fix bad policy. Bruce concluded by urging all those at the celebration to activate once more. Defeating injustice is not won by persons, but by petitions -- the voice of citizens. Our foe is tyranny. Americans will vote for Freedom. The Left is the enemy within. PetitionRights.com unites us. Keep the faith. Believe in America. Spoken like a fearless bulldog and patriot. C.S. Boddie is the coauthor of the Lost Ski Areas of Colorado books. Image: CS Boddie The internet is exploding with talk of sudden deaths, vaccine injuries, and altered immune systems and it's coming from all corners of the world. The National Herald India ran a story in December titled "Covid-19: What explains the sudden deaths?" In Australia, an alternative news service declared, "Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) is taking the world by storm" while openly blaming the COVID vaccine. Over at Channel News Asia, their report, "Sudden deaths: Why do seemingly fit and healthy people die for no apparent reason?," blames most of the deaths on undiagnosed, underlying heart problems and never mentions the vaccine. While speculation runs rampant, and social media are creating hashtags like #suddenlydied, one man seems to have a plan to counteract the craziness: let the people know how it's going to play out before it happens. Media personality and conservative journalist J.D. Rucker runs the news aggregator site The Liberty Daily as well as other websites like his new project, Discern Report. Earlier this week, he began his Substack report by imploring people to speak the truth about the vaccines as soon as possible: "We're seeing the truth starting to penetrate the shields of those who have ignored the signs for two years. Now, it's imperative that we drive the message home before it's too late." Rucker continued: The rise of adverse reaction concern is a good and bad thing. It's good for obvious reasons. It's bad because the powers-that-be are doubling down on their push to keep the universal vaccination agenda going for as long as possible. He went on to tell his readers and podcast listeners that the "powers" behind the vaccine push knew they would eventually be caught; they never believed they could get away with it. The goal, he says, was always to get as many people "jabbed" as many times as possible before the populace realized there was a problem. Here is how he believes it's going to go down: The efficacy and the safety of the vaccines will be proven wrong. But with so many people involved in this, everyone will be pointing fingers at anyone but themselves. Eventually, they'll all point their fingers at Donald Trump and blame Operation Warp Speed. This is the point where his most fervent fans will chastise me for blaming him, but I'm not. The powers that be will blame him. Pfizer will blame him. China will blame him. The CDC will blame him. Anthony Fauci will blame him. They'll all say that they wanted to do longer testing but he demanded the jabs be available before the 2020 election. So they rushed it and made mistakes. So what's the plan? Tell everyone this is going to happen before it happens. That way, he reasons, "[w]e will be able to argue more credibly against the powers that be who are playing dumb." There are so many people involved in the vaccination agenda, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly, that it will be nearly impossible to blame them individually. "They can be shamed, but they won't be blamed." To alleviate this, Rucker predicts, everyone will start pointing fingers at others, and eventually at former President Trump. Rucker maintains that Trump should have come out against the vaccines as far back as 2021. In his podcast, however, he assures people he's not blaming Trump: I think he was manipulated by people like Mike Pence who was working with Anthony Fauci. He was manipulated by his various chiefs of staff ... by everybody from a medical perspective in my humble opinion ... other than people like Dr. Scott Atlas [and] Peter Navarro[.] ... It doesn't matter. The point is they are going to blame him. The fact is, many of President Trump's supporters are concerned about vaccine injuries and increasing reports of sudden deaths. He's listened to them before; he needs to listen to them again. It's not too late for him to lead the people in their quest for answers. Regardless, Rucker says it's time for the people to take advantage of "this very small window of opportunity" to make everyone fully aware of what's going on before they drag us to the next step: [They will tell us,] "Thanks to our coordination with the Chinese Communist Party ... the World Health Organization ... The Council for Inclusive Capitalism ... the World Economic Forum and Sweden and Australia and everybody else; we're all going to come together with this Pandemic Treaty and we've got the solution." "And the solution will be another round of jabs," he concluded. Ultimately, Rucker says, they can't be allowed to perpetuate their lies. The truth must come out now in order to stave off whatever they have planned for us next. Susan D. Harris can be reached at www.susandharris.com. Image: Triggermouse via Pixabay, Pixabay License. Catherine Rampell of the WaPo is correctly recognizing that states are sabotaging their finances. While she recognizes the coming problem, she blames tax cuts instead of overspending and depending on the rich as the culprit. Democrats rarely think they spend too much and rarely want to allow the people and businesses to keep more of what they earn As recession looms (maybe), states sabotage their own finances Rampell, like most journalists, has falsely blamed Trump's tax rate cuts for cutting federal revenues when revenues actually rose substantially after the rate cuts. Overspending has always been the problem in DC. Many states sabotaged their finances a long time ago by running up their expenses and taxes. New York, California are especially guilty. New York and California have structured their taxes and spending based on "the rich" getting taxed to death. Those states see massive increases in revenue when the stock market does very well, and they suffer when the stock market goes down. They live by the sword and die by the sword. They also have massive regulations and block oil and gas drilling, making it very expensive to live in their states. It should not be a shock that the targeted rich and businesses leave their states to go to more welcoming states like Texas and Florida. They don't have income taxes, their budgets are smaller, and they won't have as big a problem when the next recession comes. It would be helpful someday if journalists did research instead of just campaigning for Democrats and their big government policies. The following is a table showing what high tax and no income tax states spend per person: State Population in Millions Expense budget in Billions Spending per person California 39.2 $296.9 $7,574 New York 19.7 $220.5 $11,193 Texas 30.0 $143.2 $4,773 Florida 22.2 $112.1 $5,050 Sources: https://ebudget.ca.gov/budget/2023-24/#/Home https://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/state-fiscal-year-2022-23-enacted-budget-analysis#:~:text=The%20New%20York%20State%20Budget,billion%20in%20SFY%202022%2D23. https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/billsummaries/2022/html/2852 https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/projects/state-fiscal-briefs/texas If high taxes and high spending were great government policies, California and New York would be attracting people and Florida and Texas would be losing people, but the reverse is true. When it comes to big spending, legislators do not skimp on their own compensation. The highest three states for legislative pay are New York, California, and Illinois. New York lawmakers get $142,000, California $110,459, and Illinois $85,000. They have several things in common. They are run by Democrats, they are high tax states, they pretend they welcome immigrants, and they promote abortion on demand. And one more thing: people are leaving those states to move to more welcoming states. We are constantly told by high tax and spend states that they have to pay high salaries to attract good people into politics, so why are high tax and spend states run so badly? Democrats never seem to have enough for themselves. The pay raises would boost the annual salary of rank-and-file lawmakers to $85,000 from $72,906, a nearly 17% increase. The media and other Democrats always claim that Republicans are far right extremists, and they are for the American people. Democrats are the radical extremists. Here is what Chuck Schumer said this month: What weve seen this week from House Republicans is more chaos and ultra MAGA proposals. House Republicans have been focused on delivering for wealthy special interests and the extreme wing of their party. Democrats will stand up for the American people. In December, Democrats didnt have time to increase the debt ceiling, but they had time to ram through a massive spending bill and sneak through a rule that would give them a $34,000 tax free pay bump. They are a greedy bunch. New Rule Could Give House Lawmakers a Tax-Free $34,000 Pay Bump Late last year, members quietly changed House rules to allow lawmakers to be reimbursed for the cost of lodging, food and other items while on official business in Washington. A little-noticed rule change made quietly by Democrats in the final days of their majority last year could give House members a long-delayed increase in compensation, allowing them to be reimbursed for the cost of lodging, food and travel while they are on official business in Washington. It is truly a shame that most people posing as journalists, not political operatives, support high spending, high tax Democrats no matter what they do and seek to destroy people who want to give the power and money back to the people. Photo credit: Jericho CC By 3.0 license Another Davos meeting, and another year of alarmism and insane speeches. The highlights of the insanity were the two men defeated by George W. Bush for president. Let's check the story: John Kerry, former senator, former secretary of state, and now chief climate alarmist for the Biden administration, said in so many words Tuesday during his World Economic Forum rant that it's too late to save the planet from global warming. Yet he claimed climate programs still need more "money, money, money, money, money, money, money." The only reason he's not the worst person in the world is because he has so much competition at Davos. And now the other one speaks: No less nauseating was the performance of another failed presidential candidate, Al Gore, the mother of the global warming cult. He came off like the crazy uncle that the family tries to keep away from the outside world. Author and columnist Michael Walsh said that Gore is a man who appears to need help. During his tirade, Gore gesticulated "wildly, his face reddening, his voice rising," said Walsh. "The former vice president of the United States became a man in the deadly grip of a panicked, violent, superstitious reaction to the weather." John Kerry wants more money, and Al Gore did a lot of screaming. They are everything that is wrong with the climate change crowd. They rant about this or that but say nothing that will make climate change go away. The big problem is China, and no one wants to say it. You can't tackle the climate change problem if no one wants to confront China directly and publicly. Look at this: China emits more greenhouse gas than the entire developed world combined, a new report has claimed. The research by Rhodium Group says China emitted 27% of the world's greenhouse gases in 2019. The US was the second-largest emitter at 11% while India was third with 6.6% of emissions, the think tank said. Scientists warn that without an agreement between the US and China it will be hard to avert dangerous climate change. Question for Mr. Gore and Mr. Kerry: Why aren't you screaming about China? It does not matter what we do if China refuses to negotiate with the world. Can you say Paris Climate Accord? What did China agree to do? Furthermore, how do we hold an autocratic country accountable, anyway? Where is the free press and regulatory agencies to know whether or not China is doing what it promised to do? The Davos crowd will take their planes back home, and nothing will happen. Just a lot of hot air, and I don't mean global warming. PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos. Image: WEF. Despite the good intentions of two American presidents, United States military personnel have been exposed to substances that later proved to be potentially harmful to their health. Thanks to the decades of struggle to recognize the nation's obligation to care for veterans injured by this exposure, there is a solid precedent for addressing the potential harm that mandatory COVID vaccination may have inflicted on our military personnel. Two American presidents made sincere attempts to use science to save lives. In 1962, President Kennedy allowed "Operation Ranch Hand" to proceed. The use of herbicides in Southeast Asia was initiated and lasted until 1971. The lifesaving goal of using Agent Orange was to take away the deadly Viet Cong and NVA Army's advantage in using triple-canopy and other significant natural dense foliage to spring ambushes on both ground troops and our riverine brown water forces such as swift boats. Almost six decades later, on April 29, 2020, President Trump talked of accelerating scientific research to find a vaccine against COVID: "We're going to fast-track it like you've never seen before." Tragically, both presidential initiatives fell victim to the law of unintended consequences. But the history of the decades-long fight to bring Veterans' Administration resources to aid my fellow Vietnam veterans and their families suffering the consequences of Agent Orange may help bring focus on the evolving potential ill health effects faced by American veterans forced to take the COVID shots or be thrown out of the military. When some, way too many, Vietnam veterans began to experience horrific life-ending cancers and other illness such a ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, chemical companies that fabricated Agent Orange saw the potential for huge liabilities. This was Dow Chemical's position at the time: Moreover, decades of study relating to Agent Orange have not established a causal link to any diseases, birth defects or other transgenerational effects. Notably, the extensive epidemiological study of veterans who were most exposed to Agent Orange does not show that such exposure causes cancer or other serious illnesses. Fortunately, the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) came to the fight for service-connected benefits early, but still, the complete scientific resolution took over twenty years, until the late first secretary of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, Ed Derwinski, said enough is enough and stopped the USG lawsuit denying benefits. Because of Secretary Derwinski, the Agent Orange Registry was created, which continues research to this day. However, soon after creating the A.O. registry, Operation Desert Storm occurred, and some who served were reporting significant ill health in greater numbers than the general population. For example, ALS again was seen in higher numbers. As the secretary's assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, I was instructed to create the Desert Storm Registry covering those who served. Yet again, pushback was received, this time from senior DOD military and civilian leaders, who saw claims of Desert Storm illness as a grab by reservists and Guard troops to get unearned combat service disabilities, being connected to DVA health and benefits compensation. More quickly than A.O.'s decades-long struggle, the Desert Storm Registry was created, and this time, the American Legion were tremendous allies. With the decades-long "sandbox wars" of Iraq and Afghanistan, it became easier to change the Desert Storm Registry to the Gulf War Registry. Medical precedence and exam protocols were put in effect for our recent wars. This is not a pro- or anti-vaccine post, but rather a look at how ongoing scientific epidemiology research focusing on Operation Warp Speed once seen as a great life-saving benefit can over time hurt some people. The Biden national security team had made mandatory COVID inoculations essential to continuing one's military career. Sadly, many combat warriors have been involuntarily discharged for not taking the vaccine and were also additionally penalized: The services, however, have taken very different approaches beyond that. The Marine Corps has given 78 percent of those it separated a general discharge, while the Navy has given all honorable discharges. The Air Force has granted the fewest honorable discharges. A general discharge precludes access to the G.I. Bill. Fortunately, this time, it was the new Congress that said enough is enough and passed the PACT Act. All the decades of effort that went into recognizing service-connected ill health from adverse environmental effects on the battlefield smoothed the way for the PACT Act that was recently passed. The PACT Act is a new law that expands VA health care and benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. The PACT Act adds to the list of health conditions that we assume (or "presume") are caused by exposure to these substances. This law helps us provide generations of Veterans and their survivors with the care and benefits they've earned and deserve. After decades of fighting and research to keep the promise of President Lincoln's immortal words espoused, the DVA motto, there is a mission to look at any adverse consequences of being vaccinated: To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan. Now all that Veterans' Affairs secretary McDonough has to do is state that there is the potential for adverse health effects on our troops from the mandatory vaccine and that for some veterans, it could manifest as "a toxic substance." Such action would further structure scientific epidemiological research to help all exposed to the vaccine not just veterans in order to see if there are serious adverse health effects from all COVID shots. We are living in the age of insanity. On any given day for any given issue, there are outrage, disgust, paranoia, and so much more. Social media amplify the frenzy with algorithms programmed to expose users to content that causes maximum outrage. It begins with the first user discovering a pretext to outrage. The second user might claim that the idea was inoffensive. The third, fourth, and fifth users pounce upon the second, calling him a bigot for not being outraged. The second capitulates and joins the mob, leading to an avalanche of outrage. This increases engagement and in turn advertising for the social media platform. The outrage could also be a business model. The backlash over the death of George Floyd was driven by social media, perhaps even by bots. It caused #BlackLivesMatter to trend. Celebrities and corporations donated millions to BLM to appear as though they were the 'good ones. In the end, BLM founders ended up with luxurious mansions. The latest outrage is over a headline of a BBC article by Tessa Wong about the resignation of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern that read, "Jacinda Ardern resigns: Can women really have it all?" Wong begins her piece by lavishing blandishments on Ardern. For millions around the world, Jacinda Ardern's resignation comes as a shock but especially for women. With her charm and leadership philosophy rooted in kindness, the New Zealand Prime Minister has earned widespread popularity. Many of her fans are women, who have avidly followed her journey from newbie PM to working mother and have looked up to her as a role model. The following are more excerpts from Wong's piece: But not many mothers have had to also grapple with steering their country through an unprecedented global pandemic, a horrific domestic terror attack, and a volcanic eruption. ...and... Motherhood and the expectations society places on mothers as well as the expectations mums place on themselves are difficult enough. ...and... A true millennial mum, she was also happy to share her parenting travails on social media, from the struggle to bake the perfect birthday cake for her daughter, to find a diaper cream stain on her jacket after spending the day in meetings. But in the end, it was too much for her to bear. Wong concedes that Ardern's government struggled to navigate post-pandemic economic challenges that raised the cost of living and social inequality. Wong also mentions Ardern's record-low approval rating and accepts that Ardern's resignation was probably meant to avoid an ignominious defeat in the upcoming election, despite being the incumbent P.M. Yet Wong insists that Ardern's resignation speech, which included the conclusion "I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple," would resound with the many exhausted mothers around the world, such as herself, struggling with mum guilt. Wong was saying that working women endure such hardships while balancing their personal and professional life that the challenges become insurmountable. Hence, they are left with no choice but to quit. Wong's piece was a hagiography for Jacinda, with a sprinkling of facts about her unpopularity and misgovernance. Even the heading was meant to justify Ardern's resignation by blaming society for preventing women from "having it all." The BBC is among the flag-bearers of faux political correctness and was never going to attack the likes of Ardern, who is also a prominent member of the same club of superficial virtue-signaling that they are. A perfect illustration of Ardern's mindset came following a mass shooting at a mosque. The best way to comfort the bereaved is to do it privately. But Ardern knew that demonstrating compassion in public earns more political points than being really compassionate. So Ardern donned the headscarf that Muslim women wear and comforted victims' families before the press of the world. It earned her plaudits. New Zealand PM Jacinda Adern wearing a hijab met the vctims of yesterday's attack. Plus she told Donald Trump: Send love to Muslims after mosque shooting. It really show how peaceful and welcoming country New Zealand is.#NewzealandMosqueAttack pic.twitter.com/ZKOG3c6gD2 Hanzla Ali (@iamhanzla1) March 16, 2019 Last year, when Ardern met with Finland's prime minister, Sanna Marin, then aged 37 and a social democrat, a reporter asked the following: A lot of people will be wondering, are you two meeting just because you're similar in age and, you know, got a lot of common stuff there. Can Kiwis actually expect to see more deals down the line between the two countries? This was poor articulation, but the point of the question was to find out whether their personal friendship owing to the similarities in their career paths and ages would lead to more ties between New Zealand and Finland. Well, Ardern either misunderstood the question or purposefully used it to create an excuse to claim victimhood. The question had no mention of either prime minister's gender, yet Ardern attempted to claim that the reporter was being sexist. My first question is I wonder whether or not anyone ever asked Obama and [former New Zealand Prime Minister] John Key and if they met because they were of a similar age. We of course have a higher proportion of men in politics. It's reality. But because two women meet, it's not simply because of their gender. The ploy worked. It generated headlines and compliments. Myriad such maneuvers caused "Jacinda-mania," a term probably coined by her P.R. team. But on the governance front, her record was abominable. Her resignation was most likely meant to salvage her reputation and revitalize her brand. In the future, expect Ardern to enter into lucrative book deals, speech-making engagements, etc. She may even set up a think-tank in D.C. Back to the BBC piece. The outrage mob was either too lazy to read the article or too daft to comprehend the contents. Perhaps they purposefully misinterpreted the heading to mount an outrage campaign merely for attention on social media and to prove their goodness. The BBC's tweet about the article was deemed sexist, misogynistic, and anachronistic. Saddened to see such a reductive, sexist and inaccurate headline from the BBC World. It should read Jacinda Ardern resigns: a world leader showing courage by breaking the taboo of discussing emotional and mental wellbeing https://t.co/yjeM8RJ4pV Sangita Myska (@SangitaMyska) January 19, 2023 The 1950s came by and picked up their headline. pic.twitter.com/qlI6qZLBfa Heather Barr (@heatherbarr1) January 19, 2023 Staggeringly tone deaf (and, frankly, 21st century deaf) headline (now updated, with accompanying tweet deleted). All very well to correct the error of judgement, but what kind of culture produces such a headline in the first place? https://t.co/t98XrsfE3H Dr. Julie Posetti (@julieposetti) January 19, 2023 Wow. This is simply not an acceptable headline. This is sexist, belittling, insulting. What next, BBC? Youd look prettier if you smiled? Urgh. pic.twitter.com/1rYZGfGOhv Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC (@caoilfhionnanna) January 19, 2023 Absurd misogyny from @BBCWorld Boris Johnson was ousted in a whirlwind of scandal & failureBBC humanizes him for the pain he feels Jacinda Ardern gracefully led New Zealand through historic upheavals & leaves on her termsBBC repeatedly dismisses her as a failure & quitter pic.twitter.com/XtbHcHaTeT Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) January 20, 2023 I dont recall this question being asked of multiple family daddy Boris Johnson. Jacinda Arden has been an absolute star. Strong. Decisive. Loved. To imply she couldnt hack it because shes a womanwow. pic.twitter.com/jsq6LTUG94 India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) January 20, 2023 Some claimed that the 1970s- and 1980s-style trope about women "having it all" is, at its basic level, a dated catch-all that portrays female success as pitting successful careers against raising families. Instead of standing its ground and urging the virtual mob to read the article first before hysterically beating the drums of outrage, the BBC chose to capitulate before the mob. The headline now reads, "Jacinda Ardern resigns: Departure reveals unique pressures on PM." The original tweet was deleted. The outrage mob, despite having no reason for its fury, once again won. The fact remains that civilized democracies simply cannot survive with continuous hoax outrages. First, if everything is outrageous, nothing actually is. The situation is reminiscent of the boy who cried "wolf." Acts or content that actually merits outrage evades attention because of this continuous churn. Second, this quest for purity i.e., to be inoffensive is an impossible pursuit. Even the purest of purists, such as the BBC, which must have multiple stages of review of its content to ensure that nothing "offensive" is published, will somehow fail the purity test. The outrage is used as an excuse to censor speech. Third, this constant bombardment conditions society to conflate virtue-signaling, victimhood, and hoax outrage with ability. It goes beyond social media behavior and dictates voting choices. Empathy stunts fool some voters all of the time, and all of the voters some of the time. The end result is misgovernance and hardship for the people, such as the citizens of New Zealand. It is imperative to stand up against the tyranny of a few compulsive contrarians and a largely invisible mob. Image: Screen shot from Today video via shareable YouTube. Vera Jourova is the current vice president of a body ironically called the "European Commission for Values and Transparency." Recently, while speaking at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel, Jourova stated that the United States will "soon" have "illegal hate speech laws." (Hate speech laws themselves should be illegal and, in fact, are in the United States, due to protections afforded Americans by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, this hasn't deterred Democrats, wokesters, and other would-be authoritarians from trying to ban speech they find distasteful and/or against their interests.) The Daily Caller recently reported that Jourova "participated in Tuesday's WEF panel on 'the clear and present danger of disinformation,' alongside former CNN Host Brian Stelter, Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and media executive Jeanne Bourgault." Stelter and Sulzberger on a panel bemoaning "disinformation"? That would be akin to putting Michael Moore and Joy Behar on a panel chronicling the evils of obesity. Would the WEF ask Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to head a panel on international relations and "how to treat one's neighbors"? On second thought, in United Nations fashion, it probably would. No sooner had Nostradamus ECVT vice president Vera Jourova predicted that the U.S. would soon embrace hate speech laws than Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) came along and proved her right. Jackson Lee just introduced a bill in the House dubbed the "Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023," or LAWS Act. Get it? Jackson Lee's bill would criminalize "hate speech that vilifies or is otherwise directed against any non-White person or group." (Hate speech that vilifies white people would still be perfectly acceptable, as it's not hate speech. Duh.) Her bill, were it to become law, would certainly be used by Democrats, the Deep State, social media giants and others aligned with them as a pretext and excuse for the persecution of people who express views that they dislike. Those in power would label anyone who engages in such speech as "white supremacists," "far-right ideologues," "insurrectionists," and "terrorists" who must be prevented from destroying "our democracy." Of course, were her bill to become law, that actually would destroy our democracy. Jackson Lee would be wise to consider changing her last name, as it is an amalgam of Andrew Jackson's and Robert E. Lee's last names, both sons of the South and personae non gratae in 2023. But she is anything but wise and has proven that repeatedly over the years. She supposedly/allegedly once asked a NASA employee if she could see the flag Neil Armstrong planted on Mars. (Today, the only flag that would be approved to be planted on another planet would be that of the LGBTQIIA+ community.) Mars or the moon, what does it matter? No big whoop. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) was never of our world anyway. And our rulers in the WEF? They want to rule the Earth (and probably the cosmos, too) which will be much easier to do if its population is closer to that of Mars and the moon. As John Kerry said, "When you stop and think about it, it's pretty extraordinary that we select group of human beings, because of whatever touched us at some point in our lives, are able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving the planet." "Talk" being the operative word, as they fly around the world on private planes and are chauffeured in limousines. Talk about baseless virtue-signaling! They consider themselves public servants and planet servants. "We are the ones we've been waiting for," they shout, though most of them didn't invent anything and never ran a business that produced goods and/or services or employed people to everyone's benefit. Yet they believe there is no end to their brilliance, service, and sacrifice. Let me offer them some advice: get over yourselves. And don't try to tell us how to live. Image: Ralph Alswang, Center for American Progress Action Fund via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0. Need some good news? Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, has a way of always delivering good news. On the culture wars front, he's gotten the steamroller out, flattening wokester investing in public pensions on what's known as the ESG model. According to the Daily Wire: Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis approved measures on Tuesday to prevent the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan from investing in accordance with the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as ESG. According to DeSantis office, the approval of the resolution will ensure that public fiduciaries invest state funds in a manner that prioritizes the highest return on investment for Floridas taxpayers and retirees without considering the ideological agenda of the ESG movement. Critics say the philosophy confuses profit maximization with political and social agendas such as reducing carbon emissions or promoting purported racial equity. Corporations across America continue to inject an ideological agenda through our economy rather than through the ballot box, DeSantis said in a press release . Todays actions reinforce that ESG considerations will not be tolerated here in Florida, and I look forward to extending these protections during this legislative session. Which is good news for Florida's public pension holders, given that state after state is running out of money, based on badly mismanaged funding and high pension liabilities, much of that happening because the fund managers have been obliged by state laws to invest on the ESG model rather than obtain the highest returns for their customers. Florida's public pensioners, its bureaucrats and whatnot, plenty of them left-wing themselves, on this DeSantis decision, will be free to spend their money any way they want to, including on woke causes, because their pension money, invested solely on sound investment principles that doesn't include wokery as a consideration, will simply be there for them. In many states, that prospect is dubious. The Pew Charitable Trusts created this shareable chart showing the state of things on the unfunded pension liability front. Image: The Pew Charitable Trusts, shareable chart Not surprisingly, most of the sad stories in the dark blue states are indeed blue states run on wokester investing practices, which tend to bring in less money than they would in a free market. Notice those glowing records in South Carolina and Wisconsin. Florida does not look too bad at 4% unfunded liabilities but any improvement is a good improvement for pension holders, and with DeSantis's move, Florida's pensions are now on firmer ground. What a positive development. Imagine someone like DeSantis running the federal system at this point. The good news doesn't stop there, though. In a move that brought unusually loud screams from the left, DeSantis junked another problem besetting Florida and the rest of the country -- woke indoctrinating education. While Florida has prided itself on leading the culture war for conservatism, a new educational policy may rock the boat for Florida Democrats. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) along with Florida Republicans have officially erased AP African American Studies from state curriculum, causing backlash from progressives. Governor DeSantis has made educational reforms a defining role in his first term as governor, and he does not seem to be holding back on this any time soon. The governor's Spokesman Bryan Griffin issued a statement concerning why they have taken this action, "The Florida Department of Education has rejected the College Boards AP African American Studies course because it lacks educational value and historical accuracy. As submitted, the course is a vehicle for a political agenda and leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material, which we will not allow. As Governor DeSantis has stated, our classrooms will be a place for education, not indoctrination." Which brings up that woke junk education is a very sad thing to see in a worthy course of study such as the history and culture of African-Americans in the U.S. Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and lifelong Republican Martin Luther King, Jr. are all worthy of study in an African-American studies course. Apparently, the field has been corrupted by wokester grievance politics, phony history (Looking at you, 1619 Project) and the kind of thinking coming from Marxist thinkers who have dominated the field as they sought to gain power. Shutting it down and telling those involved in creating this mess to clean up their act and reinstitute some academic rigor to their subject was a big shock to their systems, which is why the yelling is unusually loud on this one. Fields riddled with inaccuracies and ideological fanaticism of one stripe or another are useless as college majors, given that they will always be subject to revision. Big Lies can only last so long before they are corrected. The DeSantis move is a welcome step in the movement to make education educate again, and a worthy brave step in the culture wars that most politicians are afraid to touch. Once again, imagine Ron taking on the educational corruption in the federal field. It's amazing to see pushback of this sort, given that the tide seems so strong against it in the Biden era. With Biden in power, it's one bottom falling out after another, one standard falling down domino-style and then another, there seems to be no end to it. DeSantis is just the gutsy guy to show that that can be stopped, and in his Florida saddle, he's creating a pilot project that can be imitated throughout the country. With the concurrent news that 30 Florida colleges have banned critical race theory, it seems to be setting off a chain reaction. Image: Gage Skidmore, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0 (ANSA) - ROME, JAN 19 - Deputy Premier and Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said Thursday that bans unilaterally introduced at the Brenner Pass by Austria were unacceptable. He said he would take action with the EU against them. The new Austrian measures are aimed at restricting the circulation of heavy goods vehicles in the Tyrol region. "It is not acceptable that...Austria should set limits that inure the free circulation of men and goods, blocking Italian lorries at the entrance towards the Tyrol," said the rightwing League leader. (ANSA). Tory party chairman Nadhim Zahawis position is untenable, Labour has said after reports that he paid a penalty as part of a multimillion-pound tax settlement. The former chancellor, who attends Rishi Sunaks Cabinet, has been under pressure since it was reported that he paid HM Revenue & Customs a seven-figure sum to end a dispute. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab defended his colleague, saying Mr Zahawi has been very clear that hes paid all the tax that hes owed and if theres further questions Im sure therell be the proper transparency. Labour called for an explanation after The Guardian reported that Mr Zahawi paid a 30% penalty, taking the estimated total tax bill to more than 4.8 million. Mr Zahawis team has been contacted for comment on the latest allegation. Labours shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: A few months ago he was chancellor of the Exchequer and responsible for Britains tax affairs and tax collection, and we now find that he wasnt so keen to pay himself. So if the Prime Minister wants to stick by his commitment for integrity, honesty and professionalism, he should do the right thing and sack Nadhim Zahawi. Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner told BBC Breakfast: The fact that Nadhim hasnt been out on the airwaves explaining himself, to me, adds insult to injury, especially given that he called this smears at the time and sent legal letters to those that asked questions legitimately about it. If hes lied and misled the public and HMRC regarding his tax affairs then I think his position is untenable. Nadhim Zahawis story about his tax affairs doesnt add up. After months of denials, the truth emerges. His position is untenable. Rishi Sunak must dismiss him from his Cabinet. pic.twitter.com/ZD8ZzLgHHg Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) January 21, 2023 Mr Raab told Sky News: I cant speak for the personal tax affairs of a colleague, but what I would say is that Nadhim has been very clear that hes paid all the tax that hes owed, that hes paid it on time, that theres nothing outstanding due, and I think thats of course right and proper. If theres further questions, of course, Im sure therell be the proper transparency. Asked if Mr Zahawi will still be in his post in a month, Mr Raab said: A months a long time in politics. I certainly hope so. Mr Reeves told the Fabians Society Conference: Dominic Raab, whos being investigated for bullying, is passing judgment on Nadhim Zahawi, whos just had a 1 million fine for not paying his taxes on time. That pretty much epitomises this Conservative Cabinet. Mr Zahawi allegedly avoided tax by using an offshore company registered in Gibraltar to hold shares in the polling company he co-founded, YouGov. YouGovs 2009 annual report showed a more than 10% shareholding by Gibraltar-registered Balshore Investments. The report described the company as the family trust of Nadhim Zahawi, then an executive director of the polling firm. Rishi Sunak has defended Nadhim Zahawi (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Tax lawyer Dan Neidle has estimated that Mr Zahawi owed 3.7 million, and said that with interest that could be due on top of the reported 30% penalty, the total could be more than 4.8 million. Mr Neidle, of the Tax Policy Associates think tank, said: You dont pay a 30% penalty if your tax affairs are in order. You do it, at best, if youve been careless if you havent paid tax thats due. The Government website says a penalty of up to 30% is due if it arises because of a lack of reasonable care. A deliberate error can incur a penalty of between 20% and 70%. A spokesman for Mr Zahawi previously said his taxes were properly declared and paid in the UK and the minister had never had to instruct any lawyers to deal with HMRC on his behalf. Mr Sunak has defended him, telling Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday that Mr Zahawi has already addressed this matter in full and theres nothing more that I can add. Questions about Mr Zahawis tax affairs have added to a series of challenges this week for the Prime Minister, who was fined by police for not wearing a seatbelt in the back of a moving car. Federal and state agencies in the US have joined the search for Julian Sands, using mobile phone forensics to help pinpoint the location of the British actor. Both national and state officials are now working with the San Bernardino County Sheriffs office, one week on after the actor was first reported missing in the southern Californian mountains. As of Friday, ground crews were still unable to continue their search efforts, due to evidence of avalanches in the area, and authorities said there was still no time set for when they would begin. The involvement of federal and state agencies marks a step up in the search for Sands which is to continue via helicopter only for now. The county sheriffs department previously revealed that pings from the actors phone appeared to show he had been on the move heading further into the mountainous area of Baldy Bowl on the day he was reported missing January 13. We are working with state and federal agencies that have cell phone forensics to assist us in pinpointing a location, but so far no new info has been developed, a spokesperson from the department told the PA news agency. Both national and state officials are now working with the San Bernardino County Sheriffs office, one week after Sands was first reported missing (Ian West/PA) The department previously told PA there was still no hard deadline and no date set for calling off efforts and the incident is still being classified as a search and rescue operation. On Thursday, Sands family towed his car from a car park where it was discovered during the search. Mount Baldy residents noted the extreme conditions but said they would not rule anything out in the mission to find Sands. San Bernardino County Fire Department captain Rodd Mascis told PA that the search for missing hikers in the area was sadly regular and could be like finding a needle in a haystack. The department is not involved with the search for Sands, which is being handled by the County Sheriffs departments search and rescue teams. But speaking at the scene of a callout to help another fallen hiker, Mr Mascis said: It truly is enter at your own risk. Most people come equipped for the day but coming up against the elements is very difficult after a couple of days. Youve got to be careful, its a beautiful area, but with every step that danger increases. Mr Mascis added that the mobile phone pings were a positive sign and that stranger things had happened, referring to success in the search for Sands. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department previously urged hikers to think twice and heed warnings, saying its search and rescue teams had responded to 14 calls on Mount Baldy and in the surrounding area over the last four weeks. Born in Yorkshire, Sands breakout role came as the free-spirited George in the period drama A Room With A View, in which he starred opposite Helena Bonham Carter. He later made the move to the horror genre, featuring in films such as Leaving Las Vegas, Warlock and Arachnophobia. He has enjoyed success on the small screen too, with parts in Smallville and high octane US drama 24, with Kiefer Sutherland. More recently he played the chief medical officer in the 2021 Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi-led drama Benediction. He has lived in Los Angeles since 2020. From 1984 to 1987 Sands was married to future Evening Standard and Today editor Sarah Sands, with whom he has a son. He also has two daughters with journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, whom he married in 1990. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. Officers from the new Armenian national patrol police began their duties in the Aragatsotn province. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the inauguration of the police force. In his remarks, the Armenian prime minister highlighted the need to resolve in-depth problems. He said the launch of the new police force is aimed at overcoming the issues. when we were talking about launching the new patrol police force in Armenia, there was a principled important significance that the patrol police must be entirely new, starting from cruisers up to the uniforms, but most importantly with a new mentality, Pashinyan said. New mentality must be brought into every newly formed structure, the PM said. Thats how we are working in the educational, legal areas, in the military, and this is an extremely important approach. I want us to be guided with this logic in planning and implementing our each next step, the Prime Minister said. Such a remark betrays a spectacular ignorance of the true intent of the Manas Bihar education minister, Chandra Shekhar, who belongs to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), said recently that Tulsidas Ramcharitmanas promoted social discrimination and spread hatred in society. To my mind, such a remark betrays a spectacular ignorance of the true intent of the Manas. My problem is not with the fact of his criticism. Hinduism allows for it. For instance, the philosopher Brihasapati, who founded the materialist Charvaka school around the seventh century BCE, said that the Vedas are bereft of sanctity. This was not considered blasphemy, and the Charvaka school remains a part of Hinduism. Mahatma Gandhi, who had the utmost concern for the poor and the oppressed, regarded the Ramcharitmanas as the greatest book in all devotional literature. Tulsidas (1532-1623) was a bhakti poet. His subject of devotion was Maryada Purushottam Ram. For him, Ram was the personification of the adrishta (unseen), achintya (beyond thought), akhand (indivisible), sarvavyapi (omnipresent), poorna (complete) and nirguna (attribute-less) Brahman of the Upanishads and the Advaita philosophy developed by Adi Shankaracharya (788-820). As he writes: Ram Brahma paramaratharupa, abigataalalkhaanadianupa: Shri Rama is no other than Brahman, the supreme Reality, unknown, imperceptible, beginningless, incomparable, changeless and beyond all diversity. If Ram is in essence the nirguna (attribute-less) Absolute, his human avatara is his saguna (attribute-full) form. But the two are actually the same. Tulsi writes: Agunasaguna dui Brahma svarupa: Nirguna and saguna are two aspects of the same Brahman. Or again: Agunaarupaalakhajjoi, bhagata prem basasaguna so hoi: There is no difference between nirguna Brahman, which becomes saguna due to a devotees love. If, therefore, in the Manas, Ram is actually the nirguna cosmic consciousness that pervades the whole universe, and is in all of us as the Atman, how can it be accused of social discrimination? An incident from Adi Shankaracharyas life both explicates and endorses this view. As per the story, Shankara, then in Varanasi, was going to the Ganga to bathe when he came upon a chandala, someone from the lowest rung of the caste hierarchy. Brahmins were supposed to be defiled by the very presence of this caste, and the disciples of Shankara asked the chandala to move out of the way. However, the chandala retorted by asking the question: How do differences such as This is a chandala and this is a Brahmin arise in the Advaita doctrine? After all, it is the same atman that is present in each of us, irrespective of caste. On hearing this, Shankara promptly exclaimed that anyone who sees Brahman as the sole reality and recognises the atman as the same in all, is worthy of respect. All other distinctions are false, and the chandala who has realised the unity of the supreme consciousness, is akin to my guru. Shankara then composed the Manishapanchakamon the spot, where he emphatically stated: Chandalostusatudvijostugururityeshamansisha mama: Be it a chandala, or be it a twice born, both as part of that supreme consciousness, are my gurus, this is my resolve. Human divisions are created by Maya. When Lakshman asks Ram to explain Maya, Ram in Tulsis words replies with remarkable poetic brevity: Main aru mora tora tai maya, jehinbasakinhejivanikaya: The false feeling of I and mine and you and yours is maya, which holds all created beings under its sway. Ram further adds: Gyanamaanajahanekaunahin, dekha Brahma samaanasabamaahin: Spiritual wisdom has no sense of superiority or pride, and sees the Supreme Spirit equally in all. In his saguna form, Ram is the symbol of compassion. When he is born, Tulsi writes: BhayepragatakripaladinadayalaKaushalyahitkari: The gracious Lord, who is compassionate to the lowly and the benefactor of Kaushalya appeared. In a famous bhajan written by Tulsi in the Vinay Patrika, he describes Ram in the same manner: Shri Ramchandra kripalubhajumana, haranabhavabhayadarunam: O mind, worship the compassionate Lord Ram, who removes the fear of death and rebirth. To Bharat, Ram says: Para hitasarisadharamnahin bhai, par peedasamanahinadhamai: Brother, there is no greater dharma than concern for others welfare, and nothing worse than oppressing another. Tulsis bhakti, in its philosophical dimension which is its prime focus, allows for no differentiation in accordance with human categories. During his meeting with Shabari, Ram explains to Lakshman: Jaatipaati kula dharma badaii, dhanabalaparijanagunachaturai, bhagatiheennarasohaikaisa, binujalabaridadekhiyejaisa: Despite caste, kinship, lineage, dharma, position, wealth, strength, accomplishments and family, a man lacking in devotion is of no more worth than a cloud without water. The Ramcharitmanas contains 12,800 lines, divided into 1073 stanzas and seven kands. It ranks among the greatest works of world literature, and is akin to the Bible for many Hindus. To take one line or two from such an epic which could well be later interpolations to malign the entire Ramcharitmanas is an act of unforgiveable hubris. Of course, caste and gender discrimination (the Uttara Kanda on Rams controversial treatment of Sita is in Valmikis Ramayan, not the Manas) were condemnable then as they are now. Tulsi was a product of his times; nor was he a social reformer, or completely without biases; but to say that the Manas promotes hatred displays an egregious ignorance of the profound philosophical nature of the epic, where Ram, as the personification of the nirguna Brahman, is in equal measure in all, the high and the low. People in public life should refrain from sweeping generalisations based on half-baked knowledge. Tulsidas knew the reason why they still do this: Nahinkouasajanama jaga maahi, prabhuta pai jahinmadanahin: Never was a creature born in this world whom power did not intoxicate. Facts about Russia-Ukraine conflict: Zelensky calls for more military supplies Xinhua) 11:28, January 21, 2023 MOSCOW/KIEV, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged defense leaders attending a meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany to speed up the supply of weapons to Ukraine, the presidential press service reported. "We must speed up. Time must become our common weapon, just like air defense, artillery, armored vehicles and tanks," Zelensky said while addressing the meeting via video link. - - - - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday assessed the Ukrainian crisis as developing in an upward spiral. "We see a growing indirect and sometimes direct involvement of NATO countries in this conflict," Peskov told a daily briefing, adding that the supplies of heavy weapons to Ukraine will not be able to fundamentally change anything but worsen problems for Kiev and the Ukrainian people. - - - - The United States on Thursday announced a new package of military assistance for Ukraine, including hundreds of armored vehicles and support for Ukraine's air defense. Zelensky on Friday welcomed the decision and thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for the aid worth 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. - - - - Russia-U.S. relations are now probably at their lowest point ever and there is no hope for an improvement in the foreseeable future, Peskov said on Friday. During the Biden presidency, despite the initial slim hope associated with the Geneva summit between the two presidents, bilateral ties have been very bad, he told a daily briefing. - - - - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday in Minsk that he had exchanged views with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the situation in Ukraine. He said that Moscow and Minsk have "a common position on the goals that must be achieved" to ensure the security of both countries. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Kou Jie) The destination is a small lollipop at the end of this massive voyage of discovery that is getting onto a plane or a train or a bus Some tell you the destination is the main thing. Most however will talk about the journey itself being the joy of the experience. (Representational image: Twitter/@airindiain) There are several philosophical sayings about journeys and travel. Some tell you the destination is the main thing. Most however will talk about the journey itself being the joy of the experience. The destination is a small lollipop at the end of this massive voyage of discovery that is getting onto a plane or a train or a bus. I should add ship, but I have not really travelled that much by ship and have probably therefore lost all credibility as an ancient mariner. That is, I am ancient but I am not a mariner and I have never met an albatross. Though for my sins I studied that poem and thus had to read it endless number of times. You might argue that Coleridge was right and by his glittering eye he hath my will. Or you might I think rightly argue that whatever Coleridge was taking when he wrote Kublai Khan was far more fun. Why am I talking about Coleridge. Because there is nothing really poetic about the nitty-gritty of long-distance air travel. There is romance, possibly, but only if you are rich. By which I really mean there isnt, because arent the really rich permanently blase? Either way, rich or not so rich, you still have to negotiate that weird light that airports fill themselves with, second only to the weird light of hospitals. The intent is to disorient you. So that you will really believe that the bizarre meal youve been given at 4.30 in the morning is dinner and so on. Or that some weird tomatoes wrapped in a lattice pastry is a sandwich. It doesnt matter. Things are what they tell you they are. If you are like me, then you are paranoid about every travel detail. Will my phone work so I can scan the barcode on my ticket or will it suddenly collapse just as Im trying to show it to the security guard? Why didnt I spend that extra half hour getting a print out? Is arriving three and a half hours earlier for an international flight all right or should I have arrived five hours earlier? Suppose some strange thing happens to the configuration of the aeroplane just before I board and my precious window seat becomes a window? Why such absurd fears? Obviously, I have to blame my upbringing. My father was obsessed with leaving for Howrah Station hours before our train was supposed to leave. This was understandable as anyone who had any relationship with Calcutta in the 1960s and 1970s knows. The traffic was so unpredictable that the last 15 minutes of the journey could take six hours. We usually sat on a dirty platform for at least six hours before our train was due to depart. The other fears come from the Indian Railways where seats which we thought were together or in one compartment suddenly spread mysteriously all over the train. And the first hour was spent adjusting with fellow passengers and waiting with utter fear for the arrival of the all-powerful TT. My maternal grandmother was a champion at dealing with such situations. And also, a champion at never being on time, and then of threatening the guard with pulling the emergency brake of a standing train in case he let the train go before she and her 800 potla-potlis were properly stacked and distributed. I kid you not. There is an upside of course. And thats the people you meet. Like the young man next to me who I gently reprimanded for sticking his elbows into me and manspreading. A couple of hours later, he very sweetly offered me some peanuts from his own stock. Or the passenger in First Class in a Jet Airways Delhi to London flight. All right, this is not about a nice person but it is about schadenfreude, the best human emotion (and word) of all. We were in business class one of those anomalies of fate and we had just landed at Heathrow. Suddenly, a woman ran through from First to Business and beyond shouting that her husband had been robbed. Then, an ominous announcement. The police were about to board the plane and no one could disembark. So, we hung around, wondering. Looking at each other suspiciously. Two enormous police officers entered the plane, went straight into first class and the rest of us were allowed to go! Yahoo! Some rich person was caught for doing what rich people do! This was also the same flight where the wonderful cabin crew held a little party for our 80-yea-old father, because he told them that his daughters were taking him on a holiday and the crew was really touched by that. Happy? See, that was a sweet story. They sang a Happy Holidays song and gave us cake and drinks in the galley. That made up for those particular members of the cabin crew who never give you something as simple as water when you ask for it but suck up to some other constantly demanding passenger who is obviously more important than you. I grant you, its a thankless job. People are horrific when they travel and the entitled are worse. They cant stand in queues, they wear the most remarkable clothes purple plush pajama suits was the outstanding fashion trend out of Delhi in December 2022, they demand silly privileges. The right royal mess of security checks at an Indian airport is not helped by those who somehow think no other travelling shark will notice them sneaking past. Plus the sorry sight of men trying to walk past metal detector checks hoping their trousers wont collapse on them before they reach their belts. Belts are some sort of security hazard for these five minutes of an entire plane journey. But are not hazards actually in the plane. Of course, in todays world, you have to be grateful that no young male passenger decides to urinate on you, an older female, mid-flight. Or that no young bright politician opens the emergency exit by mistake. Bon voyage, eh? Appeal by Card. Bo and the bishops of Mandalay and Taunggyi to all parties to the conflict in Myanmar after the attack on the historic Chan Thar Church: "We have suffered enough, let the guns be silent." Yangon (AsiaNews) - The past week in Myanmar has again been heavily marked by violence that has even engulfed a symbolic site of the local Catholic community, the historic Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in the village of Chan Thar, which was burned and razed to the ground by the army. A new wound in the abyss of war into which the country has been dragged since the coup two years ago, which saw the military depose and imprison Aung San Suu Kyi once again. In this context, the country's three Catholic archbishops - Card. Charles Bo of Yangon, Archbishop of Mandalay Msgr. Marco Tin Win and Archbishop of Taunggyi Msgr. Basil Athai - have issued on behalf of all religious leaders a new heartfelt appeal entitled "Peace is a pilgrimage, let us walk it together," which we republish below. Dear People of Myanmar, State and Non-State stakeholders. Peace be with you all. As leaders of major religions/faiths in Myanmar, we make this passionate appeal for peace, urging that all of us need to undertake the pilgrimage of peace. The recent months have seen great threats to the sacredness of human life, the lives lost, the lives displaced, and the lives under starvation. In a country blessed with so many great resources, the destruction of lives is a heart-wrenching tragedy. Increasingly the places of worship and monasteries, where communities. sought peace and reconciliation are themselves under attack and carnage. International instruments like the Hague Convention call for the protection of places of worship, places of learning, and places of healing. With pain and anguish, we ask why these sacred places are attacked and destroyed. As a nation, we need to heal. Healing comes through our deep sense of interrelatedness. Places of worship promote this interdependence, leading to peace. When they are burnt mercilessly returning to normalcy becomes a great challenge. As leaders of the various faith traditions, our passionate plea to all stakeholders in Myanmar, is we have suffered enough as a people, let all guns fall silent, let us reach out to all, as brothers and sisters and start the sacred pilgrimage of peace - united as a nation and as a people. Peace is possible, peace is the only way. With prayers for peace and reconciliation, On behalf of religious leaders. Cardinal Charles Bo Archbishop of Yangon and President of CBCM Archbishop Marco Tin Win Archbishop of Mandalay Archbishop Basilio Athai Archbishop of Taunggyi Received in audience at the Vatican the trainers and alumni of the international seminary for clergy from mission territories. "One is a credible missionary not because of a habit one wears, but because of a style of simplicity and sincerity." Pontifical Mission Societies president Msgr. Dal Toso appointed apostolic nuncio to Jordan. Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "Put yourselves in the school of the 'martyrs of dialogue' who, even in some of your countries, have courageously traveled this road to be builders of peace," was Pope Francis invitation this morning to the students and trainers of the Pontifical Urbanianum College, the international seminary that since 1627 in Rome has been caring for theological and pastoral deepening in the formation of clergy for the so-called "mission" territories. "An important intuition," the pontiff called it, and still valid for the whole Church "called today to a 'pastoral and missionary conversion' also in the formation of future priests." In his address, the pope dwelt in particular on some characteristics to be taken care of in the formation of future missionaries. First and foremost is the "courage of authenticity." "Our closeness to God and to our brothers and sisters," he commented, "is realized and strengthened to the extent that we have the courage to shed the masks we wear, perhaps to appear perfect, impeccable and obsequious. One is a credible missionary," he added, "not because of a dress one wears or outward attitudes, but rather because of a style of simplicity and sincerity. Alongside this, the pope returned to the invitation to cultivate the "ability to come out of oneself," so as not to "worship a God who is only a projection of our needs. You have the opportunity to do this right now in community life, especially in a formation community as rich and varied as yours, with so many cultures, languages and sensitivities." A "great gift" this encounter between peoples and cultures, which educates to the challenge of fraternity. "Our world and also the Church," he added, "need witnesses of fraternity: may you be like that, already now and then when you return to your dioceses and countries, often marked by divisions and conflicts. And also witnesses of joy: the joy of the Gospel that fills the life of the community of disciples." Finally, for the pontiff, a third indispensable characteristic of the missionary disciple is "openness to dialogue. First of all to dialogue with God, in prayer, which is also an exodus from our ego to welcome Him. And then to fraternal dialogue, in a radical openness to the other." "Jesus," the pope concluded, "showed us this by becoming man, embracing the dramas, questions and expectations of suffering humanity in search of peace. The world needs dialogue, needs peace. And it needs men and women who are its witnesses." Also today, the Vatican Press Office announced that Pope Francis has appointed the current assistant secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization Msgr. Giovanni Dal Toso - who is also president of the Pontifical Mission Societies - as the new apostolic nuncio to Jordan with residence in Amman. With this appointment the figure of the apostolic nuncio to Jordan is distinguished for the first time from that of the nuncio to Iraq. Today's headlines: Chinese students forced to sign a contract on Party loyalty to attend foreign universities; Education minsiter Chris Hipkins to replace Jacinda Ardern at the helm of New Zealand's government; Lebanon's UN voting rights suspended over debts; New crackdown on newspapers, TV and internet in Tajikistan. SOUTH KOREA In Seoul, a fire swept through part of the Guryong slum, which is located just across the highway from the exclusive Gangnam district. The flames forced the evacuation of about 500 people. Guryong is one of the last remaining slums in the capital and has become a symbol of inequality in Asia's fourth-largest economy. CHINA Tens of thousands of Chinese students before going abroad on government-supported scholarships must sign a document pledging allegiance to the ruling Communist Party, as well as presenting guarantors who could be forced to return the funds if they violate the agreement. Bringing the case to light was the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that 30 doctoral students coming to the country had signed such contracts. Radio Free Asia later found evidence that this practice had been carried on in silence for more than a decade, with different versions of the contract and related regulations available for consultation online. NEW ZEALAND The current Minister of Education and Policing Chris Hipkins, 44 will take over from resigning premier Jacinda Ardern at the helm of New Zealand's government. Hipkins' choice is expected to be ratified Sunday by the Labor parliamentary group. He would thus prevail over current Justice Minister Kiri Allan, who if chosen would become the first Maori premier in New Zealand's history. The Hipkins government will face a general election campaign, which even before Jacinda Ardern's resignation was set for Oct. 14, 2023. BANGLADESH In Bangladesh at least a thousand acres of land have been rendered uncultivable by pollution in the Dokhola area of Gazipur. At issue is the overflow of a canal into which some industrial plants in the area allegedly discharge wastewater without any controls. LEBANON Lebanon has had its voting rights at the UN General Assembly suspended for failing to pay annual dues. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Beirut government must pay arrears of about .8 million to regain its status. The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said Friday that the debt will be paid "immediately, so as to preserve Lebanon's rights within the United Nations." RUSSIA The Timirjazevo district court in Moscow is trying 23-year-old mathematics student Dmitry Ivanov, author of the Telegram channel "Protest University," who was arrested in June for public anti-war actions. According to his lawyer, he was subjected to violence in prison and during transfers. The Archbishop of the Apostolic Orthodox Church, Grigory Mikhnov-Vajtenko, spoke in his defense at the trial. TAJIKISTAN An amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code has come into effect in Tajikistan, under which it will be possible to issue arrest warrants for publications in print, radio, and television, and now on the Internet, that cause social unrest or create security hazards. This has allowed more than 130 people to be arrested in Karakalpakstan, the area of the protests. Study by International Campaign for Tibet reveals. Those over 60 the most vulnerable. Peak infection is expected in these festive days for the Lunar New Year. Estimate presented for Tibet is "conservative." Need more transparency from authorities. Discrimination in vaccine administration. Beijing (AsiaNews) - More than 220,000 Tibetans over the age of 60 could die this year from Covid-19. That's a projection contained in a report released in recent days by the aid organization International Campaign for Tibet. After the sudden cancellation of Xi Jinping's zero-Covid policy in early December, the World Health Organization expressed concern about the spread of the virus to remote areas of China during the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls today. Over the past week, millions of Chinese have been moving to join their families in the country's rural areas, which are less equipped in terms of health. Studies by domestic and foreign research institutions estimate that more than 1.6 million Chinese could perish from lung disease in 2023. Precise data on the trend of the epidemic curve is currently lacking: as was the case when the pandemic broke out in late 2019, authorities provide little information. International Campaign for Tibet says the calculation presented is "conservative," and that the actual number of victims cannot be known without more transparency from the Chinese government. According to Radio Free Asia, the reopenings decided by authorities after the late November riots immediately led to an increase in Covid deaths in the Tibet Autonomous Region. For the most part, these are the elderly and people with pre-existing medical conditions. Official statistics show that there are about 693,000 Tibetans over 60 and 82,700 over 80. International Campaign for Tibet claims that the deaths so far are also the result of discriminatory acts against the Tibetan community. Some sources revealed to the humanitarian group that authorities would exclude older Tibetan residents from the third dose of vaccination in early 2022. kW FWD AWD If the latter is what you are mostly interested in, then you have come to the right place, as these digital illustrations showcase it with just a few modifications. And you dont have to be a connoisseur in vehicles made by the Korean marque to tell whats new, because even though they are discreet, the changes are obvious, and do suit this big crossover like a glove.For one, the entire chrome trim has been virtually blacked out. Thus, there are no more shiny accents on the outside, and the black trim provides some nice contrast to the silver body. Speaking of the body, it now rides closer to the ground courtesy of a tweaked suspension. Filling the arches much better than the OEM wheels are new alloys, which were imagined in three different flavors, and as many finishes, including one that reveals a set of red brake calipers hugging the cross-drilled discs behind them.So, which one is your favorite? Is it the Y-spoke set that shows that upgraded braking system? The multi-spoke ones, with a concave shape, that kind of send Rolls-Royce vibes? Or the five double-spoke proposal finished in black? You be the judge of that, and before you answer, heres another thing to consider: would it have looked better with a sportier body kit? We think not, because less is often more, and this also applies to the tuning world, where a car with perhaps new wheels, suspension, and some other minor revisions looks better in most cases than a heavily modified one.On a final note, we will remind you that the 2023 Hyundai Palisade comes in five different trim levels in the United States. The SE kicks off the range, with its $35,250 starting price. It is followed by the SEL, which can be ordered from $38,250. For the XRT and Limited grades, you are looking at a minimum of $40,550 and $46,800 respectively. As for the top-of-the-line, the Calligraphy, it is accompanied by an MSRP of $49,200.Regardless of your choice, all of them use the same engine, a 3.8-liter V6 , making 291 hp (295 ps/217) at 6,000 rpm and 262 lb-ft (355 Nm) of torque at 5,200 rpm. It is hooked up to an eight-speed automatic transmission and standard front-wheel drive. The all-wheel drive system is available as an option.models return 22 mpg (10.7 l/100 km) combined, and those featuringare rated at 21 mpg (11.2 l/100 km). Photo: Modern Tiny Living via Youtube Photo: Modern Tiny Living via Youtube Photo: Modern Tiny Living via Youtube People don't usually associate the term "luxury" with tiny homes, but there are few houses on wheels that manage to fit inside many of the luxe amenities found in larger homes. Bofin fuses luxury with simplicity, offering a well-appointed interior that doesn't feel cramped at all.This tiny home was designed by Modern Tiny Living (MTL), a custom tiny builder based out of Columbus, Ohio. The company has created over the years numerous mobile habitats that embrace the idea of "less is more." Some of the houses designed by the skilled team from MTL were even featured on popular shows on HGTV, the DIY Network, and NBC.Bofin is the builder's latest model. This tiny measures only 24 ft (7.3 meters) in length, and it's 8.5 (2.5 meters) wide. It's a custom unit based on their renowned Kokosing model, and it's loaded with space-saving contraptions. Just like every other home designed by MTL, Bofin has a story.For its owner Julie, the name reminds her of one of her favorite places. Julie is of Irish descent, and every time she visits her family in Ireland, she also goes to Inishbofin, a little island off the coast of Connemara called simply Bofin by the locals. Bofin holds a special place in her heart because it makes her feel at peace. It's a tranquil oasis that allows her to escape from the bustle and hustle of city life.Since Julie's tiny home also offers her both financial freedom and the possibility to settle down wherever she wants, she lovingly named it Bofin. The house was designed as a full-time residence , even though it can also serve as a rental. It can even be used for a weekend getaway. However, the mobile habitat comes with all the features the owner could possibly need to live comfortably.On the outside, the custom dwelling features LP vertical smart siding and a steel roof with custom gutters. It seems quite simple, but it oozes rustic charm. Once you step inside, you're welcomed by a light-filled interior that doesn't feel small at all. The first thing you're going to notice is the living room, which is positioned next to the entryway.The company calls it the "elevated MTL social area" because this area features a U-shaped lounge that can seat up to six people. It's the perfect spot to relax and socialize with friends and family. There are also some bookshelves and several large drawers for storage. What's interesting is that the living room can also convert into a bedroom with a full-size bed.Next to this area is a table placed in front of a large window that lets natural light come inside. The owner can use it for dining or as a small workspace. A few steps ahead is the kitchen, which is equipped with all the necessities. It includes a three-burner propane cooktop with an oven, a microwave, a large farmhouse-style apron sink, and a refrigerator.The kitchen features generous brown maple butcher block countertops that provide all the space the owner needs to prepare delicious meals. It even has a breakfast bar that can seat four, which is also placed in front of a big window. In terms of storage, the kitchen has numerous drawers and cabinets that can fit the cookware, utensils, and other necessary items. There are even two down-down cabinets placed above the breakfast bar that offer even more storage.But that's not all. This tiny home has space for a washer and dryer combo unit as well. The washer and dryer unit sits right next to the bathroom, which gets separated from the rest of the dwelling via a custom sliding barn door. The bathroom is compact, but it has everything the owner needs: a generous fiberglass shower, a sink with storage underneath, a standard flush toilet, and some cabinets with open shelves.Above the bathroom is the bedroom. The loft can easily be accessed by using the stairs with built-in storage. For a tiny home that's only 24 ft (7.3 meters) long, Bofin goes big on storage space. You'll notice that there are some cubby holes incorporated into the stairs, as well as a closet that's ideal for hanging clothes.And if that's not enough, the loft has a cubby cabinet. It also has space for a king-size bed and plenty of room to move around. Just like the rest of this house, the bedroom is filled with natural light since it has windows on all sides. Other features included in this tiny home are a ductless mini-split AC unit and an electric tankless water heater. For all of this, Bofin starts at $79,000. You can take a look at the clip down below to see what this mobile habitat has to offer. Photo: NASA/Joel Kowsky Photo: NASA Photo: NASA Photo: NASA Photo: NASA By all accounts, Artemis I was spectacular. It marked the moment when, for the first time in the history of mankind, a crew-capable ship traveled a total distance of 1.4 million miles (2.25 million km), going at a record distance of 268,563 miles (432,000 km) from our planet.It carried with it not only a test mannequin and doll-sized zero-g indicators, but also technologies never sent to space before, like the Callisto , running both the Amazon Alexa virtual audio assistant and Ciscos Webex communications tool.Artemis I encountered some problems, both before launch and during flight, but managed to overcome them all and officially kickstart humanitys second Moon exploration program.Up next is Artemis II, scheduled for departure sometime next year. Just like the first mission, it will not land humans on the Moon, but will carry some with it on a joyride around our planets satellite. We know now the technology works, but we now need to learn if it lives up to astronauts standards, and thats what Artemis II is for. Artemis III is the effort that will make all space enthusiasts dreams come true. At the time of writing, its not scheduled to take off before 2025. Yet, probably fueled by the enthusiasm of the Artemis I success, NASA released last week, for the first time, the full details of the mission, as they are known at the moment. They, too, are simply spectacular, and you can read all about them in the lines below.The Apollo missions to the Moon in the 1960s were exclusively white-male affairs. Although women and people of color were involved in the overall project, the astronauts who got to touch the stars were all white males. In all, 12 of our finest did that.Thatll change with Artemis III. The crew of the mission is four people strong, and not all will be of the same sex and race. NASA has made a habit of advertising that the mission will land the first woman and first person of color on the surface of the Moon. So far, it didnt go as far as to say if the first woman and first person of color will be two different people The selection hasnt been made yet, so we dont know the names of the ones taking a seat in the Orion. We are promised, though, the choice will be made from among the most diverse astronaut corps in history, each equipped with unique skills and intensively trained.Just like with Artemis I, the crewed mission will make use of the Space Launch System ( SLS ) rocket and Orion capsule. Granted, improved versions of them.In the current configuration, and at least until the SpaceX Starship lifts off, the SLS is the most powerful rocket ever made, delivering 8.8 million pounds of thrust during Artemis I. At the moment, its also humanitys only piece of hardware capable of accelerating the Orion to the Moon in a single go.The Orion , on the other hand, is presently the only spaceship capable of going to the Moon, but, more importantly, safely returning the crew back to Earth, despite the immense speed a lunar return generates. The crew will have to be protected from the dangers of re-entry as the ship theyre in reaches 24,855 mph (40,000 kph) in Earths atmosphere.Unlike Artemis I and II, Artemis III will have to use another piece of hardware, namely a lunar lander . This piece of tech will be built by SpaceX, and its the only element of the mission that hasnt been created and tested yet. So, before the mission gets going, Elon Musks company will have to fly the lander at least once to prove it works as needed. It is this element that presently poses the greatest danger to Artemis III not departing in 2025.The start of crewed flights to the Moon will not take place before SpaceX launches a series of preparatory missions and the lander itself. The preparatory missions are required because the lander will have to fuel itself in Earth's orbit before heading for the Moon.In essence, it will go a bit like this. First, SpaceX will send up a storage depot comprising fuel tanks. Then, the human landing system, as its now called, will head up as well, to rendezvous and fill its tanks in our planet's orbit. Once that is completed, the ship will head to the Moon, where it will park itself in orbit and await the arrival of humans.The Artemis III mission will depart Earth in 2025 (hopefully) from the famous Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Thats the same place where the Apollo missions left Earth from, but also the origin point for Artemis I.The SLS will ignite and hurtle itself and the Orion toward the edge of space, in the fashion were all so used to by now. Orion will detach, and the crew will spend some time in Earth orbit performing checks and getting the spaceship configured for the journey to the Moon.A translunar injection maneuver will follow, effectively placing the Orion on a path to the Moon, a journey that will last several days. During all this time, constant corrective burns will have to be performed to keep the spaceship on track.The American space agency decided some time ago to use the so-called Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) to park the Orion once it reaches the Moon. Its an orbit perfectly balanced between Earth and the Moon, maximizing the use of fuel, and it brings whatever hardware is placed there both very close to and very far from the surface of the satellite.More importantly, it can keep communication lines with our planet open at all times. From this orbit, all sites of interest on the surface can easily be reached. NRHO is also the place where NASA and its partners will build the Gateway lunar space station.Once it gets to NRHO, the Orion spaceship will have to hook up with the SpaceX lander already there. After the required steps are taken, two of the four Artemis astronauts will move inside the lander and undock to head down to the surface.Artemis III is the first mission to attempt to land humans at the Moons South Pole. The place was chosen because theres a high likelihood of materials needed for future operations to be found, including oxygen and water.Like before, work will begin almost immediately, with all sorts of science experiments to be conducted both inside the Starship lander and outside, in the unforgiving environment of the Moon. The full extent of research is unknown at the time of writing, but we do know it will include the collection of samples.For moonwalks, astronauts will all use brand-new EVA suits. Theyll be made by Axiom Space and will be called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Units ( xEMU ). For use so far away from home, theyll have to withstand temperatures between minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit and up to 250 degrees (minus 156 to 121 degrees Celsius).Even if from the days of the Apollo program were used to seeing snapshots of alien worlds from on-site, the level and number of images sent back by Artemis astronauts will be unprecedented. Were promised lots of photos and videos, probably high-definition and readily available, but also completely new vistas compared to Apollos pics from the equator, given how the South Pole is a brand new place were exploring.It's unclear for now how long the Artemis III stay on the surface will be, but itll probably not exceed six and a half days. Thats how long itll take the Orion spaceship to make a complete orbit and return over the landing site to be able to pick up the landing party.After departing the lunar surface, astronauts will spend another five days in orbit there, transferring samples from the lander to Orion, and getting the ship ready for the return to Earth.The trip back will be made pretty much in the same fashion as the trip out, with the Orion expected to eventually make a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, from where the astronauts will be recovered by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy.At the time of writing, three years separate us from the moment of Artemis III launch. Like everything else in space exploration, some details might change, and others might be added as time goes by, so well update this story accordingly. ICE EV GM wanted to send a clear message that they will continue to provide a strong portfolio ofvehicles for their customers. At the end of the day, the majority of Americans still prefer a regular vehicle as opposed to an. Recent studies conducted by insurance companies have proven this, but you don't need to be a scientist to figure that one out.This being said, the 854 million dollars are meant mostly for their full-size trucks and SUVs. Unfortunately, GM didn't offer any more details in regards to when it will come out, how it will perform, or other features of the sixth-generation small-block V8.The vast majority, $579 million, will go to the Flint Engine Operations facility in Michigan. The purpose is to get the plant ready as soon as possible to assemble the upcoming engine.Flint Engine Operations was first opened in 2002, now has 706 employees, and its main goal is assembly and machining operations. Coming out of its gates is the 1.5-liter turbo engine from the Chevrolet Malibu, and also the 3.0-liter turbo diesel from the Chevy Silverado LD and Tahoe, and the GMC Sierra LD and Yukon.After that, the Bay City GPS (Michigan) will be getting $216 million to build camshafts and connecting rods, along with block and head machining.As for the history lesson, this facility was opened way back in 1892, when it was making a new type of bicycle meant to replace bizarre high-wheeled models. In 1916 it was bought by William Durant and Louis Chevrolet which was converted into a GM plant in 1918.Now, it has 422 employees that help make connecting rods, solid camshafts, and sliding camshafts found in certain Chevrolet , Buick, GMC, and Cadillac models.The third factory, Defiance Operations in Ohio will be getting a $47 million investment. The money will go into preparing Defiance to build several types of block castings.This aluminum foundry and machining plant was opened after the Second World War, in 1948. Now, they have 531 employees that contribute to building the inline-four, V6, and V8 cylinder blocks along with inline-four cylinder heads.Finally, GM will invest $12 million in Rochester Operations in New York to prepare the facility for making intake manifolds and fuel rails for the next-gen V8.The Rochester facility was opened in 1939 and now has over 770 employees. The plant makes various vehicle components and applications like integrated air fuel modules, fuel rails, lifter oil manifold assemblies, evaporative canisters, and fuel injectors.This being said, this is not the only investment GM will be making. They also laid out plans to put aside some "chump change" ($64 million) to support EV production. The money will be going to Rochester Operations ($56 million), and Defiance Operations ($8 million), for castings and components.After the proverbial ink from the documents will have dried off, it would mean that since 2013, GM will have invested more than $37 billion into its U.S. manufacturing facilities. That, of course, includes the Ultium Cells LLC joint venture plants. Peep the weights on some of this stuff! This is a bunch of a HEAVY moulds. Also, some more info about the company :) pic.twitter.com/H2YUd6YiBV Greg (@greggertruck) January 19, 2023 Tesla fans say that 2022 was the year of the Semi when the potentially disruptive electric truck finally started production. The Cybertruck was supposed to deliver to first customers sooner than that, but, alas, it didnt. Thats why people (almost two million of them, if were to count those who reserved it) hope 2023 is the year of the Cybertruck. Weve heard countless rumors, not to mention promises from Tesla executives , including Musk himself, that this is indeed the case.Tesla has finalized the Cybertruck design, as confirmed by the companys chief designer Franz von Holzhausen, and concluded the development phase. Tesla said last October that the Cybertruck officially entered the tooling phase, although were not entirely sure this was accurate. Tesla only much later received IDRAs Giga Presses and is still in the process of installing them. This was revealed by enthusiasts who follow Giga Austin and use drones to hawkishly watch every move on the factory premises.Another step after installing the Giga Presses is fitting the gigantic casting molds needed to cast the Cybertruck parts. Tesla enthusiast Greg (@greggertruck) has intercepted a bill of lading confirming that said parts arrived in the U.S. on January 20 and are heading to Giga Austin. The molds are produced by the Chinese ZDM (Zhenzhi) Machinery & Mould Co.Moulds have arrived in Texas to Tesla!! Cybertruck casting molds! ZDM details their work on their moulding website and shows samples pertaining to injection moulding, wrote Greg on Twitter.While Greg has no solid proof that these molds are designed specifically for the Cybertruck, he assumes so based on the fact that Tesla is now installing its production line. Theres another hint, though, in the sheer weight of these components. According to the bill of lading, each mold weighs between 17,450 kg (38,470 lbs) and 117,000 kg (258,000 lbs). We have no information about how much the molds used for the Model Y production weigh, but these are seriously heavy pieces of equipment.Tesla already advertised job openings related to the Cybertruck production at Giga Texas, including for a Manufacturing Operations Leader who will supervise the entire Cybertruck production. Before jumping to conclusions, we must say that starting production of a new model is a lengthy and difficult process. We have Giga Texas and Giga Berlin example, money furnaces, as Elon Musk called them, which are still far from ramping up properly. The Cybertruck production would certainly be more difficult to master because of the trucks unique characteristics. Photo: Global Power Journal Photo: Industry Europe Photo: Global Power Journal Photo: Seenews This is the story of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, the country's atomic titan. Located on the banks of the mighty Danube river near one of its outlets to the Black Sea, the CNPP is one of Romania's crowning international collaborations between itself and the west. One rooted in the old Communist government, but today shining a light on a nation quickly becoming an ambassador of democracy in Eastern Europe, in spite of its problems.It was the Canadians who supplied the technology, the personnel, and considerable financial backing to help Romania achieve this profound point of national pride that, at one time, only global superpowers could muster. In truth, the Cernavoda Nuclear Plant's primary objectives were less rooted in national pride and more as a precautionary measure against a brutish Soviet bear of a state trying to impose its will on the country for decades.Relations between the Soviets and Romania are often overlooked in global history classes post-1945. But as it happens, the de-satellization of Romania, i.e., the very public and ugly diplomatic breakup between itself and the Soviet Union, was perhaps the most important impetus behind the Cernavoda plant.Even after the downfall of the Soviets, the Russian Federation continued to levy their native gas and oil reserves to gain strategic advantages over the rest of Europe. All ostensibly in a ploy to scare the true Russian rival, the United States, out of affairs in Europe. Spoiler alert, it didn't work.In many respects, Romania was more autonomous and independent than even Cuba before Nicolae Ceausescu came to power. Though still an active member of the Warsaw Pact until 1969, the dictator himself certainly played a critical role in reaching out to the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited company (AECL) in 1978 to liberate itself further from the controlling grasp of Russo-Soviet oil and gas.Located in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada, not far from the national border with New York State , AECL's expertise in proprietary, in-house designed fission reactors are still, to this day, one of the unappreciated gems of North American energy infrastructure. Tracing its engineering roots to the Canadian contribution to the Manhattan Project, ACEL's expertise soon became the CANDU-class (Canada Deuterium Uranium) nuclear fission reactor.The CANDU class reactor was designed to run on a particularly "spicy" mix of uranium-238 and 235 isotopes. The reactor derives its name from liquid deuterium (heavy water), which is used to cool down radioactive fuel rods and maintain a smooth flow of thermal neutrons emitted from atom-splitting process. Deuterium also restricts the subatomic particles flung off from critical fission reactions from doing so far too quickly, preventing the concoction from going supercritical. In the nuclear engineering space, supercritical means a super bad time for all involved. In this application, the heavy water acts as what's known as a fission moderator material.It's a consistent reaction that yields just as much power as the last, if not more, that's what's required. A special blend of light water (H2O) and heavy water (D2O) creates an environment that keeps uranium fuel rods in a comfortable middle ground, yielding high-pressure, steam-turbine-driven electricity without becoming supercritical.If Romania wanted to kick the Russian gas station out and make its own supply of the good stuff, there were few better choices than CANDU reactors. With built-in safety features that ensured a Chornobyl (Chernobyl)-like disaster could be averted, the CANDU-class reactor had a remarkably less checkered accident history than the RBMK-class reactors the Soviets employed in Ukraine.As an added gravy on top, CANDU reactors have an especially tasty fissile byproduct on occasion called tritium isotope (3H). As it happens, tritium is a rare and valuable resource with a positively tiny worldwide supply. What's extra special is tritium's potential for use in nuclear fusion reactors such as the ones employed in the U.K. and France at the JET and ITER labs, respectively. All in all, a pretty spectacular package for the Romanians.Construction of Unit 1 at the Cernavoda was formally ordered by Nicolae Ceausescu and began on July 1st, 1982. By that time the next year, Unit 2 began construction as well. It was thought Romania could be an atomic power before the end of the 1980s. Assuming funding both domestically and internationally kept flowing for the plant's completion.Except, things didn't go according to plan, as was evident on Christmas Day, 1989. Though we'll spare details, this is the day Romania kicked Communism to the curb and brought an era of instability but also empowering hope. All the while, it would take until December 1997 for CNPP Unit 1 to reach operational status. A further ten years were needed before Unit 2 was also online in October 2007.Many types of fission reactors use nearby bodies of water to actively cool their nuclear fuel. But the vital Danube snaking through the heart of Europe never once comes into contact with the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant. Between the two reactors in operation at the present day, a total of 1,400 megawatts of nuclear energy is produced at full capacity. When all said and done, that's a total contribution of around 18 percent of Romania's total energy production.That puts Romania's nuclear slice of its energy pie-chart within the United State's 20 percent. That's without accounting for differences in population and with a two percent or so margin of error. Even so, Nicolae Ceausescu once demanded in the mid-1980s that a further two or even three additional CANDU-6 reactors in 1985. But yet again, his downfall brought those plans to an abrupt halt.Calls to complete the delivery of the third and fourth reactors began to sound again in the mid-2000s. Predictably, this was ultimately attributed to an abrupt bottleneck of Russian petrochemicals into Romania during an unexpected span of cold weather around the year 2005. These calls died down once the gas crisis was over, but expanding Romania's only current nuclear power station is a hot debate in Romanian society.As of 2023, an international crisis just over the Romanian border in Ukraine is bringing calls to complete at least two more reactors at Cernavoda and perhaps even a third. With only Ukraine standing between Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, both the U.S. and NATO surely have a vested interest in turning a once-reeling ex-communist state into a modernized, highly energized right-hand man to the United States in the region alongside Poland.A key component, should this take place, is making sure Romania has plenty of energy to keep up with a potential total war situation with Russia. One thing's for sure. If lots of power is what you're after, nuclear energy is likely the best method to achieve this. With plans in place with U.S. aid already, it's only a matter of time before it happens. If we could magically switch to renewables Photo: Freepik Photo: Freepik So how can we turn electricity into energy for later use? ICE EV Photo: Audi The batteries are good. But they are simply not enough Photo: Freepik Think bigger. Much bigger! Underground Gravity Energy Storage - could this be it? kWh kW Photo: IIASA At some point in distant history, human beings tamed fire. They first started to burn wood and after many millennials, they started digging for fossil fuels to burn. Burning this stuff was good for creating energy and electricity and humanitys development skyrocketed.But at some point in relatively recent history, human beings realized that burning all this stuff also leads to anthropogenic CO2 emissions and other pollutants . Their effects are global warming, climate change, and an existential threat to humankind. We had to think of a zero-emissions solution for producing electricity.In an almost desperate desire to minimize damage, human beings turned their eyes and knowledge, and resources toward near-zero-emissions means of creating energy, like solar, wind, hydro, and so on. The goal is to replace fossil fuel energy with clean energy, as close to zero emissions as we can.The problem the huge mammoth in the room is the electrical grid was designed having three continuous phases in mind: 1) producing energy (from stuff that can be easily stored), 2) transporting the energy to consumers, and 3) consumption of the energy by a myriad of electrical devices.It's a never-ending machine, where drops and peaks in energy demand usually result in heavy losses of energy. Or blackouts. Now imagine replacing the fossil fuel sources in this gearing with those intermittent renewable sources producing too much energy when the grid load is low, and too little or none of it when the grid load is high. Its simply an apocalypse.I wish we had a Doctor Strange or Professor Xavier to magically transform our grid overnight. Instead, the only logical solution is adding a fourth phase: storing the intermittent renewable energy for later use. Easier said than done.Water, coal, oil, and gas are themselves forms of energy storage energy that is converted into electricity in all sorts of power plants. But electricity is not storable in a simple container, like dams for water, deposits for coal, or tanks for oil and gas.In order for the electricity to be stored, it needs a very special and complex container a battery of some sort , which is a very new technology and almost in its infancy compared to fossil fuel usage.Or maybe electricity could be turned back into energy, and we could store that energy somehow, and then transform that energy into electricity when we need it.By simply using the force that hit Newtons head oh, wait, that was an apple Never mind, its the gravitational force, that pulls objects with mass toward each other. Because Earth is huge and all of us are tiny, the third rock from the sun is keeping us on the ground thanks to the force of gravity (otherwise wed all float).Enough with the theory, lets do a transforming-energy experiment. Pick something in your hand and lift it to the height of your head. I hope its not your smartphone because now you have to let it go. Oops, I hope you had a good case on that phone or you really hated it.Jokes aside, when you lifted the object, you consumed a quantity of energy for this motion. But you also charged that object with some energy potential energy. When you dropped the object, it was falling because of gravitational force. And the objects potential energy could be turned into electricity if there was some device to oppose that gravitational force.I know, its physics, you probably hated it in school. Well, then, think about braking a car: when you push the pedal, the energy of braking is lost as heat in the case of ancar, or it is transformed into electricity and stored back into the battery in the case of a hybrid orcar.Having the EV example in mind, when dropping an object from a high point, its stored energy could be transformed into electricity by a device that can brake its falling. In short, this is the simple principle of any form of gravitational energy storage that is not battery-based.Batteries, especially lithium-ion ones, are the safest bet for the near and medium term in the case of cars, electronics, and energy storage. Well, this is not entirely true because we need tremendous quantities of resources to fulfill every need.In a few decades, well have hundreds of billions of devices and gadgets powered by batteries, a billion electric vehicles using batteries, billions of home and office energy storage devices, and millions of large-scale energy storage projects.These large-scale energy storage projects are of crucial importance for the grid. For now, lithium-ion battery-based solutions are capable to sustain maximum power output for a few hours or even for a couple of days. But they are more of a backup solution, at best.If we are to replace fossil fuel sources in the grid with renewables one, we must think big. No, not big, much bigger than you can imagine. We need the so-called long-duration energy storage projects, which are capable to turn giga-watts of power into energy, storing it for days or weeks, and then transforming it into electricity in a continuous manner.How much is 1 GW of power? According to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, you need more than three million common photovoltaic panels or more than 300 utility-scale 3MW wind turbines to create this quantity of energy. And it could power 100 million LEDs or almost 10,000 small-battery EVs like the Nissan Leaf.What these numbers are telling us is that we need long-duration energy projects rivaling in size the Pyramids of Egypt. Yes, that big!Research company BloombergNEF forecasts that the global energy storage market will grow 15-fold by 2030 to 411 GW / 1194 GWh. This is compared to the 2021 level of only 27 GW / 56 GWh worldwide.BNEF suggests that about 60% of the projects will be to provide energy shifting, which is advancing or delaying the time of electricity dispatch. Energy storage located in homes and businesses will account for 25% - this leads to another debate on the microgrids dilemma.Today, lithium-ion battery energy storage systems account for the majority of installations. But by 2030, many non-battery technologies will be deployed, and lithium-ion-based ones could lose their dominance. It seems that most funds go toward compressed air and thermal energy storage.Interestingly, BNEF states that the forecast excludes pumped hydro storage, which is the most dominant form of energy storage on the electric grid today. It is expected to increase by 50% by 2030, to about 240 GW which is half of BNEF predictions for all the other solutions!Pumped hydro storage is the best example of good use of gravitational force. It consists of two water reservoirs, placed at different elevations. When the grid needs electricity, the water from the upper reservoir is allowed to move down, powering a turbine and producing electricity. When the grid load is low, cheap electricity is used to pump water from the lower reservoir back to the upper one.Such a battery sounds wonderful, but there is a caveat: climate change is putting energy security at risk globally because droughts are affecting water resources. Approximately 26% of existing hydropower dams and 23% of projected dams are within river basins that currently have a medium to very high risk of water scarcity.Pumped hydro storage is also at risk, so its only natural to search for other ways of putting the force of gravity to good use. How about the now-defunct mining sites, which likely number in the millions globally?For now, this novel way to store energy is only on paper, in a study led by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). An international team of researchers proposed a vertically transporting sand system into abandoned mines.Because mines already exist, and also most of the mining equipment needed, while sand is simply so cheap.Researchers estimated that investment costs are about $1-10/, much lower compared to $2-50/kWh for pumped hydro storage. On the other hand, the installed capacity cost is estimated at $2,000-4,000/, higher than the $400-1000/kW for pumped hydro storage.The main advantage is very long storage (depending on how deep the mine is) and essentially limitless capacity. Besides, sand is not affected by climate change, as water is. And it is enabling ultra-long time energy storage ranging from weeks to several years.How does it work? The main components are the shaft, motor/generator, upper and lower storage sites, and mining equipment. It generates electricity by lowering sand into the mine and converting the potential energy of the sand into electricity via regenerative braking. Then it uses cheap electricity to lift the sand from the mine to an upper reservoir using electric motors to store energy.Yes, its that simple. And in the process, abandoned mines can be revived, which is an unexpected positive side effect for many parts of the world researchers found out that the most mines suitable for this solution are concentrated in China, India, Russia, and the U.S.However, there is the question of profitability, as this technology is estimated to have a global potential of 7 to 70 TWh. The best-case scenario is still four times less than hydro-pumped storage, so the future of this solution is mainly a question of interest from investors.There are other grid-scale gravity energy storage solutions out there, but all of them still have to pass the proof-of-concept stage. The main lesson from this is that the grid can be decarbonized. I mean, it has to be, because two-thirds of GHG emissions in the U.S. are due to the way we produce electricity.We need clean electricity for the Electrify Everything really to make sense. The long-duration energy storage ideas based on gravity are a very important part of the solution in order to accelerate the deployment of renewables. Lets only hope its not too little, too late. Palmdale, CA (93550) Today Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High 59F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 43F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter. China's Vice Premier Liu attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) and said it is open to global cooperation at the Davos summit on Tuesday. The World Economic Forum in Switzerland had several nations, and their representatives talked about economic matters. Vice Premier Lu Gets Spotlight at World Economic Forum Liu spoke about Beijing's report that its economic growth will be on track in 2023 despite the lag caused by the pandemic, Zawya reports. He cited several factors pointing to its progressive recovery to normal growth in 2023 with the following instances. This includes more imports and corporations investing more with increased consumption as well. Most notable is that his speech to other economic bodies focuses on international cooperation as a keystone for global stability, also saying world peace is needed to achieve it several times. Included in the statement by the Chinese premier bolsters private sectors with the maintenance of fair competition also the reforming of state giants. He mentioned a few suggestions if it could move back to its planned economic trajectory will not be applicable, according to Business Live. Placed all the goals of the mainland government, that is, to encourage more interaction and how all parties can participate. Including that foreign investment will be welcomed in China, and the door will be more open than ever. Global Cooperation Is the Thrust of World Financial Leaders The visit of the Chinese official to the posh Swiss ski resort landmarks was the first trip to an international summit done by a high-level Chinese delegation after Beijing canceled the zero- COVID policy. It has prevented all its billion-plus citizens, which has limited China's interaction globally for about three years, per The Standard. Read Also: BRICS To Set Criteria in Joining Alternative Economic Bloc Comments from the premier are considered as prompt to the world at large how Beijing is recalibrating how it will engage its economy globally as it lay dormant due to COVID curbs. The Chinese economy grew only about 3% in 2022 and is considered the worst economic performance in fifty years, with a miss of 5.5 % project growth. Missing in Davos is the Russian delegation which was a contrast to the presence of the Chinese delegation; western countries have been pressuring Beijing to sanction Moscow to no avail. Its presence in the economic summit opens up questions. One of the highlights is the shift of Beijing and Canberra from formerly adversarial status, which has been dropping its all-out support for the US position. Australia's government is opening up its coal imports to China after a three-year hiatus. China, US Officials Future Meeting Beijing Last November, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met on the sidelines at an Indonesian summit. One of the subjects is a planned Visit to the Chinese capital by the Secretary of State Antony Blinken scheduled for 2023. The premier at the Swiss summit will discuss with other world leaders with business entities that include CEOs ranging from financial, tech firms, and consumer/industrial firms added an official close the affair. Among these, Liu will meet on Wednesday with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Zurich, the first they will meet in person after several virtual meetings. Chinese Vice Premier Lu stressed that global cooperation is more crucial than ever at the WEF summit in Davos, Switzerland. Related Article: China Takes a Swipe at US Allegations on Debt Traps @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Missing Oklahoma girl Athena Brownfield's body was discovered on the property of the caregiver, informed the authorities. Her caregivers were charged with the murder last week as they attempted to mislead the police. Caretaker Beats to Death 4-year-old Oklahoma Girl The 4-year-old girl, Athena Brownfield, was killed in Arizona by those acting as her guardians, per Crime Online. The corpse of the missing Oklahoma girl has been discovered where her caretaker buried her remains. Authorities in Oklahoma found the remains of a child in an area they were searching for 4-year-old Athena Brownfield, whose caregiver was charged with her murder last week. Sources say that the girl had been gone since January 11, after one mail carrier saw her sister, five years old, outside the house of Ivon and Alysia Adams in Cyril. Investigator was looking for Athena's remains but was not found until one of the caregivers finally cracked and told them where they buried the child. Ivon Adams, the suspect who beat the young girl to death, went to a former property in another town in an attempt to hide the brutal murder of the young victim, states Fox 10 News. Based on the information on the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Authorized Facebook page, which informed the remains would be sent to the state medical examiner's office in Oklahoma City to identify the cadaver, in the short statement released by the OSBI that says if the remains are that of Athena. Last Monday, the agency informed that the search for the missing 4-year-old had become a recovery of the victim's body. Read Also: Search Warrant at Bryan Kohberger's Home Suspect Tried To Hide Girl's Remains Details disclosed that Alysia got apprehended last Thursday in Oklahoma, and her partner Ivon got caught by police several hours later in Phoenix, Arizona. The duo was charged with child neglect, and only the man was charged with killing the child. Information from court documents revealed that Alysia informed the investigator how her partner killed Athena on December 25, very brutally. So much so that the girl stopped breathing with her eyes unresponsive. The man alleged had put the helpless girl on the ground and punched her chest three times again, which left her motionless, told the woman. This showed that Ivon exhibited excess brutality toward the defenseless girl. She adds that Ivon had taken the corpse and dug a grave close to the fence line in their former home in Rush Springs, only 15 miles from Cyril, the scene of the murder. Her partner took the girl's corpse to the location at 1 am on December 26. When he returned, he said her grave was marked on the Rush Springs property by a broken branch. Last week the accused child-killer said he wanted to get back to Oklahoma and passed an extradition hearing to fight it. But he is still kept in a Maricopa County jail as of this report, while Alysia is incarcerated in Caddo County in Oklahoma. More info released by the OSBI noted there is no specified relation between the girls and the couple. The biological mom had left the two sisters about two years back, but the Oklahoma girl's natural parents are cooperating in the case. Related Article: Roe v Wade Leak Investigation Fails @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Veer Guardian 2023 is the first showcase of the best dogfighters in Japan as the first-ever Indo-Japanese air-combat training. The air maneuvers will be held as a ten-day drill that starts on January 16 is underway. Veer Guardian 2023 in Japan Bases that serve as venues are the Ibaraki and Iruma Airbases located in the Prefectures of Ibaraki and Saitama, where the units will practice air combat, The EurAsian Times reported. Showcased in the upcoming air drill is the participation of the Indian Air Force (IAF) sending unit of four Su-30 MKI fighter jets (Russian Flankers) with two C-17 cargo transport, IL-78 aerial tanker, and lastly, 150 Indian troops, states Military Today. The host, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), will have four F-2s and the same number of F-15 Eagle superiority fighters, per Air Force Technology. By comparison, the Eagle and Flanker have the rep as top-notch air superiority jets and are well suited for close-in dogfights of the 4th generation of fighters. Best Dogfighters Square Off in Drills IAF employs the Indian MKI variant, a multi-mission and dedicated air-to-air combat specialist with dual engines, a capable dual seater aircraft that can be an interceptor, bomber, and for training. The Sukhoi 30 is equipped with Lyulka AL-31FP turbofan engines; the wings are 14.7 m, making it a big Russian plane. Modifications have been applied to the Indian variant based on the IAF needs. Eagle has two engines and is capable of being a multi-role striker aircraft, also a two-seater, high speed, with long-range that includes all-weather performance. Its powerplant is the Pratt &Whitney F-100 PW Turbofans. Read Also: Search Warrant at Bryan Kohberger's Home It has a sweeping wing shoulder layout made for transonic performance and has a 13-meter wingspan, smaller than the Su-30. One of the most successful US fighters built, but it's getting obsolete. Both are high-speed interceptors, but the Indian Russian-based jet is slower than the American jet that travels at Mach 2.5. The Eagle exceeds the range with 3,900 versus 3,000 kilometers of the Flanker. Critical is the 12 hard points for mounting equipment and armament, which is the same for both. Either has a lot of weapons to select from. Specific Armament Comparison of the Two Fighters The Eagle carries eight AMRAAMS, Sparrows (medium range), and four Sidewinders used at shorter ranges. SU-30 can use move types of missiles of the Kh-29, Kh-31, Kh-59, and then Nirbhay. More shows the IAF jet can use indigenous BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles with KAB-type bombs and the Vympel R-series of air-to-air missiles. Indian variants are capable of equipping with Israeli and French equipment that is not like Russian Su-30 Flankers. Japanese pilots will be squaring off with the 3-D vector thrust the MKI-versions that will be advantageous in close dog fighting in air combat situations. This 3-D vectoring allows unpredictable movement for the Flanker compared to the not so equipped F-15, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Experts think that China's invading Taiwan will pull Tokyo in because it is close to the Japanese islands. But the US has promised to defend Taipei, which will pull the JASDF to be involved, not by choice. It will be a near-peer battle, and the Indian Su-30 is an intro to their capabilities. Officials of Japan say that Veer Guardian 2023 is learning about the best dogfighters rather than prepping for China. Related Article: The Best Attack Chopper @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. Pedestrians walk towards the Harvard Medical School on Aug. 18, 2022, in Boston. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming a class at Harvard Medical School trains students to treat transgender infants. Job seekers crowd into the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield in 2018 for a career fair designed for people over 50. It may be a little overwhelming to take the next step in your career journey, according to columnist Heather Boulger, but doing so now can get you ahead and help you reach your career goals faster. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close A police search in the Moscow Idaho murder victim's home has not produced the weapon used to kill the students, but a search in the apartment of Bryan Kohberger has yielded blood-covered items. After the suspect's arrest when the cops opened up his flat after getting caught in Pennsylvania last December 30, 2022. Idaho Police Notes Bryan Kohberger as Lead Suspect The discovery of the dead bodies in the off-campus housing on 1122 King's Road, where four university students were stabbed dead by the suspect, based on the new report that law enforcement has come across animal hairs, and disposable gloves, with items coated with suspicious stains on them, MSN reported. One outlet said the items seen in the suspect's flat had a collection of dark red stains. One of these is a pillow that has a reddish/brown stain. Investigators got receipts and mattress covers, with a vacuum dust bag, per The New York Times. Kohberger is the lead suspect for killing four Idaho university students, Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. The suspect was supposed to be 10 miles from the murder site. In the search warrant application, the rented house close to the campus where the four victims were found was awash with the blood of the slain student. Full of spattered and cast of blood that came from the dead student's oozing stab wounds. Blood-Covered Items Could be Proof of Murder Authorities stated that the tests done on the suspected blood found in the suspect's apartment belonged to the quartet of slain students. Another is the suggestion that the killer will have blood from the victim on the body or clothes, as said by the outlet. Read Also: Ex-Playboy Model Accused of Killing California Psychiatrist Investigators revealed other residues from the foul play, like the hair of victims or a dog in the apartment. Another outlet privy to the report said a hair from an animal with one from humans was discovered, cites Daily Mail. During the search for proof, a desk computer tower and a fire TV stick were found while they were perusing the flat. Later all the things from Kohberger's apartment got sent to the Washington State University Police department. The suspect's office at Washington State University was also searched but was not implicated in the case. Kohberger was in court a week before but did not answer the alleged murder charges. Last January 5, he was brought to Idaho, and a case document that was made public showed the linkage of the 28-year-old Ph.D. student to the Idaho murders. One account by witness Dylan Mortensen's fearful narrative disclosed she saw the killer walking away. While the killer was inside one of the rooms with a person crying loudly, a voice told the victim that everything would be fine. One of the more curious statements came from her remark the killer had bushy eyebrows; as an observation. Disclosures by the police that several blood-covered items thought to have human blood were found in the flat of Bryan Kohberger. Related Article: Idaho College Murder Suspect Bryan Kohberger Is Not the Real Killer @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Michele Clayborne finds inspiration in her job as executive director of HospiceCare of the Berkshires. "What's most important is that person," she said. "It is what drives the work that we do." PITTSFIELD A South Street property housing a cell tower that has drawn the ire of Pittsfield residents has been sold for $3 million. The 45-acre site at 877 South St. includes a pair of four-story multi-tenant office buildings connected by an atrium that includes over 31,000 square feet of leasable office space, according to a real estate listing. John D. Jarrell of Coventry, R.I., who heads the new ownership group, 877 S St Pittsfield LLC, said the property will continued to be marketed as office space. Our intention was to continue to fill it and provide quality rental space for the area, Jarrell said. Jarrell is a biomedical engineer and doctor of medical science who holds a doctorate in biology from Brown University and runs Rhode Island-based Medical Sciences LLC. According to its website, Jarrrells firm offers consultants in the biomedical, engineering and scientific fields. The office buildings' current tenants include Berkshire County Arc, Elder Services of Berkshire County, Inc., Clinical & Support Options, Inc. and HospiceCare of the Berkshires. The previous owner, Farley White Interests of Boston, purchased the South Street parcel for $1.05 million in 2011 from The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, according to documents at the Middle Berkshire Registry of Deeds in Pittsfield. Guardian had paid the Geary Corporation of Pittsfield $7.6 million for the property in 2001. The buildings were constructed in 1987, according to a real estate listing. John Power, the principal of Farley White Interests, said selling the property now has been part of Farley Whites original investment plan. The cell tower at the rear of the property is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a group of city residents against the city of Pittsfield. It names the propertys former owner, a subsidiary of Farley White Interests, as one of the defendants. However, the ongoing litigation did not prevent the property from being sold, or have any effect on the lawsuit, said City Solicitor Stephen Pagnotta. In general, the litigation doesnt involve the property, Pagnotta said. "So theres no claim seeking monetary compensation from Farley White. Its not like the plaintiffs sued and theres an attachment on the property, in which case the property could not be sold. Both Power and Jarrell declined to comment on the lawsuit. Power did not respond to a question about whether Farley White had been considering ending the lease for the cell tower, as some residents have speculated. In February, a Berkshire Superior Court judge will hear arguments on whether the lawsuit against city officials, the Pittsfield Board of Health, Verizon Wireless and Farley White South Street LLC should be dismissed. In November, attorneys representing Pagnotta, Pittsfield Mayor Linda M. Tyer and the citys Board of Health, argued that residents had failed to take their claims of ethical breaches by Pagnotta and Tyer to the appropriate officials in this case the state Board of Bar Overseers and the Ethics Commission. The lawyers from Donovan OConnor and Dodig LLP went on to argue that the issues raised by the residents should first be heard and decided on by these two groups before the Superior Court decides whether or not to rule. A central element of the residents suit is the claim that actions by Pagnotta and Tyer unlawfully forced the Board of Health to rescind an emergency order the board filed against Verizon Wireless in April. The board unanimously voted to issue the emergency order against Verizon after more than a year of investigating reports from residents living near the tower that theyd been experiencing health problems since the tower began operating in August 2020. 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. Citizens United President David Bossie, right, meets with reporters outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Jan. 21, 2010, after the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which vastly increased the power of big business and labor unions to influence government decisions by freeing them to spend their millions directly to sway elections for president and Congress. 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. NORTH ADAMS Halfway through her two-year term, Mayor Jennifer Macksey is getting a frequent question. Are you in it for the long haul? Yes, she is planning to run for reelection in the fall. Im willing to continue to lead this community as long as the citizens will have me, Macksey said in her office in City Hall, overlooking downtown. Macksey has a long list of issues to work on, from addressing blighted buildings to fixing aging city infrastructure. Sometimes the work is behind the scenes. As I reflect back on the the last year, I really wanted to have more actionable items, things that people could see, Macksey said. But we really have been working on the structure and the not-so-sexy, not-so-glamorous things of how we run a city. For example, this week, were deploying our new software system. Shes chipping away at her to-do list, she said. We cant do everything at once, but we need a plan as to how we are going to address our issues, whether it be infrastructure, homelessness, buildings, roofs, schools, even how we handle public relations, she said. We are working every single day. If anybody thinks Im sitting here just watching traffic they are nuts. Macksey spoke to The Eagle about her first year in office and her plans for 2023. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: What have been the hardest parts of leading the city for the last year? A: I think the most challenging part for me has been balancing work and family. I have my little segments of time that I allocate to my family. For example, Saturday and Sunday morning, I take my mom and my uncle to breakfast and if I deviate from that schedule, its a family feud. Its finding the balance. And also finding the balance to take care of myself. But every month, I get a little wiser to that. As far as managing something within the city, its just part of the job. ... People may say, Oh, that person at the council meeting was a little rude to you. No, thats just part of being the mayor. But I always think as far as challenges in the actual role, theres so much to do. And everything is a priority. You know, do you leverage a public safety purchase over a public services purchase? We need a new roof at the YMCA, but we also need a new roof at City Hall. Its like spending your money in the most efficient way, and for the best long-term interest of the city. And because, I dont want to say that weve had so much neglect, but we do have an old city, and because things havent been regularly maintained, we have more of a reactive than proactive approach. Im trying to bring the proactive approach to projects and development. And sometimes things just pop up. ... Theres so much to do and not enough money to go around. Q: How do you feel the downtown has developed over the past year? What is the next step? A: The merchants in the downtown are super to work with. I think theyre really trying to attract people to come into their stores. ... I think the downtown really needs a draw. And that draw, I still am hung upon, is going to be something in the Mohawk Theater. We are working really well with MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts) and Kristy Edmunds, the new director, and her team about getting people out of the MoCA campus into our downtown. But there needs to be things for them to do. And I think were starting to see it with the Plant Connector, Savvy Hive, Berkshire Emporium, and Baileys Bakery going into the (former) Capitol Restaurant. As far as the downtown goes, Im focused on keeping it pretty something so simple as really keeping the flowers up this year, that made it great. Adding the bows to the decorations just to show that those businesses are thought of and that we want to beautify it for them has been a big push. Mostly the things that bother me are mostly the empty windows. And as I say that, I just this morning walked my dog by the Mohawk Theater and Im like, These are our windows and they are the dirtiest windows on Main Street. So, you know, if we want others to keep up we need to keep up too. Its interesting just to sit here and look out on the Main Street, there is some hustle and bustle, but we need more. Q: Last year, the city put out a request for developers to buy the vacant Mohawk Theater, but go no bids. Whats next for that project? A: We did get the grant to restore the marquee. So that is in design mode now. And then we are taking another look at the RFP (request for proposals), well probably put it out again in the spring. We did have an interest in the property. But two or three of the interested parties (said) it wasnt a good time because of construction costs or other projects. Were also focused on doing something with (the former) Sullivan School. It is completely vacant. ... Its my old elementary school. It literally looks like in certain sections that people just got up and walked away. We have had quite a bit of vandalism in it. Its an eyesore for that poor neighborhood up there. And we have had some interested parties, but again, we have to go through the RFP process. Q: Theres been discussion over the past year about conduct on the City Council and members not getting along. From your perspective, do you feel thats affecting city business? A: I, as the mayor, do what I need to do in the best interest of this community. And whether you think that theres a conflict or not, that doesnt impede me. I try to work with everyone. I try to help everyone. And if youre slowing down my initiatives, I just keep on going. I consider the City Council my partners in government. I look forward to working with all of them and to have a positive, professional working relationship. Q: Im wondering about the police station. Are you planning to find the department a new permanent home? A: Yes. Weve just completed our needs assessment for the police and fire station. We need to take that and get that out into an RFP to hire an architect to help us with a design for a land location. Were hoping, at some point, there will be some money to help us with the building. But as of right now, its going to be on us. As we go down the road and we develop this project, if there is an opportunity for us to apply for building we will, but there isnt a (funding) program like there is for schools for municipal buildings. And thats something that wed really like to see. Thats something Ive talked to Gov. (Maura) Healey about. Because we all need help. I mean, even in this building (City Hall), I need a new roof. I need a new HVAC that was last done in 1995. Now Ive got like three, four buildings that all need roofs. MORE ONLINE: Read the full interview with Mayor Macksey at BerkshireEagle.com. Q: When you are running, there was a lot of discussion of how the winner of the election would be the first woman in the North Adams mayors office. Is that something you think about in your work leading the city? A: Im honored to be the first female mayor, and Im honored to be a role model for young women. But I do my job. It doesnt matter to me, male, female, what race you are, what religion you are. I just keep on working. But, I think thats instinctive of a woman leader. I am just a normal person doing a big job. Part of dreaming big, on expanding passenger rail access or any endeavor, is being realistic about how to make that dream come true while avoiding obstacles on the track. To us, that means being skeptical of investing finite resources and momentum in a project that could undercut the Berkshires stake in the far more impactful project of East-West rail. Details emerge on proposed passenger train service linking North Adams to Boston. Including a possible cost of $2.187 billion Details of proposed passenger train service between North Adams to Boston are emerging, as state transportation officials enter a second year of planning spurred by a 2019 law. One estimate says it could cost $2.187 billion to bring a passenger rail line to North Adams. We voiced those concerns about the Berkshire Flyer pilot, and we have similar concerns about the Northern Tier proposal that would link North Adams to Boston. We understand how this might come off, particularly to those in the northern part of the county: Why be skeptical of plans to build out transportation opportunities in the Berkshires? Like all communities too often overlooked by Beacon Hill, this area deserves overdue investment in transit and growth potential. All things being equal, wed be happy to let a thousand rail lines bloom and bring that needed access to every area that floats a proposal. Unfortunately, all things are not equal when it comes to fighting for stronger Berkshire rail access and a better-connected commonwealth. For one thing, we have more than one cross-state rail project in consideration, and the potential impacts are not the same. Its not a slight to North Adams or Northern Tier backers that East-West rail, which aims trains and more riders to the central part of the county, is simply a bigger potential boon for all of the Berkshires. Then there is the matter of the money and political will needed to get any sizable rail project moving. Those are not infinite resources, and the two projects would be drawing from the same pool. Moreover, lackluster interest in the Northern Tier wouldnt just affect that lines future; it could undermine regional rail advocates efforts to ensure the Berkshires have an equitable stake in how East-West rail unfolds. While the costlier of the two Northern Tier formulations would entail more upgrades to the relevant lines, the cheaper and quicker option and therefore the more likely one would see slower trips between North Adams and Boston on existing lines shared with freight. That doesnt exactly bode well for ridership uptake, especially among those who are used to the quicker road trip to Boston along Route 2. It has been hard enough to get officials on the other end of the state to recognize the need to have those East-West trains come all the way to Pittsfield instead of just to Springfield with a weaker bus shuttle connection to the Berkshires. Undoubtedly, though, that less preferable alternative will inevitably pop up from those in Boston who dont have the Berkshires best interests in mind. We should be cautious about handing them any more excuses to underestimate the regions ridership potential. For these reasons, while we are sympathetic to the Northern Tier proposal, were also skeptical of whether its pursuance will be a net positive for the regions transportation development over these next few years as the state sees a rare alignment of funding and will. That skepticism leads us to a question that must be asked: Is it worth spending $1 billion to $2 billion on a rail project that would only serve one corner of the county and could undermine a bolder transit future for the Berkshires? Thats a question we hope even the Northern Tiers most enthusiastic backers are willing to keep in mind and answer honestly as abstract plans move toward tangible steps that are hard to reverse. And its not unreasonable to ask further whether those tangible steps for the Northern Tier might come after East-West rail gets rolling down the tracks. That would make more sense in terms of solidly gauging what price is right for the Northern Tiers ridership potential, estimates of which are currently rough at best even after an 18-month study. We need better passenger rail connections among the Berkshires, Boston and the rest of the commonwealth. That is why we are and will continue to be big boosters for East-West rail, a once-in-a-generation opportunity that is moving down the tracks toward reality in no small part due to the persistence of regional officials and passenger rail advocates. We must protect the future dividends of that sweat equity and ensure Berkshire County gets the most bang out of the bucks put toward East-West rail even if that means a healthy skepticism about other county projects that might distract from that larger effort. Gov. Maura Healey listens during a tour of the Greylock Works in North Adams on Thursday. The Rennie Center for Education and Research Policy and the Massachusetts Early Childhood Funder Collaborative recently unveiled Early Childhood 101, an interactive website. Australia decided on purchasing the UH-60M Black Hawks to allow a phase of French choppers currently in service and plagued by repairs. The US rotorcraft built by Lockheed Martin is used by many militaries worldwide. Australia To Replace French Choppers Australian army decided to go with Black Hawks to take over MRH-90 Taipan helicopters which are prone to constant maintenance, according to The Eurasian Times. Disclosed is the schedule that will be delivered in 2023; the variant is an upgrade over a previous version of what was bought. The Black Hawk is made of helicopters Sikorsky built M variant with the latest add-ons. Development of the rotorcraft, which has been a mainstay of the US army since 1978, per Army Technology. An export model is the S-70A of the UH-60, and there are 2,000 variants developed for US use. About 600 were for export by the builder. In August 2022, a statement from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency informed that Canberra asked for the sale of these choppers to replace its current fleet of multipurpose helicopters. Concerns over how reliable the French Taipans have prompted the purchase, ABC News reported. A remark from Major General Jeremy King of the army added the UH-60 series Black Hawk is pivotal for the armed forces to give humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, including foreign policy. The unit is proven as a reliable and proven platform with readily available parts. It followed the remark ex- Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton in 2021 that the Taipan units would be replaced. Canberra says the helicopters from the US will be part of deterrence directed against China. Read Also: US Navy MH-60R Seahawk Equipped with Magnetic Anomaly Detectors Recent disclosures that the US is getting a better next-gen helicopter, the Bell V-280 Valor next-generation assault aircraft. This move can be seen as a snub to France that made the MRH-90 helicopter; choosing the US as a political movement was well. In September 2021, Canberra dropped French subs and got the AUKUS deal, a point of contention for the two nations. Disclosure of concern by the Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said that Paris did not have any misgivings that could cause a rift. The helicopter deal will not hinder any cooperation with France. Other countries like Sweden and Norway had also decided to retire the Taipan units they had due to maintenance issues and other problems. The MRH-90 Taipan A French-built helicopter with dual engines, medium-lift, multi-mission built by the Australian Aerospace, part of Eurocopter called Airbus helicopters. Australian forces have used it for carrying troops, dealing with terrorists, search and rescue, including special operations. In 2019, about 47 of these choppers got grounded due to tail rotor blades needing repairs to be done as soon as possible. It got worse in 2021 when the defense department revealed it cost them about 437 million to get private units to replace army units. Next, it was a deal breaker to decide on buying a better make and model. Soon Canberra settled on the Black Hawk M variant. Australia has decided the UH-60M Black Hawk will be better than French choppers currently in service but will be phased out, Related Article: UH-60 Black Hawk: Multi-Use Helicopter of the US Army @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Brought to you by "II know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:12-13 The apostle Paul had no design to urge the Philippians to give more but to encourage such kindness as will meet a glorious reward hereafter. Through Christ, we have the grace to do what is good, and through Him, we must expect the reward; and as we have all things by Him, let us do all things for Him, and to His glory! Why Did Paul Write Philippians? In AD 60, Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and for the next two years, he lived under house arrest (Acts 28:30-31), encouraging local churches via letters written from prison. His letter to the Philippians was just one of four Prison Epistles written during this time. Similar to Pauls letter to the Ephesians, his letter to the Philippians doesnt address any major behavioral concerns. It does, however, attempt to encourage the Philippian church, which was facing opposition from the outside as well as a fair amount of strife and division from within. This is why Paul writes often about the need to find joy, peace, and contentment in present circumstances. As someone living under house arrest at the time, he was perfectly situated to address these topics with both authority and grace. Pauls Relationship with the Philippian Church We know from the book of Acts that Paul had visited the church in Philippi during his second missionary journey (Acts 16) and again on his third journey through the region (Acts 20:1-6). Even after he departed, Paul continued to enjoy a warm relationship with the Philippians, who were diligent in providing financial support to the apostle during his ministry. In fact, upon learning that Paul had been imprisoned in Rome, the church in Philippi sent Epaphroditus to Rome with financial aid for Paul. Epaphroditus later returned to Philippi with a letter from Paul to the church. But why is this important to the context and understanding of Philippians 4:13? Paul Gives Thanks to the Philippians In the fourth chapter of Philippians, Paul shows his appreciation to the Philippians by writing, Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need (Philippians 4:15-16). This was a church that had gone out of its way to take care of Paul, and he wanted to thank them for their continued support. As one who shared such a loving relationship with the Philippian church, Paul also wanted to provide an update on his present condition and let his friends know that he was well cared for and doing all right. He writes, I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God (Philippians 4:18). But while their financial support was nonetheless appreciated, Paul also used his time in prison to remind his fellow believers that financial well-being and ones physical condition are not indicative of ones spiritual health and well-being. As he writes, For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want (Philippians 4:11-12). Paul Preaches on the Power of Contentment Finding contentment in difficult circumstances is difficult for even the most stouthearted believer. When times are tough and things arent going the way we plan, this is a fertile ground for frustration, despair, and discouragement to take root. That is why, as Matthew Henry writes, we need his (Christs) strength to teach us to be content in every condition. Paul understood this better than most. In his previous letter to the Corinthians, he wrote, Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christs power may rest on me. That is why, for Christs sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). And in Philippians 4:13, Paul follows his discussion on contentment with the now-famous words, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. In fact, in the NIV translation, it is written, I can do all this through him who gives me strength. And what is the this to which Paul was referring? It is the specific ability to find contentment whatever the circumstance, which Paul argues can only come from Christ who gives him strength. What Paul Really Means by "I Can Do All Things" Christians are not wrong to use Philippians 4:13 as a banner of Gods strength and power at work in their lives. It is true. The strength of Jesus Christ has the power to heal the sick, free the oppressed, move mountains (Matthew 17:20), break chains (Acts 12:7), and defeat death (Hebrews 2:14). Christs miracles were on display throughout His ministry as Gods power was evident from the very foundation of the earth (Psalms 77:14). And they were certainly at work and evident in the life and ministry of Paul as well. We Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Gives Us Strength In this specific instance, however, Paul looked to the spiritual provision of Jesus Christ to find strength, hope, joy, peace, and contentment in even his darkest situation. It is this power that transforms hearts and frees minds oppressed by the discouragement of present circumstances. And in a time when his own circumstances were limited, Paul turned to Christ for the strength to be content and still have joy. The same power that could deliver him from prison in an instant was the power that was daily transforming Pauls heart to become more like Christs own. In Christ, there is true strength. In Him, there is hope, joy, and peace that surpass all understanding and situations (Philippians 4:7), which Paul himself had experienced firsthand and later professed in his letter to the Philippians. If anything, Paul had revealed his greatest secret to some of his closest friends and supporters. And it is a secret Christians today share in, one that is just as encouraging and life-giving as it was the day it was first read by the early church. "I Can Do All Things" Bible Verses Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Mark 9:23 And Jesus said to him, If you can! All things are possible for one who believes. Philippians 4:11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. Psalm 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? iStock/Getty Images Plus/kieferpix Joel Ryan is a childrens book author, writing professor, and contributing writer for Crosswalk, Christianity.com, Stand Firm Mens Magazine, and others. He is passionate about telling great stories, defending biblical truth, and helping writers of all ages develop their craft. Joel discusses, analyzes, and appreciates the great writings of the past and present on his website, Perspectives off the Page. Today A mix of clouds and sun. High 54F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Mainly cloudy. Low 37F. Winds light and variable. Tomorrow Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 56F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Vladimir Putin's close confidant and deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, issued a warning on Thursday that a nuclear war may happen if Russia loses its war against Ukraine. In a Telegram message, the former Russian president threatened NATO partners and other countries before a crucial summit in Germany, when they are expected to offer further military assistance to Ukraine. Dmitry Medvedev stated that a Russia nuclear war may start if nuclear power is lost in a conventional battle. "Nuclear powers do not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends," he said, underscoring that this condition should be evident to everyone, even to Western politicians. per CNN. Medvedev was president of Russia from 2008 to 2012. Since the start of the Russia Ukraine war , he acted like he was at war and often brought up the possibility of a nuclear war. In April, he warned of Russia nuclear war if Sweden and Finland joined NATO, and in September, he suggested strategic nuclear weapons might protect Ukraine-annexed regions, per Fox News. Read Also: Roe v. Wade Investigation Update His words Thursday, although designed to terrify NATO allies, seem to be a rare acknowledgment from a top Russian official that the Kremlin may lose in Ukraine as Russia Ukraine war near the 11-month mark. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Medvedev's statements should be taken seriously, per an earlier HNGN report. Moscow's doctrine permits a nuclear attack in response to "aggression" against Russia "when the basic survival of the state is endangered" using conventional weapons. Ukraine Urges Allies To Send More Tanks Meanwhile, Kyiv has been urging its Western partners to deliver more sophisticated equipment like Germany's Leopard 2 tank or the American-made M1 Abrams, as per a New York Post story. Both Russian and Ukrainian troops have mostly used the T-72 combat tank from the Soviet period during the Russia Ukraine war. Ukrainian authorities say the more powerful tanks would help them break through a front line that has been essentially steady since Ukraine's successful autumn counteroffensive. Related Article: Russian Choppers Attack Ukraine @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Kerala and Kibbutz: Ruby of Cochin, Indias Jews, and Israel Undergraduate/Graduate Project Project Information Professor Bindu Malieckal, St. Anselm College, specializes in Early Modern Literature and Postcolonial Literature in terms of the representations of race, religion, and women. Her current project deals with the Jewish women of Kerala, India, with a specific focus on the story of Ruby Daniel, a Malayali of Cochin Jewish heritage. Dr. Malieckals thesis will show that by superimposing the deep roots of Ruby Daniels Kochi Jewish community (Kochi is a city in the state of Kerala) on Keralas equally ancient ethnic Malayali identity--characterized by tolerance, inclusiveness, commercial interests, and impartial gender relations in property ownership and familial links-- women living in Kerala possessed unique agency, seen through their educational and professional accomplishments. Malayali Jewish women like Ruby continued to persevere beyond Kerala when they moved to Israel and elsewhere. Dr. Malieckal requires an intern to assist with researching library databases for Hebrew scholarship on India's Jews. The intern will carry out online research, transcription, translation, and summaries of the materials. Profile of Appropriate Candidate Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Australias best-known poet Judith Wright wrote The Generations of Men a chronicle of her Queensland pastoralist family in the 1850s in 1959, and it was published to wide acclaim. But in the decades that followed, she had a rethink of the classic 19th century settler story. Loading This was in part due to her secret love affair with the first governor of the Reserve Bank, H.C. Nugget Coombs, who, like her, became an advocate for Aboriginal land rights later in life. In another book, A Cry for the Dead, published in 1981, she rewrote her family narrative to include the Indigenous voices of the traditional owners of the land her ancestors had settled around Rockhampton. It took 20 years but, using the diaries of her white forebears, this time she included the stories of the local Barada and Darumbal people and the death, destruction and dispersal that followed her familys farming efforts. Now both books have been used as the basis for a short film by director Joanna Joy, which premieres on Saturday at Bondis Flickerfest. Advertisement Filmmaker Joanna Joy (left) on set with cast from her short feature film Generations of Men. Credit:Susie George I wanted to combine those two lenses together in a film that paid tribute to Judith Wrights legacy, Joy said. It is not often people rewrite their own book, but the fact Judith did shows she was no fuddy duddy old poet; she was actually a woman ahead of her time on Indigenous issues. Loading With help from The Sapphires director and Rockhampton local Wayne Blair, Joy was able to find the original property on which the story was set. She then involved the traditional owners in the filmmaking process, asking them to co-write and star in the film adaptation. The project was shot in two Indigenous languages, with financial support from Screen Queensland and the blessing of Wrights daughter Meredith McKinney. It was [Wrights] conscience that made her rewrite her book, said McKinney. Advertisement In the intervening 20 years between the two books, there was a huge shift in the understanding of the white settlers impact on the Aboriginal people and the original landscape, and she had a huge sense of horror at what had happened. Darumbal woman actor Zahli Hayden in Generations of Men. Credit:Susie George She would be delighted this story is being brought back in a new form. McKinney, a Japanese translator, lives in Braidwood not far from where her mother moved to be near the distinguished yet down-to-earth Canberra statesman, Coombs. And she said his influence certainly played a part in her mothers revisionist history. She would be delighted this story is being brought back in a new form. Judith Wrights daughter Meredith McKinney They were both very private people, but they came together on Indigenous issues in particular, said McKinney. Her mother also became close friends with fellow poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker), who helped raise Wrights awareness of Indigenous issues. Advertisement Poets Judith Wright and Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) in 1977. Credit:Trever Dallen She said her mother not only worked tirelessly to promote land rights for Aboriginal people and to raise awareness among non-Aboriginal Australians of their plight arising from the legacy of European settlement, she also helped found the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland and was a life member of the Australian Conservation Foundation. Growing up in the southern Sydney suburb of Sans Souci, filmmaker Joy had been inspired by Wrights writing since she was a teen. At 14, her father, a Wright fan, gave her a copy of The Generations of Men, and told her this is a story about women, not men. Poet Judith Wright in 1998. Credit:Mike Bowers Wrights first book is an epic but quiet tragedy about the women on the home front of our colonial history ... while the second book is a revisionist history of May Downs Station and its Indigenous characters, and also the South Sea workers brought here by blackbirding, she said. Joy would like her short film to find a wider audience in a television series, like Rachel Perkins The Australian Wars which was broadcast on SBS. It took me four years to make a 15-minute film, but I learnt so much from the local Indigenous community and have so much respect for them and Judith Wrights integrity. Advertisement The theme of this years ceremony will be the unifying opportunity presented by the upcoming [Voice to Parliament] referendum, he said. The Inner West Council has not held celebratory events on Australia Day since 2019, and will hold a citizenship ceremony that mayor Darcy Byrne called sombre, respectful and focused on the Indigenous history of Australia. Clover Moore, right, at the City of Sydneys citizenship ceremony on January 26, 2017. Credit: Kate Geraghty The City of Sydney has moved its annual Australia Day citizenship ceremony to January 27, with Lord Mayor Clover Moore telling those due to attend the date of a national celebration should not be on Invasion Day. Australias national holiday has divided Sydney, with some inner-city councils minimising events on January 26 while suburban Sydney holds lavish celebrations. Last month, the federal government announced it would abandon a Turnbull-Morrison Liberal government edict that required councils to hold a citizenship ceremony on January 26 in order to be allowed to hold them at all. The announcement came after a third Melbourne council, Green-led Merri-bek in the citys inner north, voted to forgo citizenship ceremonies due to the requirement and waning community support for the holidays date. Melbournes Darebin and Yarra councils were previously stripped of their rights to hold ceremonies in 2017 after also moving away from a January 26 ceremony. In a letter to residents due to receive their citizenship, Moore said the City of Sydney would push its scheduled ceremony back one day, adding it strongly supports changing the date of Australias national day to one that can be fully embraced and celebrated by all Australians. The date of a national celebration should not be on Invasion Day. The dispossession of Australias First Peoples formally began with the proclamation of British sovereignty on 26 January 1788 ... it is not a day of unity but of mourning, or survival, she wrote. A boy who was seriously injured in a Gold Coast helicopter crash might need to have one of his feet amputated as he recovers from the deadly collision. Nicholas Tadros, 10, was on board one of two helicopters involved in the crash at Sea World on January 2. Vanessa Tadros was killed, while her 10-year-old son Nicholas is recovering since the crash. His mother Vanessa Tadros, British couple Ron and Diane Hughes, and pilot Ashley Jenkinson died after the two aircraft collided midair and one crashed into a sandbar. Family friend Charlie Bakhos said the grade 5 student had suffered a significant setback and might need to have his right foot amputated after a surgical operation could not be completed. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Just over a year ago, controversial homebirth midwife Martina Gorner was permanently banned from the profession after an autopsy found a clear link between the death of a baby and her delays in sending the mother to hospital. The ban followed a Victorian Healthcare Complaints Commissioner investigation which found a litany of breaches, ranging from botched record-keeping to failing to provide services in a safe and ethical manner. Her actions placed multiple women and their babies at serious, arguably avoidable, risk, then-acting commissioner Elizabeth Langdon said in December 2021. But this was not the first time authorities had been warned about Gorner, and the case speaks to broader issues with the watchdogs that are supposed to protect the public from incompetent, unethical or unfit health professionals. The Age and Sydney Morning Herald have interviewed dozens of investigators working in state regulators and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), the national body tasked with registering and disciplining doctors, surgeons, nurses and other health professionals. They raise concerns about every step of the regulatory process, from delays by AHPRA staffers investigating alleged misconduct to a lack of transparency and loopholes that allow doctors to maintain a clean record even when complaints are found to have merit. Advertisement In Gorners case, an AHPRA investigator, who could not be named because they were discussing confidential information, said they had assessed a complaint in 2016 from a gynaecologist about her conduct during a home birth. At that time, there were already at least two other complaints into Gorner constituting what is known as a cluster file, the investigator said. The allegations ranged from falsified records to a failure to properly check the vital signs of a foetus. After assessing the available evidence, the investigator put together a report for the nursing and midwifery industry board, which AHPRA works with, recommending Gorners registration be suspended immediately. The recommendation was knocked back. The board said, It happens to the best of us, lets give her the benefit of the doubt, said the investigator, recalling the finding. I had a strong feeling this was inappropriate. Unfortunately, I was proved to be right. There is no avenue for investigators to challenge board decisions, and no record of complaints made by the public when no action is taken. Investigators say this demonstrates the lack of transparency and accountability in how the healthcare industry is regulated. The Age and Sydney Morning Herald could not contact Gorner. Advertisement On top of these concerns about the performance of the regulators, this masthead this week also revealed chronic problems within AHPRA itself, ranging from workplace bullying to under-resourcing and systemic racism. The scale of those problems left experts warning the public is at risk. AHPRA declined an interview, but a spokesman said around 85 per cent of investigator recommendations are accepted by boards, and pointed to a range of policies and initiatives to improve operations. Dr Tim Edwards says AHPRA is failing to protect patients. AHPRA has managed more cases, about more practitioners, each year, the spokesman said. Like many organisations, AHRPA also dealt with COVID-19-related resource challenges which had an impact on our performance. Loading Dr Tim Edwards, president of the Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, says it took media reports for AHPRA to respond to concerns about cosmetic cowboys that had been raised with the regulator for years. He worries what the lack of action in his industry means for other sectors. Were one small part of AHPRAs overarching responsibility, but I think were symbolic of a great lack of process by the regulator, he said. The public deserves safety in their surgery. Advertisement There have been successive reviews of AHPRAs effectiveness since it was established more than a decade ago, but there are now growing calls for a more thorough government probe in the form of a royal commission, backed by the Australian Medical Association Victoria and other stakeholders. AHPRAs reputation is now at a point where its got really practical and real consequences for its ability to function, says Maurice Blackburns head of medical negligence in Victoria, Tom Ballantyne. Were now at a point where this has to be acknowledged and something drastic has to be done to fix it. Falling short AHPRA was established in 2010 as part of an ambitious national plan to replace individual regulators in each state, with the exception of NSW and Queensland, which still use separate systems under a co-regulatory model. The agency has a range of responsibilities, including maintaining professional registrations and investigating complaints from the public or hospitals about the conduct of health practitioners. While AHPRAs key mandate is to protect the public from harm, this must be balanced with giving health professionals a fair hearing. A growing body of evidence suggests the watchdog is falling short of both expectations, as neither patients nor health practitioners are happy. Advertisement A Senate inquiry found last year the current system was opaque and difficult to navigate and despite efforts to improve, delays, disappointment, confusion and stress persist. Carol Bennett was the chief executive of the Consumer Health Forum in 2009 and remembers the fierce lobbying by the healthcare industry when AHPRA was set up, pushing fears an over-zealous watchdog would unfairly threaten their livelihoods. Now she says too many concessions have been made and the current model leans towards protecting practitioners. She has called for more transparency in how the regulator deals with misconduct so the public can make informed decisions about their healthcare. We were pushing for an organisation with real consequences, real teeth, real transparency and real accountability, says Bennett, also a former AHPRA board member. I think it falls short of what we would have liked to have seen. It needs to be more robust, its a bit of a no-brainer. Accountable to nobody The notifications teams are responsible for dealing with several thousand complaints about health practitioners each year, which range in severity from vexatious and unfounded to serious and critical. Advertisement Prosecutors said Thursday that the actor Alec Baldwin and the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, would each be prosecuted with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of a cameraman on the set of the Western film "Rust" in 2021. The family of Halyna Hutchins, the cameraman for the film, commended the prosecution for their decision. Alec Baldwin Manslaughter Charges "It is reassuring to the family that no one is above the law in New Mexico," the family stated in a statement issued by attorney Brian J. Panish, as per CNN. Baldwin maintains he was unaware that the gun he fired during practice had a live bullet. His counsel described the judgment of the prosecution as a "sad miscarriage of justice." "This ruling distorts the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins and reflects a heinous miscarriage of justice. "Mr. Baldwin had no reason to assume there was a live bullet in the pistol or anywhere else on the film set," said Baldwin's attorney, Luke Nikas. A lawyer for Gutierrez Reed stated that he expects the jury would find his client innocent. Mary Carmack-Altwies, the New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney, said that Baldwin and Gutierrez Reed each face two charges of involuntary manslaughter so that a jury can determine which count is most suitable. If found guilty, "they will only face one count," the prosecutor stated. In any case, prosecutors said a conviction is punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. However, one count would include a firearm enhancement, or obligatory extra punishment, because a firearm was involved. In such a scenario, the offense might be penalized by a required five years in prison, according to authorities. David Halls, the production's first assistant director, has consented to plead guilty to careless use of a lethal weapon. Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the film's armorer, has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Baldwin's attorney sent a statement to The Independent in response to the news: "This judgment distorts the tragic loss of Halyna Hutchins and is a horrific miscarriage of justice." Luke Nikas said they want to "fight" and "win" the allegations. The ruling comes more than 15 months after the tragic incident on set in October 2021 when a toy gun carried by Baldwin fired. A single gunshot pierced the shoulder of director Joel Souza before fatally wounding Hutchins in the chest. Baldwin has continually denied involvement and claimed that he was informed that the rifle had no live ammo and did not pull the trigger. Mickey Rourke has defended Alec Baldwin, stating that he should not be charged with the death of Halyna Hutchins. On Thursday, prosecutors revealed that Baldwin would be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for Hutchins' death on the Rust set. Read Also: Meghan Markle Caused Rift Within Royal Family Did Alec Baldwin Pull The Trigger? Whether Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger of the gun is another unanswered matter of significance. According to Daily Mail, the fake weapon was intended to be loaded with dummies. Baldwin maintains he did not fire the trigger since the incident occurred during a rehearsal. He claims that he removed the firearm from its holster and held it in front of Hutchins, director Joel Souza, and the rest of the team. Notably, he has always claimed it was "cocked" but denies firing it. In August, the FBI produced a study stating that the pistol could not fire while cocked until the trigger was pressed. According to the same claim, the gun might fire without pushing the trigger if it was not cocked. However, Baldwin's attorneys dismissed the report. They stated that it was based on limited testing. They are likely to dissect that in court. Related Article: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan's Reason for Divorce @YouTube @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Australias mining and gas companies have reaped billions of dollars from their operations on the traditional lands of Indigenous Australians. But their profits have come at a cost. Some agreements signed with Indigenous communities have been criticised as unconscionable. Heritage has been destroyed, like the 46,000-year-old Juukan rock caves blown up by Rio Tinto in the Pilbara in 2020. A Fortescue train in WAs Pilbara taking iron ore to port. Credit: Fortescue Other harms have been inflicted too. The late Lang Hancock, who founded Hancock Prospecting, called for the sterilisation of troublesome Indigenous Australians. And the sectors racist advertisements against native title laws 30 years ago were shameful. The big resources companies might be eager to put the past behind them and spruik their credentials when it comes to Indigenous equality pointing to their foundations, their charity work and efforts to employ Indigenous Australians. Labor leader Chris Minns will take a promise of 600 new hospital beds in western Sydney to this years state election, expressing concern about communities outgrowing existing facilities. Half of the beds would be included in a $700 million Rouse Hill hospital, a 300-bed facility previously promised by Labor in 2019. NSW Labor leader Chris Minns says, if elected, his government will spend $700 million on a new Rouse Hill Hospital. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer The hospital would cost $400 million more than the Rouse Hill hospital being planned by the state government, construction on which is due to begin in the first half of this year. The governments planned bed count has not been announced. Minns was critical of the government for taking the project to a third election. Lima: Dozens of Peruvians were injured after tensions flared again on Friday night as police clashed with protesters in anti-government demonstrations that are spreading across the country. More than 40 people have already died since the unrest began on December 7 when president Pedro Castillo was ousted after attempting to dissolve Congress to prevent an impeachment vote. An anti-government protesters who traveled to the capital from across the country to march against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, is detained and thrown on the back of police vehicle during clashes in Lima. Credit: AP In the capital Lima, police officers used tear gas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones, as fires burnt in the streets, local TV footage showed. In the countrys southern Puno region, some 1500 protesters attacked a police station in the town of Ilave, Interior Minister Vicente Romero said in a statement to news media. Net profit fell to Rs 51.52 crore ($6.36 million) for the three months through December from Rs 266 crore in the same period a year earlier. Analysts had expected profit to rise to Rs 336 crore, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Yes Bank reported a surprise 80 per cent plunge in quarterly profit on Saturday as provisions for bad loans increased. The bank's asset quality improved as gross non-performing assets declined to 2.02 per cent of total loans from 12.89 per cent in the September quarter. Net non-performing assets declined to 1.03 per cent from 3.60 per cent. But net interest margin, a key indicator of a bank's profitability, rose 10 basis points to 2.5 per cent. Provisions increased to Rs 844 crore from Rs 582 crore the previous quarter. Net interest income, the difference between the interest income from lending and that paid to depositors rose 11.7 per cent to Rs 1,971 crore. Also Read J&K Bank to complete transfer of Rs 960 cr NPAs to NARCL by October-end Bank NPAs loans may drop to 5% by March 2023 on economic rebound: Crisil YES Bank zooms 15% on heavy volume, stock hits 2-year high in weak market Punjab & Sind Bank's asset quality deterioration to moderate: CRISIL PSBs recover Rs 6.42 trn NPAs, written off loans since from FY15 to FY22 UltraTech Cement quarterly profit falls 38% due to surge in expenses Kotak Mahindra Bank's consolidated net profit rises 17% in Q3FY23 Petronet LNG books highest ever quarterly profit of Rs 1,181 crore in Q3 Reliance Retail net profit increases 6.2% to Rs 2,400 crore in Dec quarter JSW Energy Q3 net dips 45% to Rs 180 cr, revenue surges 18% to Rs 2,350 cr The lender's loan growth improved by 10 per cent while deposits rose 16 per cent. Yes Bank in December completed the transfer of bad loans worth Rs 48,000 crore to private equity firm J.C. Flowers, in a deal aimed at cleaning up its balance sheet. This is contrary to the trend in India's banking industry. Bank loans rose nearly 15 per cent in the fortnight to Dec. 30 from a year earlier, outpacing a 9.2 per cent increase in deposits, according to the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India. The CBI has seized Rs 94 lakh cash during searches at 18 locations in connection with three ongoing cases related to illegal remittances worth over Rs 155 crore sent to Hong Kong camouflaged as payments for fake imports during 2014-16, officials said. The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing three cases related to foreign exchange remitted abroad by nine entities through eight nationalised banks by submitting fake import documents such as bills of entry and bills of lading etc., without any actual trade, an agency spokesperson said on Friday. The CBI has booked an alleged hawala operator Mohammed Farooq Mohammed Hanif Shaikh, unidentified officials of cooperative societies and others in the cases. Searches were conducted at 18 places, including in Mumbai and Bhopal etc., which led to the recovery of approximately Rs 94.37 lakh cash, incriminating documents and electronic gadgets etc., the spokesperson said. The agency is looking into aspects of Trade-Based Money Laundering (TBML) bank-wise. "In the instances of TBML related to Bank of Maharashtra, Mumbai, Canara Bank (e-Syndicate Bank), Mumbai and Bank of India, Mumbai, facts emerged from the acts of commission and omission on the part of the accused that there was disclosure of cognisable offence committed by them," he said. Also Read Centre tells SC it wants more compensation for Bhopal gas leak victims 38 yrs on, 120,000 Bhopal locals carry gas tragedy scars, fight for justice 38 years on, UK's Labour MPs drum up support for Bhopal gas tragedy victims Bhopal gas tragedy: NGOs starts campaign for additional compensation Can't abandon Bhopal gas tragedy victims: Govt to SC on compensation plea LIVE: Wrestlers end protest after Sharan asked to step aside as WFI prez TMS Ep352: HUL Q3 results, China's population woes, markets, RRTS Egyptian Prez, 180-member military contingent to be part of Republic Day India should become producer of technology: Rajeev Chandrasekhar Google Play Store policies: CCI files caveat before Supreme Court "Amounts of Rs 105.27 crore, Rs 41.17 crore and Rs 8.69 crore were allegedly remitted from the accounts of private companies (all based in Mumbai), maintained with the three banks without any actual trade, thereby causing loss of foreign exchange to the government of India," he added. According to CBI FIRs, current accounts were opened in the names of companies with namesake persons as proprietors or directors. "Huge (amount of) cash was allegedly collected from various sources and layered into bank accounts of the said firms. It was further alleged that the Bills of Entry were later forged to show higher USD value than the actual import value and were submitted to the bank," the spokesperson said. The agency has booked the accused, including private persons, unknown officials of multi-state co-operative societies and unidentified public servants. A Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to Harish Chander, the man accused of dragging Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal by car for 10-15 metres outside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on January 19 after her hand got stuck in the vehicle's window. Sanghamitra, the Mahila Court Metropolitan Magistrate at the Saket court complex, noted that at this point, it is not proved whether the accused might threaten witnesses or tamper with evidence. "Considering the facts and circumstances of the present case, I am of the view that no useful purpose will be served by keeping the accused behind bars," she said. She granted Chander bail on certain conditions like he shall not attemot to get in touch with the complainant, her family members, witnesses, threaten them or tamper with any evidence. Directing the accused to cooperate with the probe, she directed the accused to furnish a bond of Rs 50,000 along with a surety of the same amount. Chander was arrested after a case under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Kotla Mubarakpur police station. Also Read BJP demands Swati Maliwal's removal after court orders framing of charges DCW issues notice to police for drunk driving, seeks solution to end menace Delhi BJP seeks Maliwal's removal for impartial probe of molestation charge Delhi court orders framing of corruption charges against Swati Maliwal Mehrauli murder: Accused should get strictest punishment, says DCW chief Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan calls on Centre to set up AIIMS in Kozhikode Sports Ministry suspends WFI assistant secy Vinod Tomar amid tussle IAF to carry out mega air exercise in Northeastern region in early February Delhi Lt Governor launches '100 Days to Beat Plastic' campaign by MCD Budget session of Telangana Legislative Assembly from Feb 3 before polls Chander's counsel submitted that Maliwal has falsely implicated his client in the case, adding that the his client drove away the car further as he was afraid of being looted. The court was informed that the police have declared that the matter would not need any further custodial interrogation. Maliwal's lawyer said that it is important to take into account the danger the individual poses to the citizens of the national capital. The DCW chief had alleged that she was molested by a drunk man while on an inspection at night, adding that she was dragged for 10-15 metres by his car outside AIIMS after her hand got stuck in the vehicle's window. After a video of the incident surfaced on social media, several BJP leaders had termed the incident as a staged drama by Maliwal, intended to defame Delhi internationally by showing the national capital as an unsafe city for women. They had also claimed that the accused Chander is a prominent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker in the Sangam Vihar area. Incidentally, Maliwal is an AAP appointee. Coming down heavily on the BJP's allegations on Saturday, Maliwal said that she will keep fighting till she is alive. Taking to Twitter, Maliwal said: "Let me tell those who think that they will scare me by telling dirty lies about me. I have done many big things in this short life, with a shroud on my head. I was attacked many times, but did not stop. With every atrocity, the fire inside me grew stronger. No one can suppress my voice. I will keep fighting as long as I am alive!" --IANS spr/arm The United States Treasury Department is set to designate the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary organization assisting Moscow in the war, as a "transnational criminal organization," imposing sanctions next week on the organization and its support network worldwide. The decision was announced on Friday by the White House, and National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said that the actions recognize the transcontinental threat that the group poses. The Wagner Group On top of the additional sanctions that will be implemented on the group, the U.S. has also released newly declassified photographs of Russian railcars traveling from Russia to North Korea that were taken back in November. This was in what the American government believes was the first delivery of infantry rockets and missiles that the mercenary organization utilized in Ukraine. The official noted that while the U.S. does not believe that the equipment has changed the battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, it expects that such weapons systems deliveries from North Korea to Russia will continue, as per CNN. Furthermore, Moscow has been continuously receiving equipment, such as drones, from Iran, as the former's military forces have continued to be reduced following battles in the war. Kirby noted that the arms transfers from the North directly violated the United Nations Sanctions Security Council resolution. He added that the US has already shared its intelligence with the council's DPRK sanctions committee of a panel of experts. A senior western intelligence official also echoed these statements on Friday, saying that the West was concerned that North Korea could be planning to expand and deliver more military equipment or to sustain such deliveries. The US government assesses that tensions between the Russian Defense Ministry and the Wagner group rise as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to rely on the group to carry out his war efforts in Ukraine. Read Also: Vladimir Putin's Tendency To Use Nuclear Weapons A Transnational Threat The Wagner group is believed to have thousands of mercenaries already deployed in Ukraine to assist Moscow. According to BBC, Kirby added that the group was committing human rights abuses and other atrocities in Ukraine and elsewhere. The new criminal organization designation will allow American authorities to apply wider sanctions against it. The group is also known to operate in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and several other hotspots worldwide. Kirby estimated that roughly 80% of the group's troops deployed to Ukraine were drawn from prisons. The American official added that the Wagner group had transformed itself to become a rival to Russia's regular military forces. The US believes there are mounting tensions between Russian officials and Wagner's controversial founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman and an ally of Putin. The designation would also result in freezing any US assets of Wagner and prohibits Americans from providing funds, goods, or services to the group. Kirby said that the American government would continue to work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose, and target the parties helping the Wagner group, told Reuters. Related Article: Possibility of Russia-Ukraine Nuclear War @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, who heads the NGT-appointed high-level committee to clean the Yamuna, has directed officials to ensure minimum environmental flow in the Delhi stretch of the river through inter-state coordination, his office said on Saturday. Ensuring environmental flow or e-flow in the river is among the eight parameters of a time-bound action plan agreed upon at the first meeting of the panel on Friday. E-flow is the minimum quantity of water flow that a river must have in order to preserve its ecosystems and meet bathing standards. Multiple reports submitted by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry have highlighted that the river cannot become fit for bathing in the absence of a minimum environment flow. A study conducted by the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, had in 2019 recommended that 23 cubic metre per second (cumec) water (437 million gallons a day) be released in the river from the Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana's Yamuna Nagar district in the lean season for sustaining downstream ecosystems. At present, only 10 cumec (190 MGD) water is released from the barrage. A gap of 13 cumec (247 MGD) remains. Also Read TS Inter Supplementary Results 2022 Declared: Here's how to check score Yamuna's water level drops but continues to flow above danger mark in Delhi Traffic halted on Delhi's old Yamuna bridge as river runs above danger mark Despite receding, Yamuna's water-level still above the danger mark Chhath Puja celebrations only at designated ghats: Delhi LG V K Saxena Telangana secures Rs 21,000 cr worth of investments during WEF in Davos Frame policy to identify poor and vest them with ownership rights: Lone Land mine found near Army post in J-K's Poonch, destroyed, says official Over 300 bureaucrats, ex-judges slam BBC for its documentary on PM Modi EC reminds parties of law, provisions barring use of religious institutions According to the ministry, the water sharing agreement of 1994 among the riparian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi is due for revision only in 2025. According to the DPCC, an e-flow of 23 cumecs will bring down the level of biological oxygen demand from 25 milligram per litre to 12 milligram per litre and other steps being taken will bring it down further. BOD, an important parameter for assessing water quality, is the amount of oxygen required by aerobic microorganisms to decompose organic material present in a water body. A BOD level less than 3 milligram per litre is considered good. At its meeting on Friday, the committee agreed on a six-month action plan on eight parameters, including augmenting sewage treatment, trapping and cleaning of drains, sewage network in unauthorised colonies and jhuggi-jhopri clusters, septage and restoration of the river floodplains. Saxena told officers that the task at hand is difficult but achievable and exhorted them to ensure the implementation of the decisions in a mission mode, without extending committed timelines. Setting up the committee earlier this month, the NGT had observed that substantial work remains unexecuted and there is still a huge gap between the generation of sewage and available treatment facilities. It said the earlier directions of the tribunal regarding pollution in the river were not complied with. The other members of the committee include the Delhi chief secretary, secretaries of the Delhi irrigation, forest and environment, agriculture, and finance departments, secretaries of the Union agriculture, environment and Jal Shakti ministries, the Central Pollution Control Board chairman, and the National Mission for Clean Ganga director general. The committee has been asked to submit its first report to the tribunal before January 31. The 22-kilometre stretch of the river between Wazirabad and Okhla in Delhi, which is less than two percent of the river length, accounts for around 80 per cent of its pollution load. Untapped wastewater from unauthorised colonies and jhuggi-jhopri clusters, and poor quality of treated wastewater discharged from sewage treatment plants (STPs) and common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) are the main reasons behind high levels of pollution in the river. The Delhi government has promised to clean the Yamuna to bathing standards by February 2025. The river can be considered fit for bathing if BOD is less than 3 milligram per litre and dissolved oxygen is greater than 5 milligram per litre. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said the government is leaving no stone left unturned to equip the country to deal with challenges which may arise due to the "fast-evolving global security scenario". During his address to a large number of cadets who are taking part in a Republic Day NCC Camp here, he described the country's foolproof security infrastructure as one of the best examples of teamwork, and asserted that "if there is ever a need to fight a war, the whole country will be behind our armed forces". It is the result of teamwork that India has defeated its enemies in the past and won many wars," Singh said. He also asserted that while the armed forces are protecting the nation from all kinds of threats, scientists, engineers, civil officers and others are providing support by moving shoulder-to-shoulder with them. "If there is ever a need to fight a war, the whole country will be behind our armed forces. It is the result of teamwork that India has defeated its enemies in the past and won many wars," he said. During the address, Singh also called upon the youth to eliminate the concept of use and throw, pointing out that directly or indirectly, society and the environment suffer the most due to this practice, according to a statement issued by the Defence Ministry. Also Read India to set up joint theatre commands of tri-services: Rajnath Singh Has the rally in defence-related stocks run its course? Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hoists national flag at his residence Time is to move at faster pace: Rajnath to Indian defence manufacturers Rajnath seeks industry cooperation to take defence sector to new heights WFI rejects wrestlers' allegations against President Brij Bhushan DCW issues notice to police for drunk driving, seeks solution to end menace 9 injured in Jammu in twin blast, 2 days ahead of Rahul's Bharat Jodo Yatra Govt blocks access to BBC documentary on 2002 Gujarat riots, says report Wayanad becomes first district to digitise tribals' documents, Rahul lauds The Union minister also emphasised on on the need to mould oneself according to the changing times. "No stone is being left unturned by the government to equip the nation to deal with challenges that may arise due to the fast-evolving global security scenario," he was quoted as saying in the statement. He, however, maintained that while changing with time is essential, staying connected with the country's glorious past is equally important. "The aim is to build a strong and prosperous India, rooted in its culture and traditions," Singh said. He addressed the cadets during his visit to the NCC Republic Day Camp at Delhi Cantonment, and also gave away Raksha Mantri Padak and Commendation Cards to many cadets for their exemplary performance and devotion to duty. This year, the Raksha Mantri Padak was awarded to Under Officer Tinggeuchile Nriame of North Eastern Region Directorate and Cadet Avinash Jangir of Rajasthan Directorate," the statement said. "The Raksha Mantri Commendation Cards were awarded to Captain Pratap Keshari Harichandan of Odisha Directorate, Cadet Under Officer Jenny Francina Victor Anand of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Directorate, Cadet Fiza Shafi of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Directorate and Cadet Sehwag Rana of Uttarakhand Directorate," it said. In his address to around 2,000 cadets, who are participating in the Camp, the Defence minister also exhorted them to "identify new ways and strive to help the nation move forward on the path of development with faster pace". He, however, urged them to stay connected with the country's age-old values and traditions and work in the field of their choice with humility. Stressing that destruction of environment means destruction of life, he appealed to the youth and the nation at large to reuse goods as far as possible and work for the conservation of nature. Singh also encouraged the youth to "not let the 'use and throw' concept enter their personal lives", and urged them to respect elders, family and friends. He said that while knowledge and education are important, life values hold equal relevance. The minister urged the cadets to focus on character building as much as they pay attention to gaining knowledge and earning wealth. He expressed confidence that the cadets, with their hard work, dedication and values, will touch heights of success and bring laurels to the country. "The path of India's progress goes through the youth. The stronger our youth is, the stronger our country will be," he said. Singh appreciated the NCC for transforming its cadets into a well-rounded personality by inculcating in them the qualities of a leader, soldier, artist and above all a good human being. Unity, discipline, truthfulness, courage, harmony, leadership and teamwork taught at the NCC have always been the guiding light of our country. Some of the most important qualities, the NCC inculcates in its cadets, are determination to achieve a desired goal, team spirit and getting rid of the fear of failure, he said. "This not only helps the young minds to create their own path, but also gives a new direction to society. There is a need to keep working on these qualities as it makes a person perfect and complete in the longer run," the Union minister said. Elaborating on the benefits of team spirit, Singh stressed that India itself is a "shining example" as it is home to a number of languages, dialects, religions and ideas. He said despite this diversity, India remains united and moves forward to secure the interest of its people. Irrespective of their backgrounds, all Indians come forward and contribute to nation building. This is a major reason behind India continuously moving towards becoming one of the leading countries in the world. There is a need to implement this aspect in our lives. Working together doubles the strength, increases the chances of success and negates the feeling of arrogance. "The NCC cadets should never let arrogance become a part of their personality and always be grateful to the nation and society," he said. As part of the event, a colourful cultural programme was presented by the NCC cadets. Singh also inspected a guard of honour presented by a contingent of NCC cadets drawn from the Army, Navy and Air Force wings of the NCC. He commended the cadets, drawn from all 17 directorates spread across the country, for their performances, terming it as a symbol of India's unity in diversity. Singh also visited the 'Flag Area' prepared by the cadets, depicting various social awareness themes. He was briefed by cadets from different directorates on their respective models. Thereafter, he visited the Hall of Fame, which has an impressive collection of alumni photographs, models and other achievements of the NCC over the past 75 years. Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, DG of NCC Lt Gen Gurbirpal Singh and other senior civil and military officials were present on the occasion. The Bharatiya Janata Party's Gujarat executive committee will meet on January 23 and 24 to discuss and approve resolutions passed in the recently concluded national executive meet as well as finalise future strategies, state unit chief CR Paatil said on Saturday. The meet, the first since the BJP won a record 156 seats in the 182-member Assembly in the December polls, will take place in Surendranagar, he added. Addressing a press conference, he said, "We are preparing for the 2024 (Lok Sabha) elections, and we will win it with many records. The record victory of the BJP in Gujarat was discussed at the recently-concluded national executive council held in New Delhi." He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, national-level leaders as well as the people of Gujarat and party workers, including 81 lakh "page committee members", for the victory in the state. "Modi magic worked because of the love, trust and expectations shown by the people and his capacity to fulfil those expectations. Many tried to lure people on the basis of 'guarantee cards' but voters showed wisdom so that no hindrance is created in the path of development of the state and the country," Paatil said. The Aam Aadmi Party had carried out a sustained campaign in the state polls, with its leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, making polls promises or "guarantees" of free electricity, schools, allowances to women and unemployed youth. It managed to win just five seats. "If the credit for this victory goes to anyone, then it is Modi. He held 33 rallies, road shows, and met workers in different districts. Voters of Gujarat also share the credit for voting for BJP candidates while trusting Modi," Paatil, the Lok Sabha member from Navsari near here, said. Also Read Centre to convene all-party meet Monday to finalise strategies for G-20 BJP national executive meet to finalise election strategies for 2023-24 Oppn floor leaders to meet today in Parl to discuss further strategies Raising the rate and the bar Inflation, external pressure priority over growth: Finance ministry Army Chief Gen Pande visits Eastern Command HW, reviews situation along LAC Wrestling mess: Sports Min to announce names of oversight committee members CJI hints at using AI for translating judgements in all Indian languages Traders can get licence online for serving food in open area in MCD areas Centre open to views on new education policy, says Dharmendra Pradhan Reeling off records the party set during the Gujarat polls, Paatil said 11 candidates won with a margin of more than one lakh votes, 51 won with margins in the range of 50,000 to one lakh, 66 with victories in 40,000-50000 range. "Congress candidates lost deposits on 40 seats, while the figure was 128 for the Aam Aadmi Party. There was a difference of 19,000-1.20 lakh votes on 33 seats where AAP was runner up to the BJP," Paatil added. Paatil said Amit Shah's presence in the state for two months and the Union minister's vast experience too helped the party come up with a resounding victory. He said 81 lakh page committee members, the booth-level workers who were given charge of 2.01 crore votes, managed to ensure the BJP won 1.68 crore, or 83 per cent, of these votes. FM expresses appreciation to diplomats By Zhao Jia (China Daily) 15:18, January 21, 2023 Qin Gang sends festive greetings for Lunar New Year to foreign missions in a video speech. [Photo/mfa.gov.cn] Qin Gang sends festive greetings for Lunar New Year to foreign missions China will deepen friendship and cooperation with all countries to jointly make new and greater contributions to world peace and prosperity, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Friday in a festive greeting message to diplomatic corps in China. Qin expressed appreciation in a video speech to the diplomatic corps for building bridges of communication and understanding, and strengthening the bond of mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the rest of the world, as he conveyed festive greetings for the Spring Festival, which falls on Sunday. In retrospect, Qin said the year 2022 was truly eventful for both China and the world as they faced multifaceted challenges such as the pandemic and geopolitical conflicts. With the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China setting out China's foreign policy goal and reaffirming the country's commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind,Qin said China's foreign diplomacy will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress. Looking ahead, Qin said China looks forward to a more peaceful and stable world free from war and conflict, and he called on countries to make concerted efforts to preserve peace. Noting that China follows an independent foreign policy of peace and the path of peaceful development, Qin vowed that China's development will always be a force for peace in the world. Countries should resolve conflicts and disputes through negotiation and consultation, and support all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of crises, he added. Qin urged countries to bolster "unity and cooperation" and discard "fragmentation and confrontation", adding that China will encourage the international community to "reject the outdated Cold War mentality and the pursuit of exclusive circles". Qin said China will deepen and expand equal, open and cooperative partnerships, and promote coordination and sound interactions among major countries. It will also enhance friendship, mutual trust and the convergence of interests with neighboring countries, and strengthen unity and friendship with fellow developing countries, he added. Noting China looks forward to "a more open and integrated world free from seclusion and isolation", Qin said China will continue to provide the world with new opportunities from its progress by remaining firm in advancing high-level opening-up and fostering the new development paradigm at a faster pace. As the year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping, Qin said China is ready to work with all parties to review past achievements and draw up the blueprint for a new decade of Belt and Road cooperation. At present, 151 countries and 32 international organizations have joined in the BRI. "Thanks to the joint efforts of all participants, the BRI has become a sunshine boulevard that connects roads, promotes mutual benefit and brings hearts closer," the foreign minister said. Qin also noted that China hopes to see "a more prosperous world with greater development, free from wider gaps between North and South". "The Chinese path to modernization offers a new option for the modernization of humanity, and China will contribute more ideas and strength to making global development more balanced, coordinated and inclusive," he added. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Kou Jie) The United Nations has issued an apology after some of its employees were photographed under Taliban flags during a visit to the embattled nation of Afghanistan amid a slew of other issues. In a statement, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, said that they were aware of the photo taken when the deputy secretary-general was meeting the de facto leaders in the country. He stressed that the photo should never have been taken and sincerely apologized for it. UN Employees Under Fire The image was first shared on social media on Thursday night and showed UN personnel in Kabul taking a picture under Taliban flags. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammad, the UN's most senior female official, traveled to Afghanistan to address concerns over women's rights in the country. The effort was made particularly over access to higher education and limits on women in the workplace. The recent delegation that traveled to the country is the most senior group of officials to visit Afghanistan since the Taliban terrorist group took control of the government in 2021. Mohammad was planning to speak with senior Taliban leaders to convince them to reverse their direction on the restrictions, as per Fox News. The restrictions have imperiled humanitarian operations in the country since women were not allowed to participate. The head of foreign relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, Ali Maisam Nazary, posted the photos and denounced them as being "insensitive." He noted that the UN personnel who took the photographs in Kabul under a terrorist group's flag brought the global organization's impartiality and integrity into question. Nazary also requested UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to investigate the issue. Nazary added that the images came as the Taliban terrorists allowed Afghanistan to become a hub for international terrorism. He accused the group of increasing their oppression of citizens, especially women. Read Also: French Unions Lead A Million Protesters Against Pension Reform Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan The situation comes as a top UN official believes that progress is being made toward the reversal of the bans on women and how they can take part in life in their country. According to BBC, the UN deputy secretary-general's visit to the country is scheduled to last four days. The visit comes after the Taliban terrorist group last month banned all women from working for non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It resulted in many international agencies halting operations. Mohammad, during an interview, said that the senior Taliban officials she had met with were ready to talk about the rights of girls and women in Afghanistan. However, the UN official noted that discussions were challenging and warned that it could be a very long journey before they can convince the Taliban leaders to take fundamental steps to provide them with the international recognition they are demanding. The crisis in Afghanistan continues to worsen as authorities reported that 78 people have died in the last nine days amid dropping winter temperatures. A spokesperson for the Taliban's Ministry of Disaster Management, Shafiullah Rahimi, said that on top of the casualties, more than 77,000 livestock froze to death in the last few days, said CNN. Related Article: Peru Anti-Government Protests Update @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Brazil's defeated former president, Jair Bolsonaro, was in Florida this month when his supporters tried but failed to overthrow the country's young democracy. It was a sign that many in Latin America's largest nation believe so fiercely in his movement that it can persist without its namesake. Although Bolsonarismo appears disoriented at the moment, the broader trend will endure. That's according to academics who study the movement and participants in the trend themselves, from the far-right radicals who stormed the capital to more ordinary Brazilian social conservatives. Many feel that leftist Luiz Incio Lula da Silva was such a threat to their country that his victory required the military to prevent him from taking office. Daniel Bressan, 35, traveled 300 miles from the interior of Parana state to join protesters in the capital, Brasilia. He was taken into custody on Jan. 9, the morning after he and thousands of others invaded Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace. Bolsonaro brought the spirit of patriotism and family values back to the people, and now we have to unite to keep fighting, Bressan, who denies vandalizing the buildings, said by phone on Jan. 10 from inside the federal police's temporary holding center. From Bolsonaro himself, we don't expect anything. On the campaign trail in 2018, Bolsonaro tapped into outrage sparked by a sprawling corruption investigation into public figures. The seven-term lawmaker cast himself as an outsider to segments of society that felt undeservedly sidelined. Some quietly shared his taboo nostalgia for the military dictatorship. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has supported torture and said the regime should have killed even more communists than it did. Also Read Bolsonaro denounces violence after supporters storm Brazil's govt buildings Brazil's Lula sworn in as prez, vows accountability from outgoing Bolsonaro Brazil declares three days of mourning over football legend Pele's demise Brazil's Supreme Court agrees to include Bolsonaro in riots probe Democratic traditions must be respected: PM Modi on Brazil protests Rishi Sunak scores as UK vote winner over Boris Johnson in new survey New update in Twitter will stop forcing 'For You' timeline on users: Musk IAF to hold Exercise Pralay along LAC in northeast amid standoff with China India, Egypt carry maiden joint exercise among special forces in Rajasthan PM Modi can play key role in Ukraine-Russia talks: French journalist Other hardcore supporters were drawn to his exaltation of conservative values, his full-throated embrace of Christianity and his push to arm the general public. Bolsonaro became the symbolic glue holding these groups together, according to anthropologist Isabela Kalil, coordinator of the Extreme Right Observatory. It's more about how supporters mobilize the image of Bolsonaro than about his actions themselves, said Kalil. Those images are independent from the figure of Bolsonaro. He controls them partially, but not totally. Radicalism deepened at the encampments that mushroomed outside military buildings nationwide after Bolsonaro's loss, with die-hard backers demanding the army intervene to overturn the closest race since the nation's return to democracy over three decades ago. Bolsonaro had repeatedly characterized Lula as a thief who would plunge the nation into communism. Bolsonaro has been virtually invisible since the election, surprising many who expected a show of righteous indignation after months casting doubt on electronic voting machines. While he didn't concede defeat and requested that millions of ballots be annulled, he also refrained from crying fraud. Two days before Lula's inauguration, Bolsonaro went to Florida. A week after the inauguration, without any apparent signal from Bolsonaro or the military, rioters took action. The horde smashed windows, trashed artworks, sprayed fire extinguishers and firehoses. Into a wooden table in the Supreme Court, someone carved: Supreme are the people. To the limited extent that Bolsonaro commented on the uprising, it was to say that destroying public property was a step over the line. Many of his supporters were left disappointed. Trying to distance himself from what happened causes him to lose his link to the base that coordinated these attacks, said Guilherme Casares, a political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank. The attack in Brasilia was a shot in the foot and weakens Bolsonarismo as a personalist, radical movement, its two fundamental characteristics. Bolsonaro's party had intended for him to be a leading voice in the opposition, yet it remains unclear when he will return from Florida. Back home, several investigations targeting him could strip him of his ability to run for office. His far-right allies who were elected to office have the opportunity to claim his political spoils for themselves and are vocally defending arrested rioters. Paulo Baa, a sociologist and political scientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said he believes that the term Bolsonarismo' will disappear in coming months, even as the movement continues onward, diluted among other actors. Unlike Bolsonaro, U.S. President Donald Trump was present on Jan. 6 just before the attack on the Capitol, urging his followers to the building. He has continued defending their behavior since and tried to make support for the election lies that fueled the attack a defining issue in November's elections. The Republican party underperformed, however, rendering Trump's position within it more precarious than at any time since 2016. Thomas Carothers, co-director of the Democracy, Conflict and Governance program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the U.S. and Brazilian riots have no true precedents elsewhere and it is hard to predict what will happen next, but they may have marked high points for both their populist inspirations' political power. We need to stop thinking about just Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro isn't the principal leader, Alberdan Souza, 28, who administers a Telegram channel about geopolitics, said by phone from Juazeiro do Norte in Brazil's poor northeast, where he said he is the rare schoolteacher to be proudly right-wing. He is the guy who caused a surge for the right and for the feeling of Brazilian patriotism, but the movement is much bigger than Bolsonaro. Radicals have remained engaged on social media, firstly washing their hands of responsibility for the destruction by blaming supposed left-wing infiltrators. And they continue issuing calls to stay mobilized so the military can act, announcing general strikes and the shutdown of refineries and gasoline stations to grind Brazil to a halt, according to Marie Santini, coordinator of NetLab, a research group at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro that monitors social media. So far, further aggression in the real world has been limited. At least 12 transmission towers were attacked, several of which were toppled, according to the energy regulator. It isn't that these calls were successful, but it demonstrates that the coup impetus remains strong," Santini said. Bolsonaristas show no sign that of stopping anytime soon. Three days after the uprising, a supposed mega-protest to retake power was ultimately a dud. At Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach, police and journalists outnumbered the few demonstrators. It was a stark contrast with the scene in the same spot weeks before the election, with flyovers, paratroopers, warships and Bolsonaro delivering a stump speech to a jubilant crowd in his thrall. I lost my joy of living, demonstrator Lia Marques, 65, said as she wept. Like other Bolsonaro supporters interviewed, Marques fears the crackdown targeting their movement. Still, she isn't giving up. People are mobilized on social networks and that has a lot of strength," she said through tears. We will stay strong on the streets. Newly elected Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva will meet his American counterpart Joe Biden at the White House early next month, an administration official said. While the official did not confirm the dates for the visit, Brazilian media reports said the two leaders would meet on February 10. "I can confirm that we look forward to seeing President Lula early next month," John Kirby, White House National Security Coordinator for Strategic Communications, told reporters at a news conference here on Friday. "We look forward to welcoming him here at the White House and to having more and deeper discussions about improving and deepening the relationship between the United States and Brazil," Kirby said in response to a question. Lula was one of the key architects of BRICS -- a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. He presided over the first BRICS summit in June 2009. In 2024, Brazil is slated to take over from India the G-20 presidency and also that of BRICS. The US has blamed the third-party contractors for last week's mega outage that grounded thousands of flights, saying that "contract personnel unintentionally deleted files" while working on the 30-year-old software. In a statement, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the files were deleted "while working to correct synchronisation between the live primary database and a backup database". "The agency has so far found no evidence of a cyber-attack or malicious intent. The FAA continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the outage," it added. A glitch in the FAA software, which grounded thousands of flights in the country earlier this week, is at least 30 years old and six years away from being updated. The aviation administration said it has made the necessary repairs to the system and has taken steps to make the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system "more resilient". The agency is acting quickly to adopt any other lessons "learned in our efforts to ensure the continuing robustness of the nation's air traffic control system". Also Read Kim Jong Un's daughter called 'most beloved' child in 2nd appearance North Korea's Kim Jong Un lays out key goals to boost military power Kim Jong Un claims North Korean successes, says it faces challenges N Korea sustains high defense spending in budget despite economic troubles JSW Energy arm bags two battery energy storage system projects from SECI FTA negotiations with India 'well advanced', next round soon: UK minister Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects troops' combat readiness along LAC French President Macron floats new military spending plan amid Ukraine war Death toll after avalanche on Tibet highway rises to 13, rescue efforts on European Union's Breton warns TikTok CEO to comply with new digital rules As a result of the massive nationwide technical glitch, more than 10,000 flights in and out of the US were delayed, while more than 1,300 others were cancelled. The CNN reported that the core operating system for the database has been around since the 1990s. "Regardless of the improvements made to the system in recent years, it still has the heart of an 89-year-old man," a government source was quoted as saying in the report. President Joe Biden had called for a "full investigation" into the incident. --IANS na/ksk/ The ship agents have forewarned the cash-strapped Pakistani government that all export cargoes could come to a halt as foreign shipping lines are considering stopping their services for the country after banks stopped remitting freight charges to them due to a lack of dollar availability, according to a media report on Saturday. Apart from bordering countries, almost all the international logistics from Pakistan are catered by sea and any disruption could create serious issues for the country's international trade, Pakistan Ship's Agents Association (PSAA) chairman Abdul Rauf warned Finance Minister Ishaq Dar through a letter. If the international trade is stopped the economic situation will worsen, the association warned, adding that the foreign shipping lines are already considering winding up their services in Pakistan due to reduced cargo volumes. The PSAA chairman also wrote letters to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmed, Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Namar, and Maritime Affairs Minister Faisal Sabzwari, the Dawn newspaper reported. Rauf requested the ministries and departments concerned to intervene to ensure continuity in Pakistan's seaborne trade by allowing outward remittance of surplus freight amounts to respective foreign shipping lines forthwith. Due to discontinuation of outward remittance of surplus freight amounts to respective foreign shipping lines, was hampering Pakistan's seaborne trade which is heavily dependent on foreign shipping lines, the letter added. Also Read Pakistan: Imran Khan's attacker, Naveed, is a drug addict, probe reveals World Bank steps in to mediate water dispute between India and Pakistan Port cargo traffic growth in November slows to 3% amid trade slowdown Hizbul chief's son, wife of 'Bitta Karate' among 4 sacked by JK admin Russia smuggling Ukrainian grain worth $530 million to fuel Putin's war Davos 2023: Over 50 high-impact initiatives at WEF for sustainable world WEF 2023: 'Fragmentation can cost up to 7% of global GDP', says IMF chief Pak to pay for Russian oil in currencies of 'friendly countries': Official Be realistic, avoid complacency: Leaders at World Economic Forum meeting India to benefit from US, China decoupling: Gautam Adani tells Davos summit However, the crisis relates to the export cargoes as all the outward trade from Pakistan is container-based, as there are no liquid or grain exports from the country. The state-owned Pakistan National Shipping Company (PNSC) only handles imports of crude oil and other petroleum fuel through its 12 vessels. The annual freight bill of Pakistan is around USD 5 billion, and foreign companies receive the charges in international currencies mainly the greenback. The ship agents have pointed out that due to the current state of affairs, the shipping sector was already suffering due to economic ups and downs, and any further delays in remitting their legitimate dues will constrain Pakistan's external trade. However, talking to the newspaper, former PSAA chairman Muhammad Rajpar said that Pakistan was not close to an economic meltdown as yet, therefore the government still has time to seek a way out of the current crisis. We can always have innovative ideas to get out of difficult times, one of them is hedging of dollars and setting installments for the payments to the shipping companies, Rajpar said. Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves had dwindled rapidly to over USD 4 billion in recent weeks, creating fear the country may default and prompting the SBP to apply strict control over foreign payments. Meanwhile, the Petroleum Division has warned the central bank that the stocks of petroleum products may dry up as banks are refusing to open and confirm Letters of Credit (LCs) for imports. Like other sectors, the oil industry in Pakistan is facing hurdles to opening LCs owing to the US dollar shortage and restrictions put in place by the SBP, according to The Express Tribune. The first-ever joint exercise between the special forces of the Indian Army and the Egyptian Army named "Exercise Cyclone-I" is underway in Rajasthan, according to an official statement. The exercise, which began on January 14, is aimed at bolstering defence cooperation between the two nations and focus on sharing professional skills and interoperability of the special forces in desert terrain while undertaking counter-terrorism, reconnaissance, raids and other special operations, the statement added. This is the first exercise of its kind bringing the special forces of both the nations on a common platform. "The 14-day exercise which is being carried out in the deserts of Rajasthan engages both the contingents to advance special forces skills such as sniping, combat free fall, reconnaissance, surveillance and target designation, sharing of information on weapons, equipment, innovations, tactics, techniques and procedures," the release said. The participants would also undertake joint planning and drills for special forces operations in a mechanised warfare setting as well as surgical strikes on terrorist camps/ hideouts to include sniping of high-value targets. The joint exercise will provide an insight into the culture and ethos of both the armies, thereby fostering military cooperation and interoperability to further strengthen diplomatic relations between India and Egypt, the release added. Also Read Egypt president al-Sisi to be India's chief guest at Republic Day event Russian FM visits Egypt in first African tour since Ukrainian conflict India committed to COP27 under Egyptian presidency: Jaishankar to Prez Sisi Egypt, Qatar sign 3 MoUs in Doha to boost cooperation: Egyptian presidency US President Biden, Egypt counterpart Sisi discuss regional, int'l issues PM Modi can play key role in Ukraine-Russia talks: French journalist Brazilian president Lula to meet Joe Biden at White House next month Immigrants continue to face cruelty, says Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah US Secy Blinken cautions China against changing status quo in Taiwan Nikki Haley accused of plotting a bid to become Trump's vice-president Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is scheduled to arrive in India on January 24. He will be the first Egyptian President and the fifth leader from the Middle East to grace the Republic Day celebrations as chief guest. Nikki Haley, the Indian- American Republican who is eyeing a bid for the White House in 2024, has been accused of plotting to become former US President Donald Trump's Vice-President. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who made this accusation in his memoir that just hit the stands, goes on to claim in the book that Haley's co-conspirators were Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who both held senior position in the White House at the time. Haley dismissed the charge as a stunt to sell the memoir. Pompeo does not specify if Haley was supposed to replace Pence in this plot or join Trump as running mate in his 2020 re-election bid. If the move was for Haley to replace Pence as Vice-President, it would have been her and not Vice-President Kamala Harris who would have gone down in history with a clutch of firsts -- the first person of colour to rise so high in the US government, and the first Asian-American and Indian-American. She would have made history as Trump's running mate as well -- but jointly with Harris. Also Read Donald Trump seeks $475 million in defamation lawsuit against CNN Ahead of midterm elections, Trump coins India-US friendship slogan in Hindi US judge dismisses Donald Trump's lawsuit against Hillary Clinton US House congressional panel to discuss release of Trump's tax returns Donald Trump again hints at running for office in 2024 presidential polls Sweden braces for anti-Turkey demonstrations amid NATO accession bid UN says Taliban divided on restoring women's rights post official visit Chris Hipkins to succeed Jacinda Ardern as New Zealand prime minister IAEA says Fukushima water release into sea to follow safety standards France's Macron to hike military funds amid Russia-Ukraine war, new threats Neither situation happened. Pompeo is himself considering a 2024 White House bid and takes swipes at others in the Republican party who he could face in the primaries, with the exception of his former boss Trump, who has already announced his intention to run a third time, and Vice-President Mike Pence, who is also mulling a run. Pompeo's account of Haley's plot is not firsthand. He cites Mark Kelly, then Chief of Staff to the President, who felt "played" as the alleged move came at a meeting he cleared for Haley with Trump. Haley, it turned out, was not alone, but was joined by the President's daughter and son-in-law. "As best Kelly could tell,"Pompeo writes in his memoir, "they were presenting a possible Haley for Vice-President' option". I can't confirm this, but (Kelly) was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America." Pompeo sounds uncertain of his claims here. And Haley hit it out the park predictably, calling the charge "lies and gossip to sell a book". Haley was US Ambassador to the UN at the time and a rising star in the Republican party on reputation made and burnished as the two-term governor of South Carolina, one of America's most Conservative states. As Ambassador to the UN, Haley was accorded a federal cabinet position and could often called and met Trump without going through the State Department protocol. Then she resigned unexpectedly in 2018, with two more years left of Trump's term. And she wasn't very convincing about her reasons. "There's no personal reason," she had said, appearing with Trump at a joint news conference. "It's very important for government officials to understand when it's time to step aside." And then, without being prompted. she said, "No, I am not running for 2020," True to her word she did not not run in 2020. But shortly after Trump lost the 2020 re-election bid, Haley signalled her intentions in an interview to a US media outlet, saying it was time for the Republican party to move on. --IANS yrj/khz/ The Petroleum Division has warned the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) that the stocks of petroleum products may dry up as banks are refusing to open and confirm Letters of Credit (LCs) for imports. Like other sectors, the oil industry in Pakistan is facing hurdles to opening LCs owing to the US dollar shortage and restrictions put in place by the SBP, The Express Tribune reported. An oil cargo of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has already been cancelled while LC for another cargo, scheduled for loading on January 23, has not yet been confirmed. In a letter to the SBP Governor, the Petroleum Division drew his attention towards the difficulties being faced by oil refineries and marketing companies in establishing the LCs. According to sources, the Pak Arab Refinery Limited (Parco) has planned to import two crude oil cargoes of 535,000 barrels each but banks are not willing to open and confirm the LCs. One crude oil cargo of 532,000 barrels for Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) is scheduled for loading on January 30. However, its LC has not so far been confirmed and it is being negotiated with a state-owned bank, The Express Tribune reported. Also Read What is the 'Letter of Comfort' banned by the Reserve Bank of India? What is a letter of comfort? Pakistan's forex reserves fall by $245 mn due to 'external debt repayment' State Bank of Pakistan says its forex reserves have fallen by $327 mn Pakistan's remittances declined 4.8% in November, says central bank Foreign shipping lines may stop services for cash-strapped Pakistan Davos 2023: Over 50 high-impact initiatives at WEF for sustainable world WEF 2023: 'Fragmentation can cost up to 7% of global GDP', says IMF chief Pak to pay for Russian oil in currencies of 'friendly countries': Official Be realistic, avoid complacency: Leaders at World Economic Forum meeting Two petrol cargoes of PSO, which are in the pipeline, are also awaiting the confirmation of LCs by local banks. According to industry players, 18 cargoes of petrol booked by other oil marketing companies (OMCs) like GO, Be Energy, Attock Petroleum, Hascol Petroleum and others also require the opening and confirmation of LCs. To tackle the situation, a series of meetings have been held since the second week of January. First such huddle was convened on January 13 that highlighted the banks' refusal to open LCs in favour of OMCs and refineries for the import of crude oil and petroleum products, The Express Tribune reported. --IANS san/ksk/ The Biden administration is in a stalemate with Germany on whether to send tanks to Ukraine in advance of Friday's crucial meeting of Western defense ministers in Germany. In recent days, German officials have indicated they will not send their Leopard tanks to Ukraine, nor will they allow any other country with the German-made tanks to do so unless the United States also agrees to send its M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv - something the Pentagon has stated for months it has no intention of doing because of the logistical costs associated with maintaining them. Ukraine Urges For More Tanks "They have us cornered," a senior Biden administration source told CNN on Thursday, adding that the Germans are demanding tanks in exchange for the Leopards and are refusing to consider any other offers the United States has made. The tank standoff is occurring in the context of a far bigger discussion between the United States and its European allies about whether to supply Ukraine with increasingly advanced weaponry, including longer-range missiles that would allow Ukraine to strike targets up to 200 miles away. The United Kingdom, Poland, Finland, and the Baltic nations have all advocated for NATO allies to supply heavier armaments to Kyiv at a crucial turning point in the conflict. There are indications that both Ukraine and Russia are preparing for new offensives, and that Moscow may be contemplating an extra mobilization of troops. The British increased the pressure on their Western friends by announcing the shipment of fourteen Challenger tanks to Ukraine last week. On Wednesday, though, Germany and the United States remained opposed to the notion of sending their own tanks. The German government then drew the Biden administration further into the impasse by indicating that the supply of tanks was reliant on the United States doing the same. In an apparent weakening of Germany's position, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who just entered his position this week, told The New York Times on Thursday evening that he was "not aware of such a connection" between the United States need to deploy tanks and Germany's need to send tanks. However, he did not offer any clear promises. Read Also: Search Warrant at Bryan Kohberger's Home Why US Opposes Sending Tanks to Ukraine? Meanwhile, the Pentagon's senior officers are opposed to sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine, according to three US sources, despite German encouragement to do so. The German government said it may deploy its own Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine if the United States also agrees to supply Ukraine with the M1 Abrams, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz maintaining that Germany will only act in collaboration with its friends. According to three US officials, Berlin has attempted to put the United States on the spot on the shipment of Abrams tanks, and the Biden administration has been frustrated with Germany over the back-and-forth. The officials insist that the German pressure will not be effective, as per NBC News. Officials also stated that President Joe Biden will not exert pressure on Germany to transfer the Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Friday, when Biden was asked about deploying Abrams tanks to Ukraine, he was noncommittal. "Ukraine will receive all the assistance they require," he added. Three US sources stated that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley had recommended against sending M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Milley and Austin have mentioned the length of time required to educate employees to operate the tanks and the difficulty of maintaining the tanks. According to the officials, they have also claimed that they are not the appropriate vehicles for combat in Ukraine at this time. According to a US official, Austin has maintained that training the Ukrainians to operate and maintain the tanks would take months, and he continues to fight to deploy the Abrams even though the Ukrainians have demonstrated proficiency at learning numerous new platforms. Two US sources also underlined that Ukraine already possesses hundreds of tanks and has captured hundreds of Russian tanks on the battlefield and added them to its arsenal over the last year. Friday, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder declined to comment on Austin and Milley's opinions, stating that their remarks at Ramstein Air Base in Germany regarding US tanks "spoke for themselves. We will not have any further items to offer." Nearly fifty nations gathered in Austin to discuss aid and contributions to Ukraine at the Ukraine Contact Group conference in Ramstein. During Friday's public statements, Austin appeared to refer to what US officials have claimed his private attitude has been: that he does not view tanks as essential to the present conflict in Ukraine and that they cannot be immediately deployed. Since the commencement of the conflict, the Biden administration has carefully regulated the delivery of weaponry to Ukraine, reserving the delivery of more potent weapons so as not to provoke a Russian escalation. However, following a series of victories on the battlefield, Ukraine has persuaded the White House and its Western backers to abandon a number of taboos and give more potent offensive weaponry, such as infantry combat vehicles and, as of this week, American Stryker armored vehicles. However, several nations were unwilling to provide main combat tanks. In recent weeks, Britain announced a transfer of tanks to Ukraine and pressure mounted on Germany from Eastern European and Baltic nations to at least enable them to send their approximately 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks, which are located in 14 European countries. However, even this option has been ruled out for the time being, causing significant discontent, especially as time is running out to supply tanks to Ukraine and train its forces to operate them. Thorsten Benner, the head of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, stated that Germany's hesitation to send tanks likely stems from worries about escalation risks and probable Russian reprisal, NY Times reported. Related Article: Russia Prepares Poseidon Torpedo Warheads @YouTube @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. There is a need for someone who can bring Ukraine and Russia to the table for talks and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi can play a key role in facilitating the negotiations between the two warring neighbours, a veteran French journalist said. However, at this moment it looks "extremely difficult" because Ukraine does not want to hold discussions and wants the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to judge Russian President Vladimir Putin, Laura Haim said on Friday. Haim, who is currently working with LCI news channel, said she was surprised to see that people in the US are not talking about the Russia-Ukraine war. "The war in Ukraine is going to be extremely long. Coming from Europe, I am speechless to see what's happening in America. People are talking about the president, the document and Donald Trump. And when you are in Europe, we are just talking about the war and what is going on," Haim told PTI in an interview. She said nobody knows what is going to happen in Ukraine. "Russia is probably going to try to do a new mobilisation, maybe to strike more... Kyiv, maybe to launch multiple offensives. The Ukrainians are extremely courageous. They are asking the West to help them," she said. Also Read 3D-printed homes, implants, jewellery: An industry takes shape in India India producing medical devices at 1/3rd world price: Jitendra Singh India, B'desh must face together forces that attack mutual trust: PM Modi Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla flags off 'Har Ghar Tiranga yatra' in Delhi FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2023: Obstacles India will face on its home turf Brazilian president Lula to meet Joe Biden at White House next month Immigrants continue to face cruelty, says Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah US Secy Blinken cautions China against changing status quo in Taiwan Nikki Haley accused of plotting a bid to become Trump's vice-president Sweden braces for anti-Turkey demonstrations amid NATO accession bid "The Ukrainians need weapons. The American people are going to give Ukraine some more help with no boots on the ground," she added. The United States on Thursday announced another military assistance package of USD 2.5 billion for Ukraine to fight against Russian aggression, taking the total US military assistance to USD 27.5 billion. This assistance package will provide Ukraine with hundreds of additional armoured vehicles, including Stryker armoured personnel carriers, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, and High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled vehicles, according to an official statement. The package also includes critical additional air defence support for Ukraine, including more Avenger air defence systems, and surface-to-air missiles, as well as additional munitions for NASAMS that the US has previously provided. Haim, who was the spokesperson for international affairs for French President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign, said India and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi have some role to play in the peace process. "We need someone who is going to be able to bring Ukraine and Russia to the table (for negotiations)," she said. At this moment, it's extremely difficult because the two sides are refusing to speak to each other and blaming each other for the killings, she said. "The Ukrainians are saying they do not want to negotiate with Putin and they also want Crimea back. The Russians are bombing them all the time. We saw it again in the past month... Turkey has a very important place. "A lot of people are now saying that Prime Minister Modi can also play a key (role) in facilitating at least the beginning of the negotiations. But again, at this moment, the Ukrainians do not want to discuss... So, for Indians to be the negotiator, it is possible... you have to be optimistic," Haim said in response to a question. Haim, who was made Chevalier de La Lgion d'Honneur in 2015 for her serious journalism and work in the US, credited the United States for helping Ukraine in countering the Russian forces. "Now we have to acknowledge that at this moment there's an American war going on in Europe because the United States is giving the weapons to the Ukrainians. The United States is giving a lot of information to the Ukrainians. "Again, the Ukrainians are extremely courageous and they are fighting for democracy, but without the Americans, honestly, as a journalist, I don't know what would have happened to Ukraine," she said. Sales rise 17.37% to Rs 217164.00 croreNet profit of Reliance Industries declined 14.86% to Rs 15792.00 crore in the quarter ended December 2022 as against Rs 18549.00 crore during the previous quarter ended December 2021. Sales rose 17.37% to Rs 217164.00 crore in the quarter ended December 2022 as against Rs 185027.00 crore during the previous quarter ended December 2021. ParticularsQuarter EndedDec. 2022Dec. 2021% Var.Sales217164.00185027.00 17 OPM %16.2316.05 -PBDT33259.0030074.00 11 PBT23072.0022391.00 3 NP15792.0018549.00 -15 Powered by Capital Market - Live News Unsubscribe to continue This is a subscriber only feature Subscribe Now to get daily updates on WhatsApp On Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned of the global consequences that might occur if the United States government exhausts all exceptional measures and fails to increase the debt ceiling. The United States reached the $31.4 trillion debt limit imposed by Congress on Thursday, prompting the Treasury Department to take unprecedented steps to maintain the government paying its obligations. Global Financial Crisis Although these recently implemented exceptional measures are mostly accounting tactics, Yellen told Amanpour that "the actual date at which we would no longer be able to utilize these measures is unknown, but it may be as early as early June." Speaking exclusively to CNN from Senegal, Yellen stated that if Congress fails to extend the debt ceiling, the United States might see a minimum downgrade of its debt once the procedures have been exhausted. According to CNN, she stated that the impact of the federal government failing to make payments may be comparable to a "global financial crisis." The White House refuses to talk with conservative Republicans about lifting the debt ceiling because it believes that a sufficient number of them will ultimately back down from their demands, even while investors, business organizations, and moderate conservatives warn of the perils of a potential default. Republicans in the House of Representatives of the United States desire cutbacks to some government programs, as per Reuters. According to Yellen, the debt ceiling is for expenditures already authorized by Congress and does not seek more cost. Yellen also mentioned her recent meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and stated that the United States and China should maintain regular communication and seek opportunities for collaboration on global issues such as climate change. Read Also: Dr. Anthony Fauci Slams Elon Musk US Debt Ceiling Meanwhile, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, urged Congress on Thursday not to risk a debt limit crisis, saying that it would devastate the global economy. The federal government has begun "exceptional steps" to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt. When these efforts to free up funds run out in around six months, Congress must lift the debt ceiling or face a financial catastrophe. Under the leadership of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Republicans claim they would not vote to increase the debt ceiling unless expenditure cuts are included. But Democrats and the White House vow they will not agree to budget cuts, setting the stage for a clash. The US dollar is the world's primary reserve currency, and firms and governments across the globe rely on US federal bonds so that a default may destabilize the global economy. The US will undoubtedly see much higher borrowing rates, and government programs will cease to exist, as per The Hill. White House economic adviser Brian Deese stated on Thursday that the US would suffer economic damage simply by approaching the debt limit deadline, noting that a leading rating agency downgraded the federal government's credit rating following the 2011 debt ceiling battle that nearly resulted in a default. Related Article: US Hits $31.4 Trillion Debt Ceiling @YouTube @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. On Friday, officials reported that an increase in Cuban and Nicaraguan entries at the US-Mexico border in December led to the largest number of unlawful border crossings observed during any month of Joe Biden's administration. The exceptional surge occurred just before Vice President Biden suggested steps on January 5 to discourage Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans from entering the United States. Migrant Surge Sets Highest Record Customs and Border Protection said that US agents arrested 251,487 migrants at the Mexican border in December, up 7% from November's total of 234,896 and 40% from December 2021's total of 179,253. In December, approximately 43,000 Cubans were detained, an increase of 23% from November and more than fivefold compared to last year. More than 35,000 Nicaraguans were stopped, up 3% from November and more than double from December 2021, as per NBC News. More migrants from Ecuador and Peru were also stopped. El Paso, Texas, was the busiest of the Border Patrol's nine sectors along the Mexican border for the third consecutive month due to the inflow of Cuban and Nicaraguan migrants. In the weeks preceding Vice President Biden's first visit to the border on January 8, the city was overrun with migrants freed to pursue their immigration claims in the United States. At the current rate, border arrests might reach their lowest level since February 2021, a month after Biden's inauguration as president. Uncertain is whether this trend will persist for the remainder of the month and beyond, according to VOA News. Earlier this month, Biden, a Democrat who plans to run for re-election in 2024, strengthened COVID-19-related limits that let migrants captured at the U.S.-Mexico border be swiftly deported back to Mexico. Previously, Mexicans, some Central Americans, and Venezuelans were subject to the limitations known as Title 42. Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans were granted them once Mexico decided to acknowledge their nations. Concurrently, the Biden administration announced a new humanitarian admission program for 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans monthly, provided they have US sponsors and enter the country by air. A Biden administration official stated, "The method we have devised is safe, quick, and only costs the price of a commercial aircraft ticket." The option is apparent compared to the thousands of dollars traffickers charge refugees for a perilous voyage. Several US officials stated that arrests at the border usually decrease from late December to early January due to the holidays, which likely contributed to the January decrease. Customs and Border Protection of the United States did not reply quickly to a request for comment. In November, US Border Patrol authorities captured 206 000 migrants along the southwest border. After a rise in El Paso, Texas, arrivals in November, the December data, which are not yet available to the public, might be higher. Read Also: US Debt May Cause Global Financial Crisis GOP Urges to Know if Biden Covers Up Border Crisis Rep. James Comer requests that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) send over papers connected to President Biden's travel to Texas to determine whether they were complicit in "covering up" the dismal, overcrowded circumstances that frequently exist along the southern border. Since Biden's inauguration, Republicans have urged him to visit the southern border and see for himself the tens of thousands of migrants parked along each side of the US-Mexico border and surrounding towns - foreign nationals who frequently endured a perilous journey and arrive in the United States with nothing but the clothes on their backs in search of a better life. Biden spent three hours jumping between buildings that had been spruced up for his visit. This was Biden's first known tour of the border in his five decades as a public official. Nobody observed him meeting any migrants. Unsatisfied Republicans criticized the visit as a "photo opportunity." Comer requested in a letter any documentation and correspondence about the clearance of homeless encampments between DHS, the Secret Service, the mayor of El Paso, or the state of Texas. Last year's 2.3 million border apprehensions established a new high, and this year's border crossings don't appear to be slowing down: there were 561,000 apprehensions in the first two months of the fiscal year 2023. During his tour, the president avoided the wretched tent camps scattered around El Paso that sparked headlines last month about migrants taking over the streets. Law enforcement teams apprehended illegal immigrants who had entered the nation throughout the downtown area on Tuesday and Wednesday. Volunteers assisting scores of refugees seeking sanctuary at the Sacred Heart Church told DailyMail.com, "They've cleaned everything up for him." Officials assert that they are only implementing the regulations and that any coincidences are coincidental. However, a day before the president's visit, the environment could not be more like the turmoil of late December. Arrivals planned their flights to coincide with the anticipated termination of Title 42, a Trump-era limitation that ultimately received a stay of execution from the Supreme Court. Then, hundreds of primarily Venezuelan refugees camped on the downtown streets surrounding the Greyhound Bus stop. The week before the president's arrival, border patrol personnel swept through the neighborhood and removed their bundles of clothing and personal things. Related Article: Roe v Wade Leak Investigation Fails @YouTube @ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Jimin of K-Pop band BTS poses during a photo-call before the Dior Menswear ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2023-2024 Collection show during Men's Fashion Week in Paris, France, Jan. 20. Reuters-Yonhap Dior mania descended on Paris Fashion Week menswear Friday as over a thousand screaming fans thronged the magnificent Place de la Concorde for a glimpse of their favorite stars, with some almost risking their lives in snarled traffic. The minders of the show's VIP guests, including David Beckham, Naomi Campbell and Korean band BTS members J-Hope and Jimin, navigated the crowd like salmon swimming upstream. Inside, Dior men's designer Kim Jones paid homage to Yves Saint Laurent, who became the world's youngest couturier in 1957 at 21, upon Christian Dior's death. BTS member Jimin attends the Dior menswear Fall/Winter 2023-24 Collection presented in Paris, Jan. 20. AP-Yonhap Here are some highlights of the Fall/Winter 2023-2024 Collection: YSL: An homage In 1958, Saint Laurent unveiled his first collection for Christian Dior. It was a global event which saw the designer draw thousands upon thousands of screaming fans who thronged avenues. Some things never change, even after 65 years. Kim Jones used that women's collection as the inspiration for his men's mirroring its contrasts of masculine versus feminine and British tailoring versus couture. Jones also captured its fluidity to produce a gender-neutral display with softened shapes and loose waists. Unbuttoned suits that unfurled cut a nice trapeze silhouette, as did clever white knit sweaters with sleeves snipped away to flap like a poncho. Jones did his homework. In Saint Laurent's debut, he famously abandoned Dior's cinched waists and lengthy fabrics in favor of more fluid shapes in which the body disappeared, effectively inventing the trapeze silhouette. Some Jones' styles, like an updated marine sailor top, were lifted directly from the 1958 archive. But this sublime show was much more than mere homage. Three-dimensional printed shoes followed contemporary sheer organza vests with tiered banding, and looked aggressive yet feminine. Off the shoulder tailoring on one embellished pearl coat simultaneously evoked a slouchy rebel and an opening flower. Dior's stars, thespians The unique fusion of celebrity, artistry, hysteria, beauty and wafting perfume at Dior's show simply overwhelmed the senses. It began with remarkable filmed performances of actors Gwendoline Christie and Robert Pattinson reciting poetry excerpts, interspaced with images of the Dior collection. ''I am truly so happy to be here at the Dior show,'' Christie told AP. ''It's no surprise that Kim Jones is one of our greatest living current designers that we have. I'm also very lucky in that he's a very old friend of mine.'' But even the cool Christie, star of both the Dior show and ''Game of Thrones,'' seemed overwhelmed when journalists ditched her in a split second upon the arrival of BTS's Jimin, who was recently announced as a Dior brand ambassador. Paul Smith changes centuries Smith delved into the history books for a thoughtful display that seemed to merge London from the 1970s with the city in the 1870s. A quilted coat with checked cape demonstrated this perfectly. It flared out at the back looking as if it were fashioned on Baker Street and could have been worn by Sherlock Holmes if it came with a pipe. Elsewhere, a high white collar had a prim 19th century feel, while a dark velvety coat with a big collar sported a beautiful textured thickness. Such old-fashion musing gave fall-winter a more austere style than usual, but it was a welcome change. The 1970s, a Smith touchstone, also were on abundant display. The designs included blown up checked coats, vibrant blue printed pants and loose colored suits with broad, rounded shoulders. The best looks were ones that fused the two eras, such as a loose cerulean trench coat with voluminous layers, twinned with a striped blue silk foulard. Botter is superlative Flashes of bright color and kinky quirk infused the fabulous co-ed fall fare of Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh. If there was an overarching theme in Botter's ever-creative and eccentric show, it was surely the haphazard. A blue bikini was sewn humorously atop a shimmering satin shirt-dress. A suit jacket's outer layer peeled off to reveal a snakeskin-like under-layer. A mermaid look featured a salmon printed on a tight vest descending to a rippled metallic satin skirt ''tail.'' A neon-pink knit sweater placed on the front of another sweater was probably a tongue-in-cheek swipe at how cold the Paris weather has been of late. (AP) Fans of K-pop supergroup BTS member Jimin wait outside the Dior menswear Fall/Winter 2023-24 Collection presented in Paris, Jan. 20. AP-Yonhap Des soldats des forces speciales camerounaises dans les rues de Bamenda le 17 novembre 2017 AFP/Archives/STRINGER Hope for end to crisis that has displaced 800,000, killed thousands TRENTON, Canada (AA) - Canada will play a major role in facilitating peace talks in Cameroon where years of turmoil have displaced 800,000 people and killed thousands, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Friday. An agreement was reached with groups involved in the fighting to enter a process that could finally bring peace and end bloodshed in the west central African country, Joly said in a statement.cThe agreement to enter a formal process is a critical first step toward peace and a safer, more inclusive and prosperous future for civilians affected by the conflict," said Joly. Civilians are bearing the brunt of the ongoing crisis in Cameroon, with more than 6,000 people having lost their lives since 2017." Joly said nearly 800,000 people have been displaced as a result of this crisis, and 600,000 children do not have full access to education. The UN said the conflict has pitted state forces against armed groups with civilians paying the price. Parties involved in the peace process are the Republic of Cameroon, the Ambazonia Governing Council and the Ambazonia Defense Force, the African Peoples Liberation Movement and the Southern Cameroons Defense Force, the Interim Government and the Ambazonia Coalition Team. Canada has accepted the mandate to facilitate this process, as part of our commitment to promote peace and security and advance support for democracy and human rights," said Joly. "Our role also reflects Canadas engagement to work with our African partners to build a better future for everyone." Barry Ellsworth/AA 'These actions recognize the transcontinental threat that Wagner poses,' says White House WASHINGTON (AA) - The US is moving to label the Wagner Group, Russia's private military corporation, an international "criminal organization" and has vowed to add further sanctions to the Kremlin-linked firm. In addition to the Treasury Department's decision to label Wagner as a "significant transnational criminal organization," the Biden administration will impose economic penalties on the organization and its "support network" next week, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday. "These actions recognize the transcontinental threat that Wagner poses, including through its ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity," said Kirby. "Our message to any company that is considering providing support to Wagner is simply this: Wagner is a criminal organization that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses," he added. Wagner has some 50,000 personnel deployed in Ukraine in order to bolster Russia's war effort there, according to US assessments. The firm has pivotal to Russia's recent gains in the Donbass, and has been involved in conflict worldwide, including in Libya, the Central African Republic and Mali. On Thursday, Evgeny Prigozhin, the group's leader, said his mercenaries "completely took control" of Kleshcheyevka, a key suburb of the city of Bakhmut through which Ukrainian troops had been supplied with weapons and military equipment. Prigozhin claimed "fierce battles" continued around Kleshcheyevka, with the Ukrainians "clinging onto every meter of ground." "Contrary to various opinions that the AFU (armed forces of Ukraine) is fleeing from Artyomovsk (Russian name for Bakhmut), this is not the case. The AFU works clearly, smoothly. We have a lot to learn from them. But in any case, the units of the Wagner PMC are moving forward meter by meter. The settlement of Artyomovsk will be taken," he said. Michael Hernandez/AA Latest data shows improvements for cervical cancer are linked to HPV vaccine and downturns in prostate cancer are driven by advanced-stage disease. Significant changes in cancer prevention and screening in the United States in recent years helped lead to both promising and worrisome 2023 cancer statistics reported by the American Cancer Society (ACS). In good news, data from women ages 20 to 24 who were first to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine showed a 65% reduction in cervical cancer incidence rates from 2012 through 2019 . In contrast, data after several years of shifts in screening guidelines about the use of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing showed a 3% increase in prostate cancer incidence rate each year from 2014 through 2019 , about 99,000 new cases. This is the first increase in about 20 years. Want to know what incidence rate or death rate means? Or whos included in AIAN and Hispanic groups? See Understanding Cancer Research Terms. In general, though, incidence rates improved less for women than for men during these years. Lung cancer decreased about half as fast in women as in men. Liver cancer and melanoma incidence rates both increased in women, while they declined in men younger than 50 and stabilized in older men. Women also saw increases in the incidence of breast cancer and endometrial (uterine corpus) cancer. These estimated numbers of new cancer cases and deaths expected in the US this year are from Cancer Statistics, 2023 in the American Cancer Societys journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians . The estimates are some of the most widely quoted cancer statistics in the world. The information is also available in a companion PDF report, Cancer Facts & Figures 2023 and is available on the interactive website, the Cancer Statistics Center . Cancer continues to be the second most common cause of death in the US, after heart disease. In the US in 2023, a total of 1.9 million new cancer cases (about 5,370 cases each day) and 609,820 deaths from cancer are expected to occur (about 1,670 deaths a day). Although the risk of dying from cancer in the US has continually decreased over the past 29 years, these increases in breast, prostate, and endometrial cancers may slow future progress. All of these cancers also happen to have wide disparities in death rates based on race. The top 3 new cancer cases for menprostate, lung, and colonaccount for almost half of all cancers diagnosed in men (48%). The top 3 new cancer cases for womenbreast, lung, or colonaccount for just over half of all cancers diagnosed in women (52%). See Cancer Statistics, 2023 for the full graphic. The top 3 new cancer cases for menprostate, lung, and colonaccount for almost half of all cancers diagnosed in men (48%). The top 3 new cancer cases for womenbreast, lung, or colonaccount for just over half of all cancers diagnosed in women (52%). See Cancer Statistics, 2023 for the full graphic. HPV vaccination has the potential to virtually eliminate cervical cancer. In 2006, females ages 9 to 26 started receiving the HPV vaccine for the first time. It protects against the strains of HPV that cause the majority of cervical cancers (HPV-16 and HPV-18). That means the first adolescents who were vaccinated are now in their 20s. Although incidence rates were already declining because of screening, the HPV vaccine accelerated this progress. Among women ages 20 to 24, cervical cancer incidence rates declined by a total of 33% from 2005-2012 and by 65% from 2012 through 2019. The large drop in cervical cancer incidence is extremely exciting because this is the first group of women to receive the HPV vaccine, and it probably foreshadows steep reductions in other HPV-associated cancers, said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director, surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, and the lead author of the report. Other US studies have shown "surprisingly large" herd immunity, the study authors said. Sexually active females age 14 to 24 who were vaccinated showed a 90% reduction in infections with HPV-16 or HPV-18, and even those who had not been vaccinated had a 74% reduction in infections. Herd immunity occurs when even people who have not been vaccinated are protected from disease because the prevalence of the infection has been reduced by those who are vaccinated. As the number of those who are immune increases, the spread of the disease from person to person is less likely, which helps protect everyone, even those who were not vaccinated, said Siegel. Although HPV vaccination can virtually eliminate cervical cancer, the authors state, there are large differences in the proportion of people who are vaccinated between states. In 2020, only 32% of boys and girls ages 13 to 17 in Mississippi were up to date with HPV vaccination and only 43% in West Virginia. States with high proportions of vaccinated teens include Massachusetts (73%), Hawaii (74%), and Rhode Island (83%). In the coming years, these differences will become apparent in incidence rates for cervical and other HPV-associated cancers. Differences in the initiatives to improve health, such as Medicaid expansion, may also contribute to future geographic disparities. After about 20 years of declining incidence, the first increase in prostate cancerespecially in late-stage diagnoseslikely results from changes to PSA screening guidelines. Screening men for prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels in a blood sample has its benefits. It helps find cancer when it is only in the prostate (localized), where it may require less intensive treatment thats more successful at completely removing the cancer. Its use also helped decrease the risk of dying from prostate cancer by 53% from 1993 through 2020. But PSA screening also has its risks. It can lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of prostate cancers that arent dangerous. Thats why in 2008 the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed their screening guidelines to recommend against routine screening with PSA testing for men age 75 and older, and 4 years later recommended against screening for all men. Fewer men getting screened led to rapid declines in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. That didnt mean the cancer didnt exist, it meant that without the use of PSA testing, cancers werent being found at an early stage when they are less complicated to treat and more likely to be cured. As a result, the proportion of prostate cancers diagnosed at a distant stage has more than doubled over the past 10 years. Late-stage prostate cancers are harder to treat and cure. In an effort to regain the benefits of screening for prostate cancer, the ACS Recommendations for Prostate Cancer Early Detection advise doctors to talk with their male patients who have average risk for developing prostate cancer at age 50 to help them make an informed decision about getting tested for PSA levels. There is also more targeted screening now through the use of molecular markers and imaging to try to reduce the detection of cancers that will never cause harm. These discussions are recommended at age 45 for men with African ancestry or a family history of the cancer or cancers caused by BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, and others who have a high risk for developing prostate cancer. The conversations are recommended to start at age 40 for men who have a father or more than one brother (known as first-degree relatives) who had prostate cancer, as well as others who have at an even higher risk. Cancer death rate continues to drop. From its peak in 1991, the cancer death rate for men and women combined fell 33% by 2020, the most recent year for which data were available. This reduction in deaths from cancer has averted an estimated 3.8 million deaths (2.6 million in men and 1.2 million in women). This success is largely because of fewer people smoking, which resulted in declines in lung and other smoking-related cancers. Other factors that contributed to the reduced death rate include: Prevention and/or early detection through screening for some cancers, including cancer in the breast, cervix, colon and rectum, and prostate Improved treatment, such as adjuvant chemotherapies for breast and colon cancer Advances in the development of targeted treatment and immunotherapy have accelerated progress in lung cancer death rateswell beyond reductions in incidence. These treatments have also decreased death rates from leukemia, melanoma, and kidney cancer. Cancer racial disparities continue. Racial disparities in cancer occurrence and outcomes are largely due to longstanding inequalities in wealth that affect a persons exposure to risk factors and their access to equitable cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment. Most inequities in wealth, education, and overall standard of living among people of color stem from historical and persistent structural racism, including segregationist and discriminatory policies in criminal justice, housing, education, employment, and healthcare. Overall cancer incidence is highest among White people, followed closely by American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) and Black people. Sex-specific incidence is highest in Black men. Incidence rates for Black men are 5% higher than White men, and 79% higher than Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) men, who have the lowest sex-specific incidence. Overall incidence is higher in Black men largely because of prostate cancer, which is 70% higher than in White men, 3x times higher than in AAPI men, and 2x higher than in AIAN and Hispanic men. AIAN and White women have the highest incidence rate of cancer10% higher than Black women. But AIAN women have a 16% higher chance of dying from cancer than White women and Black women have a 12% higher chance. Most striking is that Black women have a 4% lower incidence of breast cancer than White women but are 40% more likely to die from it. Similarly, Black women are twice as likely to die from endometrial cancer as White women despite similar incidence. These statistics dont include either basal cell or squamous cell skin cancers because US cancer registries are not required to collect information on these cancers. These numbers do not account for the effect the COVID-19 pandemic has likely had on cancer diagnoses, but do include available data about the first years effect on cancer deaths. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Korea's exports fell 2.7 percent year-on-year in the first 20 days of January, data showed Saturday, due mainly to a weak semiconductor performance. Outbound shipments stood at $33.6 billion over the period, compared with $34.5 billion in 2022, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Imports rose 9.3 percent to $43.8 billion from Jan. 1 to 20, resulting in a trade deficit of $10.2 billion. Exports of chips, a mainstay export product, slumped 34.1 percent while those of steel fell 11.2 percent. Shipments to China, Korea's largest trading partner, slipped 24.4 percent, marking the seventh consecutive monthly decline. (Yonhap) Benefits of USD technology: Working in a USD-based pipeline allows for all software to read and write data through the same system, meaning that artists from all departments can visualize and work on the same 3d scene throughout the production process. By removing previous technical constraints, the technology allows for a more iterative process without incurring extra costs. Scenes in the USD pipeline can also be read more quickly than previous methods, resulting in more detailed results, again without extra costs. Why did Superprod make the change? Superprod first recognized Pixars USD system as the pipeline technology best fit to meet its needs back in 2019. Since then, the company has invested significant resources in creating a team to develop Flow, Superprods proprietary pipeline that aligns with the companys current expansion strategy. The group has since deployed the pipeline at three Superprod studios: Paris, Angouleme, and Milan. What are they saying: Virginie Creance, deputy senior vp Animation at Superprod, said in a release: Animation is a highly competitive sector where the requirements of creativity and technology are constantly expanding. Our desire to keep up with developments in the industry has made investing in R&D essential to us. This strategy allows us to offer our partners the ability to create the most ambitious and highest-quality productions imaginable. The adoption of USD also gives us a chance to position ourselves at the forefront of new markets. Superprod technical director Christophe Archambault and head of Flow Pipeline Marc Dubrois added: Vfx and animation giant DNEG has released the open-source beta version of its Xstudio software through the Academy Software Foundations Github repository. Heres what the software can do and why it may be significant to many studios: National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby speaks during a daily press briefing at the White House in Washington in this Jan. 20 screen capture. Yonhap North Korea continues to provide ammunition to Russia in support of Moscow's unprovoked war against Ukraine, a White House official said Friday, calling it a clear violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on Pyongyang. John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, said the U.S. has shared its intelligence on the delivery of North Korean ammunition to Russia with the UNSC Panel of Experts on North Korea sanctions. The NSC official earlier said the North has delivered ammunition to the private Russian military company the Wagner Group for use in Ukraine. "We obviously condemn North Korea's actions and we urge North Korea to cease these deliveries to Wagner immediately," Kirby said at the top of a daily press briefing at the White House. "As we have stated previously, the arms transfers from the DPRK are in direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. So today, (we are) sharing information on these violations with the Security Council's DPRK Sanctions Committee panel of experts," he added. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name. In a rare move, the NSC also released satellite imagery of Russian railcars traveling between Russia and North Korea, Nov. 18 and Nov. 19, for what Kirby called the initial delivery of North Korean weapons to the Russian company, which has been designated by the U.S. "Now while we assess that the amount of material delivered to Wagner has not changed battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, we do expect that it will continue to receive North Korean weapons systems," said Kirby. The NSC official said the U.S. currently has no plan to pursue additional sanctions against North Korea when asked, but noted it was still an option. "We are certainly not going to rule out the possibility for additional sanctions, if that seems fit, inside the U.N.," Kirby told the press briefing. North Korea also continues to evade sanctions, Kirby noted, with the help of Russia and China. "Not every country that should observes the sanctions regime. So they are still able to trade with countries like Russia and with China. And, obviously, that's a whole different set of problems, but they are able to skirt sanctions to continue to funnel money into their economy," said Kirby. "But let's keep it in perspective. This is not a burgeoning economy. This is not a country that is wealthy by any stretch or is necessarily viable and flexible in the global economy," he added. (Yonhap) New information has become available through an active investigation regarding an incident involving a Cleveland Middle School student who took a firearm on school property on Thursday. The Cleveland Police Department has continued to work very closely with Cleveland City Schools regarding the incident that occurred at Cleveland Middle School on Thursday. During the course of the investigation, a second firearm, which had been reported stolen, was recovered from the residence of another Cleveland Middle School student. At this time, authorities do not believe that the firearm was brought to the Cleveland Middle School campus. This student has been charged with possession of stolen property and unlawful possession of a weapon. In response to the information received, investigators have also charged the Cleveland Middle School student who was arrested on Thursday, with additional charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault. Additional charges could be pending as a result of this continued investigation. Information will be released as it becomes available. Officials said, "The safety of our children and school staff is paramount to the Cleveland Police Department. Therefore, investigations such as these will always be of utmost importance to our investigators." The city of Soddy Daisy exists today because two communities joined together in 1969 for a single purpose, said Hardie Stulce who grew up in the area and has long been involved in the government with a special interest in the fire department. The sole purpose that the former communities of Soddy and Daisy merged, he said was because insurance companies had stopped writing homeowners policies because there was no available fire protection. At that time, a civic organization sponsored a referendum to incorporate these areas. By 1971, he said a fire station had been built and two used fire trucks had been bought. A rescue squad provided manpower. By 1973 a federal grant was obtained to install fire hydrants around the city. He said that by 1976 Soddy Daisy had three fire stations and more trucks. The current commission recently voted to buy two more pumper trucks. The fire department started with volunteer firefighters but that has changed when it became increasingly difficult to find volunteers during daylight hours. The city then hired full time staff in addition to the volunteers. After that, it became apparent that there was a need for firefighters to be available full time on weekends and three shifts every day for 24 hours. It is well known that the best practices to provide the best fire service is to have five men on a truck to fight a fire, he said. Ten years ago, that is what the city had. But now, the number of firefighters per shift has been diluted down to three, because of spreading out the total number. This is partially because there are fewer volunteers that the city used to be able to depend on. He told the commissioners that his opinion is that Soddy Daisy needs to hire six more full time firefighters in order to have five available on each shift for the proper 24-hour protection, seven days a week. With budget time coming up, he said that now is the time to consider increasing full or part time personnel for the fire department. The fire department is getting another form of help thanks to the Soddy Daisy and Red Bank Charitable Foundation, which gave the city $23,000 this year for the purpose of buying audio visual equipment. This is state-of-the-art, computerized simulator training equipment for the firefighters. The city will contribute $2,255 from the general fund to pay the balance of the cost. The Soddy Daisy Police Department will also be getting new equipment. New Motorola radios will be bought for the police vehicles at the cost of $23,719, which is under the amount that was budgeted. City Manager Burt Johnson was given permission to salvage an unused 2012 Ford Escape and to accept the only bid received for resurfacing Dayton Pike. Talley Construction will do the work for $4,028,000 paid from a federal highway grant. The city will be responsible for $700,000 of the total and $528,000 of the citys share will come from American Rescue Plan funds. City Attorney Sam Elliott told the commissioners about the settlement made with a company that had been used to provide cameras and recording equipment. He said that there had been a long-term contentious relationship. In the effort to arbitrate the matter, the city chose not to make the last payment of $40,000 because the system was not working. Mr. Elliott said he had negotiated for the city to get the hard drive and to pay $20,000, half of the amount due, rather than spend more to try the case. A mutual release was signed. In regular city business, pubic hearings and the first reading took place regarding three properties. Rezoning a tract of land at 11908 Dayton Pike from R-1 Single Family Residential to C-2 Local Business was approved on the first reading. The owner plans to construct a commercial building for his business. Property at 8210 Dayton Pike was rezoned from R-2A Rural Residential and A-1 Agricultural to C-2 Local Business District. The owner requested the change before he sells the land. And a tract adjacent to that, at 8212 Dayton Pike was also changed from A-1 Agricultural to C-2 Local Business to make it easier to sell, that owner told the commissioners. Each of the zoning changes had been approved by the citys planning commission. The city is also amending provisions in the zoning ordinance relating to the height of buildings for both multi-family structures and hotels that would apply only to the zones where those uses are presently allowed. The maximum height of these buildings now is two and a half stories, or 35 feet. The new height that was approved can be up to 75 feet at the peak of the roof. Some apartment complexes or hotels might want to build more stories, said City Manager Johnson. At this time there is nothing specific for the height increase, but the city is planning for the future when a hotel may want to build there. The commissioners were assured that the citys fire apparatus could reach that height. Jimmy Stewart representing Keep Soddy Daisy Beautiful informed the commissioners about the second Arbor Day the organization will be participating in on March 4. The city is providing some financial support and the hard work of digging the holes for planting 35 trees on the south side of the lake. He said that $1,000 is still needed as well as volunteers to get the trees in the ground. Individuals can dedicate a tree to honor someone, he said and anyone can join the group that day to help or just to watch. Volunteers should arrive at 9:30 a.m. Representatives from the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy came to the meeting to ask for the city to write a letter of support for protecting a section of the river. They also asked the city to join their efforts to stop fill permits and burn permits in the watershed area. They said it would be effective if the city would add requirements to the zoning ordinances. In his report, Mayor Steve Everett said employees are harder to get and retain now than they were in the past. He said the city now has more varied competition and is recommending for the commissioners to look at the employee pay scale to see if it is in line with other municipalities and businesses. The budget will be hard to set without knowing pay rates, he said. Pay plans and personnel needs will be discussed at the next commission meeting on Feb. 2. He said he does not want Soddy Daisy to be sub-par with citizens needs and that we want to set the standard in Hamilton County. The Tennessee State Veterinarian is reporting a detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial broiler chicken flock at a farm in Weakley County. Following a sudden spike in bird deaths, lab tests confirmed the presence of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza. HPAI is a highly transmissible disease known to be deadly for domesticated fowl. Fowl can be exposed to HPAI through human interactions and through contact with wild birds. Since September of 2022, HPAI cases in Tennessee have sickened domesticated chickens, geese, ducks, and turkeys in Bledsoe, Davidson, Obion, Tipton, and Weakley Counties. HPAI has also been found in wild birds, including ducks, geese, vultures, and eagles in Tennessee. Unfortunately, HPAI continues to spread to farms of all sizes, Tennessee State Veterinarian Dr. Samantha Beaty said. There have been four previous detections in Weakley County affecting backyard flocks. Its apparent this disease remains a threat to the poultry industry. We want bird owners to know that their consistent practice of thorough biosecurity measures is the best way to protect the health of their flocks. Introduction of this disease can be from wild birds gathering on your property or you can carry it into your flock if you are not wearing clean shoes and clothing. Animal health officials have established a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) control zone surrounding the affected facility. Within the zone, poultry will be tested and monitored for illness and poultry movement requires permitting until the zone is released. Animal Health staff are contacting poultry owners within the control zone to answer questions and provide information. If you have concerns about your location, please email Animal.Health@tn.gov or call 615-837-5120 and staff will help determine if your flock is within the zone. Although HPAI does not pose a food safety risk, no infected poultry will be allowed to enter the food supply. Poultry and eggs are safe to eat when handled and cooked properly. The risk of human infection with avian influenza during poultry outbreaks is very low. In fact, no transmission to humans was reported during the outbreak that affected commercial poultry farms in Tennessee in 2017. Tennesseans who own backyard flocks or pet birds are encouraged to sign up for TDAs email service, The Word on Birds. The service provides email alerts about health threats affecting domesticated birds in the state. Enroll at stateoftennessee.formstack. com/forms/2023_domesticated_ bird_health_notifications . Guidance for Bird Owners Wash your hands thoroughly before and after interacting with domesticated birds. Dedicate a pair of shoes to only be worn in coops or poultry houses and clean those shoes after each visit. Regularly disinfect any equipment used in coops or poultry houses and vehicles used for transporting birds. Deter wild birds from interacting with domesticated birds. Consider hanging pie pans or other noisemakers in trees or, if local rules allow, set off firecrackers intermittently or when you see vultures or geese on your property. Look for signs of illness and report a sudden increase in the number of sick birds or bird deaths to the Tennessee State Veterinarians office at 615- 837-5120 and/or USDA at 1-866-536-7593. Find more biosecurity tips and HPAI resources online at www.tn.gov/agriculture/ businesses/animals/animal- health/avian-influenza.html . In Tennessee, more than 600 family farms contribute to the commercial poultry industry. The state is a global leader for primary breeders, and an estimated 45 percent of the chicken consumed worldwide traces to genetics from Tennessee operations. Broiler chickens are among the state's top agricultural commodities, generating $376.2 million in cash receipts in 2021. Relief is coming for families of the incarcerated, but will Oklahomans feel it? Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 25 churchgoers abducted from worship service in Nigeria; pastor shot ABUJA, Nigeria Terrorists attacked a church service in northwestern Nigeria on Sunday, shot and wounded the pastor and kidnapped 25 congregation members, sources said. The assailants stormed into the morning worship service of New Life for All Church in Katsina states Dantsauri village, Gidan Haruna District, Kankara County, said Gambo Isah of the Katsina State Police Command. A distress call was received that terrorists in their numbers, shooting sporadically, invaded Dantsauri village in Kankara, Isah said in a statement. The terrorists shot one Pastor Haruna on his hand and kidnapped five women who were in a Sunday service in their church. While Isah mentioned five females (including two minors) kidnapped, area residents and the Senior Special Assistant on Christian Affairs to Gov. Aminu Bello Masari, the Rev. Ishaya Jurau, told media that 25 church members were kidnapped, and that nine of them soon escaped. Police spokesman Isah identified the five kidnapped females as Rabi Isiaku, 15; Nooseba Shuaibu, 13; Rabi Saidu, 36; Rabi Baba, 49; and Saratu Hadi, 27. He said the pastor received treatment at General Hospital, Kankara. Area resident Francis Sardauna said in a text message to Morning Star News that the assailants arrived on motorcycles. Terrorists attacked a local Christian assembly shot the pastor of the church and abducted 25 worshippers, Sardauna said. Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022, with 5,014, according to Open Doors 2023 World Watch List (WWL) report. It also led the world in Christians abducted (4,726), sexually assaulted or harassed, forcibly married or physically or mentally abused. Nigeria also had the most homes and businesses attacked for faith-based reasons. As in the previous year, Nigeria had the second most church attacks and internally displaced people. In the 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to sixth place, its highest ranking ever, from No. 7 the previous year. Militants from the Fulani, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and others conduct raids on Christian communities, killing, maiming, raping and kidnapping for ransom or sexual slavery, the WWL report noted. This year has also seen this violence spill over into the Christian-majority south of the nation Nigerias government continues to deny this is religious persecution, so violations of Christians rights are carried out with impunity. Christian wireless provider responds to Texas police department rejecting donation after backlash A Texas police department is saying thanks but no thanks to a donated pizza party from a Christian conservative wireless provider after receiving backlash on social media. Patriot Mobile, which stirred up controversy last year for donating In God We Trust signs to a Dallas-area school district, says on Jan. 12, the group donated a $1,500 gift certificate for a pizza party to the police department in Grapevine, a suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The gift, according to Patriot Mobile, was a thank you for their service to the Grapevine community, similar to donated meals from other local businesses. Initially, the Grapevine Police Department offered its thanks for Patriot Mobiles support and encouragement and said the department was grateful for the donation. Sincere thanks to our friends at Patriot Mobile. We are blessed to have their support and encouragement. Today they presented us with a certificate to host a pizza party for our staff. We are grateful for the opportunity to have a fun and relaxing meal together as a team. pic.twitter.com/vY12SZJNND Grapevine Police (@GrapevinePolice) January 12, 2023 The department tweeted: Sincere thanks to our friends at Patriot Mobile. We are blessed to have their support and encouragement. Today they presented us with a certificate to host a pizza party for our staff. We are grateful for the opportunity to have a fun and relaxing meal together as a team. But after a number of comments were posted on social media criticizing GPD for accepting the gift, the department announced it would instead donate the food to a true need. We want something positive to come from this experience and that means giving to a worthy cause, the Jan. 14 statement read. While not offering any specific explanation, the statement cited deep emotion in response to Patriot Mobiles donation and said GPD will re-evaluate how we receive donations in the future. The relationships we have, and desire, with our community members are foundational to growing trust and legitimacy, the statement added. Please know that our actions were not intended to create distrust, and we vow to do better moving forward. Its not clear whether someone in the GPD chain of command or a city of Grapevine official made the decision to reject the donation. The GPD did not respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post as of midday Friday. In response to the move, Patriot Mobile CEO Glenn Story said the police department took a knee and bowed to extreme left activists. The response from the far left is not surprising to us, nor is it anything new, Story said. We are humbled to serve as a Christian conservative company. Our mission is to defend our God-given constitutional rights. The $1,500 gift certificate, according to Patriot Mobile, was originally purchased for $2,575 at an auction benefiting fallen soldiers and was donated to honor our police officers. Patriot Mobile is asking for the GPD to give the donation to another police department in North Texas if Grapevine continues to reject the donation. The wireless provider also slammed the woke PR statement from GPD, adding that is is not shared by all officers in the Grapevine Police Department. Founded in 2013, Patriot Mobiles corporate headquarters is located in Grapevine and has supported efforts to elect more conservatives to school board seats in Texas. The company made headlines last August after donating several signs reading In God We Trust to the Carroll Independent School District, located in Southlake about 15 miles west of Dallas. Patriot Mobile donated the signs in response to a new Texas law requiring all public schools statewide to display the national motto. Tributes recall model example pastor, wife who died trying to save son from beach drowning SAO PAULO, Brazil Tributes are flowing in for a Brazilian evangelist and his wife who died trying to save their young teen son from drowning at the beach. After the death of Pastor Felisberto Sampaio, 43, and his wife, Inalda Sampaio, 42, the Convention of Ministers of the Evangelical Church Assembly of God in Campina Grande/Paraiba State (COMEAD-CGPB) published a statement expressing its condolences. "The couple had served the Lord for about 17 years and were loved by the entire church. We express our sincere condolences and ask for the prayers of the church for the entire bereaved family, so that the Holy Spirit may comfort their hearts at this time," the Assembly of God convention shared on Instagram. The pastor and his wife were trying to save their 13-year-old son, Ian Sampaio, who was struggling in the water of Camacari beach, in Lucena, in the Metropolitan Region of Joao Pessoa, in the state of Paraiba, on Jan. 10. The parents died before reaching their son, but their child Ian was rescued by a fisherman and another family member, according to Brazilian news outlet Universo Online. READ: Church mourns pastor, wife who died trying to save son from drowning at the beach According to COMEAD-CGPB, the evangelist was a leader in the Quixaba congregation for 12 years and was at the time the coordinator and professor of the EBD (Sunday Biblical School), treasurer, and secretary of the Assembly of God Church in Quixaba. His wife, Inalda Ribeiro Sampaio, was the second coordinator of the field and women's group leader. The General Convention of the Assemblies of God in Brazil (CGADB) also published a message of condolence: "In this moment of pain and separation, the Board of Directors of CGADB sympathizes with family and friends, asking the Holy Spirit of God to console, comfort and strengthen them. 'Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Psalms 116.15'". In social media posts, church members and friends expressed sadness and offered sympathy for the family. On Instagram, user isaias885345, who describes the evangelist as a big friend, expressed, "May the God of consolation console all family and friends[.] [S]peechless friend". And user m.a.t.e.u.s.23 writes: "I cannot describe the size of the shock that I had[.] [M]y feelings to the friend[']s brothers from all over the field of Catole de Boa Vist[.] Sister lnalda and brother Beto left their legacy as Christians, a model example of Christian[.] I have no words to express such grief and anguish that I feel at this moment, the entire church of Quixaba is in mourning." On the COMEAD-CGPB Instagram page, user jocelitodantas commented that the evangelist and his wife are examples of men and women of God. "An example of a man of God, a devoted father, and an exemplary husband[.] [S]ister Inalda, a holy woman of God[.] [M]ay the Lord Jesus Christ console all her family and friends. [I] had the honor of shepherding this family for 3 years[.] [R]est in peace, Ev. Beto and sister Inalda. The president of the Assembly of God MadureiraCampo Feira de Santana, Pastor Enivaldo Moreira, wrote, "May the good God console all family, church and friends." Some commenters brought up the beach policy banning swimming on busy beaches that may have contributed to the couple's tragic deaths, with user dariovianaa saying, "I'm sorry for my sincerity, but it's not the fault of the parents or the teenager[.] [I]t's the system that prohibits bathing on very busy beaches[.] [T]hen the system says look for deserted places[.] [T]he result is no lifeguards, no people around to help. [R]evolting. God help this teenager." Others commented to honor the parents' attitude in trying to save their son. Instagram user josefaernestorego wrote, "A great proof of love. [T]hey are in glory with their father." The devoted parents are survived by their two sons, Ian and his older brother Issac. President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee leave the presidential plane after it landed in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Jan. 21. Yonhap President Yoon Suk Yeol returned home Saturday from a weeklong visit to the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland. Yoon, who was accompanied on the trip by first lady Kim Keon Hee, arrived at Seoul Air Base following a four-day state visit to the UAE and a four-day visit to the European country. In Abu Dhabi, the president secured a $30 billion investment pledge and visited a nuclear power plant built by South Korean companies. In Switzerland, he attended the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos and branded himself as "the No. 1 salesman of the Republic of Korea" while also delivering a special address on the importance of strengthening supply chain resilience. The Republic of Korea is South Korea's official name. The president's return coincided with the start of the Lunar New Year holiday that will last through Tuesday. (Yonhap) Why these pro-lifers continue to march even after Roe's reversal WASHINGTON A girl who was almost aborted, a man carrying a 65-pound cross and a woman marching in honor of her mother's legacy were among the thousands gathered in the nation's capital for the annual March for Life Friday, insisting that advocacy on behalf of the unborn remains vital as the pro-life movement enters a new era. Demonstrators from across the nation gathered two days before the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. But what is different this year compared to the previous four decades of marches is that Friday marked the first March for Life since the nation's high court overturned Roe last June and ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion. The landmark decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization is one that opponents of abortion have prayed for, and some, perhaps, never thought would happen in their lifetime. Attendees spoke with The Christian Post, sharing their thoughts about the future of the pro-life movement and why they felt so passionate about marching even though the movement achieved its long-desired goal of overturning Roe. The following pages highlight five reasons participants gave for attending this year's March for Life. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next Atheist group demands sheriff stop promoting jail baptisms after nearly 40 inmates baptized One of the nation's leading atheist organizations has demanded that a sheriff in Indiana quit promoting Christianity on social media and baptizing inmates at a detention center. Decatur County Sheriff David Durant's office has overseen multiple overtly Christian events and ministries at the detention center and celebrated these gatherings on his Facebook page. In response, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent multiple letters of complaint to Durant regarding his office's promotion of Christianity and evangelism efforts. The Christian Post reached out to the sheriff's office and learned that Durant lost an election last November and was replaced by Sheriff Bill Meyerrose, who took office at the first of the year. Meyerrose told CP that he had not seen the FFRF complaint letters and doesn't yet have a specific response to them, though he was familiar with baptisms having been held at the detention center before he took office. On Dec. 29, the official Decatur County Sheriff Facebook page posted photos from an event at the Decatur County Detention Center celebrating the baptisms of several inmates. "What a great way to celebrate Christmas and a New Year! DCDC Chaplain Dave Burnett along with REC members baptized nearly 40 men and women after a personal, public profession of Jesus Christ in their lives," read the post. "Over the past four years, nearly 300 men and women have given their life to Jesus Christ while incarcerated at the Decatur County Detention Center. All glory to GOD!" Last week, FFRF Staff Attorney Christopher Line wrote to Durant to protest the promotion of Christianity and baptism events, arguing that "the Sheriff's Office has continued to push Christianity onto inmates." "The DCDC is actively coercing inmates to participate in its religious programming, which is rampant throughout the Department. Any inmate aware of the DCDC's official support for, and celebration of inmates participating in, religious programs will not feel free to decline to participate," Line wrote in the January letter. "This is constitutionally impermissible. The government cannot legally itself host sectarian religious events in its facility, or promote them in its official capacity. Nor can it use a County corrections center, with a literal captive audience, to proselytize and convert inmates to Christianity." Line previously wrote a complaint letter outlining multiple instances of the sheriff's office hosting Christian events, celebrating baptisms and posting Bible verses to its Facebook page. "Multiple concerned Decatur County residents have reported that the Decatur County Sheriff's Department has been promoting religion and explicitly affiliating itself with Christianity," wrote Line. "We write to ensure that the Decatur County Sheriff's Department ceases its promotion of, and official affiliation with, Christianity on its official social media pages and through its religious events, programs, and activities in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment." Line contends that while "the DCDC may permissibly accommodate the free exercise rights of its inmates by providing opportunities for religious worship, Decatur County and its employees may not organize, promote, or participate in these religious events and programs." "Government employees can worship, pray, or quote any religious text they wish when acting in their personal capacities. But they are not permitted to use the machinery of a government office to advance their personal religion," continued Line. "To avoid further Establishment Clause concerns and to protect the rights of its inmates and the general public, the Decatur County Sheriff's Department must refrain from promoting religion on social media and cease its coordination of religious programs and events." Church of England apologizes for treatment of LGBT people; Archbishop Welby won't bless gay couples Bishops of the Church of England have apologized to the LGBT community for their "rejection and exclusion" within the denomination, saying they are now "welcome and valued" within the church. The move comes two days after the denomination announced its support for a proposal allowing same-sex couples to receive "God's blessings." The denomination's senior bishop, Justin Welby, said he doesn't plan to offer blessings to same-sex couples at this time. The denomination issued the apology Friday ahead of its General Synod's meeting next month in a report titled "Living in Love and Faith: A response from the Bishops of the Church of England about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage." "We want to apologize for the ways in which the Church of England has treated LGBTQI+ people both those who worship in our churches and those who do not," the bishops said in a statement accompanying the report, which follows six years of debate over the denomination's position on sexuality. "For the times we have rejected or excluded you, and those you love, we are deeply sorry. The occasions on which you have received a hostile and homophobic response in our churches are shameful, and for this we repent." "As we have listened, we have been told time and time again how we have failed LGBTQI+ people," the statement continues. "We have not loved you as God loves you, and that is profoundly wrong. We affirm, publicly and unequivocally, that LGBTQI+ people are welcome and valued: we are all children of God." The Church of England has also drafted prayers and readings to "offer clergy a variety of flexible ways to affirm and celebrate same-sex couples in church, and will include prayers of dedication, thanksgiving and for God's blessing." The proposed prayers, bishops said, will be "entirely discretionary," as the denomination's formal teaching in the canons and authorized liturgies remain unchanged that Holy Matrimony is between one man and one woman for life. "While there is a range of convictions held by the bishops about this important matter, we have not found sufficient consensus to propose a change in doctrine at the present time," the bishops stated. The Archbishop of Canterbury Welby, the denomination's principal leader, said he would refrain from using the prayers himself. "Because of my pastoral care and responsibility in being a focus of unity for the whole Communion, I will while being extremely, joyfully celebratory of these new resources I will not personally use them in order not to compromise that pastoral care," Welby said at a press conference Friday. Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said he will offer blessings to same-sex couples but understands Welby's position. "This is the fullest pastoral provision we can offer at the moment without changing legislation and that would take years anyway," Cottrell said. "Years and years. We can offer this soon, and I thank God for it. I hope it will be well received in our church and in our world." On Wednesday, Welby said he is "under no illusions that what we are proposing today will appear to go too far for some and not nearly far enough for others." "[B]ut it is my hope that what we have agreed will be received in a spirit of generosity, seeking the common good." Sarah Mullally, the bishop of London and chair of the group of bishops tasked with forming the proposal, acknowledged that the process "has been costly and painful for many on all sides." "We have been moved by what we have heard and seen," she said. "And what has come through very clearly, even though there continues to be disagreement among the bishops and among the wider church on these questions, is a strong desire to continue to share our life together in Christ with all our differences." Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the British House of Commons, urged the Church of England to change its doctrinal teaching on same-sex marriage last week. Andrea Williams, chief executive of the conservative advocacy group Christian Concern and former lay member of the General Synod, said in a statement the apology could prove to be a "turning point" and signal the decline of the denomination. "Christianity teaches that sexual expression is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman. Any other form of sexual relationships are sexually immoral," Williams said. Church restoring hundreds of enslaved people's graves found on its property: 'Work of justice' Dozens of community members, assisted by Catholic University of America students, worked on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to identify the final resting places for hundreds of enslaved African Americans behind a chapel in Maryland. Community members used rakes and chainsaws to remove overgrowth, searching the brush behind the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bowie, a Washington suburb, for potential grave markers. Once the graves are identified, the church plans to work with the slaves' descendants to determine the best way to honor the individuals buried at the site. In a Wednesday statement to The Christian Post, Father Michael Russo, the church's parochial vicar, wrote that around 100 people, including Catholic University students, came to help with the effort on Monday. Many students were also Sacred Heart parishioners, and some were descendants of people buried on the property, according to the vicar. Other volunteers came from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., to work on the project. "Six roll-off dumpsters were filled with brush and trash, and many, many possible gravesites were marked for evaluation by [anthropology professor] Dr. Laura Masur from Catholic University and her graduate students," Russo stated. "The parish community has rallied around this effort since we asked them to help in this important work of justice," he continued. "Parishioners came out in force to help by offering hospitality to our guests, by providing tools and other supplies, and by praying for those buried here." "Much work remains, and the parish, the archdiocese, Catholic University and the community of descendants of those buried here will work together in figuring out the next steps." As WTOP reported Monday, the enslaved African Americans lived and worked on the church's land. The professor told the outlet that while most are used to seeing graves marked with traditional headstones, the burial sites for enslaved people were usually marked with rocks or other objects. She also noted that the area where the slaves are buried is not an uncommon resting place for enslaved individuals. "Hillsides, sloped areas, places in the woods, places where, honestly, white people didn't want to bury their dead," Masur said. During the search, community members were careful when coming across objects suspected of being potential grave markers. Masur believes that more than 500 graves could be uncovered around the church, as the use of ground-penetrating radar has already discovered more than 150. "We're doing, I think, a good work, a good work of mercy and a good work of justice," Russo said. Toni Moore-Duggan, a member of St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Baltimore, was one of the first volunteers to find an unmarked stone, possibly a grave. "These are lives, and we are related, and these people came over here against their will. And I want their lives to have meaning, to know that all this that we are doing today is because of them, and it matters. They matter, and their work was not in vain," Moore-Duggan said. In a statement last week to WTOP, Masur said she expects mapping out the cemetery, stretching out to a collapsing hillside, to continue throughout much of 2023. The church has considered building a memorial to honor the slaves buried on its property and those sold in a massive slave trade to bolster Georgetown University in 1828, according to WTOP. "One of the things that really came out of that discussion was a desire to have family stories told," Masur said. "It's trying to bring out those stories. We're never going to be able to identify specific individuals in every grave. But what we can do is to identify that they're somewhere and tell their stories." According to Russo, the church knew there were people buried in the woods, finding hundreds of what appeared to be potential grave sites in multiple directions. The church had confirmed close to 180 grave sites on its property earlier this month and decided to continue the search on Monday. As The Christian Post reported, archaeologists began excavating suspected graves at the Historic First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, Virginia in July. The church is believed to have been the site of secret meetings held by slaves and ex-slaves in the 1770s at Green Spring Plantation, near Williamsburg. The congregation became an official church in 1781, led by Gowan Pamphlet, an enslaved man and the first African American to be ordained as a Baptist preacher. Archaeologists discovered in October 2021 what is believed to be the first permanent structure for the congregation, which had been built in 1818. Last March, the church's congregation approved a proposal to excavate a few potential grave shafts discovered at the site. The excavation began in July after congregation members and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation conducted an "ancestral blessing" ceremony. Jack Gary, director of archaeology at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, told CP at the time that he considered the event "a moving ceremony in honor of those whose names are known only to God." "After discussing next steps and answering questions about our work, we began the excavation process of the first of three burial sites after the ceremony. We expect the work on these three burial sites to be completed in about two months," he said. High school counselor invites witches who gave students crystals, loses job A Catholic high school counselor in Pennslyvania lost her job after inviting three "witches" to speak to students, who gave them crystals that Wiccans believe have alleged special powers. A career and college counselor at North Catholic High School was placed on leave and later resigned following an investigation by the schools administration, Pittsburgh news outlet KDKA-TV reports, while not revealing the counselors identity. According to Michelle Peduto, the director of Catholic education for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, the students themselves expressed concerns about the planned visit by the witches before Christmas break and brought it to the attention of the schools administrators. We followed our process and protocol and as of today, actually, a few days, she's not with the school anymore, Peduto was quoted as saying. Peduto said the school puts its faith in Jesus Christ, not in objects such as crystals. "Rosary beads? Yes, but crystals, no," Peduto told KDKA-TV Investigator Andy Sheehan. The three individuals who identify as witches were invited to speak to juniors and seniors about marketing. The women own a store called Elemental Magick, which sells crystals, skulls and scented candles that they claim possess special powers. They, however, emphasized they do not use or conjure any dark forces. No, absolutely, we dont believe in that. We worship as Wiccans. We worship nature. So our elements earth, air, water and fire thats what we worship, Tabitha Latshaw, one of the three women, told Sheehan. The women also stated that the students were told it was for increased concentration and would be helpful for studying, and they were allowed to choose their own crystals, like fluorite. Latshaw said she was not raised Catholic and didnt know that giving students crystals would be considered an offense. In a post on Facebook, Latshaw clarified that Wiccans don't worship Satan, who is part of a Christian belief system. The counselor told KDKA-TV that she didn't intend to impart the women's beliefs to students. She maintains that while she was placed on administrative leave and then given the option to resign, there basically wasn't any alternative for her but to resign. "I should have had more conversation with them specifically about the crystal situation, but again it didn't ping for me something that would be such a big issue," she said. According to Helen A. Berger of Brandeis University near Boston, Wicca is part of the larger contemporary pagan movement whose adherents call themselves witches regardless of gender. The movement began in the United Kingdom in the 1940s. The population of individuals identifying as witches has grown in the United States in recent decades as interest in astrology and witchcraft practices have become more popular. In 2018, Quartz noted that while data was sparse, the practice of witchcraft had grown concurrently with the rise of the witch aesthetic. Trinity College in Connecticut conducted three extensive and detailed religion surveys between 1990 and 2008, finding that Wicca experienced significant growth. In 1990, there were an estimated 8,000 Wiccans; by 2008, that number had grown to around 340,000 practitioners. Additionally, the surveys estimated that there were approximately 340,000 Pagans in 2008. The rapid increase in the number of self-identified witches was not unexpected, given the philosophical and spiritual trends in culture, some said in response. It makes sense that witchcraft and the occult would rise as society becomes increasingly postmodern. The rejection of Christianity has left a void that people, as inherently spiritual beings, will seek to fill, author Julie Roys, formerly of Moody Radio, told The Christian Post at the time. Plus, Wicca has effectively repackaged witchcraft for millennial consumption. No longer is witchcraft and paganism satanic and demonic," she said, "it's a 'pre-Christian tradition' that promotes 'free thought' and 'understanding of earth and nature.'" Pew Research Center studied the issue in 2014, discovering that 0.4 percent of Americans, approximately 1 to 1.5 million people, identified as Wicca or pagan, meaning their communities continued to experience significant growth, according to Quartz. Sarah Anne Sumpolec, a former self-described "teenage witch" who struggled with suicidal thoughts, later said on Billy Hallowell's The Playing With Fire Podcast" that her life was transformed after she turned to Jesus Christ. At the age of 15, Sumpolec began experimenting with witchcraft, visiting New Age bookstores, conducting seances and using Tarot cards. In a blog post for CBN, titled Confessions of a Teenage Witch, she warned that while there is a prince of the power of the air, thats not the end of the story. She contends that "any supernatural power that does not come directly from God comes from Satan." Since the power source that witchcraft taps into comes from Satan, a lot of stuff actually happens. I dont even like to think about the things I saw, she wrote. Yet, just because stuff happens doesnt mean that its truth. Satan does have some limited power on Earth, so thats why psychics are sometimes right and why witchcraft seems to work. Dont mistake Satans power for Gods. They cant even compare! Supreme Court still hasn't found leaker of abortion ruling overturning Roe v. Wade The individual responsible for leaking the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade remains unidentified, according to a recently released report. In a statement issued on Thursday, the Supreme Court announced that its investigation has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence. Last May, a draft opinion in the case Dobbs v. Jackson, which ended up striking down Roe by concluding that abortion was not a constitutional right, was leaked to the public. This is believed to be the first time a Supreme Court ruling was made known to the public before its official release. This led to condemnation from Chief Justice John Roberts, and an investigation was launched. The Chief Justice assigned the task to the Marshal of the Supreme Court and her staff. After months of diligent analysis of forensic evidence and interviews of almost 100 employees, the Marshals team determined that no further investigation was warranted with respect to many of the 82 employees [who] had access to electronic or hard copies of the draft opinion, the high court wrote in a statement. In following up on all available leads, however, the Marshals team performed additional forensic analysis and conducted multiple follow-up interviews of certain employees. The Supreme Court also noted that the marshal and her team of investigators will continue to have our full support in their ongoing search for the decision leaker. The report quoted Michael Chertoff, who was asked by Roberts to independently review the investigation, who stated that there were important insights gleaned from the investigation that can be acted upon to avoid future incidents. Throughout my review, the investigators were transparent, cooperative, and available to answer my questions about the process, stated Chertoff. The Court investigators will continue following up on leads if more information is learned. In the meantime, the Court has already taken steps to increase security and tighten controls regarding the handling of sensitive documents. On May 2, 2022, Politico released a leaked opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, which indicated that the Supreme Court would overturn the landmark 1973 decision Roe and the 1992 Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The draft opinion leak caused outrage among pro-choice groups and activists, with a wave of protests and violence against pro-life churches and charities occurring in response. This included demonstrations being held outside of the houses of Supreme Court justices and a security fence being constructed around the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. In June, shortly before the release of the finalized Dobbs opinion, a man was arrested near the house of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and was charged with attempting to murder the high court member. Shortly after the leak, Roberts denounced the leak as a betrayal of the confidences of the Court." At an event hosted by the conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation last October, Alito said the leak made him and other members of the Supreme Court targets for assassination. The leak also made those of us who were thought to be in the majority in support of overruling Roe and Casey targets for assassination, because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us, Alito said. US worst country for pushing 'extreme gender ideology,' sex change surgeries on youth: report The United States is the most permissive country when it comes to pushing gender ideology and prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children, compared to nearly a dozen European countries that have implemented more strenuous barriers for youth seeking to obtain drugs and body-mutilating surgeries to look more like the opposite sex. Do No Harm, which describes itself as a diverse group of physicians, healthcare professionals, medical students, patients, and policymakers determined to protect healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology, released research titled Reassigned Monday that explained, extreme gender ideology drives the United States to provide transgender medical care to younger children, while Europe goes a safer and more scientific route. The report concluded that while the U.S. continues to defer to gender-affirming care, which views the refusal to affirm a trans-identified youths self-professed sexual identity as harmful and unethical, European countries have begun to follow a different approach. The report attributes the embrace of so-called gender-affirming care in the U.S. to the fact that the belief that biological sex and gender are socially constructed has made its way into American classrooms, courtrooms, bathrooms, and boardrooms. The research compared the policies of the U.S. with those of 11 western and northern European countries. The U.S. differs from most other countries because of its 50 states, which each have different policies. However, the policies of some states make the U.S. the most lenient among the nations studied. For example, the research found that while some states restrict minors access to sex reassignment surgery, double mastectomies have been performed on [girls] as young as 12. Sex reassignment surgeries include the removal of both testicles (orchiectomy), chopping off a penis (penectomy) in an attempt to create a vagina (vaginoplasty) a procedure that leads to frequent infections or the removal of tissue from a patient's arms or legs to create a fake penis (phalloplasty) that doesn't look natural, is flaccid and cannot function. By contrast, more than half of the European countries examined in the research have set the minimum age for sex change surgeries at 18: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Iceland and Ireland have a minimum age of 16 for sex change surgeries. While Norway and the Netherlands permit trans-identified girls to have double mastectomies at 16, all other procedures are only available to adults. The research states that in France, gender reassignment surgery is theoretically possible from age 14, but researchers say that, to their knowledge, torsoplasties (the removal of back fat) are the only surgeries that have been performed on trans youth. In all other cases, patients seeking sex change procedures must be at least 18. The U.S. also has much looser age restrictions for prescribing cross-sex hormones than the European countries. As the report explains, cross-sex hormones are administered to alter a persons secondary sex characteristics to better align with their gender identity. The research identifies Oregon as the state with the lowest minimum age requirement for obtaining cross-sex hormones, which stands at 15. While France does not have official age restrictions on cross-sex hormones, anyone younger than 18 seeking such treatment must secure parental consent. Luxembourg also lacks guidance on the prescription of cross-sex hormones, as most people seeking them do so out of the country. In all other European countries, trans-identified youth must be at least 16 to gain access to cross-sex hormones. In Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, 16-year-olds can obtain cross-sex hormones with or without parental consent. Finland enables 16-year-olds to access cross-sex hormones as long as they receive parental consent. Most European countries studied have stricter requirements for prescribing puberty blockers than the U.S., where children as young as 8 have been able to take them. As stated in the report, puberty blockers suppress the release of sex hormones so that gender-questioning youth do not sexually develop in a way that diverges from their gender identity. Most U.S. states require minors to secure parental consent before taking puberty blockers. In terms of the laws on the books, Oregon is once again the most permissive state, allowing 15-year-olds to obtain puberty blockers. In Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, a 12-year-old can take puberty blockers as long as they receive parental consent. Finland makes puberty blockers available to trans-identified youth as young as about age 13 with parental consent, while Ireland and the United Kingdom do not have a minimum age for a child to obtain puberty blockers. However, Ireland requires those younger than 16 to receive parental consent before they can take puberty blockers. Iceland does not have a minimum age for obtaining puberty blockers as long as parental consent is provided. France allows minors at any age to receive puberty blockers, while Norway allows medical professionals to provide puberty blockers once physiological signs of puberty manifest. The U.S. has a significantly higher number of pediatric gender clinics that offer body-disfiguring surgeries and cross-sex hormones to trans-identified youth than its European counterparts. The U.S. has 60 pediatric gender clinics and 300 such clinics that provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Sweden has four hospitals that provide assessment and treatment for trans-identified youth, while three of the hospitals perform sex reassignment surgery. Denmark has three locations that provide hormone therapy to youth suffering from gender dysphoria. Belgium and Finland have two facilities that specialize in treating youth with gender dysphoria. In contrast, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway each have one hospital that offers experimental procedures to most or all trans-identified youth. France enables any doctor to prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for gender dysphoria. The U.K.'s controversial Tavistock clinic that pushed gender ideology on youth whose bodies are now deformed is set to be closed after an investigation and class action lawsuit. Following the expected shuttering of Tavistock, two clinics will assess and treat youth with gender dysphoria. While Luxembourg has one gender clinic, the research stresses that treatment is more commonly sought abroad. The report notes that a handful of countries have changed their guidance about surgical interventions to address gender dysphoria in light of concerns about the long-term effects of such procedures, including infertility and disfigurement. Finland has issued guidelines recommending psychotherapy, rather than puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones as the first line of treatment for trans-identified youth following an evidence review yielding inconclusive results about the effectiveness of gender transition treatments. Just last month, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare published updated guidance that urges greater caution in administering hormonal treatments or sex reassignment surgeries to minors, advising the limitation of such treatments to exceptional cases. Frances National Academy of Medicine has urged great caution in treatment for trans-identified youth, noting the health risks and permanent effects of hormonal and surgical interventions. The U.S. also has much looser barriers to obtaining sex change surgeries, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, with these experimental procedures being deemed well within the scope of a range of medical providers, including physician assistants and medical professionals extending beyond psychiatrists and psychologists having the ability to diagnose gender dysphoria. On the other hand, Belgium requires children to obtain a letter from a psychiatrist, psychologist or sexologist before they can obtain gender-affirming care. In Denmark, Sweden and the U.K., interdisciplinary teams featuring medical professionals of various backgrounds must diagnose youth as actually having gender dysphoria before they can have these life-altering procedures that could potentially render them sterile. Iceland requires a six-month observation period before youth can be given puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. Youth in Ireland and Norway must live as the opposite sex for a specific period of time beforehand. Luxembourg and the Netherlands mandate that medical professionals consider the possibility that an underlying psychiatric condition causes gender dysphoria before prescribing drugs. Although France has looser requirements for dispensing cross-sex hormones, approval from an interdisciplinary team is necessary for youth to obtain surgery. The Do No Harm report comes after the American College of Pediatricians compiled a list of side effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. The long-term effects of puberty blockers include osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility. The American College of Pediatricians has warned that cross-sex hormones can cause an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers. Concerns about the long-term effects of surgical transitions for minors have prompted Alabama, Arizona and Arkansas to enact bills banning such procedures. The Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine have banned gender transition procedures for minors, while the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have issued opinions classifying them as a form of child abuse. On the other hand, Massachusetts has declared gender-affirming care a constitutional right. City of Bethlehem in bidding war with Lehigh University over church properties Officials in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, are engaged in a bidding war with Lehigh University over three Lutheran churches and undeveloped land for sale that has triggered a contentious debate over affordable housing. Congregants of St. Peters Evangelical Lutheran Church (474 Vine Street), Light of Christ Lutheran Church (2020 Worthington Avenue) and St. John's Windish Evangelical Church (617 E. Fourth Street) recently merged to form one congregation called United Proclamation of the Gospel. As a result, the three churches put up their properties for sale along with a more than 1-acre parking lot owned by St. John's Windish Evangelical Church at 616 E. Fourth Street. Lehigh University, which has an endowment of more than $1 billion, offered to buy the properties for $3.7 million as part of a package deal. Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds also recently revealed that the city decided to match Lehigh Universitys offer for the properties after initially submitting a bid for $3.5 million, Lehigh Valley News reported. Reynolds argued during a City Council meeting Tuesday night that the city was aggressively pursuing the deal to build affordable housing and explained that in a letter to the church members which he shared publicly. "There is nothing to apologize for when your mission is to help people," Reynolds said at the meeting, according to WFMZ. "We know housing is a top concern of our citizens, and the sale of your properties offers the city and community a rare opportunity to conduct a public process to influence the Southside housing market," Reynolds said. "... We publicly stated we would match Lehigh's current offer as we understood it. That is how important this effort is to us, the residents and the future of South Bethlehem, which throughout its history has been threatened by powerful forces that have different goals and priorities for these spaces." Millions of Americans are still struggling to find affordable housing due to a shortage driven by a confluence of policy, demographics, and market forces that experts say have driven many to homelessness. As previously reported by CP, partnerships between developers and faith-based organizations with underutilized or vacant real estate holdings could help ease the nation's affordable housing crisis. Activists cited by Lehigh Valley News appear to support the citys plan for affordable housing in their opposition to a sale of the properties to Lehigh University. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to embark on a process of responsible development and adaptive reuse, they said in a statement. But we are facing the loss of this opportunity at the hands of Lehigh University, which is a private institution with a mission that does not necessarily align with the priorities of the South Side community. Lehigh's plan for the properties was not immediately clear but a university spokesperson told Lehigh Valley News that any development would need to be approved by the city. These are important and historical community spaces within Bethlehem, the spokesperson said. While it is too early to say what our plans for these parcels might include, any plans would go through appropriate city and county review. Lehigh is committed to open communication and active partnership with the community throughout the process. Pastor Mike Button, who is the interim leader of United Proclamation of the Gospel, told The Christian Post Thursday that he could not say anything regarding the bidding process. Carol Henn, a spokesperson for St. John's Windish Lutheran Church, told CP in an interview Friday that no decision has been made on the sale of the church properties. The decision, she said, has to be made at a congregational meeting which requires a notice of at least two weeks. She also insisted that the congregation expects to make their decision without duress. People who are members of the congregation and who will sit there and hear presentations and vote are going to vote according to their best judgment and what they think. I wouldnt dare try to guess at how hundreds of people are going to think when they are thinking or how they would vote, Henn said. She also noted that she wasnt aware of an additional bid from the city beyond their initial $3.5 million offer. I honestly dont know about another offer from the city, she said. Henn, who said as far as she was aware the city had not placed any pressure on the church to sell them the properties, said activists trying to paint the church as standing in the way of affordable housing arent being fair. The way the spotlight has been somehow placed on St. Johns Church so that if they dont sell that parking lot for that purpose, affordable housing cant even start in the city, thats absurd, she said. That would be absurd to any thinking person. What if that parking lot didnt exist? In any municipality, would they give up on the idea of affordable housing? No, she said, answering her own question. Forget my church affiliation. If Im simply a citizen with common sense I would think that one city block cannot be the key to a whole program. If I start at my base assumption that churches, like individual human beings, like businesses, shops, retail shops, grocery stores, people and organizations have [a] right to own private property and to do what they wish to sell it to a buyer of their choice, Henn said. This kind of pressure brought on any organization is very dismaying to me because Im old enough and smart enough to understand that pressure that is brought on one individual or organization can be brought on another, and this should not be happening in a healthy community and a free and respectful atmosphere. Decline in church attendance drove deaths of despair among middle-aged white population: study Deaths by drugs, alcohol and suicide, known as deaths of despair, dramatically increased among middle-aged white Americans in the late 20th century due to lower participation in organized religion that was preceded by a repeal of blue laws that prohibited commercial activities on Sunday, a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows. The study, a working paper titled "Opiates of The Masses? Deaths of Despair and The Decline of American Religion" by Tyler Giles, Daniel M. Hungerman and Tamar Oostrom, uses data from the General Social Survey to show that religious practice has a significant impact on deaths of despair. We show that the initial rise in deaths of despair in the U.S. was preceded by a large decline in organized religious participation and that both trends were driven by white middle-aged Americans, the researchers wrote in their conclusion of the study. We know of no other cultural phenomenon involving such large, widespread changes in participation prior to the initial rise in U.S. mortality, nor do we know of any other phenomenon that matches the seemingly idiosyncratic patterns observed for mortality: seen for both men and women, but not in other countries, and in both rural and urban settings, but driven primarily by middle-aged, less educated white individuals, they explained. We also show that religiosity and the rate of deaths of despair are negatively correlated across states; states with high levels of religiosity have suffered less from mortality due to alcohol, suicides, or drug poisonings. The findings by Giles, Hungerman and Oostrom, provide deeper insight into previous research on deaths of despair. In "Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century," for example, Princeton University's Anne Case and her Nobel Prize winner husband, Angus Deaton, followed up on their groundbreaking 2015 paper that showed a shocking increase in midlife mortality among white Americans, examining patterns and contributing factors to deaths of despair. They suggested poor mortality among middle-aged working-class whites might have been triggered by the "progressively worsening labor market opportunities at the time of entry for whites with low levels of education." Middle-aged white Americans with a high school diploma or less have experienced increasing midlife mortality since the late-1990s due to "deaths of despair," the study said. A slowdown in progress against death from heart disease and cancer was also noted as a contributing factor. Case and Deaton said they examined suggestions that the deaths among working-class middle-aged whites were the result of poor incomes, but that factor alone could not comprehensively explain the phenomena. "Many commentators have suggested that the poor mortality outcomes can be attributed to slowly growing, stagnant, and even declining incomes; we evaluate this possibility, but find that it cannot provide a comprehensive explanation. In particular, the income profiles for blacks and Hispanics, whose mortality has fallen, are no better than those for whites, they said. Nor is there any evidence in the European data that mortality trends match income trends, in spite of sharply different patterns of median income across countries after the Great Recession." In their research, Giles, Hungerman and Oostrom found that States with larger decreases in religiosity showed larger gains in the rate of deaths of despair. Using shocks based on the repeal of blue laws, we then demonstrate that negative shocks to religious practice had relatively large impacts on deaths from poisonings, suicides, and liver cirrhosis for middle-aged Americans in the late 20th century, the researchers said. They also made it clear that the benefits of attending church came from its value as a cultural practice rather than any personal devotion. And since the widespread dismantling of church attendance from American culture, no other institution has emerged to match the value society gained from attending church. The impact that we witness seems to be driven by the decline in formal religious participation rather than in belief or personal activities like prayer. These results underscore the importance of cultural institutions such as religious establishments in promoting well-being, the researchers noted. Whether other types of voluntary or community activities could have similar large-scale effects on health outcomes is unknown and represents an excellent topic for future research. National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo, left, and Indonesia President Joko Widodo pose for a photo during their meeting in Jakarta, Jan. 19, in this photo provided by Kim's office. Yonhap National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo wrapped up visits to Vietnam and Indonesia, Saturday, as Korea seeks to bolster economic and security cooperation with the Southeast Asian nations. Kim also sought support from Vietnam for Korea's bid to host the 2030 World Expo in the southeastern port city of Busan. In Vietnam, Kim met with President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his counterpart, Vuong Dinh Hue, respectively. During the meetings, Kim touted the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations and called for strengthening their relationship under the "comprehensive strategic partnership" established by the two countries leaders in December last year. In Indonesia, Kim met with President Joko Widodo and discussed improving bilateral cooperation in various areas. Kim also asked Indonesia to support investments by South Korean companies in Indonesia. In a statement, the National Assembly said Kim's visits "served as an opportunity to expand cooperation in strategic areas, such as supply chains, defense and digital development, beyond strengthening economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges." (Yonhap) People line up in front of the Shinsegae Department Store in Seoul, in 2021, to enter its luxury boutiques. Newsis By Lee Yeon-woo Koreans' love of luxury goods is visible in almost all aspects of their everyday life. According to global management consultancy McKinsey & Company, Koreans are relatively fond of luxury products, with only 22 percent of them saying it is in bad taste to show off pricey clothes and accessories. This is lower than those in Japan (45 percent) and China (38 percent). They have now become the biggest spenders on luxury goods per capita, outgrowing markets in China and even the U.S. Total personal luxury goods spending by Korean nationals increased 24 percent to 21.8 trillion won ($16.8 billion) in 2022 about 400,000 won ($325) per person according to a recent study by Morgan Stanley. While luxury goods purchases had been considered the preserve of the middle class, millennials and Gen Z, commonly called "Generation MZ" here, have recently emerged as a notable consumer demographic leading this market boom. "I bought my first luxury bag in my 20s when I got my first salary. I decided there would be occasions when I would need a good bag after starting my career. I have regularly bought luxury bags, both high and moderately priced ones, once or twice a year since then," Jang, a 32-old-year office worker based in Seoul told The Korea Times. "I know they're expensive compared to my salary, but they give me confidence. I consider them as a gift to myself after working hard day and night," Jang added. According to Shinsegae, Generation MZ accounted for almost 40 percent of total luxury sales in 2021. Luxury goods purchases by customers in their 20s have doubled every year, far exceeding overall luxury sales growth since 2016, when customers in their 30s became the largest buyers, Morgan Stanley stated. People wait to enter a MONCLER shop at the Lotte Department Store in Songpa, Seoul in 2020. Korea Times file Kwak Geum-joo, a professor of psychology at Seoul National University, explained it as a cultural difference between generations. She said while older people have developed the habit of saving money to survive economically tough periods, younger generations, born in affluent times, are more interested in spending money to treat themselves. "They think it's an investment in themselves. They are willing to pay money if the product brings them satisfaction and joy. They think it's worth it," Kwak said. Displaying wealth is also acceptable, and sometimes encouraged in Korean society. According to research by Economic Affairs in July 2022, more than 60% of Koreans believe that it is "fairly important" or "very important" to be seen as rich. "Once when I was going to a friend's wedding, I found myself constantly checking whether my outfit looked good, whether it was too old, or whether the outfit made me look as if I was struggling financially. That's when I first felt the necessity to buy luxury goods," Kim Joo-yeon, 29, said. "Appearance and financial success can resonate more with consumers in Korea than in most other countries," Morgan Stanley's report reads. Social media fuels this tendency. Young customers post their purchases on social media, and luxury brands efficiently utilize the platform as a marketing tool. "In a groupist culture like Korea, people care about how others view them. Nowadays we have more chances to see what others are doing, and more chances to show what we are doing through social media. The satisfaction of showing themselves engaging with luxury goods on social media is much larger than doing so in normal life," Kwak said. However, it's not necessary to dwell on the negative aspects of luxury spending, according to Kwak. "The problem is spending too much money on luxury goods compared to one's income. Saving some money while spending the rest on what gives satisfaction; I think that's wise consumption," Kwak said. Wilkes-Barre, PA (18701) Today A few passing clouds. Low 56F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph, becoming E and decreasing to less than 5 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low 56F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph, becoming E and decreasing to less than 5 mph. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 20) The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) urged the Social Security System (SSS) to hold off its contribution hike for 2023 which will affect employers. From a share of 8.5 percent in 2022, employers will have to shoulder a one percentage point increase contributing 9.5 percent to their employees' SSS contribution. This translates to a contribution hike increase of 40 for each employee with a salary of 4,000 and below, and a 100 increase for each employee with a salary of at least 10,000. There's also a 200 regular contribution increase and added Worker's Investment Savings Program (WISP) for employees receiving 30,000 compensation. SSS noted that only employees with a salary of more than 25,000 will be personally affected by the contribution increase, as the cap for the monthly salary credit was bumped to 30,000. ECOP said businesses should be given a chance to recover from recent losses, as some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had to close down amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "Huwag muna nating bigyan ng additional burden ang mga employers at this point. 'Yong kapakanan ng empleyado, nasa puso ng mga employers 'yan," ECOP chairman Ed Lacson said. [Translation: Don't give additional burden to employers at this point. The welfare of the employees is always in the hearts of employers.] "Let's wait for a better time before we talk about increasing contributions. If businesses can recover well, any additional increase can be absolved by the business," he added. However, SSS emphasized that the contribution hike is necessary to fund benefits given to its members, including pension and unemployment. The SSS said on Thursday that it has started implementing members' increased contribution. The rate is now at 14% up from last year's 13%. The state pension fund assured it will promptly comply if a law is passed by Congress and approved by the president to suspend the collection of the contribution hike. "This increase would give our fund life until 2054 so 'yon ang magandang epekto sa ating fund life. At the same time ito ay magiging magandang tulong sa ating mga members kasi mas magandang benefits na maibibigay natin sa kanila dahil mas darami ang fund ng SSS," SSS spokesperson Sau Mapalo explained. [Translation: This increase would give our fund life until 2054 so that will be a good effect on our fund. At the same time, it will also provide better benefits to our members because we will have more funds.] Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 20) A Filipino students zero-gravity experiment proposal has been performed in the International Space Station (ISS), demonstrating the expected object movement which could boost spacecraft designs. According to Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) on Friday, William Kevin Abrans Rotation of Dumbbell-shaped Objects in Space proposal was performed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Wakata Koichi on Kibo, the Japanese Experimental Module on the ISS. During the experiment, the dumbbell-shaped object moved as expected but the Dzhanibekov effect, or the dancing screw motion, was not that evident. However, PhilSA said it cannot be ruled out at the moment. The result of Mr. Abrans experiment will help in the designs of spacecraft and offer a real-life example affirming the validity of Newtons Laws of Motion and Ehrenfest Theorem in microgravity, the agency said. Abran, who only got to present and interact with JAXA via livestream, said he was honored that Wakata conducted his experiment aboard the ISS on Jan. 17. The result was satisfying knowing that the dumbbell shapes behaved as predicted, said the student from University of the Philippines Los Banos, as quoted by the PhilSA. Also, watching the experiments proposed by students from other countries gave me a new perspective about the microgravity environment, he added. Hopefully, this initiative inspires more students to continue doing research and be curious about the world around us. Wakata also conducted five more experiments in the ISS that day. They were chosen from the over 200 proposals submitted in the Asian Try Zero-G competition organized by JAXA. Abran will still write a scientific paper discussing the results of his experiment. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21) The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Saturday said it has launched a probe into a recent incident in the West Philippine Sea where a Chinese Coast Guard ship allegedly drove away a Filipino fishing boat in Ayungin Shoal. The PCG said it has received information from the captain of the Filipino boat that the China-flagged vessel maneuvered towards them while they were fishing in the area on Jan. 9. "Accordingly, [the Chinese Coast Guard vessel] deployed a rigid hull inflatable boat. The personnel onboard gestured for the Filipino fishermen to leave the area," the PCG said. While the Filipino boat left the vicinity, Beijing's vessel "continued to shadow" them, according to authorities. Following the incident, the PCG said additional personnel will be deployed to the West Philippine Sea. It added that officials are gathering more evidence, which will then be forwarded to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). The DFA, for its part, vowed to take "appropriate diplomatic action" upon verification and assessment of the incident. The Philippine government has filed a slew of diplomatic protests against China amid repeated incursions in the country's waters urging the economic superpower to comply with the landmark 2016 arbitral victory on the South China Sea case. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had vowed to find a solution for the parties to avoid any misunderstanding in the contested waterway. READ: Marcos: Xi promises to find 'compromise' that will allow Filipinos to fish in WPS Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21) Two dismissed police officers wanted for robbery and the kidnapping of an e-sabong master agent in 2021 have surrendered, according to authorities. Former staff sergeant Darly Paghangaan and former patrolman Rigel Brosas separately surrendered to the Philippine National Police (PNP) Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) on Jan. 19. On Jan. 17, a Laguna Regional Trial Court issued an arrest warrant against the two for the crimes of kidnapping and serious illegal detention, and robbery with violence. IMEG Director General Warren De Leon said they surrendered after a series of negotiations. Paghangaan and Brosas were two of three cops earlier indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ). READ: Three cops indicted in kidnapping, robbery of missing sabungero DOJ They were linked to the kidnapping of cockfighter Ricardo Lasco in August 2021. They allegedly pretended to be operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and robbed Lascos family during the abduction Lascos wife, his sister-in-law, his mother-in-law, and his wifes cousin identified the suspects. Meanwhile, Lasco remains missing. However, of the three cops originally indicted, no update has been given on dismissed patrolman Roy Navarete, the remaining indictee. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21) President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. defended the size of his delegation to the World Economic Forum (WEF), saying they have "to be complete" at the international event when facing global leaders and business tycoons. We tried to be complete," Marcos told reporters on Friday when asked about the criticisms about the Philippine delegation to Davos, Switzerland last Jan. 16 to 20. "When is the next chance we will get to speak to CEOs of top Fortune 100 companies in the period of two days? the chief executive said. So whoever we get to talk to, kailangan nandun yong secretary na pwede niyang sagutin, pwede niyang kausapin [the specific secretary must be there to answer questions, hold the conversation], he added. The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives said it is planning to call for an inquiry into the trip and find out who paid for the delegations travel expenses. This is in the wake of a Vera Files report that claimed at least 70 people accompanied the President to Davos. Ang sabi nga natin diyan, very lavish. Napakarami naman ang dinalang tao sa Switzerland considering na napakamahal ng mga hotel at saka cost ng transportation, food etc., ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro told CNN Philippines The Final Word. [Translation: It's very lavish. So many people were brought to Switzerland considering that the hotels are very expensive and also the cost of transportation, food etc.] Magkaroon ng report ang Presidente dun sa resulta ng kanyang trip sa Switzerland kasama nitong more or less 70 other personnel, the House deputy minority leader urged. [Translation: The President should have a report on the result of his Switzerland trip that included more or less 70 other personnel.] Malacanang on Tuesday identified the following business leaders as part of the delegation: Sabin Aboitiz of Aboitiz & Company, Kevin Andrew Tan of Alliance Global, Jaime Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala Group, Lance Gokongwei of JG Summit Holdings, Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp., Teresita Sy-Coson of SM Investments, and Enrique Razon of International Container Terminal. Other government leaders who went were House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, former president and current Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Sen. Mark Villar, Ilocos Norte First District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander Marcos III, TINGOG Party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Special Assistant to the President Antonio Lagdameo Jr., and Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista. The delegation was large but half of it was private. They came here on their own, Marcos added. For his part, Romualdez said WEF attendees were actually impressed with the delegation, adding that it showed a united front to the entire world. It really impressed them, that was not lost in Davos, the House speaker said in a chance interview. People took notice of it and said that the Philippines is back, we are open for business. We demonstrate to WEF and to the world that the President is joined by his economic managers and the executive, alongside the leaders from legislature, that we are working and marching in lockstep with him, Romualdez added. This was Marcos eighth international trip since he took office on June 30 last year. Marcos was invited to the WEF by Prof. Klaus Schwab, founder and chair emeritus of the WEF, at the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Phnom Penh and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November last year. He earlier said he was unsure if he will go to WEF because its traveling too much," following his state visit Beijing on Jan. 3 to 5. CNN Philippines senior correspondent Anjo Alimario contributed to this report. North Koreans wave to their family members from the South as they depart from a hotel at Mount Geumgang where they held a short reunion in October, 2015. Korea Times file More than 3,600 South Koreans died last year without having a chance to reunite with their family members in North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War-driven separation, government data showed Saturday. A total of 3,647 of these people died last year among around 134,000 applicants who had registered with the government for family reunions, according to the data from the unification ministry. As of the end of last year, the number of surviving members of such families had reached 42,624, with almost 66 percent of the total aged 80 or older. Since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, the two Koreas have held 21 rounds of face-to-face family reunions events, including the last one in August 2018. State-arranged family reunion events were halted amid frosty inter-Korean relations following the no-deal summit between the North and the United States in Hanoi in early 2019. On the eve of the Chuseok holiday in September 2022, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se proposed talks with the North to discuss the issue of families torn apart by the war. But Pyongyang did not respond to this offer. The two Koreas remain technically at war, as the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21) The proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) is being crafted in a way that will suit the current conditions in the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Friday. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland, Marcos stressed that sovereign wealth funds across different countries are all structured differently. "They're different in purpose, they're different in methodology and of course, they operate in a different context of law," Marcos said. "So we have to design it very specifically to the Philippine condition, and that's what the legislators are trying to do now to make sure na babagay para sa atin (it will suit us) and it will be a good thing for us," he added. "That's the process that we're undergoing now." Lawmakers from the House of Representatives pushed for the creation of the MIF late last year in a bid to accrue profits from government assets. The bill has Marcos' backing, with the president pitching it to fellow leaders during a dialogue at the WEF. READ: The proposed Maharlika Investment Fund: What you need to know Marcos said he received a "suggestion" from a business leader to raise money for the MIF through initial public offering (IPO). The chief executive noted he will check if such move will be appropriate. New version of the fund? Marcos' statement came after a recent revelation by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda that there will be a new, "re-engineered" version of the Maharlika fund. In a television interview on Friday, Salceda said the revised MIF proposal will drop the dividends from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as capital source, and will likewise eye an IPO. However, no copy of the revised bill has been made available as of publishing. Some members of the lower chamber questioned the development with the measure already hurdling the plenary. "Since the so-called 're-engineering' of the [fund] was not deliberated in the House of Representatives, the approval of the bill must be recalled so that the House can further deliberate on the belated innovations," Rep. Edcel Lagman said. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21) -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said an extension of the voter registration for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) is unlikely after over a million individuals have registered. "Bagamat nung una hindi kataasan agad yung nagparehistro sa atin noong mga unang araw ng Dec. 12, sa ngayon naman nakikita namin na tumataas na. Nakikita po namin na aabot na tayo sa ating target na minimum 1 million to 1.5 million," Comelec spokesperson Rex Laudiangco told CNN Philippines. [Translation: While the number of registrants were low during the first few days since Dec. 12, we are now seeing an increase. Based on what we're seeing, we will reach our target of a minimum of 1 to 1.5 million.] Laudiangco is confident the poll body will reach its target number of new registrants before the Jan. 31 deadline. As of Jan. 14, Comelec has received 1,024,521 applications through its regular registration process. This figure does not include applicants from its Register Anywhere Project (RAP), which has already logged 4,691 registrants as of Jan. 20. Laudiangco said the low turnout during the holidays was expected, but they anticipate an influx of registrants in the last few days. "Ang ine-expect po namin na sa last ten days or sa last week mismo bubuhos ang ating mga kababayan sa aming mga registration sites. At mahihirapan po hindi lang kawani ng Comelec, kundi pati po sila dahil po sa haba ng pila at haba ng aabutin nila na paghihintay para sa pagrerehistro," he said. [Translation: We are expecting more people to flock to our registration sites during the last ten days or the last week of registration. It will be difficult not just for Comelec staff, but for them as well, because of the long lines and long waiting time for registration.] RELATED: Comelec: First day of voter registration resumption smooth so far Comelec appeals to the public to head to voter registration sites before the deadline to avoid a repeat of what happened during the 2022 polls. "Ngayon po batay sa aming pahayag pareho ni Chairman George Garcia, wala po kaming nakikitang extension sa ngayon dahil wala rin po kaming nakikitang dahilan. Isa pa po sa dahilan dito na nakabinbin po ang ating kaso sa Korte Suprema," he added. [Translation: As of now, similar to what Chairman George Garcia said, we do not see the need for an extension because there is no reason for it. Another reason is the pending petition at the Supreme Court.] Laudiangco said Comelec is awaiting the Supreme Court's ruling on the petition of veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal challenging the new law moving the BSKE to Oct. 30 this year. Macalintal questioned the authority of Congress to move poll dates, saying the power to postpone elections is within the exclusive jurisdiction of Comelec. But as they await the high court's ruling, Laudiangco said preparations continue for the BSKE, plebiscites, and the 2025 polls. Should the high court rule that the elections must be held earlier, extending the registration is not allowed. RELATED: SC sets oral arguments on petition vs barangay polls' postponement Comelec seeks to expand Register Anywhere Project after pilot run Laudiangco said the poll body is looking at expanding the RAP in more regions for the next voter registration. The project is on its last weekend in select malls, schools, and government offices in Metro Manila, Bicol Region and Central Visayas. "Nakita naman po natin how successful the pilot test is. So kung sakali man po magreresume po muli kami, although sa ngayon hindi pa namin nakikita na magkakaroon tayo ng extension, 'pag nag-resume po tayo makakaasa po kayo ng mas malawak na coverage ng Register Anywhere Project," he said. [Translation: We saw how successful the pilot test is. So if ever we resume registration, although now we don't see an extension, Filipinos can count on a wider coverage of the Register Anywhere Project.] The Department of Social Welfare and Development will be hosting a registration of voters on Jan. 23. The Senate will also be a RAP site on Jan. 25. RAP sites began accepting voter applications on Dec. 17, operating every Saturday and Sunday. The project aims to serve workers and students who are unable to go home to provinces to complete their voter registration. RELATED: Comelec to launch Register Anywhere Booths in NCR Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21) President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will soon be returning from his visit to Davos, Switzerland, and is set to fly to Japan by next month his 9th international trip in a little over seven months in office. From his inaugural trip to Indonesia to his latest attendance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland, what has the country gained from these trips so far? Official, semi-official visits Marcos first international trip was a three-day state visit to Indonesia from Sept. 4 to 6, 2022 upon the invitation of President Joko Widodo. After Jakarta, Marcos headed straight to Singapore for another state visit. The chief executive met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and other officials to sign agreements. READ: Marcos leaves for Indonesia, Singapore to 'harvest' investments In the same month, Marcos represented the country at the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the US where he met with several heads of state along the sidelines including one with US President Joe Biden. Marcos then drew crticism early in October when he was seen a second time in Singapore to watch the F1 Grand Prix. The trip upon the invitation of Singapores Prime Minister was unannounced to the public and was later on revealed as partly official and partly personal. The following month, the President attended the 40th and 41st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits in Cambodia marking his first appearance on the ASEAN stage. World leaders he met during his trip to Phnom Penh included Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Marcos then flew to Thailand, three days after arriving from Cambodia, to attend the 29th Leaders Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. It was during his trip to Bangkok when he first met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The chief executive ended 2022 with an official three-day trip to Belgium for a summit between leaders from ASEAN and the European Union. Just after New Year celebrations, Marcos visited China amid the surge in COVID-19 cases in the region. RELATED: Marcos state visit to China 'very important' to PH economy, says business group Following his six-day trip to Switzerland, Marcos is set leave for Japan in February for another state visit. Bilateral ties, investment pledges Among all his visits, Marcos tackled several issues, inked agreements and took home investment pledges promising thousands of possible jobs for Filipinos. According to the Department of Trade and Industry, the chief executives state visits to Indonesia, Singapore, US, Cambodia, and Thailand have generated $23.6 billion in investment pledges. Marcos Belgium trip, meanwhile, spawned around 9.8 billion worth of investment pledges, the Palace reported. His trip to China lured in $22.8 billion in investment pledges. Despite maritime conflicts in the West Philippine Sea, Manila and Beijing also signed 14 bilateral agreements that are expected to strengthen the nations ties. Aside from pledges, which mainly focused on the business, agriculture, transportation, energy and technology sectors, Marcos also tackled separate issues in his visits. In Jakarta, the Philippine government asked for an executive clemency for Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina on death row due to possession of illegal drugs. In a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman in Thailand, the Saudi official pledged to set aside 2 billion riyals that covers unpaid wages of displaced Filipino workers due to bankruptcy of their contractors. The Philippines also committed to export at least 54,000 metric tons of durian to China. Call to focus locally Although garnering billions in pledges, experts point out that these promises first have to be converted to hard investments before the country reaps actual benefits. I think that we should go beyond the signing MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) or the photo ops, and instead, after all those things are done, we hope to see the fruition, Philippine Ambassador to China Jaime FlorCruz told CNN Philippines Politics As Usual after Marcos trip to Beijing. Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines president Michael Guarin previously told CNN Philippines The Final Word that conversion of these pledges to hard cash may take time. It won't be immediate, but we're hoping that hard cash...would come in within the next 12 months, Guarin said in October. Some groups also called for the chief executive to curb his trips abroad and focus on domestic crises instead, saying the President is spending too much time on trips abroad at the cost of neglecting the urgent needs of Filipinos. Its concerning that some of the statements made at Davos clearly go against the interests of the Filipino people and the planet, said Lia Mai Torres, executive director of Center for Environmental Concerns. ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, meanwhile, said the Presidents trips should be scrutinized as the people have the right to know of the results and what the trips are for. The people have the right to know kung ano talaga ang resulta nitong walong trips na ito na hindi pa narereport at talagang dapat na bantayan itong mga ganitong trips, Castro told CNN Philippines The Final Word. [Translation: The people have the right to know the results of these eight trips, which are not reported yet. And these trips should really be closely watched.] Marcos in a briefing in Davos explained that his trips are meant to introduce the Philippines to investors. This is a process, we dont go one time and go home and everybodys going to invest. Hindi ganon (Its not like that), we have to introduce them to the Philippines again, he said. The President, along with his delegation, is set to arrive back in the country Saturday afternoon from his trip to Switzerland. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21) President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has no time to waste, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said, in defense of the criticized premature launch of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland. In a press briefing in Davos, Romualdez cited several issues including those under the energy, agriculture and environmental sectors that need to be addressed in the country and said that Filipinos cannot wait amid all the pressing problems. We cannot wait. President Marcos cannot sit on his hands," the Speaker said. "He has no time to just waste time. He needs to lead the country." Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno earlier introduced to economic leaders in Switzerland the Marcos administrations plan to establish a sovereign fund to support the goals set for the Philippines. For Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel, Marcos soft launch of the sovereign fund at the economic forum is premature and a ploy to expedite the enactment of the measure calling the move a way to tie the hands of Congress. To answer, Romualdez said, With all due respect, its already been filed in the Senate. For all those Senators who have contrary thoughts just read the bill and deliberate it from the Senate. Lets take it from there. Voting 279-6, lawmakers approved on third and final reading House Bill 6608 creating the MIF after the chief executive certified the proposed fund as urgent. Despite having only two senators in the opposition, Pimentel earlier said he believes the whole upper chamber will not let the controversial bill just easily be passed into law. Senate President Migs Zubiri also previously assured that the bill will be studied with a fine tooth comb during deliberations and plenary hearings. READ: The proposed Maharlika Investment Fund: What you need to know (CNN) In the largest DNA analysis of its kind, scientists have found evidence to suggest that historic plague pandemics, such as the Black Death, were not caused by newly evolved strains of bacteria but ones that could have emerged up to centuries before their outbreaks. The plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis is dated to have first emerged in humans about 5,000 years ago. Through animals and trade routes, Y. pestis spread globally over time on multiple occasions, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology. It caused the first plague pandemic in the sixth to eighth centuries and the second one in the 14th to 19th centuries. The latter pandemic is thought to have started with the medieval Black Death outbreak, which is estimated to have killed more than half of Europe's population. The bacterium also caused the third plague pandemic between the 19th and 20th centuries. By amassing 601 Y. pestis genome sequences, including modern and ancient strains, researchers from Canada and Australia were able to calculate the time when the bacterial strains likely emerged as a threat. They divided the different strains of the plague bacterium and analyzed each strain population individually. The strain responsible for the Black Death, which the study says is thought to have begun in 1346, was newly estimated to have diverged from an ancestral strain between 1214 and 1315 up to 132 years earlier. The strain of Y. pestis associated with the first plague pandemic was previously recorded as first appearing during the Plague of Justinian, which began in 541. However, the researchers estimated that the strain was already present between 272 and 465 up to almost 270 years before the outbreak. "It shows that each major plague pandemic has likely emerged many decades to centuries earlier than what the historical record suggests," study coauthor and evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar, director of McMaster University's Ancient DNA Centre in Canada, told CNN via email Thursday. He added that the bacterium emerged, created small epidemics and then "for reasons we don't quite understand," such as famine or war, "it takes off." Origins of the third plague pandemic The study authors estimated that individually assessed bacterial strains from the third plague pandemic diverged from an ancestral strain between 1806 and 1901, with highly localized plague cases beginning to appear in southern China between 1772 and 1880 and later diverging into various strains that spread globally out of Hong Kong between 1894 and 1901. The study also found evidence to support recent academic research suggesting that the third and second plague pandemics were not mutually exclusive events, but that the third was partly the continuation or tail end of the second. Despite the pandemics having their own diverse genetic lineages that evolved differently, the third descended directly from the 14th century strain that caused the second. Poinar called this finding significant because "it takes into account that most of the history of this bacterium has been a Eurocentric view, so while plague supposedly disappeared from Europe in the 18th (century), it continued to rage in the Ottoman Empire and throughout the Middle East and likely North Africa." Uncharted paths However, even with so many sequences of the plague bacterium, researchers were not able to determine the path of the global spread of the plague. A lot of the genetic samples come from Europe. For example, the emergence of the bacterium in Africa has led to 90% of all modern plague cases occurring on the continent, yet there are no ancient sequences from the region, which is represented by just 1.5% of all genome samples making it difficult to date the appearance of Y. pestis in Africa. There is also far less surviving historical evidence from the second plague pandemic to help estimate its geographic origins compared with the third, with the earliest textual evidence of the pandemic in Europe coming from the Black Death in 1346, the study authors said. The researchers estimated that the second pandemic originated in Russia. A study published in the journal Nature in June used DNA analysis to find the plague bacterium in three individuals who are dated to have died in 1338 in what's now Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. It provided evidence that the Black Death came from a strain originating in the area near Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan in the early 14th century. The latest study concluded that more ancient DNA will be needed to refine current estimates on the early events of the second pandemic. Via email, Poinar described the strain from Kyrgyzstan as "really fascinating" but said that it "still doesn't sit at the root. So I would guess we're still looking for something a good 20-50 years earlier." He and the other authors noted that the only way to estimate the evolution of the plague bacterium strains precisely "is with well dated sequences, such as those from skeletal remains at Lake Issyk-Kul." This story was first published on CNN. Origins of plague could have emerged centuries before outbreaks, new study suggests (CNN) Influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan will remain in police custody until February 27 after a Romanian court on Friday extended their detention, Tate's lawyers told CNN affiliate Antena 3. The brothers are being investigated on allegations of human trafficking and rape. Authorities in Romania said police served search warrants at five homes and took four suspects into custody -- two Britons and two Romanians -- as part of the investigation. Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) initially said the four suspects had been detained for 24 hours. A Bucharest court accepted an application by DIICOT to hold Tate and his brother Tristan in custody for a further 30 days, their lawyer Eugen Vidineac said on December 30. This has been extended again to February 27. DIICOT alleged that the four suspects formed an organized criminal group that stretched from Romania to Britain and the United States, for the purpose of committing the crime of human trafficking. The agency said last Thursday that seven more properties had been searched as part of the investigation, bringing the total number of properties probed to 12. The authorities allege that two of the suspects misled the victims "into believing that they intended to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship" while transporting victims to Romania and later sexually exploiting them with physical violence and coercion. Authorities also said one of the suspects raped a victim on two separate occasions in March 2022. At least six victims were allegedly "sexually exploited by the organized criminal group," the DIICOT statement said. On Monday, Romanian authorities said they had seized nearly $4 million worth of assets belonging to Tate over the past week. Among the 29 seized assets are motor vehicles, luxury watches and sums of money in several different currencies, the country's Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ANABI) said. Tate, a former professional kickboxer, is known for his viral rants online about male dominance, female submission and wealth. He openly advocates violence against women, and had previously been banned from every major social media platform until Elon Musk reinstated his Twitter account after taking over the company. He rose in prominence earlier this year, with many adults including school teachers voicing alarm about his misogynistic ideas taking root in the minds of countless young boys. Before it was taken down, his TikTok account racked up about 11.6 billion views. He made headlines the week of his arrest for a Twitter interaction with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who told Tate to get a life after he tweeted about his numerous cars "and their respective enormous emissions." This story was first published on CNN. Romania extends detention of Andrew Tate and brother over allegations of rape and human trafficking (CNN) And you think you helped scarf down a really big pizza recently? You've got nothin' on this one. When Pizza Hut decided to bring back its "big New Yorker" pizza -- a cheese and pepperoni pie with foldable slices designed to be eaten on the go in true Manhattan style -- the company wanted to find a way to celebrate the news. The idea: Take New York to Los Angeles and collaborate with YouTube star Airrack (aka Eric Decker). So they went to the Los Angeles Convention Center, whose space would be big enough to hold a 13,990-square-foot pizza, with the aim of breaking Guinness World Record for the world's biggest pizza. They went to work on the gigantic pizza on Wednesday. And on Friday, Pizza Hut sent out the official word: An onsite Guinness rep said it was indeed the world's biggest pizza. Guinness confirmed the record-breaking designation with CNN Travel in an email late Friday afternoon. How the pizza came together To complete the enormous task, workers put down layers of dough first, tomato sauce were painted on, then toppings were added. Once everything was set, it was baked in pieces, according the the news release from Pizza Hut. In total, 13,653 pounds (6,193 kilograms) of dough, 4,948 pounds of pizza sauce, more than 8,800 pounds of cheese and roughly 630,496 pieces of pepperoni went into making the record-breaking pie. Pizza Hut's CEO, David Graves, told Reuters that the pizza would not go to waste -- as soon as the pizza was done and documented for Guinness, its 68,000 slices would be donated to local food banks. The previous Guinness record for the world's largest pizza was set in 2012 by a group of Italian chefs. Their pizza was 1,261.65 square meters, gluten-free, and given the name Ottavia. This story was first published on CNN. New record set for world's biggest pizza (CNN) The United States carried out a strike in Somalia that killed approximately 30 al-Shabaab fighters, US Africa Command said in a statement Saturday. US forces on Friday "conducted a collective self-defense strike" in support of Somalia National Army forces who were "engaged in heavy fighting following a complex, extended, intense attack by more than 100 al-Shabaab fighters," the statement said, referring to the terror group linked to al Qaeda. There were no US military present on the ground when the airstrike occurred, a US defense official said. The strike occurred about 260 kilometers northeast of the Somalian capital of Mogadishu, near Galcad. US Africa Command assessed that no civilians were injured or killed due to the remote location. The US has provided ongoing support to the Somali government since President Joe Biden approved a Pentagon request to redeploy US troops to the area in an attempt to counter the terrorist group in May 2022. The approval to send fewer than 500 troops was a reversal of former President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw all US troops from the country in 2020. "Somalia remains central to stability and security in all of East Africa. U.S. Africa Command's forces will continue training, advising, and equipping partner forces to help give them the tools they need to defeat al-Shabaab, the largest and most deadly al-Qaeda network in the world," the US military said in Saturday's statement. In recent months, US forces have conducted numerous strikes in the region that have resulted in dozens of al-Shabaab casualties. In October, a US strike killed two al-Shabaab members about 218 kilometers north-northwest of Mogadishu. A subsequent November strike killed 17 al-Shabaab fighters approximately 285 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu. And in late December, another US strike killed six al-Shabaab militants near the city of Cadale, which is about 150 miles northeast of the capital. This story was first published on CNN. "US strike kills approximately 30 al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia" The Gyeongbu Highway near Jamwon in Seoul is packed with cars leaving the city for the Lunar New Year long weekend. Yonhap This year's extended Lunar New Year holiday runs from Saturday through Tuesday, with the nation celebrating its first such holiday without social distancing restrictions since the outbreak of COVID-19 three years ago. According to the Korea Expressway Corp. (KEC), some sections of the Gyeongbu Expressway, which links Seoul to the southeastern port city of Busan, were hit by traffic jams. The KEC estimated around 5.15 million vehicles will hit the road nationwide Saturday, traveling from the greater Seoul area to the provinces and vice versa. Outbound traffic from Seoul is expected to ease at around 8-9 p.m., it said. As of 5 p.m., the expected travel time was 4 hours and 40 minutes from Seoul to Busan, 3 hours and 30 minutes from Seoul to the southwestern city of Gwangju, and 4 hours and 10 minutes from Seoul to the southeastern city of Daegu, according to the KEC. (Yonhap) Details High Plains Snow Goose Festival, Feb. 3-5, Lamar, field trips range in price, some programs are free; highplainssnowgoose.com Something else: "Birds Heard in Words," with keynote speaker Alison Kondler of BirdingByEar.com, 7 p.m. Feb. 4, Lamar Resource and Senior Center, 407 E. Olive St., Lamar, $15, $25 couple for presentation; $30, $50 couple for banquet and presentation; free 12 and younger with paid adult; highplainssnowgoose.com President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee offered Lunar New Year greetings to the people Saturday, renewing his commitment to vitalize their livelihoods and take care of the vulnerable. In a video message, Yoon said the government "will take care of our needy neighbors more warmly and meticulously in the new year." Despite the grim economic outlooks at home and abroad, Yoon said the government will do its utmost for a "new leap" this year. Yoon also thanked soldiers, police officers and firefighters who are working over the holiday. The president returned home Saturday from a weeklong visit to the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland. Yoon said the visit's "entire schedule was focused on the economy so that our people and businessmen can demonstrate their capabilities on the world stage." (Yonhap) Scenery of Gangwon Province in the first part of the 20th century / Robert Neff Collection By Robert Neff Long ago, when tigers smoked pipes, there was a huge tiger known as White Whiskers who dwelt in the wild and sparsely populated region that is now Gangwon Province. Tigers were not uncommon in the province; in fact, tigers were fairly common throughout the peninsula the only exception being Jeju Island and a few small islands. However, White Whiskers was known as the proudest tiger on the peninsula. A tiger bares its teeth, published in The Korea Times Jan. 1, 1974. Korea Times file According to William Elliot Griffis, whose account this article is based upon: White Whiskers "had the most fiery eyes, the longest tail, the sharpest claws, and the widest stripes of any animal in the mountains. He could pull down a cow, fight all the dogs in any village, eat up a man, and was not afraid of a hunter, unless the man carried a gun. As for calves and pigs, he considered them mere tidbits. He could claw off the roof or break the bars of stables where cattle were kept, devour one pig on the spot, and then, slinging another on his back, could trot off to his lair miles away, to give his cubs their dinner of fresh pork." His claim to fame was that a Sanshin (Mountain Spirit) had chosen him the tiger to act as his personal servant. There were many Sanshin on the Korean Peninsula and they were feared and worshipped by the people who built shrines to honor the divine beings. Whenever a Sanshin desired, it could summon all of the tigers and leopards within its domain and, according to Griffis, would then choose the largest of the big cats to act as his mount as he "rode off into the clouds or to victory over Korea's enemies." Korea Times file One of White Whiskers' daily duties was to visit the various shrines on the mountains and hills in his domain to verify that offerings were made. The terrified population offered sacrifices every day out of fear of offending the Sanshin. "They piled up stone, rags, bits of metal, or laid food on dishes for the Mountain Spirit who was very exacting and tyrannical. The poor folks thought that if they did not thus heap up their offerings the spirit would be angry and send the tigers at night to prowl around the village, scratch at their doors, and eat up donkeys, cows, calves, pigs, and even men, women and children. Then the hunters would go out with matchlocks to slay the man-eaters, but by this time, in daylight, the tigers were far up into their lairs in the mountain." As for the tiger hunters, there is an old Chinese saying that claims for half the year Koreans hunt the tigers and the other half of the year tigers hunt Koreans. Griffis reasoned that it was during the warm seasons spring and summer when Koreans went out with their guns, but in winter, when the snow was deep and the temperatures low, Koreans stayed indoors and hungry tigers descended from the lofty mountain heights and rained terror upon small villages and isolated farmsteads. White Whiskers was a veteran of many tiger hunts and had managed to avoid all of the Korean villagers' pit traps and, despite the number of times he had been fired upon, dodged all bullets never once having been struck. He had wreaked his vengeance for these failed attempts many times over: "He had eaten up pigs, calves, dogs, donkeys and chickens and had twice feasted on men." Korea Times file Of course, with his many successes, the great tiger grew proud and held humans and the small denizens of the wilderness with great contempt. It was his pride that was his undoing but not by the hands of men and their guns; he fell from his place of power due to a small timid creature possessing neither strength nor sting but only its wits: a rabbit. There was a small rabbit who lived near the village in a small burrow. He "had often heard the squealing of unfortunate pigs and the kicking of braying donkeys, as they made dinners for Old White Whiskers." The rabbit was always very cautious to avoid the great cat but one winter day, while returning home after unsuccessfully foraging for food, he carelessly crossed a frozen river without verifying there were no large predators nearby. As the rabbit reached solid ground, he was confronted by the tiger who leaped from his hiding spot behind a big rock. The tiger stared at the little rabbit as if he was trying to hypnotize him with his brilliant green eyes. But the little rabbit stood his ground; he had anticipated meeting the ferocious tiger someday and had practiced maintaining his cool composure. With some degree of contempt, White Whiskers informed his prey that he was hungry and intended on eating the rabbit immediately. Of course, a small rabbit would do little to sate the ravenous hunger of a large tiger, but it would suffice until something larger could be found. Korea Times file The rabbit seized upon this point and, speaking very honorifically (with many references to the tiger as being the monarch of the forest), stressed how thin he was having been without nourishment for some time and that his value to the tiger was not as food but as the procurer of larger animals. He claimed that he would go up the mountain and drive the deer and wild pigs right into the hungry tiger's paws. He cautioned the tiger that it was imperative that the great feline did everything the little rabbit said; if he didn't, then the plan would fail. "At this prospect of a full dinner, the tiger actually grinned with delight. The way he yawned, showing his red, cavernous mouth, huge white teeth, each as big as a spike, and the manner of his rolling out his long curved tongue, full of rough points like thorns, nearly scared [the rabbit] out of his wits. The rabbit had never looked down into a tiger's mouth before, but he did not let on that he was afraid. It was only the tiger's way of showing how happy he was, when his mouth watered, and he licked his chops in anticipation of a mighty feast." With the rabbit's assurances that his only "ambition [was] to serve the lord of the mountains," the tiger allowed his own hubris to seal his fate when he agreed to the rabbit's plan. The rabbit directed White Whiskers back onto the ice where he was to lie down and close his eyes and not open them. The clever rabbit informed him that he was going to make a magic circle of dried grass around the majestic predator. The magic circle would compel the wild game to run around it, getting closer and closer until they literally ran into the tiger's paws. The rabbit cautioned, "If you hear a noise and even some crackling, don't open your eyes till I give you the word." Korea Times file Chai Seh-lynn, center, is co-author with North Korean refugee Park Ji-hyun of the book, "The Hard Road Out: One Woman's Escape From North Korea." Chai is pictured here at the Freedom Speakers International office with Casey Lartigue Jr., co-author with North Korean refugee Han Song-mi of the book "Greenlight to Freedom," and FSI co-founder Lee Eun-koo. Courtesy of Casey Lartigue By Chai Seh-lynn If you want to write a book and it is the two of you writing it, you have to work together a lot, share a lot. It is challenging, especially when one is from North Korea, the other from South Korea. I met Park Ji-hyun, a North Korean refugee for the first time in 2014 in the United Kingdom when Amnesty International hired me to interview her for a documentary. I spent an entire day asking her questions and listening to her answers. As I was processing all the information, I could tell it was creating confusions in my head, picturing the sufferings in North Korea, feeling the empathy for this woman, and at the same time sensing my anti-communism education instinctively kicking in, projecting Ji-hyun growing red horns on her head. This discomfort I experienced exists, in my opinion, suppressed and deeply rooted, in every single South Korean. If it was not for writing this book, I would have never addressed it myself. I would have just kept ignoring North Korea, as if it was a different country. Like all humans, I too like the comfort of repetition, accumulation of similar actions, as it gives me a sense of security. The encounter with Ji-hyun, however, shook it all up and that state of being out of balance made me realize it was time for me to write. Time to write about her, the human being, with all her emotions and memories. That is what people do, when they write in French. "An event is not complete unless written," said the 2022 Nobel Prize winner Annie Arnaud. The three things that we had in common a Korean heritage, the fact that we were women and the fact that we were missing home allowed to me engage her in conversation. The writer in me wanted to give Ji-hyun the home that she had buried in the deepest part of herself, by talking about her childhood. For her, remembering was painful, difficult, almost impossible, but I knew that exercise would bring her back to life. As for me, growing up, we never talked about North Korea at home. My friends tell me they never talk about it either. An eclipse in our life. I wrote this book as a duty of unfolding that eclipse, as if I had to redeem myself from the guilt of living with a forgotten past. Don't we exist as individuals because a country exists? The encounter of two perspectives, two cultures, two subjectivities, two interpretationsAs we know, there are always two sides to every story, and the reality is extremely more complex than it looks. Unless you meet and talk, you cannot resolve differences. You have to deconstruct yourself first, then soak yourself in the other person's skin, and only then will you be able to reconstruct yourself with a different mindset. By writing this book together, Ji-hyun and I did not achieve the big reunification, but we certainly made a "micro-reunification." A truly cathartic experience for both of us. Chai Seh-lynn is co-author with Park Ji-hyun of the book, "The Hard Road Out: One Woman's Escape From North Korea." Chai Seh-lynn is co-author with North Korean refugee Park Ji-hyun of the book, "The Hard Road Out: One Woman's Escape From North Korea." Courtesy of Casey Lartigue Jr. Courtesy of Jet Dela Cruz By David Tizzard This was the moment at which we began the unstoppable descent into terrible danger which so many of us will bitterly regret in times to come. I won't waste time here going over the question of who started the Ukraine war, or even why. Most people don't want to know and refuse to think about it, or to look up the facts. They defame and abuse anyone who tries to tell them. So to hell with that. I'm bored with trying. The Government claims to be in favour of free debate in universities, so all the stage army of 'Right-wing' thinkers and scribblers whoop with admiration that we can now perhaps discuss the transgender issue. Well and good. But the Government and its tame thinkers are not in favour of free debate on crucial national policy, and nor is anyone else much. Germany has become one of Ukraine's leading weapons suppliers in the 11 months since Russia's invasion. The debate among allies about the merits of sending battle tanks to Ukraine has focused the spotlight relentlessly on Germany, whose Leopard 2 tank is used by many other countries and has long been sought by Kyiv So it is left to me to tell you that it is an act of grave stupidity for the West to supply Ukraine with modern tanks . Unlike everyone else in the media and politics, I am not a military expert. But I know what tanks are for, and it is not defence When the Defence Secretary announced that British tanks were going to Ukraine, not one MP raised any doubts or opposed the move. Not one. To read the record of the non-debate is like reading the proceedings of some Communist fake parliament, supine and brain-dead. The country where political freedom was born has decided not to bother being free any more. So it is left to me to tell you that it is an act of grave stupidity for the West to supply Ukraine with modern tanks. Unlike everyone else in the media and politics, I am not a military expert. But I know what tanks are for, and it is not defence. What we have just decided to do is to prolong and deepen the war. Maybe Ukraine's new tanks will sweep all before them. Maybe they will bog down. Maybe they will try to take Crimea. Maybe they will soon be taking part in a Victory Parade in Red Square. I don't know. But if they cross into what Russia regards as its own territory, then do not be surprised by anything which happens. Look, Vladimir Putin is obviously a sinister tyrant and, in my view, went off his head completely during the Covid panic (look at those huge tables he sits at). I think he is probably capable of authorising the use of battlefield nuclear weapons if cornered. But it could be worse. If he is overthrown in a midnight putsch, he will not be replaced by some jolly, liberal-minded chap. He will be replaced by someone who might view it as a positive pleasure to press the red button. So there is the real possibility that a large chunk of Europe might be turned into a radioactive graveyard and that American conventional retaliation for this (which will be furious and powerful) will take us a stage further into the world of horror, loss, flight, pestilence and poverty which always follows war. If this happens, maybe more people might want to find out why it began. Maybe not. I will help, if asked. But why is Britain in this affair? I know that a lot of voters in key states in America hate Russia because their forebears came from lands Moscow had oppressed. I know that some neo-conservative fanatics in Washington have long desired to dismantle Russia and ensure that it is never an important country again. I even understand their points of view. But they are at least 3,000 miles away and will not be personally affected by their own policy. By contrast we are not 3,000 miles away. And I have absolutely no idea how Britain will become safer, happier or more prosperous thanks to following this strategy. Rather the opposite. Two countries are in a furious grapple because their deep, hard and unalterable interests conflict. The sane and decent policy for any outside power is to help push them into a lasting compromise, as the world did to France and Germany after 1945. Instead, we send tanks. It is as if the fire brigade went about starting fires. Men and women queue outside a municipal office in order to have their racial origins examined. As well as personal documents, they clutch the results of DNA tests and fading family photographs. If they can prove to the authorities that they are descended from a 19th Century black slave, they will be eligible for millions of dollars of official compensation. While this may sound like something from a Black Lives Matter campaign wish-list video, such a scene could become a reality in California and other American states. For in one of the most controversial political initiatives in recent times, the first multi-million-dollar payments could, in the coming months, be distributed as part of a scheme which, in the words of one Left-leaning Californian legislator, would be compensation for 'decades of socio-economic disparity going all the way back to the days of slavery'. Men and women queue outside a municipal office in order to have their racial origins examined. As well as personal documents, they clutch the results of DNA tests and fading family photographs. If they can prove to the authorities that they are descended from a 19th Century black slave, they will be eligible for millions of dollars of official compensation While this may sound like something from a Black Lives Matter campaign wish-list video, such a scene could become a reality in California and other American states Last Monday, a US national holiday to celebrate civil rights hero Martin Luther King, San Francisco's reparation committee proposed that every eligible black citizen in the city should receive a $5 million (4 million) payout a total bill of at least $50 billion (40 billion) for the city alone. The proposal goes before the city council in June and is expected to pass. Of course, millions of enslaved blacks suffered incalculable hurt, but the issue of reparations for their 21st Century descendants has triggered a huge moral debate. On the one hand, the compensation proposals represent an attempt by today's generation to atone black people for the American authorities' historic role in slavery and the legacy of inequality. But conversely, others argue that apart from the huge financial cost, the campaign is simply woke, political posturing dressed up in the moralistic language of guilt. What's more, such reparation suggestions are not restricted to America. As is said of so many liberal social issues: 'What happens in California today happens in the rest of America tomorrow and then in Britain very soon after.' Last summer, a conference was held at Cambridge University about the need for Britain to pay reparations to its former colonies and at which several academics condemned Britain's historical attitudes to racial minorities. The issue of reparations has become deeply divisive, with some of the harshest criticism coming from influential African-American voices. Larry Elder, a lawyer who unsuccessfully ran for California Governor, has said: 'Reparations is the extraction of money from people who were never slave owners to people who were never slaves.' Social commentator Candace Owens told me: 'Stealing money from individuals who have never owned slaves and awarding it to individuals who have never been slaves within a state that has never had slavery is peak Leftist insanity. It is wildly discriminatory and utterly defunct of any morality.' Another black lawyer, Leo Terrell, vowed to fight the reparations bill in court, saying: 'This is outrageous. It's unlawful. It's unconstitutional. It's racist.' The state of California has recommended that anyone directly descended from slaves should be paid $223,000 (180,000) in compensation 'for the enduring economic effects of racism and slavery'. California has about 2.6 million black residents, of whom an estimated two million would qualify, costing the state about $500 billion (403 billion). Across the whole of America, it is estimated by experts that it would cost up to $14 trillion (11.3 trillion) about $1 million (810,000) to each eligible black household to eliminate the existing black-white wealth gap. A Harvard professor, who asked not to be named, observed: 'No one argues that there has not been a grim history in this country. But, sadly, the reparations debate symbolises the ridiculousness of the culture wars. It isn't healing racial division it's promoting it.' With America's controversial history of slavery, the subject of reparations has been widely discussed for decades by Left-wing academics. Many have argued that black people have been held back prevented from buying homes, running businesses or getting an education by systematic racism in a world run by white men. But the reparations issue burst into the mainstream following the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020 But the reparations issue burst into the mainstream following the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020. The killing invigorated the Black Lives Matter movement and, along with public protests, the subject of reparations quickly developed and was openly discussed in the media and by politicians. As ever, the uber-woke liberal state of California was in the vanguard of the debate. It was the first to set up a 'reparations task force' and momentum has snowballed since then. To qualify for a payout for 'decades of harm they have experienced', black San Franciscans need to meet a series of criteria, including identifying as black on public records for the past ten years and being at least 18. The city's African American Reparations Advisory Committee has also suggested wiping out all black people's debts associated with educational and personal loans and credit cards, along with student and housing loans. Even though California was never a slave state, it is argued that local laws had debilitating effects on the black population. We have already seen early examples of reparations. Last year, a beach in Manhattan Beach, a wealthy enclave south of Los Angeles, which had been seized by the municipal authorities from a black family in 1924, was handed back to the original owners' great-grandsons to much fanfare. Campaigner Kavon Ward celebrated, saying: 'Power to the people! Power to MY people!' However, this month the family announced it was selling the land back to Los Angeles County for $20 million (16 million) and Ms Ward reacted by describing the sale as a 'psychological blow' to the reparations movement. The drive for reparations comes as statistics show that the average wealth of black households in America is $24,100 (19,500), compared with $188,200 (147,200) for white households. This, it is said, is the long-term result of decades of discrimination, beginning when enslaved black people were sent to California during the Gold Rush era and then suffered housing discrimination, mass imprisonment, unjust property seizures, poorer healthcare and lack of support for their businesses. No one argues that such evils didn't happen, and the legacy of segregation remains painfully raw in a country less than 250 years old. But other minority groups have attacked the fact that the reparations policy is restricted to those who can prove they are black. A spokesman for a Native American group said: 'Why are we not being compensated? We were here first. And while the crimes perpetrated on the African American community were severe indeed, do they surpass those inflicted on the Native Americans?' And Asian business people, who generate 20 per cent of California's wealth, have also complained. An Asian who works for a big talent agency told me: 'What about the hundred of thousands of Asians especially from China, Japan and the Philippines who came to California in search of the American dream but were also cheated out of property, jobs, good schooling? Why single out one ethnic group for reparations? Surely that is the very definition of racism.' British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose family built its fortune on sugar plantations in Barbados, has spoken openly about the issue: 'When I became an actor, Mum wasn't keen on me keeping it [the Cumberbatch surname]. 'They'll be after you for money,' she used to say' Political commentator Professor Victor D Hanson worries that singling out African Americans is counter-productive to easing racial tensions in California, a state that is 40 per cent Hispanic and which has offered a safe haven and 'chance to flourish' to immigrants from Japan, Armenia and other repressed minorities. He said: 'Creating new tribal tensions in a multi-racial state without a history of either slavery or Jim Crow [segregation laws] and without a majority ethnic/racial population, which suffers from an annual out-migration of capital and some 300-400,000 taxpayers is, well, pure insanity and will only fuel each tribal group to lodge monetary claims against one another.' In historical terms, California was 'annexed' from Mexico, whose people now make up nearly 40 per cent of the state's population. 'California was never a slave state, it was taken from the Mexicans,' a Hispanic council leader in Los Angeles told me last night. 'If they are going to hand out millions of dollars, give them to those who are native to this state and who had their land stolen from them.' More controversially, it is planned that the reparations payment will also be given to anyone imprisoned during America's so-called War On Drugs the 30-year nationwide crackdown on illegal drugs started by President Richard Nixon in 1971. It ended after a damning report from the American Civil Liberties Union showed a disproportionate number of black men were being jailed, often over relatively minor offences such as possessing cannabis. Another part of the plan would provide a supplementary income to black low-income households to match the city's average income $97,000 (78,000) for the next 250 years. Inevitably, Hollywood chiefs those cultural outriders of the woke movement have jumped into the debate. There have been calls for the movie industry to atone for its part in historic racism. For example, it has been suggested that compensation is paid to black people because of the damage done by the 1915 silent film The Birth Of A Nation, which was deeply racist and presented a heroic portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan. It was said to have done 'incalculable harm' and created a 'justification' for prejudice, racism and discrimination. British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose family built its fortune on sugar plantations in Barbados, has spoken openly about the issue: 'When I became an actor, Mum wasn't keen on me keeping it [the Cumberbatch surname]. 'They'll be after you for money,' she used to say.' Comedian Chelsea Handler said: 'We're out of excuses as a country so please stop making them. We built this country on the back of black and brown people.' George Clooney, Ariana Grande and Madonna have all voiced support. An executive at Disney Studios says Hollywood has already begun to prepare to fork out. 'We've been having discussions with other studios, talent agencies and management. People are going to have to put their hands in their pockets and put their money where their mouth is.' Meanwhile, California is undergoing major demographic changes. Since the start of the Covid pandemic, more than 300,000 state residents mostly white, middle-classes have fled for more tax-friendly places such as Texas and Tennessee. This so-called White Flight risks reducing California's tax revenues at a time when people are talking about the authorities having to find a possible total bill for reparations of $500 billion. Not surprisingly, San Francisco City Council has not announced how it intends to find the money. 'There are a lot of Silicon Valley billionaires. There are unbelievable amounts of money here, so it will eventually be found. But make no mistake, taxes will have to go up,' said a council source. Last night, one woman who works as a personal trainer in Los Angeles, said she was going back through old photo albums and posting off a genetic test in order to prove she qualifies for a $5 million payout. 'This won't benefit my ancestors, who truly suffered. But for me it would be like winning the lottery. 'We've been waiting for 400 years for justice.' The only remaining question is when they will choose to strike. Most MPs think the challenge will come soon after the local elections in May. A few believe it could be in the autumn, around the time of the next Tory Party conference. But there is no longer any doubt that at some point this year, Rishi Sunak will face an organised attempt to oust him and reinstall Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. Boris definitely wants it, an ally of the former PM told me. He thinks he has unfinished business. His people are starting to get properly organised. Its not just chatter any more. The Bring Back Boris plot has three main components. Rivals? There is no longer any doubt that at some point this year, Rishi Sunak will face an organised attempt to oust him and reinstall Boris Johnson as Prime Minister Boris's friends feel similarly confident about the response of the wider Tory Party membership. Hes the only person who has any mandate, one claimed The first is to get the 50 or so letters from MPs required to force a no- confidence vote against Rishi Sunak. The second is finding enough rebels to ensure Sunak loses that vote, or is sufficiently damaged that his position becomes untenable. And finally a short, sharp leadership election in which Tory members give the formal stamp of approval for the return of their prodigal son. Those strategising for a coup believe the first hurdle is easy to clear. There were 200 MPs who stood with Boris in last Junes vote, one plotter told me, referring to the confidence vote in Boris when he was in No 10. He won, but was forced to step down weeks later. He added: Also, there were more than 100 MPs who were prepared to back him when Liz Truss stood down. Getting the 50 letters to trigger a contest will be easy. Boris's friends feel similarly confident about the response of the wider Tory Party membership. Hes the only person who has any mandate, one claimed. He got it from the voters in the 2019 General Election and from the party membership. Hes still massively popular among the grassroots. There wont be any problem in getting the members to endorse him again. The one perceived difficulty from the perspective of the plotters is identifying enough MPs to engage in one final act of political regicide, especially following the anarchic Year of Three Prime Ministers. But again, they feel momentum is in their favour. Before Christmas, Id have put the chances of getting enough support to force Rishi out at around 20 per cent, a Boris supporter told me. Now, Id say its 40 per cent. The problem has been that quite a few colleagues were saying, Whats the point? The Tories are finished anyway. But now the mood is becoming, What have we got to lose? We might as well take one last gamble with the Big Fella. Those close to Sunak attempt to rubbish such talk. They claim Boris does not actually want to mount a comeback. And that his wife also strongly opposes any return to Downing Street Im told that at least seven senior former Cabinet Ministers are actively organising for Sunaks removal. And they cover several broad factions of the parliamentary party. At the spearhead are the Boris true believers. They feel their man was himself the victim of a gross act of treachery cunningly masterminded by Sunak and his supporters and that he needs to be avenged. With Rishi in No 10, we are heading into the long, cold and brutal wasteland of thankless opposition, leading Johnson cheerleader Nadine Dorries wrote in The Mail on Sunday two weeks ago. These views are dismissed as mad by Sunaks supporters, but her analysis of her partys electoral prospects is widely shared on the Tory benches. A second group are allies of Liz Truss. They freely acknowledge she made mistakes and was the primary architect of her downfall as PM. But they also believe Sunak and his team were mobilising against her from the moment she secured the leadership. Rishi had been planning to take over for at least two years or maybe even longer, one Truss ally claimed. He just couldnt accept it when Liz beat him. There were people in his team who were convinced that it would be better to be in opposition than let Truss run things. Other Truss loyalists point the finger directly at Sunak himself. Rishi was actively involved, one insisted. He was there with the plotters, going through spread sheets of supporters. Rishi had been planning to take over for at least two years or maybe even longer, one Truss ally claimed. He just couldnt accept it when Liz beat him' Then there is the third faction the survivalists. They comprise the growing number of Tory Ministers and backbenchers who believe they have no other option but to try to save as many seats as possible in the face of an impending electoral tsunami. And they are convinced their present leader lacks the requisite political skills to deliver any form of salvation. I just cant ignore reality, said one former Minister who has long been sceptical of talk of a Boris return. Rishi leaves my constituents feeling cold. But they still love Boris. I just think its becoming inevitable that hes going to come back. Im certain that by the end of the year, Rishi will be gone and Boris will be PM again. Those close to Sunak attempt to rubbish such talk. They claim Boris does not actually want to mount a comeback. And that his wife also strongly opposes any return to Downing Street. Boriss people are getting organised its not just chatter any longer There are a small number of people the usual suspects who are agitating, one told me wearily, but Boris is nowhere near being on board. Yet despite No 10s denials, there is a growing awareness in Downing Street that their Boris Problem is not going away. Thats why tentative thought has been given to the idea of offering him a role as Sunaks official Ukraine Envoy. But nothing concrete has been offered. And even if it was, it may not be accepted. Because Boris is only too aware that events are slowly but surely moving in his favour. The past seven days have seen another series of troubles for Sunak and his team. The Levelling Up announcement viewed as vital for the Tory revival in Red Wall seats misfired. No sooner was it revealed the PM had flown to Blackpool by RAF jet, rather than take the train, than it became clear a significant chunk of the Levelling Up investment was being earmarked for affluent areas of the South and South East. This strategy was immediately lambasted by West Midlands Tory Mayor Andy Street as just another example of why Whitehalls bidding and begging-bowl culture is broken. Then, on a walkabout to promote the plan, the Prime Minister rejected a call for tax cuts by proclaiming: Youre not idiots, you know whats happened. And to cap off his troublesome week, he found himself whacked with another fixed penalty notice for failing to wear a seatbelt. Many Tory backbenchers dread a return to the chaos of 2022. But they arent going to sit back and let these unforced errors continue for much longer. It may be a few weeks before things come to a head. It may take several months. But the plot against Rishi Sunak is already under way. When it was announced on Friday that Rishi Sunak had been fined for failing to wear a seatbelt, the news was greeted with disproportionate glee by MPs loyal to Boris Johnson. He has got to go! said one. Look at the damage which Boris sustained over his party fine. The PMs fixed penalty notice, for being unbelted in a moving car, is unlikely to trigger the same chain of events which brought down Mr Johnson in the wake of Covid lockdown breaches in Downing Street. But the reaction to it on his own backbenches shows the extent to which the brief, uneasy truce between warring factions in the party is already starting to fracture. A Mail on Sunday poll gives Mr Sunak a boost by indicating that there would no longer be any electoral bounce for the party if Mr Johnson returned to his former role of Prime Minister It involves a delicate coalition between pro-Boris MPs and a smaller rump of Parliamentarians loyal to his short-lived successor, Liz Truss. Despite mutual suspicion, the BLiz club are united by their antipathy towards Mr Sunaks high tax, low growth brand of conservatism, as they see it. The two former Prime Ministers met for a secret summit earlier this month at 5 Hertford Street, the exclusive London members club which has become a byword for political intrigue, although both sides insist that there is absolutely no plotting between them. While Mr Johnson is professing overt loyalty to Mr Sunak, his outriders are dreaming of their hero making a triumphant return to No 10 if Labours current double digit opinion poll lead fails to drop this year. Nadine Dorries, Boriss most ardent cheerleader, has interviewed dozens of sources all given secret codenames for The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson, her whodunnit account of his dramatic exit from office. The former Cabinet Minister is not the only senior Tory who hopes that the sequel will be titled The Political Resurrection Of Boris Johnson. This comes as a Mail on Sunday poll today gives Mr Sunak a boost by indicating that there would no longer be any electoral bounce for the party if Mr Johnson returned to his former role of Prime Minister. With Mr Sunak as leader, Sir Keir Starmers Labour are on 44 per cent, with the Conservatives 14 points behind on 30 per cent. The research found that, with Mr Johnson in No 10, the lead would be the same. The Deltapoll survey also discovered that when people are asked who the best person to lead the Conservatives into the next election would be, Mr Sunak beats Mr Johnson by 36 per cent to 28 per cent. An ally of Mr Johnson tells todays The Mail on Sunday: Boris definitely wants it. He thinks he has unfinished business' However, our survey gives Mr Sunak a net approval rating of minus 15, with Mr Starmer recording a score of plus ten. While Mr Johnson has signed a deal for his memoirs, his supporters stress that there are no plans to publish them this year. Many hope for a sequel called The Political Resurrection Of Boris Johnson They say he has unfinished business, and predict that Mr Sunaks administration will have imploded by the autumn under the weight of growing disenchantment over his high-tax brand of Conservatism, as well as Sir Keir Starmers apparent procession towards power. They agree that Mr Sunaks insistence that only idiots would cut taxes in the current climate represents electoral suicide. Casting a heavy shadow over these putative ambitions, however, is the spectre of the Commons investigation into Mr Johnson over Partygate, which will remind voters of the arguments over lockdown breaches in Downing Street. The kangaroo court, as his supporters characterise Parliaments Privileges Committee, will broadcast to millions the interrogation of Mr Johnson over whether he misled MPs about law-breaking gatherings. Mr Johnson has been accused of joking at one No 10 leaving event during lockdown that this is the most unsocially-distanced party in the UK right now. However, he repeatedly told Parliament that he did not know that the gatherings broke Covid laws in place at the time. The BLiz allies have been fanning each others paranoia: according to diplomatic chatter which has reached the ears of the Boris camp, friends of Mr Sunak encouraged senior figures in Washington to attack Ms Trusss doomed Budget in September. The International Monetary Funds acid comment that We do not recommend large and untargeted fiscal packages at this juncture helped to pile the pressure on Ms Trusss crumbling regime, and paved the way for Mr Sunak to succeed her. The suggestion is rubbished by sources close to Mr Sunak, who say that the idea that Rishi was plotting away during Lizs time is absolute nonsense... He was enjoying time with his family and away from the stresses of Government. Accusations also persist that Mr Sunaks determination to maintain sound finances comes at the expense of good governance. Ms Truss is mobilising her loyal band of supporters behind a political and commercial plan to rehabilitate her reputation and boost her finances According to one Johnson ally, when Mr Sunak was Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2019, he blocked a proposed 70 million of funding for counter-terrorism schemes. Mr Johnson overruled him a day before the London Bridge terror attack in which two people died. Other sources claim that, as Chancellor, Mr Sunak blocked a request by Mr Johnson in February last year for 200 million to pay for detention facilities for asylum seekers on Army bases and at old airfields, and to fund improved co-ordination between the Border Force and the military to try to tackle the small boats crisis. A source said: He never bothered to attend a single meeting of the small boats task force. He wanted asylum seekers to be dispersed into the community but that made it impossible for them to be tracked, and many just absconded and disappeared. Pro-Johnson MPs also mutter that tax could foreshorten Mr Sunaks political career in another way. Following the row over the revelation that his wife, Akshata Murty, claimed non-domicile tax status meaning that she did not have to pay UK taxes on income earned elsewhere lawyers have told them that the arrangement means the clock is ticking on the couples time in this country. Although Ms Murty was forced to agree to give up her right to pay only international tax on her foreign earnings, she is still exempted from inheritance tax that would be due on the couples estimated 700 million fortune. That right runs out in 2027, after which she would run a risk of landing her family with a tax bill running into hundreds of millions of pounds if she stayed in the UK. All the claims are dismissed by Mr Sunaks allies, who say the smears are invented or distorted. Those Tory MPs who groan at the prospect of a return to colourful Johnsonian politics point to polls which predict that he will lose his Uxbridge seat at the next election. But his supporters say that if he were PM again, the chances of him holding the seat would be substantially higher or at the very least, he would be in a position to find a safer seat for himself. Despite their shared political beliefs, a BLiz club alliance would be highly cynical even by Westminster standards. A source who claims knowledge of Mr Johnsons thinking says that he supported Ms Truss in last summers leadership contest against Mr Sunak because he assumed she would blow up and he could sail to the rescue. The source adds: He just didnt expect her to detonate quite so soon. Few of Mr Johnsons supporters will talk openly of the comeback plan, although one, Lord Greenhalgh, predicted publicly earlier this month that Mr Johnson would be back as Prime Minister by the end of this year. If the May local election results are as poor for the Conservatives as many party strategists fear, the publication of Ms Dorries book on the end of Mr Johnsons leadership could pour petrol on the flames. She said earlier this month that the Tory Party will die if Mr Johnson does not return as leader, after The Mail on Sunday was told that Labour strategists believed that his ejection from No 10 had been gold dust for their chances of winning the next election. A Boris-Liz alliance is cynical even by Westminster standards Meanwhile, Ms Truss who is said by friends to be emerging from the grief phase after her defenestration is mobilising her loyal band of supporters behind a political and commercial plan to rehabilitate her reputation and boost her finances. Sources close to Ms Truss say that the most likely person to have encouraged the IMF to criticise the Truss Budget was Sir Tom Scholar, a senior Treasury civil servant who was fired soon after she became Prime Minister. However, senior Whitehall sources say that rather than being a Sunak stooge Sir Tom is tipped to take up a senior role in Labour under Sir Keir Starmer. The sources added that the IMF criticism came out of the blue, and the Treasury had not been given any advance notice. An ally of Mr Johnson tells todays The Mail on Sunday: Boris definitely wants it. He thinks he has unfinished business. His people are starting to get properly organised. Its not just chatter any more. Another said: Hes the only person who has any mandate. He got it from the voters in the 2019 General Election and from the party membership. Hes still massively popular among the grass roots. There wont be any problem in getting the members to endorse him again. A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: Boris Johnson is fully supporting the Government. To say the Labour Party has a problem with women, as its MP for Canterbury Rosie Duffield claimed last week, is not strictly true. It would be fairer to say that it has a problem with biological women or, to use the rather unpleasant and derogatory-sounding term imposed upon us by the trans lobby and its various supporters, a cis women problem. (Cis or cisgender is a term used to describe a person whose gender identity corresponds with their biological sex.) By contrast, if you are a trans woman that is to say, a person born with the biological characteristics of a male who has chosen to live, either full-time or part time, either superficially (by adopting the appearance of a woman) or irreversibly (by undergoing hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery) as a female then the Labour Party loves you. Adores you, worships you, in fact; dances on eggshells around you, bows and scrapes, fawns, respects your every wish regardless of what that means for other women. If you are a trans woman (or girl), the Labour Party will prioritise your needs and wants, your worries and concerns, over boring old biological women (or girls) at every turn. The Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer fundamentally believes that a biological male living as a female is worth more than a biological female just minding her own business It will even try to gaslight biological women into believing that our rights are inferior to those of trans women, that we are somehow second class to our trans sisters and that anyone who dares challenge that narrative only has themselves to blame when, like Ms Duffield, they end up being roundly abused. Thats the sexism at the heart of this. The Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer fundamentally believes that a biological male living as a female is worth more than a biological female just minding her own business. It would prefer to give in to the demands of a small minority than safeguard the welfare of thousands of women and girls who, on account of generally being physically smaller and weaker than biological males, face all sorts of threats in daily life from perverted policemen to violent partners that mean safe, female-only spaces are very important to them. But, because Sir Keir cant even define what it means to be a woman and do us the basic courtesy of acknowledging our identity, those concerns dont matter. That is what we learned this week during the debate in Parliament on the Governments decision to block Nicola Sturgeons gender identification legislation, opposition to which is centred on the erosion of safe spaces for women and girls. As Ms Duffield tried to outline, calmly but with passion, her concerns about what impact this legislation which would allow anyone at all to legally self-identify as either sex and therefore enter all spaces, including those necessarily segregated by sex, such as domestic violence settings, changing rooms and prisons might have on vulnerable women, she was subjected to horrible abuse from her own side. Former Labour Minister Ben Bradshaw yelled absolute rubbish at her, while fellow Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle also tried to shut her down. Ms Duffield later said that Mr Russell-Moyle then sat near another female MP and stared at her in an intimidating way. So much of the response to women who dare question the ideology of self-identification is, Im afraid, highly abusive. It also smacks of a woman, know your place type of misogyny that stems from an inalienable sense of superiority in the minds of certain types of men who think they understand the female experience better than we do. But the real elephant in the room, the thing that no one is allowed or has the courage to say, is this: trans women remain whichever way you cut it biological males. Just as trans men remain, biologically, female. Of course, many trans activists dont accept that notion: they believe that biological sex does not exist, and that self-determined gender cannot be questioned. Which is fine: believe whatever you like; but respect the rights of others to disagree and speak out if they believe an ideology to be harmful. On the basis that biological sex does exist which is my assertion the issue then is that if a trans man enters an all-male space, he does not generally represent a physical threat to other males. Whereas when a trans woman enters an all-female space, there would be much more potential for abuse. Not just because trans women tend to be bigger and stronger than biological women; but also because individuals with a male biology are responsible for 98 per cent of sex crimes and 90 per cent of all other violence. Individuals, for example, such as Karen White, a convicted paedophile with a history of violent behaviour who was sent to an womens prison (despite having undergone neither surgery nor hormone treatment) where she proceeded to sexually assault two women. Fact: men hurt women, and they do it a lot. And if men posing as women (or boys posing as girls) are allowed to enter female spaces without any form of scrutiny ie via self-identification the potential for abuse is huge. Thats really all women like Ms Duffield (and J.K. Rowling, who herself also suffered domestic violence at the hands of her ex) are asking: dont lets create a situation when ill-intentioned men can game the system to prey on vulnerable women. And by vulnerable I also mean, of course, the vast majority of trans women who, as well as deserving the right to live full lives, free from harassment and prejudice, also deserve protection from predatory males posing as trans. Thats why it makes sense to keep the current legislation. The law as it stands safeguards trans women as much as anyone else from opportunistic, unscrupulous, and potentially very dangerous individuals. That the Labour Party cannot even begin to engage with this, or debate it in a civilised manner, does not surprise me. This is not the first time it has been accused of sexism. Its not just the experience of women such as Duffield and former Labour MP Luciana Berger (who quit in part over misogyny in the party) last year the independent Forde Report concluded that there was overt and underlying sexism in messages between the partys senior members of staff. Labour has never had a woman leader, and now we see why. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have had three. The Tory Party appreciates and understands women, not just within its own ranks but everywhere. Thats why the Prime Minister is right to block this Bill. It is not the easy, fashionable thing to do but it is the right thing to do, for the sake of all women, trans or otherwise. And why, if Starmer ever gets to No 10, the rights of women in this country could be set back decades. Rishi's therapy own goal While I admire Rishi Sunaks stance on self-identification, I think he is making a tactical not to mention moral mistake by backing the conversion therapy ban being extended to transgender people. Its not just that there is simply no way the Government can stop the law of unintended consequences hitting well-intentioned parents and teachers who simply want to ensure a child does not embark on an irreversible course of action they may later come to regret. Its also that it dilutes the sanity of his stance on self-ID, which is a clear win for common sense and one which, I am certain, will resonate with voters at the ballot box. While I admire Rishi Sunaks stance on self-identification, I think he is making a tactical not to mention moral mistake by backing the conversion therapy ban being extended to transgender people My brilliant colleague, Rebecca English, reports that King Charless Dumfries House in East Ayrshire is to play host to a luxury wellness retreat run by social media sensation Finlay Wilson, aka the Kilted Yogi. Wilsons speciality is striking yogic poses against stunning Scottish backdrops, wearing nothing but a kilt. So far, so fabulous. Ive just one question: given what they say about men in kilts, what happens when he does a headstand? And given the cold snap, could we be facing a Prince Harry Frostnip-istan situation? My brilliant colleague, Rebecca English, reports that King Charless Dumfries House in East Ayrshire is to play host to a luxury wellness retreat run by social media sensation Finlay Wilson, aka the Kilted Yogi (pictured) The wokelets at the British Museum have banned the word mummy. Apparently the correct terminology is now mummified remains. Thats fine, but someone is going to have to tell my mother. A woman who has been hailed a Kylie Jenner lookalike has claimed she spent $10,000 for hymen reconstruction surgery to experience 'losing her virginity' for the second time. Brazilian influencer Julia Medeiros, 22, from Miami, explained that she underwent the procedure because she doesn't have fond memories of the first man she had sex with and wanted a do-over. 'I was a 17-year-old teenager when I lost my virginity to a 30-year-old guy,' she told NeedToKnow.online. 'Just like many women, I was deceived. I was promised marriage and children like in fairy tales.' Brazilian influencer Julia Medeiros, 22, from Miami, paid $10,000 for hymen repair surgery The Kylie Jenner lookalike explained that she lost her virginity to a 30-year-old man when she was just 17 and now regrets it Medeiros didn't name the man who broke her heart five years ago, but she noted that he didn't keep any of his promises 'once he got what he wanted.' 'Unfortunately, like many women, I believe we have this moment stolen from us,' she said of losing her virginity to the wrong guy. 'I always wanted to have that special moment for myself. I want it to be unique and romantic like in fairy tales that's why I had the surgery.' Hymen repair is the surgical reconstruction of the thin membrane that surrounds the vagina opening. An intact hymen has long been associated with virginity, but it doesn't have any connection to whether a woman has had sex. Everyday activities such as exercising, riding a bike, and inserting a tampon can cause a hymen to tear before a person has had sexual intercourse. Medeiros didn't name the man who broke her heart five years ago, but she noted that he didn't keep any of his promises 'once he got what he wanted' 'I always wanted to have that special moment for myself. I want it to be unique and romantic like in fairy tales - that's why I had the surgery,' she said Medeiros, who has more than 100,000 Instagram followers, is confident she can find the right guy this time around Medeiros has been dubbed the 'virgin of Miami' by her friends since the procedure, a title that she has proudly listed in her Instagram bio. She admitted to facing backlash for going under the knife, but she doesn't have any regrets about giving herself a second chance. 'Now I can lose my virginity with someone special,' she said. Medeiros, who has more than 100,000 Instagram followers, is confident she can find the right guy this time around. Medeiros has been dubbed the 'virgin of Miami' by her friends since the procedure, a title that she has proudly listed in her Instagram bio The influencer admitted to facing backlash for going under the knife, but she doesn't have any regrets about giving herself a second chance 'Now I can lose my virginity with someone special,' she said 'I'm an adult woman now,' she explained. 'I'm no longer easily deceived and manipulated by men.' Medeiros made headlines last spring when she revealed she hasn't worn underwear in two years, saying she feels 'happier' and 'healthier' when she is going commando. 'I haven't worn panties in two years. My libido has increased a lot because I feel more comfortable in everyday life,' she told Jam Press. 'I feel like my butt has gotten lighter and has increased in size. I gained a much more sensual contour of my body. The panties prevented me from showing my real [butt] size.' Medeiros noted that she will consider putting on underwear for 'special occasions,' and she still wears bikini bottoms at the pool for obvious reasons. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex typically put on a united front in interviews Meghan Markle was 'more wary' of Prince Harry's memoir release, sources have claimed - as the Duchess was notably absent from his lengthy media tour. The royal couple typically put on a united front, with Prince Harry making an appearance at the end of his wife's interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021. He has made a number of cameos since, from sitting in the audience with schoolchildren in New York as Meghan promoted her book The Bench, to juggling in the window at the end of her 40th birthday video. 'We're like salt and pepper,' Meghan once said. 'We always move together.' But as Harry released his explosive memoir Spare, Meghan has been notably absent. Meghan Markle has been seen far less frequently in the wake of the release of Spare Meghan Markle was 'more wary' of Prince Harry's memoir release, sources have claimed - as the Duchess was notably absent from his lengthy media tour The royal couple typically put on a united front, with Prince Harry making an appearance at the end of his wife's interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 The memoir includes claims that the Prince of Wales physically attacked him and teased him about his panic attacks, and that the King put his own interests above Harry's and was jealous of the Duchess of Sussex and the Princess of Wales. The prince has taken part in a number of high-profile media engagements since the book launched on January 10, including an interview with Anderson Cooper for CBS' 60 Minutes. He also appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert - very much on his own. The Duchess was last spotted publicly with Prince Harry in December 2022, when the royal couple travelled to New York to accept an award for their 'heroic' stand against 'structural racism' in the Royal Family. Sources have told the Telegraph that had Meghan been involved in any aspect of promoting the book, she may well have been accused of trying to steal the limelight. But as Harry released his explosive memoir Spare, Meghan has been notably absent The prince has taken part in a number of high-profile media engagements since the book launched on January 10, including an interview with Anderson Cooper for CBS' 60 Minutes Others have suggested Meghan's absence sends a message: this is Harry's project. It was said by a source close to the couple that Meghan was 'more wary' about the extremely personal memoir than the prince was, adding she may have raised 'gentle concerns'. But, the newspaper reports, once Harry made up his mind to go ahead with the two-year project with ghostwriter JR Moehringer, the Duchess remained supportive. 'Is this the way she would have approached things? Possibly not', said one source. 'But she will always back him and would never have got involved in promoting such a personal project. This is about his own life, his own journey and his own perspective.' It has also been alleged that 'truth bombs' revealed in Prince Harry's tell-all memoir could have 'dire consequences' for his wife Meghan's political ambitions. In one passage, the prince - who was known as 'Captain Wales' while in the military - wrote that did not think of those killed 'as people' but instead 'chess pieces' he had taken off the board. Harry pictured during his second tour of duty at Camp Bastion, southern Afghanistan, in 2012 Harry and Meghan pictured in September last year at Global Citizen Live in New York Another scene described taking cocaine 'a few times' as a 17-year-old and a bad mushroom trip which saw him hallucinate that a bin was talking to him. Brand experts have said the revelations could scupper Meghan's political hopes amid speculation that she may have ambitions for elected office. Nick Ede told MailOnline: 'The revelations from the new book Spare will have a direct effect on Meghan's lofty ambitions of running for office. 'With her husband's candid admissions of drug use, lurid tales of his loss of virginity and more importantly his admission to killing 25 people when on active duty, these could potentially have dire consequences on her and her ambitions. 'We know that when someone has political ambitions that they are constantly under the microscope not only from the media but also political opponents.' It was claimed last week that Spare has become the fastest-selling non-fiction book since records began in 1998. It was said by a source close to the couple that Meghan was 'more wary' about the extremely personal memoir than the prince was, adding she may have raised 'gentle concerns' He also appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert - very much on his own It was claimed last week that Spare has become the fastest-selling non-fiction book since records began in 1998 The Duke of Sussex's autobiography has sold 750,000 copies across all formats - print, audio and e-book - in the UK since its publication on January 10. This makes it the biggest selling memoir ever for its first week of publication, according to publishers Transworld, the UK division of Penguin Random House. Official figures from Nielsen BookData showed the book, which was written by celebrity ghostwriter JR Moehringer, sold 467,183 print copies in its first week alone. The data released by Nielsen shows the book has broken the previous record of 210,506 set by the first Pinch Of Nom cookbook - written by Kay Allinson - in 2019. The Duke of Sussex's autobiography has sold 750,000 copies across all formats - print, audio and e-book - in the UK since its publication on January 10 In a US broadcast promoting the work, Harry branded the Duchess of Cornwall the 'villain' and 'dangerous', accusing her of rehabilitating her image at the expense of his. As the duke continued a run of high-profile promotional interviews, he said he 'would like nothing more' than for his children to have relationships with the Royal Family. His remarks about his son and daughter came despite the criticism he has levelled at his brother William, father Charles and stepmother Camilla. He also described his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, as his 'guardian angel' and said she is with him 'all the time'. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, left, and Ukrainian participant Oleksii Reznikov attend the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Jan. 20. AP-Yonhap Ukraine will have to wait longer to find out if it will get advanced German-made battle tanks. A dispute over sending the tanks from Western allies to help Ukraine against Russia's invasion played out both in public and private Friday, as more than 50 defense leaders meeting in Germany failed to hammer out an agreement stalled by Berlin's hesitation. Failure to reach agreement on what has become an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders largely overshadowed commitments from a number of nations including the U.S. to send billions of dollars in equipment and weapons to the war effort. While U.S. and NATO leaders denied any dissension in the ranks and praised Germany for its widespread weapons and training contributions to Ukraine, a smaller group of leaders met privately with the Germans to try to find common ground. They were unable to forge a consensus on sending the German-made Leopard tanks. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said Friday that 15 countries that have the Leopards discussed the issue but no decisions were made. He called the meeting a ''good discussion among allies'' and said the matter would be discussed again at future talks. Germany would need to agree for the tanks to be given to Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO. Despite pleas from Ukrainian officials, Germany has so far resisted mounting pressure to quickly supply Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv, or at least clear the way for other countries, such as Poland, to deliver them from their own stocks. Asked at the close of the Friday meeting whether Germany was ''doing enough,'' U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin responded, ''Yes, but we can all do more.'' ''They are a reliable ally and they've been that way for a very, very long time,'' he said. ''And I truly believe that they'll continue to be a reliable ally going forward.'' Austin also downplayed the immediate importance of tanks, noting that the U.S. Stryker combat vehicles and Bradley armored vehicles that are being sent would give Ukraine new capabilities in the war. ''This isn't really about one single platform,'' he said. The defense leaders heard an impassioned plea for more military aid from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Speaking via video link, he told the gathering that ''terror does not allow for discussion.'' He said ''the war started by Russia does not allow delays.'' Germany acknowledged there had been no resolution. But, speaking to reporters outside the conference hall, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, ''We will make our decisions as soon as possible.'' He said he had ordered the ministry to look into Germany's tank stocks so he can be prepared for a possible green light and be able to ''act immediately.'' Pistorius added that Germany will ''balance all the pros and contras before we decide things like that. . I am very sure that there will be a decision in the short term, but I don't know how the decision will look.'' British military personnel stand next to a Challenger 2 tank at the Tapa Military Camp, in Estonia, Jan. 19. AP-Yonhap The issue, however, has grown increasingly complicated. The U.S. has resisted providing its own M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing extensive and complex maintenance and logistical challenges with the high-tech vehicles. Washington believes it would be more productive to send German Leopards since many allies have them and Ukrainian troops would need less training than on the more difficult Abrams. U.S. and German officials have given mixed signals about whether the U.S. and German decisions are linked. A U.S. official familiar with White House thinking said Germany has expressed hesitance to providing its tanks unless the U.S. sends Abrams. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private Biden administration deliberations, added that there was some bewilderment in the administration over the German position, since Britain, another NATO ally, has already agreed to provide Challenger 2 tanks. Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesman for the German government, denied that Berlin has demanded that the U.S. supply Abrams tanks alongside any shipment of Leopards. Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman said deployment of Western tanks would trigger ''unambiguously negative'' consequences. ''All these tanks will require both maintenance and repairs, and so on, so (sending them) will add to Ukraine's problems, but will not change anything with regard to the Russian side achieving its goals,'' spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a media briefing. Austin and U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, laid out the latest massive package of aid the U.S. is sending, which totals $2.5 billion and includes Stryker armored vehicles for the first time. It also will provide eight air defense systems, 350 Humvees, 53 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, more than 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and rockets, and missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. Other pledges announced ahead of the Ramstein meeting included S-60 anti-aircraft guns from Poland with 70,000 rounds of ammunition, additional Stinger air-defense systems and two M-17 helicopters from Latvia, and two Russian-made Mi-8 helicopters and dozens of L-70 anti-aircraft guns with ammunition from Lithuania. Germany's Pistorius, who took office Thursday, said that opinions among allies were mixed on the tank issue, and added that ''the impression that has occasionally arisen that there is a united coalition and Germany is standing in the way is wrong.'' Milley told reporters traveling with him this week that new U.S. training of Ukrainian troops, combined with an array of new weapons and armored vehicles, will be key to helping the country's forces take back territory that has been captured by Russia in the nearly 11-month-old war. The influx of new weapons, tanks and armored carriers comes as Ukraine faces intense combat in the country's east around the city of Bakhmut and the nearby salt mining town of Soledar. The battles are expected to intensify in the spring. Milley said Friday that the number of Russian dead and wounded is now ''significantly over'' 100,000 people, a figure he gave in November. ''This is a very, very bloody war and there's significant casualties on both sides,'' he said. ''Sooner or later, this is going to have to get to a negotiating table at some point in order to bring this to a conclusion.'' (AP) Lady Amelia Spencer has celebrated her upcoming nuptials with a glamorous poolside hen party in Cape Town - joined by her friends and family. Amelia, 30, the niece of Princess Diana and daughter of Earl Spencer, will exchange vows with finance Greg Mallett in March - in what promises to be a lavish, high-society affair. But before Amelia settles down with Greg in the UK, she and a group of her friends jetted off to Cape Town, South Africa, to celebrate the occasion. Writing on her Instagram, Amelia said the party was her 'dream bachelorette', adding she had 'one of the best days of my life with my favourite girls.' Lady Amelia Spencer celebrated her upcoming nuptials with a glamorous poolside hen party in Cape Town with her friends and family this week Lady Amelia was joined by her twin sister Eliza (pictured above) for the lavish celebration Amelia, 30, the niece of Princess Diana and daughter of Earl Spencer, will exchange vows with her finance Greg Mallett in March - in what promises to be a lavish, high-society affair The first cousin of Princes Harry and William was joined by her twin sister Lady Eliza Spencer, who wore a vibrant, floral mini-dress for the sun-soaked hen party. Meanwhile, Amelia opted for bridal white, in a stylish two-piece by Reformation. She paired her ensemble with chunky gold link heels from Versace and matching bag, and swept her hair back into a sleek ponytail. Later in the day, Amelia changed into a white mini-dress with a deep V-neck. Her beau Greg shared a slideshow of the event on his social media, writing: 'Cant wait to marry you!' Writing on her Instagram, Amelia said the party was her 'dream bachelorette', adding she had 'one of the best days of my life with my favourite girls' She paired her ensemble with chunky gold link heels from Versace and matching bag, and swept her hair back into a sleek ponytail Writing on Instagram, Lady Amelia Spencer said the day was her 'dream bachelorette' Amelia replied: 'This is so special!' The society beauty announced her engagement to her real estate beau of 11 years in July 2020. Charles, the younger brother of the late Princess of Wales, had revealed that Greg had asked for his blessing before proposing in South Africa. Greg is well-known by the Spencer clan and is already considered to be part of the family. Amelia opted for bridal white, in a stylish two-piece by Reformation and chunky gold heels The society beauty announced her engagement to her real estate beau of 11 years in July 2020 Charles, the younger brother of the late Princess of Wales, had revealed that Greg had asked for his blessing before proposing in South Africa Taking to Twitter last year, he said: 'So happy for my daughter, Amelia, engaged to her boyfriend of 11 years, Greg - its wonderful to hear them both so excited about their future. 'Sending them both love, and every good wish for their life together. I love that Greg asked my blessing before proposing. Very sweet.' Amelia met her real estate beau of 11 years while they were both studying at the University of Cape Town. Amelia met her real estate beau of 11 years while they were both studying at the University of Cape Town Her beau Greg also shared a slideshow of the event on his social media, writing: 'Cant wait to marry you!' Announcing their engagement last July, Greg, 30, posted on Instagram that he'd popped the question to Amelia on the previous Wednesday, sharing sweet photos of them both from Clouds Wine & Guest Estate in Stellenbosch. He captioned the images: 'So this was the best day of my life. 22nd of July 2020, I asked the love of my life to spend the rest of her life with me and she said YES. Couldn't be happier and I love you with all my heart @ameliaspencer15.' Dozens of people shared their good wishes on the post, including Amelia's sister Lady Kitty Spencer who wrote: 'BROTHER-TO-BE!!!! Happiest times ahead!' Lady Amelia, whose first name is actually Katya, and her twin sister Eliza grew up in the Constantia area of Cape Town with siblings Kitty and Louis. The three sisters attended the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey in 2011. While Lady Kitty, Louis and Lady Eliza were present at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's nuptials in May 2018, Amelia was missing. Astounded doctors have shared footage of an Ethiopian woman's stomach wriggling naturally, like that of a belly dancer. The 54-year-old, whose tale was published in a medical journal, was plagued by the unusual 'writhing' motions for six years. Medics were originally stumped by her bizarre, involuntary movements and drugs never helped calm them down. She was eventually diagnosed with 'belly dancer dyskinesia', becoming one of just a handful to have ever been struck by the rare disorder. The unidentified 54-year-old woman, from Ethiopia, is one of just a handful of people in the world known to suffer from the rare stomach disorder (pictured above) that triggers painless but unrelenting belly movements Although the erratic wriggles alarmed the unidentified woman, they weren't painful. And medication, in the form of benzodiazepines, eventually helped to clear her of the disorder. The mother-of-eight, from Addis Ababa, attended the hospital complaining of her abdominal movements, bloating and indigestion. What is belly dancer dyskinesia? Belly dancer dyskinesia (BDD), also known as diaphragmatic flutter, involves the diaphragm involuntarily contracting, resulting in movements of the abdomen resembling a belly dance. BDD is an extremely rare, poorly understood phenomenon that significantly affects a patient's quality of life. According to medics, finding an effective treatment for the condition can often be challenging. While surgical procedures or events of local trauma are thought to trigger around half of all cases, various other factors including antipsychotic medications have also been reported to cause BDD. Advertisement She traced her strange symptoms which would disappear after fasting back to a procedure to remove her gallbladder. But test results for all routine physical exams came back as normal, leaving doctors perplexed. A respiratory condition which the medics subsequently thought may be to blame was also ruled out because the movements 'did not respond to respiratory manoeuvres and distractions'. Writing in the International Medical Case Reports Journal, the doctors diagnosed functional dyspepsia recurring symptoms of an upset stomach with no obvious cause and BDD, a condition which has seen 'only a few cases' recorded since its first report in 1990. BDD, also known as diaphragmatic flutter, is characterised by its abnormal rippling movements. Experts say it is down to involuntary contractions of the diaphragm which triggers movement in the anterior abdominal wall. According to the Ethiopian medics, BDD is an 'extremely rare' and poorly understood 'phenomenon' that significantly affects a patient's quality of life. It is not clear what caused the woman's condition. But surgical procedures including appendectomy, laparoscopy and major surgery or events of local trauma are thought to trigger around half of all reported cases, with various other factors also reported to cause BDD, the medics said. Some antipsychotic medications have also been shown to induce the condition, experts have said. Patients who suffer with the condition often believe they are suffering from a digestive issue and may visit hospital gatstroenterology services, doctors warned. There is currently no evidence-based treatment recommendation. However, benzodiazepines or 'benzos' have been considered effective in a few cases. They work by slowing down the body and brain's functions. Botox injections and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) have also been reported to effectively treat BDD in a handful of other cases. Poor oversight and loopholes mean risky virus research feared to have started the Covid pandemic in China continues to go on in the US. That is the damning conclusion of a report prompted by an explosive DailyMail.com revelation into rules around 'gain of function' studies. The Congressional watchdog group the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that federal oversight of the most sensitive scientific experimentation was far too weak and ineffective. In October, this website shockingly revealed that a Boston University team had created a new Covid strain with an 80 percent kill rate in mice, even though questions remain about whether similar experiments led to the release of Covid. Boston University's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories is one of 13 biosafety level 4 labs in the US Full-body, air-supplied pressure suits are worn and workers must change their clothing before entering and shower before leaving This type of research aims to understand the genetic makeup of viruses and how mutations can change their biological functions to become more transmissible and virulent. It often involves engineering pathogens to be more deadly or infectious, which makes stringent infection control procedures crucial. Advocates of gain of function tests say it helps mankind get ahead of future pandemics, but critics say the risk of starting an outbreak outweighs any theoretical benefit. Many scientists believe Covid shows signs of human tinkering and that the virus was the product of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, where scientists were carrying out gain of function experiments on bat coronaviruses closely related to Covid. In the US, researchers with a proposal to conduct the kind of research involving 'enhanced potential pandemic pathogens' must be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS developed a framework for approval of these experiments in 2017 after a three-year moratorium that paused all agency reviews of research proposals and funding from going toward such experiments. Under the rules, HHS assembles a panel of reviewers to carry out a risk-benefit analysis. The review board looks at three criteria: whether the pros outweigh the cons, whether there are no other equally as effective but less risky options and whether the research team and facility have the capacity to do the work safely and securely and to respond rapidly if there are any accidents or security breaches. But the new GAO report said that language in the rules was too vague and the review process lacked transparency. Under the framework, researchers submit proposals on studies that are 'reasonably anticipated to create, transfer or use enhanced potential pandemic pathogens'. But it does not explain what 'reasonably anticipated' means in this instance. "The phrase reasonably anticipated allows for subjective interpretation and covers a range of certainty regarding the intent of the research and the likelihood of the results, read the report. The departmental review group which considers the research proposals is also lacking transparency, according to the GAO The agencys study found that there was insufficient transparency when it came to how the group was composed and how it applied the framework standards when reviewing proposals. The report said: 'Because little is known about the composition of the departmental review group, it is not clear whether the departmental review group is equipped with the full range of technical expertise needed to critically evaluate risks associated with proposed research involving enhanced potential pandemic pathogens.' The GAO made three recommendations for reforms: that HHS establish a standard for the term reasonably anticipated' to provide clarity, that non-sensitive information regarding the departmental review process be shared with Congress and the public, and that HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) make changes to the Division of Select Agents and Toxins (DSAT), which maintains a list of pathogens that pose a severe threat to public health. The term 'gain of function' became popular in 2012 after word got out about two separate experiments being conducted at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and at the University of Wisconsin. Scientists had successfully tweaked a strain of highly virulent avian influenza through genetic engineering so that it could be transmitted amongst humans through the air. They injected bird flu into ferrets, causing the virus to replicate and then spread it to other ferrets. The fact that it proliferated among ferrets means it could also spread among humans. After five days, her eyes reopened in what doctors called a 'miracle' She rushed to the bathroom immediately and splashed water on her face Samantha D'Aprile, from Chicago, had been baking cookies with her mother A 19-year-old student nearly went blind after a boiling pot of chocolate exploded in her face. Samantha D'Aprile, from Chicago, Illinois, had been baking cookies with her mother in December 2021 when the pot shattered as she was hunched over it, launching boiling hot chocolate and shards of glass into her eyes. She rushed to the bathroom and splashed water over her face, but her eyes quickly became swollen and her eyelids sealed shut. They remained sealed for five days, with doctors saying the damage was so bad it was as though someone had taken a 'razor blade' to them. But Ms D'Aprile, who had perfect vision before the accident, has now had a 'miracle' recovery and is able to see perfectly again after resting at home. It comes after a teenager in Georgia was blinded in one eye when her hair dye tube exploded. Ms D'Aprile, shown above after the accident, has made a full recovery and is back to her normal vision. Doctors described it as a 'miracle', and said that the moment when she splashed water on her face may have saved her eyes Doctors discharged her after two days in hospital so she could recover at home, but she needed to return every day for tests. On day five, Christmas Day, she managed to open her eyes again Ms D'Aprile is pictured above during her time in hospital, and afterward when she was able to open her eyes again 'When I found out my vision was almost gone, I said to the doctors I didnt want to live anymore,' Ms D'Aprile told DailyMail.com. 'I was in such a dark place and I was going crazy for the few days I couldn't see. I couldnt picture the rest of my life like that.' She added: 'Going from having the perfect vision to the next day being told I could be blind for the rest of my life was the scariest thing I have ever been through and I couldn't wrap my head around it.' After the pot exploded in her face, Ms D'Aprile said her eyes felt like they were 'on fire' as they started to swell shut. She was rushed to hospital by her mother but had to be moved to another unit after the one they went to said it did not deal with burns. She said: 'I was in so much pain that my body started to shut down, they gave me morphine which helped the pain and I could breathe again. Samantha D'Aprile, 19, from Chicago, Illinois, was baking cookies with her mother in December 2021 when a bowl of boiling chocolate exploded in her face. Her mother rushed her to hospital, but she was unable to open her eyes for five days (Pictured above in hospital) Ms D'Aprile, shown above with a friend, pictured before the accident. She rushed to the bathroom to splash water on her face when the chocolate pot exploded Ms D'Aprile photographed in hospital after the injury. She suffered burns to her face as well as her eyes, which left her unable to see for five days 'When I arrived at the hospital they rushed me right away to a room and did all sorts of treatments and tests on me. 'At this point, my eyes were swollen shut, I couldn't open my mouth because that was also burnt shut, and I was very high on all these medications.' An examination revealed she had burned her cornea or the transparent dome-shaped area at the top of the eye. Her eyelids were also burned. Medics kept her in hospital for two nights to monitor her and administer treatment. But Ms D'Aprile said the nights were 'brutal' and left her 'unable to sleep' She said: 'I couldnt sleep, and any sleep I did get I was woken up by nurses giving me medication and them prying my eyes open to put drops in, which was very painful.' She was also given instructions by a blind specialist while in the hospital on how to walk, go to the bathroom, and do other daily tasks without being able to see. Doctors treat eye burns using cycloplegic eyedrops, which temporarily paralyse the ring-shaped muscle that changes the shape of the eye's lens allowing it to focus. These muscles can spasm after burns. Patients may also be administered with an antibiotic eye ointment to prevent infection. Painkillers may also be administered. Doctors discharged Ms D'Aprile after two days so she could recover at home, although she still had to return daily for tests. The student said: 'Each day went by with me sitting in bed with my eyes shut. 'I was going crazy on the fact that I saw blackness and there was nothing I could do to fix it. 'On day three of not being able to see, the doctor opened my eyes to test if I had my vision still. 'The doctor opened them and I could barely see, but he slipped in "band-aids" for my eyes. 'He described my eyes as if someone took a razor and slit both of them.' Medics feared Ms D'Aprile may lose her vision, or have reduced vision should cloudy patches be left in her cornea which can be caused by injuries. She said: 'I had an 80 percent chance of being color blind because my cornea was so damaged. 'I prayed to god multiple times a day for me to keep my vision and that was the only hope I had.' To help her eyes heal cold water was run over them. This can also help to soothe the pain Ms D'Aprile is shown above with her mother. After the accident, she rushed to the bathroom to splash water onto her face Five days after the accident, it was Christmas Day and the student decided to try and open her eyes again herself. She found she was able to open them slightly, although this was extremely painful. About two weeks after the accident, Ms D'Aprile found that her vision was back to normal and she was able to do everything she used to do. This included reading, driving, looking at electronics, and finding that her eyes were less painful to open. More than a year after the accident, however, Ms D'Aprile says her vision is completely back to normal. But she says it has still left scars on her mental health. 'I get panic attacks about the accident but have learned to cope with it and what certain triggers are,' she said. 'I used to be super rebellious and never an overthinker, but now I dont usually do anything out of my comfort zone and I am a lot more grounded. 'It's all a work in progress and all it takes is time to heal so I know it will get better with the mental factors but the accident is still relevant and I just need to be easier on myself and realize that this is all normal and a part of the healing process. 'My plans for the future are to finish school and get a good job in marketing, but mainly to live each day to the fullest and make the most memories with my friends and family.' Coca-Cola is facing a lawsuit over claims its Simply Orange Juice contains toxic forever chemicals. The lawsuit claimed the product deceived customers with allegations of being an all-natural product. Third-party testing was alleged to have found the juice contained PFAS, known as forever chemicals, at levels hundreds of times greater than federal limits for drinking water. Exposure to high levels of PFAS can lead to increased risks of kidney or testicular cancer, fetal complications, liver disease and increased cholesterol levels. The label that states the juice is natural is said to be misleading and deceiving, according to the lawsuit. Joseph Lurenz filed the complaint on December 28 at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Coca-Cola Company and the Simply Orange Juice Company. WHAT ARE PFAS? PFAS are man-made chemicals used as oil and water repellents and coatings for common products including cookware, carpets, and textiles. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals do not break down when they are released into the environment, and they continue to accumulate over time. PFAS chemicals can contaminate drinking water supplies near facilities where the chemicals are used. PFAS contamination has been detected in water near manufacturing facilities as well as military bases and firefighting training facilities where foam containing PFAS is used. They also enter the food supply through food packaging materials and contaminated soil. Advertisement It said the company misrepresented their products, using terms such as 'simply natural', 'nothing to hide' and 'all-natural' on its labels, despite containing PFAS. Mr Lurenz believes that the defendants knew the fruit juice contained dangerous chemicals which can pose a health risk, but failed to disclose the information to consumers. He said: 'In reality, [the] plaintiff's testing has revealed that the product contains per- and polyfluoralkyl substances ('PFAS'), a category of synthetic chemicals that are, by definition, not natural.' The lawsuit said third-party testing revealed PFAS in the juice. Specific test results were not provided, but the lawsuit said the levels were 'hundreds of times' above federal limits for drinking water. The limits, which were made stricter last summer, are 0.02 ppt for PFOS and 0.004 ppt for PFOA. The juice is marketed as all-natural and contains labels that say 'made simply', a claim the plaintiff refutes. It is currently unknown as to how PFAS chemicals might have contaminated the water that is being used to make the juice, and if the chemicals could also in the packaging. PFAS chemicals are also found in items such as cookware and food packaging, often used for their non-stick, heat resistant and water-resistant properties. According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), PFAS do not breakdown easily and can build up in our bodies and environment. The same properties that make PFAS chemicals helpful in products are also what make them dangerous for consumption the chemicals' abilities to be long-lasting and break down slowly. People can be exposed to PFAS through numerous ways, though water is considered the main way. However, PFAS are also found in air, fish and soil in locations around the world. There are thousands of PFAS chemicals used to make various products. It is currently unknown as to how PFAS chemicals contaminated the water that is being used to make the juice, and if the chemicals are also in the packaging 'As one of the most widely recognized brands in the world, The Coca-Cola Company knows the importance of marketing and labelling, including the value of the label representations they carefully choose for placement on the Product,' the complaint stated. The lawsuit claims that the product's brand name is designed to increase sales to unsuspecting consumers. This is done by targeting health-conscious buyers who believe the orange juice is simply all-natural and free from synthetic ingredients, which are harmful for human consumption, according to the complaint. The testing was performed independently to check for PFAS chemicals. The plaintiff is seeking an undisclosed monetary compensation for himself and the class suit, along with an award for damages and civil penalties to be issued towards the brand. Drinking orange juice is often seen as beneficial to one's health, as the drink has been shown to cut the risk of strokes by nearly a quarter, according to a study. Many people drink orange juice if they have a cold, as it is known for its vitamin C content. Pesticide in urine was linked to elevated levels of oxidative stress biomarkers Scientists from the NIH and CDC analyzed the urine of farmers and non-farmers People who use weedkiller have signs of cancer in their urine, a study suggests. The government-funded research took samples from farmers in Iowa and North Carolina found high levels of biomarkers linked to the development of the disease. It comes after a separate study found 'screamingly high levels' of extremely hard-to-breakdown toxic chemicals present in the majority of pesticides used in the US, which can cause birth defects and kidney disease if ingested. As well as farmers working with the pesticide, people may be exposed to the weedkiller by eating contaminated food or drinking water The latest research, funded by the National Cancer Institute, measured the glyphosate levels - the most heavily applied herbicide in the world - used in the urine of 268 male farmers and 100 other men matched for age and geography. They found that compared to the non-farmers, the farmers with recent, high past 12-month, or high lifetime glyphosate use had elevated levels of oxidative stress biomarkers in their urine. Oxidative stress damages DNA and is thought to be a key feature of carcinogens - substances capable of causing cancer. The authors, including 10 National Institutes of Health scientists and two from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it 'contribute[s] to the weight of evidence supporting an association between glyphosate exposure and oxidative stress in humans'. Oxidative stress could cause certain cancers such as lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia. People may be exposed to the weedkiller by eating contaminated food or drinking water. Although the study focused on farmers who work with glyphosate, the scientists observed similar results in 'non-farmers'. Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who previously worked at the CDC and the Environmental Protection Agency, told The Guardian the study should be looked at by regulators. He said: 'This is a top-level team of investigators and a highly credible study to which regulators need to pay attention.' The most common glyphosate product is Roundup weedkiller, made by Monsanto. Bayer, the owner of the chemical's manufacturing company, has long-maintained that exposure to the weedkiller has no negative impacts on human health. It said in a statement: 'The increased oxidative stress found in the study could have been caused by any number of non-glyphosate-related factors or a combination of them, and the study does not support the conclusion that glyphosate is the cause.' Meanwhile, Bayer and Monsanto are facing legal trials from tens of thousands of patients with cancer who allege their exposure to Roundup caused their cancer. The new government-funded study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Breathing is the most natural thing in the world we breathe in and out roughly 16 times a minute and think nothing of it. But how you breathe can have a profound effect on your body and brain: research suggests that slowing the rate at which you breathe, and focusing on slow, deep inhales and exhales, can slow your heart rate and lower blood pressure. And according to a recent study by the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University in the U.S., sighing taking a short deep breath and then a longer exhale is a good way to reduce stress and boost positive feelings. So the star-crossed lovers of romantic novels, who sigh a lot when theyre thwarted in love, may be on to something. Sighing taking a short deep breath and then a longer exhale is a good way to reduce stress and boost positive feelings Slowing down your breathing can help you fall asleep, too (a big plus for me), and five minutes of slow, deep breathing done three times a day has been shown to reduce the impact of chronic pain. Fans of yoga will already know a lot about the importance of focusing on your breath and spending a few minutes a day practising slow, deep breathing to support your health. Now science is catching up. But why is slow breathing so beneficial? I recently interviewed Ian Robertson, an emeritus professor of psychology at Trinity College Dublin, who described slow, deep breathing as an incredibly potent way of giving yourself a mini tranquilliser. He added that part of the reason is because when very busy or stressed we tend to hold our breath, or breathe more rapidly, which can make us feel more panicked; just by slowing your breathing you can calm things down and you will be surprised at how quickly you feel better. I learned to do controlled breathing while making one of my favourite episodes of my podcast series, Just One Thing. And its been life-changing; when Im stressed and sleeping badly then a few minutes of slow, deep breathing can transform my mood and bring a quiet joy to my day. One of the ways slowing your breath helps is because it affects special sensors in your brain that detect carbon dioxide levels in your blood these sensors rapidly respond by either releasing, or inhibiting the release of, a chemical messenger called noradrenaline, which can make us feel stressed and anxious. Slowing your breathing not only reduces noradrenaline levels but also triggers the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system, which controls how your body works during times of rest and makes your heart slow down and your blood pressure drop. And this has an additional calming effect. Professor Robertson calls slow breathing the most precise pharmaceutical you could ever give yourself, with the bonus that it is side-effect free: It works like a mini reset button for your brain. Fans of yoga will already know a lot about the importance of focusing on your breath and spending a few minutes a day practising slow, deep breathing to support your health There are lots of ways to do it, including box breathing, where you inhale deeply for a count of four, hold for two, then exhale for a count of four; it is also known as 4:2:4, and is taught to military and emergency services personnel as a way to reduce stress. I find it very effective, particularly when I have racing thoughts and am struggling to go back to sleep in the middle of the night. But is it really the best breathing technique when it comes to reducing stress and anxiety? That is what researchers at Stanford University wanted to find out. For their study, published in the journal Cell earlier this month, they recruited 108 volunteers and divided them into four groups. One group spent five minutes a day doing cyclic sighing, where you inhale slowly, before taking another shorter breath to fully inflate your lungs and then breathing out for as long as possible. The second group did box breathing inhaling, holding the breath, exhaling and holding the exhaled breath. The third group did cyclic hyperventilation which sounds pretty horrendous. You take a deep breath, then do 30 very short exhales before exhaling fully. And try not to pass out. The fourth group was asked to spend five minutes a day practising mindfulness meditation, a proven way to reduce anxiety; the idea is you sit quietly, focusing on your breathing but not consciously trying to control it. (There are lots of apps available that will help you do this, or you might want to sign up for a mindfulness course.) After eight weeks, all the study participants reported a significant reduction in their anxiety, but those doing the cyclic sighing gained the most benefit when it came to reduced stress and more positive feelings. The researchers think that any form of controlled breathing can be better than meditation, at least if youre only going to do a few minutes a day, because it makes you focus on changing how you breathe, which is a good way to distract you from your thoughts. They think that cyclic breathing is particularly effective because it makes you do a long inhale, followed by an even longer exhale. This seems to be particularly effective at triggering changes in your parasympathetic autonomic nervous system, which slows your heart rate and makes you feel more peaceful. Ive been giving it a go and it works. The only downside? If you do it when other people are around, you sound as if you are exasperated, or perhaps just lovestruck. New jabs not bought, directly contributing to high deaths in winter , experts say Health chiefs have failed to purchase new pneumonia vaccines despite warnings that the NHS jab currently offered to over-65s is less effective, The Mail on Sunday has learned. The potentially life-threatening lung infection, which can hit people who are suffering from severe flu or other respiratory illnesses, contributed to nearly 1,400 deaths in England and Wales in the first week of this year almost twice as many as were caused by Covid. Over-65s in the UK are usually jabbed with Pneumovax 23, which is usually given just once. However, it is only 65 per cent effective, and when the Government's vaccine advisers met last March they warned that the protection it provides 'wanes rapidly'. In documents seen by this newspaper, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) concluded that this meant the jab 'may not achieve optimal protection' and proposed that the Government considers purchasing an improved vaccine. LIFE-THREATENING: A 3D scan of lungs affected by pneumonia Over-65s in the UK are usually jabbed with Pneumovax 23, which is usually given just once (stock photo) Pneumonia can be caused by a group of bacteria called streptococcus pneumoniae, of which there are about 90 strains which range from causing mild to severe symptoms. Two new vaccines proven more effective than Pneumovax 23 have been approved for use in the UK. Apexxnar, created by Pfizer which also created one of the Covid vaccines protects against 20 strains, and Vaxneuvance, from US firm Merck, provides strong protection against 15 of the most dangerous strains. Both jabs are used in the US instead of Pneumovax 23. But despite dire predictions that flu cases would soar in the UK this winter, no action was taken by NHS health chiefs to purchase either. Experts say that this inaction has directly contributed to the rising number of pneumonia deaths this winter and many more are expected. Professor Adam Finn (pictured), a member of the JCVI, said the pneumonia vaccine offered by the NHS is not 'great' but is 'cheap '[Pneumovax 23] is not a particularly great vaccine,' says Professor Adam Finn, paediatric expert at the University of Bristol and a member of the JCVI. 'It prevents some of the more severe cases, but only for a short period. The main reason we use it is because it's cheap and has been around for a long time.' Pneumonia is contagious, and the bacteria is mostly spread when infected people talk, cough or sneeze. While anyone can catch it, babies and the elderly are most at risk of being badly affected. Studies show over 65s are ten times more likely to end up in hospital with pneumonia than those aged 18-50. About a third of cases come from a virus such as flu or Covid which makes its way into the lungs. However, the majority of severe cases of pneumonia are caused by bacteria and are likely to severely affect people who are suffering from other diseases, and therefore have a weakened immune system. Once in the body, pneumonia bugs can cause further lung damage and even trigger sepsis a potentially fatal condition in which the immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to attack healthy tissue. 'We see pneumonia most often in elderly patients who are in hospital with flu,' says intensive care specialist Dr Ron Daniels, chief executive of the charity UK Sepsis Trust. Pneumonia symptoms and steps to take Adults over 65 are offered a single pneumonia vaccine, often alongside the annual flu jab. Babies, children and vulnerable adults also get one. If you have a long-term health condition your GP may decide to offer you a booster dose every five years. Not getting vaccinated can drastically increase the risk of hospitalisation and death from pneumonia, so doctors urge everyone to take up the current jab. Symptoms are similar to flu. They include a fever, a dry cough, trouble breathing, a rapid heartbeat, sweating, shivering, a loss of appetite and chest pain. If you suspect you have pneumonia, contact your GP or call 111. Call 999 if you or someone you care for is struggling to breathe, coughing up blood, has blue lips or a blue face, becomes confused or collapses. Advertisement 'The flu damages the lungs and stresses the immune system, allowing the bacteria to take hold.' Studies show that although Apexxnar provides protection against fewer strains of pneumonia than the NHS's choice, Pneumovax 23, it creates far more long-lasting protective antibodies defensive proteins that fight off disease. Vaxneuvance was also found to provide an improved immune response to two pneumonia strains that are not covered in the current vaccine used for children, Prevenar 13. 'We should be using the best vaccine for the job if we want to protect the public from this disease,' says Dr Daniels. 'We have seen more and more people in recent months who have been jabbed but are sadly still dying of pneumonia. This is often because the protection from the jab has waned over a number of years. 'That's on top of the many otherwise-healthy vaccinated people getting seriously unwell and needing emergency treatment.' Prof Finn argues that the reason the Government may be hesitant to order a new jab is its cost the newer vaccines cost roughly 50 a dose, while Pneumovax 23 is just 17. 'There is no appetite to spend large amounts of money now that the worst of the Covid pandemic is over,' he adds. All experts agree that anyone over 65 should still go for the current vaccine when offered, as it does give some protection. But Dr Daniels says: 'We need to look at offering an improved vaccine to the most high-risk groups at the very least. These are patients who are living with serious illnesses, such as cancer, or have just undergone surgery. 'And they are the ones who are dying of pneumonia on our wards, despite being vaccinated. We need to do more to protect them.' Dr Mary Ramsay, director of immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency, said last night: 'These newer vaccines may have potential to add protection against a few additional strains, and the JCVI is currently reviewing potential use in the UK.' For the past few years I have suffered terrible pain in my feet. When I stand up, it feels as though I am standing barefoot on a pebble beach. My doctor diagnosed neuropathy which I am told stems from spinal canal stenosis, which squashes the nerves. The specialist said nothing can be done. Is that true? Neuropathy means there is damage to the nerves in the body. This can be caused by certain medications, chemotherapy and diseases such as diabetes. The nerves can also get crushed or damaged due to injuries. Spinal canal stenosis develops when the space inside the backbone is very small, meaning the spinal nerves get squashed. Nerves are responsible for all of our sensations including pain, touch and temperature. Damage to these nerves will cause numbness, pins and needles, burning and a specific type of pain called neuropathic pain. Today's reader is asking Dr Ellie if they can do anything to help the terrible pain in their feet after they were diagnosed with neuropathy caused by spinal canal stenosis (stock photo) Problems can be diagnosed using a nerve conduction study. These check if the nerves are working properly. When neuropathy develops because of a physical problem like spinal canal stenosis, it can be difficult to treat. One option would be to control the pain using specifically designed painkillers, such as gabapentin, pregabalin and duloxetine. Alternative forms of pain relief, such as acupuncture, may help, too, and walking, stretching or swimming may ease the pressure on the nerves, reducing pain. Physiotherapists can recommend specific exercises. Depending on the severity of the condition, a specialist may recommend surgery to decompress the spine and ease pressure on the nerves. My 78-year-old husband started having problems with going to the toilet earlier this year. The GP did a PSA test, which came back normal. But a second test showed a higher PSA level and a consultant then diagnosed early prostate cancer. Six months have passed and we've heard nothing. I am worried that the disease will spread. Are my fears rational? No patient should be waiting six months for follow-up cancer care. In fact, most people diagnosed with cancer will begin treatment within two months. A detailed cancer treatment plan should be outlined by oncologists and surgeons and sent, in writing, to the patient's GP. It is perfectly reasonable to ask for an appointment with the GP to talk about cancer treatment and understand what is going on. For some prostate cancers the treatment is active surveillance. This means avoiding treatment for a cancer that doesn't need it sparing patients unnecessary side effects. A reader is concerned after her 78-year-old husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer and has had to wait six months for a follow-up appointment (stock photo) Prostate cancer can grow very slowly and, for some men, will cause no problems or symptoms. This is why monitoring the disease using scans, PSA tests and biopsies are sometimes the best options. If concerning test results come up, surgery or radiotherapy can be offered quickly. It is important that big gaps between appointments are explained properly to the patient so it would be worth talking through the letters you've had from the specialist team with the GP. If the plan is unclear, you can request to talk to the specialist and ask questions about your treatment. The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is available in all hospitals, and offers support for patients. Another option would be to contact the charity Prostate Cancer UK on 0800 074 8383 they have specialist nurses who offer advice. I've lately begun to notice that my fingers are very stiff. The first finger on my right hand is particularly bad, it keeps getting stuck. Last year I was diagnosed with osteopenia in my legs could my new problem be related to this, or is it just arthritis? There are many different forms of arthritis. The type that people tend to get in old age is osteoarthritis. It causes the joints to become painful and stiff and happens as a result of wear and tear over time. Other types of arthritis include rheumatoid arthritis, gout and arthritis associated with psoriasis. Of course, some joint problems are not arthritis at all. Osteopenia, which is when the bones get thinner but not enough to warrant a diagnosis of osteoporosis, can sometimes be related to arthritis. It isn't uncommon for the two conditions to develop at the same time, in the same person. If a finger feels like it's getting 'stuck', the cause may be a condition called trigger finger. This is in fact a problem with the tendons, rather than the joints. It makes the finger difficult to move when a tendon gets swollen and causes pain, stiffness and clicking. Patients usually find that their symptoms are worse in the morning. Trigger finger is more common in older people and seems to affect women more than men, as well as those with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or gout. GPs can spot both trigger finger and signs of arthritis during a simple examination. It might be worth having an X-ray or another scan of the joints, and investigating physiotherapy which can be useful for both these problems. Beware of menopause fear-mongering, Linda Barker The former Changing Rooms presenter Linda Barker is the latest celebrity to launch a menopause awareness campaign and monetise it. This one's called Changing Wombs very clever sponsored by feminine hygiene brand Essity. There was an accompanying video in which Linda, 61, told her 30-year-old daughter Jessica that the menopause hit her 'like a freight train', that she suffered sleeplessness and hot flushes for a decade and feared she would become 'invisible' in mid-life. Well, she certainly hasn't and I'm sorry that she struggled. I hope she had support. Former Changing Rooms presenter Linda Barker (left), 61, told her 30-year-old daughter Jessica (right) that the menopause hit her 'like a freight train' The menopause isn't anything to hide or be ashamed of, and I welcome the new openness about it. But fear-mongering is not the way to garner awareness. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says women's experience of the menopause can vary hugely. Each woman will have her own emotional and physical response to the changes. Young women also need to know that many of them will have an uncomplicated menopause that they'll barely notice, and they'll often feel liberated by not having to worry any longer about periods, cramps and mood swings. Videos to trust on Dr YouTube I usually warn against using social media for health advice. But I have discovered YouTube can be surprisingly useful. I was invited to a YouTube event a few days ago which showcased its health content, and I was surprised by what I saw. 'I usually warn against using social media for health advice. But I have discovered YouTube can be surprisingly useful,' writes Dr Ellie Cannon It seems plenty of reliable organisations are publishing credible information on the video-sharing site including the NHS, GP practices and leading specialist hospitals. Even some top doctors are sharing valuable stuff, and the videos are a lot more engaging than the leaflets you find in the GP's waiting room. But if you do dabble, keep an eye out for accounts given a big green tick by the online watchdog Patient Information Forum (PIF). The tick is its quality mark for credible healthcare information, and you can find a full list on its website at pifonline.org.uk. But experts have warned the pills are 'dangerous and futile' for these patients Around one in four British dementia patients are prescribed antidepressants Dementia patients are being put on antidepressants even though the treatment could do more harm than good, experts have warned. Close to one million Britons are living with the neurological illness, which causes progressively worsening problems with memory and movement and roughly one in four are prescribed the tablets to combat low mood, agitation and anxiety, which are also common symptoms. Yet while the drugs are proven to be effective in patients without dementia, a recent series of studies suggest they provide little or no benefit to those with the condition. One specialist warned the practice of offering the pills to this group was 'dangerous and futile'. Last week drugs watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) updated its guidance on antidepressant prescribing advising that patients should be carefully weaned off the drugs over many weeks to avoid withdrawal symptoms. STAYING ACTIVE: Dementia patient Tracey Lane, aged 56 Close to one million Britons are living with dementia, which causes progressively worsening problems with memory and movement and roughly one in four are prescribed antidepressants - but a recent series of studies suggest they provide little or no benefit to those with the condition But experts say the drugs have specific risks in dementia sufferers: they cause sedation, increasing the risk of falls and dehydration, which can have serious and potentially fatal consequences. 'Sedation is dangerous if you have dementia,' says Dr Robert Howard, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at University College London. 'While antidepressants are effective for treating depression in the general population, the evidence shows they don't work in dementia patients.' And speaking on The Mail on Sunday's Medical Minefield podcast this week, Professor Sube Banerjee, a dementia specialist at the University of Plymouth, added: 'The side effects [of antidepressants] are worse in dementia patients because of the frailty that comes from the dementia itself, causing nausea and dizziness.' NICE warns against routinely prescribing antidepressants for non-severe depression in dementia patients, unless the mental illness existed prior to the dementia. Other psychiatric drugs, such as antipsychotics, should be offered only when psychological options, such as therapy or changing environment, haven't worked, and the patient is suffering delusions, hallucinations or severe agitation. But according to Prof Howard, these rules are not followed. Often, he says, dementia patients are given a newer type of antidepressant, called mirtazapine, which some studies suggest has a calming effect in those with the condition. Older types, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as citalopram, are also regularly prescribed. Antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as citalopram (pictured), are regularly prescribed to dementia patients A 2014 study found that citalopram triggered a sedative effect in patients with Alzheimer's, the most common kind of dementia, increasing the risk of falls. Prof Howard says many clinicians are aware that antidepressants do more harm than good but offer them anyway. 'Often clinicians might feel they have to prescribe the drug if they're worried a seemingly depressed and agitated patient might harm someone else, especially in a care home or hospital setting,' he says. 'In fact, the best treatment in this case would be spending more one-on-one time with a specialist nurse, who is trained to calm patients down but that is expensive.' Professor June Andrews, one of Britain's leading experts in dementia care, says GPs are often lured by a 'temptation to give something rather than nothing'. However, she adds: 'If you really knew what older people with dementia need, you'd be cautious about prescribing any psychoactive drug'. The concerns follow the publication of a major review into the safety and effectiveness of antidepressants in dementia patients, by researchers at University College London. The experts concluded that the pills, taken by 8.3 million British adults, 'do not work in depression in dementia'. The paper echoes the findings of a 2018 analysis by the medical research body Cochrane, which looked at three of the most common types of antidepressants. It concluded there was little or no effect on Alzheimer's patients. It warned that dementia patients taking any type of antidepressant, including SSRIs, were more likely to suffer dizziness, dry mouth and other serious side effects than those who don't take them. Other studies have shown that mirtazapine increases the risk of stroke by at least a third in elderly people, while those on citalopram and another SSRI, sertraline, were roughly 60 per cent more likely to suffer a bone fracture usually caused by a fall or trip. About a third of dementia patients develop symptoms of depression, according to studies. The problem can be present at any point during the beginning and middle of the illness, but is most common in the early stages. In people without dementia, trials show that common antidepressants improve symptoms in between half and two-thirds of patients compared to about a fifth of people in a placebo group. Professor Sube Banerjee (pictured), a dementia specialist at the University of Plymouth, said: 'The side effects [of antidepressants] are worse in dementia patients because of the frailty that comes from the dementia itself, causing nausea and dizziness' But intriguingly, in dementia sufferers, studies show no difference between the two groups. In other words, the drugs don't make patients feel happier. Experts believe this is because depression in dementia is an altogether different syndrome. 'A key element of depression is feeling guilty and shameful about yourself, as well as thoughts about life not being worth living,' says Dr Lindsey Sinclair, a psychiatrist and dementia researcher at the University of Bristol. 'But in dementia patients it's different. They are very tearful and feel apathetic towards doing anything they used to enjoy. Or they are anxious and agitated by things that never used to bother them before.' Prof Howard says: 'Dementia not only causes deterioration in brain areas with memory and learning, but also in sections important for regulating mood. The result is depression-like symptoms.' But this, he says, is why antidepressants such as SSRIs, which work by altering the balance of brain chemicals involved in feelings of happiness, have little effect. 'For some dementia patients, the depression may be the result of feeling despondent and concerned about being diagnosed with the condition, and SSRIs may help. But that's usually only true in the earliest stages.' Prof Andrews says: 'What a lot of people don't realise about these drugs is they make patients even less able to tell loved ones and nurses when something is wrong.' Over the past few decades, campaigners have rallied against the unnecessary and widespread use of powerful antipsychotic drugs in dementia care the so-called 'chemical cosh'. Research has shown that these medicines can double the risk of early death in dementia sufferers and accelerate cognitive decline, due to their sedative effect. In 2008, Ministers launched a review into the practice, and as a result ordered a crackdown on the use of antipsychotic medication in care homes. Antidepressants ought to be treated with similar caution, the experts say. So, what should clinicians do instead? 'In the very early stages, low mood can be to do with withdrawing from your normal life because you're afraid you won't be able to do the same things you used to,' says Prof Howard, adding that simply encouraging patients to continue engaging in these activities can help 'cheer them up'. IT'S A FACT Studies show that people with a history of depression are two times more likely to develop dementia in later life. Advertisement Many may also benefit from a newly developed psychological treatment called problem adaptation therapy. This involves working with a GP, nurse or psychologist to adapt a patient's daily routine to suit their condition. 'The key is about making practical plans that mean the patient can still do the things they enjoy, albeit in a slightly different way,' says Prof Howard. Early trials have found the therapy to be effective for reducing depressive symptoms in mild to moderate dementia. 'You can train nurses and GPs to lead the therapy in a 30-minute session,' adds Prof Howard. Even in the later stages of dementia, drugs might not be the answer, according to Prof Andrews. 'Enhancing the mood is not about giving medication,' she says. 'It is much more to do with identifying elements in their environment that are causing distress often it's something simple, like the sound of an alarm or even a particular TV programme. I often see cases where the patient is very agitated in a hospital ward or nursing home, and then they are moved to a specialist dementia unit and suddenly they are much calmer. 'Some dementia services are designed in a way that minimises unpleasant noises or colours, and staff are trained to spot common triggers.' For 56-year-old Tracey Lane, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2015, antidepressants have proven unhelpful. The psychiatric medication was first prescribed to the former school secretary shortly before her diagnosis, when doctors assumed her illness was depression. 'I went to see the GP because I was feeling like something just wasn't right,' says the mother of two from Somerset. 'I was having problems recognising people's faces and being able to cope with simple tasks at work and it started to get me down. 'I'd also started having strange thoughts, like I'd be driving to work and thinking about turning the car over and killing myself.' Tracey's GP told her she had depression, most likely triggered by the menopause, and prescribed the SSRI citalopram. Tracey Lane (pictured with husband Mike) was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2015 and said that antidepressants have proven unhelpful Tracey's GP told her she had depression, most likely triggered by the menopause, and prescribed the SSRI citalopram She says: 'It didn't help at all. I became more and more confused, frustrated and felt like I couldn't cope. I started to do strange things like go into rooms at work and forget why I was there. I had to write to my boss to explain that I was struggling.' Tracey spent two years going back and forth to her GP, seeking help for increasing memory problems. Eventually, she was referred for cognitive tests and brain scans. Results showed the tell-tale damage to areas in the front and sides of the brain that indicate frontotemporal dementia a less common form of the disease. Specialists took Tracey off citalopram but offered another SSRI a year later to help with continued bouts of low mood. She is still taking the highest possible daily dose of the drug, escitalopram. 'I don't think it's made much difference, to be honest' she says. 'I still have a lot of low days when I think, 'What's the point in being in the world?' The difficulty is I am on the highest dose, so there's not much more doctors can do about it.' Thankfully, she hasn't suffered any unpleasant side effects. 'I find that the more active I am, the better I feel, that's what makes a real difference. I have a whiteboard in the kitchen where I write what I'm planning to do. 'Sometimes it's singing classes or dementia support groups, other times it's seeing my friends. 'Our sons live ten minutes down the road, which helps. It's always a joy to see them. I know that I'm helping myself if I try my best to do something every day.' Inspectors visit the multi-nuclide removal system at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Jan. 20. AFP-Yonhap The head of the U.N. nuclear agency task force assessing the safety of Japan's plan to release treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea said Friday that Japanese regulators have shown their commitment to comply with international safety standards. International concern over the plan has been widening. Last week, the head of the 18-nation Pacific Island Forum, which includes Australia, New Zealand and other island nations, expressed concern about any impact of radiation in the water on the livelihoods of people in the region which suffered in the past from atomic bomb tests; and urged Japan to suspend the plan. ''The region is steadfast in its position that there should be no discharge until all parties verify through scientific means that such a discharge is safe,'' forum Secretary General Henry Puna said at a public seminar on the Fukushima issue. The U.S. National Association of Marine Laboratories, an organization of more than 100 laboratories, also expressed opposition to the plan, saying there was a lack of adequate and accurate scientific data supporting Japan's assertion of safety. Gustavo Caruso, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency task force, said his team visited the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant this week and witnessed the first of a series of inspections by the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority before it gives its final go-ahead for the release. He said officials from the authority addressed all questions raised by the task force and showed their commitment to following safety standards. Japan's government said last week that the release is likely to begin sometime in the spring or summer and continue for decades. Japanese regulators are responsible for examining whether preparations for the release by the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, are consistent with its approved implementation plan. At the request of Japan, IAEA is reviewing whether the reparations for the discharge comply with international standards. A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant's cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors and the release large amounts of radiation. Water used to cool the three damaged reactor cores, which remains highly radioactive, has leaked into the basements of the reactor buildings and has been collected, treated and stored in about 1,000 tanks that now cover much of the plant. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant between the coastal towns of Okuma and Futaba, is seen from the Ukedo fishing port in Namie, northeastern Japan, March 2, 2022. AP-Yonhap The government and TEPCO say the tanks must be removed so that facilities can be built for the plant's decommissioning. The tanks are expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tons later this year. Most of the radioactivity has been removed from the water during treatment, but tritium cannot be removed and low levels of some other radionuclides also remain. The government and TEPCO say the environmental and health impacts will be negligible because the water will be released gradually after further treatment and dilution with large amounts of seawater. Some scientists say the impact of long-term, low-dose exposure to tritium and other radionuclides on the environment and humans is still unknown and the release should be delayed. They say tritium affects humans more when it is consumed in fish. Local fishing communities have fiercely rejected the plan, saying their already badly hurt business will suffer again due to the negative image from the water release. Neighboring countries including China and Korea have also raised concerns about potential health risks. Caruso, who heads the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, said the task force will release a report on this week's mission within three months and make another visit to Japan in the second quarter of the year to meet with Japan's industry ministry, the safety authority and TEPCO ''to finalize any outstanding questions'' before compiling a comprehensive report. (AP) This year's annual London to Brighton Mini Run looks set to be the last because of the capital's Ultra Low Emission Zone. London mayor Sadiq Khan's decision to expand the zone in which the most polluting cars have to pay a charge will add 25 to the cost of the event. It attracts more than 1,500 Mini owners each May in a colourful convoy along a 45-mile route from the capital to the south-coast city. But now an organiser behind the 37-year-old event has written on Facebook: 'Sadly, this is probably going to be the last Mini Run due to the extension of the ULEZ.' London mayor Sadiq Khan's decision to expand the zone in which the most polluting cars have to pay a charge will add 25 to the cost of the event Sadiq Khan is pushing ahead with plans to extend the ULEZ, despite strong opposition from Tory MPs. The boundary from 29 August 29 will go around all 33 London boroughs From August 29, the zone will be expanded to cover the start in Cheam, with the worst polluting cars charged 12.50 a day. Although exemptions are in place for some classic cars, one organiser said around half of the run's regulars would be hit by a two-day charge since many motorists camp overnight. He added: 'We already have to sell tickets for 45 and not many will be willing to pay 70 to take part.' The event attracts more than 1,500 Mini owners each May in a colourful convoy along a 45-mile route The mayor's spokesman said: 'The decision to expand the ULEZ was one of the hardest he has had to make.' Danny Davids, who restores Minis for a living, has been taking part in the annual event for over 30 years. The 38-year-old, who lives in Uckfield, accused Sadiq Khan of being 'out of touch' with everyday motorists. Tory MP Gareth Bacon, has rallied against the expansion of ULEZ, which will cover his constituency of Orpington Will you face an emissions tax for driving an older car in a town or city near you? Drivers of older cars across Britain will soon have to come to terms with the concept of emissions tax zones in the most polluted cities that could turn vehicle ownership from a convenience to a burden. Under government orders, councils have been told to curb their air pollution levels - and to do so, they should rid their roads of the dirtiest vehicles. Some 13 cities in total have - or plan to have - charging zones for motorised vehicles by the middle of 2023. > Here's a guide to each of them He added: 'It's devastating and incredibly disappointing as the event and the Mini are British institutions just like red busses.' Sutton Council has come out against the expansion, arguing that it will cut residents off from their families and work. Tory MP Gareth Bacon, has rallied against the expansion of ULEZ, which will cover his constituency of Orpington. Mr Bacon said: 'It would be bitterly sad if Sadiq Khan's ULEZ killed off this long-running event which brings Mini enthusiasts together. 'ULEZ expansion is not only a blatant cash grab but an assault on outer London, which the Mayor doesn't understand nor care for.' Fellow Tory MP and former transport minister Karl McCartney, said: 'As a JCW Mini owner myself and all-found classic car supporter, I am aghast at Mr Khan's plans that may see this run come to an end.' Last week the London Mayor was accused of excluding more than 5,000 votes opposing the expansion of the scheme before it was given the green light. If these had been included, it is thought the level of opposition could have risen to 62.4 per cent - nearly two-thirds. Electric car owners may be able to save hundreds of pounds on energy bills with a new Ovo Energy trial - but only if they manage to get a rare expensive charger fitted first. The Ovo trial, which launches today, exploits the fact that electric cars are essentially just a giant battery on wheels. The idea is that if you charge up your car using cheap off-peak energy you can make money from that in two ways: using that electricity at peak times to power your home, and selling it to the National Grid for profit. But the question of who pays for the 6,000 chargers required for the scheme to work - Ovo or the customer - could see any energy bill savings wiped out for years. Limited: The trial is only open to drivers with Volkswagen electric vehicles - for now Ovo ran a limited trial of the scheme from 2020 until 2022, and some users managed to save up to 800 a year on energy bills. But drivers will have to get a special charger fitted to their home before they can save money on energy bills, and this time they might have to pay for this themselves. Normal electric car chargers let power flow one way, into a vehicle. Getting power back out of an electric car batter requires a 'bi-directional' charger. These chargers are almost impossible to find, and most UK homes with them got them fitted for free by companies testing the technology out - as Ovo did in 2020-2022. But Ovo is tight-lipped about whether it will pay for the special chargers to be fitted this time or expect consumers to pay instead. The energy firm said any energy savings would not come until much later this year and it 'wont share final details of this' at the moment. Electric car expert Ginny Buckley, of the website Electrifying, said as a general rule 'consumers arent able to buy bi-directional chargers yet'. This Is Money did manage to find one firm selling bi-directional chargers, but these cost 5,990. The company, Voltacon, based in Coventry, said its Quasar charger is 'the worlds first bidirectional home charger'. If trial participants do have to pay for this special charger it could take years for them to see any energy bill benefits, unless they are lucky enough to have already got one fitted to their home. The scheme is currently only open to Ovo customers who own Volkswagen electric cars, but the energy firm hopes to expand it to owners of other car firms in the future. Ovo's 'vehicle-to-everything' power trial, called Inflexion, is being carried out with energy software firm Kaluza. The Government is also putting 16 million of funding into this technology. Energy and Climate Minister Graham Stuart said: 'We want to make smart charging an easier choice for drivers of electric vehicles, whether that is charging on the driveway, at the workplace, or parked on the street. To do that we need to build new network infrastructure at pace, using the latest available technologies.' Alex Thwaites, head of zero carbon living at Ovo Energy, said: 'This is not just about driving renewable energy solutions forward, its about demonstrating how customers can actually reduce their energy bills by making the switch to an electric vehicle.' Customers can register their interest in the trial by visiting the Ovo website. If it can be made affordable for customers, this sort of scheme could be a big part of the future of electric car ownership in the UK. Buckley said: 'We see it becoming a big part of managing demand on the UK grid as more of us make the switch to electric cars and we move to renewable energy generation.' Eagle-eyed watchers of De La Rue's share price will have noticed a spike after Queen Elizabeth II's death in September. While that may sound ghoulish, investors in the UK's banknote maker were quick to pick up on the fact that King Charles III might exercise his right to set the printing presses whirring with new fivers, tenners, twenties and fifties adorned with his portrait. Frugal: Whispers has learned that the eco-friendly King has decided that wallets full of new banknotes would be wasteful But the boost to its shares, which have fallen more than 50 per cent in the past year, didn't last long. Whispers has learned that the eco-friendly King has decided that wallets full of new banknotes would be wasteful, and only wants ones with his image to be printed gradually, to replace those soon to go out of circulation. De La Rue's stock took another knock this week, with news on Friday that it had been implicated in a corruption investigation into India's former finance secretary. It denies all allegations. Petra issues over burst dam continue Gem miner Petra Diamonds last week revealed that 145 people were still homeless after a dam wall holding toxic waste at its Williamson mine in Tanzania burst in November. Petra says it may need 'additional financing options' which may mean more cash in the wake of the tragedy. Repairs could be costly but production is expected to restart in 2024. Let's hope by then it has sorted out the problems facing locals and hasn't incurred more costs for housing and humanitarian relief. Boost for Centamin Gold miner Centamin has had a turbulent few years but a spike in its shares and a favourable ruling in Egypt against a challenge to its flagship mine have given it a boost. So much so that chief executive Martin Horgan is keen for the FTSE 250 group to enter new countries. It already has interests elsewhere. No new deals are in the offing at the moment, but Horgan is keeping his ear to the ground. The only condition? Centamin could only set up shop in countries safe enough for his wife to be happy for him to work there, says Horgan. The father of three is thinking Namibia, Tanzania and Ghana rather than places such as Mali, which the Foreign Office warns against travelling to. Unilever handed boost over Jope exit Few City figures are as in need of good news as hapless outgoing Unilever chief executive Alan Jope. He has overseen three years of sluggish sales growth at the Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's icecream maker, and is under fire from big-name investor Terry Smith. So Jope may have been pleased to hear Jefferies analyst Martin Deboo choose Unilever as its 'key pick' of European food groups this year and jack up the target price for its stock by 15 per cent. Unfortunately, Jope can't take too much credit. One of the reasons for Jefferies' upbeat take? The upcoming 'change of CEO' at the end of 2023. Contributor: Archie Mitchell David and Goliath battle: Deane Proctor A family-owned fruit and vegetable supplier is suing Lidl in a 2.7million claim that the German grocery giant destroyed his business. Deane Proctor, founder and managing director of Proctor & Associates, is fighting a David and Goliath battle against the group, which has been aggressively expanding in Britain. He claims he has been 'stabbed in the back' by Lidl, which cancelled or slashed orders with insufficient notice and poached his own suppliers from under his nose. Industry experts say the case is important because it challenges the effectiveness of the Groceries Supply Code of Practice, which was set up amid concerns that supermarkets were bullying their suppliers. According to Proctor, he nurtured a close relationship with Lidl over 20 years. He says the chain made use of his expertise when it initially launched in the UK market and its presence here was much smaller. But the 57-year-old claims that as Lidl grew in Britain, it repaid him with ingratitude, cutting him out of deals and abruptly dropping his produce. He says that originally Lidl relied on him to help find new supplies of fruit and veg in Britain, and that he later scoured the world from South Africa to Thailand for new sources to help Lidl buy a range of goods out of season, from grapes and plums to coconuts and lychees. 'There weren't many suppliers [in Britain] that wanted to deal with the discounters at the time,' said Proctor, who had set up his own business in 2003 and was keen to expand. 'For a long time I helped to sell the idea of working with Lidl to the farmers.' He said that the produce buyers at Lidl appreciated his expertise and contacts. Proctor claimed Lidl assured him that it would continue to use his services and he invested in his business on that basis. At its peak, his firm delivered products worth almost 29million to Lidl in a single year. But Proctor said that from around 2015 the attitude of Lidl's buyers towards him 'closed off'. He said they began slashing orders and dealing with his farmers behind his back, including ones that he had worked with for years. He said: 'Here's me thinking the challenge is to be more efficient, to invest in the business. I tried to do all of the right things. It felt like I had been stabbed in the back.' His business with Lidl ended in June last year and his firm has now been forced to close down. Proctor & Associates, based in Boston, Lincolnshire, is suing Lidl for 2.7million in damages. Supermarket experts say his case is key because of the way it challenges the Groceries Supply Code of Practice, which was set up in 2013. The current Adjudicator of the Groceries Supply Code, Mark White, is said to be dealing with multiple arbitration proceedings related to similar complaints. The Grocer magazine the bible of the food and drink industry said 'suppliers and retailers alike' are awaiting the outcome of the case. Proctor told The Mail on Sunday he had had an informal meeting with a previous Adjudicator, Christine Tacon, but 'came away feeling dejected'. One supplier warned: 'The problem is the Adjudicator takes any official complaint to the retailer and that's like the kiss of death to your business.' Proctor said he had used cash held within his business to help his suppliers and growers to buy plant and machinery or to pay them quickly 'if they had cash flow problems'. He said the vast majority of the money he made was invested back in his company, including a 300,000 computer system installed in 2017. In research by the Groceries Code Adjudicator, only just over half of Lidl's suppliers said it dealt with them 'fairly, in good faith and without duress'. That puts Lidl well behind Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda where seven out of ten suppliers said they were treated well. The figure was eight out of ten at German rival Aldi. In 2019, Lidl said it would be investing a record 15billion in UK suppliers over the next five years and its longer-term contracts would 'help give suppliers certainty and allow them to invest for the future'. A Lidl spokesman said: 'We are in the process of reviewing the claims and will be responding in due course.' Hefty: Royal Mail pension liabilities Taxpayers are on the hook for more than 50billion of postal workers' pensions, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The liabilities were stealthily dumped on the state when Royal Mail was privatised a decade ago under David Cameron's government, which was last night accused of 'a deplorable sleight of hand'. Royal Mail, since renamed International Distribution Services, was floated on the stock market in 2013. But its share price has slumped amid strikes that are costing it more than 1million a day. The potential bill to meet future pensions has soared since privatisation from 38billion to 51billion. Former Chancellor George Osborne used the Royal Mail pension fund's assets to reduce short-term Government debt. This netted 17billion. But a big chunk of Royal Mail assets Government IOUs known as gilts were given back to the Treasury for free, leading to an 11billion loss for taxpayers. 'The Government takeover of the Royal Mail pension fund to allow the privatisation was a deplorable sleight of hand,' said Neil Record, chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Removing legacy pension costs from Royal Mail's balance sheet made the shares more attractive to investors. But it also made the company more vulnerable to predators because a big pension fund deficit would have acted as a 'poison pill'. Czech tycoon Daniel Kretinsky has built up a 23 per cent stake in Royal Mail. He is rumoured to be plotting a break-up that would involve splitting the profitable European packages division from the loss-making parcels and letters. The pension liabilities of the largest public sector schemes exceed 2trillion almost as much as the total annual output of the UK economy. 'All of this will have to be paid by future taxpayers,' said Record. Government spokesman said: 'The decision to assume responsibility for the Royal Mail Pension Plan successfully secured the safety of the fund for employees and facilitated private sector investment.' British taxpayers are providing 2.5 billion of backing to a Beijing-based bank run by an ex-member of Chairman Mao's Red Guards, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Among the projects financed by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a firm with links to alleged abuses of Uighur Muslims. The UK's involvement with the AIIB dates back to David Cameron's coalition government. At that time, the then Chancellor George Osborne was keen to cosy up to the Chinese, viewing them as potentially lucrative trade partners. Sinister: Uighur detainees in a Chinese 're-education camp' in Xinjiang Since then, however, there have been increasing concerns about China's expansionist policies and its involvement in key UK industries such as telecoms and nuclear power. Britain's representative on the AIIB board is Sir Danny Alexander, the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury who was Osborne's right-hand man. The AIIB is China's answer to the World Bank, a Washington institution dedicated to helping developing countries. It has more than 100 member nations including Vladimir Putin's Russia and is run by Jin Liqun, formerly of the Communist Red Guards. Other leading Western nations including the US and Japan have declined to join the bank, which counts China as its largest shareholder. Its gleaming headquarters are just a stone's throw from the celebrated Bird's Nest Olympic stadium. Questions are mounting over why British taxpayers are still backing the Beijing-based bank, given the changed geopolitical climate. These are likely to intensify following revelations the AIIB has funnelled money to Haier Group, a Chinese manufacturer with links to alleged Uighur abuses in China. Tory MP Bob Seely, a member of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee, said: 'If this is true then it's simply shocking that you have got a bank in which the British taxpayer has a significant holding and a major company receiving funds that is being accused of some pretty grotesque modern slavery offences. It's simply shocking 'We have got to get wise and we've got to ensure that when we work with China, we don't make ourselves complicit in serious and significant human rights abuses. It's just not acceptable.' Documents show that in July 2022, the bank handed almost 100 million to a subsidiary of Haier, which owns famous appliance brands such as Candy and Hoover. That was despite a United Nations-backed organisation writing to Haier's chief executive in 2021, expressing concerns over the company's treatment of Uighur and other minority workers 'within and outside the Xinjiang region'. There are 12million Uighurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, officially known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Shake on it: Vladimir Putin welcoming AIIB president Jin Liqun to Russia in 2016 Since becoming a founding member of the AIIB in 2015, Britain has committed billions of pounds to the bank in exchange for a 3 per cent voting share. This was part of a push for closer ties with Xi Jinping's China almost ten years ago, which was spearheaded by the Cameron government despite protests from the US. The White House said in 2015 it had 'concerns' over whether the AIIB would meet 'high standards of governance, environmental and social safeguards'. Relations have since soured significantly between Beijing and the West. Tensions have arisen over reports that China has detained more than one million Uighurs and over the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The UK's stance on Chinese investment has also hardened over the last 12 months. The Government recently forced a China-backed company to offload chip business Newport Wafer Fab, though other deals have been given a green light. Beijing job: Ex-LibDem MP Danny Alexander The revelations also raise uncomfortable questions for Sir Danny Alexander, who served as chief of staff to former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Nick Clegg. After losing his seat in the 2015 election, Alexander, who had no leadership experience at a development bank, was the surprise choice to look after the UK's interests at the AIIB. The last job he had before entering Parliament was as head of communications for the Cairngorms National Park. Now aged 50, he is a vice president of the AIIB and based in Beijing with his wife Rebecca and their two children. Despite the AIIB's stated commitment to transparency and accountability, his salary remains undisclosed. It is also unclear how UK taxpayers have benefited from their support for the AIIB. Much of the bank's work is to fund costly projects in faraway countries at a time when budgets in the UK are under extreme pressure. The bank approved 44 projects last year, six of which were in China and worth over 500million. A further 400 million is earmarked to provide a second runway at a remote airport in south west China. Other countries to benefit from AIIB-backed projects include India, Egypt and Uzbekistan. A Treasury spokesman said: 'The AIIB has 105 members globally and is focused on improving infrastructure and fostering sustainable growth in its region in cooperation with established multilateral development banks. The Government works closely with the AIIB and other shareholders to ensure its investments are in line with international standards and best practice.' Danny Alexander and the AIIB were contacted for comment. Investigations by audit watchdogs into the dramatic downfall of Carillion have still not been published five years on from one of the biggest financial disasters of recent years. This month marks the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the firm with debts of 7billion. Before its demise, Carillion was one of the Government's biggest contractors, working on essential projects including new hospitals and schools. Auditor KMPG, which failed to raise red flags over the firm's accounts, was heavily criticised over its role in the scandal. Disaster: Before its demise, Carillion was one of the Government's biggest contractors In 2018, auditing regulator the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) launched two separate investigations into the accountancy group's work on Carillion's financial statements from 2014 to 2016. It later extended the period covered by the scrutiny back to 2013. But the investigations are now approaching their fifth year with no publication date in sight. Baron Sikka, professor of accounting at the University of Sheffield, called for the FRC to conclude its review and publish the findings. He said: 'There has been no urgency shown by the regulator, which means many of the bad practices that the Carillion failure identified are still not being clamped down on. 'The FRC is failing to carry out speedy investigations. By not showing results, it has basically abdicated its responsibility.' KPMG one of the 'big four' accounting firms signed off Carillion's accounts four months before it issued a profit warning and nine months before it went into liquidation. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who co-chaired Parliament's Business Committee when it published a damning report into Carillion's failure, said the collapse showed 'how a government addicted to outsourcing stood idly by as financial disaster unfurled', adding: 'Ministers repeatedly ignored warnings about the state of the company and did not stand up for taxpayers.' Sir Jon Thompson, head of the FRC, defended the length of time the investigations are taking, saying it was important to ensure they are 'thorough and accurate to provide the transparency and accountability the public deserves'. He said: 'These investigations are complex and require a thorough examination of a huge amount of financial and other data, as well as coordination with other bodies conducting investigations in parallel.' Other regulators, including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), launched inquiries after its failure. A separate investigation by the FCA concluded that it would have fined Carillion 38million if it had not been in liquidation. The Receiver, acting on behalf of Carillion's creditors, is still locked in a legal wrangle with the accountant. Government officials overseeing the liquidation of Carillion are suing KPMG for 1.3billion, alleging that KPMG missed 'red flags' when looking at the accounts. It was one of a series of auditing scandals that has shattered KPMG's reputation. It has also botched audits at advertising group M&C Saatchi and retailer Ted Baker. But it was Carillion that turned the audit industry on its head by shining a spotlight on questionable practices and kicked off a scramble in the City and Westminster to reform the sector. This has included plans to replace the FRC with a new body, the Audit Reporting and Governance Authority. But experts have questioned whether proposed policy changes are being watered down. A KPMG spokesman said the company was co-operating fully with the FRC's investigations. It's a truly electrifying time for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and its veteran chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos. The dapper Anglophile German entrusted with a treasure trove of Britain's automotive crown jewels has just announced record global sales and profits for the luxury carmaker. Its very name is a byword for excellence far beyond cars. The landmark financial performance, which now feeds in to German parent company BMW, comes at a critical time. Muller-Otvos is launching Rolls-Royce's first ever production electric car the sporty Spectre fast-back. Deliveries are due to begin later this year. Dream job: Torsten Muller-Otvos has been Rolls-Royce CEO for 13 years It is arguably the most significant vehicle in the company's history since the legendary Silver Ghost, whose endurance feats in the early days spurred the 119-year-old company to the pinnacle of automotive achievement. Spectre marks the first step in an equally important transformation which will see Rolls-Royce, whose cars still carry at their prow the famous flying Spirit of Ecstasy, adapt to the Spirit of Electricity. By the end of 2030 all new Rolls-Royce models will be purely electric. Muller-Otvos has been CEO for 13 years, having had his contract extended beyond the age of 60 when board members of parent group BMW are normally required to step down. The 62-year-old hails Rolls-Royce's performance last year as 'a great British success story' and believes 2023 will also prove a strong year. But he stresses: 'Sales are not our sole measure of success: we are not and never will be a volume manufacturer.' He has thrived in a 'dream job' and still pinches himself, he admits. After university and compulsory military service, he joined BMW Group in 1989, rising to ever more senior positions in marketing, strategic planning and product management, including for Mini, before being appointed to lead Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in 2010. BMW took control of Rolls-Royce in 1998 following an epic battle with Volkswagen. In the fallout, Volkswagen snapped up Bentley and the Crewe factory it had shared with Rolls-Royce. BMW set up its new purchase with a boutique facility at Goodwood, near Chichester, West Sussex this month celebrating its 20th anniversary. Both he and BMW are privileged 'stewards' of the brand founded in 1904 in Manchester's Midland Hotel by the Honourable Charles Rolls and engineering genius Sir Henry Royce with, he believes, an almost sacred duty of care. Muller-Otvos hopes his own enduring legacy will be the rejuvenation of the Rolls-Royce brand to attract younger, wealthier clients: 'We've modernised it over the past 13 years.' So much so that the average age of Rolls-Royce buyers has dropped over his tenure from 57 to 43 'now even younger than Mini'. Future-proofing the marque by being the first super-luxury brand to launch an electric car was another milestone along with the 'once unthinkable' step of producing a Rolls-Royce SUV, the Cullinan, he says. The SUV accounts for 50 per cent of sales, well ahead of the Ghost with 30 per cent. Pre-orders for the new electric Spectre, priced from around 350,000, nudging 500,000 with bespoke extras, have also exceeded ambitious expectations ahead of first deliveries from this autumn, he said. = Moving with the times is, so far, obviously working. Overall, Rolls-Royce celebrated best-ever sales in 2022 of 6,021 cars, an increase of 8 per cent or 435 cars on the previous record of 5,586 set in 2021. It is the first time sales have exceeded 6,000 in a single 12-month period. Super-rich customers commissioning one-off bespoke and highly personalised luxury cars have helped propel sales and profitability. Bespoke commissions included the second of a unique series of three 'Boat Tail' cabriolets rumoured to have cost an eye-watering 20million each. 'Black Badge' model variants described by Rolls-Royce as its 'more rebellious alter ego' have also experienced 'extraordinary growth'. The Middle East, accounting for 10 per cent of sales, is particularly strong for 'high bespoke' one-off commissions, so Rolls-Royce has opened its first invitation-only 'private office' outside of Goodwood for discreet VIP customer consultations. More are to follow worldwide. Rolls-Royce's biggest market, the Americas, accounted for 30 per cent of sales last year, China 25 per cent and Europe 20 per cent. Rolls-Royce doesn't publish detailed accounts separately from German parent company BMW. But industry experts reckon the firm is neck and neck with Italy's Ferrari as the most profitable car company in the world, with an estimated 50 per cent return on investment. The company has an 'unwavering focus' on profit, is all Muller-Otvos will say. 'Rest assured, BMW in Munich is very happy with our performance. We will definitely be delivering a record result to them this year.' He says that means Rolls-Royce needs no handouts from its parent. All investment into Rolls-Royce is from self-generated money and there is 'no appetite' for a stock exchange listing. Passionate, serious and with a gimlet eye for detail, Muller-Otvos also displays a waspish sense of humour honed through his exposure to mad-dog Brits. 'I love it here. I will never leave the UK completely. I will always come back with many fond memories,' he says, reflecting on his career at BMW helping re-establish Mini and dealing with Land Rover when BMW owned Rover Group. He stresses that success would not have been possible without the 'extraordinary' 2,500-strong Goodwood workforce who hand-build the high-tech luxury vehicles, recently boosted by 250 new jobs. Midas touch: Rolls-Royce's new electric Spectre marks the first step in an important transformation When it comes to contrasting Anglo-German approaches to challenges, he says the British are superb at thinking on their feet and adapting, but are not the best planners. Germans, by contrast, plan for every eventuality and often to excess, but can be totally thrown if someone chucks an unexpected spanner into the works. 'I witness this very often. What I love about all our British colleagues here, particularly our craftspeople, is that they are perfect when it comes to sudden issues rising up. They can solve things very quickly in an unconventional way,' he says. He adds: 'I think that kind of pairing of typical German engineering to perfection and British crafts-people's capability here in the UK is a perfect combination that makes Rolls-Royce so strong.' I have witnessed Rolls-Royce's remarkable transformation with Muller-Otvos up close, even flying with him in a compact executive jet to the remote Swedish community of Arjeplog on the edge of the frozen Arctic Circle to have an exclusive first ride on ice and snow in the passenger seat of a Spectre prototype during cold weather testing. Soon I shall be joining him again to drive the Spectre for myself. Time will prove that the electric evolution, he says, was 'absolutely the right decision and that electric is the perfect propulsion for a Rolls-Royce'. He admits: 'I do pinch myself. It's an honour to work for the Rolls-Royce Motor Company. I also want to make our founding fathers proud Sir Henry Royce and Charles Rolls. I would like to think they approve.' Holiday company On the Beach is heading for a showdown with investors over plans to drop performance targets for its long-term bonus scheme. The online retailer said it wants to provide an incentive for directors who may not get a bonus if there is disruption to the travel market. This happened during the pandemic. Rivals including easyJet, Jet2 and British Airways-owner IAG have introduced similar policies. Best foot forward: Under the new bonus scheme, the chief executive would automatically receive 100 per cent of their salary in share options But proxy voting advisers Glass Lewis and Pirc have urged shareholders to vote down the plans at the group's annual meeting this week. Glass Lewis said it has 'severe reservations' about the changes. Under the new bonus scheme, the chief executive would automatically receive 100 per cent of their salary in share options, which will not be available for five years. Previously, they could have received up to 200 per cent of their salary but would have to hit a number of targets to get the full amount. Like all travel firms, On the Beach was hammered during the pandemic. But it is now benefiting from a rise in people booking package holidays. The 306million firm offers trips to hotspots including Spain, Turkey, Jamaica and St Lucia. Its chief executive is Simon Cooper, who founded the company in 2004. Another proxy adviser, Institutional Shareholder Services, has backed the plan. An On the Beach spokesman said the business had consulted with 80 per cent of shareholders and was 'confident' the new bonus programme is 'fit for purpose in a post-Covid environment'. Dreams of a comfortable retirement are fading fast for millions of hard-working savers as new figures reveal the cost of maintaining even a frugal lifestyle rose almost 20 per cent last year. The soaring cost of living, up another 10.5 per cent last month, takes its toll on everyone's budgets but especially on those in retirement. Maintaining a minimum standard of living in retirement now costs 12,800 up from 10,900 last year. A comfortable retirement costs 37,300 up by 3,700, according to industry body the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association. (Read our full report on how much you need for a decent retirement.) That comfortable income would pay for a lifestyle that includes, for example, three weeks of holidays in Europe every year, a replacement kitchen and bathroom every ten to 15 years and a two-year-old car replaced every five years. Planning ahead: Dreams of a comfortable retirement are fading fast for millions of hard-working savers How much money do you need in your pension pot? Although a comfortable retirement costs 37,300, you would only need to find 26,700 a year because a full state pension if you are eligible should cover the first 10,600. To achieve this income you would need a pension pot of around 645,000, according to calculations by wealth manager Quilter. A couple would need a bit less than twice that sum as many costs will be shared. The figures assume that you own your home outright you will need a higher income if you are paying rent or a mortgage. For a minimum lifestyle you would need a pension pot of around 44,000 as the bulk of the 12,800 would be covered by the state pension. This would allow for a week's holiday in the UK every year, eating out about once a month and some affordable leisure activities. It would not include the budget to run a car. For many people, such sums will feel far out of reach. But there are steps you can take at every age to make the retirement lifestyle you want a reality. Retirement income needs for single people. Scroll down to find out what couples require for a decent old age (Source PLSA) How to build a pension... in your 20s At this age, retirement is so far off that it can be tempting to put off saving for it. However, the money that you save early on in your career is several times more valuable than money set aside later on. That's because thanks to the power of compounding, your money has longer to grow. So it's worth getting into the habit as early as you can. Luckily there is a lot of help available. Unless you specifically opt out, you will be automatically enrolled into your workplace pension. Your employer is required by law to put in the equivalent of at least three per cent of your salary every year and you must contribute at least five per cent. Put in more if you can. Money put into a pension is tax free, with 25 per cent tax relief bumping contributions back up to the point before 20 per cent basic rate income tax was charged. Higher rate taxpayers can claim back more from HMRC. > How pensions work: Our guide to the essentials you need to know To work out how much you should be saving, a common rule of thumb suggests you should save a percentage equivalent to half your age when you start putting money aside. So, if you are 26, you should save 13 per cent of your salary. However, this assumes that you work solidly until retirement age. There is a good chance you'll have gaps to have children, travel, retrain or for illness so save more whenever you can to allow for times when you can't. You can afford to take a lot of risk with your investments as you are still decades off needing to spend them. Higher risk tends to mean greater rewards over the long term. Investing in one or several funds that invest in hundreds or thousands of companies all around the world is usually a good starting point. Finally, bear in mind that by the time you come to retire, the provision for older people may not be as generous as it is now. It would be nice to think that the state retirement age would be no higher and the state pension as generous as it is now, but that's not a given. Plan to rely on yourself as far as you can. Will you be able to afford the retirement you want? What do you picture in retirement? Is it an early exit from the rat race to travel the world, a gradual step back and a bit of golf, or working until state pension age and then spending some time treating the grandchildren? We will all have a different image in our heads of what our retirement years might look like, but whatever that is it is important to think about another question: could you afford to do those things? Stepping into that gap is the now regular report from the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association, which helps paint a picture of what a minimum, moderate and comfortable retirement would look like and crucially what it would cost. On this podcast, Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and This is Moneys pension and investment editor, Tanya Jefferies, delve into the report and look at what it found. Press play to listen on the player above, or listen at Apple Podcasts, Audioboom, YouTube and Spotify or visit our This is Money Podcast page. How to build a pension... in your 30s Your expenses are likely to grow in this decade especially if you're saving to get on to the property ladder or have children. It can be tempting to dial back pension saving when things get tighter, but don't give up if you can. It may feel selfish saving for old age when you could be spending on your family now, but they will thank you for not being financially dependent on them in the years to come. If you manage to pay off a student loan, consider diverting what you were spending into your pension instead. Do it before you get used to the additional income. Make sure that you claim National Insurance credits if you take time out of the workplace to look after children or relatives. It will help you to get a full state pension later on. How to build a pension... in your 40s This is often the decade when your earnings really rise as you move up the career ladder. When you get a pay rise or bonus, try to divert some into your pension before you get used to having the extra money. If you are employed, you could consider asking for a pension rise. Not all employers will say yes, but some may agree to match a higher percentage of your pension contributions. By this stage in your career, you are likely to have several pensions. Try to keep track of them all by notifying all your providers of your new address if you move home or your name if you change it. You can track down old ones using the Government's pension tracing service at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details. How to build a pension... in your 50s At the age of 55 (rising to 57 from 2028) you will be able to access your pension pots for the first time. You will also be allowed to withdraw up to 25 per cent tax free. However, you are better off leaving your pots untouched unless you need them straightaway. That way they have longer to grow. Once you have taken money from a pension, the maximum you can save into one tax free drops from 40,000 to 4,000 a year. So if you are still contributing to a pension, try not to make withdrawals. Get a forecast of how much state pension you are likely to receive. If you are not on track for the full amount, see if there are missing National Insurance credits that you are due. To check, get in touch with Revenue & Customs, call 0345 300 3900. How to build a pension... in your 60s It's not too late to boost your pension. You can still benefit from tax relief and employer contributions. You may want to move some of your pension pot into lower risk funds. However, if you have some pension savings that you hope not to touch for many years, you could keep them in higher-risk funds. If you do not have enough National Insurance credits for a full state pension, you may be able to buy missing years. Read our pension columnist Steve Webb's essential guide to pension top-ups and whether they are worth buying. To find out more on how to do it go to gov.uk/ national-insurance-credits If you are providing free childcare to grandchildren under the age of 12, you may be able to claim National Insurance credits for this too. You can even backdate claims by ten years if you didn't claim at the time. A campaign group has called for increased awareness of cow attacks in Britain These include a man, aged 75, and a woman, aged 55, who both died this year Multiple people have been killed in incidents involving cows in the countryside Ramblers are demanding new laws to protect them from 'killer cows' after the deaths of 32 people in the British countryside over the last five years. 'Killer Cows' has been set up by campaigners who say they have 'experienced aggressive behaviour by cattle' and who believe incidents that see cows trample and attack ramblers as they walk through fields are under-reported. It is calling for compulsory public liability insurance for all farmers who keep livestock, cattle to be separated from walkers on National Trails and a national database of cow attacks. According to the latest available figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) 32 people were killed by cows between 2018 and 2022, 20 per cent of all deaths in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry. In November a 75-year-old walker was killed in Whitland, Carmarthenshire, by a rampaging cow that had escaped from a livestock market. Pensioner Huw Evans was airlifted to hospital on November 19 after being 'attacked and trampled' by the escaping animal, but died from his injuries a week later. Police were forced to put the animal, which halted trains as it strayed onto a rail line, for being 'dangerously out of control'. The Health and Safety Executive is investigating. And in August an unnamed 55-year-old woman was found 'covered in blood' after being trampled by a herd of 30 cows while walking her dog near Billinghurst in West Sussex. People have been hurt and even killed after being trampled by cows in the British countryside Huw Evans, 75, was airlifted to hospital after being 'attacked and trampled' by a cow in Wales Sharon Eley was left thinking she was going to die after being trampled by cows in a field in Lancashire this year. Pictured are bruises on her back and neck from the attack Janicke Tvedt (pictured) had to be airlifted to hospital after being attacked by a herd of cows in rural North Yorkshire. Pictured: Medics attending to Ms Tvedt after the incident Devastated friends said the 'gentle' woman 'loved' animals, with passersby raising the alarm after she was discovered hurt on August 22. Despite the best efforts of the public and emergency services who performed CPR on her for up to an hour, she was pronounced dead at the scene. People living in the village claimed that a man had been injured by the same 'crazy' cows months earlier, and had to be airlifted to hospital. Detectives said the woman's death was not being treated as suspicious. As well as these deaths, terrifying stories have emerged from other walkers who have been left maimed by the animals, with some people left with life-changing injuries. Sharon Eley suffered 15 broken ribs, a punctured lung, a shattered ankle and a broken clavicle when she was surrounded by cows in a Lancashire field in May this year. The 51-year-old said she was left thinking she was going die when the cows attacked her as she walked her five-year old Lhasa Apso called Ralphie on a short lead on a public footpath through a field. Speaking earlier this year she said: 'It was terrifying. They pushed me over, I was on my hands and knees and I didn't know how to get out. 'They'd got all around me and all I could see was hooves after hooves after hooves. Sharon Eley has said she is 'very lucky to be alive' after the ordeal involving around 20 cows when they attacked as she walked through the Lancashire countryside Sharon Eley was left with 15 broken ribs, a punctured lung, a dislocated and shattered ankle and a broken clavicle as well as severe bruising Ms Eley was walking in the Lancashine countryside with a pal and her dog Ralphie when the incident happened on May 22 earlier this year 'I stood up and then they pushed me down again. I was on my hands and knees again and then they were headbutting me on my back. 'I was wearing a hard leather backpack handbag and they were hitting it. The next minute they'd snapped the arm off my backpack, that had gone round my neck and it was choking me. 'I'm very lucky to be alive.' A keen hiker who'd racked up over 30 miles in four days as part of her training for the Yorkshire Three Peak Challenge, Ms Eley had walked the same route just one day before and encountered no issues. She and her pal walked through two fields with their dogs on a short lead, and crossed the first field with no problem. It was only when they entered the second field that they spotted the 20 cows, including calves, huddled together around 20ft away. 'My friend said to me 'oh God I'm not sure about this Sharon' and I said 'it's ok, we'll just wide berth them,' Ms Eley said. 'Don't worry, don't run, it's all good, just stand behind me, don't worry about it'. She said that while Ralphie didn't bark and they tried to stay clear of the cows, she was still attacked in a five-minute-long ordeal that only ended when someone else entered the field. She spent five days in ICU and two weeks in the major trauma unit before being transferred to Burnley General Teaching Hospital in Lancashire for rehabilitation. Former army officer Janicke Tvedt, 55, was left needing a colostomy bag after being trampled by a herd of cows in Masham, North Yorkshire, last year. Janicke Tvedt, 55, was left with seven broken ribs, hoof marks on her chest and legs and needed part of her colon removed after she was attacked by cows The former army officer had been walking her eight-year-old Labrador Goose (pictured together) when they stumbled across a 30-strong herd of cows in Masham, North Yorkshire What to do when in a field with cows Try not to walk in a field where there are cows with their calves. If cows are without calves it is still advised to still try and find an alternative route. If there is not an alternative route, stick to the footpath and walk calmly and at a steady pace. Try not to surprise the cows and do not walk to close to them. Dog owners are advised to keep their pets under control when walking near cows and some walking fields have signs in place telling owners to keep their pets on a short lead. But if you are in a situation where you feel that you and your dog are in danger, you can let your dog off the lead so you can both run to safety. Source: National Animal Welfare Trust Advertisement Ms Tvedt, who served in Bosnia, was taken down and pinned against a fence as the animals, who apparently feared her eight-year-old Labrador Goose was a threat to their calves, stamped on her body. She managed to escape when her army training kicked in and she went into 'survival mode', climbing a tree. The mother-of-two slipped in and out of consciousness before paramedics arrived and she was finally airlifted to hospital. She was left with seven broken ribs, hoof marks on her chest and legs and had to have a colostomy bag fitted after part of her colon had to removed by medics following the terrifying ordeal last July. Ms Tvedt had followed a farmer's gatepost instruction to keep her dog on a lead, said after the attack that those who find themselves in a similar situation to let their pets run free. She explained: 'What you're supposed to do when you're under attack by cattle is you're supposed to let the dog off the lead and kick the dog away. 'It's the dog that's the issue. They see it as a predator.' Livestock owners are liable for damages caused to property by straying livestock. Damages caused to people often depend on individual circumstances and are assessed individually by the courts, although farmers are expected to carry out risk assessments and put up appropriate signage. Where a farmer has failed to implement reasonable safety measures, they can also be liable for prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive. One farming company has been charged over the death of a primary school teacher who was trampled to death by a cow while walking along a public bridle path. Marian Clode, 61, had been staying at a holiday cottage at Swinhoe Farm, near Belford, Northumberland, when she was suddenly killed during the Easter holidays on April 3, 2016. An inquest later heard she died of a cardiac arrest, and brain and severe spinal injuries, after 15 cows and their calves surged from a holding pen onto the path where she was walking. Marian Clode, 61, (pictured) had been staying at Swinhoe Farm in Northumberland with her family when she died after a cow charged at her while she was walking on a public bridleway Owners of the animals, J M Nixon & Son, which is based at Swinhoe Farm, were charged with a health and safety offence in relation to the incident. The farming company will now face a trial next year Martin and Margaret: Trampled by cows On May 9, we were walking on a public footpath across a field in West Burton, in the Yorkshire Dales. The footpath provides direct access into the village from a B road and from other public rights of way over adjoining fields. It is an area we know well, and a route we've walked many times before. We had our dog with us on a lead. We didn't see the cows to start with, but when we reached the top of a slight incline we realised there were maybe eight cows in the field, which was quite small. Two cows were grazing directly in the line of the public footpath, so we gave them as wide a birth as we could, and walked in close proximity to the perimeter wall. We kept our small dog on a short lead. The cows with very little warning became extremely agitated. We didn't see the calves until it was too late. Suddenly, one of the cows came toward us. Then, a big brown cow got up and came charging. MARTIN'S STORY 'I shouted to Margaret to let go of the dog, which she did, and the dog ran away. I managed to get in front of the brown cow to protect my wife, but the cow butted me and tossed me up into the air like a matchstick. When I got up from the ground, I saw the cows were trampling Margaret. I ran at them, shouting and kicking. 'The whole attack only lasted 20 seconds or so, but it seemed like a lifetime.' MARGARET'S STORY 'The next thing I knew, I was down on the ground, and the cow was trampling on top of me. I lay on my side and managed to protect my stomach. I truly believe if I had been on my back I would have been killed. I was wearing a leather bum bag, which probably saved me from worse injury. It was completely split in two by the force of the cows' hooves.' INJURIES AND AFTERMATH Margaret was airlifted by Yorkshire Air Ambulance to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, where she was found to have suffered six broken ribs, a collapsed lung and, more seriously, a seven cm deep tear to her liver. She was kept in hospital for five days for observation, but luckily did not need surgery to repair her liver. As far as we know, the cows are still in the field. Source: Killer Cows Advertisement J M Nixon & Son, which is based at Swinhoe Farm, pleaded not guilty to charge of failing to ensure the health and safety of persons other than employees. It is alleged that it failed to ensure that people, who were not in their employment, were not exposed to risks to their health and safety from the movement of cattle. A trial is set to take place on November 27, 2023. In February, a farmer was fined 900 after his herd of cows trampled an 82-year-old pensioner to death in front of his horrified wife during a walk in the Yorkshire Dales. Farmer Christopher Paul Sharp, 50, was also given a 12 week suspended sentence after 20 of his cattle mowed down retired teacher David Tinniswood MBE on May 30, 2020. Mr Tinniswood had been walking his two border terriers, Bracken and Rusty, with his wife Carol when the herd 'attacked' them on a public pathway through Sharp's land near the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire. Mr Tinniswood, a father of two, was sent flying into the air before suffering fatal abdominal injuries during the 10-minute ordeal. He sadly died at the scene. In 2016, 83-year-old Wiltshire farmer Brian Godwin was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay costs of 30,000 at Swindon Crown Court after admitting a breach of his general duty to control his livestock. Retired professor Mike Porter, 66, was trampled to death as he and his brother John walked their dogs along a footpath which crossed Godwin's field at Turleigh, near Bradford-upon-Avon, in May 2013. The court heard Godwin's 31-strong herd of Limousin cattle were a particularly aggressive crossbreed and had attacked ramblers on four occasions previously. Godwin had twice been warned by the Health and Safety Executive. In 2008, a woman who was trampled by a herd of cows as she crossed a field successfully sued a farmer for 1 million. Shirley McKaskie, 54, a company director, was walking her Jack Russell terrier on her way to a pub in the village of Greystoke, near Penrith, Cumbria, when she was injured. She had strayed a short distance from the footpath and was trampled by the herd of 40 Simmental-cross beef cows, which included 21 calves. The farmer, John Cameron, found her unconscious in his field and carried her to his farmhouse before she was taken to hospital. Her injuries included fractured ribs, multiple soft-tissue injuries and a hairline fracture of the skull which required emergency surgery. Although the Health and Safety Executive took no action, Ms McKaskie, who was confined to a wheelchair after the attack, was successful in her civil claim. Mr Cameron's wife Doreen said at the time: 'He saved her life but he's never got a word of thanks, he's just been sued, that's what hurts him. We're just absolutely devastated.' Campaign group Cows On Walkers Safety (COWS), which runs 'Killer Cows', said it wants to 'raise awareness of the dangers posed by cattle', adding that some have been 'badly scared', 'badly injured' or nearly killed. On its website it says: 'Our aim is to make our footpaths safer for walkers, across England and Wales, by reducing the risk posed by cattle.' Alongside its campaigning, the site is dedicated to sharing stories of ramblers attacked by cattle near farmers' fields, with headlines including 'Julia: scared for her life' and 'Martin and Margaret: Trampled by cows'. It says: 'As well as shocking stories of serious injuries, many people have told us about walks ruined by terrifying encounters with cattle. Some have given up walking in the countryside altogether. 'This is unacceptable. It is time to demand action. 'In an ideal world, we would like cattle to be separated from all public footpaths, but we recognise the challenges involved with this, and so have come up with three, achievable, aims. 'Compulsory public liability insurance for all farmers who keep livestock, cattle to be separated from walkers on our National Trails, a central database to record all incidents of cattle attacks across England and Wales.' Sarah Lee, Director of Policy at the Countryside Alliance said: 'Getting out and exploring the countryside provides a range of benefits, not least exercise and headspace. 'But the countryside is a full time place of work for many people and is a home to livestock and wildlife, so it's essential you keep your wits about you and treat rural areas with respect, while following the countryside code. 'There are sadly multiple reports annually of people getting either seriously hurt or worse killed, by cows. We would urge anyone visiting the countryside to stick to the designated footpaths. 'England and Wales have 140,000 miles of designated footpaths and as those of us who use them regularly know, this network gives extraordinary access to the countryside and most rights of way are rarely used. 'Should you come into contact with cows along the way, it is best to be cautious, particularly around mothers with calves. Like all animals, cows are naturally defensive of their young and it is important you do not approach them. 'When crossing a field, it is worth waiting just by the entrance of the fence to see how cows respond to your presence before making a move and when walking do so quietly and quickly, without making any sudden movements. 'Animal welfare organisations have suggested giving cows a round of applause and shouting in cases where you feel threatened and marking out the closest exit, even if that means going back. 'If you are walking a dog, ensure it is kept on a lead and always make sure you securely close any gates you must open along the way'. NFU Vice President David Exwood said: 'As farmers we welcome public access to the countryside, it's a great way for people to see where their food comes from and offers mental and physical wellbeing benefits. 'I would encourage visitors to remember that it is a working environment and should be enjoyed safely, in accordance with the Countryside Code. 'Public fatalities in the countryside are rare, but when they do happen it is awful to see. 'There are simple ways that people can remain safe and vigilant, such as not walking in between a calf and a cow, as well as keeping dogs on leads around animals but letting them off the lead if they're threatened by cattle.' As Westminster put the brakes on the Scottish Parliament's plans for gender self identification, opponents of the bill have remembered an icon of their movement who inspired thousands of women to rise up. Magdalen Berns was a co-founder of For Women Scotland - the group which led an attempted Judicial Review to challenge Nicola Sturgeons Gender Recognition Reform Bill and which protested for days outside Holyrood while the bill was debated. She was also an influential Youtuber, whose 'incisive' logic and deadpan delivery earned her enemies from the trans lobby and admirers from feminists and gay rights groups. Berns died of a glioblastoma in September 2019 aged 36, but her words and videos are still cited by activists, among them JK Rowling, who paid tribute to her as an 'immensely brave young feminist and lesbian' in her 2020 Twitter essay. Magdalen Berns, who died in 2019 aged 36, was a co-founder of For Women Scotland and an influential Youtuber who inspired thousands of women and gay rights campaigners with her videos Supporters of the For Women Scotland and the Scottish Feminist Network take part in a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh One of Berns' best-known lines, 'It is not hate to speak the truth' has become widely shared. Another quip, 'I'd rather be rude than a f****** liar' also emerged as a rallying cry, according to Berns' friend and fellow activist Venice Allan. 'I was a member of Momentum and a backer of Jeremy Corbyn,' said Ms Allan. 'I watched Magdalen's videos and they struck such a chord with me. Here was someone saying what I thought before I'd found the words.' In her videos, Berns typically took apart the claims of gender ideologists whose views she disagreed with, insisting in one: 'There is no such thing as a lesbian with a penis. 'Trying to shame lesbians for being lesbians is intrinsically homophobic and misogynistic.' Elsewhere, she could show a human side, imploring to one opponent: 'It's okay to be uncomfortable with masculinity. Do you think I'm comfortable with femininity? Your personality doesn't make you female.' Nicole Jones (dressed as a suffragette) joined scores of others protesting outside the Scottish parliament building on Wednesday Speaking outside Holyrood after a three-day rally with For Women Scotland, Berns was remembered by her partner Nicole Jones. Ms Jones said: 'Magdalen would have been disappointed [by the Scottish Parliament's vote], although it comes as no surprise. 'She was a deeply kind person who was full of compassion and she cared about women's and disability rights long before this gender debate came about. 'It's time to plan our next move and of course, we wish she was here to help us.' Born in London, Berns spent her early years protesting against animal testing and fur, handing out leaflets for the Socialist Labour Party, while her mother Deborah Lavin was a founder of the Communist Party of Great Britain. After working as a sound engineer in the clubs of north London, Berns relocated to Edinburgh in the mid 2010s where she studied physics. Protesters display a banner in the public gallery of the Scottish Parliament It was in 2015 while at university that Berns began filming her videos, sending up among her targets Stonewall and a host of new vloggers, whose claims she regarded as a threat to lesbians' and women' rights. 'There was a definitely a shift in the air,' said Marion Calder, who later co-founded For Women Scotland with Berns. 'Up to that point, there was almost a gentleman's agreement between feminists and transsexuals - those who had medically transitioned and had the support of a doctor. 'Along came this new breed of trans activist on our doorstep saying "we're female, to all intents and purposes" with no medical or social transition. 'There were other women speaking out about it, but Magdalen was way ahead of the curve in using videos.' According to Berns' friend Robbie Travers, at that time an undergraduate at Edinburgh, the shift in transgender politics was accompanied by belligerent activism on campus. He said: 'I couldn't believe my ears. There were male students calling themselves lesbians, saying women who wouldn't have sex with males were "c*** scum" and should be "annihilated". 'I sat there, thinking this was beyond satire, but it was real. 'Magdalen was investigated by the Students Union and was repeatedly hauled into interviews. They were fishing for an offence. I was questioned by them about what her views were, if she had been radicalised. 'It seemed to me that it was her opinions that were on trial. She was a committed, leftwing feminist but she became disillusioned with the modern left.' In her videos, Berns regularly took apart the claims of gender ideologists whose views she disagreed with, insisting in one: 'There is no such thing as a lesbian with a penis' Berns' critics often cite a tweet from June 2018 referring to transwomen as 'f***ing blackface actors' with 'perversions' and who 'get sexual kicks from being treated like women', as evidence of transphobia. Berns later deleted the notorious tweet, which was made during an online spat. But according to those who knew her, while she may have regretted her choice of words, she was unrepentant about her point of view. In a video about the subject, activist Maria MacLachlan said: 'I'm not going to defend the language Magdalen uses here, she was harsh and that's maybe why she had to delete the tweet. 'But let's not get all sanctimonious about Magdalen's angry expression... When you apparently think it's ok for men to disregard the feelings, the dignity and the privacy of women on the basis of some subjective feeling they claim to have, and yet you are trying to paint Magdalen as the villain here. 'While some trans-identifying men are obviously sexually-motivated and some are obviously pretty sick, not all are by any means, and actually Magdalen knew that'. Protesters are seen during a candle lit vigil over what they believe is a loss of women's rights in Scotland WHAT JK ROWLING WROTE ABOUT MAGDALEN BERNS In her June 2020 essay, Rowling wrote: 'When I started taking an interest in gender identity and transgender matters, I began screenshotting comments that interested me, as a way of reminding myself what I might want to research later. 'On one occasion, I absent-mindedly liked instead of screenshotting. That single "like" was deemed evidence of wrongthink, and a persistent low level of harassment began. 'Months later, I compounded my accidental "like" crime by following Magdalen Berns on Twitter. Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. 'However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didnt believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased.' Advertisement To those around her, the experience of being thrown out of half a dozen student groups had the effect of galvanising Berns' activism and she pursued making her Youtube videos with renewed vigour. Berns was the first to interview Wiltshire mother-of-four Kellie-Jay Keen, then using the moniker Posie Parker, after she was questioned by police over complaints of tweets by Susie Green, former CEO of trans children charity Mermaids She also took part in demonstrations and gained rapid recognition among women's rights campaigners across the world. In 2018, Berns co-founded For Women Scotland alongside Nicole Jones, Trina Brudge, Susan Smith and Marion Calder. Ms Calder, recalled their first meeting years earlier: 'I'd only seen her videos and I was expecting this 6'5" amazon to walk in. 'But in came this tiny woman, people don't realise how petite she was. Her personality was huge, she had the courage of a 6'5 amazon.' Sadly, Berns' involvement with For Women Scotland was hampered as her health began to worsen. She was given the diagnosis of a terminal glioblastoma in summer 2019. Its a difficult thing to be told that youve got something that cant be cured, but Im not going to let it define me, Berns is reported to have said, while adopting a stoic front. After moving into a hospice in Edinburgh, Berns was told JK Rowling was following her on Twitter and had got in touch. According to Ms Calder, Berns' reaction was simply, 'that's cool'. 'Magdalen wasn't someone who was impressed by celebrity, but even she knew it would have an impact' Ms Calder added. Nestled in the dense vegetation between a motorway and railway line in West Yorkshire is a lucrative marijuana farm, where plants grow up to eight feet high. Two cannabis enthusiasts in their mid-20s tend to the crop from seedlings to sale point. Over the course of a year, the men allowed Bradford based photographer John Bolloten to monitor and picture their illegal trade. The photos form part of a book, titled North Guerillas, documenting the year on the farm. They refer to themselves as the North Guerillas, and take great pride in their crop of about 50 plants. They operate on public property, effectively hidden in plain sight near a thoroughfare where passersby go on daily walks, catch the train to work or even sit in traffic. This is the inside of an illegal outdoor cannabis farm, tended to by two marijuana enthusiasts in their mid-20s West Yorkshire Police left a calling card which read: 'Dear drug dealers, we have your drugs! Call 101 to get them back.' Pictures of the process show the men separating the types of marijuana they're about to grow into plastic cups. The different strains range from 'Dutch Dragon' to 'Cream Caramel' and 'Special Queen' Allowing Bradford based photographer John Bolloten into their private quarters, the two men - who cannot be named but refer to themselves as the North Guerillas - have offered an insight into the world of weed growing The North Guerillas scale an 26ft wall to access their crop, often protecting their faces in dark coloured masks and wearing long sleeved clothes. Everything they need for growing must be carried into the area by hand, and they generally harvest under the cover of darkness. Wearing face masks to protect their identity as they work, the men move the crop into a gazebo they erected themselves to be dried out, weighed and eventually bagged up for distribution. Pictures of the process show the men separating the types of marijuana they're about to grow into plastic cups. The different strains range from 'Dutch Dragon' to 'Cream Caramel' and 'Special Queen'. After the germinating stage, they move through the thick vegetation until they reach the area where they plant them. Wearing face masks to protect their identity as they work, the men move the crop into the shed to be dried out, weighed and eventually bagged up for distribution The duo use a drone to monitor their crop from afar Eventually, it is weighed on a set of scales and bagged up, ready for distribution Over the course of a year, the duo plant up to nine types of marijuana seeds, transferring them from small pots as they grow until they're eventually ready to be moved into the ground The plants are transferred from small terracotta pots, first into larger pots and eventually directly into the ground. Water is usually the heaviest item they have to lug between areas. Despite Yorkshire getting ample rain, growing marijuana is a tedious task and the plants require a certain amount to properly develop. The duo use a drone to monitor their crop from afar. When it is ready to be harvested, pictures show the crop drying on a string inside the shed. Eventually, it is weighed on a set of scales and bagged up, ready for distribution. The location of the illegal farm is set between a motorway, railway line and busy road, meaning the men take a significant risk each and every time they visit. The photos form part of a book, titled North Guerillas, documenting the year on the farm The location of the illegal farm is set between a motorway, railway line and busy road, meaning the men take a significant risk each and every time they visit The duo hike through the vegetation to their secluded growing ground in West Yorkshire Police raided the public land at the tail end of the growing season, seizing what was left of the plants. But the North Guerillas were not at the farm when the raid took place and they've since reestablished their crop, continuing their underground operation to this day. West Yorkshire Police left a calling card which read: 'Dear drug dealers, we have your drugs! Call 101 to get them back.' It's hard to determine exactly how much the crop would be worth, as it is largely dependent on the size and success of each plant. In recent police busts, 1200 cannabis plants in one illegal farm had an estimated street value of 960,000, while 110 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of 110,000 were seized at another location in Telford. Ninety plants discovered in Leicester were estimated to be worth about 70,000 when seized in April 2022. The duo plant up to nine types of marijuana seeds, transferring them from small pots as they grow until they're eventually ready to be moved into the ground When it is ready to be harvested, pictures show the crop drying on a string inside the shed According to the Institute of Economic Affairs, the black market for cannabis in the UK is estimated to by worth up to 2.6 billion annually - approximately 255 tonnes sold to three million users Pictured: One of the north Guerillas takes a break by a group of plants Since the Office for National Statistics began recording drug use estimates in the year ending December 1995, cannabis has consistently been the most used drug in England and Wales. In the year ending June 2022, the latest data, 7.4 per cent of adults aged 16 to 59 had admitted using the drug in a 12 month window. Some 16.2% of adults aged 16 to 24 years also reported using the drug. Marijuana is considered a Class B drug and the maximum penalty for possessing the drug is five years imprisonment. The court can also impose a fine worth up to 2,500. The maximum penalty for supplying or producing an illicit drug is 14 years in prison. In the years ending 2020 and 2021, cannabis was seized more often than any other Class B drug, with 95% of all Class B seizures involving this substance. Pictured: A large barrel of soil and nutrients are mixed together so that the young plants can be potted The small plants are transported by hand to the destination where they will grow up to 2.5m high The location of the cannabis farm was between a road, a railway track and a motorway. Access was usually in by running over this wall that was 26ft high. Plants and other supplies are hauled up the wall next to the road. Care must be taken as to not be spotted by passing cars or people out walking The North Guerillas say they do not run a commercial venture. Instead, they say they're simply cannabis enthusiasts. As technology develops, it's getting harder for growers to maintain illegal crops. Drones are now being used by police to track down and bust farms throughout the UK. In December, Lincolnshire Police revealed they'd made two breakthroughs with the use of marijuana-hunting drones. Across two busts, more than 165 plants were seized with this method. Pictured: After a trip to Argos, the growers struggle to understand the instructions on how to assemble their gazebo Pictured: The north Guerillas at their illegal outdoor cannabis farm at a secret location in West Yorkshire in the north of England The duo use a drone to monitor their crop from afar Pictured: A new way in and out of the location is discovered and used from then on in Pictured: The rootball of a plant that has been harvested. A rootball can weigh 15-20 kg Drones are so successful in finding cannabis because a huge amount of heat and light is needed in the growth process. As temperatures drop and darkness sets in, drones fitted with thermal imaging sensors are able to detect areas emitting unusual amounts of heat and light. Lincolnshire Police said in a statement: 'Yet another example why #drones are key in modern day crime fighting. One of many farms we have disrupted this year.' According to the Institute of Economic Affairs, the black market for cannabis in the UK is estimated to by worth up to 2.6 billion annually - approximately 255 tonnes sold to three million users. In November 2018, medicinal use of cannabis was legalised in the UK, and prescriptions are rapidly on the rise. The first stage of marijuana plants is germination. Lasting about three to 10 days, seeds are wrapped in a damp cloth until they begin to sprout Generally, they require about 16 hours of light each day at this stage and temperatures of up to 26C Seedlings are delicate and hard to keep in good condition They require 16 hours of sunlight, a particular amount of water, with the perfect humidity levels and specific temperatures After about three weeks as a seedling, the vegetative stage begins. It lasts up to eight weeks, and requires the plant to be transferred to a larger pot By 2024, the number of legal cannabis users is expected to hit 337,000, according to Park Insurance. The only conditions for which medicinal marijuana can be prescribed are severe epilepsy, patients with severe side effects from chemotherapy and people with muscular disorders, like multiple sclerosis. Discussions are ongoing about expanding this criteria. To own a medical growing farm, people must apply for a government licence and pass several checks and balances. At this stage, plants can grow up to three feet Flowering begins from about eight weeks until about 11 weeks. It is the final growth stage, so requires slightly less sunlight each day The location of the illegal farm is set between a motorway, railway line and busy road, meaning the men take a significant risk each and every time they visit From the flowering stage, all that's left is to harvest. Quality, taste and smell of the plant will be based on when it is harvested Plants will be pruned to remove dead or unhealthy parts of the plant, and then weighed and bagged up Advertisement After 12 long years trapped behind bars in brutal captivity, Jambolina was finally given a taste of freedom in May last year when she was able to bound joyously over the luscious Swiss Alps. But relief for the campaigners, who had fought for years for the release of the so-called 'World's Loneliest Bear', quickly turned to heartbreak when she died just two months later. Haunting photos of the caged European brown bear looking forlornly between the narrow metal bars of her tiny enclosure had sparked an outpouring of fury at the appalling conditions she was kept in. The life-long circus performer was only ever wheeled out from her filthy prison to perform tricks to adoring crowds in Ukraine, never even meeting another one of her own kind. Jambolina's harrowing tale so moved animal campaigners that they desperately battled with the Ukrainian circus to demand her release from the squalor and degradation. When Covid swept across the world, billions were confined to their homes but the pandemic suddenly gave Jambolina a shot at freedom. The rampaging virus halted circus performances and zoo bosses finally caved in and unlocked her cage, bringing an end to her torturous 12-year sentence. But tragically, Jambolina was only able to enjoy a few weeks of unimpeded bliss in the Swiss Alps when she died suddenly during a routine operation. Jambolina, a 12-year-old European brown bear, lived for more than a decade inside this cage at a Ukrainian circus before being rescued and taken to a Swiss Alps reserve Jambolina's sad story began at just a few weeks old, when the tragic European brown bear was born to captive bears kept on display at a Crimean zoo. She was immediately taken away from her parents and sold to a circus. The growing bear was imprisoned in a small cage and trained to perform tricks, using methods that campaigners say amount to torture. Private ownership of bears in Ukraine is possible as long as they are not captured in the wild and are cubs from bears already in captivity. Cages are required to be a minimum of 322sqft (30 square metres) and 10ft (three metres) high but there is little monitoring or punishment for breaches of the regulations. She never saw another bear or was allowed to engage in any natural behaviour. While she delighted crowds everywhere she went, she also horrified animal lovers around the world concerned for her welfare. Jambolina's sad story began at just a few weeks old, when the tragic European brown bear was born to captive bears kept on display at a Crimean zoo Jambolina is pictured early after her arrival at the bear sanctuary, adjusting to her new conditions inside an enclosure before being allowed to roam around outside However, all that changed with the arrival of the Covid pandemic which meant the circus could no longer stage performances. Unable to earn money, Jambolina's owner was forced to get rid of her because he could not afford to feed and care for her. Four Paws animal charity agreed to rescue the bear, and on December 8, 2021, she was sedated and loaded into a crate so she could be taken to Switzerland. The owner had said by this point, Jambolina could hardly move at all and suffered from lack of exercise and boredom, and asked the charity to give her a 'a good life'. It took four days to move her more than 1,500 miles to the Swiss Alps, where she was given a new home at the Arosa Bear Land sanctuary. Katharina Braun from Four Paws International said: 'She was kept alone in a tiny cage and had been since she was a cub. She was not with other bears.' Director of Four Paws Ukraine Taras Boiko said the rescue was a complex journey across Poland, Germany and Austria, especially with Covid travel restrictions. Four Paws' Barbara van Genne said: 'Transporting a bear across four national and two EU borders is a big challenge, even more so in COVID-19 times. The 12-year-old was extremely cautious when she took her first steps outside the enclosure then bounded through the snow Jambolina spent her first winter at the reserve hibernating - something she had never done in captivity It had taken animal rescuers four days to transport Jambolina the 1,500 miles from captivity to the bear sanctuary - but in the end she lived there for just a few months before dying 'We had to ensure Jambolinas wellbeing at all times while a lot of paperwork and controls were needed for the logistical part of the transfer.' Despite having never hibernated in captivity, Jambolina's natural instincts quickly kicked in in Switzerland and she settled down for her first-ever winter nap in December, 2021. After waking in May last year, she took her first nervous steps and was introduced to the first bear companion she had ever known - a male called Meimo who also lived on the reserve since being rescued from captivity in the Albanian city of Shkodra in February 2019. Scientific director of the Arosa Bear Land Dr Hans Schmid said: 'We expected this behaviour and it is completely natural. Scepticism is an important survival strategy for animals and humans.' But after making a few hesitant steps and sniffing the outdoor environment, Jambolina headed towards the pond and took a long bath. She was then pictured playing with a male bear called Meimo who also lived on the reserve since being rescued from captivity in the Albanian city of Shkodra in February 2019. Jambolina quickly adjusted to having space to roam around in - with one of her first moves being to bathe in a lake (pictured) Jambolina was rescued by animal rights organisation Four Paws, whose staff rescued her from her cage in Ukraine After their combat, Jambolina laid on her back which according to experts meant she felt comfortable with the new situation as the two bears then treated themselves to a bath. The animal keepers described Jambolina as brave and clever and said: 'We are not surprised by Jambolina's behaviour and we are very pleased that she could find her way around the outdoor area after a short time.' Four Paws Country Manager in Switzerland Alexandra Mandoki said: 'Moments like this give me goosebumps and it's just incredibly beautiful to see how we can give the bears a new life.' To ensure the pair would not breed, staff needed to have Jambolina sterilised and also needed to carry out a dental reconstruction to undo years of damage caused in captivity, which would allow her to live a full life. A team of experienced vets was assembled for the task, and on August 5 they sedated Jambolina to carry out the routine procedures. After waking up, she was introduced to her first ever bear companion - a male named Meimo (pictured, the pair playing together in spring last year) Animal behaviour specialists at the Swiss sanctuary said Jambolina and Meimo quickly began play-fighting, which is a normal social activity for a bear and shows that the pair are bonding Jambolina and Meimo are pictured bathing together at the sanctuary, with experts saying the two had bonded well before Jambolina tragically died in this week Meimo had been rescued from captivity in Albania in February 2019 and was kept in isolation at the sanctuary before being introduced to Jambolina On August 5, vets had sedated Jambolina to carry out routine surgery and dental reconstruction when she suddenly stopped breathing and could not be revived However, shortly after being given an anesthetic, Jambolina stopped breathing and medics were unable to revive her. 'It is with heavy hearts and deepest sadness that we have to inform you that Jambolina suddenly and unexpectedly passed away,' a spokesman for animal charity Four Paws wrote on social media. 'Shortly after Jambolina received her anaesthetic injection, her breathing stopped for reasons that are still unknown. 'Despite all efforts to resuscitate her, she unfortunately passed away. We are currently investigating what caused Jambolina's death.' But Scientology numbers fell as the Church has faced scandals over the years Alternative religions including Satanism, Paganism and Shamanism have seen an explosion in the number of followers in the decade between the 2011 and 2021 censuses. Millions have ditched Christianity - mostly for no religion - but the number of Satanists in England and Wales has more than doubled from 2011 to 2021 - from 1,893 in 2011 and rising by 3,161 (167%) to 5,054 followers in 2021. The highest number of Satanists are in the South East, rising by 165% to 795 in the region in 2021, according to the latest census. Head of the UK chapter of The Global Order of Satan Andy Diabolus said 'proud' of the rise in followers marked on the census after efforts to encourage Satanists. Graph showing the growth and decline of smaller religions in England and Wales between 2011 and 2021, including Satanism, Shamanism and Wicca Paganism, already a popular religion in 2011 with 56,000 followers has seen a boom to over 73,000 followers in 2021 Followers say the religion is 'built on the self and in carrying out Satan's work with humanity' by challenging 'authoritarianism and injustice' through 'acts of compassion and the practice of empathy'. Despite common misconceptions, Satanists do not actually worship the Devil, as they are atheists and do not believe in the supernatural. 'We revere ourselves as individuals capable of the greatest human expression of compassion and empathy,' The Global Order of Satan's FAQ explains. However, stories have emerged over the past few years of 'Satanists' being believed to be taking part in alleged animal sacrifices near churches. Last month, the vicar of a church targeted by 'Satanists' who 'stabbed sheep and sprayed them with pentagrams' in 2019 said bodies of more animals were left in plain sight. In December 2019, residents of Bramshaw, Hampshire were left reeling after a spate of horrific attacks on local livestock. Three sheep were stabbed and killed as they grazed and sprayed with the five-pointed pentagram sign an ancient Pagan symbol scrawled with 666 (supposedly the sign of the devil) and arranged carefully in death. The church itself was attacked with satanic-style graffiti on the notice boards and, in gold aerosol, an inverted pentagram on the church door along with, inexplicably, a giant phallus. In early December, a dead fox was found on the church steps in an 'arranged' death after it was 'deliberately lain out'. And Reverend David Bacon, of St Peter's Church, raised the prospect of 'witchcraft' after a cat was found by congregation members hanging 'horribly' from a flagpole. The Global Order of Satan UK say they do not practice animal sacrifice and are in no way associated with the killing or abuse of animals. In 2019 the suspected 'Satanists' stabbed sheep and sprayed them with pentagrams - graffitiing Reverend Bacon's rural church with the same occult markings The vicar said: 'It's really unsettling and sinister for everyone. We're not sure what will happen next, if anything' Satanism's follower numbers in England and Wales have been overtaken by Shamanism, which had less than 1,000 followers in 2011 but saw a more than 12-fold growth in a decade. The healing focused spiritual practice had just 650 followers in 2011 - but this shot up to 7889 in 2021, according to the census. Shaman Gaia Evalyn Love says that 'Shamanism is the oldest form of spiritual practice that has existed for hundreds of thousands of years all over the world' and an 'authentic expression of our spirituality'. The Shaman, who healing sessions at a Yurt in Cardiff, says that: 'Shamanic practices and teachings are now becoming increasingly popular as people recognize an ever increasing need for a reconnection with our beautiful planet and a rebalancing of their own energies, as well as the earth's energies.' And Shamanism has more than doubled its followers in the Welsh capital, with 227 people declaring the follow the practice in 2021 analysis of census data by MailOnline shows. But the practice has seen its most dramatic growth in London and the South East, with a rise of 1,215 (1,380%) and 3,866 (3,680%) followers to 1,303 and 3,971 respectively, despite just around 100 followers in each region a decade earlier. Pagans took part in the Winter Solstice celebrations during sunrise at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire at around 8am on December 22 last year Pagans and Druids celebrated the days getting longer after the shortest day last month. Pictured: A man in white robes holding a staff addresses crowds at Stonehenge this morning flanked by Neo-Druid leader Arthur Uther Pendragon (centre right) Stonehenge is an important site for Pagans and Druids in the UK. Pictured: Revellers greet the sunrise after the winter solstice in December last year with music at Stonehenge Paganism, which was already a popular religion in England and Wales in 2011, has also seen a large rise in followers from 56,620 to 73,733 in 2021 - about 30%. The religion has seen the largest increase in followers in the South West of England - perhaps unsurprisingly given the region is home to pagan monument Stonehenge rising by 2,915 to 11,868. But Druidism, whose followers celebrate the summer and winter solstices at the prehistoric site, has seen a marked decline in in followers in the decade since 2011, falling by 1,699 to just 2,490 followers. There are more than double the number of Heathens in England and Wales at 4,721 compared to 1,958 in 2011. And Wicca - a Pagan witchcraft tradition - has seen a moderate increase in followers from 11,766 in 2011 to 12,813 in 2021. Wicca has seen a slight fall in numbers in followers in London and the South East. The number of people who say their religion is Mysticism a fallen across the country by nearly 30%, from 204 in 2011 to 145 in 2021. Graph showing the number of people in English and Welsh regions giving up Christianity from 2011 to 2021 rise in people following no religion Animism, the belief that all natural beings and objects, from mice to mountains, possess a spiritual essence saw a moderate growth in followers - from 541 to 802. The growth in this religion was most notable in Yorkshire and The Humber and the East and West Midlands - where its following approximately doubled. And Vodun, a West African religion also known as Voodoo saw a slight rise to 247 followers - but this rise in interest was almost exclusively in London. The Church of Scientology, which has come under criticism, saw a fall in followers from 2,418 to 1,859 from 2011 to 2021. Growth and decline of smaller religions in England & Wales by region (1) Religion North East North West Yorkshire andThe Humber East Midlands West Midlands East 2011 2021 2011 2021 2011 2021 2011 2021 2011 2021 2011 2021 Animism 19 19 31 52 29 72 22 43 30 57 36 58 Druid 132 99 404 232 308 209 387 222 423 233 434 237 Heathen 72 258 230 542 182 545 231 466 173 479 237 501 Mysticism 7 3 20 9 7 11 12 7 16 8 13 9 Pagan 1802 2875 5350 7865 4919 6631 5437 7227 5147 6932 6284 7969 Satanism 100 309 215 601 186 524 171 428 178 423 180 569 Scientology 62 33 233 113 112 74 101 56 156 114 122 77 Shamanism 18 21 60 97 69 342 61 120 43 498 57 538 Vodun 9 6 28 27 16 11 6 5 13 15 12 11 Wicca 456 596 1291 1511 1116 1242 1087 1190 1144 1326 1322 1367 Growth and decline of smaller religions in England & Wales by region (2) Religion London South East South West Wales 2011 2021 2011 2021 2011 2021 2011 2021 Animism 92 118 120 136 108 175 54 69 Druid 361 165 833 422 664 449 243 222 Heathen 202 306 333 750 207 629 91 243 Mysticism 53 31 38 25 26 34 12 9 Pagan 4943 4620 10337 12642 8953 11868 3448 5104 Satanism 232 522 300 795 238 582 93 303 Scientology 321 263 1066 989 188 114 57 26 Shamanism 88 1303 105 3971 111 735 38 265 Vodun 52 110 43 38 19 20 10 11 Wicca 1023 925 2155 2143 1432 1637 740 867 Three defectors from Scientology, which has famous followers including Tom Cruise, were suing the church's leader David Miscavige last year claiming they were trafficked as children and forced into 'dangerous' labor aboard the controversial Sea Org ships Three Scientology defectors are suing the church's leader David Miscavige claiming they were trafficked as children and forced into 'dangerous' labor aboard the controversial Sea Org ships. Gawain Baxter, his wife Laura and Valeska Paris all sued the church in Tampa, Florida, in April last year claiming they were forced into the work on the ships from as young as the age of six. They said they had to sign contracts promising 'one billion years' of service to the church and worked for 'low and even no pay'. An interactive map also shows how religious the people in your area are, amid a huge rise in Britons with 'no religion'. How to use the interactive map: Select an area by either typing a place name in the top-left box or by clicking on the location on the map. Then when you click it will show you what percentage of people in the area follow the country's major religions, including Christianity, or no religion. You can click the drop-down arrow to change the religion. A young government employee is accused of leaking the private information of at least 85 customers and giving them to a friend so he could allegedly steal more than $150,000 in Covid and flood recovery payments. Selina Saab, 22, was working as a contractor for Service NSW when she allegedly stole the identification details of 85 Australians between July and October 2021. The public servant, from Bankstown in southwest Sydney, allegedly sent the details to Salim Merheb, 23, via a messaging service. Merheb is alleged to have used the information to lodge a series of fraudulent applications for government financial relief schemes provided by the Federal Government, estimated to the value of $150,150, over the next eight months. Selina Saab, 22, has been charged after allegedly giving private information to a friend Court documents show Merheb allegedly first claimed at least seven Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payments - which paid $1000 per adult to NSW flood victims - between June and July 2021. From July to November, he then allegedly switched to submitting for Covid Disaster Payments, which were provided to those unable to work due to public health orders. Payments for the scheme ranged from $200 to $750 per week depending on the number of work hours lost, with the higher bracket available for those whose roster was cut by more than 20 hours. Merheb then allegedly began targeting the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment - designed to assist Australians unable to work due to Covid-19 isolation. He allegedly put in three claims on December 9 - the same day the government downgraded the $1500 payment to $750, as isolation periods were slashed from a fortnight to a week. Seven days later, the Australian Federal Police executed a search warrant on Merheb's Mount Pritchard home and seized several items. However, despite being watched by investigators, police will allege he continued to offend through to March. In May 2021, he was arrested and charged with possessing suspected proceeds of crime and 33 counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception. Saab worked as a contractor for Service NSW for four months in late 2021 Police will also allege Merhab was making fraudulent applications as early as April 2021. Almost a year later, a Strike Force carried out a dawn raid on Saab's family's Bankstown unit about 6.20am on November 3. After several items were seized - including electronic equipment, a mobile phone and documents - Saab was arrested and granted bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on December 14. Under her bail conditions, Saab must report to police daily between Monday to Friday, reside at her family's Bankstown home, must not contact witnesses or Merheb, and not commit any offences involving identity information. Saab is next due to appear in the same court charged with one count of dealing in identification info and using it to commit fraud on 8 February. Merheb did not attend a hearing for his case in Parramatta Local Court on Friday. The case was adjourned to be heard in the same court on February 3. Since publicly coming out as transgender, ex-partners have sent vile messages She said she has known since the age of 4 that she wanted to become a woman A stunning social media influencer and OnlyFans model has revealed how she has received death threats that have left her scared of returning to the UK after publicly coming out as transgender. Michelle Alexandra, 27, from Manchester, announced to her 25,000 Instagram followers on January 4 that she was trans which led to her being inundated with hate filled messages particularly from men who previously slept with her not knowing her previous gender. Ms Alexandra maintained that she deliberately chose to reveal that she was transgender while on holiday with her family in the Dominican Republic as she feared a backlash and did not want to be in the UK when the news emerged. She is currently travelling around South America and is not expected to return to the UK until June. Michelle Alexandra, 27, is an Only Fans model and Instagram influencer from Manchester with over 25,000 followers After being born male she began her transition at the age of 12 taking hormone blockers before having gender reassignment surgery aged 18 Ms Alexandra cried: The messages have been horrible and have left me feeling very scared for my life. Men who I was previously involved with, or their relatives have been saying things like we hope you die, or were going to kill you. The things that are being said are disgusting and deeply hurtful. Some of them are very angry and feel as if sleeping with me now makes them gay. News of me coming out went viral and theyve gone crazy. She added: Its left me very nervous about coming back to the UK because I might see some of these people on a night out and they could cause me real harm. 'I have blocked all those who have sent me threatening messages but if they persist, I will be forced to contact the police. Ms Alexandra was born in Manchester and was named Mitch by her parents Sue and Mick, 62. She has one older brother, Jake, 29. She insisted: Since the age of four I wanted to be a girl and luckily, my family have been very supportive. Its been a bit more of a struggle for my father and brother but over the years, theyve come to terms with it. I was never into boys things, didnt like wearing boys clothes and just wanted to play with other girls. The social media influencer said she feels 'better than ever' after coming out publicly on social media She also said that she hopes she can be a 'big sister' to younger LGBTQ+ people going through the same journey When she was aged three, Ms Alexandras parents moved the family to Alicante, Spain, where they worked in the real estate business and soon began to support her desire to change gender. She said: 'It was when we moved to America when I was eight years old and I had to wear a boys school uniform that I realised this wasn't me. When we moved back to Spain again I decided that I wanted to be who I was - a girl. At the age of 14 she started taking hormones, at 17 she had her first breast augmentation operation and by the age of 18 she legally changed her name to Michelle and had her first gender reassignment surgery. Michelle said that for as long as she can remember she wanted to be a girl and always played with girls' toys I was never into boys things, didnt like wearing boys clothes and just wanted to play with other girls. 'It was when we moved to America when I was eight years old and I had to wear a boys school uniform that I realised this wasn't me. When we moved back to Spain again I decided that I wanted to be who I was - a girl', Michelle told MailOnline. Michelle Alexandra, pictured second from left, with her mother, brother and father. She told MailOnline: ''My family have been very supportive'. Ms Alexandra said: Its been quite a journey for me, and Ive gone through a lot. But coming out has been a very important part of the process. Ive come out because I was always complaining about how trans issues weren't being spoken about in the media or on television and I thought - I'm moaning about it, but I'm not even doing it myself. 'How can I expect it to be spoken about if I can't pluck up the courage myself to speak out?' Michelle said she received 'really, really horrible' messages from ex-partners who threatened and scared her after they found out she was trans The OnlyFans model revealed how one ex said he now felt 'gay' after sleeping with her Ms Alexandra maintains that she did not intend to deceive any of the men she was involved with in her past but admitted that she did not tell all of them that she was transgender at the time. She insisted: 'When I was younger, I was dating guys for one or two days that didn't really know about me then I wouldn't see them again. Theyve now seen me come out and theyre angry. 'This has been the hardest part for me, guys in my DMs just saying, "what the f***", calling me horrible names and threatening me. Theyre making me feel scared. When asked how she has responded to the angry messages, Ms Alexandra replied: 'I've just said to them - I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do now to change the past. If that's how you feel, then that's on you. Then I block them. Ms Alexandra spends her time between Ibiza and Manchester earning a living from income she makes from social media work and her OnlyFans page. She is currently not in a relationship and admitted that her experience of coming out and past relationships has left her with fear and anxiety about getting involved with men. Michelle feels like her love life is 'too much of a headache' and casual sex has been taken away from her The influencer also revealed that she is not dating anyone at the moment and she has built up a 'fear' and 'anxiety' around men from prior experiences Ms Alexandra said: 'Relationships are just really hard, you want to get to know someone, and they get to know you for who you are, a human, and not just something. 'That's why I haven't been dating anybody lately. It's just too much of a headache for me. It has been taken away from me that I can't have casual sex or casual hook-ups. She added: 'It all comes down to how trans people are not normalised in society. I am just a woman and what I was meant to be born as. The 27-year-old now hopes that discussions around trans people can be normalised in society and there isn't as much of a stigma Michelle said she is planning on developing a podcast and YouTube channel dedicated to trans issues and LGBTQ+ rights to provide a safe space for 'open-minded discussions' Michelle has said she feels there is no one representing trans people on television Part of the reason Michelle came out publicly about being transgender is to show how trans people are just like everybody else After finishing her travels around South America, Ms Alexandra said that she plans to start a podcast and YouTube channel discussing identity issues for transgender people. She insisted that despite the hate messages, she has also received a lot of positive ones from supporters or those dealing with transgender issues themselves. She said: 'If someone is feeling how I felt when I was younger and they want to speak to somebody other than their parents, I want to be there for them. 'I've had a lot of messages already from younger and older people, there's also parents asking for advice on their children. I have said to myself that even if I help one person, I will be happy.' Nothing could prepare the Mafia hunters for the tension as the moment of truth approached. Gathered around a screen receiving live images from drones hovering above a hospital in the suburbs of Palermo, Sicily, some of the police chiefs looked on in silence. Others whispered prayers and drew crucifixes across their navy blue jackets. As the clock ticked down to 9.15am on Monday, the nerve-shredding scene inside their HQ was reminiscent of the White House bunker on the day U.S. forces killed Osama Bin Laden. The quarry on this occasion was The Last Godfather an equally ruthless fugitive, whose name had been on the FBIs 10 Most Wanted list for almost three decades. During that time, Matteo Messina Denaro had outsmarted Italys top mob-busters at every turn, savouring the hedonistic fruits of his multi-billion criminal empire including a harem of beautiful women enlisted to ease his isolation. Matteo Messina Denaro (pictured left and right) put his hands round the throat of a rival's girlfriend, she pleaded with him to spare her unborn child, yet he took two innocent lives without an ounce of pity Carabinieri chiefs have dedicated the arrest to a colleague who fell to his death while erecting a listening post aerial on a mountain, hoping to intercept Mafia calls By intercepting the phone calls of one of his sisters, however, investigators had discovered that Denaro, now 60, has cancer and they believed he was being treated at the Maddalena clinic, using an alias. The opportunity to bring him to justice for dozens of murders had finally arrived. Yet, as they well knew from humiliating experience, it could all end disastrously. He might have been tipped off, as had happened many times before, and fail to show up for his 9.15am chemotherapy appointment. They could have been wrong in deducing that he was the polite, well-heeled patient who presented himself as landowner Andrea Bonafede, posed for selfies with his nurses and gifted them home-grown olive oil. And if they did have the right man, a gun battle might erupt in the clinic, given that Denaro is an unconscionable monster, even by Mafia standards a man who strangled a pregnant woman and a 12-year-old boy (dissolving his body in acid), and who once boasted that he had filled a cemetery all by myself. Before he was approached, around 100 officers, some armed with Beretta machine guns, sealed off the building. Yet the show of force proved unnecessary. Pounced on while making his way to the coffee bar, Denaro meekly surrendered and immediately volunteered his real name. This is actually quite common for Mafia of a certain level, said Palermos anti-crime commander Lieutenant Colonel Antonello Parasiliti Molica, giving me the most detailed account of the momentous arrest. It is about protocol a kind of code. They usually dont run or show any emotion. They dont react violently. Instead, they often compliment the arresting officers, and he did that. Before we put him on a helicopter and flew him to jail, he asked for a piece of paper and wrote down a message, congratulating the ROS and GIS [the two Italian special forces units that captured him] for treating him with humanity. He killed boy of 12 and dissolved his body in acid As it became clear the mission had succeeded, the control room was filled with emotion. Lt Cl Parasiliti, who helped to plan the arrest and was among those watching the drone video, said he and his colleagues cheered and hugged one another. Some wept unashamedly, among them a burly senior officer who has hunted Denaro for 25 years. It was a cry of relief and of liberation, the man, who asked not to be named because of his sensitive work, told me. You must understand that Messina Denaro had seemed unreachable, the Lieutenant Colonel interjected. It was a symbol who fell. The tension and stress had finally come to an end. Carabinieri chiefs have dedicated the arrest to a colleague who fell to his death while erecting a listening post aerial on a mountain, hoping to intercept Mafia calls. Investigators had discovered that Denaro, now 60, has cancer and they believed he was being treated at the Maddalena clinic, using an alias When arrested, he was wearing a 35,000 Muller watch and a designer leather jacket Yet as their leader languishes in one of the ultra-harsh, 12ft by 9ft isolation cells to which mafiosi prisoners are consigned, his capture raises uncomfortable questions, not only for the Cosa Nostra, as the Sicilian Mafia is known, but also for the Italian establishment. Since he was living openly, latterly in the small town of Campobello di Mazara, an hours drive from the clinic unlike previous on-the-run Mafia bosses, who hid in labyrinthine tunnels dug into the Sicilian hills and since he travelled extensively (making several trips to England) there is a clamour to know how he remained at liberty for so long. Giacomo di Girolamo, author of The Invisible, an acclaimed biography of Denaro, believes the answer lies in an amalgam of ineptitude, apathy and corruption, suggesting he was protected by high-powered figures in business, politics and the justice system. This despatch is being written at the Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes, a stunning building with a special place in Mafia folklore. In 1957, amid its Belle Epoque splendour, Cosa Nostra chiefs held a historic summit with their New York cousins, including legendary figures such as Lucky Luciano and Joey Bananas, sealing the deal by which the Sicilians would flood America with heroin. Though Denaro inherited their mantle as the so-called Boss of Bosses, his lifestyle was far removed from that of these old-school mobsters who, for all their ruthlessness, upheld their own moral code. They paid lip-service to Catholicism and traditional Italian family values, frowning on ostentatious displays of wealth. The Last Godfather, an avowed atheist who never married and had a string of lovers at least one of whom bore him a child is very much a playboy. When arrested, he was wearing a 35,000 Muller watch and a designer leather jacket. And though his two known lairs in Campobello were unprepossessing side-street apartments, police who searched them found Viagra pills, condoms and expensive jewellery. Vaingloriously, a huge poster of Marlon Brando in his film role as The Godfather was displayed in the ground floor flat, a testimony to his inflated ego. Police have found evidence he was spending 10,000 a week on luxury items. How, then, did this new breed of mob boss rise to pre-eminence? The fourth of six children born to Francesco Messina Denaro, who controlled Sicilys Trapani province for the Mafia, he was initiated at 14 and quickly earned a reputation for dispassionate violence. Rivals pregnant girlfriend was strangled When a local hotel manager tried to end his romance with an attractive Austrian receptionist fearing guests would be deterred by the presence of a swaggering young mafiosi he had the man murdered. And when a Cosa Nostra member was discovered to be a police informer the ultimate act of betrayal Denaro kidnapped the mans 11-year-old son, holding the boy prisoner for two years before strangling him and dissolving his body in acid. He used the same disposal method after having four mob men who opposed his fathers decisions summarily throttled, and it was doubtless used to get rid of a further 50 or more victims, killed by Denaro or on his orders. Perhaps his most shocking act came when he killed a rival, then lured his pregnant girlfriend to the murder scene on the pretext that the man was waiting to see her. As Denaro put his hands round her throat, she pleaded with him to spare her unborn child, yet he took two innocent lives without an ounce of pity. Such chilling dedication to the cause impressed Salvatore Toto Riina, then godfather of the Sicilian Mafia. Denaro came to be regarded as his anointed heir. During the early 1990s, when Riina tried to bring the Italian government to heel with an all-out terror campaign, his protegee was a willing assassin. Driving regularly to the cancer clinic in Palermo, this past year, he might have smiled as he passed a monument to his grisly craft a stone obelisk beside the A29 motorway. It is a memorial to the anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three police escort officers, blown to oblivion on May 23, 1992, as they crossed a bridge beneath which was planted 300kg of explosives. Two months later, Denaro had a leading role in a second bomb attack which killed judge Paolo Borsellino, an equally zealous and brave scourge of organised crime. On Thursday, a judge attempted to question Denaro over these two seminal atrocities (which, contrary to their intended effect, hardened the states resolve to expunge the Mafia) but he refused to be interviewed over a video link in his cell. He was sentenced to life for his role in the bombings in 2002. By then he had already been on the run for almost a decade. However, as the authorities had just one, grainy photo of him, taken when he was a young man, and his voice had been sketchily recorded only once when he gave evidence at trial it was, as one investigator says, like hunting a ghost. He never used phones or computers to deliver his orders, communicating with underlings by pizzini, small pieces of paper tightly wrapped in Sellotape so they could only be opened once before being burnt. Unwitting messengers included an acolytes five-year-old daughter, recruited after he treated her to an ice cream. The hunt intensified when, following Toto Riinas death in 2017, Denaro took his position. However, his pursuers received scant help from ordinary folk in his province, who were either too terrified to volunteer information or risibly regarded him as a modern-day Robin Hood. Though there was rejoicing in the streets near the cancer clinic following his arrest, and pupils at a school in Castelvetrano, his Sicilian hometown, showed their approval with a playground demonstration, in some quarters this hero-worship persists. Yet unlike his predecessors, who spread their wealth among the poor to curry loyalty, Denaro lavished his fortune on luxuries such as works of art, fine dining, incognito foreign travel and his only weakness beautiful women. Indeed, according to Carlo Pulici, a former financial police officer who spent many years attempting to trace him, Denaros insatiable lust almost proved his downfall. Through an informant, Mr Pulici discovered too late that The Godfather was sheltering in a sumptuous seaside villa in Bagheria, 20 minutes drive from Palermo. There were always lots of women going back and forth. Young, good-looking, high-class, because he was very generous to his lovers, he told me. They werent only brought to him for sex. He would have relationships with them. He saw himself as a romantic. A Latin lover. Another lead I followed, in 2014, took me to Bologna. Denaros cousin owned a jewellery shop and when a diamond ring worth 30,000 euros disappeared from the shelves we deduced that the Mafia boss had it, because he was one of the few locals who could afford it. He had fallen for a schoolteacher in Bologna she was in her 30s, beautiful, tall and blonde and hed bought the ring for her. We followed her for a while, but we could never catch him with her. Mr Pulici worked on the case under Teresa Principato, a fearless prosecutor deployed to hunt Denaro. They learned that he travelled widely and was given succour by a network of overseas contacts, several of whom were members of secretive masonic lodges. The links between the Mafia and renegade Italian masons far removed from the Freemasons we know in Britain are well documented. So, is it a coincidence that the doctor who referred Denaro (under his alias, Bonafede) to the cancer clinic belonged to a lodge until this week, when by dint of their association he was expelled? Among the countries Denaro visited were Venezuela, where a chapter of Cosa Nostra has taken root, perhaps to run a drug trafficking operation; and Spain, where he stayed in a Marbella villa owned by a celebrated restaurateur to the stars. Intriguingly, before he was abruptly pulled off the search eight years ago (he claims in dubious circumstances) Pulicis inquiries also led to London. Aided by the British police, he told me, they learned that the Mafia boss had ventured there several times, staying with a Sicilian family who had set up a successful business. Precisely why he allegedly visited these people (whom he named) is anyones guess. In more recent years, however, Denaros links to a number of outwardly respectable entrepreneurs the so-called Mafia Bourgeoisie have been uncovered. He laundered and invested billions through companies with interests ranging from tourism to energy, construction to retailing. Assets seized by the authorities include a 1.5 billion euro wind turbine venture near Castelvetrano, allegedly set up by Denaro in collusion with corrupt local politicians, a nearby 700 million euro shopping mall (whose apparent owner is now in prison) and building firms worth 550 million euros. In 2005, when Trapani, a coastal town on Denaros home turf, won the prestigious right to stage a leg of the Americas Cup yacht race, the Mafia don even muscled in on companies involved in the organisation. For all his avarice and barbarism, however, he is a complex character. Utterly unsentimental in most respects, he is known to regret bitterly never having met his only daughter, Lorenza, 26, the product of one of his affairs while in hiding. And even Carabinieri chief Parasiliti concedes that hes well-read and shows a certain level of culture . . . quite uncommon for the old-style Corleonesi bosses, who were little more than peasants, albeit rich and powerful ones. Yet at the height of the terror campaign, this cultured man masterminded an art gallery bombing in Florence that deliberately destroyed priceless paintings by Rubens and Giotto. On Wednesday, I watched black-masked members of the special services search the Campobello flat that served as one of his lairs. In a bunker hidden behind a wardrobe, they found gemstones, but there is more excitement over documents they discovered. Mob boss went to London several times The hope is, according to Parasiliti, that they will provide an unparalleled insight into the Sicilian Mafias operations dating back decades. For Denaro is thought to be the one man who harbours a written archive of their activities. Some cynical Mafia watchers are treating the official story behind his arrest with caution, suggesting he engineered his own capture because his liver and colon cancer is at an advanced stage and he would prefer to spend his last days in prison, where he will receive good medical care and put aside the stress of living a lie. In the Italian Press, there has also been speculation that The Last Godfathers arrest might mark the end of the organisations 150-year tyranny. The military man thinks otherwise. I wish it would, but we are certain that it wont, he says gravely. The Cosa Nostra will change and evolve. But I dont think anyone will operate at the same high level again. Its difficult to find a man of his charisma and sophistication. With this arrest we have destroyed a myth. Additional reporting: Antonella Sferrazza An American Navy SEAL who went AWOL in 2019 was killed this week during Russia's assault on eastern Ukraine, officials said on Friday. Daniel W. Swift, a Navy Special Warfare Operator First Class, was killed on Wednesday. He died after suffering injuries with a unit under attack by Russia, an official said, TIME reported. The Navy Absentee Collection and Information Centers said that Swift had been in 'an active deserter status since March 11, 2019,' according to his service records that were obtained by the news outlet. Though the US State Department would not confirm Swift's identity they had issued a statement that an American was killed in action. 'We can confirm the recent death of a U.S. citizen fighting in Ukraine,' the statement said. 'We are in touch with his family and providing all possible consular assistance. Out of respect for the privacy of the family during this difficult time, we have nothing further to add.' Daniel W. Swift, a Navy Special Warfare Operator First Class, was killed on Wednesday. He died after suffering injuries with a unit under attack by Russia, the official said, TIME reported The Navy told The Washington Times that they 'cannot speculate as to why the former Sailor was in Ukraine,' and did not provide any additional details about his US military record. Swift, who was from Oregon first enlisted in 2005. He received a number of medals including, Iraq Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, according to his releasable service records. Though his records do not detail any of his deployments or SEAL teams that he may have served on, there were a few assignments listed including Naval Special Warfare 'Cold Weather Detachment' out of Kodiak, Alaska in 2007, and two different assignments in the 'West Coast-based Special Warfare Unit(s) between July 2007 to January 2014, Time reported. His most recent assignment began in August 2017 and was with a 'West Coast Special Warfare Unit.' The book 'A Fall of A Man' by author Ryder Thompson that was released in August 2020 shares Swift's compelling story as a soldier, father and husband. The book provides some insight into Swift's life, including finding his first love at age 15 - the woman he would eventually marry. His introduction to military life - he started with the BUDS - Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL training at 18. He was a father of four and had his first child at age 20. By age 30, Swift had deployed as a Navy SEAL five times to countries including, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. 'He returned home from serving his country to have everything he was torn apart,' according to the book's description that is available on Amazon. Soldiers on the battlefield fighting during the war in Ukraine Swift is the sixth known American to have died fighting in Ukraine since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to State Department statements and reports from individual families. The US government has discouraged Americans from going to fight for Ukraine, citing concerns that they may be captured by Russian forces and held hostage, NBC News reported. There have been at least 6,000 people, who contacted the Ukrainian embassy in Washington when the war began looking for information on how to volunteer on behalf of Ukraine. Bikie associates are combing through the Middle East and Europe trying to find the hidden millions and assets belonging to Comanchero boss Mark Buddle. Buddle is currently on remand in a Victorian jail where he faces drug charges and allegations of trying to import $40million worth of cocaine. It comes after he spent years hiding overseas and building his empire before he was eventually caught by authorities in Turkey and extradited to Australia in August. Associates fear his empire and assets will crumble in his absence prompting them to launch a treasure hunt of sorts to try and recover them. Bikie associates are combing through the Middle East and Europe trying to find the hidden millions and assets belonging to Comanchero boss Mark Buddle (pictured, Buddle with ex Mel Ter Wisscha) Buddle is currently on remand in a Victorian jail where he faces drug charges and allegations of trying to import $40million worth of cocaine (pictured, Buddle with Allan Meehan) He is believed to own a luxury $1.5million apartment at the Sapphire Tower, in Istanbul, villas in the Turkish holiday town of Bodrum, and several assets in Dubai. Buddle is also understood to have shares in a tourism operator and several fuel companies in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. The search for his assets has already taken a turn with his associates understood to have 'lost the key' to his Sapphire Tower apartment, The Daily Telegraph reported. The search comes as fractures reportedly grow within the Comanchero bikie gang between associates loyal to Buddle and those following drug lord Hakan Ayik. Ayik is allegedly still active in Turkey along with Duax Ngakuru, 42. Ngakuru, the international head and 'Supreme Commander' of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang, was reportedly arrested in Turkey on Sunday. His arrest is the latest in a string of captures linked to the encrypted AN0M app with authorities warning Ngakuru's good friend Ayik could be next. Australia's most wanted alleged drug kingpin, Hakan Ayik, who is now based in Turkey The Comancheros bikie boss Duax Ngakuru (pictured right) was reportedly arrested last week in Turkey Ayik and Ngakuru went to school together at James Cook Boys Technology High School in the southern Sydney suburb of Kogarah and have been photographed together in Turkey. A selfie taken of the pair in 2020 showed them outside the Kings Cross Hotel in Istanbul. The hotel is owned by Ayik and is allegedly the headquarters of the 'Aussie Cartel', a group with links to the Comancheros. The selfie was posted on the encrypted app AN0M, which was supposed to let participants speak freely but was in fact set up by the FBI and monitored by the AFP. AFP assistant commissioner Nigel Ryan warned any alleged crime figures would be tracked down no matter where they are. The elephant seal is believed to be a local legend called 'Henry' It made its way up to the only petrol station in town The seal took a tour of the small holiday town on Friday A massive seal has run amok in a small holiday town as it took a tour of local scenery before trying to break into its only petrol station. The elephant seal made its way onto land on Friday afternoon as locals and holidaymakers in Point Lonsdale, an hour and a half south of Melbourne, gathered along the shoreline to ogle at the travelling mammal. Locals believe the landlubbing seal was none other than 'Henry', who has visited beaches in the area for over a decade. A massive elephant seal (pictured) has flopped around the holiday town of Point Lonsdale in Victoria on Friday afternoon as hundreds crowded to catch a glimpse Authorities attended the scene, following the pinniped as it flopped its way up from the beach and across roads into town. Footage of the event captured by onlookers showed the seal stopping traffic and making its way all the way up to a BP petrol station. According to reports it tried to smash a window as it became confused by its own reflection, mistaking it for another seal. Authorities told the public to stay at least 30metres away from the mammal, or 50metres away if they had a dog with them. Police and conservationists were eventually able to lure the confused animal away from the crowds and towards the water by aggravating it into slowly lunging at a man as he backed towards the water. It eventually complied, slowly sliding into the water at the beach as hundreds gathered to catch a final glimpse as it disappeared beneath the waves. Making its way all the way up to the only petrol station in town, the seal - believed to be local legend, 'Henry' - eventually made its way back to the beach after being guided by authorities 'He got all that way just to realise the place wasnt open,' one user commented on a video of the seal's journey posted online. 'What a sight that would of been, but Im happy no harm came to this guy and was guided safely back to where he belongs,' another commenter wrote. One user joked about the seal's run-in at the BP, saying: 'G'day mate, can I pay for pump number 2 and get a meat pie to go thanks.' 'Looks like Point Lonsdale got the seal of approval,' another wrote. A model and activist is launching a unique global Holocaust remembrance website in an attempt to educate people after a rise in antisemitism and Kanye West 'spewing his dangerous opinions.' Elizabeth Pipko, 27, a 2016 campaign staffer who has previously posed for Maxim, announced the launch of Lest People Forget earlier this week, which allows people to share artifacts and memories of the horrors that occurred less than a century ago. Pipko, pointedly, has taken out two alternate domains for the project: EducateKanye.com and EducateYe.com. While the project in part is about West's behavior - which included him saying he 'likes Hitler' and palling around with known anti-Semite Nick Fuentes - Pipko bemoans a lack of education in young people in general that led to it's creation. Elizabeth Pipko (pictured left), a model and former 2016 Trump campaign staffer is launching a unique global Holocaust remembrance website in an attempt to educate people after a rise in antisemitism and Kanye West (pictured right) 'spewing his dangerous opinions.' The daughter of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Pipko said her parents 'always taught me about where we came from as a family and as a people.' 'The Kanye stuff came about last fall, spewing all his... let's say dangerous opinions,' Pipko told DailyMail.com Friday. 'I've been a very big fan so seeing him take that stance was sad for me, he has a ton of specifically young followers who are the demographic who knows the least about the Holocaust,' she added. 'If someone was going to make an impact in this space it has to be with young people.' She noted specifically having spoken to teenagers who not only didn't know about the Holocaust, didn't know who Adolf Hitler was and thought 'only 100' Jews had been killed in the concentration camps. Pipko, who is currently working on a graduate degree in social policy and practice at the University of Pennsylvania, said this is a chance to unite several of her identities - as an activist, a student, a proud Jewish person and someone who works in the non-profit space. She was so disappointed and disheartened as someone who'd not only been a fan of West and former wife Kim Kardashian, but as someone who'd met them previously. 'So many of his followers know about him but not of politics,' she added, saying it was impossible to see his recent turn coming, especially his association with Fuentes, a known white supremacist and anti-Semite. Pipko, pointedly, has taken out two alternate domains for the project: EducateKanye.com and EducateYe.com While the project in part is about West's behavior - which included him saying he 'likes Hitler' and palling around with known anti-Semite Nick Fuentes - Pipko bemoans a lack of education in young people in general that led to it's creation West has been seen palling around with Fuentes (pictured right), a known anti-Semite and white supremacist, in recent months The Lest We Forget Project has already produced tons of letters from the concentration camps. Pipko's goal is to keep the domain and the site running for as long as the internet does. She sees the project as a way for younger people, who understand technology, to collaborate with their elders, who have a better knowledge of the historical atrocity that was the Holocaust. While the project started as a way to celebrate her beliefs, she said that one of the highlights of the project has been the response by people of all faiths. 'I'd say in general it was actually the response I got from non-Jews, there's a couple of letters and things, we want it to be a slow launch, there's one letter from Auschwitz from a prisoner who was #46, one of the first people in the camps. Seeing that was pretty terrifying.' She called the responses on the whole 'really beautiful' and made her proud. The Lest We Forget Project has already produced tons of letters from the concentration camps. Pipko's goal is to keep the domain and the site running for as long as the internet does She sees the project as a way for younger people, who understand technology, to collaborate with their elders, who have a better knowledge of the historical atrocity that was the Holocaust When asked what she would say or ask West if she met him again: 'I think I would ask him where he got his information, because the Holocaust is pretty well documented, as much as anything can be.' 'I'd probably ask him to take a moment and if nothing else view the images on my website and take a moment to see what happens and he'd very quickly realize the power behind his comments,' she added. She's ultimately hoping this will inspire 'those that have the power' like global leaders and especially those who run social media companies, where she's seen 'too many swastikas,' will 'step up to the plate.' Pipko noted that the project is being launched just 10 days prior to International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. 'It was chosen to encourage the world to come together, commemorate the loss of 6 million Jews, and begin a movement that inspires more people from around the world to fight to protect and share this history.' Pipko is a model, author and activist who has posed for Maxim Magazine in the past She also previously revealed she worked as a staffer on President Trump's 2016 campaign When asked what she would say or ask West if she met him again: 'I think I would ask him where he got his information, because the Holocaust is pretty well documented, as much as anything can be' They're hoping to receive letter, photographs, documentation and testimony, which anyone is allowed to submit, and 'inspire young people to take action and be proactive in order to keep the efforts of those who came before them from being in vain.' 'I am hoping that with the help of this project, those from younger generations will take it upon themselves to get involved, come together, and ultimately lead the way in the fight to preserve this history.' A 17-year-old teen from Los Angeles, who was behind a shocking hit-and-run incident in which a mother and her baby who was in a stroller were injured, has been shot dead. Kristopher Baca was killed in Palmdale, California, dying from gunshot wounds on Wednesday evening as he walked alone on the street. Baca was sentenced to just seven-months in a juvenile probation camp following the crash on August 6 2021 when he was just 15 years old. The sickening footage of the crash went viral, showing Baca smashing his black car into the victim - who has only been identified as Rachel - as she stood to the side of the road with her eight-month-old son Charlie in a stroller. She was thrown over the top of the vehicle as it crashed into the baby. Incredibly the baby boy was not seriously hurt while his mother received only cuts to her elbow. A 17-year-old from Los Angeles who was involved in this hit-and-run incident in August 2021 in which a mother and her baby in a stroller were injured has been shot dead In the moments before Baca's death on Wednesday, a car pulled up next to him and an argument erupted before Baca was fired upon. The car then sped off. Earlier he had been at a fast food restaurant trying to 'get with a girl'. Surveillance footage captured the horrific hit-and-run incident that occurred on August 6, 2021, in Venice, California. At the time, Rachel criticized Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon during an early release hearing for the teenager in June 2022. Kristopher Baca was 15 at the time he was convicted of mowing down a mother and her eight-month-old baby in a horrifying hit and run. He was released early after being sentenced to just seven-months in a juvenile probation camp When told of Baca's death, she said she was relieved and saddened by the news. 'The universe delivered the justice we weren't given in court, but a much harsher punishment than he'd have been dealt in a court of law,' she said in a statement. 'I think I feel shorted by the system because they didn't hold him accountable and sad, not for him, but for his mom a little, because if George Gascon actually did his job, this kid would still be alive in jail,' Rachel told Fox News. The case gained national attention when Gascon's office sought a sentence of five to seven months in juvenile probation camp, a punishment that is less severe than military school but harsher than summer camp. The teenager was already on felony probation for poisoning a high school girl's drink at the time of the hit-and-run and was found to be intoxicated while driving a stolen vehicle. The victim's family ultimately moved out of Los Angeles due to what they describe as the city's soft-on-crime policies. Rachel leaps up and darts towards the stroller to check on eight-month-old Charlie Harrowing footage from the incident showed Rachel pushing Charlie in a stroller through the Venice neighborhood when the car came careering towards her. She tried to get out of the way in the narrow alley, but the car veered towards her. As horrified onlookers ran to help, the driver, Baca, sped off and only stopped when a pickup truck swerved to block his path. During his sentencing in June 2022 it was decided that the teenager - when he was known only as KB - would serve his sentence at a 'juvenile probation camp,' rather than in juvenile detention. Rachel, in her victim impact statement, told of the devastating impact of the teenager's actions - who had drugs in his system at the time, but was not drunk. 'I thought those were the last moments of our lives; we were dead,' she wrote. 'That feeling, along with the memory of a car accelerating directly into us, will haunt me forever.' She described in vivid detail the horrific moment he surged towards her and her baby. 'As the car approached me and my child, I stopped walking and moved the stroller and myself up against a building on the right side of the road to ensure that we gave the reckless driver plenty of room to pass,' Rachel said. 'As the car got dangerously close to us, KB turned the wheels in our direction and accelerated as he aimed to kill us.' 'I was also told that his record would be wiped clean when he turns 18,' she said at the time. 'How on earth can that be? He tried to murder two innocent pedestrians. Murder. And we have video evidence. My child would be dead if I hadn't been there to protect him.' The incident made headlines in June 2022 after Gascon's office - long known for going light on criminals in the name of progressive reform - sought a softball sentence while prosecuting the 16-year-old, who was intoxicated while driving the stolen vehicle Gascon's office told Fox News the youth camp sentence was 'an appropriate resolution.' 'The Sheriff's Department agreed with the felony charges that were filed. 'At arraignment, the minor admitted two felony counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and one felony count of hit-and-run. 'The Probation Department recommended, and the court sentenced the minor to a youth camp for five to seven months, an appropriate resolution.' They said that juvenile justice was intended to 'rehabilitate young people'. 'In this case, this teen will be held accountable for his actions and receive the needed services to foster positive development to keep him from committing future offenses,' the office added. The car Baca was driving was only stopped when the driver of a pickup truck rammed into him Yet Rachel remained furious. 'I have never been more surprised or disappointed, and, in fact, I have never felt so victimized as I have by the system and current policies of LA's DA, George Gascon,' Rachel wrote. 'My heart breaks when I think about all of the other victims out there, less fortunate than me, whose murderers are getting lenient sentences and being released from prison before their sentences are complete.' She added: 'George Gascon doesn't value my life or the life of my child, or any other victim out there and would rather reward the monsters like KB by demonstrating to them that their actions have no consequences. 'DA Gascon is telling him and every other thug in LA County that it doesn't matter if you try to murder people. 'Why are Gascon's policies prioritizing the livelihood of rotten monsters when my child, my baby, who is incapable of protecting himself, is left to fend for himself, and is essentially being told his life doesn't matter?' Gascon, 68, was elected in November 2020, but has proved deeply unpopular for his progressive policies that critics say are soft on crime. In August 2022, a recall petition fell just shy of the 567,000 required to put bring the motion to a ballot, while still amassing about 520,000 names. The British actor was reported missing last Friday in the Californian mountains National and state officials are now working to help track down Julian Sands The search for Julian Sands has stepped up with phone forensics now being used to help locate the missing A Room with a View star. Federal agencies have joined the huge ongoing search to find the British actor after he was reported missing last Friday in the southern Californian mountains. Both national and state officials are now working with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office as part of the efforts. But on Friday, ground crews were still unable to continue their searches, due to the risk of avalanches in the area. Julian Sands is pictured sitting on a peak of the Weisshorn mountain in the Swiss Alps While authorities said there was 'no time set' for when these ground efforts would begin, the involvement of federal and state agencies marks a step up in the search for Sands. The county sheriff's department previously revealed that pings from the actor's phone appeared to show he had been on the move heading further into the mountainous area of Baldy Bowl on the day he was reported missing - January 13. Police also retrieved important phone data, showing that the West Yorkshire-born actor was still on the move on Sunday but they have not been able to pick up any signal since due to his battery running low. 'We are working with state and federal agencies that have cell phone forensics to assist us in pinpointing a location, but so far no new info has been developed,' a spokesman from the department told the PA news agency. They show the A Room With A View star, 65, traversing the stunning 14,783ft Alpine peak while wearing a helmet and crampons, using ropes and with a rucksack strapped to his back The department previously told PA there was still 'no hard deadline' and 'no date set' for calling off efforts. The incident is also still being classified as a search and rescue operation. Mount Baldy residents noted the 'extreme' conditions but said they would not 'rule anything out' in the mission to find Sands. Earlier on Friday, a spokesman for the department also said: 'On January 15, 2023, phone pings showed Sands to be heading to the Mount Baldy area. 'Additional phone pings from the cell provider were attempted but were unsuccessful, due to the lack of cell service and most likely cell phone power failure. 'A delayed ping through Sands' Apple iPhone operating system, from January 14, 2023, provided a possible location on one of the trails leading to the summit of Mount Baldy. This area was checked by ground searchers and by helicopter. 'Ground and air searchers were unable to locate any evidence in this area that would assist in locating Mr. Sands. Because of avalanche risks and trail conditions, the ground crews were pulled off the mountain on Saturday evening. 'However, the search continues by helicopter and drones when the weather permits. Additional ground searches will be scheduled when the weather improves, and it is safe for our rescue crews.' Julian, 65, was reported missing by his family after disappearing in the dangerous mountain range. He is pictured in a recent image released by his family to police to aid the search On Thursday, Julian's family towed his car from a car park where it was discovered during the search. The actor's family also released photos of him 'doing what he loved best' when he scaled a Swiss mountain in 2016. The pictures, taken during an ascent of the Weisshorn peak in the Swiss Alps, were sent to his grandson Billy, before the film star vanished while attempting to climb the treacherous Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains. They show the actor, 65, traversing the stunning 14,783ft Alpine peak while wearing a helmet and crampons, using ropes and with a rucksack strapped to his back, and sitting among the clouds on a snow-topped ledge. Julian's family say they are 'extremely worried' but are praying for his safe return, but poor weather is currently hampering the rescue mission. His son Henry himself an experienced hiker flew out to California last weekend and is now assisting with the search of Mount Baldy. He was joined by his siblings, Natalya and Imogen on Thursday. Julian is believed to have still been on the move on Sunday due to phone pings obtained by officers Henry, 37, who runs his own communications business, is understood to have retraced the route his father took some 40-miles from Los Angeles - but was forced to abandon his efforts due to poor weather. A relative told MailOnline today: 'Henry has been in the U.S since the weekend and is helping the search. The problem is that the weather is hampering rescue efforts. 'We are extremely worried but we're hoping that Julian will be found safe and well. We'll be looking to see how things evolve over the next few days.' Sands' wife, the writer Evgenia Citkowitz, reported him missing last Friday and a huge search operation was launched with rescuers finding what they believe to be his car. A family member also told The Independent: 'This is how he would love to be seen, doing what he loved best a heroic mountaineer, and thrilled to send a picture of him looking so happy to share with his beloved grandson, Billy.' Another friend described him as 'a Byronesque romantic and an adventurer who is drawn to the extremes of nature, relishing the freedom of mountains'. Friend and fellow actor Charles Shaughnessy said: 'I know he's a physical person, and he's in good shape. The waiting is the worst thing clearly. You just have to hold onto hope.' Two hikers die on Mount Baldy in four weeks amid 'extremely dangerous' conditions Two people have died in recent days while while attempting to scale the same mountainous area - one of the most popular trails in Los Angeles. Crystal Paula Gonzalez, a mother-of-four described as 'the dancing hiking queen', is understood to have slipped and plunged 700ft down the Baldy Bowl. A helicopter was immediately dispatched, and soon found Gonzalez 'down on a steep and icy hillside, surrounded by numerous helpful hikers assisting in any way they could,' according to an incident report. On December 28, Jarret Choi, 43, from LA, was hiking the Ice House Canyon trail when he fell near the Ice House Saddle ridge line. He was found two days later, after a search hampered by extreme weather conditions. And on December 17, four people had to be rescued by helicopter from the mountain after icy conditions made it impossible to move. Advertisement Drones and helicopters have been deployed to the mountain range, which is 40 miles from Los Angeles, where the actor has lived in Beverly Hills since 2020. Rescuers last night recovered a snow-covered car thought to belong to Sands, which was towed away from the area. It is not known if the actor would have taken a tent, but a source close to the family said he would have been 'well equipped' for a day's hike. A source close to the family said: 'Henry is taking a very practical approach in organising everything and getting involved. 'I think it was just instinct for him to fly out when he heard his father was missing.' Anxious friends continue to take to social media to pass on their well-wishes. All Creatures Great and Small actor Samuel West said: 'Please, please let Julian Sands be okay. A friend and an inspiration. Awful news.' Rufus Sewell, 55, posted: 'God, I really hope he's OK.' Film producer Cassian Elwes, brother of Robin Hood star Cary and a family friend of Sands, also said: 'I've known since Friday that my friend Julian Sands has been missing on mt baldy. 'I'm devastated. A very close family friend who was an adventurer in everything he did. I've said many prayers.' Meanwhile, it is not the first time the keen outdoorsman has come into trouble while hiking, having had a brush with death on the Andes in the early 1990s. He previously recalled: 'I was in the Andes, caught in an atrocious storm above 20,000ft with three others. 'We were all in a very bad way. Some guys close to us perished; we were lucky.' His family reported him missing at 7.30pm on Friday and rescuers have now recovered a snow-covered car, which was towed away last night Sands pictured with co-star Helena Bonham Carter on the set of A Room With A View in 1985 Officers attempted a ground search for Julian Sands (pictured left and right with his wife Evgenia Citkowitz) on Saturday for the star but had to abandon it as a storm swept in. It has not bee safe enough to restart the search since The actor lives with his family in a multimillion-dollar mansion in Beverly Hills but has not been seen since Friday British actor and 'A Room with a View' star Julian Sands, 65, has been named as one of two missing hikers in California's San Gabriel Mountains. He's pictured here in 2020 A warning sign at the mountainous range amid 'extremely dangerous' conditions that have led to the deaths of two hikers in recent weeks Sands is known for his roles in several films, including the 1985 feature 'A Room with a View,' 'Warlock,' and 'Leaving Las Vegas' The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says winter weather on Mt Baldy can make for 'dangerous conditions' and has urged hikers to think twice before traversing the area The actor is a father-of-three who became a major star after the 1985 release of the period drama A Room with a View alongside Helena Bonham Carter. He also appeared in The Killing Fields, Arachnophobia and Leaving Las Vegas. His TV credits include 24 and Smallville. The 65-year-old has two daughters, Natalya and Imogen, with US journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, who he married in 1990. He has a son, Henry, with his first wife Sarah Sands, the former editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Sands has often spoken about his love of nature and his 'wonderful outdoor lifestyle', and has traveled around the world carrying out daring climbs. He previously told Thrive Global his expeditions during Covid lockdowns were about 'supplication and sacrifice and humility'. He added: 'It's not so much a celebration of oneself but the eradication of one's self consciousness. And so on these walks you lose yourself, you become a vessel of energy in harmony hopefully with your environment. 'I mean, two days ago, I was just an old guy begging people for water at a trail head in the Santa Monica mountains. Who cares if you're a film person, I was just someone very grateful for the kindness of strangers.' He once even conducted an entire interview from the face of the Mittellegi Ridge on the Eiger Mountain in the Swiss Alps. Many in the TV and film industry have been praying for the star's safe return. Actor Samuel West, who starred with Sands in 2004's Sword of Xanten, tweeted this morning: 'Please, please let Julian Sands be OK. A friend and an inspiration. Awful news.' Actor Jim Piddock called Sands a 'wonderfully talented and unique man and a delightful, generous friend' and said he is 'hoping for a miracle'. A separate search is also ongoing for another hiker, California resident Bob Gregory, in the Crystal Lake area of the mountain range. A spokesman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said: 'On Friday at about 7.30pm, a hiker identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood, was reported missing in the Baldy Bowl area of Mt. Baldy. 'Search and Rescue crews responded and began a search. Due to trail conditions and the risk of avalanche, the ground crews were pulled off the mountain on Saturday evening. 'However, we continue to search by helicopter and drones when weather permits. We will schedule another ground search when the weather improves, and it is safe for our ground crews.' Meanwhile, the sheriff's department has warned that 'severe weather on the mountain has been difficult' and air resources are limited, while its search and rescue team has been called out to 14 incidents in the last four weeks alone. It urged hikers to think twice before walking the trails amid 'extremely dangerous' conditions. It comes as two people have died in recent days while while attempting to scale the same mountainous area - one of the most popular trails in Los Angeles. Crystal Paula Gonzalez, a mother-of-four described as 'the dancing hiking queen', is understood to have slipped and plunged 700ft down the Baldy Bowl. Sands and Helena Bonham Carter during filming for the 1985 romantic film A Room With A View Sands pictured alongside Denholm Elliott during filming for the popular movie, which received universal acclaim It is currently unclear if Sands had been hiking alone or with another person A helicopter was immediately dispatched, and soon found Gonzalez 'down on a steep and icy hillside, surrounded by numerous helpful hikers assisting in any way they could,' according to an incident report. On December 28, Jarret Choi, 43, from LA, was hiking the Ice House Canyon trail when he fell near the Ice House Saddle ridge line. He was found two days later, after a search hampered by extreme weather conditions. And on December 17, four people had to be rescued by helicopter from the mountain after icy conditions made it impossible to move. Meanwhile, the sherriff department warning said: 'Over the last four weeks, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Search and Rescue (SAR) Teams have responded to 14 rescue missions on Mt Baldy and in the surrounding area. 'These rescue missions have been for lost, stranded and/or injured hikers. Unfortunately, during these past 4 weeks, two hikers did not survive after falling and injuring themselves. 'Please know the current conditions on Mt Baldy are adverse and extremely dangerous. Due to the high winds, the snow has turned to ice making hiking extremely dangerous. 'Sheriff's Search and Rescue efforts are often hampered by poor weather along with dangerous avalanche conditions. The recent storms that brought the snow and ice conditions are not favorable for hikers, even those that feel they have a high level of experience. Meanwhile, a separate search is ongoing for another hiker, Bob Gregory of Hawthorne, in the Crystal Lake area of the mountain range. Gregory's family said he went missing on Monday and that they are 'distraught' and 'fear he may have hurt himself and fallen.' Gonzalez, a mother of four from Covina, was passionate about hiking, mountain biking and being outdoors The treacherous conditions of the San Bernardino Mountains have meant that search and rescue efforts have been 'hampered by poor weather' His relatives added that police are in the process of tracing his cell phone, while search teams have combed the area on the ground and from the air on Tuesday. The Sheriff's Department has pleaded with visitors to follow simple tips to stay safe. These include: 'Following all posted warning signs, looking at weather conditions (both current and forecasted) for the area, making sure you have proper gear, training and are properly prepared for alpine conditions (crampons, ice axe, proper clothing), taking a hiking partner, taking a tracking or GPS device such as a SPOT Device or INREACH Device, making sure all cell phone's are fully charged and to bring a charged extra power pack for it.' They have also told visitors to let someone know where and when they are going, what time they will be back and 'most importantly' not to go if there is any hesitation about the terrain. Britain was praised last night for its decisive commitment to send battle tanks to Ukraine. As Germany continued to drag its feet over following suit with its own military hardware, the US saluted the UK for its leadership. Berlins reluctance to allow its main battle tank, the Leopard 2, to join the fight against Russia has exposed cracks in Nato. But US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said this was a decisive moment for Ukraines ability to defend itself and praised Britain for its leadership in pledging to send 14 Challenger 2s. Berlins reluctance to allow its main battle tank, the Leopard 2, to join the fight against Russia has exposed cracks in Nato He added: The UK has announced a significant donation of Challenger 2 tanks. We commend our British allies for this decision. Despite pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for Leopard 2s, Berlin has refused to send them. It has also said other Nato states that use the tanks cannot give them to Ukraine without its approval. But after crisis talks between Nato defence ministers yesterday, Germanys position appeared to soften when it said it would prepare its Leopard 2s for rapid deployment should a political agreement be reached and signalled that its allies could use theirs to train Ukrainian tank crews. However, a final decision could still be weeks away, according to German defence minister Boris Pistorius. He was speaking after talks with British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace at the Ramstein US military base yesterday amid concern that indecision over tanks threatens to compromise Ukraines military planning ahead of a spring offensive. Despite pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for Leopard 2s, Berlin has refused to send them In tense talks, with many Nato defence ministers imploring Germany to reach a decision on the Leopard 2 issue, German officials repeatedly pleaded for time, according to sources close to the negotiations. Germany announced a 1billion military aid package for Ukraine yesterday. Overall, it is the third largest provider of equipment to Ukraine, behind the UK and the US. It is sending Marder fighting vehicles and guided missiles but sending tanks has split public opinion, with a narrow majority of Germans opposed to giving Leopard 2s. In a boost for Ukraine, Poland said last night it was convinced Nato would agree to send German tanks. Speaking at the Ramstein defence conference, Polish defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak said: This hope comes from the fact ministers from 15 countries met on the sidelines of todays conference and we discussed the matter. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said this was a decisive moment for Ukraines ability to defend itself and praised Britain for its leadership in pledging to send 14 Challenger 2s Mr Austin stressed that Nato remains united in its support for Ukraine. He also offered Germany his backing, saying: Germany is a reliable ally and we will continue to have a great relationship with Germany and Germany will continue to provide leadership. Asked if he was disappointed about the delays over the Leopard 2s, Mr Austin added: This isnt about a single platform. Our goal is to provide Ukraine with the capability it needs in the near term. Ukraine has said it needs 300 tanks to break through the Russian front line. Marina Miron, of the defence studies department at Kings College London, said tanks are useful but lots of factors have to be taken into account. These include how many tanks will be sent, what condition they are in, how Ukrainian crews will be trained, when the tanks will be delivered and how they will be kept supplied. Sending tanks is more of a political gesture than something that will change the complexion of the war, Ms Miron said. Former health secretary Sajid Javid has proposed charging patients to see their GPs or attend Accident and Emergency departments as a way of reducing demand on the system. Mr Javid accused the public of having an appreciation of the NHS which approaches that of 'a religious fervour', which he describes as a 'barrier to reform'. He said charging at the point of service would be 'extending the contributory principle', stressing that those on low incomes would be protected. Writing in The Times, Mr Javid described the current system was 'unsustainable' and the only method for rationing NHS services was to make people wait on a list. Former health secretary Sajid Javid has suggested people should pay to visit their GP or Accident and Emergency units to cut demand He said the only way to ration demand on NHS services at present was to place people on waiting lists He said the country needed a 'grown up and hard-headed conversation', while cross party support was needed to bring in new charges. The Prime Minister is not 'currently' considering the proposals, Downing Street told the newspaper. Mr Sunak mooted fining patients who missed GP or hospital appointments 10 during his unsuccessful run for the Tory Party leadership against Liz Truss. However, days after getting the keys to Number 10, he performed a u-turn. Mr Javid said that the NHS's only rationing mechanism - to make people wait - should be replaced by means-tested fees, while 'protecting those on low incomes'. 'We should look, on a cross-party basis, at extending the contributory principle,' he wrote. 'This conversation will not be easy, but it can help the NHS ration its finite supply more effectively.' Mr Sunak, who is not standing for re-election, said Ireland had a 75 fee for anyone attending A&E without He pointed to Ireland's 'nominal' 75 fee for going to an injury unit without a referral, and 20 fees for GP appointments in Norway and Sweden as possible models. 'Too often the appreciation for the NHS has become a religious fervour and a barrier to reform,' the Bromsgrove MP also said. 'We need to shake off the constraints of political discourse and start having a grown-up, hard-headed conversation about alternatives.' Mr Javid, who will not stand at the next election, argued that 'the 75-year-old model of the NHS is unsustainable'. There are increased calls for an overhaul of the NHS, and not just from within the Tory party. Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told The Guardian: 'Reform is not a Conservative word. 'In recent elections, the left has given a lot of people the impression the answer to everything is to pour more money in. Of course investment is needed in the NHS, but ask any patient about their miserable experiences and it's partly about culture and systems. That's got to change too.' Following weeks of speculation over whether Mr Sunak pays to skip NHS queues to see a doctor, he recently said that, while he was registered with an NHS GP, he had paid for private healthcare in the past. Sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is set to take a prison literacy test at her Florida prison as she tries out for a call center job that will see her earn $1.24 an hour as she sells cut price internet, TV and phone service to callers. The disgraced socialite, 61, is serving a 20-year sentence for procuring girls for her late pedophile lover Jeffrey Epstein to degrade and abuse. Should she pass the test, Maxwell will be able to spend some of her time working for a telecommunications company that outsources some of its call center work to the Florida prison where she is currently being held. She will earn three times more in her new role than she currently earns in the jail's law library, but the money will make little dent on the $750,000 fine imposed by her trial judge. Ghislaine Maxwell is to undergo a literacy test to determine if she has the necessary skills to work in a call center while in prison. She's pictured taking a stroll in the yard in November Callers would have no idea they are talking to a convicted criminal housed at Florida's FCI Tallahassee female prison, pictured above An insider told The Mirror that many of the inmates at Florida's FCI Tallahassee female prison work in the call center. 'The girls have been joking if she does move jobs, callers will think they've called Buckingham Palace with her posh accent. Being on the phones allows the girls contact with the outside world. Some find it a lifeline,' the source explained. Customers on the other end of the phone are none the wiser that they are in fact talking to a convicted criminal whether they be a drug dealer, armed robber, mass murderer or child trafficker. Maxwell is set to appear in a television interview on Monday. UK Broadcaster Jeremy Kyle revealed that he conducted an interview with the heiress from her cell. Announcing the show, called 'Ghislaine Behind Bars', Kyle told viewers: 'Maxwell lifts the lid on Epstein, Prince Andrew and even our late Queen. This is Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars and in her own words'. It also comes after it emerged Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell, is hosting etiquette classes for inmates at the jail. Ghislaine Maxwell has spoken to Talk TV in an interview to be broadcast on Monday at 7pm Kyle told viewers: 'Maxwell lifts the lid on Epstein, Prince Andrew and even our late Queen. This is Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars and in her own words' Maxwell has preached to inmates about womens empowerment and the need to maintain high moral standards in the twice-weekly sessions for up to 40 convicts. A notice pinned up inside the Federal Correctional Institution, in Tallahassee, read: Taught by Mrs Maxwell this course teaches the three principles of etiquette focusing on respect, consideration and honesty. Oxford-educated Maxwell also talks about emulating powerful female figures, citing her former friend Hillary Clintons presidential bid as an example of how women can smash the glass ceiling. The course also counts towards the First Step Act, meaning inmates including drug dealers, white-collar criminals and convicted murderers can shave up to 15 days off their sentence by attending. Its proven so popular that Maxwell is hosting classes in both English and Spanish with the help of a Colombian inmate acting as a translator for the prisons sizable Hispanic population. Its less about balancing books on heads and being ladylike, and more about having confidence in yourself how to behave and talk in a professional manner, the secrets of success in the corporate world, that sort of thing, an insider said. Miss Maxwells message is, so what if youre a woman and a convicted felon, youre not a second class citizen. Shes an unlikely role model but shes very passionate about this. Maxwell was Prince Andrews guest at Buckingham Palace on several occasions. Pictured: Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein and Caroline Stanley in June 2000 Convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell met the Queen. She is pictured with Jeffrey Epstein at the Queen's log cabin at Glen Beg, Balmoral Maxwells course ran from December 5 to 30 and a second round of lessons has been approved by prison authorities to start soon, a source added. In the meantime Maxwell prisoner 02879-509 but nicknamed Max by incarcerated friends has been teaching a yoga class as well as working in the prison library, helping the 755-strong female population pick out books. She has daily access to a 400-meter running track where she regularly goes jogging. Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 of five counts of grooming minors for longtime confidante Epstein, who hanged himself in 2019. After two years locked up at the fortress-like Metropolitan Detention Center in New York, where she complained of maggot infested meals and inhumane treatment, Maxwell was expected to serve her time in Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Danbury the Connecticut prison that inspired Orange is the New Black. But without any explanation she was instead shipped 1,000 miles south in late July to the Sunshine State, where Epstein abused many of his victims at his Palm Beach mansion. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for grooming young girls for her pedophile lover Jeffrey Epstein. She is pictured with Epstein in an undated photograph FCI Tallahassee Maxwells prospective home until at least July 17, 2037 is surrounded by a maze of 30ft fences and cameras. But the elegant, red-brick building behind the rolls of jagged razor wire looks more akin to a school or college campus. Prior to her 2019 arrest, jet-setting Maxwells long list of high society friends included disgraced UK royal Prince Andrew and former president Bill Clinton. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three counts of conspiracy after a federal trial in New York heard that she lured girls as young as 14 to Epstein. Maxwell expressed remorse as she was handed down a 240-month sentence, telling her victims: I hope my conviction and harsh incarceration brings you closure. However Maxwell has since appealed her conviction and sentence. Her spokesman said: Her spirits are holding up well as you might expect of an innocent woman. Hundreds were cleared as surf contest was about to start Hundreds of swimmers attending a surf carnival have been suddenly cleared from the water after a dolphin was mauled to death by a pack of bull sharks. The dolphin beached itself on Shelly Beach at around 8am on Saturday morning as hundreds gathered at the beach in Sydney's north for the Manly Surf Carnival. The shark alarm was sounded at both Manly and Shelly Beach as SLS NSW reportedly spotted three 2.5metre bull sharks in the area just before 9am. Hundreds of swimmers were cleared from the waters at Manly and Shelly Beach after a dolphin was attacked by a shark at around 8am on Saturday (pictured) The dolphin could be seen slowly circling in the water in distress after it was attacked by a number of bull sharks The dolphin could be seen slowly circling in the water in distress. It's believed to have sustained a tail injury as lifesavers attempted to save the animal's life. Surf Life Saving NSW said in a statement: 'A Surf Life Saving UAV has been monitoring the shark activity from the air and has spotted a number of sharks in the area.' The Manly Open Surf Classic include Ironman and Ironwoman events that involve paddle boards and swims past the breaks at Manly beach. The event's schedule had kids under 15-years-old competing in the water at around the time the dolphin was believed to have been mauled. Hundreds were expected to participate in events over the weekend, with many more casually swimming at the beaches. The event has since been suspended until further notice. Surf Life Saving NSW said Manly and Shelly beaches would remain closed for the remainder of the day. The dolphin is believed to have sustained a tail injury and beached itself at Shelly Beach as lifesavers worked to save the animal's life Bull shark populations are exploding around Sydney as warmer weather attracts the predators into populated waters. Two three-metre bull sharks have been caught by fisherman in popular swimming areas in Sydney as they make their way south to follow prey. One was caught in Sydney Harbour just a kilometre away from a newly-opened swimming spot in Barangaroo. The other was caught just weeks later at Dolls Beach in Botany Bay. This is a significant increase to the estimated figure of 100,000 soldiers American intelligence sources have claimed Russian casualties in Ukraine have reached a staggering 188,000 as Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion continues to backfire. The figure is a significant increase to the estimation of 100,000 Russian soldiers who were wounded, deserted and killed when outlined by UKs Defence Secretary Ben Wallace at the end of 2022. It is also thought that the Ukrainians have captured or destroyed approximately 2,000 Russian tanks since the invasion, which happened less than a year ago. Ukraine has used drones to devastating effect against Putin's armoured vehicles, as a video shows a Russian tank being pelted with bombs by small Ukrainian drone. A woman walks by destroyed buildings in the mining town of Toretsk, which is situated under 20 miles from the front lines of fighting near Bakhmut Ukraine has appealed to its allies for more tanks to assist in its defence of the Donbas region US General Mark Milley told The Sun, who obtained the figures, that Russia has suffered a 'tremendous amount of casualties'. Russia has claimed to have captured a small village just five miles away from the major city of Bakhmut after months of fighting in a 'meat-grinder' offensive designed to push further in Ukraine's Donbas region. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the village of Klishchiivka, which is located nine kilometers south of Bakhmut, had been 'liberated.' The claim couldn't be independently verified, and Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim. It comes as Ukraine is bracing itself for a major Russian offensive within weeks as Vladimir Putin bids to turn the tide of the war with a devastating three-pronged assault. Taking Klishchiivka would be only a minor breakthrough, but the Kremlin is hungry for good news from the battlefield after months of setbacks. It follows Ukrainian troops' withdrawal from Soledar, a mining town which has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war. The town has been attacked for months on end by Russia's infamous Wagner group, which has reportedly seen extremely heavy losses and has seen a massive recruitment drive among serious criminals stuck in Russian prisons. Russia first claimed to have taken Soledar a week ago, but this was heavily contested by Ukrainian officials who said fighting remained ongoing in the area until admitting its troops withdrew yesterday. It was the first tangible territory victory for Russia in months as Putin continues his attempts to capture the Donbas region, with Bakhmut representing an opportunity to Russia to disrupt Ukrainian supply lines in the east and threaten other Ukrainian-held cities in the surrounding Donestk region. Key infrastructure near to Bakhmut has been destroyed by months of intense fighting, including bridges and roads Craters litter the towns and villages on the outskirts of Bakhmut following Russian missile attacks on Friday Civilians, including many elderly citizens are being evacuated by the members of the Ukrainian emergency services from Bakhmut on Friday Many settlements in the Donbas region have been all but completely destroyed by fighting and Russian shelling Stretchers are pictured outside a military hospital just a few miles away from the Russian front line Ukrainian troops have been pictured helping elderly and vulnerable residents evacuate from the city in anticipation of the fighting arriving there. However, US officials have begun to nudge the Ukrainians to shift focus away from Bakhmut and focus on preparation for an offensive in the south, according to an official familiar with the views of President Joe Biden's administration. The US is said to believe there is a high potential for the Russians to eventually push Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut amid some of the war's most intense fighting to date. The war has been largely static during the winter months, according to military analysts, except for some hot spots like Bakhmut and Soledar, a nearby salt mining town. The Kremlin's forces have kept up their long-distance shelling of Ukrainian targets, hitting key infrastructure and civilian areas, while probing Ukrainian defenses in the east. An advisor to Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed Kyiv is anticipating an three-pronged attack from the north in Belarus, from Russian strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, and in the south from the Crimean peninsula. If successful, Moscow's troops would encircle the defending forces in the pincer movement which would drive back Ukraine after a series of advances in recent months. It follows a helicopter crash on Wednesday which killed at least 18 people, including Ukraine's Interior Minister. The Ukrainian government chopper came down outside Kyiv next to a nursery full of children, killing all nine passengers onboard - including Ukraine's interior minister Denys Monastyrsky, his first deputy Yevhen Yenin and state secretary Yurii Lubkovych - and a further nine on the ground. US officials say Ukraine are planning on launching their own offensive against Russia after a stagnant winter, but have urged them to hold off until spring once they have received more weaponry. The anticipated three-pronged attack would see Russian forces advance from Belarus in the north, the Donbas in the east, and Crimea in the south A map shows the eastern region of Ukraine along the Russian border, and the areas currently occupied by invading Russian forces. Soledar and Bakhmut sit on the frontlines Many towns and villages around Bakhmut have lost all access to running water and electricity Debris is pictured in a building in Druzhkovka, in the Donbas, after a Russian artillery strike on Friday A Ukrainian tank is pictured on the outskirts of Bakhmut on Friday as the city prepares for a Russian offensive People collect wood to sell from a building destroyed by Russian artillery as they face a daily barrage of attacks in Bakhmut US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley expressed strong doubt on Friday that Ukraine would succeed in driving Russian troops out its territory this year. At a US-hosted meeting on Ukraine in Germany, Milley told reporters: 'From a military standpoint I still maintain that for this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from all, every inch of... Russian-occupied Ukraine.' Kyiv officials are preparing for the onslaught after winter brought a halt to the rapid change of territory control. The Ukrainian presidential office said at least five civilians were killed between Thursday and Friday mornings, and six others were wounded as Russian forces shelled seven provinces in the country's south and east. Ukrainian troops repelled Russian attacks near a number of settlements in Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region, the General Staff of the Ukraine's armed forces said today. The two provinces together make up the Donbas, an industrial heartland that borders Russia where pro-Moscow separatists have fought for almost nine years. John Lough, an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Chatham House think tank in London, said the Ukraine battlefield situation is 'inconclusive,' with a renewed Russian push expected in the spring. The war is 'quite delicately poised,' he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with Western allies to send tanks that would help punch through Russian lines. Defense leaders from nearly 50 countries discussed that possibility at a meeting in Germany on Friday, but no decision was made, according to Poland's defense minister. Marina Miron, of the Defense Studies Department at King's College London, said tanks are useful, but a number of factors need to be taken into account, including how many will be sent and when, what condition they are in, and how Ukrainian crews will be trained and keep the vehicles supplied. Giving the tanks would be 'more of a political gesture' than something that will change the complexion of the war, Miron said. Ukraine says it needs at least 300 tanks to keep Russia from advancing in the Donbas and Zaporizhzhia province, as well as for a possible counteroffensive in the country's southeast, analysts say. 'The war of resources has begun,' Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. 'It is becoming apparent that Ukraine's successes in the war with Russia will depend directly on the willingness and readiness of Western countries to supply not only defensive weapons to Kyiv, but also powerful offensive weapons, including modern tanks and planes.' A box labeled 'Important Doc's + Photos' has been pictured, unsealed, on a table at the Delaware home of President Joe Biden. The photo shows family snaps laid out on the dining table lined by chairs before a gathering, together with a white cardboard file box with brown packing tape on it. On the lid in black marker pen is scrawled 'Important Doc's + Photos'. The box was open and left ajar in the photo believed to be taken by Hunter Biden and found on his laptop, as reported by The New York Post, which also revealed how he made over 160 trips to the home during a 52 day period. A box labeled 'Important Doc's + Photos' appears to have been left unsealed on a table in the Delaware home of President Joe Biden It was during that time he was supposedly involved in controversial business dealings with a Chinese energy conglomerate. The home also contained evidence of Hunter's drug and alcohol addictions together with text messages between him and his mother, first lady Jill Biden. The discovery of the classified documents has caused controversy, but President Biden has stated that 'a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place' and that 'I think you're gonna find there's nothing there. I have no regrets. I'm following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do.' Hunter Biden recommended Cathy Chung to be his father's administrative assistant and helped oversee the packing and moving of Biden's file. There is no indication that she was aware of any classified documents. This latest photo adds yet another layer to the confusing classified documents debacle in which the files ended up inside a locked cabinet at the Penn Biden Center where they got discovered in November 2022 together with another stash in Biden's Delaware home's garage. Last week Biden insisted his garage was a secure location in an exchange with a reporter. 'Classified materials next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?' Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Biden. 'My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it's not like they're sitting out on the street,' Biden replied. 'So it was in a locked garage?' Doocy persisted. 'Yes, as well as my Corvette,' Biden claimed. People involved in the process include Biden's former staff members, General Services Administration personnel, and the staff at the think tank, an entity that would later have roles for senior aides that remain in Biden's orbit, including now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken who served as the center's managing director. The woman who oversaw the packing and shipping of Biden's documents in 2017 was former administrative assistant Kathy Chung, who secured the position with a well-placed recommendation from Hunter Biden, who touted her capabilities to his father. 'Hunter Biden recommended it. They had worked together at Department of Commerce years ago,' the person said. Hunter notified her of the opportunity, asked her if she was interested, and found out that she was. 'He spoke to her father about her,' said the person. So did former Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman, a longtime Biden associate who is among the trio of Democratic senators she had worked for in the past. Hunter Biden did a stint at the agency under Secretary William Daley at the tail end of the Clinton Administration from 1998 to 2001, following a job at a bank at the start of a career in law and lobbying. Then, as now, he had his father's ear on a variety of matters. Photos like this one of Hunter Biden were found on the same laptop as the emails just before the presidential election in 2020 A Biden lawyer discovered documents marked 'classified' while clearing out Biden's old office at the Penn Biden Center near the Capitol. The discovery would spark the events that led to the appointment of a special counsel Chung was the first person to be publicly identified as meeting with federal investigators in the matter. She spoke to US Attorney John Lausch's office before AG Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Robert Hur to oversee the documents probe. Officials working with Biden at the time who remain attached to him are senior aides Steve Richetti and Kate Bedingfield, and senior advisor Mike Donilon. The former assistant helped oversee the packing of files during the busy tail end of Biden's second term as VP. That was a time that featured a flurry of activity by Biden himself even in his final days in office. It required keeping his office functioning even while things were being put away for safekeeping. There is no indication that Chung knew that the boxes of documents also included documents marked classified that Biden lawyer Patrick Moore discovered while clearing out Biden's former DC office in November. At least a few documents were found in Biden's garage at his Wilmington, Delaware home. Biden's sons, Beau and Hunter, rebuilt the car for him 'She helped pack up the contents of the vice president's office, including documents, and was responsible for their being transferred to the transition office,' said the person, who said Chung had 'responsibility' for the move. 'She just didn't know the contents of every box that was being moved.' Mixed up with what have been reported to be 10 government documents, some marked 'top secret,' were the contents of desks and cabinets from Biden's old office, papers related to late son Beau Biden's funeral, and a document related to home repairs at Biden's Wilmington home a site that was itself revealed to contain additional classified material. GSA has previously confirmed that Biden's team vacated their transition office in July 2017, which is when the documents began the next leg of their journey, heading southeast across the city. The Penn Biden Center did not respond to a request for comment about exactly how long the boxes of material remained at the Chinatown location, and who had access to it. The discovery of the documents has presented an immediate political problem for Biden, who said Thursday he had 'no regrets' about the situation, and scolded reporters for asking him about it while he was touring devastation in California. 'There's no there there,' he said. In addition to the special counsel, House GOP investigators have already begun sending out requests for information. Hunter Biden's role has previously been identified in emails found on his infamous laptop. 'Thanks for calling and thinking of me,' Chung wrote to Hunter in May 2012, according to Fox News, after getting put forward for the job when predecessor Michelle Smith was leaving. 'After the initial shock of taking in what you said... how could I pass up an opportunity to work for the Vice President of the United States!!!!' As DailyMail.com reported earlier this week, a newly surfaced photo from the laptop appears to show the president's son driving the classic Corvette Stingray outside the same Wilmington home where the car and documents marked 'classified' were being stored. At the White House Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre again stressed that Biden and his team were cooperating with investigators, after alerting the National Archives following the discovery of classified material. She once again declined further comment, even to specify what Biden was referring to when he said he had no regrets, referring matters to the Justice Department. In a boost to holidaymakers and visitors to Europe this summer Britons will avoid facing even longer waits at border control as the EU announces a delay to its planned implementation of stricter rules including fingerprint checks. The EU had been scheduled to bring in new checks, including taking four fingerprint scans and a photograph of new arrivals into the bloc, in May this year. But it was confirmed this week that the new entry and exit system (EES) had been pushed back until at least the end of the year. This is the second delay after it was previously pushed back by a year, having been originally scheduled to be rolled out in 2022. In October, the Port of Dover warned the new checks could take up to 10 minutes per car travelling from the UK to France (Stock image) It will be good news to many Brits as the number of people travelling to Europe continues to increase since the end of coronavirus restrictions around the world, The Telegraph reports. In October, the Port of Dover warned the checks could take up to 10 minutes per car travelling from the UK to France. The new entry system will need all non-EU arrivals which includes Britons after Brexit to have four fingerprints scanned and a photograph taken. European nations warned the checks on arriving in the EU could take up to four times longer than the current system. The International Air Transport Association - which represents 300 airlines - warned there are currently 'outstanding issues' which need to be resolved before it can be rolled out. In a statement on the association's website, a spokesperson said: 'The aviation industry is fully behind the roll out of EES and is committed to working with the EU and national authorities for a successful implementation. 'There are, however, a number of issues which must be resolved to ensure a smooth rollout and operation of the new system so that air passengers do not face disruptions. 'Postponing the implementation until after the busy 2023 summer period will give airlines, airports, the EU and national authorities the opportunity to resolve these issues and ensure the system is fully tested. 'We therefore urge all those involved to make the best use of the extra time now available to address the outstanding issues and ensure enough resources are deployed for its introduction.' In October the Port of Dover warned could cause 'significant and continued disruption for a very long time'. UK nationals will have to provide four fingerprints and a photograph every three years under the scheme (Pictured: Fingerprint scanner, stock image) Dover chiefs say passengers without an EU passport could take as long as 10 minutes per vehicle to check, compared to the current 90-second average it takes to wave cars through. The new rules will apply for ports, airports and other border checkpoints for travellers entering from outside the EU, but Dover and the Eurostar are likely to see the biggest queues. Logistics UK warned the new system could lead to 19-mile tailbacks in Kent and scenes of gridlock far worse than those experienced this year. Dover chief executive Doug Bannister told MPs on the transport select committee in October: 'It's going to have a higher impact on families wishing to go abroad next summer. 'We've heard that there could be some technology that is sort of an iPad with handholds to register the fingerprints. But we haven't trialled it. How do you pass that around a car? What happens if you've got a child asleep in the backseat? 'What if it's a dark stormy night and the lighting is inappropriate? We haven't tested all of that.' He added: 'We need to see what the technology is going to be, we need a sufficient amount of time to trial, test and train to use that technology before implementation.' Mr Bannister said: 'If [new checks] come in in the worst possible way we fear they will, it is going to have significant and continued disruption for a very long time.' Committee chairman Huw Merriman said it was 'bizarre and unacceptable' that tests or trials had not taken place. The system is similar to the one used in the US where tourists must provide personal information that is checked against databases before granting approval. It would replace the stamping of passports but it is thought it will make waits at border check points much longer. According to the UK government, travellers will scan their passports as normal, but will then need to provide fingerprints and a photo the first time they enter a country under the system. This will have to be repeated every three years as a person's data will only be held on the system for that long. It will affect travellers arriving in all EU member states except for Ireland and Cyprus, plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. The head of an independent all-girls school has told pupils not to allow a lone policeman to approach you at any time. Fionnuala Kennedy, head of Wimbledon High School in south London, made the comments following the conviction of Metropolitan Police officer, David Carrick. Mr Carrick, 48, was sacked from the Met on Tuesday after admitting 49 sexual offences, including 24 counts of rape, across two decades. In a blog post, Mrs Kennedy said she was breathless with anger about the utter failing of the Met Police to protect girls and women. David Carrick, has pleaded guilty to a total of 49 offences, including rape, sexual assault, coercive control and false imprisonment, following his appearance at Southwark Crown Court She also commented on social media influencer Andrew Tates arrest in Romania over allegations of sexual assault and exploitation saying both cases make her feel tired, angry and somewhat defeated. Mrs Kennedy, who has been head of the 22,000-a-year school since 2020, said she was not suggesting for a moment that girls dont trust the police as an entire establishment. But she explained her views were the anger of my students, and Im the channel through which that is expressed. Mrs Kennedy, who has been head of the 22,000-a-year school since 2020, said she was not suggesting for a moment that girls dont trust the police as an entire establishment Mrs Kennedy added: The police have done a good enough job on their own of developing distrust from the public. [The Met must] address their cultural issues and make sure that we feel that they are taking due diligence to protect our vulnerable people. Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted the force had let women and girls down and let Londoners down. He has promised a review of the forces culture in an effort to root out corrupt policemen. 100 days of slaughter and ethnic cleansing in Rwanda took place 25 years ago The men are currently living in London, Essex, Bedford, Kent and Manchester The War Crimes Unit was given a referral from Rwandan authorities last January Five suspects living in the UK thought to be linked to a genocide in Rwanda 25 years ago are being investigated by police. British detectives prepare to travel to Rwanda, following a referral from the African nation, and Scotland Yard officers are understood to be in the process of interviewing more witnesses. The suspects are thought to be behind the deaths of 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis but including some moderate Hutus, who died in 100 days of slaughter and ethnic cleansing between April 7 and July 1994. The suspects were interviewed by police voluntarily in 2020, and the Metropolitan Police has taken dozens of witness statements from victims of the 1994 atrocities. The suspects are thought to be behind the deaths of 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis but including some moderate Hutus, who died in 100 days of slaughter and ethnic cleansing The suspects are Celestin Mutabaruka, 63, from Kent; Vincent Brown, also known as Vincent Bajinya, 59, from Islington, north London; Celestin Ugirashebuja, 66, from Essex; Charles Munyaneza, 61, from Bedford; and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, from Manchester, the Daily Mirror reported. All of the suspects have denied the allegations. The war crimes unit, part of the counter-terrorism command, received a referral from Rwandan authorities in January last year. The Mirror tracked the suspects down in 2019, when one, Celestin Mutabaruka, 67, who lives in Kent, said he had 'nothing to hide and welcomed the chance to clear his name. Speaking at his flat in Islington, North London, he said two years ago: 'I am not a criminal and I never did those things.' The second suspect is Vincent Brown, also known as Vincent Bajinya, 59, living in Islington, north London, who is a doctor with British citizenship and changed his name to Brown. Third, Celestin Ugirashebuja, 66, from Essex 69, who is now a care worker. The fourth suspect is Charles Munyaneza, 61, living in Bedford, and fifth Emmanuel Nteziryayo, who now lives in Manchester, the Daily Mirror reported. The suspects were interviewed by police voluntarily in 2020, and the Metropolitan Police has taken dozens of witness statements from victims of the 1994 atrocities The war crimes unit, part of the counter-terrorism command, received a referral from Rwandan authorities in January last year Human remains on display at the Nyamata Church Genocide Memorial of victims of the 1994 genocide which resulted in the deaths of 800,000 Rwandans All five deny the allegations against them and involvement in the genocide. In July 2017, five men with the same names, all of Hutu ethnicity, were ordered to be extradited in a bid to have them returned to Rwanda, which was blocked by the UK High Court. At the time judges agreed there was a real risk they would be denied a fair trial if they were returned. The controversial UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership scheme, introduced by the Home Secretary Priti Patel, was set up to send some asylum seekers who arrived from safe countries, many on small boats, to Rwanda, without the possibility of return. The scheme has so far cost the UK taxpayer 140m in development funding to Rwanda, but as of yet nobody has yet been sent there amid ongoing legal challenges. The Rwanda scheme has so far cost the UK taxpayer 140m in development funding to Rwanda, but as of yet nobody has yet been sent there amid ongoing legal challenges A ruling this week has meant that there is no prospect of flights leaving immediately while the scheme goes to the Court of Appeal. During a High Court Hearing on Monday, Lord Justice Lewis and Mr Justice Swift said that 11 migrants could ask the Court of Appeal to consider whether Rwanda's assurances to the UK amounted to sufficient guarantees of safe and fair treatment. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson, speaking about the five suspects, said: 'Relevant documentation to this was assessed by the war crimes unit and officers were also deployed to Rwanda as part of our initial work to scope the allegations,' The spokeswoman added: 'As a result, we have subsequently commenced an investigation which will initially involve a review of all the documentation transferred from Rwanda. 'Given the complexities involved, this is expected to be a protracted and lengthy process. Inquiries continue.' Kurtley Beale has been granted bail as he fights sexual assault charges with a court hearing he had sent a message to his friend about the night. The Wallabies rugby union player was supported by his wife Maddi as his application was granted at Parramatta Bail Court, in western Sydney, on Saturday. Beale left Surry Hills Police Station after spending the night in a cell following his arrest on Friday while his stone-faced partner ignored media waiting outside court. Police allege a 28-year-old woman was sexually assaulted at a pub on Beach Road at Bondi, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, on December 17. The court heard there was a recorded conversation between Beale and his alleged victim and that the Wallabies star allegedly sent a message to his friend saying he had 'messed up'. Kurtley Beale has been granted bail after he was charged over an alleged sexual assault The Wallabies rugby union player was supported by his wife Maddi as he fronted Parramatta Bail Court, in western Sydney , on Saturday Beale has been charged with two counts of sexually touching another person without consent, inciting another to sexually touch them without consent and sexual intercourse without consent. The court heard that Beale denied the allegations, that he intended to fight the charges and he would plead not guilty. Prosecutor Scott Thompson told the court police had recorded a conversation between Beale and the alleged victim. 'That conversation alludes to what I would say [were] admissions,' he said. He told the court Beale had allegedly sent a message to a friend saying: 'Yeah I messed up, I was out at the pub before Chrissy'. But Beale's barrister Stephen Stanton argued the calls and text were 'an admission of infidelity, no more, no less', and did not relate to the assault allegations. Beale was granted bail on the condition he does not contact the alleged victim or enter an airport. He has also been forced to surrender his passport and must report to Waverley Police Station twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. A stone-faced Maddi was seen leaving the court and ignoring media following the decision by the judge to grant her partner bail Beale was granted bail on the condition he does not contact the alleged victim or enter an airport He will front Waverley Local Court on March 22. Rugby Australia said in a statement on Friday Beale had been suspended while the rugby union player continued to appear before the courts. 'Kurtley Beale has been suspended from all forms of rugby with immediate effect pending the conclusion of legal proceedings,' it read. 'This step follows Mr Beale's arrest and subsequent charge with serious criminal offences, and is in line with Rugby Australia's Professional Player Code of Conduct.' Beale, who has played 95 times for his country, took part in a 44-man Wallabies training camp on the Gold Coast last week. He recently returned to Australia after several years spent playing in France ahead of the Super Rugby season for the NSW Waratahs. Beale, from NSW, has spent most of his more than decade-long career with the Waratahs, aside from a brief spell with the Melbourne Rebels. Maudsley was 21 when he was locked up for murdering 30-year-old John Farrell He's been in solitary confinement since 1979 after killing three people in prison One of the UK's most infamous serial killers has set a new world record for solitary confinement, it was reported last night. Notorious killer Robert Mawdsley, 69, has now spent a record of 16,400 consecutive days in isolation in HMP Wakefield, according to The Mirror. The 69-year-old has been in solitary confinement in a glass cell since 1979 after killing three people in prison while serving a life sentence to for the murder of John Farrell in 1974. As a result, he's been categorised as the UK's most dangerous murderer. Maudsley was just 21 when he was locked up for the murder of 30-year-old John Farrell. Serial killer Robert Mawdsley, 69, has now spent a record of 16,400 consecutive days in isolation Mawdsley, 69, has been categorised as the UK's most dangerous murderer. He spends his days at HMP Wakefield (pictured) The killer - who earned the nickname 'Hannibal the Cannibal' following false reports he ate one of his victim's brains, said he is 'happy and content in solitary' and warned that he will kill again if ever released. In a Channel 5 documentary 'HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars,' Maudsley's nephew Gavin, 40, from Liverpool reveals how his softly spoken, 'well-read' uncle is content to be locked away from the rest of the world. Maudsley has been repeatedly turned down for requests to spend time with other people, spending his days in a specially built cell. In 2021, he lost an appeal to spend Christmas with other people and was told that he will be incarcerated in his 'glass box' until he dies. The killer must now live out the rest of his days in a 18 foot by 15 foot cell, which was built especially for him in 1983 and is protected by bullet proof glass. He spends 23 hours of each day in the cell, sleeping on a concrete slab and using a toilet and sink which are bolted to the floor. The 'hannibal' murderer has been locked up in HMP Wakefield, where he killed three of his victims whilst behind bars He once described spending the majority of his day in his small space as 'like being buried alive in a coffin'. He also has a table and chair made of compressed cardboard. The killer wrote to newspapers campaigning for better treatment in the early days of his confinement. In 2000, Maudsley launched a legal bid to the courts requesting to be allowed to die. He wrote a letter asking: 'What purpose is served by keeping me locked up 23 hours a day? 'Why even bother to feed me and to give me one hour's exercise a day? Who actually am I a risk to?' He went on to question why he couldn't have a pet budgie, promising to love it and 'not eat it.' Jailed 49 years ago, The Mirror reports that Mawdsley is believed to be Britains longest serving prisoner after Moors murderer Ian Brady, who served 51 years. He died in 2017. US prisoner Albert Woodfox, who died last year, held the world record for solitary confinement at 43 years, before his release in 2016. The 10-year-old survivor of the tragic Sea World helicopter crash could now lose his foot as surgeons battle to save the young boy's life, family friends have revealed. Nicholas Tadros's mother Vanessa was one of four killed when their joy flight crashed into another helicopter near the Gold Coast theme park on January 2. Pilot Ash Jenkinson and British newlywed couple Ron and Diane Hughes also died in the tragedy. Rescuers pulled Nicholas from the wreckage with horrific injuries and he spent days on life support in a critical condition as fought for survival. Now he faces life-changing surgery after a sudden downturn in his recovery. 'There's been a major setback with Nicholas' progress,' a family friend posted to Facebook on Saturday morning. The last photo taken of Vanessa Tadros with her 10-year-old son Nicholas before riding the doomed helicopter Ms Tadros was one of four people who were killed when the helicopter crashed near the Sea World theme park (pictured) including pilot Ash Jenkinson and British newlywed couple Ron and Diane Hughes 'Nicholas operation couldn't be completed today and [we] have come back with some sad news.' Nicholas may need to have his right foot amputated as a result of injuries sustained during the crash. It comes just days after his mother was laid to rest in a funeral attended by family and friends in Sydney's west. The family friend asked for the public's prayers for the boy's father Simon who has yet to tell his son that his mother did not survive the crash. 'There's been a major setback with Nicholas' progress,' the family friend posted to Facebook on Saturday morning (pictured, Seaworld helicopter victim Nicholas Tadros) 'We really need to continue praying for Simon as well to get him through this tough time as he will have to face Nicholas in the coming days to let him know his mum been taken to heaven,' the friend said. Nicholas' loved ones are concerned the life-changing surgery will be yet another 'major blow to Nicholas' mental state of mind' after the devastating loss of his mother. 'Nicholas will need all your prayers over the next couple weeks before surgeons try again,' they said. 'Please all we ask is to keep praying for God's will to be done. God bless.' The 10-year-old has been receiving treatment in hospital for almost three weeks after surviving the horror crash. He was unable to attend his mother's funeral. She was one of four people who were killed when the helicopter crashed near the Sea World theme park including 'Nicholas will need all your prayers over the next couple weeks before surgeons try again,' the friend said on social media (pictured Nicholas' father Simon Tadros with Ms Tadros and their son) A Labour MP has declared her party has a 'woman problem'. Rosie Duffield spoke out yesterday after she was jeered by male colleagues in the Commons and then shunned by party leaders. She said it felt as if she was in an 'abusive relationship'. And in a blow to Sir Keir Starmer's hopes of becoming prime minister, the 51-year-old admitted she would struggle to convince voters that Labour was not sexist. Senior Tories claimed the damning assessment exposed the lack of equality in a party that has never had a female leader. Rosie Duffield (above) spoke out yesterday after she was jeered by male colleagues in the Commons and then shunned by party leaders Rosie said it felt as if she was in an 'abusive relationship'. And in a blow to Sir Keir Starmer's hopes of becoming prime minister, the 51-year-old admitted she would struggle to convince voters that Labour was not sexist Former minister Nadine Dorries said: 'It parades as a party of equality and opportunity but is in fact, as witnessed by the Labour MPs including Starmer who supported Corbyn at the last election, anything but.' Fellow Conservative MP Miriam Cates, who was subjected to insults and intimidation by a male Labour MP this week after she spoke up for women's safety, said: 'I regularly receive emails from women who used to vote Labour but now say that they can no longer support the Labour Party because of their stance on women's rights.' The controversy came as a survey from pollsters Redfield & Wilton showed that 45 per cent of Britons disagree with Labour's backing for Scotland's radical gender reforms that would give boys the right to attend girls' schools. Just 28 per cent support the move. In another damaging development, video evidence emerged showing three Labour backbenchers were at a protest when a transgender ex-prisoner told of her violent past and said she wanted to get into Parliament and give out drugs. Ms Duffield has long been Labour's most outspoken defender of women's rights and a very vocal critic of 'woke' gender ideology. Former minister Nadine Dorries (above) said: 'It parades as a party of equality and opportunity but is in fact, as witnessed by the Labour MPs including Starmer who supported Corbyn at the last election, anything but' She was forced to miss the party's conference in 2021 because of online threats to her safety. This was an echo of former Labour MP Luciana Berger being given police protection from anti-Semitic activists. But Ms Duffield, who represents Canterbury, upped her criticism in response to 'aggression' she received this week from fellow MPs in the Commons chamber. It came in a heartfelt article for the Unherd website, called 'The Labour Party has a woman problem'. She said she was 'defending the need to protect vulnerable women in single-sex spaces' during a heated debate about Scotland's Gender Reform Bill, which would have given 16-year-olds the right to change sex but is being blocked by ministers for fear of its impact across the UK. Ms Duffield said veteran Labour MP Ben Bradshaw 'yelled his disapproval at me' and then his colleague Lloyd Russell-Moyle 'started to heckle every woman who spoke of their similar concerns'. She said Mr Russell-Moyle, who stood next to transgender former prisoner Sarah-Jane Baker at this week's Downing Street demonstration but later insisted he knew nothing of her violent past, then moved to sit near another female MP and stared at her in an intimidating way. She said his later admission that he 'failed to control his passion' reminded her of the victim-blaming tactic used by her abusive ex. She wrote: 'Look what you made me do', as my ex-partner would say when I had caused him to explode. Perhaps by doing or wearing something he didn't entirely like or voicing an opinion he didn't want to hear.' She also wrote: 'When I come home at night I feel low-level trauma at my political isolation.' Ms Duffield said veteran Labour MP Ben Bradshaw (above) 'yelled his disapproval at me' and then his colleague Lloyd Russell-Moyle 'started to heckle every woman who spoke of their similar concerns' Her article was met by silence from Sir Keir's office, while party whips got in touch only to chastise her for missing a meeting. Ms Duffield insisted she was not the only Labour MP who believed men could not become women, but that the others dared not say so because they do not want to be treated like her. The party's general secretary, David Evans, has attended only a handful of Women's Parliamentary Labour Party meetings, Ms Duffield said, whereas his predecessor Jennie Formby went to every one, even while having chemotherapy. One insider said there was now an effort to make sure Sir Keir did not adopt divisive policies such as gender self-identification. 'There are a growing group of us who are raising concerns with the leadership,' said the source. Ms Duffield's article was shared on Twitter by JK Rowling, while former mayoral adviser and Labour member Joan Smith said: 'Those of us who have tried to engage with Keir Starmer about defending women's rights know exactly what she's talking about.' A Labour source insisted: 'There are various channels always open to any of our MPs and regular efforts to reach out.' Three out of five of Britain's Broder Force cutters are currently undergoing maintenance instead of patrolling the English Channel protecting the nation's coastline. HMC Protector, Valiant and Seeker are all tied up in Lowestoft, Suffolk where they are all undergoing repairs, or recertification. HMC Protector was bought second hand from the Finnish Navy in 2013. According to marine tracking data it has been moored up for the past six months awaiting safety certification works which were due to last 25 days. HMC Valiant is undergoing a 2million Ship Life Extension Programme which was expected to take three months. HMP Protector, pictured, has been moored in Lowestoft, Suffolk for at least six months. It has been tied up for so long that it has been mapped on Google Street View HMC Valiant, pictured, is undergoing a 2m Ship Life Extension Programme HMC Seeker is also undergoing work expected to cost up to 123,000 and due to last up to 25 days. According to The Sun, a Home Office official said: 'Our utmost priority is protecting the safety of the public, the maintenance of Border Forces vessels is managed throughout the year to ensure that this does not impact on our operational effectiveness.' They did not provide any comment on why the three cutters were out of service at the same time. HMC Hurricane was pictured this week landing migrants in Dover after rescuing them from the English Channel. It is estimated that more than 150 migrants have successfully crossed the Channel in 2023. HMC Hurricane, pictured, was busy saving migrants from the English Channel earlier this week A social media commentator and self-professed 'loudmouth on the internet' has sparked a firestorm by tweeting that Alec Baldwin was innocent, but Kyle Rittenhouse was a murderer. Jeff Tiedrich, a New York-based graphic designer and musician, made a name for himself online with his criticism of President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Tiedrich, 65, weighed in on the decision to charge Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter over the October 2021 on-set shooting of camerawoman Halyna Hutchins. He contrasted it with the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, who in August 2020 shot and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters when he was 17-years-old. Rittenhouse was tried and in November 2021 found not guilty of murder, having argued that he acted in self-defense amid chaotic scenes in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Tiedrich drew parallels between the two shootings. Jeff Tiedrich, 65, has gained a million followers on Twitter thanks to his outspoken criticism of Donald Trump, and his political activism Alec Baldwin is seen on October 21, 2021, after speaking to investigators about the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins. He has now been told he faces charges of involuntary manslaughter Kyle Rittenhouse was 17 when he traveled from his home in Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to 'protect' businesses during Black Lives Matter protests in August 2020. Rittenhouse shot and killed two of the activists, but was cleared of murder following a trial in November 2021 'What Alec Baldwin did is a tragedy. what Kyle Rittenhouse did is murder. if you won't recognize the difference, I can't help you,' Tiedrich tweeted, in comments viewed 3.6 million times, receiving 87,000 likes and 15,000 responses. On Friday, Tiedrich doubled down, writing: 'holy f****** s***, if an actor accidentally discharging a gun while rehearsing for a movie has you s****ing bricks, wait until you hear about the teenager who asked his mommy to drive him across state lines so he could deliberately fire into a crowd of protestors.' Social media users reacted with anger. 'Rittenhouse was a clear-cut case of self-defense and anyone who says otherwise is likely motivated by their personal animosity towards him,' said one. 'Baldwin's case boils down to the precise legal definition of what constitutes 'ordinary negligence' and is by no means a slam-dunk. ' One said Tiedrich should have paid more attention to Rittenhouse's trial. 'What Alec Baldwin did was negligent homicide. What Kyle Rittenhouse did was self defense. 'You'd know the difference if you'd watched 30 seconds of the Rittenhouse trial, which was nothing but a waste of taxpayer money.' Baldwin is seen on Friday outside his Manhattan home. He is said to be shell-shocked by the charges, and has vowed to contest them Another accused Tiedrich of spreading 'disinformation'. 'You've got it backwards,' he said. 'Kyle Rittenhouse has been tried and found to be innocent. Alec Baldwin has yet to be tried, but soon will be and will almost certainly be found guilty. Baldwin is seen in costume, covered with fake blood, in an image posted to Instagram 'Quit spreading disinformation.' And another pointed out that Tiedrich was not an impartial arbitrator. 'Baldwin was reckless and should have known better. 'Kyle is just a kid who wanted to help and got caught up in a mob situation. People attacked him as he ran away. He did what any normal person would do, defend himself. 'With your distorted perception I wouldn't want your help.' Baldwin insists that he did not pull the trigger on the prop gun which killed Halyna Hutchins, 42. He said the gun misfired. He has also argued that he cannot be held responsible for the prop guns, and that he trusted the armorers employed on set. His attorney called the decision to charge him a 'terrible miscarriage of justice'. Halyna Hutchins, a 42-year-old camerawoman, was killed by Baldwin on set in October 2021 Rittenhouse is seen on January 24, 2022, on the set of conservative Candace Owens's chat show Rittenhouse travelled to Kenosha, Wisconsin from his home in Illinois to 'protect' local businesses, after Black Lives Matter protests turned ugly. He was not legally allowed to carry a rifle, but did so. Rittenhouse, who had long idolized police, ran around town in what he saw as a law enforcement role. When the rioting escalated, Rittenhouse was attacked, and responded by opening fire into the crowd. He killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26. He shot and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, who was carrying a pistol. Rittenhouse became a hero for conservatives, but was called a murderer by the left. His trial was closely watched nationwide, and the jury ultimately acquitted Rittenhouse, accepting that he acted in self defense. In the year since his acquittal, Rittenhouse has sought to capitalize on his 'fame', launching a YouTube channel for gun fanatics, and embarking on a speaking tour. He is selling a video game, where players can open fire at 'fake news' turkeys. His actions remain controversial, and many venues where Rittenhouse has been scheduled to speak have ended up cancelling his appearance amid protest. Sir Keir Starmer is proud of cutting out the cancer of anti-Semitism that had been allowed to fester in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. But today Labour stands accused of swapping its problem with Jews for a problem with women. Specifically, those female MPs who stand up for womens rights in the face of attack by rabid trans activists. In a damning indictment of the party under Sir Keir, Rosie Duffield tells of being ostracised for arguing that men who identify as women shouldnt be allowed in female-only spaces such as shop changing rooms and public toilets. This week she was heckled, menaced and vilified in the Commons by spittle-flecked colleagues. Her harrowing ordeal, she says, has been like being in an abusive relationship. Yet she is stating only what most people in the real world believe. Sir Keir Starmer is proud of cutting out the cancer of anti-Semitism that had been allowed to fester in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn The reality is, Labour has been captured (again) by ideological extremists. Indeed, while Ms Duffield was cold-shouldered, three Labour MPs were freely consorting with a violent transgender ex-prisoner. The denial of sex, pushing of a harmful anti-science dogma and malice towards women who refuse to fall in line is pure misogyny. Of course, trans people should be treated with compassion. But allowing men to self-identify as women without a medical diagnosis risks the safety of women and girls. If the Tories fortunes dont improve, Labour will win power and this identity-driven ideology will only get worse. Three steps to success It's a mark of how far the Tories have fallen that such a lacklustre politician as Sir Keir has taken Labour into a commanding lead in the polls. But voters havent warmed to the opposition leader, who has nothing constructive to say about Britains problems. So all is not lost for Rishi Sunak. With boldness and the rediscovery of his Tory instincts, he has a punchers chance of hauling his party back into contention. Top of his agenda must be promoting growth. Sky-high business and personal taxes are choking the recovery. The Prime Minister must also fulfil his pledge to tackle illegal immigration Couldnt the Chancellor use a predicted 27billion Budget windfall partly due to tumbling energy prices to slash the crippling tax burden? The Prime Minister must also fulfil his pledge to tackle illegal immigration. Today we reveal Albanian gangs are using TikTok to advertise smuggling migrants into Britain in lorries ahead of a planned Home Office crackdown on small boats. Many of those arriving illegally manipulate human rights laws to stay. To end this scandal, the PM must be willing to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. Finally, Mr Sunak must push through tough laws to compel unions in key public services to provide a minimum level of cover during strikes. Yes, the liberal Left will howl. But if he strains every sinew to achieve these goals, hell prove to the public he is on their side and reap the reward at the ballot box. He was late returning his driving book after he crashed his car A pensioner who borrowed a book on driving after he was in a crash has returned it 58 years late but has avoided a 4,200 fine. David Hickman was just 17 when he borrowed The Law for Motorists in 1964 to swot up after being involved in a car accident in Dudley, West Midlands. He was waving to a group of teenagers from Dudley High School for Girls when he crashed into the town mayors car. Dudley Magistrates Court fined him 7 around 175 in todays money. David Hickman (left) borrowed a book on driving after he was in a crash has returned it 58 years late but has avoided a 4,200 fine He was just 17 when he borrowed The Law for Motorists in 1964, pictured above with manager of Dudley Library Sharon Whitehouse, to swot up after being involved in a car accident in Dudley, West Midlands After losing the case, Mr Hickman forgot to return the book and took it with him when he moved to London in 1970. This week Mr Hickman, now 76, drove back to return the book in person. With overdue fines of 20p a day, librarians could have charged him 4,200 but they waived the fees after hearing his amusing story. Mr Hickman said: I used to come across it now and then and think I must pop that back next time Im in Dudley. Fortunately, they saw the funny side. Dudley librarian Sharon Whitehouse said: Im thrilled to have the book returned, complete with its pre-computerisation cardboard tickets, and to hear the story behind it. Were hoping to donate it to The Black Country Museum. A previous version of this article said that Mr Hickman had been threatened with a 42,000 fine. This incorrect information was provided by Dudley Council, and the article has been amended to reflect the correct sum, which is 4,200 With overdue fines of 20p a day, librarians could have charged him 4,200 but they waived the fees after hearing his amusing story Representative George Santos confirmed himself in a 2011 Wikipedia post on that he performed as a drag queen - and claimed he got parts in the Disney TV series Hannah Montana and movie The Invasion 'with Uma Thurman' - who does not star in the film. Video obtained by DailyMail.com purportedly depicts Santos, speaking in Portuguese, listing off the venues at which he did 'presentations' - all of them being prominent drag venues around Rio de Janeiro. Santos, who is under growing pressure to resign, called claims that he 'performed' as a drag queen named Kitara Ravache in Brazil circa 2008 'false,' while also calling accusations that he swindled a disabled veteran out of medical dollars for his sick dog 'insane.' However, it was discovered that a certain Anthony Devolder - an alias known to have been used by George Santos - was last edited in 2011 to suggest that he had performed in drag. George Anthony Devolder Santos is the congressman's full name. Despite denying it, internet sleuths appear to have discovered that Representative George Santos - seen here in photos dressed in drag in 2007 - confirmed himself in a 2011 post on Wikipedia that he performed as a drag queen The bizarre April 29, 2011 post unearthed by Politico says that he used to do so as a teenager in Brazil, via the usernames Devmaster88 and GeorgeDevolder22, with Wikipedia moderators accusing him of abusing multiple accounts. The post - littered with spelling errors says: 'Anthony Devolder first startted [sp] his 'stage' life at age 17 as an gay night club [sp] DRAG QUEEN and with that won sevral [sp] GAY 'BEAUTY PAGENTS [sp].' The page also alleges that Santos/Devolder had a cameo appearance on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana - which is misspelt in the entry - and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. It also alleges that he 'taped his very first movie' with 'Uma Turman [sp], Chris Odanald, [sp] Melllisa George, [sp] and Alicia Silver Stone [sp] in the movie 'THE INVASION.' That film, released in 2007, stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. None of the people listed in the Wiki entry appear in The Invasion. As part of his performing career, the Wikipedia edits also allege that he's met Steven Spielberg and that his career took off when he met a producer of the 1996 film Independence Day. Details of Santos' backstory continue to unravel, was identified in a 15-year-old photo depicting two drag queens on Brazil's Icarai Beach. Santos, who is under growing pressure to resign, called claims that he 'performed' as a drag queen named Kitara Ravache in Brazil circa 2008 'false,' while also calling accusations that he swindled a disabled veteran out of medical dollars for his sick dog 'insane' The page also alleges that Santos/Devolder had a cameo appearance on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana (pictured) and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody The video purportedly shows Santos in a black dress discussing the local Pride Parade A Brazilian drag queen named Eula Rochard told independent journalist Marisa Kabas that she was the other person in the photo and named Santos, now 34, as her friend alongside her. But the freshman congressman denounced the claim as 'false' and accused the media of chasing 'outrageous' stories. 'The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or 'performed' as a drag Queen is categorically false,' Santos wrote on Twitter Thursday morning. 'The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results. I will not be distracted nor fazed by this.' He's rebuffed all calls to step down, and since getting to Capitol Hill, has appeared to align himself with conservative lawmakers - many of whom have made opposition to community drag shows a cornerstone of their culture war platforms. On Thursday morning, Santos lashed out against claims that he once performed as a drag queen in Brazil This photo emerged on Wednesday, allegedly depicting Santos, now 34, cross dressing in 2008 But in the 2008 photo, the person identified as Santos appears to be dressed in a strapless red top or dress while sporting longer brown hair. While the photo is grainy, some element of makeup is visible. His Democratic critics accused Santos of hypocrisy for aligning himself with people whose ideologies see the drag community as an object of scorn. Two acquaintances of the beleaguered congressman told Reuters in a late Wednesday report that Santos participated in Brazilian drag shows a decade and a half ago. One of those people was Brazilian drag performer Eula Rouchard, who claimed Santos was involved in Rio de Janeiro's cross-dressing scene since around 2005. Rouchard reportedly recalled Santos going by 'Anthony' rather than 'George' at the time. She said she was in her late teens when she knew Santos. 'Anthony Devolder' was also the name Santos used when he allegedly scammed a disabled veteran out of charity money to save his dying dog. Santos reacted to that accusation on Twitter Thursday, The reports that I would let a dog die is shocking & insane.' Embattled freshman Republican Rep. George Santos of New York has been under growing pressure to resign as key details of his backstory continue to unravel. He has thus far refused to step down 'My work in animal advocacy was the labor of love & hard work. Over the past 24hr I have received pictures of dogs I helped reduce throughout the years along with supportive messages,' he wrote. 'These distractions won't stop me!' Navy veteran Rich Osthoff, who was homeless at the time, told CNN he was connected to Santos as someone who had experience rescuing animals when his service dog, a pit bull named Sapphire, developed a tumor. Santos purportedly set up a GoFundMe for the dog. But after he raised $3,000 he reportedly became hard to reach and eventually disappeared with the funds. The dog died. And House Republican leaders guaranteed that Santos will have his own Congressional workload, despite mounting concern over his place on Capitol Hill. He'll be serving on two committees in the 118th Congress - the Small Business panel and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Meanwhile, Santos is under federal and state investigations as well as a Congressional ethics inquiry amid questions over how he came about his recent personal wealth, including the $700,000 he donated to his 2022 campaign. Claire Foy is afraid to leave her home and feels scared when the doorbell rings, a court heard yesterday, as a stalker she feared could kill her was spared jail. The Crown star, who played the Queen in the first two series of the Netflix show, said she remains terrified after Jason Penrose turned up at her home and spoke to her seven-year-old daughter through an intercom. I view the world in a much more fearful way as a direct result of his actions, she said. Penrose, 49, bombarded Ms Foy with thousands of emails, left eight switchboard messages and even sent a parcel and letter to her home after being banned from contacting her for five years. The American, who is in Britain illegally, was spared jail at the Old Bailey after a judge heard that he will be repatriated to his home country to live with his mother in Florida. He was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. Claire Foy suffers sleepless nights and has even begged her film industry colleagues not to tag her in pictures in case Penrose uses them to track her movements It is not known how Penrose, who was here illegally, came to the UK. A court previously heard that Penrose sent Ms Foy more than 1,000 emails explicit emails, including one referring to rape, within a month. He also turned up at her home on December 17 last year and repeatedly rang her doorbell. On Friday, Judge David Aaronberg KC said he remains 'troubled' that Penrose, a paranoid schizophrenic, 'may continue to be infatuated with Ms Foy', despite having been repeatedly told she wants no contact from him. The conditions of his suspended sentence include that he must remain under the care of a psychiatrist in the UK until his repatriation, and that he must co-operate fully with his return to the US. The court heard that he will return to Florida to live with his mother and receive further psychiatric care. If he returns to the UK during his suspended sentence, he must notify the Metropolitan Police of his arrival, telling them where he intends to stay and for how long. The court previously heard how The Crown actress was left suffering sleepless nights and even begged her film industry colleagues not to tag her in pictures in case Penrose used them to track her movements. Penrose pictured leaving the Old Bailey today after being handed a suspended sentence In November, Penrose admitted stalking and breaching a stalking ban. His sentencing hearing at Wood Green Crown was delayed from last month after the court was warned he would continue to contact Ms Foy. Penrose, who has been receiving psychiatric treatment at Whittington Hospital in north London, was also warned he faced deportation to the US as he came to the UK illegally. He has now spent almost 12 months detained in hospital at the expense of the British taxpayer. Speaking at the time, Judge Aaronberg adjourned his sentencing because he said he needed the Home Office to ensure that Penrose will be deported. He said: 'If decisions are made to get him deported, then I am likely to give him a suspended sentence with a restraining order. 'I want to make it part of any restraining order that he can't enter the country. If he stops taking his medication he is likely going to become a pest again, but he doesn't mean to be a pest. 'I can see that he has an unhealthy obsession with Ms Foy and he can't stop trying to contact her. 'Ms Foy wants to know what is going to happen to him. He wants to know what is going to happen to him. But I'm afraid I need something more either from the Home Office or the doctors.' The court heard how Ms Foy had been 'targeted by Mr Penrose in a sustained, unwanted, fixated and obsessive behaviour that was intrusive due to his delusional beliefs'. Varinder Hayre, prosecuting, said: 'Mr Penrose was claiming she was interested in him romantically and he did believe she would like to star in a movie he was planning to make.' Penrose pictured leaving the Old Bailey today after being handed a suspended sentence Penrose launched a 'campaign of consistent stalking' sending thousands of emails, eight switchboard messages and going to the star's home. Between August and September 2021 alone, Natalie Day, an employee at Ms Foy's talent agency, received 287 emails and eight switchboard messages from Penrose. On the night he went to Ms Foy's address, the door intercom was answered by her daughter, and Penrose said: 'It's Jason, I'm outside.' The stalking left the actress 'in genuine fear for her safety and terrified and helpless in her own home.' Penrose initially contacted Ms Foy through her agent and publicist claiming to be a movie producer. He said he was a scriptwriter with a $20m deal with Warner Brothers Studio and wanted Ms Foy to act in his sci-fi film. Penrose also tried to contact Ms Foy on LinkedIn and Instagram. Ms Hayre described some of the emails sent by Penrose as 'quite graphic.' She said: 'He talked about the victim Ms Foy being raped and wanted her to be his girlfriend. 'There were pictures of Mr Penrose himself in various hotels and locations in Camden.' Penrose also contacted Ms Foy's sister by email and ex-boyfriend by text. On 10 December 2021, Ms Foy was informed by a local cafe owner that Penrose had turned up asking where she was, knowing it was a place she would regularly visit. 'Ms Foy was terrified as she did not know what his intention was. She was in fear for her and her daughter's lives,' said Mr Hayre. 'She was frightened knowing he was somewhere.' Penrose initially contacted Ms Foy through her agent and publicist claiming to be a movie producer. Pictured, Ms Foy in The Crown The stalking had 'an extreme effect on her life and peace of mind.' 'She struggles to sleep and is terrified in her own home. She feels like the freedoms before Mr Penrose contacted her have now gone,' Mr Hayre added. Ms Foy even asked friends not to tag or picture her in photos at social events for fear of Mr Penrose being able to track where she is. In a letter written to court Ms Foy said: 'His relentless attempts to contact me are so traumatic. Every time I think this is sorted it is not. 'I feel like there is nothing that would stop him being able to contact me, he has affected every aspect of my life.' The actress played the Queen in the first two series of Netflix's hit show and has won a Golden Globe, two Emmy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. She was granted an interim stalking protection order earlier this year, but despite the order Penrose sent her another letter and a parcel from the hospital where he was being treated. Sentencing Penrose today, Judge David Aaronberg told Penrose: 'You are an American citizen with a history of mental health issues going back at least until 2015 and it appears were not taking any medication to assist with these issues since 2017 or 2018. 'In 2018 or 2019, you indicated to those treating you that you went to live in the Republic of Ireland. 'You have explained to those who have been treating you that you were writing screenplays and it was during that time that you first became aware of the actress, Claire Foy. 'You became infatuated with her, deluding yourself that she would be willing to act in a film and that you had some sort of romantic attachment to her... You began sending emails to her agents, both in the UK and the USA. 'I have seen the content of much of this material and it would have been apparent to anyone reading them that you were a man who had some sort of mental health problem. 'In particular you had, and to some extent still have, a persistent delusional disorder, leading you to believe that Ms Foy wished to communicate with you and engage in some sort of relationship with you, on both a professional and personal basis. 'The reality is that Ms Foy has never met you, never responded to the hundreds of requests which you have made to see her and wants nothing whatsoever to do with you.' Judge Aaronberg confirmed that Penrose had sought to enter the UK on 5 October 2021 but was refused entry and sent back to Lisbon where he had come from. 'There is no trace of you having been issued with entry clearance for lawful entry to the UK, but you somehow returned,' the judge said. Adjourning sentence until January 20 Judge Aaronberg said he needs the Home Office to ensure that Penrose will be deported. Pictured, Ms Foy in The Crown 'The fact that you are here did not come to the attention of the Home Office until you were arrested in relation to the present offending. You are here unlawfully and liable to deportation or administrative removal.' Whilst having been detained in hospital, a doctor noted on 23 November that Penrose still held 'persecutory delusion beliefs'. Judge Aaronberg told the court that this included: 'that an international gang was after you and you were markedly grandiose, for example believing that a film director was stealing your ideas. 'You were, when examined, not willing to accept that you previously held delusional beliefs about Ms Foy and still, in the doctor's opinion, did not appreciate that your behaviour towards her was inappropriate. 'He was also concerned that you might become fixated, if not on Ms Foy, then on another woman and behave inappropriately again.' A pre-sentence report concluded that Penrose continued to present a high risk with enduring delusional beliefs linked to his delusional disorder diagnosis. Speaking of the pain Ms Foy went through, Judge Aaronberg said: 'Ms Foy suffered great emotional anxiety and difficulty sleeping as a result of your behaviour. 'She has felt very vulnerable and has had to make significant lifestyle changes, especially since you turned up at her home in December 2021. 'She had to spend substantial amounts of money on security in order to feel more secure. 'She has become scared and suspicious of post which she does not recognise and of her front doorbell ringing. She told the police that she was frightened to leave her property in case you might follow her. She has expressed the view that she does not know what you might be capable of.' Ms Foy wrote to the court: 'I have felt terrified and helpless in my own home. I have had to have numerous meetings with my daughters' school, neighbours, family members and work colleagues who had all been affected by Mr Penrose's stalking and harassment and all have legitimate fears and concerns regarding his behaviours. 'I will again be scared to leave my front door, pick my daughter up from school and return home at night. I will have to follow police guidelines of having my phone on at all times, remaining alert and fearful.... I feel like the freedoms I enjoyed before Mr Penrose contacted me have now gone and I view the world in a much more fearful way as a direct result of his actions...' Penrose earlier admitted stalking involving serious alarm or distress - which carries the maximum sentence of 10 years jail - under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. He also admitted two breaches of a stalking protection order. Judge Aaronberg previously said the court has received a handwritten letter, apparently written by Penrose. 'This is somebody who is demonstrating in the letter that they have some kind of obsession with Ms Foy and that they are likely to write again on occasion, but promise they will not persist in ringing her doorbell. 'It is not a threatening document in any way at all. It's various jottings and ramblings on a torn piece of paper.' Penrose denied he wrote the letter and said from the dock: 'It spelt my name wrong'. But the judge said: 'I can't think of anyone else in the world who would have had any motive to send a letter to the court.' 'I can see that he has an unhealthy obsession with Ms Foy and he can't stop trying to contact her.' Penrose, from Florida, was sentenced to one year and 10 months imprisonment, suspended for two years under the condition that he remains under the care of a consultant psychiatrist until his repatriation to the US. Judge Aaronberg said: 'I understand that you are willing to be repatriated to the United States voluntarily, rather than waiting to be deported by the Home Office. 'You will be repatriated to the United States by two members of the staff chosen by the hospital discharge facilitation team. The funding is in place for your transfer. 'You will be taken to your mother's home, in Florida. She has kindly agreed to provide you with accommodation.' He must cooperate fully with his repatriation and coordinate with a member of staff to pick up the passport from Islington police station. Although a flight had not yet been booked, it was Penrose would return to the US sometime next week. If he returns to the UK, Penrose must notify police and provide his address in the UK, contact details and the duration of his stay. An indefinite restraining order was also granted, banning Penrose from; contacting or attempting to contact Ms Foy by any means, sending letters, gifts or parcels to her, entering the London Boroughs of Camden or Islington or going within 100 meters of any premises which he knew or ought to know Ms Foy might be present. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met with Microsoft founder Bill Gates at Kirribilli House to discuss climate change, energy and health issues. Mr Albanese - and his dog Toto - greeted the billionaire at the prime minister's official residence in Sydney on Sunday. It marked the first time the pair have ever met with the two discussing pressing issues including climate change, renewable energy and vaccines overseas. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met with Microsoft founder Bill Gates at Kirribilli House to discuss climate change, energy and health issues Mr Gates said he loved visiting Australia while Mr Albanese said he 'admired' the philanthropy being done by the tech billionaire. 'Can I welcome you here very much - we haven't met before, but I've admired your work and your contribution not just financially but in raising debates, including the need to deal with health issues,' the prime minister said. 'We have just been through the pandemic, but we need to prepare for future health challenges - and the work that's being done on eradicating malaria and other diseases in our region is very important.' Mr Gates is visiting Australia with the Gates Foundation and representatives from his Breakthrough Energy company, which drives innovation in sustainable energy and in technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 'My government was elected on a platform of taking climate change seriously - we introduced the first legislative caps of 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050,' the prime minister said. 'We are engaged in setting a whole range of mechanisms that will drive private sector investment through. It marked the first time the pair have ever met with the two discussing pressing issues including climate change, renewable energy and vaccines overseas 'Here in Australia the business community was well ahead of the government in action and now we are working with all the state and territory governments as well as the private sector in driving that change through.' Mr Gates thanked the prime minister for his 'great partnership' on international health issues, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. 'A lot to do there as you say, the preparedness for the next pandemic is still a discussion that hasn't been figured out,' he said. 'Malaria in the long run we want to do the same thing we have done with polio which is eradicate it regionally then eradicate it all over the world. 'Both the foundation and Breakthrough Energy are excited about the things we can do together.' A popular tourist park has been shut after an overnight incident turned into tragedy. SA Police confirmed an incident was being investigated on Saturday at Morialta Conservation Park, north-east of Adelaide. In a post shared to Facebook at about 7am, police advised the park had been closed and asked people to 'avoid the area until further notice.' Residents in the area commented they had heard the police helicopter flying over the park from around 1am. 'We had helicopters flying around from 1:30am for hours,' one woman shared. SA Police confirmed an incident was being investigated on Saturday at Morialta Conservation Park (pictured), north-east of Adelaide Residents in the area commented they had heard the police helicopter flying over the park from around 1am Just before 11am, police confirmed the situation had been resolved, disclosing there had been a fatality. SAPOL told NCA NewsWire there were no suspicious circumstances. The park is expected to re-open shortly. Prince William has urged Australians to 'look after themselves and others' as he heard the stories of four flood victims during a 'heart-breaking' video call. Kensington Palace released footage of the Prince of Wales speaking with Australians from across the country who had been devastated by floods on Friday. On the call was Daniel Cleave and Curtis Arthur, business owners from Shepparton in Victoria, NSW Emergency Service member Grace Langlands, publican Brad Flowers from South Australia, and Maureen Carter, the chief executive of the Nindilingarri Cultural Health Service in the Kimberly in Western Australia. The Royal listened thoughtfully and nodded as each participant described the impacts of the floods before ending on a note about mental health. 'You've got people like you guys looking out for each other and supporting each other,' he tells the starstruck Aussies. 'Please make sure you're looking after yourselves and those in your communities that need it, because some people will be suffering in silence. 'I just want to make sure your looking after yourselves as well as each other, that's very important.' William listened thoughtfully and nodded as each participant described the effects of the floods in their region before ending on a note about mental health Ms Langlands said the flood-affected areas in NSW had resembled a war-zone. 'Just the force, cars on top of cars, and never actually realising the power behind water and the damage it can create,' she said. Mr Flowers, the owner of the Overland Corner Hotel in the Upper Murray, said he was still delivering supplies to people in his community. 'Everyone's helping out, dropping off food and drinks,' he told the Prince. 'We're a pretty rough bunch, the old Australians.' The publican took to Facebook to share his chat with the Prince of Wales and joked that news of his local watering hole closing had reached Kensington Palace. 'We were lucky enough to receive a video call and lengthy chat with our good mate HRH The Prince of Wales William,' he wrote. 'He wanted to chat about our closure and the Riverland Floods. He asked us to pass on his thoughts and best wishes to all of our wonderful Community that are struggling at the moment.' Kensington Palace released footage of the Prince of Wales speaking with Australians from different flood-affected regions on Friday Brad Flowers, the owner of the Overland Corner Hotel in the Upper Murray, told the Prince he was still delivering supplies to people in his community Ms Carter told the Prince that while times were tough, they would push through. 'We're a resilient lot, I think we'll get through,' she said. Mr Cleave, who owns a business in flood-devastated Shepparton in Victoria, posted a photo from the Zoom call on Facebook. 'It's not every Friday you get to have a video call with Prince William,' he said. The Royal also tweeted about the conference, writing: 'Heartening but heartbreaking to speak with some of those affected by the serious flooding in Australia.' Kensington Palace said William had made an undisclosed donation to the Australian Red Cross to help with clean-up efforts in flood-affected areas. Flood damage at a town's heated pool building in Forbes in NSW's central-west on Thursday Kensington Palace said William (pictured on the video call) had made an undisclosed donation to the Australian Red Cross to help with clean-up efforts in flood-affected areas Australia has been plagued with floods for the last 12 months, with parts of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia especially slammed in the last month. It was recently announced that 2022 was the ninth-wettest year on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The Prince, who is next in line to the throne, has been keeping a low profile since his younger brother Harry, the Duke of Sussex, released his memoir, Spare. He and his wife Catherine Middleton, are at the centre of several of the Duke's bombshell claims, with the book quickly smashing sales records around the world. A mother who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer after giving birth to her child has resorted to costly alternative therapies to try and beat it. Melbourne mum Rachel Dur has just months left to live after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. Ms Dur has exhausted conventional treatment and resorted to spending $500,000 on alternative treatments like high-dose vitamin and turmeric infusions. Hyperbaric chambers, hyperthermia treatment and immunotherapy are among the treatments she has trialled with signs the growth of her cancer is slowing. The desperate act comes after Ms Dur was initially misdiagnosed by doctors at a US hospital. Ms Dur had moved to Silicon Valley in California, in the US, to work as an investment director in 2019, Herald Sun reported. Melbourne mum Rachel Dur has just months left to live after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 She had fallen pregnant with her partner Onur Dur and noticed a lump in her breast in the early stages of pregnancy. Ms Dur visited a doctor at the medical centre who told her the lump was a symptom of pregnancy hormones. She then gave birth to her son Ashton on January 9, 2021 when a lactation consultant discovered the lump and advised her to see another doctor. Ms Dur was given a breast cancer diagnosis 13 days later with the doctor revealing it had spread to her lungs and liver. Doctors started her on chemotherapy and radiation and surgeons performed a lumpectomy to remove the tumour. Ms Dur was then given the terrifying prognosis that she had 12 months left to live from August 2022. She returned to Melbourne in December and is receiving palliative care through Cabrini hospital. Her twin sister Samantha Gomizel said Ms Dur was resilient and fighting the cancer to her very last breath. Melbourne mum Rachel Dur has just months left to live after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 'She's like the Sherlock Holmes of her own cancer, trying to solve the puzzle,' she said. 'Rach just says 'I'm not dying, this can be cured' and I won't let her die.' Ms Gomizel said cancer had become a 'teacher' to her sister as she continued to search for alternative forms of treatment. Ms Dur has already started to come to terms with her terrible diagnosis and has started writing emails to her son so he can read them when he is older. Ms Gomizel has kickstarted a GoFundMe campaign to raise the money necessary for her sister to continue her course of alternative treatment. She has already raised more than $213,000 with her target set at $250,000. A New York rabbi shocked his congregation by delivering a sermon, and then informing them that the entire text was written by Artificial Intelligence. Rabbi Josh Franklin, who leads the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, in East Hampton, uploaded the sermon onto the website on January 1. He can be seen addressing the congregation, and telling them that he is actually plagiarizing, and using a sermon written not by him. Franklin speaks for five minutes, quoting the Torah and discussing Joseph's forgiveness, and the eventual saving of the Israelites. Rabbi Josh Franklin is seen delivering a sermon to his congregation in East Hampton, New York He warned them that the text was not his own, saying it was 'plagiarized' - and then asked the congregation to guess who wrote it Franklin goes on to discuss the power of opening ourselves up and being vulnerable, and references author Brene Brown - a professor known for her work on shame, vulnerability and leadership. He concludes with a prayer. At the end of his sermon, Franklin asks if anyone can guess who wrote it. Some guess his father, who was a rabbi at Riverdale Temple in the Bronx. Others suggested Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the United Kingdom. Franklin then revealed, to gasps from the congregation, that the sermon had been written by A.I. program ChatGPT. He said his prompt was to write a sermon of around 1,000 words, with the idea of intimacy and vulnerability, and quote Brene Brown. Franklin said that the power of the technology left him concerned for jobs - but noted it could not be empathetic 'You're clapping - but I'm definitely afraid,' he said, to laughter. 'I thought truck drivers were going to go long before the rabbi, in terms of losing our positions to artificial intelligence.' He said he warned it would wipe out 375 million jobs in a decade. Franklin said that the text was not in his voice, and contained rhetorical flourishes he did not like - but it was impressive. He noted, however, that it could not be empathetic, and respond to the crowd. 'It can't love it, can't show compassion, it can't connect with the community,' he said. 'What we're really doing is we're forming relationships. I don't think ChatGPT or any kind of artificial intelligence will replace us, but it will push us. 'It'll force us to evolve in what we do and what we do best.' ChatGPT is based on what's known as a large language model, trained with text data so it can answer prompts like a human. It has been developed by OpenAI, a research organization, co-founded by Elon Musk and investor Sam Altman and backed by $1 billion in funding from Microsoft Corp Similarly powerful technology that Google built and is narrowly testing with users led one of its engineers this year to say the software was sentient. Reality is far from that, many scientists say. ChatGPT's responses at times can be inaccurate or inappropriate, though it's built to decline hateful prompts and improve with feedback. OpenAI warns users, ChatGPT 'may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.' The potential to generate flawed answers is one reason why a big player like Google has guarded public access closely, concerned that chatbots could harm users and damage its reputation. This level of sophistication both fascinates and worries some observers, who voice concern these technologies could be misused to trick people, by spreading false information or by creating increasingly credible scams. Some businesses are putting safeguards in place to avoid abuse of their technologies. On its welcome page, OpenAI lays out disclaimers, saying the chatbot 'may occasionally generate incorrect information' or 'produce harmful instructions or biased content.' OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman has mused about the debates surrounding AI. 'Interesting watching people start to debate whether powerful AI systems should behave in the way users want or their creators intend,' he wrote on Twitter. 'The question of whose values we align these systems to will be one of the most important debates society ever has.' Former staffers who worked for the conman behind the disastrous Fyre Festival, Billy McFarland, are warning people who might be taken in by the convicted fraudster's new venture, to steer well clear. McFarland, 31, announced his new venture, PYRT in a recent TikTok towards the end of last year describing it as a 'virtual immersive decentralized reality'. Yet despite technical language there appears to be striking similarities between this and his failed festival which saw around 5,000 victims defrauded out of $26 million. Although still in the planning stages, in a new virtual event, McFarland appears to have not learned his lesson as he claims it will feature a livestream of 'artists and creators' having fun in the Bahamas. It has led to former loyal staffers to speak out before McFarland gets too far ahead of himself, likely ending in disaster. Billy McFarland, a convicted fraudster, has announced PYRT as a 'virtual immersive decentralized reality' on TikTok with several striking similarities between PYRT and Fyre 'Billy's still Billy. He's using different words, but he's selling the same thing,' said Shiyuan Deng, a former product designer at Fyre Media 'Billy's still Billy. He's using different words, but he's selling the same thing,' Shiyuan Deng, a former product designer at Fyre Media said to NBC News. 'He was really good at pitching but had no technical skills,' Deng explained. Another former Fyre Media employee was also struck by the parallels between the two ventures. 'The similarities are there around the vague mysterious promotion,' said another former employee who wished to remain anonymous. 'PYRT appears to be an exercise in smoke and mirrors, buzzwords and empty promises of lavish trips to the Bahamas. 'As a previous employee who trusted Billy's leadership in the past, new customers, investors and employees should all proceed with caution,' they warned. But McFarland appears resolute into getting back into business as soon as he can. 'I was talking to somebody yesterday and they're like, 'You can crawl in a hole and die, or you can go and try to do something and just like not promise any results,''he told NBC. 'This time, it's a little crazier but a whole lot bigger than anything I've tried before,' McFarland said in an October TikTok video. Using a whiteboard and poster in a clip filmed at his rented apartment, McFarland explained: 'PYRT is not a festival. It is not an event. And it's definitely not the metaverse,' the convicted fraudster said in the video before going on to describe PYRT as a festival in the Bahamas combined with a virtual festival online. 'He was really good at pitching but had no technical skills,' said former staffer Shiyuan Deng of McFarland In his vision, the project will partner with a 'small, remote destination' to host a 'handful of artists, content creators, entrepreneurs and any of you guys who end up joining the PYRT crew. 'At the same time, others across the world can join a virtual recreation of the island to not only watch what's happening live, but they can actually come together with their friends to effect and even own their real world adventures.' McFarland suggested his latest venture is only open to the public who wish to visit virtually. He claimed it'll take place in an island in Exuma - the exact same island location for the doomed Fyre festival - but he didn't clearly identify it. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism said in a statement that no application has been filed by McFarland for an event in the Bahamas and the country regards him as a fugitive. 'The Government of The Bahamas will not endorse or approve any event in The Bahamas associated with him,' a statement explained. The convicted fraudster had been teasing the announcement for weeks, first posting a cryptic video to his TikTok page teasing an event to which 'everybody's invited Last year McFarland sent a letter to the government saying he was writing to 'profusely apologize' for his actions. 'My main focus is how I can right the wrongs and how I can make the Bahamas and Family Islands, a region I care so deeply about, whole again,' he wrote. When questioned about the involvement of the island nation in his latest project, McFarland quickly played it down. 'I think that once everybody is paid back, I'd love to have a conversation to see if that relationship can get repaired,' he said. 'It's still a journey for me and I'm not perfect in terms of marketing. The fraudster characterized the event at the time as a way for him to make amends for his previous misdeeds, prefacing the video with the admission that he 'f***ed around' 'My answer is there's no rush and I've had four years or five years to really understand what I suck at and try to get help there,' he said. 'Really kind of getting back to tech, which I think is where my unique skillset lies,' McFarland added. But McFarland will face hurdles no matter what he tries next. He is banned from serving as the director of a public company ever again. His latest project comes only months after he was released from prison four years into his six-year sentence for wire fraud. In another recent interview he admitted the 'most f***ed up part' of his scheme was lying to the investors who spent $26million on the hyper-exclusive event. This new venture also appears to be partly a scheme to make up the debts he still owes to both the Government of the Bahamas and to wealthy investors, as $50 from every $250 PYRT jacket sold will go towards the reparations. The Fyre Festival in Greater Exuma was a disaster, with guests paying more than $1,000 only to find that there were no accommodations and the scheduled performances were canceled McFarland characterized his venture as a way for him to make amends for his previous misdeeds, prefacing the video with the admission that he 'f***ed around.' 'As you might know, I f***ed around,' he said. 'And because of that, I definitely found out.' 'You might have guessed, but I'm working on something new. This time it's a little crazier, but a whole lot bigger than anything I've ever tried before,' he continued. His FYRE Festival drew masses of attention in 2017 as wealthy investors lured by the promise of celebrities flocked to the island of Greater Exuma only to find there was no food, toilet, music or even basic accommodations. Those who paid upwards of $1,000 were then left scrambling to get off the island with many forced to sleep in tents usually reserved for those left homeless by hurricanes or other natural disasters. McFarland pleaded guilty in 2018 to two counts of wire fraud, and was sentenced to six years in prison. He also faced a $26million forfeiture order. The site was unfinished by the time wealthy partygoers flocked to the Bahamas in 2017, and were forced to sleep in tents that were disaster tents left over from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 He has spoken out about his failures in other recent interviews, acknowledging to Full Send Podcast that investors had told him the Fyre Festival was doomed for failure even before people started arriving to the island. 'I was kind of caught up in this mindset that like, we have to go really fast. And the downside is there's great artists in a beautiful location, but it's not perfect,' he said of his decision to not cancel the event. 'And I didn't comprehend the downside is that people can't stay there. It's just like not ready. I just like didn't understand the downside,' he explained, noting that he was still early in his career in website design. 'I don't know what I was thinking,' he admitted. 'We launched like a trailer to see if anyone would care and it kinda worked. And then we were like "alright, four months, we're doing this."' A photo of a sad looking cheese sandwich that was handed to guests in a Styrofoam container In a separate grilling on Good Morning America last year he was asked why he didn't simply cancel the event when he realized it was going to flop. He said he was so desperate to 'prove himself' to his employees and investors and that he refused to listen. 'I was wrong. I messed up. I was so driven by this desperate desire to prove people right,' he said. 'I had these early investors, backers, employees, and I think I was so insecure that I thought the only way to prove myself to them was to succeed and that led me down this terrible path of bad decisions.' 'I need to apologize and that is the first and last thing that needs to be done. I let people down,' he elaborated. 'What I told investors was wrong and I think the hardest thing for me is the trust that I violated... whether it was friends, investors, or employees, people gave up a lot to try and make this happen. 'How do I call them now and look them in the eye when I let them down? I just really should have canceled everything and stopped lying. 'I should have listened [to my employees]. There is no excuse.' The scammer then asks for money or payments A Melbourne man has been charged after allegedly conning his victims through the emerging scam nicknamed 'Hi Mum'. Victorian police arrested the 21-year-old from Templestowe for allegedly scamming people online for electronic goods. Police allege he used the 'Hi Mum' SMS scam to take 'a substantial amount of money' from victims. This type of scam, which has been used in many recent attacks, gets its name from a text message from an unknown mobile phone claiming to be the recipient's child. A 21-year-old man has been charged after allegedly scamming customers online through an emerging scam nicknamed, 'Hi Mum' The scam, which has been growing in popularity recently, involves sending a text message from an unknown mobile phone number claiming to be the recipient's child The scammer then attempts to build a relationship based on lies before asking to borrow money or have a payment made on their behalf. The charged man is accused of making five fraudulent transactions in Ringwood, Mitcham, Doncaster East, Mill Park and Narre Warren. Police say the products were obtained as a result of the person using false documents. According to the Federal Government multiple variations of the 'Hi Mum' scam are circulating. These messages claim things such as losing their card and asking for money to be transferred The 21-year-old man was charged with five counts of obtaining property by deception. He was granted bail and will next appear at Ringwood Magistrates' Court on July 18 The 21-year-old man was subsequently charged with five counts of obtaining property by deception. He was granted bail and will next appear at Ringwood Magistrates' Court on July 18. According to the Federal Government multiple variations of the 'Hi Mum' scam are circulating. These messages claim things such as losing their card and asking for money to be transferred. Elon Musk's father has revealed that his son has installed new high-tech security measures at his South African home, amid the ever-present fear of kidnapping. Errol Musk, a 76-year-old retired engineer, said that contractors arrived at his home in Langebaan, 90 miles north of Cape Town, in December. He said the new security measures were 'first class' - adding that he did not like living in a fortress, but, having lived in crime-ridden Johannesburg and Pretoria, he was used to being barricaded in. Musk in 1998 killed three armed intruders at his home, while his then six-year-old daughter Ali clung to his leg. He told The Sun that, in the last year alone, his home had been broken into four times, and televisions stolen. 'Frankly, the risk of something bad happening or literally even being shot is quite significant,' he said. 'I'm definitely not going to be doing any open-air car parades, let me put it that way. 'It's not that hard to kill me if somebody wanted to, so hopefully they don't.' Errol Musk (right) said his billionaire son Elon (left) has spent thousands of dollars to upgrade the security at his home Errol Musk, a father of seven, lives north of Cape Town, in Langebaan Errol Musk is pictured at his home in May 2022. He was born in Pretoria, and worked as an engineer Errol, who has fathered at least seven children to three different women - including having had two children with his 34-year-old stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhuit - said he believed his son's concern was sparked by his new ownership of Twitter. Errol Musk has two children with his 34-year-old stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout Elon Musk said last month that he believes his efforts to make the platform more transparent puts him at risk, because he is exposing what he believes to be U.S. government collusion with the tech firm to censor content. He suspended an account that tracked his private jet, and froze the accounts of journalists who retweeted its posts. The 51-year-old claimed that the tracking of the jet led to a 'crazy stalker' following a car carrying his young son, X A-12, in Los Angeles, and described the account as posting 'basically assassination coordinates.' On May 8, while the deal to purchase Twitter was still being agreed, he tweeted: 'If I die under mysterious circumstances, it's been nice knowin ya.' Errol said his son saw him as vulnerable, and feared that kidnappers could make the 'quickest $20million dollars ever' by targeting his family. Errol Musk's children Elon, Kimbal and Tosca (on lap) with his first wife and Elon's mother, Maye Errol is pictured holding his son Elon as a baby. The pair have at times had a strained relationship, with Elon's mother Maye divorcing Errol in 1979. Elon left South Africa when was 17 and moved to Canada to begin college in North America 'He decided, after the recent threats against him, that I need protection as well,' Errol told The Sun. 'If they kidnap one of us, it will be the quickest $20million anybody's ever made in their life. 'I think Elon's a bit naive about the enemies he's making, especially with the Twitter Files. 'I'm not scared but I'm really afraid that something might happen to Elon, even though he has about 100 security guards around him.' Errol said his own home in the Western Cape now has a high-tech camera system, electrified fencing, and around-the-clock monitoring by guards who are 'armed to the teeth.' He told the paper: 'Elon's people contacted me to say they wanted to completely secure my house. 'I got a notice in December from this security company saying that they have instructions to secure the house. 'So I now have nine cameras around the house that are monitored 24/7 and that I can monitor on my phone and TV. 'They've also installed an electric fence around my house. 'I have first-class security now. It's unbelievable.' Errol Musk is pictured in March 2014, visiting his son in Boulder, Colorado Elon Musk is seen with his mother Maye at the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party He said it was backed up by a generator, so would still work even when South Africa experienced one of its regular blackouts. Errol said the system cost almost $15,000, and his security agents were 'armed to the teeth.' He added: 'They check on me all the time. If they see a strange car in my driveway, they come in and ask me if I'm alright. 'I hate living like this, but I've lived like this in Johannesburg and Pretoria, and I understand where it's coming from.' Elon's relationship with his father is decidedly more distant than with his mother Maye, with whom Elon is frequently spotted. Maye Musk divorced Errol in 1979, when Elon was eight. Elon lived with his mother, and aged 17 left South Africa to study in Canada. Maye, now 70, lives in New York City - her ninth city, in three countries. The second man on the moon has married for a fourth time, with astronaut legend Buzz Aldrin announcing he'd wed his longtime girlfriend on his birthday. Mr Aldrin, who turned 93 on Friday and was part of the historic first-ever moon landing mission, made the sweet announcement to his new bride, who is 30 years his junior, on his Twitter account. 'On my 93rd birthday & the day I will also be honored by Living Legends of Aviation I am pleased to announce that my longtime love Dr. Anca Faur & I have tied the knot. We were joined in holy matrimony in a small private ceremony in Los Angeles & are as excited as eloping teenagers.' Dr Faur, 63, currently works as the Executive Vice President of Buzz Aldrin Ventures LLC, with her LinkedIn page listing her as having worked for the company since 2019. The second man on the moon is getting married for a fourth time, as astronaut legend Buzz Aldrin announced he'd wed his longtime girlfriend Dr. Anca Faur on his birthday in Los Angeles Buzz Aldrin takes the first ever selfie in space in 1966 during the Gemini XII mission, showing the sun reflecting off his visor She has a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and at one point was the treasurer for the California Hydrogen Business Council. Mr Aldrin has been married and divorced three times prior, to Joan Ann Archer from 1954 to 1974, Beverly Van Zile from 1975 to 1978 and Lois Driggs Cannon from 1988 to 2012. The second man to touch the surface of the moon has three children - James, Janice and Andrew - with first wife, Ms Archer. He has one grandson, Jeffrey Schuss, from daughter Janice, three great-grandsons and one great-granddaughter. On July 16 1969, Mr Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins were blasted off from Earth and into space on a mission like no other - aiming to put mankind on the moon for the first time. Mr Aldrin is best known for saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission. He retired from NASA in 1971 and in 1998 founded the ShareSpace Foundation, a non-profit organisation to promote the expansion of crewed space exploration. After entering the history books, Mr Aldrin said he struggled through a dark time during which he did not know what he should be doing with his life. He battled depression and alcoholism, but has now been sober for more than 40 years. Aldrin, who turned 93 on Friday and was part of the historic first-ever moon landing mission, made the sweet announcement on his Twitter account Quite the character: Buzz Aldrin also earned the nickname Dr. Rendezvous Goal: Aldrin has written a number of books but in recent years has called for the colonisation of Mars Where are the Apollo astronauts now?: Click here to read more The spacemen of Apollo: Who is left of the 32 astronauts who flew on the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s? After Walter Cunningham's death, MailOnline takes a look at what happened to them all Advertisement In 2002, Mr Aldrin escaped assault charges after punching a man who demanded he swear on a Bible that the moon landing was not staged. Five years ago he also sued two of his children - Andrew and Janice - and his former business manager Christina Korp, alleging that they had stolen money from him and slandered his legacy by suggesting he had dementia and Alzheimer's disease. He dropped the lawsuit in 2019 after his two children withdrew their petition seeking guardianship of his affairs. In 2007, Mr Aldrin said he had recently had a face-lift, joking that the g-forces he was exposed to in space 'caused a sagging jowl that needed some attention', while in 2016 he had to be evacuated from the South Pole after falling ill. The retired astronaut has also stayed in the public eye by making cameo appearances in hit American television shows such as the Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons and 30 Rock. Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear was even named in honour of Mr Aldrin. He has written a number of books but in recent years has called for the colonisation of Mars. The 92-year-old said a 'great migration' is necessary not only for the sake of exploration but for the ongoing survival of the human race. Faur, 63, currently works as the Executive Vice President of Buzz Aldrin Ventures LLC, with her LinkedIn page listing her as having worked for the company since 2019. Here she is with Aldrin on Veterans Day in 2019 Faur has a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and at one point was the treasurer for the California Hydrogen Business Council Faur is Buzz's fourth wife, as Aldrin has been married and divorced three times prior, to Joan Ann Archer from 1954 to 1974, Beverly Van Zile from 1975 to 1978 and Lois Driggs Cannon from 1988 to 2012 From left to right, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin, Jr. pose for a portrait in their space suits in front of a backdrop showing the Moon Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins pose in front of a full scale model of the lunar module which will be carried by their spacecraft Mr Aldrin made headlines last year after the jacket he wore on his historic first mission to the moon's surface in 1969 was auctioned off to a bidder for nearly $2.8million (approximately 2.26million). The jacket was worn to and from the moon. It is the only piece of clothing from the space flight that has ever been available for private ownership. It displays Mr Aldrin's name tag on the left breast above the Apollo 11 mission emblem, and the American flag on the left shoulder. The jacket is made of a fire-resistant material known as Beta cloth that was incorporated in spacesuits in response to the fire that killed three astronauts aboard Apollo 1 in 1967, according to Sotheby's. The amount paid for the Apollo 11 Inflight Coverall Jacket is the highest for any American space-flown artifact sold at auction, according to Sotheby's, which handled the sale. It smashed pre-auction expectations by almost a third as bidders went crazy over the legendary jacket. The unidentified winner, who participated by phone, outlasted several others in a bidding that spanned almost 10 minutes. Astronaut 'Buzz' Aldrin auctioned off the NASA jacket he wore to the moon, along with other artifacts from the historic Apollo 11 mission The Inflight Coverall jacket, with the serial number 1039, was worn to and from the moon. It is the only piece of clothing from the space flight that has ever been available for private ownership Pictured: Buzz Aldrin is seen on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969, photo taken by Neil Armstrong Apollo 11 astronauts Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, left, lunar module pilot, Neil Armstrong, centre, flight commander, and Lt. Michael Collins, right, command module pilot, stand next to their spacecraft in 1969 Buzz Aldrin pictured waving to the crowd during the Veterans Day Parade on November 11, 2019 in New York City The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has explored the moon since 2009. This still image from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter video shows the astronauts' landing area and tracks, still there after all this time Pictured above is a zoomed in image from the NASA video shared last July Mr Aldrin was an astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission, which is what brought humans to the moon for the first time. The goal of Apollo 11 was set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961. He said: We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, carrying Commander Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Aldrin into an initial Earth-orbit of 114 by 116 miles. Mr Armstrong and Mr Aldrin spent 21 hours, 36 minutes on the moon's surface. Re-entry procedures were initiated July 24, 44 hours after leaving lunar orbit. Apollo 11 landed 13 degrees, 19 minutes north latitude and 169 degrees, nine minutes west longitude July 24, 1969. NASA last summer shared an incredible video of the moon that zooms in on Mr Armstrong and Mr Aldrin's landing and their tracks on the lunar surface. 'Today marks the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing - the first time that humans stepped on the surface of another world,' the space agency tweeted last July - in commemoration of International Moon Day. 'This video from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the astronauts' tracks, still there after all this time.' The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has explored the moon since 2009 and it's already returned more data to Earth than any of the agency's other planetary missions: an eye-popping 1.4 petabytes. This is the terrifying moment a group of yobs had a fight inside a McDonald's before one pulled out a huge knife. The brawl broke out at a McDonald's in Hackney, London, yesterday in front of several shocked customers. It comes after a violent 36 hours in London as six people were stabbed and a woman was found dead near a railway line. In December it was reported that Met Police responded to 13,405 incidents involving knives in just twelve months, with 106 people murdered last year. Footage shows the gang - who all appear to be young men - wrestling with each other before one pulls out a crutch and uses it as a weapon. Members of staff are forced to intervene when the fight escalates into an all-in row in the middle of the restaurant floor - with one male worker being pushed backwards by the men. The brawl broke out at a McDonald's in Hackney, London, yesterday in front of several horrified customers Members of staff are forced to intervene when the fight escalates into an all-in row in the middle of the restaurant floor Punches are thrown and shouts can be heard - as one involved in the incident shouts 'What are you doing bro? Leave bro.' Meanwhile, one of the yobs involved in the fight pulls out a massive knife, according to The Sun. The row then spills out to the ordering counter area and eventually the group of thugs leave the premises. In the video, which was shared on Instagram, one social media user commented: 'Absolute cowards. I'd bet each one of them would run a mile if confronted one on on. Hyenas hunting in packs.' On Thursday afternoon an 18-year-old was slashed in Romford. That evening two men were stabbed in a knife fight in North London while yesterday morning a 13-year-old boy was stabbed outside a tube station in West London. Separately, a 46-year-old woman was found 'unresponsive' on a South London street near a train line. Metropolitan Police said officers rushed to South Street, near Romford Station, at around 4pm on Thursday where they found an 18-year-old man with a slash wound to his back. On Thursday afternoon an 18-year-old was slashed in on South street (pictured) in Romford Havering MPS tweeted: 'Thankfully his injuries weren't life-threatening. Any witnesses please call 101 quoting CAD 4523/18Jan.' In another incident, officers responded to reports of a stabbing at the junction of Parkhurst Road and Friern Barnet Road, in Barnet, North London at 9pm on Thursday. It said: 'An 18-year-old man [A] was taken to hospital with a stab wound to his stomach. His condition was not life threatening. 'A short time later, a second 18-year-old man [B] attended a north London hospital with a stab wound which his is thought to have sustained in the same incident. His condition was assessed as not life-threatening.' officers responded to reports of a stabbing at the junction of Parkhurst Road and Friern Barnet Road, in Barnet, North London (pictured) at 9pm on Thursday Both men were later arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and remain in custody. Detectives are appealing to witnesses to come forward and call 101 quoting CAD 6805/19Jan. On Friday police and paramedics were called at 9am to reports of a group of youths in possession of a knife on Bramley Road in Notting Hill, a short distance from Latimer Road station. A 13-year-old boy had been stabbed at the scene and was taken to hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening. On Friday police and paramedics were called at 9am to reports of a group of youths in possession of a knife near Notting Hill Police attended the scene on Bramley Road in Notting Hill, a short distance from Latimer Road station, and found a 13-year-old boy who had been stabbed Met Police said: 'Police were called at 09:15hrs on Friday, 20 January to reports of a number of youths in possession of a knife. 'Officers, including firearms officers, attended. A 13-year-old boy was found with stab injuries. He was taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service; his injuries were not life-threatening. 'Officers remain in the area and a crime scene is in place. At this early stage, there have been no arrests. 'Anyone with information is asked to call police via 101 quoting reference CAD 1645/20Jan.' Yesterday a 46-year-old woman's body was discovered at around 8am on Yester Road in Chislehurst, in Bromley, a short distance from Elmstead Woods train station. Met Police attended the scene with the London Ambulance Service who declared the woman dead. Investigations are ongoing with local residents reporting seeing a white forensics tent within the cordon. A woman's body was discovered yesterday at around 8am on Yester Road in Chislehurst, in Bromely, a short distance from Elmstead Woods train station Met Police said: 'Her next of kin have been informed. The death is being treated as unexpected and further enquiries are taking place to establish the circumstances. 'Enquiries are ongoing and anyone with information that could assist the investigation is asked to call 101 quoting CAD 1373/20Jan. To remain anonymous contact the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.' Also on Friday a man was found with knife wounds and 0.3 miles away another was attacked with broken glass. One man in his 30s was found on Oban Street in Poplar in East London with an injury to his hand, believed to have been caused by broken glass, and was arrested by police. A second man in his 30s was found on Abbott Road in the same area with stab injuries. One man in his 30s was found on Oban Street in Poplar in East London (pictured) with an injury to his hand A second man in his 30s was found in Abbott Road in the same area (pictured) with stab injuries In a statement, the Met Police said: 'Police were called at 10.43pm on January 20 to Oban Street E14 to reports of a stabbing. A man in his 30s was found with an injury to his hand, believed caused by broken glass. He was arrested. 'A second man in his 30s was found in Abbott Road with stab injuries. Neither man's condition is life-threatening. Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing.' Also on Friday a man was found with knife wounds and 0.3 miles away another was attacked with broken glass. One man in his 30s was found on Oban Street in Poplar in East London with an injury to his hand, believed to have been caused by broken glass, and was arrested by police. A second man in his 30s was found on Abbott Road in the same area with stab injuries. In a statement, the Met Police said: 'Police were called at 10.43pm on January 20 to Oban Street E14 to reports of a stabbing. A man in his 30s was found with an injury to his hand, believed caused by broken glass. He was arrested. 'A second man in his 30s was found in Abbott Road with stab injuries. Neither man's condition is life-threatening. Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing.' The violence comes as Met Police responded to 13,405 incidents involving knives in just twelve months, it was reported in December, in a further sign lawless London has become the knife crime capital of the country. Met Police responded to 13,405 incidents involving knives in just 12 months, in a further sign Lawless London has become the knife crime capital of the country It was confirmed that the central borough of Westminster has the highest rate of offences by population with 253 since June, accounting for about one incident per 1,000 people. Meanwhile, Bromley, Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames have the lowest rates in London, according to recent figures. August last year proved the most dangerous month across the board with 1,125 offences alone, compared to 850 in February. A total of 106 people were murdered in London during 2022 - the lowest figure since 2014, down from 132 in 2021 WEMBLEY: Officers at the scene of just one of London's fatal stabbings - this one in Sudbury Town on October 30 Nearly a quarter of all killings and more than half of shootings in London are linked to gangs, mayor Sadiq Khan revealed earlier this year. 106 people were murdered in London during 2022, compared with 132 in 2021 - the lowest since 2014. The youngest victim was 11-month-old Hazel Prajapti, while the oldest was Thomas O'Halloran, 87, who was killed in Greenford. MailOnline has approached McDonald's for comment. Nadhim Zahawi has defended his financial dealings after Labour called for him to be sacked following the revelation that he paid a penalty to HMRC as part of a multi-million pound tax settlement. The Conservative Party chairman was reportedly charged the penalty in a 5 million payment over the sale of shares in YouGov. Mr Zahawi, who attends cabinet, has been under pressure in recent days following the revelation he was made to pay the money back in December. He has now released a statement to 'address some of the confusion about my finances'. Conservative Party Chairman Nadhim Zahawi paid an estimated 5 million to HMRC in a tax settlement, including a 30 per cent penalty on the tax owed Deputy Labour leader Angel Rayner called for Mr Zahawi to stand down, saying his position was 'untenable' The former Chancellor said his father took founder shares in YouGov and that HMRC later 'disagreed about the exact allocation', leading him to 'settle the matter and pay what they said was due'. Penalties can be charged by HMRC if the correct amount of tax is not paid at the correct time. Mr Zahawi's bill is estimated to have been around 4.8 million, including a 30 per cent penalty on the tax he owed, The Guardian reported. A spokesperson for Mr Zahawi did not deny that such a penalty had been paid, but disputed the figure. Angela Rayner, deputy Labour leader, has said Mr Zahawi's position is now 'untenable' and called for him to stand down. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab defended the former chancellor, arguing that he should stay in his role as no remaining tax is due. Angela Rayner told BBC Breakfast: 'The fact that Nadhim hasn't been out on the airwaves explaining himself, to me adds insult to injury, especially given that he called this smears at the time and sent legal letters to those that asked questions legitimately about it. 'And when you're the chancellor, who is in charge of the tax affairs of the UK, and you've got a wealth of that nature, you would be expected to know about your tax affairs or to seek that advice at the time as opposed to not paying those taxes and having to pay a penalty notice.' She added: 'I believe his position is untenable. If he's lied and misled the public and HMRC regarding his tax affairs then I think his position is untenable.' It has been reported that the payment made by Mr Zahawi was due because of unpaid capital gains tax owed from the sale of shares in YouGov, the polling firm he co-founded. A source claimed the penalty could have been harsher had he not reached a settlement with HMRC. Dominic Raab told Sky News: 'Look, I can't speak for the personal tax affairs of a colleague, but what I would say is that Nadhim has been very clear that he's paid all the tax that he's owed, that he's paid it on time, that there's nothing outstanding due, and I think that's of course right and proper.' Asked whether he is confident that Mr Zahawi is being open and honest about his tax affairs, Mr Raab said: 'Yes, I think he has been in the way I've described.' A spokesperson for Mr Zahawi told The Guardian: 'Nadhim Zahawi does not recognise this amount As he has previously stated, his taxes are properly declared and paid in the UK.' The search for British actor Julian Sands, who went missing on a hiking trip last Friday, is continuing by helicopter as authorities track Sands' phone pings towards Mount Baldy in southern California. Federal and state agencies in the United States said yesterday they would join the search amid worsening weather conditions and avalanche risks which have halted the work of ground crews. Phone signals two days after the Room with a View star, 65, was reported missing showed Sands around one of the trails leading to the summit of Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel mountains in southern California, police revealed. The father-of-three, who is known for appearances in The Killing Fields, Arachnophobia, 24 and Smallville, was reported missing at around 7:30pm on Friday 13 January after failing to come back from a hike on Mount Baldy. Julian Sands is pictured sitting on a peak of the Weisshorn mountain in the Swiss Alps Sands, 65, was reported missing by his family after disappearing in the dangerous mountain range. He is pictured in a recent image released by his family to police to aid the search The county sheriff's department revealed that pings from the actor's phone appeared to show he had been on the move heading further into the mountainous area of Baldy Bowl on the day he was reported missing, Friday 13 January . Police also retrieved important phone data, showing that the West Yorkshire-born actor was still on the move on Sunday 15 January but they have not been able to pick up any signal since due to his battery running low. Last Thursday, Julian's family towed his car from a car park where it was discovered during the search. Ground and air searchers have so far been unable to locate any evidence to support with the investigation. Adverse weather conditions also saw ground crews pulled off the mountain last Saturday evening. The San Bernardino county sheriff's department confirmed yesterday the current search is being conducted by helicopter only due to the risk of avalanche in the region. Authorities have given 'no time set' for when ground searches will resume. But department spokesperson Gloria Huerta added there was no timeline for ending the search at present, either. The incident is still being classified as a search and rescue operation. Actor Julian Sands was reported missing on 13 January after failing to return from a hiking trip Sands and Helena Bonham Carter on set for the award-winning 1985 film A Room With A View San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department previously warned hikers to 'think twice and heed warnings' as weather conditions in the area worsened. The department reported its search and rescue teams had responded to 14 calls on and around Mount Baldy over the last four weeks. Two hikers were reported to have died in the last four weeks amid worsening conditions. Crystal Paula Gonzalez, a mother-of-four described as 'the dancing hiking queen', is understood to have slipped and plunged 700ft down the Baldy Bowl. A helicopter was immediately dispatched, and soon found Gonzalez 'down on a steep and icy hillside, surrounded by numerous helpful hikers assisting in any way they could,' according to an incident report. On 28 December, Jarret Choi, 43, was hiking the Ice House Canyon trail when he fell near the Ice House Saddle ridge line. He was found two days later, after a search hampered by extreme weather conditions. The region is home to some of the most popular trails in Los Angeles, California Sands' first major production was 1984's The Killing Fields, the acclaimed historical drama about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (pictured alongside John Malkovich) Julian's son Henry himself an experienced hiker flew out to California last weekend and is assisting with the search of Mount Baldy. Henry, 37, is understood to have retraced the route his father took some 40-miles from Los Angeles - but was also forced to abandon his efforts due to poor weather. A relative told MailOnline yesterday: Henry has been in the U.S since the weekend and is helping the search. The problem is that the weather is hampering rescue efforts. We are extremely worried but were hoping that Julian will be found safe and well. Well be looking to see how things evolve over the next few days. The former lover of King Juan Carlos of Spain is selling her stately home in Shropshire after telling friends she fears for her safety from shadowy forces working for the Royal. Princess Corinna zu Wittgenstein-Sayn hopes to receive up to 15million for Chyknell Hall, a Regency-era mansion set amid a 200-acre shooting estate, which she is selling privately. The businesswoman, 57, has told friends she feels unsafe at the house, which was previously broken into in a raid she believes was carried out by secret forces working for the former King, who abdicated the throne in 2014, two years after their affair was exposed. Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn is embroiled in long-running legal action against Juan Carlos, 85, whom she accuses of harassment and placing her under constant hostile surveillance since 2012. He denies any wrongdoing. Princess Corinna zu Wittgenstein-Sayn (pictured) hopes to receive up to 15million for Chyknell Hall Chyknell Hall is a Regency-era mansion set amid a 200-acre shooting estate and is being sold privately Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn is embroiled in long-running legal action against Juan Carlos (pictured), 85, whom she accuses of harassment and placing her under constant hostile surveillance since 2012 A friend of the Danish businesswoman told The Mail on Sunday that she is saddened to part with Chyknell Hall, which she bought for 6million in 2015. The friend said: She has transformed the property and its grounds into something quite spectacular and she is well-liked by the local community. It is rather sad but I understand that her harassment case in London against Juan Carlos of Spain has made her wary of living in a remote property. Another friend said: Shes had quite a lot of English and foreign interest, quite a few people. Its not that the house is not safe, its her issues with Spain. Shes not leaving the UK, but shes in the US a lot and shes obviously got this issue about [Chyknell] being very remote. Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn had intended Chyknell Hall to be a lifelong UK base for her 20-year-old son Alexander from her second marriage to the German Prince Casimir zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, whom she divorced in 2005. The businesswoman, 57, has told friends she feels unsafe at the house, which was previously broken into in a raid A friend of the Danish businesswoman told The Mail on Sunday that she is saddened to part with Chyknell Hall, which she bought for 6million in 2015 The friend said: She has transformed the property and its grounds into something quite spectacular and she is well-liked by the local community Prince Alexander, who attends university in the UK, regularly hosts parties attended by wealthy and well-connected high-society friends with his mother at the 11-bedroom property. But recently friends say that the invitations have dried up. Following a break-in at the grounds in 2017, she told this newspaper she found a perfectly cut round hole, the size of a plate, missing from a pane of glass in her bedroom window. Nothing else in the property had been taken or disturbed. She blamed the intrusion on shadowy forces acting for her former lover the King. Nevertheless, she continued to reside at the property until recently. She has spent a fortune modernising the Grade II-listed home, which was built in 1814. The redevelopment included an indoor-outdoor kitchen and breakfast room by top designer Isabel Bannerman. The home also boasts a cinema room, a neoclassical library and wallpaper by Nicky Haslam in the bedrooms. Following a break-in at the grounds in 2017, she told this newspaper she found a perfectly cut round hole, the size of a plate, missing from a pane of glass in her bedroom window Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn had intended Chyknell Hall to be a lifelong UK base for her 20-year-old son Alexander The home also boasts a cinema room, a neoclassical library and wallpaper by Nicky Haslam in the bedrooms Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn intends to base herself in New York and London, where she owns a flat worth over 5 million bought partly with money gifted to her by Juan Carlos during their five-year affair, which took place while he was reportedly estranged from his wife, Queen Sofia. He gifted Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn 58 million in 2012, once they had broken up, but tried to claw it back after he abdicated. Their relationship remained a secret until 2012 when it emerged that Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn and the King had been on safari to Botswana. During the trip the King shot an elephant. When the trip came to light it sparked a scandal and the King abdicated two years later. Juan Carlos (left) had a five-year affair with Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn, which took place while he was reportedly estranged from his wife, Queen Sofia (right) Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayn has launched legal action in Londons High Court against the former King. She is seeking damages and an injunction over allegations he has caused her great mental pain as a result of a continuous and ongoing campaign of harassment. Last year, UK Court of Appeal judges ruled the former King had immunity for the period before he abdicated in 2014. Her claim will be heard at a trial expected to be next year. A source close to the Princess said: Shes been terribly abused and now its all coming out and hes not going to be able to get away with it. Juan Carlos won his immunity claim for a narrow 24-month period pre-abdication, but it has no impact on Ms zu Wittgenstein-Sayns case. The court case is moving forward. Firefighters are tackling a 'huge fire' that has broken out near a weapons factory in Derbyshire. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service were called the the blaze at 9:12pm last night, which grew to nine crews from three counties as the fire continued through the evening. The fire started at PW Defence in Wilne Mill, Draycott, which calls itself a UK-based military pyrotechnics manufacturer. Two people were taken by ambulance to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham. A witness claims that casualties were taken away with white phosphorous injuries, a chemical used in smoke, illumination and incendiary munitions among others. Locals living near the 'fireworks factory' have been asked to keep windows and doors shut as the fire. Two casualties were taken to a Nottingham hospital by ambulance after a fire started on Friday Joint police and fire investigation launched after two weapons factory workers suffer 'white phosphorous' injuries as emergency services descend on weapons factory fire Joint police and fire investigation launched after 2 weapons factory workers suffer 'white phosphorous' injuries as emergency services descend on weapons factory fire. The Derbyshire Fire and Rescue service wrote today: 'One fire crew remains on scene at a commercial property on Wilne Road in Draycott, damping down and checking for hot spots. 'A fire investigation will begin later.' Air ambulance, four ambulance crews and the East Midlands Ambulance Service's Hazardous Area Response Unit were also called to the scene. The East Midlands Ambulance Service said in a statement: 'We were called at 21.05 hours on 20 January 2023 to Draycott in Derbyshire. 'The caller reported a fire in a building. We sent our Hazardous Area Response Team, four ambulances, two fast response cars and the Air Ambulance. 'Two patients were taken to the Queens Medical Centre, in Nottingham, by ambulance.' Nine crews from DFR attended the incident and it has been confirmed that 2 casualties were transported to QMC hospital in Nottingham. A joint investigation will now take place The incident which happened at 21:12pm yesterday 21,01,2022 saw dozens of emergency service personnel from EMA, Derbyshire Fire and Derbyshire police attend PW Defence PW Defence, incorporated in 1949, was acquired by WescomDefence in 2021, a supplier of the UK Ministry of Defence and NATO allies. The factory is understood to manufacture grenades and pyrotechnics. A witness reported smelling gunpowder and sulphur in the air. Police, Fire and Ambulance were all in attendance at the Chemring Factory on Wilne Lane in Draycott, Derbyshire yesterday evening as reports came in that the factory was on fire Tesla's new self-driving feature has been slammed online as even loyal owners said it made them 'nervous' and was 'dangerous'. In December Tesla gave their new Enhanced Autopilot safety assist feature to owners to trial for 30 days for free before being given the option to purchase it for $5100. The feature was made available for the Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X owners. Enhanced Autopilot provides automatic lane changing assist, automatic parking and the ability to summon the car to your location. However, Tesla owners took to the Facebook group Tesla Owners Australia to share their horror stories and almost unanimously agreed that they wouldn't be upgrading their vehicles at the end of the trial. Tesla's new enhanced autopilot safety assist feature which was given to drivers for a 30 day free trial has been slammed online as owners said it made them 'nervous' and was 'dangerous' In December Tesla gave their new enhanced autopilot safety assist feature to owners to trial for 30 days for free before being given the option to purchase it for $5100 'None of the "functions" really worked well. Rather than make life easier, they made me nervous, and from my experience were dangerous,' one person said. 'Please ... take it away,' wrote another. While one man said the new technology kept trying to turn his car into a tree and recounted numerous scary encounters. 'Smart summon and trees weren't a marriage made in heaven for my car. I had to stop it as it kept turning towards the tree,' he said. 'We thought it might just skirt by (my wife was by the car) but at the last moment, it turned in even more sharply and directly towards the tree. I was too scared to try it again. One man said the new technology kept trying to turn his car into a tree and recounted numerous scary encounters. 'I think I might have liked the auto lane change but I never got to grips with it. It either seemed to take forever (by which time I'd over-ridden it) or it jumped into a spot that wasn't really there. 'On its last attempt (yesterday), it tried to turn into close overtaking traffic. I nearly freaked when I looked in the mirror, jumped on the accelerator and pulled back into my lane.' Others said the auto-park feature was a flunk, taking longer and feeling less safe than if they were to just park the car manually. 'I tried auto park three times and each time it saved me no time at all and brought me a lot of worry and panic from the person in the passenger seat who was worried the car would run itself into a pole, a curb, or someone else's car,' one person wrote on social media. 'The car would do a fifteen point turn where one carefully executed turn was all that I ever needed. 'In addition out of the three times I tried parking, the car never actually parked in the spot it initially identified and ended up parking in one or two spots over.' Labour would stop the energy price cap from rising in April to help families cope with the cost of living crisis, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced. In a speech to the Fabian Society today, Ms Reeves accused the Conservative government of 'presiding over more than a decade of stagnant living standards' and said Labour would introduce a long-term strategy to tackle the energy crisis. Ms Reeves criticised the government's plan to raise the energy price cap, adding that her party would also halt the forced installation of pre-payment meters in homes. She said: 'Our plans will save the typical household 500 on their energy bills from April, compared to the Government's plans, by keeping the energy price guarantee at its current level of 2,500 rather than letting it rise to 3,000 in April. Rachel Reeves said the energy price cap raise in April should be scrapped in a speech to the Fabian Society conference today 'But let me be clear: this is a maximum. If wholesale prices fall, the cap must come down too. 'And it is a scandal that those with the least are often forced to pay the most for their energy. So Labour would eliminate the premium paid by those on pre-payments metres. 'And the forced installation of pre-payment meters all too often leads to the most vulnerable households going without heating entirely, so Labour is calling for a moratorium on that practice.' Ms Reeves said she wanted to be 'Britain's first green Chancellor' as she laid out her plan for the country. The shadow Chancellor said green policies including insulating homes could save households more than a thousand pounds in a year. She said: 'Labour will act to get energy bills down for good. 'That is why Labour has a plan to reach 100 per cent clean power by 2030 and retrofit millions of homes. These policies could save a typical household 1,400, generating savings not just for one year, but for every year to come. 'A response to today's crisis and a plan to prevent tomorrow's crises. That is what a Labour government will do.' Ms Reeves rejected the 'ideological cul-de-sacs' on climate change on the far left and far right. She said: 'Whatever ideologues on left and right might tell you, we do not have to choose between going green and going for growth. Ms Reeves has said she wants to be the 'Britain's first green Chancellor' if Labour is elected She also used the speech to take aim at the various scandals involving Dominic Raab, Rishi Sunak and Nadhim Zahawi (left to right) 'In the 2020s and the 2030s, those two things go hand in hand. 'Now, to some on the right, climate change is nothing more than a cost or even a con. 'Some on the left meanwhile will claim that the only way to tackle the climate crisis is nothing short of a command economy or the overthrowing of capitalism itself. 'And then there are those on the fringes of the green movement who shudder at the very prospect of economic growth. 'I reject all those assessments and their ideological cul-de-sacs. More innovation, more investment, and more enterprise will be crucial to the green transition. 'We do not have to choose between letting the planet burn or accepting a future of diminishing living standards on a poorer country.' She also took a swipe at the recent scandals in the Conservative Party involving Rishi Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi and Dominic Raab. The Prime Minister was fined yesterday for not wearing a seatbelt in the back of a car while filming a video for social media. Ms Reeves said: 'The Prime Minister has made clear his own depth of commitment to net zero this week, when he chose to fly from Teesside to Blackpool on an RAF jet. 'Now I understand that the air stewards had to do the seatbelt demonstration several times before the Prime Minister finally got it.' Meanwhile, Tory party chairman Mr Zahawi has faced calls to resign in recent days after it was revealed he was forced to pay a penalty for not paying the correct tax and deputy Prime Minister faces a bullying inquiry. The shadow Chancellor called on Rishi Sunak to sack Nadhim Zahawi. Ms Reeves said: 'Dominic Raab, who's being investigated for bullying, is passing judgment on Nadhim Zahawi, who's just had a 1 million fine for not paying his taxes on time. That pretty much epitomises this Conservative Cabinet. 'A few months ago, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, you may forget because there were four of them last year, but he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and responsible for Britain's tax affairs and tax collection and we now find that he wasn't so keen to pay himself. 'So if the Prime Minister wants to stick by his commitment for integrity, honesty and professionalism, he should do the right thing and sack Nadhim Zahawi.' 'Mummified person' is deemed to be politically acceptable by some museums It might seem impossible to hurt the feelings of a 3,000-year-old corpse. But woke museum chiefs have stopped using the word 'mummy' to describe the remains of ancient Egyptians, all in the name of 'respect'. They say the term is dehumanising to those who died and of course an unwelcome throwback to Britain's colonial past. The phrase now deemed politically acceptable is 'mummified person' or 'mummified remains'. The British Museum says it uses the latter phrase to emphasise to visitors that they are looking at people who once lived, while the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle says that it has adopted the new terms for its mummified woman Irtyru, who dates from around 600BC, to acknowledge the history of colonial exploitation and to give her the respect she deserves. (Stock Image) Woke museum chiefs have stopped using the word 'mummy' to describe the remains of ancient Egyptians (Stock Image) The British Museum prefers to term 'mummified remains' to remind visitors they are looking at people who once lived National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh has also removed the word 'mummy' from labels on its human remains. A spokeswoman said: 'Where we know the name of an individual we use that, otherwise we use "mummified man, woman, boy, girl or person" because we are referring to people, not objects. 'The word "mummy" is not incorrect, but it is dehumanising, whereas using the term "mummified person" encourages our visitors to think of the individual.' Museums are also concerned the word has become linked to terrifying monsters, thanks to countless horror B-movies such as 1932's The Mummy. The Great North Museum's Jo Anderson, said that 'legends about the mummy's curse and movies portraying supernatural monsters... can undermine their humanity.' The word mummy has been used in English since at least 1615, but some say it has a colonial past as it derived from the Arabic word 'mummiya', meaning 'bitumen', which was used as an embalming substance. Many mummies found their way to Britain in imperial times, especially during the Victorian age, where there was a trend for unwrapping them. (Stock Image) National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh said it was 'dehumanising' to use the word mummy Ms Anderson said this turned human remains into specimens or curiosities. But critics of the new terms claim the change is virtue signalling. Jeremy Black, author of Imperial Legacies: The British Empire Around The World, said: 'When museums cut themselves off from popular culture they show contempt for how we all understand words, meanings and history. 'It would be better to focus on helping create a setting that encourages all to visit them rather than in pandering to a virtue signalling minority.' David Abulafia, professor emeritus of Mediterranean history at Cambridge University, described the move as strange, and Chris McGovern, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: 'The curse of the mummy is driving these academics mad!' A British Museum spokesman said: The Museum hasnt banned the use of the term 'mummy' and it is still in use across our galleries. 'Our recent displays use the term 'mummified remains of' and include the name (when known) of the person who has been mummified. Displays and exhibitions created by the Museum have emphasized that mummified remains are of people who once lived. The research undertaken by the Museum over the last 10 years has focused on the individuals, looking at how they lived and how they were prepared for the afterlife. This approach aims to bring the visitor closer to the people who lived along the Nile Valley. And Adam Goldwater, manager at the Great North Museum: Hancock, said they wanted to describe their collections 'in respectful ways, sharing information from the perspective of their original community'. A Tennessee mansion has gone on sale for $1.5 million after it went up in flames - but homeowners remind new buyers that they can build their dream home on the prized site. The Franklin mansion went up in flames in September after a construction worker called 911 to report an explosion. The fire quickly spread, causing the roof of the gorgeous home to collapse before firefighters were able to douse it. The five-acre, two-home property is being 'sold as is' and despite the high price tag, it's only a little higher than the average of $1.1million in Williamson County. 'Save tens of thousands, of dollars [and] build any home of your dreams without Williamson County impact fees!' the listing said. The real estate agent Paula Duvall called this a 'rare opportunity' to own the Winslow Road home, which wasn't completely destroyed by the fire, as well as, the untouched guest house. The Franklin, Tennessee, mansion went up in flames in September and is now being sold 'as is' for $1.5million The five-acre, two-home property is being marketed as a place to build a dream home with the bonus of getting to keep the untouched guest house The roof caved in before firefighters could put out the fire. The blaze started after a construction worker reported an explosion 'Additional future expansion area or 10 [plus] car garage in the guest home. Open hilltop views!' the listing said. 'Many things can still be saved from fire including the entire foundation, porches, patios, landscaping [and] outdoor living.' There's also a 'private park-like setting' at the back of the property They decided to use the burnt photos because 'we wanted to be transparent about the history of the home, and we wanted to show how grand the home was and how grand it could be again if they chose to rebuild,' Duvall told WKRN. As of Friday, the sale of the property is pending, according to Zillow, after the listing was viewed 194,000 times and saved by nearly 4,000. The foyer was completely destroyed after the roof caved in, with piles of debris left on the floor, insulation peeking out of the walls, and a burnt chandelier One of the showers in the home was a shell of what it used to be after getting coated in soot The side of the home had burned down to its foundation but the structure on a small portion of the roof is still standing The master bathroom was burnt to a crisp and the fire stripped it, leaving behind soot and broken wood The main staircase suffered a lot of damage, as well as the walls from falling debris Photos of the home show the blaze taking place on the right side of the second floor with a firetruck desperately trying to douse the flames. By the time the fire was put out, the entire room was gone, but the bottom part of the home still remains standing. The entire foyer area is now covered in debris, the chandelier was burnt to a crisp, and the insulation in the walls had begun to show. The 4.5 car garage also laid in shambles but still remains standing. The master bedroom's entrance was completely destroyed, leaving behind burnt walls and half-standing doors. The hallway stood in a similar fashion. Not all was lost, the guest house (pictured) was untouched by the fire The gorgeous kitchen had a large island and plenty of space to entertain prior to the fire Crime-ridden Seattle has lost its downtown Nike flagship store and multiplex movie theater as crime runs rampant and the number of homeless people dying soars. The Rain City's downtown area suffered its latest blow on Friday when the popular Nike store, located at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pike Street, shut its doors for good. Nike's exit came right after Regal Cinemas announced it would reject the lease of the Meridian 16 multiplex located on Seventh Avenue and Pike Street. While Nike has yet to comment on why it's shutting down the store after more than 26 years of service, local residents told the Seattle Times that street crime was likely among the biggest motivators for the departure. Overall violent crime has remained persistently high in the city, with 2022 marking the deadliest year for the homeless population in King County, which encompasses Seattle. The year saw 310 deaths in the homeless community, a 65 percent spike from 2021, including at least 18 homicides and 160 fentanyl-related overdoses, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office. The Nike store, which has been operating in downtown Seattle for 26 years, shut down on Friday, with a new store slated to open away from the area Also shutting down is the Regal Cinemas, located on Seventh Avenue and Pike Street Vagrant deaths in Seattle are up to a record 310 in 2022, including 18 homicides Shoppers in downtown Seattle were devastated as they visited the Nike store for the last time on Friday, fearing it might be the start of a new wave of exits from the city. Richard Green - a Nike fanatic who was dressed head to toe in the brand, including socks and underwear - told the Times he was 'heartbroken' over the closing. 'I had big plans for this year,' Green said of his shopping habits as he stared into the closing store, which had security guards watching over the mourning customers. With the store shuttered, residents would have to travel to the other side of Lake Washington in Bellevue Square, an hour away on public transit, to shop at a new store opening up later in 2023. The same is true for Regal Cinema fans, as the closest chains are located east in Bellevue or north in Thornton Place. Regal's parent company, Cineworld, filed for bankruptcy in September, and the downtown Seattle theater is among the 39 listed to have their leases rejected on February 15. Jeffrey Rosen, a commercial real estate broker in the area, told the Times that the city is still reeling from the pandemic, which saw about 500 businesses shut down as of 2021, according to the Seattle Downtown Association. Retail vacancy in the heart of downtown Seattle sits at 13.5 percent, a significant spike from less than 2 percent in 2019, the Times reports. 'Downtown is a mixed bag,' Rosen said. 'There's some recovery going on and there's some folding up and going away going on as well.' Persistently high crime hasn't helped the recovery effort. According to the latest figures from the Seattle Police Department, 2022 was on its way to match the previous year's figures. As of November 2022, police reported 285 rapes, 1,654 robberies and 3,258 aggravated assaults. Murder, however, was the only figure that surpassed 2021's year-end-count, with 48 reported before 2022 was done, a 12.5 percent increase. And the spike appears to have also taken its toll on the city's most vulnerable, its homeless community. According to the King County Medical Examiner's Office, at least 18 homeless people were killed in 2022, and among them was Trenton Harris, 30, who was fatally shot four times in July. Trenton Harris, 30, was one of at least 18 homeless people in King County who was murdered in 2022. He was fatally shot four times last July Harris' mother, Jennife Dobbins, held a sign bearing his name as people gathered at city hall to mourn all the homeless people who have died in 2022 The city has seen a 10 percent spike in its homeless population over the last two years Harris, a former Boy Scout who worked in the food service industry after graduating high school, struggled with an opioid addiction and was originally believed to be among the city's 160 overdose-related homeless deaths when someone found his body lying over a park bench. His mother, Jennifer Dobbins, told the Times she was devastated to learn that his death was actually a homicide, yet she still hasn't heard any more information about his case. The grieving mother was one of more than 50 people who held a demonstration outside Seattle City Hall on December 21 to mourn every homeless person who died in 2022. Along with the murder and overdose victims, the homeless population in the county saw 78 deaths ruled as accidents, 35 as natural deaths, seven suicides, and 12 others that were still pending an explanation. The overall homeless death toll of 310, however, is an undercount since it relies on the Medical Examiner's Office, which only investigates sudden, unexpected deaths. Michael Ramos, executive director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle who joined Dobbins during the vigil last month, urged the city to ramp up aid for the homeless community. 'The long emergency of homelessness keeps getting worse, not better, while politicians posture and governments plan a new initiative and housing comes with agonizing slowness,' Ramos said at the event. Firefighters in Seattle have demanded the city take action after they were subjected to more than 40 violent attacks in the past four months - a string of assaults that have been largely carried out by the city's homeless population The attacks, which the citys firefighters union says began in May, have seen the protectors repeatedly targeted by the intemperate down-and-outs, often while responding to fires started at the city's growing number of homeless encampments (pictured is one such site) Mayor Bruce Harrell, who ran on a campaign focused on improving public safety and increasing aid to the homeless, said his administration is working with urgency to fix Seattle. The city is currently working with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to bring more people into shelters. Anne Martens, spokesperson for the authority, lamented that the 2022 figures for the homeless deaths were 'preventable.' She told the Times that the deaths were 'a result of deep holes in our social safety net and an ongoing national opioid epidemic.' The city hopes that by cracking down on homelessness, crime will also see a steady fall, as many incidents involve the homeless population. Over the summer, Seattle firefighters were attacked on more than 40 occasions when putting out blazes in homeless encampments. The attacks, which the citys firefighters union says began in May, have seen the protectors repeatedly targeted by the intemperate down-and-outs, often while responding to fires started at the city's growing number of homeless encampments. 'Seattle Fire Fighters are not trained or empowered to mitigate violent Individuals, and it is not conducive to our mission,' Stuart, who has served as a Seattle firefighter since 1996, wrote in a July 26 letter to city officials. By the end of 2022, King County had an estimated 25,211 homeless individuals, a 10 percent spike from 2020, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The county, which encompasses Seattle, was only behind New York City. Former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has been accused in court documents of manually deleting texts related to the lawless CHOP zone created in the city during the 2020 Black Live Matter riots Black Lives Matter protesters took over an area near Capitol Hill and the East Precinct in June 2020 and set up their own barriers. They originally called the area the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), but that changed to the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or The CHOP Much of the blame for Seattle's current state has been levied against former Mayor Jenny Durkan, who infamously oversaw the establishment of the city's lawless CHOP zone in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter Movement. The anti-cop zone, set up in the ritzy Capitol Hill neighborhood, stood for Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, billed as a peaceful utopia free of police violence. The area, however, quickly descended into anarchy, with one teenage boy even murdered, and stores in the area boarded up, including the now-closing Nike store. Local businesses watched in despair as customers stayed away for fear of violence - while Durkan vocally supported the hellish enclave. In response to a Donald Trump tweet condemning the area, she tweeted: 'The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone is not a lawless wasteland of anarchist insurrection - it is a peaceful expression of our community's collective grief and their desire to build a better world. Given his track record, it's not hard to believe that Trump is wrong, yet again.' Business owners and residents have since filed a lawsuit against the city for its botched response, and have tacked on a suit alleging Durkan deprived the plaintiffs of 'crucial evidence' when it was discovered she deleted hundreds of text messages about the CHOP zone. For help and support National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-8255 A Las Vegas judge has committed suicide a year after stepping down from her role to avoid becoming embroiled in an ethics probe. Melanie Andress-Tobiasson, 53, stepped down as a Justice of the Peace prior to a a hearing regarding her ethics investigation. The mother-of-three was reportedly found dead on Friday, according to 8NewsNow, though it is unclear where or how she died. Andress-Tobiasson claimed that she had been trying to save her daughter, Sarah, from prostitution after she started working at a clothing store she believed was a front for criminal activities. But the trial into her alleged conduct was dropped after she agreed to resign in 2021. Melanie Andress-Tobiasson, 53, stepped down as a Justice of the Peace prior to a hearing on ethics charges with her trial scheduled to start in 2021. She was found dead on Friday after taking her own life She claimed that she was trying to protect her daughter Sarah, pictured, from becoming involved in a prostitution ring She had been living at her $2million five-bedroom mansion in Las Vegas with her husband Todd before her death. Tobiasson was being investigated by Nevada's Judicial Discipline Commission for almost two years, after asking police to investigate a clothing store where her daughter worked. The former judge made claims that the store, Top Knotch, was being used as a front for prostitution and her daughter Sarah was being recruited as a prostitute. She accused the Las Vegas Metro Police Department for ignoring information she provided, claiming she was trying to save her daughter from sex trafficking. Tobiasson claimed that the store was an unlicensed, underage nightclub and a front for prostitution - with Sarah, who was 16 at the time, saying she was 'terrified' of Shane Valentine who ran the store. The judge said that she was forced to turn to the FBI with the information after the inaction of the local police - which led to officers investigating her for allegedly breaching judicial rules after discovering she had repeated claims to federal agents. She accused the Las Vegas Metro Police Department for ignoring information she provided, claiming she was trying to save her daughter from sex trafficking The judge (pictured with her husband and children) said that she was forced to turn to the FBI with the information after the inaction of the local police, with cops tracking her phone and claiming she was interfering with a vice investigation Tobiasson claimed that the store was an unlicensed, underage nightclub and a front for prostitution - with Sarah, who was 16 at the time, saying she was 'terrified' of Shane Valentine who ran the store Cops tracked her phone and claimed she was interfering with a vice investigation following her original complaint. She claimed that the pimps were 'targeting the daughters of judges and law enforcement' in a bid to get them involved in prostitution. In a complaint filed against Tobiasson, it alleged that she failed to comply with and uphold the law, and allowed family interests and relations to influence her conduct. She asked officers to investigate Valentine, but claims they failed to do so, with the suspect then being linked to a shooting where a couple were found dead. They did not officially link him to the killings of Sydney Land, 21, and Nehemiah 'Neo' Kauffman, 20, until months later. However Tobiasson reached out to Land's mother and 'began to personally investigate the case' because she thought that Valentine was responsible, according to the complaint. It added that she used 'burner phones' to communicate with Land's mother and sent messaged to a woman she thought was involved in the murder. She had been living at her $2million five-bedroom mansion in Las Vegas with her husband Todd before her death Shane Valentine was accused of the murders of Sydney Land and Nehemiah Kauffman, as well as being accused by the judge of running a prostitution ring They did not officially link him to the killings of Sydney Land, 21, (left) and Nehemiah 'Neo' Kauffman, 20, (right) until months later The commission alleges that Tobiasson stated publicly that she reached out to Valentine's lawyer at the time and 'told him to tell Valentine that if he called her daughter again she would 'take care of it herself' and that on one occasion she 'went to Shane Valentine's house and kicked in the door.' Detectives learned of Tobiasson's activity, according to the charges, and launched an investigation into the judge, going as far as tracking her phone records. They also alleged that she had links to a man called 'Anthony Danna' who was a 'known and documented organized crime figure.' The commission decided against suspending Tobiasson and Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Amy Chelini after a hearing about concerns over profanity used off the bench and administrative complaints involving court clerks. However as part of a deal her resignation resulted in her ethics trial being stopped when she stepped down from her role. Tobiasson was a graduate of Bishop Gorman High School, and won re-election multiple times. She worked for the Clark County District Attorney's Office before taking the bench in 1999. For help and support National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-8255 Professor Robert Winston has given a tragic account of his wife's final moments when a 999 crew tried to save her - and how grief has left him wondering 'if life is worth continuing'. In a new episode of the podcast Crisis What Crisis? with host Andy Coulson, Lord Winston, 81, detailed how his wife Lira, 72, died in his arms while he battled to convince an operator on the phone to send an ambulance. Scientist, author and broadcaster Lord Winston is one of Britain's leading experts on IVF, and has published around 300 articles on human reproduction and early pregnancy. He is Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London. Lira Winston suffered a cardiac arrest in December 2021 as Lord Winston waited desperately for an ambulance to arrive. Professor Robert Winston (left) has given a tragic account of his wife Lira's (right) final moments when a 999 crew tried to save her In a new episode of the podcast Crisis What Crisis? with host Andy Coulson (pictured), Mr Winston detailed how his other half, Lira, died in his arms Recent data shows that ambulance wait times in England have worsened in recent months, with 999 crews taking longer to attend heart attack and stroke victims. Paramedics took over 90 minutes on average to arrive to category two calls, although the target is 18 minutes. Lord Winston described his experience of trying to call an ambulance for his wife on the podcast. He said: 'I tried to say, Look, her breathing has changed, she has Cheynes-Stokes breathing, I said. I didnt say I was a doctor. 'The guy on the other said, Count the number of breaths shes having. I said, There isnt time for me to do that. I need the ambulance emergency. 'He said, Whats the interval of seconds between each breath? I said, Look, this is not important. She is breathing irregularly. It is needed now. This conversation went on and it seemed to go on for hours.' Lord Winston added: 'When the ambulance arrived of course it was too late, but it probably would have been anyway. 'There was a lot of COVID going around and it took I think about 18 minutes which was just a bit too long, really. So when the paramedics came, they were over-anxious and they actually kept going for far too long. 'They were really not prepared to give up, they didn't want to give up. Eventually I had to tell them, ''Look, you've done all you could possibly do. You've put up a drip, you've cardioverted her, it's not working, and I totally accept that she's dead.'' 'And you know, I think at that time, there are so many emotions you go through. You think its your fault.' Following the tragic incident, he explained how he has struggled with grief ever since. Lord Winston, known for the BBC's Child Of Our Time, pictured with his late wife Lady Winston and sons Joel and Ben A poll shows Brits faith that ambulances and the NHS will be able to treat them is low but it also revealed that over half of those surveyed blamed the Government for NHS staff strikes Lord Winston, who is also known for BBC series Child Of Our Time, said: 'I think my grief wasnt very obvious at all at the time, and to some extent probably still isnt. 'But its a massive gap, it is for anybody, and it sort of teaches you how people respond to loss in very different ways. 'You start wondering if your own life is worth continuing. It's obvious that you think about that. 'But what do you learn? I don't know. I think people learn different things and people react to grief very differently.' Recent ambulance data shows that 999 callers classed as category two which includes heart attacks, strokes, burns and epilepsy waited 1 hour, 32 minutes and 54 seconds, on average, for paramedics to arrive. This is five times longer than the NHS 18-minute target. It is also the longest response time since records began in 2017 by more than 30 minutes. The previous record was 1 hour, 1 minute and 19 seconds, recorded in October. A Daily Mail investigation last year also found that in some areas callers to 999 are having to wait more than nine minutes for someone to answer the phone. New ambulance strikes have been announced for February and March, which will see them walking out four times. The next strike is happening next Monday, on January 23. During the podcast, Mr Winston also discussed the NHS, saying 'most people in the NHS know it could be so much better'. He added: 'We didn't invent the health service but it's there and we've got to find some way of making it work. 'The thing is to say, look, this is GDP and this is how much we can afford to spend on health. 'There's going to be a gap. How do we fund that gap and what do we do about it?' The trans woman accused of 'terrifying' a 17-year-old girl in the women's locker room of a California YMCA has hit back at the claims, insisting she did not parade around naked as was suggested, and labeling her critics 'Neanderthals'. Christynne Wood, 66, started transitioning in 2016 around the same time as she sued her old gym for not allowing her to use the women's locker rooms. As of December 2021, had not undergone bottom surgery. Earlier this month, she was accused of 'terrifying' 17-year-old Rebecca Phillips in the women's locker room of the Santeee YMCA. Rebecca appeared before the City Council to ask for a rule change, saying she'd seen 'a naked male in the women's locker room'. She did not name Wood, nor did she say she'd seen a penis, and she has since clarified that she only saw her 'backside'. Christynne Wood, 66, says she was not 'naked' and used a private stall to shower. She has accused the girl of lying and says she's entitled to use the women's locker room Christynne Wood, 66, started transitioning in 2016 around the same time as she sued her old gym for not allowing her to use the women's locker rooms. As of December 2021, had not undergone bottom surgery. The experience, she said, her voice shaking with nerves, made her fear for her five-year-old sister and worry about her safety and privacy. She was vilified by LGBTQ activists. Now, Wood is speaking out to accuse Phillips of lying. In multiple interviews on local radio and TV stations, she has insisted she was never walking around naked, and claims she showered - as she always does - in one of the private stalls with the curtain closed. She also spoke at a protest at the very gym where the incident in December unfolded. 'Im Christynne Lili Wrene Wood. Im the scary transgender woman who that child misidentified as a man,' she said. She then praised children who had come to support her, saying: 'Youre the people we truly love. And youre the next generation to make those Neanderthals irrelevant.' In interviews, Wood and her friends have insisted all she did was 'take a shower'. She has compared her fight to that of black people during the civil rights movement, and vowed to continue crusading for her cause. Rebecca Philips, 17, addressed the Santee City Council on Wednesday night Wood said she used the private shower stall and closed the curtain. She said she never once saw the teen in the locker room. Rebecca previously told how she hid in the shower until Wood was gone In 2021, she was supported by the ACLU in a lawsuit against a branch of Crunch Gym, where she'd been told she couldn't use the women's locker rooms unless she had gender reassignment surgery. She said she'd been targeted with homophobic slurs in the men's locker room and didn't feel safe. As a compromise, the gym offered her access to what they called an underserviced VIP, Platinum men's locker room, but Wood declined it. Phillips, in her original complaint to the City Council, said: 'As I was showering after my workout I saw a naked male in the women's locker room. I immediately went back into the shower, terrified, and hid behind their flimsy excuse for a curtain until he was gone. 'This is the YMCA, where hundreds of children spend their summer afternoons in child care camps. This is the YMCA where my little sister took gymnastics lessons. 'A grown male can shower alongside a teenage girl at your YMCA, here in Santee,' she said. Wood, left smoking a bong, and right, vowed to continue using the women's locker rooms Christynne with her dog. In 2021, she sued another gym for not letting her use the women's locker room because she hadn't undergone bottom gender reassignment surgery. The gym settled She said she complained to staff, but was slapped down and told that Wood was well within her rights to use the women's locker room. 'I felt like I had done something wrong,' she said. She has since appeared on FOX's Tucker Carlson show where she said she didn't know her comments would cause such uproar. 'I didn't even know it was being recorded. I had no idea it was going to get this nationwide response. 'I just felt like it was my duty. People are realizing this is happening in their neighborhoods. Parents, women and children are outraged by this. My safety, my privacy was threatened. I had just been in the shower - one of most vulnerable positions a girl can be in. 'I see his backside, so not only do I want to see him but I was terrified he was going to see me. I went right back into the shower...this isn't empowering at all. 'In our efforts to empower transgenders to express themselves, it's threatening my safety, my privacy,' she said. The YMCA says it is bound by local laws on the issue. In California, transgender people can use the locker room or restroom of the gender they identify with, regardless of how far along their transition process is. Actor Michael J. Fox said his Parkinson's diagnosis at the age of 29 drove him to alcoholism and that he had to pop dopamine pills and use props in his left hand to hide the incurable disease. The Back to the Future actor, now 61, is gearing up to release his new documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, which debuted at Sundance on Friday and will go to Apple TV+ later this year. Fox rose to fame from his role in Family Ties and later went on to appear in Back to the Future and Teen Wolf. However, the actor said none of that mattered as he was struck with the diagnosis at the height of his fame. 'I was the Prince of Hollywood,' he said, according to the New York Post. When the doctor told him he had been diagnosed, he told him: 'You know who youre talking to, right? Im not supposed to get this. 'You think [life's] made of brick and rock. But its not. Its made out of paper and feathers. Its an illusion.' Actor Michael J. Fox, 61, debuted his new documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Story at Sundance on Friday (pictured). The documentary follows him through his journey with Parkinsons While participating in a Q&A after the premiere, the actor said he 'loved my life,' despite the hardship. He let his disease show as he sat on stage and his hand shook against the chair. When Fox was diagnosed at 29, he spent seven years hiding the disease After receiving his Parkinson's diagnosis, he 'drank to dissociate' and popped dopamine pills to calm the symptoms. 'I was definitely an alcoholic. But I've gone 30 years without having a drink,' he said. Fox discovered he had the disease after waking up from a night of drinking to find his pinky twitching in 1990. After it wouldn't stop, he went to a neurologist in 1991 and was diagnosed with the disease. He would go on to hide the disease for seven years by carrying props in his left hand. In the film, fans will watch the actor, who has a net worth of $65million, working with a trainer to help build strength, walking through the streets of Manhattan, and repeatedly falling. Fox rose to fame through his roles in Back to the Future (pictured), Family Ties, and Teen Wolf 'A festival of self-abuse,' he joked about the film. 'You get Parkinsons, you trip over stuff.' Deadline's Pete Hammond wrote that the documentary has 'the spirit of the kind of 80s movies that helped make Fox a very big star on both big and small screens.' According to the awards columnist, the film explores Michael's life growing up in Canada to leaving school at 17 to gamble on a career in Hollywood. 'The star here, as always, is Fox himself, battling the intense effects of the Parkinsons disease he has had since being diagnosed at only age 29, but successfully and enthusiastically telling his story, a single talking head shot, straight into the camera.' Despite the hardships of the disease, the actor said at the Q&A that he has loved his life. 'I love my family, I love what I do, I love that people react to what I do. I know that I can be an example of other people and help them deal with their issues without them asking me without me [to] put force of myself on them. 'It's an amazing life and I'm enjoying it,' he said during a Q&A after the Sundance premiere. It was certainly a family affair as the actor and wife wife Tracy Pollan were joined by three of their four children: Sam Michael Fox, Schuyler Frances Fox, and Aquinnah Kathleen Fox The actor retired from his profession in 2020 after having a career resurgence in the early 2000s with the Good Fight and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He started his career by dropping out of his Canadian high school and moving to Hollywood at 16. He is now writing books about his experience and is funding research in Parkinson's through his Michael J. Fox Foundation. 'People express to me that I make them feel better and do things that they normally wouldnt do,' he said. 'Thats a big responsibility.' He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years at Snaresbrook Crown Court The 'gut nut' cut cardboard molds before pressing metal to create the weapons A self-described 'gun nut' who manufactured his own powerful firearms from scratch from his home workshop in Havering has been jailed. Raymond Frederick Nugent, 73, cut cardboard templates before pressing metal to create the weapons, and designed his own firing mechanisms. He was caught after a tip-off from the National Crime Agency (NCA) led detectives to discover the cache, which he had been building over many years. Nugent of Coltishall Road, Hornchurch, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court yesterday to seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment. A self-described 'gun nut' who manufactured his own powerful firearms from scratch from his home workshop in Havering (pictured on body cam) has been jailed Raymond Frederick Nugent, 73, cut cardboard templates before pressing metal to create the weapons, and designed his own firing mechanisms He had been found guilty at an earlier hearing of 45 firearms offences. The NCA alerted the Met after intelligence revealed that Nugent had imported a blank firing weapon from the Czech Republic. In November 2018 a warrant was executed under the Firearms Act at his home and officers discovered a number of safes. Inside they found batches of firearms and ammunition that had been carefully wrapped and stored. Nugent was arrested and taken for interview at an east London police station as police continued to search the address. Even from initial inspection it was apparent to specialist officers at the scene that he was in possession of viable firearms. They were seized and taken for examination. Incredibly several of these were items Nugent had made from scratch himself at his workshop, using drills and vices to create weapons fully capable of firing. An expert pointed out during the trial that one weapon Nugent had produced was in fact 25% more powerful than a factory-produced firearm of similar calibre and style. Detectives got a tip off and discovered the cache, which Nugent had been building over many years Nugent of Coltishall Road, Hornchurch, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court (pictured) yesterday to seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment after police found his stash Also among the cache were a number of deactivated weapons that had been re-activated, while others including a stun gun, an Italian Bruni (BBM) Model ME .38calibre revolver and a Turkish Atak 914- self-loading 9mm pistol had been converted to fire. He had also converted blank ammunition that could be fired. During interview Nugent described himself as 'a gun nut', but said that he had had no intention of firing or selling the weapons. He was bailed and then later released under investigation while further enquiries were conducted. He was charged by postal requisition in October 2019. Detective Superintendent Victoria Sullivan, Specialist Crime, said: 'Though no evidence was found of any associated criminality linked to Nugent's activities, the arsenal he had in his possession was lethal and, in the wrong hands, quite capable of causing incredibly serious harm. 'It's thanks to quick and decisive partnership working with our colleagues in the National Crime Agency, who alerted us to Nugent, that we've been able to bring him to justice here. Nugent had cut cardboard templates before pressing metal to create the weapons, and designed his own firing mechanisms In November 2018 a warrant was executed under the Firearms Act at his home and officers discovered a number of safes 'These efforts were recognised by the judge who commended our investigating officer.' Detective Sergeant Andy Henderson, investigating officer, said: 'This investigation demonstrates how we will seek to arrest and prosecute anyone concerned in the production of dangerous weapons. 'Following the conclusion of criminal proceedings the weapons will now be destroyed. It is sheer luck that Nugent himself managed to avoid serious injury during production; though some appear crude, it is a highly dangerous enterprise, and anyone concerned in similar activities should be well aware of the consequences.' Nugent was charged with the following: Possession prohibited firearm; convert thing/imitation thing into a firearm; possess a firearm of length less than 30cm/ 60cm - prohibited weapon; shorten shotgun barrel - less than 60.96cm/24in; manufacture weapon/ ammunition specified in s5(1) of the Firearms Act 1968; possessing ammunition for a firearm without a certificate; possessing article for use in connection with conversion of imitation firearms. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife, Olena Zelenska, today attended a funeral ceremony for seven senior Interior Ministry officials who died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday 18 January. The helicopter carrying Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky and other senior officials crashed into a nursery school building in a residential suburb in Kyiv, killing all nine on board and nine on the ground. Mr Monastyrsky, who oversaw the country's police and emergency services, is the most senior official killed since Russia invaded Ukraine. At the funeral service in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, President Zelensky and his wife laid flowers on seven coffins draped in flag of Ukraine and spoke to the families. President Zelensky and his wife spoke with families at the funeral service held on Saturday Seven coffins were draped in the blue and yellow flags of Ukraine at the service this weekend Speaking late on Wednesday, the president said that there were 'several' theories being investigated to explain the helicopter crash that killed the country's interior minister and 17 others in Kyiv. He said the crash near a nursery was 'not an accident', calling it a consequence of Vladimir Putin's invasion of his country. When asked whether the crash was an accident, Zelensky said: 'The investigation is ongoing. There are several theories and I'm not authorised to talk about any of them until the investigation is finished.' Ukraine did not claim direct Russian involvement in the helicopter crash, but Zelensky said the tragedy was a consequence of the war. 'There are no accidents at war. These are all war results,' Zelensky said in English, appearing by video link in the Swiss resort town of Davos at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. All nine on board the helicopter died, as well as nine bystanders on the ground below Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky (L) and his deputy Yevhen Yenin (R) died in the crash President Zelensky on Wednesday said that the helicopter crash was a consequence of war Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Filaret, attended the ceremony Zelensky's comments at Davos were echoed by Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of Ukraine's parliament, who spoke after the service. He said: 'All this would not have happened if not for this terrible and undeclared war which the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine. 'Therefore, we must remember this and not forget these people. Because for Ukraine and Ukrainians, every lost life is a great tragedy.' Ukraine loses its Interior Minister, its Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin, and the rest of its ministry's leadership team with the accident. Ukraine made significant gains at the end of last year but finds itself 'in a state of deadlock' as the war approaches its one-year anniversary in February. Ukrainian forces have continued to make some gains in the north east, but have felt setbacks elsewhere as Russian President Vladimir Putin's army has bombarded other parts of Ukraine. The helicopter crash last Wednesday was the second tragedy for Ukraine within four days as a Russian air strike in Dnipro left at least 40 dead last Saturday. Russia last week took the Ukrainian mining town of Soledar, its first tangible victory in several months. Ukraine acknowledged falling back from the contested area earlier this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Volodymyrivna Zelenska pay tribute to victims of the helicopter crash that occurred in Kyiv on 18 January 2023 President Zelensky (C) and his wife Olena (L) lay flowers at coffins draped in Ukraine's flag Military officers and the families of the deceased pictured at a funeral ceremony on Saturday Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attends the funeral ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine Ukraine revealed earlier this week the country is bracing itself for a three-pronged attack from Belarus in the north, as well as the east and the south. US officials also say Ukraine is planning an offensive on its own after a stagnant winter, but has been urged to hold out until the spring when mobility is greater and the country has received more weaponry from the West. US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley expressed strong doubt Friday that Ukraine would succeed in driving Russian troops out its territory this year. Mourners attend a funeral ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday for the crash victims Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk (pictured) spoke after the funeral service 18 died in the crash on 18 January, including Internal Affairs minister Denys Monastyrsky, first deputy Yevhen Yenin, and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Lubkovych A Utah plastic surgeon and some of his staff members have been charged with running an elaborate COVID vaccine scam, where they're accused of ordering thousands of doses of the shots then throwing them out and giving patients fake vaccine cards. In some cases, prosecutors say they even gave saline shots to children at the request of their parents, who wanted them to think they'd been vaccinated when they hadn't. Dr. Michael J. Kirk Moore, 58, has been charged along with nurse Kari Dee Burgoyne, 52, and neighbor Kristin Jackson Andersen, 59. Sandra Flores, 31, another of his staff members, was also charged. Dr. Michael J. Kirk Moore, 58, has been charged along with nurse Kari Dee Burgoyne, 52, and two other women. Federal prosecutors in Utah say they used Dr. Moore's practice - The Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah in Sandy, south of Salt Lake City, to run the scam. It's unclear from the indictment why they ran the alleged scheme; prosecutors do not indicate if any of the defendants are anti-vaxxers themselves, or if they were simply trying to make money. The indictment however claims both Andersen and Moore are members of an unknown organization 'seeking to "liberate" the medical profession from government and industry conflicts of interest.' In total, they sold nearly 2,000 fake vaccine cards for a profit of $96,850. According to the indictment, the group pretended to administer 391 kids shots, 524 adult Pfizer shots, 64 Moderna shots and 958 J&J shots between October 2021 and September 2022. In reality, they poured them down the drain using syringes, prosecutors say. Now, they are all charged with destroying government property. They were indicted earlier this month but the indictment was unsealed this week in a court in Utah. According to the indictment, they took close to 2,000 vaccines that the government paid $28,028 for and poured them down the drains of their offices, then sold fake vaccine cards for $50 each for a total of $96,850 According to the indictment, the group would fill out the cards once patients had sent $50 via Venmo or PayPal using an orange emoji to signal that they were part of the scam It lays out how in 2021, they 'began to notify' people who were seeking a vaccine card but not a vaccine that they would provide it for them. It's unclear if they advertised the service, or if the patients came to them independently. Once inquiries were made, Dr. Moore handed the patient to Burgoyne, who in turn handed them over to Andersen, it's alleged. Patients were asked to text Andersen with the full name of the person who'd referred them. 'We do referral only,' she said in one text to an undercover FBI agent. Once the referral name had been provided, she would instruct patients to send a $50 payment either via Venmo or PayPal, telling them to use an orange emoji in the notes section to signal what it was for. The Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah in Sandy, south of Salt Lake City Once that had been done, prosecutors say she filled out the necessary paperwork and sent it back to the doctor's office. The patient would then allegedly pick their vaccine card up from the office. Two undercover agent went through the process, including one who asked if his children could be given cards too. That agent says Flores wrote on a post-it note 'with 18 & younger, we do a saline shot'. They have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey, and dispose of government property; and conversion, sale, conveyance, and disposal of government property and aiding and abetting. All will go before a judge on January 24th and are facing a maximum of five years in prison. Les membres du gouvernement ont donne leurs accords le 20 janvier 2023 pour la signature dun accord de principe entre ces deux organisations. Cela afin de permettre un cooperation dans le domaine de la surveillance maritime et de la securite de la region du Plateau des Mascareignes. Cabinet has agreed to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Seychelles Coast Guard and the National Coast Guard of Mauritius for cooperation in the field of maritime surveillance and security of the Management Area of the Mascarene Plateau Region. The Memorandum of Understanding would enable cooperation to, inter alia: (a) enforce the sovereign rights of Mauritius and Seychelles over the Joint Management Area; (b) safeguard the natural living and non-living resources pertaining to the seabed and sub-soil of the Joint Management Area; (c) ensure that activities related to natural resources, as defined under the Treaty Concerning the Joint Management of the Continental Shelf in the Mascarene Plateau Region, are carried out so as to secure biodiversity, prevent pollution and other harmful risks to the environment of that area; and (d) organise joint patrols and/or coordinated interventions at sea to prevent or respond to situations affecting maritime surveillance and security in the Joint Management Area. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Tarik Namik, 45, from Oldham, failed to show up at court and was given an eight-year jail term The head of a Kurdish people smuggling ring has been arrested after going on the run ahead of his sentencing, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said. Tarik Namik, 45, from Oldham, failed to show up at Manchester Crown Court and was given an eight-year jail term in his absence on December 9. Four other members of his gang were sentenced alongside him, according to the NCA. The agency said the court had previously heard how Namik became the subject of an NCA investigation in 2017. He headed an organised crime group involved in transporting migrants from Iraq and Iran to the UK hidden in the back of lorries. He was detained as he arrived at Manchester Airport on a flight from Istanbul yesterday. File image Four other members of his gang were sentenced at Manchester Crown Court (pictured) alongside him, according to the NCA A warrant was issued for Namik's arrest after he failed to attend court and he was detained as he arrived at Manchester Airport on a flight from Istanbul yesterday. The NCA said he was due to appear at Manchester Magistrates' Court on Saturday and is likely to return to the crown court on Monday to be formally sentenced. Working with people smugglers abroad, the organised crime group is suspected of smuggling at least 1,900 migrants, who were picked up in the Balkans, into France or Germany during a 50-day period. The gang then offered different means of trying to enter Britain, where the migrants would claim asylum. Alongside Namik, four other men were sentenced - Hajar Ahmed, 39, from Manchester, Soran Saliy, 32, from Stoke, Habil Gider, 54, from Stoke and Hardi Alizada, 32, from Nottingham Alongside Namik, four other men - Hajar Ahmed, 39, from Manchester, Soran Saliy, 32, from Stoke, Habil Gider, 54, from Stoke and Hardi Alizada, 32, from Nottingham - also received sentences ranging from nearly five years to 16 months for their role in the criminal scheme. NCA branch commander Richard Harrison said: 'Namik was a prolific people smuggler whose crime group put vulnerable migrants at great risk while he reaped the profits. 'I'm delighted that he will now face justice for the offences he committed. 'Fugitives never come off our radar, and I'd like to thank our colleagues at Greater Manchester Police for their assistance in ensuring he was detained quickly the moment he set foot back in the UK.' Hundreds of people gathered on the streets of Glasgow today to protest the decision by the UK government to block the Scottish Parliament's transgender reform legislation. Campaigners took part in the Rally for Trans Equality on the steps of the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre in the middle of the city. Demonstrators waved LGBT+ flags and held up signs reading 'trans rights now' and 'God hates Tories'. The Gender Reform Bill, passed by the Scottish Parliament in December, would have made it easier for people to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate before the UK government blocked the law change. Trans rights demonstrators attend a rally on Buchanan Street on January 21, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland Two trans rights demonstrators attend a rally on Buchanan Street on January 21, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland A trans rights demonstrator attends a rally on Buchanan Street on January 21, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland Scottish MPs and MSPs were among the protesters demonstrating against the UK government intervention. Swarms of protesters filled the centre of the city around Buchanan Street from 11am and finished just after 1pm. Demonstrators chanted: 'When trans rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.' Under the legislation change, those aged 16 and 17 could have applied for a Gender Recognition Certificate to be acquired six-months after they had transitioned. But on Monday, Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Jack blocked the reforms made by the Scottish Parliament under Section 35 of the Scotland Act, under grounds that it directly clashed with UK-wide legislation. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack laid out his reasoning on the House of Commons earlier this week, saying that Westminster could not accept the 'adverse' impact on UK-wide equalities law. During his announcement, Scottish MPs gathered on the opposition benches to shout 'shame' at the minister. Swarms of protesters filled the centre of Glasgow around Buchanan Street from 11am and finished just after 1pm, January 21, 2023 Scottish MPs and MSPs were among the protesters demonstrating against the UK government intervention Demonstrators waved LGBT+ flags and held up signs reading 'trans rights now' and 'God hates Tories' Demonstrators chanted: 'When trans rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back' Mr Jack announced: 'The Government has looked closely at the potential impact of the Bill and I've considered all relevant policy and operational implications together with the minister for women and equalities. 'And it is our assessment that the Bill would have a serious adverse impact among other things on the operation of the Equality Act 2010. 'Those adverse effects include impacts on the operation of single-sex clubs, associations and schools and protections such as equal pay.' Supporters of the UK government's intervention on the transgender legislation reform said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was 'weaponising vulnerable children' to aid her ongoing campaign for Scottish independence. But Ms Sturgeon said she will seed a judicial review of the government block, and labelled it a 'full-frontal attack' on Holyrood. Trans rights demonstrators attend a rally on Buchanan Street on January 21, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland Demonstrators filled Buchanan Street in Glasgow on January 21, 2023 At Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak said: 'This Bill would have a significant adverse effect on UK-wide equalities matters, and so the Scottish Secretary, with regret, has rightly acted.' SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn asked Mr Sunak: 'Are we not now on a slippery slope from devolution to direct rule?' The prime minister replied: 'Of course we are not. This is simply about protecting UK-wide legislation; about ensuring the safety of women and children, this is not about the devolution settlement. 'I would urge the honourable gentleman and his party to consider engaging with the UK Government on this Bill, as we did before the legislation passed, so we can find a constructive way forward for the people of Scotland and the United Kingdom.' 'Just another day on TERF island', a sign reads as demonstrators gather in Glasgow, January 21, 2023 Campaigners took part in the Rally for Trans Equality on the steps of the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre in the middle of the city, January 21, 2023 'Trans power', reads a sign as demonstrators gather in Glasgow, January 21, 2023 The co-director of For Women Scotland Susan Smith told Glasgow Live that she welcomed the UK government's intervention. Ms Smith said: 'We have long maintained that the GRR Bill interferes with the operation of the Equality Act across the UK. Throughout evidence sessions, the Scottish Government ignored and dismissed evidenced concerns about the potential impact of opening up this process - not, as they claimed, a simplification or a minor admin change, but a wholesale removal of checks and a granting of new rights under law.' 'They made promises that were not in their gift and, shamefully, failed to protect women, even elevating the rights of sex offenders above those of their victims. They were especially cavalier about contested areas regarding the interaction with the Equality Act and the level of protections granted to GRC holders under section 22. 'Ms Sturgeon famously said our concerns were 'not valid. Supporters of the Bill have been indignant about the possibility that the rest of the UK might refuse to accept Scottish GRCs, even though this, effectively, meant that the devolved parliament at Holyrood would be rewriting equality law across the UK without the consent of their elected representatives.' Trans rights demonstrators attend a rally on Buchanan Street on January 21, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland Benson is accused by others of being a con-artist who uses the mayor for clout A friend of Mayor Eric Adams has been accused of being a fraudster who conned his girlfriend out of thousands threatening to tell her family she had been sleeping with a married man if she tried to sue him. Champagne magnate William Benson, 39, flew insurance executive Stephanie Delpe around the world and showered her in expensive gifts before she realised that he was conning her - handing over more than $188k to the con-man. He approached her at a networking event in Newark in 2016, and bragged that he had just landed on his private jet - before taking her out to luxury celebrity hotspots in New York. Benson also bragged to her that he knew the New York City Mayor - regularly posting him and other celebrities, including DJ Khaled, on his social media. Champagne magnate William Benson, 39, regularly brags on social media that he is friends with New York Mayor Eric Adams He flew insurance executive Stephanie Delpe around the world and showered her in expensive gifts before she realised that he was conning her - handing over more than $188k to the con-man Delpe, who is now married with children, believes that the champagne mogul name-dropped Adams to get people to trust him - with others coming forward and telling the New York Post he had conned them out of money. Benson posted a screenshot of himself FaceTiming with the Mayor with the caption: 'Just two 'Goats' trying to change the world.' He regularly shared photos of the two out to dinner together, with his ex-wife claiming it is part of his way to get potential investors to trust him. Delpe and Benson spent thousands on lavish trips and meals during their year-long relationship, with Benson regularly posting his links to celebrities and his champagne business to keep up appearances. But Delpe claims that he soon started asking her for money, posing it as a 'business investment' into his brand and that she would be reimbursed. She told the New York Post: 'He wooed me out of my savings. That's what happened. Benson posted a screenshot of himself FaceTiming with the Mayor with the caption: 'Just two 'Goats' trying to change the world' last year Delpe and Benson spent thousands on lavish trips and meals during their year-long relationship, with Benson regularly posting his links to celebrities and his champagne business to keep up appearances 'He told me, "You're so intelligent. You should be doing things for yourself and invest your money for profit." 'It was really exciting and I thought we were doing something together. He asked me for somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 and when I said that sounded like a lot of money, he said it would be an investment. 'He'd double my money.I had really good credit so I was able to access a lot of cash.' Delpe took out money from her 401k and savings accounts and got advances on her credit cards to give the money to Benson. She received a letter outlining the agreement from Billionaires Row, but grew concerned as to why he needed money from her. The insurance executive decided to invest after Benson told her he landed a deal with IMG, a global sports, talent and events company. His close relationship with the mayor also convinced his now ex-wife to invest $500,000 on 2010 to launch Billionaire Row Delpe took out money from her 401k and savings accounts and got advances on her credit cards to give the money to Benson The insurance executive decided to invest after Benson told her he landed a deal with IMG, a global sports, talent and events company He claimed that he would be sponsoring New York Fashion Week's February and September shows - but was sued by IMG after he failed to cough up the sponsorship cash. The lawsuit states that eh agreed to pay $200,000 and give at least 40 cases for each show during the two periods. Documents show that the cases were sent to the February shows, but the company only paid $45,000 of the $100,000 sponsorship fee it owed for the first half of the year. A judge ruled in October 2019 that the champagne company needed to pay back $182,000 to IMG - which has not been repaid. Billionaires Row reportedly still owes IMG $155,000 according to the lawsuit, but the big name was enough to get Delpe on board. Pictured with Benson Delpe also claimed that she forked out thousands for Benson to buy clothing for himself to 'look the part' as well as flying on jets Benson also bragged to her that he knew the New York City Mayor - regularly posting him and other celebrities, including DJ Khaled, on his social media Billionaires Row reportedly still owes IMG $155,000 according to the lawsuit, but the big name was enough to get Delpe on board. She said: 'Once I gave him the money, he must have thought, 'This girl is an idiot' because he came back for more. 'He told me it wasn't enough, and IMG was about to cancel the deal, and we didn't want to lose the initial investment. 'I thought, if you have this great company and you're making all this money, why do you need my money? Because there were times when it went beyond the investment. He'd tell me his money was tied up with the divorce proceedings. 'There was a $350 charge from a grocery store where I thought someone had stolen my credit cards. He said, 'Well, I need to feed my family.' Delpe also claimed that she forked out thousands for Benson to buy clothing for himself to 'look the part' as well as flying on jets. She added that when their relationship ended, she asked for her money back, with Benson telling her that it was a 'gift' and if she tried to sue him she would tell her family that she was sleeping with a married man. The pair have yet to finalize their divorce, with Danni saying: 'That's William's credibility. He says, 'I know the mayor.' He uses him to his advantage' A publicist for Benson said that he and his attorneys are 'not aware' of a lawsuit or judgement from IMG, adding that he 'founded and funded' the business with his then-wife Danni She added that when their relationship ended, she asked for her money back, with Benson telling her that it was a 'gift' and if she tried to sue him she would tell her family that she was sleeping with a married man Delphe added: 'It was kind of exciting to hop on a private jet and go places and be involved in things that definitely appealed to me,' she said. 'I didn't realize until later on that I was funding it. 'I would hate to see this happen to someone else and know that I could have done something to stop it but didn't.' A publicist for Benson said that he and his attorneys are 'not aware' of a lawsuit or judgement from IMG, adding that he 'founded and funded' the business with his then-wife Danni. His close relationship with the mayor also convinced his now ex-wife to invest $500,000 on 2010 to launch Billionaire Row. The pair have yet to finalize their divorce, with Danni saying: 'That's William's credibility. He says, 'I know the mayor.' He uses him to his advantage.' Eight others have also claimed that Benson has conned them out of their money, with one former colleague saying he failed to show up for business meetings - adding: 'The brand never grew beyond its flashy social media presence.' Benson also launched BR Electric, which claimed on its website to retrofit gas-powered vehicles into electric ones and listed 'NYC, Office of the Mayor' as a project partner. A spokesman for Adams said in a statement that 'neither the Mayor's Office, nor any other city agency, has any partnership with BR Electric or William Benson.' Photos on Benson's now private instagram page reveal images of him posing with the mayor, including kissing his head on a night out in Casa Cipriani. After he won election as mayor, Benson posted a video saying 'I just want to say I love you. Cheers to the next mayor of New York City.' The 72-year-old Kentucky grandmother who was killed by a falling Denny's sign had just picked up her dying husband from the hospital when tragedy struck. Lillian Mae Curtis, her husband Lloyd Eugene Curtis Sr., 77, and their daughter Mary Graham, 58, were believed to be stopping for food on Thursday afternoon when the 2,600lb sign fell on their car amid 50 mph gusts in Elizabethtown. The family had just picked up Lloyd from the UofL Hospital, where he had been recovering from heart surgery. The grandfather was in hospice and given just three months to live by doctors, KVUE reports. Lillian and Lloyd's grandchildren said they were dumbfounded by the tragedy that robbed their grandparents of the little time they had left together. 'It's definitely not something you can truly wrap your mind around,' Mary Howard, Graham's daughter, told the outlet. 'I don't know that the shock has worn off - or the fact that we're going to go home and life is going to continue without her.' Lillian Mae Curtis (left) was with her husband Lloyd Eugene Curtis Sr. (right) and daughter Mary Graham when a Denny's sign fell on them, killing the grandmother. The sign fell amid high winds in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, on Thursday, with emergency responders rushing to the scene to pull the victims out Lillian, 72, had just picked up Lloyd from the hospital following heart surgery. The 77-year-old was in hospice and was given only three months to live Lillian, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, was immediately crushed by the falling sign. The grandmother was trapped in the vehicle and had to be extracted from the vehicle by emergency workers. Her granddaughter, Amy Nichols, told WDRB News her head wound had been 'catastrophic' and 'inoperable.' Howard told KVUE that her grandmother's death had been 'absolutely instantaneous and that there was no way her body could have felt any pain.' Lloyd had been rushed to hospital with fluid in his lungs and was waiting to be transferred back to the Jewish Hospital. Graham, who had been driving, sustained five broken ribs and a concussion, but has since been discharged from hospital. The family has now rushed to Lloyd's side as they fear he and Graham are traumatized over Lillian's death. She and Lloyd were married for more than 50 years and have more than a dozen great-grandchildren. Family members took solace in that Lilian's death was instantaneous Loved ones fear Lilian's husband and daughter will be traumatized as they witnessed her die Horrifying pictures show the destroyed car after the freak accident, which Elizabethtown Police are investigating. Elizabethtown Police spokesman Chris Denham said he was shocked by the accident. 'I've never seen anything like this,' Denham said. 'It's certainly very windy out here and I'm certain that did have a factor and was involved in this.' Crews removing the sign from the scene said it weighed about 2,600 pounds, approximately the weight of a small car. There had been gusts of wind of up to 50mph in the surrounding area at the time of the accident. A dramatic video captured the moment the 2,600 lbs sign was knocked down by the wind. It fell and crushed the car Mrs Curtis was sat in The family was believed to have stopped for a meal when tragedy struck Mrs Curtis's granddaughter, Amy Nichols, paid tribute online and said she didn't know how her family would cope without her. 'This woman right here my beautiful nanny Lillian Mae Curtis was the matriarch of our family she was the strongest woman I have ever seen in my life. 'I don't know how myself or my family can even begin to live in a cold world without her in it. 'She was my biggest supporter in life and always had me when nobody else did. I am so lost right now I can't even function,' Amy Nichols said. 'She was my Nanny, she was my second momma, she was everything to me. I would give my life to have her back. 'I love you so much nanny. I just want to hug you again and smell your cologne and tell you I love you. How do I say goodbye to you I wish it would of been me in that backseat not you. I just want you back.' She has launched a GoFundMe to raise money for her grandmother's memorial service. Denny's said it was aware of the incident and was working with the authorities to understand what caused the accident. 'Safety is our top priority, and we are working with the authorities to better understand what led to this situation. Our thoughts are with all of those involved.' Her fiance Craig McKinnon, 24, said that 'part of him died with' Ms Prinsloo A young woman has died just four days after getting engaged on a romantic holiday in South Africa after using the wrong spoon to stir her tea. Jess Prinsloo, 24, is thought to have died as a result of her acute dairy allergy just days after her partner Craig McKinnon, also 24, proposed at the God's Window viewpoint in Mpumalanga on December 27. After saying yes, marketing executive Jess, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, celebrated with her fiance for several days before travelling to her mother's house in Johannesburg on December 30. But after coming into contact with dairy, she went into anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction in which the throat closes up, and died the following day in hospital, the Mirror reports. Jess Prinsloo, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, died just four days after her boyfriend James McKinnon proposed to her on a dream holiday to South Africa Ms Prinsloo, 24, was pictured crying with joy after the proposal on December 27, 2022 Her friends and family have paid tribute to a 'beautiful, fun-loving' young woman who 'lit up every room she walked into.' In a heartbreaking post on social media, Mr McKinnon wrote: Its difficult to find clarity in today, the worst day of my life. 'But a point I have never been clearer on, the 3+ years I got with my Jess are irreplaceable, and I wouldnt trade them for 60 years with any other person on earth. 'I am devastated, and feeling pain like Ive never felt before, but anyone that spent time in her company knows what I mean when I say I have been blessed to call her my fiancee [for] the greatest three days of my life.' The couple met while at university in 2019, and they then moved into together in 2021. Ms Prinsloo had many family members in South Africa, but had not been back for six years, Mr McKinnon said - so he knew there was no better place to propose. He told the Mirror: 'The look on her face it meant everything.' She was so excited by the proposal that she updated her followers on her social media accounts that very day, to be inundated with messages from friends and family. The next post on her Facebook page was to share the devastating news that she was in a 'critical condition' in hospital. Despite her care to carry two EpiPens with her at all times following several 'near-misses', both failed Ms Prinsloo during her reaction. Mr McKinnon said: 'When Jess died, a part of me died too but there is no one to blame for her passing away.' He described being woken up by her brother, Darren, and told she was having a particularly bad reaction after the EpiPen 'wasn't having the effect it usually has.' She was rushed to hospital, but despite doctors' best efforts, they were unable to save her. Ms Prinsloo had been having allergic since she was just nine months old, and even had to be resuscitated after coming into contact with dairy in a curry at the age of 18. The couple spent four happy days celebrating their engagement before tragedy struck Mr McKinnon proposed at a famous beauty spot named God's Window, in the country his fiance had not been to in six years The couple met in 2019 at university, and then moved in together after lockdown in 2021 Mr McKinnon told the Mirror: 'Another time, she ordered a vegan dessert which shouldn't have had dairy and she needed antihistamines, an EpiPen and a hospital trip. I haven't eaten dairy for about three years because it just wasn't worth the risk.' After her death, he was charged 3,700 in medical bills and a further 1,200 in coroner fees. Mr McKinnon and Ms Prinsloo's family set up a GoFundMe to cover the cost of the medical and funeral bills. A statement on the page read: 'Our beautiful, fun loving Jess recently passed away on 31/12/2022. 'Jess was an impeccable daughter, sister, niece, friend and most recently Fiance. She lit up every room she walked into and touched the lives of everyone she met. 'If youve ever met Jess you would probably know what her go to fun fact about herself is, shes allergic to milk. 'While she was on the holiday of a lifetime in South Africa she experienced an allergic reaction. While at hospital Jess tried her best to pull through she passed in peace late that night. 'All of the years we had Jess will get us through the years that we wont.' Mr McKinnon arrived back in the UK with her ashes on Monday. Police have been granted further time to question a man arrested on suspicion of a terror offence after he was allegedly seen with a suspected firearm and a suspicious package at a hospital's maternity wing. The 27-year-old man from Leeds is being held at a police station in West Yorkshire and being interviewed by officers. Wards on the Gledhow wing of St James's Hospital in Leeds were evacuated after the suspect was detained at around 5am on Friday. He was initially arrested on suspicion of firearms and explosives offences, but police later said he was re-arrested on Friday evening under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Army specialists attended the scene and a cordon was put in place, but it had been lifted by late Friday evening Police confirmed a 27-year-old man has now been arrested on terror charges in connection with the incident after being detained on Friday Counter Terrorism Policing North East said a warrant of further detention was granted on Saturday by Westminster Magistrates' Court, giving officers until Friday to hold and further interview the man. Police said there are 'extensive inquiries ongoing to establish the full circumstances, and explore any potential motivation'. The armed man was spotted behaving suspiciously by a passer-by, who may have foiled a terror attack after alerting police. A large section of the hospital was evacuated after police arrested the 27-year-old after he was allegedly seen with a firearm and a suspicious package at the hospital's maternity wing. In an update on Friday evening, Counter Terrorism Policing North East said: 'The 27-year-old man, who has remained in custody since his arrest this morning, has this evening been re-arrested under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000; on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.' Counter terrorism police arrested the man on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism after he was seen lurking in the grounds of St James's Hospital in Leeds in the freezing cold. In a chilling echo of the bomb blast outside Liverpool Women's Hospital in 2021, the suspect, said to be armed with a BB gun and a viable explosive device, was seen loitering outside the maternity unit known as the Gledhow Wing at 5am yesterday. His suspicious behaviour in the darkness is said to have alerted the concern of a passerby who asked what he was doing before deciding to raise the alarm. A major investigation is now underway into the suspect who is not thought to be known to police. Police were searching three properties overnight in connection with the case. The cordon at the scene has been lifted, but searches continue to be carried out at premises in Leeds. Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Dunkerley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: 'This is being treated as an isolated incident and there is no evidence to suggest there is any heightened or ongoing risk to the public. 'Nevertheless, the UK threat level remains at Substantial and we would always encourage the public to be vigilant and to report any suspicious activity or behaviour to police in confidence on 0800 789 321 or at gov.uk/ACT.' The Gledhow wing is home to the majority of the hospital's maternity services, as well as some respiratory and bereavement services. CTP North East said a suspect from Leeds has been arrested in connection with the incident. Pictured: Bomb disposal unit at the scene St James's Hospital in Leeds was evacuated as a bomb squad and army specialists entered the building Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) North East said wards on the Gledhow wing of St James's Hospital in Leeds were evacuated after the suspect was detained at around 5am on Friday People were asked to avoid the entrance to the maternity wing on Friday, after some ward areas were evacuated to keep 'patients and staff safe'. Superintendent Dan Wood, of West Yorkshire Police, said on Friday morning: 'This incident was brought to a safe conclusion by the work of the emergency services, and a man has been arrested in connection with it and remains in custody. 'We are continuing to liaise with our counter terrorism colleagues as they progress their investigation. 'We recognise that an incident of this nature will cause understandable public concern and we are linking with our partner agencies and key community representatives to reassure them and keep them informed.' Confirming the critical incident at the hospital had been stood down, Steve Bush, medical director at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: 'Patients who were evacuated are being moved back to their wards. 'It may be some time before we are back to business as usual in these areas, so please bear with us. 'Unfortunately some patient appointments were cancelled as a result of today's incident and we would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused - these will be rearranged as soon as possible.' In a statement the CTP North East said: 'At approximately 5am this morning, a 27-year-old man from Leeds was arrested on suspicion of firearms and explosives offences, after being found in possession of a suspected firearm and a suspicious device in the hospital grounds. He was detained for questioning and remains in custody at this time. 'There is not believed to be any ongoing risk to public safety. A cordon remains in place as a precautionary measure, but has now been reduced to facilitate greater access to the hospital. Specialist teams continue to work at the scene. 'Searches of a vehicle and a number of premises are ongoing. 'Counter Terrorism Policing North East has now taken responsibility for leading this investigation. Extensive enquiries are underway to establish the full circumstances of the incident and any potential motivation. Army specialists and a bomb disposal unit attended the scene and a cordon was put in place as a 'precautionary measure' Police said extensive inquiries are under way to establish the full circumstances of the incident and any potential motivation 'This is being treated as an isolated incident at this time. 'We ask that people continue to use alternative entrances to the hospital. The Emergency Department at St James's remains open, and patients are asked to attend outpatient appointments as normal unless contacted otherwise.' Jimmy's hospital became embedded in popular culture in the late 1980s after starring on the eponymously named television show revealing the colourful behind the scenes stories at Britain's then largest general hospital. First broadcast in September 1987, the show amassed a cult following, at its peak reaching 10 million viewers, for its frank insights into the workings of one of Europe's largest teaching hospitals. Muslim extremists who threaten people they accuse of blasphemy must be targeted by counter-terrorism operatives, a landmark Government report will recommend. Tackling so-called 'blasphemy violence' will be a key recommendation in the long-awaited report on Prevent, the Government's flagship counter-terrorism programme, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. In Islam, it is considered blasphemy to depict the Prophet Muhammad or any members of his close family and among hardliners, the punishment for such an act is death. The report, by former Charity Commission chief William Shawcross, will urge Prevent teams to tackle imams and Muslim leaders who accuse teachers, writers and others of blasphemy. Muslim extremists who threaten people they accuse of blasphemy must be targeted by counter-terrorism operatives, a landmark Government report will recommend. Tackling so-called 'blasphemy violence' will be a key recommendation in the long-awaited report on Prevent, the Government's flagship counter-terrorism programme, The Mail on Sunday can reveal The report by William Shawcross (pictured) will urge Prevent teams to tackle imams and Muslim leaders who accuse teachers, writers and others of blasphemy It is the first time that an official Prevent report will identify Islamic 'blasphemy violence' as an extremist problem in Britain. A teacher at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire had to go into hiding with his family after he showed his class drawings of the Prophet Muhammad in 2021. The incident led to weeks of protests outside the school, spurred on by hardline imams. The teacher is still in hiding. Last year, after Islamic groups protested about the film Lady Of Heaven, its executive producer Malik Shlibak received death threats and cinema chain Cineworld stopped showing it amid fears for staff safety. Teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by extremists outside his school near Paris in 2020 after showing cartoons of the Prophet that had featured in the magazine, Charlie Hebdo, which was attacked by terrorists in 2015. One well-placed source said: 'After the Batley incident, the cinema row, the killing of Samuel Paty, we saw Salman Rushdie getting attacked in the US. This means this blasphemy issue needs to be addressed.' The source said that if a pupil says blasphemy carries the death sentence in Islam, and shows other signs of extremism, that student is likely to be referred to Prevent, under the new proposal. The overhaul of Prevent has been delayed by 'woke' civil servants who have objected to suspected extremists being named in the Shawcross report. Mr Shawcross will recommend that Prevent goes back to its core principle of stopping individuals becoming terrorists, and not be an 'arm of social services'. He will also say that those prone to extremism are no longer referred to as 'vulnerable', but 'susceptible'. A source said: 'This is important, as 'vulnerable' implies being a passive victim.' It will also be recommended that Border Force, immigration and Job Centre staff be added to the list of those required to report to Prevent someone they suspect of harbouring extreme views. 'Prevent should not be part of social services' A Home Office spokesman said: The Government is currently reviewing the recommendations of the Independent Review and will publish the report and our response in due course. It is only right that the Government takes the time to prepare and deliver a considered response. A Morgan Stanley banker is suing his estranged wife for $7million, claiming she forced him out of his job by harassing him with abusive emails that his bosses had access to, falsely accusing him of sleeping with prostitutes and contracting STDs as a result. Jean-Charles Beriau, 47, and his estranged orthodontist wife, Thea Shive, 65, are in the midst of a bitter divorce battle in Long Island. He claims that after their marriage started to break down in 2018, she bombarded him with emails while he was in his old job at Merrill Lynch, falsely accusing him of sleeping with prostitutes. She also allegedly contacted his new clients and told them he was being investigated for securities fraud. Jean-Charles Beriau, 47, and his estranged orthodontist wife, Thea Shive, 65, are in the midst of a bitter divorce battle in Long Island. Shive is shown, right, in 2014 In the emails, Shive - who previously ran an orthodontics practice in Queens - also claimed he was seeking treatment for 'herpes, syphilis, trichomoniasis and various other problems,' according to documents obtained by The New York Post. Because his superiors had access to his emails, as is common practice in finance, he says the allegations forced him to leave. There is no greater proof of your severe mental illness than the fact you continue to use my address when you get treatment for STDs He also claims they prompted an investigation at his new job. It's unclear what prompted their divorce. The pair were married in 2005 and lived in exclusive Oyster Bay, an affluent Long Island suburb, in a modest house near the water. Beriau's attorney pleaded with a judge to help them resolve the divorce amicably, but says his wife continues to abuse him, despite an order which forbids her from making contact. Beriau in one of his many hunting trophy photos. He frequently travels to Africa to hunt big game The couple had been living together in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Their marital home is pictured In one of the emails, she is said to have told him: '[It] seems like you dont want a divorce and are dragging it out, to no end. 'I will never take you back, you are gross. I know you have bipolar disorder and traumatic brain injury and are not capable of rational thought.' In another, she spewed: 'There is no greater proof of your severe mental illness than the fact you continue to use my address when you get treatment for STDs'. His attorney pleaded with a court that the emails were filled with made up claims. 'The contents of the emails were entirely fabricated and false. 'Those emails to him were out of left field. And hes a very patient, very professional gentleman that thought that this would de-escalate, but it didnt,' Karen McGuire, his attorney, said. Now, Beriau lives in a $4,350-a-month bachelor pad in New York City 'He wanted to respectfully separate from his wife. This didnt have to go like this, but it did,' she added. A Flicker account shows Beriau, an avid big game hunter, posing with some of his kills during trips to Africa. He now lives in a $4,350-a-month Manhattan bachelor pad. Neither Shive nor her attorneys have commented on his court claims. Beriau worked at Merrill Lynch for 16 years before moving to Morgan Stanley in May last year. The private plane used by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to be replaced with a new jet that boasts an upgraded 'XXL lavatory' and 'increased VIP wardrobe'. The Prime Minister and members of the Royal family use an RAF Voyager (Airbus A330) and lease an Airbus A321 from Titan Airways. The smaller plane, featuring the red, white and blue of the Union flag, will be swapped with a like-for-like replacement, including the upgrades, by December. At no extra cost, the supplier will provide a toilet that is '30in wider than [the] existing XL lavatory' in the VIP cabin, a full-length mirror and changing bench, The Times reported. The private plane used by Rishi Sunak on prime ministerial business is set to be replaced with a new jet that boasts an upgraded 'XXL lavatory' and 'increased VIP wardrobe' The Prime Minister and members of the Royal family use an RAF Voyager (Airbus A330) and lease an Airbus A321 from Titan Airways The plane contract has been extended until 2027 and the aircraft will also feature an 'increased VIP wardrobe', extra partitions and two conference tables. The Airbus A321 is used when officials are making short- or medium-haul trips to destinations in Europe and the US East Coast. The larger RAF Voyager - an Airbus A330 - is used when ministers are flying even further afield. Britain does not have a prime ministerial plane used solely by Downing Street. Unlike the US President, who flies in Air Force One, the Prime Minister is not the Head of State. A Cabinet Office spokesman told MailOnline: 'This is an update to a contract for the lease of a plane used [for] official visits. 'There will be no change in the annual cost to the taxpayer.' The interior of the Voyager had a 10million makeover in 2016, when David Cameron was prime minister. Following the makeover, RAF Voyager was first used to take David Cameron and other ministers to the Nato summit in Poland in July 2016. It comes as Mr Sunak faced criticism this week for using air travel across the UK. He defended his use of an RAF jet to fly 250 miles to northern England on Thursday. As he embarked on a tour of northern England to promote Government help for deprived areas, Mr Sunak flew from RAF Northolt, north west London, to Blackpool. His choice of a posh jet reserved for VIPs was the third time he had used an RAF aircraft in 10 days. All three of those journeys were to parts of Britain with mainline train links to London. Last week, he flew to Edinburgh to see Nicola Sturgeon and also used a jet to travel to Leeds to visit an NHS unit for a photo op. Number 10 posted pictures online last week showing the PM boarding the French-made executive jet, which can carry 14 people, to visit Leeds Appearing at a Q&A event in Morecambe to promote the latest allocations from the Government's 'Levelling Up' fund, the PM was quizzed about his choice of plane travel at taxpayers' expense Appearing at a Q&A event in Morecambe to promote the latest allocations from the Government's 'Levelling Up' fund, the PM was quizzed about his choice of plane travel at taxpayers' expense. 'I travel around so I can do lots of things in one day, I'm not travelling around just for my own enjoyment although this is very enjoyable, of course,' Mr Sunak said. 'I'm travelling around so I can talk to people in Accrington this morning, then I've talked to you, then I'm going to get over to Hartlepool because I'm working on all of your behalves. 'Trust me, I'm working as hard as I can to deliver for you and I travel to make myself as effective as possible.' The 41-minute flight allowed Mr Sunak to avoid using the Avanti West Coast Mainline train service, which has been much criticised in recent months for horrific performance and punctuality. An 8.30am train from Euston could have got the PM to Morecambe at 10.25am, if running on time. No10 denied Mr Sunak chose to fly in order to avoid the trains, but Tory MP Mark Jenkinson, whose seat is in Cumbria, defended the flight by saying it would be 'madness' for the PM to take an 'unreliable' rail service. The ministerial code says ministers should 'ensure that they always make efficient and cost-effective travel arrangements'. It adds: 'Only members of the Cabinet and ministers in charge of departments have discretion to authorise special flights either for themselves or other ministers within their departments. 'Non-scheduled flights may be authorised when a scheduled service is not available, or when it is essential to travel by air, but the requirements of official or Parliamentary business or security considerations preclude the journey being made by a scheduled service.' An Antifa terrorist who was arrested during a raid that left a protester dead and a Georgia State Trooper 'seriously injured' is a 'brand ambassador' who worked for fitness guru Les Mills. Sarah Wasilewski, 35, was one of seven activists arrested at the future $90million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in a 'clearing operation' on Wednesday. Self-confessed 'brand ambassador' Wasilewski appears to have travelled from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her boyfriend and fellow extremist Spencer Liberto, 29. Liberto and another native Pennslyvanian Matt Macar, 30, along with Geoffrey Parson, 20, of Baltimore, TImothy Murphy, 25, of Maine, Christopher Reynolds, 31, of Ohio and Terese Yue Shen, 31, of New York were all arrested on domestic terrorism charges. Sarah Wasilewski, 35, was one of seven activists arrested at the future $90million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in a 'clearing operation' on Wednesday She appears to have travelled from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her boyfriend and fellow extremist Spencer Liberto, 29 Wasilewski was charged with domestic terrorism and aggravated assault of an officer, and follows extremist accounts on twitter which were calling for the murder of cops following the shooting. The University of Pittsburgh graduate appears to have only been at the autonomous zone with Liberto for a number of weeks according to her social media. It is unclear if Liberto, a long time left-wing radicalist, or Wasilewski have any links with Matt Macar who is also from Pennsylvania. She previously worked as aIncome Maintenance County Caseworker for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania before travelling to support the Antifa movement, leaving her $200,000 home behind. Prior to that she was a Group Fitness Instructor for Les Mills US for two years until the pandemic. Wasilewski studied a bachelors in Communication and Rhetoric at the University of Pittsburgh before travelling to the University of New South Wales fro a study abroad group . Both Liberto and Wasilewski regularly post loved up snaps of them on social media, often spending weekends outside but don't appear to have publicly supported Antifa before During the multi-agency operation GBI said approximately 25 campsites were located and removed from the site. Seven others were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism and criminal trespass, with additional charges pending (pictured) Wasilewski was charged with domestic terrorism and aggravated assault of an officer, and follows extremist accounts on twitter which were calling for the murder of cops following the shooting There she went on several 'environmental tree-planting trips' - though it is unclear when she was radicalized and started supporting the movement. She also worked as a patient Liaison for the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh UPMC for three years. Both Liberto and Wasilewski regularly post loved up snaps of them on social media, often spending weekends outside but don't appear to have publicly supported Antifa before. Since June 2021, Antifa and other far-left extremists from across the US have occupied the area to prevent the construction of what they've dubbed 'cop city.' It comes after Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, 26, was shot dead after allegedly opening fire at a Georgia State Patrol trooper during a 'clearing operation'. She previously worked as aIncome Maintenance County Caseworker for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania before travelling to support the Antifa movement, leaving her $200,000 home behind She followed groups which called for a 'Night of Rage' and bloodshed against the police following the shooting threatening to enact 'reciprocal violence' against the authorities Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, 26, (pictured) was shot and killed after a Georgia State trooper was shot at in a 'clearing operation' The Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) said a Georgia State Patrol trooper was shot and severely injured during the raid by a man camped in the area. Officers returned fire and killed the gunman, who allegedly used a pistol. During the multi-agency operation GBI said approximately 25 campsites were located and removed from the site. Additionally, mortar style fireworks, multiple edged weapons, pellet rifles, gas masks, and a blow torch were recovered. Three people contacted in connection with the materials were asked to provide their names to authorities and then let go. Activists previously called for a 'Night of Rage' and bloodshed against the police following the shooting threatening to enact 'reciprocal violence' against the authorities. The state trooper was wearing a bulletproof vest when he was shot in the abdomen on Wednesday morning and is in a stable condition after undergoing surgery Wasilewski's Twitter account shows she follows some Antifa groups and the '@defendatlantaforest' account, which is the main social media group representing the autonomous zone They are also angrily rejecting claims that the protestor who was killed shot at police first, and even claim that the trooper was shot in 'friendly fire' The protestors, who call themselves forest defenders, are claiming that the police have 'murdered' one of their own and are demanding 'action'. In a statement posted on social media, the Scenes from the Atlanta Forest account said: 'A call for retaliation. Consider this a call for reciprocal violence to be done to the police and their allies. 'On Friday, January 20th, wherever you are, you are invited to participate in a night of rage in order to honor the memory of our fallen comrade.' In several posts sweeping social media, they claim that the police are 'lying' and 'refusing to release bodycam footage' of the incident. They are also angrily rejecting claims that the protestor who was killed shot at police first, and even claim that the trooper was shot in 'friendly fire'. Some 'anonymous' members of the Atlanta Forest Defenders appeared in an Open Society Foundations-sponsored story about the autonomous zone in The Guardian. Additionally, mortar style fireworks, multiple edged weapons, pellet rifles, gas masks, and a blow torch were recovered The protestors, who call themselves forest defenders, are claiming that the police have 'murdered' one of their own and are demanding 'action' Protestors are claiming that the police are 'lying' and are rejecting the narrative that one of their own shot at officers - despite members being arrested on 'domestic terrorism' charges Four other protesters were arrested at the scene and taken to DeKalb County Jail and have not been identified George Soros is the chairman of the OSF, and has given away more than $32billion of his personal fortune to fund the group. Soros is one of the world's best-known philanthropists, and is also known for funding many of the woke district attorneys whose policies have been blamed for soaring violent crime across the US. In May, eight militants were arrested after police patrolling the land were assaulted and pelted with rocks and Molotov cocktails. Five people were arrested on December 13 for allegedly polotting terror attacks at the soon-to-be police academy. Serena Hertel, 25, of California, Leonard Voiselle, 20, of Macon, Georgia, Nicholas Dean Olson, 25, of Bennington, Nebraska, Francis M. Carroll, 22, of Kennebunkport, Maine and Arieon Robinson, 21, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were arrested. Nicholas Olsen (left) was charged with domestic terrorism, aggravated assault, interference with government property and obstruction. Serena Hertel (right) , 25, has been charged with criminal trespass, domestic terrorism, aggravated assault, obstruction, and inciting a riot Francis Carroll is the son of a millionaire Maine surgeon who grew up in a stunning mansion in one of the most luxurious beach towns on the east coast, DailyMail.com previously revealed Arieon Robinson (left) was charged with criminal trespass, obstruction, and domestic terrorism, while Leonard Vioselle (right) was charged with criminal trespass, domestic terrorism, and possession of tools of the crime DailyMail.com previously revealed that Carroll is the son of surgeon Dr Mike Carroll and grew up in a $2million five-bedroom and four-bathroom mansion in Kennebunkport as well as enjoying time on his parents' yacht. Left-wing groups used Twitter to fundraise bail for suspects after another six were arrested in August charged with various crimes from burglary to criminal damage. Members of the group tried to burn a man to death after he drove into the area, and he was forced to run for his life after they torched it with him still in it. After their members were arrested the Defend the Atlanta Forest group held a protest outside of Dekalb County Jail and let off explosive fireworks. The Atlanta Jail Support, a project of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, also issued calls to fundraise bail money for the terror suspects using Twitter. Convictions of domestic terrorism carry with it sentences of anywhere between five and 35 years in prison. Le gouvernement a pris la decision doctroyer une aide financiere aux petites et moyenne entreprises pour le paiement de la compensation salariale incluant le bonus pour 2023. Cabinet has agreed to: (a) the provision, for the period January 2023 to December 2023, of a monthly financial assistance for payment of salary compensation 2023, including end of year bonus: (i) of an amount of Rs300 per employee of an export-oriented enterprise, including an expatriate employee, deriving a basic wage not exceeding Rs51,635 monthly; and (ii) of an amount of Rs250 or Rs500 per employee of an eligible small and medium enterprise deriving a basic wage not exceeding Rs51,775 monthly; and (b) the waiving of the outstanding penalties and arrears of the COVID-19 Levy. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires The Guggenheim museum is facing a lawsuit from a Jewish family who say that their ancestors were taken advantage of by a renowned art dealer after he bought a painting by Pablo Picasso from them as they were escaping the Nazis in 1938. The 1904 work by the Spanish artist, Woman Ironing (La repasseuse), was given to the Guggenheim in 1978 by the family of art dealer Justin Thannhauser who bought the painting from Karl and Rosi Adler as the couple was attempting to flee to South America. It's now estimated to be worth between $100 million and $200 million. According to the lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan Supreme Court, Thannhauser, a lifelong friend of Picasso's, paid the Adlers $1,552 for the painting, equivalent to about $30,000 today. Thannhauser's family gave the painting for free to the Guggenheim Foundation in 1976. The lawsuit, filed by the Adler's relatives, including their grandchildren, say that the couple would never have sold for that price had they not been facing persecution, according to the New York Post. In 2012, a New York Times article called Woman Ironing 'one of the [Guggenheim museum's] most prized possessions.' According to the Guggenheim's website, Picasso 'imbued his subject with a poetic, almost spiritual presence, making her a metaphor for the misfortunes of the working poor' According to the lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan Supreme Court, Justin Thannhauser, shown here, paid the Adlers $1,552 for the painting The family say that the painting is 'in the wrongful possession of the Guggenheim.' The lawsuit estimates the painting to be worth somewhere between $100 and $200 million. The Adler family bought the painting from Thannhauser's father, Heinrich, in 1916 in Munich. Following the rise of Hitler, the Adlers saw their lives 'shattered' when Hitler rose to power. During that period, Karl Adler looked into selling the painting, seeking $14,000, around $300,000 in today's money, for the work, but ultimately he opted to keep it. Less than a year before World War II began, in 1938, the couple found themselves with no choice other than to sell as a result of the Nazi's policies stripping them of the jobs and opportunities. They sold the painting back to Thannhauser for just $1,552, around $32,000 in 2023 money. Later, Thannhauser fled his homeland and settled in New York. He gifted the Picasso, and many other works to the Guggenheim, upon his death in 1976. The couple left Germany and spent time bouncing around Europe even as World War II broke out. In 1940, the gained passage to Argentina. In 2012, a New York Times article called Woman Ironing 'one of the [Guggenheim museum's] most prized possessions' One section of the lawsuit reads: 'Thannhauser was buying comparable masterpieces from other German Jews who were fleeing from Germany and profiting from their misfortune. 'Thannhauser was well aware of the plight of Adler and his family, and that, absent Nazi persecution, Adler would never have sold the painting when he did at such a price,' according to the Post. Rosi Adler died in 1946 in Buenos Aires and Karl died at the age of 85 in 1957 while back in Germany. It took until now for the family to realize that they could attempt to claim the painting back. The lawsuit cites the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016 as legal footing for the return of the painting. According to the Guggenheim's website, Picasso 'imbued his subject with a poetic, almost spiritual presence, making her a metaphor for the misfortunes of the working poor.' Picasso painted the work in 1904 at the age of 22. The New York Times reported in 1978 that Woman Ironing was given to the Guggenheim alongside van Gogh's Mountains at SaintRemy, Manet's Woman Before a Mirror and two paintings by Renoir The New York Times reported in 1978 that Woman Ironing was given to the Guggenheim alongside van Gogh's Mountains at SaintRemy, Manet's Woman Before a Mirror and two paintings by Renoir. The piece makes reference to Woman Ironing being displayed in Munich in 1913 in what was the first public retrospective of Picasso's work. The article also refers to Thannhauser collecting artwork around the time of the Nazi's rise as his 'heroic period.' The painting was significantly damaged in 1952 while it was temporarily on display in Paris when a thief attempted to cut it out of its frame. He didn't get the painting but the canvas needed lengthy repairs. In 2009, a similar claim was made against the New York museums regarding the Picasso works Boy Leading a Horse and Le Moulin de la Galette, both of which were once owned by Thannhauser and whose original owners wanted returned. Ultimately, an agreement was reached to allow Boy Leading to Horse to remain at the Museum of Modern Art and Le Moulin de la Galette to remain at the Guggenheim. In the past, courts have ordered the return of Nazi-looted art to the heirs of former Jewish owners. All eyes are on the borderlands of Russia and Ukraine. All Western eyes, that is. And understandably so. The consequences of the Russian invasion have been huge, not least when it comes to energy prices. If the West is preoccupied, however, that doesnt mean the rest of the world has ground to a halt. Life hasnt stopped just because NATO and Moscow are locked in conflict. Other countries have their own problems to face pressing ones. And it should be no surprise that a range of middle-ranking powers, including India, Turkey and South Africa have refused to take sides. A man walks on the street in retaken village Drobysheve, Donetsk, Ukraine on Saturday Ukrainian soldiers work on a military vehicle on a road outside of the heavily damaged town of Siversk, Ukraine The vicious civil war in the Yemen, the fighting in the Horn of Africa, the perpetual conflicts in the Middle East all these are continuing, even if the Western media has turned its gaze elsewhere. These battles will not remain frozen just because America is preoccupied. And it is a mistake to ignore them because the various outcomes will help shape the future for all of us. Strategically placed between east and west, Turkey has been particularly active. It now seems clear, for example, that, while America concentrates on Russia, Ankara will use the power vacuum to achieve its ambitions on its own borders with Syria. In particular, Turkey will make a final military incursion into northern Syria and to drive out the Kurdish separatists and militias in the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), the PYD (Democratic Union Party) and the YPG (Peoples Defence Units), all of which have a strong presence there. And dont imagine that ISIS has gone away another force which Turkey is determined to banish from its borders. The consequences of the Russian invasion have been huge, not least when it comes to energy prices The vicious civil war in the Yemen, the fighting in the Horn of Africa, the perpetual conflicts in the Middle East all these are continuing, even if the Western media has turned its gaze elsewhere (Pictured - A Ukrainian tank in the newly retaken town of Siversk) These battles will not remain frozen just because America is preoccupied. And it is a mistake to ignore them because the various outcomes will help shape the future for all of us (Pictured: ruins in Idlib, Syria, January 8) Huge refugee camps are located throughout Syria, such as this one in Ein El-Bayda village of Idlib Until now, American support and protection for the Kurds in northern Syria has frustrated such moves. America has seen the Kurdish militias as important allies against ISIS. But with both the West and Russia now dependent on Turkish cooperation for fuel and distribution of essential supplies, we are in a new world. Turkey, a NATO member, has already blocked applications to join the bloc from Finland and Sweden as it attempts to extract additional concessions from its allies in the West. Such is its strategic importance a that some have suggested Turkey might even play a role in future peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. In the near term, Turkey wants to create a 30-mile deep buffer zone in northern Syria. Aside from its wish to clear the area of armed separatists (who want a Kurdish homeland which would include significant parts of Turkish territory) this is so that four million Syrian refugees in Turkey can return there and live under Turkish protection. But Ankara's wider aim is to get rid of American involvement in Syria and to reassert itself as a leader of the region a role it long had under the Ottomans, of course. Turkey is not the only country we can expect to flex its muscles while America looks the other way. Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and South Africa will all using the geopolitical uncertainty to promote their own interests where they can. Yemenis struggle to get their families' donated meals from a charity kitchen in Sana'a, Yemen, earlier this month Chasiv Yar Cemetery in Bakhmut, Ukraine, is filled with civilians who have lost their lives in the conflict Arabia has already rejected American entreaties to increase oil production and lower the world price a major snub. Like Turkey, it sees the chance of greater independence from the major powers, with enhanced regional status. With its own sizeable Turkic minority, Saudi Arabia is likely to side with Turkey in local power games. Both countries are Sunni Muslim, in contrast with Riyadhs sworn enemy, Iran, which is Shia. South Africa has refused to condemn the Russian invasion. Rather, it has preferred to enhance its wider diplomatic status by staging naval exercises with Russian and Chinese fleets. India, meanwhile, has taken the opportunity to purchase vast quantities of discounted Russian oil in defiance of western sanctions. Because it needs the oil and knows it can get away with it, whatever Washington might say. The rise of China combined with the decline of America means the old world order is breaking up before our eyes. Only now are we starting to see what sort of shape the new world might take. President Joe Biden has accused Republicans of trying to score 'political points' on immigration as the number of illegal border crossings hit another all-time high. Speaking at the US Conference of Mayors on Friday, Biden chastised the GOP for failing to pass his immigration reform proposals, saying: 'They found it a better issue to campaign on than an issue to solve. The president added: 'So, we have a choice: They can keep using immigration to try to score political points, or we can help solve the problem.' Republicans, however, have pinned the blame on Biden for doing away with Trump-era border policies as illegal immigration runs rampant at the US-Mexico border. And hours after Biden's speech, Customs and Border Protection revealed that there were 251,487 migrant encounters at the border in December. That is the highest figure for a single month ever, and brings the latest three-month total up to 717,600. Joe Biden claimed Republicans were trying to score 'political points' on immigration as the number of illegal border crossings reached record numbers in December The latest figures showed that there were 251,487 migrant encounters at the border last month December's number was up more than 7 percent from November, and nearly 29 percent from the previous year. Last month saw a surge in illegal immigration due to the uncertainty over Title 42, a Trump-era policy that has expelled migrants at the border since the start of the pandemic. Migrants' haste to cross with Title 42 in place may seem contradictory, because the policy makes it easier for the US to expel undocumented migrants. But many anticipated that the lifting of it would make crossing even more difficult, at least temporarily, due to increased migrant numbers and military presence at the border. A Biden administration official told Fox News that the surge was allegedly caused by GOP officials' criticisms of the president and warnings that failed policies effectively left the border open for exploits. 'Of course the numbers will be higher when Republican elected officials, like smugglers, falsely proclaim the border is open because of a court order to lift Title 42,' the officials said. 'Despite their misinformation, our border enforcement measures continue to hold strong,' the official added, saying that regulations put in place in October have already held back a tide of migrants from Venezuela. As Democrats and Republicans play the blame game, a GOP led House Oversight panel is set to hold its first hearing for the investigation into the Biden administration's alleged mishandling of the southern border. The probe has put Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who faces a potential impeachment, on notice to hand over everything related to the migrant crisis. Migrants are continuing to travel from Mexico to the US seeking asylum. Pictured: A group of migrants moving through the CBP checkpoint in Juarez on Wednesday Border crossings have been up 7 percent since November, and up nearly 29 percent since last December. Pictured: Migrants attending immigration appointments near the border Pictured: Asylum-seekers walking by a barbed-wire fence along the Rio Bravo as members of the Texas National Guard standby on Tuesday James Comer, the new Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, vowed to hold Biden and Mayorkas 'accountable' and invited four Border Patrol officials to attend one of the first hearings of the 118th Congress on the week of February 6. In a letter to Mayorkas demanding materials and documents, Comer blamed President Joe Biden and his DHS secretary for 'deliberate actions' contributing to spikes in drug cartel operations, human smuggling and illegal immigration. 'The American people deserve answers about the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) role in undermining Customs and Border Protection agents' efforts to secure the southern border,' Comer wrote in his Thursday letter to Mayorkas. Several border communities have been thrown into chaos over the last few years, with some cities being overrun with migrants claiming asylum. House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer will hold the first hearing as part of the probe into the Biden administration's handling of the southern border crisis the week of February 6 Republicans have threatened to impeach Mayorkas and could now make good on that promise with their new majority in the House Cities like El Paso have seen resources for the migrants, like shelters and food pantries, run dry given the massive numbers. 'The United States' immigration system should be 'safe, orderly, and humane.' It is not,' Comer wrote to Mayorkas. 'The Committee requests documents and information to understand DHS's policies, the costs of the emergency measures needed to respond to the worsening crisis, and the national security risks created by these policies,' he added. 'The American people and their elected representatives must know DHS's role in the humanitarian and national security crisis along the U.S. southern border.' Sarah Ferguson has had an eclectic career as an entrepreneur, having been a children's author, film producer and writer of romantic fiction. She has even sold blenders on television and has been an ambassador for Weight Watchers. Her latest venture is another radical departure. Last week, the Duchess of York launched a gallery of digital art, which features her own spoken-word poetry overlaid with a visual interpretation of the verses by other artists. Sarah Ferguson has launched a gallery of digital art featuring her own spoken-word poetry She has joined forces with Nifty Gateway, a company owned by millionaire US tech entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who set up a forerunner to Facebook. Nifty Gateway sells NFTs, or non-fungible tokens digital products that enable collectors to invest in digital art in the same way as they might buy a painting. They can be bought and sold, and each has a unique code to prevent it being copied. Fergie said she wanted 'to expand my passion for storytelling through art,' adding: 'As technology evolves, traditional aesthetics can find a new life in this contemporary viral world.' In her digital artwork Gateway To The Self, viewers watch a series of paintings while listening to the Duchess and British actor Laurence Fuller reciting the poem. Sarah Ferguson has had an eclectic career as an entrepreneur, having been a children's author, film producer and writer of romantic fiction The Duchess has now joined forces with Nifty Gateway which sells NFTs/ non-fungible tokens In a soothing voice, the Duchess reads: 'Lost and fearful, sometimes tearful, 'Using your compass, 'Now you're not alone, 'At last, no more abandoned feeling, 'We are integrated and sated, a new orientation, embrace harmonisation.' In another of her digital artworks, May We Speak, Fergie asks: 'Do you think you're awake?' Fergie talked about her NFTs in a 'Twitter space' last week, and read a poem she wrote when the Queen died: 'A rainbow appears over the turret so clear, 'A sign for us all we must stand tall, 'Whenever you see a rainbow appear, you know I'm near, Never fear. I may not physically be standing there but in your heart I will never fear. Look within and you will see the colours of my rainbow wrapped around, my love for you abounds.' The chairman of the BBC allegedly helped Boris Johnson secure a loan of 800,000 while he was Prime Minister just weeks before he was then recommended by the PM for the job, it was revealed yesterday. Richard Sharp, 66, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, is a long-established donor to the Conservative Party and became involved in crucial talks from November 2020 which discussed how Mr Johnson could continue to afford his lavish lifestyle, The Times reports. Mr Sharp had already submitted his application for the BBC role and had reached the final stages of the recruitment process when he became involved in the issue while at the home of friend Sam Blyth in west London. Mr Blyth - a Canadian businessman said to be worth at least $50 million (41 million) and a distant cousin of Mr Johnson - is said to have discussed being a guarantor on the loan and asked for Mr Sharp's financial advice. Richard Sharp, 66, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, is a long-established donor to the Conservative Party Before the loan was finalised, the PM invited Mr Sharp and Mr Blyth for a private dinner at Chequers, where they reportedly ate chop suey and drank wine Late in 2020 the PM, 58, was reportedly in financial trouble with divorce payments, childcare costs and bills for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat. After Mr Sharp reportedly agreed to help, he is said to have met with Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service at Simon Case at Downing Street at the beginning of December 2020. He then later introduced the Cabinet Secretary to Mr Blyth, The Times reports. During the pandemic Mr Sharp was also a Covid-19 economics adviser to Rishi Sunak, then chancellor. Before the loan was finalised, the PM allegedly invited Mr Sharp and Mr Blyth for a private dinner at Chequers, where they ate chop suey and drank wine - but all three are said to deny that Mr Johnson's finances were discussed there. Just a few weeks later Mr Johnson had selected Mr Sharp as his preferred candidate to become the new BBC chairman, a role which pays 160,000 per year. The Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team then had to write a formal letter to the PM to tell him to stop taking advice from Mr Sharp about his personal finances, The Times reports. A matter of days later Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced that Mr Sharp was the government's choice for the role on January 6, 2021. Mr Sharp told the paper that he did 'connect' Mr Blyth and Mr Case but insisted there was 'no conflict of interest'. Mr Johnson's spokesperson said the former PM had declared his interests correctly and, when asked about the Chequers dinner, replied: 'So what? Big deal.' A spokesperson for the BBC told MailOnline: 'The BBC plays no role in the recruitment of the Chair and any questions are a matter for the Government.' Representatives for Boris Johnson have been contacted for comment. Anyone can apply for the role of BBC chairman and the job is decided by the PM and Culture Secretary, with the advice of four members of a panel. The recruitment process must be 'fair and open', but the government can re-run the process if they are unhappy with the shortlisted candidates. The job application form states: 'You cannot be considered for a public appointment if ... you fail to declare any conflict of interest.' It also instructs candidates to report 'any issues in your personal or professional history that could, if you were appointed, be misconstrued, cause embarrassment, or cause public confidence in the appointment to be jeopardised'. Meanwhile the ministerial code states: 'Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise.' According to the Times, Mr Johnson never disclosed his involvement with Mr Sharp in the MPs' register of interests and also left it out when declaring his ministerial interests. It is not the first time that Mr Sharp and his finances have been under public scrutiny since he was pipped to become the next BBC chair Mr Johnson never disclosed his involvement with Mr Sharp in the MPs' register of interests and also left it out when declaring his ministerial interests It is not the first time that Mr Sharp and his finances have been under public scrutiny since he was pipped to become the next BBC chair. In August, it was reported that Mr Sharp invested in a crypto business founded by a now sanction-hit Russian oligarch through an offshore Cayman Islands company. The multi-millionaire ex-banker was an early investor in Vladimir Potanin's business Atomyze - which trades commodities using blockchain technology. Potanin, who was once considered Russia's richest man was sanctioned by the UK government in June for supporting Putin's regime. Known as the 'Nickel King', Potanin runs the Nornickel company, which dominates the global market for nickel and has its metals traded on Atomyze. Mr Sharp invested in the Russian's crypto business in 2019 through a Cayman Islands company called ABCP GP Ltd, according to The Guardian. A spokesperson for Sharp's investment trust told The Guardian that no sanctions had been imposed on Potanin when Sharp invested in the oligarch's company, which is regulated by the Swiss authorities. The spokesperson said Sharp put his investments in a blind trust in May 2020 after being hired as a Treasury adviser by the then chancellor, Sunak. They said: 'The arrangement was maintained after Sharp became chairman of the BBC. This blind trust has professionally managed the ABCP GP Ltd and Atomyze Switzerland interests with complete independence from Mr Sharp and at the trust's sole discretion since its establishment. 'At the current time, the blind trust, and therefore Mr Sharp, have no financial or directorial interests in any businesses owned and controlled by Mr Potanin.' Mr Sharp has also donated approximately 400,000 to the Conservative Party in the past 20 years, plus 2,500 around the time of the last general election. It is claimed Mr Sharp discussed his plan to apply for the role of BBC Chairman with Mr Johnson privately, drawing on their long-standing friendship. The ex-PM is said to have finalised the loan in February 2021, the same month in which Mr Sharp began his new role - for which he had 'no editorial experience'. Mr Johnson's loan was not disclosed on any public register, reportedly because officials believed it was a personal bonus due to the guarantor being a distance cousin. The six-year-old boy who shot his elementary school teacher in Virginia previously threatened to burn and kill another teacher, threw furniture around the classroom and even barricaded one door, but school officials dismissed staff complaints. The Washington Post cites messages between teachers and staff at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News which detail how faculty - including Abigail Zwerner, the teacher who was shot - had complained about the child. On January 6, the child brought a gun into the classroom and shot Zwerner in the stomach. She survived, but has spent three weeks recovering in the hospital. The unnamed boy shot teacher Abigail Zwerner (pictured) on January 6 in the classroom. She was finally released from the hospital this week after three weeks Richneck Elementary School Principal Briana Newton has not commented publicly on the incident School officials had been told that day that he had a gun - but allowed him to attend class after searching his backpack and not finding it. Neither the boy nor his family have been identified. They claimed in a statement released to the press via an attorney that he has an 'acute disability' which means he is requires him to be accompanied in the classroom by a parent. On the day in question, he had been allowed to attend school alone, taking with him a 9mm handgun that his family legally owns. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, other teachers slammed the school online, saying Zwerner 'asked for help' 'many times' 'all year'. Another teacher also went to the school to report receiving a note from the child, which said he 'hated her' and wanted to set her on fire to 'watch her die'. On another occasion, other children were forced to hide under their desks when the boy started throwing furniture around the classroom. Newport News Chief of Police Steve Drew, right, and Newport News Superintendent George Parker answer questions regarding a teacher being shot. No charges have been brought yet but the investigation is ongoing Students and police gather outside of Richneck Elementary School after a shooting, Friday, January 6 Parents are outraged that teachers' concerns were ignored by school officials. Above, the day of the shooting A third incident involved him barricading the door to the classroom to stop any staff or students from leaving or entering. Teachers have also told how overstretched resources at the school mean the boy was not receiving the special attention he needed. On some occasions, he was found wandering the halls alone. In their statement, the boy's family said he'd been undergoing a care plan which normally meant one of his parents was with him every day. That plan ended a week before the shooting. 'We will regret our absence on this day for the rest of our lives,' they said. The damning reports come after it was revealed the school even received a tip about him having a gun with him on the day in question, and that they searched his backpack, but found nothing and let him carry on with his day. School officials have refused to share more details on the shocking incident, citing privacy laws which they say stop them from discussing the child's record. Zwerner was released from the hospital earlier this week. Police continue to investigate the incident. No one has been charged yet. Ron Klain, Joe Biden's White House chief of staff, will step down in the coming weeks as the president faces legal scrutiny over his classified documents scandal. Klain has informed Biden of his plans, sources said on Saturday, confirming a New York Times story that said the long-serving aide would likely depart after the president's State of the Union address on February 7. The chief of staff had previously stated his intent to leave the administration following the midterm elections, noting publicly that the position can be exhausting. Officials told CNN Klain has been a key player in the White House, having had a decades-long working relationship with Biden, with some saying he had been urged to stay for longer than he planned. Ron Klain (left), Biden's White House chief of staff, will step down within weeks, sources say. The two men have worked together in government for decades Klain's departure comes as the White House faces scrutiny after documents were found in Biden's garage at his Wilmington, Delaware home Klain had celebrated the second anniversary of Biden's presidential inauguration on Friday, inviting White House staffers to cake. 'Today at the halfway point of this term for the President and Vice President we celebrate not only WHAT was accomplished, but HOW it was accomplished: through teamwork, collaboration, mutual respect, and a lot of hard work,' Klain wrote in an email to staffers. 'This team did so many historic things, and did them in historic fashion, as part of the most diverse and most talented White House staff ever.' The email was void of any details over his previously speculated departure, or of the recent scandal plaguing the administration. After sitting on the discovery of classified documents at a D.C. think tank for two months, Biden and his administration are now on the attack and trying to bat away questions by insisting they did everything by the book. A Biden lawyer informed the National Archives of the files found in the Penn Biden Center just days before the November midterms. But it was only last week that it was first reported by CBS News, and on January 12, it was revealed that even more documents were found in Biden's garage at his Delaware home. The White House has since been condemned for their lack of transparency and Biden's handling of files is now being investigated by a Special Counsel. The president and White House has been noticeably dismissive of the issue, with Biden recently snapping at reporters for trying to follow up on details surrounding the scandal. When a reporter asked on Thursday night during a climate change talk if he had any 'regrets' about the sensitive files debacle, Biden said the interrogation by the media 'bugs' him when we 'we have serious problem here we're talking about'. 'The American people don't quite understand why you don't ask me questions about that,' he added. Despite his animated reaction he said he would respond, and opened the first page of the binder on his lectern and started to read. 'Look, as we found a handful of documents that were filed in the wrong place, we immediately turned them over to the archives and the Justice department. We are fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly. I think youre going to find theres nothing there.' 'I have no regrets in following what the lawyers have told me what they want me to do, its exactly what were doing. Theres no there there.' Klain has remained a strong aid to Biden, having worked with him for decades. Biden is pictured shaking his hand during a White House event in 2021 It remains unclear if Klain could delay his exit to help out his old friend. The duo first worked together in the early 1990s when Biden was the chairman for the Senate Judiciary Committee while Klain worked as its chief counsel. Klain has previously worked with the Clinton administration and served as Al Gore's second-term chief of staff. He also served on the general counsel in charge of the recount effort in Florida between presidential candidates Gore and George W. Bush. Klain returned to Washington to serve as Biden's chief of staff during the Obama administration, leaving in 2011 before returning three years later to work with Biden on the Ebola response effort. Hilaria Baldwin has come under fire again for using a fake Spanish accent while telling off photographers. The born-and-bred Bostonian, 39, apologized two years ago for faking a Spanish accent and claimed she had been raised with two cultures. Now, she is under fire again after she approached photographers in New York City to chew them out for taking pictures of her children. Hilaria - who was born Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas - appeared to slip back into her old accent as she dodged questions about her husband's involuntary manslaughter charge. The actor, 64, and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, were charged for the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins for firing the fatal shot on the set of Rust. Baldwin says he'll fight the charges vigorously, calling it a 'miscarriage of justice.' His wife approached photographers this week, cutting off their questions, stating: 'Im going to tell you what Im going to say, youre not going to ask me questions. I want you guys to realize we have seven kids, and you being here to escort them to school and to be there when they come home is not good. 'So, on a human level, you know that I'm not going to say anything to you. You know that. So please, leave my family in peace and let it play out.' Hilaria's accent grew markedly more European-sounding as her diatribe went on. Hilaria Baldwin, 39, was slammed for using a Spanish accent again after she admitted two years ago that she grew up in Boston Baldwin's accent came out after she approached photographers to criticize them for hounding her children while they're going and coming from school. 'Go home, because I'm not going to say anything and Alec is not going to say anything' The yoga instructor went on to say that it's a 'very hard thing as a mom to explain' to her children why a crowd of people have been following them around and asking questions, before she reminded them that she nor her husband Alec, 64, will be answering questions. 'So please, go home, because I'm not going to say anything and Alec is not going to say anything,' she concluded before dodging questions about their lawyers. Despite some being sympathetic to her cause, many were 'offended' by the reappearance of the accent. 'Its just beyond offensive at this point that she continues with this Spanish accent. Regardless of the chaos of her mind and this situation - youre not Spanish,' one wrote on Twitter. Another wrote: 'Absolutely love that shes like "well we traveled to Spain annually" maam you lived in BOSTON daily. Boston accents arent simply avoided!' A woman named Perla wrote: 'Hillary needs to end this accent.' 'I saw people feeling badly for her being stalked by paps, and of course thats valid, but the AAAAAACCENT my GOD. In other words you are completely correct,' a woman wrote. Another, Tony Choi, joke everyone should be searching for 'a man who is as committed to you as she is to the bit.' The famous couple has been hounded by photographers since Alec was charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust Alec (pictured) called the charges a 'miscarriage of justice' Hilaria was seen today walking around with a friend through Manhattan She grabbed two coffees while she was out with her friend Ceda Xiong wrote: 'It's her emotional support accent.' A man named Bradley joked 'she and Austin Butler need some kind of support group for people who cant turn off the fake voice.' Another criticized Hilaria - whose real name is Hillary - for 'never missing an opportunity to snatch a little bit of the spotlight.' 'She didn't need to make this speech,' a woman, Marielle, wrote. The influencer was forced to confess she had been born in Boston and went by the name Hillary after she had spent years claiming Majorca was her birthplace and that she only arrived in the US at the age of 19. 'My parents raised my brother and me with two cultures, American and Spanish, and I feel a true sense of belonging to both,' she said at the time. 'The way I've spoken about myself and my deep connection to two cultures could have been better explained - I should have been more clear and I'm sorry. Many slammed the yoga instructor for the reappearance of her accent, with one calling it her 'emotional support accent' 'I'm proud of the way I was raised, and we're raising our children to share the same love and respect for both,' she continued. 'Being vulnerable and pushing ourselves to learn and grow is what we've built our community on, and I hope to get back to the supportive and kind environment we've built together.' Several former classmates came forward to confirm that Hilaria was in fact raised in Weston, Massachusetts, by American parents without a hint of a foreign accent. Despite the social prosecution Hilaria is facing, her husband might actually face jail time, and the Santa Fe prosecutor is pretty confident Alec will be convicted of his charge. In an interview after the announcement with CNN, she said Baldwin did pull the trigger - and that he ran a 'fast and loose set' that was plagued with safety issues. 'There was such a lack of safety and safety standards on that set. There were live rounds on set, they were mixed in with dummy rounds. 'Nobody was checking those or at least they weren't checking them consistently. 'They somehow got loaded into a gun, handed off to Alec Baldwin, he didn't check it, he didn't do what he was supposed to do to make sure he was safe or make sure anyone else was safe. Halyna Hutchins was shot dead on October 21, 2021, by actor Alec Baldwin Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter Prosecutor Mary Carmack-Alwies is confident Alec will be convicted of his charge and won't get off just because he's an actor 'He pointed the gun at Halyna Hutchins and he pulled the trigger,' she said. She said a 'totality of the circumstances' led to the decision, adding: 'This was a really fast and loose set. And that nobody was doing their job.' While it may have been an accident, she said Baldwin 'doesn't get a free pass' because he's a star. In a statement, Baldwin's attorney said: 'This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins' tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice. Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun or anywhere on the movie set. 'He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.' The daughter of paedophile pop star Gary Glitter deserted in Vietnam has been working as a child labourer since she was 14. Truc Ly, now 17, endures gruelling 12-hour shifts in a poultry factory seven days a week. Her plight is in stark contrast to the luxury life her multi-millionaire father, 78, is soon set to enjoy when he is freed from jail. He is expected to be let out of The Verne prison in Portland, Dorset, in the coming weeks after serving half a 16-year sentence for sex offences. Truc Lys mother Tran Thi Kim Oanh said: He should take responsibility and help her, but I dont think he ever will. The daughter of paedophile pop star Gary Glitter deserted in Vietnam has been working as a child labourer since she was 14 Truc Ly said: I miss my school and my friends but its too late for me to go back to school even if I wanted to. I just want to look after my mum now. Asked about pastimes, Truc Ly said: I dont have time. Im always working. I get up, I work, I eat, I shower, then go to bed at 9pm. She works at an industrial complex near the Cambodian border, doing all the overtime she can and giving half her salary to her mother in child labour that was illegal until she turned 17 last month. Teachers said Truc Ly was destined for university but she dropped out at 12 when her family could no longer afford school fees. She moved 300 miles to work alongside her mother at the factory, using a forged ID card to secure her job three years ago. Truc Ly, now 17, endures gruelling 12-hour shifts in a poultry factory seven days a week. Her plight is in stark contrast to the luxury life her multi-millionaire father, 78, is soon set to enjoy when he is freed from jail. He is expected to be let out of The Verne prison in Portland, Dorset, in the coming weeks after serving half a 16-year sentence for sex offences She sticks labels on packets of processed chicken, some for British stores, from 7am to 7pm daily. Her mother Oanh, a former bar girl, was Glitters girlfriend before he was jailed in Vietnam in 2006 for molesting girls aged ten and 11. He had been arrested after The Mail on Sunday confronted him and reported him to police. He was freed in 2008 and returned to Britain, where he was jailed again in 2015 for child sex abuse dating back to the 1970s. He severed contact with heavily pregnant Oanh, then 24, when she asked him to pay her maternity bills weeks before his arrest, sending her home by bus with a bundle of banknotes worth 100. He did not respond to her letters asking him to take a DNA test and pay for Truc Ly to stay at school. Oanh had a Vietnamese boyfriend at the time she was sleeping with Glitter but he took one look at Truc Ly in hospital and walked out on her, saying: Thats not my baby. She looks like a Westerner. After Glitter was jailed in Britain in 2015, Oanh wrote another unanswered letter asking him to pay for her to stay on in school, saying: You would be very proud of her. When he walks free from jail, Glitter faces compensation claims from the women he raped as young girls in Vietnam 18 years ago. One victim, Ms D, who was ten when he raped her, had agreed for two childrens charities to hire lawyers to pursue a High Court compensation claim against him. Glitter was freed in 2008 and returned to Britain, where he was jailed again in 2015 for child sex abuse dating back to the 1970s A second victim, Nguyen, who was 11 when abused, wants to join any action for compensation. Speaking at her parents home in Vung Tau, Vietnam, near the seafront villa where Glitter molested her, she said she was still traumatised by her ordeal and unable to marry because of the stigma. Everyone asks me about what Gary Glitter did to me, she wept. I want him to pay compensation because he has destroyed my life. I still see him in nightmares. I can never forget what happened. I will carry it with me for the rest of my life. Glitter, born Paul Gadd, has property holdings including a 2 million central London flat which is nominally owned by a limited company controlled by a former associate. He also receives digital streaming royalties adding up to thousands of pounds each month. Lakisha Broomfield and Harris have become embroiled in a worsening feud This is the horrifying moment a woman smashed into her neighbors in an ongoing feud about the garbage outside their home. Sydney Harris was caught on camera allegedly driving at speed towards Lakisha Broomfield outside of their homes in Allen, Texas. Footage shows her careering into Broomfield with her white SUV on January 4 after she claims the victim used her trash bins. The altercation was sparked by Broomfield placing some of her trash into Harris' over the holiday period because hers was overflowing. Broomfield, who has to wear special glasses to help with her concession she suffered from the incident, said:'I've literally been harassed by this lady for the last couple years' Harris told WFAA that Broomfield has pushed her twice before she even got into the vehicle, with footage showing her plowing into her neighbor and the cans. Broomfield said: 'I can't believe any person would hop into a car and hit a person the way she hit me.' Harris claims she never meant to hit her neighbor, only the trash bins, adding that she suffers from a disorder causing mobility issues. Allen County police arrested Harris on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on January 13, before bailing herself out. Sydney Harris was caught on camera allegedly driving at speed towards Lakisha Broomfield outside of their homes in Allen, Texas Allen County police arrested Harris on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on January 13, before bailing herself out Footage shows her careering into Broomfield with her white SUV on January 4 after she claims the victim used her trash bins Broomfield, who has to wear special glasses to help with her concession she suffered from the incident, said:'I've literally been harassed by this lady for the last couple years.' She added that the two times she hit Harris she was acting in self-defense, adding that she 'flew back' when she was run over. The feud has reportedly been getting progressive worse over time, with Broomfield claiming Harris has stolen her water, screamed at her children, set branches at her doorstep and even threw rocks at her vehicle in the past. Harris admitted to stealing water by putting her hose in her neighbors spout, with Allen Police confirming there was a report about the incident. Broomfield added: 'I'm having some PTSD, a lot of anxiety, and panic attacks. I just want peace, peace of mind, and no issues.' Harris claims she never meant to hit her neighbor, only the trash bins, adding that she suffers from a disorder causing mobility issues Harris admitted to stealing water by putting her hose in her neighbors spout, with Allen Police confirming there was a report about the incident Le gouvernement a donne son feu vert pour la signature dun protocole damendement du FTA entre Maurice et la Turquie valide depuis le 1er juin 2013 afin de permettre a divers produits a penetrer le marche mauricien et vice-versa. Cabinet has agreed to Mauritius signing a Protocol amending the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Republic of Turkiye and the Republic of Mauritius. Mauritius and Turkiye are implementing a FTA since 01 June 2013 which covers trade in goods, with duty free access provided to Mauritius on all industrial products and preferential tariff rate quotas on 46 agricultural products. Following discussions, Turkiye agreed to provide improved market access to Mauritius in terms of duty-free access on beer and wine, and more meaningful tariff rate quotas for several products including fisheries products, pineapples, lychees, and dog or cat food. Turkiye has also included new products in its offer such as vanilla, fruit wine, poultry feed and rum. These improved offers have been included in the Protocol amending the FTA between Turkiye and Mauritius and would provide better market access for Mauritian exporters on the Turkish market. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi cannot get Communion in San Francisco anymore, but that didn't stop her from contacting men of the cloth in an attempt to rid her home of evil spirits. According to her daughter, Alexandra, 'Over Thanksgiving, [Pelosi] had priests coming, trying to have an exorcism of the house and having prayer services.' The Democrat's daughter was discussing the attack on her father Paul Pelosi, 82, during an interview with the New York Times, when she mentioned the Catholic ritual for ridding demons from specific persons and spaces. In October, conspiracy theorist David DePape, 42, broke into the Pelosi's Bay Area home, authorities said. The suspect severely beat Paul Pelosi with a hammer in an attack that shocked the political world. Paul Pelosi was knocked unconscious and woke up in a pool of his own blood. He later underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands. He has since appeared in public wearing a hat and a glove that covered his wounds. Alexandra continued: 'It's a miracle that this kind of thing never happened sooner. We were always worried. It's like your worse fear coming to life.' In October, conspiracy theorist David DePape, 42, broke into the Pelosi's San Francisco home, authorities said DePape has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges, including attempted murder, attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault of an immediate family member of a federal official and remains in jail The bubbling political rhetoric that led to that moment is chronicled in the documentary, 'Pelosi in the House,' directed and produced by Alexandra, the youngest of the former speaker's five children. For his part, Paul Pelosi appears to be on the mend as last week he was pictured out for dinner with his wife at New York City restaurant Balthazar and later at the Tom Stoppard play Leopoldstadt. The pair were pictured on the restaurant owner, Keith McNally's, Instagram page. A commenter wrote: 'She sat across from us and was very friendly and polite. It looked like her daughter and grandchildren with them. Nice to see her husband recovered.' In a recent interview with CNN's Chris Wallace on his HBO Max show Who's Talking to Chris Wallace? the former speaker visibly welled up with emotion as she spoke about the vicious assault on her husband. Nancy told how her husband is 'doing ok,' in her interview with Wallace. 'It's going to take a little while for him to be back to normal,' she explained. Nancy acknowledged that Paul's recovery from head injuries is going to be a long process and requires caution. The suspect is believed to have told Paul that he was planning to hold the former speaker hostage, 'interrogate' her and to break her kneecaps if necessary. In December, DePape pleaded not guilty to six charges, including attempted murder. In a recent interview with CNN's Chris Wallace on his HBO Max show Who's Talking to Chris Wallace? the former speaker visibly welled up with emotion as she spoke about the vicious assault on her husband The suspect is believed to have told Paul that he was planning to hold the former speaker hostage, 'interrogate' her and to break her kneecaps if necessary Paul and Nancy Pelosi pictured with Balthazar's head maitre d' and assistant general manager Zouheir Louhaichy last Sunday FBI agents work outside the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi where her husband Paul Pelosi was 'violently assaulted' after a break-in at their house. Pictured October 28, 2022 Exorcisms are typically reserved for those of the Catholic faith. Pelosi is a self-described 'devout Catholic.' In May 2022, however, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco announced that he was banning the congresswoman from receiving Communion in her home city due to her position on abortion rights. Cordileone wrote Pelosi last year and said in part: 'A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others.' He continued: 'Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons "are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."' At the same time, Pelosi was pictured receiving Communion at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, where President Joe Biden has also been known to attend. While a month after letter, Pelosi received Communion during a papal Mass after meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican. During her trip, Pelosi told a group of Vatican officials: 'Faith is an important gift, not everyone has it but it is the path to so many other things.' She went on: 'We had the pleasure of attending Mass this morning with His Holiness and many many many leaders of the church.' Pelosi added: 'In the spirit of St. Francis, which is the name of His Holiness and my city of San Francisco, I thank you for preaching the Gospel, sometimes using words.' In 2021, President Joe Biden, another Catholic who also supports abortion rights, said after meeting with Francis that the pontiff told him to continue receiving the sacrament. The number of migrants crossing the Channel on small boats could nearly double this year, according to Whitehall projections obtained by The Mail on Sunday. Sources in the Border Force say that as many as 80,000 could make the dangerous journey in 2023 up from 45,000 last year. That is described as 'the upper limit' of expected crossings, with a repeat of the 45,000 figure as the likely 'lower limit'. The revelation will cause alarm in Downing Street after Tory MPs spooked by Sir Keir Starmer's persistently high opinion poll lead warned that failure to address the problem would be fatal to the party's chances at the next General Election. Sources in the Border Force say that as many as 80,000 migrants could make the dangerous journey across the Channel in 2023 - up from 45,000 last year MPs in former Labour Red Wall seats in the Midlands and North say the issue comes up regularly on the doorsteps as an example of the failure to maximise Brexit benefits. Now senior MPs have urged Rishi Sunak to increase the number of 'safe and legal' routes to bolster the Government's chances of finding a legal solution to the Channel crisis. They also suggested expanding the so-called Dubs amendment to give sanctuary to unaccompanied children seeking asylum. Downing Street is in listening mode to try to solve the small boats crisis. One Tory MP told Mr Sunak's deputy chief of staff, Will Tanner, that MPs think new laws will have more chance of getting through the courts if there are legitimate ways to reach the UK. One option could be expanding safe and legal routes which are at present only open to some Afghans, Ukrainians and people from Hong Kong. By opening new routes, Ministers could claim that in theory anyone arriving by small boat does not have a genuine claim to asylum. It could also give Government lawyers more ammunition when they argue in favour of the extradition deal with Rwanda which is making its way through the courts. Senior MPs have urged Rishi Sunak to increase the number of 'safe and legal' routes to bolster the Government's chances of finding a legal solution to the Channel crisis Ministers could also increase the number of children coming through the scheme pioneered by former Labour MP Alf Dubs which saw 480 unaccompanied minors arrive from Europe. But Government sources indicated this was unlikely. In December, Mr Sunak vowed to create more 'safe and legal' routes but only after the UK had got a 'grip' on immigration. Tory MPs say it should be done sooner to help ensure success for immigration reforms in the courts. Meanwhile, former Cabinet allies of Boris Johnson have claimed to the MoS that, when he was Chancellor, Mr Sunak blocked a 200 million plan to help tackle the problem by paying for detention facilities for asylum seekers on Army bases and old airfields, and to fund improved coordination between the Border Force and the military. A source said: 'He never bothered to attend a single meeting of the small boats task force. He wanted asylum seekers to be "dispersed into the community", but that made it impossible for them to be tracked, and many just disappeared.' Senior Tory figures are also putting Mr Sunak under pressure to repeal measures in the European Court of Human Rights to make it easier to deport migrants. They believe the Prime Minister's plans to tackle the Channel crisis, including a law that will 'make unambiguously clear that if you enter the UK illegally you should not be able to remain here', do not go far enough, given the continuing power of Strasbourg rulings. The revelation will cause alarm in Downing Street after Tory MPs spooked by Sir Keir Starmer's persistently high opinion poll lead warned that failure to address the migration problem would be fatal to the party's chances at the next General Election The Home Office does not reveal how it makes predictions on migration patterns. But it has an Analysis and Insight Unit. A Border Force source said: 'There is no limit to the number of people who want to come to the UK illegally and that's what the model is based upon. Huge movements of people across the globe and the gangs adapting their operations to avoid law enforcement mean this year is looking very tough. We need serious reform.' Alp Mehmet, chair of think tank Migrationwatch, said: 'These predictions are appalling, but they don't surprise me. Once migrants get here, they know they can stay, and this will attract more people to try to come by boat.' Last night, a spokesman for the Home Office said: 'The global migration crisis continues to place an unprecedented strain on our asylum system. 'Under the new Small Boats Operational Command, and by working closely with our French partners and other agencies, we will go further to tackle the gangs, deter illegal migration and disrupt the business model of people smugglers.' A mother-of-two who endured three years of hell at the hands of PC David Carrick is set to sue the Metropolitan Police in a landmark legal bid. The constable, 48, was this week exposed as one of Britain's most prolific rapists after admitting 49 charges against a dozen women, including 24 counts of rape, while serving with the force between 2003 and 2020. The victim, who lives in Hertfordshire and would like to remain anonymous, blames the force for 'failing to investigate' the disgraced officer who could have been stopped on nine different occasions. 'The police knew what he was like. They didn't investigate properly,' she told The Mirror. A mother-of-two who endured three years of hell at the hands of PC David Carrick is set to sue the Metropolitan Police in a landmark legal bid The constable, 48, was this week exposed as one of Britain's most prolific rapists after admitting 49 charges against a dozen women, including 24 counts of rape 'Nothing will change what happened to me and the other women but I want to take legal action because maybe that will make the police sit up and act in future.' The woman met Carrick through Tinder in 2017 and described him as 'someone I could trust'. However, she told the newspaper how he became violent on their first date saying Carrick grabbed her by the neck and tried to lift her top. He also made her clean his house naked and sexually assaulted her on walks in the woods near his home. Carrick forced her to take part in bondage and, after Wayne Couzens was arrested in 2021, threw away his sex toys. She added: 'People will be asking, "Why did she keep going back?" No-one knows how we feel unless they go through it. People being abused still go back to the abuser.' A Met Police spokesperson said: 'The duration and nature of Carrick's offending is unprecedented in policing. 'But regrettably he is not the only Met officer to have been charged with serious sexual offences in the recent past. 'Our work to identify and rid the Met of corrupt officers is determined and focussed. 'As the Commissioner has said, we will continue to be relentless in our pursuit of those who are engaged in corrupt or criminal behaviour using all the available tactics and techniques at our disposal.' The victim, who lives in Hertfordshire and would like to remain anonymous, blames the force for 'failing to investigate' the disgraced officer The woman met Carrick through Tinder in 2017 and described him as 'someone I could trust' Carrick had faced complaints about his behaviour before he joined the force 22 years ago and numerous other times throughout his career, but no action was taken. The 48-year-old - who used his position to win the trust of his victims and then intimidate them - was only suspended from duty in October 2021 when he was arrested for rape. His pay was finally stopped in December 2022 when he first entered guilty pleas. Hertfordshire Constabulary, which led the investigation as some of Carrick's victims were attacked at his home in Stevenage, said since details of his crimes emerged on Monday more people had contacted police, including through a dedicated page set up so any other potential victims could come forward. The force said: 'We have already received some information via the portal and our usual reporting channels, following Monday's hearing. 'We will be contacting everyone who has been in touch. Should any further offences come to light, they will be investigated accordingly and appropriate support will be provided if required. 'We will not be providing further detail about the number or nature of these calls.' The Carrick case plunged the Met into fresh crisis after a series of damaging scandals, including Sarah Everard's murder, offensive messages exchanged by a team at Charing Cross police station and the strip-search of a teenage girl at school while she was on her period. Police chiefs warned the legitimacy of the profession was 'hanging by a thread' and called for reforms to make it easier to catch other serving offenders. However, she described how he became violent on their first date saying Carrick grabbed her by the neck and tried to lift her top Carrick forced her to take part in bondage and, after Wayne Couzens was arrested in 2021, threw away his sex toys Chief Constable of British Transport Police (BTP) Lucy D'Orsi expressed her shame and anger that a fellow officer had been free to carry out his 18-year campaign of abuse. Humberside Police's Chief Constable, Lee Freeman, called it 'one of the darkest weeks for policing that I have known' in his career of nearly three decades. The head of Scotland's police force Chief Constable Sir Iain Livingstone also said police need to 'earn' the trust of the public. Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said weak policies and decisions meant the serial rapist was able to stay in the force for so long, adding the force had 'let London down'. More than 1,000 officers and staff at Scotland Yard who have previously been accused of domestic abuse or sexual offences are now having their cases reviewed. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised reforms to make sure rogue police officers have 'no place to hide'. At the same time, the Home Office announced all police forces have been asked to check their officers and staff against national police databases to 'identify anyone who has slipped through the net'. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has also tasked the College of Policing with toughening police vetting. Meanwhile, another watchdog review has been commissioned so His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) can check how forces have responded to its recent findings on vetting and corruption within the ranks to 'make sure chief officers are taking the necessary action to remove those who are not fit to serve'. A review of the police disciplinary system to make sure officers who 'are no fit to serve the public' and 'fall short of the high standards expected of them' can be sacked is also being carried out by Home Office officials. Prince Andrew is to launch a dramatic bid to overturn the multi-million-pound settlement he struck with the woman who accused him of sexual assault. The Duke of York has consulted lawyers in an attempt to get Virginia Roberts to retract her allegations and possibly secure an apology, The Mail on Sunday understands. He was inspired to act after Ms Roberts dropped her lawsuit against another man she accused of sexual assault, admitting that she 'may have made a mistake' in identifying him. And sources suggest the King will not oppose any legal action Andrew might take to clear his name even though Charles previously told his brother he would be permanently exiled from Royal life. The Duke of York (left), Virginia Giuffre (middle), and Ghislaine Maxwel (right) NOTORIOUS: Maxwell above in her interview from jail cast new doubt on the infamous picture of Andrew, his accuser and herself Ms Roberts who now goes by her married name Giuffre claimed she was forced to have sex with the Prince when she was 17, having been trafficked by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In the out-of-court settlement, Andrew accepted no blame, and continues to strenuously deny any wrongdoing. But the scandal damaged his reputation and made him an outcast from the Royal Family. He was stripped of his military titles and asked not to use his HRH title. However, those close to Andrew claim he always wanted to fight the allegations in court, and was 'bounced' into agreeing a deal by Palace forces who feared the negative publicity of the case would overshadow the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. 'Andrew felt as if he was in a pressure-cooker, as if he was given no option but to settle,' a source said. 'But he never wanted to settle and has always insisted he was innocent. He wants to see what legal routes might be available to him. In the out-of-court settlement, Andrew accepted no blame, and continues to strenuously deny any wrongdoing. But the scandal damaged his reputation and made him an outcast from the Royal Family. He was stripped of his military titles and asked not to use his HRH title 'This isn't about the money. He wants a route back to some sort of normality after a deeply trying period. I can tell you with confidence that Prince Andrew's team is now considering legal options.' American experts say he would have to file what is known as a 'motion to vacate the stipulation of settlement'. Andrew's team, led by high-flying lawyers Andrew Brettler and Blair Berk, would have to successfully show good legal reasons to overturn the deal, such as fraud, duress, mistake or accident, although it is not yet clear on what basis they might proceed. News of his planned fightback comes as former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell gave her first filmed interview from the Florida jail where she is serving a 20-year sentence for procuring teenage girls for Epstein to abuse. In the conversation, to air on TalkTV tomorrow, she said the claims against her 'dear friend' Andrew are baseless an intervention also said to have influenced his decision to challenge the settlement. The Duke has cut a sorry figure in recent months, particularly since Charles banished him from Royal life. Friends and family feared for his state of mind and it is said he was in tears when he was told he could not wear military uniform for his mother's funeral. Andrew's team, led by high-flying lawyers Andrew Brettler and Blair Berk, would have to successfully show good legal reasons to overturn the deal, such as fraud, duress, mistake or accident, although it is not yet clear on what basis they might proceed However he was allowed to keep his office at Buckingham Palace, with a source saying he is only now 'in the process of moving out' more than three years after stepping away from Royal duties. Friends say his mood has changed after Ms Giuffre admitted in November that she 'may have made a mistake' in accusing American lawyer Alan Dershowitz of abusing her. She dropped her legal action despite having long maintained that Epstein trafficked her to him. In her new interview, Maxwell said Andrew should be 'uplifted' by that case, and suggested it cast new doubt on Ms Giuffre's account. 'Her story frankly has changed multiple times. It's very hard to know really what's true or not,' she said, adding that the true story 'has yet to unfold'. The 61-year-old again raised questions about the notorious photograph showing Andrew with his arm around a 17-year-old Ms Giuffre at Maxwell's London home. 'I have no memory of them meeting and I don't think that picture is real,' she said. Although she gave no evidence for it being a fake, Maxwell said: 'There is no original of that photo, [only] copies of it that have been produced, copies of copies. Parts of it, according to some experts, looks like it has been photoshopped. 'I don't remember her in my home. I know that Virginia travelled with Jeffrey, and so it's entirely possible. But the photo doesn't appear to be real, and I don't recall it being taken.' He was allowed to keep his office at Buckingham Palace, with a source saying he is only now 'in the process of moving out' more than three years after stepping away from Royal duties The agreement between Andrew and Ms Giuffre is thought to have contained a 12-month gagging clause which will expire next month. That raises the prospect of Ms Giuffre returning to the public eye to talk about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Epstein who killed himself in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking and again putting an unwelcome spotlight on Andrew. Ms Giuffre has consistently maintained her case against the Duke was valid, saying: 'My goal has always been to show that the rich and powerful are not above the law and must be held accountable.' However, the Duke will also be free to speak out. It was originally reported that Giuffre received up to 7.5 million, with 2 million more going to a sex trafficking charity. But the sum paid has never been disclosed and insiders say a deal closer to 3 million was stuck. The Queen is said to have contributed to the settlement. Maxwell, who is planning to appeal her own conviction, said of the Dershowitz case: 'I've read a lot of [Ms Giuffre's] depositions, and her statements are very categorical and her stories are very detailed and elaborate, including claiming that she went to his [Dershowitz's] house. So I think her 'memory lapses' are disingenuous. If her memory is so poor, then how can you rely on anything she says? Who is Daphne Barak? Daphne Barak is a renowned interviewer and documentary film maker, whose subjects have included Nelson Mandela, Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, Johnny Depp and Michael Jackson among many others. Daphne's best-selling book Saving Amy, based on her months' filming with Amy Winehouse and her family, is being adapted into a scripted eight part TV series by Halcyon Studios. Advertisement 'When you give a lot of details and make claims that last five, six or seven years, and then suddenly at the last moment decide that it was a memory lapse, I find that hard to credit.' It is understood that Andrew is now receiving unofficial advice from Dershowitz, who has long argued that the Duke should have stood his ground, saying: 'Andrew should have not settled. He should have fought for the truth like me.' In her interview, Maxwell does admit that Andrew could have handled the scandal better, describing his car-crash BBC interview with Emily Maitlis as 'unfortunate', adding: 'I wish he hadn't done it.' And she questioned the Duke's decision to visit Epstein in New York in 2010, two years after the financier was convicted of child sex charges. 'Obviously it was not good judgment, because it had very severe repercussions,' she admitted. Maxwell, who denies she was responsible for introducing Andrew to Epstein, also complained about life inside Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institute. 'It is very difficult,' she said. 'I think we are 105 women in a unit with eight toilets, three telephones and a couple of computers. The noise is extraordinary. It's probably quieter being next to a 747.' Buckingham Palace, the Duke's office and his lawyer all declined to comment last night, as did Ms Giuffre's lawyer. How I landed the interview It took many months and hours of taped question and answer sessions before we could finally complete this first full-length, on camera interview with sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell from behind prison walls Working closely with my collaborator, Susan Zirinsky, the first woman President of CBS news, we started making our requests soon after Maxwell's conviction for trafficking back in June. At the time Maxwell was held in Brooklyn' notorious Metropolitan Detention Center - and all permission was at first refused. But after weeks of argument, free speech won through and we were allowed to do the most basic of interviews. Maxwell was understandably cautious when we spoke on the phone and then in August, when we finally met face to face at the MDC. When I asked about Prince Andrew and his connection to Epstein - and the case which would eventually see Maxwell jailed for 20 years - she refused to answer. Maxwell did, though, start chatting about THAT extraordinary photo, the notorious picture showing Andrew with his arm around a 17-year-old Virginia Roberts, who accused him of sex abuse (which he completely denies). The same picture also shows Ghislaine smiling in the background. It was taken in her flat. And so we persisted, setting up another question and answer session for October, this time by video. By now Maxwell had been moved to the Tallahassee correctional institute in Florida. Despite her time behind bars, Maxwell looked good. And this time she was confident - and chatty. The whole CBS production team were stunned when she made it clear that, so far as she was concerned, Andrew and Virginia did not meet in her London apartment! That the photograph was a fake. And that the claims against Andrew were baseless. Andrew had never met Virginia at all, she claimed (although Virginia has at all times insisted that the case against the Duke of York is true). It was only in mid-December that we finally completed the interview . We explained to the prison authorities that Maxwell's revelations are of huge significance for a senior member of the British Royal family and that we need to complete our line of questioning to get her whole version of events out in public. The prison authorities did not make it easy, but at last approved another audio interview. Maxwell continued to surprise us, this time claiming that, to her recollection, Prince Andrew and Virginia never met at any point at all, let alone in London. For the moment, Prince Andrew is unable to comment on the case, a situation that will change in a few weeks' time. I expect a great deal more to emerge by then. Advertisement Extracts from Daphne's interview will be shown exclusively on Jeremy Kyle Live: Ghislaine Behind Bars on Monday night on TalkTV at 7pm. Available on Sky 522, Virgin Media 606, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217. Read her pop culture scoops here Daphne's latest book, Struggling for One America, written with Erbil Gunasti, is published by Skyhorse Publishing and is available to buy here The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Duke of York are 'unlikely' to join the King and Queen Consort on the balcony during the Coronation, The Mail on Sunday understands. Last night Buckingham Palace confirmed that the newly crowned King and Queen will appear at Buckingham Palace after the ceremony in May. As with the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee last year, the line-up of Royals alongside them will be restricted to working members of the family. That will exclude Prince Harry, Meghan and Prince Andrew, who no longer carry out official duties. Prince Andrew stepped down from his official role after allegations of sexual abuse in November 2019. He has always denied the accusations. Sources have said that Prince Harry will not be making a public appearance on the balcony if he and wife Meghan attend the coronation in May The will join Prince Andrew as non-working royals in stepping back from the limelight Harry and Meghan quit their roles three years ago when they left Britain to start a new life in California. Earlier this month, Harry released a tell-all book revealing past and present grievances against his family. In a television interview to promote his memoirs, he refused to confirm whether he would attend the Coronation even if he was invited. There is no indication from Buckingham Palace that Harry and Meghan would be barred from attending the event on May 6, which falls on the fourth birthday of their son Archie. Yet even if the couple do attend, a senior Royal insider said that it would be 'unlikely' that they would be included in major public appearances, including the balcony moment. After the release of Prince Harry's explosive memoir Spare, some royal experts said that it seemed impossible for the couple to be able to attend. It followed claims from the Duke that his brother had once physically attacked him and pushed him into a dog bowl, and that he and his wife's press team leaked negative stories to the UK media about them. Buckingham Palace has not commented on the claims. But contrary to initial analysis, there is now discussion of 'peace talks' between the brothers and their father prior to the coronation which, all going well, could pave the way to them attending the event itself. Prince Harry has since demanded an apology from his family for the way they treated Meghan, after alleging in his memoir that they 'stereotyped' her due to her being an American actress. It comes after a furious row over whether the Duke of Sussex should have been part of the Buckingham Palace photographs during the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Until shortly before the Queen's Platinum Jubilee last year, it was unknown whether the Sussexes would step out onto the balcony or not. As with the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee last year, the line-up of Royals alongside the newly-coronated King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will be restricted to working members of the family Queen Elizabeth us pictured sharing a laugh with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on the Buckingham Palace balcony in 2018 It is unclear whether Prince Harry (centre) and Meghan Markle will be attending King Charles' coronation in May Harry and Meghan moved to the US three years ago around the start of the coronavirus pandemic When the Queen did make her appearance surrounded by her family, this included Prince Charles, Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, George, Charlotte and Louis. Smiling as she acknowledged the spectators, she looked down on The Mall where tens of thousands had waited in hope of seeing her. The Queen looked at ease on the balcony as the celebrations drew to a close, leaning on a walking stick, now a routine aid following her mobility issues, and acknowledging the crowds with a wave. The Prince of Wales stood with the Queen along with the Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Despite not appearing on the balcony, Harry was pictured in royal photos from the occasion. After the national anthem was sung by a choir of celebrities including Sir David Jason, Harry Redknapp, Sir Cliff Richard, Sandie Shaw and Felicity Kendal, the Queen waved again at well-wishers and was joined by her great-grandchildren, with Louis waving with both hands. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were noticeably absent from many of the Jubilee proceedings in the first visit to the UK since they moved to the US. But they did introduce Lilibet to the Queen on her first birthday, which occurred while the couple were in the UK. After it was announced that the pair would not be appearing on the balcony, friend and supporter Omid Scobie claimed they did not want to be involved. It came after a sensational statement from the Queen stating the pair - along with Prince Andrew - would not be invited onto the balcony for Trooping the Colour, the spectacular start of her long weekend of commemorations. Following that the Sussexes released a statement that they would still fly from California with their two children. Mr Scobie wrote: 'As is often the case, the reality is much less severe when you hear that Prince Harry had already spoken with his grandmother about the possibility of not attending Trooping the Colour long before last week's announcements.' He said the pair were 'very keen' to be part of the Jubilee celebrations, but that 'both sides' thought it would be more appropriate not to have the Sussexes on the balcony.' Voters are cancelling TV subscriptions such as Netflix and cutting back on takeaways as their main weapons in the cost-of-living crisis, a Mail on Sunday 'state of the nation' poll has found. The exclusive Deltapoll survey found that four out of ten people have bought fewer clothes and takeaways, while one in three go on fewer nights out. But for 23 per cent, staying in has also become less enjoyable, as they have cancelled 'non-essential outgoings' such as TV subscriptions. Households have a negative view of their economic prospects over the coming year, with 48 per cent thinking they will worsen. Worryingly, 15 per cent say they cannot pay their bills and another 36 per cent will not be able to pay them within months. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be concerned by the finding that, despite the Tories' traditional lead on economic matters, 47 per cent think Labour, under Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, is the party best equipped to deal with cost-of-living issues, compared with 29 per cent for the Conservatives. Voters are cancelling TV subscriptions such as Netflix and cutting back on takeaways as their main weapons in the cost-of-living crisis, a poll has found (file image) On the strikes, voters are split between blaming the Government and unions 35 per cent to 33 per cent. For individual professions, 60 per cent support the nurses, but a majority oppose the teachers' and train drivers' strikes. UK voters also disagree with the SNP's Gender Recognition Reform Bill, with 76 per cent saying people should have to wait until a certain age to change their gender most popularly 18. Some 58 per cent think people should have a medical diagnosis before changing gender. Voters are cancelling TV subscriptions such as Netflix and cutting back on takeaways as their main weapons in the cost-of-living crisis, a poll has found (file image) The exclusive Deltapoll survey found that four out of ten people have bought fewer clothes and takeaways, while one in three go on fewer nights out amid the crisis On immigration, although 47 per cent support the Government's plan to deter migrants by flying them to Rwanda, more people think Labour would best deal with the small-boats crisis (37 per cent to 28). Boris Johnson receives an electoral shrug of the shoulders over his planned memoirs, with only 22 per cent interested in reading them. Just 23 per cent think he will tell the truth in the book. The poll also revealed that despite the Tories' traditional lead on economic matters, 47 per cent think Labour, under Sir Keir Starmer is the party best equipped to deal with cost-of-living issues When asked about the royals, there is little sympathy for Prince Harry, his wife or his uncle Prince Andrew attending King Charles's coronation When asked about the royals, there is little sympathy for Prince Harry, his wife or his uncle Prince Andrew attending King Charles's coronation. Nor do people want to read a follow-up to his memoir, Spare just 21 per cent are interested. More than 50 per cent say that he and his children should be stripped of their royal titles. In addition, the custom of calling King Charles's wife Camilla 'Queen' is backed by only 15 per cent half prefer 'Queen Consort'. Despite the glum economic overview, 56 per cent still say they are in a 'good mood' most of the time. Joe Twyman, co-founder of Deltapoll, said: 'It has never been the case in the history of British politics that a party has won a general election while behind on leadership ratings and on economic management. The Conservatives are currently behind on both and the gap shows no sign of significantly diminishing any time soon.' Most Britons want the eight soldiers who were pallbearers at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral to be awarded medals. Fifty-five per cent of those polled believe the men from the Queen's Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, should be given an honour as a reward from a grateful nation. General Lord Richard Dannatt, former head of the Army, has suggested they are awarded the Royal Victorian Order, which is given 'for personal service to the sovereign.' The row over Labour's 'woman problem' intensified last night over claims that the party's high command had made derogatory remarks about an MP who was 'shouted down' in the Commons over her views on trans issues. This newspaper has been told that a senior aide to Sir Keir Starmer said 'it would be nice' if Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield 'spent a bit more time' in her constituency, rather than 'hanging out with JK Rowling'. The Harry Potter author has been an outspoken advocate for women's rights, including the need to protect single-sex spaces. Ms Duffield has said that being in the Labour Party feels like being in an 'abusive relationship' after a tumultuous Commons session was followed by 'silence' from Sir Keir. It was told that a senior aide to Sir Keir Starmer said 'it would be nice' if Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield 'spent a bit more time' in her constituency, rather than 'hanging out with JK Rowling' The aide who denies being critical of Ms Duffield is said to have suggested the MP associates too much with Ms Rowling. The writer organised a lunch at the River Cafe, an exclusive Michelin-star restaurant in West London, last April for women's rights campaigners including Ms Duffield who have been accused of holding 'transphobic' or 'gender critical' beliefs. The event followed the launch of a women's rights campaign called 'Respect My Sex if you want my X', which 'encourages voters to ask politicians for their views on sex and gender identity'. Ms Rowling later published a picture of her posing with Ms Duffield on Twitter, with the caption: 'Two ex-single mums now united for women's rights.' Ms Duffield has said that being in the Labour Party feels like being in an 'abusive relationship' after a tumultuous Commons session Last night, Ms Duffield said in response to the alleged comments: 'I'm in Canterbury every week. It's where I live and work. But I'm not aware Keir's been down here, or that any of his team have ever been down here. 'If they'd like to come and visit they'd be very welcome. But to be honest, I'm not sure they even know where Canterbury is.' Last week, the 51-year-old MP was heckled in the Commons by male Labour backbenchers as she welcomed the Government's move to block a Scottish law that would allow people to change their legal sex from the age of 16 without a medical certificate or long waiting period. Campaigners have warned that such a law would have a huge impact on women's rights and single-sex spaces. After the debate, Ms Duffield warned that Labour risked appearing 'sexist', saying: 'Every day, survivors of domestic violence still message me, telling me not to stop. Keir may dismiss this as a culture war issue, but for these women, it is most definitely not. After Ms Duffield was 'shouted down' in the Commons over her views on trans issues, it was followed by 'silence' from Sir Keir 'And I know I'm not the only MP in the party who thinks this I'm just the only one who feels I have nothing to lose by speaking out.' She added: 'One of the traits of being in an abusive relationship is "stonewalling". The abuser will go quiet for days on end. They will stew, not speak to you, turn their back on you. 'Trust me when I say I don't take this lightly: but what I feel now, after six years of being cold-shouldered by the Labour Party, conjures memories of how I felt in that abusive relationship. When I come home at night, I feel low-level trauma at my political isolation.' Last night, the Labour aide said that he had always respected Ms Duffield's right to speak out on trans issues. Protestors who want women 'decapitated' BY GEORGIA EDKINS SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR JK Rowling last night led the condemnation of politicians who stood with protesters calling for women's rights campaigners to be 'decapitated'. The shocking placards were brandished at a demonstration in Glasgow in support of Scottish plans to allow anyone 16 or over to change their sex at will, without the need for a medical diagnosis. The Harry Potter author tweeted pictures of campaigners brandishing the offensive signs. One said 'decapitate Terfs' alongside a drawing of a guillotine, and another read, 'I eat Terfs'. JK Rowling last night led the condemnation of politicians who stood with protesters calling for women's rights campaigners to be 'decapitated' The acronym, standing for 'trans-exclusionary radical feminists', is used as a term of abuse by trans activists. Rowling said of the images: 'A few of Scotland's wonderfully progressive and kind politicians, posing proudly in front of banners calling for women to be decapitated and eaten.' The protest comes after Westminster blocked the gender reform bill passed in Holyrood and championed by Nicola Sturgeon's ruling Scottish National Party. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack claimed it would damage equality laws that apply across the whole of the UK. SNP MPs Alison Thewliss and Kirsten Oswald, and Kaukab Stewart, a member of the Scottish Parliament, were pictured in front of the banners. Tory MP Jonathan Gullis said: 'SNP politicians may say they were unaware of these horrific signs at this protest. The Harry Potter author has been an outspoken advocate for women's rights, including the need to protect single-sex spaces 'But whether they like it or not, SNP politicians have effectively aligned themselves with hate-filled campaigners like this. These idiots inciting such horrific violence are clearly not interested in any form of normal debate.' And women's rights campaigner Maya Forstater said: 'This protest advocating for the most extreme violence against women is shocking. 'I have never seen a women's rights protest with threatening signs like this, yet we are told to "be kind".' In response, an SNP spokesman said the politicians were making a stand for the rights of trans people, but added: 'Violent or hateful language of any kind is unacceptable and has no place in the peaceful movement for LGBT equality.' Ms Stewart said on Twitter: 'I was not aware of these hateful signs when I attended today's protest in defence of Scottish democracy and the rights of trans people, and I utterly disagree with them.' And Ms Oswald said: 'That's a horrific sign, and it wasn't there when I joined the demo. It most certainly doesn't represent my views, and isn't language I would ever use.' Experts say the idea of one evolving to infect humans is 'not too far-fetched' Other parasitic fungi families operate in a similar way, like Strongwellsea If you've been watching the new zombie series 'The Last of Us', you may have thought you were safe with the knowledge that it was all fictional. The series follows smuggler Joel as he escorts teenager Ellie through Boston, Massachusetts, while a fungus spreads across the world that turns victims into zombies. This parasite is actually based on a real group of fungi which grow within their host's body after infection and can control its behaviour. Worryingly, experts have deemed the idea of a similar fungus evolving to be able to infect humans as 'not too far-fetched'. 'The Last of Us' is set in a world where a fungus is spreading that turns victims into zombies called 'Clickers' (pictured) One of these fungi is the Entomophthora Muscae, which infects female houseflies and uses its victim's corpse to attract males to mate with it . Pictured: Spore cannons grow on a fly corpse that can eject Entomophthora Muscae onto other victims WHAT IS THE FUNGUS IN 'THE LAST OF US' BASED ON? The co-creators of 'The Last of Us', Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, said that their fungus is based specifically off Cordyceps, which infects carpenter ants. The fungus forces infected ants to walk to the top of a plant and clamp its jaws on the plant with a 'death grip' that will trap it there until it dies. The fungus next sprouts antennae-like stalks through its victim's exoskeleton, which fire spores onto the ground below, allowing it to infect as many insects as possible. Advertisement One of these fungi is the Entomophthora Muscae, which infects female houseflies and uses its victim's corpse to attract males to mate with it. Just last year, it was revealed that the longer the female host is dead, the more alluring it is to the male flies. E. Muscae first penetrates through the skin of the housefly before growing its way through the body, infecting its nervous system. After about a week of digesting its guts, the fungus forces the fly to ascend to a high point and spread out its wings before it dies. Next, the fungi grows an array of micro-sized stalks on the corpse, each one a pressurised cannon of liquid with a spore that can be ejected outwards. It also releases a chemical signature that acts as pheromones to lure unsuspecting males to come and mate with the infected female corpse. The males trigger the cannons, and end up coated in a spray of infectious spores which will, eventually, also turn it into a zombie housefly. This ensures that the fungal spores are dispersed as widely as possible so the gruesome process happens again on another fly. A fly killed by the killed by Entomophthora muscae fungus, which ascend to a high point and spread their wings to spew spores from their abdomen Dr Henrik de Fine Licht, a professor at the University of Copenhagen and author on the study, has been watching 'The Last of Us'. He told MailOnline: 'It makes the not too far-fetched idea of a fungal disease jumping from one species, insects in this case, and on to humans. 'Many, if not most new diseases likely comes from pathogenic organisms shifting from other species, so the idea is compelling.' But while it could be possible for a disease to be passed from non-human to human, it would likely take millions of years of evolution. Dr de Fine Licht told MailOnline: 'All behaviour manipulating fungi like Entomophthora muscae causing zombie-flys or the Ophiocordyceps species causing zombie-ants are very host-specific. 'That is, they naturally only infects a single or very few related insect host species. 'Their ability to behaviourally manipulate their host has evolved and been fine-tuned during millions of years co-evolution with their respective insect hosts, so the chance of these fungi suddenly being able to not only infect something as different from an insect as a human, and then also maintaining the ability to manipulate the behaviour is literally non-existent.' 'The Last of Us' follows smuggler Joel (left) as he escorts teenager Ellie (right) through Boston, Massachusetts, USA while a fungus spreads across the world PhD student Sam Edwards, who works with Dr de Fine Licht, noticed similarities between E. muscae and the fictional fungi in 'The Last of Us', through the way an elderly woman reacted to infection. He told MailOnline: 'When we see the old lady twitching in the background in her chair, she does this around sunset, which is when manipulation happens in E. muscae. 'Also, the weird protrusions that old lady has from her mouth when "feeding" on her relatives - E. muscae comes out the flies mouth after manipulation, not for feeding, but to strengthen its hold on the wall it died on.' The co-creators of 'The Last of Us', Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, said that their fungus is actually based specifically off Cordyceps, which infects carpenter ants. They told Collider: 'Cordyceps is a fascinating concept, and its absolutely real. We wanted to push that a little further. 'We wanted to give us much reality as we could because the realer that is, the more we connect to the characters that are in that space playing around.' Cordyceps forces infected ants to walk to the top of a plant and clamp its jaws on the plant with a 'death grip' that will trap it there until it dies. Once infected, Cordyceps forces the ants to walk to the top of a plant and clamp its jaws on the plant with a 'death grip' that will trap it there until it dies. The fungus next sprouts antennae-like stalks through its victim's exoskeleton, which fire spores onto the ground below, allowing it to infect as many insects as possible. Pictured: An ant fallen victim to Cordyceps The fungus next sprouts antennae-like stalks through its victim's exoskeleton, which fire spores onto the ground below, allowing it to infect as many insects as possible. In the video game version of 'The Last of Us', upon which the TV series is based, characters wore gas masks because of the presence of fungal spores in the air. These emanate from the dead and can infect anyone who breathes them in. However, Mr Druckmann and Mr Mazin told Collider that they intentionally removed this aspect from the series to avoid obstructing the casts' faces. They instead gave gruesome tendrils to infected humans that they can use to infect others as well as with their bite. Mr Edwards said it was a 'shame' that this was removed. He told MailOnline: 'it would have been more realistic from a fungus perspective - and possibly educational - and could have added a different take to telly zombies.' Experts originally thought Cordyceps infected the brains of its hosts, which is also a characteristic of the fictional fungus in the video game and TV series. Pictured: Fungal stalks burst from the head of a fly that had been infected with Cordyceps COULD A PARASITIC FUNGUS EVER INFECT HUMANS? Dr Henrik de Fine Licht, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, has been watching 'The Last of Us'. He told MailOnline: 'It makes the not too far-fetched idea of a fungal disease jumping from one species, insects in this case, and on to humans. 'Many, if not most new diseases likely comes from pathogenic organisms shifting from other species, so the idea is compelling.' But while it could be possible for a disease to be passed from non-human to human, it would likely take millions of years of evolution, and Dr de Fine Licht said a chance of this happening is 'literally non-existent'. Advertisement Experts originally thought Cordyceps infected the brains of its hosts, which is also a characteristic of the fictional fungus in the video game and TV series. However, research from 2019 showed it actually takes over its victims' mandibular muscles. Researchers from Penn State University described this behaviour as 'like a puppeteer pulling the strings to make a marionette move.' Two other parasitic fungi were discovered by scientists from the Natural History Museum of Denmark and University of Copenhagen in 2020. Strongwellsea acerosa and Strongwellsea tigrinae bore into adult flies, creating a huge hole in their abdomens, and then devour them from the inside. But the gaping wound doesn't kill the fly immediately, so the fungi will rain torpedo-shaped spores through it to infect unsuspecting insects while its host is still alive. 'They work like small rockets,' University of Copenhagen ecologist Jrgen Eilenberg told The Guardian. 'They are almost shaped like torpedoes and are designed for going fast.' 'If they land on another fly they stick to the cuticle and then wiggle their way into the abdomen, where they start to proliferate.' 'Thousands of spores will be released out from a single fly.' The researchers believe the flies are kept alive by potent, dope-like chemicals secreted by the fungi that also keep other microorganisms away from the wound site. After a few days, the poor creature finally gives out, falling onto its back and spasming in its final hours before dying. Strongwellsea acerosa and Strongwellsea tigrinae bore into adult flies, creating a huge hole in their abdomens (pictured), and then devour them from the inside After it carves through its host, Strongwellsea acerosa keeps it alive so it can buzz around and shed spores onto other unsuspecting flies. Pictured: Strongwellsea acerosa spores Another genus, Massospora, uses cicadas in a similar way to how the Strongwellsea species use flies. Infection transforms the insect into a zombie-like state, and the fungus begins consuming its abdomen, genitals and buttocks, replacing them with spores. While this is happening, Massospora can manipulate the male cicada into flicking its wings like a female, as if performing its mating ritual. This tempts unsuspecting male cicadas towards it and enables it to infect them with spores. Another genus, Massospora, uses cicadas in a similar way to how the Strongwellsea species use flies. Infection transforms the insect into a zombie-like state, and the fungus begins consuming its abdomen, genitals and buttocks, replacing them with spores Cicadas first come in contact with the fungus while underground and then spread it to others once they emerge. Massopora contains similar chemicals found in hallucinogenic mushrooms, psilocybin, along with amphetamine that is also known as 'bath salts.' Brian Lovett, a researcher at West Virginia University, said: 'Essentially, the cicadas are luring others into becoming infected because their healthy counterparts are interested in mating. 'The bioactive compounds may manipulate the insect to stay awake and continue to transmit the pathogen for longer.' It has also been suggested it is not a planet and could instead be a tiny black hole Existence proposed by group at CalTech in the US but no one has actually seen it Theoretical world Planet X thought to be about five to 20 times larger than Earth In 2015, astronomers found evidence a ninth planet may exist in our solar system It has been six years since astronomers found strong evidence that a mysterious ninth planet might exist at the far reaches of our solar system. But the so-called theoretical world dubbed Planet X has still not actually been seen by anyone, and for the meantime remains just that, a theory. If it is real, scientists say it could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and may take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make one full orbit around the sun. The reason they think Planet X is there is because they can see other objects in space being affected by it. So are they any closer to solving the mystery? MailOnline looks at where the world of astronomy currently sits on the issue. Peculiar: It has been six years since astronomers found strong evidence that a ninth planet might exist at the far reaches of our solar system. So are they any closer to solving the mystery of Planet X? MailOnline looks at where the world of astronomy currently sits on the issue What is so mysterious about Planet X? Planet X, or Planet Nine as it has also been called, is a theoretical planet that some astronomers think could be hiding at the very edge of our solar system. The reason they think this is because the orbits of a number of bodies in the distant reaches of our solar system have been disrupted by the pull of something, most likely an as yet unidentified ninth planet. The problem is, no one has actually seen this potential world its existence is based purely on mathematics. There are many things fascinating about this possible Planet X, but chief among them is that its hypothetical orbit would see it take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make a single pass around the sun. Pictured is how this orbit would compare to the other eight planets In 2015, Caltech astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown announced new research which provided impelling evidence of a giant planet tracing an unusual, elongated orbit in the outer solar system. If it does exist, the data and computer modelling suggests that Planet X would need to be roughly four times the size of Earth and ten times its mass. The theory goes that a body of this size and mass would explain the clustered paths of some smaller objects in the Kuiper Belt, a distant region of icy debris that extends far beyond the orbit of Neptune. There are many things fascinating about this possible world, but chief among them is that its hypothetical orbit would see it take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make a single pass around the sun. Neptune completes an orbit roughly every 165 years. Who first came up with the idea of a ninth planet? WHO WAS PERCIVAL LOWELL? Percival Lowell A 19th Century travel writer and businessman, Percival Lowell decided to become an astronomer after reading a book on Mars. He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894, before studying the Red Planet religiously and making in intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. Lowell was convinced that the Red Planet sustained intelligent life forms. So much so that he believed that strange lines had had observed on the Martian surface were canals, built as the last attempt of a dying civilisation to tap water from the polar ice caps. He also wrongly believed that Venus had spokes emanating from its centre. Advertisement The last proper planet to be discovered was Neptune in 1846. However, at the time there was a lot of speculation that it might not be the last, and that another world might still exist deep beyond its orbit. Step up 19th Century travel writer and businessman Percival Lowell. Lowell is remembered for a series of outlandish theories about space, having decided to become an astronomer after reading a book on Mars. Lowell was convinced that the Red Planet sustained intelligent life forms. So much so that he believed that strange lines had had observed on the Martian surface were canals, built as the last attempt of a dying civilisation to tap water from the polar ice caps. Most importantly, however, Lowell was convinced there was a ninth planet in our solar system. He died at the age of 61 in 1961, without ever figuring out whether his theory was true, but left a million dollars in his will to go towards finding Planet X. Lowell's observatory kept looking and 14 years later, on 18 February 1930, a young astronomer looking at two photos noticed what turned out to be a tiny world known as Pluto. This was mistakenly considered to be the mysterious Planet X. Ultimately, Pluto would lose its planet status anyway, being downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006, along with what was initially described as the solar system's tenth planet, Eris, discovered in 2005. Now, Planet X is a general term for any undiscovered planet in the solar system. But the idea of Planet X was briefly dismissed? Yes, by one of the Voyager spacecraft in 1989. When Voyager 2 raced past Neptune it revealed that the planet was fractionally lighter than anyone had originally thought. This led a NASA scientist to calculate that the orbits of the outer planets had made sense all along. The mystery, it seemed, was closed. Planet X was not Pluto, not Eris, and it did not exist. So why did its existence spring up again? Primarily because of the Caltech astronomers Batygin and Brown. Eight years ago they shared detailed mathematical modelling and computer simulations which hinted that a large object was to blamed for the unique orbits of at least five smaller objects discovered in the distant Kuiper Belt. Breakthrough: In 2015, Caltech astronomers Mike Brown (left) and Konstantin Batygin (right) announced new research which provided impelling evidence of a giant planet tracing an unusual, elongated orbit in the outer solar system 'The possibility of a new planet is certainly an exciting one for me as a planetary scientist and for all of us,' Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said at the time. 'This is not, however, the detection or discovery of a new planet. It's too early to say with certainty there's a so-called Planet X. 'What we're seeing is an early prediction based on modelling from limited observations. It's the start of a process that could lead to an exciting result.' What other theories are there? It's actually just a tiny black hole. That's according to physicists Jakub Scholtz and James Unwin, who claimed it would be so small that it would be the size of a bowling ball. They made the suggestion in 2019, on the basis that a black hole could be equally as responsible as a planet for affecting the orbits of a series of rocky objects that circle Neptune. Much like with Planet X, which some astronomers believe was a free-floating planet that was booted out of its original star system and began orbiting our sun after flying close to the solar system, Scholtz and Unwin said the same could apply to a mini black hole. In 2020, a new theory was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by scientists from Harvard University which suggested that not only might Planet X actually exist but that there may once have been a binary companion to our sun. 'Dr. Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard, and Amir Siraj, a Harvard undergraduate student, have postulated that the existence of a long-lost stellar binary companion in the sun's birth cluster the collection of stars that formed together with the sun from the same dense cloud of molecular gas could explain the formation of the Oort cloud as we observe it today,' the authors wrote. The Oort Cloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the sun, planets, and Kuiper Belt Objects containing billions, or trillions of icy pieces of space debris left over from the formation of the solar system. It is believed to be the source of long-period comets. Is Planet Nibiru the same as Planet X? No. Nibiru, sometimes also referred to as Planet X, is a different hypothesised planet on the edge of our solar system. Conspiracy theorists believe the gravitational influence of the 'rogue planet' Nibiru disrupted the orbits of other planets hundreds of years ago. They claim the next disruptive passage into the inner solar system could happen at any time. Peculiar: Nibiru (pictured in an artist's impression), sometimes also referred to as Planet X, is a different hypothesised planet on the edge of our solar system Nibiru is supposedly mentioned on ancient Sumerian clay tablets and is said to have crashed through the early solar system creating the asteroid belt and the Earth before vanishing again. Some conspiracy theorists claim that this 'planet' is sending 'plasmatic energy particles' through our solar system. The flow of energy will disrupt the 'core flows' of the Earth and trigger catastrophic changes in Earth's climate. They claim, since 1996, we have already been feeling the disruptive effects of the inbound rogue Planet X. Conspiracy theorists often blame natural disasters and freak weather patterns on the planet. 'Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an internet hoax,' NASA has said. 'Obviously, it does not exist.' So where are scientists with solving the mystery of Planet X now? They haven't got there yet, but remain optimistic of doing so. Eighteen months ago Mike Brown said: 'I think it's within a year or two from being found. But he cautioned: 'I've made that statement every year for the past five years. I am super-optimistic.' In 2021, the existence of Planet X was dealt a blow when a team led by physicist Kevin Napier, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, examined the orbits of 'extreme' trans-Neptunian objects. The researchers found that the objects' perturbed orbits could actually be explained without the presence of a nearby planet. They concluded that the objects only seem to have clustered paths because of selection bias, although many others disagree and say more data is needed. There may be an answer either way soon, however. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (VRO) in Chile, which came online in 2021, began a ten-year survey of the sky last year which is expected to detect thousands more Kuiper belt objects. A close examination of their orbits may be able to confirm or deny the existence of Planet X and provide clues as to its origin and location. Harvard's Dr Avi Loeb said: 'If the VRO verifies the existence of Planet Nine, and a captured origin, and also finds a population of similarly captured dwarf planets, then the binary model will be favoured over the lone stellar history that has been long-assumed.' From San Diego up to Seattle, people are building barriers of sandbags along the coast in fear of the 'king of tides' set to flood the western shores. The phenomenon is predicted to increase water levels by more than seven feet in low-lying areas of California and 10 feet in parts of Oregon during the peak before noon. While these events are typical in the winter, this one follows recent rain storms that battered the west and is happening when a new moon hangs in the sky - and it will be the closest to Earth than it has in more than 1,000. Ellen Plane, an environmental scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, told Bay Nature that because of the rise in sea level in recent years, 'those king tides are going to be our average daily high tides.' An unusually high tide is set to hit the west coast states this weekend, bringing up to feet high tides in some parts. California (pictured) was battered by storms in recent weeks Meteorologist Kelley Bayern shared a stark warning on Twitter Friday: 'King tides arrive on the Oregon coast today and this weekend. Expect significantly higher tide levels [and] sneaker waves. Please use extra caution on the sand.' Sneaker waves often happen in Northern California and Oregon. They are significantly larger than the previous waves and can happen without warning signs. King tides, however, are predictable before they bring a flow of water from the marina to surrounding towns. Matt Zaffino, chief meteorologist at KGW TV in Portland, Oregon, shared in a tweet: 'Extreme high and low tides this weekend courtesy of the new moon. Luckily, the sea state off the Oregon and Washington coasts will not be extreme. King tide is not a scientific name, but a catchy term from Australia to describe the year's highest high tides. The National Weather Service issued a Flood Advisory for the Peninsula coast on Thursday due to the expected high tides. And the advisory, which is in effect through Monday afternoon. King tides already ravaged Seattle in December, which saw dozens of families forced to evacuate their homes in a South Park neighborhood. Homeowners reported seeing up to four feet of water flowing through their backyards after the event disappeared. Nicholas Michiels, a resident of South Park, told KIRO 7: 'Our childhood pictures and stuff we had to peel them apart, lay them on paper towels, and try to take pictures of them. 'We definitely got burned, but were working really hard not to keep our hands in the coals.' Oregon is the king of tides' path and meteorologists are warning residents to be prepared The tide will reach more than 10 feet in Oregon Saturday afternoon, but will dramatically drop several hours later Along with the high tides, the king tides also bring low tides that uncover beaches and other locations that are usually submerged. One such place is the Ashby Shoal, a sandbar less than a mile from the shore of the Emeryville Marina in the San Francisco Bay. On Thursday evening, the sandbar emerged from the water due to the tides being -1.31 feet, and beachgoers took full advantage. The phenomenon is predicted to increase water levels by more than seven feet in low-lying areas of California, which experienced a high tide earlier this month. But this weekend will have a new moon that will boost tides even more People are building barriers of sandbags along the coast in fear of the 'king of tides' set to flood the western shores. SFGate reported seeing dozens of people pull their boats onto Ashby Shoal to catch the sunset on the Bay. California is feeling the brunt of Mother Nature with devastating storms in recent weeks that brought 200 to 600 percent more rain than usual. The series of atmospheric rivers that hit the state has done an estimated $1 billion in damage, dumping an estimated 24 trillion gallons of water on the state since December and leaving 19 people dead. Le feu vert a ete donne pour la mise en place du National HIV Action Plan (NAP) 20232027 prepare par le ministere de la Sante avec la collaboration de lOMS et des acteurs locaux, ONG inclus. Cabinet has agreed to the National HIV Action Plan (NAP) 20232027, which has been developed by the Ministry of Health and Wellness in consultation with all stakeholders involved in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The World Health Organization provided technical assistance through the recruitment of an international Consultant, for the drafting of the plan. The NAP 20232027 is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal aimed at ending AIDS by 2030. The vision of the NAP 2023-2027 is to achieve zero new HIV infections and zero AIDS-related deaths within a setting of an inclusive society free from stigma and discrimination and its mission is to provide high quality HIV prevention, testing, treatment, care and support services to all Mauritians. A Steering Committee under the chair of the Ministry of Health and Wellness would be set up to ensure the proper implementation of the NAP and the activities contained therein. A walker discovered an alien-looking sea creature washed up on a British beach - and it could have been worth a small fortune. The rare goose barnacles are served as a luxury treat at high-end seafood restaurants and can demand high prices of up to 80 a kilo. And the tiny sea creatures were found attached to the trunk of tree after it came ashore at Newgale, Pembrokeshire, in recent storms. Ruth Crofts found the barnacles wrapped around the trunk on one of her walks. And the tiny sea creatures were found attached to the trunk of tree after it came ashore at Newgale, Pembrokeshire, in recent storms The tiny shellfish are served as delicacy in Spain and Portugal. They are prepared by cooking them in sea water and adding a bay leaf to give a special aroma She said: 'I spotted the exotic traveller on Newgale after it had obviously got washed up by the high winds. 'From the shape of it's base I believed it to be either a palm tree or a coconut tree. 'It has very obviously been at sea for a considerable time. 'It had been colonised by a host of goose barnacles and really was quite a sight on the pebble bank.' The tiny shellfish are served as delicacy in Spain and Portugal. Their standing as a delicacy is what helps to drive their prices so high. The goose barnacles - as many other delicacies - are eaten without many additions. They are prepared by cooking them in sea water and adding a bay leaf to give a special aroma. Fans of the sea food say they taste like a bit of sea. They are often found attached to rocks, ships, ropes or flotsam out to sea. In appearance, they have a long fleshy stem that looks like a neck and a chalky white hard shell that houses the main body with their legs. The creatures are usually found along the coastline of North America. However, it is believed that they were found in west Wales as a result of the Gulf Stream and also the recent extremely strong winds that have likely swepped the tree trunk with them attached to it ashore. Experts believe the Pembrokeshire shellfish may have been too small for dining tables. They also said the barnacles had been washed up for too long to be edible, so aren't bringing in high prices as a delicacy anymore. British chef Gordon Ramsay has previously featured goose barnacles in his Channel 4 series The F Word. Experts believe the Pembrokeshire shellfish may have been too small for dining tables British chef Gordon Ramsay has previously featured goose barnacles in his Channel 4 series The F Word He also recommends cooking them in salt water with bay leafs. Additionally, he suggests adding some olive oil to the cooking water and to only cook the delicacy for one minute - 'as long as it takes to say a Lord's prayer', he added During the third season, he found out first-hand how dangerous the harvesting of goose barnacles is. He also recommends cooking them in salt water with bay leafs. Additionally, he suggests adding some olive oil to the cooking water and to only cook the delicacy for one minute - 'as long as it takes to say a Lord's prayer', he added. Chef Ramsay shared his secret to getting the barnacles out of their shells: to peel them while they are warm. To serve them, he cooked a cherry sauce with charlottes, bay leaves, fresh pepper, a touch of cherry wine, a couple of tablespoons of cream, some lemon zest, the juice of one lemon and a couple of table spoons of the cooking water from the barnacles. He put the barnacles with some fresh parsley in the saucepanto cook for one minute, but warned to take them out quickly as cooking them in the hot pan any longer results in them tasting like a 'mouthful of elastic band'. A former Man United fan ditched his trademark long locks for a shorter look, and looks unrecognisable as a result. A group of United players linked up back in August for a Masters match, and fans would have been able to easily pick out Louis Saha, John O'Shea and Wes Brown in a photo from the event. Another in the snap though appeared remarkably different than in his playing days at Old Trafford. Wes Brown, Paul Rachubka, Louis Saha, Danny Webber, Darron Gibson, John O'Shea and Quinton Fortune all posed as they reunited for a Masters tournament But another in Karel Poborsky looked remarkably different to the two years he spent at Manchester United where he won the Premier League title in 1997 Behind Quinton Fortune and in front of O'Shea is former Red Devils midfielder Karel Poborsky, who won the Premier League with the club in 1997. The former Czech Republic star sported a shaggy mop of hair during his playing days for the Red Devils, but was seen back in August with a shorter combed look and grey beard. The former winger changed his look after leaving the Premier League, keeping the long locks during his spell at Lazio but then chopping them off shortly after signing for Sparta Prague in 2002. He appeared in a United legends game in 2017 with an even shorter do. Poborsky played for two seasons at Old Trafford, starting 15 games and scoring four goals as Sir Alex Ferguson's side won the title in the 1996-97 season. Poborsky started 15 games in the league for United as they won the Premier League in 1996-97 The former Czech international is pictured in Champions League action against Juventus Poborsky battles with Edgar Davids in a Man United-Barcelona legends match from 2017 He started just two games the next season before departing for Benfica. Poborsky revealed in 2019 he was one day from dying three years earlier from a brain infection. He was hospitalized and induced into a coma, though he still does not know the cause of the illness. Everton are expected to sign Arnaut Danjuma on loan from Villarreal. The 25-year-old forward was due to make his decision on Friday. Newcastle are to test Everton's resolve to keep Anthony Gordon this week. Everton are expected to sign Arnaut Danjuma on loan from Villarreal in this transfer window Nottingham Forest are also interested in Danjuma but he is close to a move to Everton. Everton are languishing in 19th place in the Premier League, with Frank Lampard's future at the club in doubt. Newcastle United are set to test Everton's resolve for 21-year-old Anthony Gordon this week Everton, whose manager Frank Lampard is under pressure, are eager to add to their squad Danjuma has Premier League experience, having previously played for Bournemouth. The Netherlands international has also been the subject of interest from PSV. This season Danjuma has scored six goals in 17 games for PSV across all competitions. Bournemouth have asked about a loan move for Uruguayan left-back Matias Vina from Roma. The 25-year-old has seen his chances at Roma limited under Jose Mourinho this season, with just three Serie A appearances, and 15 games where he has been left as an unused substitute. Gary O' Neil is looking to strengthen his side in order to boost their chances of avoiding relegation. Bournemouth are considering a loan move for Roma left-back Matias Vina Their push for Vina comes after they failed with an ambitious move for Inter Milan's Germany international Robin Gosens. Gosens has struggled for starts since a hamstring injury kept him out for a good chunk of last season. Out of his 15 Serie A appearances this season, 14 of them have come as a substitute. Bournemouth had previously attempted an ambitious move for Inter Milan's Robin Gosens Gary O'Neil is looking to strengthen his side to help them avoid relegation this season Bournemouth meanwhile made their first signing of the January window yesterday, recruiting winger Dango Ouattara for around 20m from French side Lorient. Ouattara, who has five goals from 11 international caps for Burkina Faso, joins on a five-and-a-half-year deal. Bournemouth's new American owner Bill Foley had recently bought a minority stake in Lorient. They have also made a 10m bid for Bristol City striker Antoine Semenyo. Nestled within the Lake District, the village of Bassenthwaite may not be the go to stop while touring the national park. With a population of less than 500 people, it has just one pub and not a shop in sight. But that appears to be working in its favour as it has been named the most peaceful destination in the UK. It has topped a list of over 50 staycation locations judged on factors including the number of people posting about it on social media, the destinations population, the amount of hiking, bird watching, and fishing trails and the crime rate. The Cumbrian village counted the fewest number of Instagrams hashtags just 100 which saw it rated a hidden gem. The list gave Bassenthwaite an overall peace score of 86.62. Lying in the shadow of Skiddaw, the sixth-highest mountain in England at just over 3,000ft tall, the village leads to over 39 hiking trails and sits off the shores of the four mile long Bassenthwaite lake. However, it does have a surprisingly high crime rate of 63 per thousand inhabitants. The list, compiled by CBD retailer Ice Head Shop, placed Dartmouth in Devon in second place while in third was the small Peak District village of Over Haddon in Derbyshire Despite a possible looming recession, Britons are booking holidays and flights in vast numbers as many make up for years of missed breaks during the pandemic. Ryanair had its busiest ever weekend of sales last week. But can you really sip cocktails on a resort sun lounger during a cost-of-living crisis? Your travel budget may be shrinking but you can still squeeze your dream holiday into it with some clever planning and these handy travel tips. Despite a possible looming recession, Britons are booking holidays and flights in vast numbers REAP THE CARD REWARDS Reward credit cards let you earn points with everyday spending to use towards flights and hotels. Most airline cards work in a similar way well use the British Airways American Express Premium Plus as an example. Sign up before February 21 on BAs site, spend 3,000 in the first three months and get 70,000 bonus Avios, BAs air miles. If you do so via Amex it is just half that. Thats up to eight free economy flights or three business class ones to Europe. You then get 1.5 Avios for every 1 spent on everyday buys, and 3 Avios for every 1 spent with BA. But bear in mind there is a 250 annual fee for the card. There is also a standard version of the BA Amex that is fee-free, but the bonus is 20,000 Avios for a 1,000 spend in the first three months and the earn rate is 1 Avios per 1 spent. Avios is good for short-haul trips in economy and business. But the surcharges for long-haul in business add up often to more than the cost of buying an economy seat. You can also earn a companion voucher each year you spend 10,000. These allow you to bring a companion on the same flight for no additional Avios. If flying solo, you can use it to book your flight with 50 per cent less Avios. You still need to pay taxes and fees for everyone flying. Tip: Reward credit cards let you earn points with everyday spending to use towards flights and hotels (file image) BOOK EARLY FOR THE BEST PRICES Book flights as early as possible. Wait until the last minute and demand and thus prices can soar. Comparison sites such as Kayak or Google Flights give prices from airlines as well as travel agents which are often cheaper. They also display codesharing deals, seats sold via a partner airlines site for a different price. A great trick for long-haul flights. A Virgin Atlantic return from London to Las Vegas was 881, but the same flight booked with partner Delta was 816, MoneySavingExpert found. If you know you want to fly Virgin, check for codeshares with Air China, Air New Zealand, and Singapore. Likewise, BA codeshares with American, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Qantas and Iberia. For popular spots such as Florida or the Caribbean, flights may be cheaper as part of a package. HOTEL SHOPPING Slashing your budget doesnt mean switching the Hilton for a hostel. Many hotels and booking sites offer rooms with free cancellation. If you see a decent deal, book it now and keep an eye on prices. If they drop, cancel and rebook. Going stateside? With Priceline, you can choose a neighbourhood and star rating then name your own price for a room. Like an auction, aim low then slowly raise your bid until a hotel accepts. Start early as you can only bid once per day. Cashback sites such as Quidco or Topcashback have deals when booking. Quidco has ten per cent cashback on Hotels.com from March and 15 per cent cashback on Accor Hotels. CUT EXCHANGE FEES Take out a credit or debit card just for overseas travel. The Barclaycard Rewards card gives you near-perfect exchange rates, zero ATM fees, and 0.25 per cent cashback on all purchases. Pay it off in full each month to avoid interest. Or open a Monzo account and pay with your debit card in any currency fee-free. Monzo also helps you split bills and tabs with friends, making shared holiday spending a breeze. If you prefer cash, its best to withdraw from an ATM at your destination using your UK debit card. Do this in big chunks to minimise fees. Dont turn up at the airport and change money there youll get a rate about 10 per cent worse than if you pre-order or use your card at an ATM. MIND YOUR MEGABYTES Many mobile phone providers have reinstated roaming fees in the EU post-Brexit. Vodafone, EE, and Three all charge 2 per day to use your allowance. Outside the EU these charges can be much higher. Check with your provider to see what fees will apply or how to avoid them. For example with Three, switching to Pay As You Go will allow you to use your allowance for free in the EU and certain other destinations such as America. To minimise costs, turn data roaming off and only use wi-fi while away though this is not always possible when out and about. On Google Maps you can download a map of your destination to use offline. Add pins to save directions to landmarks, restaurants and back to your hotel. Download Netflix shows, movies and music before you leave. Watch out: Many mobile phone providers have reinstated roaming fees in the EU post-Brexit (file image) CHECK YOUR PASSPORT Check your passports expiry and countries entry requirements. Some require at least six months validity from arrival. Standard renewal costs 75.50 and officials say to allow up to ten weeks. Leave it too late and its 177 for the one-day service. Brexit means EU passport rules have changed. Brits now need at least three months left on their passports from the date they intend to return home. Go directly to the official government website for passports and visas. Many private companies will set up copycat sites that appear at the top of Google search results and charge you triple. Book travel insurance before you go in case you need to cancel. Plus, ensure you have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This lets you get medical care at state-run hospitals like a local often free. AIRPORT SAVERS Pre-book airport parking as paying on the day costs more. Got a long layover? Paying 30 to get into an airport lounge for unlimited food and drinks and relative peace and quiet is better value than an overpriced meal and a couple of pints at a crowded restaurant. Check if your credit card or loyalty schemes offer lounge entry. Another pointer: Pack empty water bottles and fill them up after security for free (file image) Although you cant bring liquids through security, you can bring food. Families can save big by packing snacks in their carry-ons. Some airports are introducing new bag scanners that allow unlimited liquids through but you never know if youll be using them. To be safe, pack empty water bottles and fill them up after security for free. This beats paying 4 for water at a newsstand. Finally, leave room for souvenirs so you dont get stung by overweight baggage fees on your way home. It was Hollywood's highest-grossing film of all time upon its 1993 release and left the world fascinated by prehistoric beasts. Now, five sequels later and nearly 30 years since its $50million cinematic debut, MailOnline is looking at the lives of the stars of Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg's beloved dinosaur flick helped boost the careers of several industry hotshots including Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Marvel icon Samuel L Jackson - who is now one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. Jurassic Park, which ran in theatres for almost 500 days and grossed a total of $912million worldwide, captivated audiences around the globe and launched the modern blockbuster franchise. Jurassic Park was Hollywood's highest-grossing film of all time upon its 1993 release and left the world fascinated by the mystery of prehistoric times. Pictured: Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Laura Dern and Sam Neill in Jurassic Park Jurassic Park, which ran in theatres for almost 500 days and grossed a total of $912million worldwide, helped spearhead the careers of several Hollywood stars. Pictured: Joseph Mazzello, Laura Dern and Sam Neill in Jurassic Park After Jurassic Park, he landed roles in the 1997 film Event Horizon and on the TV series, The Tudors and Peaky Blinders. Sam Neill is pictured at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in 2019 Sam Neill - Dr Alan Grant Sam Neill, who starred as lead palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant, was a well-known New Zealand actor when he first arrived turned up at the prehistoric island theme park, but Jurassic Park made him a Hollywood icon. Audiences fell in love with the dependable Dr Grant and charisma Mr Neill brought to the silver screen. After Jurassic Park, he landed roles in the 1997 film Event Horizon and on the TV series, The Tudors and Peaky Blinders. Mr Neill played Thor's father, Odin, in the Marvel film Thor: Ragnarok in 2017, and appeared in Taika Waititi's Hunt for the Wilderpeople in 2016. He also played Mr McGregor in the 2018 adaption of beloved children's story Peter Rabbit. Mr Neill resurrected his role as Dr Grant in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). Sam Neill, who starred as lead palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant, was a well-known New Zealand actor when he first arrived turned up at the prehistoric island theme park, but Jurassic Park made him a Hollywood icon. He is pictured alongside Laure Dern in Jurassic Park Mr Neill resurrected his role as Dr Grant in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). He is pictured in Jurassic World: Dominion alongside Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Isabella Sermon and DeWanda Wise Laura Dern - Dr Ellie Sattler Ms Dern was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of Rose in the 1991 drama Rambling Rose. Laura Dern is pictured at the 13th Governors Awards in Los Angeles last November Laura Dern was a rising star when she joined the Jurassic franchise as Dr Ellie Sattler. Ms Dern had starred in the 1986 thriller Blue Velvet and crime drama Wild at Heart (1990) before joining the Jurassic franchise. She also was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of Rose in the 1991 drama Rambling Rose. Following her portrayal of paleobotanist Dr Sattler, Ms Dern starred in Clint Eastwood's A Perfect World (1993). She also had roles in October Sky (1999) and The Fault in Our Stars (2014). She also received her second Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Bobbi in Wild (1994), which starred Reese Witherspoon. Ms Dern appeared in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and won praise for her performances in Marriage Story (2019), Little Women (2019) and HBO's critically-acclaimed TV series Big Little Lies. Like Mr Neill, she also reprised her Jurassic role in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). Laura Dern was a rising star when she joined the Jurassic franchise as paleobotanist Dr Ellie Sattler. She is pictured alongside Bob Peck in Jurassic Park Ms Dern also reprised her Jurassic role in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). She is pictured alongside DeWanda Wise in Jurassic World: Dominion Jeff Goldblum - Dr Ian Malcolm Jeff Goldblum became an international treasure in the years following Jurassic Park. He is pictured at Charlize Theron's Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) Block Party at the Universal Studios Backlot last June Jeff Goldblum became an international treasure in the years following Jurassic Park. Mr Goldblum, cast as chaos theorist and mathematician Dr Ian Malcolm, had built a name for himself before the blockbuster hit by starring in films like David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986). Following the first Jurassic Park, he appeared in blockbuster hit Independence Day (1996) alongside Will Smith. He later reprised his role in the film's 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence. He held a variety of roles following Jurassic Park, appearing in Wes Anderson's Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and Isle of Dogs (2018). Mr Goldblum, like some of his Jurassic co-stars, also joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Grandmaster, in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). He has his own Disney+ series, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, and appeared in Search Party on HBO Max. His jazz band also released an album in 2018. Throughout all of his various projects, however, Mr Goldblum still remained a staple of the Jurassic Park franchise, appearing in five of the six Jurassic films. Mr Goldblum, cast as chaos theorist Dr Ian Malcolm, had built a name for himself before the blockbuster hit. He is pictured with Laura Dern and Bob Peck in Jurassic Park Throughout all of his various projects, however, Mr Goldblum still remained a staple of the Jurassic Park franchise, appearing in five of the six Jurassic films. He is pictured at the Jurassic World: Dominion last year with Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt and Laura Dern Samuel L Jackson - Ray Arnold Samuel L Jackson is now one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He is pictured at the 2023 Theatre Communications Group Gala in New York City Samuel L Jackson is now one of the biggest actors of all time, but was a relatively unknown name in Hollywood when he portrayed chief park engineer Ray Arnold in Jurassic Park. His character was killed by a raptor as he tried to restore power to the theme park. However, Mr Arnold's death was not the end for Mr Jackson. After Jurassic Park he had his first big break while appearing in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994). He has starred in various films including Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol 2 (2004), Django Unchained (2012), Snakes on a Plane (2006), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and more. He also became a staple of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in several films and TV series as Nick Fury. Mr Jackson is now one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. Mr Jackson was a relatively unknown name in Hollywood when he portrayed chief park engineer Ray Arnold in Jurassic Park. He is pictured with Bob Peck and Richard Attenborough Mr Jackson became a staple of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in several films and TV series as Nick Fury. He is pictured in Spider-Man: Far from Home alongside Cobie Smulders BD Wong - Dr Henry Wu BD Wong (pictured in 2015) portrayed the chief geneticist at Jurassic Park who oversaw the creation of all park dinosaurs BD Wong portrayed the chief geneticist at Jurassic Park who oversaw the creation of all park dinosaurs. But in the Jurassic World franchise, the latter instalments of the Jurassic films, Dr Wu was stripped of his doctorate after he created the Indominus rex - a hybrid T. rex/Velociraptor. Dr Wu continues to conduct dinosaur research and engineered the devastating Giganotosaurus in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). In addition to his reoccurring roles in the Jurassic franchise, Mr Wong has held several other roles. He portrayed a mad scientist on popular TV programme Gotham and appeared in Mr Robot, The Flash and Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. Mr Wong is best known for his roles as Dr. George Huang on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Father Ray Mukada on HBO's Oz, and for starring as Song Liling, the lead in the Broadway production of M Butterfly. Dr Wu was stripped of his doctorate after he created the Indominus rex - a hybrid T. rex/Velociraptor. BD Wong is pictured in Jurassic World (2015) Despite being stripped of his doctorate, Dr Wu continues to conduct dinosaur research and engineered the devastating Giganotosaurus in Jurassic World: Dominion. BD Wong is pictured as Dr Wu in the 2022 film Wayne Knight - Dennis Nedry Before Jurassic Park, Wayne Knight (pictured in January 2023) was best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld's nemesis, mailman Newman, in the beloved sitcom Seinfeld Before Jurassic Park, Wayne Knight was best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld's nemesis, mailman Newman, in the beloved sitcom Seinfeld. He had also portrayed a detective in Basic Instinct (1992) during Sharon Stone's famous leg-crossing scene, which is regarded as one of the most notorious scenes in American cinema. Mr Knight's participation in the Jurassic franchise was short lived, unfortunately. His character - park computer programmer Dennis Nedry - was eaten by a Dilophosaurus after he stole dinosaur embryos. After Jurassic Park, he appeared in Space Jam (1996) and TV programmes 3rd Rock from the Sun, Hot in Cleveland and Torchwood. He also appeared on Narcos and voiced the Penguin on Harley Quinn, HBO's animated series about the DC Comics character who fell in love with the Joker. Mr Knight's participation in the Jurassic franchise was short lived, unfortunately. His character - park computer programmer Dennis Nedry - was eaten by a Dilophosaurus after he stole dinosaur embryos. Pictured: Wayne Knight in Jurassic Park Joseph Mazzello - Tim Murphy Jurassic Park seemingly launched Joseph Mazzello's career. He is pictured at the Fox After Party for the 91st Annual Academy Awards in February 2019 Jurassic Park seemingly launched Joseph Mazzello's career. The actor, now 39, was 9 years old when the film debuted in cinemas. He played Tim Murphy, the grandson of park founder John Hammond, in the 1993 blockbuster. He briefly played Tim again briefly in The Lost World (1997). After Jurassic, Mr Mazzello had a few 'quiet years' before taking on impressive roles in Hollywood. He played Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz in The Social Network (2010). He also appeared in the Steven Spielberg-produced TV series The Pacific and other programmes including Justified, Elementary, Person of Interest and American Crime Story. Mr Mazzello is arguably best known for his portrayal of Queen bassist John Deacon in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), the Freddie Mercury biopic. Mr Mazzello played Tim Murphy, the grandson of park founder John Hammond, in the 1993 blockbuster. He is pictured with Laura Dern, Ariana Richards and Sam Neill in the film Mr Mazzello is arguably best known for his portrayal of Queen bassist John Deacon in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), the Freddie Mercury biopic. He is pictured in the film After Jurassic, Mr Mazzello had a few 'quiet years' before taking on impressive roles in Hollywood. He is pictured in an Instagram photo on the set of a Jurassic Park film Ariana Richards - Lex Murphy Ariana Richards (pictured last year) played 11-year-old Lex Murphy in Jurassic Park Ariana Richards played 11-year-old Lex Murphy, the older sister of Tim Murphy, in Jurassic Park. She appeared in The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997 before largely moving away from acting. She is currently living in Salem, Oregon where she works as an artist and painter. Ms Richards, now 43, was 13 when Jurassic Park debuted in cinemas. She is seemingly still close with her fellow cast mates and still takes part in franchise-related events. She attended the premieres for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018 and Jurassic World: Dominion last year. She appeared in The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997 before largely moving away from acting. Pictured: Ariana Richards, Sam Neill and Joseph Mazzello in Jurassic Park Ms Richards is seemingly still close with her fellow cast mates and still takes part in franchise-related events. She attended the premieres for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018 and Jurassic World: Dominion last year (pictured) Martin Ferrero - Donald Gennaro Martin Ferrero (pictured in 2013) is most known for his roles in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Get Shorty (1995) and Heat (1995) Martin Ferrero's character - lawyer Donald Gennaro - was eaten by a T. rex after he cowardly abandoned the Murphy siblings when chaos broke out in Jurassic Park. Following the blockbuster hit, Mr Ferrero appeared in several films. He is most known for his roles in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Get Shorty (1995) and Heat (1995). He appeared in several TV programmes including Cheers. His portrayal of Izzy Moreno in Miami Vice is also one of his most known roles. Despite not appearing in any other Jurassic films, Mr Ferrero did resurrect Mr Gennaro in 2011 in a College Humor video. The short sketch joked about how Mr Gennaro was most likely to get eaten by a dinosaur and was not nearly as important to the Jurassic Park plot as other characters. His character - lawyer Donald Gennaro - was eaten by a T. rex after he cowardly abandoned the Murphy siblings when chaos broke out in Jurassic Park. Mr Ferrero is pictured in Jurassic Park Martin Ferrero, Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Laura Dern are pictured in Jurassic Park (1993) Richard Attenborough -John Hammond Richard Attenborough (pictured in 2004) was one of Britain's leading actors, before becoming a highly successful director. The late Richard Attenborough, 90, portrayed Jurassic Park creator John Hammond in the beloved film. He was one of Britain's leading actors, before becoming a highly successful director. Mr Attenborough - hailed by BAFTA as 'a titan of British cinema' - appeared in films including Brighton Rock (1948) and World War Two thriller The Great Escape (1963). During his 60-year career, he gathered 74 acting credits after appearing in 1942 war film In Which We Serve, directed by Noel Coward. He also starred in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Elizabeth (1998) and Flight of the Phoenix (1965). He made his directorial debut with 1969 musical Oh! What a Lovely War, following it up with Oscar-winning epic Gandhi in 1982. Mr Attenborough portrayed Jurassic Park creator John Hammond in the beloved film. He is pictured with his on-screen grandchildren Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards In the 1980s and 90s, he ran around Britain with his rock band performing alongside Radiohead and touring the United States. As the lead vocalist of his band The Candyskins, he released four albums and one single was even the one of the central songs on Adam Sandler's film, The Waterboy. In its heyday, the band performed alongside Radiohead and Supergrass in Oxford, and was signed to the same label as Nirvana and Guns N Roses. Now, this CBeebies presenter spends his days creating 'magical, musical mixed media' alongside his grandson and a host of 'wonderful children'. Can you work out who he is from his rock and roll past? In the 1980s and 90s, he ran around Britain with his rock band performing alongside Radiohead and touring the United States As the lead vocalist of his band The Candyskins, he released four albums and one single was even the one of the central songs on Adam Sandler's film, The Waterboy In its heyday, the band performed alongside Radiohead and Supergrass in Oxford, and was signed to the same label as Nirvana and Guns N Roses The pictures are none other than Nick Cope, who hosts the Nick Cope Popcast for CBeebies alongside his Whippet Norman. He sings songs about everything from babies to brothers and robots in his short episodes, which are about five minutes long. In each episode, Nick sits down to write an original song with the children, taking inspiration from his surroundings. When it was announced that he would be joining the network in 2020, BBC Children's Head of Content Cheryl Taylor said: 'We're delighted to have Nick join the CBeebies team to provide us with his quirky and truly original songs for families to enjoy together. The pictures are none other than Nick Cope, who hosts the Nick Cope Popcast for CBeebies alongside his Whippet Norman 'Along with stunning visuals and fun filled animation this has all the hallmarks of a pre-school hit.' CBeebies is a British public children's television channel operated by the BBC, aimed at children aged six and under. It broadcasts from 6am to 9pm daily, featuring a combination of shows and short, digestible videos which often break the fourth wall and speak directly to the children. Presenters are used to lead activities with the children, educate them on topics, read stories and sing songs, along with introducing the shows that are due to air. He sings songs about everything from babies to brothers and robots in his short episodes, which are about five minutes long In addition to his stint on CBeebies, Nick Cope runs regular music lessons in Oxfordshire for young children and their families. He also performs at schools, theatres and music festivals throughout the UK. He and his former bandmates went separate ways in 1998. His brother and guitarist Mark Cope performs in a new band, Nine Stone Cowboy, while drummer John Halliday is a producer out of his studio in Oxford. She has become one of Hollywood's most celebrated stars, known for her striking looks as well as her acting chops and varied roles. But despite topping lists of the most beautiful women in the world, fashion commentators have bemoaned many of Margot Robbie's red carpet looks - saying her stylist is missing the mark with 'ill-fitting' and 'awkward' dresses. But now a wild theory is doing the rounds on Twitter that the 32-year-old is deliberately dressing badly to distract from her beauty, which in turn encourages people to take her more seriously as an actress. But despite topping lists of the most beautiful women in the world, fashionistas have bemoaned many of Margot Robbie's red carpet looks, saying her stylist is missing the mark with 'ill-fitting' and 'awkward' frocks. (Pictured at the Babylon premiere in Sydney on Monday) Now a wild theory is doing the rounds on Twitter that the 32-year-old is deliberately dressing badly to distract from her beauty, which in turn encourages people to take her more seriously as an actress Discussing her latest look - a custom-made version of a vintage Versace gown that she wore to the Sydney premiere of Babylon - one fan suggested Margot doesn't want to be seen as 'too beautiful' in order to get a variety of roles. 'My theory is she does it to hide her beauty so she still has interesting opportunities,' they speculated on Twitter. 'Can you imagine if she choose to play up her beauty and shine? 'She's made to play Barbie but we know that movie is going to be unhinged, much like Margot's glam squad.' Last week, she wore a custom Chanel gown to the Golden Globes, which was described as 'boring and bland'. Critics claimed her stylist must 'hate her' due to a string of red carpet flops Margot started her career as teen heart-throb Donna Freedman on Neighbours before getting her big break opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street. In the Martin Scorsese-directed movie, she played DiCaprio's feisty and flirtatious wife Naomi Lapaglia, and quickly became famed for the film's sex scenes. She cemented her status as one of the hottest women in Hollywood three years later after landing the role of Harley Quinn in 2016's Suicide Squad. Ditching her usual Chanel attire, Margot opted for a dress from Versace's 1995 archive for the Australian premiere of Babylon in Sydney on Monday (left). The snug silver-blue number is an updated version of the gown Cala Bruni wore to the Versace spring 1995 couture show (right) The dress first appeared on the Spring Summer runway of Versace's Haute Couture collection in 1995 But after a series of suggestive roles, Margot said she didn't want to be seen as 'just sexy' and opted to play the complex Tonya Harding in the 2016 biopic I, Tonya, which garnered her an Oscar nomination. In an interview with Woman's Day that year, the actress-turned-producer spoke of her desire to not fall into a certain stereotype because of her sex appeal. 'I want to keep looking for roles where the main interest will be in the character and her importance in driving a story forward, rather than her relationship with a male character,' she said. 'Films like The Wolf of Wall Street and Focus gave me a chance to play charismatic and clever women, even though they do have a glamorous side.' Margot started her career as teen heart-throb Donna Freedman on Neighbours (pictured) before getting her big break opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street She cemented her status as one of the hottest women in Hollywood three years later after landing the role of Harley Quinn in 2016's Suicide Squad As her fame has grown, so has the criticism of Margot's fashion choices, with her stylist Kate Young coming under fire again after the star wore an updated version of a classic Versace number to the Babylon premiere on Monday. The Oscar-nominated actress returned to Sydney for the Australian premiere of the 1920s-themed Hollywood drama. Ditching her usual Chanel attire, she opted for a modified dress from Versace's 1995 archive. In the Martin Scorsese-directed movie The Wolf of Wall Street, she played DiCaprio's feisty and flirtatious wife Naomi Lapaglia, and quickly became famed for the film's sex scenes Margot was seen as the ultimate bombshell after her role in The Wolf of Wall Street The snug silver-blue number is a modern version of the gown Carla Bruni wore to the Versace spring 1995 couture show. It had featured on the runway the year before. But Margot's version featured a red lace-trimmed thigh split, which many fans didn't like. 'Nevertheless, she persisted. Her dedication is truly unmatched, because why did you add red lace to this SS95 Versace gown? Like, is she just doing red because she wore a red dress in Babylon? I'd love to know the thought process,' one fan tweeted. 'The red lace ruined the dress. Leave it alone. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it,' added another. 'She could have just worn bold red jewellery,' commented one. Margot's modern version featured a red lace-trimmed thigh split, which many fans didn't like Others were confused about the fit of the bodice, with some saying the 'ill-fitting' underwear looked 'lumpy'. 'The fit of the breast cups looks like they stuffed her bra too. I desperately want to see her in the Row or Jill Sander. So we can see her not some terrible outfit,' one critic wrote. 'Its just me or the padding on the chest of that dress looks like she has something growing in her breasts?' commented another. 'The fit needed to be better around the bust, no red lace, hair clean back, dark red lip,' commented one. 'My theory is she does it to hide her beauty so she still has interesting opportunities. 'Can you imagine if she choose to play up her beauty and shine? She's made to play Barbie but we know that movie is going to be unhinged, much like Margot's glam squad,' said one. However, many thought the dress Margot wore to the Sydney premiere of Babylon was an improvement on her recent red carpet looks. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, stylist Donny Galella said it was good to see her stepping away from her usual Chanel and opting for a different designer Carla Bruni is pictured with Arno Klarsfeld at 1995 Versace show, sans red lace However, many thought the dress Margot wore to the Sydney premiere of Babylon was a marked improvement on her recent red carpet looks. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, stylist Donny Galella said it was good to see her stepping away from her usual Chanel and opting for a different designer. 'I love this pastel blue Versace on her, so it's good to see her not wearing Chanel,' he said. 'The gown was inspired by a Versace gown worn in 1995 by model Carla Bruni to the Met Gala. But I wish she did wear an Aussie label to the Australian premiere.' Margot split opinion with her dramatic red number for the Babylon premiere in London on Thursday night Donny thinks Margot should also be representing her country by slipping into some Aussie couture. 'Imagine if she wore some Aussie Couture brands like JAton, Steven Khalil, Toni Maticevski, Yousef Akbar, Nicky Velani and Pallas Couture. I would love to see her in more jewel tones like blues and greens, more red, more gold and silver,' he said. Donny is also excited to see her experiment with couture during her upcoming promo tour for Barbie. 'This could be her biggest year in fashion and I just hope she can step away from Chanel and wear other brands like Valentino, Schiaparelli, Gucci, McQueen, Balmain, Zuhair Murad and Armani,' he said. 'That pale pink Chanel dress [from the Golden Globes] was far from her best look; I was expecting so much more. She is insanely talented and a gorgeous girl and I just want to see her in couture that does her justice,' Many agreed with Donny and loved her Versace number He said the pink number was 'a bit boring', although it was a subtle nod to the Barbie movie. 'She has a relationship with Chanel, so she was probably paid to wear that gown. Lots of celebrities have contracts with design houses and are then locked into wearing only that brand. 'But she just attended the [London] Babylon premiere in a red Valentino gown. 'I absolutely love that she is wearing Valentino. The back of this gown is sublime. Not a huge fan of the front of the gown. Her hair and makeup, that red lip is flawless. Stunning!' Her soft pink crystal-embellished dress for the Golden Globes featured a ruffled hem, and extra sparkle came in the form of a diamond broach pinned to the bodice Last week, the actress opted for a custom Chanel gown to the Golden Globes which was described as 'boring and bland', with keyboard warriors claiming her stylist must 'hate her' due to a string of red carpet flops. Despite topping best-dressed lists, many thought the soft pink crystal-embellished dress featuring a ruffled hem was 'boring and stale'. Margot's choice of pink appeared to be an homage to her upcoming role as Barbie in the upcoming Greta Gerwig-directed comedy, while the flapper style is likely a nod to her role in Babylon, which is set in the 1920s. Despite the clear references to her projects, trolls were quick to criticise the look, with one writing: 'Imagine being Margot Robbie's stylist. Managing to make a woman as beautiful as her look bad. Wow. I'm sure it takes a lot of hard work and dedication'. Margot was named as a brand ambassador for Chanel in 2018, and has almost exclusively worn it on the red carpet since. In the last five years, critics have heckled her outfits online, with many calling on her stylist Kate Young to 'free her' from the contract. While no details of a formal contract have ever been made public, some speculated her deal with the brand had come to an end after she wore an emerald green Bottega Veneta dress to the Governors Awards in November, which was described as her 'best look ever'. Days later, she was papped leaving a New York City hotel in a Proenza Schouler power suit and an oversized Bottega blazer. She also wore a flowing charcoal Celine dress to the European premiere of Amsterdam in London in September, with fans taking to TikTok at the time to celebrate the 'end of her Chanel era'. Some speculated Margot's deal with Chanel had come to an end after she wore an emerald green Bottega Veneta dress to the Governors Awards in November, which was described as her ' best look ever ' Margot (pictured) stole the show on at the Governors Awards in LA last month However, the I, Tonya star returned with a Chanel look at the Golden Globes this week, which disappointed some amateur fashionistas. 'Margot Robbie's stylist knows she would break the internet and everyone would be jealous of her as the most stunning woman in the world, so she lets her wear ugly outfits to protect us,' one fan joked. In 2020, celebrity stylist Elliot Garnaut named Margot as his 'worst-dressed' Australian star in Hollywood. The sartorial expert took part in an episode of The Lady Bunch, hosted by Rozalia Russian, where he dramatically asked the former Neighbours star to 'call him'. 'Your stylist is literally f**king torturing you. You look like an old wench!' he said. In 2020, celebrity stylist Elliot Garnaut named Margot as his 'worst-dressed' Australian star in Hollywood. (She is pictured at the 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards) One fan asked Elliot who he felt was the worst-dressed Australian celebrity. Elliot then said dramatically, 'Margot Robbie. Call me b***h!' 'Somebody at Chanel obviously hates her,' Elliot joked at the time. (Margot is pictured at the Birds of Prey premiere in Mexico City in January 2020) Julia Haart, the star of the Netflix hit My Unorthodox Life, recently spent several days volunteering on the frontlines in Ukraine. This week the 51-year-old exclusively sat down with DailyMail.com to discuss what it was like braving bombs and mortar fire to deliver much needed supplies to the formidable fighters, and share her detailed travelogue which she penned during the journey. Haart partnered with the Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Ukraine Friends, a US based non-profit dedicated to delivering critical help in Ukraine by providing humanitarian aid, refugee support and a focus on recovery and reconstruction, according to their website. Stepping up: Julia Haart has exclusively spoken to DailyMail.com about her time at the end of last year and beginning of 2023 spent volunteering on the frontlines in Ukraine 'We are delivering ambulances, medical supplies, tourniquets, warm clothes and toys for the children,' Julia says. 'The doctors are here to speak to the medical staff on the frontlines and get a better understanding of what they need and how to best help them.' Haart, who fans will know as reality TV's favorite pint-sized fashion mogul, didn't waste a second thought on leaving the creature comforts of home to risk her own safety in order to support Ukraine. 'My children thought I was nuts when I told them I was going to the frontlines,' Julia says. 'But I had to. My heart compelled me to. 2022 has been the most difficult year in my new life and fight for freedom. Freedom is not something I take for granted.' 'I lived in a world where every aspect of my day was regulated and my heart, mind and body were not mine to control,' she continues, adding later. 'And then I realize thats what drew me here.' 'We are delivering ambulances, medical supplies, tourniquets, warm clothes and toys for the children,' Julia says. 'The doctors are here to speak to the medical staff on the frontlines and get a better understanding of what they need and how to best help them.' 'Because they are Freedom Fighters with a Capital F. These men and women, this country, they arent giving up just money, comfort, security and peace for their freedom, theyre giving their lives,' Julia says. 'Because they are Freedom Fighters with a Capital F. These men and women, this country, they arent giving up just money, comfort, security and peace for their freedom, theyre giving their lives,' Julia says. She is quick to point out that while her personal struggles aren't even in the same realm as what is going on with the Russian invasion, 'fighting for others has given me the courage to fight for myself and my family.' The Moscow-born entrepreneur speaks fluent Russian, one of the most common languages in Ukraine outside of the country's native tongue, which made communicating with locals a breeze. Through the volunteer organization, Julia met with several mayors, local officials, military personnel and doctors aiding the resistance. One of the items the volunteers were delivering are thousands of 'really cool lamps that are solar powered'. In addition to being a neat piece of tech, the lamps don't need batteries and can charge cell phones, two critical things in an area where power was completely decimated following Russian bombs. On their first day, the group visited an IDP center [internally displaced people center] in Nyzhni Vorota, Zakarpattia Oblast. There are lots of children among the displaced and Haart, a mother of four, was thrilled to be able to deliver them a ton of donated toys, calling it a 'magical moment.' Crucial: Julia and the volunteers delivered solar powered lamps that don't need batteries and can charge cell phones, two critical things in an area where power was completely decimated following Russian bombs 'Everywhere we looked were bombed out buildings, destroyed roads, towns and villages decimated by shelling and explosions. Everywhere we looked, people were still going about their business, stepping over twisted shards of medal that blocked the streets with aplomb.' 'Sitting there on the floor, covered in toys, watching their faces light up. The lights kept going off, the power would play with us, taunting us with light and warmth only to disappear a few minutes later and shroud us in darkness,' she recalls. 'It didnt matter. They played with their toys in the dark. I felt like nothing would keep them down, that they would find joy in the simplest, smallest things.' The joy of the children is something Julia carried with her during the mission, even while facing gunfire, bombs and grenades in the warzone. 'I woke up to news that a hotel 3 blocks from us had been bombed and decimated . One person was killed in the explosion,' she somberly says. 'I remembered the bang and realized thats what it must have been ... a bomb hitting the hotel down the street. Terrifying and terrible.' For her safety when on the frontlines, Julia was made to wear an oversized helmet and bullet proof vest which weighs nearly as much as she does. 'I desperately want to take it off. I mean, Im such a tiny target .. Im gonna be fine,' Julia recalls. 'But no one agrees with me, I am told to keep it on. Sore shoulders are a small price to pay for your life.' 'Sitting there on the floor, covered in toys, watching their faces light up. The lights kept going off, the power would play with us, taunting us with light and warmth only to disappear a few minutes later and shroud us in darkness,' she recalls. 'It didnt matter. They played with their toys in the dark. I felt like nothing would keep them down, that they would find joy in the simplest, smallest things.' Due to the 'heavy shelling and bombing' soldiers drove the ambulances being delivered to the frontlines - though Haart was also behind the wheel at one point. She was on board along with other volunteers and doctors to bring 'the medications, the tourniquets, the ambulances and the warm clothes' as well as assess what else is needed. 'The drive to the front lines was completely surreal,' she says. 'I cant say exactly where we are, lets just [say] somewhere in eastern Ukraine. Everywhere we looked were bombed out buildings, destroyed roads, towns and villages decimated by shelling and explosions. Everywhere we looked, people were still going about their business, stepping over twisted shards of medal that blocked the streets with aplomb.' Haart called the 'inspiring' spirit of the citizens 'indomitable.' 'Theyre so calm, so un-afraid. Danger is their constant companion and they invite him in and offer him a drink,' she poetically adds. On another day of the trip Julia is taught how to fire a machine gun, and faces first hand the devastation of war when one of the soldiers she 'was just kibbitzing with' is killed by enemy fire. 'We hear thunderstorms (bombs) behind us. The bunker we were in 30 min ago is no more! The Russians, whove bombed the building over and over again finally succeed in destroying the bunker,' she says.' 'The fury that rises within me cannot be contained,' she adds. 'We hear thunderstorms (bombs) behind us. The bunker we were in 30 min ago is no more! The Russians, whove bombed the building over and over again finally succeed in destroying the bunker,' she says.' 'I can relate to misinformation. I can relate to being villainized when youre innocent . I can relate to misinformation being spread to excuse theft. Of course, my insignificant problems are mere dust compared to these men and women. Its just what draws me to them,' she says thoughtfully. Haart, who left the strictly conservative Haredi Jewish community in which she had been brought up and raised her children in 2013, can relate in a way to 'Putins disinformation machine' which started and sustains this war. She says the Russian president 'spewing out lies that become truth through mere repetition, is meant to demoralize and to excuse the mass theft and execution and murder that is being committed by Putins army. 'I can relate to misinformation. I can relate to being villainized when youre innocent . I can relate to misinformation being spread to excuse theft. Of course, my insignificant problems are mere dust compared to these men and women. Its just what draws me to them,' she says thoughtfully. 'They would rather die free people than live enslaved and my heart sings with them.' The former teacher, who had secretly been selling life insurance on the side before her departure, changed her name from Talia Hendler to Julia Haart and founded her own shoe company. She later collaborated with La Perla for their accessories collection and was then hired as the company's creative director. The 5'5" spitfire created a love match with company president, Silvio Scaglia, 64, marrying him in 2019, but the pair split last year. Finding common ground: Haart, who left the strictly conservative Haredi Jewish community in 2013, can relate in a way to 'Putins disinformation machine' which started and sustains this war Pictured: Julia speaks with a wounded soldier at a veteran's hospital in Kiev on January 7 Julia is currently CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Elite World Group, a modeling agency. She's been battling her estranged husband, Silvio Scaglia, this year who has been falsely accusing her of misappropriating millions from the company they once shared. On Thursday, Scaglia's former executive assistant turned whistleblower, Tania Cohen, 54, exclusively told DailyMail.com that her ex-boss is waging a 'crusade to destroy' Haart. 'His obsession with going after Julia grew every day. He deliberately cut her off from her income and her livelihood with the objective of starving her out of her home and her finances,' Cohen reveals. 'He believed she could never withstand the cost of her attorneys and the lawsuits [that he filed]. He believed he would win by default. 'It was truly disturbing to witness. Silvio was portraying her as a thief and an incompetent executive who left Elite in financial distress, but in turn he's spending [millions] not only on legal fees but on his lifestyle which was just excessive.' Viewers of the second season of Haart's Netflix show, 'My Unorthodox Life' - which charts the mother-of-four's extraordinary success having escaped an ultraorthodox life in Monsey, New Jersey's Hasidic community - bore witness to the catastrophic demise of her three-year marriage to Scaglia. Haart was blindsided when, in February 2022, her husband filed for divorce then moved to carve her out of the business they had shared. And, in a handful of days last February Scaglia aggressively set about dismantling Haart's home life, reputation, and career. The legal battle with her ex has tied up much of Haart's personal wealth which she wished she could have had access to in order to donate more to Ukrainian relief. 'I may not currently have the means to help them financially as I would like, until these lawsuits are over and my company and money is restored to me, but I can help in other ways. I was asked to come because I can bring awareness to whats happening here,' she says. 'I may not currently have the means to help them financially as I would like, until these lawsuits are over and my company and money is restored to me, but I can help in other ways. I was asked to come because I can bring awareness to whats happening here,' she says. Decision a ete prise le 20 janvier 2023 que le pays fasse lacquisition de cet equipement maritime qui aura des meilleures capacites de chargement, de tenir les mauvaises conditions en haute mer et detre equipe du porte-helicoptere leger. Cabinet has agreed to the acquisition of a new Offshore Patrol Vessel under the Indian Line of Credit which would provide the required operational capabilities to withstand heavy sea conditions and would have longer endurance than existing vessels. In addition, it would support the conduct of helicopter operations as it would have the necessary platform and hangar to carry an Advance Light Helicopter. It would be designed to have larger carrying capacity and would be equipped to carry greater cargo loads Aussie pop star Troye Sivan was spotted at Paris Fashion Week on Friday attending the Kenzo Menswear Fall-Winter show. The 27-year-old rocked a Timothee Chalamet inspired look with an oversized open bomber jacket letting his bare chest peak through. Troye donned a pair of loose fit indigo jeans which featured a large graphic stripe of light blue in a chevron pattern. Aussie pop star Troye Sivan was spotted at the Kenzo Menswear Fall-Winter show during Paris Fashion Week on Friday Troye made a statement with a pair of Dr Martens styled boots. The ensemble was kept modern with a visible underwear waistband and a simple silver necklace The musician kept his hair loose with his natural brunette curls falling over his forehead. The musician kept his hair loose with his natural curls falling over his forehead The 27-year-old rocked a Timothee Chalamet inspired look with an oversizes open bomber jacket letting his bare chest peak through Troye is known for his statement and bold ensembles including a low cut clinging dress at the Met Gala in 2021. Plus a daring outfit consisting of a cropped blazer and shorts combination at the 2021 VMAS. He lived in the US for 4 to 5 years before moving back to Australia in 2021 where he settled in a Victorian-era home in Melbourne. Troye donned a pair of loose fit indigo jeans which featured a large graphic stripe of light blue in a chevron pattern At the time he told Architectural Digest, 'I am so unbelievably happy here and feel so at home'. It was confirmed that the move came after a breakup with model ex-boyfriend Jacob Bixenman, after industry sources confirmed to The Daily Telegraph. Many celebrities have been spotted at Paris Fashion Week including Wednesday star Jenna Ortega, Kit Harrington and Eddie Redmayne. Daisy Ridley was spotted once again at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Friday. The Star Wars actress, 30, looked effortlessly chic in an aegean blue satin duster coat that she wore over an understated all-black ensemble. The day before, she attended the premiere of her new film Sometimes I Think About Dying alongside her costar Brittany O'Grady, 26, at the film festival. Simple yet stylish: Daisy Ridley, 30, was spotted once again at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Friday The London native - who played Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy - bundled up in a long satin duster coat that was buttoned at the side to cinch her waist. Underneath, she wore a fitted black knitted halter neck dress from ANEST COLLECTIVE. To match, she sported a pair of knee-high pointed-toe stiletto boots. Stunning: The actress looked effortlessly chic in an aegean blue satin Galvan coat that she wore over an understated all-black ensemble; on her way to Variety Sundance Studio, Ridley slicked down her raven pixie cut For accessories, she kept it simple with a pair of small hoop earrings and dainty stacked rings on her hands. On her way to Variety Sundance Studio, Ridley slicked down her raven pixie cut for a simple yet chic hairstyle. She opted for a light makeup look that was featured a bold, bright pink lip. Indie drama star: Her latest project Sometimes I Think About Dying - that she both starred in and produced - premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday In the film Sometimes I Think About Dying, Ridley was both the star and the producer. The indie drama centers around a socially awkward young woman named Fran - played by Ridley - that works a mundane office job. The synopsis reads: 'Lost on the dreary Oregon coast, Fran wastes her daylight hours in the solitude of a cubicle, listening to the constant hum of officemates, occasionally daydreaming to pass the time. She is ghosting through life unable to pop her bubble of isolation.' A different genre: The indie drama centers around a socially awkward young woman named Fran - played by the Star Wars actress - that works a mundane office job Comedian Dave Merheje plays opposite Ridley as a friendly new hire named Robert who starts working at the same office as Fran. As they start taking a liking to each other, her dark daydreams are replaced by hopeful ones of him. At the Sundance Film Festival, there will be multiple second screening dates following the premiere on Thursday. Sometimes I Think About Dying is currently seeking distribution. From ball gowns to LBDs, Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor always gets it right on the red carpet. And on Friday, the actress, 27, turned up the heat in snowy Utah in a sexy black trouser suit. The young starlet flashed her washboard abs in her cropped blazer, attending the premiere of her film Fair Play at the Sundance Film festival, held at the Library Centre Theatre. Wow: Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor, 27, turned up the heat in sexy cropped blazer despite the snow at Sundance Film Festival on Friday The jacket boasted a plunge neckline and subtle cut-outs down the side. The young star also wore a flamenco-red fake rose on its lapel. The straight-cut matching trousers emphasised her lean legs and she paired the suit with black patent-leather loathers. She left her chocolate tresses down with a slight wave in her hair, and kept her make up minimal, with subtle smoky eyes and a dark pink lipstick. An English rose: The young star also wore a flamenco-red fake rose on her lapel Brrrrraving the cold: Phoebe wore a sexy cropped number to the premier despite the snow outside Nearly bare-faced beauty: The Netflix star kept her make up minimal, with subtle smoky eyes and a dark pink lipstick Movie star: The brunette beauty came to the event for the premier of her new film Fair Play Abs-olutely gorgeous: The brunette beauty flaunted her perfect abs in the cropped blazer Fair Play is the debut feature of American writer/director Chloe Domont, starring Phoebe and Alden Ehrenreich. In this taut psychological thriller, the pair play a thriving New York couple who can't get enough of each other, until a coveted promotion at a cutthroat financial firm arises and things start to sour. The film has been submitted into the US dramatic category at the festival. Despite the tense and dark nature of the film, its leading lady was all smiles as she posed with her fellow castmates and crew. Fair Play: The film officially premiered at Sundance on Friday Time to shine: Phoebe spoke to journalists about her first film since The Colour Room in 2021 The leads: Phoebe posed with actor Aiden Ehrenreich who plays her lover in the taunt thriller All smiles: Despite playing lovers-turned-rivals, the actors happily pose together Indie queens: Phoebe posed with the film's director Chloe Domont Happy faces: The actress and director grinned as they had their picture taken together Cast and crewmates: Phoebe (centre) seemed on great terms with fellow actor Rich Sommer (second on left), director Chloe, Alden Ehrenreich and Sebastian De Souza (far right) In an Instagram post, the now-indie film star expressed her excitement about Fair Play making it to Sundance and had nothing but praise for the cast and crew. She said: 'Making this film with such an incredible team of people was an absolute privilege and a joy.' 'Feeling all the emotions but mostly just very proud and excited to share this powerful story.' A privilege and joy: The starlet posted to Instagram, sharing her experience making the film 'Mostly very proud': The young actress appreciated being part of the film This is the second glamorous appearance from the star in less than a week, after she shone at the 28th annual Critics Choice Awards in a plunging white gown. It also comes after Phoebe took to Instagram to share the sad news of her grandmother Shirley's death aged 89 last Friday. She shared father Tim's post which featured a picture of his late mother, to her Instagram Stories with her fans offering their condolences. Sad news: The Bridgerton star shared father Tim's post and picture of his late mother to her Instagram Stories with fans offer their condolences Phoebe has remained the name on everyone's lips, after late last year dating rumours swirled around Andrew Garfield and the young actress. In November, the two actors were both spotted at the 2022 GQ Men of the Year Awards where they apparently made a connection and 'clicked straight away.' An inside source told The Sun 'there was an immediate attraction' between the Spiderman star, 39, and the beauty. A spark: It comes after late last year dating rumours swirled around Andrew Garfield and Phoebe The insider was clear that the love interest has continued to develop into more than just their initial spark at the event. 'But this is certainly no one-off encounter. After leaving together, they've since met up and are acting like a proper couple,' they said. Last year, Phoebe was dating comedian Pete Davidson before they split and he famously linked up with Kim Kardashian. Andrew was previously tied to Emma Stone in the past and dated model Alyssa Miller until they split in April earlier this year. Derek Hough is paying respects to his late friend Stephen 'tWitch' Boss. While the beloved DJturnedproducer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show was laid to rest on January 4, the Dancing With The Stars pro and judge gave his 3.1 million Instagram followers a quick look at his memorial service that he attended on Wednesday. tWitch (born Stephen Laurel Boss) died from a self-inflicted gunshot inside a motel room in Los Angeles on December 13 at the age of 40. RIP: Derek Hough is paying respects to his late friend Stephen 'tWitch' Boss by sharing a video of a memorial service held in his honor in Los Angeles The short video shows a poster of tWitch at the memorial that read, 'In loving memory Stephen 'tWitch' Boss 1982-2022.' There was also a massive bouquet of white roses sitting underneath the poster of the late Montgomery, Alabama native, as well as six lit candles in front of the flowers. A number pf people could be seen going in and out of an area blocked off by a metal barrier fence, which seemingly was the entrance and exit to the memorial service. This public service was put on by both the dancing and choreography communities, according to a report by Deadline. Memorial: Hough posted a short video seemingly shot outside the memorial service on to his Instagram Stories that shows a poster of tWitch that read, 'In loving memory Stephen 'tWitch' Boss 1982-2022' Tribute: There was also a massive bouquet of white roses sitting underneath the poster of the late Montgomery, Alabama native, as well as six lit candles in front of the flowers Boss's family had held an intimate and private funeral ceremony on January 4, that was only for his immediate family in Los Angeles. There's been reports that a larger Celebration of Life ceremony will be held in his honor in the coming months which that will allow close friends and people considered 'extended family' to attend. In the wake of tWitch's passing, Hough shared a heartfelt tribute and PSA where he called his death 'a complete shock.' He went on to share that his friend was always 'the most positive, just optimistic, beautiful man you could ever imagine,' adding that his suicide is 'a harsh reminder of this time of year and of depression, of seasonal depression, and just circumstances and the time of year when people feel like it's too much.' 'Shocking': In the wake of tWitch's passing, Hough shared a heartfelt tribute and PSA where he called his death 'a complete shock' as well as a tribute on Instagram Hough also shared a photo of himself with tWitch the day after his death. 'My heart is aching for @allisonholker and their beautiful family during this time,' the 37-year-old began. 'My mind is clinging to memories of the dear friend we have all lost. When I think of twitch I think of Wisdom, Love, Light and Laughter. He brought joy to everyone he encountered and was an inspiration to all.' He concluded, 'It's gonna take some time to fully process this. May you rest in peace my friend. We love you.' Heartbreaking: Many fans know tWitch as the DJ, producer and guest host of the Ellen DeGeneres Show and So You Think You Can Dance; seen with DeGeneres during season two Along with his high-profile roles as a DJ, producer, dancer and choreographer, Boss also had a number of acting roles in television and film, such as starring alongside Channing Tatum in Magic Mike XXL (2015). His acting resume also included three films in the Step Up franchise: Step Up 3D (2010), Step Up Revolution (2012) and Step Up: All In (2014), which starred both Tatum and his ex-wife Jenna Dewan in the 2006 original. tWitch leaves behind his wife Allison Holker, whom he married in 2013, and their three children, Weslie, 14, Maddox, six and Zaia, three, and his mother, along with a slew of people who considered themselves to be friends and colleagues. Created by jewelry company Garrard, it was loaned to her by owner for the event Princess Diana was seen wearing the amethyst and diamond necklace in 1987 She also bought bangles worn by Elizabeth Taylor and Jackie O's watch The star has a knack for purchasing things previously owned by famous figures She bought it for $197,000 - adding to her collection of historic memorabilia Kim Kardashian has been at the center of the latest viral meme after purchasing an iconic cross necklace previously worn by Princess Diana for $197,000. The 42-year-old mogul has been trending on social media over a cornucopia of memes on Twitter which begin 'Kim Kardashian has purchased'. One of the more hilarious posts involved Hilaria Baldwin's fake heritage scandal from 2021 as it read: 'Kim Kardashian has purchased Hilaria Baldwin's fake Spanish accent for $97,600.' Breaking the internet once again: Kim Kardashian has been at the center of the latest viral meme This comes days after she purchased an iconic cross necklace previously worn by Princess Diana for $197,000. Diana is seen wearing it in 1987 Back in 2021, several of 39-year-old Hilaria's former classmates came forward to confirm that she was raised in Weston, Massachusetts, by American parents without a hint of a foreign accent. The woman who first exposed the fraud, later told The New York Times that it was an 'open secret' in Manhattan that Hilaria had faked her heritage, and that she and her friends, 'bored' from the pandemic, decided finally to expose the secret. In the next few days several videos of Hilaria's past TV appearances resurfaced showing her commitment to a Spanish accent. One of the more hilarious posts involved Hilaria Baldwin's fake heritage scandal from 2021 as it read: 'Kim Kardashian has purchased Hilaria Baldwin's fake Spanish accent for $97,600' Back in 2021, several of 39-year-old Hilaria's former classmates came forward to confirm that she was raised in Weston, Massachusetts, by American parents without a hint of a foreign accent, she is pictured in New York on Friday Better days: The woman who first exposed the fraud, later told The New York Times that it was an 'open secret' in Manhattan that Hilaria had faked her heritage, and that she and her friends, 'bored' from the pandemic, decided finally to expose the secret, Hilaria is pictured with husband Alec Baldwin last month In one now infamous Today Show video that surfaced, Hilaria appeared to forget the English word for cucumber. After her American heritage was exposed, Hilaria apologized and said she 'should have been more clear' about her connection to the Spanish culture. Another funny meme was Game Of Thrones related as it had to do with the character potrayed by Milly Alcock and Emma D'Arcy. It read: 'Kim Kardashian has purchased Rhaenyra Targaryens Crown for $500k, TMZ reports.' There were several other memes which hit the internet including references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Loki, Nicki Minaj, Lord Of The Rings, and even other memes like the 'blue or white dress' debate which swept the world in 2015. 'Kim Kardashian has purchased Rhaenyra Targaryens Crown for $500k, TMZ reports': Another funny meme was Game Of Thrones related as it had to do with the character potrayed by Milly Alcock and Emma D'Arcy 'Kim Kardashian has purchased': There were several other memes which hit the internet including references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Loki, Nicki Minaj, Lord Of The Rings, and even other memes like the 'blue or white dress' debate which swept the world in 2015 Just days ago it was reported that the reality star had bought the beloved purple amethyst-and-diamond-encrusted Attallah cross pendant during an auction held by Sotheby's on Wednesday. The UK-based company confirmed the sale to DailyMail.com. A source close to the SKIMS founder revealed that Kim is 'honored to be able to own a fine piece of jewelry once worn by the late princess' and to add to her growing collection of historic memorabilia worn by 'strong, iconic women who have inspired Kim.' 'Diana was a woman of incredible style, beauty, and grace. Kim is honored to be able to own a fine piece of jewelry once worn by the late princess,' the insider told DailyMail.com. Days ago the reality star, 42, bought the beloved purple amethyst-and-diamond-encrusted Attallah cross pendant during an auction held by Sotheby 's on Wednesday The cross pendant was made in 1920 by the jewelry company Garrard. According to Vogue, Diana was friends with the man who owned it, businessman Naim Attallah, who loaned it to her 'This beautiful cross pendant will be added to her growing collection of jewelry, all pieces that have been worn by strong, iconic women who have inspired Kim.' The Princess of Wales famously wore the glittery piece of jewelry during a London charity gala in October 1987. She paired the lavish necklace with a black and burgundy long-sleeved velvet gown, which came with a ruffled neckpiece The late Princess of Wales, who often made headlines for her bold fashion choices before she tragically passed away in a car accident in 1997, famously wore the glittery piece of jewelry during a London charity gala in October 1987. She paired the lavish necklace with a black and burgundy long-sleeved velvet gown, which came with a ruffled neckpiece - and between the flashy pendant and the stylish dress, the Princess dazzled at the event. The enormous cross pendant was made in 1920 by the jewelry company Garrard, and according to Vogue, Diana was friends with the man who owned it, British businessman Naim Attallah. The mogul, who passed away in 2021, loaned it to her for the event. 'Few people could carry this piece off but Diana really could,' Naim's son, Ramsay Attallah, told the outlet in December. 'When I was growing up, wed always have it on the table for Christmas lunch, but it was never worn by anyone other than Diana and it hasnt been seen in public since she died.' The 'bold and colorful' piece came with 'square-cut amethysts and circular-cut diamonds' - with a total diamond weight of approximately 5.25 carats. It is now in possession of Kim, who seems to have a knack for buying clothing and jewelry that were previously owned by famous figures. In 2011, she scooped up a set of Elizabeth Taylor's bangles for $65,000, and in 2017, she paid $379,500 for Jackie O's watch. Kim seems to have a knack for buying clothing and jewelry that were previously owned by famous figures. In 2017, she paid $379,500 for Jackie O's watch (seen on Jackie in the 1970s) In 2011, she also scooped up a set of Elizabeth Taylor's bangles for $65,000 (seen) And while she wasn't able to officially add it to her collection, the mother-of-four also wore Marilyn Monroe's famous Happy Birthday Mr. President dress to the Met Gala last year But Kim's decision to wear the dress parked a slew of backlash from social media users, after it was rumored that she damaged the gown. It is seen with a torn sleeve after she wore it And while she wasn't able to officially add it to her collection because it belongs to a museum, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum also wore Marilyn Monroe's famous Happy Birthday Mr. President dress to the Met Gala last year. Diana's 'bold and colorful' necklace comes with 'square-cut amethysts and circular-cut diamonds' - with a total diamond weight of approximately 5.25 carats But Kim's decision to wear the gown at the Anna Wintour-hosted ball sparked a slew of backlash from social media users, after it was rumored that she damaged the gown. And now, her recent purchase has resulted in more furious fire from online users. 'She has a weird obsession with dead people's stuff,' wrote one Twitter user. 'She already ruined Marilyns dress and now she has Dianas necklace You will never be iconic, Kim Kardashian,' said another. 'Princess Diana looking down from Heaven, seeing that Kim Kardashian has bought her old jewels,' someone else added, accompanied by a video of someone asking, 'Who is this woman?' A different user tweeted, 'Kim Kardashians damage to fashion history is so disrespectful and gross. 'And the people who keep selling her these items for profit instead of preserving them for history are no better.' 'Can she just stop? I literally cannot stand her or her family. They are the epitome of privileged a**holes,' a fifth tweet read. Kim's recent purchase has resulted in furious fire from online users. 'Is she gonna open a museum of accessories and clothes of dead people that she's desecrated?' asked someone else. 'The truth is that shes nothing but a chameleon - doesnt stand out on her own, only molds herself to what is currently popular/trendy,' wrote another user. 'Thats why she latches on to these iconic memorabilia from past stars. She has nothing but wealth and cheap tricks in her name.' 'She can buy iconic items but she will never be an icon,' read a different tweet. DailyMail.com has reached out to Kim's representative for comment. 'Jewelry owned or worn by the late Princess Diana very rarely comes on to the market, especially a piece such as the Attallah cross, which is so colorful, bold, and distinctive,' Kristian Spofforth, Head of Jewelery at Sothebys said in a statement before the sale. 'To some extent, this unusual pendant is symbolic of the Princesss growing self-assurance in her sartorial and jewelry choices, at that particular moment in her life. 'We are confident that this unique 1920s piece of jewelry by Garrard, with such an exceptional provenance and only ever worn by the Princess herself, will attract the attention of a wide variety of bidders, including royal and noble jewelry collectors, as well as fans of the Princess keen to share part of her history.' Denise Richards spoke out in support of her 18-year-old daughter's OnlyFans account over the summer, despite her ex-husband Charlie Sheen's disapproval, and then followed up by opening her own page on the adult content subscription service. It turns out one of her friends, Tori Spelling, 49, is among those who signed up to see the content The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills alum, 51, has shared on her OnlyFans account. In fact, the former Beverly Hills, 90210 star confessed to signing on with a fake name and spending $400 in just two days. Confession: Tori Spelling, 49, confessed to signing on to Denise Richards', 51, OnlyFans account after being intrigued about the adult content subscription service Spelling explained her motivation to wanting to see what Richards' was posting on the X-rated service during an appearance on Sirius XM's Jeff Lewis Live. 'I've been friends with her for years. I was just kind of fascinated by the whole OnlyFans and I'm not going to lie I was like, "Let me check it out. What is it entail?"' the actress shared on the podcast. One of the first things she learned was that she needed to pay for a subscription to gain entry in Richard's account. Admission: In fact, the former Beverly Hills, 90210 star confessed to signing on with a fake name and spending $400 in just two days 'So I looked at it and of course it shows something like unless you subscribe you can't get it. So of course I subscribed under a fake name,' she added. 'It's riveting," the star continued, adding that she then dropped more money into the account for greater access. "I just wanted to see. It's my friend. I'm like, 'Hey, how far is she going?'" Spelling proceeded to confess that she was more than intrigued at what she might find on her account. Diving deep: 'It's riveting because they're like "Hey we might show you this in the shower. And I just wanted to see, it's my friend and I'm like, 'Hey, how far is she going?' Spelling shared All in: 'They say, allegedly, if you tip them they get back to you faster. So I was like, "Hey, love what I'm seeing, would love to see some more,' Spelling told Lewis, adding, 'I ended up, in the course of two days, spending $400. I couldn't stop' 'It's riveting because they're like "Hey we might show you this in the shower. And I just wanted to see, it's my friend and I'm like, 'Hey, how far is she going?' The mother of five then gave her opinion on how OnlyFans tried to get people to spend more money. 'They say, allegedly, if you tip them they get back to you faster. So I was like, "Hey, love what I'm seeing, would love to see some more,' she told Lewis, adding, 'I ended up, in the course of two days, spending $400. I couldn't stop.' Longtime friends: Spelling said of Richards' that she has 'been friends with her for years' when setting up her story on Sirius XM's Jeff Lewis Live podcast; Pictured December 2013 Lewis quickly followed up by asking whether the $400 was 'all spent on Denise.' After confirming that all the money was in fact spent on the Wild Things star, Spelling emphatically admitted: 'God she looks good.' Richards launched her OnlyFans account last summer, shortly after her daughter Sami Sheen joined the service. At the time, the Starship Troopers actress called the social platform 'really empowering for the creators to be their true, authentic self.' Show of support: Richards defended her daughter Sami Sheen, 18, this past summer after she got backlash for posting a nearly naked bedroom pictures on her OnlyFans account (Pictured above on her Instagram) 'You own your content. The other sites, they can sell your content,' the 51-year-old explained during an interview on KTLA this past July, as reported by E! News. 'We all post pictures with ourselves with bathing suits on Instagram and some of the other sites that there's no difference other than you actually own the content.' Richards would go on to defend her daughter's decision to create an OnlyFans account. 'A lot of us have posted pictures of ourselves on Instagram in a bikini or something that might be perceived as risque,' she explained . 'And if my daughter chooses to post a picture of herself in a bathing suit on OnlyFans, why would she get backlash on that but not on Instagram?' Dame Joan Collins was spotted enjoying a dinner out at the Hollywood hot spot Craig's with her fifth husband Percy Gibson. The Dynasty icon, 89, was as glamorous ever, wrapping a black fur-lined jacket over an elegant white tunic with frilled sleeves. Percy, 57, cutting a dapper figure in a perfectly fitted midnight blue suit, was spotted gallantly helping his wife out of the car ahead of their date. On the town: Dame Joan Collins, 89, was spotted enjoying a dinner out at the Hollywood hot spot Craig's with her fifth husband Percy Gibson, 58 Craig's also used to regularly welcome Joan's sister Jackie Collins, the bestselling 'bonkbuster' novelist who died in 2015 after a secret cancer battle. Percy, the longest-lasting of Joan's husbands, is more than 30 years younger than her, a gap she dismisses in interviews with the line: 'If he dies, he dies.' Last year the couple, who keep a home in Belgravia, celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary with a star-studded party at Claridge's. Simon Cowell, Elizabeth Hurley and Sarah 'Fergie' Ferguson all attended the fete, according to a report in OK! magazine. Legend: The Dynasty icon was as glamorous ever, wrapping a black fur-lined jacket over an elegant white tunic with frilled sleeves On the career front Joan released a gossipy book of her diaries in 2020 and last year she starred in a BBC documentary about her life called This Is Joan Collins. In a New York Times interview last year she decried the anti-men sentiment that she feels has grown since the Me Too movement. 'Sadly, I think that now young men are suffering from being labeled toxically masculine, because of this rise of anti-maleness,' she shared. Gentleman: Percy, cutting a dapper figure in a perfectly fitted midnight blue suit, was spotted gallantly helping his wife out of the car ahead of their date Meanwhile she recalled that sexual misconduct 'happened to girls all the time' in showbiz when she was young. 'A lot of the time, I would just laugh in their faces.' As for whether the wrongdoing has continued to this day, she remarked: 'Im not having men making passes at me, so I dont know. But I think probably.' Although she told the newspaper her own Me Too experiences were 'nasty memories that I dont wish to relive,' she included the details in her memoir Past Imperfect. Details: Percy, the longest-lasting of her husbands, is more than 30 years younger than Joan, a gap she dismisses in interviews with the line: 'If he dies, he dies' The book had no shortage of darker moments such as when 20th Century Fox chief Darryl Zanuck attempted to force himself on her in a hotel hallway. 'I wondered how to get out of this without having to knee him in the groin,' she wrote. 'Luckily Dorothy Dandridge and a makeup man came walking down the corridor and I made my escape, vowing to keep out of Mr Z.'s way in the future.' Joan was married at 18 to her first husband Maxwell Reed, an actor who spiked her drink and raped her on their first date and whom she eventually left after he tried to sell her for a night to an Arab sheikh for 10,000. Her subsequent ex-husbands included Anthony Newley, with whom she had her daughter Tara and her son Sacha. On the go: She joked to Jonathan Ross in 2020 that her marriage to Percy had run as long as the previous four marriages combined She also wed former Beatles manager Ron Kass, who fathered her daughter Katie, and ex-pop act Peter Holm, whom she dismissively refers to now as 'the Swede.' Joan recently remarked that of all her marriages 'The only one I didnt understand was the Swede. That was such a total mistake.' Her marriage to Peter Holm also resulted in a temporary rift with Jackie, who despised him, but who mended fences with Joan upon their breakup. When Joan threw a party celebrating the divorce, Jackie gave out t-shirts reading 'Holm is not where the heart is,' and 'Holm-less.' Now however Joan has found the right man - she joked to Jonathan Ross in 2020 that her marriage to Percy had run as long as the previous four marriages combined. Moby was joined by Lindsay Hicks as they attended Slamdance for the premiere of his film Punk Rock Vegan Movie on Friday. The musician-turned-director, 57, posed with the documentary's producer on the red carpet as they celebrated his directorial debut film that opened for the indie film festival held in Park City, Utah. In an article published by Kerrang!, Moby explained that he wanted to 'shine a light on the surprising and inspiring history of punk rock and animal rights' with the film. Opening night: Moby was joined by Lindsay Hicks as they attended Slamdance for the premiere of his film Punk Rock Vegan Movie on Friday in Utah The musician said he wanted 'to remind people of the importance and desperate urgency of adopting the uncompromising ethics and actions of the original punk rock activist.' 'After it makes its world premiere at Slamdance, it's yours,' the animal rights activist said. 'It's my goal to give the movie away, as I can't in good conscience try to profit from what is essentially a labor of love and activism.' Moby wore a casual ensemble with a gray T-shirt that showed off the the words 'animal rights' tattooed on his arms. Pooch: The documentary producer posed with the musician-turned-director, 57, who wore a casual ensemble with a gray T-shirt that showed off the the words 'animal rights' tattooed on his arms Showing off his passion: At one point Moby - who is deeply passionate about animal rights - was seen giving Lindsay's pooch a smooch He wore a pair of forest green fitted pants and brown hiking boots. Lindsay - who worked as the producer on the film and also runs Little Walnut Production Company - opted for a simple yet chic all-black ensemble and styled her dog Bagel to match. She wore a mock-neck long-sleeved top with a pair of wide-legged trousers and black boots. Activist: In a recent article Moby explained that he wanted to 'shine a light on the surprising and inspiring history of punk rock and animal rights' with the film Her dog wore a matching black hoodie and collar. According to the aforementioned article, his film Punk Rock Vegan Movie features various names from the rock and metal world - including, but not limited to, Ian Mackaye, Dave Navarro, Tim McIlrath, and Amy Lee. In the film, they speak about 'the intertwining relationship between music and veganism'. Kyle Richards looked radiant while on her way to meet her friends for a night out in Los Angeles on Friday. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 54, was eye-catching in an orange moto jacket and the matching suede boots for the nighttime outing in West Hollywood. The reality TV beauty - who has denied her recent body transformation is the result of using the diabetes medication Ozempic - showed off her toned physique in a pair of bootcut denim jeans and a simple taupe top. Stylish: Kyle Richards, 54, looked radiant while on her way to meet her friends for a girls' night out in Los Angeles on Friday To jazz up her otherwise casual outfit, the younger sister of Kathy Hilton opted for a bright red handbag. The mother-of-four - who is married to real estate broker Mauricio Umansky, 52 - looked chic and cool in the muted orange leather moto jacket. To match, she wore a pair of chunky orange suede boots with a black platform. Eye-catching: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was eye-catching in an orange moto jacket and the matching suede boots for the nighttime outing in West Hollywood For jewelry, the television personality wore a pair of understated earrings and rocked various layered necklaces and flashy statement rings. The Halloween Ends actress wore her brunette tresses down in a sleek and straight hairstyle with the ends of her layers curled inward. The socialite opted for a simple makeup look with an emphasis on an orange smokey eye with fluttery eyelashes, a monochromatic blush, and a brick red lip color. Showing off her figure: Recently, the reality star responded to Instagram users speculating that she had used the diabetes drug to gain her toned figure underneath a photo of a bikini picture she shared earlier in the week Recently, the reality star took to social media to debunk rumors that her slim figure was the result of using Ozempic or getting plastic surgery. Richards responded to Instagram users speculating that she had used the diabetes drug to gain her toned figure underneath a photo of a bikini picture she shared earlier in the week. She did admit that she had a breast reduction but refuted all other claims of her doing anything besides putting in the hard work to obtain the figure she has been flaunting as of late. Working out: She did admit that she had a breast reduction but refuted all other claims of her doing anything besides putting in the hard work to obtain the figure she has been flaunting as of late In the past, Richards was vocal about getting a liposuction procedure after she struggled to lose weight when she had four children. Richards is the mother of four daughters - Farrah, 34, Alexia, 26, Sophia, 22, and Portia, 15. She shares Farrah with her first husband Guraish Aldjufrie. After marrying her current partner, Richards and Umansky had Alexia, Sophia, and Portia. Olivia Molly Rogers has shared a moving quote about having a 'broken heart' as she continues to heal from her split from husband Justin McKeone. The former Miss Universe Australia, 30, posted a framed piece from author Charlotte Freeman to her Instagram. The quote read in part: 'I don't think some people realise how powerful a broken heart can be. I know that at the time it feels like your world as you know it is ending, but the journey that comes next is magical. Olivia Molly Rogers (pictured) has shared a moving quote about having a 'broken heart' as she continues to heal from her split from husband Justin McKeone 'After your heart breaks, the love for yourself that slipped away over time slowly starts to come back, because all the love you were giving to the wrong person has nowhere to go but back home to you,' it continued. 'You slowly realise how strong you are, you learn how to make yourself happy, how to just be your own person.' Olivia wrote in her caption: 'It resonated so strongly with me and it seemed it did with a lot of you also. The former Miss Universe Australia, 30, posted a framed piece from author Charlotte Freeman to her Instagram The quote read in part: 'I don't think some people realise how powerful a broken heart can be. I know that at the time it feels like your world as you know it is ending, but the journey that comes next is magical' Olivia wrote in her caption: 'It resonated so strongly with me and it seemed it did with a lot of you also' 'It is such a beautiful quote, I feel it needed a permanent spot on my feed.' Olivia ended her marriage to Justin after just seven months as husband and wife. The former couple, who met in 2018, were last pictured together in August in a series of loved-up holiday snaps from their trip to New York City. She finally addressed her break-up in an Instagram post on October 3. Olivia ended her marriage to Justin after just seven months as husband and wife. Pictured on their wedding day 'After 4.5 years together, Justin and I have come to the difficult decision to separate as a couple,' read her break-up post on Instagram. 'I do not wish to make any further statements about this in the near future,' she added. 'Please respect our decision and privacy at this time. Thank you for all your private DMs, kindness and support.' Like a lot of immigrants, Adama Coulibaly and Habiba Diaby were missing the flavors of home. It was tough to find our food, said Coulibaly who emigrated from the Ivory Coast in 2008. We would have to go to New York. Diaby, who came to the Lehigh Valley in 2018, had a passion for cooking so they both began to share the flavors of their homeland with friends and family. That put them on a path to share their food as a business, becoming a vendor at Allentowns Juneteenth celebration last year. We had so many compliments on the food, Coulibaly said. We said to ourselves, this could be a venture.' The Macungie couple just opened their restaurant, Nkasso African and Exotic Foods, at 44 N. 8th St. in Allentown, devoted to bringing the flavors of home. Diaby, who is also from the Ivory Coast, grew up cooking with her grandmother. After initially looking to pursue law, she switched her focus to food when she arrived in the United States in 2018. Their restaurant focuses on the nations of West Africa, especially the Ivory Coast. A few menu highlights: Drinks are unique, especially bissap, which is made from hibiscus. It has a berry-forward floral flavor thats refreshing. Theres also a ginger beverage thats tart with a strong hit of ginger. (Perfect if youre having one of those days where youre feeling like youre fighting off a cold.) And baobab, which is a smoothie made from the product of the tree of life. (It has a coconut-adjacent flavor and is filling so think of it as a good lunch-on-the-go.) Akwaba is a dish that has either fried chicken or fish, fried plantains and veggies and attieke, a signature side dish from Ivory Coast thats like couscous but made with cassava. Info: https://www.nkassofood.com/ Two scoops Readers have been asking me when the third location of Batch Microcreamery is set to open at the Promenade Shops in Center Valley. Originally the artisan, small-batch ice cream shop was to open this month but like many, many restaurant and business projects, its been a little delayed, according to owner Richard Pongracz. Its now looking like a March open for the new ice cream shop. In other ice cream news, King Kone, which opened in 1990 at 5503 MacArthur Road, is now in a larger location across the street on Springmill Road. Directions to the new location: Those traveling southbound on MacArthur Road will be able to pull into the parking lot directly from the roadway, while customers traveling northbound on MacArthur Road will be able to access the business by turning left on Route 329, right on Spruce Street and right on Springmill Road. King Kone is open year-round and features more than 50 flavors of Leibys and Nelsons ice cream. You can get cups or cones (including homemade waffle cones), frozen yogurt, milkshakes and more. Info: http://kingkonewhitehall.com A cut above Great Clips will open at 8 a.m. Jan. 28 at the Caramoor Village Shopping Center, off Route 100, in Lower Macungie Township across the street from Weis Market. Those who come can take advantage of $6.99 haircuts and a noon there will be a ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony. From 1 to 3 p.m., there will be a face painter and balloon artist for kids. Great Clips is a 100% franchised company with more than 4,400 hair salons across North America. This location will be owned and operated by Heather and Matthew Mobilio. Info: greatclips.com/ Sofia Coppola and Phoebe Dynevor were the epitome of Sundance chic at the film festival's Sommsation wine event on Friday night. Phoebe, 27, modeled a flowing silver knit turtleneck sloppily tucked into her black slacks for her latest public appearance. Meanwhile Sofia, 51, was even more suitably dressed for the chilly climes of wintertime in Park City, Utah, where the festival takes place. Festival festivities: Sofia Coppola (left) and Phoebe Dynevor (right) were the epitome of Sundance chic at the film festival's Sommsation wine event on Friday night She bundled up in a monochrome anorak over a basic black ensemble that, in a nod to the event's mountain setting, included boots. The acclaimed filmmaker, who hails from Hollywood royalty as the daughter of The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, sharpened her features with makeup. Phoebe, whose new film Fair Play premiered at Sundance that night, posed up with Alden Ehrenreich, her co-star in the movie, and their director Chloe Dumont. Meanwhile: Sofia, 51, was even more suitably dressed for the chilly climes of wintertime in Park City, Utah, where the festival takes place Alden treated the shutterbugs to a mischievous smile, modeling a denim jacket and a pair of trousers that appeared to be either velvet or velour. Names galore paraded across the red carpet, including Adam Lambert, Scoot McNairy and Cody Fern, who are at the festival in aid of their movie Fairyland!. Fairyland!, which counts Sofia among its producers, is based on the memoir of the same name by writer Alysia Abbott, who lost her gay father to the AIDS crisis. Trio: Phoebe, whose new film Fair Play premiered at Sundance that night, posed up with Alden Ehrenreich, her co-star in the movie, and their director Chloe Dumont What a night: Names galore paraded across the red carpet, including (from left) Adam Lambert, Scoot McNairy and Cody Fern, who are at the festival in aid of their movie Fairyland! Adam, his hair in a towering coiff, was unmistakable during his Sundance sighting, wrapping a camel-toned coat over a top with a baroque print. Emilia Jones, who plays Alysia Abbott in the picture, was draped in a long charcoal plaid coat that she clashed elegantly against a white mock-turtleneck. Casey Affleck's longtime girlfriend Caylee Cowan radiated wintry style in a fleece-lined white and silver coat and fuzzy boots. Joy Corrigan showcased her cleavage in a busty blue top on Friday night when she made a jaw-dropping appearance at West Hollywood hotspot Madeo for dinner. The supermodel, who turned 28 on Monday, arrived in a skintight bustier that pushed up her ample assets and allowed her flat abs to peek through. Rocking a black leather biker jacket, Corrigan turned the sidewalk into a runway and worked her look for all to see. Casual Friday: Joy Corrigan, 28, showcased her cleavage in a busty blue top on Friday night when she made a jaw-dropping appearance at West Hollywood hotspot Madeos for dinner Wearing her lustrous blonde hair combed straight down her back, Joy's arresting face made maximum impact as she catwalked toward the restaurant. High-waisted gray jeans clad the lower half of her incredible figure while polished black cowboy boots hoofed her feet. The stunner carried a blue Chanel clutch with a chain strap slung over her toned shoulder. Va-va-voom: The supermodel arrived in a skintight bustier that pushed up her ample assets and allowed her flat abs to peek through Tasseled heart earrings shimmered on each side of Corrigan's face while her neck was without jewelry, allowing her chest to stand out on its own. Famous for her eye-popping bikini pics, the Victoria's Secret beauty recently celebrated her 28th birthday in Mexico at a luxurious beachside resort. She has been dating tech executive Ted Dhanik, 46, and the pair have been spotted on several vacations together, soaking up the sun in tropical locales. Quite the cowgirl: High-waisted gray jeans clad the lower half of Joy's incredible figure while polished black cowboy boots hoofed her feet A dash of Chanel: The stunner carried a blue Chanel clutch with a chain strap slung over her toned shoulder Since serving as one of the first executives of MySpace, Dhanik has earned a reputation outside of Silicon Valley for his romantic escapades in Hollywood. He dated American Pie sex symbol Tara Reid in 2017 before striking up a relationship with America's Got Talent contortionist Marina Mazepa. The aspiring designer never fails to promote her own swimwear line, Naked Species, whenever a body of water is in sight. The upstart brand certainly lives up to its name as Joy recently frolicked up and down Miami Beach in a chainlink bikini that barely contained her. Maximum impact: Wearing her lustrous blonde hair combed straight down her back, Joy's arresting face made maximum impact as she catwalked toward the restaurant Corrigan started Naked Species with her sister Gina and the bombshell siblings favor a less-is-more aesthetic when it comes to creating swimwear. In an interview with Maxim last year, the model discussed her laid back attitude towards showing her body in front of the camera. 'I love to be sexy and I love to show skin 'cause I work out really hard to get the body that I have. I've always been very free-spirited about it.' The North Carolina native added that she tries to keep every picture 'classy' and declared that her goal is to be 'a visual showcase of the beauty of what a woman can look like.' Strictly's Jowita Przystal beamed from ear-to-ear as she carried two huge bouquets from the Strictly tour bus on Friday, amid her romance with Giovanni Pernice. The 2022 cast have arrived in Birmingham in their latest leg of the tour, with the professional dancer, 28, reuniting with champion Hamza Yassin, 32. But Giovanni was noticeably absent from the group of seasoned pros - with the dancer giving the UK tour a miss due to a schedule clash with his own show. Who are they from? Strictly's Jowita Przystal beamed from ear-to-ear as she carried two huge bouquets from the Strictly tour bus on Friday, amid her romance with Giovanni Pernice Jowita had her hands full as she departed the Strictly tour bus with the two huge bouquets, filled with eucalyptus and pink roses. The Strictly star headed to the hotel after performing on stage with Hamza, who cut a cheerful figure as he too left the vehicle. Nadiya Bychkova and Kai Waddrington, meanwhile, put on a loved-up display as they headed into the hotel hand-in-hand. Keep dancing: The 2022 cast have arrived in Birmingham in their latest leg of the tour, with the professional dancer, 28, reuniting with champion Hamza Yassin, 32 Keeping warm: Jowita had changed out of her glittering costume and into a warm knitted jumper and stone coloured coat Strictly romance: Earlier this week, Giovanni and Jowita finally confirmed they are dating as they left a cosy dinner together holding hands Flower power: Jowita had her hands full as she departed the Strictly tour bus with the two huge bouquets, filled with eucalyptus and pink roses The Strictly lovebirds went public with their romance last year - and Kai has made no secret of the fact an engagement could be on the cards in the near future. Kai, 27, declared they 'want to be together for life' when asked if he was thinking of getting down on one knee to Nadiya, 33, anytime soon. Nadiya wrapped up in a warm grey fluffy coat which she teamed with a tartan minidress, while Kai kept things casual in khaki trousers and a padded jacket. Smitten: Nadiya Bychkova and Kai Waddrington, meanwhile, put on a loved-up display as they headed into the hotel hand-in-hand In love: Kai, 27, declared they 'want to be together for life' when asked if he was thinking of getting down on one knee to Nadiya, 33, anytime soon Power couple: Nadiya wrapped up in a warm grey fluffy coat which she teamed with a tartan minidress, while Kai kept things casual in khaki trousers and a padded jacket Helen Skelton looked like she had the stage buzz after performing to thousands as she left the tour bus. The Countryfile presenter, who is dancing with Kai instead of Gorka Marquez for the UK shows, left with a huge grin on her face. She rocked a black padded jacket, faded grey T-shirt and black wet look leggings. Ready for bed: Helen Skelton looked like she had the stage buzz after performing to thousands as she left the tour bus On top of the world: The Countryfile presenter, who is dancing with Kai instead of Gorka Marquez for the UK shows, left with a huge grin on her face And the cast of Strictly 2022 were out in force as Fleur East cut a vibrant figure in a green wool coat which she layered atop of a leather jumpsuit. Dianne Buswell enjoyed a drink as she headed into the hotel, while Amy Dowden greeted excited fans. Molly Rainford still sported a full face of stage make-up but had changed out of her glittering costume and into a hot pink Nike tracksuit, with Ellie Simmonds also appearing in high spirits as she left the tour bus. Green with envy: And the cast of Strictly 2022 were out in force as Fleur East cut a vibrant figure in a green wool coat which she layered atop of a leather jumpsuit riding on a high: The X Factor star looked thrilled as she headed to her hotel for a good night sleep amid the busy tour schedule Cheers: Dianne Buswell enjoyed a drink as she headed into the hotel Jovial: Amy Dowden put on an animated display as she greeted fans outside the hotel Sporty: Molly Rainford still sported a full face of stage make-up but had changed out of her glittering costume and into a hot pink Nike tracksuit Departure: Ellie Simmonds also appeared in high spirits as she left the tour bus Earlier this week, Giovanni and Jowita finally confirmed they are dating as they left a cosy dinner together holding hands. It follows claims that Jowita had been caught kissing Giovanni backstage during filming on the BBC talent show. The Sun claimed the sizzling couple are the BBC series' 'worst kept secret' after they openly flirted at a recent party. Amorous display: Strictly head judge Shirley Ballas gave her partner Danny a kiss on the lips as they arrived at the hotel Sweet: The couple put on a loved-up display as they posed for photos ahead of retiring for night Designer garb: Shirley looked like she was having a blast during the UK tour as she left her vehicle carrying a large Gucci bag Polish beauty Jowita joined the cast last year and performed in group dances. She was paired with a celebrity for the first time this year, while Giovanni has been starring on the show since 2015. A source told the publication: 'She and Gio are the worst kept secret, but make a great couple. Gift: Luba Mushtuk also had a huge bouquet of flowers which she carried out Here come the girls: Amy and Dianne looked happy as they arrived at the hotel 'While they both kept insisting they were single, the pair's chemistry was ridiculous and they kept getting busted snogging in corridors. Crew even saw them kissing in the production office. 'They make a great couple though, and have been pretty inseparable in the last few weeks. 'Jowita, especially, wanted to keep things quiet so she could keep focused with Hamza, and not distract from the competition.' Keeping it comfy: Will Mellor was casually-clad in a navy hoodie and jeans after the first show in Birmingham Judges: Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood arrived together The insider added that Giovanni and Jowita went public with their romance at Gio's pal Chelsea star Jorginho's birthday dinner, where they openly flirted after weeks of keeping their romance secret. Jowita recently split from her long-term boyfriend, fellow dancer Michael Danilczuk. It comes as Jowita's partner Hamza Yassin reportedly unfollowed her love interest Giovanni amid claims he is 'devastated' by their relationship. Dressed to impress: Nikita Kuzmin rocked a brown trendy suit while Vito Coppola looked handsome as ever in a black polo neck and blazer According to The Sun, Hamza had previously followed Giovanni until last week. MailOnline has contacted their representatives for comment. Jowita's reported budding relationship with Giovanni is said to have been a blow for Hamza, who 'fell head over heels for her'. 'Hamza and Jowita became very close and at times were quite touchy-feely, obviously their closeness really helped when it came to them winning the trophy,' a source told The Sun. Touring the country: The Strictly stars are now in Birmingham to perform the latest leg of their tour (pictured Tyler West and Neil Jones) 'But while Jowita thinks the world of him, she held back from anything romantic and kept him slightly at arm's length. 'When it was clear she was involved with Giovanni, the reason for that became clear. But while Hamza wants her to be happy, he was quietly devastated.' After winning Strictly, the BBC star paid a gushing tribute to Jowita where he described her as an 'angel'. He said: 'Words can't describe how I feel. I want to thank one person in particular - Jowita, you are an angel disguised as a human being. That's what you are, you're amazing. 'Thank you to everyone out there for voting for us. This is the best thing that's ever happened to me.' She recently announced she's expecting twins with boyfriend Jarrod Bowen. And Dani Dyer showed off her growing bump in a heart-warming video montage of her pregnancy journey on Friday. In the clip shared to TikTok, the Love Island star, 26, also displayed the moment she found out and attended her first ultrasound scan. Expecting: Dani Dyer, 26, showed off her growing bump in a heart-warming video montage of her pregnancy journey on Friday Dani accompanied the clip with an emotional track and filmed the adorable moment that she told her son Santi that he was going to be a big brother. She penned: 'We have been keeping a little secret... our little twins. So excited to meet our twins and watch Santi be the best big brother. 'The biggest surprise of our lives but feeling so blessed... our family is getting a lot bigger and we can't wait,' Dani captioned. Exciting: In the clip shared to TikTok, the Love Island star also displayed the moment she found out and attended her first ultrasound scan It comes after Dani announced the amazing news that she is pregnant with twins with a sweet Instagram post on Friday. The former Love Island star confirmed the pregnancy as she shared photos of her growing bump while posing with boyfriend Jarrod. The influencer posted a photo of her son Santiago, who she shares with ex Sammy Kimmence, holding up a sign saying he was set to become a brother. Promoted: Dani accompanied the clip with an emotional track and filmed the adorable moment that she told her son Santi that he was going to be a big brother There's two! Dani shared her ultrasound snaps with her followers Dani wrote: 'We have been keeping a little secret... Our little TWINS So excited to meet our babies and watch Santi be the best big brother.. 'The biggest surprise of our lives but feeling SO blessed.. our family is getting a lot bigger and we cant wait.' Dani and West Ham ace Jarrod went public with their relationship in December 2021, and moved in together the following year. Dad-to-be: The TV personality included a snap of her boyfriend Jarrod holding up a sweet cushion So cute! The family of three all placed there hands on Dani's growing tummy The couple's baby news comes after Dani recently revealed she and Jarrod are moving house, likely to a bigger place to make room for the twins. Answering followers questions on Instagram, Dani said the pair were moving soon, after she put her 725,000 five-bed property home up for sale. 'We are actually moving house again soon... I can't cope honestly I would have moved homes four times in the last four years. Hopefully this is it, for a good few years.' Before! She also showed off her stomach at the time of finding out so she could document it growing Siblings: Dani wrote: 'We have been keeping a little secret... Our little TWINS So excited to meet our babies and watch Santi be the best big brother The Love Island star added that herself and Jarrod have 'so many exciting things happening in 2023.' Elsewhere Dani discussed being a mum to Santi, as she revealed: 'Minus the tantrums, I am honestly loving this age. 'He makes me laugh every single day. I think every phase is hard at time but I love seeing his little personality grow now.' Congratulations: Dani announced the amazing news that she is pregnant with twins with a sweet Instagram post on Friday Relationship: Dani and West Ham ace Jarrod went public with their relationship in December 2021, and moved in together the following year The star also said that Jarrod had the approval of her dad Danny who thinks the sportsman is a 'lovely guy'. She told The Sun in the early days of their relationship: 'He's invested in all of the West Ham players because he supports the team and follows some of them. 'He's like: "They're all my friends." I'm like: "Right, OK, Dad." Family: The star also said that Jarrod had the approval of her dad, EastEnders actor Danny Dyer, who thinks the sportsman is a 'lovely guy' Former flame: Dani broke up with her ex Sammy Kimmence after he lied to her about his crimes before being sentenced to three years in jail for a 34k scam 'Everything is so early days. Jarrod is a lovely guy and we're enjoying getting to know each other. Dani found fame on the fourth series of Love Island in 2018 which she won alongside then boyfriend Jack Fincham. However, it wasn't meant to be for the couple as they broke up later that year and Dani later got together with Sammy, who she had dated prior to Love Island. Dani welcomed Santiago in January 2021 and split from Sammy in July of that year after he was sentenced to three years in jail for a 34,000 scam. Lady Victoria Hervey ensured all eyes were on her Friday as she left a swanky Private Members club in Mayfair. The socialite, 46, showed off her sensational style in a faux cream fur-trimmed coat as she stepped out of Loulou's club into the cold. She donned a black leather mini dress that hugged her slender figure and styled the mini dress with a pair of stiletto court heels. Chic: Victoria Hervey looked effortlessly chic on Friday as she left a swanky Private Members club in Mayfair Victoria opted for a soft glam makeup look with a swipe of nude lipstick, while her blonde tresses were hidden under a cozy knit hat that matched her coat. Victoria also opted to wear fingerless cream gloves to brave the cold while having her toned and tanned pins on full display. The swanky private members' club outing comes after Victoria was recently spotted leaving Loulou's club with a mystery man. Stunning: The socialite, 46, showed off her sensational style in a faux cream fur-trimmed coat as she stepped out of Loulou's club into the cold The male companion was also dressed for the cold wintery evening as he was bundled up in a navy padded jacket teamed with grey trousers and shiny dress shoes. The outing with the mystery man comes after Victoria recently moved back to London from Los Angeles after living in the US for over two decades. The model sparked rumours of a return to the UK last year and has now decided the A-list packed city is 'not what it used to be'. Not one to mince her words, the beauty told The Daily Mail's Richard Eden: 'All my friends in LA have left because its a s***hole.' Night out: She donned a black leather mini dress that hugged her slender figure and styled the mini dress with a pair of stiletto court heels Cosy: Victoria opted for a soft glam makeup look with a swipe of nude lipstick, while her blonde tresses were hidden under a cozy knit hat that matched her coat Chatting to Eden at the opening of the Frameless digital art gallery in Marble Arch, Victoria continued: Its nice if you dont leave the house, but, as soon as you leave, you see the homeless, crackheads and half-naked women with no teeth throwing things at you. Its not safe and not what it used to be,' explained the former 'It girl'. London-born Victoria is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, half-sister of the 7th Marquess, and sister of the 8th Marquess and Lady Isabella Hervey - and moved to Los Angeles in 2004. Victoria has since been sharing a slew of snaps to her 443k Instagram followers upon returning to the UK, taking in all of the capital's landmarks once again. Amanda Goff was once Australia's most famous escort, known under the moniker Samantha X. But the author and journalist has turned over a new leaf, leaving the industry that made her a household name last year. The 48-year-old had a candid chat with her fans on Instagram this week, revealing that she has just one regret from her time as a sex worker. Amanda Goff (pictured) was once Australia's most famous escort, known under the moniker Samantha X. But the author and journalist has turned over a new leaf, leaving the industry that made her a household name last year Amanda admits that she her surgically augmented bust is too large, and she wishes she didn't have the procedure. 'Although I love my boobs, I also think at times I went a bit too big and I am looking to (maybe) have them reduced at some stage,' she said. 'I feel self-conscious about them sometimes and feel it's what people only know me for. So yeah if anything the boobs. The 48-year-old says she has just one regret from her time as a sex worker - her surgically augmented bust is too large, and she wishes she didn't have the procedure 'Although in true bipolar fashion, I swing between loving them and hating them.' When asked by one curious fan if she regretted having been an escort, Amanda replied, 'In short, no'. She continued: 'Despite the controversy, judgment, stigma, consequences, I don't regret one single decision I made, from outing myself to my books, to the media. 'Although I love my boobs, I also think at times I went a bit too big and I am looking to (maybe) have them reduced at some stage,' she said 'The lessons I've learned, the compassion, empathy, resilience & the authenticity I'm now armed with I wouldn't change for the world. 'I feel privileged to be a vehicle for men to open up to and honoured that I somehow help women discover their sexuality. 'It hasn't been easy for many reasons and I struggle a lot with guilt and shame at times, but what I've learnt about men, women and myself is a gift. 'I feel self-conscious about them sometimes and feel it's what people only know me for. So yeah if anything the boobs' she added 'I also learned that most people are hypocrites and I can sniff bulls**t out in nanoseconds.' Last year, Amanda told Stellar Magazine that she is 'ashamed' of her former career and has changed her ways after being diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. 'Now the fog has started to clear, I am ashamed of some of my choices, especially about going public,' she said. When asked by one curious fan if she regretted having been an escort, Amanda replied, 'In short, no' 'I don't recognise the woman who did that and it's mortifying for me.' She went on: 'I am not blaming my bipolar or saying it was all down to my bipolar at all. But would I have made those choices if I was diagnosed and medicated? Most likely I wouldn't have been so public about it'. Amanda says that creating her alter ego Samantha X 'was a way of dealing with certain trauma in my life' and she felt she was 'acting' when engaging that side of herself. 'I felt invincible as Samantha. At the time, I had no issues with going public despite the shock from friends and family,' she says. Last year, Amanda told Stellar Magazine that she is 'ashamed' of her former career and has changed her ways after being diagnosed with bipolar II disorder 'It was like I couldn't understand their concerns. I was closed off to it. I was on some kind of high, which now I understand is mania'. Amanda has now reclaimed the 'very traditional and conservative' person she is at heart. The Sydney-based influencer was once described as the country's highest-paid sex worker. Amanda has now reclaimed the 'very traditional and conservative' person she is at heart She dropped her successful career as a journalist to embark on a controversial path that quickly garnered her an entirely new fan base. Amanda established herself as Australia's most recognisable escort, writing two memoirs, creating her own lingerie label, adult toys and agency. She also ran an escort agency with her business partner. In addition to taking care of the behind-the-scenes of her agency, Amanda was busy completing a Masters Degree in counselling and psychology. Lauren Goodger has spoken out about her 'hellish year' after the tragic loss of her baby daughter Lorena, a bitter split with her partner and the death of her ex boyfriend. The reality TV personality, 36, is looking ahead for what's to come in 2023 as she reflects on the 'massive trauma' she has been through over the past 12 months. Speaking to MailOnline, Lauren put on a brave face as she arrived at The Inspiration Awards in London on Friday night where she said she is 'ready to come back to the industry in the right way' after a string of difficult events. 'Hellish year': TOWIE's Lauren Goodger has spoken to MailOnline about her 'hellish year' after tragic loss of her baby daughter, bitter split with partner and the death of her ex When explaining why she wanted to come to the event, Lauren said: 'It's an amazing cause, I can't wait to hear all the stories. 'I feel like I've been through a hell of a lot and I feel like it was the right one for me to go to. I've been asked to do a lot of things, I'm coming back slowly. 'I took a break and now I am ready to come back to the industry in the right way. 'I'm very new to this, like I say, I've been through massive trauma, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it but everyone knows and I feel like one day I want to inspire other women.' Split: Lauren said that she finds her strength in being a mother to her daughter Larose, who she shares with ex-boyfriend Charles Drury (pictured together) Lauren said that she finds her strength in being a mother to her daughter Larose, who she shares with ex-boyfriend Charles Drury. It is understood that their relationship ended bitterly last year, and at the funeral of their second daughter, Lorena, it is alleged Lauren was attacked and she was left with a black eye in the days following. Charles, 25, was later arrested and bailed following the incident. The former TOWIE cast-member confirmed the terrible news of her newborn's death in an Instagram post in July last year, admitting Lorena was born 'without complications' prior to her death. Tragic: The former TOWIE cast-member confirmed the terrible news of her newborn's death in an Instagram post in July last year, admitting the child was born 'without complications' prior to her death Lauren is focusing on being best mum she can to Larose. 'Larose, my daughter, I think being a mum to the most amazing little girl I've ever had in my life,' Lauren told MailOnline. 'Like, she's the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I am a very strong person. I've been through a lot. And I feel like I want to be there... 'I'm strong, independent and I want to inspire young girls and other mum that are going through similar things. And just you know like, everything happens for a reason and just don't like... life goes on.' Painful: Lauren's ex Jake McClean tragically died in a car accident that has left his on-off partner Yazmin Oukhellou injured (pictured is a snap taken by Lauren at Jake's funeral) Only a few days before the death of her daughter, her ex boyfriend Jake McClean tragically died in a car accident that has left his on-off partner Yazmin Oukhellou seriously injured. Jake, who was 33, was driving in Bodrum, Turkey on Sunday when his car crashed over a hill before emergency services rushed to save him. Now living as a single mother, Lauren revealed that she isn't sure about her prospective dating life. Single mum: Now living as a single mother, Lauren revealed that she isn't sure about her prospective dating life Concern: Recently, Lauren sparked concern after deleting all her posts on Instagram, wiping everything from her grid while leaving her video reels intact She explained: 'I don't know. The main thing is just being happy and like I'm not looking openly... I'm just doing my thing and being a mum. Yeah.' Recently, Lauren sparked concern after deleting all her posts on Instagram, wiping everything from her grid while leaving her video reels intact. She said: 'I literally archived all my posts. Everyone was like, "What's going on?" My family were like, "Have you blocked me?" I'm like, "No, I'm restarting." Exes: Lauren and Charles' relationship ended bitterly last year, and at the funeral of their second daughter, Lorena, it is alleged that Lauren was attacked and she was left with a black eye in the days following. Charles was later arrested and bailed following the incident 'I've archived everything online for me. I just want to move forward. So I'm starting again.' After spending some time away, Lauren said she has a lot of plans as she launches her comeback to the industry: 'There's so much I want to do, I'm doing my own charity for Lorena, yeah just doing more mum stuff. 'It's a different image now, it's not Lauren Goodger before, it's Lauren Goodger now. I'm a woman, I'm a mum, I've been through more.' Peter Maddison is no fan of The Block. The host of Grand Designs Australia says the popular Channel Nine renovation series should be banned from television screens. 'I hate The Block; it's absolute bloody nonsense,' he told The Binge Guide on Saturday. Peter Maddison (pictured) is no fan of The Block. The host of Grand Designs Australia says the popular Channel Nine renovation series should be banned from television screens 'It should be banned from television because it leaves people with the false aspirations that they can become in inverted commas a project manager or a builder or a designer,' Peter went on. 'It's a joke. It's a very bad example of the reality of building, the responsibilities around that and the difficulty of it all. They make it look very easy.' While both Grand Designs and The Block deal with homes being built, Peter says that only his series has 'integrity' and shows 'the real trials and tribulations' of the building process. 'I hate The Block; it's absolute bloody nonsense,' he told The Binge Guide on Saturday. Pictured: The Block host Host Scott Cam Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Nine for comment. Unfortunately for Peter, The Block had a monster ratings season in 2022 and isn't going away any time soon. The Grand Finale saw 1.384million metro viewers tuning in to see the houses head to auction. 'It should be banned from television because it leaves people with the false aspirations that they can become a project manager or a builder or a designer,' Peter went on Channel Nine made rating history with a whopping 1.692 million metro viewers watching the final fifteen minutes to see Omar and Oz emerge victorious. The Sydney-based best mates sold their 10-acre property for a whopping $5,666,666.66. In the end, they walked away with a record-breaking $1,686,666.66 in prize money. Married at First Sight has seen countless scandals over the years, from gaslighting grooms and cheating brides to physical brawls and wine throws. And producers have promised that viewers won't be disappointed by the upcoming tenth season, which will have even more outrageous bombshells than ever before. 'Gaslighting gets tackled again, but other things about the way people treat each other in relationships, which for us we think weve seen it all is shocking' executive producer Tara McWilliams told Variety. Married At First Sight's new season will feature more shocking scandals that viewers have never seen before 'If were being shocked still, then you know the contents pretty ballsy,' she continued. 'We have scandals again, but scandals that you havent seen. And thats what I love about this, the reality Gods have really kind of smiled down on us,' she added. McWilliams also warned that viewers will be 'fired up' and 'divided' by some of the storylines this season, while fellow producer John Walsh said that they've topped themselves again and things will play out in a way people 'won't expect'. 'If were being shocked still, then you know the contents pretty ballsy,' executive producer Tara McWilliams said In addition to the scandals, Married At First Sight's tenth season will feature some of the show's hottest cast members when it launches later this month. And ahead of the highly anticipated premiere on January 30, Channel Nine has released official photos of this year's participants. Fans have been treated to a glimpses of 10 new brides and 10 grooms. Married At First Sight's tenth season will feature some of the show's hottest cast members when it launches later this month Bronte Schofield, 28, Online Beauty Educator, WA Bronte is a 'pocket rocket' who's used to getting a lot of attention, but has yet to find true love. Too many experiences with hurt and betrayal have left Bronte with trust issues. She admits to letting men walk all over her as they take advantage of her kindness something her family are constantly on the lookout to protect her from. She's looking for an alpha male with whom she can have stimulating conversations and spoil rotten. Bronte Schofield, 28, WA: Bronte is a 'pocket rocket' who's used to getting a lot of attention, but has yet to find true love Melinda Willis, 32, CEO, Fashion & Beauty, QLD 'Alpha female' Melinda is a confident, sassy businesswoman who doesn't have a problem attracting men - but the right kind of men always seem to elude her. Beneath her tough exterior, she's very emotional and can get in her head about the smallest things, leading to constant conflict in relationships. She's looking for an ambitious man who is equally business-minded, understands her lifestyle and won't be clingy - but he must be patient. Melinda Willis, 32, QLD: 'Alpha female' Melinda is a confident, sassy businesswoman who doesn't have a problem attracting men - but the right kind of men always seem to elude her Tahnee Cook, 27, PR Manager, NSW Fast-talking, passionate and bubbly, Tahnee is sick of dating apps and the shallow, swipe-right culture that results in 'situationships' being all about looks and no real connection. After growing up as the awkward teenager, she now gets attention from guys but they're still not asking her out and she's left wondering what she's doing wrong. She may work in a high-pressure position, but Tahnee is not high-maintenance. Tahnee Cook, 27, NSW: Fast-talking, passionate and bubbly, Tahnee is sick of dating apps and the shallow, swipe-right culture that results in 'situationships' being all about looks and no real connection Alyssa Barmonde, 35, Executive Assistant, NSW Growing up in Utah, Alyssa was raised a Mormon, and family is a huge part of her life. Alyssa has been single for a year since her seven-year marriage ended. She's finding it hard to date as a single mum, and even harder on dating apps. But Alyssa is taking a chance on love again and walking down the aisle for a second time, feeling a bit nervous but hopeful for a happy ending. Although Alyssa seems as bubbly and sweet as the Instagram-worthy baked foods she spends hours creating in her kitchen, don't be mistaken: she admits she can be bossy and digs her heels in even when she knows she's wrong. Alyssa Barmonde, 35, NSW: Growing up in Utah, Alyssa was raised a Mormon, and family is a huge part of her life Janelle Han, 28, Beauty Influencer, WA Janelle is a driven, self-assured woman who grew up in a strict Singaporean-Chinese family. With her parents still happily married, Janelle is looking for a partner her family will love and approve of. With her biological clock ticking, she's only interested in serious relationships and marriage. Janelle Han, 28, WA: Janelle is a driven, self-assured woman who grew up in a strict Singaporean Chinese family Caitlin McConville, 27, Makeup Artist, QLD Caitlin is a hopeless romantic who's had her heart broken one too many times. She's refusing to settle for anything less than she deserves and is turning to the experts for help. She's chosen a solo life after dating too many 'douchebags with big egos', but after two years of no intimacy she's looking to the experts for an 'intervention'. Caitlin McConville, 27, QLD: Caitlin is a hopeless romantic who's had her heart broken one too many times. Lyndall Grace, 27, Accountant, WA Lyndall has been living with cystic fibrosis, but with new medicine extending her life expectancy and giving her the lung capacity of someone without CF, she has a renewed outlook on finding love. She is now taking risks and grabbing life by the horns, and is looking for someone who will live life the same way. Lyndall Grace, 27, WA: Lyndall has been living with cystic fibrosis, but with new medicine extending her life expectancy and giving her the lung capacity of someone without CF, she has a renewed outlook on finding love Melissa Shepherd, 41, Hairdresser, NSW At the age of 41, Melissa is looking for her last shot at real love. After a 10-year marriage and co-parenting her son, she's ready to meet the man of her dreams. She's upbeat, charismatic, cheeky, flirtatious and very comfortable with her sexuality, and she expects her man to keep up with her. She's looking for Prince Charming, or better yet, Thor! Melissa Shepherd, 41, NSW: At the age of 41, Melissa is looking for her last shot at real love Sandy Jawanda, 36, Dental therapist, VIC Sandy is a mid-thirties Indian woman born in Australia who has never been in a serious relationship and has had very little experience with men. Growing up with strict parents who upheld traditional values of Indian culture, she had limited exposure to the opposite sex - she was not allowed to mix with boys and had no male friends, and went to a girls school and studied a Bachelor of nursing amongst mosly women. Sandy has insecurities that come with the lack of dating experience and the fear of being used for 'one thing'. She hopes to find someone who can respect her boundaries and help her overcome these fears. With her parents still happily together in an arranged marriage, Sandy believes the MAFS experiment could work for her, trusting the experts to match her with someone compassionate, and they'll meet at a beautiful Bollywood wedding. Sandy Jawanda, 36, VIC: Sandy is a mid-thirties Indian woman born in Australia who has never been in a serious relationship and has had very little experience with men. Claire Nomarhas, Kindergarten Assistant, 31 Claire is an unapologetic free spirit who comes from a chaotic Greek family. She loves the outdoors and is an adrenaline junkie, but also has a softer side and is spiritual and reflective. Claire's hoping to find true love and make it third time lucky for her family. Claire Nomarhas, 31, VIC: Claire is an unapologetic free spirit who comes from a chaotic Greek family Cameron Woods, 27, Carpenter, NT Aussie larrikin Cameron is a down-to-earth, cheeky and laidback carpenter who moved to Darwin to work in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. He's never had a girlfriend, so taking part in the MAFS experiment is way out of his comfort zone. But with full faith that the experts will find him someone who is open to loving him and his transient lifestyle, he's ready to take the plunge with a stranger. Cameron Woods, 27, NT: Aussie larrikin Cameron is a down-to-earth, cheeky and laidback carpenter who moved to Darwin to work in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory Ollie Skelton, 26, Voice-Over Artist, WA Ollie is confident, charismatic, and mature beyond his years, and definitely knows how to use his words to get what he wants. He may be young, but he's no fan of modern dating and has sworn off swiping to find love. He's had one serious relationship and knows what it feels like to fall in love, so he's looking for that special someone this time around. Raised by three women - his mum and two sisters - Ollie is looking for a strong, independent, and patient woman who can accept his sometimes lazy and stubborn nature. But don't get Ollie wrong - underneath it all he has a romantic side and wants to be able to give and receive love. Ollie Skelton, 26, WA: Ollie is confident, charismatic, and mature beyond his years, and definitely knows how to use his words to get what he wants Layton Mills, 35, CEO, NSW Layton is a major self-starter. At just 19, he started a number of successful businesses, including his latest project in medicinal cannabis for pets. While he is motivated and driven in business, he doesn't commit to making love a priority and often puts work first. This has caused issues in his relationships, as he spends more time in the office, on his computer and in meetings than he does with a significant other. At 35, Layton is the only single person in his close-knit group of friends, and he's finally realised that something must change. He's also close to his parents and wants to be there to care for them as they age. Layton Mills, 35, NSW: Layton is a major self-starter. At just 19, he started a number of successful businesses, including his latest project in medicinal cannabis for pets Duncan James, 36, Regional Director, Cyber Security Sales, NSW Prince Charming is here! Chivalrous Duncan has no trouble meeting women, but often finds himself in relationships that aren't compatible. In a relationship, he wants to be the best friend and the lover. He's searching for a woman with class, emotional intelligence, confidence, and physical attraction. Duncan is hoping the match-up experts get it right this time. Duncan James, 36, NSW: Prince Charming is here! Chivalrous Duncan has no trouble meeting women, but often finds himself in relationships that aren't compatible Dan Hunjas, 42, Digital Marketing Business Owner, QLD Dan is a twice-married father of a teenage daughter and is looking for Mrs Right. He wants someone who is healthy, fit, motivated and can match his lifestyle, dreams and ambitions. Born into humble beginnings, Dan has worked hard to reach his current level of success and drives a Porsche 911. With his perfect life almost complete, Dan is now searching for the final piece of the puzzle. Dan Hunjas, 42, QLD: Dan is a twice-married father of a teenage daughter and is looking for Mrs Right Harrison Boon, 32, Builder, NSW With a bone-dry sense of humour that can catch people unaware, Harrison is looking for love but isn't taking himself too seriously. The single dad of a three-year-old is open to having more children with the right woman, but won't settle for just anyonehe sets the bar 'ridiculously high' to achieve greatness in love. Inspired by his parents' 33-year marriage, Harrison is eager to change his ways after two years on the singles circuit and settle down with a beautiful woman who shares his zest for life, goals, values and sense of humour. Harrison Boon, 32, NSW: With a bone-dry sense of humour that can catch people unaware, Harrison is looking for love but isn't taking himself too seriously Jesse Burford, 30, Marriage Celebrant, WA Formerly in a heavy metal band, Jesse is now a Perth marriage celebrant who officiates in a rock star style. He has officiated over 500 weddings, but witnessing so much love and commitment has left him wanting the same for himself. Honest and emotional, Jesse has had two serious relationships that started with an instant connection, so he's on the lookout for those sparks again. He's extremely fussy when it comes to choosing partners and has an extensive list of turn-offs. With wine snobs, cosmetic enhancements and gym junkies all setting him off, Jesse is hoping that love can still flourish in the experiment, even if his date isn't perfect. Jesse Burford, 30, WA: Formerly in a heavy metal band, Jesse is now a Perth marriage celebrant who officiates in a rock star style Adam Seed, 35, Business Owner Cocky and confident, Adam is a modern-day entrepreneur who is always on the lookout for the next business opportunity. In his twenties he was in a relationship for almost 10 years, and they became engaged before he realised he was too young to settle down. After fine-tuning his dating skills out in the world for many years, Adam now finds dating apps fruitless in the search for new love because he says everyone 'just sits behind a keyboard'. Since calling London home for the past six years, Adam has flown halfway across the world with hopes of finding love Down Under with someone who is as mature, honest and open as he is. Adam Seed, 35, VIC: Cocky and confident, Adam is a modern-day entrepreneur who is always on the lookout for the next business opportunity Shannon Adams, 30, Personal Trainer, VIC At first glance, Shannon might seem like your average carefree bachelor, but deep down he's a sensitive soul in search of love. He has a three-year-old daughter that he loves dearly and was in an on-again-off-again relationship with his ex-partner for many years, but now he's ready to move on with someone he can build a future with. Shannon is sometimes hot-headed and his no-nonsense, say-it-how-it-is attitude can get him into trouble. But after a year of self-development and reflection he feels like he is his best version yet, and is looking for someone who will accept him just as he is. Shannon Adams, 30, VIC: At first glance, Shannon might seem like your average carefree bachelor, but deep down he's a sensitive soul in search of love Joshua White, 40, Advertising Client Director, NSW Josh is the self-proclaimed and self-deprecating 'station wagon' of relationships - stable, dependable, and solid. A loving single father of two who loves Disney so much that he named his kids after his favorite characters, he's now looking for a special someone to join him in life's journey. Navigating a whole new dating game that's been completely changed since he was last single has been a struggle, and he's still coming to terms with ghosting and other unfortunate side effects of modern dating. She's well known for her impeccable sense of style. And Naomi Campbell showed off her chic taste in a quirky padded trench coat and baggy jeans at the Loewe Paris Fashion Week show on Saturday. The supermodel, 52, looked effortlessly stylish as she took her seat on the front row of the brands Menswear Fall / Winter show. Effortless: Naomi Campbell, 52, showed off her chic taste in a quirky padded trench coat and baggy jeans at the Loewe Paris Fashion Week show on Saturday Naomi layered a long knitted jumper dress over the top of her jeans and boosted her height with a pair of pointed toe boots. She wore her brunette hair in a sleek straightened style and shielded her eyes with a pair of oversized square sunglasses. The model later joined Creative Director Jonathan Anderson for a photo, who looked smart in a tan bomber jacket. Polished: The supermodel looked effortlessly stylish as she took her seat on the front row of the brands Menswear Fall / Winter show VIP: Naomi layered a long knitted jumper dress over the top of her jeans and boosted her height with a pair of pointed toe boots Pals: The model later joined Creative Director Jonathan Anderson for a photo, who looked smart in a tan bomber jacket Also at the event was Taylor Russel who slipped into a sheer, nude top and a contrasting pair of edgy studded trousers. The Canadian actress, 28, layered over a PVC trench coat and shielded her eyes with some angular sunglasses. Timothee Chalamet, 27, was seen departing the event, wearing a black bomber jacket with leather sleeves and a pair of joggers. Chic: She wore her brunette hair in a sleek straightened style and shielded her eyes with a pair of oversized square sunglasses Unusual: Her coat featured thin rope appliqued between the padding Main event: Naomi was met by crowds of adoring fans outside the venue It comes after Naomi paid a heartfelt tribute to her godson Harry Brant on Wednesday two years after his death. Harry died of an accidental overdose on prescription medication on January 17 2021 at the age of 24. Remembering Harry on the second anniversary of his death, the model, 52, shared a photo of the two posing together with Harry rocking edgy makeup and kissing her on the cheek. Alternative: Also at the event was Taylor Russel who slipped into a sheer, nude top and a contrasting pair of edgy studded trousers Rock and roll: The Canadian actress, 28, layered over a PVC trench coat Pretty: She slicked her hair down and opted for a very subtle makeup palette Slick: Timothee Chalamet, 27, was seen departing the event, wearing a black bomber jacket with leather sleeves and a pair of joggers Beautiful: Naomi Ackie looked incredible in a cropped leather jacket and navy blue jersey trousers with sporty stripes down the side Naomi penned: 'My beautiful Godson Harry @harry_brant , I think of you today your bright smile amazing intellectual mind and your natural flare of style it's been 2 years .. May you be in eternal Peace and know that your godmother misses you' Before his death, Harry, the son of supermodel Stephanie Seymour, 54, and businessman Peter Brant, 75, was a socialite who wrote for Interview Magazine as a teen and an up-and-coming model who appeared in Italian Vogue and Balmain campaigns. At the time of their son's death, Stephanie and Peter told People Magazine in a heartbreaking statement: 'It is with enormous sorrow that we share with you the news that our beloved son, Harry Brant, lost his battle with addiction and died due to an accidental overdose of prescription medication. 'Our hearts are shattered. Harry wanted to overcome his addiction and was just days away from re-entering rehab.' Busy day: Naomi stopped for a photo with a friend at the show They continued, 'Harry was not just our son, he was also a wonderful brother, loving grandson, favorite uncle and a caring friend. He was a creative, loving and powerful soul that brought light into so many people's hearts. He was truly a beautiful person inside and out.' A family friend told the publication at the time that Harry's father had been 'trying to get him to go to rehab again' amid worry and frustration regarding his drug habit. 'It's hard, anyone who knows addiction knows this,' the source said. 'We all knew he had this problem.' 'Know that your godmother misses you': It comes after Naomi paid a heartfelt tribute to her godson Harry Brant on Wednesday two years after his death New Years is the first festivity at the start of the year that people celebrate. Other celebratory events may follow in a persons life, such as weddings, promotions, winnings, etc. Hence, it is times like these when life is at its best that merits a person to be grateful, as well as, mindfully pious. One can easily lose themselves during times of bliss if they are not cautious. By the same token, when in distress maintaining just as much composure is as important. Thus, the strength of a persons character can be valued by their behavior during situations in life. For instance, it has been narrated that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was passing by and young men were picking up rocks. The Prophet inquired about the reason for doing so. They replied, O Messenger of God, we are trying to find out who is the strongest one from among us. At that time, there were no proper weights to determine strength, thus they used rocks. The Prophet asked, What if I decided for you who is the strongest, would you accept it? They said, We are all believers; we will accept. We havent seen Paradise, but you told us there is Paradise and we believed. We believed in everything you told us; why wouldnt we accept your decision. The Prophet then said, Let me tell you who the strongest man is. It is the one, who when pleased, does not displease the Lord. When displeased, does not displease the creation of God. And when in power, they do not take more than they deserve, that is the strongest person. Restraint in times of both good and bad is a show of strength. That is, to not transgress Gods laws when feeling confident, as well as transgress the rights and feelings of others when vexed. Also, to be in a position of power and still maintain boundaries and justice is a sure sign of might. As human beings experience deep feelings, they tend to react emotionally rather than assess the situation with the intellect. People who exhibit self-control when challenged magnify their greatness. This can be exemplified in a defensive combat that took place in 627 AD during the Battle of the Ditch. The heathens of Mecca had laid siege to the city of Medina. To defend Medina from attack, a ditch was dug around the city. Nonetheless, a few rivals were able to leap across with horses. Subsequently, a duel between the pagan warrior and Imam Ali successor after the Prophet took place. Imam Ali knocked the enemy to the ground and overtook him. The warrior, upset at defeat, spat on his face. The Imam immediately released him and walked away. The pagan, puzzled, questioned his opponent as to why he had not ended the duel. Imam Ali explained that everything he had done up to that point had been for the sake of God. When he spat on his face, it angered him. To defeat the pagan then would have been because of his own anger and not for the sake of God. Rumi the renowned poet narrates the incident: Learn how to act sincerely from Ali Gods lion, free from all impurity: During a battle, he subdued a foe Then drew his sword to deal the final blow. That man spat in Alis pure face, the pride Of every saint and prophet far and wide Ali put down his saber straight away And, though he was on top, he stopped the fray. The fighter was astonished by this act, That he showed mercy though hed been attacked. He said I use my sword the way Gods planned Not for my body but by Gods command; I am Gods lion, not the lion of passion My actions testify to my religion: . . . Fatima Kermalli, a freelance writer, holds a masters in Islamic Studies, is a Sunday School teacher, and is a member of the Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamaat of Pennsylvania in Allentown. Filming for the sixth and final series of The Crown is well underway, as the Netflix hits prepares its sixth and final series. Crew members from the Netflix hit were seen setting up Winchester Cathedral on Saturday as they prepared to film scene's for Princess Diana's funeral. Fans are eagerly awaiting its release later this year, but the show is already courting controversy with its plans to depict the tragic death of Diana. Filming: Crew members from The Crown were seen setting up Winchester Cathedral on Saturday as they prepared to film scene's for Princess Diana's funeral The stunning Gothic church was seen with cordons in place and location trucks on site at the weekend. Boxes of red and white roses were seen scattered across the floor, with lighting and scaffolding in place. Winchester Cathedral is being as a substitute for Westminster Abbey, where the late Princess' funeral took place on 6 September 1997. On screen: Fans are eagerly awaiting its release later this year, but the show is already courting controversy with its plans to depict the tragic death of Diana (Dominic West as Prince Charles and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in series five) Location: Boxes of red and white roses were seen scattered across the floor Venue: Winchester Cathedral is being as a substitute for Westminster Abbey Funeral: Diana's funeral took place on September 6, 1997 at Westminster Abbey (King Charles, Prince Harry, Prince William and Prince Philip all pictured at the funeral) Show: The scenes will form part of The Crown's final series , which is expected to be released later in 2023 (Diana pictured in 1987) It will be closed to visitors later this month, on January 24 and 25, according to the Cathedral's website, which is when filming is believed to be taking place. The cast and crew filmed the funeral procession in October, the Royal Standard is draped over the coffin on the gun carriage just as it was in real life while actors dressed in the ceremonial uniform of the Welsh Guards march alongside. The scene depicting a grief-stricken William and Prince Harry then aged 15 and 12 was filmed in secrecy at a disused RAF base. On set: The stunning Gothic church had cordons in place at the weekend Breathtaking: Pictures from inside the Cathedral show it's incredible interior Decorative: An elaborate gold alter was seen in the church Flowers: Props were pictured scattered around the church The car accident that took Princess Dianas life occurred shortly after midnight on August 31, 1997, in Paris. Diana was alive when she was rushed to hospital, but eventually succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead hours later. The Queen was vacationing with William and Harry, ages 15 and 12 at the time, at their Balmoral estate in Scotland at the time. In the middle of the night, she was informed of the accident through her secretary, but she decided to not wake the boys. Instead, the Queen instructed her staff to remove all TVs and radios from the castle to ensure the young princes wouldnt hear the traumatic details surrounding the accident. When the boys finally learned of Diana's death, Harry begged Charles to allow him to accompany him to Paris to retrieve her body, but he was told to stay behind. To the publics dismay, Her Majesty and the family stayed at Balmoral until Prince Charles returned and boarded a plane to London with the young princes on September 5. Although the princes typically arent allowed to fly together, the Queen granted special permission considering the devastating circumstances. When they arrived at Buckingham Palace, Prince Charles walked around with the young princes. They shook hands with the mourning crowd and watched people wipe away tears. Tributes: When Princes Charles and the young royals arrived home for their mother's funeral, they walked along the street to take in the thousands of bouquets and cards left outside their home Harry later recalled thinking, as he stared at the thousands of flowers and the grief-stricken crowd, 'How is it that so many people that never met my mother can be feeling more emotion than I am?' Later that day, the Queen addressed the nation. It marked the second time in her reign that she has made a special address the first was on February 1991 during the first Gulf War. She offered her condolences for the passing of her former daughter-in-law and explained that the family had delayed their return to London to allow William and Harry to grieve privately in Scotland. That night, Princess Diana's casket was brought into the palace, the place she had called home since 1981. Emotional: The young princes shook hands with the crowd and felt mourners tears on their palms. Harry later recalled thinking, as he stared at the thousands of flowers and the grief-stricken crowd, 'How is it that so many people that never met my mother can be feeling more emotion than I am?' As is tradition for British royals, and despite no longer being married to Prince Charles, Diana was given a royal funeral. As such, Princess Diana was buried in the traditional lead-lined coffin. The coffins can be sealed airtight, slowing the decomposition of the body and preserving it for up to a year. Eight soldiers were chosen to carry Diana's coffin. To ensure the pallbearers could carry the 700-pound coffin, they practiced with a concrete stone and wore metal studs on their shoes. One pallbearer, Phillip Bartlet, later recalled that the metal and slick surface of the Abbey's marble floor made it feel like an ice skating rink'. Another pallbearer, Nigel Enright, said he'll never forget the looks on Diana's sons' faces. He added: 'It wasn't until it was all over that the emotion finally took hold, though. I don't mind admitting we cried and cried for hours when we were back at the stables we used as a base.' Tradition: As is tradition for British royals, and although she was no longer married to Charles, Diana was given a royal funeral. As such, Princess Diana was buried in the traditional lead-lined coffin, which weighed an astounding 700 pounds Amid filming, those close to the Royal Family lambasted the Netflix series as 'crude, cruel and totally insensitive, particularly in light of the Queen's death'. The scenes will form part of The Crown's final series, which is expected to be released later in 2023. Imelda Staunton will reprise her role as Queen Elizabeth II, with Jonathan Pryce playing her husband Prince Philip. Elizabeth Debicki will once again appear as Princess Diana in the build-up to her death, while Dominic West plays Prince Charles. Preparing: Stage lighting was seen going up inside the venue Getting ready: Location trucks were seen on site whilst scaffolding went up outside Visitors: Certain sections are still open to the public whilst the begins slowly On Friday fans of the show saw London's Canary Wharf transformed into 1990s Chicago, to recreate a journey undertaken by the US President. Given the time period that The Crown is expected to cover during its final series, the scene will likely cover the Presidency of Bill Clinton, who was elected in 1993. Princess Diana previously visited Chicago in 1996, 14 months before her death, though The Crown's sixth series is expected to pick up in the following year. Staff: Crew members were seen outside wearing padded jackets with dogs Coming soon: The set up for the series appeared to be extensive Protection: A dog was seen on site guarding the area Series five of The Crown has been subject to plenty of criticism due to the touchy topic of King Charles and his marriage to Diana, following its release on Netflix in November. Many argued that filming scenes leading up to Princess Diana's death in Paris were insensitive - as well as the series going ahead with its launch not long after the Queen's death in September last year. Focusing heavily on the fallout between Princess Diana, played by Debicki and King Charles (then Prince of Wales) as portrayed by West, the new series showcased a number of low points for the royals. This year: The scenes will form part of The Crown's final series , which is expected to be released later in 2023 Controversy: Amid filming, those close to the Royal Family lambasted the Netflix series as 'crude, cruel and totally insensitive , particularly in light of the Queen's death' 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. It followed accusations of callousness amid reports the show will recreate the Paris car chase that resulted in Diana's death and scenes of young princes William and Harry following their mother's coffin. The exact moment of the crash will not be shown. Follow up: Series five of The Crown has been subject to plenty of criticism due to the touchy topic of King Charles and his marriage to Diana, following its release on Netflix in November Next: 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 Acting royalty Dame Judi Dench, who is close to King Charles and Camilla, has accused the programme of being 'crude and hurtful'. Dame Judi, 87, who has played Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, told The Times the series risked damaging the monarchy. The Oscar-winning actress blamed it for 'crude sensationalism' and blurring fact and fiction. Former Prime Minister Sir John Major criticised a scene which shows him having a conversation with then Prince Charles about the possibility of the Queen abdicating as 'malicious nonsense'. Last one: The final series will cover the Royal Family's history from 1997 to 2003 Tough: It followed accusations of callousness amid reports the show will recreate the Paris car chase that resulted in Diana's death (L-R Elizabeth Debicki, Will Powell, Senan West and Dominic West) Recently, The Crown star Gillian Anderson, who played Margaret Thatcher in series four, hit back at the comments - and argues that the series could have been far more damaging. Speaking to The Daily Mail's Richard Eden, Gillian said: 'There's a lot of researchers involved, and a lot of people checking and double-checking and triple-checking. 'There's a lot that has not been written about that could be written about. And if you knew the difference in those, you'd see there is a great deal of kindness and restraint.' She adds: 'At the end of the day, there are incredibly compassionate and well-rounded takes on human beings. 'And what you're left with is properly, maturely drawn, complex characters. And there's a lot that's in there that one has to say, 'If you didn't do it, we wouldn't be writing about it'.' On Friday, former Real Housewives Of Orange County star Meghan King took to her podcast Intimate Knowledge to clap back at ex-husband Jim Edmonds. The 38-year-old public figure doubled down on their four-year-old son Hart's cerebral palsy diagnosis, which the former MLB star, 52, recently denied. 'Hart has cerebral palsy, Jim. What kind of father doesnt know that?' she said plainly. Mouthing off: On Friday, former Real Housewives Of Orange County star Meghan King took to her podcast Intimate Knowledge to clap back at ex-husband Jim Edmonds after he claimed their son Hart didn't have cerebral palsy Meghan, who was briefly married to Joe Biden's nephew Cuffe Biden, also told her listeners that Jim 'has not attended one specialty doctors appointment.' She called his denial of the congenital disorder also known as CP 'so sad' and said 'it breaks my heart.' 'When I say that, I mean neurologist, ophthalmologist, audiologist hes never gone to one IEP [Individualized Education Program] meeting,' she clarified. 'None of that.' In addition to Hart, the former spouses also co-parent daughter Aspen, six, and son Hayes, Hart's twin. Absent: Meghan, who was briefly married to Joe Biden's nephew Cuffe Biden , also told her listeners that Jim 'has not attended one specialty doctors appointment'; pictured in 2016 The mother-of-three doubled down on Jim's lack of information as she told fans he's 'never asked to see Harts medical records.' 'He has access to them. He has access to the CP diagnosis. It has been given to all [Harts] schools, all his teachers. I have them printed out in Harts file sitting right next to me,' she noted. Referring to the documents on the show, she said, 'I come bearing receipts,' as she directed her words toward Edmonds. King got feisty as she recorded for all to hear: 'Dont forget, Jim Edmonds, that you are f**king with the wrong ex-wife.' Order of events: Meghan's scathing episode comes in response to an interview Edmonds and new wife Kortnie OConnor did with the podcast Hollywood Raw in which he claimed his son didn't have the disease; seen with daughter Aspen and twins Hart and Hayes Meghan's scathing episode comes in response to an interview Edmonds and new wife Kortnie OConnor did with the podcast Hollywood Raw. On the show Jim said about his ex-wife: 'Shes embarrassed me, humiliated me. Its like, how many punches do you take to the face before you just say enough?' He also said her 'little jabs' and 'constant lies' have made their co-parenting efforts 'hard.' Jim and Kortnie married last September, and at the time, Meghan spoke to UsWeekly and said, 'His wedding day was also the best day of my life' because it meant she would be free of him. Meghan was married to the retired athlete from 2014 until 2019. In the off-the-cuff chat the former Real Housewives of Orange County star went on to say about her former flame: 'He's spending massive, whopping, inconceivable amounts of money on his bride. Like, I am all for it, whatever it takes. Keep her around.' Joey Lawrence and his wife Samantha Cope welcomed their first child together on Monday. The 46-year-old Blossom star and his new bride, 35, shared a collaborative post on their Instagram accounts with images of Dylan Rose Lawrence earlier this week. The father-of-three captioned the post, '1.16.23 ~ Dylan Rose Lawrence ~ Mom, Dad and big sisters are all so smitten with you sweet girl!' Bundle of joy: Joey Lawrence, 46, and his wife Samantha Cope, 35, welcomed their first child together, Dylan Rose Lawrence, on Monday The newlyweds added, 'we welcomed her into this world with the most amazing midwife, everyone is happy and healthy and we are overjoyed with gratitude.' 'Wow what a beautiful journey. thank you for all your continued love surrounding this beautiful new life! stay tuned for baby spam xoxo.' In the first image of the carousel Joey and Samantha hold baby Dylan as she wears a tiny white dress. The second snap shows a close up of the cute little girl wrapped in a blanket. First look: The second picture in the carousel showed a close up of Dylan's face as she was wrapped in a blanket Tiny feet: The third shot showed a close up of the baby's feet as she was lifted in a blanket In September, the happy couple revealed they were expecting over Instagram months after tying the knot in May. To announce the exiting baby news, the Melissa & Joey actor shared a photo of himself cradling his bikini-clad spouse's bare baby bump at the beach. While this is Samantha's first child, the performer shares two daughters Charleston, 16, and Liberty, 12 with Chandie Yawn-Nelson. Growing family: Joey Lawrence and his wife Samantha Cope revealed they are expecting first child together over Instagram on Wednesday, months after tying the knot in May The mother-of-one has been seen on shows such as Insecure (2016), A Deadly Deed (2021), NCIS: Los Angeles and An Organized Killer (2021). In May, The lovebirds exchanged wedding vows at the Temecula Creek Inn in Temecula, California, in front of their closest friends and family. At the time, Joey gushed about marrying the actress saying it felt 'so right.' 'The blessings just keep on coming. Proud of you babe!' he captioned a cozy shot with his 35-year-old pregnant spouse. 'Baby Lawrence on the way!' 'Life can be challenging at times, but when God gives you the right person, it's worth it,' he explained. Days before the wedding, the Salt Lake City-born beauty told People that she and Lawrence complemented one another well from the get-go. 'From day one, it was such a safe place to be myself,' Cope said. 'He loves everything about me and celebrates all those weird quirks about me. I was so blessed to be in a position to receive that. Two weeks in, I was like, "I will be with you forever."' Blended family: While this is her first child, the performer shares two daughters Charleston, 16, and Liberty, 12, who he shares with Chandie Yawn-Nelson Lawrence agreed that the pair fell for one another fast, telling the outlet, 'When you meet the right person, if you're lucky enough, it cuts to the chase so quick. 'I have somebody who is like-minded and has the same love language and we communicate the same way. That's super important. And I am so thankful.' Lawrence and Cope first met in 2020 working on the Lifetime film My Husband's Secret Brother. Lawrence was previously wed to Yawn-Nelson (the mother of his first two kids) from 2005 thru their 2020 divorce filing, with their split finalized earlier this year; and Michelle Vella from 2002 until 2005. One Direction star Liam Payne attended the star-studded three-day grand reveal opening for Atlantis The Royal in Dubai alongside his new girlfriend Kate Cassidy on Saturday. Liam, 29, looked dapper than ever as he donned a black satin shirt that revealed a glimpse of his chest and a pair of smart trousers. The heartthrob also further accessorised his look by wearing a silver chained necklace while opting for a pair of smart black dress shoes for the occasion. Grand launch opening: One Direction star Liam Payne, 29, attended the star-studded three-day grand reveal opening for Atlantis The Royal in Dubai alongside his new girlfriend Kate Cassidy, 23, on Saturday Meanwhile, Kate, 23, opted for a lime green floor-length gown that showed off her pins and highlighted her bust with a sweetheart neckline. The blonde beauty also elevated her height with a pair of diamond strappy heels. She also wore her long blonde tresses in a sleek ponytail and opted for a glam makeup look with a sheer pink lip. Glamorous: And Liam looked dapper than ever as he donned a black satin shirt that revealed a glimpse of his chest and a pair of smart trousers The power couple was also joined by Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Jonathan Cheban on the purple carpet. Jonathan was also dressed impeccably for the event as he donned a two-piece velour suit with a unique gold bow tie. During Liam's time in Dubai, he also took up the chance to post a slew of snaps to his Instagram of his trip with Kate and other celebrities. Exhausted: During Liam's time in Dubai, he also took up the chance to post a slew of snaps to his Instagram of his trip with Kate and other celebrities. And In the first particular snap, Liam can be seen sprawled across a sofa, exhausted from all the festivities In the first particular snap, Liam can be seen sprawled across a sofa, exhausted from all the festivities. He captioned the post, 'Woooo I'm pooped here's why thanks to @kendalljenner @drink818 and of course @atlantistheroyal.' In another snap, Liam and Kate can be seen looking every inch the perfect couple as they pose at the top of a skyscraper restaurant wearing glam outfits and enjoying a night out. Glam: He captioned the post, 'Woooo I'm pooped here's why thanks to @kendalljenner @drink818 and of course @atlantistheroyal' Dapper: In another snap, Liam and Kate can be seen looking every inch the perfect couple as they pose at the top of a skyscraper restaurant wearing glam outfits and enjoying a night out In another stunning snap, Kate can also be seen holding model friend Kendall Jenner's hip as they pose next to one another. DailyMail.com recently learned from an insider that Kendall Jenner was celebrating her award-winning alcohol brand being tapped as 'the new official tequila of the hotel'. The source revealed that approximately '75 people' were in attendance as the Empire State Of Mind hitmaker played recorded music for the lively crowd. Beyonce had also reportedly been paid $24 million to perform at the exclusive hotel launch, which will be her first show since her 2018's Global Citizen Festival appearance. James Norton looked effortlessly dapper in a burnt orange roll-neck knitted jumper and beige jacket as he enjoyed the Hermes Paris Fashion Show. Sat on the front row, the British actor, 37, exuded confidence in his neutral tones after arriving in the French capital. Giving the cameras his best model stare, James looked like he could have joined the male models on the catwalk, with his fashionable outfit well in tune with the Hermes Men's Autumn/Winter 2023 designs. Dapper! James Norton looked effortlessly dapper in a burnt orange roll-neck knitted jumper and beige jacket as he enjoyed the Hermes Paris Fashion Show Stylish: Sat on the front row, the British actor, 37, exuded confidence in his neutral tones after arriving in the French capital His jumper had a unique diamond-shaped knit to it, and the high-neck kept him warm on a chilly winter's afternoon. It featured two white stripes on his left shoulder, adding some dimension to his knitwear. Over his shoulders, James wore a yellow-beige trench coat with oversized lapels. It was in a crinkled material with unique shapes on the zips and had a black lining to the inside of it. Cool: Giving the cameras his best model stare, James looked like he could have joined the male models on the catwalk, with his fashionable outfit well in tune with the Hermes Men's Autumn/Winter 2023 designs Ensemble: His jumper had a unique diamond-shaped knit to it, and the high-neck kept him warm on a chilly winter's afternoon James also opted for a black blazer to help with layering underneath the light springtime jacket. He paired it with some dark navy blue trousers, which were tailored to James' slim build. The straight-leg cuffed over his smart black leather shoes which had a chunky platform at the base. He wore his brunette locks in a tousled style and kept his stubble closely shaven. Front row: His jumper featured two white stripes on his left shoulder, adding some dimension to his knitwear. Over his shoulders, James wore a beige trench coat with oversized lapels Sat on the front row with some equally fashionable men enjoying the show, James was positioned in the centre. He was snapped alongside Nabhaan Rizwan, Toheeb Jimoh, Hope Ikpoku Jnr and Harry Lawtey. It comes after James revealed that fans of Happy Valley often appear intimidated by him when seeing the actor in public as they forget he is not the murderous character he plays. Stepping out: His jacket was in a crinkled material with unique shapes on the zips and had a black lining to the inside of it Actor: James also opted for a black blazer to help with layering underneath the light springtime jacket The actor who plays Tommy Lee Royce in the BBC drama, was on The One Show couch speaking to Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas and was asked how he feels about playing the villain. He said: 'I kind of love it... for a long time I felt like I should say how troubling and how much it cost me to play but the truth is it's really fun. 'Obviously the really dispicable stuff and the violence is complicated to play but the feeling of wondering around in that boiler suit, people giving you wide births, doesn't happen to me in real life. 'It's incredibly empowering and I kind of love it.' Snapped: He paired it with some dark navy blue trousers, which were tailored to James' slim build Presenter Alex then touched on the fact that some fans struggle to remember the difference between James and his role as Tommy. 'Occasionally I get people being a little bit intimidated by me,' James said. 'It's happened a little bit less this series I think, because of the barnet perhaps.' In the next upcoming episode to air on BBC One, James' character is seen getting ready for a court appearance. The actor plays villainous murderer and sex offender Tommy Lee Royce in the drama who grows long locks while in prison. Fashionable: The straight-leg cuffed over his smart black leather shoes which had a chunky platform at the base Heading in: He wore his brunette locks in a tousled style and kept his stubble closely shaven Arrival: James stopped for some pictures ahead of the Hermes Men's Autumn/Winter fashion show in the French capital on Saturday But in Sunday's instalment shows prison staff cutting his hair and beard to smarten him up for an important day in court. Tommy goes topless as he is given an image overhaul while showing off his muscly arms and physique. In the second image he looks much more presentable with a clean-shaven face and shorter locks. It comes after last week James revealed that he loved his Happy Valley character's long hair and 'Messiah' look while filming the last series of the drama. Coming together: He was snapped alongside fellow British actor Nabhaan Rizwan, who looked chic in a purple knitted cardigan and neck scarf The boys: Sat on the front row with some equally fashionable men enjoying the show, James was positioned in the centre (from left to right, Toheeb Jimoh, Hope Ikpoku Jnr, James Norton, Harry Lawtey and Nabhaan Rizwan) He told how he liked the look and often found himself in the mousse section of Boots buying products and having lots of 'Pantene moments' on set. Speaking on The Graham Norton Show he said: 'Director Sally Wainwright knows the look she wants for him, and it is bold. 'I loved having long hair it was fun, and I found myself hanging out in the mousse section of Boots. I also have a weird number of clips of me and 'Pantene' moments!' Real life: It comes after James revealed that fans of Happy Valley often appear intimidated by him when seeing the actor in public as they forget he is not the murderous character he plays Talking about the final series of Happy Valley and the great response it has had he added: 'It is a huge relief that people like it after seven years there was no guarantee that anyone would want to see it.' Asked if he will miss playing Tommy he said: 'He is a despicable monster, but he became really enticing, a sort of weird distant friend that you love seeing. 'I loved playing him and I miss him and the show.' Filming for the much-anticipated third and final series got underway early last year following a six-year hiatus. In October, BBC confirmed a third season of the hit show would be on its way, and that it would be its last. The final season follows Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) as she investigates a gangland murder that leads her back to Tommy, and her struggle to end the drug supply in the valley. Murderer: The actor, who plays Tommy Lee Royce in the BBC drama, was on The One Show couch speaking to Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas and was asked how he feels about playing the villain It comes after James revealed he sought therapy after being badly bullied as a student at boarding school. The said he was picked on for five years during his school days. Speaking on the Comfort Eating podcast, he said: 'My school years were complicated. I didn't have the greatest time. 'I was quite badly bullied for five years and I was at boarding school so I couldn't leave. I've had a great therapist for the last four years, and it's not from a place of drama. 'And I'm luckily not suffering from depression or anything like that but it's been really, really helpful to understanding what [happened to me at school].' James added that he is not a fan of the boarding school system and thinks most of the kids there are 'deeply homesick'. Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldana were spotted on the set of the new Paramount+ series Lioness in Mallorca, Spain, on Saturday. Kidman, 55, covered her business attire in a gray down jacket as she prepared to shoot scenes at an airport hangar on the Balearic island. Nicole is executive producing the series and will star as CIA Senior Supervisor Kaitlyn Meade, who has a history of playing and surviving the political game. Fresh-faced: Nicole Kidman, 55, put her youthful complexion on display and kept warm in a grey down jacket as she prepared to film scenes for the Paramount+ series Lioness in Spain on Saturday Taking her role seriously: Zoe Saldana, 44, dressed in business attire and pulled her long hair back in a pony tail as she prepared to shoot scenes for the spy movie Kidman completed her look with a pair of black leather shoes and wore her blonde locks pulled back in a bun. Saldana was dressed in a sleek gray suit and pulled her long hair back in a pony tail as she appeared to be reading her lines for the spy thriller. Zoe, who is also executive producing the project, will star as Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program. Co-stars: Zoe and Nicole are executive producing the show. Zoe will star as Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program. Nicole will star as CIA Senior Supervisor Kaitlyn Meade, who has a history of playing and surviving the political game The plot: CIA Senior Supervisor Kaitlyn is facing difficulty with a worklife balance and is concerned about mentoring someone who is eerily following in her footsteps Exciting: The thriller is about a young Marine (Laysla De Oliveira) who is recruited by the CIA to befriend the daughter of a terrorist to bring down the organization. The Paramount+ show, created by Yellowstone showrunner Taylor Sheridan, is based on a real-life CIA program Saldana's character is tasked with training and leading her female undercover operatives. The Paramount+ show, created by Yellowstone showrunner Taylor Sheridan, is based on a real-life CIA program. Brittney Spears' husband, Sam Asghari, will guest-star as Kamal, an unapologetic womanizer. Guest-star: Brittney Spears' husband, Sam Asghari, will guest-star as Kamal, an unapologetic womanizer (Pictured in July 2019 in Los Angeles) Star-studded: Morgan Freeman recently joined the cast and will star as US Secretary of State 85-year-old Oscar winner, Morgan Freeman recently joined the cast, and will star as US Secretary of State Edwin Mullin in the political thriller about a young Marine, played by Laysla De Oliveira, who is recruited by the CIA to befriend the daughter of a terrorist. The idea behind the operation is to bring down the organization from within. Morgan will be seen next in A Good Person with Florence Pugh as a woman whose life falls apart after her involvement in a fatal accident. The drama, written and directed by Zach Braff, is set to open in theaters in March. Millie Gibson wrapped up warm while she was filming scenes for Doctor Who in Bristol on Friday. The actress, 18, will appear alongside the new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa in the new series when it hits screens in Christmas 2023. The former Coronation Street star was seen being comforted by members of the crew as she was draped in a large black coat between takes. Filming: Millie Gibson wrapped up warm while she was filming scenes for Doctor Who in Bristol on Friday Millie, who will play a character named Ruby on the show, battled the frosty temperatures as she filmed on location in the city. The TV star donned a bright orange turtle neck top along with a dark green jacket and green plaid skirt for the scene. Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, she also wore a pair of black tights and matching boots. The actress was seen in the back of a black cab for some of the scene before chatting with crew members between takes. Role: The actress, 18, will appear alongside the new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa in the new series when it hits screens in Christmas 2023 Chilly: The former Coronation Street star was seen being comforted by members of the crew as she was draped in a large black coat between takes On location: Millie, who will play a character named Ruby on the show, battled the frosty temperatures as she filmed on location in the city Doctor Who returns in November 2023 with three special episodes to coincide with the show's 60th anniversary, with David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor. The Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti, will then take control of the TARDIS, with his first episode airing over the festive period next year. In October Jodie Whittaker stepped down from her role as The Doctor, replaced by returning star David for the upcoming anniversary episodes. The Power of the Doctor was jam-packed with excitement as famous faces returned, Jodie bowed out after five years as the Time Lord, David made his return, and fans were given a first-look at Ncuti Gatwa as the 14th Doctor. Scene: The actress was seen in the back of a black cab for some of the scene before chatting with crew members between takes Outfit: The TV star donned a bright orange turtle neck top along with a dark green jacket and green plaid skirt for the scene Production: Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, she also wore a pair of black tights and matching boots Excitement: Doctor Who returns in November 2023 with three special episodes to coincide with the show's 60th anniversary, with David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor A number of former assistants - including Janet Fielding, who plays Tegan - and former Doctors Peter Davison and Colin Baker made guest appearances in the epic. The episode came to a very dramatic conclusion as Jodie's Doctor shockingly regenerated into a very familiar face - David Tennant's 10th Doctor. Despite not being ready to regenerate, she said while watching the sunset: 'The blossomiest blossom. That's the only sad thing. I want to know what happens next. 'Right then, Doctor Whoever-I-am-about-to-be. Tag, you're it,' before Tennant made his shock appearance. The newly regenerated Doctor ran his fingers over his teeth and said 'I know these' clearly perplexed as he returned to his former body. David is returning for three special episodes, set to air in November 2023, after bowing out from the role in 2010. The feature length 60th celebration of the sci-fi series will also star Catherine Tate, reprising her role as companion Donna Noble. Big changes: The Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti, will then take control of the TARDIS, with his first episode airing over the festive period next year Jodie's finale episode on Sunday night ended with a short trailer for the anniversary episodes, which will hit screens in 2023. The trailer teased Ncuti's much-anticipated arrival as the star was seen asking: 'Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?' Following the episode, returning showrunner Russell T Davies said: 'If you thought the appearance of David Tennant was a shock, we've got plenty more surprises on the way!' 'The path to Ncuti's Fifteenth Doctor is laden with mystery, horror, robots, puppets, danger and fun! And how is it connected to the return of the wonderful Donna Noble? How, what, why? We're giving you a year to speculate, and then all hell lets loose!' Rebel Wilson looked gorgeous in green on Saturday as she attended the opening of Dubai's new luxury hotel, Atlantis The Royal. The Pitch Perfect star, 42, cut a glamorous figure as she posed alongside her fashion designer girlfriend, Ramona Agruma. Dressed in the eye-catching number, Rebel paired the dress with a black belt to show off her gorgeous physique. Wow! Rebel Wilson looked gorgeous in green on Saturday as she attended the opening of Dubai 's new luxury hotel, Atlantis The Royal She also managed to snap a cheeky selfie with ITV's Richard Arnold. She toted her belongings in a chic black handbag and added inches to her gorgeous frame in a pair of black and nude heels. Rebel styled her gorgeous blonde locks into loose waves, with strands falling loosely to frame her features. She showed off her natural beauty with lashings of mascara and a touch of foundation as she put on a show-stopping display at the event. Sweet: The Pitch Perfect star, 42, cut a glamorous figure as she posed alongside her fashion designer girlfriend, Ramona Agruma Stylish: Dressed in the eye-catching number, Rebel paired the dress with a figure hugging black belt to show off her gorgeous physique Rebel's girlfriend Ramona also looked stunning as she impressed in gold for the star-studded event. Also in attendance was Kendall Jenner, Michelle Keegan and Rochelle Humes - who all cut very glamorous figures. The bombshells all made sure to turn heads as they led the guest list for Saturday's event, which is part of a lavish three-day spectacle to mark the opening. Beyonce has reportedly been paid $24million to perform a private one-hour set at the Dubai event to celebrate the ultra-luxury hotel's launch. Smile! She also managed to snap a cheeky selfie with ITV's Richard Arnold Gorgeous: Rebel styled her gorgeous blonde locks into loose waves, with strands falling loosely to frame her features Stepping out at the star-studded bash, Kendall, 27, was the picture of elegance in a figure-hugging satin gown featuring a unique chain halter-neck strap with gold lips across the neckline. The supermodel gave a flash of her toned pins and donned a pair of flip-flop black heels while posing up a storm at the very lavish event. She styled her glossy brunette tresses loosely across her shoulders in a straight fashion and bolstered her stunning features with a smokey-eye make-up palette. Natural: She showed off her natural beauty with lashings of mascara and a touch of foundation as she put on a show-stopping display at the event Meanwhile, actress Michelle, 35, put on a very leggy display in a petite rouge strapless mini dress, featuring a plunging neckline which showed off her ample assets. She completed her incredible ensemble with a pair of over-the-elbow red gloves and added some height to her frame with a pair of clear stilettos with red hearts across the toes. Also in attendance was Rochelle, 33, who showed off her incredible figure in a strapless sheer black lace gown as she posed with her husband Marvin. Stunners: Kendall Jenner, Michelle Keegan and Rochelle Humes all cut very glamorous figures as they attended the opening of Dubai 's new luxury hotel, Atlantis The Royal The Saturdays star gave a flash of her black underwear through the figure-hugging gown and accessorised with a choker necklace with a huge floral embellishment. She swept her raven tresses back into a slick up-do and bolstered her striking features with lashings of mascara. Rochelle, who is a mother-of-three, was joined by JLS star Marvin, 37, who cut a dapper figure in an all-black suit for the occasion. It comes after Beyonce's husband Jay Z touched down in Dubai on Friday ahead of her performance at The Royal Atlantis on Saturday night. Swedish House Mafia is booked to DJ at an afterparty at the exclusive invite-only event, with TMZ confirming that Beyonce has been paid $24million. Meanwhile, Rebel's attendance comes just two months after she shocked her fans with the announcement that she had welcomed a daughter via surrogacy. The Bachelorette star revealed that she is the proud mother of a bouncing baby girl, whom she has named Royce Lillian. Support: It comes after Beyonce's husband Jay Z (pictured with Amir Khan) touched down in Dubai on Friday ahead of her performance at The Royal Atlantis on Saturday night 'I cant even describe the love I have for her, shes a beautiful miracle!' Rebel effervesced in her Instagram post breaking the news. 'I am forever grateful to everyone who has been involved, (you know who you are), this has been years in the makingbut 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, its an amazing gift. The BEST gift!!' Rebel froze her eggs years ago, and in the process of preparing for motherhood a fertility doctor remarked: 'You'd do much better if you were healthier.' Baby mine: The Pitch Perfect star's latest sighting comes just two months after she shocked her fans with the announcement that she had welcomed a daughter via surrogacy The advice, she told People, prompted her to embark on a 'Year Of Health' that saw her drop nearly 80lbs and shed her previous public image. Meanwhile Ramona is based in Los Angeles and heads up a sustainable fashion brand called Lemon Ve Limon, which she founded in 2021. She and Rebel had already been dating for months before the Australian actress announced the relationship. 'I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince... but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,' wrote Rebel on social media. Advertisement David Beckham was ever the gent as he gave his coat to wife Victoria while they watched their son Romeo's match in Burton upon Trent on Saturday. Romeo's Brentford B played a friendly game against Huddersfield Town at St. George's Park with his famous parents turning out to show their support. David, 47, was seen removing his jacket and placing it around Victoria, 48, who was already wrapped up in a navy coat and dark scarf. Couple: David Beckham was ever the gent as he gave his coat to wife Victoria while they watched their son Romeo's match in Burton upon Trent on Saturday The fashion designer also sported a pair of blue skinny jeans and sunglasses while she styled her brunette locks into a ponytail. David wore a burgundy jumper and blue jeans along with a sleeveless dark green jacket and brown cap. Romeo made his debut with the club earlier this month by making a substitute appearance against semi-professional side Erith and Belvedere in the London Senior Cup. The 20-year-old was given a further 30 minutes of action in the Premier League Cup, after being introduced with Brentford B leading 2-0. Match: Romeo's Brentford B played a friendly game against Huddersfield Town with his famous parents turning out to show their support Cosy: David, 47, was seen removing his jacket and placing it around Victoria, 48, who was already wrapped up in a navy coat and dark scarf Debut: Romeo made his debut with the club earlier this month by making a substitute appearance against semi-professional side Erith and Belvedere in the London Senior Cup (pictured playing on Saturday) The stands of St. George's Park were a far cry from Paris Fashion Week where the couple were earlier this week. David and son Cruz were among the attendees at the Dior Homme menswear fashion show on Friday. The footballing legend looked dapper in a smart brown suit as oozed confidence on the red carpet. Meanwhile Cruz, 17, opted for a more casual look with an oversized grey blazer and trousers which he teamed with an untucked white shirt. Swanky: The stands of St. George's Park were a far cry from Paris Fashion Week where the couple were earlier this week Out and about: David and son Cruz were among the attendees at the Dior Homme menswear fashion show on Friday On the same day, Victoria headed to the Fendi store in the French capital, representing her eponymous label in one of her own silk dresses. On Thursday night, Manchester United legend David whistled Posh off for a romantic dinner and took to Instagram to share a glimpse of their date at L'Ami Louis. Founded in 1924, the restaurant, which has been called 'the world's most famous bistro' and 'the worst restaurant in the world', has only fourteen tables and serves meals in a traditional French setting. And while David tucked into snails, chicken and fine red wine, Victoria's plate was noticeably empty when he got the camera out for a selfie. Date: On Thursday night, Manchester United legend David whistled Posh off for a romantic dinner and took to Instagram to share a glimpse of their date at L'Ami Louis Living his best life: David took to Instagram to share a glimpse of his dinner at L'Ami Louis - and treated himself to snails, chicken and fine red wine Victoria previously lamented the footballer for making her tastes 'sound boring' in an interview with Vogue Australia, explaining she fills her diet with 'healthy fat,' and regularly goes through detoxes where she abstains from drinking alcohol. The Spice Girl offered insight into her 'extreme' diet after her husband David admitted she 'only eats grilled fish and vegetables'. It comes after Victoria sparked controversy amongst fans on Saturday by sharing a video to Instagram to show her beauty routine. The star showed off her own line of cosmetics in the video while explaining to fans that she was 'make-up free' at the beginning. But many of her 30.5M followers took to the comments section to share their disagreement that she was au natural, with one penning: 'No make-up but 27 filters'. 'No make-up but 27 filters': Victoria was slammed by unconvinced fans as she shares a make-up free video Filming herself before applying any beauty products, Victoria told the camera: 'So, I'm here in Paris and I've just got out of the shower. 'I've got no make-up on, just my power serum on and my cell rejuvenating moisturiser, so my skin is prepped.' But many fans didn't believe the former Spice Girl, as one wrote: 'Shes my absolute hero and has been since SGs .. but yes no make up but 27 filters.' 'I love you but foundation concealer and powder army darling. Ding dong,' wrote another. Beauty regime: Filming herself before applying any beauty projects, Victoria told the camera: 'So, I'm here in Paris and I've just got out of the shower Doubt: But many fans didn't believe the former Spice Girl, as one wrote: 'hes my absolute hero and has been since SGs .. but yes no make up but 27 filters' Another fan added: 'You have under eye concealer. Why is it so hard to be relatable to women ? Just plain honest. We wouldnt think anything if you told us you have some concealer you are beautiful anyways.' 'No makeup???? really? The filters are doing there thing!!!! I think your fab and super stylish but I wish you would be more honest and transparent young girls need not to compare to filters!,' added a fourth. Further in the video, Victoria swapped her more natural look for a vibrant palette of makeup with a bright blue eyeshadow. Process: Further in the video, Victoria swapped her more natural look for a vibrant palette of makeup with a bright blue eyeshadow Sean Penn and Robin Wright were spotting catching up in Los Angeles Friday. The Wonder Woman star, 56, looked comfortable in a pair of skinny jeans, a gray sweatshirt and sneakers as she met with her former spouse, 62. Robin styled her blonde locks in a half pony tail and appeared to be wearing little makeup behind her dark sunglasses. Catch up: Sean Penn and Robin Wright were spotting catching up in Los Angeles Friday. Both stepped out in casual styles and smiled as they met each other Sean kept his look equally casually, stepping out of his truck in a pair of jeans, a white T-shirt and a black vest. The Oscar winner sported a mustache and his trademark bedhead hairstyle. The former couple seem to be spending a bit of time together after being spotted at the Los Angeles airport together January 17, waiting for a car to pick them up. The meetup seemed to suggest that the exes had been traveling together. Comfortable: The Wonder Woman star looked comfortable a gray sweatshirt. She styled her blonde locks in a half pony tail and appeared to be wearing little makeup behind her dark sunglasses Robin and Sean, who have been divorced since 2010, share two children, Dylan, 31, and Hopper, 29, who are foowing in their parents' footsteps. Robin and Hopper will be starring together in the upcoming thriller, Devil's Peak. The story of a young man in Appalachia who wants to escape from his crime boss father is based on the novel Where All Light Tends to Go, by David Joy. Marriage: Sean and Robin were married for 14 years before divorcing in 2010 (Pictured in 2001 in Cannes) Proud parents: They are parents to actress and model Dylan, 31, (seen here) and son Hopper, 29. Hopper and Robin will be co-starring in the upcoming Devil's Peak, which will be released in theaters February 17 (Pictured October 2022 in San Marino, CA) The crime story will be released exclusively in theaters on February 17, with digital release set for February 24. Sean, who appeared in 2021's Flag Day with Dylan, has been working on several projects, including Daddio with Dakota Johnson. The movie about a cab driver and his passenger who spend the evening sharing personal stories is set to make its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May. For Manny Hernandez, who lost his vision more than two decades ago from retinal detachment, his new career as a massage therapist is an opportunity to see once again, but in a new way. By touching you, its like seeing every single muscle that you have, like an X-ray, said Hernandez, 40, of Allentown. Hernandez has been a professional massage therapist since early December, when he began working at Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa in Center Valley. He got the job after completing Northampton Community Colleges massage therapy program last summer. He was the first blind student to graduate from the program a distinction that wasnt without its difficulties. That was kind of frustrating at first because the program was designed for people to see, Hernandez said. You can go in the room at NCC, and you will see a lot of posters around you with muscles, Hernandez said, describing his classroom at the college. If you want to target some trigger point, you can see the poster and then figure it out right away, but for me that was not an option. Hernandez had to advocate for himself to make sure he had the resources he needed to succeed throughout the massage therapy program (which has since been discontinued at NCC). If I didnt persist to get what I want, I dont think I would have passed the program, he said. Hernandez sought the help of a tutor, Bethany Towne, and obtained three-dimensional physical models from the college to memorize muscle names for his anatomy and physiology courses. He labeled the muscles on the model leg, arm and torso using Braille as a key. Hernandez and Towne, who is also a massage therapist, worked together over video chat. Hernandez would hold up a muscle from the 3-D model, and Towne would tell him its name. The two then would go over how to massage that particular muscle. Its really overwhelming when youre trying to learn like 90% of the muscles in the body and the actions, Towne said. For anybody who hasnt taken those anatomy and physiology classes, its a lot to learn. Hernandez also relied on the help of a teaching assistant, Dawn Bothwell, who completed the NCC program herself and serves as the school librarian at Broughal Middle School in Bethlehem. Hernandez said Bothwell acted as his eyes in class as the instructors spoke. If they were talking about the rhomboid muscles in the back, she would put her hand on that area, he explained. I just tried to make sure that everything they were talking about, he could feel, said Bothwell, who works part time at Hand & Stone with Hernandez. Hernandez also worked with the Disability Services Office to make sure he could access class readings online in PDF format on his phone and tablet. He would run his work through VoiceOver, a program that reads the words on a screen aloud for users. He really took it upon himself to figure things out, and thats what got him through this program, Krista Trout, a disability services specialist at NCC, said of Hernandez. Trout added that self-advocacy is important for students with a disability at the college level. After completing the program and getting clinical hours, Hernandez passed the Massage and Bodywork Licensing Examination in October and successfully applied for licensure. Its been hard, I have to say, but it has been very exciting. Im very happy for him, said Sandra Garcia, Hernandezs wife. The couple met as teenagers when Hernandez came from Puerto Rico to get medical treatment in an attempt to save his eyesight. He was born with scars in his retinas, but was able to see normally until the age of 18. Despite seven surgeries, Hernandez ultimately lost all his vision. He said coming to the U.S. for his surgeries was fated, though, because of Garcia. I see this like it was meant to be, he said. Manny Hernandez stands in one of several massage rooms Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022, at Hand and Stone in the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley in Upper Saucon Township. Hernandez began working at Hand & Stone in early December. The couple first connected with each other in Bethlehem when Hernandez was staying with his aunt. He was using a walkie-talkie to chat with nearby neighbors, including Garcias brother. Hernandez had brought his walkie-talkie with him from Puerto Rico, where the handheld device was popular at the time for communicating and listening to the radio. Hernandez began regularly talking to Garcias brother through the walkie-talkie, and eventually he spoke with Garcia, herself. The two hit it off, eventually met in person and began dating soon after. They got married in 2013 and have two sons together. Throughout their marriage, Garcia worked, and Hernandez stayed at home to take care of their boys, who are now 15 and 6 years old. Hernandez received Supplemental Security Income for his disability and took side gigs to earn extra cash. He was a disc jockey with consistent gigs, until the pandemic hit. Then, Hernandez lost that income and simultaneously no longer qualified for SSI because the couple collectively earned too much, according to government criteria, he said. He knew he had to find a new way to bring in money. That pushed him to pursue massage therapy. Now, about six months since he finished the NCC program, Hernandez is thriving as a massage therapist at Hand & Stone and earning a living. He feels like hes making a difference with the work he does. Though he was initially worried some clients would be uncomfortable working with him because hes blind, that hasnt been the case. Still, Hernandez makes sure clients know ahead of time that hes blind, and he uses his walking stick as an additional indicator (despite having the buildings layout memorized). Sometimes clients will ask him questions about being blind, or how he got into massage therapy, out of curiosity. These question never make him uncomfortable, Hernandez said. I gladly tell them because thats my story, Hernandez said. I like telling them. When it comes to his therapy offerings, Hernandez provides cupping, hot stone work and massages. Cupping is a technique using cups to suction blood to painful areas of the body, breaking up scar tissue that causes pain, he said. Hot stones move blood under the skin and provide relaxation, while Himalayan hot stones can be used for exfoliating. Hernandez also provides various kinds of massage to clients, such as Swedish, trigger point or deep tissue. Each one has a different purpose, he said. Swedish massage is the most basic kind, used for relaxing; trigger point massage allows the massage therapist to work to relieve a muscle knot that can be felt through the skin; and deep tissue massage focuses on working the inside layers of muscles. But no matter what service hes providing, Hernandez said his job is rewarding. Hes building a meaningful career that allows him to both share his story and help clients along the way. Its awesome for me, meeting new people, being able to help people, Hernandez said. People come in with one attitude and come out with another attitude: relaxed, relieved. Theyre really happy. Morning Call reporter Jenny Roberts can be reached at 484-903-1732 and jroberts@mcall.com. She always looks like a supermodel even when off duty. And Saturday evening was no different for Naomi Campbell who exuded effortless chic at Paris Fashion Week in a pinstriped oversized pant suit. Posing for a few snaps ahead of the Casablanca men's show for their Menswear Fall-Winter 2023/2024 show, Naomi stepped out in style with the green, orange and black look. Supermodel off-duty: Naomi Campbell exuded effortless chic at Paris Fashion Week in a pinstriped oversized pant suit Stepping out: Posing for a few snaps ahead of the Casablanca men's show for their Menswear Fall-Winter 2023/2024 show, Naomi stepped out in style with the green, orange and black look The 52-year-old slipped into a high-neck black sweatshirt underneath the bold double-breasted jacket, which featured oversized lapels. Her straight-legged trousers perfectly matched the jacket with the same material on both. On her feet, Naomi opted for a pair of quirky navy blue and cream round-toe bootie platform heels, which added some inches to her stature. In her signature style, Naomi wore a pair of elegant oversized sunglasses as she posed for a few snaps. Strike a pose: The 52-year-old slipped into a high-neck black sweatshirt underneath the bold double-breasted jacket, which featured oversized lapels Chic: In her signature style, Naomi wore a pair of elegant oversized sunglasses as she posed for a few snaps Flawless: She wore a full face of makeup for the occasion, with her chiseled cheekbones contoured and a blushed pink tone across her lips Stylish: On her feet, Naomi opted for a pair of quirky navy blue and cream round-toe bootie platform heels, which added some inches to her stature She wore a full face of makeup for the occasion, with her chiseled cheekbones contoured and a blushed pink tone across her lips. The model posed for some pictures before enjoying the men's fashion show which featured a huge blue aeroplane and lots of pink roses adorning the backdrop. Naomi also took the opportunity to take snaps of the eye-catching display for all the celeb guests arriving. She greeted the Creative Director of Casablanca, Charaf Tajer, who wore a black and white quirky jacket, paired with some white trainers. Also in attendance was Naomi's good friend Skepta, who commanded attention in his white trousers and white gilet with no shirt underneath. Spectacle: The model posed for some pictures before enjoying the men's fashion show which featured a huge blue aeroplane and lots of pink roses adorning the backdrop Fashion show: Naomi looked gorgeous in her unique outfit choice, before sitting down and enjoying the fashion show in the French capital Take a snap: Naomi also took the opportunity to take snaps of the eye-catching display for all the celeb guests arriving It comes after Naomi paid a heartfelt tribute to her godson Harry Brant on Wednesday two years after his death. Harry died of an accidental overdose on prescription medication on January 17 2021 at the age of 24. Remembering Harry on the second anniversary of his death, the model, 52, shared a photo of the two posing together with Harry rocking edgy makeup and kissing her on the cheek. Naomi penned: 'My beautiful Godson Harry @harry_brant , I think of you today your bright smile amazing intellectual mind and your natural flare of style it's been 2 years .. May you be in eternal Peace and know that your godmother misses you' Style: She greeted the Creative Director of Casablanca, Charaf Tajer, who wore a black and white quirky jacket, paired with some white trainers Arrivals: Also in attendance was Naomi's good friend Skepta, who commanded attention in his white trousers and white gilet with no shirt underneath Before his death, Harry, the son of supermodel Stephanie Seymour, 54, and businessman Peter Brant, 75, was a socialite who wrote for Interview Magazine as a teen and an up-and-coming model who appeared in Italian Vogue and Balmain campaigns. At the time of their son's death, Stephanie and Peter told People Magazine in a heartbreaking statement: 'It is with enormous sorrow that we share with you the news that our beloved son, Harry Brant, lost his battle with addiction and died due to an accidental overdose of prescription medication. 'Our hearts are shattered. Harry wanted to overcome his addiction and was just days away from re-entering rehab.' 'Know that your godmother misses you': It comes after Naomi paid a heartfelt tribute to her godson Harry Brant on Wednesday two years after his death They continued, 'Harry was not just our son, he was also a wonderful brother, loving grandson, favorite uncle and a caring friend. He was a creative, loving and powerful soul that brought light into so many people's hearts. He was truly a beautiful person inside and out.' A family friend told the publication at the time that Harry's father had been 'trying to get him to go to rehab again' amid worry and frustration regarding his drug habit. 'It's hard, anyone who knows addiction knows this,' the source said. 'We all knew he had this problem.' Tim Scallon is a registered dietitian nutritionist with years of experience practicing nutrition therapy in local hospitals and clinics, teaching nutrition and developing healthy recipes. He is a Nacogdoches resident and he helped create the popular TV show Memorial Cooking Innovations celebrating the world of food and health. Memorial Cooking Innovations currently runs in 62 cities and is locally available on Sudden Link cable channel 2 in Nacogdoches. The Budget Session of the Telangana legislature is set to begin on February 3 (DC file image) HYDERABAD: The Budget Session of the Telangana legislature is set to begin on February 3, with the K. Chandrashekar Rao-led government expected to propose its Budget with an outlay of Rs 2.85 lakh crore to Rs 3 lakh crore, with a focus on welfare schemes, for 2023-24. For the second year running, the session will likely commence without an address from Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, even as the last Assembly session was adjourned sine die. Relations between the state government and the Governor continue to be tense, with the lack of an invite last year causing a clash with the Raj Bhavan. More recently, on Thursday, the Governor could not confirm with mediapersons if she would be attending the Budget Session this year. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister on Saturday chaired a review meeting on the Budget at the Pragati Bhavan. Finance minister T. Harish Rao and senior officials of the state finance department were in attendance. With the year set to see polls down the line, the Budget allocations will likely focus on the poor and middle-class sections, with more funds to be allocated to welfare schemes. The state government is waiting on deciding the date for its Budget as it will assess the Union Budget announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. It will tweak the State Budget after taking into account allocations by the Centre. As per an announcement by the legislature secretarys office on Saturday, the Budget Session will commence at 12.10 pm on Friday, February 3. Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) is the life of the party until he is interrupted by the governor, unhappy with the uninvited guests in his mansion. (Photo: Wikipedia) Were reminded, as the movie opens, that were in a fairytale - a world full of familiar characters and magic. And so the sequel for the spinoff to the Shrek franchise reintroduces us to the world of characters that wed all most likely heard of growing up in a fable or rhyme. Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) is the life of the party until he is interrupted by the governor, unhappy with the uninvited guests in his mansion. Puss deftly takes his enemies blades and the party explodes in another round of cheer for their dashing, fearless hero. The Sleeping Giant of Delmar awakens in the Dark Forest, furious at being disturbed and unleashes havoc on its path. In a sequence that looks straight out of Attack on Titan, Puss goes in for the tackle and nails it - flawless execution and all. Then, Puss meets his end. Waking up in the village doctors office, Puss gets bad news. Down to his final life, the village doctor/barber recommends that Puss finally hang up his feather hat for good. Puss refuses, but a new, fearsome nemesis appears - beating him within an inch of his life, forcing Puss into hiding for good. Pusss life of quiet solitude doesnt last too long when Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Grizzly Crime Family - Mama Bear (Olivia Coleman), Mama Bear (Ray Winstone) and Sonny Bear (Samson Kayo) come looking for him, forcing him out of solitude and his own quest. Followed by the perennially optimistic stray, Dog (Harvey Guillen), and reuniting with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) as they steal the map from the ever so unhinged Jack Horner (John Mulaney), the odd trio make their way to the Wishing Star. The movie relishes in its nods to other fairy tales, with the Magic Carpet, the Lilliputians, to the Mythological Phoenix featured in key cameos. Packed to the brim with sympathetic characters and surprising depth to the storyline, the movie is as likely to tug at your heartstrings as it is to immerse you in its slickly animated world. An artful mix of 2D and 3D animation styles delivers aesthetically pleasing, extremely fluid animation. The movie misses no opportunities to pay homage to its titular character and inspirations. The movie provides us with enough opportunities to appreciate Banderas charm as the embodiment of both "Puss" and "Zorro" shining in those moments. Touching on some genuine emotional range, Puss fear runs authentic as he is stalked by the Big Bad Wolf, circling around him like a predator toying with his prey. The impressive voice acting by Wagner Moura as the Wolf poses a darker, more sinister threat; and adds a touch of depth and substance to Pusss purpose, inspiring genuine fear for his fate. At moments it seems like the plot tries to take on too much with its branching subplots and plot devices. Ultimately, the final showdown is absolutely tense, and the film juggles its many, many characters - managing to somehow land successful payoffs of all those setups that had been carefully seeded within the story. Suave, humorous and vivacious, Puss in the Boots: The Last Wish makes for a strong contender for the best film in the franchise. Guaranteed to be a fun weekend family outing, it is also a poignant, beautifully rendered tale that could be an excellent introduction to the charm of old fairy tales to children. Director: Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillen, Florence Pugh, Olivia Coleman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. (DC Photo) VIJAYAWADA: Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government on Saturday issued orders extending the term of chairpersons and directors of 55 BC corporations by two years. YSRC leaders, who had been worried about their continuation, have thus heaved a sigh of relief. According to the orders issued by principal secretary G. Jayalakshmi, Bandana Hari has been given extension as chairman of Agnikula Kshatriya Welfare and Development Corporation, whose 11 directors have also got an extension. Likewise, Illa Bhaskara Rao has got extension as chairman of Atirasa Welfare and Development Corporation, along with 12 directors. Others chief and directors of corporations who have got extension include Ayyaraka Welfare and Development Corporation chairperson Avala Rajeswari, Bestha Welfare and Development Corporation chairperson T. Sudharani, and Bhatraja Welfare and Development Corporation chairperson Kurapati Geethanjali Devi. The chairpersons and directors of the 55 corporations who have got extension have thanked Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy for giving them another opportunity to serve the people. Incidence of airdropping of weapons, explosives and narcotic drugs by Pakistani drones in areas close to the International Border with Pakistan in the Jammu region has decreased during the past three months. (Representational Photo:AFP) Srinagar: The Border Security Force (BSF) said on Tuesday that the incidence of airdropping of weapons, explosives and narcotic drugs by Pakistani drones in areas close to the International Border (IB) with Pakistan in the Jammu region has decreased during the past three months. "The number of such incidents was less in the last three to four months," said Inspector General of the BSF, D.K. Boora while speaking to reporters in Jammu. He added that the BSF which guards the 198-km stretch of the IB with Pakistan has taken measures to, apart from countering the drone-dropping activity, ensure no cross-border infiltration takes place in its area of responsibility. He said, "We have put in place a winter strategy along the IB on the Jammu frontier to foil cross-border infiltration. I will not be able to disclose to the media what measures we have taken but I can assure you that with the help of technology, the BSF will put an end to this menace. We are alert." The peculiar winter strategy for the IB in Jammu plans by the BSF is necessitated by the fact that the militants try to sneak in J&K from Pakistan through it instead of the Line of Control (LoC) as it passes through the areas which remain snow covered in winter and crossing it becomes almost impossible. The BSF IG said, "It is a yearly affair. When the passes get closed due to snowfall, the focus moves towards the IB. We are fully prepared for this." End it About eight months after a fatal explosion tore apart a home a block away, Brigitte Yeager felt scared Friday morning by a smell of gas, the lack of an explanation on what caused last years explosion and the sight of gas utility workers tearing up her Pottstown street. Yeager and others have smelled gas odors in the air near Hale and West streets in recent days, not far from piles of rubble that remain from a May 26 home explosion at Hale Street and Butler Avenue that killed five people. Authorities have not disclosed the cause of the explosion, although both natural gas and propane have been cited as possibilities. As a result, many residents feel they have had no closure and live in fear. On Friday, Joanne Murray who said she smelled gas nearly every day for the past two weeks outside her home at West and North Washington streets said she was terrified. I am afraid we are going to blow up, Murray said. It is very draining to feel that way. Not far from her front door on Friday, workers from PECO the Exelon subsidiary that provides gas service in the area used heavy equipment to dig deep below street level at West and North Washington streets. PECO spokesperson Greg Smore said the company responded to a foreign odor call in the vicinity of Hale and West streets. Company practice, he said, is to assess the situation as soon as possible and ensure it is safe. Our crews are currently addressing the situation. Marc and Tracy Chalcraft, who live at Hale and West streets, purchased gas odor detectors for the inside of their home on Thursday after they smelled gas in recent days. If there is no leak, explain why we are smelling gas, Tracy Chalcraft said. The silence from officials is frustrating. People died and we want to make sure it doesnt happen again. On Thursday, the Chalcrafts said, a heating contractor who came to their home on a routine service call said that as soon as he got out of his truck, he smelled gas in the air. Pottstown resident Brigette Yeager takes photos with her phone outside her West Street home on Friday after smelling gas in the air while PECO workers tear up the street in the background. On Friday, when Yeager approached the PECO crew on West Street, she smelled gas in the air. A reporter walking next to her also smelled it. At least six vehicles from PECO lined West Street, about a block from the rubble left by last years explosion. A spokesperson for Pottstown was not immediately available for comment. Rubble remains near the corner of Hale Street and Butler Avenue in Pottstown following a May 26 home explosion that killed five people. Authorities have not disclosed the cause, but have said both natural gas and propane are under scrutiny. The explosion occurred about 8 p.m. on the Thursday evening before Memorial Day. A duplex home at 453-455 Hale Street was destroyed, killing four children and an adult who lived at 453 Hale. Federal, state and local agencies have been involved in the multiple investigations that remain open, but no agency has given a full update for the neighborhood since the weeks just after the explosion. The Pottstown fire chief has said both natural gas and propane were under scrutiny as possible causes. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that propane distributor AmeriGas confirmed one of its tanks was at the home that exploded. A spokesperson has said the company is cooperating fully with the investigation. Michael Budner, an attorney who represents the family that lost five members, said this week he anticipates filing a lawsuit but final details are not clear. We have not received any sort of conclusive findings from any federal or state agencies, Budner said. He said the investigation is looking into all possible causes of the explosion and those would include natural gas and propane. The Morning Call has interviewed about 20 people who smelled gas in the area in the months and years before the May 26 explosion. The newspaper obtained public records that showed callers to 911 in Montgomery County reported gas odors in Pottstown 127 times in the 29 months before the blast. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a key agency in the investigation. Last month, a spokesperson said, The investigation is not completed, as we are still waiting for things out of our control, which we cannot specify at this point. Frustrated lawmakers The combination of silence from investigating agencies and constituents who are scared or nervous has frustrated state lawmakers who represent the working-class neighborhood. People should not be living in fear in their homes, said Republican Sen. Tracy Pennycuick of Montgomery County. If many months have passed, she said, and people are still smelling gas, there is a bigger problem. Pennycuick said she spoke to borough staff and they are just as frustrated as we are with the lack of information. Democratic Rep. Joe Ciresi of Montgomery County said he was waiting to hear from ATF after requesting information. I am frustrated, too, he said. There are a lot of people who are nervous who live in that neighborhood, he said. Your patience begins to run thin. Budner, the attorney, said investigators have been using a wheeled ground-penetrating radar device to get a view of subterranean features at the blast site, including underground crevices, utility infrastructure and tree roots. All parties involved in the investigation, he said, have hired a drone operator to take aerial video of the ongoing work to document the way things are being done at the site. Morning Call Capitol correspondent Ford Turner can be reached at fturner@mcall.com Security personnel during an encounter with terrorists at the Sidhra area in Jammu, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022. (PTI Photo) Jammu: Four heavily-armed terrorists, travelling in a truck to Kashmir after infiltrating from Pakistan, were killed in a "chance encounter" with security forces here early Wednesday morning, a police officer said, terming it as a "major success" ahead of Republic Day. Additional Director General of Police, Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh said the gunfight took place around 7.30 am amid intense fog near Tawi Bridge in the Sidhra bypass area along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway. Singh, who was flanked by General Officer Commanding of Army's Tiger division Maj Gen Gaurav Gautam, told reporters at the scene that bodies of four terrorists have been recovered from the truck. "Seven AK assault rifles, one M4 rifle, three pistols and a large quantity of ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists," he said. "A suspicious movement of a truck, that was moving towards Kashmir, was observed. It was followed and stopped near Sidhra check point, but its driver escaped on the pretext of attending the call of nature," the ADGP said. Getting suspicious, Singh said, police started searching the truck but came under heavy fire from inside. An encounter ensued during which the truck caught fire, he said, adding the terrorists were killed. The ADGP said the ultras were heavily armed and were on their way to Kashmir when they were intercepted. He said efforts are on to nab the driver of the truck, who has fled. "The identity and group affiliation of the terrorists is awaited," the ADGP said. Earlier, talking to PTI, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh said so far three terrorists have been killed. "The number could be more," he added. Asked whether the terrorists came from across the border and were picked by the truck driver to ferry them to Kashmir, he said it is matter of investigation. Officials said the intense firing between the two sides lasted for over 45 minutes, during which several explosions apparently caused by hurling of grenades, were heard. Smoke was seen blowing from the truck, loaded with husk, and was completely damaged in the gunfight. Several representations by teachers and headmasters to the director of education seeking appointment of enough regular cleaners, have gone down the drain. (P Surendra/DC) Hyderabad: I am scared to use the washroom, I hold the urge to use the toilet until I reach home, I feel like puking as soon as I enter the washroom, are the cries common among students, teachers and principals in government schools and junior colleges in the state. Holding the urge to use the washroom for several hours, drinking less water in order to avoid using the toilet and missing classes by staying home, especially during the first three days of menstruation, have become commonplace, so to say. Aamena, a class seven student in a government school, said that toilets are not cleaned for years together and all girls from class 1-10 are compelled to use the same washroom. "There is no water supply nor are there mugs or buckets in the toilets. Primary students defecate inside and outside the toilet, which is not cleaned for days. Not only do the toilets stink but the nauseating smell spreads to the classrooms. I feel like vomiting the moment I enter the toilet. It is only after we complain to teachers that someone is sent to clean the washrooms," she said. She has stopped drinking water while in school. Meanwhile, junior college students said that menstrual pads are thrown in the washrooms as there are no dustbins. It was ditto with government school students. "There is water supply in the washrooms but there are no mugs. Not once have we seen soap in the toilets. The washrooms are filled with flies and used pads," said many intermediate students. Meanwhile, teachers and headmasters have said that they go to their homes or nearby restaurants or to a friends house to use the toilet during their break or free hours or during emergencies in between classes. My health has been badly affected. I stopped using the dirty washrooms," said a government school headmaster. A lecturer added that she travels all the way to her home, 20 minutes away from the college to use the washroom after she developed a UTI infection. Not only is it directly affecting the health of students and teachers but also academics as they are unable to stay focused. Meanwhile, several representations by teachers and headmasters to the director of education seeking appointment of enough regular cleaners, have gone down the drain. The officials have turned a deaf ear to complaints regarding unsafe and unhygienic conditions of classrooms and washrooms in government schools and junior colleges. Afghanistans ambassador to Sri Lanka, M Ashraf Haidari, tells DHs Anirban Bhaumik that Talibans gender apartheid has effectively condemned almost half of the population of his country to complete exclusion from any participation in the society, polity and economy. Haidari, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington DC, warns that it is only a matter of time before attacks on India are orchestrated in or launched from Afghanistan. The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021. Do you think the Taliban in the past 17 months displayed any sign of ruling differently from its earlier stint in power? Absolutely not! The Taliban as an ideological ethno-religious nationalist and terrorist group have only changed and evolved in more negative and dangerous ways than what they used to be in the 1990s: theyre now claiming to have defeated the worlds most powerful military alliance, NATO. Unfortunately, they believe this, even though NATO chose to completely withdraw from Afghanistan and hardly experienced any defeat in the country. Even with a residual force, the alliance could have maintained the Afghan forces to defend our developing democracy against regional and global terrorist networks. Sadly, this failed to materialize, emboldening the Taliban and further entrenching them ideologically. As a consequence, they have pursued and implemented such extremist, anti-Islamic and anti-humanity policies as the enforcement of a gender apartheid in Afghanistan. This has effectively condemned over half of our nation to complete exclusion from any participation in the society, polity and economy. Read | Deepening darkness under Taliban 2.0 We have recently seen the Taliban banning women from university education as well as from working for humanitarian aid agencies and other NGOs. We have also seen the senseless killing of Mursal Nabizada, a member of parliament of the erstwhile Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Is the worst fear that the Talibans return to power would reverse all the progresses made by Afghanistan in the past 20 years coming true? We are the only country in the world where women and girls are denied their basic human rights such as education, work, and the freedom of movement. The Taliban recently extended the ban on womens employment to those working with national and international NGOs, delivering life-saving humanitarian aid across Afghanistan. This has a direct and deadly impact on the female beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance, as aid organizations are no longer able to access female-headed households for urgent support. This and other inhumane policies of the Taliban, including the targeted killings and enforced disappearances of former civilian and military personnel of the Islamic Republic, constitute gross violations of the international human rights and humanitarian laws and principles. Of course, the implementation of such policies demonstrates that the Taliban have so far been successful in rapidly undoing Afghans hard-won gains of the past 20 years. Failure on the part of the international community to halt this ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan would have far-reaching implications for regional stability and international peace. You have been monitoring the situation in Afghanistan. How did the Taliban fare in managing the economy and dealing with poverty and starvation? The international community is sending in food and other essentials to Afghanistan. But are the humanitarian aid packages reaching the people who need those? The principal state-sponsor of the Taliban, Pakistan, never trained the Taliban as a narco-terrorist group to govern. They were trained to kill, maim, and destroy across Afghanistan, which they continue doing since the fall of the Islamic Republic in August 2021. Effective governance demands compliance with the Afghan Constitutions core provisions, including the need to execute Afghanistans obligations under international laws that help maintain and govern world order. To the contrary, the Taliban and their state-sponsor grossly violated the United Nations Charter in the months before they forcefully toppled the democratically elected and still internationally recognized government of Afghanistan. It is because of the Talibans complete disregard for international laws and representation of foreign aggression that they are neither recognized nor are they viewed as legitimate by the suffering people of Afghanistan. At the same time, they have not only failed in preventing the economic collapse but they have actually brought about a growing famine across Afghanistan through enforcement of such draconian policies as gender apartheid that only deepens poverty and robs Afghans of any human security. In response, international aid has been little and hardly reaches millions in acute need. The world needs to seek a sustainable solution to the Afghan problem, and that is to help rationalize the status quo by tangibly enabling all Afghan sides to form an inclusive government acceptable to all Afghans consistent with our international obligations. We have seen women leading the protests across Afghanistan in the first few months after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. There was hope that the Taliban would find it difficult to reverse the progress Afghan society made in terms of democracy and women empowerment. Is the optimism disappearing now? Is Afghanistan now staring at a bleak future? Thank you for giving full credit to the Afghan women for standing up against the oppression of the Taliban. Afghan men must have joined them, and must do so now to resist all forms of oppression and aggression committed by the Taliban against a free-spirited nation determined to defend our homeland and our hard-won gains of the past 20 years that cost many Afghan and international lives, including Indians. Despite the daily atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by the Taliban to demoralize the Afghan people, we are known not to give up: national resistance in different forms has grown. Hundreds of Afghans have picked up arms against the Taliban, and more will join the resistance, as resources become available to enable them to fight for sustainable peace and freedom in Afghanistan. We encourage major stakeholders in the maintenance of regional stability and international security to support the Afghan people in our rightful resistance consistent with the United Nations Charter. We saw in the 1990s that the international negligence of the same and yet weaker Taliban brought about many human tragedies, including 9/11. Our region, including India, China, and Russia can hardly afford to suffer from similar terrorist attacks sooner or later emanating from Afghanistan. Indeed, now is the time for our region and the world at large to act against the status quo in Afghanistan and rationalize it, in accordance with international laws. How do you view the international communitys response to the Talibans return to power in Afghanistan and its regressive and repressive rule over the past 17 months? Unlike the previous term of the Taliban, a section of the international community this time seems to be in favour of engagement with the new regime in Kabul, instead of treating it as pariah. But is this approach working? Can the international community make lives better for Afghans through its policy of engagement with the Taliban? Let me be very blunt on this: those, who have pursued an engagement policy vis-a-vis the Taliban over the past 17 months, have continued failing the Afghan people. And they have failed their own taxpayers, while allowing the lives of many of their fallen soldiers to go in vain. They too have been quite disappointed by the pursuit of their own failed policy, which has only emboldened the Taliban to defy the international community, continuing to trample on all international laws, including the core principles of international human rights and humanitarian laws. The Talibans enforcement of a complete gender apartheid in the 21st century speaks to this fact. However, it is still early for the international community to reverse the deadly impact of their engagement policy on the Afghan people: international law provides for the responsibility to protect extremely vulnerable, stateless nations such as Afghans, who remain daily victims of a UN-sanctioned narco-terrorist group, sheltering over 20 other regional and transnational terrorist networks in Afghanistan. The Talibans return to power in Kabul in August 2021 was perceived to be a significant success of the deep state of Pakistan, which has always been looking for a strategic depth in Afghanistan. But why do you think Pakistans relations with Afghanistan worsened over the past few months? Afghans dont believe Pakistans relations with the Taliban have worsened. Many of the events are fabricated to help enhance the legitimacy of the Taliban in the Afghan eyes, while disowning the destructive role the countrys military and intelligence institutions continue playing in Afghanistan. On many occasions, Pakistans leaders, including diplomats, have celebrated their victory in Afghanistan, which Afghans view as a gross violation of the UN Charters key provisions on acts of direct and indirect aggression. Afghanistan under the Taliban is essentially a foreign occupation, actively undoing Afghanistans strategic gains of the past 20 years. The exploitation of Islam by Pakistans deep state to exclude Afghan women from participation in anything is designed to condemn Afghanistan to perpetual poverty and dependence, denying Afghans any sustainable peace and development. The international community is obligated under the UN Charter to end Afghanistans occupation in defense of our sovereignty to be protected by international law. As I said earlier, the best and easiest way to do so is to help resume the intra-Afghan talks for a sustainable political settlement, whose outcome is the formation of an inclusive government acceptable by all Afghans consistent with our international obligations. India had withdrawn its diplomats and other officials from Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021. But it also started engagements with the Taliban regime in Kabul and deployed what it called a technical team in its embassy in Kabul. How do you view Indias engagement with the Taliban? Are the fear of being left out and reluctance to allow Pakistan to gain a strategic advantage in Afghanistan prompting India to build a working relation with the Taliban? Afghans remain strong friends with the people of India, on whom we still count. As the worlds largest democracy and as a primary victim of terrorism, emanating from the same sources, Afghans still hope that India would extend its own policy of making no distinction between terrorists and their sources of institutional support to Afghanistan both as the traditional friend and strategic partner of India. Any measure that accords legitimacy to the Taliban must be avoided strategically, for a terrorist group would ultimately oppose any democracy, especially India, which they have repeatedly attacked over the past decades. It is only a matter of time before attacks on India are orchestrated in and launched from Afghanistan, providing our neighbour the perfect plausible deniability they have finally achieved with the fall of the Islamic Republic. Indias strategic community remains divided on the engagement policy for many good reasons, and sound voices, some of whom have formerly served in Afghanistan, may be listened to for the mutual security benefits of the Afghan and Indian peoples. Any ISIS or Al Qaeda attack on India organized in and launched from Afghanistan would be an attack endorsed by the Taliban, by default. This must worry not just India but also China and Russia. And that is why these countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization must do a lot more together to help rationalize the status quo in their own backyard, now that their shared demand NATO must go home has come to full fruition. India did not strongly condemn the Talibans restrictions on education of women or on the ban on their working for the NGOs. Is India, perceived to be a leader in South Asia, compromising on its fundamental values and risking the goodwill it earned among the progressive and democratic sections of the society in Afghanistan in order to continue its engagement with the Taliban? How does the democratic and progressive people of Afghanistan see it? The suffering people of Afghanistan have been disappointed and feel unforgettably let down by major democracies. Upholding the basic provisions of international human rights and humanitarian laws in defence of the Afghan people would never harm any countrys national interests. It actually enhances their moral standing in the eyes of the international community, thus bolstering their soft power. India is a world leader in soft power, a status it must never allow terrorist groups such as the Taliban to undermine by the pursuit of policies that have already proven an utter failure. The Afghan people hold India in high regard, daily defying the Taliban to listen to and watch Indian music and movies banned under the Taliban. Every Afghan at home and abroad was saddened when we saw the last of our treasured Hindu and Sikh citizens, including their sacred books, forced to leave our shared beautiful homeland, seeking asylum in India. It was these same Taliban, who forced them to wear religious identity tags back in the 1990s, and later attacked their places of worship and killed and maimed many innocent Hindus and Sikhs. We will not forget and we will never forgive the Taliban and those that enabled them to do so. All Afghans, regardless of ethnicity, hope the world, especially democratic forces in our neighbourhood, see the Taliban for who they really are, for what they really represent: the strategic goals of their rogue state-sponsor exploiting Islam, Afghan culture, our diversity, and rife poverty to hold back Afghanistan from meaningful progress and to threaten the region and the world from such a geography of widespread destitution and hopelessness. India can help restore sustainable hope, peace, pluralism, and prosperity in Afghanistan. And together we can do a lot more to achieve our shared dream for an Afghanistan free from the threats of extremism, terrorism, and criminality. Afghans stand ready to do our part! Warning: The story and video might trigger some readers, discretion advised. Another case of dragging has been reported in Bengaluru, this time it is a woman who has dragged a man sitting on her SUVs bonnet for more than a three-kilometre distance in Ullal Main Road near Jnanabarathi on Friday morning. Another incident of dragging in #Bengaluru, a woman has dragged a man sitting on her SUVs bonnet for 3 km in Ullal Main Road, Jnanabarathi on Friday morning in a road rage. A case & counter case has been filed against the woman and the man climbing SUV bonnet.@DeccanHerald pic.twitter.com/ZV4Qm2d6AD Chaithanya (@ChaithanyaSwamy) January 20, 2023 A case and counter case have been filed against the woman and the man who climbed the SUV bonnet. Darshan S, a resident of Mariyappanapalya is a businessman. When he was on his way to work, a woman driving in a SUV (Tata Nexon) blocked his way at the junction near Mangalore Independent PU College in Ullal Main Road in West Bengaluru around 10:15 am though the signal had turned green. Darshan asked her if she could not see the signal. The woman identified as Priyanka, in response, showed him the middle finger and said an expletive before driving off. Darshan followed the SUV and intercepted her vehicle in Ullal and asked her to apologise to him for abusing and giving her the finger. Darshan and his friends Yeshwanth, Vinay and his brother Sujan reached the spot and insisted the woman get out of the vehicle. Her husband Pramod assaulted Darshan and threatened him with dire consequences. Police reached the spot and asked both Priyanka and Darshan to come to the police station. Priyanka and her friend refused to visit the station. They drove the car in a bid to escape. Darshan tried to stop the SUV and climbed on top of the bonnet. Priyanka drove Darshan for more than three km despite him requesting to stop the vehicle as he may fall and die. Public who witnessed the incident followed Priyankas vehicle and managed to stop the vehicle near Sankalpa hospital, Ullal Main Road at around 11 am. Priyanka, her husband Pramod and their friend Nitish are booked for attempt to murder and other charges. In a counter complaint, Pramod stated that he and his wife Priyanka were returning after visiting a hospital when they were taking a turn in the junction a man in a car (Maruti Swift) came on the wrong side and caused traffic jam. The man driving the car identified as Darshan abused his wife. When she pointed her finger at Darshan, he followed them and intercepted their SUV. Pramod claims he called the police control room 112. Meanwhile Darshan called his friends. Pramod alleges that Darshan and others assaulted him and tore his wifes clothes. When they were heading to the police station as suggested by the policemen at the spot Darshan climbed on the SUV's bonnet and broke the car glass and door. Pramod alleges that Darshan refused to get off the bonnet. Jnanabarathi police are investigating both cases. A few days back, a biker dragged an elderly man for almost a kilometre in the city, while the nation is grappling with the death of Anjali Singh, the victim of the Kanjhawala case, who was dragged for around 12 km in Delhi. The European Union condemned Saturday the widespread violence in Peru and the "disproportionate" use of force by police, urging authorities to quickly find a peaceful solution to the crisis. Civil unrest since the ouster of president Pedro Castillo in early December has left 45 people dead and prompted the government to impose a state of emergency in violence-hit areas. On Saturday, officials shut the renowned Machu Picchu tourist site amid clashes between the police and stone-throwing protesters demanding the resignation of new leader Dina Boluarte. Also Read | Peru closes famed tourist site Machu Picchu due to protests A spokesperson for the European Union said the bloc "deplores the very large number of casualties since the start of the protests". "Peaceful social protests respecting the rule of law are legitimate in a democratic society. The EU reiterates its condemnation of the widespread acts of violence as well as the disproportionate use of force by security forces," a statement said. "The EU calls on the government and all political actors to take urgent steps to restore calm and ensure an inclusive dialogue with the participation of civil society and affected communities as the way out of the crisis," it said. The 27-member bloc said that it welcomed a recent visit by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to Peru to observe the situation and said it counted on authorities to bring to justice anyone that had abused human rights. "The ongoing social and political crises should be addressed in full respect of the constitutional order, the rule of law, and human rights," it said. Left Leader and former parliamentarian Mohammed Salim on Saturday called the Joshimath crisis a "manufactured disaster" rather than an "act of god" during a press interaction by environmentalists to announce the continuation of their campaign to save nature. "Today, it's Joshimath, tomorrow, it can be Calcutta (Kolkata), Sundarbans, any other village, any other city. What happened in Joshimath was not an act of god. It's a manufactured disaster," Salim, state CPI(M) secretary, said, as he shared the dais with activists, interacting with media at Kolkata Press Club. Also Read: Responsibility comes to people not in position to handle it: Former Uttarakhand CM on Joshimath crisis He added that for over a year, residents have been raising concerns, but the governments at the state and the Centre didn't extend help. When asked if the Left was to participate in the campaign, Salim said that the Left globally "fights to save the Earth," so it's interested in the issue. Prahlad Roy Goenka, national secretary of Ganga Mission an organisation campaigning for 'purification and non-obstruction' of the river said that Joshimath's subsidence is a turning point, and the bigger issue is protecting nature, including rivers. "The disaster (in the making) is not limited to a region. This is a sequence. Not every place can be turned into a tourist spot When dams break, there will be floods, and many will die," Goenka said. He added that the campaign surrounding the Joshimath issue is with the intent of generating awareness. The campaign includes writing e-mails and postcards. On February 25, activist leaders are scheduled to meet in New Delhi to prepare an action plan. Goenka said that he is seeking support from different parties in politics. "I am requesting all the Left, the BJP, the Congress, the Trinamool for a campaign to save Ganga. The Left has said it will support," he said, adding that the campaign covers Haridwar, Lucknow, Patna, and Kolkata. China seems to be building a new dam on a tributary of Ganga in Tibet, alarmingly close to the India-Nepal border, satellite images tweeted by an Intel Lab researcher shows, a development likely to worsen the already fragile ties between the two neighbours. According to the images, the dam is being built on Yarlung and Zangbo rivers which connects Arunachal Pradeshs Siang and Assams Brahmaputra. Also Read Xi checks troops' combat readiness along eastern Ladakh India-China border Damien Symon, a geospatial intelligence researcher at the Intel Lab, tweeted an image that shows some construction activity or movements on the Chinese side on the Majba Zangbo river in Burang county of Tibet. Since early 2021, China has been constructing a dam on the Mabja Zangbo river just a few kilometers north of the trijunction border with India & Nepal, while the structure isn't complete, the project will raise concerns regarding China's future control on water in the region pic.twitter.com/XH5xSWirMk Damien Symon (@detresfa_) January 19, 2023 According to him, this construction is taking place since 2021. "Since early 2021, China has been constructing a dam on the Mabja Zangbo river just a few kilometers north of the trijunction border with India & Nepal, while the structure isn't complete, the project will raise concerns regarding China's future control on water in the region, Symon tweeted. There are several concerns around this development, mainly that China will control the water storage and the power that gives it to the superpower to flood parts of India. The Mabja Zangbo river merges with Nepals Karnali river before joining the Ganga in India. Analysing the satellite images, Symon said that the dam appears to be 350 meters to 400 meters long. He added that an airport is also under construction in that area. Meanwhile, China is strengthening its measures at the LAC against India. On January 20, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a virtual conversation with soldiers stationed along the India-China border in eastern Ladakh and inspected their combat readiness. Official reports state that Xi had asked border troops about their border patrol and management work and hailed the soldiers as models of border defence and encouraged them to persist in their efforts and make new contributions. (With PTI inputs) Indian Secular Front (ISF) activists fought a pitched battle with the police at Esplanade area in central Kolkata on Saturday during a protest against alleged attacks on their workers by the ruling Trinamool Congress in South 24 Parganas district. The demonstration threw the traffic out of gear around the key Jawarharlal Nehru Road crossing. The sole ISF MLA Naushad Siddique, who was leading the protest, was detained, as a number of police personnel and agitators were injured. Also Read: Nadda promises jail for the corrupt, if voted to power in Bengal A senior police official said the activists blocked an arterial road in the heart of the city, prompting the cops to request them to clear Jawaharlal Nehru Road and allow traffic movement. However, the workers of the party, which was formed before the 2021 assembly election, refused to vacate the road demanding that the perpetrators behind the attacks on its activists at Bhangar be arrested first. As police baton-charged the workers and lobbed tear gas shells, the demonstrators numbering around 500 retreated but pelted the cops with stones from nearby lanes, injuring several police personnel. The protestors also damaged kiosks and guardrails of the police injuring several policemen, the official said. A strong police contingent, comprising RAF and armed policemen, was deployed in the area. Several top police officers rushed to the spot to control the mob. After about an hour, the police managed to clear the road and chased away the protestors but stray incidents of stone pelting continued for some time. Commuters, who were hiding in shops with their shutters down came out raising their hands. Siddique, before his detention, deplored police inaction at Bhangar and the high-handedness of the force in Esplanade by turning on "peaceful protestors". A day back, ISF party offices were burnt down in Bhangar allegedly by TMC workers. The ruling party in turn claimed that the ISF destabilised the situation in the area by bringing in armed men and attacking their supporters for the past few days. ISF is the only opposition party other than BJP to have won a seat in the 2021 West Bengal assembly election. Its allies, the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress failed to bag any seat. The party was formed by Abbas Siddiqui, an influential Muslim cleric of Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district, in February of that year. When Eknath Shinde staged a revolt against Uddhav Thackeray, the two reasons that he cited was dilution of stand on Hindutva and allying with Sharad Pawar-led NCP which was damaging the interests of the saffron party. On Saturday, the Maharashtra Chief Minister showered praises on the NCP founder. Pawar sahebs contribution cannot be overlooked, Shinde said in Pune on Saturday in the presence of Pawar. He was speaking at the 46th annual general body meeting of the Vasantdada Sugar Institute in Pune The top brass of NCP, including the Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, state NCP President and former Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil, former Speaker and ex-Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, were present on the occasion. . His contribution to India and Maharashtra is next to none...he has always looked at the interests of the state, Shinde said, adding that Pawar often calls up to discuss important issues and make suggestions and give advice from time to time. Pawar saheb is always available for guidance and suggestions for whoever is in power, he always works towards the welfare of the state, he said. The statement comes at a time when Shinde and the BJP-Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena alliance government is under fire from the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi on issues like big-ticket projects and investments going out of the state and insult to iconic figures. The recent killing of a young female Member of Parliament by unknown gunmen in Kabul further unmasked the true face of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Since grabbing power in August 2021, when the earlier regime collapsed and its leadership fled in ignominy, the Taliban have rolled out a series of anti-women measures at the behest of the hardcore Mullahs aligned with their Emir. They imposed restrictions on the movement of women and completely denied them their right to education and employment. The medieval practice of whipping and stoning has again become commonplace. Worst still are the reports of the young girls being forcibly married off to the Taliban foot soldiers and the leaders. The Talibans education minister equated university education for women as a pathway to the oldest profession. Misogyny is the hallmark of Taliban 2.0. If one was to believe the post-Doha accord narrative on Taliban, shamelessly peddled by their apologists, they were eager to reform, moderate and break away from their past record. Serious questions on such assessment and intentions behind it are bound to arise now. The world preoccupied with the Russia-Ukraine war can do nothing, but pay lip service to the rights of women in Afghanistan. Read | 'Talibans gender apartheid is Pakistani deep states conspiracy to condemn Afghans to perpetual poverty' The Taliban 2.0 has disappointed on other fronts too, with continuing violence and insecurity providing a reality check for those who argued that they would restore peace in Afghanistan. Russias faith in the Talibans ability to manage the situation was rudely shattered when they lost two consular officers in an attack in Kabul on September 5, 2022. Islamabads acting envoy to Kabul was injured by an attack on the Embassy of Pakistan on December 2. Then came an attack on a hotel popular among visitors from China on December 12. These three nations were expected to be the first to grant recognition and legitimacy to the Taliban regime in Kabul. The Americans, too, would not have failed to note that despite the Talibans assurances on cutting all links with other terror groups, Ayman al-Zawahiri, successor to Osama bin Laden in Al Qaida, was killed in downtown Kabul. He was staying in a safe house most likely provided by senior elements in the current dispensation. The Taliban`s deep and fraternal links with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has come back to bite Pakistan, which has recorded a serious uptick in terror attacks. The self-destructive policies dating back to era of Gen Ayub Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto much before the 1979 Soviet intervention in Afghanistan have left Pakistan on the brink of economic meltdown. In Afghanistan, violence continues unabated, just the actors have changed. Not one country has come forward to recognize the radical regime in Kabul, but they all face a dilemma, as the deteriorating economic situation in Afghanistan is too dire to look away from. India too faces the same dilemma since its policies focused on building relations with the people of Afghanistan. New Delhi sent back a technical team to its embassy in Kabul. Indias silence on a few critical issues however has come in for criticism even from its friends. In line with its policy of engaging with all segments of the Afghan population, it is expected that while engaging the Taliban, India will also engage with the widest spectrum of Afghan political players, including the democratic forces, and work towards creating conditions for a serious intra-Afghan talks leading to a reconciliation. India should support the women and students in Afghanistan. Visas should be granted to students whose education in India got disrupted last year. India could leverage its tech prowess and extend facilities for online education to Afghan girls. Surely, online education will not be in conflict with Talibans interpretation of the Shariah and the Holy Quran. (The writer is a retired diplomat, who served as Indias ambassador to Afghanistan and Secretary (Economic Relations) at the Ministry of External Affairs) Whether you are strolling along Colombos scenic waterfront, hiking in the verdant hills of Nuwara Eliya, or temple-hopping in the far-flung northern city of Jaffna, you will always find a variety of short eats to snack on often accompanied with a unique twist on the region, you are in. Short eats are stuffed snacks that are usually baked or fried. They are small in size, easy to carry and can be eaten on the go giving them the perfect moniker short eats. Short eats go well with tea and coffee but you can grab one anytime during the day. They work remarkably well in satisfying midday hunger pangs. The nearest bakery or street cart will always have a glass box filled to the brim with all kinds of tempting short eats. Vadais, samosas, rolls, and patties are some of the most common ones. What makes short eats special is the fact that they are an integral part of Sri Lankan cuisine and culture. Short eats are closely interwoven into our daily lives, says Dulshan Hemasinghe, a foodie and local tour guide in Colombo. For every Sri Lankan, a typical day begins with fresh, warm bread from a choon paan (mobile bakery) truck, followed by vegetable roti at the morning tea break, and ending with a maalu paan in the evening. We indulge in egg rolls when we go shopping and love to share vadais when we hang out with friends, he adds. One of the most popular Sri Lankan short eats is the familiar vadai. Ulundu vadai, a fried lentil doughnut which is very similar to the medu vada that we know in India. It came to Sri Lanka with the Tamils from South India and has now become the countrys go-to snack for all social occasions. An interesting variation called the isso vadai (Bengal gram fritters topped with small prawns) is much sought-after. Youll find the best isso vadai on the street carts of Colombos waterfront promenade called Galle Face Green. Sri Lankans also love their Chinese rolls which are thin pancakes stuffed with spicy fish or mutton filling, rolled, breaded, and deep-fried. If you are looking for vegetarian rolls, try the ones at Hela Bojun Hala food courts in the countryside where local women serve traditional dishes at low prices. Sri Lankan rolls that were once inspired by the classic spring rolls of East Asia have now become an inextricable part of the countrys social fabric. Another well-liked Sri Lankan snack is the tasty vegetable roti or curry roti. Locally known as elawalu roti, this vegetarian snack consists of spiced filling wrapped in a thin, flaky flatbread and makes for a healthy between-meals sandwich. Easy to identify by their triangular shapes, curry rotis can be found everywhere street carts, roadside shacks, bakeries, and even sit-down restaurants. A long history of colonial rule introduced numerous new recipes on the island of Ceylon. One that stuck around was the English patty that gradually evolved into a Sri Lankan version. A Sri Lankan patty is a flaky pastry filled with spicy fish and potatoes. Shaped like a half-moon, these patties resemble Spanish empanadas and Indian karanjis but taste completely different from the scrumptious curried filling. Families often make them at home in large quantities and freeze them for guests and parties. Another colonial remnant is the spicy fish cutlet, probably a long-lost cousin of the Portuguese bolinho. No discussion on Sri Lankan short eats is ever complete without a mention of the mouth-watering maalu paan. Filled with savoury mackerel stuffing, these soft fish buns are every childs favourite. Talk to any local and they will have fond childhood memories of heading to the neighbourhood bakery for an early morning stash of maalu paans that they would either eat for breakfast or carry in their lunch boxes to school. Sri Lankas medley of short eats is as diverse as the ethnicities of the people that inhabit this island nation. The countrys strategic location on ancient trade routes and its eclectic colonial past has greatly influenced the flavours of Sri Lanka. However, every time something new has landed on the island, locals have found ways to make it uniquely Sri Lankan and that is especially true in the case of short eats, points out Hemasinghe. One cannot help but agree. It is true that short eats in Sri Lanka have had a long and eclectic past and relishing the countrys most popular snacks is like peeling back multiple layers of Sri Lankan history. But, over time, short eats have evolved to represent the islands unique culinary flavours and the peoples unwavering love for snacks and good food. The evolution has also brought with itself a feeling of camaraderie that every Sri Lankan enjoys when they share a plate of fried goodness with many others. Like they say, If you wish to feel at home in Sri Lanka, have a plate of short eats and wash it down with a cup of hot Ceylon tea and let the magic begin. Budding entrepreneurs will go head to head to convince the judges they may be on to the next big business idea as they pitch for their share of a 15,000 prize up for grabs during this year's Enterprise Week. Anyone with an innovative new business concept is invited to take part in the Start Up Launch Pad North West pitching event taking place at the North West Regional College Strand Road campus. The event is brought to you by Derry City and Strabane District Council in association with Strabane BID, Derry Chamber of Commerce, Inner City Trust, Ulster University and Hyperfast NI, who are supporting the Student and Youth categories within the competition, which is open to students and anyone just starting out on their business journey. A highlight of this year's Enterprise Week programme, the Start Up Launch Pad event provides a platform for new entrepreneurs to share their ideas with a panel of industry experts and media, in a Dragon's Den style showdown. Up to 12 early stage start-ups will have the chance to win a share of the 15,000 prize, to help them get started on their business journey. Launching the competition today, Mayor of Derry and Strabane, Councillor Sandra Duffy, encouraged innovators, entrepreneurs and students to take part. "The Start Up Launch Pad is a fun way for anyone to get valuable feedback from industry experts, as well as secure much needed support for them to get their business venture off the ground. "As well as the pitching competition, participants will have the chance to hear from established business owners about how they got started and utilised the support that's out there to realise their ambitions. It's always a popular event so I would recommend that anyone interested get their entry in for consideration as soon as possible." Successful start-ups will also be taking part in the event sharing their personal stories, and speakers will provide information on the current opportunities and support available within the sector to ensure start-up businesses have the best possible chance of success. Head of Business with Council, Kevin O'Connor, said the launch pad event provided a great opportunity for idea testing. "Starting a new business venture is always a daunting prospect. The Start Up Launch Pad event is a chance to showcase new ideas in a positive and supportive forum where our experts can give advice on how to turn a passion into a practical and profitable business venture. Participants will also find out how they can avail of a wealth of research and innovation support available from the North West Regional College and University of Ulster. "We have a fantastic pool of creative and innovative talent here in the North West, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this year's entries and to connecting new entrepreneurs to the mentors who could help set them on the pathway to success." The Start Up Launch Pad North West pitching event takes place on Wednesday 8th March at the North West Regional College Strand Road Campus, running from 9.30am 4.45pm. It's part of the wider Enterprise Week Programme which this year centres on the theme of 'Seeds of Change', highlighting the Micro-Businesses and SMEs in the North West who have grown with purpose, driven by expert management as well as focusing on sustainability, digital technology, growth and innovation. You can find out more about the Start Up Launch Pad event including how to apply for the pitching competition at www.derrystrabane.com/ launchpadNW Follow the Business Support Derry Strabane social media platforms for updates on this and on all that's happening during Enterprise Week 2023. Click Energy is partnering with NSPCC Northern Ireland as its new charity partner, allowing customers to make donations to the organisation each time they top-up. NSPCC Northern Ireland helps protect children from abuse with vital services including Childline and therapeutic services for children and families across their Hubs in Belfast and Derry, their Speak Out, Stay Safe programme in schools and Young Witness Service, supporting child victims and witnesses. The charity also runs an adult helpline which provides advice and support for people contacting with child protection concerns. The fundraising campaign was officially launched in January 2023, with Click Energy customers now having the option to donate towards the charity each time they visit the top-up page online, via the app or by calling the freephone number 0800 1 070 732. Philip McDaid, Acting CEO at Click Energy, commented: "Click Energy and our valued customers have helped to support a number of local and regional charities over the years. We're now delighted to be supporting the tremendous work of NSPCC Northern Ireland, who provide an invaluable service in preventing child abuse, helping rebuild children's lives and supporting families. We know from previous fundraisers how extremely generous our customers are and we want to thank everyone in advance for their support to this very deserving campaign." Katrina Hughes, Corporate and Events Fundraising Manager for NSPCC Northern Ireland, said: "With our vital local services for children and families running across the city and beyond, we are committed to protecting even more children across Northern Ireland in 2023. We know this partnership will help us to continue this fight for every childhood, and we are so grateful to Click Energy and their customers for the support." Established in October 2015, Click Energy has approximately 25,000 customers who have previously supported successful fundraising appeals for Foyle Hospice, Samaritans, Diabetes UK NI, Action Cancer, and Independent Health and Care Providers (IHCP) to help with the supply of PPE during the Covid pandemic. Two men have been remanded in custody after appearing in court charged with the murder of Shane Whitla in Co Armagh. The 39-year-old father-of-four was discovered unresponsive in Lord Lurgan Park, Lurgan, on January 12. He had been shot twice in a nearby alleyway and had managed to make his way to the park before collapsing. Joshua Cotter, 29, of Madrid Street in Belfast, and Jake OBrien, 27, from Church Walk in Lurgan, appeared separately by videolink before a district judge at Lisburn Magistrates Court on Saturday morning. They were the second and third men to appear in court charged with Mr Whitlas murder. On Friday, Kevin Conway, 25, of Deeny Drive, Lurgan, was remanded in custody after appearing at Craigavon Magistrates Court charged with murder. On Saturday, Cotter, who spoke to confirm his name, was remanded in custody after a brief appearance before District Judge Amanda Brady. A defence lawyer did not challenge the basis upon which a detective sergeant connected his client to the charge and no bail application was made. The lawyer made clear to the court that his client denied involvement in the murder. A more substantive hearing was held for OBrien after his solicitor, Gavin Booth from Phoenix Law, challenged the basis upon which police were connecting his client to the charges. As well as the murder count, OBrien is also charged with possession of a handgun and ammunition with intent to endanger life. He spoke to court only to confirm his name. The detective sergeant told the judge that a call was made to Mr Whitla when he was at home in Victoria Street, Lurgan, at 7.30pm on the night he died, left the property five minutes later and entered a nearby alleyway off Woodville Street. The officer said 23 seconds later two men were captured on CCTV running down the alleyway after Mr Whitla. Shortly afterwards they were filmed running back out of the alleyway. Two bullet cases and a knife were found by police searching the alleyway, the court heard. The officer said that at 7.32pm, just before Mr Whitla left home, a call had been made to a number linked to OBrien. The officer said that two days later OBrien was captured on CCTV in a shop in Lurgan buying credit for the phone. On the night of the murder, the officer said, two men police believe were OBrien and Cotter were captured walking together in Kilmaine Street, close to the area of the crime, both before and after the shooting. The officer said Cotter has acknowledged he was one of the pair in Kilmaine Street, but OBrien had not identified himself as being in the footage. The detective sergeant also said indicative traces of gunshot residue had been found on OBriens clothes when his home was searched During his arrest, items were seized from his house, namely a jacket and trousers, he said. On the trousers itself indicative samples of cartridge discharge residue have been found on the trousers and inside pocket and sleeve of this defendants coat. The officer said only 20% of forensic tests had been completed to date. Mr Booth challenged much of the evidence the officer put before the court. He insisted his client had co-operated with police during interview and had given an account that he had been riding his bike in the area on the night of the murder. Mr Booth said OBrien passed Lord Lurgan Park but only after the shooting had occurred, as an ambulance was at the scene at the time. The solicitor said the CCTV capturing the men entering and leaving the alleyway was poor quality and it was impossible to identify anyone in it. He said that in the other footage from Kilmaine Street, police were only identifying his client on the basis of clothing. Mr Booth stressed that the results of cartridge discharge residue (CDR) were only indicative, adding they could be explained by items such as fireworks, and he made clear no weapon had been found in OBriens possession. Indicative samples dont always turn out to be gunshot residue, he added. The solicitor said there was not much to link his client to the charges. This is really only a circumstantial case, he said. I do think that the charges arent fully met at this stage. Judge Brady said: Im satisfied at this stage there is a circumstantial case to link him through the CCTV and to the CDR residue and therefore I find that there is connection established. Mr Booth did not make a bail application on behalf of OBrien. Both accused were remanded in custody to appear by videolink at Craigavon Magistrates Court on January 27. Conway will appear before the court on the same date. The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has developed an indigenous mobile operating system for mobile phone users in India, known as BharOS. The OS is said to be a significant contribution towards 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' and is designed to provide a secure environment for users. Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, "BharOS Service is a Mobile Operating System built on a foundation of trust, with a focus on providing users more freedom, control, and flexibility to choose and use only the apps that fit their needs. This innovative system promises to revolutionise the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices." "IIT Madras looks forward to working closely with many more private industry, Government agencies, Strategic agencies and Telecom Service Providers to increase the usage and adoption of BharOS in our Country," he further added. What is BharOS? BharOS has been developed by JandK Operations Private Limited (JandKops), a non-profit organization established by the IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation. The foundation is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS). BharOS features BharOS provides access to trusted apps through organization-specific Private App Store Services (PASS). These PASSs provide access to a curated list of apps that have been thoroughly screened and have met certain security and privacy standards set by organizations. This means that users can be confident that the apps they are installing are safe to use and have been checked for potential security vulnerabilities or privacy concerns. Another notable feature of BharOS is that it comes with No Default Apps (NDA), giving users the choice to not use apps they don't trust and also allowing them to have more control over the permissions apps have on their device, as they can choose to only allow apps they trust to access certain features or data on their device. Currently, BharOS services are being provided to organizations that have stringent privacy and security requirements and whose users handle sensitive information and require access to private cloud services through private 5G networks. For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page. The iQOO Neo 7, which has been highly anticipated, will be launching in India on February 16th. However, it will have some differences compared to its Chinese version. The company has confirmed that the Indian Neo 7 will be powered by a Dimensity 8200 chipset and support 120W charging. A recent report has also revealed the design, screen specifications, and color options of the smartphone. The Neo 7 will feature a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and will be available in Gray and Blue colour options. It is expected to be a rebranded version of the Neo 7 SE which was recently launched in China. What can you expect from the iQOO Neo 7? Recently, the company provided some information about the Neo 7's performance. It confirmed that the phone will be powered by the Dimensity 8200 chipset clocked at 88% of its maximum performance. It is also said to have an ultra-game mode and a full-coverage 3D Cooling System. If the Neo 7 is indeed a rebranded Neo 7 SE, it is likely to have a 5000mAh battery with 120W fast charging support. It is expected to have a high-resolution 64MP primary camera, 2MP macro lens and 2MP depth sensor on the rear. The front-facing camera is likely to be a 16MP for video calls and selfies. Other features include Type-C charging port and dual speakers. iQOO Neo 7 price in India The price of the iQOO Neo 7 smartphone is not yet known, but the company has announced that it will be available for purchase in India through Amazon and the iQOO e-store. Additional information about the device is expected to be released in the near future For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page. Samsung recently launched the Galaxy A14 and A23 5G in India, both of which are now available for purchase. Both phones feature 6.6-inch displays, 5,000 mAh batteries and a 50MP primary camera. The Galaxy A14 5G starts at 16,499 and the Galaxy A23 5G starts at 22,999. Samsung also offers cashback deals with selected bank cards on these handsets. Samsung Galaxy A23 5G and Samsung Galaxy A14 5G price in India The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, which was recently launched, is available in three storage options: 4GB + 64GB (16,499), 6GB + 128GB (18,999) and 8GB + 128GB (20,999). The phone can be purchased on Samsung.com, Samsung stores, and other partner stores. Customers can also avail of 1,500 cashback via SBI, IDFC and ZestMoney transactions, and monthly EMI options starting from 1,382. The phone comes in three colour options: Dark Red, Light Green, and Black. The Samsung Galaxy A23 5G, also recently launched, is available in two storage options: 6GB + 128GB (22,999) and 8GB + 128GB (24,999). It also has a cashback offer of 2,000 on SBI, IDFC and ZestMoney transactions, and monthly EMI options starting from 1,576. The phone comes in three colour options: Silver, Light Blue, and Orange. Samsung Galaxy A14 5G specifications The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G is equipped with a 6.6-inch full-HD+ PLS LCD display with a resolution of 1,080x2,408 pixels. It has a 90Hz refresh rate and runs on an octa-core Exynos 1330 SoC. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery. In terms of photography, it features a triple rear camera setup with a 50MP main camera, a 2MP macro lens and a 2MP depth sensor. The front-facing camera is a 13MP for selfies. Samsung Galaxy A23 5G specifications The Samsung Galaxy A23 5G also features a 6.6-inch full-HD+ (1,080x2,408 pixels) display, but it's a TFT display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 695 SoC and a 5,000mAh battery with 25W fast charging. The device has expandable storage of up to 1TB via a microSD card. It has a quad camera setup including a 50MP main camera, a 5MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. The front-facing camera is 8MP for selfies. The phone has sensors like an accelerometer, fingerprint sensor, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, virtual light sensor, and virtual proximity sensor. For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page. An Irish teacher who was previously jailed following a transgender row in the school where he worked has been dismissed from his job. A brother of Enoch Burke confirmed to the PA news agency that he has been dismissed from his position as a teacher at Wilsons Hospital School in Co Westmeath. The statement said Mr Burke had attended Wilsons Hospital School on Friday. It said: He was informed in person at 3:30pm this afternoon in the presence of chairperson of the board of management John Rogers and principal Frank Milling that he was dismissed. Enoch Burke, who is an evangelical Christian, was suspended from work on full pay last year pending the outcome of a disciplinary process after a number of incidents stemming from a transgender row. Mr Burke voiced on several occasions his opposition to a request from the secondary schools principal to address a transgender child by their name and refer to them by the pronoun they. Subsequent events led to his suspension from his job at Wilsons Hospital School. During protracted legal hearings last year, it was heard that the school accused Mr Burke of confronting the principal at a school event in June, which led the principal to raise concerns about his future behaviour. The principal then compiled a report last August, which led to the disciplinary process. Mr Burke was later committed to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin by a High Court judge after he breached a temporary court order to stay away from his workplace. He was released from prison in December and resumed attending the school. A disciplinary hearing involving Mr Burke had taken place this week, in relation to alleged gross misconduct at the school. PA has approached the school for comment. Talk about a voluntary work placement during your Transition Year (TY) and the trip of a lifetime! Well you couldn't get anything more exciting and exhilarating than the adventure that Jane Ryan from Magh Ene College in Bundoran, is having as a teaching assistant, in Ghana, West Africa. The country is considered to be one of the least developed countries in the world, but also one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. Jane will spend five weeks working as a teaching assistant in Accra, the country's capital, teaching six and seven-year-old students. She independently organised this work experience with the Future Stars Charity. The Bundoran College revealed: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we look forward to hearing more from Jane on this eye-opening experience, upon her return. "Janes volunteering really reflects the caring ethos promoted here in Magh Ene College and the importance of assisting those who are less fortunate. We are very proud of you Jane!" Her school at Magh Ene is bursting with pride for Jane and her family, as they do of course, with all of their students who show their abilities, that will no doubt be a huge boost to them, when they leave school and college and eventually gain employment in the big world out there. The life of late Nobel laureate John Hume is to be portrayed by an actor from his native county in a new musical drama. The production honouring the long-time SDLP leader and key architect of the Good Friday Agreement will premiere in the spring to mark the 25th anniversary of the historic peace accord. HUME Beyond Belief will be performed in the politicians home city of Derry to commemorate the 1998 deal that largely ended years of violent conflict. Co Derry actor Conor OKane was unveiled in the lead role on Wednesday. OKane, who trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, was previously nominated Best Male in a Musical by the Off West End awards body for his performance as George in Miss Nightingale at The Vaults. The play will be staged at Derrys Guildhall and will involve actors from the citys Playhouse Music Theatre Company. The drama will tell the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner Mr Hume and his wife Pat, who both died within the last three years. It is being made in partnership with the John and Pat Hume Foundation. The play will run over eight nights, with the final performance on April 7 being screened live to a global audience as part of a series of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the agreement. HUME Beyond Belief will bring together writer Damian Gorman, composer Brian ODoherty and producer and director Kieran Griffiths. It is the second part of a peacebuilding trilogy of works planned by The Playhouse and comes after its successful The White Handkerchief production last January, which marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry. OKane played Father Tom OGara in The White Handkerchief. The casting announcement was made on what would have been John Humes 86th birthday. Its a lot of responsibility and its very exciting for me as an actor because its an opportunity to delve into some serious detail and history, stuff thats well documented, said OKane. Theres a lot for me to draw from in terms of my own experience and other peoples experiences and making something artistic out of that. Humes daughter, Aine Abbott, said watching the musical would be an emotional experience for the family. We are confident that The Playhouse will honour the ideals and aspirations held by my parents and the many people who worked alongside them, she said. My fathers career held both triumph and hardship, but he was a warm, slightly eccentric, kind and funny family man, a man who loved nothing more than to sing. He was a proud Derry man. It will be emotional for us to see his presence step on the stage of the Guildhall. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has awarded the production 50,000 and it is also supported by The Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) in recognition of John and Pat Humes contribution to the Credit Union movement in Derry and throughout Ireland. Mid Louth's Councillor Pearse McGeough has said he is "disappointed" to a response to his motion regarding the stretch of road at Mullary. Cllr McGeough had asked the Council to work in conjunction with Transport Infrastructure Ireland to install traffic calming measures along the R132 at that section of road. The Sinn Fein councillor said this particular section of road outside the popular Valley Inn is particularly busy. The stretch of road is fairly straight so vehicles can gather up quite a speed before approaching the section of road in question. Customers to the business have parking facilities behind the premises but additional parking is available across the road and that results in pedestrians attempting to cross the busy road. Cllr McGeough described conditions on that part of the road as "sometimes treacherous" but noted that a traffic survey carried out in the area identified that speed was not an issue. The speed limit is 100kph along that road which is reasonable, but just where the Valley inn is situated I feel that we need additional road safety measures. Cllr McGeough brought the motion before the December Ardee meeting and the Councils response was Road safety at the section of road on the R132 at Mullary will be assessed by the engineers and should it be ranked as a priority it will be put forward for consideration for funding in 2024 While Cllr McGeough appreciated that there would at least be an assessment of the road, he felt that it will be over a year before it will be forwarded for consideration for funding and that is only if it is deemed a priority. In the meantime, the road is getting busier especially with heavier vehicles like lorries and farm vehicles. THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) has laid down the technicalities that will be considered for absorbing learners coming from outside the country into the countrys education system. The country is anticipating an influx of learners into its system after the extended 30 June deadline for the expiry of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP) in South Africa and school going children are expected to produce valid examination results that will be measured using the qualification equivalence grade conversion system, so that they can be admitted to further their education. For students who may not have sat for examinations yet in South Africa but want to return to school in Zimbabwe, they will be assessed at the school level by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. Admittance into primary and secondary education will be measured by syllabus coverage of the learners from South Africa which will determine where they will be placed to continue with their education before they sit for public examinations that are assessed by Zimsec. Zimsec public relations manager Ms Nicky Dlamini told Sunday News that they will assess students that produce an exit qualification from South African schools or any other country to see its comparability with local examination standards, either Cambridge or Zimsec. The grade conversion is what is termed Qualifications Equivalence. This is a process where candidates have their grades equated to the grading standards of the country in which they wish to continue their education. For instance, candidates would need to get an equivalence of their Matric to Zimsec qualifications so as to know which level they have attained according to the educational system in Zimbabwe, she said. Ms Dlamini explained that countries have standards that they follow regarding learners coming from other jurisdictions. All examination boards have a standard that they abide by when conducting equivalence. The syllabus of the country of origin and the syllabus of the country in which they wish to study are compared and contrasted. The assessment models and instruments are also used. These standards are according to assessment standards set and regulated by the Southern African Association for Education Assessment (SAAEA), Association for Education Assessment for Africa (AEAA), and the International Association for Education Assessment (IAEA), said Ms Dlamini. The process is not free. Ms Dlamini said parents and guardians should be aware of the Equivalence of Qualifications costs which are pegged at US$15 which is payable in local currency at the interbank rate of the day. This process takes a maximum of 48 hours and learners must provide their original certificates awarded by the examining board. Director of Communications and Advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Mr Taungana Ndoro recently said the country was ready to absorb learners coming from South Africa. We have systems in place in our sector to assess learners from other countries so that we place them in appropriate levels or grades. That has been going on for a long time. So, the affected children from South Africa are most welcome, he said. He concurred with Ms Dlamini that extraterritorial learners in the Zimbabwean education system would have their competencies assessed accordingly using set guidelines to determine the level of absorption of the curriculum the learner would have made to determine the grades that they would fall into. South Africa recognises the last grade of high school as Grade 12 or matriculation while Zimbabwe uses Upper Six as the last exit qualification for high school that ushers students into tertiary institutions. Government is on record as saying it is anticipating a mass arrival of Zimbabweans from South Africa after the expiry of their permits. Cabinet would like to inform the public that mass deportations of undocumented Zimbabweans were expected from South Africa following the expiry of Zimbabwe Exemptions Permits (ZEP) which South Africa had granted them. However, most ZEP holders do not qualify for the outlined critical skills visas hence the low uptake (of applications for renewals). The Zimbabwean government has issued guidelines and regulations for returning residents which include one duty free vehicle and no limit to personal property, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Cde Monica Mutsvangwa is on record as saying. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has pledged to deal with concerns raised by Parliament and those it received from the President next week as it prepares the final delimitation report which it hopes to be ready by the end of this month in line with Constitutional provisions. ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba made the commitment at State House after receiving from President Mnangagwa Parliaments report on the preliminary delimitation report produced last month. The President said he would submit his own views on the preliminary report to ZEC on Monday. Parliament presented their report covering their reaction to your preliminary report, but beyond that they have gone further, they have made their observations, they have compiled their debate in Parliament which can give you an insight into their feelings resulting in the compilation of their report to you, he said. Justice Chigumba said ZEC would consider all the views raised by Parliament. The President had called us today for him to formally handover the report approved by Parliament which was written by the ad-hoc committee which was formed by Parliament. We have received the report and we have assured him that we will have a look at all of the recommendations and concerns which were raised by Parliament. In terms of the way forward, we are still to receive corrections from the President himself which we anticipate he will do in the course of next week and thereafter we will gather as a commission and look at all of the recommendations holistically and look at those we can accede to and those we cannot accede to and we will compile our report for His Excellency where we will state our reasons for acceding to certain recommendations and perhaps not acceding to some, she said. The production of the final report would be done in line with Constitutional requirements, she said. As ZEC we do have timelines because what we work with is the constitutional requirement that the final delimitation report be gazetted six months before the next elections. So in terms of timelines the next election period is likely to be between 26 July and 24 August so that means we ought to be able to gazette the final report some time between the end of January and mid-February, she added. Justice Chigumba also denied criticism that ZEC had misinterpreted the provision that they could vary the number of voters in a ward or constituency by plus or minus 20 percent from the national average. She said the Constitution provided them with a mathematical formula where they were not supposed to delimit more than 210 constituencies. So ZEC took the number of registered voters nationally and divided it by 210 to come up with the national average to ensure that constituencies had equal number of registered voters. So we come up with our national average but now we have to delimit wards as well and we know that provinces have different figures in terms of registered voters so in order to delimit wards, the way in which we interpret the plus or minus 20 percent is that its a discretion which has been given to the Commission where we use that variance on a sliding scale depending on other secondary factors provided for in the Constitution like community of interest and geography. For instance, we know that the geography in the rural areas is different from urban areas. So, the Constitution gives us the 20 percent variance to then take into account and say, for example, this is a province which has less people and more mountains. Because this is a province which doesnt have infrastructure, to what extent do we then use the 20 percent to take the absence of infrastructure in this province? So, the 20 percent variance, there is no miscalculation or something that went wrong. This is not our first delimitation. We were part of the delimitation in 2007 and the technical experts who were part of the delimitation then were among the technical experts that we used in this delimitation. We had institutional memory, so nothing went wrong. We used our discretion in the manner we were supposed to use it in terms of the Constitution and if there was a misinterpretation of what that discretion meant, we are going to correct it, Justice Chigumba said Herald PROTESTS are to be held outside hospitals around the country in response to the ongoing overcrowding in emergency departments. Aontu Cork is joining the National Hospital Campaign for a national day of action outside Cork University Hospital (CUH) today The aim of the protests is to put pressure on governing bodies to address the current issue of hospital overcrowding. Aontu representative for Cork North Central, Finian Twomey, explained the need for people around the country to take a stand. Aontu are supporting this National Hospital Campaign and it will be held in locations across the 32 counties on January 21, said Mr Twomey. We are encouraging all political parties and members of the public to come out and support this because of the debacle that is the health service in this country at the moment. Mr Twomey said that understaffing and bed cuts as the population increases have led to the issue in emergency departments. There were 120,000 people left on trolleys in the last 12 months. People have been on waiting lists for over 24 hours just to see a doctor, and they are the lucky ones. "This is a direct result of cuts to staff, hospital beds, and A&Es at a time of significant population growth in the country. The situation at the moment is horrific. The Cork protest will take place outside CUHs emergency department today at 1pm. A barrister acting on behalf of Ian Bailey, who is appealing a drug driving conviction which could take him off the road for 12 months, has claimed that there was a fatal flaw in the testing procedure. Barrister Alan ODwyer, BL, representing Mr Bailey said that the garda who carried out the oral fluid drug test did not adhere to the instruction manual for the testing machine. He said the manual indicates that persons undergoing the test should be observed for ten minutes prior to the procedure to ensure that they have not consumed food, chewed on gum or used tobacco. However, Bailey had had a glass of water in the presence of another garda. The garda carrying out the oral fluid test was not aware of this fact. Mr Bailey was present in Skibbereen courthouse in West Cork today for the hearing of the case with written submissions to be made before the appeal can be finalised. Mr ODwyer said that the administering of the Drager drug test on Mr Bailey following his arrest near Schull in West Cork on August 25th, 2019 was unlawful as proper procedure was not followed. In May of 2021 Mr Bailey was disqualified from driving for one year and fined 700 after being convicted of drug driving at a hearing in Bantry District Court. He had faced four charges arising out of his arrest on August 25th, 2019. Mr Bailey, formerly of the Prairie, Lisscaha in Schull in West Cork had been charged with and pleaded not guilty to possession of cannabis in his car, possession of cannabis at Bantry Garda Station, driving while cannabis was in his system, and allowing his car to be used for possession of cannabis. He was convicted of three charges with the dismissal of the charge of possession of cannabis in his car. Mr Bailey was found with a small tin of cannabis on his person following his arrest at a garda checkpoint in West Cork. He was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, having failed a roadside breath test, but he then passed the evidenzer test at Bantry Garda Station. The court heard that Mr Bailey had failed an oral fluid test and that blood samples taken by a doctor at Bantry Garda Station later tested positive for the presence of cannabis. The 65-year-old had been stopped at a checkpoint in Schull shortly after 8pm on August 25th, 2019. At the appeal hearing today (Friday) Mr ODwyer said that the oral fluid test was blatantly compromised by the fact that Mr Bailey had had a glass of water prior to its administration. Mr ODwyer said that as the Drager drug test was not carried out with the correct observation period by the attending garda a subsequent blood test was also unlawful. He said that the instruction manual for the Drager test machine outlines strict instructions about observing a person for ten minutes before the test to ensure that there is a nil by mouth process. It is absolutely clear from the instruction manual that things have to be strictly observed and that the ten-minute observation period is crucial. The ten-minute observation has to be ensured. I say that it hasnt been in this case. A flaw may lead to an unlawful outcome. That is what I am saying occurred. Meanwhile, Mr ODwyer said that none of the garda who had been in the presence of Mr Bailey in the Garda Station or indeed the garda at the checkpoint had made any mention of Mr Bailey being glassy eyed, dishevelled looking or smelling of cannabis. He said that there was no reason for gardai to stop Mr Bailey at Schull and that a stop cannot be arbitrary. He also questioned why a search was carried out on his client at the garda station stressing that the Garda evidence that a search was performed as a matter of course was not good enough. Mr ODwyer said that Mr Bailey did not admit that the substance found on his person was cannabis but had only said that he assumed it was the herb. He told Judge Helen Boyle that he would elaborate on the points made in his outline in his written submissions. Meanwhile, Cork State Solicitor, Jeremiah Healy, said that it was important not to put the personal rights of drunk (drugged) drivers above the rights of the victim. He said that there was nothing improper about the garda conduct in the case. Mr ODwyer had questioned the role of the checkpoint at which Mr Bailey was stopped asking if it was to detect drink driving offences. The garda had told him that in addition to arresting people for road traffic offences it was important to be seen to maintain a presence in the community. Mr Healy said that if gardai did not carry out routine checkpoints there would be uproar in the Oireachtas and that there was also an expectation in society that gardai make such checks. He said that it was crystal clear that gardai had clear legal powers to carry out their duties otherwise no policing is possible. He said when Mr Bailey was stopped he wasnt wearing a seatbelt and that a fixed penalty notice was paid. Mr Healy said that Bailey had acknowledged that he had a pint and that the garda wouldnt have been doing his duty unless he did a roadside test. Mr Healy said that a big issue was made of how Bailey had been searched in the station. He stressed that the officer was carrying out his duty of care and that it was a very routine procedure. It wasnt a solo run. It (the search) is routine and expected. It is an obligation for the safety of the individual and the safety of others. He said that the garda had the right to search Bailey under Common Law. Both sides will make written submissions in the case. The case will be up for mention in Skibbereen on March 6th next to fix a date for the finalisation of the hearing. A previous hearing of the case was told that blood sample taken from Mr Bailey showed a reading of 2.7ng/ml for D9 Tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis) where the limit is 1ng/ml and 19.5ng/ml for 11-nor-9-carboxy-D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis) where the limit is 5ng/ml. The drug seized was also confirmed as cannabis by the Forensic Science Laboratory. Hundreds of government school teachers from across Telangana are holding a silent protest in front of the Directorate of School Education in Hyderabad today, January 21. Organised by the Telangana Spouse Forum, the protest highlights the demand for allocating posts to teacher couples in the same district. A statement from the forum explains that in Telangana, the process of allotment of teachers to districts was done in December 2021 as per the Presidential Orders 2018. With respect to this allotment, the state government made it clear that the teachers who are husband and wife should be allotted posts in districts of their choice as per Circular Memo Number 1655. "The GO further states that teacher spouses should be allotted posts first, and then all the other teachers. The order was followed for 19 districts but the other 13 districts were left out. This has now resulted in teacher couples being separated," said Vivek S, President of the Telangana Spouse Forum, who is also a government school teacher. He adds that due to such allotments, teachers are having to travel far for work. Explaining the situation further... "In one particular instance, the husband has been posted in the Mahabubabad district, while the wife is posted in the Rangareddy district. She has to travel 300 km daily. Likewise, there are about 2,100 victims. Many of them have children and the difficulty of the situation is intensified," Vivek said further. According to him, the spouse forum has been approaching the government to intervene and resolve the matter since last year when the allocations were announced, but nothing has been done yet. Moreover, the Telangana government is soon to initiate the long-pending promotions and transfers of school teachers and only 615 out of the 2,100 affected teachers are being permitted to opt for transfers, according to the forum's statement. Additionally, the teachers are unhappy that only a few categories of teachers are being allowed to apply for transfers, while most others are left out. They also mention that many posts will be vacant after the promotions and transfers are processed. Therefore, they want the government to reconsider the requests of all the spouse teachers. However, there has been no positive response from the authorities. Police arrive on the scene... Thus, came the decision to hold a protest, which started at 12 noon today. As per the forum's statement, the teachers have gathered along with their families, and were trying to peacefully brief the DSE authorities about their problems. However, police cracked down upon the protesters at about 1:15 pm. Vivek informs that about 500 teachers were arrested along with their families, including children, and taken to the Nampally Police Station in the city, while about 300 teachers are still on the site, carrying on with the protest. In videos shared by the Forum President, teachers can be seen pleading with police officials. "We will continue our protest till the government considers our demands and teachers get justice," he states. Martin Shkreli, whom you may know as "Pharma Bro," launched a new company last year called "Druglike, Inc." Now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked a federal judge to hold him in contempt for failing to cooperate with the agency in its investigation to determine whether launching the company violates his lifetime industry ban. US District Court Judge Denise Cote imposed a lifetime ban on Shkreli that prohibits him from participating in the pharmaceutical industry early last year. Cote ruled that the former pharma exec orchestrated an illegal anticompetitive scheme to gain a monopoly over Daraprim, a life-saving anti-malarial and anti-parasitic drug. After Shkreli's former company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, obtained the manufacturing license for Daraprim, it raised the drug's prices from $17.50 to $750 per tablet. Cote sided with the FTC in the antitrust lawsuit the agency filed against Shkreli in 2020 and ordered him to pay $64.6 million in damages, in addition to imposing a lifetime industry ban against him. Prior to Druglike's launch, Shkreli tried (and failed) to convince a judge to put the ban on hold, arguing that the public could benefit from his future contributions to the industry. Shkreli challenged the ban while he was serving time in federal prison after receiving a seven-year sentence in 2017 for defrauding investors. He was released from prison in May. The FTC said it started asking Shkreli for a compliance report and access to relevant records, as well as asking him to sit for an interview regarding Druglike, in October 2022. However, the company co-founder kept on disregarding its "repeated requests." The agency also said that Shkreli has yet to pay any amount of his $64.6 million fine. It's now asking the court to order Shkreli to comply with its information requests within 21 days of its decision. In a press release (PDF) for its launch, Druglike described itself as "a Web3 drug discovery software platform." The company said it's building a "decentralized computing network" that "provides resources for anyone looking to start or contribute to early-stage drug discovery projects." In a statement, Shkreli said "Druglike will remove barriers to early-stage drug discovery, increase innovation and allow a broader group of contributors to share the rewards." Meta takes Ukraines controversial Azov Regiment off its dangerous organizations list The change will allow members of the unit to create Facebook and Instagram accounts. Facebook parent company Meta has removed the Azov Regiment, a controversial unit within the Ukrainian National Guard with alleged far-right political leanings, from its list of dangerous individuals and organizations. The move, first reported by The Kyiv Independent, means members of the unit can now create Facebook and Instagram accounts and post without Meta automatically flagging and removing their content. Additionally, unaffiliated users can praise the Azov Regiment, provided they abide by the companys Community Standards. The war in Ukraine has meant changing circumstances in many areas and it has become clear that the Azov Regiment does not meet our strict criteria for designation as a dangerous organization, a company spokesperson told The Kyiv Independent. Meta did not immediately respond to Engadgets comment request. Sharing more information on the policy change, Meta told The Washington Post it recently began to view the Azov Regiment as a separate entity from other groups associated with the far-right nationalist Azov Movement. Specifically, the company pointed to Ukraine's National Corp political party and founder Andriy Biletsky, noting theyre still on its list of dangerous individuals and organizations. Hate speech, hate symbols, calls for violence and any other content which violates our Community Standards are still banned, and we will remove this content if we find it, Meta said. Important news from @Meta changes in platforms policies. Azov regiment no longer meets designation as dangerous organization. Means a lot for every Ukrainian. New approach enters the force gradually. Big contribution @nickclegg & his team in sharing truthful content about war. Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) January 19, 2023 The Azov Regiment was founded in 2014 by Biletsky following Russias annexation of Crimea and the start of the Donbas War that same year. Before the unit was integrated into Ukraines National Guard in November 2014, it was controversial for its adherence to neo-Nazi ideology. In 2015, a spokesperson for the Azov Regiment said 10 to 20 percent of the units recruits were self-professed Nazis. At the start of the 2022 conflict, Ukrainian officials said the Azov Regiment still had some extremists among its ranks but claimed the unit had largely become depoliticized. During the months-long siege of Mariupol, the Azov Regiment played a prominent role in the citys defense. Russia captured many of the battalions fighters at the end of the battle. Subscribe to the Engadget Deals Newsletter Great deals on consumer electronics delivered straight to your inbox, curated by Engadgets editorial team. See latest Subscribe Please enter a valid email address Please select a newsletter By subscribing, you are agreeing to Engadget's Terms and Privacy Policy. The change underscores just how much Metas content moderation policies have changed since the start of Russias invasion of Ukraine. Partway through last year, the company began temporarily allowing people in Ukraine and a handful of other countries to call for violence against Russian soldiers. After the decision created controversy, Meta said it would turn to the Oversight Board for policy guidance, a request the company later withdrew, citing ongoing safety and security concerns related to the war. All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing. Confrontational acts of certain governors in non-BJP-ruled states hamper the institutional norms of federalism. The governors commencement speech in the first session of the Tamil Nadu (TN) Legislative Assembly produced considerable commotion as the TN governor is alleged to have altered, deleted, and added words on his own to his speech. Although this is not the first time that a governor has departed from the state cabinet-approved commencement speech, what was indeed unprecedented was the TN governors walkout from the assembly after the state chief minister moved a resolution that condemned the governors deviation from the prepared text. Although Article 176 of the Constitution, which deals with the governors special address to the assembly, makes no specific injunction about what ought to be the contents of the commencement speech or how it ought to be delivered, it is a more or less settled convention that the governor reads out a prepared address that is approved by the state cabinet. It is also noteworthy that the TN governor is alleged to have skipped the parts of the prepared speech that spoke of TNs Dravidian model of inclusive governance and omitted the names of B R Ambedkar, Periyar E V Ramasamy, C N Annadurai, K Kamaraj, and M Karunanidhi. Concerns regarding the propriety of the TN governors actions in altering a speech that the state cabinet had approved of, are bound to occur. The state assemblies of Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, and other non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states have all witnessed similar confrontationist behaviour from their respective governors in the past, and hence, the TN governors act fits a well-established pattern of playing fiddle with the structures of federalism under the present National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime. It is no surprise that state governments which have been at the forefront of advocating for strengthening the federal structure tend to receive more interventionist governors. As has been observed from the examples of Delhi, Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu, state governors have shown an unwarranted interest in making incendiary or controversial speeches at the expense of fulfilling their constitutional duties. Moreover, where they are supposed to fulfil their administrative functions, like in the case of appointing vice chancellors in state universities, certain state governors have only shown an attitude of confrontation towards state governments, thus vitiating the administrative well-being of the institutions of higher learning. It is important to acknowledge that the original constitutional conception of state governors occupying a non-partisan position with regard to the political functioning of states has come under severe strain on occasions where state governors have shown themselves to be extremely partisan towards the union government or, in many cases, to a particular political party or ideology. The strained relations between the union and various state governments on the question of the governors conduct spell out the breakdown of this original conception very well. It is precisely against such excesses during the time of the British rule that legitimate fears of an unelected or nominated governor wielding unjustified power vis-a-vis elected representatives were voiced in the Constituent Assembly. And these fears were addressed by the founding members of our republic by making the position of the governor politically subservient to the council of ministers, a point that was reiterated by the Shamsher Singh and Anr v State of Punjab judgment in 1974. Given this constitutional and judicial consensus over the role of governors in state politics, one wonders if the contemporary acts of state governors in non-BJP-ruled states wish to impair the delicate balance of responsibilities between the union and the state and cause irreparable damage to our federal structure. What is worse is that such acts, apart from revealing the pomposity of select governors to the general public, have only lowered the reputation of certain constitutional posts, which are supposed to be non-partisan in nature. Instead of showcasing the dignity and composure of constitutional obligation, the post of the governor has today unfortunately become associated with the riff-raff of particularistic party ideology, with scarce, if any, normative connections with the egalitarian ethos of our freedom struggle and the ideals enshrined in our Constitution. What are the long-term political implications of what appear to be rather petty and even individualistic postures adopted by certain governors in various states in contemporary India? One may easily aver that institutional procedures and norms of federalism will be the first casualty of these reckless fights between the union and the state governments. However, it is important to underline that it will ultimately be the citizens who will be the worst affected by these irresponsible games of powermongering. Where the union government is busy stifling with the conduct of state governments through the post of the governor, one can only conclude that good governance is certainly not its top political priority. After continuous efforts to open up the higher education sector to foreign universities, the National Democratic Alliance government has finally released the draft regulatory framework for entry and operations of foreign higher educational institutions (FHEIs). Titled as the University Grants Commission (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations, 2023, it allows foreign entities full freedom to operate in the country. They can run undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral courses and award certificates, diplomas, and degrees in all disciplines. To ensure quality of the programmes, the entry is restricted to universities who are in the top 500 global rankings, either at the overall level or in the subject wise rankings, and to other foreign education institutions of repute. The main conditions for entry are parity in the quality of education with that in the country of origin, equal treatment of certificates, diplomas, and degrees with corresponding qualification from the campus in the country of origin, and accreditation of a recognised body. The FHEIs will have the autonomy to decide on their eligibility qualifications and admission criteria for Indian and foreign students, the fee structure, refund policy, and the number of seats. They can also recruit faculty from India and abroad after ensuring their qualifications are on a par with those at the campus in the country of origin. However, online classes and open and distance learning are not allowed. One major factor that has hastened the internationalisation of the higher education sector is the expectation that their entry might spur the Indian universities to improve the quality of higher education closer to the global benchmarks. However, so far, apart from a handful, most Indian higher educational institutions have generally fared poorly in the global rankings. Consequently, more and more Indian students are migrating abroad in search of quality education. In fact, it is the recent outbreak of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine that forced tens of thousands of Indian students to flee back home, which highlighted the stark shortages and the desperate need for larger higher education facilities here. Though the higher education facilities in India have been vastly expanded in the recent decades to meet the growing demand, the enrolment rate in higher education institutions still falls far short of the requirements. A cross-country survey of the population in the age group of 25 to 34 years shows the huge gap in the educational attainments in higher or tertiary education in India and other developed countries. The share of this age group with tertiary education is 69% in South Korea, 66% in Canada, 65% in Japan, 57% in the United Kingdom (UK), 54% in Australia, 50% in France, 46% in Germany, and just 21% in India. Overall, it is as high as 46% in the European Union (EU), 47% in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and 40% in the Group of 20 nations. Given these ratios, India would at least have to more than double or even treble its enrolment in tertiary education if it is to catch up with the advanced economies and emerge as a leading player in higher education and the knowledge economy. The constrained growth of the higher education sector in India has also prevented it from gaining a significant share of the global market for higher education. The data show that the number of foreign students in the higher education system is only 49,000 in India as compared to 69,000 in Saudi Arabia, 1,12,000 in South Korea, 1,16,000 in Argentina, 1,25,000 in the Netherlands, 1,85,000 in Turkey, 2,23,000 in Japan, 2,25,000 in China, 2,52,000 in France, 3,69,000 in Germany, 5,51,000 in the UK, and 9,57,000 in the United States (US). The total number of foreign students in the EU is a humongous 13,88,000, and that in the OECD, a still larger 43,90,000. This minuscule share of the foreign students in tertiary education in India is a pointer to the lackadaisical quality of the higher education sector in the country. In fact, rather than being a knowledge hub that attracts students, India is one of the largest sources or exporters of foreign students worldwide. Today, there are more than a million Indian students who are now studying in foreign universities, a little more than the total number of foreign students in the whole of the US. While earlier, most of these students were enrolled for postgraduate and doctoral studies, more and more are now migrating abroad for even undergraduate courses. The large-scale migration of Indian students is not only a heavy drain on the limited human resources available, especially since they attract some of the best talents, but also a costly proposition that can be normally afforded only by the most affluent students. Now with foreign universities opening up new campuses in India, these outflows are sure to accelerate. Unlimited outflow of Indias limited skilled human resources can be detrimental as it deprives the country from the immediate gains of investing in human capital and help the competition. Moreover, the entry of foreign universities may not deliver the intended results as it is difficult to transplant the entire ecosystem needed for their effective functioning. The outsourcing of pedagogy has not been a very successful experiment globally. Moreover, the foreign universities will exclusively cater to the more affluent groups and discriminate against the economically and socially underprivileged classes. But most importantly, the foreign universities can only be small niche players, whereas India now needs to give top priority to doubling or even trebling its higher education sector to meet the growing needs of a knowledge economy. News outlets are important for farmers to express their problems, such as drought, suicides, debt, and agriculture policies. However, these issues receive little coverage in the Indian media. Agriculture news is significant because a large portion of the countrys population relies on agriculture or related industries. The National Statistics Office (NSO), in its 77th round of the survey, released in September 2021, recognises 9.3 crore households as agriculture households in India and another 7.93 crore as non-agricultural households living in rural areas (Wire 2021). However, the mainstream media often sidelines the agriculture news until it becomes exigent. The same happened in September 2020, when the Government of India passed the three agricultural bills1 in the middle of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. Amid all the Covid-19-related restrictions, farmers in Punjab and Haryana came out opposing the new laws, which they viewed as exploitative and unjust for the farmers community, fearing that the complete opening up of the [agriculture] sector would throw all the marginal farmers, who incidentally are 85% of the total farming cohort, to the mercy of private players. (Jawandhiya and Dandekar 2020) Thousands of protesters have descended on Peru's capital Lima, angered by a mounting death toll since unrest erupted last month and calling for the president to step down. But Dina Boluarte instead vowed to punish those behind the 'violence.' Portland, OregonIshi Nobu, author of The Story of Humanity: Ecology & Consequence has won the FIREBIRD BOOK AWARD. Authors and publishers from around the world submitted their work to the International Firebird Book Awards for consideration. A select panel of 25 judges independently scored and evaluated the quality of the writing and production. Only entries with the highest of scores were awarded the coveted Firebird. In the far future, alien scholars from a nearby galaxy chronicle an ape on Earth: a beautiful planet with the ruins and records of an ancient, global civilization. What would they say about humanity? What might they see influenced this ape from the very beginning, and thereby set the trajectory of their history? What would a post-mortem examination reveal about the causes of their demise? In his revealing new book, The Story of Humanity: Ecology & Consequence, scholar Ishi Nobu takes an objective view in framing his natural history of humanity. "This is my 12th book," says Ishi Nobu. "Having written comprehensively about the sciences and on spirituality, I wanted to pen a historical saga. "There is a chasm of perspective between natural history and history. History books cover events within societal, ideological, or cultural context. Natural history books take an evolutionary perspective in viewing biological dynamics with events as outcomes." "The futuristic sci-fi setting makes the storyline unequivocal," shares Ishi Nobu. "Human history has been a continuum, civilization an unwavering vector. From the perspective of the present, the book's conclusion is a prophecy: that self-extinction is impending. But that's just the takeaway, not the content." "Ishi Nobu's The Story of Humanity: Ecology & Consequence is not just a prophetic view of a future post-mortem that could be conducted on humanity, but also a masterful weaving together of history, philosophy, and psychology that gives insight into our current predicament. Those who are curious about how humanity got to this place and where the inevitable outcome of this trajectory leads may find The Story of Humanity to be revealing and enlightening. Highly recommended." Jessica Tofino, Educator and Writer, 5-Stars The Story of Humanity is told in 5 chapters. The 1st chapter, "A Fateful Ape" traces the evolution of hominids and outlines the traits that made them distinct from their primate predecessors. "The Reign of Thought" explains how men's way of thinking created the outcomes which decided humanity's destiny. "The Evolution of Civilization" chronicles trends and events that shaped humanity's fate. "The Toll of Industry" tallies the tariff that enriched a few while wearing the world down. The mindset of materialism floated dreams of bright futures while casting dark shadows. "An Inevitable End" culminates the human experience. Nobu writes, "Plutocratic capitalism showed itself to be an unsustainable regime. When changing course became critical, democracy proved an anchor of conservative inertia. Political leaders knew that doom was impending, yet they attempted no remedy. Cowardice at the top crumbled civilization and crafted an inevitable end." "The Story of Humanity is an attempt to explain and illustrate how humans' laziness and inability to educate themselves and their communities led to their demise. Author Ishi Nobu paints a picture that includes the exploitation of other human beings, the ignorance of science, and the ultimate end of humanity. This is a disturbing but necessary examination of both where we are as a species and how we are inevitably bound to self-destruct. Highly recommended." John J. Kelly, Detroit Free Press, 5-Stars Listen to an interview with Ishi Nobu on the Mark Bishop show here: https://podcasts.markbishopmedia.com/nlgb-e30-ishi-nobu-independent-scholar-author/ With its documentary tone and keen insight into the psychological and sociological currents that have culminated in humanity's current state, The Story of Humanity: Ecology & Consequence delves the roots and vector of history. Ishi Nobu skillfully explains how humanity got to where it is today and where it is headed. He aims not at worldwide change (an impossibility), instead seeing The Story as a journey of realization. "The most you can do is enlighten yourself and see things as they are," whispers Nobu, "not as you wish them to be." For more on The Story of Humanity: Ecology & Consequence, visit the author's website: IshiNobu.com. The book is available on Kindle & in paperback on Amazon. About the author: Ishi Nobu is a brilliant independent scholar & guru who conveys his deep comprehension of Nature and reality. These efforts are displayed in his comprehensive coverage of all aspects of Nature, human endeavor, and spirituality. His previous books: The Red Pill: Mastering The Matrix; Clarity: The Path Inside; Unraveling Reality: Behind the Veil of Existence; and the 8-book Spokes of the Wheel cycle: The Science of Existence, The Web of Life, The Elements of Evolution, The Ecology of Humans, The Echoes of The Mind, The Fruits of Civilization, The Pathos of Politics, and The Hub of Being. Nobu is renowned for deliberate, incisive scholarship. He has the rare talent of drawing insights from multiple disciplines and weaving them into a revealing consilience. Follow Nobu on Twitter @ishinobu_actual. Media Contact: For a review copy of The Story of Humanity: Ecology & Consequence, or to arrange an interview with Ishi Nobu, contact Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications Book Marketingat scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Reach Lorenz on twitter @abookpublicist. Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana speaks at the Montana Freedom Caucus kickoff event on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan) Montanans will see benefits from laws made by the newly created Montana Freedom Caucus for the next several decades, Republican Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale promised a group of supporters at the state Capitol on Thursday evening. Rosendale, himself a member of the House Freedom Caucus, headlined the kickoff event for the caucus of right-wing lawmakers who announced they had formed the group earlier this month. There are 14 public members of the caucus and others who did not want to publicly be identified, said committee chair Sen. Theresa Manzella, R-Hamilton. Dozens of supporters packed the old Supreme Court chambers at the state Capitol, applauding speeches from Manzella and Rosendale, who is fresh off his fight to block Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from becoming House Speaker until he and some Freedom Caucus holdouts gained rules concessions. Rosendale told the group the Montana Freedom Caucus would be the tip of the spear in pushing an ultra-conservative agenda, but they needed backing from supporters in order for it to be fully realized. He said he expected the group would be a unified and organized voice of the people in protecting their free speech and religious and health freedoms from government interference. Because folks, the radical left is trying to destroy your families. Theyre trying to keep us from practicing our faith, and theyre trying to brainwash our children, Rosendale told the crowd. And its really those three things that you can encapsulate that we are all fighting. Rosendale and Manzella said the Montana Freedom Caucus is now one of 12 in states nationwide, and they expect more to form in time. Rosendale said the state groups will share information with one another and would receive support from the House Freedom Caucus, though he told reporters after the event when asked about providing financial support: I havent even given that a thought whatsoever. Manzella said Rosendale had called her to ask if she was interested in leading the caucus. She said the House Freedom Caucus put potential members through a stringent vetting process looking into their past voting records and backgrounds. Because they do not want to be embarrassed by any skeletons that we might have in our closet or people who might claim to be conservative but really arent, she said. Manzella said 80% of the caucus members must agree to take up an issue before drafting legislation. Republicans have a supermajority in the Montana Legislature, and the Freedom Caucus represents the facet that is pushing for the most conservative measures. Manzella listed priorities for the caucus as election integrity (the four Republicans on the select committee on election security are members of the caucus), parental rights, working to give more than $2 billion in surplus money back to taxpayers, blocking foreign land ownership in Montana, promoting school choice, and judiciary reform. How many people know that we have problems with our judges? she asked. We pass conservative laws, and they deem them unconstitutional. Manzella said the caucus wanted to be engaged with its supporters in letting them know whats going on behind the smoke and mirrors at the Capitol. Sen. Barry Usher, R-Billings, said the caucus was taking pledges but had yet to decide if it would set up as a political action committee to raise money or as something else. Darin Gaub, the chair of the Lewis and Clark County Republican Central Committee, will serve as the caucus state director. Rosendale, a former state lawmaker now in his second term in Congress, said Washington, D.C., was a world away from Montana during his speech to the crowd. He detailed his fight to gain concessions during the Speaker fight, saying it was about redistributing power across all of Congress so everyone had an equal voice. He told reporters afterward the concessions he received were changes in the rules package that passed the Monday after the fight ended, with nearly all Republicans voting in favor. Which was the single-subject legislation, the ability to propose amendments on the floor as long as they were germane to the subject matter, to make sure we had a true 72 hours to consider legislation, he said. So, all of those things, we were granted. Manzella compared Rosendales fight alongside a few other House Freedom Caucus members to George Washington leading the Continental Army across the Delaware River to the Battle of Trenton, in what is recognized as a major turn in the Revolutionary War. When I think about what Matt did, its nothing short of saving our country, she said. He turned the rules around, turned the caucus around and said, We will not be silenced. Rosendale told the supporters and caucus members they needed to have a plan, be able to adjust those plans on the fly, stay involved, and stay bold. He said the caucus needed to stay together, and the public needed to stay with them. And then, you will have an incredible, incredible impact for this state that people are going to, again, enjoy for many decades, he said. I can promise you that. The post Rosendale says Montana Freedom Caucus will be tip of the spear in pushing conservative agenda appeared first on Daily Montanan. The UK would be 'devastated' if African swine fever (ASF) were to reach its shores, Red Tractor has warned, with farmers being told to follow good biosecurity. The chair of the pig sector of Red Tractor, Stewart Houston has urged farmers to take action to help keep the deadly pig disease out of the country. Whilst ASF doesnt affect humans, it is a highly contagious and fatal notifiable disease that is present in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mainland Italy recently confirmed its first ever case of the strain currently circulating in Europe, Asia, and Central America. Mr Houston said: "As farmers, its our responsibility to ensure the health and well-being of the animals in our care. "Owners of pigs, including pigs just kept as pets, are being advised to take precautions against ASF." He warned that the risk of the disease reaching the UK had increased, and if it were to arrive, it would have a 'devastating impact'. This would include consequences for the health of the UK pig population, as well as the domestic and international trade of pigs and pork. There are multiple pathways for the introduction of ASF virus to a new area: movement of infected live animals, contaminated equipment, or infectious products. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) considers the human route, such as in passenger luggage, to be the highest risk pathway. Authorities in Dover have uncovered and seized large volumes of raw meat from countries that have reported African swine fever (ASF) in their pig herds. In October 2022, authorities in Dover uncovered and seized large volumes of raw meat from countries that had reported ASF in their pig herds. The risk of ASF infected pork being brought into the UK via people is risk assessed as high, even though the overall risk for all pathways is medium. Mr Houston said farmers and pig keepers must also follow the latest guidance on how to prevent the spread of ASF. "As the ASF virus survives well in uncooked, cured, or frozen meat, one key measure is to make sure you are not feeding your pigs any food waste. "It is illegal to feed catering or domestic food waste, including from vegetarian and vegan kitchens, to pigs or wild boar, as there is a risk of spreading disease. "This includes kitchen scraps and leftovers, raw or cooked meat, cured, dried, smoked, or frozen meat, fish, and shellfish, and even dog and cat food," he explained. Instead, farmers and keepers should feed pigs specially formulated commercial pig feed and fruit and vegetables that have never entered a domestic or commercial kitchen. Farmers should also avoid leaving food waste in areas where wild boar or feral pigs roam and it is not recommended to provide any supplementary commercial feed for feral pigs or wild boar, to avoid encouraging them. Mr Houston said good biosecurity was also key to preventing the spread of ASF as well as other livestock diseases. "An important precaution is to ensure that all visitors and farm workers are using dedicated clothing and boots when entering pig premises," he added. "If you employ seasonal or workers from abroad, its important that they are able to read the biosecurity protocols, which may mean making them available in other languages. "It is also crucial to ensure that people who look after or visit your pigs understand the disease risk of bringing back meat products, particularly wild boar meat or pork products, from affected countries. "If you notice that your pigs are looking unwell, it is important to seek veterinary advice promptly." Bangladeshs readymade garment (RMG) sector has enough skilled domestic manpower at the middle level, and therefore, foreign manpower at the same managerial levels is not required anymore, commerce minister Tipu Munshi recently said. There is no need to bank on foreign managers anymore, he said while addressing an event at the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) University of Fashion and Technology (BUFT). The event awarded certificates to professionals passing out of the BUFT-Export Promotion Board (EPB) post graduate diploma course for mid-level management to create skilled managers in the RMG sector. Bangladesh's readymade garment (RMG) sector has enough skilled domestic manpower at the middle level, and therefore, foreign manpower at the same managerial levels is not required anymore in the country, commerce minister Tipu Munshi recently said while addressing an event. There is no need to bank on foreign managers anymore, he further added. The government aimed at minimising dependence on foreign manpower in the RMG sector, Munshi was quoted as saying by Bangladeshi media reports. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS) The time has arrived to create a branch of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) in Bangladesh to promote trade and investment and help ensure a smooth transition to the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) era, Charles Whiteley, head of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Bangladesh recently said at an event at his residence. "GSP plus is not an easy ticket," he said during the event, marking the soft launch of the EuroCham to boost Bangladesh-EU business ties, according to domestic media reports. The EU's GSP+ offers developing nations a special incentive to pursue sustainable development and good governance. Eligible nations have to implement international conventions on human rights, labour rights, environment and sound governance. The time has arrived to create a branch of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) in Bangladesh to promote trade and investment and help ensure a smooth transition to the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) era, Charles Whiteley, head of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Bangladesh recently said at an event at his residence. Bangladesh's graduation from the least developed country (LDC) status in 2026 would mean graduation from the EU Everything but Arms (EBA) unilateral trade preference offered to Bangladesh. There will be a three-year transition period. The EUs focus is now to ensure a swift transition and EuroCham will indeed be quite helpful, the ambassador said. "It (EuroCham) should be business driven and business interests are reflected in it," said the EU ambassador, emphasising that the chamber will lobby for European business interests and the removal of barriers to trade and investment. EuroCham will not compete with the existing chambers but to complement the existing bilateral chambers of commerce, he added. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS) Man versus nature has been an eternal debate. Some people view mans progress as being a constant struggle against nature. People say that if we dont push back against the forest and claim some land for ourselves, wed still be stuck in the dark ages. The indigenous populations, which have always shared an affinity with nature, frowns on such a line of thought. They have been known to maintain a way of life which states that man is an inherent part of nature. That harming nature is akin to harming oneself. These sentiments are amply echoed in director Rucha Chitnis seminal documentary short, Van Versus Vikas. The 15 minute film encapsulates the struggle of Prakash Bhoir and his family, who have been on the forefront of the fight to save the Aarey forest situated in the heart of Mumbai. Prakash belongs to the Adivasi community and is an Adivasi activist. He lives in an Advivasi hamlet situated inside the Aarey forest. He grows fruits and vegetables near his home and forages the forest for other items, living closely with nature. Hes also a talented Warli artist and so is his son. Their paintings are on display in the documentary. They depicted the Adivasi way of life and the changes brought in by the forced march of progress. Prakash Bhoir has led many protests against the destruction of Aareys biodiversity and the relocation of Adivasis from their ancestral lands. There are 27 Adivasi hamlets in the Aarey forest. In 1949, Aarey Milk Colony was set up by the government to help set up a steady milk supply to Mumbai city. In 2019, after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, around 100 acres of land was cleared for a NSG commando base camp in Aarey. All this is proving detrimental to the existence of the Adivasis in the area. But the biggest threat, as the film showcases, comes in the form of the Mumbai Metro shed thats been constructed in the middle of the region. Hundreds of trees have been cut because of it, threatening the fragile forest ecosystem. Whats more, the tribals have been told to evict the land where theyve been living for generations together. The film points out that the masses have been fed the false narrative that slum dwellers have encroached upon the land and need to be resettled elsewhere. Its not the slum dwellers but the tribals who are getting affected. Prakash Bhoir, his wife Pramila, and other tribals interviewed in the film state that they find the forest an extension of their own selves and vice versa. They cant think of living anywhere else as the connection they feel with the land is assimilated into everything they do, be it cuisine, art, culture and even language. They are aware of the roaming patterns of even the leopards and worship them as the guardians of the jungle. And they acknowledge that coexistence is the key, asserting that animals have as much right to the forest as men. All-in-all, the film is an eye opener indeed and provides you with a glimpse of the wonderful forest area situated right in the middle of Mumbais high rises. Its not just the indigenous people who are threatened by the depletion of the green cover. These areas serve as lungs for us all and its high time we took notice of it and made a vow to arrive in droves when protests against unnecessary reduction of trees take place. Summary Non-Renounceable 1 for 3 fully underwritten Entitlement Offer successfully completed on 3 January 2023, raising approximately A$5.1 million (before costs). Proceeds will be used for: Funding for pre-development works at Jugan, including pilot plant construction and commissioning (once approved); Drilling including follow-up step-outs to determine the extent of bonanza grade gold mineralisation encountered in BKDDH-27 during the 2022 Bekajang drilling campaign. General Overheads and working capital. Negotiations continue with Quantum Metal Recovery Inc, a substantial shareholder of Besra for a potential gold draw-down facility to fund pre- development, and commercialisation of the Jugan Project. 2023 Bekajang follow-up drilling has commenced, initially with a six-well step- out program to be followed by a program of deeper drilling, aimed to determine the association with mineralisation of the deep DIGHEM anomaly situated below the Bekajang tailings dam. Assay results of Bekajang deep holes BKDDh-28, -29 and -30 remain pending. Environmental Impact Assessment for Jugan pilot plant was completed and lodged on 15 December 2022 with the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) Sarawak for determination. Early Commencement Works application lodged at the same time was approved by the NREB on 21 December 2022. This will enable activities to be undertaken prior to a determination of the EIA. The Joint Venture has decided to allow ML 1D/136/ML/2008 to lapse at the conclusion of its 20-year term, given that it is extensively impacted by the more recent gazettal of the Dered Krian National Park and does not form part of the Joint Venture's core activities. Perth, Western Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 20, 2023) - The Board of Besra Gold Inc (ASX: BEZ) (Besra or Company) is pleased to make this announcement. Details Completion of Entitlement Offer On 25 November 2022 the Company announced a 1 for 3 Non-Renounceable Entitlement Offer of CDIs at $0.05 per CDI to raise approximately A$5.1m (before costs) ("Entitlement Offer"). The Entitlement Offer was fully underwritten by Quantum Metal Recovery Inc a substantial shareholder of Besra. Proceeds from the Entitlement Offer will be applied to: Jugan Project Resources Review & Feasibility Studies; Funding Jugan test plant construction and commissioning (once approved); Drilling including follow-up step-outs to determine the extent of bonanza grade gold mineralisation encountered in BKDDH-27 during the 2022 Bekajang drilling campaign; In-Country Administration and Overheads; and General working capital and administration. The Capital Structure of Besra, shown in the table below, represents that following the issue of new CDIs following the Entitlement Offer on 3 January 2023. Quoted Securities Number Chess Depository Interests 1:1 353,861,888 Unquoted Securities Number Fully paid Ordinary Shares Escrowed 53,127,907 Options expiring 08-October-2025 Restricted 7,142,275 Options expiring 08-October-2026 7,250,000 Class A Performance Rights Restricted 2,600,000 Class B Performance Rights Restricted 3,650,000 Common Shares 4,818,622 Gold Offtake Purchase Facility Updating the disclosure made on 25 November 2022, the Company continues to advance its discussions with its substantial shareholder, Quantum Metal Recovery Inc, pursuant to which it is proposed that it will provide up to US$300 million in financial support, commencing as soon as CY2023, by way of a gold offtake purchase facility. The proposed facility, if implemented, would enable Besra to advance exploration and development planning, and to expedite production at the Bau Gold Project in Sarawak, Malaysia. It is currently proposed that stream deliveries would be based on gold production from Bau, with Besra to receive 90% of the spot gold price for each ounce delivered subject to a monthly cap. Potential to draw-down tranches to progressively fund procurement, construction, and commissioning of onsite mine & processing plant. Negotiations are progressing positively, although no agreement has yet been reached, and any agreement would be subject to Besra board, shareholder and regulatory approval including compliance with ASX listing rules. Assay Results Drill Hole Primary Target From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Av Au grade (g/t) BKDDH-12 LSC 0 2.0 2.0 1.26 BKDDH-12 LSC 4.0 7.0 3.0 3.13 BKDDH-13 LSC 0 1 1 2.08 BKDDH-13 LSC 7 10.6 3.6 14.68 Including 12.3 13.6 1.3 37.00 Including 9.00 10.00 1.0 37.2 BKDDH-14A LSC 6.0 12.7 6.7 3.34 BKDDH-14A LSC 21.00 24.00 3.0 4.65 BKDDH-15 LSC 13.7 14.4 0.70 14.1 BKDDH-16 LSC 18.00 22.20 1.42 4.20 BKDDH-18 LSC 2.40 4.80 2.40 2.35 BKDDH-18 LSC 28.40 29.30 0.90 1.73 BKDDH-18 LSC 33.00 35.00 2.00 1.19 BKDDH-18 LSC 41.00 44.10 3.10 1.20 BKDDH-19 LSC 38.7 43.0 4.3 0.81 BKDDH-22 LSC 9.00 12.75 3.75 0.77 BKDDH-23 LSC 1 9 8 1.35 BKDDH-23 LSC 19.4 28 8.6 17.71 including 19.4 20.0 0.6 30.4 Including 20.0 20.8 0.8 103.0 BKDDH-25 Bau Deep 65.0 68.7 3.7 0.86 BKDDH-25 Bau Deep 71.6 76.0 4.4 0.82 BKDDH-25 Bau Deep 86.0 86.90 0.9 3.17 BKDDH-26 Bau Deep 48.0 50.0 2.0 0.73 BKDDH-27 LSC 0 2 2 1.20 BKDDH-27 LSC 8 17.7 9.7 7.09 Including 15.1 16.0 0.9 39.3 BKDDH-27 Bau Deep 40.3 42 1.7 8.81 BKDDH-27 Bau Deep 43.6 45 1.4 4.49 BKDDH-27 Bau Deep 53.9 56.1 2.2 3.90 BKDDH-27 Bau Deep 58.4 71 12.6 22.91 Including 60.5 61.0 0.5 209.0 Including 61.0 62.0 1.0 64.0 Including 62.0 63.0 1.0 15.9 Including 63.0 64.0 1.0 31.8 Including 64.0 65.0 1.0 22.3 Including 67.0 68.0 1.0 14.1 BKDDH-28 Bau Deep Results Pending BKDDH-29 Bau Deep Results Pending BKDDH-30 Bau Deep Results Pending The Company remains frustrated with the poor turn-around of assaying for its core samples. During much of the December quarter drilling was suspended until the backlogged assay results were received and integrated into the forward program planning. The assay results for DKBBH- 28, -29 & -30 remain pending, however, the balance of received gold assays are listed in the above table following the drilling of 21 fully cored holes totalling 1400 m of drilling. The best gold intercepts were associated with the traditional shallow target zone near the Bau Limestone upper contact with overlying sequences, most notably the Pedawan Shale (Limestone-Shale Contact or LSC) along the northern flank of the historic Bekajang tailings dam (Figure 1). However, BKDDH-27 encountered bonanza grade gold mineralisation in a deeper level of the Bau Limestone, quite discrete from the LSC highlighting the potential for a new deeper Bau Limestone mineralisation target. Commencement of 2023 Drilling Program The bonanza high grade gold intercepts at Bekajang, within the Bau Limestone, now constitute a second primary objective of the 2023 Bekajang drilling program which has just commenced with the drilling of BKDDH-31. The first phase of this new program will involve drilling six fully cored drill holes, effectively as directional step-outs from the BKDDH-27 hole, (which encountered the deeper bonanza grade gold intercepts within the Bau Limestone), to determine the lateral extent and attitude of this deeper mineralised zone. It is speculated that this may be mineralisation within a sub-vertical conduit system providing the pathway for the preferential flow of mineral-charged hydrothermal fluids upwards into the overlying LSC zone. The second phase will involve deeper reconnaissance, "proof of concept" drilling to determine whether the deeper Bau Limestone mineralisation could be a pathfinder; part of a more extensive conduit system related to an intrusive complex and its heat source that is interpreted to be present beneath the Bekajang tailings dam on the basis of the DIGHEM anomaly interpretation (Figure 2). Deep seated faulting may provide direct conduits by which richly endowed hydrothermal mineral charged fluids migrate vertically to gain access to the shallower LSC levels. Figure 1: Significant drillhole intercepts and Resource wireframe (in puce) located along the northern flank of the Bekajang tailings dam. Based on geophysical DIGHEM data, the footprint of an interpreted underlying intrusive is shown in green. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3448/152076_c7ba26ab54f359ba_002full.jpg Environmental Impact Assessment In early December 2022, Chemsain Konsultant Sdn Bhd completed community and other stakeholder dialogue meetings and finalised the EIA Report that it had been commissioned to prepare on behalf of the Company. In December 2022 the final report entitled "Proposed Test Gold Mining and Processing at Jugan (ML 01/2013/1D and ML/05/2012/1D), Bau, Sarawak" was submitted in the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) Sarawak in conformity with the initial Terms of Reference for the Project. The project activities include land access / compensation agreements, test plant engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM), engagement of mining contractors, site construction & earthworks, construction phase, test pit construction & plant commissioning, operational, bulk sampling & processing, and lastly rehabilitation & decommissioning. At the same time an Application for Early Commencement Works (ECW) was lodged to undertake drilling activities prior to a determination of the EIA. This ECW was approved, by the NREB on 21 December 2022 within the area effected by the EIA. Figure 2: The conceptual model based on the intersection of a sub-vertical feeder system by BKDDH-27 also provides a possible explanation for the occurrence of locally enhanced mineralisation at the LSC level, such as encountered in both BKDDH-23 & -27. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3448/152076_c7ba26ab54f359ba_003full.jpg Lapse of ML 1D/ 136/ML/2008 The Joint Venture has decided to allow ML 1D/136/ML/2008 to lapse at the conclusion of its 20- year term, given that it is extensively impacted by the subsequent gazettal of the Dered Krian National Park (Figure 3) and does not form part of the Joint Venture's core activities. As previously disclosed1 the Joint Venture had been advised by the Ministry of Urban Development and Natural Resources in 2018 of its intention to revoke four Mining Leases within the Bau Gold Project, totalling 252.4Ha. These four Mining Leases variously encroach upon the newly gazetted boundaries of the DKNP. The Joint Venture submitted a proposal in August 2018 seeking to voluntarily surrender the portions of the Mining Leases which encroach upon DKNP in return for retaining the remaining portions of the Mining Leases or reapplying for new Mining Leases over those remaining portions. Given the imminent expiry of this ML it was considered most prudent not to apply for a renewal of the ML in its current form and allow it to lapse. The Joint Venture will continue to advance its position and will consider full or partial renewals as appropriate for the other three MLs in due course. This ML has not been core to the Joint Venture's activities and no direct work has been undertaken in it for more than a decade. Its expiry will result in an impairment in the Resource Inventory estimated at 263,800 Oz. Figure 3- location of ML 1D/136/ML/2008 (yellow) within the outline of the Dered Krian National Park boundaries (in blue). To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3448/152076_c7ba26ab54f359ba_005full.jpg This ASX release was authorised by the Board of Besra Gold Inc. For further information: Australasia Ray Shaw Chief Executive Officer Email: ray.shaw@besra.com North America James Hamilton Investor Relations Services Email: jim@besra.com Mobile: +1 416 471 4494 Competent Person's Statement The information in this Announcement that relates to Exploration Results, Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves is based on information compiled by Mr. Kevin J. Wright, a Competent Person who is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM), a Chartered Engineer (C.Eng), and a Chartered Environmentalist (C.Env). Mr. Wright is a consultant to Besra. Mr. Wright has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code (2012 Edition) of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, and a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators. Kevin J. Wright consents to the inclusion in this Announcement of the matters based on his information in the form and context that it appears. Disclaimer This Announcement contains certain forward-looking statements and forecasts concerning future activities, including potential delineation of resources. Such statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve unknown risks and uncertainties, as well as other factors which are beyond the control of Besra Gold Inc. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements depending upon a variety of factors. Nothing in this Announcement should be construed as either an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell securities. This Announcement has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Australian securities laws and the requirements of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and may not be released to US wire services or distributed in the United States. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Any securities described in this announcement have not been, and will not be, registered under the US Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States except in transactions exempt from, or not subject to, registration under the US Securities Act and applicable US state securities laws. Unless otherwise indicated, all mineral resource estimates and Exploration Targets included or incorporated by reference in this Announcement have been, and will be, prepared in accordance with the JORC classification system of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Ownership Interest in Bau Besra is in a consortium with a Malaysian group with Bumiputra interests that owns rights to consolidated mining tenements covering much of the historic Bau goldfield in Sarawak, East Malaysia. Besra's interests in the Bau Gold Project are held through its direct and indirect interests in North Borneo Gold Sdn Bhd ("NBG"). Besra's 100% owned subsidiary - Besra Labuan Ltd ("Besra Labuan")- acquired its interest in NBG, which owns rights to the mining tenements covering the area of Bau in accordance with various agreements the sale of shares2 as a result of which Besra's interests in NBG increased to 97.8% and its equity adjusted interest increased to 92.8%. Disclosure As outlined in the Prospectus and in the Entitlement Offer Booklet the joint venture has been advised by the regulator of its intention to revoke four mining leases within the Bau Gold Project, which encroach upon the boundaries of the Dered Krian National Park (DKNP). The joint venture submitted a proposal in August 2018 seeking to voluntarily surrender those portions of the mining leases which encroach upon DKNP in return for retaining the remaining portions of the mining leases or reapplying for new mining leases over those remaining portions. To date those discussions have not resolved these issues and if ultimately unsuccessful the Company may not have an interest in, or beneficial title to, the necessary permits to fully exploit the intellectual and geological knowledge of previous exploration results. Should the land within the DKNP be surrendered, the Bau Gold Project's global Resource would be reduced from 3.3Moz to approximately 3.02Moz of Mineral Resources. Alternatively, if the four mining leases are revoked in their entirety, the Project's global Resource will be reduced to approximately 2.6Moz. The Company believes this to be the more unlikely outcome because it would reapply for appropriate tenure over those lands within the four mining leases not lying within the DKNP. The Company has no reason to believe that any forfeiture has been registered in relation to those mining leases. Nevertheless, should forfeiture be effected it will not impact upon the Company's business strategy. The information in this announcement is based on the following publicly available announcements previously lodged on the SEDAR Company Information Besra Gold Inc platform or on Besra's website. Besra Gold Inc Bau Gold Project Sarawak Malaysia Exploration Target Inventory. Lodged SEDAR Platform Feb 26, 2021. Besra Bau Project - Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve Updated to JORC 2012 Compliance. Lodged SEDAR Platform Nov 22, 2018. Besra (Accipiter virgatus), also called the besra sparrowhawk, occurs throughout southern and eastern Asia. It is a medium sized raptor with short broad wings and a long tail making it very adept at manoeuvring within its environment and an efficient predator. ___________________________________ 1 Prospectus dated 8 July 2021 refer sections 3, 7.2(b) and Appendix H. 2 Refer to Prospectus dated 8 July 2021 Sections 3, 8.4 & Attachment H. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/152076 BEIJING, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from People's Daily: "There are more and more visitors coming to Sanya. I received three batches of tourists this morning alone," said Wang Yu, who works in the tourism industry in Sanya, south China'sHainan province. According to statistics released by Sanya Phoenix International Airport, the airport handled 929,000 passengers in the first 15 days of January this year, up 15.3 percent year on year. A report on tourism consumption during the 2023 Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, issued by Tongcheng Travel, a market leader in China's online travel industry, said there has been a significant rise in traveling demand during the Chinese New Year period this year, especially for medium- and long-distance trips. The Spring Festival travel rush officially started on Jan. 7. The number of ticket orders received by Tongcheng Travel for trains departing on the Chinese New Year's Eve and a day before surged 31 percent from a year ago, ranking first in the past three years. Between Jan.1 and 8, the consultation volume for long-distance travel products scheduled for the Spring Festival vacation increased nearly 20-fold. Besides, the search volume for hot destinations, such as Xishuangbanna, Changbai Mountain, Sanya, and Xiamen, more than doubled from a year ago. The per-customer transaction of travel products scheduled for the Spring Festival period has increased by over 70 percent from a year ago, and the numbers of hotel and tourist site ticket bookings have increased by nearly 20 percent, said Alibaba's travel portal Feizhu. There is also a significant rise in the distance and duration of trips as well as the number of travel companions, according to Feizhu. Besides, the bookings for high-end hotels also improved by nearly 30 percent, and those for rural B&Bs increased by over 100 percent. Li Donghan, owner of a B&B hotel in Dali, southwest China'sYunnan province, told People's Daily that all rooms had already been booked for the Spring Festival period. The man has cooperated with local farmers to sell local specialties and artware at his B&B. "There are around 7,000 B&B hotels in Dali. A large portion of the rooms have been booked for the period from now to the Spring Festival vacation, and the figure is over 90 percent in some high-end B&B hotels," said Li Haizhong, head of the homestay association of Dali. In a theater near the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Lintong district, Xi'an, northwest China'sShaanxi province, a show about the renowned Terracotta Warriors is chased after nowadays. Qiao Lida, who manages affairs for the show, told People's Daily that the show was first staged at the end of 2022 and has played to a full house almost every time. "To meet the demand for tourists, we'll for the first time keep playing the show during the Spring Festival," Qiao said. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/china-sees-accelerated-recovery-of-culture-tourism-consumption-301727573.html London, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - January 21, 2023) - UK tax assistance app, Free Tax Returns, has officially announced a sign-up campaign ready for the app release later this year. Free Tax Returns The company is developing a new app that provides a no-cost tax return filing service, providing an easy, convenient and accurate method for tax filing. Powered by modern technologies such as Open Banking and digital banking APIs, the app will automatically process and submit the data needed to process tax returns. "There is no company or individual anywhere in the world offering comprehensive tax services for at no cost. We are here to help taxpayers in the UK to do their taxes better. Soon, we will make our digital service available to the rest of the world," says Director of Own Your Money Ltd, Raam Thakrar. While the fintech company is finalising the app's development, it has kickstarted a sign-up campaign to enable interested users to register. The campaign runs from 1 December 2022 to 31 January 2023. Interested taxpayers who sign up will be among the first to be notified once the app becomes available for download. They will be the pioneering users of the innovative app, completing their tax return applications simply and swiftly. "Forget the hours spent on tedious form-filing. Taxpayers can switch to a hassle-free way. You can now claim what you are entitled to without paying for it. Our app will make that happen for you. Just download the app when it becomes available to the public. All you need to do now is to sign up. It's that easy," Thakrar expounds. About Free Tax Returns Free Tax Returns is a financial technology app that provides taxpayers with a no-cost and convenient way of filing and paying their tax returns. The app enables taxpayers to save time, effort, and resources while letting them get the money they deserve. Contact Details: Contact Person: Raam Thakrar Email: hello@getfreetaxreturns.com Website: www.getfreetaxreturns.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/151973 On June 28, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria at the latter's request. Wang Yi said that today coincides with the 48th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Venezuela, and our phone conversation is just at the right time. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China-Venezuela relations have remained rock-solid regardless of changes in the international landscape. The leaders of the two countries have established solid mutual trust and friendship, providing important political guarantee and strategic guidance for the development of the China-Venezuela comprehensive strategic partnership. China is ready to continue to deepen political mutual trust, pass on the traditional friendship and enhance mutually beneficial cooperation with Venezuela. Wang Yi said that the Chinese side thanks Venezuela for standing firmly with China and speaking out for justice on Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and human rights issues. China will, as always, firmly oppose external forces' interference in Venezuela's internal affairs under any pretext, firmly support Venezuela in safeguarding national sovereignty and social stability, and support the Venezuelan people in choosing a development path suited to their national conditions. The Chinese side will continue to provide assistance within its capacity to the Venezuelan side in fighting the pandemic. Wang Yi pointed out that China and Venezuela should continue to strengthen solidarity and coordination in multilateral affairs, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the two countries, practice true multilateralism, and safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law. China appreciates Venezuela's active support for President Xi Jinping's Global Development Initiative (GDI) and stands ready to strengthen cooperation with Venezuela to jointly forge a global development partnership and well implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The trend toward a multi-polar world, economic globalization and greater democracy in international relations is irresistible. China is ready to work with Venezuela to stand on the right side of history, uphold international fairness and justice, safeguard the common interests of developing countries and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind. Faria said that under the guidance of the two heads of state, the Venezuela-China comprehensive strategic partnership has made great progress and is full of vitality. He thanked China for providing strong support to Venezuela in its fight against the pandemic. Venezuela firmly supports the one-China principle and the principle of "one country, two systems", firmly supports China in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and stands ready to work with China to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in innovative ways. China is playing an increasingly important role in the international arena. The Venezuelan side speaks highly of President Xi Jinping's GDI and other initiatives and is ready to deepen communication and coordination with China within the frameworks of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative and the Group of Friends in the Defense of the Charter of the United Nations to jointly uphold multilateralism. In particular, Faria extended warm congratulations on the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in advance, hailing the CPC as a great political party that holds high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and has always been committed to serving the Chinese people. On October 27, 2022, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Wang Yi said that the 20th CPC National Congress was a united, victorious and future-oriented meeting; Comrade Xi Jinping was unanimously re-elected General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, which fully reflects the common will of the whole Party and people across the country. Wang pointed out that the establishment of Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the establishment of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guiding ideology to be adhered to over the long term will provide the most fundamental political guarantee for China to successfully advance Chinese modernization and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Wang pointed out that General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at the Congress that it is imperative that all of us in the Party never forget our original aspiration and founding mission, that we always stay modest, prudent, and hard-working, and that we have the courage and ability to carry on our fight -- this is the most important inspiration gained from the historical experience of China's revolution and construction; it is not only a requirement for the more than 96 million Party members, but also a call to the people across the country. Wang Yi said that the fact that President Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory message to General Secretary Xi Jinping right after the 20th CPC National Congress has reflected the high-level mutual trust and firm mutual support between China and Russia. China will also firmly support Russia in rallying and leading the Russian people under the leadership of President Putin to achieve strategic development goals against all the odds and disturbance, and to further establish Russia's status as a major country on the international stage. Wang noted that both China and Russia are fully entitled to seeking its own development and revitalization, and this is fully consistent with the trend of the times. Any attempt to hold back the progress of China and Russia will end up in failure. China is ready to further deepen exchanges with Russia at all levels, and take China-Russia relations and cooperation in various fields to a higher level, so as to bring more benefits to the two countries and peoples, and contribute more elements of stability to the unstable world. Lavrov extended warm congratulations on the complete success of the 20th CPC National Congress and General Secretary Xi Jinping's re-election. He said that the 20th CPC National Congress is an important event for the world, and will surely lead China to the successful attainment of the goal of national rejuvenation. Russia is ready to increase engagements with China at all levels, and deepen cooperation in multilateral settings, to jointly safeguard peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific and the world at large. The two sides also exchanged views on the Ukraine issue and international and regional issues of mutual interest and concern. On November 2, 2022, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met at request with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who accompanied Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on his visit to China, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Wang Yi said, Prime Minister Shehbaz is among the first foreign heads of government to visit China after the successful 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). This speaks volumes about the uniqueness of China-Pakistan relations and the important place Pakistan has been put in China's overall diplomacy. General Secretary Xi Jinping was re-elected by a unanimous vote at the first plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. That will provide the most fundamental political guarantee for China to embark on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects. China's continuous development is a growing force for peace in the world and an increasing factor for global stability. In this process, China-Pakistan relations will gain new impetus and scale new heights. Wang Yi noted, as Foreign Minister of Pakistan and Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, you have long been committed to developing friendly relations with China and pursuing a friendly policy toward China. The Chinese side appreciates that. The time-tested friendship between China and Pakistan is a valuable strategic asset of the two countries, and building a China-Pakistan community with a shared future is a strategic choice made by the two countries. We are grateful for Pakistan's long-term and firm support for China on issues concerning China's core interests. China will also continue to speak up for Pakistan and firmly support its legitimate demands and lawful rights and interests. Wang Yi pointed out, China will continue its assistance for Pakistan's post-disaster reconstruction and will work with Pakistan to advance the high-quality development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Hope the both sides will take the opportunity of the negotiation and signing of the enhanced version of the security work plan to raise the security cooperation between the two sides to a new level and provide a more comprehensive and reliable security environment for Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari extended congratulations on the successful 20th CPC National Congress. He said that the blueprint for China's development formulated by the 20th CPC National Congress will inject strong positive energy into promoting world peace and development. Developing amicable relations with China is the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy. This has become a broad consensus among political parties in Pakistan. Pakistan is committed to continuously injecting new impetus into Pakistan-China relations and advancing bilateral relations to new heights. Pakistan is firmly committed to the one-China policy, and firmly supports China on all issues involving China's core interests. Pakistan expects to further deepen Pakistan-China cooperation in various fields and will take all measures to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and institutions in Pakistan. On July 8, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the Bali Island. Wang Yi said that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany. Over the past 50 years, China-Germany relations have grown from a small seedling to a giant tree, and the all-round strategic partnership between the two countries has produced fruitful results. Confucius said, "At fifty, one knows where his goal of life is headed." The China-Germany relationship has come to a mature stage of knowing what it is and learning why it is. China is willing to sum up the experience with Germany, and plan for cooperation in the next 50 years, so as to inject new momentum into the development of bilateral relations. Baerbock said that Germany attaches great importance to its relations with China and looks forward to taking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations as an opportunity to deepen all-round cooperation between the two countries. Germany hopes to work with China to prepare for a new round of consultation mechanism meetings between the two governments, carry out dialogues on rule of law, democracy and human rights, and strengthen exchanges and cooperation on climate change, green development and emission reduction. Germany believes that the international community should stick to principles and maintain international order on issues related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and hopes that China will give play to its influence and play an important role as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Wang Yi said that China and Germany are different in social systems, development stages and histories and cultures, so it is natural that the two sides have different views on human rights issues. The fact that the Communist Party of China has united and led 1.4 billion Chinese people to be out of poverty and made great strides toward a new journey of common prosperity is a great contribution to human civilization. When it comes to human rights, there is always room for improvement; China will unremittingly promote the development of human rights. China is willing to continue friendly exchanges with other countries in this regard on the basis of mutual respect. Wang Yi said that although all parties have different views on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, today's G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting called for a ceasefire and cessation of hostilities to achieve peace. China is not a party to the conflict, and we have always adhered to promoting peace talks, and encouraged all parties to find a solution through negotiations. China will continue to play a constructive role to this end. Many people are not interested in Christianity because they dont find it compelling. From what theyve heard, Jesus was a teacher and maybe a healer who said some things about being nice and loving other people. He may or may not have risen from the dead, and his followers cant seem to agree on a lot of details about their religion. If thats really all there was to Christianity, I would have to agree. Not very interesting. But what if I told you that Jesus is a warrior on a covert operation to rescue someone who has been captured and held hostage and in slavery? What if I told you that the person he came to liberate is you? This may seem far-fetched, but its not my own idea. Father John Riccardo develops this way of looking at Christianity in his book Rescued, and summarizes the Christian story in four words: created, captured, rescued, restored. In the beginning, when God created the universe out of nothing, everything was good (see Genesis 1). When he created humanity, God considered us very good (see Genesis 1 again). Adam and Eve were Gods special creation, and they knew that they were lovable and deeply loved by their creator. When Satan lured our first parents into mistrusting and disobeying God for the first time, all of humanity was affected. Satan had us where he wanted us, and convinced us that we are too messed up for God to love us or want us anymore. All the sin, dysfunction and death we all deal with every day came bursting into the world, and now were stuck, captured, held hostage, and we cant escape or rescue ourselves. When Adam and Eve fell into Satans trap, God promised that one day he would do something about it (see Genesis 3:15), and when Jesus was born to a young woman in a dusty outpost of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, God was beginning his rescue mission. He became a man so that he could go undetected behind enemy lines to fight for us and set us free. Gods plan in sending Jesus into the world was comparable to a rescue mission that took place in Colombia in 2008. The Colombian government trained some soldiers to pose as guerilla fighters and infiltrate the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, a guerilla resistance group holding hostages in the Colombian rainforest. The undercover soldiers were so convincing that the FARC allowed them to transport the prisoners to a different location by helicopter. Once the helicopter was in the air with all 15 hostages onboard, they were untied and told, We are the national army. You are free. When Jesus was dying on the cross, letting lies, betrayal, shame and death wash over him, he was not a failed revolutionary or powerless victim. He was a warrior going undercover and infiltrating the enemys territory all the way into death itself, so that he could rescue you and me from our enemies: Satan and death. When Jesus rose from the dead, he defeated death and restored our relationship with God. Jesus showed us that to God, each one of us is lovable enough to die for, and we have been died for. The true story of Christianity is a great adventure that reads like a thriller, less like a fairy tale and more like a cross between The Lord of the Rings and Saving Private Ryan. If this way of looking at Christianity sounds more interesting than what youve heard before, check out the Alpha Course on the St. Mary's website. There is still time to sign up! Mason City, Jan. 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mason City, Iowa - Mason City, IA Eyemart Optical Outlet has brought on board a new optometrist, Mark Davis, O.D., who will join its practices in Mason City, Ames, and Marshalltown. The addition of Dr. Davis to the three locations will allow Eyemart Optical Outlet to see more patients and grant more vision prescriptions that patients can use with the practices large selection of affordable eyewear. Were very excited about Dr. Davis joining us, said Rachel Sivi, owner and president of Eyemart Optical Outlet. Hes not only caring and great at making patients feel comfortable, but he also has experience working with all kinds of people and their unique vision needs. That expertise is valuable to our patients at Eyemart Optical Outlet, and we think they will love his skill and compassion as a doctor. An Iowa native, Dr. Davis attended the University of Iowa and earned his Doctor of Optometry at the Illinois College of Optometry. He joined the field out of an intrinsic fascination with eye care and a desire to help others. His experience over the years has given him a chance to treat patients with a wide variety of eye issues, including those due to traumatic injury. Dr. Davis is multilingual and speaks some French and Spanish. I cant wait to begin seeing patients at Eyemart Optical Outlet, said Dr. Davis. We have the cutting-edge technology patients expect and friendly staff that puts patients at ease. I always appreciate the trust my patients place in me and work my hardest to do my very best for them. Im excited to work with a team of likeminded individuals at Eyemart Optical Outlet. Dr. Davis will begin working across three of Eyemart Optical Outlets Iowa locations in Ames, Marshalltown, and Mason City. All Eyemart Optical Outlet locations are open and taking appointments for new and existing patients, as well as seeing customers for optical retail. About Eyemart Optical Outlet As one of Iowas most accessible vision care centers, Eyemart Optical Outlet maintains locations across the state and is proud to bring high quality, affordable eye care and eyewear to Iowans Eyemart Optical Outlet is why Iowa starts with an I. Visit www.eyemartopticaloutlet.com to learn more. ### For more information about Eyemart Optical Outlet Mason City, contact the company here: Eyemart Optical Outlet Mason City Rachel Sivi (641) 454-9928 rachel@eyemartopticaloutlet.com 624 S Monroe Ave #5041, Mason City, IA 50401 Pune India, Jan. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The market has been studied for the below mentioned-segmentation and regional analysis for North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. These are the key regions where the Automotive Washer System Market is operating and is predicted to expand soon. The manufacturers and suppliers involved in the Automotive Washer System Market are present across various countries in the above-mentioned regions. Get Sample Copy of This Report @ https://greyviews.com/reports/automotive-washer-market/395/request-sample The report provides a detailed understanding of the market segments which have been formed by combining different prospects such as the vehicle type, sales channel, and regions. Apart from this, the key driving factors, restraints, potential growth opportunities and market challenges are also discussed in the below paragraphs. The significant players operating in the global Automotive Washer System Market are Robert Bosch GmbH, Trico Products Corporation, Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG, Denso Corporation, Valeo SA, Mergon Group, Continental AG, Mitsuba Corporation, Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp, and HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co. among others. To achieve a substantial market share in the worldwide Automotive Washer System Market and strengthen their position, manufacturers are pursuing expansion methods such as current developments, mergers and acquisitions, product innovations, collaborations, and partnerships, joint ventures. Vehicle production and sales are among the factors driving the automotive washer system market across the globe. Additionally, during the forecast period, the automotive washer system market is expected to grow due to the growth of the transportation industry and the increasing demand for light commercial vehicles. In order to reduce the risk of an accident, the automotive washer system plays a crucial role in the vehicle safety system by providing good visibility of other moving cars. It is a basic safety system included in every vehicle. This system is made up of several components: nozzles, reservoirs, hoses & connectors, pumps, windshield wipers, and wiper motors, which work together to remove dirt and water from the windshield. It is expected that the automotive washer system market will grow during the forecast period due to the increasing production and sales of cars around the world. Additionally, the growing urban population density has accompanied the growing adoption of fuel-efficient automobiles, resulting in significant increases in global automotive production. There are some factors which are hampering the growth of the market such as periodic replacements and additional costs associated with automotive washers. Enquiry Before Buying This Report @ https://greyviews.com/inquiry/395 Scope of Automotive Washer System Market Report: Report Metric Information Study Period 2022-2030 Base Year 2022 Forecast Period 2023-2030 Market Share Unit USD Billion Segments Covered Vehicle Type, Sales Channel, and Regions. Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle-East and Africa Major Players Robert Bosch GmbH, Trico Products Corporation, Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG, Denso Corporation, Valeo SA, Mergon Group, Continental AG, Mitsuba Corporation, Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp, and HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co. among others Segmentation Analysis PC is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in 2022. The vehicle type segment is an LCV, HCV, and PC. The PC segment is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The passenger vehicle category currently dominates the global market due to an increase in middle-class populations and an increasing level of disposable income. There were 13 of 52 markets experiencing double-digit growth, including Russia, Argentina, and Thailand, offsetting slight declines in key markets like the UK, US, South Korea, and Mexico. Aftermarket is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in 2022. The sales channel segment is aftermarket and OEM. The aftermarket segment is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. Automobile components have a maximum lifespan and are heavily dependent on usage. Additionally, wipers, blades, pumps, and nozzles in washer systems must be replaced according to the type of driving. It has been observed that the aftermarket will play an important role in the growth of the market. Regional Analysis The regional analysis provides a detailed perception of the key regions and the countries. Some of the key countries analyzed for the Automotive Washer System Market include the US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, the U.K., Italy, Spain, Russia, China, Japan, India, Brazil, Peru, UAE, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia. The North American region witnessed a major share. With rising vehicle production and sales, a strong presence of major manufacturers, increasing demand for high-end vehicles, increased research activities, and increased investments in product development, the automotive washing system market has enticing potential in the region and is boosting market growth. Country Analysis Germany Germany's Automotive Washer System Market size was valued at USD 1.59 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 2.45 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2023 to 2030. It is expected that Germany will be the fastest-growing region during the forecast period, as consumers in the country prefer not to visit car washes. Moreover, Germany is the hub of the automobile industry, creating more opportunities for market growth. China Chinas Automotive Washer System Market size was valued at USD 1.73 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 2.7 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2023 to 2030. There are numerous factors contributing to China's growth, such as its highly developed tourism sector, an increase in private healthcare providers, and competitive treatment costs. India India's Automotive Washer System Market size was valued at USD 1.33 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 2.08 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 5.8% from 2023 to 2030. A growing economy, improved standard of living, increased vehicle production, and an increase in exports of vehicles have all contributed to the region dominating the automotive windshield washer system market. Covid-19 Impact Covid-19 had a major impact on almost all industries, such as electronics, semiconductors, manufacturing, automobile, etc. However, several companies operating in the technology sector have seen increased revenue due to significant changes in consumer preferences toward technological services. In addition, the pandemic has led to significant growth in technology across developing and developed countries. Furthermore, the growth of this market is mainly driven owing to the rising awareness about vehicle safety. Buy Now Full Report @ https://greyviews.com/checkout/395/single_user_license Contact Us Rocky Shah GreyViews Pune India Phone: (+44) 162-237-1047 Email: sales@greyviews.com Web: https://greyviews.com/ Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Browse Related Reports: Automotive Washer Market Size By Vehicle Type (LCV, HCV, and PC), By Sales Channel (Aftermarket and OEM), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/automotive-washer-market/395 Autonomous Delivery Robots Market Size By Product (Semi-Autonomous Robots and Fully Autonomous Robots), By Application (Hospitality, Retail, Logistics, Healthcare, and Others), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/autonomous-delivery-robots-market/362 Pedestrian Protection System Market Size by Type (Passive Pedestrian Protection System and Active Based Pedestrian Protection System), By Component (Control Unit, Cameras, Sensors, Actuator and Others), By Distribution Channel (Aftermarket and OEM) Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/pedestrian-protection-system-market/313 Automotive Skid Plate Market Size By Vehicle Type (ATVs, SUVs, Pickup Trucks, Adventure Motorcycles, and Military Vehicles), By Sales Channel (OEM and Aftermarket), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/automotive-skid-plate-market/298 Automotive Filter Paper Market Size By Application (Fuel Filter Paper, Air Filter Paper and Oil Filter Paper), By Material (Synthetic Fiber, Cellulose Fiber and Others), By Vehicle Type (HCV, LCV and Passenger Cars), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/automotive-filter-paper-market/297 Automotive ABS and ESC Market Size By Technology (Electronic Stability Control, Three-Channel Antilock Braking System and Four-Channel Antilock Braking System), By Sales Channel (Aftermarket and OEM), By Vehicle Type (Heavy Commercial Vehicle, Compact Vehicle, Luxury Vehicle, Mid-Sized Vehicle, Premium Vehicle, and Commercial Vehicle), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/automotive-abs-and-esc-market/296 Tyre Inflators Market Size By Type (24 V and 12 V), By Application (Repair Store, Household, and Automotive Manufacturers), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/tyre-inflators-market/286 Automotive Tensioner Market Size By Product Type (Idler Pulley and Automatic Belt Tensioner), By Vehicle Type (Commercial Vehicle, and Passenger Vehicle), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/automotive-tensioner-market/285 Automotive Microcontrollers Market Size by Vehicle Type (Electric Vehicle Types, Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles), By Application (Infotainment & Telematics, Powertrains & Chassis, Body Electronics and Safety & Security Systems), By Technology (Blind Spot Detection, Park Assist System, Tire Pressure Monitoring System and Adaptive Cruise Control), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/automotive-microcontrollers-market/284 Valve Cover Gasket Market Size By Type (Cork Valve Cover Gasket, Liquid Gaskets, Formed Rubber Gaskets, Thermostat Gasket, Aircraft Gaskets, and Aluminium Gaskets), By Application (Commercial Vehicle, Light Commercial Vehicle, and Passenger Vehicle), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 Pune India, Jan. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The market has been studied for the below mentioned-segmentation and regional analysis for North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. These are the key regions where the oral care/oral hygiene market is operating and is predicted to expand soon. The manufacturers and suppliers involved in the oral care/oral hygiene market are present across various countries in the above-mentioned regions. Get Sample Copy of This Report @ https://greyviews.com/reports/oral-care-oral-hygiene-market/428/request-sample The report provides a detailed understanding of the market segments which have been formed by combining different prospects such as the product, sales channel, and regions. Apart from this, the key driving factors, restraints, potential growth opportunities and market challenges are also discussed in the below paragraphs. The significant players operating in the global oral care/oral hygiene market are Church & Dwight Co. Inc., Lion Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, DABUR INDIA LTD., Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd., ULTRADENT PRODUCTS, Procter & Gamble Co., Unilever, Colgate Palmolive Co., Henkel AG & Co. KG Aa, Sunstar Suisse S.A., Dr. Fresh, LLC among others. To achieve a substantial market share in the worldwide oral care/oral hygiene market and strengthen their position, manufacturers are pursuing expansion methods such as current developments, mergers and acquisitions, product innovations, collaborations, and partnerships, joint ventures. Oral care/Oral hygiene involves proper care and treatment of oral health through various treatments and procedures. There has been an increase in purchasing power worldwide, along with convenient and effective attributes associated with using mouthwashes, which has driven the market for mouthwashes. Additionally, dental associations and dental associations have recommended mouthwashes, which will also encourage end-users to use them, and will continue to do so. A primary factor driving market growth for oral care products is dental hygiene awareness. Dental professionals hold various seminars and initiatives to increase dental hygiene awareness. By doing so, key market players can exhibit their product portfolio, leading to a greater acceptance of dental care products. As a result of medical and dental tourism in developing countries, as well as the increased geriatric population and increased health consciousness, the oral care/oral hygiene market is positively affected. Further, high awareness about oral hygiene and a rise in online purchasing and e-commerce present profitable opportunities to the market players during the forecast period. Since the incidence of oral disorders continues to rise, preventative oral care products are becoming increasingly popular. Moreover, rising spending on oral care is creating growth opportunities for the oral care market. Furthermore, the increase in federal government funding to promote the adoption of these solutions further influences the market. Enquiry Before Buying This Report @ https://greyviews.com/inquiry/428 Scope of Oral Care/Oral Hygiene Market Report: Report Metric Information Study Period 2022-2030 Base Year 2022 Forecast Period 2023-2030 Market Share Unit USD Billion Segments Covered Product, Sales Channel, and Regions. Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle-East and Africa Major Players Church & Dwight Co. Inc., Lion Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, DABUR INDIA LTD., Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd., ULTRADENT PRODUCTS, Procter & Gamble Co., Unilever, Colgate Palmolive Co., Henkel AG & Co. KG Aa, Sunstar Suisse S.A., Dr. Fresh, LLC among others Segmentation Analysis Toothpaste is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in 2022. The product segment includes toothpaste, denture products, dental accessories, toothbrush and others. The toothpaste segment is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period There was a significant share of revenue generated by toothpaste, the most widely used oral care product and considered essential by people of all income levels. In order to cater to consumers' varied preferences, different flavors of toothpaste are available in the market. For example, Colgate introduced Colgate Trolls Mild Bubble Fruit Toothpaste for children. In addition, various whitening toothpastes are available, which are boosting the market growth. Specialty stores are expected to be the fastest-growing segment in 2022. The sales channel segment includes online sales channels, drug stores & pharmacies, supermarkets, specialty stores and others. The specialty stores segment is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. During the forecast period, the specialty stores will dominate the market and helps the market to grow at a rapid rate. In addition, specialty stores are offering discounts on their products, which attracts more customers. The rising awareness about the oral health in developing and underdeveloped regions is driving the growth of the specialty stores segment. Regional Analysis The regional analysis provides a detailed perception of the key regions and the countries. Some of the key countries analyzed for the oral care/oral hygiene market include the US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, the U.K., Italy, Spain, Russia, China, Japan, India, Brazil, Peru, UAE, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia. The Asia Pacific region witnessed a major share. Increasing medical tourism and supportive government initiatives in the region are expected to drive significant growth in Asia-Pacific during the forecast period. Increasing disposable income and increasing concerns about dental care have sparked an increase in the demand for special oral care products that meet targeted solutions among Asians. Country Analysis Germany Germany's oral care/oral hygiene market size was valued at USD 4.14 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 7.8 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 8.3% from 2023 to 2030. A growing ageing population provides a boost to the dental industry, as they require greater dental care and are more at risk of gum disease. Furthermore, teeth whitening products are driven by aging populations, since teeth tend to become less bright with maturation due to enamel thinning and dentin darkening. China Chinas oral care/oral hygiene market size was valued at USD 5.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 10.44 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 8.6% from 2023 to 2030. Increasing awareness of oral health and dental hygiene, along with the rise in dental caries, are driving growth of the oral care products market. In addition, technology advancements and the development of new manufacturing techniques are boosting the market. India India's oral care/oral hygiene market size was valued at USD 4.2 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 8.06 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 8.5% from 2023 to 2030. There are many oral health care products in India that are based on ayurvedic or natural ingredients, and all the major companies in the country are selling ayurvedic revolution products, for example, Amway, an American company, has launched Glister, a toothpaste enriched with 11 natural herbs, in India. Covid-19 Impact Covid-19 had a major impact on almost all industries, such as electronics, semiconductors, manufacturing, automobile, etc. However, several companies operating in the technology sector have seen increased revenue due to significant changes in consumer preferences toward technological services. In addition, the pandemic has led to significant growth in technology across developing and developed countries. Furthermore, the growth of this market is mainly driven owing to the rising cases of dental cavities, propelling the growth of the market across the countries. Buy Now Full Report @ https://greyviews.com/checkout/428/single_user_license Contact Us Rocky Shah GreyViews Pune India Phone: (+44) 162-237-1047 Email: sales@greyviews.com Web: https://greyviews.com/ Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Browse Related Reports: Oral Care/Oral Hygiene Market Size By Product (Toothpaste, Denture Products, Dental Accessories, Toothbrush and Others), By Sales Channel (Online Sales Channel, Drug Stores & Pharmacies, Supermarkets, Specialty Stores and Others), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/oral-care-oral-hygiene-market/428 Medical Tourism Market Size By Treatment Type (Cosmetic Treatment, Orthopedic Treatment, Oncology (Cancer) Treatment, Fertility Treatment, and Others), By Service Provider (Public and Private) Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/medical-tourism-market/425 Hospital Capacity Management Solutions Market Size By Delivery Mode (Cloud-Based and On-Premise), By Application (Integrated Solutions and Standalone Solutions), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/hospital-capacity-management-solutions-market/416 Hair Transplant Market Size By Method (Follicular Unit Transplantation and Follicular Unit Extraction), By Therapy (PRP, Stem Cell, Laser Therapy, and Others), By Service Provider (Hospitals, Clinics, Surgical Centers, and Others), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/hair-transplant-market/414 Skin Tightening Market Size By Type (Ultrasound Skin-Tightening, Radio Frequency Skin-Tightening and Laser Skin-Tightening), By End-User (Hospitals, Cosmetic Centres & Homecare, Beauty Salons and Others), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/skin-tightening-market/412 Orthopaedic Braces & Support Market Size By Product (Lower Extremity Braces & Supports and Upper Extremity Braces & Supports), By Distribution Channel (Retail Sales and Institutional Sales), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/orthopaedic-braces-support-market/411 Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Systems Market Size By Component (Sensors, Transmitters, and Receivers), By End-User (Home Care, Hospitals and Others), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/continuous-glucose-monitoring-cgm-systems-market/407 Fertility and Pregnancy Rapid Test Kits Market Size By Product (Fertility Rapid Tests and Pregnancy Rapid Tests), By Test Type (HCG Blood, LH Urine, HCG Urine, and FSH Urine), By Distribution Channel (E-Commerce, Hypermarkets & Supermarkets, Drugstore, and Gynecology/Fertlity Clinics), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/fertility-and-pregnancy-rapid-test-kits-market/402 Dental Cement Market Size By Material (Resin-Based Ionomers, Glass Ionomers, Zinc Oxide Eugenol and Others), By Type (Temporary and Permanent), By End-User (Luting, Pulpal Protection, Restorations and Others), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 https://greyviews.com/reports/dental-cement-market/401 Cancer Supportive Care Products Market Size By Drug Class (Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor, Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agent, Antiemetics, Bisphosphonates, Opioids, Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, Topical, and Others), By Distribution Channel (Retail Pharmacies, Hospital Pharmacies, and Compounding Pharmacies), Regions, Segmentation, and Projection till 2030 NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Generac Holdings, Inc. (Generac or the Company) (NYSE: GNRC). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Generac and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On August 1, 2022, Generacs channel partner Pink Energy filed a lawsuit against Generac, revealing that Generacs defective SnapRS components caused millions of dollars of damage, giving rise to liability that threatened Pink Energys solvency (the Pink Energy Complaint). The disclosures in the Pink Energy Complaint caused Generacs stock price to fall $3.31 per share. The liability created by defective SnapRS components ultimately forced Pink Energy to declare bankruptcy on October 7, 2022. In the wake of Pink Energys bankruptcy, on October 19, 2022, Generac revealed that it had taken pre-tax charges totalling approximately $55 million, including approximately $37 million of clean energy product warranty-related matter and approximately $18 million of bad debt expense related to a clean energy product customer that has filed for bankruptcy. The $37 million charge related to warranty expenses appears to reflect Generacs belated acknowledgment of its increased liability to redress defective SnapRS units. The $18 million charge related to bad debt expense reflects receivables owed by Pink Energy, and possibly other partners or customers burdened with defective SnapRS products, that would not be paid. These disclosures caused the Generacs stock price to decline by $37.44 per share, or 25%. Then, on November 2, 2022, Generac released its earnings results for the third quarter of 2022, and lowered sales guidance on its solar energy business for the remainder of the year by approximately 40%. On a conference call with investors and analysts held that same day, Generacs Chief Executive Officer Aaron Jagdfeld attributed the lowered guidance to the loss of a major customer during the quarter, along with the specific warranty-related issuei.e., the defective SnapRS component and the Pink Energy bankruptcy that resulted directly from that defect. Analysts expressed shock upon learning how dependent Generacs clean energy business was on Pink Energy, with several analysts noting that investors had not been told of the significant concentration of that business with a single partner. As a result of these disclosures, Generacs stock price declined by $8.99 per share, or 8%. Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com . CONTACT: Fans excited about new YOLO season Edith Mensah Showbiz News Jan - 21 - 2023 , 10:13 Season six of the popular youth-oriented television programme, You Only Live Once (YOLO) has been premiered with fans expressing excitement about the content. Hundreds of fans thronged the Silverbird Cinemas in Accra for the premiering yesterday, January 20 and they seemed satisfied with the new season's story line and production. A number of them who spoke with Graphic Showbiz were full of praises for the new season which reflects the youthful vibes it has been projecting since it's debut. According to a patron Crystal Ampomaa Danfa, she had waited impatiently for the new season and was glad to know that it satisfied all her interests. "Considering how long I had to wait for this one and how closely it matched my expectations, I didn't even want to miss season 6. A new vibe is created by seeing fresh faces and new settings to the series," she said. "Well, I believe that the inclusion of education in COVID-19 and its ramifications is a good idea since it offers a different method of informing the public, and especially the young people, about getting the COVID-19 shot. It's an excellent method to communicate with everyone in a language we can all understand in a supportive manner," another patron," Richard Dogbevi told Graphic Showbiz. The Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Patrick Kuma-Aboagye who spoke to the press following the premiere expressed excitement about the new season which aims to educate and delight millions of Ghanaians on proper heath care. "The YOLO initiative is unique to the Ghana Health Service in that it offers a platform for open health discussions and information exchanges that highlight how the youth can relate to good health messages concerning disease prevention, maternal and child health, vaccines, and other topics. This programme offers the opportunity to promote healthy behaviours and approaches in a way that is appealing and relevant to this key group," he said. YOLO is a follow-up to the well-liked Things We Do For Love in the early 20s. It has the likes of Jackie Appiah, Adjetey Anang, Majd Michel, Mawuli Semevor, Agnes Panfred, and a host of other young, talented actors as its cast. The new season filmed primarily in Tamale and in several areas of Ghana's capital, Accra addresses issues such as COVID-19, maternal and child health, disability, and other related topics YOLO is produced by Farmhouse Productions Limited in collaboration with the National Population Council, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Harold Amenyah wins Male TV Star at Africa Choice Awards Kofi Duah Showbiz News Jan - 21 - 2023 , 09:23 Ghanaian actor Harold Amenyah has emerged winner of the Africa Choice Awards- Male TV Star held recently in Lagos. Harold beat the likes of Maps Maponyane(South Africa), Cross Okonkwo (Nigeria), Karim Fahmy( Egypt), Luis Munana( Namibia), Saga Adeolu(Nigeria), and Nay Maps(South Africa) to win the Make TV Star Award. Speaking in an interview with Graphic Showbiz, Harold said he was honored to receive this award especially as it is his first international award. I was in a tough category considering the other male TV stars who were in the competition but I emerged winner and I believe it is all because of hard work, he said. He appealed to Ghanaians to support the actors and musicians and when they release something new. It is just right that we support our celebrities here in Ghana. When there is a new movie or music, I encourage that we support by patronizing it and vote for our people to win. I want to use this opportunity to tell anyone who voted for me to win this award he said A-G to revamp state attorney offices to improve work Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson Features Jan - 21 - 2023 , 12:29 It is the third year of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos second term in office. The Daily Graphic is, therefore, conducting a series of interviews with some of his appointees, especially Ministers of State, to highlight their achievements and challenges in their sectors. The Office of the Attorney-General (A-G) and Ministry of Justice is one of the most critical areas of governance, with its work having a great impact on the citizenry and the government. Kumasi choking under congestion Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor Features Jan - 21 - 2023 , 12:39 The Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, has been known for its vibrant commercial activities, and the erstwhile Kumasi Central Market, until it was pulled down to pave way for the second phase of the Kejetia Redevelopment Project, was known to be the biggest market in the sub-region. Due to its central location, the city attracts lots of visitors on a daily basis and serves as the transit points between the Northern and the Southern, and the Western and Eastern parts of the country. As a result of the high vehicular and human traffic that pass through the city on a daily basis, coupled with the behaviour of some traders within the Central Business District, city managers have had difficulties managing the congestion in the city over the years. The problem has been compounded by the haphazard erection of commercial structures such as stores and kiosks at unapproved places within the city. Ultimatum So serious has become the issue that during his new message, Bantamahene Baffour Asare Owusu Amankwatiah VI warned that if the city managers were unable to deal with the situation, traditional leaders would be forced to step in. In 2023, if they (political leaders) fail to do it, Nananom will take it upon ourselves to make sure Kumasi is clean, he said. Difficulty In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Mayor of the Kumasi Municipal Assembly, Sam Pyne, admitted that we all acknowledge that fact that there is congestion within the city, but we have challenges too as we cannot continue to use the old style of decongesting the city. He said the current system of decongesting the city by using personnel from the security services to clear the streets was not sustainable. According to him, it cost money to keep the security service personnel on the streets and as such would not be cost effective to keep using the police and the military to clear the streets. Mr Pyne said the issue has been compounded with the second phase of the redevelopment of the Kejetia Market, which, he said, has displaced some traders. Aside from that, he said, the first phase of the project virtually displaced most of the vehicles onto the streets. Mr Pyne explained that the lorry stations which hitherto were operating at the Ketejia Terminal are all now operating on the streets, thus making the congestion worse. If you want to decongest using the previous years method, it is not sustainable because there is the need for attitudinal change by the people involved and it is also capital intensive, he said. Solutions In order to find a lasting solution to the perennial congestion of the city, Mr Pyne said the assembly was investing in satellite markets for the people on the streets to move in to. Thats why we are seriously looking for an investor or a loan facility to complete the Krofuom market, and the Kejetia Central market is on course. We also started work on the Santasi satellite market and very soon, a sod will be cut to begin work on the Amakom satellite market, he said. According to him, when all these markets become operational, it would push over 90 per cent of the people currently trading on the streets in the Central Business District (CBD) into those markets. Planners have something called agglomeration: When you have one business venture, there is the tendency of that venture to attract other business entities. So when the Central market is complete, the entire ground floor would be used as a terminal and now the vehicles that are plying all routes would be stationed there and those on the streets trading would go there to do their trading and, therefore, you would not find them on the streets again, he said. He was hopeful that when these satellite markets are completed, together with the Central Market, all the vehicles and traders would be moved from the streets to ply their trade at these places. Bus Rapid System The other alternative of decongesting the city, according to the mayor, was the development of the Rapid Bus System. Already, he said there had been extensive technical discussions and collaboration with the World Bank, Agence Francaise de Developpement (AfD) and the French Government for the entire Greater Kumasi. If these plans go through, the vehicular traffic would also be reduced, he said. Additionally, he said the assembly was seeking a facility from the Internal Municipality Investment Fund (IMIF) to build an ultra-modern car park to take the smaller cars that park within the CBD as a means of decongesting the city. Human face He said there was the need to add a human face to the exercise as most of the people, particularly the drivers, were forced to relocate on the streets as phase one of the Kejetia Redevelopment Project did not have any plans for them. According to him, when the old Kejetia terminal was operational with all the lorry stations operating from there, there was not much congestion in the city then. He said the assembly has also engaged the executives of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) to impress on their members to display their wares in the shops and not on the pavement. He was hopeful that the members would heed to the appeal and comply thus clearing the pavement of some clutter. Regional Minister Late last year, when the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, appeared before the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs, he cited the displacement of the lorry stations from the old Kejetia Terminal as one of the major causes of the congestion in the regional capital. He believed that when the second phase of the Kejetia Redevelopment Project was completed, it would pave way for all the vehicles using the roads as their stations to move from the road, thus, creating space for easy flow of traffic. He explained that because of the challenge posed by the first phase, the second phase was designed such that the entire down floor would be used as a terminal and all the cars would be moved there, he assure Nananom. December in GH ends on another high note Graphic Traveler Opinion Jan - 21 - 2023 , 09:46 The lack of professionalism in Ghanas hospitality sector has been the bane of the industry for a while. It comes up again as one of the leading criticisms of how visitors who came to the country for the last Yuletides December in Ghana razzmatazz. Reviewing the work they put in to mitigate some of the more extreme problems that often occur in the sector during the period, the leadership at the Ghana Tourism Authoritys Beyond the Return office that has oversight of the December campaign have had engagements with various stakeholders to address the challenges in an effort to improve upon the festivities which comes off again at the end of this year. PaJohn Bentsifi Dadson delves into the nitty gritty of the GTA review and says the outcomes are encouraging. Of the 122 events endorsed by the Beyond the Return office as part of the GTA December in GH campaign, nine of them were either cancelled or postponed for various reasons by organisers during th This week the GTA officially wrapped up another successful season of what it now calls December in GH activities. It was quite a treat and this year, the GTA can boast marked improvements on previous ones. From local residents to Africans in the diaspora and the global community, Ghanas rich arts and cultural heritage on display were the richer having been included in the 113 officially endorsed events which were monitored by the Beyond the Return secretariat and featured in the December in GH calendar. Being listed in this coveted calendar is the ultimate goal of every key event organiser who hosts any kind of event during the Yuletide in all the regions across the country. From traditional festivals to concerts, fashion shows, sporting events, and community projects. Each occasion included elements that connected with the foundational pillars of the Beyond the Return initiative: Experience Ghana, Celebrate Ghana, Diaspora Pathways to Ghana, Brand Ghana, Give Back Ghana, Invest in Ghana and Promote Pan African Heritage and Innovation, states the Beyond the Return Steering committee which is grateful to its stakeholders These include the Ghana Tourism Federation, the Ghana Airports Company, the Ghana Immigration Service, the Airlines Board, the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ghana Police Service, the National Fire Service, the National Ambulance Service, the Ghana Music Rights Organisation as well as Event Organisers all of whose contributions have ensured a successful campaign this year! While numbers of visitors who came in to participate in the December events have yet to be determined, many, says the campaign, have expressed compliments for the quality and taste of Ghanaian meals they were served at hotels, and also commended tour guides for their knowledge of tour attractions and sites. Reservations One particular area that comes up often for the most criticism is the slow and dismal service in restaurants. American radio host Charlamagne, who, by the way, speaks rather highly of Ghana, and says he thoroughly enjoyed his time here, especially the nightlife, also had some reservations about the quality of service in the countrys hospitality industry. Speaking on the Brilliant Idiots comedic podcast with Andrew Schulz, Charlamagne mentions how he spent - one time, up to three hours - waiting for food at some restaurant but got used to having to wait so long after a while. Let me tell you something about service in Ghana, he says, it is the nicest most terrible service you will ever receive. The service is terrible but they are so nice about it that you cant even be mad. There were many other complaints noted in observations by the Beyond the Return office, as the office interacted with some of the visitors who came. They range from the different rates charged upon arrival at establishments, the disparity of unfair prices/rates of tours, unceremonious cancellation of reservations and the poor cleanliness of establishments. In contrast, many guests also felt warmly welcomed by hotel staff and tour operators and complimented some tour operators for their efforts to accommodate their needs. On the events that took place, the BtR offices notes that there were a good representation of Ghanaian culture & art forms and that vendor stalls were also quite well-equipped with seating, electricity etc While local and foreign artistes representation was fair, with stages and grounds well set-up, many had low quality of video and sound, marring the experience for revelers. Though there was a marked increase in the visibility of armed police as well as other security forces, there was also a notable increase in reports of pickpocketing. Long queues characterised those events that provided toilet facilities on their venues, like Afrochella, and this caused many revelers to complain about their inadequacy. In future, perhaps, many more outlets should be provided. Many organisers also made insufficient provisions for garbage disposal. One thing a lot of people also complained about was the disruptive ticket redemption processes. It didnt make much sense that a QR code given prior was to be presented at the venue to have it validated for a wristband. Many wondered why punters were not allowed in and out using just the QR code once that was validated. Start times were delayed at some events which led to delayed appearances by headline performances, and with the lack of seating, this made for tedious experience for visitors. Hopefully, whatever accounts for the high prices of vendor stalls and food would be checked to make access more affordable. The December in GH campaign was first launched by the Ghana Tourism Authority during the monumental Year of Return (2019) and is aimed at promoting Ghana as a December holiday season destination. It has, over the years, contributed to an increase in international arrivals, and tourist expenditure, consequently stimulating the economy while bridging the gap between the African continent and Africans in the diaspora. Serious wahala for oyiboland Edmund Smith-Asante Opinion Jan - 21 - 2023 , 12:01 It was 7:39 a.m. European Time on a not-too-exciting day in April 2014, and I didnt know how to describe how I felt at that moment - Should I be angry or happy? Well, I guess a mixture of the two, since I was finally leaving for home after about a week's sojourn in Europe on official duty. As a matter of fact, I was writing this piece tens of thousands of miles above sea level, onboard Turkish flight TK 1942 from Brussels to Istanbul, where I would connect a flight to Accra. Yet, I was angry that I had been tagged as a drug dealer before I finally got on board the Turkish flight to Istanbul en route to Accra. Me a drug courier? Preposterous! This is what I need, after so much wahala in Brussels where I covered the 4th EU-Africa conference, I said to myself. Do you want to know how I got that tag? Then come with me to the end as I recount some of my sweet and sour moments in Denmark and Brussels. How it all began Twelve African journalists, including five Ghanaians, were selected by International Media Support (IMS), an organisation headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, to take part in a week-long Green Growth Study Tour of three Danish cities - Copenhagen, Aalborg and Aarhus, from February to March 2014. Indeed, those times would always be remembered as one of the wonderful moments of my life, as we learned a lot and had some fun touring those three beautiful Danish cities. It was as a follow up to that visit, that two out of the team, Janet Otieno from Kenya and I, were invited once again by IMS, barely a month afterwards, to meet with some Danish key officials and also get the opportunity to report on the two-day EU-AFRICA Summit in Brussels, Belgium. Although preparations were a bit hasty because there was not much time, both invitees were able to secure visas for the trip. So it was, that the two of us landed in Copenhagen for the second time in a month, on Sunday, March 30, my colleague from Kenya arriving first. We both checked in at the same hotel (First Hotel Twenty Seven), thus bringing back fond memories from the previous visit. My wahala begins But despite the smooth flights I enjoyed from Accra to Istanbul and from Istanbul to Denmark, I was to receive the rudest shock of my life on arrival at the Copenhagen Airport - my luggage was nowhere in sight. After a flight delay of an hour, I had to spend another two hours at the airport checking and rechecking that indeed my luggage did not come with me, and finally lodging a complaint and filling a form. This was after I had joined a fairly long queue of people who had also suffered the same predicament. So how was I going to cope with the situation? It was not my first time though, but it had been a long time since I last lost my luggage. Thankfully, when all was done and it was certain that I was going to live my first or maybe all days in Denmark without a change of cloth, I went out to meet worried Hanne (pronounced Hannah) my host, still waiting to pick me up to my hotel. Thanks Hanne. It might have been double agony or tragedy if I had missed you on top of it all, after my almost 24 - hour travel. I left home on Saturday, March 29, at 6:15 p.m. and arrived in Copenhagen after 6 p.m. and the hotel at about 9 p.m. It was quite a wonder that all my senses were working when I entered my room at the First Hotel Twenty Seven. No change of clothes Work began in earnest on Monday with a visit to two NGOs - one in the morning and the other later in the afternoon. But there was still no news of my luggage by evening and I still had on the shirt I wore from home on Saturday. Did I have a choice? I guess not. Thankfully though, I was able to get a shirt and underwear with the little money I was given for my meals and got a toothbrush from the hotel, so I was ready to go and I braced myself for the worst. Cervical cancer: Why it must be a mass media campaign The writer Vicky Wireko Reality Zone Jan - 21 - 2023 , 08:51 If media theories can liken the total effect of the mass media to the magic bullet or injection because of its direct and immediate penetration effect, then certainly, the awareness campaign this month on cervical cancer should be mass media intensified. I believe a totally focused agenda by print and electronic media, particularly morning shows, various discussion programmes in the local languages and community radios should prioritise and give dedicated airtime to the dreaded disease killing our women mostly because of lack of adequate knowledge. Cervical cancer is said to be the leading cause of cancer mortality in women in this country. Paradoxically, though one gets to hear over and over that early detection could be a saving grace for the women who go through the painful disease and the needless lives we end up losing, the sad claim is that little is known about screening for early detection. Media led campaigns My strong belief in the bullet effect is that a media-led campaign could dramatically increase the awareness level of the disease on the premise of what went on in Britain recently. Just a couple of weeks ago, some media organisations boycotted the continued publication of excerpts from the fast-selling book of Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. The title of the memoir is Spare. Those media houses thought excerpts of the book and the litany of excruciating attacks on the British Royal family by the fifth in line to the throne were too humiliating and harmful to that British institution. They believed giving the book any further publicity in their media space was not in the best interest of the British people. Their decision worked as other media organisations followed suit and the publications and chat shows were minimally brought down. So I do not doubt that the mass media in this country can use its power to heighten the life-saving awareness that early screening for cervical cancer or what technically is referred to in medical terms as a Pap smear test will offer. Minimal awareness Though cancer signs are said to be different and affect people in different ways, for cervical cancer, experts advise that women look out for unexpected vaginal bleeding including after sex, between monthly periods or after menopause, blood in urine or problem passing urine. Due to the lack of awareness, however, information available indicates that about 70 per cent of cases diagnosed in the country are usually at an advanced stage, showing that awareness is minimal. And yet, experts tell us that early detection through screening can save lives. At a recent talk on cervical cancer, it was pleasant to the ears to learn that there is now a cervical cancer vaccine which is accessible to women between the ages of 27 and 45. Administered in two doses, the vaccine apparently costs around GH700. This is good news that needs to be spread far and wide so our young women could access it. However, for those who may not want the vaccine or are not in the age range, routine screening costing very little is available in some allocated centres around the country. The media could fish out more information on these various centres and share it. It is painful and heartbreaking to hear of or see a victim of cervical cancer and even more devastating to hear of death through this touted treatable disease. And that is what inadequate knowledge is leading one to. In this month of cervical cancer awareness, one believes some education has already started. But much more needs to be done for it to go far. One would like to entreat the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to bring education first to the doorsteps of the media and appoint ambassadors in the various media houses to hammer down the awareness. While the media gets on with live conversations with survivors, victims or a deceaseds loved ones need to drum home the awareness message; GHS could embark on organised talks for women in various organisations, womens groups in churches and young women in various tertiary institutions. The talks could be extended to the busy markets around the country, to lorry stations and indeed, wherever one finds women populated during the day. Where appropriate, GHS should set up screening centres and make provisions for the vaccine, for the benefit of those who are ready to be vaccinated. It should not be a one-month focus for GHS. If cervical cancer is treatable with early detection, then the good the service could do for the people is to increase and advertise screening centres on an ongoing basis. As a public duty, let the mass media run with the cervical cancer awareness agenda for the rest of this month and throughout the year. Let someone take it as their new year focus and bring the conversation to peoples homes. The media should shelve the partisan political talks for the rest of the month and focus on fighting cervical cancer through intensive awareness. Let talk show hosts have live conversations with experts, with survivors and with those living through it. The outcome of that public good can sell their products even far. That is my prediction based on the hypodermic-magic bullet theories. Danger looms at Dawa Trim Djamam community Haruna Yussif Wunpini Jan - 21 - 2023 , 09:10 There is looming danger of an outbreak of cholera and water-borne diseases as residents of Dawa Trim Djamam continue to drink from a polluted stream. Dawa Trim Djamam, a farming community near Asesewa in the Upper Manya Krobo District of the Eastern Region, has a population of about 500, mostly farmers. What is more disturbing and worrying is that pupils of the local Presbyterian School also rely on the polluted water of the stream. As a result, most of the dwellers, particularly the schoolchildren report to the community's Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound with infections from water-borne diseases. Runny stomach In view of that, the schoolchildren do not regularly attend classes while the adults also do not go to their farms regularly because of runny stomach and other sicknesses. When the Daily Graphic visited the community last Tuesday, a teacher of the school, Patrick Narh, who was worried about the situation said most of the children had runny stomach and water-borne diseases because they drank from the polluted water both at home and in school. Waterborne diseases "Because they drink the polluted water, they get infected with water-borne diseases and at times runny stomach so they absent themselves from school for a number of days and that has been adversely affecting their studies. "We cannot prevent the children from drinking the polluted water because it is the only source of drinking water for the school and the entire community", Mr Narh stated. Polluted water Joseph Narh, the Caretaker Dadematse (Deputy Chief Farmer), pointed out that it was unfortunate that the people in the community should be depending on the polluted water and was hopeful that the district assembly would take up the matter and provide them with good and safe drinking water. Mr Narh, who is also a resident in the community, was not too happy about recent developments regarding the water situation in the area and appealed to the authorities concerned, especially the government and the Upper Manya Krobo District Assembly, to help address the water problem in the community. Trek long distances He said accessing potable water was a major source of worry to the inhabitants of Dawa Trim Djamam and its environs and as such, women and children, on a daily basis were compelled to trek long distances in search of clean water. Mr Narh appealed to philanthropic organisations as well as benevolent individuals to provide the community with a mechanised water system. The dadematse pointed out that it was the responsibility of the government through the district assembly to provide safe drinking water to the deprived residents living in rural communities. No mechanised water system The assemblyman for Dawa Trim/ Adansu Electoral Area, Daniel Tetteh Angmor, said it was so sad that a farming community such as Dawa Trim Djamam did not have any mechanised water system or boreholes. He indicated that a non-governmental organisation (NGO), PH8 Foundation, visited the community some years ago and decided to construct a borehole for the community but that failed due to lack of water. When contacted, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Joe Sam, said the government was committed to providing potable water to communities in the district and Dawa Trim Djamam was not an exception. Responsibility According to him, potable water was needed by the people in the communities within the district as such government would not shirk its responsibility to address water problems in such areas. Mr Sam appealed to the inhabitants to exercise patience as the assembly would do everything possible to find a lasting solution to the water problem in the area since potable water was a necessity. Dr Kofi Amoa-Abban wins FIN-Forbes Best of Africa award GraphicOnline Jan - 21 - 2023 , 10:06 The Chairman and CEO of Rigworld International Services Limited, Dr. Kofi Amoah-Abban, Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun; Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig- Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd) and Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi, have been conferred with FIN-Forbes Best of Africa Awards. The distinguished personalities were conferred with the awards through a virtual symposium on Friday, January 13, 2022, themed: Leadership and Investment. Dr. Amoa-Abban was awarded as FIN-FORBES AFRCAN MOST OUTSTANDING BUSINESS LEADER IN OIL AND GAS 2022. The host, Darcy Mehta, who welcomed the guests to the FIN-Forbes Best of Africa Award 2022 while the President, Forbes Best of Africa Custom, Mark Furlong, introduced the recipients and read their citations during the presentation of the awards and presented the Forbes Certificate of Distinction to Dr. Amoa-Abban. Speaking on the uniqueness of the awards, the organiser of the event and the Chairman, Foreign Investment Network (FIN), Mrs Olayinka Fayomi, said that FIN in partnership with Forbes has for decades identified emerging economies in Africa seeking investors and have exposed those investment gaps to Forbes Billionaires and international investors. She said: Over the years, Foreign Investment Network has worked together with Forbes Best of Africa to attract quality Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, in Oil and Gas, Aviation, Agriculture, Health care, Education, and Infrastructure to the continent of Africa. The Forum also discussed how development and investments can be utilized as a mechanism to accelerate the emergence of an inclusive and innovative society. She also explained that Forbes Award is exclusively conferred on individuals and corporate organizations with a distinguishing touch of excellency in their various endeavours. She said that Forbes identifies individuals with value of purpose, integrity and innovative business approach for the overall interest of humanity. The citation that accompanies the award reads as follows: You are a Renowned business magnate. A man with an extraordinary capability in the Oil and Gas Sector. Your enormous contribution in promoting the industry in Ghana and across Africa has been inspiring and commendable. Forbes has recognized this excellent achievement and your unflappable and professional traits in managing issues at the sector. We, therefore, honour you as FIN-FORBES AFRCAN MOST OUTSTANDING BUSINESS LEADER IN OIL AND GAS 2022. Dr. Amoa-Abban in accepting the award said I feel very excited and humble for this honour. I am highly grateful for FIN and its partners FORBES for recognising my efforts and achievements globally. I know awards are meant to inspire and motivate you to do more and I promise to leverage on this global award to do more in my country Ghana and beyond. I dedicate this award to all hardworking management team and staff and to the people of Ghana. God bless us all The FIN-FORBES awards scheme is to appreciate the efforts of individuals and organizations in the world that are making a real impact on society and their sectors Dr. Amoa-Abban is a highly-regarded entrepreneur and philanthropist who has been recognized by FORBES due to his tenacity and professionalism to achieve practical success in the Oil and Gas sector The multiple award-winning businessman, Dr. Amoah-Abban was recently acknowledged as he was adjudged the Upstream entrepreneur of the Year 2020 at the Ghana Oil & Gas Awards (GOGA) event in Accra. Other Forbes recipients are: Deputy Chief Whip, House of Representatives, Hon. Chidubem Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; President, American Institute of Certified Professionals, Dr. Christopher Irene Imumolen; Governor Abiodun was conferred with Forbes Best of Africa Governor of Industrial Revolution, Ado-Bayero was honoured with Most Outstanding Traditional Ruler Award, Marwa received Health Safety Award of Excellence while Abdullahi bagged the Outstanding Cooperate Governance CEO Award. Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam stretch... Riskiest road in Accra Justice Agbenorsi Jan - 21 - 2023 , 08:00 A road safety report has ranked the George Walker Bush Highway segment of the National Road One (N1) as the riskiest in Accra. The segment is the extension from the Tema-Accra Motorway at Tetteh Quarshie Interchange to Mallam Junction. The 2021 Accra Road Safety Report also cited the Opeibia, Lapaz, North Dzorwulu, Kawukudi and Hansonic intersections as the top five fatal crash intersections in the capital. The report, part of a global road safety initiative, also named distances between the Apenkwa overhead and Dimples Roundabout, Akweteyman to Lapaz, the Airport Junction to North Dzorwulu intersection, the Abeka Junction to Total Station (J.A. Kufuor Avenue), and the Hansonic to Kaneshie First Light as the top five fatal crash corridors in the city. Overall, speeding increased from 50 per cent in 2021 to 51 per cent in 2022, indicating that speeding remains the main risk factor for severe road crashes. The report was put together through the collaborative efforts of the National Road Safety Authority, the Ghana Police Service, the Accra Metropolitan Authority and other local city authorities with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is working to improve road safety globally; Vital Strategies and the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit. The Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Elizabeth Sackey, launched the report in Accra yesterday. Deaths Vulnerable road users who are persons not in any vehicle, including pedestrians, motorcyclists, cyclists, accounted for about 80 per cent of all deaths resulting from road crashes in Accra, the report pointed out. It said 99 persons out of the 123 people who died from road accidents in Accra in 2021 were the vulnerable road users, constituting 80 per cent of the road traffic deaths in 2021, although the figure declined by nine per cent, from 136 in 2020 to 123 in 2021. The number of reported fatalities, according to the study, dropped by 10 per cent from 2020 to 2021 even though overall crashes increased by two per cent in the same period. Pedestrians constituted 58 per cent of the reported deaths, while persons aged between 20 and 29 were among the highest number of deaths and serious injuries recorded that year. Additionally, reported road traffic crashes in Accra rose by two per cent from 1,774 in 2020 to 1,808 in 2021. The study also revealed that more than half of the reported fatalities in 2021 occurred on weekends (Friday to Saturday) representing 53 per cent of the total figure. The pattern, according to the report, had been consistent in the capital since 2016. Double efforts The Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive CEO, who underscored the relevance of data in the fight against road crashes, commended the stakeholders for providing the first AMA city-specific road safety report, adding: Without data, we are like blind and deaf people in the middle of a freeway. Mrs Sackey said although the city had recorded a slight decrease in deaths, more concerted effort was needed to ensure the citys roads were safe for all users. This decrease must stir us up to double our efforts in our various interventions, leaning against the confidence that we can achieve so much by putting in more efforts. It is critical that all of us at the forefront of road safety stakeholder institutions redouble our efforts to ensure political commitment and responsibility for acting on road safety, Mrs Sackey said. She urged all the key road safety holder institutions to use the report effectively to guide interventions being undertaken towards ensuring safety on the countrys roads. Commitment Mrs Sackey explained that her outfit was committed to helping to reduce road crashes in the country. In line with that, she noted that the AMA in December last year launched a speeding mass media campaign aimed at sensitising motorists to excess speeding. Priority A member of Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Health team, Becky Bavinger, said understanding data was crucial for policy formulation. The report, she said, highlighted the need to prioritise the safety of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users who made up 80 per cent of people who died from road crashes. She also emphasised the need to address the high speed on roads in the country and added that the roads were designed for the countrys real estate and not necessarily for cars. UG law school honours Nana Kweku Baiden Elizabeth Konadu-Boakye Jan - 21 - 2023 , 09:20 The University of Ghana School of Law as inaugurated a refurbished lecture hall in honour of the late renowned businessman and educationist, Nana Moses Kweku Baiden. Held in Accra last Tuesday the inauguration, done in partnership with the Baiden Family, also saw the launch of the Kweku Baiden prize award scheme which has been set up to encourage the quality study of law in the country and award outstanding law students. Exemplary The Head of the Baiden Family delegation, Moses Baiden Jnr, said the refurbishment was done as part of a fund-raising activity to develop and upgrade the infrastructure and facilities of the University's School of Law. He added that the lecture hall was refurbished and named after his father to encourage others to follow the good example he set. Additionally, he said, Mr Baiden, who was also the founder of the Chapel Hill School and the Nest School Complex in Takoradi exhibited high ideals, high ambitions and was committed to the promotion of social, economic and political interests of the country for the betterment of the society which was worthy of emulation. "He was deeply passionate about education and believed that education was fundamental to the transformation of societies and the advancement of nations," he added. Reminiscing the days spent with her father, Lady Adelaide Heward-Mills said although Mr Baiden did not have any formal education in his lifetime, he valued education and its benefits. "He used to say we were lucky to be educated because he did not have that chance due to limited resources but helped with whatever we needed and promised to help us to the highest summit and the peak," she said. She expressed appreciation to the University of Ghana Faculty of Law for graciously accepting to be part of honouring their father who left a great legacy. Another son, Kwesi Atta Panyin Baiden also described his father as a pocket lawyer and said although his father never had the opportunity to attend law school, he was known in his days as a lawyer by trade as he was seen representing himself in court, especially on small claims. "Today by the grace of God, he has four children who are lawyers, three of whom are members of this esteemed faculty. This memorial is our way of saying thank you and also getting him to law school through the back door," he said. Appreciation The Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, said the fund-raising activity to redevelop the infrastructure of the law school was initiated by renowned lawyer, Prof. Akua Kuenyehia in the year 2000. He thanked the Baiden family on behalf of the Faculty for constructing the lecture hall in line with the faculty's vision. Volta Region to host National Independence Day celebration Alberto Mario Noretti Jan - 21 - 2023 , 08:38 The Volta Region will host this years National Independence Day celebration. The venue will be the 5,000-capacity Ho Youth Resource Centre (located at Adaklu Tsrefe). The Director of Operations at the Office of the President, Lord Commey, led a delegation from the Office of the President to announce these to the Volta Regional House of Chiefs (VRHS) yesterday He said the decision was taken by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to market the rich and vast cultural and tourism potential of the Volta Region to the rest of the country and the outside world, and boost the areas local economy. Chairman Mr Commey, who is Chairman of the National Independence Day Celebration Planning Committee, was accompanied by heads of various security agencies and officials from the Office of the President, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Independence Square in Accra alone can no longer take up this key national event, he said. He appealed to the traditional authorities to support the celebration and make it a grand success. The President of the VRHC, Togbe Teprehodo IV, thanked President Akufo-Addo for choosing the region for the celebration, and gave an assurance that the VRHC would throw its full support behind the celebration and make it an unmatched event in the history of the country. Later in the day, the delegation, which included the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa and the Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority, Pius Hadzide, inspected the venue where work on the field, stands, tracks, and other features were going on vigorously. The contractors, Wilkado, gave an assurance that the place would be ready well ahead of the celebration. Delegation The delegation also called at the Asogli Palace at Ho-Bankoe, and the Adaklu Traditional Council at Adaklu-Abuadi, to brief the chiefs on preparations towards the celebration. At the Asogli Palace, the Warlord of Asogli, Togbe Adzi Lakle Howusu XII, said it was an honour for the Volta Region to host the event. The choice of the region by President Akufo-Addo for the national celebration bore ample testimony of the importance he attached to the region, Togbe Howusu added. President Akufo-Addo is expected to take part in the celebration which will feature air shows, spectacular military drills, cultural displays and a parade by contingents from the various security agencies and selected schools. Africa Medical Information Centre inaugurated Juliet Akyaa Safo Health Jan - 21 - 2023 , 09:29 A centre to bridge the gap between the African health sector and health specialists around the world was on Thursday inaugurated in Accra. Known as the Africa Medical Information Centre (AMIC), the facility will facilitate continuing medical education for healthcare providers and also provide online consultations for doctors who may need a second opinion from experts. The centre will also carry out live complex surgical procedures for knowledge and skills transfer to help build capacity in the health sector and also facilitate the emergency evacuation of patients for more advanced quality health care. A piece of medical equipment, known as the Remote Doctors Klinik, that provides healthcare consultations remotely and for real-time diagnosis was also unveiled at the event. In attendance were the Director-General, Ghana Armed Forces Medical Services, Brigadier General Raymond Ewusi; the Director-General, National Police Patrol, Commissioner of Police (COP), Paul Awini, who represented the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, and medical professionals from India and Klinik Everywhere, a technological company, among others. About AMIC The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AMIC, Jignesh Viradia, said the centre was backed by the entire network of Aster Hospitals (Aster Group of Hospitals), which is made up of about 31 hospitals in seven countries with 12,000 surgeons and 45,000 other health workers. This centre will provide a free screening facility for Ghana and the African continent. Apart from that, we will also contribute towards having surgical camps in Ghana and bring in experts to partner with local doctors, he added. Touching on the Remote Doctors Klinik, Mr Viradia said the equipment was one of the innovative inventions that were geared towards providing health care in remote areas. The Idea is to have these Remote Doctors Klinik in all 271 constituencies. The equipment is at the approval stage at the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), so once it is approved we will start deploying them, he added. Appreciation The CEO of the National Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Okoe Boye, expressed appreciation to the Aster Group, AMIC and AIMS Hospital, for the establishment of the centre. He said the centre was helping to enforce an important provision of the Public Health Act 2012, ACT 851 section 167, known as the Patient Charter, where a patient has entitlement and right to relevant information about his or her healthcare interventions. Dr Boye said going forward, the centre would be well stuffed with the needed literature, research materials and doctors who would be accessible to the public and also network across the continent and beyond. For his part, COP Awini also said that the centre would enhance the capacity of health professionals and position them to provide quality health services to the public. He said the work of the police and healthcare professionals was similar as they all aimed at saving lives. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras just recently held a conference and announced BharOS a new mobile operating system focused on privacy and security. The OS is developed by JandK Operations Private Limited (JandKops), which is a Section 8 (not-for-profit) Company established by IIT Madras. BharOS is basically a really clean fork of AOSP that offers various security and privacy features. For instance, there are no default apps pre-loaded in the OS. This allows users to carefully choose only the apps they need and trust. BharOS also provides access to a private app store service called PASS. Apparently, it is populated with hand-picked apps that have been verified to comply with businesses' privacy and security needs. That's precisely the target audience for the OS. It will be provided to businesses and organizations with specific security requirements and sensitive information. Apparently, BharOS will get its own native over-the-air updates as well. Though, it is not clear which version of the Android core it is currently based on. Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, had this to say about the software project: BharOS Service is a Mobile Operating System built on a foundation of trust, with a focus on providing users more freedom, control, and flexibility to choose and use only the apps that fit their needs. This innovative system promises to revolutionize the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices. Source | Via In December, Xiaomi took the wraps off its latest high-end smartphone pair, the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro. That unveiling was only for the Chinese market, however, and we're still waiting on these two being introduced to global markets. That may happen sooner, rather than later, now that the global models of these phones are starting to get certified in countries other than China. The global Xiaomi 13 Pro has been spotted both in the database of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), as well as the Thai NBTC. The model number for this phone is 2210132G. The Xiaomi 13 was also certified by NBTC, bearing the model number 2211133G. In both cases, that final "G" stands for "global", in case you were wondering. BIS and NBTC certifications for the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro Based on these certifications, it looks like the vanilla Xiaomi 13 may not be headed to India, at least not initially alongside its Pro sibling. That's an odd strategy on Xiaomi's part, but this is obviously just speculation at the moment, let's wait for some official information before we jump to conclusions. If they turn out to be identical in specs to their siblings intended for the Chinese market, here are the two devices' specs. The Xiaomi 13 comes with a 6.36-inch 1080x2400 120Hz OLED screen, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, 8/12GB of RAM, 128/256/512GB of storage, a triple rear camera system (50 MP main with OIS, 12 MP ultrawide, 10 MP 3.2x optical zoom), a 32 MP selfie snapper, and a 4,500 mAh battery with 67W wired charging, 50W wireless charging, and 10W reverse wireless charging support. The Xiaomi 13 Pro shares a lot of those specs, but has a larger 6.73-inch 1440x3200 display, a 4,820 mAh battery with 120W wired charging, and an entirely different rear camera setup, with a 50.3 MP main shooter with OIS, a 50 MP ultrawide with autofocus for macros, and a 50 MP 3.2x optical zoom lens. Source 1 | Source 2 By Panos Kotzathanasis | Published on 2023/01/20 Considered among the best films along "The Seashore Village" in the vast filmography of Kim Soo-yong, "Mist" is a very interesting movie, particularly due to the narrative and cinematic experimentations the director included. Advertisement Based on a 1964 novel by Kim Seungok titled "Trip to Mujin", the script revolves around Yoon Gi-joon, a middle class office worker, who has managed to get away from the depressing village he grew up in, not exactly on merit though, but by marrying the widowed daughter of the CEO of the company he works for. While having a relatively high position there, when some trouble spawns in the company, his father in law and wife essentially ask him to stay away, suggesting he visits Mujin, where he was born. While there, Gi-joon meets old friends, reminisces about the past, and embarks on a romantic relationship with Ha In-sook, a newcomer who is teaching music at the local school and also dreams of escaping to Seoul. Kim Soo-yong does a number of interesting things in this film. For starters, the concept of the "Korean Dream" is presented from all sides, as he highlights both the eagerness of the people who grew up in rural places to move to Seoul in order to escape their mundane life, but also shows that making it in the city is not exactly a cure-all, neither does it guarantee happiness, as Gi-joon's life eloquently highlights. At the same time, Kim also includes a role reversal element, by showing men, both Gi-joon and an old friend, getting rich by marrying upwards, in a concept that was usually reserved for women in cinema at the time (it actually still does today). The appeal of the newcomer from the city is also highlighted here, with both protagonists evidently standing out from the locals, in an element that justifies their eventual attraction. The experimentation in style is even more evident in the production values of the movie, which are, though, implemented also contextually. The mist that surrounds the village at almost all times is used as the main medium of the overall atmosphere of the movie, but also as symbolism regarding how the protagonists are lost within their present and about their future life. Furthermore, in combination with the many walks throughout the almost invisible roads of the village the protagonists share, Kim seems to state that they are not sure where they are going, both in their lives and in their relationship, as a 'mental fog" seems to cover all their thoughts and to hide reality from them, which is painfully revealed in the somewhat melodramatic finale. Also of note is Yu Jae-won's editing, which induces the movie with a fitting slow pace, but more importantly, through the many flashbacks showing Gi-joon's memories of his past, creates an atmosphere that can be described as dreamy. At the same time, this reminiscing also helps in analyzing the protagonist, who looks at his past life from a new prism, from the "location" within society he is now. A number of elements here remind intensely of Teshigahara's "Woman of the Dunes", particularly in the way the mist is implemented, but the strolling in the streets,the lengthy dialogues and In-sook's cheerfulness and quite bold flirting, point more towards European cinema, with the same applying to the erotic scenes in the movie. The one between the two protagonists is the foremost example, but another sequence before that, where Gi-joon is walking alone through the streets stumbling upon people having sex inside their houses or making out on the street, also moves towards the direction. Furthermore, this scene highlights the excellent job done in the cinematography by Jang Seok-jun and the lighting by Son Yeong-cheol, with the way the shadows are implemented being a true wonder to watch. Lastly, the frequent narration gives the movie a literary hypostasis also reminding the aforementioned Japanese movie. Probably the only moments the atmosphere breaks is when In-sook sings, in an aspect that looks more like a promotional stunt than an organic part of the narrative, although, otherwise, the late Yoon Jung-hee in the role of the desperate, unable-to-see-the-reality woman is exceptional. And talking about the acting, the same applies to Kang-Shin Sung-il, who is rather convincing as the tormented bon viveur Yoon Gi-joon, with the chemistry of the two being among the best traits of the movie. "Mist" is an excellent film that stands out from Korean cinema of the time and Kim Soo-yong's filmography, both due to its overall experimentation, but also because it finally manages to avoid becoming another melodrama. Review by Panos Kotzathanasis ___________ "Mist" is directed by Kim Soo-yong, and features Kang-Shin Sung-il, Yoon Jung-hee, Kim Jung-chul, Lee Nak-hoon, Ju Jeung-ryu, Lee Bin-hwa. Release date in Korea: 1967/10/19. Published on 2021/07/06 | Source Netflix has confirmed the production of the SF film "Jung E" (tentative title), directed by Yeon Sang-ho, and stars Kang Soo-yeon, Kim Hyun-joo and Ryu Kyung-soo. Advertisement "Jung E" is a science fiction film about people trying to succeed in brain cloning robots of legendary mercenary "Jung E" who is the key to victory in the 22nd century when civil war breaks out in a shelter shell made by mankind, at a time when it is no longer suitable to live on Earth due to climate change. It is expected that the story will revolve around brain cloning and human-type combat robots presented by director Yeon Sang-ho, who is rewriting the future of Korean video contents such as "Train to Busan", "Peninsula" and "Hellbound". The cast is also impressive. Kang Soo-yeon, the first Korean actress to win the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival and the world's top three film festivals for a film in 1986, will meet director Yeon Sang-ho, who laid the foundation for the Korean cultural renaissance through numerous masterpieces. She stars as Seo-hyeon, the head of the research institute that develops brain cloning and AI technology and is responsible for brain cloning and combat power testing by Jung-yi. Kim Hyun-joo plays the role of Jung-yi, a former elite leader of the coalition and subject to brain cloning experiments. Kim Hyun-joo, who is portraying attractive characters in various genres with the dramas "WATCHER" and "Undercover", is expected to perform dynamic combat actions and subtle emotional acting of clones in repeated brain cloning experiments. In addition, Ryu Kyung-soo, who showed 180-degree transformation from his previous works, will star as Sang-hoon, the head of the institute who must succeed in brain cloning experiments. In particular, Kim Hyun-joo and Ryu Kyung-soo will immediately reunite with director Yeon Sang-ho following the Netflix series "Hellbound" which is scheduled to be released. Director Yeon Sang-ho's SF films, which show unprecedented imagination, the fresh material of the 22nd century's 'legendary mercenary' brain cloning experiment, legendary Kang Soo-yeon's return, Kim Hyun-joo and Ryu Kyung-soo's acting transformation, and hot and real battle action will only be released on Netflix. Professor Heli Jantunen's expertise is in the field of materials science and engineering; Professor Martti Koskenniemi has his expertise in international law; Professor Heli Jantunen , Professor Emeritus Martti Koskenniemi and Research Professor Merja Penttila have been awarded the honorary title of Academician of Science. President of the Republic Sauli Niinisto granted the titles at a presidential session today, 19 January 2023. and Research Professor Merja Penttila has her expertise in biotechnology and synthetic biology. They are all highly distinguished scientists and scholars with a pioneering track record in their respective fields of research. Their work has wide-ranging relevance across different sectors of society and as such contributes to solving global challenges. The title of Academician can be held by no more than 16 distinguished Finnish scientists and scholars at a time. The title of Academician of Science is awarded by the President of the Republic based on nominations by the Academy of Finland. Energy-efficient electronics Professor Heli Jantunen (b. 1958) has served at the University of Oulu as Professor in Technical Physics since 2004 and as Director of the Microelectronics Research Unit since 2008. She has won international recognition for her research in electronic materials, particularly her pioneering work in the field of electroceramics. Professor Jantunen's most outstanding research and application achievements are in the area of low-temperature cofired ceramics,which has great significance for business and industry. Overall, throughout her career, science, applications and industry have come together in an innovative and high-impact way. She has collaborated with more than 40 industrial partners and currently holds 76 patents. Electronics relates closely to society's different functions and operations from consumer electronics to industry, transport and medical technology. For this reason the overall energy efficiency of electronics is an important concern. Heli Jantunen and her team have developed a novel room-temperature technique for the fabrication of electroceramic components, which are used extensively in data communications, the auto industry and consumer electronics. As fabrication temperatures can be reduced by over 1,000 degrees compared to earlier methods,energy savings are substantial. Furthermore, the method uses no raw materials that are harmful to the environment and requires no significant initial investment. Heli Jantunen received her Doctor of Science in Technology degree at the University of Oulu in 2001. She spent ten years working in industry before returning to the university in 1999. In 2019, Heli Jantunen received the Finnish Parliament's Innovation Award for Women and the Finnish Science Award granted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. In 2018, she received the Nokia Foundation's Recognition Award. Read a longer version of this text on the Academy's website: Heli Jantunen receives honorary title of Academician of Science Critical legal studies is necessary for democracy Professor Emeritus Martti Koskenniemi (b. 1953) has been Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki since 1994 and founder and director of the Erik Castren Institute of International Law and Human Rights since 1997. He is one of the world's leading international law scholars. Martti Koskenniemi has contributed widely to the scholarly debate in the field of international law for the past 30 years. His main areas of research interest include the history of international law, state succession, human rights and the fragmentation of international law. He has always been keen to boldly explore new research subjects. Critical theory has provided the framework for Koskenniemi to address issues sidelined in traditional international law doctrine. This is also the basis for his active involvement in public debate in society. Koskenniemi obtained his doctorate at the University of Turku in 1989. He has held visiting or part-time professorships at the University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics, the University of Melbourne and Sorbonne University in Paris. He has also served as a member of the UN International Law Commission. He was Academy Professor in 20052009 and 20132017. Koskenniemi received the Finnish Science Award in 2021. Read a longer version of this text on the Academy's website: Martti Koskenniemi receives honorary title of Academician of Science Biobased products from living microbes Merja Penttila (b. 1956) has been Research Professor for Biotechnology at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland since 1999. Since the beginning of 2016 she has also served as a part-time Professor of Synthetic Biology at Aalto University. Merja Penttila's major research interest is the development of new production processes that replace fossil raw materials. Her specific focus is on so-called cell factories, microorganisms that are engineered to produce biobased products for energy, health, materials and other applications. Microbial cell factories can be used to produce almost anything: bioethanol, human antibodies, animal-based foodstuffs such as egg whites and new materials that combine the best qualities of natural materials, such as light weight, durability, flexibility and recyclability. The use of synthetic biology methods allows for computer-aided modelling of cell and enzyme functions and makes it possible to introduce changes into the genome that induce new biochemical reactions and improve cell production efficacy. Merja Penttila has worked extensively with a number of national and international companies to develop industry-changing applications. She is the founder of the Synbio Powerhouse ecosystem, which offers a collaborative platform for research organisations, businesses and investors in the synthetic biology field. Synthetic biology and bioproduction will have a significant future role in developing sustainable development solutions. Merja Penttila took her doctorate at the University of Helsinki in 1987. During her career at VTT in 20002017, she has been Centre of Excellence director, vice director and team leader in Academy of Finland CoE programmes. She has led EU research projects as well as major projects funded by foundations, and has served as a committee expert for multiple national and international institutes. Penttila has published around 300 original scientific articles and holds some 50 patents. Merja Penttila received the Charles D. Scott Award in 2019 (Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, USA) and The Wihuri International Prize in 2012. Read a longer version of this text on the Academy's website: Merja Penttila receives honorary title of Academician of Science HT Source: Academy of Finland Constituents can 'Chat with Chuck' on Jan. 30 U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards on Monday embarked on his tour of all 15 counties of the 11th Congressional District, ending with an open house and a "Chat with Chuck" opportunity at the Grove Street Courthouse here on Jan. 30. Related Stories My priority as Western North Carolinas congressman is to start my term meeting with constituents and listening to their concerns, Edwards said in a news release. Im looking forward to visiting every county in our district and hearing about what matters most to WNC. I also hope to learn about any challenges that constituents are facing so that my staff and I can help them with federal agencies or provide other services. The tour's last stop is back home in Hendersonville on Monday Jan. 30, when constituents can "Chat with Chuck" from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the Grove Street Courthouse, 200 N. Grove St., Suite 121. Open house is 8:30-12:30 p.m. THE small Christmas tree scheme in Henley is to be axed following complaints. The scheme, which has been running for more than 20 years, was beset with difficulties such as cost and installation last year. Traders and residents criticised the price of the trees, which are subsidised by the town council but still cost 60. They also complained that many trees were not installed properly by the contractors, the Christmas Decorators, and the lights on them did not work. A meeting of the councils events sub-committee heard that 21 customers reported issues. The final locations of trees were not known until close to installation so the contractor couldnt carry out many preliminary checks on the power and other infrastructure. Older electrical installations outside the four central streets required an adapter called a Lewden plug which is now obsolete and many owned by the council had gone missing. The number of orders has declined over the years from about 300 trees 15 years ago to 120 last year. Now, instead of subsidising the 4ft trees, the council is proposing to pay to have trees in fixed positions in Duke Street, Bell Street, Hart Street and Market Place only. This is a copy of the tree scheme in Marlow. If residents or businesses outside these streets want to buy a tree, the council will refer them to the contractor. The council will permanently fix brackets to those buildings with trees and replace the existing ones, which are in a poor condition. The estimated cost to the council will be 12,000 a year for the trees and a one-off payment of 6,000 for new brackets. The council hopes to offset some of the cost with investment from businesses hosting the trees. Town clerk Sheridan Jacklin-Edward said: The problem is that the vast majority of the orders that we get for small trees are actually not in the town centre and still rely on these old connections. There was a lot of variation between the trees and I would agree that some of them were certainly not up to the standard. It also doesnt help when you have a really excellent tree next to one which isnt nearly as good. The brackets are very old and three sets of contractors have said they need to be replaced, not refurbished. Replacing brackets isnt actually that expensive and you get them at a 45 degree angle to get a better display. Im sure it would cost less than trying to refurbish the existing ones, which are not in a good state. Mr Jacklin-Edward called the scheme a logistical nightmare. He said: Youre dealing with individual customers, private buildings, some of which are completely inaccessible, and you have to call them in advance at a specific time to gain entry. Everybody wants it in a different way and these change from year to year so you dont know who your customers are until a week before youre putting up the trees. You cant go round and do all the surveys in advance because we dont know where theyre going to be. Its such a nightmare, hence the recommendation that we focus on having a really great display in the town centre and then arrange contracts. A direct relationship between the customer and the contractor makes it easier for the customer and the council doesnt get involved. Councillor David Eggleton said: Ive heard quite a few times that Marlows trees were fantastic and theyve had no problems whatsoever. How come the same contractors did Henley but had loads of problems? The only way that would happen is if there wasnt a brief given to them stating what they were supposed to be doing. He complained that the 4ft tree he bought was a twig. He said: It was an insult, an insult to me and an insult to the council, for the contractors to actually put that up and then put no lights on. We got a refund, but thats not the point. The point is to make Henley festive for everybody that comes to the town. The lights werent on, the main Christmas tree lights werent on. Cllr Eggleton claimed the contractor was careless with the trees when taking them down. They drop it on to the path with all the lights on it, he said. You should take the lights off a tree, then pass it down, you dont just chuck it down. Thats probably why a lot of the lights are not working. Mr Jacklin-Edward said: On the contractor, without going into detail, I wouldnt agree that because Marlow looks great but Henley doesnt then there is something wrong with the brief that we gave the contractor. They are given a clear brief. The difference is that Marlow put in three times the money last year that we put in. They put in 24,000, we put in about 8,000. If we want a better display we need new infrastructure, new lights and more investment. Councillor Kellie Hinton said the council should bin the contractor. They have just caused problems, she said. I dont think we should give people more chances to mess it up because it did take away from the Christmas spirit and put people in a negative frame of mind. Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) shared today that Hyatt is positioned for continued transformative growth in 2023 and beyond with a record pipeline of approximately 117,000 rooms worldwide as of year-end 2022. Notably, nearly one in four pipeline properties is classified as a lifestyle hotel, representing 10 percent of the existing base of hotels, further strengthening Hyatts leadership position in the luxury, lifestyle and leisure segments. The significant growth of these high-value properties in Hyatts portfolio expands the compelling guest experiences that can further drive World of Hyatt loyalty penetration across the Hyatt portfolio. A notable driver of this growth is the announced asset-light acquisition of Dream Hotel Groups lifestyle hotel brand and management platform which is expected to bring established lifestyle hotel brands including Dream Hotels, Unscripted Hotels and The Chatwal into the Hyatt portfolio. Dream Hotel Group properties are known for their experiential hospitality including hotspot restaurants and nightlife venues built on strategic and unconventional programming and brand collaborations, paired with signature designs that balance substance with sizzle. The acquisition will welcome more than 600 new colleagues into the Hyatt family, bringing deep expertise in experiential hospitality to Hyatts global portfolio of lifestyle offerings and extending Hyatts brand footprint in strategic destinations including Nashville, Hollywood, Las Vegas, South Beach, Saint Lucia, Doha and New York City. It will also mark the entrance of Hyatt brands into markets such as the Catskills in New York and Valle de Guadalupe in Mexico. Additionally, the Caption by Hyatt brand which combines the design and comfort of an upscale, lifestyle-forward hotel with the flexibility of a select-service property is poised for significant growth following the successful opening of Caption by Hyatt Beale Street Memphis in 2022. The brand is expected to grow its presence in Tennessee with Caption by Hyatt Chattanooga in collaboration with 3H Group (expected for 2024) and enter California with both Caption by Hyatt Roseville in collaboration with LRE & Companies and American Hospitality Services, Inc. and Caption by Hyatt Sacramento in collaboration with Presidio Hotel Development LLC and 29th Street Capital (both expected for 2026). The Caption by Hyatt brand is expanding internationally with previously announced properties expected to open in China and Japan in 2023, Vietnam in 2025 and Sydney in the coming years. Grounded in caring for people and place and creating connections between them, the Caption by Hyatt brand is committed to hiring diverse talent, vendors, artisans, and suppliers and celebrating the diversity of people in the communities in which Caption by Hyatt hotels are located. Through our intentional long-term growth strategy and by working closely with owners, Hyatt boasts five years of industry-leading organic net rooms growth, said Jim Chu, executive vice president, chief growth officer, Hyatt. Owners want to work with us because of our expertise, performance track record and optimal positioning in the industry. We have global scale, but we are nimble enough to create personal relationships, draw on our own experiences and lead with empathy. New Luxury, Lifestyle & Leisure Properties in Prominent Markets Hyatt anticipates additional organic growth across its luxury, lifestyle and leisure offerings, bringing thoughtful design, innovative food and beverage and personalized service around the globe. The Park Hyatt brand is set to: Reestablish its presence in South Africa with Park Hyatt Johannesburg in late 2023 and make its entrance to Morocco with Park Hyatt Marrakech, offering luxury resort elegance with Moroccan charm. Return to London with Park Hyatt London River Thames and expand in the Asia Pacific region with Park Hyatt Taipei (Taiwan), Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Park Hyatt Phu Quoc (Vietnam) in 2024. In 2023, the Andaz brand will celebrate expansion into new markets with: Andaz Doha in Qatar, which will bring locally inspired design and contemporary art to a new level, offering guests signature touchpoints and innovative dining outlets including a South African signature restaurant and a Singaporean street food restaurant. Andaz Pattaya Jomtien Beach in Thailand will deliver a lush and secluded beachfront retreat providing myriad ways for guests to connect with the local Thai culture, from destination excursions to authentic dining, wellness and family activities. Andaz Mexico City Condesa, which connects Mexican culture with its traditional architecture and imaginative decor, recently opened its doors in January. Andaz Macau, which will be set within one of Asias most iconic and advanced meeting and event destinations Galaxy International Convention Center (GICC) will debut as the largest Andaz hotel in the world with more than 700 rooms and suites. Andaz Nanjing Hexi in Greater China, which will blend the eclectic spirit of the modern Nanjing and the long history of the prosperous academic culture. Hyatts Boundless Collection and Independent Collection, which range from upscale to luxury lifestyle brands, feature a healthy pipeline of expected openings in 2023 and 2024 including: Introducing All-Inclusive Premier Brands Around the World Hyatt offers one of the largest portfolios of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the world including a healthy pipeline of expected openings in 2023 spearheaded by growth across Bulgarias popular Black Sea destinations and the recent launch of Secrets Impression Resorts & Spas, a first-of-its-kind product designed to deliver the highest level of luxury all-inclusive service and amenities. This intimate line of boutique, adults-only havens offer exclusive personalized experiences, butler service and curated gastronomy designed to exceed expectations. The new line extension celebrated the opening of Secrets Impression Moxche Playa del Carmen in December 2022 and expects to welcome its second property, Secrets Impression Isla Mujeres later this year. With more than 400 Hyatt Place and nearly 130 Hyatt House properties in top travel destinations across the globe, Hyatts select service brands continue to extend their customer base to attract leisure travelers and families looking for relaxing, seamless hotel experiences. The Hyatt House brand recently underwent a brand refresh to celebrate all travel occasions, long and short. Travelers staying at Hyatt House hotels globally can make themselves at home, whether its a family getaway, reuniting with friends or extending a business trip. Hyatt is expected to add an impressive line-up of Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties globally over the coming years including in key emerging leisure hotspots and business travel destinations in the U.S. and Canada, such as Hyatt House Traverse City (Michigan), Hyatt House Bozeman (Montana), Hyatt Place Cape Canaveral (Florida), Hyatt House Roseville (California), Hyatt Place Toronto Downtown/Jarvis Street (Ontario), and Hyatt Place Mississauga - Airport Corporate Centre (Ontario). Additionally, in 2023 the brands are expected to make their international market entries in Guyana and Estonia. For more information about Hyatt hotels, please visit: www.hyatt.com. About Hyatt Hotels Corporation Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company guided by its purpose to care for people so they can be their best. As of June 30, 2022, the Company's portfolio included more than 1,150 hotels and all-inclusive properties in 72 countries across six continents. The Company's offering includes brands in the Timeless Collection, including Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Residence Club, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, and UrCove; the Boundless Collection, including Miraval, Alila, Andaz, Thompson Hotels, Hyatt Centric, and Caption by Hyatt; the Independent Collection, including The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Destination by Hyatt, and JdV by Hyatt; and the Inclusive Collection, including Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Secrets Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas, Vivid Hotels & Resorts, Alua Hotels & Resorts, and Sunscape Resorts & Spas. Subsidiaries of the Company operate the World of Hyatt loyalty program, ALG Vacations, Unlimited Vacation Club, Amstar DMC destination management services, and Trisept Solutions technology services. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com. Forward-Looking Statements Forward-Looking Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "will," "would" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable when made, are inherently uncertain, and are subject to numerous assumptions and uncertainties, many of which are outside of Kiraku, Inc. or Hyatt's control, which could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements made in this press release are made only as of the date of their initial publication and neither party undertakes an obligation to publicly update any of these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold, except to the extent required by applicable law. If one or more forward-looking statements is updated, no inference should be drawn that any additional updates will be made with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. RMS Cloud announces a new partnership with the newly opened, Setsu Niseko, a luxury hotel and resort in Japan. RMS delivers bespoke development to complete an end-to-end digital guest experience. RMS cloud worked closely with Setsu Niseko to facilitate the build of a custom app integration that aligns with the luxury hotels' brand and mission to offer a complete digital guest experience. The consulting partner was McLaren Technologies, who worked alongside RMS Cloud to deliver a branded mobile app with advanced features for guests, such as smart-room automation, guest services, instant check-in and mobile keys to connect guests digitally to the hotel. "We are excited to work with Setsu Niseko in delivering this project and contributing to the opening of this stunning property", said McLaren Technologies CEO Matthew White. Setsu Niseko's luxury rooms and apartment suites offer elegant Japanese inspired interiors fitted with the latest in guest experience technology". With 190 luxury hotel suites styled with a contemporary Japanese design, Setsu Niseko has mastered the essences of luxury and nature with panoramic views of the surrounding alpine landscapes. Set in one of the world's most beautiful locations, Setsu Niseko delivers unique and memorable guest experiences encapsulating a modern luxury hospitality experience. As a new luxury destination in Japan, Setsu Niseko required a custom-built guest facing app that delivered elevated, digital and contactless guest experiences. With Niseko's growing prominence as Asia's top ski destination, accessibility and connectivity physically and digitally is of high importance. The smart-room tablets and mobile app will allow us to have more meaningful, digital interactions with guests. We want our guests to enjoy the modern comforts and tech amenities they are accustomed to using while exploring the beautiful natural landscape surrounding our resort. Michiko Tamoto, Hotel Manager at Setsu Niseko The new technology has delivered professionality to the Setsu Niseko brand and a direct connection with guests via a user-friendly interface design. Setsu Niseko's stylish new app provides an end-to-end digital guest experience and speaks directly to the RMS software creating operational efficiencies and service. We are thankful for the opportunity to work with Setsu Niseko to deliver their bespoke technology. To have technology that speaks directly to your guests and staff so effortlessly will, no doubt, create lasting and elevated guest experiences at this incredible property Stephen Martin, Chief Sales Officer of RMS Cloud. About Solonis Solonis is an intuitive property management system powered by business intelligence that offers the hospitality industry a single, robust solution for managing hotels, resorts, vacation rentals and corporate housing. Its ease of use, streamlined onboarding, and 24/7 support make it the preferred PMS solution. Headquartered in San Diego, Solonis is the vision of hospitality experts and technologists who believe it is time for a new era of property management. For more information, visit solonis.com Joanna Short Director of Global Marketing Subscribers to Register-Star or The Daily Mail are eligible to receive full access to HudsonValley360. If you have an existing print subscription, please make sure your email address on file matches your HudsonValley360 account email. State Receives COVID-19 Homeless Care Funds From FEMA BOSTON The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be sending more than $7.3 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse the Executive Office of Health and Human Services for the costs of providing outpatient care sites to homeless populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The $7,339,766 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the commonwealth for setting up and operating isolation and recovery sites in Everett, Lexington, Northampton, Pittsfield, and Taunton for homeless individuals who contracted COVID-19 between April 2020 and May 2021. By contracting temporary nursing staff to monitor the health, safety, and welfare of homeless individuals at these sites, they served to reduce capacity pressures on hospitals, since hospitals could safely discharge stable COVID-19 positive homeless individuals to these sites. "FEMA is pleased to be able to assist the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with these costs," said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. "Providing resources for our partners on the front lines of the pandemic fight is critical to their success, and our success as a nation." FEMA's Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency. So far, FEMA has provided more than $1.5 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses. Foster Parent Bill of Rights is Law BOSTON Long time priority of State Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier, the Foster Parents' bill of rights, is now law. According to a press release from Farley-Bouvier, the Foster Parent Bill of Rights (FPBoR) was sent to the governor's desk for signature in the final hours of the 192nd legislative session and was signed into law on Wednesday Jan. 4, 2023. This comes after years of collaboration between House sponsors Rep. Farley-Bouvier and Representative Paul Donato (D-Medford), Senate sponsor Senator Jo Comerford (D-North Hampton), and countless foster parent advocates across the state. The FPBoR offers a range of protections for foster parents, namely: anti-discrimination protections; greater confidentiality; training; more information on the child prior to placement and the opportunity to provide helpful information after placements; increased transparency from DCF on reviews, funding resources, and removals; and involvement in the child's action plan creation. Another key provision of the Foster Parents' bill of rights is the inclusion of the prudent parent standard. This standard helps foster parents take away the stigma so often faced by foster children; it gives foster parents the authority to allow foster children to go to birthday parties without background checks, it allows foster families to take a day trip to a farm right over state lines, it allows foster children to ride their bikes to middle school with their friends. All things that allow foster children to have as close to an average childhood as possible. "I couldn't be happier to have now in statute the fact that foster parents will be treated as respected members of the professional foster care team," said Representative Farley-Bouvier. "Those that open their hearts and their homes to our most vulnerable children are the very core of the child welfare system and just like with anyone else, if you want to recruit and retain them, they need to have positive experiences. Sadly, that is not usually the case." According to the press reelase, foster parent advocates across Massachusetts are excited for these long-awaited protections. Including Berkshire County's Missy Tarjick. "On behalf of MAFF (Massachusetts Alliance for Foster Families) and as a foster/adoptive Mom, I want to express our sincere appreciation to the legislature and the governor for the passage of the Foster Parent Bill of Rights. Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier has been a foster family champion since taking office, and this bill would not have been possible without her. Foster families dedicate their lives to children in need; without them, many children would be left in unsafe conditions. This bill encompasses much of what foster parents require and deserve, which will always benefit the children in their care," Tarjick said. "For me, the heart of this bill is the recognition from our state leaders that we are an essential member of the child welfare team. MAFF is eager to continue our collaboration with the Department of Children and Families as policies and practices are highlighted and/or enhanced as we move toward implementation." The Foster Parents Bill of Rights is now included in the Massachusetts General Laws for all to review, especially our foster parents, in the Acts of 2022 Chapter 439. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) Vice Chancellor Professor Najma Akhtar said that all South Asian countries need to work together to develop the region. She said that the nations will have to find out how to work together. She said that the countries have to reduce tension and overcome long lasting disputes. Prof. Akhtar was speaking at a discussion on Movement of History in South Asia with noted Bangladeshi author Syed Badrul Ahsan. The event was organised by the political science department of JMI along with India Narrative. She added that development is a need in South Asia as the region has considerable poverty, malnutrition and unemployment. Talking about one of the most debilitating events for the world, she said that the pandemic has divided the world into before and after. India has set an example. It has developed the vaccine and has provided it to the needy countries Being the biggest in the region has to set examples. Hum bade bhai hain is liye example set karange. Prof. Akhtar said that South Asia is one of the most culturally diversified and significant areas of the world. The people inhabiting this diverse culture have a shared culture and belief even if they hail from different faiths. The JMI VC said: If we have to understand South Asia we have to read its history, adding that the way we understand South Asia now is not how it has been. Speaking at the event, Ahsan, who has been interacting with Indian intellectuals and journalists over the past week, said that Bangladeshis still look upon India as home. Bangladesh and Bengal have a lot of affinity but it reduces as you move west towards Delhi. Here the Indo-Pakistan narrative takes over. Talking about Bangladesh history, Ahsan said: Our history took a tragic turn when Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and his family were assassinated. That assassination was a setback for us as we had started as a secular and democratic nation. He added that 17 members of the family were killed. Later the army officers who had participated in the Bangladesh liberation war were assassinated by the military officers who organised the coup. He added that when we see the rise of India we feel that countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as the Muslims in the region have lost in terms of development and growth. Talking about the development and growth of Bangladesh, he said that India has an important role to play. We need more imports from India so that our industry can be galvanised. Editor India Narrative, Atul Aneja who moderated the session said that the countries in South Asia have to hold a free and frank dialogue so that they can find out their common interests. If the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is not working, can we have a new South Asian organisation. Ahsan said that South Asia as a regional bloc has not developed as the countries have bilateral differences. India and Pakistan have problems. Bangladesh and Pakistan have their own set of problems. I feel the countries have to tackle their own bilateral problems. If we open up the economy, like the European Union, where goods can flow to and fro, we can move from bilateralism to multilateralism. The traders on our borders are happy as they see the economy booming. Aneja said that we need to bring about collective development for the region. Highlighting the challenges before South Asia, he said that the rise of radicalism and the intrusion of China into South Asia is a challenge for India, which the country is tackling in its own ways. Highlighting the importance of Indo-Bangladesh relations, he said that Bangladesh will play an important role in the development of North-East India. Towards the end of the discussion, Aneja said that the upcoming elections in Bangladesh are important for the region as the outcome will give a direction to development and democracy in the country. 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It is a breakthrough CC cream with nourishing benefits of moisturiser, sun protection and coverage. Read More... iWorld | OTT National Poker Series India to return this year The National Poker Series India, hosted on PokerBaazi, is expected to commence its third edition in 2023. The National Poker Series India has had tremendous success in the last two editions. Read More... In the majority of India, the concept of sex education is still extremely uncommon and controversial. Parents are hesitant to have "the talk" with their children because they worry that they will be exposed to too much too young. In films like "Vicky Donor," the role of a sperm donor was exalted. Currently, Rakul Preet Singh appears in 'Chhatriwali,' which makes an effort to normalise people receiving sex education at the appropriate age. The movie, which is set in Karnal, is about Sanya Dhingra, a female chemistry expert without a job who simultaneously fights an important social taboo by teaching the next generation about sexual education. Poster/Chhatriwali Taking to Twitter, one user said, It's very bold attempt and i have to give full loaded wishes to @Rakulpreet ur acting and ur way of pulling to use of condoms is amazing #ChhatriwaliOnZEE5 #Chhatriwali Thanks @Nisha_cutie_ for recommending the movie i would suggest it to my students and telecast in tuition. Another wrote, Saw Helmet but this #ChhatriwaliOnZEE5 #Chhatriwali is also brilliant movie with a very strong message And So happy to see @vyas_sumeet aka BABA with @Rakulpreet You both looks Beautiful BaBa A must watch PS:- I am the 1 in 10 Men. Check out what others have to say: Yeah miss rakul It's a great and must watch movie , u has all our hearts And grateful to you for replying #RakulPreetSingh #Chhatriwali https://t.co/janoD3OZRt SainthaviROLEX (@Sainthavi33) January 21, 2023 It's very bold attempt and i have to give full loaded wishes to @Rakulpreet ur acting and ur way of pulling to use of condoms is amazing #ChhatriwaliOnZEE5 #Chhatriwali Thanks @Nisha_cutie_ for recommending the movie i would suggest it to my students and telecast in tuition. pic.twitter.com/FQWauxT832 SainthaviROLEX (@Sainthavi33) January 21, 2023 Saw Helmet but this #ChhatriwaliOnZEE5 #Chhatriwali is also brilliant movie with a very strong message And So happy to see @vyas_sumeet aka BABA with @Rakulpreet You both looks Beautiful BaBa A must watch PS:- I am the 1 in 10 Men SHASHANK BARANWAL (@followshashank1) January 21, 2023 What to say! I love your work so much that I can't express it in words. @Rakulpreet you are really a wonderful actress great to see your film #Chhatriwali keep up the good work I liked the film Chhatriwali very much, you guys should also go and watch it#ChhatriwaliOnZEE5 Dhruv Raval (@DhruvRa53868807) January 21, 2023 #Chhatriwali is a good attempt on #sexeducation... And other topics@Rakulpreet carries the film on her own shoulders good job Sanya. DUNIYA (@cine_ki_duniya) January 21, 2023 #Chhatriwali An avg for me, Rakul played her character well! Sometimes was missing in story telling.... N... (@ADs_Battalion) January 21, 2023 What a powerful concept to talk about hats off to @Rakulpreet what an expectation performance done by making a funny story & giving the message to the people in India who are really afraid of the reality behind #ChhatriwaliOnZEE5 #Chhatriwali pic.twitter.com/NaYPm6uNjy Sultan Moinuddin Aman (@amantweets26) January 20, 2023 #Chhatriwali (2023)-Addresses an important subject & has the benefit of a good cast on board. Just that it's a little too similar to #JanhitMeinJaari, hence diluting the impact. Coincidentally both the films are also streaming on the same OTT platform, Zee5 Sethumadhavan Napan (@Sethumadhavan) January 20, 2023 After watching #Chhatriwali, the only question in my mind is - Log sach mein itne innocent hote hain kya? Especially aaj ke zamane mein? If you watch the film, youll get what Im talking about. Anyways, an Okay-ish film. Aavishkar (@aavishhkar) January 20, 2023 The way @Rakulpreet has pulled her character of a condom-quality control tester in #Chhatriwali is the sheer epitome of her acting marvel pic.twitter.com/gpCi4xpgQa siva murugan (@sivamur22817192) January 20, 2023 .#Chhatriwali Review: The film seems suitable for family viewing for its subject matter, and Rorodh is very good, but I think it's time to watch such stories with children and the elderly. @Rakulpreet fully owns this movie, it's true, Mukesh Vala (@v26249174) January 20, 2023 How much energetic you are Rakul! You have just nailed the character "Sanya" So proud of you. Keep showing your amazing acting.#RakulPreetSingh#Chhatriwali #ChhatriwaliOnZEE5 (@sithii_s) January 20, 2023 Rakul, who had previously appeared in movies like 'De De Pyaar De,' 'Sardar Ka Grandson,' and 'Doctor G,' found the movie to be her ideal endeavour. For the unversed, Chhatriwali turned out to be RakulPreets dream . In todays patriarchal society, every household needs a Sanya who holds the courage to single-handedly fight against all odds, traditions, social norms, and barriers, the 32-year-old actor said in a statement. Poster/Chhatriwali 'Chhatriwali' aims to drive home the message about the importance of male contraceptives and safe sex, she added. I hope this character inspires others to find their voice and speak up against unsafe sex and the many health implications of not using protection. Indias youth make up for majority of the population and educating them on safe sex and sex education is the need of the hour, so I am glad that Chhatriwali is catering to them and everyone else in a progressive and entertaining manner, Rakul said. Poster/Chhatriwali Produced by Ronnie Screwvala, 'Chhatriwali' released on ZEE5 on January 20. (Inputs from PTI) The Republic Day of 1950 had Ahmed Sukarno of Indonesia as the chief guest. He was chosen because Indonesia had always remained friendly to the Indians and sympathetic to the Indian struggle for Independence. Sukarno was born in 1901 in Surabaya (East Java) and received his elementary education at his father's school (East Java). Under Umar Said Cokroaminoto, the head of Sarekat Islam, a popular organisation, Sukarno met many of the nationalist leaders of the time. He got active in the anti-colonial campaign in Bandung. Sukarno was also the chairman of Jong Java and a founding member of the General Study Club in 1926. He urged all nationalists to get together in order to achieve their shared objective of independence. Establishing a nationalist party Twitter/President of India Sukarno helped establish the Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI) and became its first chairman. Sukarno's prowess as an orator attracted enormous crowds to its meetings, and the PNI eventually emerged as the primary voice of secular nationalism in Indonesia. But due to the success of the PNI Sukarno was detained, tried, and found guilty in December 1929 of acting in a way that was intended to disturb peace. Escape from oppressors His defence speech was inspiring and is now hailed as a classic in liberation speeches. After being released from prison in December 1931, Sukarno joined Partindo, the PNI's successor, and was then detained once again in 1933. He was exiled first to Flores and later to Bengkulu despite his resignation from Partindo and his assurance to the authorities that he would refrain from political activities. Arrival with the Japanese Sukarno returned to Jakarta during the Japanese occupation in 1942 and served as the head of both the occupation regime's central advisory committee and its mass organisations. The positions offered him a chance to soften some Japanese demands, and by using the radios that were available in every town, he rose to become the most well-known Indonesian politician. He outlined his "Panca Sila" in June 1945, emphasising nationalism, internationalism, democracy, social progress, and faith in God. AFP/Representational Image An important leader in the non-aligned movement The provisional constitution of 1950 established a parliamentary system after the transfer of power and promoted the establishment of numerous political groups. At Bundung, in 1955, Sukarno took the lead in launching the momentous Asia-Africa Conference. Following the meeting, the Non-Aligned Movement spread throughout Latin America with the aim of fostering closer and amicable cooperation in the domains of economic, cultural, and political cooperation. Remembered in South Africa He provided significant political and material support to the South African liberation movements. He is considered the founder of the Indonesian Republic and was one of the charismatic figures of Afro-Asian nationalism. Sukarno in India AFP/Representational Image The Better India Writes,On 25 January 1950, Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia, landed in Delhi. At the airport, he was warmly received by his friend and close ally, Nehru, and C Rajagopalachari. It was only a month prior, in December 1949, when Sukarno finally persuaded the Dutch colonists to transfer complete sovereignty to the new south-east Asian nation. India and Indonesia had cultural relations dating back centuries, but Sukarno and Nehru shared similar ideals of anti-imperialism and secularism. After all, both were proven freedom fighters. Moreover, even before India had attained Independence in 1947, Nehru played a pivotal role in bringing global attention to Indonesias struggles against the Dutch. The Republic Day Parade, an annual tradition of celebrating Indias political sovereignty, conducted from 1951 onwards and Gandhi's Dandi March, a political non-violent mobilisation of people in 1930 have certain design parallels. However, the methods employed by these stalwarts were different and the results expected and delivered were also different. Suchitra Balasubramaniam examines the correlation between the two events in her essay Imagining the Indian Nation: The Design of Gandhis Dandi March and Nehrus Republic Day Parade. Dandi March When Mahatma Gandhi returned to India, he began various satyagarhas( struggle for the truth). These satyagarhas were meant to direct the larger populations attention to the plight of Indigo farmers who suffered greatly from British injustices; horrible working conditions in textile mills; and a series of unfair laws imposed upon the poor population. The Dandi March served as the centrepiece of the 1930 Salt Satyagraha, which was centred on a demonstration against the salt tax. Thousands of men and women from all over India took part in it, making it the Mahatmas biggest mass-mobilisation movement. wikipedia India was one of very few countries where the State had monopoly over salt manufacture and sale. In 1930, the British government levied a 2400 percent tax over the wholesale price of locally manufactured salt in order to create a market for salt imported from Britain. It was a time of rising prices and falling wages and as a result the burden of the tax fell heavily on the poorer sections of Indian society. Gandhi made the decision to march to the coast to gather sea salt, fusing the march's symbolic force with the emotive impact of salt as a symbol. Gandhi selected members of the group mostly from among the residents of Sabarmati Ashram to represent the diversity of Indians. The seventy-eight men who accompanied him were among those who were most committed to the Gandhian way of life, purposively drawn from all the provinces of India and including Muslims,Christians, and high and low caste Hindus, from ordinary and well-to-do family backgrounds. Women were not included in the main group of marchers; however, he selected his colleagues Abbas Tyabji, a Muslim, and SarojiniNaidu, a prominent woman Congress leader, to replace him as leader of the group in the event of his arrest. The Republic Day President of India Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who designed the route of the Salt Satyagraha, from Ahmedabad to Dandi said,the day on which India attains republican status would be written in letters of gold in its history, when all traces of foreign rule were erased and Indians became in law and in fact [their] own masters. Gandhi likened the Dandi march with mythical and religious marches of prophets and Nehru designed the Republic Day as a continuity of tradition with a forward-looking approach. Traditions have to be accepted to a large extent and adapted and transformed to meet new conditions and ways of thought, and at the same time new traditions have to be built up. The Similarities President of India The Republic Day Parade, with its focus on the idea of projecting the Indian nation, allowed space for political expression within itself, but the Dandi March created an international area for an interpretation outside of itself. If the Dandi March was visualized as a one-off event, the Republic Day Parade was designed as one that would be repeated annually. While the Dandi March was coded with the quality of each-according-to-his-own-capacity, the Republic Day parade was designed so that replication was achieved by bureaucratic diktat. Cover Image Attribute: Screengrab of Chinese President Xi Jinping's New Year speech / Source: Xinhua In his new year's message to the nation, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a veiled warning to the United States, stating that China will engage in "serious struggles" against separatism and interference in its relations with Taiwan, according to state media, CCTV, and Xinhua. At a Lunar New Year reception held in the Great Hall of the People and attended by top party leaders in the Politburo, Xi said in a speech to the Chinese people that his party and the military have in the past year rose to the challenge of "high winds and choppy waters in the international situation." He also made this reference in his speech at the 20th Party Congress as a warning about what he saw as a hostile international environment. Xi promised to "resolutely carry out major struggles against separatism and interference" and "firmly seize the initiative in cross-strait relations," according to state television, CCTV, and Xinhua. Additionally, he vowed to "make more friends" in the international arena and to actively engage in "major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics" to ensure stability in a "turbulent international environment." In recent years, the leadership has emphasised the significance of asserting a China-centered diplomatic and historical narrative and shifting away from a Western-dominated international order. A national plan against racism has been left to gather dust while asylum seekers are left to deal with hate-mongering, disinformation, and outright lies, it has been claimed. A report on the National Action Plan Against Racism (NAPAR) was submitted to the Government by an independent committee last June. Committee members were told it would be published in October. Then, according to a parliamentary question from November, Minister for Equality Roderic OGorman said he would bring the plan to Government for approval once the implementation plans were agreed at the latest in mid-January. Now, his department has said the report, which formed a pledge in the programme for government, will not be published until March. Immigrant Council of Ireland CEO Brian Killoran pointed out that, in the months since the report was submitted to Government, damaging instances of organised anti-migrant sentiment and the intimidation of asylum seekers. Its problematic that so much time has now elapsed since that commitment and the initial stages of the plans formulation, particularly given that 2022 was an extraordinary year in terms of inward migration into Ireland, said Mr Killoran. Not only does this plan need to address how we respond to the needs of individual victims of racism, but it must address how we collectively push back against organised anti-migrant sentiment. The level of hate-mongering, disinformation, and outright lies seen in recent weeks concerning those who seek sanctuary in Ireland must not remain unchallenged. Communities involved in the production of the report are also angry at the delay. Shane OCurry, director of the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), said there had been a large number of consultations, workshops and town halls regarding the plan. Communities had their expectations raised, and now were left with tumbleweed, he said. Its what people warned us about. Another consultation and wed be patted on the head and a report would be written that would gather dust. Its infuriating for communities who took part. In a statement, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth said: Officials in the [department] are working with colleagues across Government to agree actions and provide implementation plans for year-one objectives in the NAPAR. Recent weeks have seen a number of organised demonstrations, predominantly in Dublin, have been held protesting against the accommodation of asylum seekers here. In the last year, Ireland has seen a large increase in the number of refugees seeking international protection in the country. Furthermore, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have come here fleeing the war since last February, putting pressure on the department to source alternative sources of accommodation across the country. Mr OGormans department has been under pressure to provide accommodation for both the Ukrainian nationals fleeing the war with Russia and with refugees seeking asylum in Ireland. The minister told RTEs News at One on Thursday that the refugee processing centre at Citywest was likely to close to new arrivals as there is a very real risk that we wont be able to accommodate everyone. Migrants rights association Doras then called for urgent action to prevent hundreds of refugees facing homelessness. Mr OCurry said he believes Mr OGorman and his ministerial colleague Joe OBrien are men of integrity and also highlighted the hard work of civil servants within the department on the plan. He said that its vitally important they dedicate the resources needed to get this plan both over the line and implemented properly. There are a limited number of immediate fire fighting type responses that can happen now, he said. The real work is the thankless long march through the weeds of community development. The National Action Plan Against Racism is the blueprint for that. "It can help us buck the trend across Europe and the west where the far right is on the march. Mr Killoran said that making the plan a priority has been articulated time and time again and it had been welcome that it had been included in the Programme for Government. The Department of Equality said that once the implementation plans and oversight frameworks are agreed, Mr OGorman would bring it to Government. The intention is that the plan will be published in March, it added. Thousands of people gathered in Limerick on Saturday morning for a rally to highlighting hospital overcrowding and delays at emergency department of University Hospital, Limerick (UHL) Protests are also taking place outside Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Kerry in Tralee as well at hospitals in Galway, Letterkenny, and other sites where patients have faced long delays this winter. Members of Aoife Johnstons family were among the crowd today and the protest held a minutes silence in her memory in Arthurs Quay park. Overall, 18 protests are taking place nationwide. Mike Daly, the organiser of the Limerick march, which was the first set for this date following the crisis at UHL in early January, had earlier called for a large turnout. He said: We turned out in the thousands for Limerick hurlers, constantly turning up in the thousands for Munster Rugby, so ye got to turn up in the thousands for this march. He said the protest is for all who have passed away needlessly at UHL including my own Dad. Trade union SIPTU is supporting this march, with SIPTU organiser Ger Kennedy to address the protest on behalf of their members working at University Hospital Limerick. Protesters at this morning's rally in Limerick. Picture: Jess Casey No politicians were invited, Mr Daly said. The protest began at 11am outside City Hall in Merchants Quay. In Cork, organisers were also expecting a large turnout, with people confirmed as travelling from as far as Bantry and Skibbereen to the protest site at the gates of CUH for 1pm. Mike Daly. picture: Brendan Gleeson Aontu representative for Cork North-Central, Finian Toomey, urged the public to make a stand. The party is supporting the marches, but he said: We are asking all parties and none to join us, to protest against the lack of services, the lack of doctors, the lack of consultants and the debacle that the health service is in this country. Aontu TD Peadar Toibin is chair of the Navan hospital protest. One thing we can all be sure of is, one day we will need a ED [emergency department], he said. People are incredibly angry and frustrated that the old and the sick have been treated horrendously. The experience of so many has been massively damaged by the lack of capacity is the ED system. He added: Much of this damage has been caused by the policy of closing EDs, beds and the lack of provision of doctors, nurses and consultants. The policy of service closure is still in place in Navan ED. Mr Toibin predicted that thousands will march across the 18 sites. Some hospital campaign groups in the North are also planning to protest against similar issues, including at Daisy Hill and Craigavon hospitals. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said that last year 121,318 patients, including 2,777 children, spent a night on a trolley or chair, unable to get a hospital bed after being admitted through a hospital Emergency Department. INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: We have had silent acceptance from Government and the HSE on this type of overcrowding for far too long." Should Paschal Donohoe be forced to resign over his failure to declare about 1,000 in election services from his friend Michael Stone? This is the space we are now in as we await Donohoes latest statement in the Dail next Tuesday. By rights, given what is believed to be the relatively small amount of money involved, this matter could have and should have been put to bed two days ago, but Donohoes curiously misjudged handling of the matter all week has only allowed the opposition parties to heap misery on his strained shoulders. Readers of this column will know I have long been an admirer of Donohoe and have named him on more than one occasion as my politician of the year. He has represented the best in Irish politics something which has been sorely lacking. A true intellectual, Donohoes economic prowess has served him and the country well in recent times and his handling of the economy during Covid-19 has been vindicated. He also has managed to keep his feet somewhat on the ground for the most part of his career, a task which is normally impossible when you are a minister for so long. The rarefied air of palaces, ballrooms, limos, and big meeting rooms would impact on even the most down to earth character after a while. When I started in Leinster House in 2007, Donohoe had just been elected to the Seanad. Even then, it was obvious that the Upper House was not the summit of his ambitions and his entry into the Dail came in 2011. It was Lucinda Creightons downfall over the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill in 2013 that saw Donohoes ministerial career commence, at junior level ahead of his elevation to Cabinet as transport minister in 2014. After the 2016 election, he was appointed public expenditure and reform (PER) minister for the first time and on Leo Varadkar taking office he took on the dual role in PER and the finance portfolio. His return to the public expenditure portfolio in December as part of the historic changeover of power between Leo Varadkar and Micheal Martin did not prevent Donohoe, the boy from Blanchardstown, from retaining his role as President of the Eurogroup. Throughout his entire career, Donohoe has consciously and deliberately portrayed a style of someone driven by the idea of the public good. Pious Paschal or Prefect Paschal have been monikers attributed to him for his best boy in class manner of doing things. But more than an image, those who know Donohoe will know he is as earnest as he comes across. He will be beating himself up silly over this matter as it has done so much damage to that carefully curated image of goodness. He has managed to avoid personal controversy even if his political decision making as director of elections for Fine Gael in the 2020 General Election campaign or as finance minister have been criticised. Yet, since my story on irishexaminer.com last Saturday and a story in last Sundays Sunday Independent about Donohoe being subject to a Sipo complaint (both of which followed on from a story in The Phoenix a few days previous), Donohoe has allowed himself be led from controversy to a crisis where his position is in the balance. While his spokeswoman did proffer a statement to the Irish Examiner last Saturday, the story and the emerging controversy led to Donohoe calling a hastily organised press conference on the street outside a closed Merrion Square. So hastily was it organised that the notice stated the event would take place inside the park at 4.30 even though it has already closed for the night as darkness fell. He admitted to knowing about allegations about this in 2017 but not doing anything about it. He said on foot of the Sipo complaint he reviewed his files and identified an anomaly of 1,057 for the putting up of posters and the use of a van. Trickier for Donohoe was the fact that his office had sought to pawn off media inquiries about this matter since November, claiming there was nothing to see here. On one level, I considered what he did was smart in seeking to be fully transparent and try and close down all potential avenues of attack from the media and his opponents. Handling of controversy But as with other controversies in the past, you know you really only get one chance to hold your hands up and plead a mea culpa. On Monday morning, I was asked to appear on RTEs Morning Ireland to discuss the story and at that point I gave my analysis that the situation was one more of embarrassment as opposed to anything fatal. What was interesting were the contacts from within government I received after my appearance. Not sure an apology and rap on the knuckles will wash, warned one leading government TD. Donohoe was always likely to face questions about this matter in the Dail, as he did this week, but he made a critical error in not allowing the opposition parties to ask questions of him. He needed to take his beating and move on and let the opposition run out of steam and take the oxygen away from them. By denying them that opportunity, on the shaky basis he did not want to jeopardise the Sipo inquiry, he merely gave the likes of Pearse Doherty, Roisin Shortall, Paul Murphy, and others to ramp up the heat. Even at that stage, there was literally no one calling for Donohoes head, no one was even threatening a motion of no confidence in him. But between his foreign travel and a lack of time in the Dail schedule, Donohoes first and second mea culpas have not worked and the issue is still live. Now that he has signalled a need to return to the Dail to further clarify matters, even it is on a tangential or minor matter, is a further erosion of Donohoes credibility. As he has to wait until Tuesday to deliver his latest statement in relation to whether Stones Designer Group helped him out in his 2020 election campaign, he now has to endure a second weekend of negative headlines and accusations from Doherty et al about his cock and bull story. All the time, the matter becomes less about the original allegation of wrongdoing and increasingly about the noise around him and the impact it is having on government business. Every day this saga remains alive, Donohoes position becomes more and more precarious. We now know as of last night that there will be further changes to his story. Will they prove sufficient enough to lead to a draining in support for him from Leo Varadkar, the one person who can seal his fate? If Varadkar decides to stand by his man, through thick and thin, chances are he will survive. However, if Varadkar decides that this matter is now untenable and needs to be ended, Donohoe will be gone. So far the line has held, but whatever he does, when Donohoe does finally speak up, he must ensure that he kills this political controversy off. If he doesnt then he could very well see himself toppled. Burma Myanmar Junta Airstrike Targets Ceasefire Signatory After the junta airstrike on the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army commanders house and office on Saturday. / DKBA A Myanmar junta airstrike has targeted the house and office of a Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) commander in Kyainseikgyi Township, Karen State, near the Thai border, according to the armed group. Three fighters dropped six bombs, injuring two fighters and destroying the house of Colonel Saw A Wan, a DKBA commander, and a Kyain Chaung village clinic, said a representative of the organization. The colonel and his family escaped because the planes opened fire first. They shot at the buildings and then dropped bombs, he said. The village clinic had been offering free health care since Covid, residents said. The DKBA is a signatory of the 2015 National Ceasefire Agreement and is in talks with the junta. Its leaders recently met junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and Lieutenant General Yar Pyae, chairman of the National Solidarity and Peace Negotiation Committee. Hundreds of Kyain Chaung villagers have fled their homes to avoid further attacks. Payathonzu is mostly controlled by the Karen National Liberation Army and its resistance allies. The groups political wing, the Karen National Union, recently reported that 38 airstrikes had occurred in the area since the 2021 coup, destroying numerous buildings, including a Buddhist temple. Burma Myanmar Resistance Targets More Junta Election Offices -- Resistance groups have attacked six Myanmar junta offices in Yangon, Sagaing and Magwe regions in two days to disrupt plans for a general election later this year. The junta regime started updating voter lists on January 9, sparking attacks from resistance groups. Tamu Peoples Defence Force (PDF) and the All Burma Students Democratic Front on Thursday carried out an arson attack on the township election commission office in Tamu, Sagaing Region, according to Tamu PDF. The terrorist military is pressuring the election commission to hold a sham election. To prevent the election and deliver a warning against taking part, we have burned the election commission office where all the documents collected for the sham election are stored, Tamu PDF said in a statement. It said it will target anyone or any building involved in the election. On Thursday the Peoples Army to Fight Dictatorship and its allies set fire to the regimes immigration office in Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region, where staff were compiling voter lists. The staff were secretly working at the office on the voter lists. We destroyed all the documents and burned down the office, said a spokesman for the group. The staff were ordered to leave the office before the fire was started, he added. Junta troops have been used to collect election data. Resistance groups in Magwe Region on Thursday attacked troops guarding staff collecting Kaing Taw Ma villagers details in Myaing Township. Several groups attacked for about 30 minutes. No casualties were reported. Yangon groups also attacked immigration and election offices on Thursday. An urban guerrilla force threw a bomb at an immigration department office in Mayangone Township, according to residents. The bomb did not explode and it was destroyed by junta troops. On Friday, the Dark Shadow guerilla force said it attacked the Yangon Regional Election Commission office with a remote-controlled mine and the National Reconciliation and Peace Center in the city. The attack was to prevent the illegal and sham election being staged by the terrorist military and to break the regimes administrative mechanisms to uproot the junta that is trying to seize the country, said the groups statement. Groups in Yangon, Mandalay, Monywa in Sagaing Region, Launglon in Tanintharyi Region and Thaton in Mon State have attacked election preparations. During the first week, five junta personnel, including two police officers and a ward administrator, were killed in the attacks. Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG), this week said protecting civilians is as important as eliminating the military regime. The NUG sees the elimination of the military regime as the first priority but the protection of the lives and property of the public is our first priority too, he told his cabinet on Tuesday. The NUG, revolutionary groups and democracies around the world have denounced the juntas general election plan as a sham. Both the US and UN have said that any election held by the regime would be neither free nor fair. Junta Watch Junta Watch: Dictators Wife Hails Women Amid Military's Femicide; EAOs Rise Against Regimes Poll Plan; and More Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is feted during his visit to Naga Self-Administered Zone. Wives of junta boss, deputy mock womens empowerment Thousands of women have been arbitrarily detained since the coup in 2021, with many deprived of livelihoods and security amid social turmoil following the military takeover. Some have even been killed or raped by junta soldiers, or seen their children die in regime attacks. Against this backdrop, junta boss Min Aung Hlaings wife Kyu Kyu Hla and his deputys wife Than Than Nwe on Monday presided over a hypocritical ceremony to honor those who have contributed to the empowerment of women across the country. The ceremony was held to mark the 17th anniversary of the regime-sponsored Myanmar Womens Federation, of which the two wives are honorary patrons. The juntas atrocities against civilian women are well documented, but less well publicized is the abuse perpetrated within military ranks for decades. It is an open secret that the exploitation suffered by privates in barracks also extends to their wives, who are routinely enslaved for unpaid menial work by the wives of higher-ranking servicemen. Mixed reaction to Min Aung Hlaings proposed poll Ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) have rejected the military regimes proposal to hold an election this year and called for efforts to halt ongoing preparations for the poll. Powerful EAOs including the Kachin Independence Army, Karen National Union, Karenni National Progressive Party, Palaung State Liberation Front, and Taang National Liberation Army have declared their opposition to the juntas plan. Also denouncing the poll is the Strategic Initiative Forum, a coalition of democratic forces in Myanmar. The forum is working to establish a federal democratic union, and comprises the General Strike Committee, the KNU, KNPP, the Womens League of Burma, the Democratic Party for a New Society, and individuals committed to democratic development. The National League for Democracy, which won the 2020 general election, and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, which won the third-largest share of votes, have also rejected the poll. On the other hand, ethnic groups currently in talks with the regime the Arakan Liberation Party, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council, the Lahu Democratic Union, and Pa-O National Liberation Organization have expressed their support for the proposed poll. The militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, and the Arakan Liberation Party have declared they will contest the poll. Min Aung Hlaing last year urged EAOs to press their demands through Parliament, offering to grant business licenses to those that make peace with the regime. In his Independence Day address on January 4, he pledged power would be transferred to the party that won the election. Junta boss never tires of attacking NLD Min Aung Hlaings malice toward the National League for Democracy (NLD) appears to be endless. Just two weeks before the end of emergency rule, which was imposed when he seized power from the democratically elected NLD government in 2021, the junta boss still cant stop himself from attacking the countrys most popular party. Repeating his groundless justification of the coup during his visit to Naga Self-Administered Zone on Monday, Min Aung Hlaing said the military was forced to seize power because the NLD committed fraud in the 2020 general elections. He also accused NLD supporters of undermining the countrys stability. Following his visit, U Win Myint, the jailed president of the ousted NLD government, was transferred to Taungoo Prison as the regime continued to persecute NLD members and supporters. Several other NLD members and supporters have been killed or detained since the start of the year. Over the past two years since the coup, some 200 NLD members including more than 90 former lawmakers have been detained at the orders of Min Aung Hlaing. Sixty-seven of them have died in custody. Among them was former NLD lawmaker Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, who was hanged in Yangons Insein Prison. The regime has also handed NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi a total of 33 years in jail, effectively a life sentence for the 77-year-old democracy leader. Min Aung Hlaings motivation for staging the coup was not just his resentment towards the NLD, however, but also his mania to become the countrys president. On This Day The Day Hired Mobs Began Protesting the Military Proxy Partys 2020 Election Loss Military supporters throw projectiles at people in downtown Yangon on Feb. 25, 2021 during a series of protests targeting the Union Election Commission for announcing the NLDs poll win. / AFP On this day in 2021, a series of demonstrations targeting the then Union Election Commission (UEC) over the results of the 2020 general election started in Myanmars biggest city, Yangon. Orchestrated by U Khin Yia former Myanmar military general and one of the key conspirators in the military coup that would take place less than two weeks lateraround 2,000 people joined the demonstrations in Hlaing Thar Yar, Twante and Dagon Seikkan townships. The demonstrations followed the UECs announcement of the National League for Democracy (NLD)s landslide victory in the 2020 polland by extension the heavy defeat of the militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), of which U Khin Yi was the vice chair at that time. Six months later, with the NLD government having been toppled by the military, the former brigadier general and Myanmar Police chief was rewarded by being appointed the juntas immigration and population minister, a position he had previously held in U Thein Seins administration. The anti-UEC demonstrations continued daily until the military coup on Feb. 1 and became blatantly pro-military, or pro-coup, rallies after the takeover. In all, U Khin Yi organized 22 pro-military demonstrations between Jan. 21 and Feb. 2511 before the coup and 11 afterwards. At those demonstrations, pro-junta groups carried both Myanmar and military flags, as well as banners proclaiming their support for the junta, along with clubs, which they used to smash car windows. On Jan. 30, a crowd of pro-military marchers beat passers-by and onlookers near Yangons Bahan Market. The following day, they burned NLD flags on display at a printing shop on Shwegondaing Road in Yangons Bahan Township. Some 10 people were injured during a pro-military rally in downtown Yangon on Feb. 25 when supporters of Myanmars military beat and stabbed people after being booed by bystanders. Based on record books dropped at the rallies, many of the participants are believed to have been hired to attend for a wage of 3,000 to 7,000 kyats (US$2.10-$5). A widely circulated video shows a USDP official telling a man that he would pay him 20,000 kyats if he could bring a truck full of people to the rally. U Khin Yi later stepped down from the ministerial position and is now chairman of the USDP, tasked with steering the party through the election which the regime plans to hold later this year. 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With her stunning beauty and charisma, she swooned three gorgeous guys on the island, including newcomer Kim Jin Young, doctor Shin Dong Woo, and Choi Jong Woo. On the other hand, viewers dubbed her as the "pick me up" kind of girl due to her interaction with some of the cast members, however, Shin Seul Ki proved them wrong. Following the show's ending, viewers explore more about the 25-year-old beauty starting from her family, educational background, and more. Interestingly, what the public struck her the most is her affluent background. Shin Seul Ki's Family: 'Single's Inferno 2' Star's Father is One of Korea's Top Plastic Surgeons Although she didn't discuss details about her family in "Single's Inferno" season 2, viewers played detective and found out that Shin Seul Ki's father, Dr. Yong-Ho Shin is a plastic surgeon. He is the founder and head surgeon at BIO Plastic Surgery. On top of it, reports also say that the 58-year-old Seoul-based doctor gained praise for giving free assistance to overseas patients who are unable to afford treatments. Apart from her family, Shin Seul Ki reportedly lives in a luxury apartment called Tower Palace that is estimated to cost between 7 to 9 million USD. Despite her real-life princess environment, the reality star broke the "rich girl" stereotype by doing part-time jobs. How Shin Seul Ki Broke 'Rich Girl' Stereotype According to a media outlet, Shin Seul Ki did part-time jobs while studying at Seoul National University. She earned her allowance by working as a page-turner and pianist at church services and weddings. In addition, Seul Ki also earned by winning piano competitions and even gave a portion of it during the COVID-19 pandemic by donating 20,000 masks. Recently, netizens lauded her for flying economy although she can afford to fly in business class. In Shin Seul Ki's Instagram story, the reality star revealed that she is traveling from Korea to Vietnam, though she didn't disclose if it's work-related or a vacation. To recall, the reality star mentioned in "Single's Inferno" season 2 that she is currently a fourth-year student at Seoul National University's piano department. Interestingly, netizens speculate that she and fellow participant Choi Jong Woo were dating after he came to one of Shin Seul Ki's performances and even posted a video of her. On the comment section, fans can feel how proud he is as Jong Woo records Seul Ki's performance. READ MORE: THIS 'Single's Inferno 2' Couple Receives Backlash After Announcing 'Expensive' Fan Meeting KDramastars owns this article Written by Geca Wills When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022 it never expected to run out of ammunition. The war was not over in a few months and because of that Russia did run out of artillery munitions while Ukraine was supplied with massive amounts, much more than Russia had access to. After nearly a year of fighting, Russia has to limit the number of shells, rockets and missiles they can fire because they could not replace all that was fired while Western aid meant Ukrainians could. This caused a problem for NATO countries supplying all this ammunition because they eventually ran through most of what they had available. The United States supplied most of the munitions and now has to replace its war reserves stockpiled for a major war. While European NATO nations dont have to worry about their major threat, Russia, while they rebuild their war reserves, the Americans have to plan for potential conflicts elsewhere, like China, North Korea and Iran. The U.S. has to increase production for all these munitions and that takes several years to ramp up production and five or more years of increased production to restore the reserves. Munitions are still being sent to Ukraine, but not in the massive quantities seen during the first eight months of the war. Ukraine has managed to repair its own production facilities that Russia damaged early in the war and is now manufacturing a lot of the basic small arms, artillery and mortar ammunition its troops use. The Americans not only sent the most munitions but the widest variety of munitions, including more advanced (that what Russia had) types of munitions that gave the Ukrainians a major advantage in crippling the Russian forces. The most basic ammunition sent was 155mm artillery shells, along with 155mm guns to fire them from. The existing Ukrainian artillery was Soviet-era 152mm shells and lot of guns to fire it from. Other NATO nations supplied a lot of 155mm artillery. The United States was the major supplier of 155mm ammunition, sending about a million rounds of shells and propellants to Ukraine. This depleted the American war reserves and South Korea was able to send the U.S. several hundred thousand shells. These had restrictions in that none could be sent to Ukraine. This was fine with the United States because it would reduce the time it would take to increase American production and replace the war reserves. Current production is 3,250 155mm shells a month. That is being increased to 20,000 a month in 2023 and 40,000 in 2024. The 155mm shell reserves wont be restored to 2021 levels until 2027 or 2028. The U.S. also sent Ukraine over 5,000 GPS guided 155mm shells at the rate of up to a thousand a month. These were something the Russians didnt have and the Ukrainians found these shells very useful. It will take at least four years to restore this stockpile. At the start of the war the U.S. was producing a thousand of these guided shells a year. It will take at least four years of increased production to restore this stockpile. Another crucial guided munition was the 227mm GMLRS guided rockets launched from HIMARS and other types of vehicles. The United States sent several thousand GMLRS rockets to Ukraine and is still sending several hundred a month. This is a key weapon in the American arsenal and the war reserves (of about 30,000 rockets) was not depleted as much as the 155mm shell supply was. With less 155mm munitions available now, the Americans depend more on their stockpile of GMLRS rockets. It takes longer to increase production of the more complex GMLRS and it will take a few years to replace what was, and still is, sent to Ukraine. While GMLRS was very useful in Afghanistan and Iraq after 2005 (when GMLRS entered service), the Ukrainians developed novel new ways to use GMLRS against an opponent that can shoot back. This was useful information for the growing number of NATO nations that have GMLRS rockets. Production will have to be increased further to fill the export orders. Poland found another solution, ordering similar guided rocket systems from South Korea. Russia also makes some guided rockets but did not have many of them in early 2022 and did not use them as effectively as the inventive Ukrainians. The U.S. and other NATO countries also supplied Ukraine with thousands of Stinger portable anti-aircraft missiles and even more ATGMs (Anti-Tank Guided Missiles) like the American Javelin and other models produced by European NATO countries. These anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons were critical in crippling Russian armored vehicle and helicopter forces early in the war. Those are still present on the front lines but nowhere near the numbers used early in the war because so many have been destroyed. Even so, it will take several years for NATO nations to replenish their stockpiles of these weapons. While these massive shipments of munitions to Ukraine were critical in halting and now driving out the Russians, they were a reminder of how important war reserves were, and made it clear that war reserves in 2021 were too low. This was not unusual, because its difficult to convince governments to spend much on war reserves. The Ukraine War has changed minds on that, for a while anyway. Stephanie Forster is shown in this undated handout photo provided by her family. She was shot and killed while sitting in her car outside her Coquitlam, B.C., home on Dec. 8 and while the police investigation is ongoing, her family and women's advocacy groups say her husband is responsible. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Stephanie Forster SOMERS Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and Metropolitan Chicago were joined by more than 200 employees and community partners for its 2023 Community Day event and volunteer activity in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday. The event held at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Student Center recognized employee and community partner contributions to transforming lives and communities through The Power of Work. In honor of Dr. King, attendees participated in an Act of Goodwill volunteer program and packed 1,500 wellness and flu-fighting kits to help community members combat influenza during peak flu season. Goodwill will distribute the kits to organizations across southeastern Wisconsin and metropolitan Chicago that work to advance health equity including free clinics, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and food pantries. Acts of Goodwill is a volunteer program that empowers employees to participate in volunteer activities that positively impact people. Goodwill launched Acts of Goodwill in March of 2019, and employees have since participated in over 650 hours of service supporting nonprofit community organizations across southeastern Wisconsin and metropolitan Chicago. Special guests at the local event event included: Ron Adams, vice president of Field Diversity & Inclusion at Northwestern Mutual; Patrick Creadon, director, The Loyola Project; Donald Driver, Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer; Deborah Ford, chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Parkside; and Dr. Robert Smith, director of the Center for Urban Research, Teaching & Outreach at Marquette University. Goodwill, in partnership with Northwestern Mutual, engaged attendees in a special Clips and Conversations panel discussion around The Loyola Projects Northwestern Mutual 63 for 63 Screening Series which has been selected as a Grand Winner by the NYX Awards in the Strategic Campaign-Corporate Social Responsibility category. Panelists included: Basil Buchko, vice president, general counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and Metropolitan Chicago; Creadon; Driver; Suzanne Maldonado, vice president, Talent Bridge and Business Development at Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and Metropolitan Chicago; and Dr. Robert Smith, director of the Center for Urban Research, Teaching & Outreach at Marquette University. PHOTOS: 29th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at Gateway MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION MLK CELEBRATION Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! When disaster strikes, it can change our perspectives and priorities in life. In this episode, we speak with Linda Munroe, a nurse practitioner who shares her experiences and insights on the challenges and rewards of being a health care worker. She discusses the impact of natural disasters on her community and the lessons she has learned from them. She also talks about the importance of faith, hope, and love in overcoming adversity and supporting others. Tune in to learn more about the resilience of the human spirit and the power of compassion in times of crisis. Linda Munroe is a nurse practitioner. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, Say I love you often and mean it. The Podcast by KevinMD is brought to you by the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience. With so many demands on their time, physicians today report record levels of burnout. Burnout is caused by many factors, one of which is clinical documentation. Studies indicate physicians spend two hours documenting care for every hour spent with patients. At Nuance, we are committed to helping physicians do what you love care for patients and spend less time on clinical documentation. The Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience, or DAX for short, is an AI-powered, ambient clinical intelligence solution that automatically captures patient encounters securely and accurately at the point of care. Physicians who use DAX have reported a 50 percent decrease in documentation time and a 70 percent reduction in feelings of burnout, and 83 percent of patients say their physician is more personable and conversational. Rediscover the joy of medicine with clinical documentation that writes itself, all within the EHR. VISIT SPONSOR https://nuance.com/daxinaction SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast RATE AND REVIEW https://www.kevinmd.com/rate FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/kevinphomd FOLLOW ON TIKTOK https://www.tiktok.com/@kevinphomd GET CME FOR THIS EPISODE https://earnc.me/zAG8K2 Powered by CMEfy. As a PA, Ive worked in some of the citys busiest emergency departments. While they differ in practice styles, patient population, and architecture, they all have one thing in common: the nurses are overworked. As thousands of them go on strike and thousands more threaten to do the same, it should come as no surprise to anyone who has witnessed their plight. I have seen NYC RNs be spit on and cursed at. I have never seen one take a proper lunch break. I have seen them told to put away their coffee from the charting station, and I have seen them berated for delayed medications after theyve spent an hour in a code. Though there are many brutal careers that take a physical and mental toll, few do so in such a traumatic combination as urban frontline medicine does. Nurses have always known this and have towed the line with strength, dignity, and compassion (and sips of coffee snuck out of desk drawers). However, most in New York are currently being repeatedly asked to do more with less in unprecedented and unacceptable ways. For example, many are regularly doubling Californias state-mandated safety ratios (which require an ER nurse with an ICU hold be limited at 1:2 or a step-down unit cap at 1:4). Whats more, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that medical professionals in New York are eight times more likely to be assaulted than private sector workers. But the most brutal betrayal of New York nurses lies in the way I can only imagine theyve been made to feel disposable amidst this suffering. In 2020, as the pandemic ravaged the city, beleaguered and horrified RNs trekked on through deplorable conditions while NYC hospital executives denied them cost-of-living increases and improved benefits. Nightly clapping and heroes work here signs are not enough to atone for these insults, especially as administrators simultaneously received an average bonus of around $273,000. Imagine what might be possible if hospitals invested in the health and well-being of their current staff (and Im not talking about pizza parties and branded badge lanyards) instead of claiming shortages and spending massive amounts of money to hire traveling nurses (many of whom, ironically, live locally but work locums for the benefits). All this has culminated in a 26 percent decrease in self-reported mental health among nurses, with two-thirds considering leaving the profession in the next two years, according to a recent survey by ShiftMed. Of those who stay, many are contemplating leaving the bedside, have sought trauma counseling for COVID-related PTSD, or are joining support and education groups such as those offered for medical professionals through the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. It should come as no surprise that New York nurses feel they can no longer carry the weight of the hospital on their backs. While unions consider a last-ditch effort strike to ensure patient safety and promote career longevity, we clinicians must support them wholeheartedly. We cannot possibly survive without nurses, and neither can our patients. Molly M. Murray is a physician assistant. 234 Shares Share I always knew my work schedule, but this time I got it wrong or maybe I got it right. I clocked in and reported to the ICU for my night shift to start, but I wasnt on the schedule. Strangely enough, they had enough nurses that night. The nursing supervisor asked if I would be willing to go to the neonatal ICU (NICU) and rock a baby. Except for nursing school, I knew nothing about neonatal nursing, much less the NICU. But I thought this should be easy, so I said yes. I entered the NICU and the charge nurse asked me if I could rock a 5.5-pound premature baby girl. She was irritable with a frantic, shrill cry, and her body trembled. I immediately thought, What have I gotten myself into? She had a nasal cannula attached to her nostrils, and was going through withdrawal symptoms because her mother did drugs opioids. My heart wept. Little Greta would tremble uncontrollably, but I held her close in my arms as I slowly rocked her. She was perfect, with tiny fingers wrapped around one of my fingers. We looked into each others eyes those small, brown eyes and I slowly rocked her, slow and rhythmic. I put her close to my heart, so she could feel my warmth, feel my heart, and feel my love. I was told that Gretas mother had already been discharged, and was undergoing drug rehabilitation, including methadone treatment. Social services would make visits to see the progress of Greta and the mother, and the goal was to eventually return Greta to her mother when she was physically able to go home. DSS would eventually make well visits to the mother and baby Greta when she was returned. After two hours of rocking Greta, her breathing slowed to a restful state and her little eyes closed as she slept peacefully in my arms. I could have rocked her forever. I said a prayer for Greta, that she would have a happy life, and that her mother would be rehabilitated and never go back to drugs. This perfect creation, sleeping quietly in my arms, and I wished her the best that life and love could give her. I could only pray a positive prayer, as I did not want to think the dark thoughts that circled my mind. After two hours of rocking baby Greta, I handed her over to her nurse and slowly walked out of the hospital. My assignment was over. Tears slowly fell to my cheeks tears I couldnt hold back tears for baby Greta, her perfect self, and that peaceful snuggle against my chest as she held her tiny hand tightly wrapped around my finger. Debbie Moore-Black is a nurse who blogs at Do Not Resuscitate. Neighbors of Mali are criticizing the military government for using the Russian Wagner Group mercenaries rather than the more effective French counter-terrorism forces and troops from neighboring countries that still work with the French. The Islamic terrorists, mainly those of JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems) are gaining control over more of Mali and even making more frequent attacks near the capital Bamako down south, leaving over twenty dead so far this year. In the northeast (south of Gao) ISGS (Islamic States in Greater Sahara) Islamic terrorists near the Niger border have taken advantage of the departure of French counterterrorism forces earlier this year by seizing and holding territory in Mali. This began six months ago with more attacks on the Niger border. The departing French and G5 counter-terrorism forces had kept the Islamic terrorists out of Mali. The Mali army and a small number of Russian (Wagner Group) military contractors have been unable to carry on with that effort or prevent the Islamic terror groups from crossing the border and advancing into Mali. ISGS is one of the two ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) groups in the region. When they showed up in 2018, ISGS operated mainly in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, especially the area where the three borders meet. Over the last three months ISGS have been working to take control of the border between Mali and Niger. Mali responded with soldiers and a handful of Wagner Group mercenaries but that was unsuccessful. After that Mali did nothing about the situation as its security forces and the UN peacekeepers were needed elsewhere. The Niger government was also unable to respond and sought to negotiate a deal with ISGS. Appearing in 2015 as an affiliate of ISIL and part of ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) that changed in 2021 when ISGS declared itself separate from ISWAP and declared northern Mali and some areas in Niger and Burkina Faso its future caliphate. The ISIL affiliated Islamic terrorists are far more violent than the more numerous al Qaeda. This also means casualties for the 12,000 UN peacekeepers. ISGS violence involves attacks on Islamic terror groups that refuse to take orders from ISIL. The tri-border (Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso) area has been a terrorist hotspot since 2018 because Islamic terror groups can just cross the border to escape any effective counterterrorism efforts. For that reason, this area has been called the Menaka Region. Previously this area was just part of the larger Gao Region, centered on one of the few cities in the north. The area being fought over is near where the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet. Menaka has become ungovernable because so many Islamic terrorists and bandits now operate here. The French counterterrorism forces regularly searched for and attacked specific Islamic terrorist targets. The Mali government underestimated how important the French forces, with their airmobile troops, UAV surveillance and ground attack aircraft were in keeping the Islamic terrorists from establishing themselves inside Mali. The Mali government has no clear plan for dealing with this situation. The neighbors see the reliance on Wagner Group as the main cause for more Islamic terrorists operating in Mali and spreading to neighboring countries. This includes Algeria, which has been largely Islamic terrorism free for over a decade. Now Algeria is seeing a return of Islamic terrorist activity because of the growing number of active Islamic terrorists across the border in northern Mali. Despite this, Mali does not want the French back because that makes it easier for foreigners to document the growing corruption of the military government. These corruption reports lead to more countries imposing individual sanctions on officers running the military government and profiting from the corruption. January 19, 2023: Mali received a shipment of aircraft from Russia. There were two Mi-8 transport helicopters and eight fixed-wing Su-25 ground attack aircraft and L-39 trainers, which can also be armed with bombs and serve as a ground attack aircraft. Mali did not disclose how many Su-25s or L-39s they received. January 6, 2023: The military government finally relented to international pressure and pardoned 49 Ivory Coast peacekeepers they arrested four months ago and were accused of being mercenaries and part of an effort to overthrow the Mali government. Four months ago, Mali released three female members of a 49 member Ivorian peacekeeping unit that has been imprisoned since July 10th. Diplomats from Togo had been negotiating with Mali to get all 49 soldiers released. The UN insists the Ivorians were supporting the peacekeeping effort in Mali. This all began when the government ordered the arrest of 49 Ivorian soldiers who had arrived at the airport outside the capital as part of the current UN peacekeeper rotation. The government accused the Ivorian peacekeepers of being mercenaries sent to overthrow the military government. The Mali government was using a technicality to detain the Ivorians, who were there to provide security for German peacekeepers in the capital, not join the Ivory Coast Army peacekeeper detachment in the north. When the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force made comments on Twitter about Mali being notified about the arrival of the Ivorians, that spokesman was expelled. Mali also accused Ivory Coast of calling for sanctions against the Mali military government. In December Mali tried and convicted the Ivorian peacekeepers of conspiracy against the government. ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) threatened severe sanctions if Mali did not relent and that worked. January 2, 2023: In the south (the capital Bamako) someone attacked a checkpoint outside the city, killing two militiamen and three civilians. January 1, 2023: Ethiopia, Mali and neighboring Guinea were excluded from AGOA (the African Growth Opportunities Act) that eliminated customs duties on countries in the region. The exclusion was because these nations were ruled by military groups that deposed elected governments. For Mali and Guinea, there were already sanctions problems with ECOWAS and the international community. The Mali military government was feeling the pressure and members of the military government were concerned about their growing economic problems and losing control over more and more of the country because of Islamic terrorists. There is no easy way out of this other than handing control back to the civilian government they deposed. Several members of the military government are opposed to that solution but offer no practical alternative to the deteriorating situation. The Russian government increased the legal maximum number of its active-duty military personnel from 1,013,628 to 1,150,628 personnel. It is unlikely that this number will ever be reached. At the end of 2021 the Russian ground forces had about 400,000 men while the navy and air force each had about 150,000. About a third of air force personnel were paratroopers or air mobile infantry. The navy had about 12,000 marines, who guarded naval bases in peacetime. Right now that means the heavy Russian losses since the invasion began, and failure to mobilize many replacements, reduced the army to about 250,000 personnel. The airborne forces and marines also suffered heavy losses but more of them are still in service. Heavy combat losses reduced the personnel strength so sharply because the Russian army has far fewer soldiers providing logistic and transportation services. These are provided by government or private contractors to assemble and move supplies close to the combat zone, where military trucks and drivers move the supplies to army maintained collection points or the combat units. This works inside Russia where the state-controlled railroads are equipped for operated by civilians who are trained for such support. For a major war against Russia, civilian trucks and drivers are mobilized for this. Such a mobilization disrupts the economy but that is seen as necessary t0 defend Russia. This why the Ukrainian invasion was not called a war but an internal operation in what Russia declared was Russian territory controlled by rebels. Russia did not expect the Ukrainians massive resistance or their destruction of so many Russian trucks and supply collection points. This dramatically weakened Russian supply capabilities inside Ukraine, especially after Ukraine received guided GMLRS rockets that hit Russian supply depots because of information supplied by Ukrainians or NATO supplied aerial and satellite surveillance. Russian forces inside Ukraine are chronically short of ammunition, food, fuel and much else by these Ukrainian tactics. Resorting to looting civilian supplies in occupied areas only partially replaces the supplies destroyed in transit or stored inside Ukraine. Russian armed forces were supposed to have over a million men but that goal has never been met and at the end of 2021 the total was about 750,000. That is now about 400,000, including the air force and navy. Mobilizations of new conscripts and men who had served the one year of conscript service failed to replace all the losses, in part because the mobilized men knew that the war in Ukraine was not going well and most men sent there had little training, equipment or leadership. Most of the junior officers were killed or disabled during the first months of the war and replacements take months to train. Peacetime officer training takes years and now there is a shortage of trainers for troops and officers because most of the existing ones were sent to Ukraine as replacements for the catastrophic losses the Ukrainians were inflicting. Ukraine had 250,000 active-duty troops in early 2022 and within months had half a million more in form of volunteers and conscripts. Normally Ukrainian troops receive a lot more training than their Russian counterparts but in the first months of the war planet of untrained Ukrainians were used to halt the invasion. Since then, Ukrainian troops get more training and are led by officers and NCOs in combat. Ukrainian troops dont suffer from supply shortages and suffer relatively few casualties than the Russians. Since the invasion began in February, Russia has suffered enormous losses in terms of combat personnel, military equipment and the reputation for quality/reliability/effectiveness of Russian weapons and personnel. Even the Ukrainians were surprised at how unprepared the invaders were for combat and dealing with Ukrainian superiority in weapons (often Western), leadership (all Ukrainian) and tactics. Russias leadership, especially supreme leader Vladimir Putin, was delusional about the continuing lack of military progress in Ukraine. Even Russians who thought restoring independent (since 1991) Ukraine to Russian control was a good thing and worth fighting for, began losing confidence in Putins ability to make that happen. Each time failure in Ukraine became obvious, Putin would come up with a new reason why Russia was winning, and each of these was soon shown to be false. Their currently alleged key to Russian victory are disagreements among NATO members about whether Ukraine can win a military victory. NATO is in agreement about the Russias inability to win in Ukraine but many politicians in some of the larger, and more distant from the fighting NATO nations (United States, Germany, France and Italy) openly doubt Ukraines ability to regain control of lost territory. Putin supports this attitude by continuing to threaten use of nuclear weapons if Russia is faced with losing all its seized territory in Ukraine. Many Russians now openly oppose the war even though Putin quickly created laws to make such public dissent illegal. That laws failure soon became obvious in many ways. First, there are a growing number of anti-war demonstrations and physical attacks on military facilities, especially recruiting stations. Refusing to report when conscripted became more common. Another form of defiance is veterans of the Ukraine fighting providing details, based on personal experience, of why Russian forces are failing. Many of these veterans are no longer in the military because they refused to renew their contracts. Many more soldiers remained in the army but refused to return to Ukraine and got away with it. Putin ordered that these soldiers be officially described, in their military records and military ID, as unreliable and unwilling to fight. In any other country a soldier who refuses to fight during wartime is subject to severe punishment, often execution. That still happens to reluctant Russian soldiers inside Ukraine where officers have the authority to shoot reluctant troops. Initially, as Russian casualties grew and progress was nonexistent, some officers did shoot troops refusing to fight. That soon changed as the troops threatened to and sometimes did shoot back or, in at least one known case, ran over an officer with a tank. Not to mention them sometimes shooting undesirable officers first (fragging). Ukrainian forces have provided additional confirmation of this violence and collapsing morale within Russian units. Many Russian troops will surrender to the Ukrainians at the first opportunity and admit it to Ukrainian, Russian and foreign journalists. This prompted Ukraine to equip some of its quadcopters to notify and lead surrendering Russian troops safely to Ukrainian front-line forces. The number of Russian military personnel is declining because of the combat losses and veterans refusing to stay in, even though being a contract (volunteer) soldier is one of the few jobs Russians can get because of Western sanctions. The Russian economy is shrinking and unemployment, along with poverty, is increasing. Russia responded by lowering recruiting standards and accepting recruits or conscripts with physical, mental, legal or psychological problems that would normally make them ineligible for military service. Russia has also dropped age limits for volunteers and is willing to accept non-Russians as long as they can speak some Russian and are willing to fight. These efforts are not producing enough new troops to be immediately useful because most of them have no military training and at least two months are required to produce useful troops for combat. Conscripts require less training and are often used for support operations outside Ukraine during their one year in uniform. Ukrainians are running short of artillery ammunition so they use their mobile artillery only for counterbattery (firing on Russian artillery). The Russians initially used artillery ammo at an unsustainable level and, as the Ukrainians receive more artillery ammo from NATO, Russias artillery superiority faded. Vladimir Putin knew his artillery munition reserves could not sustain a long war and now it is the Ukrainians who have more munitions because of massive shipments from NATO nations. Russian plans include increasing the number of volunteer contract troops who are paid more than conscripts and serve longer. The government claims it will have 521,000 contracti by the end of 2023 and 695,000 a year or two after that. That is optimistic considering the number of existing contract troops who are not renewing their contracts. There is no information from Russia about how so many new conscripts or contract troops will be obtained to increase the size of the armed forces to 1.15 million. Russia may extend conscription service from one to two years and keep existing troops in uniform longer because of the war. That is not popular with most Russians, which is how that attitude forced the government to reduce conscript service to one year in the first place. Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Mainly clear. Low 57F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 57F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Yes, by at least $1 Yes, by $2 or more No Vote View Results Dr. Terry Gaff is a physician in northeast Indiana. Contact him at drgaff@kpcmedia.com or on Facebook. To read past columns and to post comments go to kpcnews.com/columnists/terry_gaff. Directors of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney's Council recently selected Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, for a 2022 Legislative Excellence Award. The annual award, presented to four Indiana lawmakers, recognizes legislative accomplishments aimed at improving public safety across the Hoosier State. Bohacek was honored for helping win approval of House Enrolled Act 1079, which last year redefined rape to include situations when a person disregards the other person's attempts to physically, verbally or by other visible conduct refuse the person's sexual acts. Previously, sexual intercourse only was considered rape in Indiana when a person used force, or the imminent threat of force, to compel sexual conduct; a person was unaware the sexual conduct was occurring; or a person was unable to consent to sex because of mental disability. "I am honored to have been selected to receive an award for my work on legislation helping clarify the definition of rape," Bohacek said. "It's important to me to create and pass bills that will genuinely make changes in the lives of Hoosiers, and it is great to see people like those at IPAC that appreciate the work my colleagues and I do." The other recipients of the 2022 IPAC Legislative Excellence Award: Sen. Michael Crider, R-Greenfield; and Reps. Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville, and Sharon Negele, R-Attica. This photo taken on Aug. 17, 2022 shows Philda Kereng, Botswana's Minister of Environment and Tourism, in Gaborone, Botswana. The Botswanan government received a donation of six boreholes in the northwestern part of the country on Thursday from conservation and hospitality company, Okavango Wilderness Safaris (OWS) in a move that seeks to reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Facing growing human and wildlife populations and the rising risk of conflicts, Botswana's Minister of Environment and Tourism Philda Kereng said the drilling of boreholes will go a long way in bringing stability to the landscape. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua) GABORONE, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Botswanan government received a donation of six boreholes in the northwestern part of the country on Thursday from conservation and hospitality company, Okavango Wilderness Safaris (OWS) in a move that seeks to reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Facing growing human and wildlife populations and the rising risk of conflicts, Botswana's Minister of Environment and Tourism Philda Kereng said the drilling of boreholes will go a long way in bringing stability to the landscape. She said the major challenge is that there is very minimal rainfall in all of Botswana's parks and the wild animals are moving in search of water and pasture. "If we do not look for water for them, they will be uncontrollable," she said, adding that the OWS has decided to make the donation at an opportune time. Very minimal rainfall witnessed in Botswana thanks to climate change has heightened incidents of human-wildlife conflict, and drilling boreholes within game parks is the only way to reduce conflict between humans and wild animals, said Kabelo Binns, the board chairperson of OWS. Binns said the Okavango community in the northwestern part of the southern African country is part of the regional Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, which is home to over 50 percent of the African Savannah elephants found in the southern African region as well as an estimated two million people. He said it is a landscape where people and nature have no choice but to live side by side, adding that the area operates as a living laboratory for finding ways to balance conservation and development. A 2021 report from the United Nations Environment Programme found that conflicts between humans and wild animals are among the greatest threats to the long-term survival of some of the planet's most iconic species. Last year, Botswana utilized an estimated five million U.S. dollars to compensate farmers whose fields were destroyed by wild animals. An elephant is seen in the Chobe River in northwest Botswana's Kasane, May 10, 2021. The Botswanan government received a donation of six boreholes in the northwestern part of the country on Thursday from conservation and hospitality company, Okavango Wilderness Safaris (OWS) in a move that seeks to reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Facing growing human and wildlife populations and the rising risk of conflicts, Botswana's Minister of Environment and Tourism Philda Kereng said the drilling of boreholes will go a long way in bringing stability to the landscape. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua) Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. New Delhi [India], January 21 (ANI/PNN): Disha Publication bagged two awards in two different categories in the recently held PVLF People's Choice Publisher Awards 2023 supported by the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) and powered by Nielsen Book Data. The awards are an initiative to acknowledge and appreciate the outstanding work done by publishers under different domains. The Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) is India's largest representative body of publishers with its membership spanning the entire country. FIP is affiliated to the International Publishers Association, Geneva as the only representative body of Indian publishers, and bestows various Awards for Excellence in Book Production. Nielsen Book Data is internationally renowned for providing 100 per cent reliable results with their BookScan Data. Disha Publication secured Second position in the 'Education' category and Third position in the 'Test Prep' category of publishers. The awards were presented by K Sreenivasan Rao (Director, Sahitya Academy), Ramesh Mittal (President, Federation of Indian Publishers) and Andre Breedt (Managing Director, Nielsen Book) at Hotel Claridges, New Delhi on January 14, 2023. These awards are significant because they are completely data-driven, declared solely on the basis of authentic data collected and compiled by Nielson. Also Read | Karnataka High Court Fines Father Rs 25,000 for Defying Its Order, Gives Child Custody to Mother. Disha Publication has been at the forefront of setting standards of excellence in designing study material that caters to the rapidly-changing needs of aspirants all over India. In the past years, Disha has emerged as India's leading publisher and distributor of print and digital learning materials with strength in Competitive Exam Books and School Books. It produces books across diverse categories of national, state and regional level competitive exams. Disha publishes books both in English and Hindi, and has started to work with other vernacular languages as well. The company has published more than 800 titles across a wide range of exam categories including UPSC & State PSC, JEE, NEET, SSC, Defence, Railway, etc. Last year, Disha was awarded the "Best Exam Prep Company of 2022" by BW Business World. Disha has partnered with the most sought-after authors and educators who are renowned in their respective fields. The company is working towards helping India realise its dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy in two ways: first, by educating and enabling the youth to enter different professions and intervene at various stages of nation-building; and second, by contributing to further increase the current 9.5 billion USD worth of the Indian Publishing industry in the global market (Nielsen). Also Read | Pushpa 2: Rashmika Mandanna To Join Allu Arjun and The Boys For the Films Shoot Next Month. "It is a matter of great honour to have received awards that speak for their own authenticity and significance. It motivates us to further accelerate our efforts and contribute to the nation's developmental goals," said Deepak Agarwal (Director, Disha Publication) on the occasion. To know more about Disha and explore its wide catalogue of books, https://www.dishapublication.com/ This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 21 (ANI/BusinessWire India): LTIMindtree [NSE: LTIM, BSE: 540005], a global technology consulting and digital solutions company, announced its consolidated results today for the third quarter that ended December 31, 2022, as approved by its Board of directors. "We are pleased to report a strong Q3 FY23, our first as LTIMindtree," said Debashis Chatterjee, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of LTIMindtree. "The combined entity has started out with a USD 1 billion quarterly revenue run rate, a top-quartile constant currency year-over-year revenue growth of 16.3 per cent, and a robust order inflow of USD 1.25 billion. Our performance speaks to our steadfast client focus through the merger and our resilient client and solutions portfolio. Clients across sectors are evincing keen interest in our unique value proposition spanning core to experience to edge. The client imperative to dial up technology-led innovation for future readiness holds significant long-term upside for our full-stack offerings and cross-industry exposure, boosting our endeavour to deliver industry-leading revenue growth in the future as well." Key financial highlights: Quarter ended December 31, 2022 Also Read | Karnataka | BJP National President JP Nadda Arrives in Kalaburagi. Latest Tweet by ANI. In USD:- Revenue at USD 1,046.7 million (growth of 2.4 per cent q-o-q / 14.0 per cent y-o-y)- Net profit at USD 121.5 million (decline of 17.7 per cent q-o-q / 13.3 per cent y-o-y) In INR:- Revenue at Rs 86,200 million (growth of 4.8 per cent q-o-q / 25.3 per cent y-o-y)- Net profit at Rs 10,007 million (decline of 15.8 per cent q-o-q / 4.7 per cent y-o-y) Also Read | Cobra Kai Season 6: The Popular Sequel Of The Karate Kid Franchise To Return For Final Season At Netflix. Other highlights: Clients: - 723 active clients as of December 31, 2022- USD 1 million+ clients increased by 13, total 374- USD 5 million+ clients increased by 7, total 144- USD 10 million+ clients increased by 4, total 81 People:- 86,462 professionals as of December 31, 2022- Trailing 12 months attrition was 22.3 per cent Deal Wins - A leading digital marketplace offering end-to-end solutions for the automotive industry signed a multiyear deal with LTIMindtree as its anchor digital transformation partner to consolidate all digital initiatives for enhancing efficiencies and accelerating time-to-market.- A leading public utility company based in North America chose LTIMindtree as a long-term strategic partner for an infrastructure and cloud-managed services deal.- An energy and utilities company selected LTIMindtree to enable its digital transformation journey towards green energy.- A North American energy company signed a managed services deal with LTIMindtree for a data, cloud-enablement, and infrastructure program.- A leading global provider of transportation solutions selected LTIMindtree to modernize its core operations leveraging a cloud-based business applications platform.- A North American P&C insurer selected LTIMindtree as a strategic partner for driving the transition from Quality Assurance to Quality Engineering. As part of this deal, LTIMindtree will drive an automation-first mindset to deliver efficiency and productivity improvements.- A leading hospitality company awarded LTIMindtree a multiyear contract to provide agile-based product development, testing, and support services.- A Canada-based automobile manufacturer signed a multiyear Application Management Services deal with LTIMindtree.- A leading semiconductor manufacturer and technology provider selected LTIMindtree for a multiyear contract to provide platform-led, end-user services globally. Recognitions - LTIMindtree Syncordis recognised as Temenos Global Delivery Partner.- Honoured as Global Collaboration Partner of the Year by Amazon Web Services (AWS).- Recognised as the 2023 ServiceNow Americas Emerging Service Provider Partner of the Year.- Recognised in the 2022 Gartner* Market Guide for Augmented Analytics for its Lumin by Fosfor product.- Named a Leader and Star Performer in Everest Group's Application and Digital Services in P&C Insurance PEAK Matrix Assessment 2023.- Named a Major Contender and Star Performer in Everest Group's Risk & Compliance in BFS IT Services PEAK Matrix Assessment 2023.- Named a Major Contender and Star Performer in Everest Group's Guidewire Services PEAK Matrix Assessment 2023.- Named a Major Contender in Everest Group's Healthcare Provider Digital Services PEAK Matrix Assessment 2023. *GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is 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. Announcements The Board of Directors has recommended an interim dividend of Rs 20 per equity share of par value Rs 1 each. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India) (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: The Delhi BJP on Saturday sharpened its attack on Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal demanding her suspension by the Lieutenant Governor for a fair police probe of her alleged molestation charges. In a letter to Lt Governor V K Saxena, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor requested him to suspend Maliwal till the completion of the police inquiry into the incident of alleged molestation with her on January 19. DCW Issues Notice to Delhi Police on Increasing Instances of Drunk Driving After Swati Maliwal Dragged by Car. Kapoor said reports indicate the man accused of molesting the DCW chief was an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker. The alleged incident occurred near AIIMS in the early hours of January 19 when Maliwal on a spot check of womens safety measures in the city was approached by a car driver allegedly in an inebriated condition. Everyone condemned the incident and it was satisfying to note that Delhi Police acted swiftly after the incident was reported and arrested the accused within an hour, Kapoor said. Swati Maliwal Says If Chairperson of Womens Commission Not Safe in Delhi, Imagine the Situation After Being Dragged by Car. But social media reports on this, as well as media reports, indicate that the eve teaser involved Harish Chandra Suryavanshi is an active worker of Delhis ruling Aam Aadmi Party from Sangam Vihar, the BJP spokesperson said. There are photographs of Harish Chandra Suryavanshi campaigning with an AAP MLA, he added. This development revealing eve teasers connection with Aam Aadmi Party has exposed Swati Maliwal and she will try her best to influence the police inquiry in the matter by using her constitutional office, Kapoor alleged. He urged the LG to suspend Maliwal from the post of DCW chairperson till the inquiry of the alleged molestation incident is completed so that she cannot misuse her position to influence it, Kapoor wrote in his letter. The BJP had on Friday also raised questions over DCW chief Maliwals molestation claims, alleging that the person she accused is an AAP member and her drama was part of a conspiracy that was exposed. Maliwal had alleged that she was molested by a drunk man while on an inspection at night and dragged for 10-15 metres by his car outside AIIMS with her hand stuck in the vehicles window. Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva had said Suryavanshi, accused of harassing Maliwal, is actually a prominent activist of the AAP in Sangam Vihar. Sachdeva had shared a photo in which the accused was seen campaigning with AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal. Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 21 (ANI): A petition against the pharmaceutical company manufacturing Dolo-650 tablets was filed with the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh on Friday. The company has been alleged of an Employee's State Insurance (ESI) scam and the matter has been recorded in the trial court. Also Read | AAP Minister Raaj Kumar Anand Writes to Delhi University, Demands Reduction of Cut-Off for SC/ST Students. A case has been lodged in the trial court against the Dolo-650 manufacturers Micro Labs Limited after its employees have alleged the company of a health insurance scam (ESI scam). The petition, filed by advocate Pradeep Kumar Dwivedi, was presented before Justice Rajbir Singh who posted the matter for hearing on February 20. Also Read | Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai Inaugurates 3-Day Millet Fair in Bengaluru, Says 'Need To End Uncertainity in Farmers Lives'. "The company has not made the health insurance of its employees mandatory for the last 30 years and this was they have duped almost Rs 300 crore from them", the petition read. The company has also been alleged of providing gifts worth Rs 1,000 crore to the doctors who have prescribed the tablet for their patients complaining of fever. The case is also being scanned by the Income Tax department. (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], January 21 (ANI): The Congress on Saturday released the logo of 'Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan' and a "chargesheet" against the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 'Haath Se Haath Jodo' campaign will take place for two months starting on January 26. Also Read | Tripura Assembly Elections 2023: EC Issues Notification for Upcoming Polls, Last Date To Submit Nomination Papers January 30. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that the campaign has been launched to spread the message of the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra. "Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan' will begin on Jan 26 - a house-to-house campaign to spread the message of the Bharat Jodo Yatra to common people," Venugopal said. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Shocker: Teacher Holds Minor Student Captive, Rapes Her in Aligarh, Accused Arrested. The party also released a chargesheet against the Modi government. "Respective Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) will make 'chargesheets' and if needed against respective state governments," Venugopal added. Coming down heavily on the central government, the Congress General Secretary said that the party would address the pain of the people caused by the Modi government's "misrule". "After 130 days of this historic programme (Bharat Jodo Yatra), Congress got enough inputs from the people of the country while walking lakhs of people talked to Rahul Gandhi. We can understand the pain which they are in due to the misrule of the Modi government," he stated. Earlier, addressing a press conference in Jammu & Kashmir's Kathua, Congress' Jairam Ramesh said that the door-to-door canvas of Congress would reach every house in the 10 lakh polling booths of 6 lakh villages and 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. "The 'Haath Se Haath Jodo' campaign will be held from January 26 to March 26. The Congress workers will do door-to-door canvassing and will reach out to every single house in 10 lakh polling booths of 6 lakh villages and 2.5 lakh gram panchayats," Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said. Congress leader and general secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh in the national capital on January 13 briefed media persons about the Bharat Jodo Yatra's follow-up programme Haath Se Haath Jodo, from January 26 to March 26, and said that during the programme party workers will go door-to-door and handover Rahul Gandhi's letter to people. (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], January 21 (ANI): The BJP on Saturday wrote to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, requesting him to 'suspend' Swati Maliwal from the post of chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) in the interest of a fair probe in the alleged molestation case. The letter was drafted by Delhi BJP spokesperson and head of Media Relations, Praveen Shankar Kapoor, in connection with the DCW chief's allegation that she was 'molested' and 'dragged by a car' for several metres near AIIMS, in the wee hours on Thursday. Also Read | COVID-19: Bharat Biotech To Launch First Made-in-India Intranasal Coronavirus Vaccine iNCOVACC on Republic Day. Delhi BJP cited some 'media reports' to claim that the alleged eve-teaser, Harish Chandra Suryavanshi, is an AAP worker. "There are photographs of Harish Chandra Suryavanshi campaigning with Aam Aadmi Party MLA Prakash Jarwal," the letter stated. Also Read | Swati Maliwal Dragging Case: Delhi Court Grants Bail to Accused Harish Chandra. Praveen Shankar Kapoor further alleged that the incident was a 'conspiracy' to 'paint' Delhi as a city unsafe for women. "The matter now stands complicated and it appears that the incident was a conspiracy with a motive of painting the image of Delhi as an unsafe city for women," the letter added. Delhi BJP alleged that this development has 'exposed' Swati Maliwal. "This development of eve-teaser's connection with AAP has exposed Ms. Swati Maliwal and she will try her best to influence the police inquiry in the matter by using her constitutional office," the Delhi BJP alleged. Kapoor requested the L-G to suspend Maliwal from the post till the inquiry is completed. "Sir I, therefore, request you as Administrator of Delhi to look into the matter and upend Ms Swati Maliwal from the post of President of Delhi Commission of Women till the inquiry of the alleged eve teasing incident gets completed so that she can't misuse her position to influence police inquiry," the letter added. Earlier, the DCW chief alleged in her complaint that a man driving a white hatchback pulled over near her and "made indecent gestures". She claimed that she was standing on the pavement when the man pulled over to her and offer her a lift. She alleged that the driver stood and started insisting that she sits inside the car. According to the police, after being reprimanded by Maliwal, the man drove off but he was back after a short while, again gesturing at her to sit inside the vehicle. Maliwal said she was standing with her team at Gate number 2 of AIIMS, which comes within the Kotla police station limits. "As she refused again and went near the car's side window to reprimand him, the man rolled up the glass window. She said her hand got stuck in the car window and she was dragged for about 10-15 meters," DCP (South), Chandan Chowdhary said. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], January 21 (ANI): Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena on Saturday launched the '100 Days to Beat Plastic' campaign at Baansera, Sarai Kala Khan in New Delhi. Lieutenant Governor also administered an oath to the people not to use plastic in daily life. The unique campaign is initiated by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to make the MCD area "Plastic-Free" with people's participation. Also Read | Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP Prepares Mega Plan To Reach Out to Minorities Ahead of General Polls, Party To Start Scooter Yatra in Minority-Dominated Seats. The 100 days campaign would culminate on April 22, 2023, on International Earth Day. The LG also unveiled the mascot of the campaign-Nivaran Dadi. He also visited the exhibition of products made from plastic waste. Also Read | Navi Mumbai Shocker: Cop Spits on Dalit Man, Forces Him to Lick Shoes in Police Station; Booked. Addressing the event, The Lt. Governor said, "I have a vision that Delhi should become a clean and beautiful city and all efforts are being made to attain this objective. MCD and PWD roads are being cleaned, though a lot of work is still to be done." Giving an idea to combat plastic pollution, he said, "If we stop taking plastic bags from vegetable vendors, shopkeepers and others, then this problem will start ending automatically." LG further said, "Now there is no need to discuss the ill effects of plastic. It is well known. No initiative is successful without public participation and I am happy to note that RWAs and Market Traders Associations have taken the initiative to make Delhi a plastic-free city. We will definitely be successful in this endeavour. Delhi faces the problem of water-logging every year for which plastic is also largely responsible." He also said, "Delhi is moving towards the goal of a zero waste city. We have so far declared 120 RWAs/GHSs as zero waste colonies. The height of landfill sites is also decreasing. We all need to work unitedly to make Delhi a better city." On the occasion, the MCD Commissioner Gyanesh Bharati said, "Delhi generates 11,000 tonnes of waste daily, out of which about 10 per cent is plastic waste. The corporation has done a lot of work since single-use plastic was banned. However, due to the lack of alternatives to plastic, there is a problem in implementing this ban completely." During the programme, a detailed presentation on the action plan of the '100 Days to Beat Plastic' campaign was given. Under this initiative, MCD has planned various activities including the intense inspections of all shops and markets to seize the banned single-use plastic, plogging drives with the Brand Ambassador of campaign-Plogman of India, distribution of cloth bags, the opening of more Vikalp stores, wall art and Installations related to Plastic, awareness and outreach events to combat single-use plastic. It is hoped that when the 100 days campaign ends, Delhi will be ready for use of alternatives to plastic. During the campaign, MCD will focus on making markets, parks, and hotel/banquets plastic free in a strategic manner. Under the campaign, MCD will promote segregation at source, and doorstep pickup of plastic and Dhalaos will be used for Reuse, Reduce & Recycle (RRR) facility in each ward. MCD will conduct an inspection of every shop, factory, and commercial enterprise and stickers of declaration of SUP Free Area will be put in these areas. Plogging drives will be held in identified locations and Reverse Plastic Vending Machines will be installed at high-footfall locations. Government institutions, community centres, parks, and offices will be declared SUP-free. MCD plans to open at least one Vikalp store in each market to discourage the use of Plastic bags. To implement the ban on single-use plastic and discourage the use of plastic cutlery in hotels and banquets, MCD will encourage the introduction of alternatives to plastic. Monthly inspection will be done by MCD and SUP-free certification will be made as a mandatory compliance. Through this campaign, MCD has set the target to make all the parks SUP Free. MCD has decided that name boards made of shredded plastic will be used in all MCD Parks and an appropriate number of dustbins will be installed in each park. The Public Health Department of MCD will modify the license terms to include - no usage of single-use plastic, especially plastic cutlery in hotels, eateries and restaurants. Extensive mapping will be done of all malls in Delhi to ban the SUP and declare them SUP Free. Mall Authority will be asked to issue an instruction for prohibiting the use of SUPs on entire premises. MCD will target to make schools and universities SUP-free premises. Every day "No use of banned SUPs" pledge will be practised in all schools. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Rohtak, January 21: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was released on 40-day parole on Saturday. The Dera Sacha Sauda chief is serving a 20-year sentence for rape and murder in Rohtak's Sunaria Jail. The paperwork for his parole was completed and he was released on Saturday. Earlier, he was out on parole for 40 days in October 2022. "The Dera chief's family have submitted an application to the jail authorities seeking month-long parole for Ram Rahim on his behalf but it will be decided by the court and commissioner for how many days he will get parole and where will he stay during this time," Haryana Jail Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala confirmed on Friday. Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Dera Sacha Sauda Chief, Granted 40-Day Parole; Released From Sunaria Jail (Watch Video). Gurmeet Ram Rahim Released From Rohtaks Sunaria Jail: #WATCH | Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh released from Sunaria prison in Rohtak district of Haryana after being granted 40-day parole. He has been convicted in a rape case. pic.twitter.com/6SK000mK5b ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2023 Notably, the Dera chief was also granted parole ahead of the Haryana panchayat election and Adampur Assembly bypoll. Rahim was granted parole for a month on June 17. He has been incarcerated, since 2017, in Haryana's Sunaria jail where he is serving a 20-year term for raping two women disciples at his ashram's headquarters in Sirsa. Earlier in February, the Dera chief was granted three weeks' furlough. While parole means the release of a prisoner either temporarily for a special purpose or completely before the expiry of a sentence, on the promise of good behaviour, a furlough is a short-term temporary release of convicts from jail. He was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017 for raping two women followers. Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Convicted of Rape of Two Disciples, Again Granted 40-Day Parole. CBI had registered the case on the orders passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in 2003 and taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered at Police Station Sadar in Kurukshetra. It was alleged that Ranjit Singh, a resident of village Khanpur Kolian, Kurukshetra was murdered on July 10, 2002, when he was working in his fields at village Khanpur Kolian of District Kurukshetra in Haryana. After a thorough investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet in 2007 against six accused and charges were framed in 2008 while, on October 8, 2021, the court convicted Rahim and four others in connection with former Dera manager Ranjit Singh's murder case. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], January 21 (ANI): The Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK) would not contest the upcoming Erode (East) bye-election scheduled to be held on February 27, citing that the election is a "waste of people's tax money and time". The party has also decided not to even support any other political party in this election. Also Read | There Could Be a Militancy Angle. They Did Something in Rajouri. Republic Day Latest Tweet by ANI. PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss, in a statement, said that the party does not support the elections if it is necessitated following the death of an MLA or if an MLA joins another party. The statement came after PMK had a high-level meeting headed by party founder and leader Ramadoss where he and senior leaders of the party participated. Also Read | Madhya Pradesh: 11-Year-Old Girl Jumps to Death Into Well in Ashoknagar After Learning About Fathers Death. "PMK has a stand that a bye-election is not needed if an MLA dies or any MLA joins another party and makes the seat vacant since it's a waste of people's tax money and time," the statement said. The party also opined that instead of conducting another election which causes a "waste of people's tax money and time", an MLA can be announced by the same political party from which the MLA won before. The Election Commission on Wednesday announced a bypoll to the Erode (East) constituency in Tamil Nadu on February 27. The counting of votes will be done on March 2. The filing of nominations would start on January 31 and end on February 7. The Erode (East) bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA Thirumagan, the great-grandson of social reformer 'Periyar' EV Ramasamy and son of former Union minister EVKS Elangovan. Former Congress leader and Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) founder, G K Vasan, whose party candidate was a runner-up in the 2021 Assembly election from this constituency, also withdrew from the race in support of the AIADMK, putting the BJP in a quandary either to support ally AIADMK or go solo. The bye-election will be a litmus test for the AIADMK as the constituency falls in its bastion of western Tamil Nadu, where the DMK is making efforts to make inroads. Meanwhile, AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, involved in an acrimonious leadership tussle with another former CM E Palaniswami, on Saturday announced to field his party candidate for the February 27 by-poll in Erode East Assembly constituency. This will be the first bypoll in Tamil Nadu after the DMK-led alliance won the 2021 Assembly polls. (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, January 21: The first G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) Meeting under India's G20 presidency will be held on February 9-11 in Bengaluru. India will be holding the Presidency of G20 for one year till November 30, 2023. The forum will bring together the G20 member countries, guest countries and international organisations invited by India. Through the Sherpa Track, 13 Working Groups and two Initiatives will meet under India's Presidency to discuss priorities and provide recommendations. G20s ECSWG To Focus on Promotion of Blue Economy Alongwith Coastal Sustainability, Meeting to Be Held From February 9-11 in Bengaluru. Environment, Climate and Sustainability is a working group under the Sherpa Track. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the discussions at ECSWG will focus on the agenda 'Promotion of Blue Economy along with Coastal Sustainability', 'Restoration of Degraded Lands and Ecosystems' and 'Enhancement of Biodiversity' and 'Strengthening of Circular Economy'. Leading to the first Meeting in Bengaluru, Mysuru Zoo in coordination with Central Zoo Authority organised a two-day National Conference for Zoo Directors of India on January 18-19. The Mysuru zoo was chosen as a venue to focus on best practices in zoo management. It is one of two self-sustaining zoos in India with the unique concept of adoption of Zoo animals, which started in this zoo. The conference mainly focused on 'Master Planning and Building the National Capacity for species Management and Conservation Breeding'. As many as 59 participants from 25 states and a union territory participated in this conference. For preparedness and better coordination, a meeting between Leena Nandan, secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and Vandita Sharma, chief secretary to Karnataka government was held on Saturday in Bengaluru. Aspects pertaining to branding, security, venue management, and cultural events showcasing Karnataka's traditions etc and other logistic arrangements were deliberated upon. G20: First Meeting of Development Working Group to Be Held in Mumbai From December 13 to 16. Nandan requested the state government to provide branding spaces at prominent locations for highlighting the meeting. While appreciating the ambience of Bengaluru and its green environs, the Union Secretary also requested the Chief Secretary to facilitate an excursion tour of the G20 delegates to Bannerghatta Biological Park. The Union Secretary, during her discussions with the Chief Secretary, highlighted and appreciated the innovative Information Technology solutions devised by the Karnataka State Forest Department to ensure faster delivery of public services and real-time monitoring of natural resources. One key initiative is e-Parihara, an online application that helps in processing and sanctioning ex-gratia claims in cases of man-animal conflicts; thus, bringing transparency and efficiency in processing claims. Similarly, e-Gastu an Android-based platform captures forest patrolling/field activities undertaken by frontline staff of the forest department, which can be visualized by supervisory officers over satellite imageries, on regular basis. Likewise, e-timber facility provides near real-time wood stock available in government timber depots and enables e-auction facilities for timber/ other forest produce in government timber depots. According to the official statement, the Geo-Spatial Forest Information System developed by the Karnataka Forest Department is a unique platform which uses Remote Sensing and GIS technology and provides a spatial database of all notified forest lands in the State, providing access to the forest land notifications, village maps, forest maps and digitised notified forest at the cadastral level. The Forest Fire Management System is a comprehensive solution for planning, mitigation and analysis of forest fire which provides forest fire risk zonation mapping, fire start vulnerability mapping, burnt area assessment along with a robust system for dissemination of active forest fire alerts to ensure that all fire incidences are addressed and mitigated in a time bound manner. The G20 delegates are scheduled to visit the Kalkere Arboretum and Bannerghatta Biological Park in Bengaluru. At Kalkere, the delegates will have an opportunity to visualize and experience four predominant forest ecosystems of Karnataka state. The State Forest Department will also showcase the forest restoration models adopted in these ecosystems and the successful revival of faunal biodiversity in these areas. The Bannerghatta Biological Park will showcase the state-of-art butterfly park and animal safaris to the delegates. The Karnataka Forest Department will also highlight the flagship ecotourism model, the Jungle Lodges Resort, which is extremely popular for nature lovers, globally. The commissioner of Tourism stated that the rich legacy of Karnataka handicrafts and textiles would be showcased through the pavilions at the venue. The secretary, Culture stated that the artistic depiction of Karnataka by nadeswaram, performance by the Ayana Dance Company and the flute recital by Sumukha Rao are planned. These events will showcase the rich cultural and artistic heritage of Karnataka, ensuring that the delegates carry a flavour of Karnataka with them. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 21 (ANI): Ahead of the commissioning ceremony, the coxswain of the fifth Kalvari submarine 'INS Vagir' Daljinder Singh on Saturday said that the submarine is ready to face any threat if war breaks out between India and China. The Indian Navy is set to commission the fifth Kalvari class submarine named 'Vagir' on January 23, 2023, to enhance its capability. Also Read | Foundation Day 2023 Greetings: PM Narendra Modi Greets People on Statehood Day of Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya. While talking to ANI, Singh said, "This submarine is the latest technology of the Indian Navy. It is a silent submarine. It has good anti-submarine weapons like the advanced version of mines. It has advanced versions of combat and advanced version of sonar, and radar systems. "All the technology used in the submarine is Indian. If there is a war between India and China, then we are ready to face it," Singh added. Also Read | Delhi Fire Video: Massive Blaze Engulfs in Connaught Place Hotel, No One Injured, Say Officials. While Commanding Officer CDR Divakar S told ANI, "INS Vagir can be deployed both closer to the shore as well as mid-ocean. It will be ready to meet all the requirements of the Navy and the country. It is a big step towards becoming Atmanirbhar Bharat. This is the fifth Kalvari class submarine." "It is a matter of pride that the construction of Vagir has been completely done by MDL (Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited) and it was overseen by Indian Navy. Most of the trials were undertaken by the Navy and MDL together," he added. INS Vagir has been built indigenously at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai. Adm R Hari Kumar, Chief of the Naval Staff, will be the Chief Guest for the commissioning ceremony. These submarines are being built in India by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) Mumbai, under collaboration with Naval Group, France. Four of the Kalvari class of submarines have already been commissioned into the Indian Navy.The erstwhile 'Vagir' was commissioned on November 1, 1973, and undertook numerous operational missions including deterrent patrols. The submarine was decommissioned on January 7, 2001, after serving the nation for about three decades. Launched and named 'Vagir' on November 12, 2020, the submarine in its new avatar has the distinction of having the lowest build time among all indigenously manufactured submarines to date. 'Vagir' undertook her maiden sea sortie in Feb 2022, marking the commencement of sea trials and has gone through a series of comprehensive acceptance checks and stringent and demanding sea trials prior to being commissioned. The submarine was delivered to Indian Navy by MDL on December 20, 2022. 'Vagir' will boost the Indian Navy's capability to further India's maritime interests and is capable of undertaking diverse missions including anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, mine laying and surveillance missions. 'The Sand Shark' (Vagir) represents 'Stealth and Fearlessness', two qualities that are synonymous with the ethos of a submariner. The induction of Vagir is another step towards the Indian Navy consolidating its position as a builder's Navy, and also reflects MDL's capabilities as a premier ship and submarine building yard. (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, Jan 21 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday accused Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of peddling "lies", after he alleged that the leaders of the opposition party were pushing the case of foreign vaccines after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Tagging a video of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla's encounter with a journalist in Davos, Chandrasekhar said on Twitter that the pharmaceutical company tried to bully the Indian government into accepting conditions of indemnity. Also Read | Delhi Weather Forecast: Cold Morning in National Capital, Max Temperature Likely to Settle at 22 Degrees Celsius. "And Cong trio of Rahul, Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh kept pushing case of foreign vaccines during Covid," the Union minister of state for information and technology said. Hitting back at Chandrasekhar, Ramesh tweeted on Friday: "Let not your ambition to climb the greasy pole make you more of a liar than you are." Also Read | Foundation Day 2023 Greetings: PM Narendra Modi Greets People on Statehood Day of Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya. On Saturday, Ramesh stepped up his attack on the Union minister, saying: "Rajeev_GoI, as minister concerned with regulating social media, you've misused it atrociously to peddle lies on me and my colleagues @PChidambaram_IN." "We won't take it lying down, meanwhile I wanted to call you out for what you really are. Will Twitter have the guts to expose you?" the Congress leader added. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Erode, January 21: The grand old party may feel elated over retaining the Erode East Assembly constituency to re-establish its hold but in a charged-up political atmosphere, the Congress may not find the February 27 by-poll a cakewalk. This will be the first bypoll in Tamil Nadu after the DMK-led alliance won the 2021 Assembly polls. Former Congress leader and Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) founder G K Vasan, whose party candidate was a runner-up in the 2021 Assembly election from this constituency, withdrew from the race in support of the AIADMK putting the BJP in a quandary either to support ally AIADMK or go solo. AIADMK interim general secretary K Palaniswami, in a deft move, ensured the support of Vasan on Thursday and on the same day communicated to the BJP to extend support for his party candidate in the by-election. Erode East Assembly By-Election 2023: Congress Will Field Its Candidate for Bypoll in Tamil Nadu, Says KS Alagiri. The BJP, which won from Modakkurichi Assembly constituency, which also falls in Erode Lok Sabha seat, is keen on prospering its electoral fortunes at the hustings and also in upsetting the Congress calculation of nominating a strongman replacing Thirumahan Everaa whose sudden demise recently necessitated the by-election. The saffron party has little option but to support the AIADMK or contest alone on its own strength. Immediately after the election schedule was announced on January 18, the BJP even nominated a poll panel to take up election-related work in the constituency. Indicating that the party desires to contest from Erode East, a senior leader said "our party member C Saraswathi won from Modakkurichi and this showed the tremendous work our party had carried out to defeat the DMK combine." "We may explore several options, some including the technicalities being faced by the AIADMK like the issuance of forms authorising the candidate to contest in the poll," he said. For instance, the AIADMK candidate could contest on the Lotus symbol of the BJP, in case the party failed to secure the Two Leaves symbol on account of the tussle between Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam (both former Chief Ministers). The same symbol cannot be allotted to two candidates nominated by the two AIADMK leaders, he opined. "Nevertheless, its our party high command which decides on the alliance," the BJP senior told PTI. Admitting that both AIADMK interim general secretary Palaniswami and TMC leader Vasan spoke to him over phone about the by-elections, BJP state chief K Annamalai said "I have communicated their views to our party high command. I will make an announcement in this regard after I get a reply from New Delhi." The AIADMK leaders would meet a team of senior leaders of his party on Saturday to take the discussions forward, Annamalai added. As in the BJP where the name of A P Muruganandam, party's state general secretary is doing the rounds, the name of Thirumahan's father and former Union Minister E V K S Elangovan is also being widely speculated to be nominated from the constituency. Panneerselvam is unlikely to accept Palaniswami's candidate. He is set to announce his stance. The Congress is expected to announce its candidate in a day or two. The TMC had contested in alliance with the AIADMK during the 2021 Assembly elections. Another player in Tamil Nadu politics viz. the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) is unlikely to contest this time, said a source. 'Captain' Vijayakanth led Desiya Morpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and actor-politician Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam are yet to announce their stand. The Erode East constituency has been a mixed bag of luck returning the Congress (Thirumahan Everaa) in 2021, AIADMK (Thennarasu K S) in 2016, and DMDK (V C Chandhirakumar) in 2011. The constituency was formed in 2008 by bifurcating the Erode Assembly constituency. The verdict in Tamil Nadu's by elections have always favoured the ruling dispensation though there have been certain exceptions such as the R K Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai. Citing his spectacular victory in the by-poll in 2017, in which AIADMK heavyweight E Madhusudhanan was trounced, T T V Dhinakaran, general secretary of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) said something out of the ordinary may happen in the poll-bound constituency in the State. "No one expected that I would defeat the AIADMK then," he said and indicated his willingness to throw his hat in the ring. The DMK, without any fanfare, conducted the bye-election work by verifying the electoral list and booth list. Already they formed booth committees in every ward. The DMK functionaries started canvassing for votes for their ally in some wards in Erode City Municipal Corporation area. O Panneerselvam Faction of AIADMK to Contest in Erode East Assembly. S Muthusamy, State Urban Development and Housing Minister said the DMK-Congress alliance candidate will be selected by Chief Minister M K Stalin, who is the president of the DMK party after holding talks with Congress leaders. They will work hard for the victory of the announced candidate. The BJP has formed a 14-member election committee led by the Erode BJP South District President V C Vedandham. Dr C Saraswathy, Modakkurichi legislator, is among the members of the committee. The AIADMK is hopeful of getting their Two Leaves symbol from the election commission after the Supreme Court verdict. Congress members in Erode district have appealed to Elangovan to contest from the constituency. With the model code of conduct coming into force, Erode collector H Krishnanunni urged all license holders of guns, revolvers and pistols to deposit them at their respective area police stations immediately and obtain proper acknowledgment for the same. The filing of nominations for the constituency will start on January 31 and the last date is February 7. The Erode Corporation Commissioner N Sivakumar is the Returning officer. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) By Amit Kumar New Delhi [India], January 21 (ANI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Bihar on Sunday to take part in Swami Sahjanand Saraswati Jayanti Samaroh. Also Read | Pune Shocker: Woman Forced to Consume Powdered Human Bones of Dead Body to Conceive Child, Seven Including Husband and Tantrik Booked. The Samaroh is billed as Kisan-Majdoor Samagam at Patna in Bapu Sabhagar where a huge number of farmers of the state will welcome the Home Minister. Convenor of Kisan Majdoor Samagam and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Thakur from Bihar confirmed this to ANI. Also Read | Wrestlers Protest: Wrestlers End Agitation After Assurances, WFI Chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to Step Aside. "Union Home Minister Amit Shah is arriving in Bihar on February 22 and he will take part in Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Jayanti Samaroh at Bapu Sabhagar where Union Home Minister will address farmers from across the state," Thakur said. Speaking to ANI, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vivek Thakur said, "Swami Sahjanand Saraswati was the biggest peasant leader of India who has not been accorded the due place that history or governments should have. On the occasion of his birth anniversary, our Honourable Union Home Minister Amit Shah will give a message to the farmers of Bihar and the country that the Modi government is the real doer for farmers and wherever injustice will be done, the Centre stands strongly with farmers." Hitting out at the state government over 'farmers' issues' the MP said, "Farmers of Bihar have been neglected by all previous governments in the state and the way farmers are being treated by the Grand Alliance government in Bihar is a major concern for us because more than 50 per cent people are dependent on agriculture and despite that Nitish Kumar government is not ready to listen to the voice of farmers. They are being treated as one who do not matter and are only facing police brutality and government apathy and that is not acceptable to BJP," BJP MP Thakur further said. Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was born in Deva Village near Dullahpur, Ghazipur district in Eastern Provinces in 1889 but his 'karmabhoomi' was Bihta in the Patna district. It's pertinent to note that even Subhash Chandra Bose after assuming the charge of Congress national president came to Bihta to meet Swamiji seeking his support in the freedom movement. The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Saraswati, who formed the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in 1929 in order to mobilise small peasants against the zamindari system and thus sparking the farmers' movements in India. Gradually, the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. All these radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936 with Saraswati elected as its first President. Saraswati organised the Bakasht movement in Bihar from 1937 to 1938. "Bakasht" means self-cultivated. The movement was against the eviction of tenants from Bakasht lands by zamindars and led to the passing of the Bihar Tenancy Act and the Bakasht Land Tax. He also led the successful struggle in the Dalmia Sugar Mill at Bihta, where peasant-worker unity was the most important characteristic. Bihar BJP sources told ANI that BJP is planning to organise a few other programmes during Shah's visit to the state. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Tokyo [Japan], January 21 (ANI): In a sharp message to China to back off from interfering in the succession process of the next Dalai Lama, the Japanese Buddhist Conference for World Federation has placed on record its position that the Tibetan people must decide the successor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on the basis of Tibetan culture and history, and not China. The Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation is an umbrella organisation that brings together a number of sects of Japanese Buddhism, with millions of followers in Japan and other countries and the letter has strongly voiced objections over China's constant interference in Tibet's religious and spiritual matters. Also Read | Rifampin Capsules: Lupin Recalls Over 16,000 Bottles of Generic Tuberculosis Drug in US Due to Manufacturing Issue. "His Holiness, Dalai Lama, the 14th turned 87 years on July 6, 2022. The issue of his future successor is gradually gaining attention all over the world. We the monks of Japan believe that Tibetan people must decide upon the next successor based on their Tibetan Buddhist culture and history", reverend Eihiro Mizutani, the Secretary General of Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation said in the letter while highlighting that China had no role in this. "PRC, which controls Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is working out the policy which would choose the Dalai Lama's successor under the Chinese government's leadership, based on the 'Tibetan Buddhism Living Buddha Reincarnation Management Law', enacted in the year 2007. Also Read | PM Narendra Modi Can Play Key Role in Facilitating Talks Between Ukraine, Russia: French Journalist Laura Haim. However, the People's Republic of China's national policy is based on communism and is considered non-religious. The Japanese Buddhist Conference said, "Non-religious people deciding the religious leader is contradictory in itself". It further stated, "His Holiness Dalai Lama stated that 'forceful intervention in the approval process (of next Dalai Lama) by people executing political powers, who did not even acknowledge the very existence of previous or the future Dalai Lamas, is inappropriate'". The letter by Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation added that matters related to religion must be in accordance with religious values, hence people who do not possess those religious values, ought not to intervene in such matters. It is valuing the freedom of religious faith (belief). The relationship between Japan, India and the Tibetans is intertwined with Buddhism, which is one of the major world religions in Asia with a rich history. Buddhism originated in India in the 5th century BCE, and at its peak was one of the major religions in the subcontinent. However, it gradually witnessed a decline in India, and today, Buddhism accounts for an insignificant percentage of the population. Despite this, Buddhism remains an important part of India's cultural heritage and continues to influence various aspects of Indian society. Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation in a letter said, "In response to Indian PM Shri Narendra Modi's call made to His Holiness, Dalai Lama to convey good wishes on the latter's birthday, there was a voice of opposition by the Chinese government stating 'this is intervention'. However, is it not for China to hold back its intervention in matters related to Tibetan Buddhism?", believes the Japanese leadership It is said that "if religious oppression in Tibet is a fact, then it is a big challenge for human rights, a value shared by most of the countries around the world. His Holiness, Dalai Lama, is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and has been fighting against the Chinese government in a peaceful and non-violent manner." Japan has a long-standing and deep-rooted relationship with Tibetan Buddhism, and the issue of the Dalai Lama and the status of Tibetan Buddhism has been a topic of interest in Japan. The Design of the Tibetan Flag was also crafted by a Japanese Buddhist monk, Aoki Bunkyo, who was a military translator. Bunkyo added symbols of the rising sun surrounded by rays to the flag design. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the Dalai Lama's exile to India, Japan continued to assist the Tibetan government-in-exile. Japan was the first foreign country that the Dalai Lama visited in 1967. Subsequently, the Dalai Lama's Japan Representative office was established in Tokyo in 1976. One significant development that has strengthened the relationship between Buddhism in India and Japan is the high degree of appreciation that the Japanese Buddhist leadership has for the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is highly respected by many Buddhist leaders around the world, and his teachings have had a significant impact on Buddhism. Japanese Buddhist leaders have praised the Dalai Lama for his teachings and his efforts to promote peace and understanding. Monks of Japan firmly believe that Tibetan people must decide upon the next successor based on Tibetan Buddhist culture, tradition and history. Japan has also been critical of the Chinese government's policies towards Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, with many Japanese leaders and organisations calling for respect for the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people. In recent years, Japan has also provided support to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people through various means such as providing financial aid, offering asylum to Tibetan refugees and promoting human rights and religious freedom for Tibetans. The Japanese government has been actively engaging with the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and other international organizations to raise awareness about the situation in Tibet and to advocate for the rights of the Tibetan people. Japan has also been supportive of the efforts of the Dalai Lama to promote a peaceful resolution of the Tibetan issue through dialogue and non-violent means. The Japanese government has recognized the Dalai Lama as an important religious leader and has welcomed him to Japan on several occasions. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) By Rajnish Singh New Delhi [India], January 21 (ANI): The US Embassy and the United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF) on Saturday hosted the 2023 EducationUSA Alumni Fair here for students from India to explore the diversity of America's higher education opportunities. Also Read | COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects: Felt Like I Was Dying for Several Days, Says Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Coronavirus Booster Shot. Alumni from 28 accredited US universities and colleges participated in the event organised at the American Center in the national capital, providing prospective students with an opportunity to interact directly with current students and alumni of US higher education institutes. Participants learnt first-hand experiences of those who had applied to and attended universities across America. Also Read | Rifampin Capsules: Lupin Recalls Over 16,000 Bottles of Generic Tuberculosis Drug in US Due to Manufacturing Issue. Students got the opportunity to seek advice on the US university application process, scholarships, and funding from qualified advisers of the EducationUSA centre at the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) and learn about the student visa process from US Embassy officials. Ahead of the event, US Embassy Spokesperson Christopher Elms said, "We want students from India to explore the diversity of US higher education opportunities at the alumni fair. The United States welcomes Indian students, and we value their contributions to US campuses and communities. The strong and growing relationship the United States and India share is built on the exchange of knowledge and the lifelong friendships rooted in Indian students' time in the United States." Also speaking about the event, Adam Grotsky, executive director, USIEF, said, "Indian students who are studying or have studied at American colleges and universities are citizen ambassadors who can provide accurate, often deeply personal, and nuanced narratives of their academic, extra-curricular and cross-cultural experiences in the United States. Such occasions to interact with several students and alumni of different US universities, all in one place, help prospective students in India to gain a closer look at the opportunities, challenges, and returns that such educational experiences have provided to many like them." The American Center and Library present exciting educational and cultural programmes and exchanges for the country's youth. EducationUSA is a State-supported programme of the US Department and is the official source of information on higher education. Advisers at the eight EducationUSA centres around seven cities in India -- New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai -- provide accurate, current, comprehensive and unbiased advice on higher education opportunities in the US. United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) administers the EducationUSA programme and the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru and other Fulbright Fellowship programmes to scholars from India and the United States. The USIEF is headquartered in New Delhi and has a regional presence in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai. Among the US institutions that participated in the alumni fair were Carnegie Mellon University, Colleges of Contra Costa DePaul University Drexel University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Full Sail University, Green River College, Heller School, Brandeis University, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana State University, Johns Hopkins University (Including Carey Business School), Kirkwood Community College Miami University, Minerva University, New York Film Academy, New York University, Northeastern University, New York University (including Tandon School of Engineering and School of Professional Studies), Rochester Institute of Technology, The Culinary Institute of America, The Ohio State University, The University of Arizona, University of Chicago, University of Delaware, University of South Florida. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Libreville [Gabon], January 21 (ANI): Gabon Foreign Minister Michael Moussa Adamo passed away on Friday, the President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba said in a tweet, calling him a great diplomat and a loyal friend. He called the minister's demise a huge loss for Gabon. Also Read | Rifampin Capsules: Lupin Recalls Over 16,000 Bottles of Generic Tuberculosis Drug in US Due to Manufacturing Issue. In a tweet, the Gabonese President wrote, "Our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Michael Moussa Adamo, left today. He was a very great diplomat, a true statesman. For me, he was first of all a friend, loyal and faithful, on whom I could always count. This is a huge loss for #Gabon #RIP." Adamo, 62, reportedly died of a heart attack during a cabinet meeting on Friday. His demise was condoled by India as well as the Maldives. Also Read | PM Narendra Modi Can Play Key Role in Facilitating Talks Between Ukraine, Russia: French Journalist Laura Haim. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday tweeted on social media and expressed his grief over the untimely death of Gabon Foreign Minister Michael Moussa Adamo, whom he called a 'Friend of India'. "Shocked to hear about the demise of Foreign Minister of Gabon and friend of India, Michael Moussa Adamo. Condolences to his family and the Government of Gabon for this untimely loss," Jaishankar tweeted. Furthermore, the Foreign Minister of Maldives, Abdulla Shahid also said that he will miss his friendship and wise advice as he expressed his deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. Taking to Twitter, the Maldivian FM wrote, "Shocked and extremely saddened to hear of the untimely demise of my dear friend Michael Moussa Adamo, Foreign Minister of #Gabon. My deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. And to the Government of Gabon on this loss. I will miss his friendship and wise advice." Notably, Moussa Adamo was born in the northeastern town of Makokou in 1961, and began his career as a national television broadcaster. He finally became chief of staff to Bongo as defence minister in 2000, according to Al Jazeera. Moussa Adamo served as Bongo's special adviser after the death of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, in 2009. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Islamabad [Pakistan], January 21 (ANI): Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that a democratic government in the country is held responsible for any crisis, but the authority lies with the military establishment. "Such an arrangement cannot run anymore," Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief warned while addressing the 'Rule of Law' conference, held on Friday, according to The News International newspaper. Also Read | Nikki Haley Accused of Plotting a Bid To Become Former US President Donald Trump's Vice-President. Khan blamed former Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, stating that the uncertainty started the day his government was overthrown. "Due to the decision of one person, the PTI-led government was toppled and the crisis started," the former Pak prime minister said. Also Read | China Lifts Zero-COVID-19 Policy To Eradicate Tibetans Out of Tibet, Says Report. The PTI chief was ousted from power through a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly in April 2022. He has blamed a US-led conspiracy for his ouster. In an apparent reference to former army chief Bajwa, Khan said: "One person decided to change the (PTI) government and hatched a conspiracy." He added that the coalition government had failed to tackle the economic crisis as "it does not have any plan" to restore the economy. Khan said that never in the country's history had Pakistan faced a worse economic crisis than the one it "faces these days". Earlier this week, Khan alleged that the federal government is determined to drive him out of politics. He even claimed that the coalition government is trying its best to disqualify him ahead of the general elections. Referring to cases registered against him across the country, Khan said Thursday that fervent "efforts are being made to disqualify me from politics," in an interview with the UK broadcaster. Khan said, "they are trying their best" to disqualify him ahead of the general elections in the country, adding that "new cases are being registered" against him every other day. However, he said there is absolutely no case that can disqualify him. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Islamabad [Pakistan], January 21 (ANI): Amid a reeling economic crisis and falling foreign exchange reserves, virtual talks between Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are likely to commence next week, Geo News reported. In order to complete its ninth review, which is lying pending from the IMF's side, Pakistan has sent an official email to the monetary body to look into the process, a senior official of the Finance Division said in a statement, according to the Pakistan-based news agency. Also Read | COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects: Felt Like I Was Dying for Several Days, Says Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Coronavirus Booster Shot. Citing a confirmation made to The news, Geo News reported that the official also stated the government has shared the basic contours of the upcoming round of talks with the IMF Mission Chief Nathan Porter. While virtual conversations are set to begin on Monday, it is unclear if they would be formal or casual in nature. If official discussions begin, it will be a huge step forward, as informal talks have been ongoing for the past two and a half months. Also Read | Rifampin Capsules: Lupin Recalls Over 16,000 Bottles of Generic Tuberculosis Drug in US Due to Manufacturing Issue. Pakistan could sink deeper into the quagmire especially if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme is not resumed within the next few weeks, reported Al Arabiya Post. The vicious grip on the economy gets complete as the exchange rate is primarily hit hard by a steep decline in the central bank's foreign exchange reserves, now shrunk to a near nine-year low of USD 4.34 billion. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kansas City, Jan 21 (AP) Police are investigating a shooting near a Kansas City funeral home that left four people injured, one of them critically. The shooting was reported about 11:30 am Friday at the Elite Funeral Chapel in south Kansas City. Also Read | US: Burglars Steal Donation Box by Breaking Into Hindu Temple in Texas, Says Report. Police spokeswoman Leslie Foreman said one shooting victim was inside the funeral home, one was in a laundromat next door and a third was found in the parking lot of the funeral home. Two of the shooting victims were hospitalised in stable condition and one was in critical condition. Also Read | Captain Harpreet Chandi, British Sikh Trekker, Sets New Polar Expedition World Record. A fourth person suffered minor injuries, possibly from being hit by glass. Foreman said a funeral was being held at the time but it is unclear what led to the shooting. A preliminary investigation indicated none of the people who were shot were employees of the funeral home, she said. She said investigators have no suspects in custody. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kabul [Afghanistan], January 21 (ANI): Top UN officials have conveyed a direct message to the Afghan Taliban calling on them to put the good of the country first and end recent policies towards women and girls, who have been confined to their homes. In a statement, the UN said Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, the Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Bahous, and the Assistant Secretary-General of the Department of Political, Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, Khaled Khiari, completed a four-day visit to Afghanistan to engage de facto authorities with the Afghan people. Also Read | Official: First Results in Helicopter Crash Investigation to Be Disclosed in Near Latest Tweet by The Kyiv Independent. In meetings with the Taliban in both Kabul and Kandahar, the delegation directly conveyed the alarm over the recent decree banning women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations, a move that undermines the work of numerous organisations helping millions of vulnerable Afghans. In a statement, the UN said the de facto authorities have also moved to close universities to female students across the country until further notice, and have barred girls from attending secondary school, restricted women and girls' freedom of movement, excluded women from most areas of the workforce and banned women from using parks, gyms and public bath houses. Also Read | Nikki Haley Accused of Plotting a Bid To Become Former US President Donald Trump's Vice-President. "My message was very clear: while we recognize the important exemptions made, these restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their rights and depriving the communities of their services," Mohammed said. During their mission, the UN delegation met with affected communities, humanitarian workers, civil society and other key actors, in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat. "We have witnessed extraordinary resilience. Afghan women left us no doubt of their courage and refusal to be erased from public life. They will continue to advocate and fight for their rights, and we are duty-bound to support them in doing so," Bahous said. The United Nations and its partners, including national and international non-governmental organizations, are helping more than 25 million Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid to survive, and remain committed to staying and delivering. The most recent decrees issued by the de facto authorities banning women from working for NGOs has forced many partners to pause operations which can no longer be safely and meaningfully delivered. While the recent exemptions to the ban introduced by the de facto authorities are opening spaces for humanitarians to continue -- and in some cases resume -- operations, these remain limited to few sectors and activities. "The effective delivery of humanitarian assistance is predicated on principles that require full, safe and unhindered access for all aid workers, including women," Mohammed said. The visit to Afghanistan followed a series of high-level consultations on Afghanistan across the Gulf and Asia. The delegation met with the leadership of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Islamic Development Bank, groups of Afghan women in Ankara and Islamabad and a group of Ambassadors and Special Envoys to Afghanistan based in Doha. The delegation convened with government leaders from the region and religious leaders to advocate the crucial role and full participation of women and rally support for the Afghan people. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Acclaimed poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar, who is here to attend the 16th Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), said on Friday that Indian cinema is one of the strongest goodwill ambassadors in the world and hence Indian films should be respected. Answering a query by IANS at a presser on the sidelines of JLF on the current Boycott Bollywood trend, Akhtar said, "This Boycott Bollywood trend will not help. People in India love movies, be it in north, south, west or eastern part of the country. We are a nation of Movie Bhakts... It is in our DNA to listen to stories, to tell stories, and this has been the trend for ages. Our stories always come along with songs... Hindi films did not invent it. One should respect Hindi cinema." Javed Akhtar Slams Netizens for Trolling Him for His Tweet About the Ongoing Bulli Bai Controversy, "Our films are released in 35-36 countries worldwide. Indian cinema is one of the strongest goodwill ambassadors in the world. If we start doing a headcount, our stars are better recognised in the world than even Hollywood stars. You go to Egypt or Germany and tell people 'I am an Indian', they immediately ask if you know Shah Rukh Khan. Our films spread goodwill in the world," Akhtar added. Reputed author and documentary film-maker Nasreen Munni Kabir, who was sitting next to Akhtar, recollected an incident during the release of the film Veer Zara in Germany. Javed Akhtar Weighs In on #BoycottBollywood Trend, Says 'We Should Respect Indian Films Because Theyre in the DNA of Our Country. "It was a special screening. Tom Cruise was staying in the same hotel where the screening took place. When someone from the hotel said, 'Oh! it's Tom Cruise', the crowd shouted, 'No, we have come for Shah Rukh Khan'. That is the amount of love people have for Indian cinema abroad," she said. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 21, 2023 11:04 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). New Delhi, January 21: The Patiala House Court on Saturday extended the judicial custody of Shankar Mishra, the man accused of urinating on an elderly female co-passenger in a drunk state on board a New York-New Delhi Air India flight in November last year, by 14 days. On January 7, the court had sent Mishra to 14-day judicial custody, which was extended till February 4 on Saturday. Earlier, in the wake of Air India banning Mishra from flying for four months on the basis of its internal committee report, his legal counsel had opposed the findings of the panel, saying that they are ready to file an appeal. Air India Peeing Incident: New Twist, Accused Shankar Mishra Claims He Did Not Urinate on Woman in Flight. "We respect the authority and mandate of the internal inquiry committee, but we disagree with its findings and are already in the process of challenging this decision in accordance with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA) civil aviation requirements for unruly passengers," Mishra's lawyers had said. Aviation regulator DGCA had also imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Air India besides suspended the licence of the pilot-in-command for three months in connection with the Air India urination case. Moreover, the regulator had imposed a penalty of Rs 3 lakh on the director of inflight services of Air India for failing to discharge her duties on November 26, 2022. Air India Pee-Gate: Airline Bans Accused Shankar Mishra for Four Months For Urinating on Elderly Woman. The incident of passenger misbehaviour which occurred on the AI-102 flight from New York to New Delhi came to the notice of DGCA on January 4. After Mishra claimed that the complainant had soiled her own seat, the latter had rubbished the allegation, saying it was "completely false and concocted". "The said allegation is also in complete contradiction and a complete volte-face of the statements and the pleaded case of the accused in his bail application," she had said. The victim had said that her intention has all along been to ensure that institutional changes are made so that no individual has to go through the "horrendous experience" she went through. "Instead of being remorseful for the utterly disgusting act committed by him, he has adopted a campaign of spreading misinformation and falsities with the intent of further harassing the victim," she had said. On January 13, Mishra told the court that he is not the accused. "There must be someone else who peed or it must be her who urinated," he had said. He also claimed that the woman was suffering from some prostate-related disease. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 21, 2023 10:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). New Delhi, January 21: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia lashed out at Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Saturday, accusing him of making "false allegations" against the education department and "mocking" the teachers working in the national capital. In a letter to Saxena, Sisodia said the LG's letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday was written with a political motive and his "false allegations" against the education department were an "insult" to the students and teachers of Delhi. Delhi LG-headed High-level Panel Agrees on Six-month Action Plan to Clean Yamuna. "The LG wrote the letter with a political motive and said that no work has been done in the Education Department of Delhi. His allegations are an insult to the students and teachers of Delhi. I am requesting the LG not to mock the work of our teachers, who have done wonders in the department," Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, wrote to Saxena. In his letter to Kejriwal on Friday, the LG tried to put the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi in the dock by raising several issues related to the city's education sector. He said the average attendance in government schools has been falling every year, dropping to 60.65 per cent in 2019-2020 from 70.73 per cent in 2012-2013. He also questioned the AAP dispensation's claims on students migrating from private schools to government schools. Responding to the LG's allegations, Sisodia said the figures provided by him were false and that he "defamed" the entire education system of the national capital with his statement. Delhi Govt Resends Teacher's Training Proposal to LG, Says Cost-benefit Analysis Done. "While the LG alleged that the number of students in government schools of Delhi decreased from 16 lakh to 15 lakh, the reality is that the number of students increased to 18 lakh. Our education department has also transformed the infrastructure of the schools. The 'tent wale schools' have now turned into 'talent wale schools'," Sisodia's letter to Saxena read. Taking to social media, Kejriwal said Delhi's teachers, students and their parents have together worked hard in the last seven years to reform the city's education system. "Instead of insulting the education system, the LG should encourage them," the chief minister added. Bengaluru, January 21: Karnataka High Court has slapped Rs 25,000 fine on a man for not honouring the court's order regarding the custody of his child. The court also ensured handing over the custody of the child to the mother. The husband had violated the mutual agreement in the court that the child would live in custody of the mother and the father for 15 days each in a month. The father dishonoured the agreement submitted to the court and ducked the warrant issued against him. He did not attend the court proceedings also. Karnataka High Court Imposes Rs 5 Lakh Fine on State Government for Delay in Panchayat Elections. The bench headed by the Chief Justice P.B. Varale and Justice Ashok. S. Kinagi gave the order recently (January 17), after looking into the contempt of court petition submitted by the court. The father of the child despite being an advocate had violated the court orders. The bench had taken serious note of the matter. Naveen, an advocate from Chennai was married to Nethra from Mysuru and the couple had a son out of wedlock. On April 27, 2022, the wife had submitted a habeas corpus petition before the court and claimed that her minor son had been kept in captivity. Advocate Naveen came before the court on May 25, 2022 and submitted that he had not kept his son in captivity. He agreed to leave the kid in the custody of the mother for 15 days every month. He had given a joint memo and assured the court that he wouldn't violate the court order. Karnataka High Court Sets Aside Order Asking Twitter to Block Accounts of Congress, Bharat Jodo Yatra. The court earlier had closed the case following this. However, Nethra submitted a petition before the court again and complained that her son had not been given to her custody. The court had issued a notice to father Naveen on July 13. When he did not bother to answer the notice, the court had directed Tamil Nadu DGP to reserve the notice on September 1. In spite of this, Naveen remained absent to the court proceedings on September 10. The court had issued a bailable warrant against him. But, Naveen did not answer the notice. The court had then ordered that if he did not attend the court, it would issue a non-bailable warrant against him. Meanwhile, advocate Naveen approached the Supreme Court in this regard and claimed that he was forced to sign a joint memo regarding his child custody. The Apex Court had quashed his petition and asked him to appear before the Karnataka High Court. Finally, he appeared before the court and claimed that due to the ill health of the kid he did not send him to the mother. He tendered an apology for not following the court order and assured the court that he would honour the commitment regarding child custody. The court did not accept his explanation and apologies. It directed him to appear before the court with his son, hand over him to his mother's custody and also to pay the fine of Rs 25,000. The father appeared before the court on January 17, handed over the custody of the child to the mother and paid up the fine amount. After recording the development, the court closed the contempt of court case. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 21, 2023 04:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Mumbai, January 21: A 27-year-old television actor and producer has been arrested from the western suburb of Andheri here after he allegedly created a fake account on social media and sent obscene messages to another actor, police said on Saturday. Mumbai: Anti-Narcotic Cell Arrests Drug Peddler With MD Drugs Worth Rs 23 Lakhs From Mankhurd. Officials from Bangur Nagar police station apprehended the accused following a search operation in the area on Friday, an official said. The accused had allegedly created a fake account of the victim on Instagram and sent obscene messages to her, her relatives and friends, and defamed her, he said. Video: Dog Walks on Roof of Andheri Railway Station Platform in Mumbai, Twitter User Shares Clip Asking Help for Canine. The victim lodged a police complaint earlier this week, based on which an FIR was registered under sections 354 (assaults or uses criminal force to any woman), 506 (criminal intimidation) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, the official said. A Goa-bound Azur Air chartered flight from the Russian capital Moscow with 238 passengers, including 2 infants, and 7 crew onboard was diverted to Uzbekistan on Saturday, January 21 after a bomb threat. The incident occurred nearly two weeks after a Moscow-to-Goa flight made an emergency landing at Gujarat's Jamnagar airport following a bomb threat. Mumbai-Goa SpiceJet Flight Delayed by 5 Hours. An Azur Air chartered flight from Russias Perm International Airport to Goa received a security threat. Following this, the flight was diverted to Uzbekistan. A total of 238 passengers, including 2 infants, and 7 crew are onboard: Airport Sources pic.twitter.com/2JKe9bWeO8 ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2023 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.) Washington, January 21: Nikki Haley, the Indian American Republican who is eyeing a bid for the White House in 2024, has been accused of plotting to become former President Donald Trump's vice-president. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who made this accusation in his memoir, goes on to claim in the book that Haley's co-conspirators were former President Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who both held senior position in the White House at the time. Donald Trump To Return on Facebook and Instagram? Meta to Announce Decision Soon, Says Report. Haley dismissed the charge as a stunt to sell the memoir. Pompeo does not specify if Haley was supposed to replace Mike Pence as vice-president in this plot or join Trump as running mate in his 2020 re-election bid. If the move was for Haley to replace Pence, it would have been her and not Vice-President Kamala Harris who would have gone down in history with a clutch of firsts - the first person of colour to rise so high in the US government, and the first Asian American and the first Indian American. She would have made history as Trump's running mate as well - but jointly with Harris. Neither situation happened. Pompeo is himself considering a 2024 White House bid and takes swipes at others in the Republican party who he could face in the primaries, with the exception of his former boss Trump, who has already announced his intention to run a third time, and former Vice-President Pence, who is also mulling a run. Donald Trump Says He Is Running for 2024 US Presidential Election. Pompeo's account of Haley's plot is not firsthand. He cites Mark Kelly, then chief of staff to the president, who felt "played" as the alleged move came at a meeting he cleared for Haley with Trump. Haley, it turned out, was not alone, but was joined by the president's daughter and son-in-law. "As best Kelly could tell," Pompeo writes in his memoir, "they were presenting a possible 'Haley for vice-president' option. I can't confirm this, but [Kelly] was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America." The book is slated for release on January 24. This so-called plot was reported by The Guardian, which had early access to the book. Pompeo sounds uncertain of his claims here. And Haley hit it out the park predictably, calling the charge "lies and gossip to sell a book". Haley was US ambassador to the UN at the time and a rising start in the Republican party on reputation made and burnished as two-term governor of South Carolina, one of America's most conservative states. As ambassador to the UN, Haley was accorded a federal cabinet position and could often call and meet Trump without going through the state department protocol. Then she resigned unexpectedly in 2018, with two more years left of Trump's term. And she wasn't very convincing about her reasons. "There's no personal reason," she had said, appearing with Trump at a joint news conference. "It's very important for government officials to understand when it's time to step aside." And then, without being prompted, she said, "No, I am not running for 2020." True to her word, she did not not run in 2020. But shortly after Trump lost the 2020 re-election bid, Haley signalled her intentions in an interview to a US media outlet, saying it was time for the Republican party to move on. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 21, 2023 09:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). DALLAS Back in 1963, Dallas Sheriffs Deputy Eugene Boone rushed to the scene of the shooting of President John F. Kennedy. As the 50th anniversary of the assassination approaches, Boone, 75 and living in Abilene, Texas, shared memories of that day, including how he happened to know Jack Ruby. He also described two searches one of a rail yard, the other of the Texas School Book Depository, where he found the rifle used by Lee Harvey Oswald. On Wednesday, Boone will participate in a panel discussion of assassination witnesses at the Sixth Floor Museum, located in the former book depository. Advertisement What do you remember about the morning Kennedys motorcade headed into Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963? The sun was shining and it was a cool, brisk day. Dallas is really a beautiful city, and the route they took down Cedar Springs and Turtle Creek is one of the most beautiful routes there is in any of the states. It was really the warmest greeting he had received since coming to Texas. The next minute he enters deaths door. Where were you when Kennedy was shot? I was in front of the sheriffs office at 505 Main Street. By the time the third shot was fired, I was running across Houston Street. As I came around the reflecting pool [in Dealey Plaza] I noticed two people to my right on the ground and thought, Theres two dead ones there. Then they began to get up, and I ran to the grassy knoll and helped a motorcycle officer over the fence. He pulled me over. The other officer went to the post office annex and I went to the rail yard. What did you see back there? I saw Pullman cars, and investigated one man who was working on the cars. He said he hadnt seen anybody or heard the shots. I also talked to a man in the railroad control tower who said he didnt see anyone run in, didnt hear the shots. I searched through the freight yards, cars, then returned to where the spectators were. I talked to H.W. Betzner, who had taken some photos at the time of the shots, took him to the sheriffs office, and they took the film. What did you do after that? I returned to the [book] depository and searched the hedge, fence and flower beds, which were undisturbed. Large battery-powered flashlights had been brought over to the steps of the depository. I took one and went up to the sixth floor. A few deputies worked their way across, looking for anything that didnt belong. Deputy Luke Mooney found the snipers nest. He went over and found a stack of books that could have been used as a snipers nest and a partly eaten chicken meal. We moved to other areas and I found a case of books pushed across to conceal a rifle. I called out, Heres a rifle! What did the rifle look like? I never touched the rifle It was in a narrow crevice not much bigger than the weapon. It looked like had been shoved there as someone headed for the staircase. It had a wood stock, it was a World War II surplus weapon, an Italian [Mannlicher]-Carcano rifle. What happened next? I returned to street level where officers were taking statements. One of the employees said, I dont know if youre interested, but one of the employees is not here: Lee Oswald. His general description went out on the police radio. Where did you go next? I went back to the sheriffs office. It seemed to be pandemonium, but I sat down at my desk and made my report. The sheriffs office was chaotic because the world press were there trying to get anybody to say anything or do anything so they could report. There were also some FBI people there, Secret Service, onlookers outside That whole area was real turbulent. You knew J.D. Tippit, the police officer who Oswald fatally shot that day. What do you think happened when he ran across Oswald in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas? He was an 11-year veteran. I dont believe he knew [Oswald] was the assassin of the president, otherwise the strap would have been off his gun. When they found him, the strap was on in his holster. Before you became a sheriffs deputy, you worked in the advertising department of the Dallas Times Herald and ran ads for nightclub owner Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald. What was Ruby like? In order to run an ad, he had to pay first. He was always late trying to get ads in for the next days newspaper. Many days I had to wait for him to get in. I knew Jack to be a Kennedy supporter. I think he thought he could shoot Oswald, be the man who shot the man, and no jury would ever convict him and he could go back and have more business than ever. Where were you when Ruby shot Oswald as he was being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail? I was behind the jail office with the sheriff and several deputies when the transfer was going on. Somebody ran out and said, Theres a fight at City Hall! Before I could get inside, someone else came out and said, Theres been a shooting. By time I got in, my wife, Charmaine, had called to say, It looks like Jack Ruby shot Oswald. I told the sheriff, who said the same thing: It couldnt be Jack. Were you ever questioned by investigators? On Wednesday, March 25, 1964, I was subpoenaed to testify before the Warren Commission. Do you think there was a conspiracy to cover up the true nature of the assassination? If there was a conspiracy, the conspiracy was getting Oswald in the right place at the right time to accomplish such a feat. The JFK film [by Oliver Stone] made a big deal about the tree in front of the snipers nest it wasnt a problem then. The branches barely reached the windowsill. Have you been back to Dealey Plaza to revisit your memories of that day? Ive been back to that spot several times, including for the History Channel London TV did a documentary where I traveled there. This year Ive done interviews for the anniversary with papers from Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland. On the audio tour at the [Sixth Floor] museum, I do the first part, through the snipers nest. Have you shared your story with your family? I have two boys and a girl, six grandchildren and a great grandson, most in Texas, some in Abilene. I have told them the history, and I also speak to civic clubs from time to time. More and more of the audiences they werent born then. What do you hear from audience members who were alive back then? This is one of those kind of events where you remember just what you were doing when it happened, similar to 9/11. Its just one of those monumental events that people remember just exactly what they were doing and thinking. ALSO: Native American code talkers to be honored After DNA test, white supremacist charged with terrorizing town 911 tape: George Zimmerman girlfriend says he pointed gun at her face JFK ASSASSINATION: Witnesses to tragedy: Three Dallas stories 50 years later: Readers remember the terrible day Full coverage: JFK assassination One of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera's most trusted chief aides is now on trial in a federal court in Chicago, Illinois for the distribution of cocaine and heroin. Known as the "Engineer," the El Chapo aide, Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, 51, pleaded guilty to his crimes. According to the Associated Press, "The Engineer" is charged with "distributing more than 150 kilograms of cocaine and more than 30 kilograms of heroin." Despite the guilty plea, however, Cabrera Sarabia reportedly told U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman through an interpreter that he had always lived as a "cattle rancher." He was originally extradited to the United States in June 2020 and is facing a minimum of 10 years in prison, with a possibility of life imprisonment, His sentencing is scheduled for July 7, 2023. Top El Chapo Aide Involved in a Meeting Between El Chapo and El Mayo in Chicago During the hearing, one of the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Erskine, told the judge that Cabrera Sarabia was in Chicago on October 2008. He reportedly took part in a secret meeting between some of the Sinaloa Cartel's big bosses, including El Chapo himself, as well as co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and the cartel's Chicago boss Margarito Flores. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that at the time of the meeting, Margarito Flores, as well as his twin brother, Pedro Flores, have both agreed to cooperate with federal authorities. It was revealed that the Chicago boss agreed to buy heroin from El Mayo, with Cabrera Sarabia then calling the Flores Twins for a follow-up. Margarito was then quoted by the prosecutor, saying that he told the El Chapo aide that "the heroin from Guzman was better than the heroin from Zambada." READ MORE: El Chapo Son Arrested "The Engineer" was paid $715,000 as part of the deal, according to Erskine, and he also offered to look into the matter and send in heroin that is closer to El Chapo's quality in the future. As for the Flores Twins, the former Chicago bosses of the Sinaloa Cartel were sentenced to 14 years in prison after cooperating with the feds. Their wives were also indicted for money laundering, Who Is Top El Chapo Aide Felipe Cabrera Sarabia? A few years after that clandestine meeting in Chicago, Cabrera Sarabia was finally caught in the mountainous northern state of Durango and part of Chihuahua. According to the El Paso Times, U.S. officials have been trying to extradite the drug lord for a long time. Their request was finally granted in 2020 when Mexico extradited "The Engineer" to the United States where he is facing drug trafficking charges. Cabrera Sarabia used to oversee the Sinaloa Cartel's marihuana operations and even got his start in the illegal drug trade through marijuana. He and his three brothers rose through the Sinaloa Cartel's ranks, with "The Engineer" even becoming one of El Chapo's most trusted aides. He was also known for being one of the cartel's deadliest leaders as he was not shy about using violence against his rivals. READ MORE: Violence in Sinaloa After El Chapo Son's Arrest This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: El Chapo | GoPro Helmet POV Footage of Raid Capturing Joaquin Guzman - ABC News Prosecutors claimed that Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, attempted to leave the United States shortly after her conviction on fraud charges last year. According to BBC, new court documents revealed that the 38-year-old purchased a one-way ticket to Mexico in January last year. "Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight... was the trip canceled," prosecutors noted. Holmes was found guilty of fraud charges after defrauding investors in her blood testing start-up Theranos, which was once valued at $9 billion. The ex-Silicon Valley star made up claims that the technology could detect illness with a few drops of blood. But it failed, and in 2018 the corporation folded under the weight of numerous lawsuits. According to the most recent court document, filed on Thursday, Holmes' boyfriend has already purchased a one-way ticket to Mexico. The prosecutors said the government believes Holmes would note in response that she did not leave the country as scheduled. "But it is difficult to know with certainty what [she] would have done had the government not intervened," the prosecutors noted. The filing came in response to the Theranos founder's request to remain out of jail pending her appeal. READ NEXT: Elizabeth Holmes Going To Prison Elizabeth Holmes' Attorney Explained the Ticket to Mexico In response to prosecutors' worries, Elizabeth Holmes' attorney Lance Wade said there was a misunderstanding regarding the planned flight. "In general, this was a reservation that was made before the verdict. The hope was that the verdict would be different, and Ms. Holmes would be able to make this trip to attend the wedding of close friends," he noted, adding that since the judgment came down, Homes decided not to go, The Daily Beast reported. However, the lawyer noted that amid everything that had been going on, Holmes had yet to cancel the trip. Authorities provided additional details on Holmes' previous travel plans in opposing her bid to stay out of prison. They said her partner, "William Evans, left on the scheduled date with a one-way ticket" and did not return until six weeks later, arriving from a different continent. The trip occurred six months after the Theranos founder gave birth to their first child. However, it is unclear what Evans did during that trip. The filing claimed that Holmes was "living comfortably on an estate" and that her "monthly expenses exceeded $13,000" as she prepared to potentially begin serving a sentence of 135 months. It added that Holmes has lobbied to ease her travel restrictions "due to her significant other's employment," and listed Evans' salary as $0. However, the prosecution argued that Holmes continued "to show no remorse to her victims." Theranos Fraud Case A judge handed down Elizabeth Holmes' sentence of 11 years and three months in jail with three years of supervised release in November. California Northern District Court Judge Edward J. Davila said he thought Holmes' arrogance and obsession with her popularity were to blame for her scamming investors out of over $100 million, Rolling Stone reported. A jury decided that the founder of the blood-testing start-up Theranos lied to investors about the company's capabilities to gain financial backing and public notoriety. Her situation has come to symbolize the negative aspects of the "fake it till you make it" mentality and the hustle culture prevalent in Silicon Valley. Following her guilty verdict in January for lying to investors to secure funding for her blood-testing firm, Holmes has spent much of the time pleading for a new trial and pleading with her supporters to spare her from incarceration. Elizabeth Holmes' sentencing was delayed twice because of stalled motions for new trials. READ MORE: Dani Alves Facing Sexual Assault Charges This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Bert Hoover WATCH: Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Tried 'to Flee the Country,' Prosecutors Say - From LiveNOW FOX A Texas National Guard has reportedly shot a migrant while the soldier was patrolling near the U.S.-Mexico border. Spc. Angel Gallegos was identified to be the National Guard member who shot the migrant on the left shoulder near McAllen, Texas, early Sunday morning. The Hill reported that the migrant suffered a non-life-threatening injury. The migrant was treated at a local hospital after the incident. Gallegos and a fellow National Guard member joined two Border Patrol agents that morning, tracking a group of migrants to an abandoned house. The soldiers entered the house, with three individuals surrendering to the Guardsmen while the fourth attempted to flee and engaged in a fight with the guard member. Erika Miller, press secretary for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in a statement that the Texas Rangers are probing the incident but could not provide any additional details while the investigation is ongoing. Gallegos was patrolling the border as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star. READ NEXT: Texas Toddler Found Dead Inside Stolen SUV Hours After Dad Was Shot Dead Outside Hispanic Supermarket Texas National Guard Shooting Migrant An internal Texas Military Department document reportedly did not indicate that the migrant had a firearm or any other weapons during the incident. It was the first known incident since the mission started in which a soldier had shot and injured a migrant. The migrant involved was taken to McAllen Medical Center for evaluation and treatment. The Texas Military Department and Greg Abbott's office did not immediately comment on the matter. Two troops assigned to the border mission have already died in accidental shooting, known as "negligent discharges." It was not immediately clear if Angel Gallegos intentionally fired the weapon. If the investigators found that he intentionally fired, the shooting would be known as the third incident since the mission started in which a Texas Guard member has intentionally opened fire. Spokesperson Rod Kise of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Rio Grande Valley said border agents were present during the shooting. For her part, Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, has slammed Operation Lone State, saying that the security mission led to the shooting. Texas Operation Lone Star Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star has led to more than 343,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 23,000 criminal arrests. More than 21,000 felony charges were also reported. DPS has seized over 356 million lethal doses of fentanyl during the border mission while also busing more than 9,100 migrants to the nation's capital since April. Since August 5, over 5,200 migrants have been bused to New York City, and more than 1,500 migrants were bused to Chicago since August 31. Abbott noted that President Joe Biden has yet to respond to his most recent letter that he handed during the president's visit to El Paso earlier this month. The letter reportedly highlighted tangible actions Biden can take immediately to secure the border and stop the influx of migrants. Meanwhile, DPS troopers recently discovered 15 illegal immigrants after stopping a truck towing a car hauler in Uvalde County. Abbott said that despite Texas' efforts, the problem still persists as the federal government has an open border policy. READ MORE: Florida Elderly Woman Killed After Falling Into Pond Near Home, Attacked by Two Alligators This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: State Of Emergency Declared at Texas Border - From NBC News Embattled Congressman George Santos of New York has denied that he was a drag queen who went by the name "Kitara Revache," while living in Brazil more than 10 years ago. The lawmaker tweeted Thursday, "The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or 'performed' as a drag Queen is categorically false." "The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results. I will not be distracted nor fazed by this," he added. The social media post came after a Brazilian drag queen posted on Instagram a photo of herself with another individual dressed in drag that she said was "Anthony" or "Kitara Revache," his drag name. Brazilian drag queen Eula Rochard has told journalist Marisa Kabas that the New York representative was never known as George back then, as he was going by "Anthony." She also confirmed that it was Santos who was wearing a red dress in the photo. "Anthony" was one of the aliases that Santos used in the past, sometimes introducing himself as "Anthony Devolder." Rochard, a well-known performer in Brazil, said she was friends with Santos when the congressman was still living in Rio de Janeiro. Rochard sent CNN a clearer photo of Santos as Kitara Revache, though the outlet admitted that they could not verify its authenticity. READ NEXT: George Santos Net Worth George Santos, Alias Anthony Devolder, Admitted to be a Drag Queen in WIKI Profile George Santos has used several aliases in his various business transactions and alleged scams. One of these is Anthony Devolder which is reportedly his most used alias. The embattled Republican lawmaker also seemed to use that name in a Wikipedia biography. A ccording to Politico, the account with a user named Anthony Devolder wrote in his WIKI profile that he started his "stage" life at 17 as a gay nightclub drag queen. The profile, which was last edited on April 29, 2011, also stated that he had won several gay beauty pageants. Eula Rochard has said Santos was never a professional drag performer, but the congressman competed in a drag beauty pageant in Rio de Janeiro. She noted that Santos did not have what it takes to be a professional drag performer as he "did not have the glamour for that." According to Politico, Santos used the Anthony Devolder alias in other online accounts. The outlet also reached out to Santos but was referred to an outside aide who has yet to respond to the query. The report noted that if another person created the Anthony Devolder Wiki bio, "it would mean someone used the same alias and same biographical details as him a dozen years ago, all for a user page no one else would see." NBC News also asked Brazilian reporter Joao Fragah who interviewed "Kitara Revache" in that now-viral video that showed a drag queen who looks like Santos answering the reporter's questions more than a decade ago. The reporter said he was confident that the drag queen he interviewed was indeed the embattled congressman. Republicans Shunning George Santos While the Democrats are calling for his resignation, George Santos' fellow Republicans also seem to be shunning him. According to The Hill, several Republicans have voiced their displeasure with the openly-gay Republican, including Rep. James Comer (R-Ky), who called him a "bad guy," as well as Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who called him an "impostor." At least seven of his fellow House Republicans have already called for him to resign, five of whom are first-term New York lawmakers. READ MORE: George Santos Stole Money From a Veteran's Dying Service Dog This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: What the George Santos Drag Queen Denial Reveals About the Republican Party - From MSNBC A high-risk sex offender who raped a woman with a mild intellectual disability three times after grabbing her on a side-street late at night has had his jail term increased, with the Court of Appeal finding that the discount he received for being a non-English speaker in an Irish prison was "excessive". Returning judgement on Thursday, January 19, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the court also found it surprising that the trial judge had placed "little emphasis" on the fact that Costel Pirvu (39) has a previous conviction for attempted rape. Mr Justice Birmingham said that a probation report describing Pirvu's attitude towards his victim was "very disturbing", with the reporting finding that he displayed no remorse or empathy and on occasion took a derogatory view of the victim. He said the court would quash the original jail sentence of six-and-a-half years and substitute it with a sentence of ten years' imprisonment with the final year-and-a-half suspended. Pirvu, formerly of Kilreekill, Loughrea, Co Galway, was found guilty of three counts of rape and one of false imprisonment after a nine-day trial at the Central Criminal Court last year. He had pleaded not (NOT) guilty on all counts and was jailed for six and a half years. At Pirvu's trial, Detective Garda Adrian Fehily told Eilis Brennan SC, prosecuting, that the offence took place at a town in the west of Ireland in the early hours of February 4, 2018. The woman, who was 19 at the time, had been socialising with some friends who walked her halfway home. She told gardai she saw a man she didnt know looking at her and she ran, but he grabbed her and forced her against a black jeep and then to the ground. The court heard he took off her pants and raped her even though she struggled to escape, receiving injuries and bruises to her arms, legs and back. Pirvu refused to let her go home, threatened her and forced her to go back to his apartment. She said she felt if she didnt do what he wanted, he would hurt her. CCTV footage showed Pirvu and the victim walking back towards his apartment, where she told gardai he raped her twice further and finally let her go the next morning when a flat-mate of his walked in and demanded that she be freed. After a Court of Appeal hearing earlier this week, Ms Brennan successfully argued on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions that Pirvu's sentence had been unduly lenient. Counsel said Pirvu unduly benefited in mitigation because the trial judge had factored in his status as a foreign national with no English, which would make prison life more difficult for him. Ms Brennan said the trial judge said every day in prison for Pirvu would be like a day and a half for an English-speaking person. Ms Brennan said the trial judge "came up with a formula that it would be 50 per cent more severe for him than a local", which amounted to an "extremely high" discount. Counsel said she was not taking issue with the headline sentence of 10 years but that the discount of three-and-a-half years was "extraordinary". She added that Pirvu had previous violent convictions from his time in Romania and Germany. Ms Brennan said Pirvu only claimed to gardai that he had consensual sex with his victim after they told him his DNA had been discovered on her body. Mr Justice Birmingham, presiding, said the three-judge court would increase the sentence to 10 years' imprisonment with the final 18 months suspended. "In our view, the sentence of ten years arrived at represented the absolute minimum that could have been considered. A starting sentence of 12 or 12-and-a-half years might well have been identified. Leaving to one side the fact that the respondent is a non-English speaker, he really had very little going for him in terms of mitigation," said Mr Justice Birmingham. "He [Pirvu] had a significant prior criminal record, including, most notably, a conviction for attempted rape, a fact on which, surprisingly, little emphasis was placed by the trial judge. There was no plea of guilty or expression of remorse. What the probation report had to say about his attitude to his victim is very disturbing. "We agree with the trial judge that the fact of being a non-English speaker would make the sentence more difficult for the respondent, as does the fact that it is not possible for family members to make visits. This provided a basis for some reduction in sentence but we are firmly of the view that the reduction proposed by the trial judge was, to a considerable extent, excessive," said the judge. "Being of the view that the ultimate sentence from the Central Criminal Court of six-and-a-half years was, to a significant extent, unduly lenient, we will quash that sentence and substitute a sentence of ten years' imprisonment but with the final year-and-a-half suspended," said Mr Justice Birmingham. Mr Justice Birmingham also noted that the probation report described Pirvu as being "at a very high risk of sexual offending in the next 12 months". The probation report notes that throughout the various interviews undertaken with the respondent, he showed no remorse towards the victim of the offence, displayed no empathy towards the victim or understanding of the harm caused by his actions. His view of the victim was, on occasions, derogatory and he became both angered and frustrated when questioned regarding aspects of his sexual offending as part of the assessment process," said the judge. Mr Justice Birmingham said the increased sentence would be backdated to August 7, 2018, when Pirvu first went into custody. Bernard Madden SC, for Pirvu, had argued that the trial judge was acting within her discretion regarding the mitigation and that his client had been in custody since August 2018. During that time, the only person to visit his client was his solicitor, said Mr Madden. Mr Madden said the trial judge was minded to take a view of Pirvu's personal circumstances and that his client had medical concerns. The barrister added that Pirvu would not be able to partake in English-speaking counselling or courses while in prison. The trial heard that after she was freed, the woman ran home crying and upset and told her mother, who brought her to the garda station to make a complaint and then to a Sexual Assault and Treatment Unit (SATU). A SATU report established that the victim had sustained bruises and scrapes to her face, back, breasts, arms, legs and genital area, including a 2mm laceration to her urethra. In sentencing Pirvu, Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy noted Pirvu raped the woman on the street with force and then took her to his home and raped her twice more in circumstances where she felt under threat. She said Pirvu has a history of violent offending, including convictions for robbery, attempted rape, house-breaking and assault. Ms Justice Murphy had said that although the woman was a vulnerable person, there was no evidence Pirvu was aware of this fact and that he had never met her before. It was a chance encounter the judge said. She handed down a 10-year sentence and suspended the final three-and-a-half years. The court heard Pirvu was arrested and that his apartment was searched and a DNA sample taken. He initially denied having met the victim or having left his apartment that night, but when gardai later told him his semen sample matched DNA found on the victims body, he said his solicitor had told him to deny everything. He then admitted meeting the woman but said she had voluntarily gone back to his house where they had had consensual sex. In a victim impact report read out in court on her behalf, the victim said she felt everything in her life had been going against her since that horrible night. She said the accused came behind her, grabbed her and dragged her down the street and kept putting his hand over her mouth so she couldnt breathe and feared for her life. I felt like a piece of meat, she wrote in her victim impact report. I tried to fight him and I tried to run away but he was much stronger, he said he was going to kill me if I didnt do what he wanted me to do. The woman said she has told her counsellor that although the bruises on the outside were healing, something on the inside of me was broken and could never be fixed. The court heard that she doesnt feel safe anymore and is all the time watching for whos behind her. She said she cannot eat or sleep properly and suffers with PTSD, nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks. She said she had become very depressed and suicidal and was self-harming, telling the court that she felt that her life was no longer her own. It's January and many people consider a new car at this time of year. With EVs the talking point I decided to try a long term test of some three weeks living with an EV to see how it really shapes up. Kia Ireland kindly set up the test and the results are interesting. The Niro EV on test here is in K4 trim and is priced from 44,900. Has It Got Any Street Cred? I really like the new styling. Its distinctive and classy looking! Unlike some of its rivals the Niro does not have that eco car look. Thankfully it looks just like a neat and tidy compact crossover which stands out from the crowd by virtue of its attractive new style. What is it like inside? The cabin is roomy and will actually seat five adults at a squeeze and four with absolute ease. The boot which is accessed via the large rear tailgate is a decent 474 litres. Standard equipment is as you have come to expect from Kia, comprehensive and on the K4 version it includes includes imitation leather upholstery, heated electrically adjustable front seats, lane keep assist, blind spot monitor, smart cruise control, wireless phone charging reversing camera, sat nav, a super head-up display, Highway Drive Assist, multiple USB-C sockets, plenty of storage areas and a rather good sound system. I am really impressed by the lovely analogue style digital dashboard which merges beautifully into the central touchscreen. I really like the touch sensitive row of digitally interchangeable switches below the touchscreen. It all comes across as extremely well though out and designed. The only element in an otherwise gorgeous cabin is the two spoke steering wheel which harks back to styles of yesteryear but I didnt like it. Overall then the new cabin is just about ergonomically perfect and it looks top class. What is under the bonnet? Well an electric motor of course! A 204 bhp motor drives the front wheels with power coming from a 64.8kWh battery. The official range is 460km but over my time in winter with temperatures getting down to minus 5C an average of 330km from 100% battery charge was more realistic. Further from an 80% charge (the manufacturers recommended to preserve battery life) the Niro only managed 245 km. I tried this a number of times and got pretty much the same result. The other point of note here is that selecting the Heat on immediately dropped the predicted range by some 20 to 25 km. These issues are true of many EVs I have tested though not just the Niro. Will I enjoy driving it? The Niro EV rides and handles well and noise levels are commendably low. I dont think you will ever run out to drive it just for the hell of it, but that apples to its rivals also. Its comfortable and refined. In short then it does what it was designed to do. I came way from my time in the Niro EV feeling it is one of the very best in class available. After all it won the MMAI (Motoring Media Association Of Ireland) Compact crossover of the year award 2023. So what is the verdict on EV life? Living with an EV is very different particularly if you rely on the public charging network. So to summarise. The claimed range of an EV is not often achievable particularly in winter with lower temperatures. If you follow the manufacture instructions and only charge to 80% each time you can immediately drop their claimed range by 20% as they quote range from 100%. The public charging network is hopeless! Its a disgrace! There are not enough (resulting in many frustrated motorists including myself queuing for up to 40 minutes just to get on a charger). Further one near me was labeled out of order for 3 weeks! Its also now a lot more expensive to use the public network. In short if you are away from your home charge point its a miserable existence trying to charge on the public network so in reality this limits your practical range. So to the Niro EV. Well if you want an EV this is certainly one of the very best out there. Its a superb all round package! Laois Offaly TD and former government minister Barry Cowen has insisted Paschal Donohoe should not be hounded out of office over the controversy linked to his election campaign expenses. The Fianna Fail TD was sacked as agriculture minister in 2020 after refusing to field questions in the Dail about a furore involving a historical drink driving incident. Mr Cowen has now backed Mr Donohoe as pressure continues to mount on the public expenditure minister over financial support received from a donor ahead of the 2016 general election. However, he said it might be appropriate to censure Mr Donohoe, potentially by way of a suspension or loss of pay, if further issues come to light about donations. Mr Donohoe, who is president of the influential Eurogroup of Euro zone finance ministers, will make a fresh statement to the Dail next Tuesday on the controversy. In an earlier statement to the Dail on Wednesday evening, the Fine Gael TD apologised over the issues related to non-declarations of expenditure. He declined to answer questions from TDs on that occasion, citing an ongoing examination of the issues by ethics watchdog Sipo (Standards in Public Office Commission). In 2020, Mr Cowen was sacked by then taoiseach Micheal Martin after he refused to take Dail questions on the drive driving charge, insisting he was entitled to due process in relation to a probe by the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC). While Mr Donohoe is now due to field questions following his statement in the Dail on Tuesday, the events of this week have prompted comparisons with Mr Cowens case. Mr Cowen told RTE Radio One that Mr Donohoe did not deserve to be sacked. For this offence, no way should he be hounded out of office, he said. Im not getting calls to my constituency office nor anyone else across the country about the issues that matter to them (the callers) are about who paid for 140 quid for a van to put posters up two elections ago. Over the weekend, it emerged that Mr Donohoe had not declared a payment made by businessman Michael Stone for six people to hang up election posters ahead of the 2016 general election. The minister said that six people were paid to hang up posters over four dates during the campaign, both before and after polling day, with the work done before polling day valued at 917 euro. He said he was not aware before a full review in December, following a recent complaint to Sipo, that the workers had been paid in a personal payment by Mr Stone. He also admitted that he should have amended his election expenses in 2017 after he became aware that a corporate van had been used to hang the posters up, which he has estimated to be worth 140 euros. The Fine Gael politician said neither he or any member of his campaign team intentionally misinformed Sipo or knew that a form was incorrectly submitted to them at that time. Mr Donohoe also told the Dail Mr Stone made a donation to Fine Gael through the purchase of superdraw tickets which he sold to him. Mr Stone bought five tickets in 2020, with a donation value of 334, and 22 tickets in 2021, with a donation value of 1,382 , the minister told the Dail. The donation was to the Fine Gael party centrally and within the legal limits, he added. The minister insisted those donations were not required to be disclosed but he was doing so to be fully transparent to the house. Mr Cowen said the issues related to Mr Donohoes expenses needed to be balanced against his record in government. Paschal Donohoe is a good man, hes a hardworking, dedicated, conscientious politician that serves his constituency and his country well, he said. The Laois Offaly TD added: Is this a sackable offence, is this an offence that warrants or merits resignation? No, I dont believe it is, when you put that and you measure his wrongdoing, his failures, his mistakes, and his apology against whats on the other side of the scale. Sinn Fein and other opposition parties have been demanding that Mr Donohoe provides further details on his links with Mr Stone. In particular, they have asked for clarity around whether a similar arrangement with posters was in place for the 2020 election. Questions have also been asked around whether the sums involved were lower than what the services might have cost in the open commercial market. The mental state of a female defendant was called into question by a Naas District Court judge on Thursday, January 19. Judge Desmond Zaidan became concerned at a young womans behaviour during a court session. The woman, who appeared via video-link, was acting erratically on camera: she was laughing randomly, kept trying to interrupt the judge, and at one point, made ramblings about 'royal blood' and 'magic powers.' In addition, the judge said that when he last spoke to her, she expressed suicidal ideations. It was alleged that the defendant was caught shoplifting in Kildare. When she was brought to a garda station, it was further alleged that she became abusive to gardai, and later ended up smearing blood and faeces on the walls of her cell. When Judge Zaidan asked a prison guard beside the defendant if she had seen a psychiatrist, she replied that the woman has so far only seen a GP. She added that the woman had previously been with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. However, she refused to go to any appointments. In response, Judge Zaidan said: If she was my child, I would have made sure she attended the appointments." The judge added: "I think she needs a psychiatrist... shes either genuine or shes acting the fool, but I need a psychiatrist (to determine it)." Judge Zaidan remanded the defendant in custody to January 26, in order to allow time for a psychiatric report on her state of mind. As we continue in these winter months looking around our communities, I notice that most of trees have now lost the bright colours of the autumn berries as they have offered a valuable source of food for our local wildlife. This week, I did notice the first signs of spring as the bright yellow flowers of Gorse (Aiteann gallda as Gaeilge) emerged. This wildflower is one of the few plants that will actually flower all year, however there are always times during the year as the coconut scented flowers are pollinated, the fruit emerges followed by the plant making a distinctive popping sound as the seeds are dispersed. This leaves the Gorse with no flowers. You may also know this native shrub referred to a Whin or Furze. Another unmistakable characteristic of Gorse is of course the shape of the leaves that have adapted into green thorns. It is not fussy when it comes to choosing a habitat, you will find Gorse growing on the open plains of the Curragh to the bog road you travel across, and even the coastal areas you visit in warmer weather. While Gorse is difficult for us to get close to due to its prickly nature it is still a valuable habitat for wildlife including nesting birds. As it is early to flower you would expect that Gorse would be consider an early source of nectar for bees similar to Dandelion, however the pea shaped flower makes it difficult for the bees to reach the nectar hidden within. Similar to many of Irelands native plants there are records in the National Folklore Collection of the benefits that Gorse offered our communities years ago. It was described how the flowers were boiled to make a liquid feed to help cure livestock of worms. Reading a little more, Gorse was also collected as a food source for livestock, it was used to make sweeping brushes and even burned to heat homes. Over the coming weeks I hope to bring you the first signs of spring as they emerge you can help by sending images from your local area to bogs@ipcc.ie. Brazilian President Lula addresses state governors in Brasilia on January 9, 2023, the day after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro ransacked institutional buildings. MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP It was a meeting arranged long ago and written in red on the Brazilian president's schedule. This Friday, January 20, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva welcomed the main commanders of the military to the Planalto presidential palace. Held less than two weeks after the ransacking of the institutions of Brasilia something for which the military is accused of being partly responsible the meeting was highly anticipated. Under fire from critics, General Julio Cesar de Arruda, Admiral Marcos Sampaio Olsen and Lieutenant-Brigadier Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno respectively heads of the army, navy and air force showed serious faces on Friday. However, the atmosphere was not one of settling scores, but rather of reconciliation. The January 8 riots were not officially discussed at the meeting. "We talked about Brazil's capacity for job creation in the defense industry," Defense Minister Jose Mucio told reporters. In recent days, compromising revelations have been accumulating about the murky to say the least role played by the army in the sacking of the palaces of Brasilia. First of all, there was the passivity, and even the connivance of the "olive greens" (nickname of the Brazilian military) toward the far-right militants who camped for weeks in front of the barracks. But, above all, it was about their actions on the day of the events. Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes After January 8, the hunt for Brazil's rioters continues on social media The Plaza de los Tres Pobres (Three Powers Plaza), which houses the Planalto, Congress and the Supreme Court, is a national security zone, one of the most heavily guarded, under the protection of the police and the army. A battalion of the presidential guard is permanently stationed in the basement of the head of state's offices, with dozens of soldiers ready to repel any attackers by force. On January 8, however, the army did not see fit to reinforce the security of the Planalto. The military only moved timidly into action once the invasion began. According to the press, they even prevented the police from arresting rioters on several occasions. "Even if they're not directly responsible, the military had a complicated relationship with the events," said Joao Roberto Martins Filho, an expert on the Brazilian army, noting that there were "many members of military families" among the demonstrators. 'All those who took part in pro-coup acts will be punished' In the days that followed, Lula did not mince his words in criticizing inaction by the "olive greens." "I didn't see any soldier reacting [to the invasion]!" the president thundered on January 18 in an interview on the Globo channel, denouncing the silence of the army's intelligence services on the day of the events and promising sanctions against the soldiers involved. "All those who took part in pro-coup acts will be punished. All of them! No matter their rank!" You have 58.92% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only. A farmer waters crops in Yemboate, the northern Togo border post with Burkina Faso, on February 17, 2020. PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP Burkina Faso's army has freed 66 women and children who were abducted earlier this month by Islamic extremists while gathering food in the country's northern Sahel region, according to a state television report Friday, January 20. National broadcaster RTB reported that armed forces had located the hostages during a military operation in Center-North region. The group included 39 children, with four infants among them. Authorities have said they had been out in the countryside gathering wild fruit near the town of Arbinda in Soum province, when Islamic extremists kidnapped them on January 12 and 13. Read more In Burkina Faso, the unprecedented kidnapping of fifty women Extremists have besieged towns around the West African country, preventing people and goods from moving freely. The town of Arbinda has been under jihadi blockade for years, making women more vulnerable to attacks if they try to leave, rights groups say. Jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has overrun Burkina Faso, killing thousands and displacing nearly 2 million people in the West African nation. The failure of successive governments to stop the fighting has caused widespread discontent and triggered two military coups in 2022. The military junta that seized power in September, vowing to restore security, is still struggling to stem the violence. Le Monde with AP Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat in Addis Ababa on January 11, 2023. AMANUEL SILESHI / AFP Like all his predecessors since 1991, Qin Gang, China's new foreign minister, started the year with a tour of Africa. For a week (January 9-16) the former Chinese ambassador to the United States visited five African countries: Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin and Egypt. Although no spectacular announcements came out of the trip, it contributed to strengthening both economic and diplomatic ties between China and Africa. In Ethiopia, Qin inaugurated the African Union's Center for Disease Control's (CDC Africa) new headquarters, funded and built by China, in accordance with Beijing's commitment at a 2018 China-Africa Summit. China had already built the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa and it is now preparing to build the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) headquarters in Nigeria. Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes China returns to international stage after prolonged isolation Qin said Beijing wanted the AU to take part in the G20, "a symbolic but smart move," according to Hong Kong-based researcher Jean-Pierre Cabestan. Securing a seat at the G20 has been one of AU's lasting demands. But Qin remained very cautious when addressing the situation in Ethiopia following a fragile peace agreement reached in November last year between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and insurgents of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). China had appointed a special envoy to the region but he did not appear to have played a role in the negotiations. More than 400 Chinese companies live in Ethiopia and Qin reiterated that Beijing wanted the country to "take effective measures" to ensure the safety of its nationals. 'Debt trap' While Ethiopia's debt to China has been estimated at more than $13 billion according to a study by the Global Development Policy Centre of Boston University, with Addis Ababa voicing its willingness to renegotiate its external debt back in 2021, Qin remained evasive on the subject. During a meeting with AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, Qin dismissed the idea of any "debt trap". "Africa's debt problem is essentially a development issue," he said. In a sign of increasing competition among big countries in the Horn of Africa, Qin had barely left Addis Ababa when the French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and her now former counterpart Annalena Baerbock, paid an official visit there on January 12-13. In Angola too, debt to China is considerable with an estimated $21 billion. Yet the issue did not appear in the Chinese minutes of a meeting between Qin and Angola's President Joao Lourenco. In office since 2017, Lourenco has been willing to distance himself from Beijing unlike his predecessor, Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Historically closer to France, Gabon and Benin took advantage of Qin's visit to strengthen ties with Beijing. While China is Libreville's largest trading partner, from which it buys oil and manganese among other things, President Ali Bongo expressed a desire to "deepen cooperation." In Benin, President Patrice Talon said that Chinese development had "deeply inspired all developing countries." Qin said there China was "ready to strengthen its experience sharing on state governance" with Cotonou. Read more US commits additional $2.5 billion in food aid to Africa Silk Roads In Egypt, a country heavily involved in China's Silk Roads investment program, China reaffirmed its support for Cairo "to defend its national sovereignty and security." In exchange, Egypt supports Beijing's policy against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. China is also playing an important role in the construction of the country's new administrative capital, some 50 km east of Cairo. Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes Biden courts Africa in Washington summit While Xi Jinping announced in November that Beijing would hold a third Silk Roads forum in 2023, 10 years after the initiative was launched, Westerners have been concerned about China's increased presence in Africa. In June 2022, G7 leaders announced they wanted to raise $600 billion to finance infrastructure in developing countries, mainly in Africa. Last December, US President Joe Biden pledged $55 billion in aid to Africa over the next three years. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen began a 10-day trip on Tuesday, January 17, that will take her to Senegal, Zambia and South Africa. Frederic Lemaitre(Beijing (China) correspondent) Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version. THE generosity of the local community was praised as one Limerick school officially opened their new facilities last weekend. Bishop of Limerick, Brendan Leahy performed the opening of the new 600 square-metre extension to Mahoonagh National School. The Castlemahon community was out in force to celebrate the opening of the two new classrooms and special needs room, which were blessed by Bishop Leahy. We consider ourselves very lucky to be part of a generous and open minded community here in Mahoonagh, said principal Yvonne Condron. Our staff are to be commended on their resilience to give the best possible school experience to all our pupils, often in difficult conditions as we began the four year long process, he recalled. Over four years ago, with the schools enrolment numbers getting increasingly higher and a new Autism Unit requested by the schools Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), planning commenced for the new extension for the West Limerick school. After months of discussions and drafting and redrafting our design team at Kenneally Murphy Engineers brought to us the final set of plans. It was difficult at times, particularly when Covid brought the country to a stand still and we feared our project would meet a delay - but luck was on our side again, and there were little to no interruptions. added Mrs Condron. Vice-principal Karen McAuliffe spoke of the important role that this development will play in pupils lives and their education going forward during the ceremony. She also mentioned the community striving to achieve the provision of an inclusive environment for education of all. Dr Paul OBrien examines what remains of the old Plassey Mills and its place in Limericks industrial past A WELL-known Limerick landmark, now much reduced in stature, points to a vital link to the often-overlooked industrial heritage of the city. Plassey Mills were constructed in about 1824 on the banks of the River Shannon, thereby taking advantage of the body of water as its power source. A small-scale water mill existed on the site from the late eighteenth century. These mills and the nearby Plassey House (c.1770) were built by Thomas Maunsell (1726-1814), a retired East India Company officer who had amassed a fortune and returned to Limerick. His daughter, Elizabeth Dorothea (1800-1886) married her cousin, Major Robert Hedges Eyre Maunsell (1781-1866). The marriage produced fourteen children. Major Maunsell inherited Plassey townland, house, and mills, and set about enlarging the latter. The new building was on an extensive scale and a mill race had to be cut at an enormous expense to supply it with sufficient water. In July 1829, Maunsell secured the sum of 1,504 from the Consolidated fund for promoting public works, and employing the industrious poor in Ireland, to complete Plassey Canal, a project which was beneficial to his mills. Roberts wider interests in business included the family bank: Maunsells Bank. As was expected of a person of his class and rank, Robert served as a local magistrate. In 1837, he claimed the sum of 16,000 compensation from the Shannon Navigation Improvement Commissioners, which proposed the removal of his mills and mill race, a scheme that never materialised. Maunsells association with the mills ceased in about 1840 when he rented Plassey Mills to the well-known Harvey family of millers in Limerick. In 1841, the Shannon Navigation Improvement Commissioners requested that tenders for the construction of a wooden bridge across the river, opposite Plassey Mills send their proposals to W. H. Owen, engineer, Limerick. This bridge became known as the Black Bridge. In February 1841, Plassey Mills were engulfed in fire and most of the machinery and buildings were lost. The blaze took hold during the night and was not spotted until Pat Griffin turned up for work at 6am. He immediately alerted the clerk and other workers. Messengers were instantly despatched to town for assistance. Efforts were made to prevent the devastating fire from spreading, but without success and flames leapt from every window of the building. The contemporary press reported that a large detachment of city police arrived at 7.30am under the command of Sub-Inspector Williams. The powerful engine of the West of England Insurance Company reached Plassey on a canal boat, at Hickeys falls, and commenced pouring a stream of water on the mill, but the raging fire had become too powerful to be overcome. The scene resonated with an eerie cacophony of sounds the crackling of timbers, the falling of stones, and the clanging of the weighty machinery as it crashed through the floors echoed out over the landscape. The roof was next to fall through the lofts smashing everything as it plummeted to the floor. It was quickly realised that the exertions of those present were useless and all attention was turned to saving as much of the property that the blaze had not yet reached. Workers scrambled to rescue files, books, and the contents of the office safe as well as 200 sacks of flour. However, a vast quantity of whole meal and 800 barrels of wheat were lost. By 10am, the entire concern was completely gutted and what had been the day before one of the most productive mills in the country was reduced to a smouldering skeleton. It was estimated that the damage amounted to 10,000. The cause of the fire was never ascertained. Despite the enormous loss of property, no lives were lost. The enterprise was insured to the sum of 4,000 which was deemed sufficient to fund the rebuilding. John Fogarty was engaged as the architect to oversee the rebuilding project and by October 1841, the mills were fully operational again. The new stone-cut mill comprised six-bays over six floors with an attached tower-like structure that housed a spiral staircase. It is this structure that survives to the present day, and which is often misdescribed as a castle/tower house. Harveys connection with Plassey Mills ceased in 1861 when the concern was purchased by the firm of J. N. Russell and Sons for the sum of 10,000 which included a large tract of land, the annual value of which was estimated to be more than equal to the rent of the mills and land together. The Russells immediately set about enlarging the complex. The mills continued in production until the late nineteenth-century when the enterprise finally ceased trading. In 1903, Norris Russell sold Plassey House and by 1910, Plassey Mills were being referred to locally as the old mills. The site fell into ruin and finally, in 1957, all but the tower-like structure containing the spiral staircase was demolished. It now stands, 200 hundred years later, as a reminder of Limericks once thriving flour milling business upon which the working lives of countless labourers and the fortunes of merchants rested. Dr Paul OBrien lectures at Mary Immaculate College The latest deadline to restore powersharing in Northern Ireland has passed with the devolved institutions in Belfast still in cold storage. The UK government has once again assumed a legal duty to call a snap Assembly election in the region within 12 weeks. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris made clear he will not make an announcement about any potential election date for at least several weeks. He has given himself time to consider options in the hope that the Government and EU can strike a deal in the interim on the issue at the heart of the powersharing impasse Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol. If a deal emerges that convinces the DUP to return to Stormont then the Government could legislate to avoid the need for a fresh election. The ongoing DUP block on the functioning of powersharing, in protest at the protocol, has ensured the Stormont institutions have remained in flux since the last Assembly election in May. The ministerial executive collapsed three months earlier when the DUP withdrew its first minister. Mr Heaton-Harris has expressed hope that a breakthrough on EU/UK talks on Irish Sea trade can deliver a solution that facilitates the return of powersharing. On Thursday, Mr Heaton-Harris and fellow UK ministers joined counterparts from Irelands government for a meeting of the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin. Commenting on his next steps, he said: Im going to talk to all the parties concerned. You will be aware that there are also important talks going on in Brussels between the UK government and European Union. And if we can solve one problem, we might be able to solve another. So, I think its worth me taking the time to consider my options. Tanaiste Micheal Martin has said there was an obligation on the DUP to drop its Stormont boycott irrespective of what emerges from EU/UK talks on the protocol. He also attended Thursdays intergovernmental meeting. Theres an overriding obligation irrespective of those talks on the DUP, in my view, to fulfil the mandate of the people of Northern Ireland, he said. And Im passionately of the view that when you have elections, what should naturally follow is the convening of an assembly, or a parliament and a government thats democracy in action and the people of Northern Ireland deserve no less and Ive made these points to the DUP and to other political parties. I made those points three years ago when the Assembly was collapsed by another party (Sinn Fein) and we had about a three-year absence and it was something I could never accept as a democrat. Polling day is usually around six weeks after an election is announced, so Mr Heaton-Harris would have until mid-March to call a poll if it is to be held before the 12-week period expires in mid-April. That would give Mr Heaton-Harris another six weeks to see what emerges from the UK-EU talks on the protocol. If a deal emerges in the coming weeks, and the DUP agrees to re-enter powersharing on the back of it, Mr Heaton-Harris could then ask Parliament to retrospectively extend the January 19 deadline for forming an executive meaning the parties could return to Stormont without the need for a fresh election. January 19 was the latest in a series of deadlines the parties have been given to resurrect devolution following Mays election. As the institutions can only function with the co-operation of the largest nationalist party and largest unionist party, the DUP effectively holds a veto on powersharing returning. The party has made it clear it will only go back into devolved government if significant changes are delivered on the protocol. Many unionists in Northern Ireland are vehemently opposed to arrangements that have created economic barriers on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, insisting the protocol has weakened the regions place within the United Kingdom. The EU and UK continue to engage in negotiations aimed at significantly reducing the red tape on Irish Sea trade, with both sides recently talking up the potential of an agreed solution being reached. The DUP has made it clear any agreement that may emerge must meet its tests on removing trade barriers if it is to countenance a return to Stormont. On Thursday, DUP MLA Emma Little Pengelly emphasised the need to resolve the protocol impasse. The issues cannot be dodged, she said. Either the problems created by the protocol are resolved or basis for the restoration will not exist. The protocol must be replaced with arrangements that unionists can support. Earlier, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said there was finally a sense of movement in the talks between London and Brussels. Ms McDonald told Sky News there was finally a sense that a reasonable, rational approach can be taken and a deal can be struck on the outstanding issues around the protocol, that those matters can be resolved, that we can then get back to work and delivering for people as the health crisis looms. In the grip of the cost-of-living crisis, its not too much for the people of the north of Ireland to expect that when they go out and they vote and return their democratic verdict that political leaders go back to work. A US Congressional letter to the UK Prime Minister expressing concern about the Governments dangerous Troubles legacy plans is a significant intervention, Michelle ONeill has said. The bipartisan letter from 27 members of the US Congress claims draft legislation going through Parliament would deny justice to thousands of families and conceal the truth of the past. The Sinn Fein vice president said the letter was further evidence of widespread and consistent international opposition to the UK Governments contentious proposals. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill would provide immunity for people accused of Troubles offences, as long as they co-operate with a new truth recovery body, and would also halt future civil cases and inquests linked to killings during the conflict. The Government has proposed several amendments to the Bill as it proceeds through its legislative stages, though the core elements of it remain. Critics have denounced the proposed laws as offering an amnesty for killers and the Bill is opposed by all Stormonts main parties and the Irish Government, as well as victims groups in Northern Ireland. Signatories to the letter include Congressmen Brendan Boyle and Richie Neal. The letter from the Congress members highlighted their strong support for the UK and USs special relationship, and congratulated Rishi Sunak on becoming Prime Minister. It added: As you assume this critical role at a precarious point in Europes history, we write with grave concern over your Governments decision to continue advancing the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill which denies justice, suppresses the will of the people of Northern Ireland, and conceals the truth of the past. Amid this time of war and unrest on the continent, we are concerned that this legislation would undermine the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland. As Members of Congress who understand and respect the pivotal role that the United States played in coming to this Agreement, we feel compelled to write you to voice our strong concern and disappointment with the continued momentum this piece of dangerous legislation maintains. We believe this legislation would deny justice to thousands of families, across all communities in Northern Ireland, who were impacted by violence during the Troubles. We have conducted significant research into the matter, and we have listened to victims, victims relatives, human rights groups, political representatives in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and legal experts. The vast majority of these groups believe that implementing a statute of limitations on criminal cases, Ombudsman reports, inquests, and civil actions, alongside legacy mechanisms without investigations by a Historical Investigations Unit, will prevent all genuine paths to justice justice which is still being achieved. In fact, there are a number of outstanding cases remaining, many of which would be directly impacted by this decision. Those victims and their families, from all communities, still desire justice and more importantly, they deserve justice. The Congress members cited the recent conviction of a former British soldier for the manslaughter of 23-year-old Aidan McAnespie, who was shot at a border checkpoint at Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone, in 1988. This case is a testament to the continued and necessary judicial process that this Bill impedes, they wrote. As such, we believe that for as long as outstanding evidence and potential criminal liability remains, avenues to justice must remain open. Prime Minister Sunak, as we approach the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement we call on you and your Government to assess the impact of this legislation which directly and unilaterally impacts the peace and stability across the island of Ireland. We strongly urge you to return to values agreed upon in the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and ensure victims of violence from the Troubles receive justice and perpetrators of crimes committed during the Troubles are held accountable. Ms ONeill welcomed the intervention from the US politicians. There is deep frustration that the British Governments Legacy Bill which will halt in law the rights of all victims to access truth, justice and accountability is not being heard by the British Government, she said. The criticism of the Bill, both domestically and internationally, has been widespread and consistent. This bipartisan letter from members of Congress directed to Rishi Sunak is a significant intervention which must not be ignored. During the last week, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Bill must adequately ensure respect for the rights of victims, survivors and their families. Volker Turk said the draft legislation as it stood appeared to be incompatible with the UKs international human rights obligations. A spokeswoman for the UK Government said: The UK Government is determined to deliver better outcomes for all those most impacted by the Troubles while helping society to look forward. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill seeks to deliver a significantly different and improved approach to addressing the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, focused on providing more answers to as many families as possible. Truth and reconciliation is at the heart of these proposals the new body will provide answers to all who want them, supported by full disclosure by the state. We have tabled a number of proposed amendments to the Bill which seek to address key concerns that have been raised by many stakeholders, including victims and survivors. These amendments reflect the extensive engagement that has taken place, and demonstrates the Governments commitment to working with all interested parties regarding their concerns, and how these might be addressed. A safety issue has been identified with a popular IKEA product. According to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), the IKEA LETTAN mirror presents a risk of injury due to the incorrect material being used in the manufacturing of some wall fittings. The fittings that attach the product to the wall can reportedly break, which can lead to the product falling from the wall. If a person is in the vicinity when the mirror falls, they can be hit by the mirror, posing head injury, cuts and laceration hazards. The affected mirror has date stamps (located at the back of the mirror) before and including 2105 and was available for purchase from February 2021. There are approximately 8,362 affected products in the Republic of Ireland. Customers should stop using the product immediately and contact IKEA to order the replacement wall fittings free of charge. Proof of purchase is not required. To order the replacement wall fittings free of charge, to obtain the mirror fitting replacement instructions, for affected article numbers or for further information regarding this recall please visit the IKEA web site at https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/customer-service/product-support/recalls/lettan-mirror-pub9537a970 or call IKEA Customer Services on 01 541 3302. India and the UK may soon forge a Free Trade Agreement, with British leaders asserting that negotiations were well advanced. Lawmakers have also called for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to lead a delegation to India as soon as possible". The UK-India free trade agreement is well-advanced. Although our trade at the moment is worth 29.6 billion, India is only the 12th largest trading partner of the UK. That is not enough; it should be so much higher," Lord Karan Bilimoria said. The Indian express has left the station. It is now the fastest train in the worldthe fastest-growing major economy in the world. The UK must be its closest and most trusted friend and partner in the decades ahead," he added. According to Lord Tariq Ahmad, the next round of talks between the two countries would commence very soon. The UK Foreign Office Minister for South Asia told his peers during a debate in the Parliament that negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement are well advanced" and ongoing. As one of the worlds biggest and fastest-growing economies, India is a key partner to the UK We are also looking at lowering non-tariff barriers on medical devices to benefit British exporters, and are well advanced in our negotiations for an ambitious and balanced free trade agreement," he said. Officials say that a strong trade deal with India could boost the UK economy by billions of pounds over the long term, helping families across the country. Cutting red tape and high tariffs could also make it easier and cheaper for UK companies to sell in India, driving growth and supporting jobs. According to official UK government data, India-UK bilateral trade currently stands at around 29.6 billion pounds a year. Both sides formally launched FTA negotiations in January last year with former prime minister Boris Johnson announcing a Diwali deadline for its conclusion. However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak committed to working "at pace" towards an FTA that does not sacrifice quality for speed" after that October deadline was missed amid political turmoil in the UK. As an update, we have now completed six rounds of negotiations for a trade deal and will begin the next round very soon Several noble Lords talked about timelines," Ahmad said. (With inputs from agencies) Kuldeep Singh Cheema uses a cliche to explain his journey as a farmer over the past decade. Necessity is the mother of invention," he said, sitting in the courtyard of a sprawling farmhouse in Sadarpur village in Karnal, Haryana, where he owns 65 acres of land. The journey began in 2011 when Cheema, in his early 30s, took over the family farm. He had to deal with a host of problems every seasonfarm hands were not available on time; groundwater was depleting steadily. Also, with deteriorating soil fertility, farmers were using more chemical fertilizers to maintain crop yields. It was the warning of a bleak future and an impending desertification that pushed Cheema to experiment with unconventional methods. You might also like Keep an eye on these economic indicators in 2023 IBC plot twist may let defaulters keep the reins Billimoria: from just 1 client to 550 crore assets Manufacturing PMI up but watch out for a spanner in the works By 2019, Cheema had turned things around. For the kharif crop season beginning June, he shifted to the direct-seeded rice (DSR) method, replacing the traditional method of growing saplings in a nursery and then transplanting them in flooded fields. This helped him save large amounts of water required for flooding paddy fields and about 5,000 per acre in labour costs for puddling fields and transplanting saplings. Doing away with submerged paddy also led to a reduction in methane emissions (produced by bacteria in flooded fields). Following the harvest, Cheema did not set the stubble on fire, as is the practice in states like Punjab and Haryana which worsens air quality in the National Capital Region. Instead, he used a mulcher to spread the stubble across the field and planted wheat seeds with a Happy Seeder machine without tilling the field. The zero-till wheat helped in trapping organic carbon in the soil even as mulching increased soil fertility and moisture. The result was lower requirement of nitrogenous fertilizers like urea as well as fewer rounds of irrigation. As weed incidence is negligible in fields covered with crop residue, weeding costs were also lower. I am using less inputs like urea, water and hired labour; yet yields have improved by 5-7% for both wheat and rice. When I started, my neighbours used to laugh at me. They would say: Sardarji pagal ho gaye. (The man has gone nuts)," Cheema said. The new year is set to mark a new beginning for Cheema. By mid-2023, Cheema, along with hundreds of others, could receive the first of the carbon credits issued to farmers in India. Carbon credits are payments made for implementing climate-friendly practices which reduce carbon emissions. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agriculture and related land use emissions accounted for 17% of all greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors in 2018. The credits, generated by practices Cheema has adopted, will be put up for sale in the global voluntary carbon market (VCM). These credits can be purchased by corporations to offset their own carbon emissions. For instance, climate-friendly practices adopted by Cheema is likely to generate at least one credit per acre of land every yearequivalent to removing one tonne of carbon dioxide from the environment. The credits could be sold for a price, say $15 a piece, in the global market. For instance, if Cheema could generate a credit for each acre every year, he could receive a payment close to $4,000 for four years (on 65 acres of land). The savings and yield advantages are enough for me. What I receive from carbon credits will be an incentive and encouragement for farmers like me to adopt climate-friendly practices," Cheema said. Nascent market Since 2019, Cheema has been a part of a carbon credit programme started by Grow Indigo. The agri-tech startup, a joint venture of Mahyco Grow and US-based Indigo Ag, has so far enrolled 50,000 acres in its carbon credit programme spread across 20 districts in Punjab, Haryana and the National Capital Region. By March 2023, it has set a target to register 150,000 acres. Grow Indigo is also working to register more acres across crops like cotton, soybean, corn, rice and sugarcane in other states. According to Ecosystem Marketplace, a global repository of information on environmental finance and payments, close to 500 million carbon credits, valued at $2 billion, were traded in 2021. Of the total credits traded, agriculture activities contributed a miniscule 1 million credits compared to over 200 million credits for both forestry and renewable energy projects. Carbon credits generated from commercial agriculture is a nascent space but the Indian market is estimated to grow to $4-5 billion in the next five years, said Usha Barwale Zehr, executive director of the Mumbai-headquartered Grow Indigo. We are not guaranteeing any price (per carbon credit) to the farmer as those will be market driven. But our partner Indigo Ag has recently sold its credits for $40 in the US. From our perspective, the quality of the credit is extremely importantsmall holder (farmer) generated carbon credits, which are data backed, can fetch a higher price," Zehr added. So far, Grow Indigo has raised about $13 million from investors. Varaha, another startup launched in August 2022, raised $4 million in seed funding in December. We took up the emerging concept of carbon farming to be on the same trajectory as western countries," said Madhur Jain, co-founder and CEO at Varaha. A $200 payment to a large farmer in the US or Europe may not have a lot of impact but a $100 payment to a small farmer in south Asia for changing practices is a huge matter for them," Jain added. Varaha is currently working on four projectsthe largest one spanning 150,000 acres focusing on improving soil organic carbon content from regenerative agriculture practices. Two other projects are on alternate wetting and drying of rice fields to reduce methane emissions. A fourth one with tribal farmers in Andhra Pradesh aims to sequester carbon by planting trees on farm bunds. If you look at the macro parameters, global carbon emissions are around 45 billion tonnes every year the target as per the Paris climate agreement is to cut emissions by half by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. You cannot expect large companies or economies to just shut down and stop emissions. So, carbon offset through nature-based solutions (which can store large amounts of carbon in the soil) is a viable method there will be ups and downs but demand for and price of such credits are going to increase in the future," Jain adds. In addition to Grow Indigo and Varaha, an Ahmedabad-based carbon credit advisory firm, Creduce, is developing a handful of agriculture and agro-forestry projects. These include rubber plantation generated credits in Kerala and sustainably grown sugarcane in Maharashtra. Creduce is also in talks with the Gujarat government to help farmers using water saving drip irrigation systems claim carbon credits. Market estimates suggest that the global voluntary carbon market is poised to become $50 billion by 2030 and $400 billion by 2050. Indias is likely to be a significant supplier as the market matures. Nature based solutions comprising of forestry and agriculture projects will have the largest share globally, by 2030," said Shailendra Singh Rao, founder and MD of Creduce. Climate and sustainability are global priorities with both government and private funds looking to expand ESG (environmental, social and governance) investments, said Anup Jain, managing partner at Orios Venture Partners, a venture capital fund, and an investor in Varaha. This could well be another e-commerce moment for India." How it works The idea of a carbon marketplace first emerged in 1997 from the Kyoto Protocol which operationalized the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by committing countries to limit and reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. In agriculture, carbon credits can be generated in various ways. Soils, for instance, are large carbon sinks. Crops take in carbon dioxide from the air and fixes carbon in the soil which is released back into the atmosphere when fields are ploughed to grow the next crop. Zero tillage practices, therefore, help storing organic carbon in the soil which also makes the soil healthier and reduces use of nutrients. Lower use of nutrients like urea and farm machinery also saves on energy required for manufacturing or while using those productslike a tractor for tilling uses diesel as fuel,while fertilizers use natural gas as a feedstock during manufacturing. Lower use of irrigation water also leads to energy savings since water is usually pumped into fields by diesel or electric pumps. Once farmers are enrolled in a carbon credit programme, the project is usually registered with Verra, a non-profit which runs the worlds leading verified carbon standard programme. After a project is listed in Verra (or with Gold Standard, another registry) and carbon credits are generated after 18-24 months of documented practice change by farmers, the credits are verified by third-party rating agencies. Once the process is complete, the verified credits are put up for sale. Farmers receive about 75% of the payment, while the rest pays for implementation cost and margins of project developers (like Grow Indigo). Measuring woes A major complexity arises from how credits are calculated. Project developers deploy a host of technologies like remote sensing, direct measurement of soil samples, and simulations to calculate the impact of the project compared to a baseline scenario. Carbon credits from solar, wind and energy efficiency projects are measurable, understandable and can lead to huge technological change, said Chandra Bhushan, founder CEO of iForest, a non-profit working on sustainable solutions to counter climate change. But measurement, monitoring and verification are a challenge for agriculture and land related projectswhich is why there have been so few projects historically," he added. The argument that carbon credits are a ticket to pollute is understandable but from the equity angle, carbon markets can enable capital to flow into developing countries to support a transition to climate-friendly practices, said Abhishek Jain, fellow and director at the Delhi-based Council on Energy Environment and Water. For the carbon market to function, adds Jain, reasonable monitoring, reporting and verification standards have to be in place, else the market will be crowded by low-quality credits. Carbon credits in agriculture are measured by two distinct pathwayscarbon avoidance, say, by reducing use of fertilizer and energy on the farm, which are easier to quantify. Carbon sequestration (absorption of carbon in soil), however, is difficult to quantify. If a farmer goes back to tilling her field after a few seasons, the stored carbon may get released. This means the release of carbon was only delayed by a few yearsand that is not a carbon credit worth buying. So, the permanence of these credits is not well established. And we need cost effective technologies to measure how much carbon is sequestered by change in practices," Jain said. To tackle this challenge of permanence, carbon projects are now allocating a certain percentage of credits to a buffer pool and not make those available for trading. These spare carbon credits act as an insurance against worst-case scenarios in future. Globally, soil organic carbon sequestration via regenerative agriculture practices can offset between a fourth to a third of the annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, Rattan Lal, soil scientist and winner of the World Food Prize 2020, wrote in an influential paper in 2004. But Lal also cautioned that it is a short-term strategy to mitigate human induced climate change. A long-term solution lies in developing alternatives to fossil fuel. Yet, soil organic carbon sequestration buys us time during which alternatives to fossil fuel are developed and implemented. It is a bridge to the future." In agriculture and forestry sectors, carbon should be viewed as a co-benefit; to convert the larger function of forests and soils into just one commoditycarboncan backfire, warned Bhushan from iForest. In forests, it can lead to monocultures of say, fast-growing trees. In agriculture, crops which sequester more carbon may be pushed. Instead of converting carbon into a commodity, it makes sense to think of a sustainable funding mechanism to change farm practices where carbon is a co-benefit." Elsewhere in Mint In Opinion, Manu Joseph explains the difficulty of saying something good about India. Pramit Bhattacharya tells how to save the Census from disruptions. Jyotsna Jha says it's time to consider a wealth tax. Disney+ Hotstar led the viewership of Hindi language OTT originals in India in 2022, according to a report by media consulting firm Ormax. The platform streamed 7 out of the top 15 most-watched original shows. Ajay Devgns OTT debut Rudra: The Edge of Darkness was the most watched Hindi web show of the year with 35.2 million views on Disney+ Hotstar, followed by the third season of Aashram (34.3 million views) on MX Player, the second season of Panchayat (29.6 million views) on Amazon Prime Video, Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach (23 million views) and The Great Indian Murder (23 million views). The last two also streamed on Disney+ Hotstar. Akshay Kumar-starrer Cuttputlli, streaming on Disney+ Hotstar, was the most-watched original Hindi film with 26.9 million views. It was followed by Yami Gautams A Thursday (25.5 million views) and comedy Govinda Naam Mera (24.4 million views), both on Hotstar. Karan Johars Gehraiyaan (22.3 million views) on Amazon Prime Video and mystery thriller Freddy starring Kartik Aaryan (20.9 million views), on Hotstar, were fourth and fifth on the list. Ormax is a tracking, testing and analytics-led consulting firm for television and streaming services, among others. Viewership is estimated using primary research conducted among audiences across India at a weekly level. Viewership estimates represent the number of people who watched the show (at least one full episode) or film (at least 30 minutes). It does not represent the number of accounts used for watching the same, so three members of a family, or two friends, watching on the same account are considered as unique audience -- means they are counted separately. The audience remains unduplicated and if an audience member watches episodes spread over multiple weeks, he or she is still counted only once. Federal prosecutors have seized nearly $700 million in assets from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in January, largely in the form of Robinhood stock, according to a Friday court filing. Bankman-Fried, who has been accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers to pay debts incurred by his crypto-focused hedge fund, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. He is scheduled to face trial in October. Also Read: The failure of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried will leave deep scars The Department of Justice revealed the seizure of Robinhood shares earlier this month, but it provided a more complete list of seized assets Friday, including cash held at various banks and assets deposited at crypto exchange Binance. The ownership of the seized Robinhood shares, valued at about $525 million, has been the subject of disputes between Bankman-Fried, FTX, and bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi. Also Read: FTX token jumps after new CEO says exchange could restart The most recent asset seizure reported by the DOJ took place on Thursday, when prosecutors seized $94.5 million in cash from an account at Silvergate Bank which was associated with FTX Digital Markets, FTX's subsidiary in the Bahamas. The DOJ seized more than $7 million from other Silvergate accounts associated with Bankman-Fried and FTX. The DOJ previously seized nearly $50 million from an FTX Digital Markets account at Moonstone Bank, a small bank in Washington state. DOJ also said that assets in three Binance accounts associated with Bankman-Fried were subject to criminal forfeiture, but did not provide an estimate of the value in those accounts. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. In light of the ongoing standoff with China, the Indian Air Force told officials that Exercise Pralay would involve all of its key air facilities in the northeast, including the recently relocated drone units. Several Air Force combat assets, including the fighter jets Su-30 and Rafale, as well as transport and other aircraft, would be activated during the exercise. The IAF has conducted a similar command-level drill in recent months. The entire northeast air space along the China border is under the control of the Indian Air Force's Eastern Command in Shillong, which regularly sends out fighters to intercept Chinese aircraft that are attempting to fly too close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) or move in a direction toward Indian installations there. The upcoming exercise will also take place at a time when the Indian Air Force has deployed and turned on the S-400 air defence squadron in the region, which is capable of intercepting any hostile missile or aircraft from up to 400 kilometres away. Recently, the IAF relocated a squadron of drones from other bases to the northeast in order to improve its ability to track enemy activity along the Sikkim and the Siliguri Corridor sector. Chinese activities in the Doklam region have also increased, according to officials, and they are constantly being monitored by Indian security forces. A face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in 2017 in the Doklam region was settled after diplomatic talks between the two countries. As per Lt Gen Anil Bhatt (Retd), China wants to test India's resolve, see what Beijing can get away with, and keep the LAC active and growing in both economic and military might. "We know geo-politically that in Asia if there is a rival, of course international leader USA, in Asia if any country which has not caught into the Chinese bandwagon it is India," he said. (With agency inputs) Criticising the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a former Indian envoy said that BBC has a troubled record dealing with India and alleges that it still holds a colonial mindset with regard to the country. Meanwhile, another Indian ambassador expressed that with this documentary the broadcaster has completely destroyed its credibility. Several former envoys and other eminent Indians have condemned the two-part docu-series pointing out it as blatant interference in India's internal affairs and attempt to destroy India-UK bilateral relations. About the documentary, Bhaswati Mukherjee, former Indian envoy to the Netherlands, told news agency ANI, "This particular documentary of two parts was a visible example of the fact that although it is public broadcasting service, it does these programmes that are highly discriminatory, interfere in our internal affairs and are funded by private partners and not the British government." "BBC is trying to interfere in internal affairs just one year before the general elections in India and also trying to pull down their own PM who rebutted these series and his government is trying to conclude an FTA with us (India). It completely spoils the atmosphere of the negotiations of FTA," she told ANI. UK's British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired a two-part series attacking PM Modi's tenure as Chief Minister during the Gujarat riots of 2002. The documentary sparked outrage and was removed from select platforms. Meanwhile, former ambassador to Bangladesh, Veena Sikri told ANI that there is no factual reporting in the BBC documentary at all and pointed out how it "keeps talking about allegedly this, reportedly that" while ignoring the decisions of the Indian judiciary. "The Supreme Court of India has monitored a special investigative report which took several years and the case went on from the lower court to the high court to the Supreme Court to the Special Investigative Team. It is a meticulously monitored and detailed investigation and the 452-page judgement of the Supreme Court has completely exonerated Prime Minister Modi and has explained how the incident took place," she said. Ambassador Sikri contended that BBC has completely destroyed its credibility by bringing about such a documentary. She even highlighted that British Prime Minister has rebutted attempts by certain members of parliament and the other British members of parliament have completely criticised BBC. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda on Saturday, urged people to press the "right" button in polls, as pressing the wrong button could lead to chaos. Addressing a public meeting here in Karnataka's Vijaypura, Nadda said, "This finger has a lot of power. When it presses the right button, the right decisions are taken. If it presses the wrong button, chaos erupts." It is pertinent to note that Karnataka is slated to undergo Assembly polls in the first half of this year. He also said that PM Modi always values the tradition and culture of Karnataka, whereas Rahul Gandhi walks with those who "break" the country. "When our Prime Minister comes to Karnataka, he talks about the pride of Karnataka by remembering the traditions, customs, poets, and writers of Karnataka. Whereas with Rahul Gandhi, those people are seen who have done the work of breaking India. That's why I say that the development of Karnataka is only secure under BJP," he said. He also said that Karnataka is among the leading states in terms of infrastructural development. "Karnataka has seen unparalleled development under the BJP and is among the leading States as regards infrastructural development in the country. The contribution of the state can never be neglected," he said. Emphasizing the COVID vaccination, he said that there is a "cent percent" vaccination in India. "Isn't there a cent percent vaccination in India? Only 76% of people in the US, and 64% in Europe are vaccinated, nobody knows about China," he said. He further said that today 40% of all UPI transactions worldwide are from India. "In December 2022, there were 782 crore UPI transactions with a total transaction of 13 lakh crore. Today, India accounts for 40% of all UPI transactions worldwide. In 2014, we used to import 92% of phones, today 97% of phones are being made in India," he said. Earlier in the day, JP Nadda inaugurated the Vijaya Sankalpa Abhiyan at the Nagathana Constituency in Vijayapura. He also visited Jnanayogashram in Vijayapura, where he paid respects to Siddeshwara Maha Swami, and took blessings of Shri Basavalinga Maha Swami. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. New Delhi: Egypt President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will be the chief guest at Republic Day celebrations, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Saturday. This is for the first time that the president of Egypt has been invited as chief guest on our Republic Day 2023," the ministry said. A 180-member strong military contingent from Egyptian army will also participate in the Republic Day parade. President el-Sisi is scheduled to visit India from 24 January to 26 January, during which he will hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attend the Republic Day celebrations and interact with the business community. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation that will include five ministers and senior officials. The Egyptian president previously visited India in October 2015 to participate in the third India-Africa Forum Summit, which was followed by a state visit in September 2016. President el-Sisi will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 25 January and Indian President Droupadi Murmu will host a state banquet in his honour the same evening. President Sisi will have a bilateral meeting and delegation-level talks with the Prime Minister on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest," the MEA said in a statement. External affairs minister S Jaishankar will also call on President el-Sisi. India and Egypt enjoy warm and friendly relations marked by civilizational, cultural and economic linkages and deep-rooted people-to-people ties. The multifaceted relationship is based on shared cultural values, commitment to foster economic growth, collaboration in the fields of defence & security and convergence on regional and global issues. The two countries work closely at multilateral and international platforms," the ministry said. The trade between India and Egypt hit a record high of $7.26 billion in 2021-22, according to the MEA. The trade was fairly balanced, with $3.74 billion Indian exports to Egypt and $3.52 billion imports from Egypt to India." More than 50 Indian companies have invested around $3.15 billion in diverse sectors of the Egyptian economy, including chemicals, energy, textile, garment, agri-business and retail. The forthcoming visit of President el-Sisi is expected to further strengthen and deepen the time-tested partnership between India and Egypt," the MEA said. At a time when the aviation regulator is flagging a lot of safety issues with the airlines, the Cabinet Committee on Appointments has approved the appointment of senior IAS officer Vikram Dev Dutt as the next director general of the Directorate of General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Dutt, a 1993-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre is currently serving as the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Air India Asset Holding Ltd. The officer will take over his new position on 28 February, upon the superannuation of incumbent DGCA Chief Arun Kumar, who was serving as the aviation regulator since July 2019. The appointment of the new director general came at a time when the DGCA has to take several difficult decisions around penalizing violations of safety rules by the airlines. Recently, the aviation regulator fined Air India Rs. 30 lakhs and also suspended its pilot for three months in the urinating incident on the airline's New York-New Delhi flight. This was the first time DGCA penalized an airline for the actions of an unruly passenger. The aviation watchdog also slapped an Rs. 3 lakh fine on Air India's Director of in-flight services for failing to discharge its duties in the matter. "We respectfully acknowledge the gaps in our reporting and are taking relevant steps to ensure that the same are addressed. We are also strengthening our crews' awareness of and compliance with policies on handling incidents involving unruly passengers," the airline spokesperson said. The accused Shankar Mishra was also banned from flying for four months. Mishra said that the decision of DGCA was based on an incorrect understanding and he will appeal against the decision. We would particularly like to point out that the Internal Inquiry Committees ruling hinges upon their incorrect understanding of the layout of the Aircraft. When the Committee could not find an adequate explanation as to how the accused could have urinated on the complainant sitting on seat 9A without also affecting the passenger on Seat 9C, it has erroneously gone on to assume that there was a seat 9B in the business class in the aircraft," the statement issued by lawyers Ishanee Sharma and Akshat Bajpai said. (With inputs from agencies) Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday shared the concern of digital publishing news agencies regarding the overall digital economy and the economics of digital content. In his special address to e4m-DNPA Future of Digital Media Conference & Awards, the minister said there are certain issues in the way the internet has evolved where the adtech platforms are controlling more and more digital advertising revenues and monetisation revenues. He said this has led to a deep imbalance disrupting the whole dynamic of content creation and content monetization. It leaves the small guy at a disadvantage which is not really the right thing for a country like India where we potentially have hundreds and thousands of content creators," Rajeev said. He added that it is clear that at some inflection point the consumption of news in particular and content in general will swing sharply to the internet. We hope to, in the Digital India Act, address this issue of the disproportionate control and the imbalance in the dynamics between content creation and content creators' monetization requirements - and the power that adtech companies and adtech platforms hold today," he said. Speaking on the occasion , the minister said that as millions of consumers use the internet and consume products and services, it is the time accountability to the consumer is also something that needs to be built and legislated. For many decades regulation and law making or government and societal scrutiny and oversight about digital platforms lagged innovation because it was seen that these were all innovation platforms and they do not represent any threat or criminality," the minister said in his virtual address. However, the minister added today's understanding is that as much as these platforms represent good and can empower, they can also be misused and be forces of harm, illegality and criminality. Covid pandemic has caused one big jump in the consumption pattern of consumers and this disruption will be the regular normal for all things digital like we saw with the introduction of the ChatGPT," the minister said. Digital platforms should get a fair share of revenue from the big tech platforms, Apurva Chandra, I&B Secretary, Govt of India, said while delivering a special address at the Future of Digital Media Conference, organized by the DNPA in New Delhi. The first ever digital media conference focused on the future of digital media in India, could not have come at a more opportune time when digital media businesses are trying to figure out business models to navigate a complex future. The Future of Digital Media Conference 2023 attempted to answer these questions. Chandra set the tone of the event by highlighting the negative impact on the traditional news industry and further said, if it continues, it will also impact the future of journalism. This is a question of journalism and credible content as well," Chandra said in his speech. Tanmay Maheshwari, Chairman DNPA and MD of Amar Ujala, while delivering the opening speech, said everyone who is part of the digital media ecosystem has the responsibility to change the world. In his impressive opening keynote, Sukumar Ranganathan, Editor-in-Chief, Hindustan Times, shared his insights on how the future of journalism will be shaped by changes happening in the newsrooms due to technology and obsolescence of traditional skills. Sukumar said journalism of the future will have to be done out of newsrooms that believes in fairness with all creators. Puneet Jain, CEO of HT Digital, in his address remarked it is the biggest opportunity for digital media to track millions of users and news consumers. Puneet said the question is how to figure out the right equilibrium between publishers and platforms to address the content monetization issue. Paul Fletcher, the Australian MP who spearheaded the big tech complacency legislation movement in Australia, also shared his insights on Australias Law on Technology Platforms and News Publishers. Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O'Brien has claimed that Twitter removed his tweet on a BBC documentary that he claimed "exposed" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stance on minorities. O'Brien called it "censorship" and shared the screenshot of an email from Twitter stating that his message was removed at the request of the Indian government for violating Indian law. CENSORSHIP@Twitter @TwitterIndia HAS TAKEN DOWN MY TWEET of the #BBCDocumentary, it received lakhs of views The 1 hr @BBC docu exposes how PM @narendramodi HATES MINORITIES Heresthe mail I recieved. Also see flimsy reason given. Oppn will continue to fight the good fight pic.twitter.com/8lfR0XPViJ Derek O'Brien | ' (@derekobrienmp) January 21, 2023 India: The Modi Question. a two-part BBC documentary, claims to have looked at the details of the riots that occurred in Gujarat in 2002 while Modi was chief minister. The opposition had a field day after the BBC documentary, which claims to feature upsetting scenes" was made public. Narendra Modis premiership has been dogged by persistent allegations about the attitude of his government towards Indias Muslim population. This series investigates the truth behind these allegations and examines Modis backstory to explore other questions about his politics when it comes to Indias largest religious minority," says the description of the BBC documentary. One of its episodes follows Modi's entry into politics, including his affiliation with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), his ascent through the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and his appointment as Gujarat's chief minister, where his response to a series of riots in 2002 remains a source of controversy", as per the description. When the BBC programme was allegedly blocked, the Congress claimed that Modi was still afraid of the truth about the 2002 riots coming out and that blocking" the documentary was cowardly and undemocratic". "Narendra Modi is still scared of the truth about 2002 coming out 21 years later. The blocking of the BBC documentary that squarely blames him for the pogrom is a cowardly, undemocratic act, one that clearly shows Modi's dictatorial attitude," AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal said. Earlier, PM Modi was defended on the subject by his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak. Sunak, however, was questioned by Congress secretary Ashish Dua, who asked the British PM if he had seen the BBC documentary or spoken to former British foreign secretary Jack Straw for his viewpoint that had been made public. Meanwhile, The BBC documentary has been criticised as "propaganda" against the Indian prime minister, who is running for re-election in 2024. Many believe that the series is intended to advance a specific discredited narrative and that the colonial mindset is blatantly obvious throughout. This is a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, the lack of objectivity, and a continuing colonial mindset, is blatantly visible," the BBC quoted India's foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi as saying. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sounak Mukhopadhyay Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer. Read more from this author The geological catastrophe in the Himalayan town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand is accentuating day-by-day. Not only geographical but the anthropological landscape of the region is also witnessing unfortunate alterations. Himanshu Khurana, the District Magistrate of Chamoli, said that following heavy snowfall in Joshimath, which is already experiencing land subsidence, reports have been received that in a few areas, cracks in building have widened. According to Khurana, teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the police are prepared in case a tragedy occurs as a result of the significant snowfall in Joshimath. He described the state of the relief camps in Joshimath and stated that the team is working to give all the facilities required. View Full Image Workers demolish a building with heavy cracks in the land subsidence affected area, in Joshimath, (PTI) The DM stated, "There have been reports of building cracks widening in a few locations in Joshimath as a result of the significant snowfall. Our team is working to supply all the necessary amenities, such as heaters and hot water." He claimed that a senior-level engineer is on duty in the camp to keep an eye on any electricity issues in the relief camps. On January 20, Ranjit Kumar Sinha, the secretary of disaster management, gave a media briefing on the relief and rehabilitation efforts taking place in Joshimath. He informed that an immediate assistance fund of 4 lakhs, or 50,000 per family, had been allocated to the eight affected tenants. According to Sinha, 218 affected families in Joshimath have received advance aid totaling more than 3.27 crores. He said in a statement to the media, "There are 18 pregnant women living in Joshimath's municipal area who are not currently in relief camps. These expectant mothers reside in their own homes." "Health tests of these women are being done continuously," he added. In addition, 81 kids under the age of 10 are being examined by doctors in the relief camps. Sinha claimed that regular surveys and study work were being carried out at the technical institutes run by the Central and State governments in Joshimath. Why cracks widened after snowfall? In addition to the geological forces of subsidence destabalising the region, low temperatures of winter accompanied with snow fall has accentuated the problems in Joshimath. View Full Image A view of the damaged staircase due to land subsidence is seen covered with snow as the area witnesses heavy snowfall with rain, at Joshimath. (Rahul Grover) Physically, ice and snow have lower density than their liquid form therefore they occupy more space than water. After rain and snowfall, water seeped into the cracks which when subjected to high range of diurnal temperature changes froze and thawed in the cracks thus effecting the strength of building materials and eventually leading to widening of the cracks. (With inputs from ANI) India and the UK government are scheduled to launch a new scheme that will open a wide range of opportunities for thousands of Indian nationals in the age group 18-30 years. The UK and India will be launching the Young Professionals Scheme" on 28 February 2023 which will allow Indian nationals to live and work in the UK for up to two years. The programme will be reciprocal, also allowing UK professionals in the same position to participate in a professional exchange by living and working in India. The statement was issued after the 15th India-UK Foreign Office Consultations (FOC). Notably, India overtook China as the largest source country for student visas issued by the UK in the 12 months ending June 2022, according to UK Home Office statistics. According to a UK government statement, Britain Foreign Secretary Philip Barton said, "I am delighted to be here in New Delhi, at the start of 2023, to underline the UK's commitment to the 2030 Roadmap for deepening cooperation with India. Through our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the UK and India are together playing a key role in tackling the biggest challenges facing the world today, including food and energy security, economic recovery post-Covid and preventing future pandemics." He also said the UK and India are increasingly working together multilaterally, including with the World Health Organisation and the international community on potential malaria and ebola vaccines. "I was pleased to hear from Foreign Secretary Kwatra about India's ambitious plans for its G20 Presidency. India is at the heart of the Indo-Pacific region, where half the world's people live and 50% of global economic growth is produced. The UK is committed to working closely with India in making its Presidency a success," he said. India's External Affairs Ministry said that both countries share a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, with the adoption of Roadmap 2030 for Future Relations. Both sides discussed issues like trade & economic cooperation, defence & security, science & technology, people-to-people relationship, health, and climate change, the statement said. The statement said that both India and the UK aspire for an early conclusion of a balanced and comprehensive India-UK FTA that may intensify the economic engagement between the fifth and the sixth biggest global economies. The two sides also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest, including Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific, Commonwealth, and the United Nations, it said. The UK appreciated India's contribution to the UN Security Council in 2021-22 as a non-permanent member and reiterated its support for UNSC reforms. Britain also commended India's priorities as President of G20 this year as it looked forward to its participation. Last year in November, the British High Commission to India said Indian nationals continued to be the top nationality to be granted 'worker' visas, accounting for 39% of the total. Earlier, in October 2022, British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis said they were on track to get back to processing India-to-UK visa applications "within our standard of 15 days". A Moscow-Goa chartered flight carrying 240 passengers on board was diverted to Uzbekistan in the wee hours of Saturday following a bomb threat, news agency PTI has reported quoting a police official. As per the senior police official, the flight was scheduled to land at the Dabolim airport in South Goa at 4.15 am. Azur Air flight AZV2463 was diverted before it entered the Indian air space, he said. "It was diverted after an email was received at 12.30 am by the Dabolim airport director that mentioned about a bomb being planted on the plane," the official told PTI. This is the second such incident which occurred nearly two weeks. Earlier on 10 January, a Moscow-Goa flight made an emergency landing at Gujarat's Jamnagar airport following a bomb threat. Azur Air international flight was diverted to the Jamnagar airport following a bomb threat and made a safe emergency landing there at 9.49 pm on Monday, officials had said. After evacuating all 236 passengers and eight crew members, the plane as well as the luggage was thoroughly checked but nothing suspicious was found. The crew and passengers spent the night at the Jamnagar airport lounge. (With inputs from PTI) Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally on 19 January, Mumbai Police arrested a man for entering the rally and posing as an Army soldier, news agency ANI has reported on 21 January quoting police officials. Police informed ANI that 35-year-old man from Navi Mumbai was arrested by the Mumbai Police just 90 minutes before PM Modi was to reach Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). The accused tried to enter the high-security VVIP area by claiming himself to be a Naik from the "Guards Regiment" of the Army. The accused has been identified as Rameshwar Mishra, a science graduate who was stopped by the Mumbai Crime Branch officials on suspicion around 3 pm. The Mumbai Police registered a case under sections 171, 465, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The accused was produced in Bandra court on Friday and was sent to police custody till January 24. Earlier on January 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated, dedicated, and laid the foundation stone of multiple development initiatives in Mumbai. The PM inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of projects worth around 38,800 crore in Mumbai. He laid foundation stones for seven sewage treatment plants, a road concretisation project and redevelopment of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. The PM inaugurated Mumbai Metro Rail Lines 2A and 7 built at a cost of around 12,600 crore. They comprise a 35km-long elevated corridor stretching from Andheri to Dahisar in suburban Mumbai. In an effort to strengthen health care infrastructure in Mumbai, Prime Minister inaugurated 20 Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Aapla Dawakhana. The novel initiative provides essential medical services like health checkups, medicines, investigations, and diagnostics completely free, to the people. Civic elections in Mumbai and some other important cities, including Pune, Thane and Nagpur, are likely to be held later this year. Addressing a gathering, PM Modi highlighted that this is the first instance when the world is showing faith in the resolve of India. The Prime Minister said that as Indians are eagerly awaiting a developed India, the same optimism for India can be seen in the world. The PM said for the first time since independence India has the courage to dream big and realise its goals. "Earlier, there was only discussion on poverty, on seeking funds from foreign countries and surviving some how. Now, the world over there is positivity about India. The world knows our country is going forward on the basis of its strength and utilising its potential to the fullest," Modi said. "There is an extraordinary confidence in the country which is progressing well with its futuristic vision and modern approach, he said. Many cities across India are going to power the growth story of the country, he had said. Therefore, making Mumbai future-ready is one of the commitments of the double-engine government (a term for BJP in power in state and also at the Centre)," he had added. The prime minister asserted that, We are working on complete transformation of cities across the country." The CM Eknath Shinde said his government will transform Mumbai in the next three years and give a new identity to India's financial capital and also Maharashtra. Lets pledge to create a new Maharashtra under Modi's leadership," he said. (With inputs from ANI) Seven people were injured after twin explosions shook Jammu and Kashmir within a span of 15 minutes on Saturday. The incident took place in a transport yard in the Narwal area of Jammu City, with the first blast at around 10.45 am. Officials said that the whole area has now been cordoned off and a search operation was underway. Five people were injured in the first blast and two more in the second. The explosions come at a time when security agencies in the region are on high alert amid the Congress' ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra and the upcoming Republic Day celebrations. According to an eyewitness, the first blast occurred in a vehicle that was sent to a workshop for repairs. Fifteen minutes later, another explosion nearby littered the area with damaged parts and garbage. A PTI report quoting hospital sources indicated that seven people were admitted with splinter injuries and all of them are "stable". Such dastardly acts highlight the desperation and cowardice of those responsible for the attacks. Take immediate and firm action. No efforts should be spared to bring the perpetrators to justice," Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha told security officials. The LG has announced a relief of Rs. 50,000 to those injured in the incident. Sinha also said that the administration would ensure best possible treatment and extend every help required by the families. Police officials have briefed the LG about the blast and the ongoing investigation. As the probe continues, forensic teams have begun collecting samples from Narwal. Senior officials of the Army have also reached the spot. (With inputs from agencies) Lord Rami Ranger, who is a prominent member of the House of Lords of the UK Parliament, has lodged a protest with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) over its documentary series on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a letter to Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC, Rami Ranger condemned the documentary and raised questions on the sinister' timing of the documentary. He wrote, The timing for the BBC documentary on the Gujarat riots is sinister considering India and the UK are working for a free trade agreement, India has assumed the presidency of G20 and the UK has an Indian-origin prime minister." He said that the documentary has shown lack of vision, common sense and judgment by producing such an insensitive one-sided documentary. He wrote, "I am appalled by the documentary produced by the BBC implicating the Hon. Prime Minister of India in the Gujarat riots of 2002 aired on 17 January 2023. The producer has shown a lack of vision, common sense and judgment by producing such an insensitive one-sided documentary." BBC released a documentary called India: The Modi Question. The first episode of the docu-series was aired on Tuesday and was removed from YouTube on Wednesday. The second part of the series is scheduled to be broadcast on January 24. The series looks into Narendra Modi's time as the chief minister of Gujarat. According to the BBC, the documentary will examine how "Narendra Modi's premiership has been dogged by persistent allegations about the attitude of his government towards India's Muslim population". Further in the letter, Rami Ranger complained that the documentary not only insults the two times democratically elected PM of the largest democracy in the world but also the judiciary and Parliament, which investigated Modi rigorously and exonerated him. "As the chairman of the Pakistan-Indian and UK friendship Forum, we have worked for over 25 years to build bridges between two British communities, namely of Indian and Pakistani origin, to improve social cohesion in the United Kingdom," he said. Prominent Indian-origin UK citizens and other members of the Indian diaspora have severely condemned the documentary series. In the letter, Lord Rami Ranger stated that the BBC documentary has opened old wounds by creating hatred between British Hindus and Muslims by attempting to paint India as an intolerant nation where Muslims are persecuted. Furthermore, the UK lawmaker said he condemns violence and loss of life wherever it takes place but he equally condemns those stirring up religious hatred by bringing up the politics of the subcontinent to the United Kingdom. On Thursday, India denounced the controversial BBC documentary series on the prime minister and described it as a "propaganda piece" that is designed to push a discredited narrative. While addressing a weekly media briefing External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi said, "If anything, this film or documentary is a reflection on the agency and individuals that are peddling this narrative again. It makes us wonder about the purpose of this exercise and the agenda behind it. Frankly, we don't wish to dignify such efforts." The MEA spokesperson said the documentary is a reflection of the BBC and individuals that are peddling this narrative again. United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have also defended PM Modi in the British Parliament over the BBC documentary. Sunak also snubbed Pakistan-origin British MP Imran Hussain, saying he "doesn't agree with the characterization" of his Indian counterpart. (With inputs from agencies) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has also served as the Union Railway Minister under Atal Bihar Vajpayee, made a demand for a separate Railway Budget on Friday. Nitish Kumar said it is very important to present a separate budget for railways before the general budget. The Chief Minister said that the separate budget for railways used to provide numerous jobs to the people of the country. "When I was the Railway Minister, we used to give numerous jobs to people. When Rail Budget was presented in Parliament, there were discussions across all newspapers," Bihar Chief Minister said in a press interaction during his Samadhan Yatra. The practice of a separate budget for railways began in 1924 and was continued till 2017, after which it was merged with the Union Budget. The decision came after then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley raised the issue in Rajya Sabha and then the Parliament constituted a special committee to plan the merger of both budgets. Bihar's Chief Minister also reiterated the demand of his government for the special status for Bihar. "I have always been listening to the problems of people since the time I was an MLA. I keep visiting places, sitting with people, and addressing their issues. We have always been demanding special status for Bihar," he said. Nitish Kumar welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the petitions challenging the caste survey conducted by his government. "I was appalled when I first learnt that a petition has been filed against the survey. I read in a paper that the petitioner belonged to Bihar Sharif (the district headquarters of Nalanda). I felt like calling him up to know what was wrong with the survey," said Kumar. "All political parties in the state were unanimously of the opinion that the survey be undertaken. Moreover, it is intended to benefit all sections of the society. It is also a caste survey (jaatiya ganana) and not a census (jana ganana)," the Chief Minister added. (With inputs from PTI) Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde concluded their arguments before the Election Commission (EC) on Friday and asserted that they are the real Shiv Sena. The EC at the end of the hearing told both the factions to submit their written submissions, if any, by 30 January. As per Hindustan Times report, a final order by the EC is expected in February. In between this, the question of Uddhav Thackeray being the party president have arise. Prior to sending written submission by 30 January, Thackery's term as party president will come to an end on 23 January. Sena UBT had requested EC to allow the party to hold internal elections or either maintain status quo in order to continue Thackeray as party president, however, the EC has maintained its silence on it, as per HT report. When asked about post of party president, party leader Anil Parab said that Thackeray would continue in the post since there was no specific directive by the ECI. While speaking to the media, he said, Uddhav Thackeray is and will be the Shiv Sena party president for party workers and leaders," as reported by Hindustan Times. Further adding, he said, For party workers, there is no need of any permission. We sought the ECIs permission only to comply with the legal formalities." Since 2018 National Executive meeting, Parab said that there was no one had raised any questions on the re-election of Uddhav Thackeray. In January 2018, Thackeray was re-elected as the president by the party's national executive. Prior to that on 23 January 2013, Thackeray became the party president nearly two months after the Sena founder Bal Thackeray died. It is also Bal Thackerays birth anniversary on 23 January. He also added that, There is no provision of the Mukhya Neta (Chief Leader) post in the Shiv Sena constitution. So CM Eknath Shinde electing himself in that post is invalid and unconstitutional. There is no split in the party, and the bow-and-arrow symbol and the name of the party will be with us." Earlier on 10 January, as reported by PTI, the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena had cited a 1971 Supreme Court verdict, which gave recognition to a group led by former prime minister Indira Gandhi as the original Congress, before the EC as it staked claim to the outfit founded by Balasaheb Thackeray. "We cited the Sadiq Ali judgment before the Election Commission. We have the majority and that is the real test," Jethmalani had told reporters, claiming the support of 40 of the Sena's 56 MLAs and 13 of the 18 members in the Lok Sabha. The Sadiq Ali judgment of the Supreme Court refers to a case of a split in the Congress after the then prime minister Indira Gandhi ensured the defeat of the official party nominee in the presidential election of 1969. The apex court had upheld the EC's authority to decide on matters related to the election symbol of a political party. On this, Parab, Our counsel argued that the party is not just MPs and MLAs but consists of the National Executive and the party organisation, and we have the majority in this." He further added, The Shinde faction cited the Sadiq Ali case, but we told the ECI that only when there is an equal split in the party are the number of elected representatives taken into consideration. In this case, there has been no split; some members have defected. The party organisation is with Uddhav Thackeray." Shinde had walked out of the Shiv Sena in June 2022 to become the chief minister of Maharashtra with support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after toppling the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government. The Shinde and Thackeray factions of the Sena have been locked in a battle for the control of the organisation since then. In November last year, the EC had asked the Sena factions to submit fresh documents to back their claim to the party's name and poll symbol. The commission had also asked them to exchange the documents submitted to it with each other. In an interim order in October, the commission had barred the two factions from using the party name or its "bow-and-arrow" symbol. Later, it had allotted "Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray" as the party name for the Thackeray faction and "Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena" (Balasaheb's Shiv Sena) as the name for the Shinde group. The EC had said the interim order will be in force "till the final determination of the dispute". Meanwhile, Sanjay Raut on Tuesday has said that the EC should not decide on the party's poll symbol till the Supreme Court gives its judgment on the disqualification of 16 rebel MLAs from the camp led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Talking to reporters, Raut asserted there is no split in the Shiv Sena. "Those who have won on the symbol of the Shiv Sena have split (off). This does not mean that there is a division in the party. This perceived split is like a mirage. Some MLAs and MPs have left, but the party is intact," he said. He said till the time the apex court gives its verdict on the disqualification of the MLAs, the EC should not hurry in taking a decision on the matter (poll symbol). The Supreme Court had said it would commence hearing on 14 February on a batch of pleas, including the one seeking the disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs from the Shinde camp, related to the Maharashtra political crisis triggered by the Shiv Senas division. (With inputs from agencies) The Justice Department is investigating conduct at the Abbott Laboratories infant-formula plant in Sturgis, Mich., that led to its shutdown last year and worsened a nationwide formula shortage, people familiar with the matter said. Attorneys with the Justice Departments consumer-protection branch are conducting the criminal investigation, the people said. The branch, which has criminal as well as civil authority, was involved last year in a settlement with Abbott that allowed its Sturgis plant to resume operations after Food and Drug Administration inspectors found a potentially deadly bacteria there. The DOJ has informed us of its investigation, and were cooperating fully," an Abbott spokesman said. The investigation signals further scrutiny of Abbotts operation of the plant, a major source of baby formula in the U.S., and perhaps of the more than $4 billion formula industry. The Justice Department in the past decade has investigated numerous food companies that have shipped contaminated products that resulted in illnesses or deaths. Several have led to criminal prosecutions under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of companies or executives involved in producing goods from ice cream to peanut butter. The law allows government officials to prosecute entities or individuals who introduce adulterated food into interstate commerce. In many recent cases, DOJ has been able to successfully prosecute defendantson misdemeanor charges for introducing contaminated food into the market even without proof that officials acted with criminal intent, according to Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer who represents victims of food-borne illnesses. Abbott, based outside Chicago, is one of the biggest manufacturers of baby formula. The company sells Similac, among other brands. Last January, FDA inspectors found bacteria at the plant after receiving reports of babies who drank the companys formula and became sick. The inspectors also found standing water, damage to drying equipment and defects in the seams of formula cans, among other problems at the Sturgis plant. Federal officials couldnt conclusively link the bacteria at the plant to the infants illnesses, however. Abbott has said genetic sequencing of the bacteria in the sick babies didnt match the strains found at the plant. Abbott temporarily halted production at the Sturgis factory in February, and recalled baby formula made at the plant. The moves contributed to an infant formula shortage that sent parents and federal officials scrambling for months. To bolster supplies, the federal government waived regulatory requirements and tariffs to allow more foreign formula into the country, and the White House organized planes to fly baby formula to the U.S. Abbott last May signed a legal agreement, called a consent decree, detailing the steps it would need to take to reopen the plant. In the complaint accompanying that civil agreement, the Justice Department said Abbott and several of its employees had caused adulterated food" to enter interstate commerce. Ongoing inadequacies in manufacturing conditions and practices at Defendants facilities demonstrate that Defendants have been unwilling or unable to implement sustainable corrective actions to ensure the safety and quality of food manufactured for infants, a consumer group particularly vulnerable to foodborne pathogens," the department said in the complaint. Also in May, Abbott Chief Executive Robert Ford apologized for the companys role in the formula shortage, and said it was making investments to avoid a repeat. The company reopened the plant in June. Limited formula supplies continued into September, however, when adults in roughly one-third of households with infant children on formula had trouble getting it, according U.S. Census Bureau data. By October, in-stock rates had stabilized close to where they had been before the Sturgis plant shut down, federal officials have said. In 2020, the Justice Department filed criminal charges against Texas ice-cream company Blue Bell Creameries LP and its former chief executive following an investigation into a listeria outbreak tied to three deaths and other illnesses. Blue Bell agreed to pay $19 million and plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to shipments of contaminated ice cream. The former chief executive has pleaded not guilty to the charges. That same year, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said it would pay a record $25 million to resolve criminal charges stemming from a series of foodborne-illness outbreaks involving its restaurants that sickened more than 1,000 people. In 2015, Stewart Parnell, the former owner of Peanut Corp. of America, was sentenced to 28 years in prison a year after being convicted of presiding over a coverup that led to a deadly salmonella outbreak. Write to Liz Essley Whyte at liz.whyte@wsj.com, Dave Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com and Jesse Newman at jesse.newman@wsj.com China has refused to give the COVID vaccine to North Korean refugees, endangering their lives in the process, according to the US-based Radio Network Voice of America (VOA). Even after removing the COVID limitations, China continues to refuse to treat North Korean defectors. Refugees who exhibit severe COVID symptoms are not treated because they lack identification documentation. When these refugees attempt to flee to South Korea, the Chinese authorities arrest them. Since the COVID outbreak began, North Korean defectors in China have not gotten even a single dosage of immunisation, leaving them defenceless, according to NK news. The North Korean defectors are not viewed as refugees by China, a close friend of the country, but rather as undocumented workers. China deports defectors under the terms of its border accord with North Korea. Once they return to North Korea, defectors risk being subjected to torture, sexual assault, forced labour, incarceration in re-education or political camps, or even execution by the North Korean government. Even though North Korean defectors in China are infected with the coronavirus, they cannot receive medical care, according to a source cited by The Daily NK. They do not have the right to vaccinations if they do not have an identity card. According to one defector who spoke with the publication, cold medications are used in place of tests because defectors cannot get tested even if they have the COVID virus. Many defectors in China are speaking out in desperation, lamenting the bitterness of not having their status acknowledged by the Chinese government, and saying that it would be better to die than continue living in this way, the NK news source said. Following COVID symptoms, some defectors have even passed away. Frustrated by their predicament, other defectors who have witnessed individuals die in vain. In search of a better life away from a government that strictly regulates every area of their lives, the majority of North Koreans have been fleeing from the northern border and crossing into China before arriving in South Korea. China does not offer protection to defectors. Instead, these defectors are compelled to remain hidden to avoid being forcibly returned to North Korea by Chinese authorities, according to VOA. (With ANI inputs) As tech layoffs continue, around 12,000 Alphabet employees have been made redundant. Around 6% of workers with Google's parent company faced an orderly albeit impersonal transition on Friday, with the update being communicated via the same technology products they helped build. Among them was Engineering Manager Justin Moore who lost his job of nearly 17 years. "After over 16.5 years at Google, I appear to have been let go via an automated account deactivation at 3am this morning as one of the lucky 12,000. I don't have any other information, as I haven't received any of the other communications the boilerplate "you've been let go" website (which I now also can't access) said I should receive," he wrote in a LinkedIn post on Saturday. Moore said that it had for the most part been a wonderful" 16 years with the company, noting that he was proud of the work he and his team had done during this time. But while he considers himself so incredibly fortunate" to have worked with worked with Alphabet, the takeaway is somewhat grim. This also just drives home that work is not your life, and employers -- especially big, faceless ones like Google -- see you as 100% disposable. Live life, not work," he urged. The job cuts follow thousands of layoffs at tech giants including Amazon. com Inc , Microsoft Corp and Meta Platforms Inc who are downsizing after a pandemic-led hiring spree left them flabby in a weak economy. In recent weeks layoffs at four of the biggest US tech companies have totalled more than 51,000 jobs. The situation has in turn fanned fears of a recession even as the US job market remains tight. Minister of state for external affairs Meenakashi Lekhi completed her week long tour of Latin America on Friday after visiting El Salvador during which economic ties remained a key area of talks. She also visited Cuba, Guatemala and Bolivia where she met with the top political leadership of the respective countries. In Cuba, she met President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez of Cuba along with the countrys Foreign Minister and the President of the National Assembly. She also met with Cubas Minister for Culture Lekhi then proceeded to Guatemala, a small Central American state. MOS met with the Acting President of Guatemala, H.E. Mr Guillermo Castillo Reyes; Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, H.E. Mr. Mario Bucaro; Minister of Culture of Guatemala, H.E. Mr. Felipe Aguilar; Minister of Health, H.E Dr. Francisco Jose Coma Martin; and Minister of Energy and Mines, H.E. Mr. Alberto Pimentel Mata," as per a release by the Ministry of External Affairs. During the meeting with the Acting President, MOS discussed cooperation in the fields of Science and Technology, Women Empowerment and Capacity Building in the interiors of Guatemala. In the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, both sides reviewed the entire bilateral relations and decided to hold the next Foreign Office Consultations on a mutually convenient date in New Delhi. MOS handed over a symbolic key to the Foreign Minister for the donation of ten pickup trucks by the Government of India to the Government of Guatemala," reads the MEA statement of the visit. Both sides also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Economic ties also took centre stage as Minister Lekhi inaugurated a warehouse for Indian companies in Guatemala to help Indian exports in the region. She also met with business leaders. During the visit to El Salvador, MOS called on H.E. Dr. Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador; and met with H.E. Ms. Alexandra Hill Tinoco, Minister of Foreign Affairs; H.E. Ms. Mariemm Pleitez, Minister for Culture; and H.E. Mr. J. Miguel Kattan, Secretary of Commerce and Investment," says the MEA statement. Lekhi and Bukele discussed ways to further enhance bilateral relations especially Indias development cooperation with El Salvador, growing bilateral economic relations and cooperation at the multilateral level including at the UN, the statement said. The minister invited El Salvador to join the India-led Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. Chris Hipkins is set to replace Jacinda Ardern as leader of the Labour party and New Zealand's prime minister after being the only candidate to be nominated for the role, the Labour Party said in a statement. Hipkins is expected to be confirmed as the new leader at a meeting of Labour's 64 lawmakers, or Caucus, on Sunday. First elected to parliament for the Labour Party in 2008, the 44-year-old Hipkins became a household name fronting the government's response to the pandemic after being appointed minister for COVID-19 in November 2020. Hipkins is currently minister for police, education and public service, as well as leader of the House. In a surprise announcement on Thursday, Ardern said she had "no more in the tank" to lead the country and would step down and not seek re-election. The shocking decision from Ardern comes after five and a half years of tenure leading New Zealand through the coronavirus pandemic. Ardern said she knew what the prime minister's job took and believed she "no longer had enough in the tank to do it justice" but there were colleagues who could. She said her Government had achieved a lot and she was not standing down because she did not believe Labour could win the next election, but because she thought it could. Speaking to the media, Ardern said there was no special "angle" or "real reason" why she wanted to resign, only that she was "human". "To Neve, mum is looking forward to being there when you start school next year. To Clarke, let's finally get married." A Horizon Research snap poll obtained by local media organization Stuff on Friday showed that Hipkins was the most popular potential candidate among voters, with the backing of 26% of those surveyed. 'Tough and capable' Ardern said her decision to step down was "tinged with sadness" but after having made the announcement she had "slept well for the first time in a long time". Political commentators have lined up to condemn the social media abuse that was increasingly directed at Ardern before her resignation. Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said Ardern had "faced a level of hatred and vitriol" that was "unprecedented in our country". Her successor is widely seen as a safe pair of hands with more than 14 years in parliament. Political commentator Josie Pagani has described Hipkins as "sensible, likeable, tough and capable". There was no immediate reaction to Hipkins' win from the country's main opposition National Party. The right-wing ACT Party urged him to "deliver on substance instead of snowing New Zealand with spin", criticising his party's record on the number of welfare recipients, rising food prices and a tight labour market. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was fined by Lancashire Police for not wearing a seatbelt while shooting a social media video in a car. A fixed penalty notice for Sunak's failure to fasten his seatbelt carries a 100 fine, according to Lancashire Police, who had been "looking into" the situation. In its statement, Lancashire Police referred to Sunak as a 42-year-old man from London". Following the circulation of a video on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seat belt while a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire we have today (Friday, January 20) issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty," Lancashire Police said in a statement. Sunak already expressed regret for his act. Sunak addresses the camera in a video clip that was uploaded to Instagram while the car is moving and he is not buckled up. Sunak made a "brief error of judgement" by taking the seatbelt off to make a social media clip while on a tour of the north of England, according to his spokesperson. | NEW: PM Rishi Sunak was NOT wearing a seatbelt in a video recorded in his Government car this morning pic.twitter.com/SOLn5YGnT7 Politics UK (@POLITlCSUK) January 19, 2023 Sunak posted the video on his Instagram account to promote the government's most recent round of "levelling up" funds. Sunak can be seen talking to the camera for approximately a minute while the car moves forward and police bikes briefly arrive in the distance. "It was a mistake and he has apologised," the spokesperson said while adding that the prime minister was in favour of everyone using a seatbelt. Also Read: British PM caught on camera without seatbelt while promoting government campaign Unless they have a legitimate medical exemption, passengers in the UK who are discovered without wearing seatbelts while driving can be fined 100 immediately, with the amount rising to 500 if the matter goes to court. In England, drivers are responsible for passengers under the age of 14, and passengers must make sure they wear seatbelts if they are installed in cars, vans and other goods vehicles. Passengers must be at least 14 years old to ride in a vehicle. Being in a vehicle operated by the police, fire or another rescue service is also an exception, as is having a doctor's note for a medical cause. (With agency inputs) ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sounak Mukhopadhyay Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer. Read more from this author Saudi Arabia has announced a big change in its citizenship rule according to a report by the Khaleej Times. Under this new rule, children of Saudi women who are married to ex-pats can now apply for citizenship after the age of 18. Saudi officials have approved an amendment to Article 8 of the Saudi Arabian Nationality System. Citing the Saudi Gazatte report, the daily said Prime Minister can only grant the citizenship. As per Article 8 of the Saudi Arabian Nationality System, " A person who is born in the Kingdom to a foreign father and a Saudi mother may be granted Saudi citizenship if certain requirements are met...". The conditions include "that the person needs to be fluent in the Arabic language; must have permanent residence status in the Kingdom when he comes of legal age; he has to be of good conduct and sound character; should not have any criminal convictions or imprisonment for a period exceeding six months for any indecent act". Separately, Saudi Arabia has decided that it will not impose limits on the number of pilgrims for this year's hajj. "The number of pilgrims will return to what it was before the pandemic, without any age limit," Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq al-Rabiah told reporters in Riyadh. The pilgrimage -- one of five pillars of Islam, and which all able-bodied Muslims with the means are required to perform at least once -- is scheduled for June. In 2019, about 2.5 million people took part in the rituals. For the next two years, numbers were drastically curtailed numbers due to the pandemic. In 2022, nearly 900,000 pilgrims, including some 780,000 from abroad, were welcomed to Islam's holiest cities of Mecca and Medina. At that time, they had to be aged under 65, as well as have a vaccination against Covid-19 and present a negative test. After USA and Australia, Saudi Arabia on Monday became the latest country to issue an advisory for its citizens in Pakistan to limit their unnecessary movement and warned them to take caution in every possible way after Pakistan was rocked by several blasts on Sunday. The advisory issued urged the citizens residing in the country to limit travel within the city and to avoid visiting a five-star hotel in Islamabad because of the possible threat of a terrorist attack. "The Embassy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan would like to warn all citizens residing and visiting the Islamic Republic of Pakistan of the need to take caution and not go out except for necessity, given that the authorities in the capital, Islamabad, have raised the security alert to the highest level," the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad wrote on Twitter. Australia too, on Monday, issued a new travel advisory for its citizens in Pakistan urging them to increase caution and limit travel within the city. "Australian officials in Islamabad have been advised to increase vigilance and limit travel within the city. You should exercise heightened vigilance and monitor the media for the latest updates," read the advisory. Earlier on Sunday, the US government warned its citizens of information that unknown individuals are possibly planning an attack at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad during the holidays. "Heightened security arrangements are in place and public events have been banned," read the US Govt advisory. In its statement issued on Sunday, the American embassy said that the US government is aware of information that unknown individuals are possibly plotting to attack Americans at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad sometime during the holidays. "Effective immediately, the Embassy in Islamabad is prohibiting all American staff from visiting Islamabads Marriott Hotel," the statement said. The embassy also directed that as Islamabad has been placed on a 'Red Alert' citing security concerns while banning all public gatherings, all mission personnel have been urged to refrain from non-essential and unofficial travel in the capital throughout the holiday season. It asked the US nationals to exercise vigilance at events and places of worship, and avoid locations with large crowds while reviewing personal security plans. Many army officials and civilians lost their lives as the country battles a fresh wave of terrorism. On Sunday, at least seven blasts took place in Pakistan's Balochistan where 5 army personnel were killed and 19 others were injured. At least 54 people were killed and several others injured when a dumper truck laden with explosives was detonated in front of the Marriott hotel in Islamabads red zone area on September 20, 2008. TTP is allied with the Taliban, who seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August last year. The radical Islamic outfit has stepped up attacks since it announced the end of an Afghan Taliban-brokered ceasefire with the government in November. Last month, TTP called off a shaky ceasefire with the government and ordered fighters to stage attacks across the country. In 2022, TTP killed more than 150 Pakistanis in multiple attacks. Since the end of the ceasefire, TTP conducted 33 attacks in which 35 security personnel were killed, claims TTP. According to national data, Pakistan has recorded 420 terrorist attacks since August 2021 when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. In the last three months alone, the TTP has claimed responsibility for 141 attacks. *With inputs from agencies In a sharp message to China to back off from interfering in the succession process of the next Dalai Lama, the Japanese Buddhist Conference for World Federation has placed on record its position that the Tibetan people must decide the successor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on the basis of Tibetan culture and history, and not China. The Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation is an umbrella organization that brings together a number of sects of Japanese Buddhism, with millions of followers in Japan and other countries and the letter has strongly voiced objections over China's constant interference in Tibet's religious and spiritual matters. "His Holiness, Dalai Lama, the 14th turned 87 years on July 6, 2022. The issue of his future successor is gradually gaining attention all over the world. We the monks of Japan believe that Tibetan people must decide upon the next successor based on their Tibetan Buddhist culture and history", reverend Eihiro Mizutani, the Secretary General of Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation said in the letter while highlighting that China had no role in this. "PRC, which controls Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is working out the policy which would choose the Dalai Lama's successor under the Chinese government's leadership, based on the 'Tibetan Buddhism Living Buddha Reincarnation Management Law', enacted in the year 2007. However, the People's Republic of China's national policy is based on communism and is considered non-religious. The Japanese Buddhist Conference said, "Non-religious people deciding the religious leader is contradictory in itself". It further stated, "His Holiness Dalai Lama stated that 'forceful intervention in the approval process (of next Dalai Lama) by people executing political powers, who did not even acknowledge the very existence of previous or the future Dalai Lamas, is inappropriate'". The letter by Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation added that matters related to religion must be in accordance with religious values, hence people who do not possess those religious values, ought not to intervene in such matters. It is valuing the freedom of religious faith (belief). The relationship between Japan, India and the Tibetans is intertwined with Buddhism, which is one of the major world religions in Asia with a rich history. Buddhism originated in India in the 5th century BCE, and at its peak was one of the major religions in the subcontinent. However, it gradually witnessed a decline in India, and today, Buddhism accounts for an insignificant percentage of the population. Despite this, Buddhism remains an important part of India's cultural heritage and continues to influence various aspects of Indian society. Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation in a letter said, "In response to Indian PM Shri Narendra Modi's call made to His Holiness, Dalai Lama to convey good wishes on the latter's birthday, there was a voice of opposition by the Chinese government stating 'this is intervention'. However, is it not for China to hold back its intervention in matters related to Tibetan Buddhism?", believes the Japanese leadership It is said that "if religious oppression in Tibet is a fact, then it is a big challenge for human rights, a value shared by most of the countries around the world. His Holiness, Dalai Lama, is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and has been fighting against the Chinese government in a peaceful and non-violent manner." Japan has a long-standing and deep-rooted relationship with Tibetan Buddhism, and the issue of the Dalai Lama and the status of Tibetan Buddhism has been a topic of interest in Japan. The Design of the Tibetan Flag was also crafted by a Japanese Buddhist monk, Aoki Bunkyo, who was a military translator. Bunkyo added symbols of the rising sun surrounded by rays to the flag design. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the Dalai Lama's exile to India, Japan continued to assist the Tibetan government-in-exile. Japan was the first foreign country that the Dalai Lama visited in 1967. Subsequently, the Dalai Lama's Japan Representative office was established in Tokyo in 1976. One significant development that has strengthened the relationship between Buddhism in India and Japan is the high degree of appreciation that the Japanese Buddhist leadership has for the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is highly respected by many Buddhist leaders around the world, and his teachings have had a significant impact on Buddhism. Japanese Buddhist leaders have praised the Dalai Lama for his teachings and his efforts to promote peace and understanding. Monks of Japan firmly believe that Tibetan people must decide upon the next successor based on Tibetan Buddhist culture, tradition and history. Japan has also been critical of the Chinese government's policies towards Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, with many Japanese leaders and organisations calling for respect for the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people. In recent years, Japan has also provided support to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people through various means such as providing financial aid, offering asylum to Tibetan refugees and promoting human rights and religious freedom for Tibetans. The Japanese government has been actively engaging with the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and other international organizations to raise awareness about the situation in Tibet and to advocate for the rights of the Tibetan people. Japan has also been supportive of the efforts of the Dalai Lama to promote a peaceful resolution of the Tibetan issue through dialogue and non-violent means. The Japanese government has recognized the Dalai Lama as an important religious leader and has welcomed him to Japan on several occasions. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. FOR MONTHS pressure has been building on Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, to sanction the transfer of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. Made by a German firm, the tanks could substantially boost its defences. More than 2,000 of them sit in the arsenals of 13 European armies. Germanys Bundeswehr operates around 350. Because of end-user export controls, none can be sent to Ukraine without a nod from Berlin. Just such a nod was widely expected on January 20th, when some 50 senior Western officials, including Lloyd Austin, the American defence secretary, convened in person or online at Ramstein, an American base in Germany. Their brief was to co-ordinate and expand military aid to Ukraine, where the fighting has reached a crucial juncture in advance of probable spring offensives. But the nod never came. Instead Boris Pistorius, a German defence minister appointed only three days earlier (pictured, with General Mark Milley, chairman of Americas joint chiefs of staff), stepped out to explain that since there had been no consensus on the Leopards, no decision had been made. The failure to hand over the German tanks at this stage may prove only a minor factor in the nearly year-old war. Mr Pistorius suggested a decision might come soon, in days or perhaps weeks, and that other countries could already begin training Ukrainian troops on Leopards. And friends of Ukraine did respond generously to its pleas for all kinds of other military gear, from anti-aircraft systems to American Bradley and Stryker armoured fighting vehicles. Germany itself pledged 1bn-worth ($1.1bn) of extra weapons, bringing its military aid so far to 3.3bn. Yet even if the tank hold-up does not end up hurting Ukraine much, such foot-dragging does hurt its ally Germany badly in diplomatic terms. Despite being Ukraines second-biggest supporter after America, both financially and militarily, Germany has paid a heavy reputational price for repeatedly appearing reluctant to pitch in on a war raging only one country away. Again and again Mr Scholzs government has protested that it cannot send some type of weapon, only to eventually cave in. Stopping even other allies from sending Leopards seems inexcusable to many of Ukraines champions. Mick Ryan, a retired Australian officer, wondered on his blog whether any "nation serious about its security in the 21st century will want to partner with the Germans". Poland has already said it may send Leopards from its own stocks, without Germanys approval. Social-media wits have coined a new verb, scholzing", meaning to show good intentions but weasel out of doing anything about them. Mr Austin was at pains to describe Germany as a good ally". Asked whether it was doing enough to show leadership, he replied: Yes, but we can all do more." Mr Scholz has attracted ire not only from abroad. German policy pundits have grown increasingly exasperated. Recent opinion polls show that not only about half of Germans, but a 51% majority of voters for Mr Scholzs own Social Democratic Party (and even more followers of the Greens and Liberals in his coalition) favour sending Leopards to Ukraine. So what is the problem? Mr Scholzs government has over time proffered different excuses. Early on it said Germany could not spare tanks because its own force has shrunk so much since the cold war. It has also said that training for, deploying and maintaining a modern Western tank force would be a logistical challenge for the Ukrainians, who are used to Soviet-era gear. More quietly and consistently, German officials have argued that they do not wish to pour too much oil on the fire: giving Ukraine too much of a boost could prompt Russia to escalate, which could in turn force NATO to enter the conflict directly. The most recent excuse has been that Germany will only act in concert with its allies. In this case that means sending main battle tanks once America pledges to do the same. The arguments do not quite add up. Ukraines army has proved itself very capable of adopting and adapting new weapons systems. Much of the European Leopard fleet is clearly surplus to needs in countries far from a hostile front. Russia has escalated the war anyway. In terms of tanks, Britain has already committed to sending its comparable Challenger to Ukraine. And the Americans have a better technical argument that their Abrams tanks, which are immensely heavy, costly and hard to maintain, are not a suitable platform for Ukraine. There is an underlying logic to Mr Scholzs position. His detractors say that Germanys chancellor, like much of his partys old guard (and indeed much of Germanys establishment), finds it hard to let go of an instinctive caution and diffidence towards Russia. Others say this is not fair; Mr Scholzs inner circle are fully determined to fight back against the aggressor. It is just that they are committed to a boil the frog" strategy whereby slow, calibrated boosts to Ukraines fighting ability draw Russia ever deeper into a losing war without sparking a wider (or even nuclear) confrontation. That approach has proved remarkably successful so far. But as Jana Puglierin of the European Council on Foreign Relations notes, Boiling the frog is a brilliant strategy, so long as you remember that it is not just Russia that is in the pot, but also Ukraine." 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com MBABANE In a rare incident, a woman has alleged that her 60-year-old husband abandoned her and married her stepmother. Thebe Shongwe of KaMkhweli, under Siphofaneni Inkhundla said her husband even paid bride price (lobola) for her stepmother despite being in a legal marriage with her. She claimed that her efforts of trying to discourage her husband from continuing with the alleged affair with her stepmother were the cause of the dissertation of their matrimonial home. She alleged that her husband continued with the affair until he officially married the stepmother through customary law. Shongwe said soon after the marriage, the couple decided to relocate and started a new family at Malindza. Shongwe said while her husband Luguzu Mlingo Nkomonye decided to start a new life with the newfound love, leaving her in huge debt. She alleged that when Nkomonye left her, he took a herd of 74 goats which left her financially crippled. She said the herd of goats was profited from three goats she received as a gift and as a budding farmer; she started rearing them for sale. Dowry My husband married my stepmother, paid lobola and started a new life at Malindza. The unfortunate thing is that he took my goats with him and I believe he did that on purpose, just to cripple me. The three goats were able to multiply to a large herd that reached 74 and Nkomonye decided to go with them just like that. Was it not enough that he paid lobola for my stepmother? The goats were a product of my sacrifice and sweat. He even took proceeds from my business of selling traditional brew (umcombotsi), she said. Shongwe disclosed that her husband had been away working in South African mines, while she was home rearing the goats and living through the traditional brew business. She said when her husband got a hefty payout in South Africa and when he returned to the country, he was untouchable and blinded by the terminal benefits. However, Shongwe alleged that Nkomonye started spending the money and giving out short loans to anyone who needed money. She said she was only person who was not given money by her husband who also refused to build a house for them. I never got even a cent from him; he refused to even give me a mere E1 000 loan to buy enough stock for the small business of brewing the traditional alcohol. Instead he abandoned me because I was pestering him about building a house for our family, said Shongwe. Shongwe disclosed that in the heat of the moment she had to learn to live with her anger in order to avoid doing anything detrimental. Indvuna of the area, Khanyisa Matse confirmed knowledge of the matter. Matse said he was not comfortable discussing family matters with the media. He acknowledged that the matter of the couple was brought to the Madlenya traditional structures as the couple were residents of the area. However, Matse said as a traditional structure, they felt it was too early to assist on the matter before they exhaust all other family resolution structures. He said the matter was concluded by requesting the two families, the Shongwe and the Nkomonye to engage each other on the issue. We asked them to deliberate and bring their resolution to the traditional structure for a blessing on their resolution, said Matse. He said it was unfortunate that the family has not returned to inform the traditional body of their resolution was on the matter. Matse said the reason he felt it was not easy for him to share the details of the couples was based on the fact that they had not given them any feedback.When pressed on the issue of Nkomonye marrying his mother-in-law as alleged by the woman, Matse said that was hearsay, which he could not confirm as the issue might be out of jealousy. He insisted that the matter would be better tackled at the community level once the family returns with their resolution. Meanwhile; Swatini Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) Communications officer Sakhile Dlamini said what the local authorities were doing on the matter was criminal. Dlamini said the passing of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act of 2018 (SODV) into law was to help families and community leadership from dealing with such matters that could be dealt with perfectly by the courts of the land. She said while it was nice that community structures do try to reconcile families, it was not the end of the matter. Patriarchal Dlamini said while the community tried to resolve the matter, the criminal justice was in a better position to give fairly legal redress on the matter. She said she might not be aware of the matter but what she was getting was that there were elements of patriarchal privileges being afforded to the man. Dlamini said these issues were sickening that a man would abandon his home and when he returns sickly and demands to be allowed to the land that has been developed by the abandoned woman. She said women had rights and deserve to be treated with respect by the community leadership. Its even worse when the land issue has subjected her to lose her dividends shares. Thats an abuse and an infringement of the rights of the woman. The courts are there for everyone and the matter was better placed there, said Dlamini. She encouraged her to raise the issue with the courts not to allow the community leadership structure to be her last resort. However, Dlamini said they were worried about the challenges that women face in the country. She said such husbands returned only to bring their masculinity. She said the traditional structures should interrogate such behaviour and further refrain from basing their decision only on their cultural beliefs while on issues with the potential of danger such as land. Dlamini further assured that they were taking up the matter of the woman. Cricket as sport is not just about athletics, sportsmanship, nail biting chases or death-over anxieties but also some light moments that make the fans of the sport love the game even more. The toss in the India vs New Zealand ODI on Saturday was one such moment when the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma blanked out for a moment. A funny moment from Rohit during toss time!!!pic.twitter.com/iWXCLLBmlB Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 21, 2023 Before going for the toss, captains do discuss their options with the team management, including whether to bowl first or bat first. Although India's captain Rohit Sharma acknowledged having "plenty of discussions" about it, he ended up having an epic brain-fade when he won the toss and chose to bowl instead of bat, leaving the captain of New Zealand, Tom Latham, and the match official, Javagal Srinath laughing. The coin was tossed by Rohit. to which Latham "Heads". The Indian team won the toss. Rohit, however, was seen I nconsolably scratching his head, he eventually hesitantly, said, "we will bowl first," as Latham and Srinath couldn't stop laughing. When Ravi Shastri asked him on the brain fade moment, he said "I forgot what we wanted to do, had plenty of discussions with the team about the toss decision, just wanted to challenge ourselves under difficult conditions, but we'll bowl first." If you do not have a current print subscription to the Lodi News-Sentinel, but want to view unlimited articles for the month, please choose this option. MATSAPHA National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police, William Tsitsibala Dlamini says the year 2022 was really not a good year in the history of the REPS. This was during the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) annual prayer day held yesterday, at the police academy in Matsapha where Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Sipho Dlamini was in attendance. The NATCOM in his more than 15-minute speech first recognised the presence of the PM who is also the line minister for the REPS. Dlamini reported that 11 cops had been assassinated by unknown people, while 19 had died due to natural causes. The NATCOM further highlighted that 272 people had been killed by other people in the country of Eswatini. Killling I must state that there has been a lot of killing in Eswatini and it happened in beer halls and most significantly, women are the ones who have topped the statistics. I would like to urge men out there to learn to love their wives and stop resorting to violence to solve arguments, advised the NATCOM. The NATCOM highlighted that 2022 was not a good year in the history of the police service. The year 2022 was a very bad year, but then that is why we are here to pray, and I will be short as the temperatures are very high today. We trust that God will be on our side this year. I was engulfed with fear to the extent that I was even afraid to answer my phone due to the horrible news of State security force members being assassinated. The sad fact that we had to deal with was the children who became fatherless or motherless in a split second, was very disheartening, said the NATCOM. It is worth noting that such gatherings in the police service began way back in 1995 and according to the NATCOM, prayer has become the epitome of the department. Our theme this year is; Those who put their trust in God, will never be disappointed, while our prayer was in progression we realised that the year 2022 is not a year to be remembered, opined Dlamini. Lost The NATCOM encouraged the police service officers to remain strong and brave like they did the past year. He highlighted how he noted that they (REPS) did not throw in the towel, but kept on exercising restraint in the face of extreme provocation. However, the police department had to endure the loss of 11 officers, who had been assassinated by ruthless killers. That is why it is very important to recognise your prayers as Christians, as these numbers could have been huge. Though we cannot say we have lost a few officers as losing one colleague is very devastating, to the department and also to the children who have been left fatherless or motherless, NATCOM said. I must point it out that as REPS, we have been provided with weapons to use during challenging and difficult times, however, we realised that if we kept practicing restraint and hoping, the situation would be resolved and we took a decision to bring down the perpetrators in the killing of the security officers (akushaywe labo lokhandza kutsi ngabo mbamba), said the NATCOM. Furthermore, the NATCOM wished the new police recruits who are in their second week into training, well in their new journey. I should advise you that it is only because of prayer, we are all still standing here and very soon I will personally come and have a chat with you, promised Dlamini. The Annual Prayer event was colourful as several gospel music renditions from the praise team, REPS Male Voice and the Police Gospel Messengers were there to lift the spirits. The Premier arrived in the entourage of the NATCOM, Commissioner General of His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS), Phindile Lomakhosini Dlamini, together with the Army Commanders representative, Lieutenant General Tsembeni Magongo, whose position is also Deputy Army Commander. Also notable among the guests was the former NATCOM, Senator Isaac Magagula. HAIL, a specialist housing association primarily for people with mental health difficulties, is marking one year since it launched its HSE Stock Transfer Project in Longford. The HSE Stock Transfer Project was established under the Governments National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability. The HSE Stock Transfer Project supports those transitioning from HSE residences to independent single or shared living in the community. HAIL currently provides nine units in Longford under the Project. Commenting on the success of the HSE Stock Transfer Project in Longford, Martina Smith CEO of HAIL, said: We are proud of how well the HSE Stock Transfer Project has worked in Longford. It has been successful in supporting our clients to live independently and integrate into the community. Providing a home can be hugely transformative to the lives of people living with mental health difficulties. It can support them in their recovery and help them avoid hospitalisation or homelessness. The HSE Stock Transfer Project in Longford has shown the importance of this. HAIL would like to thank the HSE, The Housing Agency and Longford County Council for supporting the Project. We look forward to continuing to work with our stakeholders in Longford to support people in the county living with mental health difficulties who need a home. About HAIL HAIL was founded in 1985 as the first housing association in Ireland with a specific brief to provide a housing service designed to meet the needs of people living with mental health difficulties. HAIL has since developed into a successful approved housing body providing exceptional quality housing and support services predominantly to tenants and clients with mental health difficulties and also to general needs tenants. The housing association currently provides 440 homes across Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Longford and Limerick. In 2022, HAIL delivered mental health tenancy support services to a record 586 people. The U.S. government says it has charged two businessmen, one Russian and one British who lives and has a luxury nautical business in Mallorca, with allegedly facilitating a sanctions evasion and money laundering scheme in relation to a $90 million yacht of billionaire Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Vladislav Osipov, 51, a Russian national, and Richard Masters, 52, a UK national, were charged in indictments unsealed in a U.S. court on Friday with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit offenses against the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. The United States requested Spain to arrest Masters for extradition, the Justice Department said, adding his arrest was executed on Friday and an arrest warrant against Osipov was outstanding. Reuters could not reach representatives of Osipov and Masters for comment. Washington imposed sanctions on Vekselberg in 2018 over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, and in 2022 over his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin denies interfering in the election and calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation." Spanish police last year impounded a superyacht belonging to Vekselberg on behalf of U.S. authorities. Valued at around $90 million, the 78-metre (255 ft) long "Tango" was seized in a shipyard on Mallorca. The indictment alleges that Masters ran a yacht management company in Spain, which took over the management of Tango after Vekselberg was sanctioned in April 2018, and conspired with others to evade the U.S. sanctions. Osipov, an employee of Vekselberg, designed a complicated ownership structure of shell companies to hide Vekselberg's ownership of the yacht, the Justice Department alleged. Vekselberg owned the Renova group of companies, which operate in Russia's energy sector, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which enforces sanctions. MANZINI Sifundzani High School congratulates the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) class of 2022 for its beautiful performance in the worlds most popular international qualification. The school shared their ace card pupils, describing them as the worlds most resilient beings for braving two debilitating attacks on humans; COVID-19 and political unrest. It said the COVID-19 pandemic and the political unrest did not stop them from attaining the top grades in the external examination. The school sit IGCSE examinations, which are under Cambridge Assessment International Education. Best Their best performing pupils were Elisa Van Der ZaagJiska with 5A* and 3 As, Phiwayinkhosi Mabundza, who obtained 3A*, 3As and 2Bs together with Yandzile Nxumalo who got 2A*, 5As and 1B. Meanwhile, Tiphelele Gamedze obtained 1A*, 5As and 1B, Dalubuhle Magagula got 1A*, 4As and 3Bs, while Wandzile Nhlabatsi obtained 1A*, 4As and 2Bs. The others are; Mukelo Shongwe with 5As and 3Bs and Sibonelo Ndzimandze with 5As and 2Bs together with Tibusiso Mthupha who got 4As and 4Bs. Brazilian full-back Dani Alves, detained in a Barcelona prison, has been released by his club, Mexican side Pumas UNAM. It comes after he was accused of sexual assault by a woman in Catalonia. "With this decision, the club reiterates its promise not to tolerate acts by any member of our institution that violate the spirit of the institution and its values,"president of the club's board of directors, Leopoldo Silva said. "The Universidad Nacional Club is an institution that promotes respect and integrity and upstanding behaviour on and off the field, of its players because they are a role model in society, in Mexico and elsewhere in the world and we cannot allow the conduct of one person to damage our philosophy that has always been exemplary in the training and development of young athletes in our country." The case Alves, 39, was arrested in Barcelona on Friday and, after making a statement, was remanded in prison for allegedly raping a woman in a bathroom of a nightclub in the Spanish city on 30 December. The judge in charge of his case ordered him to be remanded without bail, considering that he is a high flight risk, given his financial capacity and that he lives outside Spain, in Mexico. Dani Alves ingresa en prision sin fianza tras ser acusado por presunta agresion sexual @victor_nahe Mexican league also react The Mexican league issued a press release hours before Pumas in which it assured that it was keeping an eye on the evolution of Alves' case. "Liga MX, in conjunction with Club Universidad Nacional (Pumas), will be pending the case and the legal situation of the player to determine what is appropriate in terms of his participation in the league," the league said. On Friday, El Periodico revealed the statement made to the Mossos d'Esquadra by the woman who accused Dani Alves of sexual assault. The accuser, according to the newspaper, explained to the Catalan police that the Brazilian player locked her in a bathroom in the VIP area of a well-known nightclub in Barcelona and raped her. Alves, who also appeared before the magistrate, denies having assaulted the woman. According to the woman, she went to the nightclub with some friends on December 30, and was invited by a group of Mexican origin to go up to the VIP area with them. She claims that a waiter approached them and invited them, and that at first they declined the offer. "But the client insisted and the waiter remarked that he was a 'friend'," the newspaper reports. In the end, they agreed and there were two men at the VIP table, one of them Dani Alves and the other a friend of the Brazilian player. According to the woman's account, Dani Alves "immediately started fooling around with the three women, hitting on them a lot and touching them". Subsequently, the player went after the victim. He allegedly "grabbed her hand tightly and Alves pulled it towards his penis", a motion he reportedly repeated several times despite her refusal. The player then pointed to a door, which the victim did not know about, and "urged her to follow him inside". Once in the toilet, "Alves forced her to sit on top of him, threw her to the floor, forced her to perform fellatio, which she actively resisted, slapped her, lifted her off the floor and penetrated her until he ejaculated", according to the victim, as reported by El Periodico. The victim was taken to the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, where she was examined for biological traces. Two days after the alleged assault, the woman went to report the incident to the Mossos d'Esquadra. She handed over the medical report and also the dress she was wearing. The Central Unit for Sexual Assaults (UCAS) took charge of the investigation. One of Netflix's most successful series, consistently lasting weeks in the Top 10 most-watched worldwide every time it premieres a season, is Cobra Kai, the Karate Kid spin-off that has captivated audiences since it first appeared in May 2018 on YouTube Red. Created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, Cobra Kai was acquired and produced by Netflix starting with its third season, and it has taken over production of it ever since, giving it a phenomenal boost and turning it into a phenomenon with a much wider reach. It will come to an end with season six In a joint announcement between Netflix and the creators of the series, it was officially announced that it will have a sixth season, with which the series will conclude. In addition to a brief signed by the three creators, Netflix released a teaser trailer with scenes from the previous five seasons and noting that the sixth season will be the final one. The trailer only mentions that its premiere will be soon, but without giving a specific date. According to the site The Hollywood Reporter, it will be towards the end of this year. Netflix's decision to end with season six will allow Heald, Hurwitz and Schlossberg to finish it as they intended. "Reuniting the world with the Karate Kid universe has been our humbling honor," the trio said in a statement. "Making Cobra Kai has allowed us to join the same hallowed dojo once inhabited by the great Robert Mark Kamen, John Avildsen, Jerry Weintraub and all of the incredible original cast members. It has also allowed us to play sensei, expanding on the original plots and birthing a new generation of underdogs. We have never taken this opportunity for granted. "Our goal from day one with Cobra Kai has always been to finish it on our terms, leaving the Valley in the time and place we've always envisioned. So it is with immense pride and gratitude that we can announce this achievement. The upcoming sixth season will mark the conclusion of Cobra Kai." One of the most successful in Netflix history The great success of Cobra Kai lies in the fact that it revisits the original characters and actors from the Karate Kid movies and shows them in the current era, along with a young cast with whom the stories have blended seamlessly to make it a phenomenon. Cobra Kai has placed both in the company's internal top 10 and on the Nielsen streaming charts when new seasons are released. Season five premiered in September and spent six weeks in the Nielsen top 10. PIGGS PEAK During their festive season statement, the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) issued a warning against criminals that they will not hesitate to take action, but when a man was being beaten to death about two weeks ago, they turned back. The incident is said to have happened around the first week of January 2023. The assault, which took place at a location known as Ndlembeni near Piggs Peak, left some of the residents shocked and bitter after a man, who was also a resident and in his 40s was assaulted to death. The deceased, Mfanzile Mpila was beaten to death after he was accused of stealing livestock and other household items. He was also accused of being part of a gang that stole donkeys. Mpila was allegedly brought before the areas Ndlembeni Disciplinary Khomithi (NDK) which also doubles as a kangaroo court. The residents formed NDK to boot out crime in the area, after complaints that the police were failing to handle crime in the area. This was also similar to a situation around Matsamo, where some residents formed a police forum that handles crime and also imposed a curfew on residents. It is alleged that over 300 people were in attendance at a playing field at Ndlembeni during the assault. Before the assault started, Mpila is said to have been questioned about the alleged crimes he was accused of and also forced to reveal others who were involved in the criminal activities. It is alleged that the mob assaulted him and made sure that he does not escape as he was surrounded. Whipped Mpila was allegedly whipped using sticks. His pants were removed before being whipped. The pants were used to cover his face so that he was not able to see who was assaulting him. However, the pants were occasionally removed from his face to ask him questions such as revealing who he worked with, alleged an eyewitness who preferred to remain anonymous. At some point, he is alleged to have been given water or emahewu to drink. Some of his close relatives are said to have watched the gruesome assault, but were helpless to assist and all they could do was call the police, but even that did not help. Mpila was also a resident of Ndlembeni but he had been living around a place known as Mlambotjwala around Ntfonjeni just before the fatal assault. He is said to have lived with his family including his children. According to one of the residents, who were part of the team that was interrogating Mpila, he is alleged to have admitted to some of the crimes. However, Mpilas relative, *Mike said that Mpila only admitted because he was being assaulted by the mob. Housebreakings The residents had also accused Mpila of working with alleged criminals and they wanted him to reveal all the names of the people he is alleged to have worked with during the alleged break-ins and livestock theft. *Jomo, who is a senior member of the NDK, said the residents were angry that the police were failing to take action against Mpila. They alleged that Mpila had been recently arrested but that they were surprised to discover that he had been released. Jomo said the residents assaulted Mpila with the intention of disciplining him. They were not planning to kill him, he stated. He stated that while they were allegedly assaulting him, they called the police to fetch him. He said the police officers from Piggs Peak Police Station then arrived, but instead of taking him with them, they allegedly turned back. Jomo said this angered some of the residents because they did not understand why the police did not fetch Mpila while he was being attacked by the residents. Threatened Jomo stated that had the police officers taken him away upon arrival when they were called the first time, he would not have died. The police allegedly turned back after seeing the mob who allegedly threatened them as well, blaming them for releasing Mpila back to the community. He said after the police had left the area, the residents continued to assault Mpila until he was later taken to the hospital where he died on the same day. Some of the residents alleged that they even called paramedics and also the police once the mob had left, but none arrived to assist to take him to the hospital. Meanwhile, the police, through the Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni had confirmed the death. She confirmed that a man died after he was assaulted and that this had been reported to the Piggs Peak Police Station. Mnguni was asked about concerns that the police had been called, arrived and turned back upon seeing the mob, leaving behind Mpila who was still alive at the time. This was after some of the residents called the police that Mpila was being heavily assaulted by some residents. She responded that whenever police officers responded to a crime, one of the first priorities was to consider their safety. Noteworthy, in the recent past, police officers had become the targets of assault by unknown people and more than 10 had been fatally shot. This is said to have resulted in police officers failing to respond to incidences, especially during night time. This latest incident of mob attack is one of the many that have taken place recently. At an area known as Nginamadvolo, within the same vicinity as Ndlembeni, two people were beaten to death on different occasions. Assaulted The first person was assaulted when he was accused of robbing an airtime vendor. Just like it was done with Mpila, the person who allegedly robbed the vendor was kidnapped while in Mbabane and taken back to Ngimadvolo near Piggs Peak. When he arrived at around Piggs Peak, he was taken to a play ground where he was whipped in broad daylight. However, he did not immediately die but was taken to the Piggs Peak Police Station. He died later while in police custody. Another was fetched by a mob while at his homestead and stabbed to death a few minutes later. He had been accused of housebreaking and robberies in the area. *Not real names. Saudi Arabias smart city Neom offers a new model for environmentally-friendly and sustainable urban design, both for the kingdom and the world, said its climate envoy at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. During a panel session titled The Evolution of Urban Life, Adel bin Ahmed Al Jubeir, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Climate Envoy for Saudi Arabia, said: "The Line will revolutionise the way people look at cities and urban planning. Neom is an attempt to create a city that is environmentally friendly, sustainable, that has a very high quality of life, but virtually no traffic." Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Falih, Minister of Investment, participating in a session called 'Reshuffling Value Chains' described how Saudi Arabias supply chain initiatives will leverage the kingdoms resources, infrastructure and location to enhance local and global supply chain resilience. "In Saudi Arabia, we launched the Global Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (GCSRI), to not only strengthen our resilience but also enable the Kingdom to become part of the global multi-hub system, while playing to our strengths," he stated. During its session titled Deployment in the Industrial Metaverse, Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha, Minister of Communications & Information Technology, said: "The current 2D world that we live in today is not fit for purpose in the 21st century." "I am a big advocate of the metaverse, which is going to be the next wave of how immersive experiences work for consumers, enterprises, and industry. We are bringing together academics, innovators, policymakers and regulators into a sandbox to make sure that they have a safe environment to innovate," he noted. Faisal F Alibrahim, Saudi Arabias Minister of Economy and Planning, told the WEF audience the kingdom is set to surpass projected growth rates for 2023. "Saudi is becoming the global growth story. We had the strongest growth in the G20 last year and if you look more closely at the 8.5% GDP growth figure, you will see that our non-oil activities and our private sector grew at a very high rate," he stated. Earlier, addressing a panel on global tax reform, Alibrahim said: "Under Saudi Vision 2030, we have been focusing on detaching ourselves from traditional sources of revenue, with our economic diversification, to think about more long-term sustainable revenue generation, but also diversifying our sources of growth." In addition to the panel sessions, the Ministry of Economy and Planning for Saudi Arabia joined forces with WEFs open innovation platform UpLink to launch a challenge designed to enhance food security in countries with arid climates. The Food Ecosystems and Arid Climates Challenge is a global call for technology solutions to food insecurity.-TradeArabia News Service New Delhi, Jan 21 (UNI) The Congress on Saturday released a one-page document titled "Bhrasht Jumla Party" and termed it as "chargesheet" against the "misrule" of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. The party also released the logo for the party's forthcoming 'Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan ' across the country. "Today, we have released the 'chargesheet' against the 'misrule' of the Modi government. If it is necessary, PCCs(Pradesh Congress Committees) will make a chargesheet against the respective state governments," Congress general secretary in-charge Communication KC Venugopal said after releasing the chargesheet and logo along with senior party leader Jairam Ramesh and secretary in-charge of internal communications Vineet Punia. Venugopal had earlier said that a letter of party MP Rahul Gandhi about his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' along with a copy of chargesheet will be distributed to the people during the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan ', which is scheduled to kickoff on January 26. "Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan is a follow up of the Bharat Jodo Yatra", he said. Talking about the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra-led by MP Rahul Gandhi, the senior Congress leader said, "The Yatra is in the final phase. We entered Jammu on January 19. Till January 25 , we will be in Jammu. From January 27 to 29, the Yatra will be in Kashmir. Yatra will conclude on January 30." "We are very much thankful to the people of the country who made this 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' as a grand success. The Yatra has become a great movement of the country," he said. Venugopal added,"Congress understands the pain which people are suffering due to the "misrule" of the Modi govt. Demonetisation and bad implementation of GST have created a miserable life for the common people." Apprising further about the 'Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan", Jairam Ramesh said, "This Abhiyan is a second phase of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Our target is to highlight the failure of the Modi government. It is a 100 per cent political campaign." UNI DS GNK Islamabad, Jan 21 (UNI) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf reviewed the legal challenges regarding Imran Khans position as the party chief and considered appointing him as patron-in-chief to avoid the danger of him being removed as chairman, media reports said on Saturday. The PTI chief is facing criminal charges in the Toshakana case after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified him from the NA-95 (Mianwali-1) constituency for allegedly filing incorrect statements of assets. The electoral body initiated proceedings against Khan last month after he was found guilty in the Toshakana scam, Geo news reports. HOUSTON (AP) Abdul Wasi Safi kept documents detailing his time as an Afghan soldier who worked with the U.S. military close to him as he made the monthslong, treacherous journey from Brazil to the U.S.-Mexico border. He fled Afghanistan fearing retribution from the Taliban following the August 2021 American withdrawal, and hoped the paperwork would secure his asylum in the U.S. Despite thick jungles, raging rivers and beatings, he kept those documents safe. But after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass, Texas, in September, Wasi Safi was arrested on a federal immigration charge. He remains jailed at a detention center in Eden, Texas, and fears his asylum claim may be denied. Wasi Safi's brother, attorneys, military organizations and a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to free him say his case highlights how Americas chaotic military withdrawal continues to harm Afghan citizens who helped the U.S. but were left behind. He tried every way possible to save these certificates in the hopes that once he ... presents his appropriate documents at the southern border ... he would receive a warm welcome and his service would be appreciated and recognized, said Sami-ullah Safi, his brother. If sent back to Afghanistan, he could be killed by the Taliban, which since its takeover has killed more than 100 Afghan officials and security force members, according to a United Nations report. Its honestly just shameful that weve treated people that helped protect our country this way, said Jennifer Cervantes, one of Wasi Safis immigration attorneys. Wasi Safi, 27, had been an intelligence officer with the Afghan National Security Forces, providing U.S. forces with information on terrorists, said Sami-ullah Safi, 29, who goes by Sami. Sami Safi had been employed by the U.S. military as a translator since 2010, making him eligible for a special immigrant visa for interpreters and others paid by the U.S. government. The visa allowed him to move to Houston in 2015. But Wasi Safi was not eligible for that visa because he was not employed directly by the U.S. When American forces withdrew from Afghanistan, Wasi Safi went into hiding and learned that friends in the Afghan military had been killed by the Taliban. He was able to get a visa for Brazil and traveled there in 2022. But he realized he wasnt much safer as he and other migrants were beaten and robbed by gangs. In the summer of 2022, Wasi Safi began his journey to the U.S. When he crossed a huge river in the Darien Gap, the imposing and dangerous stretch of thick jungle between Colombia and Panama, Wasi Safi kept a backpack with his documents above his head, so they wouldnt get wet. When police officers in Guatemala tried to extort him and took his backpack, Wasi Safi endured their beatings until he got the documents back, according to his brother. On his journey, Wasi Safi suffered serious injuries from beatings, including damaged front teeth and hearing loss in his right ear. Zachary Fertitta, one of his criminal defense attorneys, said Wasi Safi has not received proper medical care while in detention. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for medical care if hes released. Sami Safi said his brother has become disillusioned since his detention, believing the documents he thought would save him are worthless. But Fertitta said those documents show hes clearly an ally, was trained by our troops, worked with our troops. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, last week sent a letter to President Joe Biden, asking him to pardon Wasi Safi for his immigration related charges. She said Thursday that his documents show hes an individual who obviously loved this country ... and was willing to die for this country. Republican Congressmen Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Michael Waltz of Florida, as well as more than 20 veterans groups have also called for Wasi Safi's freedom while his asylum claim is reviewed. The White House declined to comment on Friday, referring questions to the Justice Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Texas, which is prosecuting his case for the Justice Department, and Customs and Border Protection didnt immediately return emails seeking comment. During a news conference Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said he couldnt comment on Wasi Safis case but that the Defense Department is supportive of any efforts that we can make to ensure that were taking appropriate care of the countrys Afghan allies. Fertitta said Wasi Safis criminal case has to first be resolved before his asylum claim can be considered, and hes hoping that resolution doesnt include a conviction, which could imperil the asylum request. Nearly 76,000 Afghans who worked with American soldiers since 2001 as translators, interpreters and partners arrived in the U.S. on military planes after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. But their immigration status remains unclear after Congress failed to pass a proposed law, the Afghan Adjustment Act, that would have solidified their legal residency status. Fertitta said Wasi Safis case highlights the countrys broken immigration system and its failure to help Afghan allies. You have all of those things colliding at our border and its a very difficult problem to sort out, Fertitta said. Sami Safi said he remains hopeful. I am hoping that President Biden and those who have authority over this case step up and save his life. He has given enough sacrifice for this country. My whole family has sacrificed for this country, he said. __ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report. Stephanie Gattas enlisted in the Navy at 18, excited to serve her country. Eight years later, the young woman returned home to Texas, angry, combative and haunted after enduring sexual harassment and a sexual assault. The perpetrators were her fellow sailors some of whom held leadership roles. Driven by her personal experience, Gattas in 2015 founded The Pink Berets, a nonprofit that helps women soldiers and veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as mental and emotional trauma. Sexual assault and harassment in the military is a chronic problem that often leads to lasting mental and physical issues for survivors. While the Department of Defense is taking steps to address the issue, support programs like The Pink Berets fill a crucial gap in serving soldiers and veterans searching for ways to heal. Most of the women who have sought help from The Pink Berets are survivors of military sexual trauma, which involves any experience of sexual assault or harassment by a soldier during their time of military service, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Medical data from the VA indicates the trauma can lead to PTSD, depression and other mood and substance use disorders. More than 1 million outpatient visits took place at the VA for military sexual trauma related care in 2017, according to data compiled by Protect Our Defenders, a national nonprofit dedicated to reducing rape and sexual assault in the military. On the outside, the majority of us dont look disabled, said Gattas, who lives in Boerne, near San Antonio. But when you really get to the root of what it is that were suffering from, and you get to the root of our trauma, and you get to the root of these invisible injuries, you really start to uncover exactly how much help is needed. In 2005, the Defense Department established the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program to promote prevention, encourage increased reporting of sexual assaults and improve response capabilities for victims. Since then, the agency has released an annual report on sexual assault in the Armed Forces. The latest report described sexual assault and harassment as persistent and corrosive problems across the military, with 8.4% of active duty women and 1.5% of active duty men experiencing an incident of unwanted sexual contact in the year prior to being surveyed. While the department says it has changed the metric used to measure sexual assault, the 2018 rates were 6.2% for women and 0.7% for men. Rates of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and workplace hostility behaviors linked to risk of sexual assault increased for women throughout the active force compared to the 2018 findings. And while LGBTQ service members represented only 12% of active duty members in 2018, they accounted for 43% of all sexually assaulted service members that year, according to data analyzed by the RAND Corp. The problem is pervasive in Texas. A 2021 report from the RAND Corp. found female soldiers at Army bases in the state face the highest risk of sexual assault and harassment compared with other posts. The death of Army specialist Vanessa Guillen in 2020 sparked national outrage and increased awareness of the epidemic of sexual assault in the military. Guillens remains were found about 20 miles east of Fort Hood in Texas. Investigators believe she was bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier. While the Army initially said there was no evidence Guillen was sexually harassed, a U.S. Army investigation released a year after her death found Guillen did report being sexually harassed twice by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood. Officials failed to report the harassment up the chain of command, according to the report. Findings in the Defense Departments latest report suggest an overall growth in an unhealthy military climate since fiscal year 2018. But while the government has resources in place for survivors, help remains scarce, Gattas said. Serving her country Gattas entered the Navy in 1994, with the intention of serving her country for life. Her first assignment was on the USS Simon Lake, a submarine tender traveling to aid combat ships. Sometimes, the crew would be on the water for more than 90 days. Sexual harassment on the ship was rampant, Gattas said. It was often this thing where it was kind of like the rite of passage, and I guess the norm, she said. She asked herself: Am I supposed to adapt and overcome this? Am I supposed to just allow them to speak to me a certain way? To make advances? To follow me? To stalk me? Gattas said she was constantly in fight mode. She said she reported the harassment to leaders who said they would take care of it, but the environment only became more permissive. It was common for those in leadership to make advances, she said. She and the other women would have to pass their tormentors in the long hallways connected by vestibule doors. Share meals in the galley. And work beside them. When the ship docked, Gattas would go out with her friends. One night, after going out to drink, she was assaulted. She said she blamed herself: I should have never drank. I should have never allowed myself to let my guard down. Instead of planning her career, she couldnt wait for her time in the military to be over. Challenging the status quo wasnt an option, she said. The Endeavors Veteran Wellness Center in San Antonio on Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. The Pink Berets, a nonprofit that helps women soldiers and veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as mental and emotional trauma, operates at this center. (Lola Gomez/The Dallas Morning News/TNS) Many active duty women face pressure not to report incidents of sexual harassment or assault because of retaliation and ostracism. An estimated 66% of service members who reported retaliation after filing a sexual assault complaint were women, according to data compiled by Protect Our Defenders. Less than half of women perceived their leaders as acting in a fully supportive manner after they reported sexual harassment, according to the latest Defense Department report. About 7% of men and 21% of women said filing a sexual harassment complaint would be too risky. After experiencing military sexual trauma, Gattas was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe PTSD and moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder. She contemplated suicide. Youre never the same when you leave the military, said Gattas, who is now 47. You have a traumatic experience and then you just dont feel whole again. Military sexual trauma is compounded by the fact that the targets and the aggressors are supposed to protect one another and they are working toward a common goal. The military is a culture it has ideals, it has a history behind it, said Dr. Lewis Jeffery Lee, a retired Navy SEAL, licensed therapist and mental health chaplain based in San Diego, Calif. So when folks come into the military, generally they are trusting because of the high standards of discipline and ethical behaviors expected. Soldiers and sailors are taught to rely on one another, to work as a team, to foster an environment of protection and respect. These fundamental principles define military life. What happens when thats violated? Lee said. Its very devastating. Survivors are at a higher risk of dying by suicide. Many survivors may also experience receptive moral injury, which occurs when ones morals or values are violated by the actions of someone they trust or look up to. Military sexual trauma is more likely to result in PTSD than going into combat, according to the Office of the Inspector General. A holistic path The Pink Berets program helps women identify what triggered their PTSD, anxiety, depression or other mental health issues, whether it be related to combat or surviving a sexual assault. The organization uses holistic approaches to help women find a path to heal. Equine, culinary and art therapies allow women to explore new skills and build confidence. Through offering a range of activities, the women are able to choose what tools help them heal best. If you build an infrastructure that allows them to define what those building blocks look like, then you can help somebody with a fractured psyche become normal again, Gattas said. Women can participate in the therapies for as long as they need. Veterans and volunteers oversee most of these activities, which are funded through private donors and sponsors. Some therapies take place with a private clinician, while culinary and art therapy take place at the Endeavors Veteran Wellness Center in San Antonio. Clients can be referred from the VA, private therapists, social media and word of mouth. The Pink Berets group has ambassadors across the nation who spread awareness about the organization, which has served over 3,600 women through online and in-person programs. The organizations programs are not one-size-fits-all, Gattas said. Some women evaluate the goals and actions of the organization for months before signing up. When your moral code is violated, it can be hard to seek help from trusted family members, friends or colleagues, Lee said. Those who need help have to show up and allow us to provide the tools necessary for them to grow, Gattas said. Trusting us to provide the environment is key. Ayana Brown, a Navy veteran in San Antonio, said The Pink Berets program was very unique because of its emphasis on women with military sexual trauma symptoms. Before, I had never heard of such a thing, I was just doing everything on my own, trying to figure it out, said Brown, who found The Pink Berets in 2017 after 12 years of coping with paranoia, hypervigilance, anxiety, depression and anger. Brown said she was sexually assaulted twice while serving in the Navy. The first time, the assault was by her recruiter, before she got to boot camp. Culinary therapy Brown is a foodie, and the culinary classes are her favorite therapy. In her kitchen, you can find recipe cards for dishes like pear and goat cheese crostini, honey tamarind glazed baby-back ribs and boursin mashed potatoes. She is eager to learn from the chefs, who are usually veterans using cooking as their therapy too. Taking the time to prepare ingredients and learn different ways to cut vegetables gets her outside of her comfort zone and teaches her life lessons: the importance of stepping back and taking the time to prepare. It was amazing to be in the room with that, to learn from that, to just be exposed to different things that I can do for myself to make me feel good, Brown said. A few times, Browns husband joined her for the class. Gattas is intentional about hosting activities that include the women's families, because the issues that are affecting the women often impact the entire family. Gattas introduced culinary therapy to The Pink Berets because it was something that helped her heal. To me, cooking was something that was very therapeutic, and it still is, she said. Rebuilding trust Brown still has physical pains that stem from the sexual assaults. She cant be in a room with the door closed with a male colleague its one of her triggers. Shes still mending relationships that became collateral damage over years of living without support. But she no longer feels alone in her journey to heal, and shes rebuilding trust. Gaining peoples trust is vital for healing, but its one of the biggest challenges the organization faces, Gattas said. We have to give grace, she said. We have to understand that sometimes they can feel ready, theyre going to have that leap of faith that they can do this, and then theyll succumb to depression or theyll succumb to anxiety. Ive been there. The Pink Berets program, she said, helps them understand that theyre not in this fight alone, but they have sisters that want to come alongside them and fight with them. Geoff LaMear is a fellow at Defense Priorities. He is also an air defense artillery officer in the U.S. Army. His views are his own and do not reflect the views of the Department of Defense. The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. With Ukrainian troops en route to the United States for training on the Patriot missile system, Washington is now sending some of its most sophisticated weapons to bolster Ukraine's already extensive air defense network. Sending Patriot missile systems to Ukraine might seem useful, given repeated Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian areas, but the solution doesn't fit the problem. The truth is Patriot systems are as likely to stop the drone threat as a water balloon is to stop a forest fire. The mismatch is too great. And Washington's persistence despite that reality is a blunder that will prove costly. Air defenses rely on radars that scan for threats in a specific area. For Patriot systems, these areas are small and meant to be pinpoint locations like a military base or power plant. A single Patriot system would not alter the inherent vulnerability that Ukraine experiences in the air, given its vast front of fighting against Russian troops. It might protect a few nodes that Kyiv prizes, but Russian air attacks can counter these missile systems. One method would be to saturate the Patriot with more targets than it can defend against, using mass drone or missile attacks. Even if the Patriot's detection systems aren't overwhelmed, there are precautions to prevent downing civilian airliners and friendly aircraft, given the history of mistaken strikes, which may slow down response time to the point of failure. Patriot systems themselves are also an enticing target as they are vulnerable during maintenance periods or when the systems, prone to technical faults, don't work. Patriot systems protect strategic assets against sporadic attack and are designed as part of a multi-tier air defense bubble. Putting Patriot systems on their own without other layers of air defense risks undermining the survivability and effectiveness of the systems. Short-range air defenses are also unlikely to work against drones, given Russia's shift to using nighttime attacks, meaning only missile-based air defenses are viable. And Ukraine's most advanced missile defense is the Soviet-era S-300, which serves roughly the same function as a Patriot. Lest it be said that this is out of necessity, Kyiv claims interception rates of 85% without these systems. That is likely inflated, given Ukraine's antiquated arsenal and the difficulty of intercepting drones. But if Kyiv's current capabilities are sufficient, then it doesn't need additional American air defense systems. Putting Patriots into the mix likely does little good and gives Russia an expensive target to turn into a scrap heap. Ukraine is also not equipped to use Patriots. American personnel spend months studying what is a complex and highly technical system. That time is dedicated by military planners despite U.S. troops typically facing no language barrier in doctrinal or technical documents, having access to experts with years of experience, and support from the contractors who design the systems. Ukraine will still need extensive support to operate and maintain the equipment even after training. To employ Patriots effectively would require embedding U.S. personnel with these missile batteries. Doing so risks U.S. casualties and a direct U.S.-Russia confrontation that could easily escalate. Constant drone attacks are likely to stress both the ability to supply anti-air missiles and to wear down the equipment itself. Hitting missiles with missiles isn't easy, and between the factory floor and the field, problems arise. Patriot systems have many points of failure, any one being enough to render the system useless. Even assuming luck is on Kyiv's side, it's questionable to use multimillion-dollar interceptors to take down drones that cost 100 times less. By contrast, many of Ukraine's most useful ploys have been the least expensive. One such instance was using radar-mimicking emitters to bluff Russia into attacking fake air defenses. The knee-jerk dosomethingism in Washington doesn't help. It may produce warm and fuzzy feelings, but this doesn't translate into a peace that will bring a return to normalcy for Ukraine's people. What's more important, the pretense of moral superiority or an end to the carnage? Washington absolutists may say that principle trumps pragmatism. But how many thousands will have to die before the inevitable negotiations bring about the war's end? Tactically questionable weapon shipments won't change the outcome. They may delay it. And ordinary Ukrainians and Russians, oftentimes conscripted into a war not of their choosing, will continue to bleed until that reality is acknowledged. The Rockies have landed infielder Harold Castro on a minor league deal, MLBTR can confirm. The move was first reported by Efrain Zavarce of IVC Networks. The deal comes with an invite to major league spring training. Castro is represented by the MAS+ Agency. Castro, 29, put up a .271/.300/.381 line with seven home runs over 443 plate appearances for the Tigers last year, good for a wRC+ of 94, or a bit below league average. Castro is a utility player in every sense of the word, and appeared at every position bar catcher and right field in 2022. The bulk of that work was logged in the infield, with a fairly even split around the four positions. Originally signed by the Tigers back in 2011 out of Venezuela, Castro had spent his entire career with the organization. He debuted with a ten plate appearance cup of coffee in 2018, and went on to appear in 351 games for the Tigers over the next five seasons, putting up a combined .284/.309/.377 line with 15 home runs in that time. Castro should compete for a bench spot in spring, and would seem to have a decent chance of making the roster. Elehuris Montero can cover the corner infield spots, but the Rockies dont currently have a clear backup for rookie shortstop Ezequiel Tovar. Gabon's Foreign Minister Michael Moussa Adamo died on Friday after suffering a heart attack while waiting to go into a cabinet meeting, the government and a presidential source said. Moussa Adamo, 62, a long-standing ally of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, suffered a heart attack and died "despite efforts by specialists" to revive him, the government said in a brief statement. He "sat down in the waiting room" just before the start of the cabinet meeting "in the presence of some of his government colleagues and began to feel unwell", a source close to the presidential palace told AFP. He was taken to a military hospital while unconscious but died just after midday (1100 GMT), the source who spoke on condition of anonymity said. 'Loss for Gabon' Reacting to his death, President Bongo described Moussa Adamo on Twitter as "a great diplomat, a true statesman". "To me, he was firstly a friend, loyal and faithful, on whom I have always been able to count. It's a huge loss for Gabon," he added. Moussa Adamo was born in the northeastern town of Makokou in 1961 and started out as a presenter on national television. In 2000, he was made chief of staff for the defence minister, who at the time was Bongo. When Bongo was elected president on the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba in 2009, Moussa Adamo served as his special advisor. After a decade as Gabon's ambassador to the United States until 2020, he became, first, defence minister and then foreign minister in March last year. Moussa Adamo held a master's degree in international relations and communications from Boston University. He had just been reappointed foreign minister on January 9 when Bongo appointed a new prime minister, Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, in one of the frequent cabinet reshuffles in the oil-rich central African state. "The medical team at the presidential palace took him in immediately after his illness. He had to be taken unconscious by ambulance to the Omar Bongo Ondimba military hospital where he was placed in resuscitation but, despite the efforts of specialists, the death was noted at 12:12 pm (1112 GMT)," the source said. Gabon has entered an election year with presidential, legislative and local elections due in summer 2023. Ali Bongo Ondimba, who suffered a stroke in October 2018 that kept him away from politics for months, has not yet declared his candidacy for a third term. It is widely expected he will throw his hat into the ring, as his all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) has repeatedly announced he is its "natural candidate". 20.01.2023 LISTEN Ministry of Tourism has told the Public Accounts Committee that the financial account of the Marine Drive Project is empty and negatively impacting the progress of the project. Figures from the 2020 Auditor Generals report indicate that an amount of GH387,106 was misapplied, and it recommended a refund to the project account. But the amount is yet to be retrieved three years on. Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee meeting, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, John Yaw Agbeko revealed that the project is no longer under the supervision of the Tourism Ministry but under the Office of the President. Mr. Agbeko told PAC there is no money in that account [Marine Drive Projects account] and added that it was not in his capacity to know where or how the money was utilized. He further indicated that works under the Marine Drive Project are progressing very slowly due to a lack of funds. The Marine Drive Accra is a 241-acre redevelopment scheme of Accra's waterfront initiated by Ghana's Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. The brief for the project the origins of which trace back to the country's independence 60 years ago called for a scheme that would establish an iconic skyline for Accra and transform the capital's city center into a world-class tourism enclave. The Marine Drive Accra project will also provide essential infrastructure to support the country's developing cultural and creative industries. GH387K Marine Drive Project cash 'misused' on AFRIMA, Kundum Festival A former Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, under the Akufo-Addo administration, Catherine Afeku, and other government officials at the ministry were cited by the Auditor-General's report for misapplying state resources. The Auditor-General's report for the period ended 31 December 2020, stated that an amount of GH387,196.00 meant for the Marine Drive project was misapplied. In contravention of Section 7 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), we noted that funds meant for the Marine Drive project amounting to GH387,196.00 were misapplied for the celebration of AFRIMA, Kundum Festival, and other activities, it stated. An amount of GH73,000.00 was paid as additional expenditure or for the Minister's trip to the Volta Region from 15th to 18th June 2018. On 7th March 2018, GH13,296.00 was paid as an accountable imprest for the Minister at the time, Catherine Afeku, to travel to the Western Region on official assignment. There was also a payment of an allowance for the opening panel for procurement of vehicle on 3rd May 2018 at the cost of GH 900.00. The audit report also mentioned the release of GH100,000.00 to Palm Media Ghana Ltd. for the launch of AFRIMA 2018 on 17th-19th May 2018, and GH200,000 as funds to support Kundum Festival from 1st 9th September 2018. It has, therefore, recommended that the Chief Director ensures a refund from the operations account into the Marine Drive project account, failing which the amount should be recovered from the Chief Director. citinewsroom 21.01.2023 LISTEN The former military veteran of the British army and a top former bank executive with the Bank of England, Mr Divine Agbeti, has given the strongest indication to contest as member of parliament in the Kpando constituency. Mr Divine Agbeti hails from Gbefi, a suburb community within the Kpando constituency. He Started his basic school at Gbefi St Peters L/A Primary; went on to Tsito Methodist Primary and Tsito Old JHS. He continued his senior high education in Awudome Senior High School also in Tsito. Being the son of subsistence farmer, the London school of Economics alumnus and international relations expert had a humble beginning as a local activist, taking up teaching in basic school in his community after his secondary school education. Mr Divine Selase Agbeti, a consummate professional with vast knowledge in sociopolitical development, with particular focus on the Kpando constituency, has in the last ten years participated and contributed immensely to the development of the National Democratic Congress the NDC. Right from his days as community mobilizer, up until his departure to the United Kingdom to serve in the British Army. Prior to his current decision to run on the ticket of the NDC in 2024, Mr Agbeti founded the Divine Agbeti Scholarship Scheme, and Divine Agbeti Apprenticeship Programme, under the umbrella of the Divine Agbeti Foundation, a philanthropic nonprofit organization based in Kpando with the basic objective to support young people in education and creation of job opportunities. The scholarship scheme has supported over 30 students from the Kpando Municipality in tertiary institutions across the country. As part of his developmental contributions to the Kpando constituency, the Divine Agbeti Foundation deployed a grader and over 10 trips of gravel to level the Kpando-Torkor road, which was in a very bad shape and was becoming a death trap. Among others, the Foundation provided a mechanised borehole, together with a poly-tank, to Sovie New Town in the Kpando Municipality. Most recently, the Divine Agbeti Foundation donated several wheelchairs, clutches and walking supports to the disabled association within the Kpando Municipality. On the international scene, he is a highly respected security professional, possessing operational and strategic capabilities with excellent understanding of International Relations, Politics, Global Security, Intelligence, Military Operations, and Information Security. He possesses proven competencies in research, project management, requirement gathering, stakeholder management, security risk analysis, political risk analysis, open-source intelligence, cyber risk management and public speaking. He is British Army Veteran with operational experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Agbeti read international relations in the University of Portsmouth where he obtained a first-class degree. He was awarded the overall best graduating international relations student, as well as the winner of the prize for the best dissertation by the university of Portsmouth in 2015. For his brilliance, Mr Agbeti was awarded a scholarship by the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science where he attained MSc in International Relations. In addition to that, he was also honoured a receiver of the Queens Jubilee Medal for long service with good conduct in Her Majestys Armed Forces in 2012, also an ISAF Medal for distinguished service in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2010. He equally received the NATO Medal for meritorious service with NATO Task Force in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2010, and an Iraq Medal for distinguished service in Iraq, 2008. As the NDC announces May 13th, 2023, as the official date for its internal primaries across the country in all 275 constituencies, Mr Divine Agbeti laces his boots to contest for the seat on the back of promising massive development in the Kpando constituency. The Commonwealth Observer Group has expressed the view that Antigua and Barbudas general election, held on 18 January 2023, reflects the will of voters. Issuing the groups interim statement in the capital Saint Johns, H.E. Danny Faure, chair of the group and former President of Seychelles, commended the general conduct of the vote, adding that the polling atmosphere was calm and peaceful. While eligible voters exercised their democratic right, he noted, the turnout of 67 per cent was the lowest in the last 20 years. The chair said although there were only 10 female candidates in the election, the group was pleased to see significant support of the electoral process by women and young people especially with large numbers engaged as polling staff and party agents. He continued: Their professionalism, efficiency and dedication to follow due process and to work together in transparency are commendable. President Danny Faure also praised the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission for facilitating voting for people with disabilities and prioritising senior citizens in the queues, as well as law enforcement agencies for the security arrangements. However, the statement noted that certain key elements of the elections should be reviewed against internationally recognised standards. The chair focused on three recommendations in the statement, which, he said, the government should implement. First, he said there needs to be a clear separation of powers for democracy to thrive, adding that: The emphasis now needs to be put on good governance based on the framework of independence, transparency, oversight and accountability. Second, the chair stressed the need to de-politicise the media landscape. Finally, he said appropriate action should be taken to address the shortcomings in the accuracy and transparency of the voters list and the efficiency of the tallying process. In the statement, the chair further noted that the Commonwealth Observer Group was saddened by the vitriol, personal attacks, acts of arson and vandalism that took place before the election. He said: They [these acts] should have no place in Antigua and Barbuda. The greatest test of leadership is now We urge all leaders of political parties, civil society organisations, faith-based groups and the people of this beautiful country to join hands together in building bridges and creating the Antigua and Barbuda you want for the next generation. The groups five-member team observed the pre-election period as well as the voting and visited all 16 constituencies. They had access to all parts of the voting process, including the verification of ballots. Commonwealth observers will now complete its final report, which will be presented to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, who will forward it to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, the countrys Electoral Commission, the leadership of political parties that took part in the elections and all Commonwealth governments. The report will be made public shortly after this. Read the Commonwealth Observer Groups Interim Statement Source: The Commonwealth Hungary to support Sweden's NATO bid in spring - Lawmaker 13 Apr 2023 | 10:12 PM Budapest, Apr 13 (UNI) The Hungarian parliament will ratify Sweden's application to join NATO during the spring session, Mate Kocsis, leader of Hungary's Fidesz ruling party, said on Thursday. see more.. Sheikh Hasina wishes in New Year to build happy, smart Bangladesh 13 Apr 2023 | 10:09 PM Dhaka, Apr 13 (UNI) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday wished to build a happy and prosperous Smart Bangladesh in the coming years removing all darkness and hurdles. see more.. UK style icon Mary Quant dies aged 93 13 Apr 2023 | 10:00 PM London, Apr 13 (UNI) UK fashion designer Dame Mary Quant has died at 93 years of age at her home in Surrey, UK mass media reported on Thursday. see more.. Spontaneous protest started in Paris center day before pension reform decision - Reports 13 Apr 2023 | 7:28 PM Paris, Apr 13 (UNI) A spontaneous demonstration started in Paris as part of a protest against the pension reform an hour before the official protesters' march was scheduled to start from the Place de l'Opera, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Thursday. see more.. Former Mayor of Kumasi, Kojo Bonsu has declared his intentions to contest the presidential slot for the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). According to the former Kumasi mayor, despite the already known contenders who will be vying for the flag bearership of the NDC, he is equally up to the task of becoming the official presidential aspirant of the party. Speaking on CTV's morning show, Edika, the former Mayor told show host Nana Otu Darko that he stands a good chance of winning the flag bearership of the NDC. Im a bit younger, and also Ive been with the grassroots, Im a grassroots man and I understand the dynamics of the party. I stand a very good chance, a very very good chance." Im ready to serve, and ready to bring a new leadership to NDC. Ive got a very good chance. Rome was not built in a day so I cannot sit here and say Im going to win, it requires hardwork and fight hard," he noted. The former Kumasi Mayor, however, acknowledged that vying for such a position is challenging because of the contenders involved. [I've] been going round to speak to them. Its challenging. The challenge is not easy, he admitted. He stressed that former President John Dramani Mahama, who will be one of his opponents has done well for Ghana and deserves respect, however, democracy requires that others contend the flag bearship slot too. He explained: Youre fighting with a former President who has done so much for Ghana and also for the party, but because of democracy and acceptance, because of that, youll go through difficulties. Because the former President has done a lot for Ghana, great work and we have to always commend him for what hes done but every good turn deserves another, we give him the highest respect of the land. The former President has done a lot for Ghana but because of democracy, we all must contest, Mr Bonsu added. Meanwhile, the NDC Primaries will be held to elect a flag bearer for the party and parliamentary candidates for the 2024 elections, on Saturday, 13 May 2023. Source: classfmonline.com Residents of Tinkong in the Akwapim north municipality of the Eastern region are appealing to Government, the Police hierarchy and corporate bodies to intervene for the completion of a police station under construction. According to residents, the provision of a police station in the community will go a long way to improve the security of the community and urrounding villages. Hon. Kofi Abokyi, the Assembly Member for Tinkong electoral area in a phone interview with Nyarko Abronoma indicated that the police station under construction was facilitated by the Tinkongman Development Association and the Tinkong Traditional Council. He explained several requests to the various stakeholders for a police station have proven futile hence, the decision by opinion leaders and residents to take up the mantle themselves. However, he revealed the project has stalled due to lack of funds and therefore appealed to the Assembly, the Ghana Police Service and other stakeholders to as matter of urgency come to their aid to complete the facility. "Tinkong is located in the middle of many surrounding communities but we find it difficult in accessing the police whenever the need arises. You come to Adweso police station and they will direct you back to Okorase for assistance, so by the time they reach the community the harm would have already been caused" Hon. Abokyi elaborated. On behalf of Tinkongman Development Association, Michael Osei Kwabi Junior, the PRO called on indegenes of the community both home and abroad to contribute their widow's mite in support of the development of the area. He emphasised that development is a shared responsibility and therefore called on NGOs and other prominent personalities to come and support in ensuring the security of the people is well taken care of. "We have done our part as a group with the support of the traditional council to put up this building for the police but as of now, things are really hard for us. The project has stalled because there are no funds to continue but as you know crime won't wait for us to complete the project, so we are appealing for government and the public support," Pilato as affectionately called. Sierra Leone has passed a law requiring public and private entities to reserve 30 percent of their jobs for women in a bid to tackle gender imbalances in a male-dominated society. In addition to the 30 percent quota, the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Act assures women at least 14 weeks of maternity leave, equal pay and training opportunities. Signing the bill into law on Thursday, President Julius Maada Bio said it would "address the gender imbalances in this country comprehensively. We have to make sure it works. "We must end the impunity or violence against women in elections and public life and punish all persons and entities found guilty of such violence," he added. Women in Sierra Leone suffer from discrimination and, according to Human Rights Watch, it has been common practice to fire them if they get pregnant. Many women and girls also face high levels of sexual violence, partly a legacy of the use of rape as a weapon during the 1991-2002 civil war. The Equality Act also aims to improve women's access to finance in a country where they have often been unable to get credit. The 30 percent jobs quota applies equally to management roles so that employers cannot just hire women to lower-level jobs to comply with the law. It also applies to the 146-seat parliament and the civil service. "We are happy today as our dream for an improved political, social and economic empowerment of women and girls in Sierra Leone has started," said Sally Ndimawa Adams, who heads the Sierra Leone Women's Forum. Fines for non-compliance As in many West African countries, women are poorly represented in Sierra Leonean politics. The country has only 18 woman MPs and only four members of Bio's 32-member cabinet are women. "Women who wish to serve in public office and their supporters must not be undermined, belittled, intimated or humiliated," said President Bio. "It's not going to be easy because that space has been occupied by men for a very long time. We must monitor electoral processes to ensure election fairness and transparency." Employers who breach the new quotas face fines of up to 50.000 leones (2,400 euros). Sierra Leone is ranked 182nd out of 189 countries on the UN's 2020 Gender Development Index. Nearly half of the countries in the bottom 20 are in West Africa. (with newswires) The Centre for Democratic Development, Ghana (CDD-Ghana) has shared its view on the heavy filing fee being charged by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for its presidential primaries. Speaking to Starr News, Programs Manager for CDD-Ghana, Paul Aborampah-Mensah argued that the GHS500,000 filing fees being charged are outrageous and not the best, especially in the current economic crisis. When they set it at Ghc300,000 we complained so you dont expect me to congratulate them after its been increased. Shot up to over almost 50%. It is the same economic challenges in which these people are being requested to cough Ghc500,000. So, if the nation and country as a whole is struggling dealing with these economic challenges, how can an individual who is going to contest? Even if he is going to cough the money from his investments, these investments are also suffering. So, why do we put the burden on the individual if the country cannot cope with it? So, to me no matter how we do it, its been the usual excuse. Go and pull out some of the press statements from the start of democracy in the fourth republic and see the argument they make when they are announcing the filing fee and the competition fee for their contestants. Its the same argument so nothing has changed, Paul Aborampah-Mensah shared. According to him, the hefty charge could be a move by the party leadership to manipulate the system in favour of some people by excluding others who will have a challenge raising the money. "There are three things; one, either it is a strategy to do away or cut down the number of competitions. Two, it is either they also want to manipulate the system in favor of some people. Thus the higher you set the cost, the higher you challenge people to mobilize resources, Programs Manager for CDD-Ghana argued. Mr. Aborampah-Mensah added, The party doesnt care where people mobilize it because we are in a system where we are not accountable. Even the political parties themselves are not able to pass appropriate accounts required by elections won in the country. How can we follow individuals wherever they get GHS500,000? We are talking about GHS500,000 here, it is a systemic challenge that we need to deal with. From the announcement made by NDC General Secretary Fiifi Kwetey last week, the partys primaries will be held later this year in May. Convener of the Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF), Senyo Hosi has reiterated the need for government to have a critical look at its size in the midst of current economic crisis. Speaking to Joy News on the News File programme, Mr. Hosi argued that the large size of government does not make sense and needs to be downsized. This government is sick, the size of the government doesn't even make sense, the former CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) said. Since Ghanas economic crisis heightened in 2022, there have been several complaints about the size of government. In various proposals, economists and finance experts have recommended that government downsizes. Some also proposed that government needs to review some of its flagship projects including the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme. Commenting on the Free SHS programme, Senyo Hosi today shared that while it is a very good initiative, it needs to be well structured. The Free SHS is a great project, it's not just being structured, he said on the programme that is faced with several challenges. On the proposed Government Domestic Debt Exchange programme, Senyo Hosi argued that it is going to lead to lack of trust in the financial sector. According to him, that will be catastrophic for the sector. If today everyone gets scared of putting their monies in the bank, the financial sector will crush, Senyo Hosi added. The Convener of the Individual Bondholders Forum has been very vocal these past weeks making a case for affected investors whose investments will suffer if government goes ahead with the Debt Exchange Programme in its current state. During the week, the Finance Minister met with stakeholders and has set up a Technical Committee to come up with solutions to address the grievances of investors. Union Group of Companies has denied social media accusations of duping people who were supposed to be taken outside the country by its Travel and Tours subsidiary. Management has also appealed to the public especially their customers to leave out Madam Portia Asare Boateng, the Brand ambassador out of the case at hand. Import of the matter There have been several accusations from some people perceived to be victims of the Union's initiative to send them abroad but failed in its promise despite taking monies needed to be paid. Despite accepting the fact that it had issues with some clients, the Chief Executive Officer of Union Group of Companies, Dr. Opoku Agyemang has accused Mr. Eric Whyte, former Travel and Tours Manager and Evans Adawu (Former Branch manager of Union Group of Companies at Techiman, former Real Estate manager and former Acting General manager) as the brains behind such fake news to the public. He said the issues with their clients are being dealt with in the right order and that there is no iota of truth in accusations of duping clients. In his explanation, the CEO revealed that Mr. Eric Whyte was sacked from the company after it was found out that he had misappropriated some funds belonging to the company, a situation he indicated was reported to Kwabenya Police station. He narrated that Mr. Whyte since the termination of his contract has resorted to social media trying to muddy the waters of an issue that is being handled by management without any difficulties. Dr. Opoku Agyemang rhetorically questioned, "Can you imagine the same Eric Whyte demanded Ghc2,000.00 when we contacted him to delete an earlier post he had made on social media?". On the issue of Mr. Evans Adawu, Former Branch manager of Union Group of Companies at Techiman, former Real Estate manager and former Acting General manager of Union Group of Companies, the CEO stressed that he was also sacked following extortion of monies from its potential clients. He added he (Evans Adawu) was interdicted and later terminated his contract after finding him guilty of the charges against him. "As for Evans Adawu, I will say he is the gang leader of all these unsubstantiated allegations. He has been calling our clients that he knows to some of our offices with the assurance that we are paying them off. That is too bad, to talk ill of a company that you have worked with just because you have been sacked for wrongdoing," Dr. Opoku Agyemang stated. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Dr. Opoku Agyemang took the opportunity to talk about some of its corporate social responsibilities carried out as expected of them as a company. In the Ashanti region, he mentioned the construction of a 12-unit modern classroom block for Dukura primary school in the Bosome Freho district. At Nkoranza South District in the Bono East region, he said 12-unit classroom block is also under construction to also support the education of children in the area. "Union Group of Companies have undertaken and completed massive renovation works at the Sunyani Senior high school, an initiative that has not been done since the construction of the school. In Bono East, Atronue Methodist primary and junior high schools have experienced renovation of their school buildings at a cost of Ghc400,00. cedis", the CEO stated. He pledged the commitment of his outfit support to ensure that the livelihood of Ghanaians is well catered for. Tanzania's main opposition party on Saturday held its first mass rally since the lifting of a 2016 ban, raising hope of greater political freedom in the East African nation. President Samia Suluhu Hassan this month lifted the ban on Chadema slapped by her hard-line predecessor John Magufuli, who was nicknamed "Bulldozer" for his pugnacious style. Hassan, in power for 22 months, is seeking to break with some of Magufuli's policies and has made overtures to the opposition. "Thank God that the day has come when we speak with fellow Tanzanians though this public gathering," Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe told the rally, attended by thousands in the lakeside city of Mwanza. The rally marked the the 30th anniversary of the party's political registration. The supporters sported the party colours -- blue, red and white -- and sang songs praising their leaders as a handful of police officers guarded the venue. "We have been silent for almost seven years but finally, our right is restored and we are ready to move ahead," Mwanza resident Mary Dismas told AFP. The lifting of the ban was welcomed as a gain for democracy. By Michael JAMSON (AFP) The move was cautiously welcomed as a gain for democracy by rights groups and the country's opposition. Magufuli had banned political rallies early in his tenure, saying it was time for work, not politics. But critics said the ban applied only to opposition groups, with the ruling party free to assemble. Rival gatherings were violently broken up by police and party officials jailed. '2023 is an important year' There was early optimism when Hassan, Tnzania's first woman president, reached out to rivals, reopened banned media outlets and reversed some of Magufuli's most controversial policies. But her presidency came under criticism when Mbowe and other senior Chadema officials were arrested in July 2021 just hours before they were to hold a public meeting seeking constitutional reforms. Hassan, who has battled divisions in her ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, has since made conciliatory gestures towards the opposition. In early 2022, she met in Brussels with Chadema deputy chairman Tundu Lissu, who was the party's candidate in the 2020 presidential election but lives in exile in Belgium after an attempt on his life in 2017. Lissu said last week that he would return to Tanzania on January 25, expressing optimism that "2023 is an important year in the history of our country." The Tanzanian president has made a series of overtures to the opposition. By Michael JAMSON (AFP) His party comrade Mbowe, who spent seven months in prison on terrorism charges, led the Saturday rally, organised in the port city where they were arrested. "Our reconciliation conversation with the president has yielded because even the police who arrested me in Mwanza are today guarding our meeting," Mbowe said, asking supporters to applaud the officers "for a good job." While heaping praise for Hassan, the 61-year-old said the demand for a new constitution and an independent electoral body was at the top of the party's agenda now. "I deeply appreciate President Samia Suluhu Hassan's tolerance during our conversation for reconciliation... some people would want to hear me insulting her but I will never do that." Adopted in 1977, Tanzania's constitution has been amended more than 10 times, including with a provision to introduce a multi-party system. Previous attempts to change the basic law stalled in 2014, with the opposition push for reforms met with government crackdowns. Chadema officials said on Saturday a series of grassroots rallies had been lined up. "We will organise as many rallies as possible to reach all wards and villages in the country," said Sharifa Suleiman, acting chair of Chadema women's wing. "This is our time to build the ground for (the) 2025 elections," she said. Another official, Hashim Juma Issa, said the party was "opening up a new page" as it celebrated its 30th anniversary. Communications team member for the New Patriotic Party(NPP), Eric Okyei Baffour has lashed out at the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) saying they have no credibility to advise government on the debt exchange programme. According to him, the NDC lacks the moral right to advise government on how they should go about the debt exchange program. Eric Okyei Baffour says the Akufo-Addo-led administration will do everything possible to ensure that depositors do not lose their funds as government embarks on a debt exchange programme. He claims government track record of saving depositors funds in the banking sector clean-up should give hope to Ghanaians that investors funds will be saved at all times. "Let me tell you today that the NDC has no credibility to advise government on how to go about the debt exchange programme. Government has always shown commitment on several occasions on how to manage Ghanas debt, Eric Okyei Baffour told Accra-based Net2 TV. Eric Okyei Baffour assured that investors funds are in safe hands. The government in the run-up to the collapse of many banks in the country, we had to come up with the financial sector clean up and we had to make sure that over 4 million citizens of Ghana deposits were being saved, this is a government that has done it before, he stated. According to Eric Okyei Baffour, the DDE is an effort of government towards resetting the countrys economy to a more stable one capable of addressing the development challenges of the country. The government has been severely criticised for introducing a new arrangement to vary maturity dates and annual interest for domestic debt bondholders. Several labour unions including the Ghana Medical Association, the University Teachers Association, the Ghana Miners Union and Trades Union Congress have expressed their opposition to the move. Ukrainian shelling injures 5 civilians in DPR over past 24 hours - Authorities Donetsk, Jan 21 (UNI) At least five civilians sustained injuries as a result of Ukrainian troops shelling in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) over the past 24 hours, the DPR Territorial Defense Headquarters said on Saturday. "Over the past day, from 08:00 local time [05:00 GMT] on January 20 to 08:00 on January 21, five civilians were injured as a result of Ukrainian armed formations shelling on the territory of DPR," the defense headquarters said on Telegram. The republics of Donetsk and Luhansk proclaimed their independence from Ukraine in 2014, amid an armed conflict with Ukrainian forces. In February 2022, Russia recognized the DPR and LPR and launched a military operation in Ukraine in response to calls by the two breakaway republics to help defend them from Ukrainian troops. The republics were incorporated into Russia after referendums in September. January 21, 2023 Ukraine - Russian Army Activates Southern Front The long expected Russian offensive in Ukraine has begun. The Ukrainian army, egged on by its U.S. controllers, had put most of its resource into the static defense of the Bakhmut (Artyomovsk) - Soledar sector of the eastern front. An insane number of Ukrainian brigades, though many partially depleted, were concentrated on that 50 kilometer long front. This left other sectors nearly empty of Ukrainian troops. I count the equivalent of some 27 brigade size formations in that area. The usual size of a brigade is some 3,000 to 4,000 men with hundreds of all kinds of vehicles. If all brigades had their full strength that force would count as 97,500 men. In a recent interview the Ukrainian military commander Zaluzhny said that his army has 200,000 men trained to fight with 500,000 more having other functions or currently being trained. The forces which are currently getting mauled in the Bakhmut area constitute 50% of Ukraine's battle ready forces. On the southern and northern sectors of the battle-line the Ukrainian forces have been thinned out and are only able to defend against minor forces. The Ukrainian forces in the north and south are in the same position Russian troops had been in when the Ukrainian army last year launched a blitz attack in the Kharkiv region. The Russian screening force of some 2,000 boarder guards and federal police retreated and used its artillery to destroy the oncoming Ukrainian forces. The attack ran out of power and came to a halt after progressing some 70 kilometers on a rather large front. But Ukraine no longer has, unlike the Russians at that time, the artillery that is need to stop a larger thrust. The big Ukrainian concentration in Bakhmut is now in an operational encirclement. The Russian forces have progressed north and south of the city and their artillery can easily control the western exit roads of Bakhmut. This a Verdun like situation. Russian artillery is by far numerical superior and can slaughter the Ukrainian troops at will. Even the U.S. military is now suggesting that Ukraine should give up on that city. Should the government in Kiev agree to that it will be a retreat under fire with likely high casualties. Not retreating though will make things even worse. The Ukrainian concentration on Bakhmut put its other frontlines into jeopardy. I and others have suggested for quite some time that the Russian forces will use the southern Zaporizhia region for a large thrust into the far back of the Ukrainian forces around Bakhmut. The Russian moves against the third and fourth Ukrainian defense lines will likely be supported by a move from the south that will liberate the rest of the Zaporiziha and Donetsk oblast. Aside from those operations the Russian command has sufficient number of troops available to run another major attack. This could come from the north into the Kharkiv region behind the Ukrainian troops currently attacking the Russian lines further east. The Military Land Deployment map, sympathetic to the Ukrainian side, shows just three Territorial Defense brigades covering a 100 kilometer long southern defense line. These brigades are infantry rich but not mobile. They have only little heavy equipment. The Ukrainian 65th Mechanized Brigade is the only capable force in the area. It is screening Zaporizhzhia city but has been heavily bleeding it its position for quite a while. One Motorized Infantry brigade, the 56th, was added to the southern front some six days ago. Back in August this brigade had been severely mauled in its defense of Peski at the eastern front. It has since been reconstituted with new conscripts and a smorgasbord of 'western' delivered equipment. It can not be regarded as a fully capable unit. There is no Ukrainian artillery brigade in the sector. There are thereby no counter-artillery capabilities available. The attacking Russian force is the 58th army of the Russian Federation. These are not lightly armored, air deployable VDV forces like those who fought around the Hostomel Airport airport near Kiev. These are not militia of the Donbas republics seen on the eastern front. These are not Chechen forces storming Mariupol. These are not the Wagner mercenaries surrounding Bakhmut. This is the real Russian army, the Red one, with all its heavy resources and capabilities to wage combined arms warfare. The first probing Russian attacks in the area were launched two days ago. The Ukrainian lines immediately broke down and the Russian forces advanced some 5 kilometer on the very first day. Yesterday they advanced further. Everything in red and yellow north of the closed red line are recent Russian advances. A few weeks ago, in an interview with the Economist, the Ukrainian army commander general Zaluzhny called a Russian attack at this time the "worst" possible situation: But the main reason Russia has dragooned so many young men, the generals believe, is to go back on the offensive for the first time since its bid to overrun Donbas fizzled out in the summer. Just as in [the second world war]somewhere beyond the Urals they are preparing new resources, says General Zaluzhny, referring to the Soviet decision to move the defence industry east, beyond the range of Nazi bombers. They are 100% being prepared. A major Russian attack could come in February, at best in March and at worst at the end of January, he says. Zaluzhny has claimed to be building reserves but he has since send even more troops to Bakhmut: The temptation is to send in reserves [to Bakhmut]. A wiser strategy is to hold them back. ... May the soldiers in the trenches forgive me, says General Zaluzhny. Its more important to focus on the accumulation of resources right now for the more protracted and heavier battles that may begin next year. It is unlikely that any reserves he currently has are equipped, trained and battle ready. They will be too small to stop a fully mechanized Russian attack through the rather sparsely settled southwest of Donetzk province. The aim of the Russian thrust in the south will not be to take cities like Zaporiziha. The aim is to bring the main transport routes, railways and roads, from west-Ukraine to the front in east Ukraine under Russian artillery fire. This will prevent not only the re-supply for the Ukrainian troops on the eastern front but also their exit from the front line. A 100 kilometer (60 miles) thrust to the north would mostly do that. A complementary thrust from the north towards south, which may or may not be coming, would finally close the cauldron. Posted by b on January 21, 2023 at 9:56 UTC | Permalink Comments next page Long-time NatCen Exec Caroline Turley Joins BMG In the UK, full service agency BMG Research has appointed long-time NatCen exec Caroline Turley as Client Leadership Director. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Birmingham, BMG delivers market and employee research, customer insights and public perception surveys to both public and private sector clients. Last year the firm opened an office in the London Bridge-based News UK Building, having closed its previous London base during the pandemic. Turley (pictured) joins in London after fifteen years at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), where she spent a decade leading the firm's Crime & Justice team. During this time she developed expertise in qual research and evaluation with prisoners, victims/survivors of crime, young people at risk of harm such as grooming, radicalisation and criminal exploitation; and on wider topics such as bereavement and mental health. Before joining NatCen in 2007, Turley carried out qual research at the Police Complaints Authority and BMRB Social Research. In her new role, Turley's focus will be on expanding BMG's qual portfolio into new policy areas. Simon Wood, Head of Research, comments: 'Caroline is one of social research's leading experts with a reputation for high quality, actionable research that makes an actual difference to her clients and wider society. We've seen the business grow dramatically in the past couple of years and it's given us the platform to bring in people of the highest calibre and expand our offer and capabilities'. Web site: www.bmgresearch.co.uk . Networking isnt just for corporate America. Farmers, brewers, winemakers and distillers can also benefit.University of Tennessee Extension, along with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and craft beverage industry associations and guilds, hosted the second annual Farm & Ferment conference in Murfreesboro. It brought brewers, distillers, winemakers and industry partners together with farmers for a day of learning and networking last [] (Natural News) In 14 points, Dr. Vernon Coleman summarises the absurdity of what is happening around us. The majority of which is being driven by misinformation and disinformation from corporate media, corporate health, and corporate governments and their corporate advisors. (Article by Rhoda Wilson republished from Expose-News.com) Dr. Colemans insights cover a broad range of topics, from health to climate change to censorship: Officially, the commonest cause of death is now dementia dementia rarely kills anyone. Climate change cultists constantly claim that the flooding which is common these days is a result of man-made global warming bollocks. Dr. Coleman first warned about statins over 30 years ago. Electric cars are as useless as they were when they were first introduced over 100 years ago. The conspirators now want to ban wet wipes it would make far more sense to ban MPs. By Dr. Vernon Coleman Please note that I do not have any social media accounts. All accounts which appear to be in my name are fake. I have been banned by YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on. Accounts in my name on Twitter and Telegram and all other social media platforms are nothing to do with me and should be labelled as fake however real they may appear. The only sites where my work appears and which I control are www.vernoncoleman.com and www.vernoncoleman.org though I have always allowed my videos to be reproduced on other sites as long as they are not cut or edited or adorned with advertisements. 1. Officially, the commonest cause of death is now dementia. This is odd because dementia rarely kills anyone. The truth, should anyone be interested in such an outmoded concept, is that most people who are listed as having died of dementia were either labelled as Do Not Resuscitate and subsequently died of untreated pneumonia or they were murdered by hospital staff who gave them the currently popular kill cocktail of midazolam and morphine. 2. Climate change cultists constantly claim that the flooding which is common these days is a result of man-made global warming. This is what used to be known in technical term as bollocks. There is a good deal of flooding these days because rivers are deliberately not dredged and houses are deliberately built on flood plains. The dishonest aim is to convince us that we are all in peril. 3. Chatbots are being promoted as being able to answer all our questions. But, of course, chatbots will always be programmed to provide information and answers which please the conspirators. Youll never see a chatbot recommending one of my books or one of Dr Colin Barrons videos. 4. I first warned about statins over 30 years ago (in 1992) when the cholesterol lowering drugs were introduced. I warned that these drugs looked like making a fortune for the drug industry. At the same time, I expressed scepticism about their use and described the hazards associated with them. The covid-19 jab has caused so many heart problems that doctors are now being told to hand these drugs out on request. In the UK, for example, the medical establishment (for which you can safely substitute the words drug industry) wants at least 10 million people to take statins in the alleged hope that this will reduce the current epidemic of heart disease deaths. Having made a fortune out of flogging the jabs, the drug industry will make another fortune out of statins. The next step will be to make the damned things available over the counter. Itll end in tears. If you want to know more about cholesterol lowering drugs read Chapter 39 in my book How to stop your doctor killing you which is available by clicking the button at the bottom of this page. There have been many new studies since I wrote that chapter and I havent changed my mind. 5. Hospital staff recently poured scorn on a man who turned up wanting to have the wax removed from his ears. They sent him away and seemed unhappy about his request. What else was the poor fellow supposed to do? GPs used to syringe wax out of ears (I used to do it with warm water, and I always used to soak the patient and myself) but GPs have all retired from general practice and taken up vaccination as an alternative and lucrative career. Maybe the hospital staff expected the poor fellow to syringe his own ear? DIY medicine seems to be the latest craze. 6. The health care unions are coordinating their activities to maximise the number of people that they kill. Junior doctors are now talking about walking out for 72 hours and refusing to see emergencies. The BMA [British Medical Association], appears to have been taken over by lefties and communists. It does seem to me rather odd that a bunch of commies seem to want to destroy the worlds most prominent socialist healthcare system so that they can get richer and buy their Mercedes and BMW cars a year earlier. But maybe Ive completely misunderstood. If the doctors get the massive pay rise theyre demanding the money will have to come out of the NHS budget and patients will suffer. 7. The world now agrees with me that electric cars are as useless as they were when they were first introduced over 100 years ago. No one with functioning brain tissue would buy an electric car except as an expensive joke. Despite all the propaganda, lies and tax breaks they are more expensive to buy and run than diesel and petrol cars. Theyre useless if you need to travel more than a few miles from your home. The idea that well have electric lorries and electric aeroplanes is laughable. 8. The conspirators now want to ban wet wipes. They say that theyre bad for the environment because people flush them down loos and cause blockages. This is as stupid as banning bicycles because they are often badly ridden and cause accidents. It would make far more sense to ban MPs because most of them are liars and the rest are crooks. Wet wipes are an essential aid in the battle against infections (which we are losing since there are, thanks to careless hospital staff, so many antibiotic-resistant bugs around). If wet wipes are banned there will be far more deaths from infections such as sepsis. 9. In the USA, a chiropractor is being sued by the US Federal Government for half a trillion dollars. His crime? He recommended that people should take vitamin D and zinc during the fake pandemic. 10. There was a Twitter event on 8th January 2023 called Censorship Killed MillionsFree Speech Saves Lives. Ironically, I couldnt take part because I am banned from all social media. Thanks a bunch to Twitter, YouTube, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and all the rest of the oppressive bastards. 11. In Birmingham in the UK, the police arrested a woman for thinking while standing in a street near an abortion clinic. The woman was not actively protesting nor was she harassing anyone. After an onlooker complained to the police that she might be praying silently, the woman was searched, arrested and interrogated. I hope they dont arrest me for the thoughts in my head. 12. As a direct result of the entirely useless and predictably damaging lockdowns (I predicted the damage they would cause the minute they were announced) and the deliberately planned scare campaigns about the rebranded flu, one in five adults in the UK is now clinically depressed. Thats never going to get any better. 13. The BBC reported that black people wait six months longer for transplants. This is mainly because surgeons want the best match available and black people are less likely to agree to donate. I appeared on the BBCs first television programme with Dr Christiaan Barnard in the 1960s and I remember that Barnards second transplant patient was called Philip Blaiberg who lived a normal life for over 19 months. Oddly, the heart he received did not come from a white man. Barnard was a fascinating character. I wrote his biography for a major encyclopaedia. 14. The excellent Expose website (go there and give them money) reports that 52 heads of state and nearly 300 government ministers will fly into Davos (mostly by private jet at taxpayers expense) to discuss climate change, sustainability, and digital transformation. War criminal Tony Blair and the head of MI6 will be among the secret attendees from Britain. Ill take a bet they wont be paying their own airfares or hotel bills. The Swiss will provide an armed guard of 5,000 troops to protect the attendees at the shindig. Read more at: Expose-News.com (Natural News) Actor Alec Baldwin has furiously responded after he was charged with involuntary manslaughter after shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while on the set of a movie he was making called Rust. In a statement issued by his attorney, the actor is obviously furious over the decision of the district attorney to press charges. This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice. Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win, his attorney Luke Nikas said, as Access Hollywood reported. In addition to Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the on-set armorer the person in charge of all firearms used in production whose job it is to make sure every weapon is safe before being handed to an actor was also charged with involuntary manslaughter. Also, Assistant Director David Halls has agreed to cop a plea to a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. No charges were filed in relation to the non-fatal wounding of director Joel Souza. After a thorough review of the evidence and the laws of the state of New Mexico, I have determined that there is sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against Alec Baldwin and other members of the Rust film crew, New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said. On my watch, no one is above the law, and everyone deserves justice. The family of Hutchins has also released a statement supportive of Carmack-Altwies decision. We want to thank the Santa Fe Sheriff and the District Attorney for concluding their thorough investigation and determining that charges for involuntary manslaughter are warranted for the killing of Halyna Hutchins with conscious disregard for human life, the family said via attorney Brian J. Panish. Our independent investigation also supports charges are warranted. It is a comfort to the family that, in New Mexico, no one is above the law. We support the charges, will fully cooperate with this prosecution, and fervently hope the justice system works to protect the public and hold accountable those who break the law. The shooting took place at a western town built especially for filming in the state of New Mexico, which is why authorities from that state are charging Baldwin. According to Access Hollywood: Under New Mexico law, if found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, it is a fourth-degree felony, and they could face up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine. If found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act would require proof that there was more than simple negligence involved in a death. This charge is also a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in jail and up to a $5000 fine. This charge includes a firearm enhancement, a mandatory penalty, because a firearm was involved. The firearm enhancement makes the crime punishable by a mandatory five years in jail. If any one of these three peopleAlec Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed or David Hallshad done their job, Halyna Hutchins would be alive today. Its that simple, said Andrea Reeb, the special prosecutor appointed by the DA to try the case. The evidence clearly shows a pattern of criminal disregard for safety on the Rust film set. In New Mexico, there is no room for film sets that dont take our states commitment to gun safety and public safety seriously. Formal charges are expected to be filed by the end of January, the report added. There is a very clear process for pursuing justice in this case, Carmack-Altwies said. We are committed to upholding the integrity of that process to ensure equal justice under the law. Sources include: AccessHollywood.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Joshua Browder, the founder of DoNotPay, showed in a video shared on Twitter his newly launched artificial intelligence (AI) tools ability to handle customer service calls on behalf of users. Browder said using an AI-generated version of Browders own voice, it successfully requested a refund from Wells Fargo, a San Francisco-based multinational financial services company. The startup, which has been known for automating tasks such as appealing parking tickets and canceling subscriptions, markets this new robot system with the battle cry: Why endure a lengthy call with a bank when a convenient AI-powered bot can handle it for you? We plan on making the tool publicly available with a range of generic custom voices, but to have the users own voice will be a premium option, Browder told Motherboard in an online chat. The tweet has since been taken down for apparently violating the Twitter Rules. In the video, Bowders fake voice can be heard saying: Hi, Im calling to get a refund for wire transfer fees. The customer service representative then asked for the callers first and last name, which is a standard operating procedure for security and safety. The bot easily supplied the personal information. The AI and the agent then discussed the disputed wire transfer fees, ultimately settling on the fees charged over the past three months. Great Game India news site reported that the conversation between them sounded very stilted and unnatural as there were long pauses as the bot processed the representatives responses so it can banter. Its difficult not to feel sympathy for the Wells Fargo worker who had to remain silent while the bot performed its tasks. However, the bot appears to be successful in securing the requested refunds, based on the video, the article stated. As a usual sign of real peoples politeness and gratitude, the bot even closed the conversation by saying, thank you for your help. Browder also boasted how his bots called Wells Fargo a dozen times to test the flow. The British-American entrepreneur revealed that the tool was created using a combination of Resemble.ai (a platform that enables users to generate their own AI voices), GPT-J (an open-source casual language model) and DoNotPays own AI models for the script. Previously, DoNotPay employed AI-driven bots to negotiate Comcast bills. In a response statement, Wells Fargo said that upon reviewing the call recordings, the conversation didnt happen the way it was presented in the video. It appears the customers video recording of this call was edited to look like a bot was interacting with a customer service representative, the company stated, but Browder told Motherboard the video was not edited, except for removing his account number from the start of the clip. Bowder: Robot lawyer offers cheaper legal services Meanwhile, an AI court trial will take place in February, with a DoNotPay robot lawyer set to defend a human in court for the first time. (Related: Humans are no match for artificial intelligence Its not even close, says Nobel laureate.) Browder said his company will pay two defendants going to traffic court up to $1,000 each to wear smart glasses that will double up as their attorneys. The locations of the hearings have been undisclosed to prevent judges from derailing the stunts ahead of time. Each defendant will have the option to opt out if they choose. My goal is that the ordinary, average consumer never has to hire a lawyer again, the startup owner said. Bowder told the Daily Beast that the CatXQs smart glasses will record the proceedings and a chatbot that is built on OpenAIs GPT-3, famous for transcribing ballads and high school essays on demand, will offer legal arguments in real time. The glasses will have square lenses and a spindly black frame, which can connect to devices via Bluetooth and deliver sounds straight to the wearers cochlea, the hearing organ in the inner ear, through bone conduction, which is similar to how some hearing aids work. The chatbot will exist on the defendants phone as a regular app, absorbing audio through the devices microphone, and dictating legal arguments through the glasses. FutureTech.news has more stories on futuristic technology breakthroughs such as AI bots. Watch the video below where World Economic Forums top advisor Yuval Noah Harari revealed AI can take control over humanity. This video is from the Thrivetime Show channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: US military experimenting with artificial intelligence that can predict the future. EU proposing legislation to restrict facial recognition tech and high-risk artificial intelligence applications. What are the risks posed by artificial general intelligence? AI likely to WIPE OUT humanity, Oxford and Google researchers warn. Sources include: GreatGameIndia.com Twitter.com VICE.com TheDailyBeast.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) China is calling on the United Nations (UN) to hold a new international convention that will seek to criminalize the dissemination of false information online. The proposal was made by China during negotiations in Vienna, Austria about the provisions of a new UN treaty. There is broad support among the diplomats in the negotiations for a new UN convention, but there is disagreement on the details of what this convention will actually cover. (Related: Techno-authoritarianism is here to stay: China and the Deep State have joined forces.) There is already an existing international convention regarding cybercrime, known as the Budapest Convention. But thats not a UN treaty and not signed by China or by other major powers like Russia. Chinas proposal revolves around online content controls. The proposal would force the signatories of the treaty to introduce laws in their own nations that would make it a crime to spread so-called false information that could result in serious social disorder. The proposal reads: Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offenses, when committed intentionally and unlawfully, the publishing, distributing, transmitting or otherwise making available of false information that could result in serious social disorder, including but not limited to information related to natural and human-caused disasters. Chinese proposal likely to be strongly opposed The negotiations in Vienna regarding the specifics of a new treaty have categorized the proposals into two: proposals with broad support and those which are more contested. Provisions relating to controlling online content have all been placed in the more contested category. This means that these provisions will not be part of the immediate discussions regarding the language of the treaty. Many Western nations are expected to contest the Chinese proposal, seeing it as a potential threat to international human rights standards and also as a clear attempt to legitimize the repressive internet control mechanisms of China and other like-minded authoritarian governments. Karine Bannelier, an associate professor of international law at the Universite Grenoble Alps in France, noted that a similar proposal by Russia for dealing with content-related crimes has already been relegated to the category of contested provisions. Russias proposal was for a provision that criminalizes the distribution of materials that call for illegal acts motivated by political, ideological, social, racial, ethnic or religious hatred. One could then think that offenses related to online content, with their huge potential impact on human rights, will not reappear in the main draft, noted Bannelier. This was without counting on the skillful maneuvers of Chinese diplomats. Chinas proposal has not yet been cast aside. There will be several more rounds of negotiations in Vienna before a final consultation is held at the UN headquarters in New York City at the end of August. Find more stories about online censorship at Censorship.news. Watch this clip from the Joe Rogan Experience as geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan notes that China only has 10 years left in its existence. This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Is the CCP harvesting data on Americans from smart appliances? Chinese activist protests against Apples censorship, collusion with Beijing. Cybersecurity group: China behind online disinformation campaign that seeks to undermine US midterm elections. China opened overseas police stations in multiple countries to monitor citizens living abroad. Former Twitter employee: Staff at Big Tech firm feared Chinese agent could collect user data. Sources include: ReclaimTheNet.org TheRecord.media Brighteon.com (Natural News) A recent report revealed that conservatives have staged a boycott of home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond (BBB) after it cancelled MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell. According to a Jan. 18 post by the Gateway Pundit, BBB initially dropped MyPillow products from its stores in January 2021. The retailers move became a cause for celebration among liberals, including the MeidasTouch political action committee (PAC) established by the three Meiselas brothers. The PAC confronted BBB on Twitter, asking why the election integrity activist and entrepreneur was given both a wall display and why the retail chain stocked his products. It asked: Do you support martial law and insurrection? A later tweet by MeidasTouch confirmed that BBB has now officially dropped MyPillow, with the PAC thanking the store for siding with democracy. The retailer explained that it dropped Lindells products from its stores because they werent selling enough. As previously announced, we have been rationalizing our assortment to discontinue a number of under-performing items and brands. This includes the MyPillow product line, a BBB spokesperson told Yahoo Finance in a statement. Lindell insisted, however, that BBB ditching his products was political citing, in particular, his ties to former President Donald Trump. He also alleged that left-wing groups that attack with bots and trolls were pressuring retailers to stop doing business with him. Yahoo Finance also mentioned that several businesses have cut ties with Trump himself including Deutsche Bank, Shopify, Salesforce and Stripe. These businesses are scared because they think if they associate with Trump, theyre going to be attacked just like MyPillow is right now, said Lindell. Theyre afraid. Theyre very afraid for their own livelihood. Still, the MyPillow CEO reiterated that he will continue to stand by Trump regardless of any pressure it puts on his business. He also emphasized that the 2020 elections that put President Joe Biden in the White House was the most corrupt election in the history of the world. BBBs dropping of MyPillow comes at a huge price The Gateway Pundit piece stated that conservatives responded after BBB dissociated itself from MyPillow: Many boycotted BBB and bought directly from MyPillow. Now, BBB is closing stores nearly 150 at last count. It also attached screenshots of tweets from several users explaining why they patronized MyPillow. User @barbara_lampkin wrote: I stopped shopping [at BBB] and other places when they screwed Lindells MyPillow Company because [he] was revealing the truth about the stolen election. Go woke, go broke. User @patriothippieca, meanwhile, said she hasnt shopped at a BBB outlet since it discontinued carrying MyPillow. Ill take the inconvenience and rather shop direct, she remarked, adding that she needed a second set of sheets. I used to like [BBB], but I havent set foot inside one of their stores since they stabbed MyPillow in the back. I never will either, unless they bring back MyPillow, said user @YorakHu51501644. While BBBs dissociation with Lindell proved to be a golden opportunity for the entrepreneur and election integrity activist, it served as the beginning of the end for the home goods retailer. Aside from announcing the closure of around 150 stores across the country, BBB is now speaking with potential buyers to keep it afloat in case it files for bankruptcy. (Related: Bed Bath & Beyond bet on China and lost: After kicking Mike Lindells MyPillow to the curb, chain losing money and closing stores.) According to a CNBC report, BBB warned it may need to file for bankruptcy after its turnaround plans failed to substantially boost sales and repair its balance sheet. The company reported net losses that exceed $1.12 billion for the first nine months of the fiscal year. Watch Mike Lindell talk about how Minnesota Bank & Trust de-banked him and nine other entities connected to him on Bannons War Room. This video is from the Mainly Infowars/Banned.Video channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: LISTEN as Health Ranger talks to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell about America, prosperity and hope in Jesus. MyPillow founder Mike Lindell vows to sue DOJ, FBI after agency seized his cellphone: This has to stop. Right Side Broadcasting censored MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for warning about coronavirus vaccines. Dr. John Diamond calls for NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT of Hersheys products. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, related entities de-banked. Sources include: TheGatewayPundit.com Finance.Yahoo.com CNBC.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the state legislature to pass a law that would permanently outlaw all Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) mask and vaccine mandates in the Sunshine State. In a rally in Panama City Beach packed with the governors supporters, DeSantis called the measure making the mandate ban permanent a prescription for freedom that is necessary to keep the states economy open. He added that mask and vaccine mandates deny people from earning a living, prevent parents from sending their children to school, discriminate against people based on their vaccination status and silence doctors who spoke up regarding their opposition to mandatory health regulations. (Related: DeSantis says COVID jabs being used by globalist elites to depopulate the planet.) We believe theres no turning back from our direction, said DeSantis. This is just nuts that were still doing this. We need to lead with this by making all of these protections permanent in the Florida statutes, which we are going to do in the upcoming legislative session. Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart, co-hosts of TruNews, reported on this development and expressed their support. Im a proud Floridian. We have the best governor in the United States, said Wiles. Im very happy with Gov. DeSantis and Im glad Im living in the state of Florida. Id love to see Ron DeSantis in the White House, but I also dont want him to leave the State of Florida, he added. DeSantis proposal to expand on existing Florida laws DeSantis proposal will attempt to make permanent a series of laws passed by the Florida Legislature in November 2021 following a special session aimed at restricting businesses in the state from following federal directives requiring mask mandates or requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. If both houses of the state legislature approve of DeSantis wishes, the measure will continue to prohibit COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements in schools and government and prohibit vaccination requirements for travel or employment. DeSantis also wants the state government to expand these previous measures by prohibiting employers from being able to hire or fire Floridians based on vaccination status or wearing a mask. Furthermore, the governor wants to revive a failed proposal from last years legislative session that would make it more difficult for medical licensing boards to reprimand or sanction doctors for expressing views contrary to mainstream medical opinions. Being the free state of Florida did not happen by accident. It required us over the past few years to stand against major institutions in our society: The bureaucracy, the medical establishment, legacy media and even the president of the United States who, together, were working to impose a bio-medical security state on society, said DeSantis. The Florida Legislature reconvenes for its upcoming session in March. The set of provisions banning mask and vaccine mandates will expire on June 1, 2023. This will give the incoming legislature, which features a Republican supermajority in both houses, just three months to push through the permanent bans. Learn more about COVID-19 vaccine and mask policies at Pandemic.news. Watch this video from TruNews going in-depth on Gov. Ron DeSantis proposal to permanently ban mask and vaccine mandates. This video is from the TruNews channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Appeals court upholds decision to block Bidens COVID-19 vaccine mandate for government contractors. Ron DeSantis says Florida will petition state Supreme Court to empanel grand jury for coronavirus vaccine probe. DeSantis promises to hold Pfizer, Moderna accountable for making false claims about COVID vaccines. Tragedies lead doctors like Aseem Malhotra to question mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. Ben Armstrong lauds Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, lawyer Thomas Renz for exposing flaws of COVID-19 vaccines. Sources include: Brighteon.com OrlandoSentinel.com TampaBay.com Tallahassee.com (Natural News) FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke at the World Economic Forums meeting in Davos on Tuesday, accompanying his private meeting with banking leaders with a panel on cybersecurity. The panel on national security and cybersecurity focused on the conflict in Ukraine, using that war as a lens through which to discuss partnerships between tech companies and government, AI, and autonomous vehicles. (Article by Libby Emmons republished from ThePostMillennial.com) The sophistication of the private sector is improving, and particularly important, the level of collaboration between the private sector and the government. Especially the FBI has I think made significant strides. We are focused on looking at cyber attacks, Wray said. His comments are in-line with WEF founder Klaus Schwabs ideas on how leaders should master the future through public and private partnerships. We did see, as the conflict erupted and increased effort by the Russian intelligence services, which have been conducting malicious cyber activists against infrastructure for years, he continued. For Wray, any tech that is beneficial in US hands is somewhat terrifying when in the hands of American enemies. This he said specifically with regard to Chinas AI programs, saying they are the biggest hackers in the world. Wray was joined by tech leaders in the private sector, with Wireds Gideon Lichfield moderating the panel, Matthew Prince of CloudFlare, Jake Loosarian from Gecko Robotics, and Ukraines First Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. Prince was very clear on his stance on Ukraine, which he upheld with his company, but also said that those at Cloudflare were data scientists, not political scientists, and when there are issues, they check with the US government to find out how they should proceed in foreign countries. Cloudflare notes with pride on its blog that when Russia invaded Ukraine, Cloudflare jumped into action to provide services that could help prevent potentially destructive cyber attacks and keep the global Internet flowing. They say that cyberspace has been an active battlefield, and they have protected Ukrainian websites from attacks. Loosarian spoke about autonomous vehicles and robotics and their use in conflict. This is our moment, he said, And I think its also a moment for Silicon Valley tech companies to understand the importance of national security and working with governments to help protect western ideals. Svyrydenko believes that a bridge between public and private companies is key for Ukraine to succeed against Russia. This led Lichfield to ask about civil defense, if there are ways that people can tailor their behavior online to help Ukraine. Wrays appearance at the forum led Congressman Troy Nehls to ask what Wray was doing there at all. Wray has spoken at the WEF before, going back to 2020. Why is FBI Director Christopher Wray speaking at the World Economic Forum? Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) January 17, 2023 The competitive advantage the good guys have, said Wray, is that When were all working together, then theyre no match. Because the bad guys relationships with each other are purely transactional. And theyll turn on each other in a heartbeat if it suits them. But because theyre not constrained by the rule, because theyre not constrained by international norms, we have to be mindful of the advance that gives them and work together in partnership. Read more at: ThePostMillennial.com (Natural News) Leftists have taken over nearly every institution that made Western civilization so successful and great, including the Christian faith, as evidenced by the growing number of denominations now actively advocating the opposite of what Jesus and the Bible teach. The latest example comes from Germany, where a Catholic bishop there has just laid out new guidelines that require priests in the diocese to accept homosexuality and transgenderism, in direct conflict with Gods word. For the record, the Christian faith does not advocate harming or shunning such individuals (unlike other religions). Instead, the Bible simply describes what constitutes improper behavior in the context that man was put on this Earth to go forth and multiply and to live together with the opposite sex. The head of the German bishops Conference (DBK) introduced binding guidelines on sexual education for all parishes in his diocese that force them to accept and promote homosexuality and transgenderism, LifeSite News reported this week. According to these 10 guidelines, there is diversity in sexual identity and orientation.' The guidelines note further: The appreciative handling of these differences and diversity should be actively promoted in the parishes and institutions. The choice of lifestyle is to be respected as the result of an individual and personal decision. It is to be recognized when partners take responsibility for each other in mutual fidelity and care. Furthermore, we welcome it when couples wish to place their partnership under the blessing of God. These guidelines were established by Bishop Georg Batzing, who heads the heterodox Synodal Way as well as the DBK, on May 17, 2022, but they were just revealed this week during an online event from the diocese of Limburg, LifeSite News continued. Every person has the right to sexual self-determination and the free choice over their own life decisions, the guidelines say, according to the outlet. This must be promoted and respected. Sexual self-determination also apparently means including transgenderism because the guidelines also mention people who feel neither as a woman nor as a man. It must be a goal that people are supported in their sexual self-determination, to which every person has a right, the guidelines continue. This requires that people are supported and encouraged in this freedom, but at the same time strengthened to refrain from behavior that impairs or harms other people in their self-determination. LifeSite News noted further: According to this passage, priests would be forbidden to call to repentance Catholics who engage in sinful sexual acts, including homosexual acts, since that would impair or harm them in their sexual self-determination. Batzings new guidelines are in direct opposition to the immutable teaching of the Catholic Church on sexuality. The Catholic Church has infallibly taught since its beginning that homosexual acts are gravely sinful and that same-sex attraction is disordered. Heres what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, however, per the outlet: Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity (Cf. Genesis 19:1-29; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:10; 1 Timothy 1:10), tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,?Persona humana, 8). They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.?Under no circumstances can they be approved. As such, no member of the Church can simply alter teachings about acts of homosexuality because they are intrinsically disordered, per the Catechism. So, these acts are always sinful regardless of the circumstances; homosexual acts are contrary to natural law since, according to the Church, the natural end of sex is to conceive a child. But heres whats going on. Church attendance has been falling steadily for years, so in response, members of the Church are trying to bend the rules to attract more people, even if they have to do so by breaking tradition. Only, the more they break tradition, the more faithful leave the Church. Western society is on a crash course with the ashbin of history. Its inevitable at this point. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS) announced this week that it has begun auditing the nations nursing homes to see if they are accurately diagnosing and treating elderly patients for schizophrenia. Because of widespread overuse and abuse of antipsychotic pharmaceutical medications in seniors, CMS says it aims to crack down on the drug abuse problem plaguing Americas nursing homes. People in nursing homes deserve safe, high-quality care, and we are redoubling our oversight efforts to make sure that facilities are not prescribing unnecessary medications, said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the CMS administrator. The results of the audit will be used as data in determining ratings for the nations nursing homes. Those found to be overprescribing the drugs or handing them out like candy to residents will receive lower scores than ones that are properly caring for residents. Many nursing homes are dangerously sedating residents with schizophrenia drugs as a way to keep them docile and easy to manage while raking in the dough each month for their boarding. This is against the law, though it is a widespread problem in the United States. Some 80 percent of Medicares long-stay nursing home residents were prescribed at least one psychotropic drug from 2011 to 2019, according to a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General report from last November. That figure includes the antipsychotic drugs that CMS has targeted, as well as anticonvulsants, which the inspector general said were being increasingly used in nursing homes, reported The Wall Street Journal. (Related: Eli Lillys schizophrenia drug Zyprexa Relprevv, a spinoff of Zyprexa, is linked to death.) Many elderly nursing home residents without mental illness are given antipsychotics just to keep them quiet and docile A shocking number of prescriptions from 2011 were found by the inspector general to not meet federal standards, which has harmed and killed many nursing home residents who were not even mentally ill and never should have received the drugs in the first place. The nursing home industry has used for decades these antipsychotic medications as a way to sedate our most frail and vulnerable citizens, said Martha Deaver, an Arkansas-based advocate for nursing-home residents and their families. This is an issue that could have been remedied. Many lives would have been saved if CMS had done their job, through different administrations. The new plan at CMS, which was already supposed to have been monitoring drugging practices at nursing homes, is to conduct targeted audits of nursing homes with a pattern of incorrect schizophrenia diagnoses. Those found to be inappropriately drugging residents will see their star rating drop on Medicares Care Compare website. The inspection reports will also be made public, even if the nursing homes in question are disputing their claims. Previously, these reports were not made public until the dispute process was complete, a process that can take two months or longer. A nursing homes star rating would not drop until after the dispute process was complete, but in the meantime the public would be able to see the report and decide whether or not the facility is a proper fit. There are also efforts afoot by the federal government to crack down on antipsychotic overuse among legitimate mental patients. In 2012, CMS introduced a program specifically for people with dementia to help them cut back on the use of antipsychotic drugs. Four years later, CMS announced that it had met its goal of cutting such prescriptions by 30 percent, though the entity is still encouraging nursing homes to continue aiming for reduced use of these mind-altering medications. The latest news about dangerous and ineffective Big Pharma drugs can be found at BadMedicine.news. Sources for this article include: WSJ.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) New research by top U.S. government scientists has found that people exposed to the widely used weed-killing chemical glyphosate have biomarkers in their urine linked to the development of cancer and other diseases. (Article by Carey Gillam republished from TheNewLede.org) The study, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, measured glyphosate levels in the urine of farmers and other study participants and determined that the presence of high levels of the pesticide was associated with signs of a reaction in the body called oxidative stress, a condition that causes damage to DNA. Oxidative stress is considered by health experts as a key characteristic of carcinogens. The authors of the paper 10 scientists with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and two from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that their study contributes to the weight of evidence supporting an association between glyphosate exposure and oxidative stress in humans. They also noted that accumulating evidence supports the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of hematologic cancers, such as lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia. Oxidative stress is not something you want to have, said Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist and former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. This study increases our understanding that glyphosate has the potential to cause cancer. The study findings come after the CDC reported last year that more than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults contained glyphosate. The CDC reported that out of 2,310 urine samples taken from a group of Americans intended to be representative of the U.S. population, 1,885 were laced with detectable traces of glyphosate. Glyphosate is the most heavily applied herbicide in history, both in the U.S. and globally. One of the best-known glyphosate-based products is Monsantos Roundup weedkiller. Roundup has been used by farmers as well as consumers for more than 40 years. Officials with Monsanto and its German owner Bayer AG have always assured the public and regulators that exposure to the weedkiller does not pose a threat to human health. Bayer said the new NIH study has many significant methodological limitations that affects its reliability, and said the results conflict with other government research. The increased oxidative stress found in the study could have been caused by any number of non-glyphosate related factors or a combination of them, and the study does not support the conclusion that glyphosate is the cause, Bayer said in a statement. People are exposed to glyphosate by using products made with the chemical and also by eating food and drinking water contaminated with the pesticide. Scientists have found glyphosate residues in an array of popular foods and in waterways across the U.S. Notably, in the new paper, the NIH and CDC scientists said that while their study focused on farmers who were exposed to glyphosate when they sprayed it on fields, they saw similar results in non-farmers. The findings suggest these effects may apply more broadly to the general population who are primarily exposed through ingestion of contaminated food and water or residential applications, the study authors wrote. The study is so significant that it warrants regulatory attention, said some independent scientists. This is a top level team of investigators and a highly credible study to which regulators need to pay attention, said Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who worked for years at the CDC and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and now directs the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. Michael Antoniou, a scientist with the department of medical and molecular genetics at Kings College in London who has been researching glyphosate for years, said the results were worrying, with major health implications. Critical timing The new government-funded study comes at a time when both the EPA and European regulators are completing updated assessments of glyphosate safety, and as health advocates are pushing for limits on use of the chemical or requirements that products such as Roundup be labeled with a cancer warning. A European Food Safety Authority spokesperson said the agency was aware of the study and would consider whether or not the findings add new evidence as the agency completes its new glyphosate assessment. The agencys conclusions are due in July. The EPA also said it was looking over the new study and would carefully review the findings as it finalizes its assessment. EPA takes very seriously our duty to protect human health and the environment, the agency said in a statement. The study also comes as Monsanto and Bayer remain mired in litigation brought by tens of thousands of cancer patients who claim exposure to Roundup caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The company has already agreed to pay out more than $11 billion to settle the bulk of the claims without admitting any liability but many cases have not settled and civil trials are continuing. Bayer is also facing a surge in investor unrest and calls for a break-up and the ouster of top leaders after the company lost 40% of its market value following its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto. Bayer maintains that glyphosate does not cause cancer and that products made with it can be used safely. The company states on its website that EPA and other regulatory reviews provide an extensive body of research that back the companys safety pledge. Though some countries have moved to ban glyphosate products, regulatory agencies in many countries say there is a lack of evidence connecting glyphosate herbicides to cancer, and that it is one of the safest and most effective herbicides available. Last year, a risk assessment committee of the European Chemicals Agency concluded after reviewing multiple studies that there was no justification for classifying glyphosate as a carcinogen. Many large U.S. farm groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Cotton Council and American Sugarbeet Growers Association, also say that glyphosate doesnt cause cancer. The EPA has said for years that it considers glyphosate as not likely to be carcinogenic, and in a 2020 updated review, the agency reiterated it saw no human health risks of concern. But the agency was forced to withdraw that safety determination last year after a federal appellate court invalidated the EPAs assessment. The court ruling said that the EPA did not properly follow scientific guidelines when it determined glyphosate was not carcinogenic, ignoring expert advice from scientific advisers, and using inconsistent reasoning. The EPA now is revisiting its glyphosate evaluation and expects to issue a decision for glyphosate in 2026. Cancer not only concern Debate over the safety of glyphosate has persisted for years and intensified after the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a unit of the World Health Organization, declared it probably carcinogenic to humans in 2015. The new findings are not the first to look at glyphosate and oxidative stress. Animal studies and cellular studies have also found an association. But there are only a handful of such studies in humans. The NIH study is the largest investigation to date of the relationship between glyphosate exposure and oxidative stress markers, said Jonathan Hofmann, an author of the study from the NIHs National Cancer Institute. Scientists say it is important to examine substances that may cause oxidative stress because a large body of scientific evidence suggests that long-term oxidative stress contributes to the development not only of cancer but also a range of chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and reproductive problems, including male infertility. One prior human study related to glyphosate and oxidative stress was published last year by a team of scientists specializing in public and environmental health at several U.S. universities. Those researchers analyzed 347 urine samples collected from pregnant women, finding that higher levels of oxidative stress biomarkers were seen in the samples containing concentrations of aminomethyl phosphonic acid, a substance created when glyphosate breaks down in soil and water. The authors of that paper noted that glyphosate and aminomethyl phosphonic acid have been shown to disrupt hormone function and warned that more research was needed due to glyphosates persistence within the environment, and potential for adverse effects during pregnancy. The new NIH study is considered part of the Agricultural Health Study, a long-term examination of the health impacts of pesticide use on farmers funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in collaboration with the EPA. Other Agricultural Health studies have provided sometimes conflicting findings on the question of whether or not glyphosate can cause cancer, but the scientists authoring the latest research said their study was distinctive for several reasons, including using urinary glyphosate exposure measurements and pesticide exposure histories for study subjects and including people who are not farmers. The researchers said that though the associations between glyphosate and biomarkers of oxidative stress mainly appear to reflect effects of recent occupational exposure, there was also some evidence of associations with longer-term exposure. Investigators at the NIH are exploring potential opportunities to follow up on these findings and address needs for future research, Hofmann said. Lorette Picciano, executive director of the Rural Coalition alliance of farm workers, said she hopes the EPA will pay attention to the study. People are dying of these cancers, she said. This study is very important. Read more at: TheNewLede.org (Natural News) The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) has banned the use of Chinese video app TikTok on campus networks, following security concerns brought up by state and federal officials. UT Austin announced in Jan. 17 that it is permanently blocking TikToks access on its systems. Devices connected to the campus network via Wi-Fi or wired connections will be prohibited from accessing the app. The move was in line with an order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott banning all state employees and officers from downloading or using TikTok on government-issued devices. The university is taking these important steps to eliminate risks to information contained in the universitys network, and to our critical infrastructure, wrote Jeff Nyland, adviser to the UT president for technology strategy. As outlined in the governors directive, TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users devices including when, where and how they conduct internet activity and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government. Nyland wrote that legitimate uses of TikTok to support university functions will be considered. However, an exemption must first be requested through UTs Information Security Office. The said exemption must ultimately be reviewed and approved by the university president, university chancellor and the governors office. Once approved, any exemptions will require TikTok to be accessed on an isolated, single-purpose university-issued device not connected to the universitys Wi-Fi or wired network. UT Austin is not the only higher education institution that banned TikTok. In December 2022, the University of Oklahoma announced it would ban internet access to TikTok. This followed an executive order by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt banning government networks and devices from accessing the video-sharing app. Boise State University also blocked access to TikTok on its networks following an order from Idaho Gov. Brad Little. It said students who want to access the app may do so using their own mobile data plan. Auburn University also blocked the app on its network after a similar edict by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. (Related: Alabama, Utah ban TikTok on state-owned devices over security concerns.) TikTok now banned in several states State and federal officials are concerned about whether the Chinese government can access data from American users through TikTok. At least 25 states have announced prohibitions on TikTok, citing national security concerns. In December 2022, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced a ban on TikTok. His edict ordered that state employees may not download the app, access it or visit any TikTok website on state-owned devices. Coxs order applies to all agencies under the executive branch in the Beehive State. Chinas access to data collected by TikTok presents a threat to our cybersecurity, thbige governor said in a statement. As a result, weve deleted our TikTok account and ordered the same on all state-owned devices. We must protect Utahns and make sure that the people of Utah can trust the states security systems. In late November 2022, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem announced a ban on TikTok on state-owned devices through an executive order that immediately took effect. South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence-gathering operations of nations who hate us, she said in a press release. The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they gather data off the devices that access the platform. Watch this G News report about Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan banning TikTok on state devices. This video is from the Chinese taking down EVIL CCP channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: US lawmakers unveil bipartisan bill to ban TikTok. Indiana sues Tiktok over consumer data access and sexual content. Taiwan bans TikTok from government devices, mulls nationwide prohibition. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem bans TikTok on state-owned devices, citing apps intelligence gathering operations. Sources include: SCMP.com IT.UTexas.edu MSN.com= BusinessInsider.com Brighteon.com Climate change remains a pressing environmental issue that scientists have warned for many years. Even after two decades of the 21st century, the narrative of an ongoing climate crisis is still alive and hints a threat about the reality of a warming planet and changing climate patterns. These alterations to Earth's climate and global temperature leads to extreme weather events. In previous studies, evidence of climate change includes rapid glacier melt, intensifying storms, worsening heatwaves and droughts, and global sea level rise. The overwhelming impact of the climate emergency is the scientific community's blame on human activities, such as greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel burning, for accelerating the greenhouse effect where the gases trap solar heat in the atmosphere. Amid the evidence provided by climate scientists, there are still non-believers of the existence of the current climate crisis. While the United Nations (UN) and some of its member states have pledged to take action, climate change deniers only add strain to the climate change debate. One of the main arguments of the so-called 'doubters' is that scientists provide unrealistic and exaggerated climate models. What is Climate Change? Climate change is a phenomenon which pertains to long-term shifts in weather patterns and temperatures. These alterations were initially natural such as variations in the solar cycle. However since the 1800s, human activities have been the main cause of climate change, primarily due to the burning of coal, oil, and gas, which produced the heat-trapping gases, according to the UN. The evident existence of climate change has been provided by various research which used different climate models, with a majority predicting that extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts, and storms could further intensify by the years 2030, 2050, and 2100. To address this issue, the UN-led 2015 Paris Agreement requests member states to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to fulfill the objectives of the Paris Treaty of reducing the global temperature to at least 1.5 degrees Celsius. Moreover, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the world is unable to complete remove all emissions, which means that reaching net zero emissions requires removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through both natural and mechanical means, as cited by Phys.org. Also Read: Comedian John Oliver and Bill Nye Team Up to Defend Climate Change (VIDEO) Climate Change Deniers According to the UN, even if as high as 97% percent of climate scientists collectively agree that climate change is happening, and assert that it is extremely likely because of human activity, many Americans disagree. Some people from other countries around the world also share the same sentiment, claiming climate change has no basis. As a means to inform or educate the doubters, the National Education Association (NEA) outlines its recommendations to end the climate change debate: Stop the debate. Data is not always the answer. Take a local approach. Make it fun. Get some help. The NEA generally suggests that holistic approach without only relying on numeric data should be applied to climate change deniers, who reportedly are also denying science itself. Related Article: Climate Change 'Deniers' Are Becoming More Influential, Experts Say A polar bear that had been chasing locals in a small, remote community in Alaska killed a mother and her 1-year-old son, according to state troopers on Tuesday. According to the report, the bear attacked the two victims and was shot dead by another local. After entering Wales in western Alaska, the bear chased locals before attacking the boy and woman, according to an Alaska State Troopers dispatch report. As soon as the weather permits, Troopers as well as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are planning to travel to Wales. According to the US Census, Wales, which is located on the coast of western Alaska, has 168 residents. Summer Myomick, a resident of Saint Michael, is identified as the adult female killed in the attack. She was 24 years old. Her one-year-old son Clyde Ongtowasruk was also killed by the bear in the attack According to a report from the Alaska State Troopers, next of kin have been informed. Extremely Rare Polar Bear Attacks Polar bear attacks on people are incredibly uncommon, according to a 2017 study by The Wildlife Society. The study claims that between 1870 and 2014, there were 73 documented wild polar bear attacks across the five polar bear range states, including Canada, Norway, Greenland, Russia, and the United States, resulting in 20 human fatalities and 63 injuries. But as CNN previously reported, the melting of the ice as a result of climate change has prompted a shift in bear behavior and increased the likelihood of bear encounters with humans. In 2021, locals in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, which is referred to as the "polar bear capital of the world," told CNN that bear encounters were becoming more frequent. Each fall, thousands of tourists travel there in the hopes of spotting a bear. Bear Season Just before Hudson Bay refreezes and bears start to migrate north and assemble near the shore, bear season in the region peaks in October and November. According to locals, the bear season has lasted longer recently due to climate change. Because of earlier melting and later freezing, bears are spending more time on land. However, AccuWeather's data collection and reporting show that attacks on people are still relatively uncommon. The last one occurred in 2013, based on the Reuters news agency, and CNN reported that there had not been a fatal attack ever since the early 1980s. Also Read: Mating Brown and Polar Bear Gives Way to Climate Change-Resilient 'Brolar' Bear What to Do During a Bear Encounter Churchill has a population of only 900, they know to always be vigilant and ready for anything. Additionally, it's common to leave car doors unlocked, just in case someone needs to run for safety from a bear while they are outside. Carlos Osorio, a photographer who visited Churchill, advised having a vehicle, a companion, or a way to frighten a bear. Some people shoot whatever weapons they have into the air while carrying shotguns. People without a permit to carry guns could instead use "bear bangers," which are essentially really loud cap guns with a small flare on them. According to reports from CNN, if they find themselves in a situation like that, the citizens of Churchill will use that method to scare the bear away. Related Article: Canadian Polar Bears Dying Out, Populations Down to 600 in Polar Bear Capital of the World Near Chamberlain, South Dakota, a bison skull fossil was recently found in the Missouri River. Locals in Kansas discovered the fossil, which is thought to be about 10,000 years old when the river was at a low level because of the drought. The skull was discovered by two Kansas City residents named Mike Ruth and Dave Jamerson while they were exploring close to some recently discovered flow dykes in Riverfront Park, which were abnormally dry as a result of the drought's effects on the river. The enormous skull, which was covered in mud and mussels, was then discovered by the two. The enormous skull, which was covered in mud and mussels, was then discovered by the two. Ruth told KCTV5 that it was immediately obvious that it was a really cool item of interest. Jamerson stated that he assumed it to be a bison right away. Missouri River Water Levels This unexpected fossil treasure was discovered by Jamerson and Ruth thanks to the unusually low river levels. The Missouri River has been unusually low over the past year, and as of October 2022, 90% of the Missouri River basin was experiencing some kind of drought or abnormally dry weather. According to the US Drought Monitor, Kansas City, which is located on the border of Kansas and Missouri, is currently undergoing abnormally dry weather. On October 18, 2013, three months prior, Kansas City was experiencing "extreme drought," the second-worst type of drought according to the Drought Monitor. The Missouri River level is currently 4.9 feet, having dropped to a low of 1.3 feet on December 29. This is in high contrast to June 2022, when the Missouri River's Kansas City gauge recorded a river height of up to 20 feet. Also Read: Fossil Found in Scottish Highlands Spark Speculation About Scotland's National Animal: The Unicorn Bison Antiquus The skull may actually belong to an extinct species known as bison antiquus, or the antique bison, claims Melissa Eaton, the Metropolitan Community College's Longview Campus social science department chair and the Kansas City Archaeological Society president. She told KCTV5 that the skull's top is beautiful and that the horns are a fantastic set. Bison antiquus was the dominant species in this region ten thousand years ago. It is estimated that bison antiquus, which crossed a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska around 240,000 to 220,000 years ago, went extinct around 10,000 years ago. Modern bison is about 6.6 feet tall and can weigh up to 2,800 pounds, but these bison were larger, reaching a height of 7.4 feet and weighing up to 3,500 pounds, according to Warkworth Western Weekend Rodeo. According to Eaton, this particular fossil discovery was unusual because of its size and degree of preservation. Eaton added that she would have been thrilled to discover this and that it's pretty remarkable. Even though Jamerson and Ruth are still deciding what to do with their find, they are happy to have found this unusual specimen, Newsweek reports. Missouri River Fossils In August of 2022, a man who joined a tournament threw a bad cast into the waters of the Missouri River. He later realized, what he saw in the water was something different. When he called an expert, they found out that it was a 90-million-year-old fossil. They later nicknamed the fossil "Bulldog Fish," according to KETV7 Omaha. Related Article: 5 Extinct Animals and Endangered Species That Came Back to Life Scientists discovered 10 crocodile mummies in an Egyptian tomb close to the Nile River. These crocodiles may have been dead for more than 2,500 years when they were preserved in a ritual likely to honor Sobek, a fertility god revered in ancient Egypt. The remains of 10 adult crocodiles, most likely from two different species, were recently discovered in a tomb at Qubbat al-Hawa located on the west bank of the Nile River. Among them were the mummies. Crocodile Mummies and Ancient Egyptian Culture De Cupere studies everything, including animal prints, coprolites (or fossilized feces), bones, teeth, and shells. She explained that when archaeologists are excavating, her team will be called upon if they come across animal remains that they deem to be interesting. One of the ten adult crocodile remains that were discovered was nearly complete, measuring over seven feet long. Of the ten, five were decapitated heads, and the remaining five were in various stages of completion. Since linen bandages secured by resin are frequently found wrapped around animal mummies and human mummies, scientists must use methods like CT scans or X-rays to see through the material. Crocodylus Suchus and Crocodylus Niloticus The lack of resin in the Qubbat al-Hawa crocodiles and the fact that the only linen fragments were nearly completely devoured by insects allowed the researchers to analyze the mummies found at the excavation site. The team proposed that the majority of the crocodiles in the tomb belong to one species, Crocodylus suchus. Meanwhile, the others were Crocodylus niloticus. This assumption is based on the arrangement of the animals' bony plates, or scutes, and the shape of their skulls. Salima Ikram, an American University Egyptologist in Cairo who was not involved in the study, said that since Niloticus will eat a human prey, whereas Suchus allows the human prey to theoretically swim in the same pool and live, gathering this kind of information supplied insight into ancient Egyptian understanding of the distinctive behaviors of these two crocodile species. Noticeably, the Egyptians interact with these species. This is according to research published in Nature detailing the two species found in the Nile. Also Read: 'Dragon of Death' - Fossils of Massive Reptile Unearthed in Argentina Lack of Resin The absence of resin also suggested that the crocodiles were likely mummified by being entombed in the hot, sandy soil, where they naturally dried out before being entombed. The researchers proposed that this process occurred prior to the Ptolemaic period, which lasted from 332 BC to 30 BC. De Cupere explained that the ancient Egyptians used a ton of resin starting in the Ptolemaic period. The group proposed that the crocodile mummies were interred sometime in the fifth century BC when Egyptians began to increasingly practice animal mummification. However, radiocarbon dating will be necessary to be certain. The researchers anticipate having the opportunity to conduct DNA testing and such dating in the foreseeable future to confirm the two species. Dr. Jimenez Serrano claims that the discovery of these mummies provides fresh insights into ancient Egyptian religion as well as the treatment of these animals as offerings. The discovery by De Cupere, Jimenez, and several colleagues, was detailed in the journal PLoS ONE on Wednesday. The relationship between the Qubbat al-Hawa necropolis and the people, from the earliest burials more than 4,000 years ago to the present, is another important aspect of Ikram's view of these discoveries. Ikram raised questions such as, how these tombs were perceived by the locals. What were these tombs used for? He pointed out that these tombs had afterlives and lives, the New York Times reports. Related Article: Ancient Maya City Layout Resembles a Crocodile: Symbolism or Happenstance? - Scientists Discuss To stop the emerald ash borer from spreading, the Oregon Department of Agriculture imposed a temporary quarantine in Washington County in December. The short-term quarantine started on December 20 and will last until May 16. The quarantine prevents the transport of any ash, olive, or white fringe tree materials outside of Washington County. This includes firewood made from hardwood species as well as logs, green lumber, scion wood, bud wood, nursery stock, chips, mulch and stumps, roots, and branches. Emerald Ash Borer in Washington County State officials are attempting to stop the emerald ash borer from continuing to spread to other Oregon counties even though it has only been found in Washington County thus far. The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) has implemented a temporary EAB quarantine in response to the discovery of the emerald ash borer (EAB) in accordance with Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR 603-052-0135). In June 2022, several ash trees in Forest Grove were found to have the invasive pest, which was then the first time it was seen in Oregon. This was also the emerald ash borer's first confirmed sighting along the West Coast. Outside of Forest Grove, the insect has not been found anywhere else in Washington County. A Decade of Killing Ash Trees In some parts of North America, these invasive and destructive beetles have decimated up to 99% of the ash trees. As the invasive emerald ash borer continues to spread across the nation, at least five Central American native ash species have become critically endangered. Ash trees in Europe and other regions of North America have also been severely damaged by the emerald ash borer. Ash tree bark is penetrated by its larvae, which results in the death of the canopy and the eventual death of the affected trees. According to the Oregon Department of Forestry, most ash trees would be dead or dying within ten years of the emerald ash borer's arrival in a region, endangering the native Oregon ash tree. Also Read: 1.4 Million Urban Trees Will Be Dead By 2050 Due to Infestation of Invasive Species Invasive Emerald Ash Borer The emerald ash borer is about half an inch long and an eighth of an inch wide. It is renowned for its shiny, metallic green hue. Trees with thinning and yellowing leaves, split bark, D-shaped holes in the bark, and basal shoots may be infested. The general public can take action to slow the emerald ash borer's spread. The first step is to report any and all beetle sightings. The Oregon Invasive Species Council Hotline encourages people to report emerald ash borer sightings online. Ash trees should be taken off the list of permitted street trees, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry. Officials advise replacing the ash trees with resistant species like Chinese pistache, Oregon white oak, and incense cedar. To prevent the spread of ash, olive, and white fringe tree materials, the Oregon Department of Agriculture is developing several processing and disposal facilities in the quarantine zone surrounding Washington County. A list of locations to dispose of tree debris is available online. The department stated that it will assess upcoming quarantine criteria as more information becomes available, KOIN6 reports. Related Article: Emerald Ash Borers Strike Again, Minnesota's Hennepin County Ash Trees Take the Hit The Harris hawk kept by Zoo Atlanta passed away from severe injuries sustained during what is believed to have been a brawl with a mystery wild animal that snuck into the bird's enclosure. This week, a beloved member of the World of Wild Theater at Zoo Atlanta passed away. According to zoo officials, Tahoe the Harris hawk, who was 23 years old, got into a brawl with an unknown wild animal in his secure outdoor mew and later passed away from his wounds. What animal attacked Tahoe and how it entered his cage are still unknown. The Animal Care and Veterinary Teams at Zoo Atlanta stated on Facebook that they take every precaution to ensure the security of all of their animals and the housing facilities they are housed in, while also appreciating the fact that, thanks to their fortunate park location, the zoo shares its grounds with local wildlife. The zoo teams have proactively evaluated each of the bird mews in the World of Wild Theater and are taking further preventative steps, such as searching the area for hair, feces, or other sources that may shed light. Tahoe the Harris Hawk Tahoe entered the Zoo the same year she was born, in 1999. As he educated numerous zoo visitors about his species, Tahoe became renowned for his daring aerial maneuvers and magic tricks. The Southwest region of the United States is home to Harris hawks, also referred to as "the wolves of the sky." Rebecca Young, the curator of Ambassador Animals, claimed that Tahoe genuinely appeared to enjoy flying low enough to cause a commotion and seemed to enjoy his advantages of flights above an audience. The team member who knew Tahoe the best was Young. She claimed Tahoe was a bird who made people earn their relationship with him and then made them work some more to maintain it. Tahoe's cause of death is still under investigation by Zoo Atlanta, WSBTV reports. Also Read: Japanese Aquarium Penguins Refuse to Feed on Cheaper Fish Harris Hawks According to data from All About Birds, the Harris's Hawk, a dashing hawk of the arid Southwest, stands out for its bold markings colored chestnut red, dark brown, and white, as well as its long yellow legs and yellow spots on its face. These birds work cooperatively at nests and engage in team-based hunting, making them the most social raptors in North America. A group of hawks will surround their prey during a hunt, flush it for another hawk to catch, or alternately chase it. Due to its social nature and relative comfort around people, this hawk is well-liked by falconers and used in educational programs. According to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, only two species of raptors are known to hunt in groups, and Harris hawks are one of them. Harris' hawks have an incredible vision that may be eight times better than that of humans. Many predators have trouble getting to these birds' nests because they are high up in saguaro cacti or trees. Members of the group will also use alarm calls or harassment of any animals that pose a threat to the nest to deter predators. Great horned owls, common ravens, coyotes, and bobcats are a few examples of predators. Related Article: Electrocuted Critically Endangered Cuban Crocodile Housed at Smithsonian Dies, Pen Closed Indefinitely Just Yolkin a new restaurant at Village at the Crossing in southwest Champaign is set to open as soon as the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District issues the required permit. Download Now The News-Gazette mobile app brings you the latest local breaking news, updates, and more. Read the News-Gazette on your mobile device just as it appears in print. As much as my thank-yous (for city staff's response) are sincere, Im just shaking my head that this is even needed, that were even at this point. This is something that shouldnt have happened in the first place," Matt Gladney says. A member of the 169th Cyber Protection Team and members of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina conduct cyber adversarial exercises at the Pvt. Henry Costin Readiness Center in Laurel, Maryland, on June 29, 2022. Zero trust architecture increases network security by continuously authenticating, authorizing and validating users to access applications and data. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Tom Lamb) We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Agencies | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Bahrain and US military personnel are participating in a 10-day naval exercise on and off the coast of Bahrain. The exercise, which began on Sunday aims at enhancing collaboration and interoperability amount the Bahrain Defence Force, the Ministry of Interior and US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT). We are very excited to begin the new year training side by side with the Kingdom of Bahrain, a longstanding, strategic partner, said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of NAVCENT and US 5th Fleet. Cooper also leads the Combined Maritime Forces and the International Maritime Security Construct, two U.S.-led international naval coalitions hosted in Bahrain. Each year, our mutual commitment to regional maritime security and stability strengthens and expands, and this year is no different, said Cooper. Agencies | Davos The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Bahrain delegates successfully concluded their participation in the World Economic Forum 2023 yesterday in the Swiss city of Davos held this year with the title cooperation in a divided world. Bahrains delegation to the forum, headed by Noor Bint Ali Al Khulaif, the Minister of Sustainable Development, highlighted investment opportunities and Bahrains achievements within the economic recovery plan before decision-makers from all over the globe. Abdulla bin Adel Fakhro, Minister of Industry and Commerce, Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer of Osool and Chairman of Bahrain Telecommunications Company B.S.C (Batelco), Khalid Humaidan, Chief Executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), Iain Lindsay OBE, Advisor to the Board at the EDB, Dr. Samer Al Jishi, Group President of BFG International, and Hala Al-Moayyed, Vice Chairman of the Board at AlMoayyed International Group were part of the delegation. The delegates highlighted the unique investment opportunities of Bahrain to decision-makers in various business sectors and achievements under the Economic Recovery Plan. Minister Al-Khulaif participated in three plenary sessions on Formulating the Future: How Women Are Shaping Sustainability Across Sectors, Between Liquidity and Fragility: Reforming in MENA and accelerating clean energy. She also took part in a plenary session on climate change in the Middle East, along with Industry and Commerce Minister, and another on Sustainable and Digital FDI, alongside EDBs CEO. EDB chief, Humaidan, participated in three plenary sessions, themed Developing New Realities: Redirected Focus in a Changing World, Bricks or Clicks: What Kind of Investment do Economies Need? and Busting Business Barriers. Delegates also held multiple strategic meetings and networking events to attract more investments to boost job creation and the economy. The event saw global leaders and business executives exchanging views over how the world will tackle its biggest issues in 2023, as Greta Thunberg and activists called on the energy industry to stop hijacking the transition to clean power. Davos also expressed cautious optimism saying that the global economic outlook for the year ahead looking better than feared. Meanwhile, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said yesterday it was sticking with its 1% projection for global trade growth in 2023 - for now. Director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the WTO was not revising down its projection. The next assessment will be in April, she said. The carbon crowd too received a warm reception as the renewable industry rubbed shoulders with Big Oil executives. After a year of high oil prices, fossil fuel producers said they have the firepower to invest in green energy. Political leaders like Kier Starmer railed against new oil investments and Pakistani climate minister Sherry Rehman pushed for loss and damage funding. China declared itself open for business in a speech by Vice-Premier Liu He that was broadly welcomed, as the European Union said it would mobilize state aid and a sovereignty fund to keep firms from moving to the United States. The key question is not China First, US First, Europe First. The key question for all of us is Climate First. - French economy minister Bruno Le Maire. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Reported by Julia Cassano Bahrain is working to adopt various emerging technologies to further its goals and to establish itself as a regional pioneer, according to a report by the national portal bahrain.bh. The emerging tech, the report adds, supports technology-driven businesses and encourages them to progress the economy. The strategy is in line with Economic Vision 2030 and the commitment to transform government services to ensure a better quality of life for citizens and residents. Dr Jassim Haji, President of the International Group of Artificial Intelligence, says this strategy benefits the Kingdom and its citizens dearly. Historically, Bahrain has been a pioneer in technology, he told the Daily Tribune, highlighting: The first CPU was installed in 1940 in Awali, and the first computing exhibition in the Middle East was in Hoora in 1977. For decades, the Kingdom has worked to develop technology, which, in turn, has supported the economy in various sectors. Besides, the liberalisation of the telecom sector, a first in the Gulf, gave the economy a new direction. Being a pioneer in the region has helped the Kingdom to develop strategies, mainly for 5G in telecom. Advances in Fintech and Blockchain banking secured financial activities, producing substantial impacts on the Kingdom. Some of the most impactful developments in technology and infrastructure in Bahrain boosted sectors such as aviation, banking, telecommunications, factories, and oil and gas. The deployment of modern technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) further boosted efforts. AI and modern technologies are expanding businesses across the public sector and helped the judicial sector to streamline procedures. All these development, Dr Haji noted, is helping Bahrain present itself as a hub of AI human capital in the GCC and the Middle East. In this regard, he added: His Highness Shaikh Nasser Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Centre has developed several local AI/ML solutions for the public and private sectors. This centre supports and encourages young Bahraini innovators and entrepreneurs in technology. Agencies | Kyiv The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Western allies yesterday dampened Ukraines hopes for a rapid shipment of battle tanks to boost its firepower for a spring offensive against Russian forces, with the United States urging Kyiv to hold off from mounting such an operation. The United States top general, speaking after a meeting of the allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, also said it would be very hard for Ukraine to drive Russias invading forces from the country this year. The run-up to the Ramstein meeting had been dominated by the issue of whether Germany would agree to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, or permit other countries that have them to do so. In the end, no decision on supplying Leopards was reached yesterday, officials said, although pledges for large amounts of other weapons including air defence systems and some other model of tanks, were given. The United States was also holding fast to its decision not to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine yet, a senior US official said in Washington. It wanted to see the latest supply of US weaponry in place and training provided, the official said. In Ramstein, US General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference: From a military standpoint, I still maintain that for this year, it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference at the end of the Ramstein meeting that while time was of the essence in getting Ukraine the equipment and training it needed to take the fight to Russias forces in the spring, Ukraine was well-equipped even without the Leopards. NATO Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters Ukraines backers needed to focus not only on sending new weapons, but supplying ammunition for older systems and helping maintain them. MISSISSAUGA, ON, Jan. 20, 2023 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada continues to deliver innovative immigration measures, such as creating pathways for out-of-status migrants, to help Canadian employers address critical labour shortages. In 2019, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), in partnership with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), launched a permanent residence pilot program for 500 out-of-status workers in the construction industry in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Building on the success of this initiative, Peter Fonseca, Member of Parliament for Mississauga East-Cooksville and Julie Dzerowicz, Member of Parliament for Davenport, on behalf of the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced today that IRCC is extending and expanding the pilot program, doubling its scope to 1,000 out-of-status construction workers in the GTA. This program acknowledges the critical role that construction workers play in building and growing our cities, and offers them and their families a path to permanent residency so that they can stay long-term. This program is one of a number of new measures implemented to address labour shortages in Canada by ensuring that we bring and retain the workers we need to grow the economy and build our communities. The program promotes greater stability in the construction industry and ensures that skilled workers in Canada continue to address critical housing development needs. Just as important, this initiative will help bring a larger number of workers out of the underground economy, which benefits Canada's world-renowned programs and services (like the Canada Child Benefit, Old Age Security and Employment Insurance). Eligible individuals have until January 2, 2024, to apply for permanent residence and can include their spouses, partners and dependent children in their application. Potential applicants will continue to submit their names to the CLC, who will determine their eligibility before referring them to IRCC. The Government of Canada will take into account the advice from consultations with academics, non-governmental organizations, provinces and territories as we explore new and innovative ways to regularize the status of undocumented workers in Canada. Quotes: "This pilot program is a significant step forward in addressing critical labour shortages for the Greater Toronto Area by supporting stability in the construction industry and bringing workers out of the underground economy. By providing regular pathways for out-of-status migrants, we are not only protecting workers and their families, but also safeguarding Canada's labour market and ensuring that we can retain the skilled workers we need to grow our economy and build our communities. This initiative is a testament to our government's commitment to finding innovative solutions to support Canada's workforce and strengthen our economy." The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship "The extension and expansion of the initiative to regularize the status of construction workers in the Greater Toronto Area will help address labour shortages in this key industry, while providing opportunities for workers who have been contributing to our economy to find a permanent home in Canada. By taking away the fear of removal, this program truly improves the lives and communities of those who have fallen out-of-status." Peter Fonseca, Member of Parliament for Mississauga East-Cooksville "The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is pleased to continue assisting another 500 out-of-status construction workers and their immediate families in finding a pathway to permanent residence that will end the insecure nature of their employment and immigration status in 2023. The out-of-status construction workers contribute greatly to the economy and society, and continue to fill labour shortages. Without status, the workers live and work in fear of detection, detainment and deportation. Out-of-status workers are vulnerable to employer exploitation and abuse, and they and their families live with limited access to education, health and social programs. The extension of the out-of-status construction workers in the GTA initiative for 2023 will help more vulnerable workers and their families during these uncertain times. The CLC is very proud to contribute to building the momentum and work towards a broad regularization program for undocumented people in Canada with the out-of-status construction workers in the GTA initiative." Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress Quick facts: Immigration accounts for almost 100% of Canada's labour force growth. Roughly 75% of Canada's population growth comes from immigration, mostly in the economic category. By 2036, immigrants will represent up to 30% of Canada's population, compared to 20.7% in 2011. labour force growth. Roughly 75% of population growth comes from immigration, mostly in the economic category. By 2036, immigrants will represent up to 30% of population, compared to 20.7% in 2011. Canada's aging population means that the worker-to-retiree ratio is expected to be 2 to 1 by 2035 while, 50 years ago, it was 7 to 1. aging population means that the worker-to-retiree ratio is expected to be 2 to 1 by 2035 while, 50 years ago, it was 7 to 1. Canada has issued over 645,000 work permits between January and October 2022nearly 4 times more than the 163,000 issued over the same period in 2021. has issued over 645,000 work permits between January and October 2022nearly 4 times more than the 163,000 issued over the same period in 2021. Immigrants account for 36% of physicians and 33% of business owners with paid staff and 41% of engineers. In the Fall Economic Statement, the government committed an additional $50 million in 20222023 for IRCC to address ongoing application backlogs, speed up processing and allow skilled newcomers to fill critical labour gaps faster. in 20222023 for IRCC to address ongoing application backlogs, speed up processing and allow skilled newcomers to fill critical labour gaps faster. Since the launch of the out-of-status construction workers in the GTA pilot in July 2019, 452 individuals have been accepted as permanent residents (190 principal applicants and 262 dependants). As a national organization that represents numerous construction unions, the CLC has been a critical partner in the pilot, helping to identify eligible applicants. Under the pilot, applicants who have significant work experience in construction occupations in the GTA, family members in Canada , a referral letter from the CLC and no reason for being inadmissible other than overstaying their visa and working without authorization may be able to apply for permanent residence in Canada . , a referral letter from the CLC and no reason for being inadmissible other than overstaying their visa and working without authorization may be able to apply for permanent residence in . IRCC is exploring broader regularization pathways for undocumented migrants and their families. Pathways to permanent residence will offer more opportunities for individuals to enter or stay in the job market and fill labour shortages. Related product: Associated link: Follow us: SOURCE Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada For further information: Contacts for media only: Bahoz Dara Aziz, Press Secretary, Minister's Office, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, [email protected]; Media Relations: Communications Branch, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 613-952-1650, [email protected] The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has reiterated its readiness to safeguard internal security before, during and after the 2023 election. The security agency assured that officers and men would protect voters and other civilian nationwide. Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba gave the assurance on Friday in Abuja. The IGP inspected anti-riot weapons, Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC), water canons, among others. The newly-acquired equipment and vehicles would be distributed to commands and formations for the general polls. Non-state actors, criminals, and political thugs are warned to sue for peace. We need peace, we deserve peace in Nigeria. We are fully prepared for better election security management, said Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi. The gubernatorial candidates of the Labour Party in Jigawa State, Tsoho Garba and all the partys National Assembly candidates have decamped to the APC. Tsoho Garba confirmed this on Saturday after meeting with the APC stakeholders in Dutse, the state capital. He, however, said the state LP chairman and virtually all other party executives across the 27 local government areas of the state had joined the mass exodus to APC. Tsoho said they decided to drop their candidature and their party for APC in appreciating the giant stride of Governor Badaru Abubakar in the state. People requested for us to contest under labour party, but in the cause of our campaign tour across the state we all got to know how APC government transformed the state through projects and programs that have a direct bearing on the common man If we are contesting to seek the progress of our state, it is no doubt what Jigawa needs is continuity and the best thing is to allow APC to continue driving the force in order not to deviate from the main track. So from today, all of us and our political allies have joined the APC and we vow to work for its success at the national and state level in the coming general election Receiving the defectors, Governor Badaru Abubakar applauded their commitment towards the development of the state and promised to accord them every right enjoyed by the old members of the party. Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) respectively, were absent at a peace accord meeting. The meeting was held on Friday at the Transcorp Hilton hotel in the federal capital territory (FCT). While Ifeanyi Okowa, PDP vice-presidential candidate and governor of Delta, represented the former vice-president, nobody represented the LP candidate. Bola Tinubu, standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), were present at the event that was presided by Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former head of state. Abubakar chairs the National Peace Committee. The accord was aimed at promoting peaceful electioneering. Speaking at the event, the former head of state said this country is ours to build. With determination we can overcome all the misunderstanding. Peter Obi of Labour Party absent at the Peace Accord meeting at the Transcorp in Abuja. Atiku also absent but represented by Ifeanyi Okowa. All the other presidential candidates were present. pic.twitter.com/P2A8TE724d Bayo onanuga (@aonanuga1956) January 20, 2023 Tinubu was the only presidential candidate absent when the first peace accord was signed in September. Kashim Shettima, his running mate, represented him at the time. Yet-to-be-identified gunmen have killed two persons believed to be members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ebonyi State. The incident reportedly occurred in Mkpuma Akataka Community in the Izzi Local Government Area of the State. It was reliably informed that the APC meeting was going on late Friday in the community when the gunmen stormed the venue and opened fire. The hoodlums, who were said to be two in number, reportedly came on a motorbike and quickly zoomed off, having completed their mission. Two persons were confirmed dead while two others are receiving treatment at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki. Efforts to reach the Police Public Relations Officer Chris Anyanwu have yet to yield any feedback. The United Kingdom Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was fined on Friday by the British police for not wearing a seatbelt in the back of a moving car while on a trip to northern England. Sunak, who recorded an Instagram video on Thursday, was seen turning in his seat to talk to the camera without a seatbelt on, a video that has now been deleted from the social media site. The PMs office at Downing Street said the incident was a brief error of judgment, but Lancashire constabulary announced they were fining Sunak for the infraction, The Guardian UK says. The force said: You will be aware that a video has been circulating on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seatbelt while a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire. After looking into this matter, we have today issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty. Reacting, a spokesperson for the Sunak said: The prime minister fully accepts this was a mistake and has apologised. He will of course comply with the fixed penalty. A fixed penalty means Sunak can pay a fine to avoid a court hearing. The police did not disclose how much they had fined the prime minister, but according to the governments safety campaign, any driver or passenger not wearing a seatbelt is breaking the law and is liable to be fined up to 500 if the case goes to court, according to The Guardian UK. Sunaks transportation habits were already a talking point in the United Kingdom before the incident, a report by AFP says. His political rivals have taken aim at his use of a private jet to make multiple short flights in recent days. This is not the first time Sunak has been slapped with a police fine. He was fined while serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer for attending a Downing Street party in June 2020 that violated the governments rules on social distancing, according to an AFP report. The latest fine makes Sunak the second Conservative prime minister to receive a police fine in less than 12 months. The Metropolitan police, in 2020, issued a fixed-penalty notice to Boris Johnson for attending a party during lockdown. Sunak was fined for attending the same event as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has threatened to cancel the approval for the use of Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt for the campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Wike said the Director-General of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) in the state, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, had been accessing the venue a month before the February 11 date. The governor explained that the approval, which was granted at no cost to the PCC, stated that the stadium wod be accessible to the council 48 hours to the rally. Wike, who disclosed these on Friday while speaking at the campaign flag-off rally of the Rivers State PDP Campaign Council in Oyigbo Local Government Area, said Sekibo has no right to take possession of the stadium one month before the date of the stipulated event. Wike warned Sekibo not to provoke the Rivers State government by desperately wanting to take possession of the state-owned stadium weeks to the campaign, or else the approval would be cancelled. He said, Let me also use this opportunity to warn Abiye Sekibo, we have made approval for your presidential candidate to use Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, February 11th, you have no right to begin to go to the stadium now. We cannot give you access to the stadium now. We can only give you access to the stadium two days to the occasion for you to prepare. Nobody gave you one month. So, if you dare it again, to go and force yourself into the stadium, I will cancel the approval with immediate effect. Dare it again, I will cancel it. Heaven will not fall. In fact, if heaven falls now, we will be happy that it was in our time heaven came down. I know you are not ready to do that rally. You are only looking for excuse. But you must do it. I know you are going to import people, no problems, go and import. We have given you the stadium. Governor Wike also took a swipe at the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State for blaming the crisis that greeted the campaign of its governorship candidate in Mile one Diobu, Port Harcourt on Thursday. The governor stressed that APC became a victim to the brewing crisis between the two factions in Rumuwoji community because they did not address its demand adequately. Governor Wike wondered why APC did not encounter crisis with their rallies when they used the Tipper Park in Etche Local Government and the IYM secretariat in Ikwerre LGA. The governor asked the opposition party in the state to stop complaining if it was not ready for the forthcoming general elections, saying the PDP in the state was fully prepared. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the alleged explosion at the campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state. Darlington Nwauju, Rivers APC spokesperson, had alleged that there was an explosion on Thursday during the partys governorship rally at Ojukwu field, Rumuwoji community in Port Harcourt, the state capital. But Grace Iringe-Koko, Rivers police spokesperson, countered Nwauju, saying no explosion occurred and that the incident was a clash between the community members and party supporters. Reacting in a series of tweets on Thursday evening, the PDP presidential candidate said he stands with the APC and families of those injured. Abubakar also said the should be no room for violence against political opponents. There should be no place for violence and anti-democratic manifestations in this election, he wrote. Weve already committed to that in the peace pact we all signed up to. Elections are not a do-or-die affair but an opportunity to reinforce our belief in democracy through our leadership choices via adult suffrage. We had complained about the violence that had been visited on our party in some states because we did not want it to become a pattern if those engaged in anti-democratic activities were not brought to book. Our worst fears have now manifested with the explosion at the APC rally in Port Harcourt. It stands condemned. Elections and the choices we make should be about the ballot and not the bullet. On behalf of my team, I stand in solidarity with the APC and the families of the injured. I wish the injured a quick recovery. Abubakar also asked security agencies to ensure that those behind this dastardly act, including their promoters are brought to justice to serve as a deterrent to copycats who may be emboldened to thread this same anti-democratic path. Meanwhile, the PDP candidates comment comes amid crisis in his party over the position taken by stakeholders led by Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers. Wike and his allies have excluded themselves from the PDP presidential campaign over calls for Iyorchia The calls for Ayus resignation, according to the PDP stakeholders, are based on the grounds that the PDP presidential candidate and the national chairperson cannot be from the same region. The federal government has denied increasing the price of premium motor spirit, also called petrol. Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, said this on Friday in a statement issued by Horatius Egua, his senior adviser on media and communications. Yesterday, several media reports claimed that the federal government quietly approved N185 as the new petrol pump price per litre. But Sylva said the President Muhammadu Buhari has not approved any price increase for petrol, as he is sensitive to the plight of the citizens. President Muhammadu Buhari has not approved any increase in the price of PMS or any other petroleum product for that matter, he said. There is no reason for President Muhammadu Buhari to renege on his earlier promise not to approve any increase in the price of PMS at this time. Mr. President is sensitive to the plight of the ordinary Nigerian and has said repeatedly that he understands the challenges of the ordinary Nigerian and would not want to cause untold hardship for the electorate. Government will not approve any increase of PMS secretly without due consultations with the relevant stakeholders. The President has not directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority or any agency for that matter to increase the price of fuel. This is not the time for any increase in pump price of PMS. Sylva said what was playing out was the handiwork of mischief makers and those planning to discredit the achievements of the president in the oil and gas sector. I appeal to Nigerians to remain calm and law-abiding as the government is working hard to bring normalcy to fuel supply and distribution in the country, he said. Petrol scarcity has lingered since November, 2022. This situation is further worsened by disparity in the pump prices of the commodity across the country. Several consumers had told TheCable that the product retailed for as high as N300 a litre. While there is uncertainty as to the reason for the prolonged scarcity, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) had said the volume of petrol supplied to marketers by private depots have dropped by about 40 percent. The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) has set up a six-member committee to engage the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to address anomalies in the countrys monetary management and financial system. The forum disclosed this in a communique issued on Saturday at the end of its virtual meeting held with the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday night. The committee according to the communique signed by NGF Chairman, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, is chaired by the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, with Governors of Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Borno, Plateau and Jigawa States as members. The Governors said while they were not opposed to the objectives of the Naira redesign policy, the apex bank should consider the peculiarities of households and states, especially pertaining to financial inclusion and under-served locations. We, the members of the NGF, received a briefing from the Governor of the CBN, Emefiele, on the Naira redesign, its economic and security implications, including the new withdrawal policy. Governors are not opposed to the objectives of the Naira redesign policy. However, we observe that there are huge challenges that remain problematic to the Nigerian populace. In the circumstances, governors expressed the need for the CBN to consider the peculiarities of states, especially as they pertain to financial inclusion and under-served locations. The Governors expressed resolve to work closely with the CBN leadership to ameliorate areas that required policy variation, particularly the poorest households, the vulnerable in society and several other Nigerians that were excluded. The NGF also resolved to collaborate with the CBN and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in advancing genuine objectives within the confines of the laws. They, however, insisted that the recent NFIU Advisory and Guidelines on cash transactions were simply outside the NFIUs legal remit and mandate. The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke has been reminded that his plan to sink a borehole in each of the 332 wards across the state is an unprogressive step. This is as he has been advised to prioritize the issue of security in relation to election violence and ensure stricter coordination of the newly introduced transport management system in the state. This advice was given by The Osun Masterminds, an Osun-based civil society organization during a press conference in Osogbo on Friday. Governor Adeleke had announced that his administration planned to sink 332 boreholes ahead of his 100 days in office. While addressing Journalists, Prof. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli who is the Executive Director of the group stated that the group had after going through the announcement by the Adeleke administration added that it was concerned that the state government preferred to sink boreholes rather than looking for other sustainable means of proving potable water for the states populace. Oyedokun-Alli held that the step was a populist one but that a more long-term solution should have been an option the state government could have considered. In trying to pursue a comprehensive water supply policy, the Governor is not supposed to take populist steps such as the sinking of boreholes at this time in history, but look more at water supply solutions that are more comprehensive and more relevant on the long term. There is the pending Ilesa water project. There is also the abandoned mini-water scheme of the Oyinlola administration. There are also the abandoned mini-water projects of the Federal lawmakers that represented Osun between 2011 and 2015. Those projects are more comprehensive and provide more practical solutions to the water supply problems in the State. We also dare say that it is demeaning and when considered carefully, unhealthy to sink public boreholes that community people will walk long distances to access. We can find more pragmatic solutions to the water supply problem without resorting to primitive and populist approaches that do not guarantee water supply in the long run. The State is also not supposed to abandon projects on which several billions have been spent in the past, for such non-pragmatic projects like boreholes. The group also called the attention of the state government to the growing spate of insecurity in the state, rising cases of kidnapping, abductions and election-related violence. It urged the state government to urgently re-engineer the states security policy with a view to putting security agents on their toes. The group also asked the Governor to act with dispatch to disallow Osun under his watch, from becoming an unsafe state. This they said would ensure the security and safety of lives and properties. The group also advised the state government to ensure stricter coordination of the transport management system that was just introduced. They held that doing so would prevent rivalry among the old unions. The transport management system must not be allowed to become a tool in the hands of unscrupulous elements that they will use to throw the State into crisis. Osun cannot afford any reintroduction of thuggery, cultism and hooliganism in the name of Transport Management. The state government was also advised to take more futuristic steps as the goal of government is supposed to be the long-term security of the livelihoods of citizens and not short-term applause. Yekini Nabena, a former deputy spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the G5 governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are handicapped. The G5 governors are Samuel Ortom of Benue, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, and Nyesom Wike of Rivers. Wike had said talks with his political allies on the candidate to support in the presidential election will soon be concluded. Before then, former President Olusegun Obasanjo made an attempt to get Wike and his group to support Peter Obi, standard bearer of the Labour Party (LP). In a statement on Friday, Nabena said the governors are not seen as loyal to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and would not be trusted if they support a presidential candidate in a different political party. The G5 governors are confused and handicapped whether as PDP men or as supporters of any opposition party, Nabena said. We have been hearing all manner of things. Today they are with Asiwaju, tomorrow they are with Peter Obi and next tomorrow they may work for Atiku. Which one do we believe? If they support our party and we win in the February presidential election, our members wont see the G5 governors as an ally to be trusted. Again if they change their minds and work for Atiku, and (God forbid) PDP wins after all they have told Nigerians, they will still be treated like pariahs. The same treatment will befall them in the Labour Party. Therefore, give or take, these governors are losers in waiting. The politician said no presidential candidate is banking on the support of the governors. I will advise those who are still waiting on the G5 governors to shift their attention to the real voters because these governors wont be at the polling unit on election day, Nabena said. The former APC deputy spokesperson said Bola Tinubu, standard bearer of the ruling party, has been accepted nationwide. By the Gods grace victory is certain for the APC and thats why I dont think we need the support of these paperweight G5 governors because it will be unfair to our leaders in these five states who are working hard and mobilising for our candidate to be relegated for the PDP governors, he said. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has accused some commercial banks in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, of refusing to dispense the sum of N4.5 billion redesigned notes allocated to them. The controller of the CBN branch in Rivers State, Maxwell Okafor, disclosed this on Friday when he led an enforcement team on the newly redesigned notes to some commercial banks and markets in Port Harcourt. Okafor revealed that the CBN had disbursed about N4.5b of the new naira notes to commercial banks in the state between Thursday and Friday, wondering why many customers were not getting them. He also expressed concern that some banks in the state were thwarting the CBNs efforts to enforce the disbursement of the new naira notes by hoarding them in their bank vaults. We have been monitoring the dispensing of the new naira note, and the impression we had is not encouraging. We have visited some banks, and one of them was not dispensing the new naira notes, he said. Many Internally Displaced returnees of Tiv origin, were on Friday attacked by suspected militants in Wukari local government council of Taraba State. The attack which occurred on Friday in Tor-Iorlumun Community, in Rafinkada Ward of the aforementioned local government council has again begun to ignite tensions. Apart from the attacks, the belongings of the returnees, it was learned were as well destroyed beyond recognition. Narrating their ordeal in the hands of their attackers, some of the victims said they were busy mending their destroyed houses and laying bricks to reconstruct when the attackers invaded the community. The attackers, according to one of the victims who gave his name as Tarnege John, were not only armed to the teeth but also shooting sporadically. He said, some of our brothers ran into the bushes for safety those who decided to stay behind were not spared by the attackers. Some of us who decided to stay so that we would find out what brought about the unfortunate and ugly situation were heavily descended on with machetes and three of us were left in our own pool of blood. When they discovered that we were unconscious, they carted away our Peugeot and three motorcycles and went ahead to burn all our belongings without any interference. The attackers who expressed sadness at the alleged lukewarm attitudes of both the local and state governments towards displaced Tiv persons in the state called on the federal government to urgently come to their rescue. They also urged the authorities at all levels to take proactive steps to prevent any form of crisis from resurfacing in the council and the state as a whole. When reached for comment via telephone, the council Caretaker Committee Chairman, Dr. Daniel Adi, told newsmen, he is just leaving Jalingo, the state capital, for Wukari. Admitting that he has been informed of what happened in his local government, he promised to get back to our correspondent as soon as he carries out an assessment of the situation in the community. Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations (PPRO) of the command, Usman Abdullahi, said the Command has not yet been properly briefed on the incident. He, however, promised to get in touch with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Wukari Division to find out what was on ground and update the press in due course. Abubakar made the call on Thursday while addressing participants at the 29th regular meeting of the National Council on Water Resources (NCWR) in Sokoto. The Sultan said as the general elections were approaching Nigerians needed to use their votes wisely. Nigerians need to think and rethink of who they are casting their votes to. We should not consider the religious or ethnic backgrounds of any body we are voting for but Nigeria first. Our country should be our priority above any thing and not voting any person who may worsen our present challenges, he warned. Abubakar added that for Nigeria to progress as a nation, Nigerians needed to put ethnicity aside and face the reality. The Sultan said:Our country is far better than many countries of the world in terms of security. Therefore, we should continue to support and appreciate our country and leaders with prayers in order to be able to address our challenges._ Abubakar appreciated the Federal Government, the Minister of Water Resources and the officials of the ministry for choosing Sokoto State to hold the council meeting. (NAN) Six-day (Tuesday through Sunday) print subscribers of the Watertown Daily Times are eligible for full access to NNY360, the NNY360 mobile app, and the Watertown Daily Times e-edition, all at no additional cost. If you have an existing six-day print subscription to the Watertown Daily Times, please make sure your email address on file matches your NNY360 account email. You can sign up or manage your print subscription using the options below. A gleaming white fortress with turrets has been encamped at the intersection of Indianapolis Boulevard and 119th Street in Whiting for the better part of a century. White Castle, 1879 Indianapolis Blvd., has guarded the downtown commercial district for 88 years. It's been a place people have stopped to grab a sack of sliders on their way to or from Chicago, the Lake Michigan lakefront or the BP Whiting Refinery. One of the first White Castles built in the greater Chicago area, the small wedge-shaped building resembles a castle on the outside and a diner on the inside, with a row of booths crammed into a shotgun space. It's so historic that it's been the subject of an exhibit at the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Museum and been featured on a series of commemorative postcards. Open 24/7 with beckoning lights and big glass windows, it bears a passing resemblance to the downtown diner in Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks." Over the decades, many have stumbled in after a night of revelry on 119th Street or passed through the drive-thru after a long shift at the refinery for the small, square, steamed burgers that originally cost a nickel. Now the landmark White Castle is coming down to be replaced with a newer, larger, more modern version. "Naturally, I feel bad because for us, it's a historical building here in Whiting and I hate to see it replaced," museum Director Gayle Kosalko said. "I'd like to see something done with the enamel walls, maybe a small historic type of marker that gives some of our White Castle history." The White Castle originally opened in 1935 as Whiting No. 1 just 14 years after White Castle was founded. It was later dubbed No. 30 after it was lumped in with the Chicago restaurants. "I believe it was the second one built in the Chicagoland area," she said. "For the longest time, it was truly a destination restaurant because Whiting was the only one that had a White Castle." White Castles have since spread across Northwest Indiana and become a staple associated with the Region, one that college students and expatriates often visit when returning home. "Everybody in this city, I imagine, has their own little story about White Castle," Kosalko said. "That and the park were the first two places you went when you came back home to Whiting. Were happy, of course, that White Castle will continue to be here, but we will miss the original look ... as Whiting is the last of the original white enamel buildings." White Castle was the first fast-food burger chain in the country. The Columbus-based chain originally spread at a time when food hygiene standards varied and eating out could be a risk. "The whole idea of the white enamel buildings was to put across the ideas of cleanliness and sanitation," Kosalko said. "Hamburger was kind of a mystery meat in the 1920s and housewives didnt trust it, so White Castle wanted to stress their sanitation." The Whiting White Castle was originally a small square castle with an enamel facade and turrets inspired by the Chicago Water Tower on Michigan Avenue. It was later expanded to fill the V-shaped parcel at the busy intersection, like a much smaller version of the famed Flatiron Building in New York City. A drive-thru was added, but it was always a place people could walk to. "Drive-thrus are important to todays businesses, whether it be a bank, a pharmacy or, sadly, a place like White Castle," she said. "We all want convenience but, by having it, we definitely are losing the charm." White Castle has long talked about replacing the Whiting restaurant, for at least a decade or so, said Tom Dabertin, vice president of the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce. "As you know, there are a lot of memories tied to the current facility, and like anything that has an emotional attachment, some stories are true and others are not," he said. "The building was extensively renovated in the late 1960s. I remember that project as I was born in 1960. "They added bathrooms for example, but you had to be buzzed in to use them, so everyone knew your business. The facility has been updated several times since, including adding a drive-thru, which I think was added in the late 1980s." The building has been the subject of much speculation over the years. One diner, for instance, claimed to set a record by wolfing down 23 burgers in a single sitting there. "There are all kinds of rumors of famous folks stopping by, but I can confirm only two of those stories. I remember during the famous Council Wars Ed 'Fast Eddie' Vrdolyak would show up late night there and have his Chicago Police Department bodyguards with him but still have to stand in line like everyone else," Dabertin said. "I was also told by Jessie Owens' daughter that her father used to go to Whiting to get White Castle hamburgers. Now mind you, I have lived there all my life, and I have heard stories of all kinds of other celebrities being seen at White Castle, but I cant vouch for those stories." It's one of the oldest White Castles in Indiana, built around the same time as a now-defunct White Castle in downtown Indianapolis and another in Fort Wayne, Dabertin said. The building was named No. 1 and then No. 30 because White Castle had a numbering system at the time when it opened restaurants in a particular city, Vice President Jamie Richardson said. It is believed to be one of the first 100 White Castle restaurants in the country. White Castle plans to honor its history with a historic marker on the site and a mural in the dining room of the new restaurant just north of it. "It will be a nice tribute to all the memories people have," Richardson said. "We're working with a local artist on the dining room and making good progress." It also plans to donate keepsakes to be displayed at the local history museum. "We know it's part of the heritage," he said. "That specific building was a place where people celebrated and fell in love before getting married." The Whiting White Castle had the chain's original design and was one of the few left standing in the country. "It probably fully depreciated by 1950," he said. "It was extraordinary that the building lasted that long. We're building a new building out of a desire to continue to serve the community and invest in what's next to serve as many people as possible." The building will be razed and replaced with an outdoor patio, which will be fenced off because of all the traffic passing by. The new 2,800-square-foot White Castle restaurant just north on Indianapolis Boulevard is likely to employ 25 to 35 people. "Anytime something is more than 85 years old it becomes harder and harder to fix," Richardson said. "We want to continue to serve our neighbors and friends in Whiting." HAMMOND A federal judge has imprisoned an Illinois man for enlisting two area residents to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon imposed a 60-month sentence Friday on Tarrell Sims, 37, of Country Club Hills. Sims pleaded guilty Sept. 29 to charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, saying he worked with two other men to obtain over half a million dollars from two business checks written by a North Carolina soft-drink bottler and stolen from the U.S. Postal Service. Sims initiated the schemes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Abizer Zanzi stated in court papers, and recruited co-defendants Devin Bynum and Antonio Johnson to help him carry them out and try to cover his tracks. Sims gave Bynum a stolen $389,529 check on Nov. 22, 2019. Bynum admitted in his Sept. 8 guilty plea that he opened a fraudulent corporate bank account in the name of Techniblend Inc., using a false Gary business address, and then fraudulently endorsed the stolen check. Sims and Bynum then traveled to Los Angeles and withdrew most of the money, spending more than $6,000 on flights, $8,000 on accommodations and at least $1,000 on sneakers and apparel. Federal authorities filed criminal charges in May 2021 and arrested Bynum two months later in Lake Station. Sims planned a similar theft in January 2020, when he engaged Johnson to handle a stolen $267,142 check. Johnson admitted in his Oct. 24 guilty plea that he opened a fraudulent corporate bank account in the name of Pullman Innovation Inc., which he claimed operated out of his Gary residence. The federal prosecutor said this attempt failed because the account was flagged as fraudulent the next day and the money was frozen before Sims or Johnson could make any withdrawals. Authorities arrested Sims in March 2022 in Atlanta and Johnson in January 2022 at an undisclosed location. Each man could have faced a maximum prison term of 30 years. Bynum and Johnson agreed to give up their right to a jury trial and make the government prove its charges against them in return for leniency. Sims pleaded guilty without the benefit of a plea agreement. Sentencing for the co-defendants has not been scheduled. CLINTON TOWNSHIP A 59-year-old man was arrested Friday after he was found to be in possession of an illegal handgun, the LaPorte County sheriff's office said. Police presence was requested at 10:11 a.m. Friday at a business while management terminated an employee. Police determined that the man who was being fired had previous felony convictions. As they watched, officers observed an outline on the employee's shirt consistent with a handgun in a holster. Police retrieved the pistol and took the employee into custody. Dalerond Jefferson, 59, of Michigan City, is being held at the LaPorte County Jail and faces preliminary felony charges of unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission presented its annual award for meritorious service Thursday to former Chairman Michael Griffin, who represented Highland on the commission when he was the town's clerk-treasurer. The Norman Tufford Award, honoring exceptional dedication and service to NIRPC is named for the organization's first executive director. Griffin, who was a state senator last year, was a longtime member of the commission and its chairman in 2017 and 2020. The selection committee roundly endorsed Michael as an exemplary recipient of this award, said Ty Warner, NIRPCs executive director. Michael has consistently demonstrated his commitment to regionalism and to helping NIRPC achieve its full potential as a regional planning body, bringing all communities in Northwest Indiana together to accomplish more than they can do on their own. John Swanson, who served as executive director from 2004 to 2012 and was a member of the award selection committee, praised Griffin for his "extraordinary record of public service to the town of Highland, NIRPC and northwest Indiana. In all his endeavors, whether with governmental bodies, nonprofit or professional organizations, or community groups, he has demonstrated the willingness to take on additional responsibilities and challenges. All of them have benefited greatly from his dedication, insightful thinking and leadership skills. Tufford was NIRPC's executive director from 1966 to 1985. The award named for him is given to NIRPC commissioners and staff members who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and service to Northwest Indiana. The news that Alec Baldwin is facing manslaughter charges for killing a cinematographer with a gun he had been told was safe had the actor Steven Pasquale thinking back to the filming of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem more than a decade ago, when he and other actors were handed military-style rifles and told to start shooting. He felt safe, he said, because he relied on the professional props experts and the armorer who had checked and shown him the gun. We are artists we are not actual cowboys, actual cops, actual superheroes, Mr. Pasquale said. We are not Jason Bourne. I cant even begin to imagine an actor having the responsibility of now needing to be the safety person on the set regarding prop guns. Thats insane. The charges being brought against Mr. Baldwin for an on-set shooting had many actors recalling their own experiences with guns on sets, and discussing safety measures and who bears primary responsibility for them. Jung_E Stream it on Netflix. If ethical and emotional issues pertaining to artificial intelligence are your jam, this Netflix original is a must-see. And if you just want badass action with robots, brawls, devious scientists and grand futuristic landscapes, itll do the job, too. The South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho burst on the international scene in 2016 with the insta-classic zombie actioner Train to Busan, then he delivered more undead with the sprawling Peninsula (2020). Now Yeon is back with Jung_E, which considers A.I. with a degree of emotional sensitivity rare in a film that also deploys virtuosic whiz-bang fights. The starting point is a post-climate apocalypse Earth in which millions of people have relocated to orbiting shelters. Three of those stations have attacked the others, leading to a decades-long war, and Earth is now dominated by the military-industrial complex. The goal of one such company is to transfer the brain of the comatose war hero Captain Yun Jung-yi (Kim Hyun-joo) into an exact replica to create a mighty combat android. In a key wrinkle, the project is led by Yuns own daughter, Seo-hyun (Kang Soo-youn). While Jung_E starts off like a riff on Edge of Tomorrow, it quickly becomes obvious that Yeon is interested in more complicated matters, including the moral standards of cybernetics and the perils of the grieving process. This beautiful movie rewards patience and heck, that final battle on a monorail is awesome, too. Kids vs. Aliens Rent or buy on most major platforms. The concept of fun is weirdly hard to define, like love or obscenity. You kind of know it when youre having it, and you definitely know when youre not. Last month, Elon Musk, the Tesla and Twitter C.E.O., said that he had declined an invitation to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, because, he wrote in a tweet, it sounded boring af: Not fun at all. And yet, Davos is global capitalisms Super Bowl, a place where world leaders (Olaf Scholz!), royalty (Philippe, King of the Belgians!), corporate titans (Jamie Dimon!) and some of our very finest celebrities (Idris Elba! Will.i.am!) gather for five nights of parties, where they schmooze, drink rare Burgundy and allegedly set the course for the future of the world over Michelin-starred canapes. So which is it? Is Davos fun? Or is it boring? Well, it depends on whom you ask, as well as what you get invited to. Fashion weeks offer up such a glut of the newest, latest, coolest, costliest, most insane, most fire and sometimes least obtainable objects that you might think theyd make monks of mens wear experts. Yet, like gear heads, guys who look at clothes occupationally also geek out in their off time. Caught on the move as the mens wear circuit migrated from Florence to Milan and Paris, some discerning fashion insiders weighed in this week on what they covet now. For coats, I still love my big raglans, said Josh Peskowitz, a onetime honcho at Bloomingdales and Moda Operandi, and a designer best known for collaborations with Levis Made & Crafted line and his Instagram overcoat chronicles. But suddenly Im into duffle coats for the first time in a long time. Im also totally into some new moccasin-toe work boots from Yuketen. I love them. Yuki Matsuda, he continued, is a genius. He was referring to the Japanese leather goods designer who started the Yuketen label in 1989 and is a favorite of passionate mens wear consumers like the musician John Mayer. Hes just been doing his thing for 25 years, trends be damned, Mr. Peskowitz said. And his stuff just lasts and is cool and super-special in a nondescript unless-youre-a-style-wonk kind of way. Right now, said Eugene Rabkin, the founder of Stylezeitgeist.com, its all about Takahiromiyashita TheSoloist. Mr. Miyashita is a cult Japanese designer whose appearances on the Paris Fashion Week roster are highly anticipated by cognoscenti. The stop was based on a 911 call about a suspicious person who was wearing a face mask and waving his arms. Police confronted Mr. McClain, who was unarmed and not suspected of committing any crimes. Image Elijah McClain died days after an encounter with police and paramedics. Credit... via Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP In the initial autopsy by the Adams County coroner, the cause and manner of death were reported as undetermined. The autopsy was amended after a review of information presented to the grand jury. The new cause of death was listed as complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint. The manner remained undetermined. Months after Mr. McClains death, Adams County prosecutors, citing insufficient evidence, declined to file criminal charges against the police and paramedics. Attorney General Phil Weiser, who was named a special prosecutor by Gov. Jared Polis, later opened an investigation that resulted in a 32-count indictment in September 2021. Mr. Weisers office also started a probe into Aurora Police and Aurora Fire Rescue. Among the findings, the investigations report said the police department had a pattern and practice of racially biased policing and use of excessive force which resulted in an agreement with the city of Aurora to accept close oversight from an independent monitor to improve policing and public safety. In 2021, the city of Aurora settled a civil suit filed by Mr. McClains parents for $15 million. This week, a judge ordered three separate trials for the defendants, who each face multiple felony charges including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. In that case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court found that Americans have a broad right to arm themselves in public and struck down a New York law that placed strict limits on carrying guns outside the home. The decision, in which the courts six conservative justices were in the majority and its three liberal justices dissented, has led to a wave of litigation and legislation nationwide. Judges and lawmakers have disagreed on how to apply the new precedent, and activists on all sides of the gun debate have strained to find where the new lines are. The Emotional Toll: We asked Times readers how the threat of gun violence has affected their mental state and the way they lead their lives. We asked Times readers how the threat of gun violence has affected their mental state and the way they lead their lives. Heres what they told us A Growing Tally: Gun violence is a persistent American problem. A partial list of mass shootings this year offers Gun violence is a persistent American problem. A partial list of mass shootings this year offers a glimpse at the scope Gun Control: U.S. gun laws are at the center of heated exchanges between those in favor and against tougher regulations. Here is U.S. gun laws are at the center of heated exchanges between those in favor and against tougher regulations. Here is what to know about that debate Mr. Pritzker said the ruling on Friday was disappointing but not surprising, and expressed confidence that the law would ultimately be upheld. The office of Attorney General Kwame Raoul said it would appeal. Even before its new weapon ban, Illinois had the most extensive gun restrictions in the Midwest, including a requirement that residents be licensed by the State Police to own firearms. But legislators were spurred to go further after a gunman killed seven people and wounded dozens of others with a high-powered rifle at a Fourth of July parade last year in Highland Park, a Chicago suburb that had been at the center of a court fight over its municipal ban on certain weapons. The new state law, which took immediate effect, made Illinois one of nine states with some form of what advocates call an assault weapon ban, according to the Giffords Law Center, which supports gun restrictions. Under the new Illinois rules, a long list of specific types of semiautomatic weapons, including AR-15-style rifles, are no longer allowed to be sold to residents, and people who currently own them were given a deadline to register them with law enforcement. Though supporters of the law acknowledged the limits of legislating weapon sales on a state-by-state basis Illinois borders several states with loose gun laws, contributing to its long-running struggles with violence they said the new legislation would still have an impact. Congressional Democrats have attempted to restore a national ban on assault weapons, but have been blocked by Republicans. WASHINGTON The billions of dollars in new arms for Ukraine announced this month including British tanks, American fighting vehicles and howitzers from Denmark and Sweden are testament to President Vladimir V. Putins failure to split the NATO allies after nearly a year of war. But small yet significant fractures are getting too big to hide. The differences are over strategy for the coming year and the more immediate question of what Ukraine needs in the next few months, as both sides in the war prepare for major offensives in the spring. And while most of those debates take place behind closed doors, Britains impatience with the current pace of aid and Germanys refusal to provide Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine broke out into public view this week. When the new British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, visited Washington this week, he gathered reporters for lunch and made the case that it is possible for Ukraine to score a victory in the war this year if the allies move fast to exploit Russias weaknesses. Officials in Poland, the Baltic States and Finland have largely agreed with the British assessment. American officials pushed back, saying it is critical to pace the aid, and not flood Ukraine with equipment its troops cannot yet operate. And they argue that in a world of limited resources, it would be wise to keep something in reserve for what the Pentagon believes will likely be a drawn-out conflict, in which Russia will try to wear Ukraine down with relentless barrages and tactics reminiscent of World War I and II. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain acknowledged on Friday that he had been fined by the police for not wearing a seatbelt after he posted an Instagram video of himself riding in a car without one. Mr. Sunaks office said he would pay the penalty, but did not disclose the amount. The prime minister fully accepts this was a mistake and has apologized, Mr. Sunaks office said in a statement. He will of course comply with the fixed penalty. Under British law, which requires seatbelts with few exceptions, violations can result in fines of up to 500, or about $620. Mr. Sunaks office acknowledged the fine after a video on his Instagram page showed him riding in a car without a seatbelt as he visited Lancashire, in northwest England. In the video, he was promoting his leveling up fund, a program intended to invest in local communities and create jobs. NASHVILLE Five Memphis police officers were fired on Friday after the department found that they had used excessive force and failed to intervene or provide help during a traffic stop this month involving a 29-year-old Black man who died in a hospital three days later, officials said. The firings, which were the result of an internal investigation by the Memphis Police Department, come as the city braces for the release of police body camera footage that might provide clarity as to how the man, Tyre Nichols, ended up hospitalized in critical condition after the arrest on Jan. 7. The case has provoked outrage among activists and Mr. Nicholss family and has prompted state and federal investigations. Yet few details have been disclosed about the circumstances of the stop and the confrontations that preceded Mr. Nicholss death. His family has shared a photograph showing Mr. Nichols in a hospital bed, apparently unconscious, his face bruised and swollen. The Memphis Police Department is committed to protecting and defending the rights of every citizen in our city, Cerelyn Davis, the police chief, said in a statement announcing the firings on Friday evening. The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work that our officers perform, with integrity, every day. DAKAR, Senegal More than 60 women and girls who had been abducted last week in the West African nation of Burkina Faso were freed on Friday, the national broadcaster said. The kidnappings took place outside two villages near the northern city of Arbinda as the women were foraging for wild fruits and leaves. But on Friday, the television channel RTB said that the 62 women and girls, as well as four babies, had been found and taken to Ouagadougou, the capital. The broadcaster played footage of a group of women sitting on the ground, some clutching buckets and jerrycans, while military officers wearing fatigues stood around them. Thirty-nine of them were younger than 18, the report said. Burkina Faso, a landlocked country that once prided itself on its peoples tolerance for difference, has been overrun by extremist groups loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State that have spread in recent years from neighboring Mali, where they made incursions about a decade ago. As the Guatemalan authorities intensify a methodical, yearslong crackdown on officials who were tasked with rooting out government corruption in the country, the government announced this week that it was investigating Colombias defense minister, who had led a United Nations-backed anticorruption body that was active in Guatemala until 2019. The announcement, which is straining bilateral relations between Guatemala and Colombia, came alongside several arrest warrants and criminal charges brought against former prosecutors and judges who had worked with the same anticorruption task force. The developments have renewed concerns about the withering of Guatemalas democracy and the rule of law, leading to a flurry of condemnations from the United States, the European Union and the United Nations. Rights groups have criticized Guatemalas government for intimidating various officials involved in the anticorruption task force; more than 30 prosecutors and judges have fled the country over the past two years to evade arrest. Colombias president, Gustavo Petro, defended Ivan Velasquez, the defense minister of Colombia, on Tuesday and said sanity in politics meant fighting corruption. A former U.S. Navy SEAL who deserted in 2019 was killed in Ukraine this week, the Navy said in a brief statement on Friday. The SEAL, Daniel W. Swift, died on Wednesday, the Navy said, making him the latest American to be killed in Ukraine, where hundreds of international volunteers have gone to fight in Ukraines defense. Mr. Swifts death was first reported by Time, which said he had been fighting with Ukrainian forces. The Navy said he had gone absent without leave and had been listed as an active deserter since March 11, 2019. The U.S. State Department confirmed a recent death of a U.S. citizen fighting in Ukraine without naming Mr. Swift, and said it was providing consular assistance to the family. The work helped inspire her to create PoverUp, an organization that promoted microfinance and helped other students learn about reducing poverty through business. About 50 schools were joining her network every month or month and a half, she said on a podcast in 2011. Ms. Javice has said she needed help herself while she was an undergraduate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she quickly drew notice by appearing on Fast Companys 2011 list of the 100 most creative people in business. There, she was on financial aid, and she found the forms confusing. So did her parents, according to an interview she gave to Diversity Woman magazine including her father, Didier, who has worked on Wall Street for more than 35 years, with 11 years at Goldman Sachs and three at Merrill Lynch, according to his LinkedIn profile. Ms. Javice, her father and her mother, Natalie Rosin, did not respond to questions about how Ms. Javice had qualified for financial aid and the struggles to obtain it. The whole thing never made sense to me or my parents, who both have masters degrees, Ms. Javice told the publication. And according to an article in The Daily Pennsylvanian, the familys appeals for more aid would take the entire semester to settle, repeatedly. (A Penn spokesman, Ron Ozio, said it would be highly unusual for appeals to take an entire semester and that they normally take four to six weeks.) Ms. Javice has said she graduated from Wharton in three years while often taking five classes at once. The school would only confirm that she had a Bachelor of Science in economics with a major in finance and a second major in operations and information management. It does not comment on the financial aid status, if any, of students. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into operations at the Abbott Nutrition infant formula plant in Michigan that shut down over sanitation problems early last year, causing a lengthy and widespread infant formula shortage. The company confirmed the investigation in an email but offered no further details, other than that it was cooperating fully, according to an Abbott spokesman. The plant, in Sturgis, Mich., came to national attention in 2022 after the Food and Drug Administration, while fielding reports of infants sickened by formula produced there, found strikingly unsanitary conditions, including puddles of water on the floor near production lines. In February, the agency urged the company to recall Similac and other widely used infant formulas, F.D.A. records show. Abbott voluntarily ceased production at the plant for several months. Baby formula was already somewhat scarce because of pandemic-related supply chain issues, but the Abbott recall made the situation much worse. Stunned parents reported hunting for hours to find formula needed to feed their infants. By May, President Biden was deploying military planes to airlift infant formula into the United States. Many other cultures provide similar forms of familial financial support. South Asian children feel pressures to look after aging parents. Hispanic and Latino families often live in multigenerational households where family members pitch in to care for elderly relatives. Some Black Americans experience what is sometimes called the Black tax an obligation of more financially successful family members to help their relatives. U.S.-born children of East Asian immigrants often straddle two worlds: carrying the torch of filial piety from their parents motherland while learning to assimilate to the American system, in which workers are largely responsible for their own retirements. Our retirement number the amount of savings and investments we aim for is a calculation that includes what our parents need to live comfortably in addition to what well need for ourselves when we stop working. My parents are Vietnam War refugees who arrived in the U.S. in 1975 to rebuild their lives with little education and few economic resources. My father found work doing auto body repair and my mother, like many other Vietnamese immigrant women, worked in a nail salon. We lived with relatives until my parents scraped together a down payment on a house that needed to fit my grandparents, who moved in with us when I was in middle school. My parents saw their finances stretched thin while they figured out how to care for children and aging relatives simultaneously. At their jobs, retirement vehicles like 401(k)s werent an option and were never part of their vocabulary. Not that it mattered they envisioned their children caring for them when they could no longer work and shared those expectations with my brothers and me. After all, it was what they had done for their parents, and what their parents had done before them. Baked into our plans Elite Truong, 32, grew up in Indianapolis with parents who were also Vietnam War refugees. Her father has spent his life working as a line cook in a Chinese restaurant, and her mother works the night shift at a grocery store, stocking shelves. Her parents stressed the importance of doing well in school it would give her a better chance of landing a well-paid job, and they told her they expected her to support them. OTTAWA Canada said on Saturday that it had agreed to pay 2.8 billion Canadian dollars, about $2 billion, to settle the latest in a series of lawsuits seeking reparations for the harm done to Indigenous people through a system of mandatory residential schools that a national commission called cultural genocide. The new settlement, which must still be approved by a court, resolves a class action brought in 2012 by 325 First Nations that sought compensation for the erosion of their cultures and languages. Thousands of Indigenous students educated at about 130 residential schools from the 19th century through the 1990s were forbidden, sometimes through coercive violence, from speaking their ancestral languages and practicing their traditions. Indigenous children were sometimes taken from their families by force and sent to the schools, which were largely run by churches. The culinary revolution that swept through the country in the 1970s and 80s created a new lot of status signifiers that extended from pate and warm goat cheese salad early entries on the menu at Chez Panisse in Berkeley to industrial-grade kitchen appliances meant to signal that ones interest in cooking was not provisional. Early adopters of the new orthodoxies bought bulky, high-powered Wolf ranges, crafted in stainless steel, from restaurant suppliers, until the company, recognizing an evolving luxury market, introduced a residential version that would go on to spend the next decades as shorthand for a moneyed cosmopolitan domesticity. Even if you were never going to acquire a $10,000 six-burner range with intense heat and flame capacity, the modern ethos around food and design insisted on gas, raining down condescension on the coiled cooking surface in all of its functional and aesthetic impoverishment, its opposition to delivering, you might learn, a perfectly seared scallop from the Bay of Fundy. How would an electric stove appear in a Nancy Meyers movie other than as a sacrilege along the order of linoleum at Versailles? Anyone who had the vision to imagine that kitchen mechanicals would eventually have a place in the culture wars could probably not have foreseen where the politics were going to align with the populist right embracing the gas range as a protected-class-victim appliance, even though federal data confirms what we might suspect. The gas stove is predominantly found in the most liberal states; 70 percent of households in California use gas while 15 percent of those in Tennessee do. He added: We continue to surpass both our moral and legal obligations and meet the needs of people arriving in New York, but as the number of asylum seekers continues to grow, we are in serious need of support from both our state and federal governments. The first occupants will be relocated from the Watson Hotel in Midtown Manhattan; the cruise terminal will also house newly arriving adult men as space allows. The Watson Hotel will then be used to serve families with children who are seeking asylum. The announcement was criticized by advocacy groups, particularly for the choice of location: far from the subway, close to wintry waterfront winds and in a high-risk flood zone, according to the citys maps. The emergency center will needlessly expose future residents to the elements during some of the coldest months of the year, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said in a joint statement. The city last year had proposed the first location for an emergency center on Orchard Beach in the Bronx, but it halted construction and abandoned the idea when the site flooded during a rainstorm. Hotels have always been the better short-term option, in contrast to erecting tents in inaccessible parts of New York City that are prone to flooding, the groups added. Continuing to move asylum seekers around the boroughs like chess pieces is callous and indicative of City Halls failure to competently manage this crisis. This means that just as China emerges as an almost-superpower, its staring into a darkened future where it grows old and stagnant before it finishes growing rich. Meanwhile, variations on that shadow lie over most rich and many middle-income nations now threatening general sclerosis, a loss of dynamism and innovation, and a zero-sum struggle between a swollen retired population and the overburdened young. (The weeks mass protests in France over Emmanuel Macrons plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 were a preview of this future.) So its worth thinking about some rules for the age of demographic decadence trends to watch, principles that will separate winners and losers, guideposts for anyone seeking dynamism in a stagnant world. Rule No. 1: The rich world will need redistribution back from old to young. In recent decades weve seen many cases of technocrats proven wrong in their assumptions from the widespread belief that we needed deficit reduction almost immediately after the financial crisis, to the unwise optimism about the effects of free trade with China. But in an aging world, the technocratic desire to reform old-age entitlements will become ever more essential and correct so long as the savings can be used to make it easier for young people to start a family, open a business, own a home. And countries that find a way to make this transfer successfully will end up far ahead of those that just sink into gerontocracy. Rule No. 2: Innovation isnt enough; the challenge will be implementation and adoption. If you want growth in an aging world you need technological breakthroughs. But as the economist Eli Dourado noted in a recent piece about the effects of the new A.I. technology, the big bottlenecks arent always in invention itself: theyre in testing, infrastructure, deployment, regulatory hurdles. And since aging, set-in-their-ways societies may be more inclined to leave new inventions on the shelf, clearing those bottlenecks may become the central innovators challenge. Rule No. 3: Ground warfare will run up against population limits. You can see this dynamic already in the Russia-Ukraine war. Vladimir Putins mobilization efforts arent what they presumably would be if his empire had more young people. Ukraine, with lower birthrates even than Russia, faces a deepening of its demographic crisis if the war drags on for years. The same issue will apply to Taiwan and other flash points: Even where strategic ambitions militate for war, the pain of every casualty will be dramatically compounded. MOGADISHU, Somalia Hunger and loss make up a kaleidoscope in Somalia, but one scene stands out in my visit: A mom, Fardosa Ahmed, confides shyly that she had eight children but lost four of them, and now she fears she may lose a fifth, her daughter Catiko, who is sick, weak and motionless. The tremble in Fardosas voice offers a reminder of the prospective human cost of the famine that, as I wrote in my last column, is looming this spring. United Nations officials are warning as loudly as they can about this impending catastrophe, which reflects the conjunction of two global forces driven by the West and itll be up to us to choose which prevails. The first is climate change, which is widely believed to be a factor in the drought here that is withering crops and killing livestock. Climate change is complicated, but my guess is that Fardosa would not be on the verge of losing a fifth child if we had not secured our standard of living by pumping carbon into the atmosphere for more than a century. All the while, shes had a young child at home. In 2018, she brought her baby daughter to a United Nations peace summit honoring Nelson Mandela. During the scary early days of the Covid crisis, she addressed the nation via a casual Facebook Live session she conducted on her phone after putting her toddler to bed, as my colleague Amanda Taub wrote in 2020. Making the decision to leave office now rather than run herself into the ground isnt conceding that she cant do the job anymore. Its an acknowledgment one thats both astute and selfless, fine qualities in an elected official that she no longer wants to do it in this particular way. While she says she has no plan and no next steps for after she leaves her government role, I anticipate shell put her abundant political skill to good use in some way. She demonstrated that skill in her moving resignation speech, addressing her nation in terms highly relatable to any parent versed in the current motherhood discourse of filling our tanks before they are empty and putting our oxygen masks on first so we have something left to give our families before we burn out. I encourage you to listen to Arderns entire speech. But this is the part that will stay with me: I know there will be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so-called real reason was. I can tell you that what I am sharing today is it. The only interesting angle you will find is that, after going on six years of some big challenges, that I am human. Politicians are human. We give all that we can, for as long as we can, and then its time. I never thought having it all meant we should sacrifice our entire lives and our health on the altar of ambition and outward metrics of success or financial reward. It shouldnt mean that we can never leave a professional role that is no longer suiting us or our families, because feminism or something. The world would probably be better off if more leaders were like Ardern, less concerned about their own egos and more concerned about what was best for their countries. The I alone can fix it posture has its obvious limitations. Mom and prime minister is a strong resume for a xennial. You might even say shes done it all. The good news is that the culture is shifting around this discussion: BBC Newss hackneyed headline, Jacinda Ardern resigns: Can women really have it all? drew an outcry, as it should have. As Neela Janakiramanan wrote for the Australian publication Womens Agenda, that headline reduced a highly effective and much-beloved leader who steered her country through multiple national tragedies and a pandemic into a trope, a cliche, even a warning the woman who tried to be bigger than she had any right to be. And Janakiramanan, a novelist and a surgeon, would know a thing or two about having it all. How much of this do Russians know or question? It is difficult to ascertain what Russians are privately saying or thinking, given how dangerous any open criticism of the limited military operation has become. Independent media have been stifled, thousands of protesters have been arrested, and many foreign correspondents, including those of The Times, were compelled to leave when it became illegal to dispute the official line about the war. Still, at the very least, most Russians should be asking when and how this war will end. That is why this editorial is addressed in part to the Russian people: It is in their name that their president is waging this terrible and useless war; their sons, fathers and husbands are being killed, maimed or brutalized into committing atrocities; their lives are being mortgaged for generations to come in a state distrusted and disliked in many parts of the world. The Kremlins propaganda machinery has been working full time churning out false narratives about a heroic Russian struggle against forces of fascism and debauchery, in which the Western arms are but more proof that Ukraine is a proxy war by the West to strip Russia of its destiny and greatness. Mr. Putin has concocted an elaborate mythology in which Ukraine is an indelible part of a Russkiy mir, a greater Russian world. Isolated from anyone who would dare to speak truth to his power, Mr. Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine last year, convinced that the Ukrainians would promptly shed their fascist government. The start of the war stunned Russians, but Mr. Putin seemed convinced that a West wasted by decadence and decline would squawk but take no action. He and his commanders were apparently unprepared for the extraordinary resistance they met in Ukraine, or for the speed with which the United States and its allies, horrified by the crude violation of the postwar order, came together in Ukraines defense. Mr. Putins response has been to throw ever more lives, resources and cruelty at Ukraine. And with the deplorable support of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, the president has elevated what he insists on calling his limited military offensive into an existential struggle between a spiritually ordained Great Russia and a corrupt and debauched West. Inside the packed Rachel Comey store on Crosby Street in SoHo on Thursday, the readings began about halfway through the evening. When the crowd applauded for the memoirist Vivian Gornick, who read from her book Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader, she made an observation about her somewhat unfamiliar audience: So its not just clothes, its also books that turn you on. Indeed. This was a fashion event that had perhaps an unusually high concentration of writers in attendance. Many wore Comey designs from their closets, printed jackets and tall boots, as well as the dresses, tops and pants that are part of the designers collaboration with The New York Review of Books, the literary magazine edited by Emily Greenhouse and art directed by Leanne Shapton, a longtime friend and creative partner of Ms. Comeys. Fashion and literature might make an unexpected pairing, but it is one with some recent precedent. The author Ottessa Moshfegh wrote flash fiction for Proenza Schoulers fall 2022 collection, and models like Kendall Jenner and Kaia Gerber often display their current reading as part of their off-duty style. This was the latest flirtation between the fashion and literary worlds, a courtship in which each party gets to extract a bit of social capital from the other. That might explain the touch of self-consciousness in the air, with writers seeming more aware of their outfits than usual. We asked some of the attendees many of whom work in the magazine and publishing worlds what they were reading and whether good taste in books could translate into great taste in clothes, too. Interviews have been edited. WASHINGTON The story was as tawdry as they come: The president of the United States had been having sex with a former White House intern in the space off the Oval Office and now was being investigated for lying under oath and obstructing justice to cover it up. The newspaper that landed on doorsteps around Washington that morning, 25 years ago Saturday, kicked off a furor that led to the first presidential impeachment trial in 130 years and transformed politics in the capital as President Bill Clinton battled for survival. A quarter-century later, the lessons are still being debated with each successive scandal. The current White House imbroglio, while hardly as titillating or politically dangerous, is a case study in what todays political actors took away from that unseemly-but-cant-look-away episode. Some Democrats complain that President Bidens team, now confronting a federal investigation, failed to heed the best practices drawn from the Clinton experience while others insist that it is, in critical ways, following the playbook. The discovery of classified documents at Mr. Bidens home and private office prompted his own attorney general, Merrick B. Garland, to appoint a special counsel to look into the matter, much as Mr. Clintons attorney general, Janet Reno, felt compelled to authorize the independent counsel Ken Starr to investigate her presidents efforts to hide his encounters with Monica S. Lewinsky, the former intern. No one thinks the two are equivalent, but in the post-Clinton-and-Starr Washington every such moment is measured against the history of that turn-of-the-century spectacle. WASHINGTON She is among the most influential foreign ambassadors in Washington, but shes technically not an ambassador. She works from a grand estate, but cannot live there. Simply flying her flag could cause a diplomatic incident. This is life in the gray zone for Taiwans senior diplomat in the United States, Bi-khim Hsiao, who enjoys powerful insider access but endures a peculiar outsider status. She speaks almost daily with senior Biden administration officials and is wired into leaders of both parties in Congress. Taiwan has one of the most effective diplomatic representations in Washington of any country, said John R. Bolton, a former national security adviser in the Trump White House. And yet because the United States does not officially recognize Taiwan as an independent country, Ms. Hsiao does not work under the graceful title of ambassador. Instead, she is the Taipei economic and cultural representative. Instead of an embassy, her office is known as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, or TECRO. The Pentagon will keep several thousand American troops in southeast Romania for at least nine more months, closer to the war in neighboring Ukraine than any other U.S. Army unit, officials said on Saturday. Over the last year, the sprawling Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, just a seven-minute rocket flight across the Black Sea from where Russian forces have settled in Crimea, has become a training hub for NATO forces in southeast Europe. The forces would be a first line of defense should Russia invade further west. There are around 4,000 U.S. soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division who have been stationed at the air base since last summer, including small groups of troops that frequently train right on Romanias border with Ukraine. Before that, there was a smaller contingent from the 82nd Airborne that was sent as part of a quick-response force after Russias invasion of Ukraine in February. The 101st Airborne Division troops will leave in the next two months, and officials said they would be replaced by a different brigade from the 101st Division, which is based at Fort Campbell, Ky. In February, the draft opinion was emailed to a list of 70 clerks and employees; it eventually was seen by a dozen more, the report said. Some employees discussed the results with confidants in the building, and a few later admitted that they told their spouses, according to the report. But the publication of the full draft opinion in Politico on May 2 was a shock felt almost physically at the court: Protesters roared outside the building, so loud they could be heard from some bathrooms. Over the years, information had occasionally dribbled out about pending decisions. But the courts opinion was not yet final, and the leak seemed calculated to interfere with deliberations: a grave assault on the judicial process, as the marshals report would put it. By the time the chief justice summoned the three dozen clerks for a mandatory meeting about the breach, many of the pedigreed young lawyers were already worried. On the internet, accusers on the right were attacking the liberal justices clerks, posting names and photos and wild whodunit theories. One clerk had been quoted in a Politico article years before. Another had a masters degree in gender studies, had written about reproductive rights and was married to a reporter. The tweets went viral, with tens of thousands of likes. (Later, the courts investigators found nothing to substantiate those accusations.) The chief had assigned the investigation to Ms. Curley, the marshal, whose best-known task was crying Oyez, oyez, oyez! as justices entered the courtroom. She was a respected former Army lawyer, but her division had little of the investigative muscle of other government agencies, no subpoena power and a staff only partly devoted to security. Others on her team dealt with court administrative tasks like staffing events and handling mail. Image Gail A. Curley, the Supreme Court marshal, a former Army lawyer, was tasked with leading the investigation. Credit... U.S. Army, via Associated Press But Chief Justice Roberts was a staunch defender of the courts independence, reluctant to let outsiders interfere. The Judiciarys power to manage its internal affairs, he had written months before, insulates courts from inappropriate political influence and is crucial to preserving public trust in its work as a separate and co-equal branch of government. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistans blasphemy laws, which can already mean death for those deemed to have insulted Islam or the Prophet Muhammad, can now also be used to punish anyone convicted of insulting people who were connected to him. The move this week by Parliament to further strengthen the nations strict blasphemy laws, which are often used to settle personal scores or persecute minorities, has raised concerns among rights activists about the prospect of an increase in such persecution, particularly of religious minorities, including Christians. As Pakistani society has turned more conservative and religious in the past several decades, religion and display of religiosity in public life have become ever more pronounced. Those convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammads wives, companions or close relatives will now face 10 years in prison, a sentence that can be extended to life, along with a fine of 1 million rupees, roughly $4,500. It also makes the charge of blasphemy an offense for which bail is not possible. LONDON Charles Byrne never wanted to end up in a museum. Byrne, who stood at least 7 feet 7 inches tall, had found fame and wealth in 18th-century Britain by showcasing himself as the Irish Giant. People from Edinburgh to London would pay to gawk at his height, and, legend has it, by the time he died at in 1783, at the age of 22, he had told his friends to bury him at sea to prevent surgeons or anatomists from obtaining his body. He did not get that wish. Instead, John Hunter, an 18th-century British surgeon and anatomist, paid Byrnes friends 500 pounds for his skeleton, which joined hundreds of plant and animal specimens on display in Hunters home in Londons Leicester Square. It became the centerpiece of a collection that eventually formed the Hunterian Museum, which in modern times has seen more than 80,000 people a year pass through its doors. Now, more than two centuries later, the Hunterians board of trustees announced this month that it was granting at least part of Byrnes wish: When the museum reopens in March after a five-year renovation, his skeleton, one of its most famous exhibits, will no longer be on display. What happened historically and what Hunter did was wrong, said Dawn Kemp, a director at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, of which the Hunterian Museum is now part. How do you redress some of these historical wrongs? The first step is to take Byrnes skeleton off display. DNIPRO, Ukraine A Russian missile as long as a city bus was nearing the end of a roughly 300-mile flight, its 2,000-pound warhead armed to detonate on impact. As it was descending through a gray sky last Saturday, traveling at supersonic speed, Rostyslav Yaroshenko, 12, was watching TikTok videos in his kitchen on the third floor at 118 Victory Embankment, a sprawling apartment complex in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Six floors up, Yevgeniy Botvynov had just curled up with his wife, Olha, under a blanket, trying to keep warm during yet another power outage. On the other side of the building, two couples had gathered in their kitchens on the fourth floor, one of them warming a late lunch, the other doting on their 1-year-old son. It was what passes for an ordinary Saturday for ordinary Ukrainian people these days, in a place far from the front lines of the war with Russia, but never fully at peace. All day, air-raid warnings were sounding, forcing people to make calculations that have become habitual: Go to a shelter or stay home? Take the elevator or the stairs? There are two things that Russians require from the state: internal order and external power. So says a fictional President Vladimir V. Putin in Le Mage du Kremlin, or The Wizard of the Kremlin, a novel exploring the inner workings of his government that has captivated France, winning prizes and selling over 430,000 copies. Published shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last February, the novel has become a popular guide for understanding Mr. Putins motives. It has also turned its Swiss-Italian author, Giuliano da Empoli, into a coveted Kremlinologist, invited to lunch with the French prime minister and to Frances top morning news show to analyze the wars developments. The success has illustrated the continued power of literature in France, where novels have long shaped public debate. Elisabeth Borne, the prime minister, said through a spokesman that she really enjoyed his book, which mixes fiction and reality and echoes international current events and the war in Ukraine. But in a country where literary hits are a kind of Rorschach test, the novels success has also raised concerns about whether it is shaping Frances views on Russia. Its detractors say the book conveys a largely sympathetic portrayal of Mr. Putin that may influence policy in a country that is already chastised as too forgiving of the Russian leader. Polands Defense Ministry did not immediately confirm Mr. Reznikovs assertion, but Polish officials have been among the most vociferous voices urging Germany to clear the way for Leopards. The Polish government has said it stands ready to send some of its own, though legally it needs Germany to sign off on any such move. Many Western defense officials meeting in Germany on Friday had hoped to reach a deal on sending the German-made tanks, which are stocked by many European countries and which Ukraine sees as crucial to its war effort. But the meeting ended without a decision from Germany, which so far has resisted sending its own Leopards to Ukraine or giving other countries that have them the necessary approval to export them. Germany has also pushed for the United States to take the lead by sending some of its most advanced battle tanks, the M1 Abrams, but on Saturday criticism was largely falling on Berlin. Ukraines appeals for tanks and more weapons from the West have taken on greater urgency with the approach of spring, when both sides to the conflict are preparing offensives, officials have said. And Russias recent claims to have captured the small towns of Soledar and Klishchiivka part of a broader push to seize the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine have added to the growing pressure. The war overall is in a state of deadlock, Britains Defense Ministry said on Saturday, but it warned that there was a realistic possibility of local Russian advances around Bakhmut. Last summer, a Mississippi woman sought an abortion after, she said, a friend had raped her. Her state prohibits most abortions but allows them for rape victims. Yet she could not find a doctor to provide one. In September, an Indiana woman learned that a fetal defect meant her baby would die shortly after birth, if not sooner. Her states abortion ban included an exception for such cases, but she was referred to Illinois or Michigan. An Ohio woman carrying triplets faced a high risk of dangerous complications, including delivering too early. When she tried to get an abortion in September through Ohios exception for patients with a medical need, she was turned away. The abortion bans enacted in about half the states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June do not prohibit abortion entirely. Most make exceptions in certain circumstances, commonly to protect the health or life of the patient, or in the case of rape or incest. And as conservative state lawmakers prepare to take up new restrictions on abortion in upcoming legislative sessions, exceptions will be at the heart of the debate. But in the months since the courts decision, very few exceptions to these new abortion bans have been granted, a New York Times review of available state data and interviews with dozens of physicians, advocates and lawmakers revealed. Instead, those with means are traveling to states where abortion is still broadly legal or are obtaining abortion pills at home because the requirements to qualify for exceptions are too steep. Doctors and hospitals are turning away patients, saying that ambiguous laws and the threat of criminal penalties make them unwilling to test the rules. Having the legal right on the books to get an abortion and getting one in practice are two distinctly different things, said Laurie Bertram Roberts, the executive director of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, a group that supports abortion rights. Stephanie Piper, an advocate for sexual assault victims at the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence in Biloxi, Miss., said that she has helped several women who became pregnant as a result of rape to connect with abortion providers outside Mississippi. Emily Kask for The New York Times An example of that disconnect is in Louisiana, which has exceptions for protecting the life or health of the patient and for deadly birth defects, and has reported zero abortions since its ban took effect. Mississippi, with exceptions for rape and protecting the life of the patient, has reported no more than two. Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri and Texas have exceptions for protecting a patients life or health and have reported similarly low abortion figures. There is no reliable estimate for the number of patients who seek abortions because of sexual assault or pregnancy complications, yet experts say the number is undoubtedly much more than zero. Thousands of women have most likely qualified for exceptions to state abortion bans in the months since Roe was overturned, they say. A majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in most circumstances, and even those who otherwise oppose abortion generally support exceptions for rape and for health complications. But abortion-rights advocates say legal exceptions do nothing but make abortion bans appear more reasonable than they really are. Abortion opponents, including those who designed the bans, say the laws are working as intended: Exceptions should be rare. If doctors are not treating patients who qualify, they say, those doctors are to blame for overinterpreting the law. Were not convinced there is a problem, said James Bopp, the general counsel for the National Right to Life Committee, who writes model legislation for states. They are just trying to undermine the law in order to have it repealed. He added: If there is a good-faith problem, then it ought to be addressed. Some anti-abortion lawmakers privately acknowledge the challenges that exceptions bring, but only a handful of legislators have been willing to try to revise their laws. We cant imagine every single circumstance thats going to happen out there. Thats the problem with exceptions, said State Senator Tom Davis of South Carolina, an anti-abortion Republican who was unable to persuade colleagues this fall to broaden the exceptions in a proposed ban. Were obligated as legislators to assess whether or not what weve done has had unintended consequences. Obstacles to Access, Even for Those Who Qualify Mississippis ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy was the law that challenged and led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, touching off a wave of bans across the country. The state banned all abortions with two exceptions: one to protect the patients life and one for rape victims. Just before the ban took effect, Stephanie Piper, the sexual assault program manager at the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence in Biloxi, Miss., heard from the friends of a woman who was raped and became pregnant. The woman did not want to have the baby, Ms. Piper said. But Ms. Piper told her it would be hard to find an in-state abortion provider willing to help. Mississippis sole abortion clinic, which had long relied on out-of-state doctors, had closed. Across the state, the attitude about abortion is: We dont do that here, Ms. Piper said. A pair of U.S. maps. One shows states with abortion bans with exceptions for rape or incest and the other shows states without those exceptions. Abortion bans with exceptions for rape or incest Wyo. Ind. Utah W.Va. Miss. Ga. Abortion bans without exceptions for rape or incest Mont. N.D. Wis. Idaho S.D. Iowa Ohio Mo. Ky. N.C. Tenn. Ariz. Okla. Ark. Ala. Texas La. Fla. Notes: Courts have blocked the bans used in this analysis for Indiana, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming. Instead of making an explicit exception, Idaho and North Dakota have a provision that allows for a legal defense for doctors who perform abortions in cases of rape or incest. Even if Mississippi still had an abortion provider, the woman probably would not have qualified for the states rape exception. About a quarter of states that prohibit abortions include allowances for rape and incest victims, and nearly all of those, including Mississippi, require proof of an assault from a police report or a doctors note. The woman did not talk to law enforcement because she did not want her abuser, who had been her friend, to get in trouble, Ms. Piper said. Anti-abortion advocates say that a police report is necessary to prove that an assault happened and to prevent providers from using the exception as a backdoor to access. You need detailed laws for those that dont want to obey the law, Mr. Bopp said. State health department data has recorded no more than two abortions in Mississippi since the states ban took effect. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times Those who work with sexual assault victims say a requirement to report to law enforcement is one of the steepest barriers for those who seek abortions. About two-thirds of victims do not report to law enforcement; many know their abuser and worry about the consequences. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey from 2016 and 2017 found that about 15 percent of women who have been raped at some point in their lifetimes became pregnant as a result of the rape, an estimated 3.4 million women. Ms. Piper said the Mississippi woman found a clinic appointment more than 600 miles away in Indiana. The woman and three friends pooled the several hundred dollars needed for gas, lodging and medical fees and drove together, trying to keep her spirits up. She got the abortion just weeks before Indianas own abortion ban briefly took effect. Black-and-White Rules Unsettle Doctors Indianas ban was the first in the country to be written and approved after Roe fell. Many anti-abortion lawmakers felt the exceptions were written so broadly that they initially joined Democrats in opposing it, but the bill eventually passed with stricter requirements. Its exceptions include an allowance for patients whose fetuses have deadly birth defects, such as incomplete skulls or missing kidneys. The same week the ban took effect in September, Dr. Lori Day said, she saw a patient whose OB-GYN had discovered signs of a deadly birth defect at her 20-week anatomy scan. Dr. Day, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, confirmed the diagnosis and explained that the fetus either would not survive the pregnancy or would die soon after birth. Birth defects kill at least 6,200 babies each year between 20 weeks of pregnancy and early infancy, according to the C.D.C., though this figure does not include pregnancies that end in abortions or miscarriages. Studies have shown that a majority of patients who discover a deadly birth defect seek an abortion. Physicians say that patients often make this choice to spare the fetus from suffering or their families from drawn-out grief. The lawyers at Dr. Days hospital felt that Indianas new law prohibited the methods for the procedure and decided that they could not offer abortions because of the bans confusing wording. It was messy enough that everyone was appropriately nervous, Dr. Day said. A pair of U.S. maps. One shows states with abortion bans with exceptions for fatal birth defects and the other shows states without those exceptions. Abortion bans with exceptions for fatal birth defects Ind. Utah W.Va. Ga. Ala. La. Fla. Abortion bans without exceptions for fatal birth defects Mont. N.D. Wis. Idaho S.D. Wyo. Iowa Ohio Mo. Ky. N.C. Tenn. Ariz. Okla. Ark. Miss. Texas Note: Courts have blocked the bans used in this analysis for Indiana, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming. Exceptions for fatal birth defects exist in only about a third of abortion bans. Utah, for example, allows exceptions for these abnormalities under its ban, but only if they are universally lethal. Physicians say they rarely have such consensus. In Louisiana, lawmakers attached a list of about two dozen conditions to their exception for fatal defects. But this summer they said they would add at least one more condition, after a woman was denied an abortion because her diagnosis was not listed. Read more: Medical Impact of Roe Reversal Goes Well Beyond Abortion Clinics, Doctors Say Some members of the anti-abortion movement say these cases should not be considered abortions and that doctors should be able to terminate these pregnancies without fear. State lawmakers dont go into the Capitol saying we want to scare doctors, said Katie Glenn, the state policy director at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. A lot of people are telling these doctors they need to be worried when they dont. Most states that prohibit abortion also include an exception for patients facing severe complications, which are estimated to occur in 14 percent of pregnancies. This exception, too, is carefully narrow, and every state law that has it uses almost identical language: to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman. A pair of U.S. maps. One shows states with abortion bans with exceptions for patients with severe health risks and the other shows states without those exceptions. Abortion bans with exceptions for patients with severe health risks Mont. Wyo. Iowa Ohio Ind. Utah W.Va. Mo. Ky. N.C. Ariz. Ga. Ala. Texas La. Fla. Abortion bans without exceptions for patients with severe health risks N.D. Wis. Idaho S.D. Tenn. Okla. Ark. Miss. Notes: Courts have blocked the bans used in this analysis for Indiana, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming. Instead of making an explicit exception, Tennessee has a provision that allows for a legal defense for doctors who perform abortions for patients with severe health risks. Physicians say that they cannot anticipate all of the ways in which pregnancy can go awry and that lawmakers were wrong to assume they could. Requiring doctors to pause their care to seek legal counsel puts patients lives at risk, they say. In September, an Ohio woman carrying triplets faced a complicated pregnancy and delivery. Her doctors worried her health would decline and that none of the three fetuses would survive. She sought what specialists call a multifetal reduction to terminate two of them. Multifetal reductions are typically recommended for patients carrying triplets or more, because these pregnancies are always at higher risk. The womans maternal-fetal medicine specialist, Dr. Ellie Ragsdale, had offered these procedures regularly. When Ohios abortion ban was in effect last fall, Dr. Ellie Ragsdale sought to perform abortion procedures for patients with complicated pregnancies but was advised not to. Amber N. Ford for The New York Times Dr. Ragsdale thought the Ohio woman was a clearcut case for the states health exception, but her hospitals lawyers thought the threats to the patients health were not immediate enough. (The ban has since been blocked in court.) Dr. Ragsdales patient traveled to Michigan for the multifetal reduction. In Indiana, Dr. Day also thought it would be simpler to refer her patient to Michigan or Illinois, rather than try to track down a willing doctor in the state. Dr. Day said the patient told her she could not afford the travel or medical fees not covered by insurance. She did not hear from the patient again. What gets put out to the press is: We have exceptions for fetal abnormalities and we have exceptions for maternal life, Dr. Day said. When you get into the nitty-gritty details of it, you actually dont. Almost every state ban makes an exception when the pregnancy endangers the patients life, but three states Idaho, North Dakota and Tennessee have a stricter provision. In those states, the burden is on doctors to prove the patients life was in peril. In the other states, the burden would be on prosecutors to prove that it was not. A pair of U.S. maps. One shows states with abortion bans with exceptions for the life of the patient and the other shows states without those exceptions. Abortion bans with exceptions for protecting the patients life Mont. Wis. S.D. Wyo. Iowa Ohio Ind. Utah W.Va. Mo. Ky. N.C. Ariz. Okla. Ark. Miss. Ga. Ala. Texas La. Fla. Abortion bans without explicit exceptions for protecting the patients life N.D. Idaho Tenn. Note: Instead of making an explicit exception, Idaho, North Dakota and Tennessee have a provision that allows for a legal defense for doctors who perform abortions to protect the life of the patient. Tennessees ban is the only one of the three not currently blocked by a judge, and anti-abortion advocates have held it up as a model because it is not weakened by exceptions. Now, confused and frightened doctors are asking legislators to change the law. Bob Ramsey, a former Republican representative in Tennessee who opposes abortion, ultimately did not vote for the states ban because it did not contain explicit exceptions. In his view, some of his colleagues ignored warnings that the law would rattle doctors. The confusion is actually an intent, said Mr. Ramsey, who left office after losing a primary last year. The more confusing it is, the more likely there will be no abortion in the state of Tennessee. Thats a win for people who are opposed to abortion. Special Case, or Loophole? Anti-abortion advocates suggest that the situation will improve as doctors realize they are unlikely to face prosecution for offering abortions as allowed under the law. There have been no known prosecutions since these laws went into effect, though few providers are testing the rules. Some of the doctors have been very cautious because things are not that black and white, said State Senator Regina Barrow of Louisiana, an anti-abortion Democrat who supported her states ban. Were going to have to do a better job to make sure they understand what is definitely allowable. James Bopp, the general counsel for the National Right to Life Committee, said that doctors who complain about confusing exceptions are trying to undermine abortion bans. Chet Strange for The New York Times Some anti-abortion advocates say that if doctors believe the exceptions are too ambiguous, they should suggest fixes rather than criticize the laws. Theyre not trying to fix the problem, said Mr. Bopp. I would be screaming from the housetops, We better amend this law to make it clear that this can be done because this is wrong. Read more: When Does Life Begin? The Question Comes Into Focus Post-Roe But abortion-rights advocates have warned for decades that exceptions would not work in practice. They point to the rare instances of patients being granted exceptions to the Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal Medicaid funding for abortion services. And those on both sides of the issue say there may be no middle ground. Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, who specializes in the history of abortion, said, What would seem workable to a lot of physicians or reproductive-rights supporters would look like a loophole to the pro-life movement. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Elon Musk took the witness stand Friday to defend a 2018 tweet claiming he had lined up the financing to take Tesla private in a deal that never came close to happening. The tweet resulted in a $40 million settlement with securities regulators. It also led to a class-action lawsuit alleging he misled investors, pulling him into court Friday. The mercurial billionaire took the witness stand wearing a dark suit on the third day of a civil trial in San Francisco that his lawyer unsuccessfully tried to move to Texas, where Tesla is now headquartered, on the premise that media coverage of his tumultuous takeover of Twitter had tainted the jury pool. The nine-person jury assembled earlier this week will be responsible for deciding whether a pair of tweets that Musk posted on Aug. 7, 2018 damaged Tesla shareholders during a 10-day period leading up to a Musk admission that the buyout he had envisioned wasn't going to happen. A month later, Musk stepped down as Tesla's chairman while remaining CEO as part of the Securities and Exchange Commission settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing. In the first of those those two 2018 tweets, Musk stated funding secured for a what would have been a $72 billion buyout of Tesla at a time when the electric automaker was still grapping with production problems and was worth far less than it is now. Musk followed up a few hours later with another tweet suggesting a deal was imminent. On the stand Friday, Musk who last year bought Twitter for $44 billion said tweeting is most democratic way to communicate with investors. "I care a great deal about retail investors, he said during questioning by shareholder attorney Nicholas Porritt. But he acknowledged that investors can get more detail in a traditional... The Bundestag is bursting at the seams, with more seats than ever before. The German government has now presented a proposal for electoral law reform to make it smaller. The broadcaster's closure comes after its assets were frozen in line with a recent round of EU sanctions. The EU introduced a broadcast ban on Russian media shortly after the invasion of Ukraine. Oneindia 28 Mar 2023 The German Defence Ministry has confirmed that the first shipment of Leopard 2 tanks from Germany has been finally sent to Ukraine... The New Zealand education minister is set to become the country's next prime minister after Jacinda Ardern resigned from the role. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government has yet to decide if it will appeal or accept a federal court order to repatriate.. CTV News 24 Jan 2023 Tk'emlups te Secwepemc and shishalh Nation in British Columbia filed a claim for collective compensation in 2012 as part of a broader class action known as the Gottfriedson case. That case was settled last fall and more details are expected to be released on Saturday. Eurasia Review 24 Jan 2023 (RFE/RL) -- Germany has decided to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries such as Poland to do so, the German.. "You cannot ever forget - on Christmas Day, your birthday, at 4am, you have to be on the ball." UK PM Rishi Sunak ended up on the wrong side of the law when he was fined by the Lancashire Police while filming his social media campaign. Afghanistan poses an existential threat to Pakistan. As it is obvious geography plays a critical role in any countrys foreign.. Eurasia Review 02 Jan 2023 In less than two years, Gulalai Mohammadi has gone from being Afghanistans youngest MP to a life in hiding under the Taliban and a constant fear of becoming the next prominent Afghan woman to be assassinated. The energy company said protesters caused considerable damage to property in Lutzerath. Activists had been demonstrating against the expansion of a coal mine in the village. Thousands of visitors to the tourist site have been stranded as violent protests rock the country. Sources at Safra Square say that this issue will probably become one of the most important issues in the upcoming elections campaign, if not the most important. Zelensky credits the fallen minister as being instrumental in efforts to defend Ukraine following Moscow's assault of Ukraine in February 2022. An Irish teacher who was previously jailed following a transgender row in the school where he worked has been dismissed from his job. 2008-2023 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. No Leopard tanks will be given to Ukraine by Germany at this time, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley said on Friday, at a briefing at Germany's U.S. Ramstein Air Base following an international conference on Ukraine support. The international meeting comes... Clashes erupted in Lima between Peru's police and protesters on Thursday, as thousands took to the streets in the capital and.. Upworthy 20 Jan 2023 Yemeni authorities are failing to meet their international legal obligations to protect socio-economic rights for millions of Yemenis, Human Rights Watch said in releasing a submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. After more than seven years of protracted conflict, the Yemeni... Even as Western allies announced a massive new military aid package to Ukraine, the spotlight has lingered on the German-made battle tank, which Germany has been reluctant to provide. Germany has become one of Ukraine's leading weapons suppliers in the 11 months since Russia's invasion, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz also has gained a reputation for hesitating to take each new step -- generating impatience among allies. The oldest titi monkey in North America died at the Denver Zoo this week at the age of 31. Director of Content and Operations Spencer McKee is OutThere Colorado's Director of Content and Operations. In his spare time, Spencer loves to hike, rock climb, and trail run. He's on a mission to summit all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners and has already climbed more than half. 12:31 | Callao (Callao region), Jan. 21. Remarks were made before the transfer of more than 13 tons of goods, including supplies for water treatment, food, medicines, and household items, by the Air Force of Peru (FAP) to southeastern Madre de Dios region. "This is an articulated and joint work following the interruption of roads which is occurring in Madres de Dios; it is necessary to establish a humanitarian aid corridor to satisfy the demands of the population, not only in Puerto Maldonado, but also in Puno, Cusco, and Arequipa, whose roads are being blocked," he indicated. The Cabinet member specified that, thanks to these humanitarian corridors, it will be possible to bring the necessary goods so that the population can be supplied both with food and the necessary supplies to guarantee their safety. Shortage The minister indicated that this joint activity with the Ministries of Housing, Health, and Women allows (the Peruvian State) to guarantee the well-being and health of the population affected by shortages due to road blockades. "As a State we guarantee our help. Once again, we call for peace, for establishing a humanitarian corridor so as to guarantee the health of our population; let us think about our family. Acts of violence do not lead to anything other than harming our population," he affirmed. In this sense, the high-ranking official reiterated the call to continue applying dialogue as a mechanism to meet the unsatisfied demands of various Peruvian regions. "The only solution is dialogue, in an atmosphere of peace for the well-being of each of our populations and citizens," he added. "Iniciamos el traslado de mas de 13 toneladas de bienes, entre insumos para el tratamiento de agua potable, alimentos, medicamentos, enseres y equipos de proteccion personal. En un trabajo conjunto entre el Mindef, a traves de la @fapperu, @viviendaperu, @MimpPeru y @Minsa_Peru" pic.twitter.com/rrHtuh6ldD Mindef Peru (@MindefPeru) January 21, 2023 De los tres vuelos de apoyo que realizaran las aeronaves C-27J Spartan de la @fapperu, dos parten hoy y el tercero esta programado para el lunes 23. Con esta ayuda humanitaria mas de 100 mil personas de la region tendran acceso a agua potable. #NuestraMisionElPeru???? pic.twitter.com/a4Hvm8zn8k Mindef Peru (@MindefPeru) January 21, 2023 (END) JCC/MVB Washington, DC, US (PANA) - A senior US diplomat will undertake a visit to Algeria and Morocco from 21-26 January where the issues of human rights and support for the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) will feature But, first, I call your attention to a couple of my typically mean-spirited and buffoonish crimes against humanity: Beautiful Patience, written by Daniel C. Peterson. Abstract: Believers in the God of Abraham who include not only Jews and Christians but also Muslims are exhorted to call upon him every day, as well as in times of need. We are promised that he will respond to petitionary prayers. Moreover, we are assured that, in the end, believers will prosper, that their faith or trust in him will prove justified. But we are not promised that rewards, compensation, or justice will come to us on our mortal timetable and this raises sometimes burningly acute questions about Providence and even, for more than a few, about either Gods benevolence, his care, or his sheer existence. So we are also exhorted to be patient. And that sets us up for many of mortalitys greatest tests. In the meantime, while faithfully waiting for Gods promises to be fulfilled, we ourselves are to work toward their fulfillment with all [our] heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters (Colossians 3:23, NIV). Believers in the God of Abraham who include not only Jews and Christians but also Muslims are exhorted to call upon him every day, as well as in times of need. We are promised that he will respond to petitionary prayers. Moreover, we are assured that, in the end, believers will prosper, that their faith or trust in him will prove justified. But we are not promised that rewards, compensation, or justice will come to us on our mortal timetable and this raises sometimes burningly acute questions about Providence and even, for more than a few, about either Gods benevolence, his care, or his sheer existence. So we are also exhorted to be patient. And that sets us up for many of mortalitys greatest tests. In the meantime, while faithfully waiting for Gods promises to be fulfilled, we ourselves are to work toward their fulfillment with all [our] heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters (Colossians 3:23, NIV). I also have a quite unrelated article that just went up in Meridian Magazine: Arguing for the Divinity of Jesus. Read them, if youre up for stress and the soul-crushing horror. But you should probably be sitting first, and with a heart specialist nearby. Now, though, on to my principal subject for the day: As Ive mentioned here before, I recently re-read Eugene England, Brother Brigham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), and thoroughly, thoroughly, enjoyed it. I was consistently amazed at the similarity of Genes opinion of Brigham Young to mine. But then, maybe the similarity shouldnt have been such a surprise. It may be that Genes view of Brigham Young was a formative influence on mine in the first place. After all, I first read it when it came from the press more than four decades ago, and Ive re-read it at least once or twice since, prior to this last time. One of the things that we intend to do as part of our forthcoming Six Days in August film project at least as we currently envision it is to illustrate how the Twelve were trained and equipped, without their being aware of it, for their eventual assumption of the overall leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In its earliest days, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was assigned the responsibility for missionary work, which is to say that its focus was external to the Church. Domestically, as it were that is, within the Church the high council (which we now have in every stake) was entrusted with the management of affairs below the First Presidency, as distinct from the traveling high council composed of the twelve apostles (Doctrine and Covenants 102:30, dating to 1835). Here is a passage from Eugene England on that subject, specifically refer to their famous (and very successful) mission to the British Isles: The winding-up actions of the Quorum, reported especially in their final epistle to the Church members in Britain, were directly responsive to Josephs counsel and well exemplify the unity and effectiveness the apostles had achieved, in good part through their increasing fidelity to him as their Prophet. Joseph Smith was extremely well pleased with the accomplishments implied in their epistle both the great work that had been achieved and that which still lay before the British Saints and he responded quickly and dramatically to the proven quality and solidarity of the Twelve and the demonstrated devotion and ability of the Quorums president. A few days after Brighams return from England the Prophet visited him in his home and conveyed a revelation to him: Dear and well-beloved brother, Brigham Young, verily thus saith the Lord unto you: My servant Brigham, it is no more required at your hand to leave your family as in times past, for your offering is acceptable to me. I have seen your labor and toil in journeyings for my name. I therefore command you to send my word abroad, and take especial care of your family from this time, henceforth and forever. Amen. And a month later, on August 16, 1841, at a special conference of the Church presided over by President Young, Joseph Smith made the momentous announcement that the time had come when the Twelve should be called upon to stand in their place next to the first Presidency, and attend to the settling of emigrants and the business of the Church at the stakes. Accordingly, the Twelve were established in their proper governing role over all the Church, and Brother Brigham was unknowingly embarked on the course which would lead beyond Carthage and would make him the Churchs second prophet and president and its leader to the west. But for now he could only be grateful for a relatively stationary and peaceful ministry. On April 25, 1841, on the ship coming home, he tells us, I felt as though I could not endure menny such voiges as I had indured for 2 years . . . and ware it not for the power of God and his tendere mercy I should despare. The single entry for 1842 in the two diaries covering this period is: January 18th . . . This Evening I am with my wife alone by my fire side for the first time for years; we enjoi it and feele to prase the Lord. Said Brigham Young, I feel like shouting hallelujah, all the time, when I think that I ever know Joseph Smith, the Prophet whom the Lord raised up . . . and to whom He gave keys and power to build up the kingdom of God on the earth and sustain it (Journal of Discourses 3:51) Head of Linguistics at the University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum, popularly called Opanyin Agyekum, has appealed to government to reconsider its decision to include individual bondholders and pensioners in its Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). Opanyin Agyekum was worried about government deciding to touch the monies of pensioners who are well-advanced in age (60 years and above) as well as those who have invested in bonds and were expecting to reap their benefits but are now told there will be a zero benefit on their bonds. He noted that this decision will bring untold hardships on the victims. "One thing about this government is that there are some things they do before they announce it or do it before they realize they shoud have done it this or that way. That is one of the diseases. Didn't the President tell us there will be no haircut?...With what they are doing now, what is called?, he asked while speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show. Professor Kofi Agyekum implored the government to find a more better way to restoring the economy without compounding the plight of Ghanaians. "I don't believe some of the banks even understand this (DDEP). I don't think a lot of the NPP MPs even understand what they are doing," 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. Featured Video NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Bortianor-Ngleshie-Amanfrom, Sylvester Tetteh has appealed to Ghanaians, particularly holders of bonds, to agree and support government's amended Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). Ghanas government, in a bid to mitigate an economic crisis, has negotiated a staff-level agreement for a $3 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has said that its board will approve the deal only if Ghana undergoes comprehensive debt restructuring. This debt exchange programme which, when implemented will affect bondholders and pensioners in that, in the case of the bondholders, there will be zero benefits for them and the pensioners are also going to have to postpone collection of their pensions has generated lots of controversies. Pensioner Bondholders Forum has petitioned the government to exempt their members holding sovereign bonds from the programme and Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF), a voluntary group of individual bondholders, is requesting a review as well. But to Hon. Sylvester Tetteh, opposing the programme will not augur well for the country and will have dire consequences in the future. Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" discussion programme, the MP told host Nana Yaw Kesseh that Ghanaians must rally behind the government ensuring the programme is effectively rolled out, stressing it is better for them to bear the burden today than face a worse situation in the offing. " . . we should be mindful of people who want to run the system down for the sake of their political interest or political expediency and deceiving people making it seem we can't solve the problem, because when there is a problem, it requires cool heads that we will solve those problems. But if we don't do that, the only thing those people are seeking is there will be change of government. But if you change the government with this same problem, where are you going?", he stated. He added; "I think we must all endeavor to support the system. When Ghana is well again, your small investment will have value than your huge investment in a collapsed economy. I don't think any Ghanaian would like to travel that journey." He also advised the citizenry to note that this is "no longer NPP/NDC matters but it is all of us, as Ghanaians, and our common destiny and our future put together, otherwise we will continue to do extreme partisanship but it is the country that suffers". Watch his submission below Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video 09:30 | Lima, Jan. 21. "My respect and solidarity with the National Police of Peru, not only for the professional work that they have carried out in the city of Lima on the second day, but also for the reprehensible attack and fire at the Zepita police station, in region Puno, and also to the Puno Binational Border Assistance Center officials whose warehouse suffered a fire," he expressed. The Cabinet member lamented that extreme violence attacks had once again occurred at Arequipa city's airport, as well as at Antapaccay mining company site in Espinar province Peru's southern Cusco region. "These types of extremist and violent acts cannot be deemed as protest demonstrations," he emphasized. Likewise, the high-ranking official indicated that law enforcement goes on with the work of defending internal order. In this specific case, the Armed Forces continue protecting critical assets and strategic infrastructure, both in Lima and other areas of the country. Remarks were made on Friday night during a press conference at which seven State ministers provided a joint statement on the events that occurred during recent protests in Lima and other regions. Fake news On the other hand, the Defense minister categorically ruled out that foreign troops had been authorized to enter the national territory as disseminated on social networks. The Cabinet member clarified that it is a legislative resolution on a usual procedure referred to the authorization for entry of the Juan Sebastian de Elcano Training Ship from the city of Madrid to the port of Callao, from April 15 to 20. "These are cultural and academic exchange procedures that are carried out between the armies and navies of sister countries," he explained. The high-ranking official also rejected that Armed Forces' tanks are being used to carry out repression activities against protesters. "The vehicles in support and protection of our police are multipurpose vehicles, whose objective is to protect the integrity of our National Police in the face of these social conflicts," he remarked. The police have arrested and charged Nana Agradaa's lawyer, for verbally assaulting police officers who were in the process of arresting Agradaa in a different matter. According to the prosecution, Theophilus Donkor, rained insults on a female police officer and used abusive words such as "you are idiot, stupid policewoman, you did not know your left from right" among others. The lawyer has been slapped with counts of assault on a public officer and offensive conduct conducive to breaches of the peace. His plea, was, however, reserved by the court, presided over by Rosemond Baah Tosu when he was arraigned Thursday (Jan 19, 2023). This is because, the lawyer has filed a motion challenging the authority of the police that arrested him. He is arguing that personnel from the Cantonments Police Station, that arrested him, did not have the authority to arrest him because the alleged crime was committed at Accra Metropolitan Assembly, a jurisdiction outside the operations of the Cantonments police division. Agradaas latest arrest Police sources have confirmed that the Founder of Heaven Way Champion International Ministry, Patricia Asieduaa Koranteng, was re-arrested at the forecourt of the Accra Circuit Court by officers of the Ghana Police Service when she appeared for one of her cases. Information available indicates that the arrest is related to a case she has with a pastor by name Appiah Biblical. Agradaa is currently before two circuit courts in Accra on counts of defrauding by false pretences and charlatanic advertisement in the media. Source: Graphiconline Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) has urged all churches in the country to pray for the managers of the Ghanaian economy especially the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta for God's wisdom and direction regarding the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). In a press release issued on January 19, 2022, the Council also urged the government to suspend the January 31, 2023, deadline given to individuals to sign on to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) and rather engage stakeholders to make the process acceptable to all. The Council believes that thorough engagements with stakeholders would help the government to appreciate the concerns of the Ghanaian people and put measures in place to address some of the challenges of the program. "The CCG also wants to encourage the media to be diligent with reportage on the debt restructuring program and ensure that they speak to professionals on the matter to avoid false information that would further heighten the already situation of fear and panic in the country," the release said. "The leadership of the Christian Council of Ghana will continue to pray for the managers of our economy, especially the Finance Minister, for God's wisdom and direction in this and we urge all churches to do same". The CCG further encouraged the media to be diligent with reportage on the debt restructuring program and ensure that they speak to professionals on the matter to avoid false information that would further heighten the already situation of fear and panic in the country. "As an advocacy group that speaks for the vulnerable in the society, the Council has examined the concerns of the Individual Bond Holders Association of Ghana (IBHAG), the Pensioner Bondholders Forum, our church members and the general public and have identified lapses in the debt restructuring programme, a major one being lack of consultation with affected individuals and institutions," the statement said. "With the current economic hardships in the country and the agitations among the general public, it is in the nation's interest for the Finance Ministry to suspend the 31st January deadline given to individuals to sign on to the program and rather propose a road map for dialogue to make the process participatory such that the outcome would be acceptable to all". "The Council believes that thorough engagements with stakeholders would help the government to appreciate the concerns of the Ghanaian people and put measures in place to address some of the challenges of the program". Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Majority Chief Whip in Parliament, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has lauded the genius of Vice President Dr Mahaudu Bawumia following the successful takeoff of his gold-for-oil plan. Reacting to recent news of the policys successful implementation, Annoh-Dompreh said Bawumia is a gift to Ghana who will rescue us from the current challenges via his unconventional policy ideas. Taking to Twitter, the Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri wrote: He is a gift to this Nation, lets not take it for granted. Do away with your Hatred for him.. He will rescue us, certainly. Dr. Bawumia, ever proud of him. His reaction comes after news broke that Ghana has received the first batch of fuel procured under the gold-for-oil policy on Monday, January 16th 2023. The 41,000 metric tonnes of fuel procured under the governments revolutionary gold-for-oil policy arrived at the Tema Port, delivered by the vessel SCF YENISEI. The relatively cheaper fuel was procured from the international market with gold instead of U.S dollars in a landmark new policy intended to fight the effects of cedi depreciation on the Ghanaian economy. Speaking on the policy during his opening of the 42nd Annual New Year School and Conference at the University of Ghana, Legon, Bawumia touched on the ingenuity it took to come up with the policy. We have mined gold for over 200 years, and when I looked at the data I realized that our total reserves of gold in Ghana was just 8.7 tonnes at the end of 2021. One of the largest gold mining countries, we are in the top 10 in the world but we have not accumulated gold to build our reserves. We looked at the other side of the balance sheet, we export gold and we import oil. The cost of oil import is about 3 billion dollars a year. So we ask the simple question, why dont we, since we have always got pressure in finding US Dollars to buy oil, rather reach an agreement to change our gold for oil and then, sell the oil in Cedis and then, use the Cedis to buy more gold, use that gold to pay for oil, sell the oil in Cedis and then you dont need to look for the scarce foreign exchange to buy oil, which always leads to depreciation on the currency. With this idea, we said, let us do something that the textbooks dont teach you, let us do something that is out of the box and this is why we said gold-for-oil. We quickly looked at this and we negotiated with the suppliers of oil who were very excited and happy to receive gold in payment. Thankfully, yesterday, Monday, Ghana took its first delivery of oil under the gold-for-oil programme, Bawumia espoused. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Vice President Bawumia says he is proud of the modest gains achieved by the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration. Even though he said the nation was saddled with problems, the Vice President said there was still more room for improvement and that government was working tirelessly to get the country back on track. Speaking at this years edition of the Annual New Year School on the Legon campus of the University of Ghana, he indicated that We have succeeded in creating a conducive business climate that is spurring on the growth of the private sector. Indeed, Ghana is now acknowledged as the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in West Africa. Our whole object is to unleash the innovative and entrepreneurial talents of the Ghanaian private sector to drive rapid growth and job creation, and take advantage of the opportunities that will be presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The theme for this years Annual New Year School and Conference is Positioning the African Market for Sustainable Economic Development through African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The Vice President continued that While recent domestic and global economic challenges have negatively impacted our economy, it is important that we promote AfCFTA efforts of key stakeholders such as industry, the private sector, academia and government to reposition Ghana through trade. He said this was necessary because the African Continental Free Trade Area provides an important barometer for Ghanas quest to boost economic development through regional trading. When you consider the fact that trade between African countries remains low, currently standing at some 16% of our combined GDP, compared to other parts of the world, like the European Unions 75%, it is obvious that these very low levels of intra-regional trade cannot improve our prospects of bringing prosperity to our peoples. A large part of the growth and prosperity that we seek on the continent will come from us trading more among ourselves, he noted adding that The coming into force of the AfCFTA means that Africa now has the worlds largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organisation. The Free Trade Area will cover a market of 1.2 billion people, with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion, across the fifty-four (54) Member States of the African Union that have signed up to the Agreement. For him, It will provide the vehicle for us to trade among ourselves in a more modern and sophisticated manner; it will offer a huge opportunity to exploit the abundant wealth and resources of our great continent for the benefit of all our people; and it would give us protection in how to deal with other trading blocks. Dr. Bawumia was of the firm belief that the coming into force and successful implementation of the AfCFTA ties in perfectly with the vision of moving our country to a self-reliant Ghana that has freed herself from a mindset of dependence, charity and handouts, and is determined to make intelligent, disciplined use of her considerable resources the basis for her growth and prosperity. This vision can be better realised if we can leverage the trade and investment opportunities the AfCFTA presents, he noted. There is a new Africa emerging, with a sense of urgency and purpose, and an aspiration to become self-reliant, and move the continent to a situation of self-sufficiency, progress and prosperity. We must succeed together, and do so resoundingly for the benefit of current and future generations. A new dawn of trading and investment across Africa, for Africans, has just begun, he noted. Source: dailyguidenetwork.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 National executives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) have appealed to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to grant exemptions to small bondholders in the ongoing Debt Exchange Programme (DEP) announced by the government last year. General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Koduah Frimpong said the party wants bondholders like pensioners to be excused from the programme, calling on the government to find alternative ways for the DEP. Speaking at a meeting with the Finance Minister and NPP executives at the partys headquarters in Accra, Mr. Frimpong disclosed that the party had been besieged with calls from pensioners and other small bondholders for the government to reconsider its decision to include them in the exercise. The meeting, which came off Friday, January 13, 2023, was held at the instance of the Party-Government Engagements initiative introduced by the NPP leadership to bridge the gap between government appointees and various stakeholders of the party. Mr. Ofori-Atta was warmly received by the national executives, led by National Chairman, Stephen Ayesu Ntim, who welcomed him to the partys headquarters. Mr. Ntim explained that the Party-Government Engagement initiative was meant to foster deep cooperation and collaboration in preparation for the 2024 general election. The Finance Minister expressed gratitude to the party leadership for the warm reception and commended the national executives for their wise counsel. He acknowledged the current economic challenges, but noted that the Finance Ministry was determined to stabilise the economy to create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive again, and improve socioeconomic conditions for the citizenry. He recounted the unprecedented economic feat achieved by the Akufo-Addo administration in its first term, pointing out that Ghana was touted as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. According to him, the foundation the government laid was intended to usher Ghana into a new dawn of sustainable economic growth and prosperity, but for the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which have impacted negatively on the economy. He said the International Monetary Funds (IMFs) support programme would stabilise and energise the economy, when it is brought onboard, assuring that there is no intention by the government to scrap the Free Senior High School programme. He used the opportunity to call on the party leadership to put in place adequate guidelines to ensure the smooth conduct of the partys parliamentary and presidential primaries. For him, the internal party elections are critical in the NPPs quest to win a historic third consecutive general election dubbed: Breaking the Eight. Also present at the meeting were National Second Vice Chairperson, Rita Asobayire; National Third Vice Chairperson, Alhaji Masawudu Osman; National Treasurer, Dr. Charles Dwamena; National Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye; National Youth Organiser, Salam Mustapha; and National Nasara Coordinator, Alhaji Aziz Haruna Futa. In attendance were the two Deputy General Secretaries, Dr. Antoinette Tsibu Darko and Haruna Mohammed; Director of Finance & Administration, William Yamoah; Director of Communications, Richard Ahiagbah; Director of External Affairs, Kwame Kyeretwie-Amponsah; and Director for I T, Eric Ntori. The rest were Joseph Kwayaja, Deputy National Organiser; Chris Lloyd Nii Kwesi, Deputy National Organiser; Miriam Awurama Duah, Deputy National Women Organiser; Hajia Ayesha Yussif, Deputy Nasara Coordinator; Sandra Sarkodee-Addo, Deputy National Youth Organiser; and Isaac Jay Nii Amahtey Hyde, Deputy National Youth Organiser. Source: dailyguidenetwork.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 Sylvester Tetteh, Member of Parliament (MP) for Bortianor Ngleshie Amanfrom, says the position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentarians about the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, hasn't changed. According to him, the NPP MPs still stand by their decision that 'Ken Must Go'. Joining a panel discussion on "Kokrokoo" morning show on Peace FM, Hon. Sylvester Tetteh emphasized that he and his colleagues hold the assertion that replacing the Finance Minister will inspire people's confidence in the government and economy. "...our position hasn't changed that Ken must go. We believe it will inspire some confidence in the economy and the new leadership will bring new ideas...We don't have anything personal against him...Look, people who are not even able to speak to this, when they speak to you in private; everybody thinks that the man must go", he told Nana Yaw Kesseh. He added; "I believe if there is a change in the Finance Ministry, it will inspire some confidence in the financial architecture." He made these comments while discussing the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme by the Government of Ghana to secure an IMF bailout for the economy. The debt exchange programme will affect holders of bonds as well as pensioners. However, this programme has been met with vehement opposition with individual bondholders and pensioners asking government to exempt them. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Shatta Wale has reacted to Sarkodies latest project with the legendary reggae artiste, Bob Marley. Although the Jamaican musician is late, his team made a decision to release a posthumous version of his smash hit Stir It Up with The Wailers. Featured in the remix, released today, Friday, January 20, 2023, is Sarkodie, whose verse has since stirred massive reactions from individuals on social media. Shatta Wale has also shared his opinion about the project but in a sarcastic manner. In what looked like mockery, the dancehall musician during a discussion on LuvFMs Drive Time said; Weve heard Sarkodie has featured Bob Marley. It's so beautiful. At least weve had someone who can feature a ghost, we should praise him. Shatta Wale said Ghanaians are still concerned about the Meek Mill Jubilee House saga instead of focusing on Sarkodies ghost feature. We are not even talking about that, its Meek Mill we are concerned about. Watch the video below: "Sarkodie has featured a ghost, it's nothing special" - Shatta Wale mocks pic.twitter.com/SVbMa1w1ex GHPage (@ghpage_com) January 20, 2023 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 UNESCO has officially recognised Senegal as the origin of jollof rice, also known as Ceebu jen in Senegal, settling a long-standing debate between West African nations Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. The dish, which is a staple in West African cuisine, is made of rice and fish, accompanied by vegetables and sometimes tomatoes. According to research by The Conversation Africa, the origins of Jollof rice can be traced back to the entrenchment of colonial rule in West Africa between 1860 and 1940. During this period, French colonisers replaced food crops with broken rice imported from Indochina. Over time, broken rice became more prized by the Senegalese than whole rice grain and the dish known as Ceebu jen was born. The dish has become a source of pride and cultural identity for the Senegalese and has been recognised as an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO. This certification is expected to positively impact the economy, particularly in tourism, agriculture, fishing and catering. In addition to its cultural significance, Jollof rice is also closely linked to a particular way of life and the consumption of the dish is strongly linked to ceremonial events and the aesthetics of presentation and service. The women of Saint Louis, a port city in northern Senegal, are known for their remarkable know-how in this area and have been credited with adding finesse and elegance to the dish. The Senegalese version of Jollof rice, Ceebu jen, is now officially recognised by UNESCO as an intangible heritage of humanity, putting an end to the ongoing debate over its origins and solidifying Senegals claim as the true home of Jollof rice. View this post on Instagram A post shared by KEd (@ambrose_wash) Source: Asaaseradio 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 Pronunciamiento de la presidenta de la republica, @DinaErcilia Boluarte, y de ministros de Estado. Ahora en vivo: https://t.co/BaJLDgP9Mn Historian David Saint-Pierre shows photos of the salvage operation from the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in 1914 at his home, Thursday, January 12, 2023 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz James and Sandra Helm of Moira, New York are seen being held captive in Quebec in 2020, in this court handout image received January 17, 2023. A man on trial for the kidnapping testified Friday he was never inside their house and in fact never met them. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Exhibit, Quebec Superior Court **MANDATORY CREDIT** A general view of Karama camp for internally displaced Syrians, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022 by the village of Atma, Idlib province, Syria. A Federal Court judge has ordered the Liberal government to help bring home four Canadian men being held in Syrian camps. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Omar Albam Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print President Biden can talk about policies and accomplishments, but it is faith in and optimism about America that will likely win him a second term. Video of Biden: Biden, "There is nothing beyond the capacity of the United States of America. Remember who in the hell we are. We are the United States of America." pic.twitter.com/KJf0pnUXWY Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) January 20, 2023 Biden said, I was asked by my senior team if I could do anything to change the attitude and optimism in America, what was the one thing I would do, if I could just change one thing? Its going to sound bizarre when I tell you. I said Id cure cancer. They looked at me like cure cancer, because nobody thinks. Its the most frightening thing to people, and if we did it, America could do big things again. Theres nothing beyond our capacity. I swear to God. There is nothing beyond the capacity of the United States of America. Remember who in the hell we are. We are the United States of America. President Bidens optimism and faith in America strongly resonate with voters. Republicans are likely to deliver an ugly message of negativity because they need to convince Americans to dump a sitting president. If Trump is the GOP nominee, the message will be intensely negative. Negativity turns voters off. President Biden, with his earnest and sincere faith in the nation, along with being the most accomplished president in decades, has a message that will make it difficult for Republicans to defeat him in 2024. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) the DOJ made it clear that he is not getting their criminal evidence against Trump. CNN reported: In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan responding to a flurry of document requests, the DOJ said that any oversight requests must be weighed against the departments interests in protecting the integrity of its work. The letter added: The Departments mission to independently and impartially uphold the rule of law requires us to maintain the integrity of our investigations, prosecutions, and civil actions and to avoid even a perception that our efforts are influenced by anything but the law and the facts. The letter sheds light on how the department will resist providing information related to ongoing investigations, even as the department pledged Friday to accommodate lawmakers requests where possible, quoting former President Ronald Reagan. Sign Up For Our Newsletter: To put it another way, the DOJ sent the message that Jordan can forget about getting anything that might compromise an ongoing investigation. One of the big reasons why Republicans wanted their select committee so badly is that they appear to have thought it would allow them to help Trump avoid an indictment. They also seem to be hoping to use the committee to funnel information to Trump as then Rep. Devin Nunes did from his leadership post on the House Intelligence Committee during the Mueller investigation. Jim Jordan will need to decide if he wants to get into a long and potentially costly court fight with the DOJ because the criminal evidence that he claims to want is not going to be turned over. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print House Republicans have been planning since before they won the majority to take the economy hostage, but they are facing strong opposition from the White House. The Washington Post reported on the White House strategy: Klain said the White Houses plan was straightforward, according to the lawmaker: Refuse to entertain any concessions, and launch a barrage of attacks highlighting the GOP position that would force Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to fold. This debate is simple: We want to do the responsible thing, and they want to take the entire American economy hostage to cut Social Security and Medicare, said the member of Congress, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations. Klain told the lawmaker that the fight could result in substantial political benefits for the Democratic Party. The point he was making was clear: You cant negotiate with people who take hostages. Post reporter Jeff Stein added on Twitter: So that leads us back to: Relentlessly hammer the GOP in public for threatening to blow up the US economy to cut popular programs, a message Dem pollsters think theyll win on. (Some conservatives Ive spoken to think the GOP is already feeling the heat here) pic.twitter.com/V5HqHMtPbk Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) January 21, 2023 Biden learned as vice president from the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that was caused by House Republicans that there can be no negotiations on the debt ceiling. In other words, the president cant set the precedent that they will negotiate with political terrorists, or the result will be an endless series of Republican-created threats to the economy. Sign Up For Our Newsletter: It is easy for House Republicans to stand together months before the debt ceiling gets real, but when it comes to people not getting their Social Security checks, government offices being closed, or employees not being paid, Republicans are likely to quickly fracture. A House speaker is only as strong as the unity of their caucus, and Kevin McCarthys caucus is fractured and will probably fall apart as soon the pressure gets intense. Republicans are already feeling the heat, as they dont seem to have any strategy beyond demanding negotiations and hoping that Biden says yes. Aiken, SC (29801) Today Showers and a few thunderstorms likely. Low 61F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Showers and a few thunderstorms likely. Low 61F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Two more lawsuits filed against a member of a prominent Winter Colony family have been settled. Deborah Barbier, Wesley Few and Ryan Beasley, attorneys for a Greenville woman, filed court documents dismissing the woman's claims against Rhett Riviere on Dec. 20, 2022. The terms of the settlement are confidential. The woman's claims were made in lawsuits filed in April 2021 and June 2022. In April 2021, the Greenville woman filed suit against Riviere, a company he owned (Chase Enterprises), Riviere's former live-in girlfriend and Airbnb after she was allegedly recorded without her permission in mid-May 2019 by Riviere in a Third Avenue home rented through Airbnb. The woman alleged in an amended complaint all the defendants were negligent, responsible for the injuries she suffered by being recorded and violated the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act. She alleged Riviere intentionally inflicted emotional distress on her, wrongfully intruded into her private affairs and constructively defrauded her. The woman alleged Airbnb was negligent in allowing Riviere to rent out his home on the service, the company was vicariously liable for Riviere's invasion of her privacy and Airbnb constructively defrauded her. One of the documents filed Dec. 20, 2022, dismisses with prejudice the claims can't be made again the woman's claims against Riviere and his company. Riviere's former live-in girlfriend denied the allegations made against her in the amended complaint and asked the court to dismiss the claims made against her. Airbnb has not yet responded to the allegations. In June 2022, the woman filed a second suit against Riviere over his transfer of a property on Grace Avenue known as the Seahorse Cottage to a limited liability company in order to satisfy the provisions of a settlement agreement made with another woman who sued him in August 2020. The Greenville woman asked the court to transfer the property back to Riviere and to issue a writ of attachment to secure the property for payment of a future judgment. The court document filed Dec. 20, 2022, dismisses the woman's claims with prejudice and ends the suit. A woman who stayed with the Greenville woman in the Third Avenue home sued Riviere in February 2021. That suit, too, was dismissed with prejudice on Oct. 11, 2021. The second suit filed by the Greenville woman alleges that Riviere paid a "not insubstantial sum of money" to resolve the February 2021 suit. A couple allegedly recorded without their permission in 2001 sued Riviere on Nov. 14, 2022. That suit remains pending as of late morning Friday. South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents arrested Riviere in 2021 and 2022 over the recordings. On June 2, 2021, Riviere was charged with two counts of first-offense voyeurism for recording the women in the Third Avenue home in May 2019. First-offense voyeurism is a misdemeanor, and those found guilty face up to three years in jail, a fine of up to $500 or both. Those charges remain pending on a 180-day track as of late morning Friday. On July 28, 2022, Riviere was charged with two additional counts of first-offense voyeurism for recording the couple in 2001. Those charges also remain pending and on a 180-day track. Moncks Corner, SC (29461) Today Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. NATO presented details on Secretary Generals Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia Javier Colominas recent trip to South Caucasus where he visited Armenia and Azerbaijan. "The NATO Secretary Generals Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Javier Colomina, travelled to the South Caucasus this week, visiting Armenia and Azerbaijan. The visit was part of Mr Colominas regular political consultations in these two important NATO partner countries. In Armenia he met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, Defence Minister Suren Papikyan and other officials. In Azerbaijan he met with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and other officials. Mr Colomina discussed NATOs cooperation with Armenia and with Azerbaijan, and the contributions of both partners to Euro-Atlantic security. Mr Colomina also exchanged views on regional security issues, including the situation in the Lachin corridor. He stressed the importance of free movement and the need to address humanitarian issues, as well as the importance of resuming talks and working towards normalisation. Mr Colomina also welcomed the role of the European Union in support of regional stability, NATO said in a press release. It was while raking in the backyard recently that I stumbled across something under all the leaves. First of all, shouldnt leaf raking be over by January? Werent these leaves supposed to have done their dropping long before now? Seems like a fair question. Anyway, as Im raking and raking and raking, I discover approximately a million or more acorns all over the ground. There were enough acorns to feed a large family of squirrels through the next presidential election. There were acorns everywhere. As my mind has a tendency to do, I started posing questions for a test I had not adequately studied for. Do acorns fall more in some years, than in others? Did we just experience a bumper crop of acorns that no one bothered to share with me? Where did all these little nuts come from? Had all the squirrels, which frequently steal food from the bird feeders, decided to terrorize the neighborhood by stashing their ill-gotten snacks under my unraked leaves? It was enough to interrupt what should have been a routine moment of winter exercise that ordinarily would involve raking the leaves, cramming them in a bag and placing the bags at the curb for pick-up. But no ... something else was going on that required additional examination. Fruits and nuts My crack research team and I are about to share more information that you never knew, or possibly didnt care about, regarding acorns. First of all, what falls to the ground is a nut and a fruit of the oak tree. So, while thats not exactly breaking news, here are a few other knowledgeable nuggets in case youre ever a contestant on "Jeopardy!" Scientists tell us oak trees produce bumper crops of acorns every two to seven years. This process is called masting. A mast year often follows a mild winter and no spring freezes. Sign up for our opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! Hang on, theres more. Squirrels arent the only animals that love em. Deer, chipmunks, wild turkeys, crows, rabbits, possums, blue jays and raccoons all consume acorns. For some reason, acorns are toxic to horses. From something so small One of my favorite spots in the Lowcountry is the Angel Oak. That majestic tree deserves to be capitalized. It humbles me every time I stand beneath its huge branches. The massive trunk, rooted in the rich, black earth of Johns Island, has withstood all that Mother Nature and mankind can throw at it. Im so happy that big old tree remains protected and will continue to receive the respect and community care it deserves. As I raked and bagged those leaves and acorns recently, I found myself marveling that such a tiny seed could produce such a mighty giant. At one point, I quit picking up the acorns, so that they could stay right where they were supposed to be. An oak is tough and deeply rooted. It is a symbol of strength and endurance. History certainly offers more than one example of people from humble beginnings who stood tall after facing adversity. Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin. Rosa Parks would not give up her seat in the front of the bus. Michael Jordan was cut in the 10th grade from the varsity team. Ill leave you with an anonymous quote. Todays mighty oak is just yesterdays nut, that held its ground. Town Attorney G.W. Parker recently received the go-ahead from Summerville Council to sign agreements pertaining to the 2023 distribution of dollars from a slew of chain drug stores and pharmaceutical brands/companies resulting from an opioid lawsuit settlement. Read moreOpioid monies, new signs headline Town meet One year, seven months and 16 days after the slayings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh generated international intrigue, the family patriarch will stand trial for their murders at the Colleton County Courthouse. Prosecutors allege Alex Murdaugh, the ginger-haired scion of a powerful legal family, shot and killed his wife and youngest son in a desperate attempt to delay the exposure of his myriad financial crimes and prevent his personal ruin. They say their 13-month investigation of the killings generated a mountain of evidence, including GPS data and cellphone records, that all points back to Murdaugh. But Murdaughs defense lawyers insist their client had nothing to do with the fatal shootings on the evening of June 7, 2021. They allege the S.C. Attorney Generals Office buckled under public pressure to solve the crime in deciding to indict Murdaugh on weak circumstantial evidence. They say they want to clear their clients name so investigators can go find the real killer. On one side: state grand jury chief prosecutor Creighton Waters, whose resume includes high-profile cases against drug traffickers, white-collar criminals and corrupt politicians. On the other: Murdaugh lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, widely considered two of the best trial attorneys in South Carolina. The two sides will collide in a weekslong courtroom showdown that begins Jan. 23 in Walterboro, an event that has already been dubbed South Carolinas trial of the century. The trial will be nationally televised on Court TV and has reporters from all over the country planning for a long stay in Colleton County. To me, this case is going to be a fascinating viewing opportunity for the public and for lawyers, every bit as fascinating as the O.J. Simpson trial, Columbia lawyer Joe McCulloch said. Outstanding questions Before the case gets underway, Judge Clifton Newman is expected to issue a series of rulings that will shape the trials course. Prosecutors and Murdaughs attorneys have fought for months over the admissibility of key pieces of evidence in the states case against Murdaugh. Several of those disputes remain outstanding, awaiting Newmans decision. They include a motion from Murdaughs legal team to throw out the states blood spatter analysis. That report supposedly found tiny bloodstains on Murdaughs white T-shirt from the night of the slayings, speckles that could only have come from standing close by as Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were shot. For months, blood spatter was thought to be a damning piece of evidence that proved Murdaughs direct involvement in the slayings. But Murdaughs lawyers have since raised major, unanswered questions about that analysis and the retired Oklahoma police officer who created it. For one, they argue, the analyst found blood spatter stains on parts of the shirt that, unbeknownst to him, had tested negative for human blood. Furthermore, they contend, draft reports showed the analyst initially found no spatter stains. Then he changed his mind several weeks later after multiple meetings with state investigators, they said. Harpootlian and Griffin accused investigators of manipulating the analyst, Tom Bevel, into providing a bogus report, including by failing to tell Bevel that the shirt had tested negative for human blood. At a motions hearing, Waters the state prosecutor conceded there could be problems with the spatter analysis. He said he would huddle with investigators to determine how to move forward. But in the months since, the Attorney Generals Office hasnt publicly addressed the blood spatter issues. The financial crimes Another outstanding question is whether Newman will let prosecutors bring up Murdaughs alleged financial crimes at the murder trial. Waters has said Murdaughs financial crimes are critical to the states case, providing the motive for the June 2021 murders. Murdaugh, a once-respected Hampton lawyer, faces nearly 100 criminal charges in addition to the murder counts. Investigators allege he surreptitiously stole nearly $9 million from his legal clients, law partners and others who trusted him over the course of a decade. Prosecutors must be allowed to explain how Murdaughs paranoia over the possible exposure of those crimes led him to kill his wife and son, or a jury will have a hard time believing a father could commit such a heinous act, Waters said. Murdaughs attorneys have fought to exclude that evidence, saying their clients alleged financial crimes are unrelated. They have called the states theory of Murdaughs motive implausible and illogical, saying it makes no sense for a person to commit a murder to try to escape scrutiny for financial crimes. Prosecutors merely want to use the financial crimes to smear Murdaugh as a bad guy at trial and shore up their otherwise-weak case, Murdaughs lawyers have said. Newman is expected to rule on those motions and others sometime before opening statements. His decisions could alter the viability of either sides case. Clash of the lawyers The long-awaited unveiling of the states case against Murdaugh will generate fireworks. But so will the clash of talented attorneys on each side, experts predict. There is going to be a lot of brainpower in that courtroom, said Bryan Stirling, a Columbia attorney who serves as executive director of the state Department of Corrections. Some observers are curious how state prosecutors will fare against Harpootlian and Griffin, who have handled hundreds of jury trials between them. Harpootlian alone has tried more than 100 murder cases, including some 15 death penalty trials. Waters, the lead prosecutor, and his second chair, longtime Deputy Attorney General Don Zelenka, have far less experience in jury trials. They worked together for years in the appellate division of the Attorney Generals Office, defending convictions won by other prosecutors. But in those roles, they trafficked in highly technical legal arguments before judges, not juries. As head of the state grand jury, Waters has led some of South Carolinas most complex criminal investigations. But his probes tend to end in guilty pleas, not jury trials, in part due to his knack for stacking up evidence and charges against his targets. Is it going to be a fair fight? McCulloch asked. The courtroom will have good lawyers on both sides. But in the sense of experience, I believe it to be a mismatch. Weeks ago, the Attorney Generals Office hired John Meadors, a Columbia prosecutor with dozens of murder trials to his name. That prompted speculation Meadors was hired to help prosecute Murdaugh, rumors that a spokesman for the office has denied. Harpootlian and Waters, in particular, have sparred for months in pretrial motions and hearings. Harpootlian has accused the state of trial by ambush hiding evidence in the case and hurting Murdaughs chance at a fair trial. Waters has accused Harpootlian of ginning up fake controversy to create headlines before trial. The pair have a somewhat frosty relationship already something to watch for at trial. At a court hearing years ago, Waters asked a judge to deny bond for one of Harpootlians defendants. He presented a video of the defendant reenacting a rap music video, lip syncing graphic lyrics demeaning judges and law enforcement. Harpootlian responded by pulling up a video of Waters playing rock and roll on his guitar, arguing music videos arent totally representative of a persons character. Waters, fuming, confronted Harpootlian afterward. Dick is not the classic defense lawyer, said Jack Swerling, Harpootlians Clemson classmate and former law partner. Dick plays offense. The X-factor The X-factor in this case will be the Colleton County jury, experts say. Depending on who you ask, the Murdaughs were revered, beloved, despised and feared for more than a century in their southern corner of South Carolina. One of the great remaining mysteries of this case is what power their name still carries in Colleton County. How will the jury react to being told a Murdaugh a name long synonymous with law enforcement in the 14th Judicial Circuit committed murder? And in a day and age when people tend to have either minds made up before the conversation even begins, will those preconceived notions trump the evidence presented at trial? To that end, former U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Pete Strom said he expects Murdaughs defense team will have conducted focus groups with locals to see how their points might land in court. That community may have their mind made up that something happened completely different than where the evidence goes, Strom said. Bakari Sellers, a Columbia trial lawyer and native of nearby Bamberg County, said relating to a diverse Colleton County jury will be critical for each side. The lawyers trying the case will be seen as outsiders, city folk from Columbia, Sellers said. He said they must walk the line between explaining their points in terms everyone can understand and dumbing their arguments down so much they become condescending, Theres a certain: Dont tell me how to think. Dont tell me how to process stuff. Dont look down on me that both the defense and the prosecution are going to have to be very wary of, Sellers said. And if the lawyers on each side didn't have enough to think about, every move they make at trial will be seen and scrutinized by close followers all over the country not to mention the role they will play in determining Murdaugh's guilt or innocence. No pressure. On the afternoon of April 7, four teenagers and an adult were shot on an Isle of Palms beach crowded predominantly with high school students. Though its causes remain under investigation this week, it marked the 143rd mass shooting in the United States on the 96th day of the year, joining Na Read moreCommentary: IOP mass shooting highlights national public health crisis The University of Guam serves as that steward of place to deliver equitable and inclusive public value through its academic programs, research Read moreSustaining UOGs accreditation is key to delivering a high-quality Guam workforce YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. The Dutch parliament adopted a resolution asking the government together with other EU member states to increase pressure on Azerbaijan to open the Lachin corridor. The Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands (FAON) welcomed the adoption with large majority by the Dutch parliament of the motion submitted by Mr. Don Ceder (Christian Union faction), cosigned by Mrs. Agnes Mulder (CDA faction). The motion states that the blockade of the only access road to Nagorno Karabakh continues and that the humanitarian situation for the population of Nagorno Karabach is deteriorating as a result thereof, that Azerbaijan has ignored calls to reopen the Lachin Corridor and that Russian peacekeepers do not fulfill the conditions of agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation. The motion asks the government to investigate, at a European level, how to increase the pressure on Azerbaijan to end the blockade and to involve like-minded EU member states in this process. The FAON, that submitted a petition to the Dutch Parliament on January 17th and held a 3 day Silent Protest in front of the parliament for the unblocking of Lachin-corridor, looks forward to swift actions of the Dutch Government and the EU in particular to unblock the road, and to end the humanitarian catastrophe, with 120.000 people without gas in the ice-cold mountainous region, without supply of food and medication, and with electricity just for limited hours a day. Also creation of international guarantees is necessary to avoid repetition of the blockade. The situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the chances for peace have been deteriorated by this way of acting of Azerbaijan. The EU, also with its own efforts, was hoping for a peace agreement. The FAON is keeping its hopes up for the succeeding of the peace negotiations, FAON said in a press release. The controversy between former Nollywood actress, Halima Abubakar, and Apostle Suleman Johnson, the Founder of Omega Fire Ministries International, has taken a new turn as the preacher has formally taken the matter to court. The preacher, through his legal representatives, Ephesus Lex Attorneys & Solicitors, brought Ms Abubakar before Justice. J. Enobie Obanor of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in the Abuja Judicial Division. In October 2022, Apostle Johnson Suleman filed a case against her for alleged defamation. The court case commences on the 25th of March. In 2022, the Apostle filed a writ against the actress seeking several reliefs against her. It was the first time he would publicly react to the matter since it came to the fore in July 2022 after Gistlover made a post linking her alleged affair with the Apostle to the fibroid surgery she underwent. Then, the actress siblings called the apostle on Instagram and asked him to stay away from her. Among other things, the Apostle sought a declaration that her publication was defamatory. He also demanded that she tendered an unreserved apology and other monetary damages. This came barely 24 hours after she held a live session on Instagram regarding her relationship with Apostle Suleman. Last minute resort As though she got wind of the lawsuit, the actress, Friday, repeatedly tried to hold a live Instagram session with notorious faceless blogger, Gistlover. The session failed to hold due to poor connection, which the faceless blogger attributed to Apostle Sulemans spiritual interference. Proceedings begin After the failure of the actress to meet his demands, the Apostle and his legal representatives have started legal proceedings against her. Mr Sulemans legal representative, Rodney Adzuanaga, told PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday that rather than honour the clerics initial cease and desist notice, the actress boasted that she was willing to meet in court. We then filed our process and got an order from the court to continue with the proceedings. As it stands, she has been served. Since we dont know her address here in Abuja, we decided to send her the notice through the Daily Trust newspaper. Whether she comes to court or not is not our business. We have to prove our case, and the court will take it from there. What I do know is that she has been served, he said. Demands Before the commencement of the legal proceedings, Ms Abubakar, who is said to be down with an undisclosed ailment, alleged that she once dated the Apostle, She also, among other things, accused the apostle of being behind her ailment, noting that if anything happened to her, he should be held responsible. The apostle, who recently survived a gun attack, is levelling defamation charges against the actress. According to the court document, her statements injured his character, credit, reputation, integrity, and ministry. Mr Suleman is asking the court for an order directing the defendant to publish a retraction of her defamatory statements posted on her Instagram handle @Halimabubakar and on several online blogs and newspapers. He is also asking for an order compelling her to pay for the deleting of all links and reportage of the said defamatory comments on all platforms on the internet. Other demands include the sum of N1 billion as aggravated and exemplary damages for libel, an order of perpetual injunction restraining her, her agents or servants or otherwise from further publishing or causing to be published the said or similar statements defamatory of the claimant. In addition, he is also asking for an order directing Ms Abubakar to pay the sum of N20 million, the legal fee paid to the counsel handling this suit. Background In October 2022, Ms Abubakar, who began acting in 2001 when she played a minor role in Rejected, announced that she quit working. The controversial actress broke the news on her official Instagram page. Although she didnt state the reasons behind the decision, the post caption, rejuvenate and continue healing, suggests it may have to do with her deteriorating health. For months unending, the erstwhile actress accused the controversial cleric of reneging on his promise to marry her. She also said he was behind an undisclosed life-threatening ailment that had plagued her for years. The preacher then issued a cease and desist notice to the actress. The cleric accused her Ms Abubakar of publishing malicious, defamatory, and demeaning statements about him on several microblog sites, chiefly Gistlover. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Ahead of the forthcoming elections, Nollywood actress Bimbo Akintola has stated why the APC Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu is the best choice for Nigeria. In an Interview with TVC your view, the 52-year-old actress revealed that she works for Mr Tinubu because she is convinced he has all it takes to transform Nigeria. The movie star described Mr Tinubu as a skill and talent locator while defending her decision to support his candidature publicly. She said, I am with the PCC, Im working for Asiwaju, and Im also with CGI (Connecting Grassroots Initiative), which MC Oluomo started. What we are doing is going door to door. First and foremost, Asiwaju built talent; he found people who can do things, look at his cabinet when he was governor; those are the names we call now. We see Fashola, Osinbanjo, Wale Edun, and they are the so-called young names we call in politics, and they all came from where? Its because Asiwaju sourced them and brought them on. We would be excited about the changes that would happen in this county Bimbo also extolled Mr Tinubus generosity towards her industry and colleagues, which she said long began before he declared for president. I know he has a vision for Nigeria, which is crucial; where we are in the world right now, if you know you dont have a picture, you shouldnt try to serve. He has an idea. Tinubu has supported so many people, our industry for one; you dont need to know him to get support. Wen, we lost Moji Olaiya, and she wasnt in the country; he flew her in; he paid for everything. So many actors have received help from him, and he doesnt know them from anywhere, she said. Funke Akindele Asked about her colleague Funke Akindeles Lagos state deputy governorship bid, Bimbo gave a vague response. I think more and more people who feel they have a service to give to this country need to step up. Nigeria needs all the help; they step up. The Dangerous Twin star, hitherto known for her calm disposition on social media, said she is currently speaking up because of how other people try to downplay her choices. Normally, I dont share my politics or what I believe on social media, but because of how people are attacking others, I said no, we wont be bullied. READ ALSO: Every Nigerian has the right to make a choice, My choice might be different from yours, but it doesnt change the fact that we are both Nigerians. Bimbo, whose career spans over three decades, has carved a niche for herself, especially in movies that tell the stories of womens plights and the girl-child. She made her acting debut in Owo Blow (1995) and later starred alongside Richard Mofe-Damijo in Out of Bounds (1997). Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Gunmen shot two persons dead in Mkpuma Akataka Community, Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi on Friday. Also killed was an Ebubeagu commander. A native of the community, Grace Nwite, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday that hoodlums invaded the community and shot sporadically. They came into the community and started shooting. I heard that the hoodlums came on a motorcycle, Mrs Nwite said. The hoodlums also killed Charles Nwankwo, Commander of Ebubeagu (the Southeast security network) in Ogboji Ward, Ezza North Local Government Area of Ebonyi in his house. Ebonyi Commander of Ebubeagu, Friday Ujor, confirmed the killings. I know about the incident but I have not gotten the full details of the killings, he said. ALSO READ: Gunmen kill wife of Ebubeagu commander in Ebonyi Police spokesman in Ebonyi, Chris Anyanwu, also confirmed the killing. There were shootings, but there is no proof of political motivation as being peddled now. I will get back to you after some clarification on that aspect, Mr Anyanwu, a superintendent of police,told NAN. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Nigeria on Friday confirmed the outbreak of a new infection of the nose and throat, otherwise known as Diphtheria. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) in a public health advisory issued Friday morning, confirmed that not less than 25 people have reportedly died from the disease in Kano State, North-West Nigeria. The disease control centre, however, noted that it has responded to reports of diphtheria cases in Lagos and Kano States and is monitoring the situation in Osun and Yobe States where cases are now being picked up. While the NCDC is yet to give data on the number of infections and deaths recorded in the country, the Kano State Commissioner for Health, Aminu Tsanyawa, had on Thursday confirmed that the outbreak of Diphtheria has killed no fewer than 25 persons in the state. The commissioner told an online newspaper that the state rapid response team has been reactivated and indexed an action plan to check the spread of the deadly disease in the state. However, NCDC said its now working with state health ministries and partners to enhance surveillance and response to the outbreak. About Diphtheria The NCDC explained that diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection caused by the bacterium called Corynebacterium species that affects the nose, throat and sometimes, the skin of an individual. It noted that people most at risk of contracting diphtheria are children and adults who have not received any or a single dose of the pentavalent vaccine (a diphtheria toxoid-containing vaccine), people who live in a crowded environment, in areas with poor sanitation and healthcare workers who are exposed to suspected or confirmed cases of diphtheria. On transmission, NCDC added that the disease spreads easily between people through direct contact with infected people, droplets from coughing or sneezing and contact with contaminated clothing and objects. The symptoms of diphtheria include fever, runny nose, sore throat, cough, red eyes (conjunctivitis) and neck swelling. In severe cases, NCDC said that a thick grey or white patch appears on the tonsils and/or at the back of the throat associated with difficulty breathing. Prevention As regards the prevention of the disease, the NCDC urged parents to ensure that their children are fully vaccinated against diphtheria with three doses of the pentavalent vaccine as recommended in the childhood immunisation schedule. It added that healthcare workers should be vigilant and look out for symptoms of diphtheria, and individuals with signs and symptoms suggestive of diphtheria should isolate themselves and notify the local government area, state disease surveillance officer or the NCDC through its toll-free line (6232). It also advised that close contacts with a confirmed case of diphtheria should be closely monitored, given antibiotics prophylaxis and started on diphtheria antitoxin treatment when indicated, while all healthcare workers with higher exposure to cases should be vaccinated against diphtheria. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has announced that the country has joined the group of states that want to create an anti-Russian tribunal because of the conflict in Ukraine. The minister's statement was published on the British government's website. January 21, 2023, 09:37 Britain joins countries demanding tribunal against Russia STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 21, ARTSAKHPRESS: "The UK will play a leading role in a core group of likeminded partners to pursue criminal accountability for Russias illegal invasion of Ukraine," the statement said. The police in Nasarawa State, North-central Nigeria, on Friday, said six pupils of a primary school at Alwaza, a community in Doma Local Government Area were abducted. The commands spokesperson, Rahman Nansel, told PREMIUM TIMES Friday evening that security operatives are trailing the suspected kidnappers. The spokesperson said the operation to rescue the abducted pupils is being led by the police commissioner, Maiyaki Muhammad-Baba He said the pupils were abducted on their way to the school around 7 a.m. Friday. Mr Nansel said a joint team of police operatives, soldiers and vigilante groups has been dispatched to apprehend the suspects and rescue the victims. Gunmen commonly referred to as bandits have been targeting public schools, abducting students in North-central and North-west Nigeria. ALSO READ: 136 Niger school pupils freed 86 days after abduction In most cases, parents of the abducted pupils usually pay ransom to free them from their captors, who are non-state actors. Frequent bandit attacks have happened in Kebbi, Niger, Zamfara and Kaduna States. However, the ongoing onslaught against the terrorist groups by Nigerian security forces has minimised their attacks across the states. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, (MOMAN), has attributed the lingering fuel scarcity in the country to high costs of vessels and inadequate trucks to deliver petroleum products from depots to filling stations across Nigeria. The marketers explained that these high logistics and exchange rate costs continue to put pressure on their operations with ripple effects on the pump price. In a statement on Friday, the marketers said the fuel queues are caused by exceptionally high demand and bottlenecks in the fuel distribution chain. The major cause is the shortage and high (US Dollar) costs of daughters vessels for ferrying product from mother vessels to depots along the coast, it said. Next is the inadequate number of trucks to meet the demand to deliver products from depots to filling stations nationwide. MOMAN said it sympathises with Nigerians over the challenges they are facing in the purchase of petrol at filling stations across the country. Over the past three months, it said its staff members have worked diligently at depots and filling stations to relieve the stress faced by Nigerians through the Christmas and New year periods. Our members have again agreed to extend depot loading hours as well as keep strategically situated service stations open for longer hours to ease access to fuels for our customers, the association said. It noted that it shall continue to use its best endeavours to ensure that product is sold at the pump at prices currently approved by the regulatory authorities, despite pressure on price by demand and costs in immediate operating environment. A final resolution to these challenges will be the full deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector to encourage liberalisation of supply and long-term investments in distribution assets. We urge the government to work towards this end goal, it said. Scarcity In recent months, especially since the government announced plans to remove fuel subsidies, Nigerians have had a hard time getting petroleum products at filling stations. The scarcity has persisted despite the governments repeated claims it had enough petroleum products in stock. In many parts of the country, operators of filling stations sold at prices higher than the governments pump price. The Nigerian government Friday night said it has not approved any increase in the pump prices of petrol across the country. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, made this disclosure even as Nigerians continue to queue for fuel in filling stations amidst reports of increase in the pump price of petroleum products. Earlier on Thursday, reports claimed that the government quietly approved 185 as the new petrol pump price per litre. But Mr Sylva claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari did not approve any increase in the price of PMS or any other petroleum product. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Rise Networks, a Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Company, on Friday in Abuja, launched the Run-Am mobile app to verify fake news and combat the spread of misinformation during the electioneering period. Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, founder, Rise Networks, said the platform, which can be accessed on Google Play Store, is a tool capable of ensuring efficiency and accountability of information during the 2023 elections and beyond. She said that the project had the support of the MacArthur Foundation and the Centre for Information, Technology and Development (CITAD). According to her, the app has the news verification feature, image verification feature and voter-education feature to check misinformation that may cause violence during elections. During elections, fake news is used to create a lot of voter apathy, so you see a lot of news like 50 people have been killed in a particular local government. And because of that, people who have their PVCs will not want to come out to vote because they are afraid. But when you find out, you will see that that information is not true but when voters do not turn up, that is when it will be easy for them to rig the elections. And those are the kind of problems the Run-Am App intend to solve, she said. She added that the organisation was working to ensure that the App is run in our local languages and pidgin English, for easy accessibility of all Nigerians. Victor Aluko, Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) appreciated the company for its efforts at combating fake news that may undermine the electoral processes in the country. READ ALSO: We are going into a serious elections which will be contested by powerful individuals and political parties and you will see a situation where the electoral process will be pulled in various directions. When we have that, you will see a lot of combination of fake news, misinformation and disinformation and we are looking at how we can manage our results to make sure that people dont misinform Nigerians. So when we have this type of App (Run-Am), from reputable organisations like this, we tend to identify with them and express our happiness that this is coming from a Nigerian organisation, he said. For his part, Dayo Olaide, Deputy Country Director, MacArthur Foundation Africa Office, added that democracy had continued to be faced with global threats across the globe. He added that to save the countrys democracy, Nigerians must begin to pay more attention to electoral accountability and call out those who make inflammatory statements and spread fake news. As we launch the (Run-Am) App today, we will need our citizens that to go beyond exposing those misinformation but begin to demand that those who are driving this type of attack against our democracy are brought to book. That responsibility is not only that of INEC, it is a shared responsibility, the government, citizens and also the media must hold all actors accountable for their actions, he added. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Kidnappers have released the remaining two members of Baptist Church in Iwo, Osun State that they abducted. Five of the church members were abducted but three were released on Wednesday after the payment of a N6 million ransom. PREMIUM TIMES had reported how two of the victims were abducted while returning from their farms around Ileogbo area in the state and how the three others were abducted when they went to deliver ransom to the kidnappers in a location around Kogi State. The President of Osun Baptist Conference, Paul Kolawole, and Chairman of Osun Baptist Conference, Sunday Ogundijo, announced the freedom of the two remaining church members in a statement they jointly signed on Friday. They said the church members were released from captivity following payment of N10 million. It is interesting to inform Your Excellency that we highly value your timely intervention more especially in the given of your executive order and other measures taken to fast-track the rescue process, the statement said. It is interesting to inform Your Excellency that two people were released on the 17th, while the last two were just released today Friday 20th January, 2023 even though with cumulative payment of ransoms of N10 million. READ ALSO: We will appreciate it if Your Excellency will grant us an audience by giving us a day to bring the four victims to you in order to show our sense of appreciation. It will also enable us as a Conference to felicitate with you on your successful ascension as the Executive Governor of our state, they said. On behalf of the Osun Baptist Conference, the Nigerian Baptist Convention, and the entire Iwo Baptist Community, I write to sincerely appreciate your Excellency on the vital roles you played towards the rescue of four of our people who were kidnapped between January 11th and 16th 2023. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Director of the Civil Society directorate of the Presidential Campaign Council of the APC, Najatu Muhammad, has quit partisan politics. Ms Muhammad announced her decision in a letter dated 19 January and addressed to the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu. She stated that she is resigning from partisan politics due to lack of ideological differences among political parties. Ms Muhammad said recent developments in the political space made it impossible for her to continue partisan politics. The letter reads, In line with article 9.5 (i) of the Constitution of the All Progressives Congress (APC), I am writing to you to intimate you of my resignation from the All Progressive Congress (APC). I am by this letter also informing you of my resignation as the Director of the Civil Society directorate of the Presidential Campaign Council of the APC. It has been a great honour working with you (Mr Adamu) to contribute towards the building of our dear nation. However, a number of recent developments in the countrys political and democratic space, make it impossible for me to continue to participate in party politics. After much reflection and careful consideration, I have decided to part ways with party politics. I have come to the realization that my values and beliefs no longer align with party politics. Our political parties have no ideological differences and are simply robes that politicians wear to serve their personal needs and interests at any given time. As a result of which we see politicians changing from one robe to another whenever it suits them. Ms Muhammad said she would rather support candidates at a personal level instead of through a political party. READ ALSO: What is important at this point in time is the individual wearing the robe and not the robe itself. I am committed to supporting individuals that are truly interested in addressing the root causes of our challenges as a nation. To remain true to such commitments, one must be willing to take bold and decisive steps, the letter reads. In 2016, Ms Muhammad, a very vocal supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari, rejected her appointment as chairperson of the Governing Council of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Jigawa State, Abdullahi Tsoho, Friday defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Mr Tsohos defection comes barely hours before the visit of the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, who is expected to campaign in the state on Saturday. Mr Tsoho was received by the Jigawa governor, Muhammad Badaru, and the APC governorship candidate in the state, Umar Namadi, at the Government House. Mr Tsoho said he joined the APC alongside all the senatorial candidates, the candidates of the House of Representatives of the Labour Party and other party chieftains from the state. He said all the defectors will be officially received by the APC presidential candidate, Mr Tinubu, on Saturday. The governor, Mr Badaru, while receiving the defectors said they and their supporters will be accorded every right and privilege being enjoyed by the members of the APC. Before he defected to the APC Mr Tsoho, a former scribe of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Jigawa, was a staunch critic of the governor. He accused Mr Badaru of destroying the state and local governments contributory pension scheme. He also accused him of not recruiting civil servants. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The presidential candidates participating in the 25 February election have signed a second peace accord. The accord, organised by the National Peace Committee, was signed in on Friday at Transcorp Hilton in Abuja. The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, who did not attend the first peace signing, attended the signing alongside his running mate, Kashim Shettima, and APC Chairman, Abdulahi Adamu. Other candidates that attended the signing include Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress (AAC), Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, and others. However, the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and that of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, did not attend the event. Atiku was represented by his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State. The Chairman of the Committee and former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, in his speech, admonished the candidates to moderate their speeches to ensure a peaceful election. Mr Abubakar praised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the improvement in the electoral process. He added that the meeting with the candidates is not about accusations and counter accusations. I appeal to you all to be moderate in your language, show respect to the views and concerns of one another and listen to the concerns expressed. We are not here to find out who is wrong, but what is wrong and to see how to correct it. We are pleased that there are measurable improvements and that INEC is assuring us that it has resolved some of the areas that have often caused violence. The security agencies have also continued to give us assurances. Our hope is that you can raise your areas of concern and let us see what can be done to instil confidence in this process. Sowere protests There was a mild drama at the event as Mr Sowore protested the sitting arrangement for the candidates and asked that they should be allowed to sit alphabetically. The sitting arrangements should have been alphabetical, I note that this same thing happened at the ICC during the signing of the peace accord and this is not fair, he said. Mr Abubakar intervened and told Mr Sowore that his concerns are noted. The meeting was subsequently moved to a closed door after the presentation by the Chairman of the Committee. The first peace accord signing was in September 2022. The presidential election holds on February 24 with 18 candidates participating. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Gunmen on Thursday morning killed Sale Yakubu, a councillor in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. The Niger State Commissioner for Internal Security and Humanitarian Affairs, Emmanuel Umar, confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview. Mr Umar said the deceased and one other person were onboard a motorcycle when they were stopped by the terrorists who shot and killed the councillor immediately The deceased person was asked to get down from the motorcycle and the terrorists opened fire on him. The other occupant of the motorcycle was spared. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the deceased was a former member of the vigilante group who might have been blacklisted by the terrorist groups in the area. Parts of Shiroro Local Government Area are under the control of the ISWAP terror group. The Nigerian Air Force carries out occasional bombing raids to flush out terrorists in the area, but these raids have come under criticism as they often have civilian casualties. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Nigerias first professor of medicine, Theophilus Oladipo Ogunlesi, is dead. Mr Ogunlesi, also Nigerias first Head of Department of Medicine University College Hospital, Ibadan, died Thursday, January 19, at 99. In a statement Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari praised the accomplishments of the renowned physician as well as his huge contribution to humanity. President Muhammadu Buhari shares the pain of loss with Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), family members and friends of Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Theophilus Oladipo Ogunlesi, 99, who made history in 1965 as Nigerias first Professor of Medicine, Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, said in a statement. President Buhari sends condolences to the academia, and professional colleagues of the medical doctor and scholar, who started on the path of a medical doctor at Yaba College of Medicine in 1947, and advanced his career at the University of London, 1953, where he qualified as a registered Medical Officer in England. President Buhari affirms that Prof. Ogunlesi brought pride and honour to Nigeria in scholarship and practice, training many students that have become Ministers of Health, Vice Chancellors of universities, and medical practitioners in different specializations, serving in various parts of the world. The President urges approximation of the legacies of the medical doctor, who scored many firsts, including Nigerias first Head of Department of Medicine University College Hospital, Ibadan, inaugural Director of the Ibarapa Community Health Programme, and first President of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. President Buhari prays for the repose of the soul of the father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and Gods comfort for the family. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Some aggrieved chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State have endorsed the candidacy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Peter Mbah, in the 2023 general elections. The APC chieftains, led by former President of the Nigerian Senate, Ken Nnamani, made the announcement on Friday during the Enugu East District Rally for the PDP candidate at Okpara Square, Enugu. Represented by a former chairman of the APC in the state, Ben Nwoye, Mr Nnamani explained that the decision to endorse Mr Mbah was borne out of their conviction about the leadership qualities of the PDP candidate. Leadership of the people of Enugu State should not be based on party. The leader of Enugu State will be elected by citizens of Enugu. Nkanu people have had their consensus to pick you (Mbah). I am an APC member but my and I will vote for you, he said. Mr Nnamani said the group took the decision at their leadership meeting in the state recently. Mr Nwoye, a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, said they will continue with their support for the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, but will turn everything to Mbah after supporting our presidential candidate in the February 25 election. The former APC chairman in the state lauded Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State for keeping faith with the promise to pick the partys governorship candidate from Enugu East District in line with the existing zoning arrangement in the state. Responding, Mr Ugwuanyi said he was delighted that the APC and other parties in the state honoured the zoning arrangement by electing their governorship candidates from Enugu East District, which underscored the correctness of the PDP decision. It is also cheering that virtually all other contestants in that PDP primary election have long closed ranks with the winner, Peter Mbah, to ensure victory for the party in the general election and I salute their spirit of sportsmanship, Mr Ugwuanyi said. It is significant that todays endorsement of Peter Mbah for 11 March 2023 gubernatorial election transcends partisan boundaries. I salute the good people of Enugu East Senatorial District for keeping their eyes on the ball, the governor added. He described the PDP candidate as a phenomenal young man with knack and uncommon capacity for outstanding performance. Background The APC in the state has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis lately, resulting in the splitting of the party into two factions. The faction, led by Mr Nnamani, had accused the State Chairman of the APC, Ugochukwu Agballah and the partys governorship candidate, Uche Nnaji, of running the party like their personal businesses. Earlier this month, the aggrieved APC chieftains in the state under the aegis of Concerned Enugu State APC besieged the APC national secretariat in Abuja demanding the payment of the convention allowances to the tune of $1.5 million by the partys leadership in the state. The protesters accused Messrs Agballah and Nnaji, of embezzling the convention funds. Two weeks ago, the party leaders boycotted the presidential campaign rally held in Enugu. Although the leaders were at Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Emene, Enugu, to welcome the APC candidate, Mr Tinubu, they failed to show up at the campaign ground. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Economic and trade ties between Azerbaijan and Qatar have been discussed. Mikayil Jabbarov, Azerbaijan's Minister of Economy, tweeted, Azernews reports. "During the meeting with Minister of Commerce and Industry of the State of Qatar Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al Abdullah Al Thani, held within President Ilham Aliyev's participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 17, we discussed the expansion of trade and economic relations between our countries, as well as the promotion of investments," the minister wrote. Qatar is dedicated to fostering ties with Azerbaijan and advancing the alliance by facilitating trade between the two nations. The two countries' diplomatic ties, which are based on cooperation and supported by respect and trust between them, were established 30 years ago this year. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a global non-governmental and lobbying organization with headquarters in Cologny, Switzerland.German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab, the Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, founded it on January 24, 1971. The WEF is best known for its annual gathering, which takes place at the end of January in Davos, a ski resort in Switzerland's eastern Alps. Around 3,000 paying attendees and invited guests, including investors, business and political leaders, economists, celebrities, and journalists, convene for 500 sessions over the course of up to five days to discuss world issues. Statements by Western countries about the need to supply Kiev with any weapons, including those capable of hitting targets in Crimea, are raising the stakes in the conflict and will inevitably lead to an escalation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in a commentary on Friday, Tass informs. January 21, 2023, 10:57 More Western weapons supplies to Kiev to bring about escalation Russian MFA STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 20, ARTSAKHPRESS: In particular, she drew attention to The New York Times report which claimed that the US administration was considering options for supplying Kiev with additional weapons to attack Crimea. In addition, Zakharova recalled that the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had urged partners to give Kiev "any weapon it can use." "We regard all this as an open, provocative instigation by the West and a raising of the stakes in the conflict, which will inevitably lead to greater casualties and a dangerous escalation," Zakharova said. She stated that the West was "plunging ever deeper into the conflict in Ukraine": supplies of Western air defense systems and tanks to Kiev are being discussed at the US base in Ramstein, Germany and Western countries are also training Ukrainian military personnel. The commentary stresses that Kiev is using the tragedy in Dnepropetrovsk to obtain more arms supplies from the West. "A freelance adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine, Alexey Arestovich, initially admitted that the Ukrainian air defenses actions were the cause of the tragedy, but then he began to backtrack," Zakharova pointed out. "[Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky's regime is shamelessly trying to use this tragedy to press the West for tougher anti-Russian sanctions and new arms shipments." The police in Enugu State, south-east Nigeria, have arraigned a woman, Ujunwa Ugwuoke, for the murder of a nine-year-old girl who was her house help. Mrs Ugwuoke, 29, was arraigned at the Enugu North Magistrate Court on 20 January by the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department, according to a statement on Friday from the police spokesperson in the state, Daniel Ndukwe. The slain girl has been identified as Precious Korshima. Mr Ndukwe, a deputy superintendent of police, said the suspect had been remanded in the Enugu Custodial Centre and the case file sent to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice. The investigation revealed that the suspect confessed to have, during the night hours of November 8, 2022, beaten and caused the death of the minor, who was her house-help, in her residence at Fidelity Estate, Enugu. Thereafter, in the morning hours of the following day, she took the lifeless body of the child to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla, for medical attention. However, upon getting confirmation of her death by doctors on duty, she immediately took and dumped her corpse in a refuse dumpsite along Ugbo-Nwagidi Village Road, Enugwueze Uno-Ituku community in Awgu Local Government Area, the police said. Furthermore, she went to Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, from where she sent a false alarm claiming that the deceased, her little child and herself, were kidnapped on November 9, 2022. She alleged that the kidnap took place on her way back home from Independence Layout Enugu that fateful day, where she had gone to refill her gas cylinder. She said the kidnapped persons were taken to an unknown destination. She further claimed the kidnappers were demanding a ransom of N20 million for each of them, he said. The police spokesperson said the suspect, however, resurfaced on 16 November 2022, claiming that the kidnappers spared her and her childs life, but shot the deceased dead. The case, which was initially reported at New Haven Police Division as a case of kidnapping, was transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Command and further transferred to the Homicide Section of the State CID, upon her confessional statement, he said. Mr Ndukwe said the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, commended the painstaking efforts made by police detectives to lay a firm foundation for the dispensation of justice in the case. He said that the commissioner charged parents to be mindful of whom they entrust the custody and care of their children. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print As part of efforts to facilitate the circulation of its new naira notes, the Central Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has launched a cash swap programme across local government areas in Nigeria. The apex bank made this known on Friday in a circular addressed to all DMBs, mobile money operators (MMOs), super agents and agents. The apex bank said that the cash swap programme is in partnership with super agents and deposit money banks (DMBs) at different parts of the country. Super agents refer to companies licensed by the CBN to recruit for the purpose of agency banking. In recent times, the CBN launched sensitization campaigns in markets across Nigeria to educate citizens on the new notes. Earlier in the week, it also vowed to sanction any commercial bank found hoarding the new notes. The old notes are expected to be out of circulation by the end of January. Cash Swap Meanwhile, the apex bank said the new cash swap programme takes effect from Monday, January 23, 2022. The bank said the old N1000, N500, N200 notes can be exchanged for the newly redesigned notes and the existing lower denominations (N100, N50 and N20, etc) which remain legal tender. The agent shall exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person. Amounts above N10,000 may be treated as cash-in deposit into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy. BVN, NIN, or Voters card details of the customers should be captured as much as possible. To promote financial inclusion, this service is also available to anybody without a bank account .Agents may, on request, instantly open a wallet or account, leveraging the CBN Tiered KYC Framework. This will ensure that this category of the populace are able to exchange or deposit their cash seamlessly without taking unnecessary risk or incurring undue cost, the bank said. The bank also said that agents will sensitise customers on opening wallets, bank accounts and the various channels for conducting electronic transactions. Designated agents are eligible to collect the redesigned notes from DMBs in line with the revised cash withdrawal limit policy, the bank said. Agents are also permitted to charge cash-out fees for the cash swap transactions but prohibited from charging any further commissions to customers for this service. The bank said these agents will render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions while the banks shall in turn render the same to the CBN on a weekly basis. Principals (super agents, MMOs, DMBs) shall be held accountable for their agents adherence to the above guidelines, the circular reads. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Saturday pledged to diligently serve the country if elected in next months presidential election. Mr Obi made the pledge while meeting with Muslim and Christian leaders in Southern Kaduna, North-west Nigeria. Mr Obi, who was in company of his vice presidential candidate, Yusuf Baba Ahmed, dismissed the concern raised by one of the religious leader over possible disagreemnt with his running mate if they are elected into office. During the meeting at the Throne Room Ministry in Kafanchan, Mr Obi said he and his running mate are passionate about serving nigeria and not to make money. The reason why people quarrel is transaction. I have no reason for self enrichment, God has given me enough. I am contented. Those who steal government money abuse Gods grace. We want to work for this country. There is no other thing we need, Mr Obi said. Mr Obi insisted that what Nigeria lacks are committed and competent leaders. We will fight corruption. Presidency requires physical and mental energy, and not a retirement home for old and tired people. READ ALSO: There is nothing wrong with Nigeria, what is wrong is bad leadership. Our leaders have refused to rise above expectations, he added. We need leadership, Datti and I will not shy away to secure Nigeria. We are promising Nigerians that after our leadership there will be a difference, he stated. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Some of the top candidates who are refusing to debate amongst themselves have focused their attention on insulting their rivals and accusing them of having terrible histories of corruption. I dont like the vile language being used but the accusations are useful pointers to their histories and, apparently, they know themselves better than some of us know them. I have heard detailed allegations of how they looted the treasury when they were in office. Finally, the campaigns are getting intense and exciting. Surprisingly, the current rounds are taking place in faraway Chatham House in London, as key candidates and the INEC Chairman are conducting political pilgrimages to a British government policy centre to talk to Nigerians at home. Many Nigerians have correctly asked the question whether there is no policy think tank in Nigeria to receive politicians to air their campaign issues. The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) has been mentioned by many as being the leading public think tank to handle such a task in the country. I absolutely agree that NIPSS could play that role creditably. Unfortunately, it would not succeed because of the character of our political class that has disdain for our institutions. In fact, for the past decade, NIPSS has established a whole department for training and engagement with political parties, where I have often participated as a resource person. In most of the meetings that I have participated in there, the leadership of the so-called big political parties have either sent low-level officials to represent them or sent no one in many cases. They suffer from colonial mentality and believe that Nigerian institutions are of no consequence and are therefore not deserving of their time. When they seek publicity, they pay tens of millions of naira to key television stations to carry their programmes live. There are also private policy centres that could host such events. To be modest, the Centre for Democracy and Development, where I am a senior fellow, is also very capable of hosting such a platform but once again some of the so-called big politicians will not come. They will be wondering whether the people that matter, the neo-colonial authorities in London and Washington DC would be watching events organised by local actors. Of course, they would, but the level of sophistication of many of our politicians is not high enough for them to be conscious of this reality. When you ask them why, many will tell you that you cannot trust the neutrality of local actors. Even those who have been making public declarations that the British are not equally neutral towards all sections of the country would still prefer to attend their events than attend local ones. The British and Americans know one of the most serious threats Nigerian politicians take seriously is the refusal of visa to the US and UK to them. As each accuses the other, we ordinary citizens now realise that sophisticated cover-up looting mechanisms are skill-sets all of them have. Our hope and prayers are that they all go to court as they have threatened, to prove that the other is a criminal. The courts might reveal more information on how many of our leaders are, as they call themselves, thieves, drag barons and criminals. One clear issue that the current campaign has brought to the fore is the unwillingness of some of the old and maybe sick and exhausted candidates to debate among themselves. The Centre for Democracy and Development partnered with ARISE-TV to get the top candidates to debate and it did not work well. Some of them have simply lost the capacity to be clear and articulate and are unable to respond when confronted with facts. For this reason, they refuse to participate in debates. It is ironic the way in which Chatham House exposed the incapacity of one of the candidates to respond to questions asked and he had to call on members of his delegation to respond for him. This is a frightening revelation because the issue is, if he wins, who would rule as he has already lost the capacity to understand and respond to challenges posed? I have watched some of the videos from campaign rallies and I am terrified at the level of incoherence of some of the candidates. I hope Nigerians are watching and are aware of their civic responsibility not to vote in a leader whose incapacity to rule is manifest. Some of the top candidates who are refusing to debate amongst themselves have focused their attention on insulting their rivals and accusing them of having terrible histories of corruption. I dont like the vile language being used but the accusations are useful pointers to their histories and, apparently, they know themselves better than some of us know them. I have heard detailed allegations of how they looted the treasury when they were in office. There are exposes on some of the mechanisms that were used, such as Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV), to fleece government resources in a way that the theft cannot be easily traced to the looters. As each accuses the other, we ordinary citizens now realise that sophisticated cover-up looting mechanisms are skill-sets all of them have. Our hope and prayers are that they all go to court as they have threatened, to prove that the other is a criminal. The courts might reveal more information on how many of our leaders are, as they call themselves, thieves, drag barons and criminals. I am glad that they are the ones telling Nigerians that on the grounds of ethics and good governance, they should be in jail and not in power. the question of Nigerias drift into gerontocracy has to be addressed some of the candidates have reached the point of no return. If they have lost the wisdom and respect for citizens to decide that they have passed their prime, then citizens need to tell them, as follows, through the ballot box: We love you, we wish you longer life, but please devote your future to useful endeavours such as playing with your grandchildren This situation presents a great challenge to voters. Is any one of them clean and if so which one? For the 2023 elections, all of us voters need to be skilled investigators. We should listen to, watch and read all the allegations coming out carefully. We should work hard to seek verification for them and base our choices on the results of our findings. This is important for national survival, because if criminals take over the governance of the country, our survival as a nation could be in jeopardy. Part of our task is to look carefully at not only the leading candidates but all of them. Are some of those who are not in the frontline better? Lets find out and take appropriate decisions. Finally, the question of Nigerias drift into gerontocracy has to be addressed. As an old man myself, I have great respect for the capacity of elders to continue to play positive roles in society. The problem is that at some point, both the mental and physical capacities begin to decline dramatically. Governing a large and complex country such as Nigeria is very hard work and clearly some of the candidates have reached the point of no return. If they have lost the wisdom and respect for citizens to decide that they have passed their prime, then citizens need to tell them, as follows, through the ballot box: We love you, we wish you longer life, but please devote your future to useful endeavours such as playing with your grandchildren and telling them memorable stories of the things you have done bad ones that they should not copy and good ones that they should emulate. According to INEC, of 70,473,990 voters, 75.4% of them are between 18 and 49 years old and should be able to tell and act against those who are too old to govern. A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The reality is that Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was a teacher, guide, and mentor who taught humanity lessons to breathe in this temporary and materialistic world, and paved the way to attain humanitys final destination, Paradise. He was a teacher of academics, strategies, character, and above all, spirituality. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all creation may He extol the Messenger in the highest company of Angels and send His peace and blessings upon him likewise upon his family, Companions, and true followers. Dear brothers and sisters! International day of mentoring is celebrated yearly on the 17th of January to raise awareness and promote mentoring ideals. International Mentoring Day raises awareness for the global contribution of mentoring. Mentoring usually involves a more knowledgeable person sharing wisdom with someone who has less experience. Mentors share their skills in the workplace, schools, places of worship and professional organisations. On this day, nations celebrates all the mentors all over the world as well as encourage individuals and organisations to share stories about the real-life power of mentoring. Respected brothers and sisters! Many of us have a mentor that has influenced the way we live our life; hopefully in a positive way so we can thank them. My mentor is the most influential man in history, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is listed to be the 1st person in Michael Harts book, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. Prophet Muhammads (Peace be upon him) teachings form the basis of Islam as he taught us to greet each other with peace, feed the hungry, honour the ties of kinship and pray so we can enter heaven (Jannah/Paradise) in peace. Alhamdulillah, in my early life, I read the critical lives book, The Life and Work of Muhammad (Peace be upon him), written by Yahiya Emerick to learn about the life of the Prophet. Wallahi, this book has an unbiased detailed biography of all the incidents that happened in the life of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), which I enjoyed reading. Some parts about the Prophets life made me feel happy and other parts made me seriously cry. The language that the author uses is clear and easy to understand. The history and the scenarios are descriptive and well explained, which taught me about Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) daily life as a husband, father, friend, mentor, teacher, Prophet, lawgiver and judge. It is important for all of us to learn and know about Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and his message as it influences the geopolitics and spiritual beliefs of millions around the world. This book will also clear misunderstandings and wrong assumptions. Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world which was sent and taught to Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) by Allah Almighty. The Prophets efforts have built dynasties, empires, legal traditions, laws, politics, economics and civilisation that didnt exist before. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was born in the 7th century in Arabia when it was a place of warring tribes, exotic oases and scurrilous merchants. The peninsula was then known as the island of Arabs, where the descendants of Prophet Ibrahim (or Abraham) lived. People were largely ungoverned by the surrounding great powers, some practiced Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Most Arabs at that time were animists and idolators. They lived through trade, herding, raiding and handiwork. Many people were illiterate, they owned slaves and lived in ignorance (Jahiliyyah). Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was born to a noble family known as the Quraish in the city of Makkah. Quraish were the direct descendants of Prophet Ibrahims son Ismail (Ishmael). They were the keepers of the House of Allah also known as the Kaabah. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was orphaned as a baby and was sent to live with the nomadic dessert tribe until he turned five. He didnt fit into the urban society and was asked to tend sheep in the rocky hills above the city. This helped him to develop mental acuity to face the challenges and opportunities during his young adult life. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) settled into marriage, had a family and became a businessman. He frequently withdrew himself from society because everyday life in Arabia was cruel. He had a religious experience at the age of 40. His humble nature helped him when he received Allahs message. Islam eventually brought civilisation to the Arabs based on believing in one Allah and brotherhood. Today, one of our responsibilities as a global citizen is to accommodate diversity in a peaceful manner by learning the truth and making good decisions, which our great mentor Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has taught to the world. Respected servants of Allah! As you know, teachers are probably the most salient members of human civilisation. Since the alignment of man on earth, teachers have played a vital role in ushering, nurture and guide humans in all stages of life. Veraciously, it can be noted that the pre-eminent among all teachers ever existed or would exist is the great mentor of humanity to the world, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). A teacher always stands as a shining exemplar for his students. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has flourishingly filled this criterion by standing as a role model, firstly for his companions (Sahabah) and the entire world forever. A teacher influences his disciples, implies his principles on his Self, and impacts society. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) not only imparted lessons to the world from Allahs Revelation, Quran, but he implemented its teachings on his personal and social life and made an example in human history. He transformed a race of highly uncultured, boorish, uncouth, and savage people into a group of pious, courteous, erudite, cultivated, and generous men and women, whom we refer to as the great Sahabah and Sahabiyat (Companions) today. It is a fact that this chain of teaching and learning is alive even today, which produced countless sets of individuals from centuries who can influence the lives of millions. Prophet Muhammads (Peace be upon him) life story, personal traits, and strategies give humankind lessons and guidance. While his humility, impeccable integrity, and softness of character emanated from his very unique background, he undoubtedly, matured at an early age, he fended for himself in a hostile world and contributed financially to his uncle, Abu Talib, after his grandfathers and mothers death, in his childhood, tutoring us to be self-independent and become responsible towards our duties. His enduring tolerance and compassion towards the distaste and aversion of his haters in Makkah during his visit to the valley of Taif and worries and prayers for his Ummah and all the humans are characteristics that would definitely groom one into a nonpareil if inculcated. His understanding of the balance of power and diplomatic and military strategies taught the world how to prevail ultimately over hardened enemies. To migrate for the truth from Makkah, then developing a proper city-state of Madinah, negotiations of peace treaties with pagan tribes around it, series of defensive battles, and eventually the unique, proactive, and oppressing Treaty of Hudaibiyah, the turning point that laid the foundation of subsequent bloodless conquest of Makkah are the greatest and most important lessons that humans could ever learn in the aspect of building civilisations. The reality is that Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was a teacher, guide, and mentor who taught humanity lessons to breathe in this temporary and materialistic world, and paved the way to attain humanitys final destination, Paradise. He was a teacher of academics, strategies, character, and above all, spirituality. We all need teachers and mentors to prosper in our subjects and face various circumstances of life. Specific-subject or academic teachers play an efficient role in increasing ones knowledge and skills. Still, a teacher who grooms students personality and wisdom and makes them apply traits of generosity, virtue and righteousness in their practical lives is the need of the hour. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all creation; may Allah extol the mention of our noble Prophet Muhammad in the highest company of Angels, bless him and give him peace and security and his family, his Companions and all those who follow him correctly and sincerely until the establishment of the Hour. Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of Nagazi-Uvete Jumuah and the late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okenes Mosques, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: gusauimam@gmail.com or +2348038289761. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print in Africa, large parts are without electricity, and even chunks that do have to endure power blackouts. In the past few weeks, three African leaders have had to address these issues directly, but in different ways. The method of Mozambican President Felipe Jacinto Nyusi has been proactive, that of South Africas Cyril Ramaphosa was to virtually to declare an emergency; and that of President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, with an average of 15-hour daily power cuts, has been to relax and seek a magic wand. Billions of the faithful believe that in the beginning, when God created the world, darkness was upon the face of the earth until the Almighty said: Let there be light, and there was light. Since then, humanity has worked to bring more light into the world, with electricity being the most ambitious. Since 1821, when English scientist, Michael Faraday invented the electric motor and followed it up ten years later with electricity, vast sections of humanity have come to take the availability of electricity for granted. However, in Africa, large parts are without electricity, and even chunks that do have to endure power blackouts. In the past few weeks, three African leaders have had to address these issues directly, but in different ways. The method of Mozambican President Felipe Jacinto Nyusi has been proactive, that of South Africas Cyril Ramaphosa was to virtually to declare an emergency; and that of President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, with an average of 15-hour daily power cuts, has been to relax and seek a magic wand. In the last few months, Mozambique has moved full swing towards electrifying the country. Its priorities are areas housing the most vulnerable, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and refugees, mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a country that has been subjected to wars since it began a liberation struggle in 1964 against Portuguese colonialism. It has also had to engage in a civil war with the Western-backed RENAMO rebels, the Apartheid South African military, and within the last two years against rampaging terrorists led by the Islamic State (ISIS), which is seeking to establish a foothold in Southern Africa. Despite this, the country has taken electrification with all the seriousness it deserves. Its electrification rate of a mere 5% in 2001 increased to 29% within 18 years. In 2020, it moved from 34% to 44% in 2022. Despite being categorised as one of the poorest countries in the world and the seventh poorest in Africa, its leaders want to provide every Mozambican with electricity by 2030. In giving priority to the IDPs, it hopes to make their lives, and those of their host communities, more liveable. Equally, it seeks to ensure that the poorest Mozambicans are not left behind. The Mozambican leaders also demonstrate the common sense that the countrys development will depend on the availability, accessibility and affordability of electricity for all. Ramaphosas spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, reported that business and labour came forward with ideas, concerns, and an overwhelming desire to work closely with government in finding solutions to the current energy crisis. The government promised to add 9,000 megawatts of electricity this year, and also import more electricity to ease the power cuts. Also, Eskom promised to end the energy crisis by raising its generating capacity to 65% in 2024 and 70% the following year. In South Africa, where the people regard the availability of electricity as a human right in a technologically driven world, and power cuts as a denial of rights, President Cyril Ramaphosa had to cancel his trip to the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos to tackle the problem. To him, the power cuts and a demand by labour, civil society and business leaders that his government take verifiable steps to tackle the problem are like declaring a state of emergency. The organisations had written a letter of demand that Andre de Ruyter, the chief executive officer of the electricity company, Eskom Holdings, and, Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, either end the power cuts or come up with a timetable to do so. They have also demanded the reversal of an almost 19% tariff increase. They gave a deadline of Friday, 20 January, threatening that if their demands were not met, they would be in court three days later to seek relief for the damages caused by the power cuts. The threat was issued by the United Democratic Movement, Build One South Africa, the Inkatha Freedom Party, and the National Union of Metalworkers. The power cuts, they argued, are leading to a radical economic decline and have negatively affected all aspects of life, including education, healthcare and businesses. For these, they demand: That the state commit to compensating everyone who has suffered quantifiable financial losses because of load shedding. More pressure was piled on the government when the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, also threatened to ask the courts to declare the cuts and the governments response, as being inconsistent with the constitution and therefore invalid. The Davos Summit from 16 January, which was held under the shadow of the Russo-Ukrainian War, had the theme: Cooperation in a fragmented world. It seemed crucial for President Ramaphosa to be there as a leader of the BRICS countries pushing for a new economic order. With internal divisions looming, he chose to meet with the protesting organisations on Monday to work out an amicable solution. Ramaphosas spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, reported that business and labour came forward with ideas, concerns, and an overwhelming desire to work closely with government in finding solutions to the current energy crisis. The government promised to add 9,000 megawatts of electricity this year, and also import more electricity to ease the power cuts. Also, Eskom promised to end the energy crisis by raising its generating capacity to 65% in 2024 and 70% the following year. The Buhari administration acts like a bed-wetting drunk, constantly making loud, laughable promises that no rational person would take seriously, but it assumes those it addresses are fools. While I see Presidents Nyusi and Ramaphosa striving to further illuminate their countries, I do not see that drive in President Buhari. In contrast to South Africa, Big Brother Nigeria does not seem perturbed, and its businesses, civil society organisations, and labour unions are not uniting to demand better services. The issue of prolonged power cuts, which has become a culture, is not even on the front burner as the country trudges towards a presidential election on 25 February. President Buhari, who vowed to solve the countrys power problems within his first term in office, has merely watched the situation degenerate further, while consumers are forced to pay an ever-increasing tariff. On 17 October, 2022, a national newspaper reported that the national grid has collapsed 98 times under Buhari! When he came to power in 2015, electricity distribution was about 4,100 MW; after seven-and-a-half years of his presidency, distribution is now under 4,000 MW. Mr Sunday Oduntan, the executive director, Research and Advocacy, of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), whose members are the sole distributors of electricity in the country, said: Since 1960, the country has not generated up to 6,000 MW of electricity But, with less than six months left in his presidency, President Buhari, clearly waving a magic wand, told Nigerians in December 2022 that what he had been unable to accomplish in the previous 90 months as president, he would accomplish before leaving office. The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, speaking at the Aso Rock Presidential Palace, declared: We will leave an installed capacity of almost 22,000 megawatts. The Buhari administration acts like a bed-wetting drunk, constantly making loud, laughable promises that no rational person would take seriously, but it assumes those it addresses are fools. While I see Presidents Nyusi and Ramaphosa striving to further illuminate their countries, I do not see that drive in President Buhari. Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Without the United States standing as a bulwark of global democracy, illiberal powers like Russia and China will take the centre stage and become the models of a new international order. Despite all its imperfections, the world still needs a strong, democratic America that projects positive images and values leading the way. America needs to find its way back to the moral scale in order to save itself and the rest of us. George Santos, a 34 year-old gay man and an American Jew whose maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors who fled Soviet Ukraine, is a freshman congressman in the United States House of Representatives. George was born on 22 July, 1988 to Fatima Aziza Caruso Horta Devolder, a housekeeper, and Gercino Antonio dos Santos Jr., both of whom are Brazilian immigrants. Coming from a modest background, George saw himself through college, graduated and went on to build a successful career in Wall Street, that listed both Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. He also started and managed many successful businesses before contesting and winning a US congressional seat to represent New Yorks Third District. The resume posted above is without doubt super impressive and casts George Santos as a poster-child of the fabled American dream. Except that he is hardly this. In fact, he is a big lie. George is a fugitive con artist and his resume is not just padded but totally fabricated to suit whatever he wants to sell. George Santos, the congressman, had on one occasion introduced himself to a group as Anthony Devolder, a man who formed another group, United for Trump. When the New York Times broke the story, exposing this fraud, it was jarring. The man is not Jewish (he later claimed he meant Jew-ish), neither graduated from college nor worked with Citigroup or Goldman Sachs. Harbor City Capital, a Florida-based alternative investment firm that he had worked for, has been the subject of a civil suit by the US Security and Exchange Commission, accusing the company of running a $17 million Ponzi scheme. In the past, he had confessed to committing check fraud in Brazil in 2008, but failed to appear in court, leaving the case unresolved. In the wake of his recent election, Brazilian authorities are reviewing his case. Six weeks after his election, numerous news outlets have reported that large parts of his self-published biography appear to be fabricated, including claims about his ancestry, education, employment, charity work, property ownership, and crimes of which he claimed to be a victim. Yet, George Santos refuses to resign his position and was sworn in last week. The newly inaugurated house leadership, led by Republicans, even rewarded him with Committee assignments. George is now serving in the Small Business and the Science, Space and Technology Committees. For a long time, American democracy, as imperfect as it is, has been a beacon of hope and aspiration to a good number of democracies around the world. It is a place where those who aspire to public office are carefully scrutinised, both in their public and private lives. Those who fall short or are ousted for whatever reasons would resign. Failure to do so in the past attracted heavy backlash and resulted in gross condemnation on both sides of the isle within the political spectrum. The new House Speaker, Mr Kevin McCarthy once described to CNN how he always had questions regarding Mr Santoss background and the fact that a Santos aide was caught impersonating his chief of staff, while soliciting campaign donations. Calls by both House Democrats and some GOP congressmen for his resignation, were not enough to dissuade the House leadership from giving Santos committee assignments. The speaker insists that any potential wrongdoing needs to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee, defending his action with the argument that Mr Santos was duly elected by his constituents. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, backed by a razor-thin majority that includes a faction threatening his leadership, was not prepared to lose the support of any member of his caucus, no matter how morally or criminally compromised. For a long time, American democracy, as imperfect as it is, has been a beacon of hope and aspiration to a good number of democracies around the world. It is a place where those who aspire to public office are carefully scrutinised, both in their public and private lives. Those who fall short or are ousted for whatever reasons would resign. Failure to do so in the past attracted heavy backlash and resulted in gross condemnation on both sides of the isle within the political spectrum. But not anymore. America has gradually been sliding into a nation of anything goes. Over the years, there has been a gradual but steady erosion of values in the American political and civil space. It started even before Trump but his entry into partisan politics took it to a level never seen before. Donald Trump, a man universally acknowledged as a morally bankrupt and ignorant candidate, was propelled beyond his wildest dream by the American far-right for what they believed he could help them achieve. In doing so, this Bible-hugging segment of the American society fully endorsed the Machiavellian creed of the end justifies the means. A candidates moral standing no longer matters in Trumps America to the extent that such an individual is willing and able to demonstrate readiness to fight for the issues they care about. Thanks to Donald Trump, White supremacist groups like Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Neo-Nazis that used to belong in the fringes are gradually becoming mainstream. Their leaders are hailed as American heroes and First Amendment champions by many in the political right. People like Roy Moore, accused by several women of sexual abuse, including in cases involving minors, were endorsed by Trump and went on to emerge as Republican Party candidates for election. Trump himself is still fighting in the courts till this day, countless women who are suing him for sexual abuse. It has now become customary for Trump-backed candidates not to accept electoral defeat but to instead declare that the elections were rigged against them. The list is endless. In America today, Islamophobia, racism, misogyny, xenophobia are on the rise. Paraphrasing the words of some wise fellow, Islamophobia doesnt just disparage Muslims, racism doesnt demean blacks alone, and misogyny hurts men and women, whilst xenophobia insults more than immigrants. As decent human beings, we are all diminished and so collectively have a stake in designing the type of society we want. The problem with accommodating these immoral and sometimes frankly illegal behaviours goes beyond one particular egregious act committed. The bigger problem is that it sets the moral tone in the society and defines the limit of what is acceptable or not. Trump lost an election and encouraged his followers to launch an insurrection on the US Capitol that caused the loss of lives, destroyed properties and desecrated one of Americas most hallowed spaces. Americans are today wringing their hands and watching to see if the man will ever face Justice. Meanwhile, in faraway Brazil, Trumps action inspired supporters of another man who lost an election. Unhappy about the loss of the former president, Jair Bolsorano, a man referred to as Brazils Trump, his sympathisers invaded the Planalto Presidential Palace, while clashing with security forces. These things create ripple effects, especially if its originating from America. In America today, Islamophobia, racism, misogyny, xenophobia are on the rise. Paraphrasing the words of some wise fellow, Islamophobia doesnt just disparage Muslims, racism doesnt demean blacks alone, and misogyny hurts men and women, whilst xenophobia insults more than immigrants. As decent human beings, we are all diminished and so collectively have a stake in designing the type of society we want. Without the United States standing as a bulwark of global democracy, illiberal powers like Russia and China will take the centre stage and become the models of a new international order. Despite all its imperfections, the world still needs a strong, democratic America that projects positive images and values leading the way. America needs to find its way back to the moral scale in order to save itself and the rest of us. Osmund Agbo writes from Houston, Texas. Email: eagleosmund@yahoo.com. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The police in Niger State have arrested 14 persons for allegedly attacking the residence of the district head of Lambata, Gawun Babangida Local Government Area of the state and killing him. The District Head, Mohammed Abdulsafur, died in a hospital last week from the injuries he sustained when some irate youths attacked his resident. The Police Public Relation Officer of the state, Wasiu Abiodun, while parading the suspects, said they were arrested after a house-to-house search of the town. He said that during the search with some pointer witnesses, 14 suspects were arrested in connection with the crime. He gave the name of the 14 persons as Umar Ilyasu Sarki, 37, Musa M. Musa 47, Yakubu Bissala 23, Hussaini Mohammed 18, Usman Habibu, 40 and Ibrahim Umar, 45. Others include, Ismaila Mohammed, 38, Ademola Okunola 51, Ilyasu Dantani 28, Yakubu Mohammed, 35, Yusuf Sarki 49, Atiku Mohammed, 21, Adamu Yusuf 46 and Bashir Mohd 27. Mr Abiodun claimed that during interrogation, the suspects confessed that there has been a lingering issue of chieftaincy tussle between the late Village Head and Umar Ilyasu Sarki, who claimed that the thirty-seven District heads (Mai-Anguwa) in the community are loyal to him; and that they did not recognise the late village head as their leader. However, the suspects mentioned other members who participated in the act as Hamza Umar Sarki, Dauda Umar Sarki, Abdulkarim Dantani, Zubairu Mohd, Zayanu Ladan, Jibril Garba who are presently at large. He said efforts to arrest the suspects on the run are underway. Meanwhile, a family source told PREMIUM TIMES that when the youths originally gathered at the residence of the district head, he reported it to the police. The source, who asked not to be named for safety reayson, said the DPO later told the late district head to return home and promised to invite the people concerned to the police station the next day for questioning. The source added that the district head was attacked immediately after he returned home. The source said apart from killing the village head, the mob also removed one of the eyes of his younger brother during the attack. READ ALSO: When asked, the police told a different story. The spokesperson of the police in the state told this newspaper that the district head willingly returned home and was handed over to one of his sons, who is also a police officer. The village head was taken to the police station after the minor altercation at the secretariat meeting, and his statement was obtained, while one of his sons by name Adamu, a serving policeman, insisted on taking their father home. His statement was equally obtained in that regard. On getting home, a caller called the DPO informing him of the youths attack at the village head residence. The DPO mobilised his patrol team and moved to the scene. On sighting the patrol team, the youths took to their heels, and the village head was rushed to hospital by the police, having been injured by the thugs. He was confirmed dead in the hospital, while the DPO still covered the palace from being set ablaze, and presently, 15 suspects have been arrested in connection with the death of the village head and effort is ongoing to apprehend others, as an investigation is being intensified, said Mr Abiodun. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The police in Nasarawa State, north-central Nigeria, on Saturday, said two of the six primary school pupils kidnapped at Alwaza, a community in Doma Local Government Area, have been rescued. The commands spokesperson, Rahman Nansel, told PREMIUM TIMES Saturday afternoon that security operatives are trailing the suspected kidnappers to rescue the remaining victims. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the pupils were abducted on their way to the school around 7 a.m. Friday. The spokesperson said the operation to rescue the abducted pupils is being led by the police commissioner, Maiyaki Muhammad-Baba On Saturday, Mr Nansel said a joint team of police operatives, soldiers and vigilante groups has successfully rescued two of the victims unhurt. The police said the two rescued pupils are females. The police in collaboration with sister security agencies have rescued two females among the six pupils that were abducted yesterday at Alwaza Village, Doma Local Government Area, Mr Nansel said. The pupils were rescued at about 1430hrs at Sabon Kwara village, Jenkwe Development Area of Obi LGA, Nasarawa State, due to sustained pressure mounted on the abductors by the combined search and rescue team. ALSO READ: Kidnapped church members regain freedom The victims have been taken to the hospital for medical examination and shall be handed over to Doma LGA chairman to reunite them with their parents, he added. The police spokesperson said details of the ongoing rescue operation will be provided later. The kidnap of school children in Nasarawa joins a growing list of the kidnap of students by bandits in Northern Nigeria. Other states where students have been kidnapped en masse include Kebbi, Niger, Zamfara and Kaduna. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Enugu Senator, Chimaroke Nnamani, has said his suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came as a rude shock and huge surprise. He said this in a statement on Saturday morning hours after the PDP announced his suspension for alleged anti-party activities. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the suspension of Mr Nnamani and seven other members from Ekiti State is to take immediate effect. The PDP said its National Working Committee (NWC) arrived at the decision after a very extensive review and consideration of the partys affairs in the country. The lawmaker however, described the suspension as unjust, as he said his right to fair hearing was violated. He complained that he was never notified of any petition against him or informed of the grounds that formed the decision of the NWC of the PDP to suspend him from the party . I was also not invited to any meeting, proceeding or hearing of the NWC of the party where my supposed offence(s) was/were discussed, he said. I was, therefore, not afforded the opportunity to make representations on my behalf at any meeting where the proposal and decision to suspend me from the party was made. My right to fair hearing was consequently violated against the clear provisions of the constitution of the party, especially in disciplinary proceedings. More importantly, the superior constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. Mr Nnamani, a former governor of Enugu State, however, reassured his constituents that his political career is alive and not threatened. While he thanked his constituents and supporters for their support, he said he would continue his campaign to a hopefully victorious conclusion. READ ALSO: He also vowed to continue to provide the needed leadership that will facilitate the delivery of dividends of democracy to the people. The Enugu East senators suspension came on the heels of criticisms from PDP supporters after he openly started campaigning for the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu. He was initially drafted into the APC presidential campaign council as a member but was later removed. And was never seen endorsing or supporting Atiku. His suspension however, does not afftect his reelection bid into the Senate, as stipulated in the Electoral Act. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Armenia is calling on the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to undertake decisive steps to ensure the implementation by Azerbaijan of interim measures indicated by the European Court of Human Rights, the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the Council of Europe Ambassador Arman Khachatryan said in his remarks at the Ministers Deputies meeting. January 21, 2023, 12:32 Armenia calls on CoE Committee of Ministers to take actions to ensure Azerbaijans implementation of ECHR decision STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 21, ARTSAKHPRESS: Amb. Khachatryan at Ministers Deputies meeting noted that the blockade of Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan leads to severe humanitarian consequences for Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia calls the CM [Committee of Ministers] to undertake decisive steps to ensure the implementation by Azerbaijan of interim measures indicated by ECHR, the Permanent Representation of Armenia to the Council of Europe tweeted. The Lagos State Government says there will be traffic diversion effective 23 and 24 January ahead of President Muhammadu Buharis visit to the state. The announcement is contained in a statement signed by Frederic Oladeinde, the state commissioner for transportation, on Friday. Mr Oladeinde assured that alternative routes have been mapped out as well as the deployment of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority Agency (LASTMA) to manage traffic flow during the two-day visit. He said that adjourning streets leading to the dedicated routes for the movement of Mr. President will be temporarily closed. On Monday, he said movement around the Lagos Rice Mill, Imota in Ikorodu, and the Lekki Deep Port Sea axis will be restricted as the president will be commissioning the projects. The commissioner said that on Tuesday, the president will be at the Marina axis of the state to commission the Blue rail line. While on the second day which is Tuesday 24th, movement around Eko Hotels and Suites, Ahmadu Bello Way, J-Randle through to Broad Street and Outer Marina will be diverted from 6.00am to 3.00pm, he said. READ ALSO: While pleading with motorists for cooperation, Mr Oladeinde highlighted the alternative routes. The options according to the movement plan will have motorists diverted from Ahmadu Bello Way, Ademola Adetokunbo and Akin Adesola Street to Falomo Bridge (Five Cowries Bridge), to Alfred Rewane Road to connect their desired destinations, he said. Motorists that are Onikan bound from Ozumba Mbadiwe and Bonny Camp are enjoined to make use of Falomo Bridge (Five Cowries Bridge) or Awolowo Road. The commissioner further stated that motorists from Awolowo Road heading to Onikan Roundabout, Tinubu Square or any other part of the inner Island will make use of Falomo Roundabout to link Alfred Rewane to further their journeys. Motorists from King George V Road to connect Moloney Street and then Obalende for their desired destinations, or alternatively link Turton Street through Moloney Street to Lewis and Sandgrouse Streets. For the Motorists from Eko Bridge trying to link Marina, they will be diverted to Elegbata, Ebute Ero to Police Post to link the 3rd Mainland Bridge (Adeniji Adele) to further connect their desired destinations. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Osun State House of Assembly has been hit by a crisis over Christmas gifts from the state governor, Ademola Adeleke. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr Adeleke gave the lawmakers a sum of N40 million as Christmas gift. The money was paid to the leadership of the assembly and was expected to be shared among the members. A source within the assembly who requested not to be named for fear of victimisation, told our reporter that each of the lawmakers collected N250,000. The assembly is dominated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) with 23 members while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has three members. But the cash gift sparked a crisis among the members of the assembly on the ground that the money shared to them was too small. One of the aggrieved lawmakers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our reporter that some of them held a meeting on Thursday to discuss the issue. The lawmaker said his colleagues were disappointed that the house speaker, Timothy Owoeye cheated them. He said some lawmakers had begun to plan the impeachment of the Speaker. The lawmaker also confirmed that he collected a share of N250,000 from the governors Christmas gift. We are just disappointed that the Speaker cheated us. Many of us did not even know the amount until recently. I also heard that some of them are planning to impeach the Speaker, he said. READ ALSO: However, the Speakers spokesperson, Kunle Alabi, denied that the lawmakers were quarreling over any gift from Mr Adeleke. Mr Alabi said the claim is faceless and baseless. There is nothing like that. Probably it is the figment of imagination of the originator. The allegation in the first place is not worth reacting to because it is faceless because the group or whoever is bringing up this allegation is faceless, he said. If anybody is planning to impeach anybody, somebody must have spoken on their behalf so it is faceless, it is baseless, it is in the imagination of the people peddling it, there is nothing like that, he added. That is why I am saying it is faceless, I cannot place it to anybody, you too cannot place it to anybody, so it is in the realm of rumors. It is speculatory. The house remains one, indivisible, he said. There is nothing like that, the governor is not Father Christmas, how will he be giving money to the house of Assembly, whatever the assembly gets is legitimate , how can the governor dashed the assembly money, money for what, whatever the house of Assembly got is legitimate. How can a governor dig his hand into his pocket and give the speaker money? In the past four years, whatever the house is getting is legitimate under the leadership of Owoeye, whatever the house has gotten and members, in the past four years is legitimate. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets The "Fiberglass Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global fiberglass market size reached US$ 11.3 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 15.0 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.83% 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. Fiberglass refers to a reinforced plastic material made from glass fibers that are embedded in a resin matrix. It is widely available in the form of glass wool, direct and assembled roving, yarn, chopped strand, flattened sheets, etc. Fiberglass is lightweight, cost-effective, corrosion-resistant, durable, and provide high electrical insulation. It is widely adopted over conventional materials, such as aluminum and steel, based on its improved energy-efficiency and ecological sustainability. As a result, fiberglass finds extensive applications across diverse industries, such as construction, automotive, aerospace and defense, electronics, etc. With the rising environmental concerns, there is an increasing demand for lightweight composite materials across numerous industries for reducing carbon footprints. Moreover, the growing construction of smart infrastructures is also propelling the adoption of fiberglass for controlling overheating and maintaining the room temperature. In line with this, several government bodies across the globe are increasingly investing in the sustainable development of green and energy-efficient buildings, thereby catalyzing the demand for fiberglass. Additionally, the rising number of refurbishment and remodeling activities has led to the replacement of conventional building materials with fiberglass in floor coverings, walls, windows, panels, etc., to provide better insulation and enhanced structural stability. Apart from this, a significant growth in the renewable energy sector is further bolstering the product demand for manufacturing various electrical equipment to harness clean and safe energy sources, such as wind and tidal. Moreover, the expanding automotive industry along with the increasing demand for fuel-efficient vehicles is also augmenting the usage of fiberglass in body panels, panel assemblies, wheelhouse assemblies, battery boxes, front fascia, etc. Besides this, fiberglass is continuously replacing metal-based alternatives in pipes, tanks, subsea systems, etc., across the water treatment and oil & gas sectors. All of these-above mentioned factors will continue to drive the global market for fiberglass in the coming years. Competitive Landscape: The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being Asahi Fiber Glass Co. Ltd. (Yoshino Gypsum Co. Ltd.), Braj Binani Group, China Jushi Co. Ltd., Chongqing Polycomp International Corp. (Yuntianhua Group Co. Ltd.), Compagnie De Saint-Gobain S.A., Johns Manville (Berkshire Hathaway Inc.), Knauf Insulation, Nippon Electric Glass Co. Ltd., Owens Corning, PFG Fiber Glass Corporation (Nan Ya Plastics Corporation), Taishan Fiberglass Inc. (Sinoma Science & Technology Co. Ltd.) and Taiwan Glass Industry Corporation. Key Questions Answered in This Report: How has the global fiberglass market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global fiberglass market? What are the key regional markets? What is the breakup of the market based on the glass product type? What is the breakup of the market based on the glass fiber type? What is the breakup of the market based on the resin type? 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 fiberglass market and who are the key players? What is the degree of competition in the industry? Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 147 Forecast Period 2021 - 2027 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2021 $11.3 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2027 $15 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 4.8 % Regions Covered Global Key Topics Covered: 1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 2.1 Objectives of the Study 2.2 Stakeholders 2.3 Data Sources 2.3.1 Primary Sources 2.3.2 Secondary Sources 2.4 Market Estimation 2.4.1 Bottom-Up Approach 2.4.2 Top-Down Approach 2.5 Forecasting Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global Fiberglass Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Glass Product Type 6.1 Glass Wool 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 Direct and Assembled Roving 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 6.3 Yarn 6.3.1 Market Trends 6.3.2 Market Forecast 6.4 Chopped Strand 6.4.1 Market Trends 6.4.2 Market Forecast 6.5 Others 6.5.1 Market Trends 6.5.2 Market Forecast 7 Market Breakup by Glass Fiber Type 7.1 E-Glass 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 A-Glass 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 7.3 S-Glass 7.3.1 Market Trends 7.3.2 Market Forecast 7.4 AR-Glass 7.4.1 Market Trends 7.4.2 Market Forecast 7.5 C-Glass 7.5.1 Market Trends 7.5.2 Market Forecast 7.6 R-Glass 7.6.1 Market Trends 7.6.2 Market Forecast 7.7 Others 7.7.1 Market Trends 7.7.2 Market Forecast 8 Market Breakup by Resin Type 8.1 Thermoset Resin 8.1.1 Market Trends 8.1.2 Market Forecast 8.2 Thermoplastic Resin 8.2.1 Market Trends 8.2.2 Market Forecast 9 Market Breakup by Application 9.1 Composites 9.1.1 Market Trends 9.1.2 Market Forecast 9.2 Insulation 9.2.1 Market Trends 9.2.2 Market Forecast 10 Market Breakup by End User 10.1 Construction 10.1.1 Market Trends 10.1.2 Market Forecast 10.2 Automotive 10.2.1 Market Trends 10.2.2 Market Forecast 10.3 Wind Energy 10.3.1 Market Trends 10.3.2 Market Forecast 10.4 Aerospace and Defense 10.4.1 Market Trends 10.4.2 Market Forecast 10.5 Electronics 10.5.1 Market Trends 10.5.2 Market Forecast 10.6 Others 10.6.1 Market Trends 10.6.2 Market Forecast 11 Market Breakup by Region 12 SWOT Analysis 13 Value Chain Analysis 14 Porters Five Forces Analysis 15 Price Analysis 16 Competitive Landscape 16.1 Market Structure 16.2 Key Players 16.3 Profiles of Key Players 16.3.1 Asahi Fiber glass Co. Ltd. (Yoshino Gypsum Co. Ltd.) 16.3.1.1 Company Overview 16.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.2 Braj Binani Group 16.3.2.1 Company Overview 16.3.2.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.3 China Jushi Co. Ltd. 16.3.3.1 Company Overview 16.3.3.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.4 Chongqing Polycomp International Corp. (Yuntianhua Group Co. Ltd.) 16.3.4.1 Company Overview 16.3.4.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.5 Compagnie De Saint-Gobain S.A. 16.3.5.1 Company Overview 16.3.5.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.5.3 Financials 16.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis 16.3.6 Johns Manville (Berkshire Hathaway Inc.) 16.3.6.1 Company Overview 16.3.6.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.6.3 Financials 16.3.6.4 SWOT Analysis 16.3.7 Knauf Insulation 16.3.7.1 Company Overview 16.3.7.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.8 Nippon Electric Glass Co. Ltd. 16.3.8.1 Company Overview 16.3.8.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.8.3 Financials 16.3.9 Owens Corning 16.3.9.1 Company Overview 16.3.9.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.9.3 Financials 16.3.9.4 SWOT Analysis 16.3.10 PFG Fiber Glass Corporation (Nan Ya Plastics Corporation) 16.3.10.1 Company Overview 16.3.10.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.11 Taishan Fiberglass Inc. (Sinoma Science & Technology Co. Ltd.) 16.3.11.1 Company Overview 16.3.11.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.12 Taiwan Glass Industry Corporation 16.3.12.1 Company Overview 16.3.12.2 Product Portfolio 16.3.12.3 Financials For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rwgu9h Media Contact: Laura Wood | +353-1-481-1716 | [email protected] SOURCE Research and Markets DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Market Overview of Software Applications of Connected E-Cigarettes, Electrical Tobacco Heating Systems and Cannabis Vaporizers for 2010-2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Connected vape solutions are becoming increasingly popular in the modern global vape market. The report provides a genesis overview of the connected e-cigarettes, tobacco heating systems, cannabis vaporizers and dedicated software applications that were released worldwide for all time. Despite technological complexity, such interactive platforms provide significant benefits for both consumers and manufacturers, in particular, they make the product more functional and iterative, protect against counterfeit consumables and unauthorized use, collect/analyze sales data and user's preferences, etc. The connectivity is mostly implemented via outdated wire-connected solutions and modern wireless solutions. Connected vape products support such platforms as Android, iOS, PC (including Windows and Mac OS) and web-based resources. Each of three timelines provided for e-cigarettes, cannabis vaporizers and tobacco heating systems contain all the app-driven devices from the very first developments to the modern advanced solutions. Each section details the information concerning technology development, in particular connectivity methods, platforms support and the implementation of key features throughout the observed period of time. The research also discloses the most widely utilized features within applications for connected e-cigarettes, cannabis vaporizers and tobacco heating systems. The research also highlights the most demanding and unique features in modern connected vape devices and dedicated applications. The report contains an analysis of 64 connected e-cigarettes, 42 cannabis vaporizers and 21 electric heating systems with corresponding applications in terms of the progress of their functionality and the introduction of unique features. The first section provides a general overview of dedicated software, pros and cons of supported platforms as well as benefits of connected vape solutions for both manufacturers and consumers. The second section gives a timeline and a detailed observation of connected e-cigarettes and dedicated applications. The third section gives a timeline and a detailed observation of connected cannabis vaporizers and dedicated applications. The fourth section gives a timeline and a detailed observation of tobacco heating systems and dedicated applications. The fifth section contains three subsections dedicated to the history of vape-related applications bans, an overview of application store policies and a list of vape applications that are currently available in major application stores. The sixth section contains a detailed overview of applications for connected e-cigarette products currently marketed worldwide. The seventh section contains a detailed overview of applications for connected cannabis vaporizers currently marketed worldwide. The eighth section contains a detailed overview of applications for connected tobacco heating systems currently marketed worldwide. Key Topics Covered: 1. Types of Software and Platforms: Pros and Cons (Android, Ios, Windows, Web) 2. App-Driven E-Cigarettes and Main Application Features (2010-2022) 3. App-Driven Cannabis Vaporizers and Main Application Features (2014-2022) 4. App-Driven Tobacco Heating Systems and Main Application Features (2017-2022) 5. Review of Google Play and App Store Policies 5.1. History of Vape Bans for Application Stores 5.2. Overview of Store Policies 5.3. Applications Available in Official Application Stores and on Official Websites 6. App-Driven E-Cigarettes and Applications Interfaces Overview 6.1 Juul 2 6.2 Vuse Epod 2 Plus 6.3 Ayr V2 6.4 Anyvape Rorelx R5 Pro 6.5 Teke T 3.0 6.6 Relx I P50 6.7 Iqos Veev 6.8 Enovap Mini 6.9 Neb Mist 6.10 Nuumi 6.11 Arctic Dolphin Elux Legend Baby 6.12 Igek Jizhi Phone 7. App-Driven Cannabis Vaporizers and Applications Interfaces Overview 7.1 Pax Era Pro 7.2 Ikrusher Tc Omni Series (Ikrusher Omni Smart Device) 7.3 Airgraft 1 7.4 Airgraft 2 7.5 Storz & Bickel Crafty 7.6 Vapor Dosing Technologies Mode 7.7 Ryah Potbotics 8. App-Driven Tobacco Heating Systems and Applications Interfaces Overview 8.1 Iqos Iluma One 8.2 Iqos Iluma Prime 8.3 Ploom X 8.4 Wonz Smart Hybrid 8.5 Lil Aible Premium 8.6 Feyan X Companies Mentioned Airgraft, Inc. ALD Group Ltd. Anker Technology Co., Ltd. Anyvape Rorelx R5 Pro Arctic Dolphin Elux Legend Baby Ayr V2 AYR, Ltd. British American Tobacco Dongguan Topson Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. Dongguan Yihi Electronic Co., Ltd. Enovap Mini Feyan X Groupe Ryah Inc Hangsen International Group Ltd. Igek Jizhi Phone Ikrusher Tc Omni Series (Ikrusher Omni Smart Device) Infinite-N Technology Limited Iqos Iluma One Iqos Iluma Prime Iqos Veev Japan Tobacco International Jingyi Intelligent Technology ( Shanghai ) Co., Ltd. ) Co., Ltd. Juul 2 Juul Labs , Inc. , Inc. Kimsun Tech ( Huizhou ) Co., Ltd. ) Co., Ltd. KT&G Lil Aible Premium Medad Technology LLC Neb Mist Nuumi Pax Era Pro PAX Labs, Inc. Philip Morris International, Inc. Ploom X PotBotics Inc Puff Corp. Qianhai Guojian Huayan Technology ( Shenzhen ) Co., Ltd. ) Co., Ltd. R/GA Media Group Inc. Relx I P50 Reynolds American Inc. Ryah Potbotics Sanos Group UG Shanlaan Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Anyvape Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Anyvape Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Bauway Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Bauway Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Boge Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Bungee Industrial Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Damai Development Co., Ltd. Shenzhen FirstUnion Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Iecig Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Jomo Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Joyetech Co., Ltd. Shenzhen JSB (Jieshibo) Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen JWEI Electronics Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Kanger Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Laisimo Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Leiyan Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Mason Vap Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Meijiaer Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Quawins Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Relx Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Ruizhixin Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Shengerfei Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen SMOK Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Topgreen Industrial Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Vipsig Technology Co., Ltd. Sichuan Sanlian New Materials Co., Ltd. Smokewatchers Sas Storz & Bickel Crafty Storz & Bickel GmbH & Co. KG Teke T Vapor Dosing Technologies Mode Vapor Dosing Technologies, Inc. Vaporite, Inc. Voopoo International Inc. Vuse Epod 2 Plus Wonz Smart Hybrid For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7jrdju About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. 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 DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Sewage Treatment Facilities Global 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 Sewage Treatment Facilities market. This report focuses on Sewage Treatment Facilities market which is experiencing strong growth. The report gives a guide to the Sewage Treatment Facilities market which will be shaping and changing our lives over the next ten years and beyond, including the markets response to the challenge of the global pandemic. The global sewage treatment facilities market is expected to grow from $165.28 billion in 2021 to $180.89 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4%. The sewage treatment facilities market is expected to grow to $221.62 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2%. Reasons to Purchase Gain a truly global perspective with the most comprehensive report available on this market covering 12+ geographies. Understand how the market is being affected by the coronavirus and how it is likely to emerge and grow as the impact of the virus abates. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Identify growth segments for investment. Outperform competitors using forecast data and the drivers and trends shaping the market. Understand customers based on the latest market research findings. Benchmark performance against key competitors. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Major players in the sewage treatment facilities market include Suez Environnement S A, Buckman Laboratories International Inc, Hitachi, Ecoprog GmbH, and Emerson. The sewage treatment facilities market consists of sales of sewage treatment services by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are used to operate sewer systems or sewage treatment facilities that collect, treat, and dispose of waste the sewage treatment facilities refer to an arrangement of devices and structures for the treatment of wastewater, industrial wastes, and sludge. They are used as waste treatment plants. The various treatment systems include centralized and decentralized, which are used in various applications such as industrial and municipal. The Asia Pacific was the largest region in the sewage treatment facilities market. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, and Africa. The growth in the sewage treatment facilities market is due to the increased pressure from governments on companies, and increasing investments in the market. Micro-pollutants that are challenging the treatment capability of conventional wastewater treatment plants are being treated with advanced technologies. Micro-pollutants are contaminants originating from pharmaceutical residues, household chemicals, personal care products, and pesticides. Technologies such as moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBR), ozone-based advanced oxidation, adsorption, and powdered activated carbon (PAC) are being used to remove micro-pollutants from wastewater. For instance, in Germany, advanced technologies such as GE's membrane bioreactor and powdered activated carbon technology are proving to be a cost-effective way of removing micro-pollutants from wastewater. The countries covered in the sewage treatment facilities market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the UK, USA. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Report Structure 3. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Characteristics 3.1. Market Definition 3.2. Key Segmentations 4. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Product Analysis 4.1. Leading Products/ Services 4.2. Key Features and Differentiators 4.3. Development Products 5. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Supply Chain 5.1. Supply Chain 5.2. Distribution 5.3. End Customers 6. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Customer Information 6.1. Customer Preferences 6.2. End Use Market Size and Growth 7. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Trends And Strategies 8. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Size And Growth 8.1. Market Size 8.2. Historic Market Growth, Value ($ Billion) 8.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 8.2.2. Restraints On The Market 8.3. Forecast Market Growth, Value ($ Billion) 8.3.1. Drivers Of The Market 8.3.2. Restraints On The Market 9. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Regional Analysis 9.1. Global Sewage Treatment Facilities Market, 2021, By Region, Value ($ Billion) 9.2. Global Sewage Treatment Facilities Market, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, Historic And Forecast, By Region 9.3. Global Sewage Treatment Facilities Market, Growth And Market Share Comparison, By Region 10. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Segmentation 10.1. Global Sewage Treatment Facilities Market, Segmentation By Type, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, Value ($ Billion) 10.1.1. Residential 10.1.2. Industrial 10.1.3. Commercial 10.2. Global Sewage Treatment Facilities Market, Segmentation By Treatment System, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, Value ($ Billion) 10.2.1. Centralized 10.2.2. Decentralized 10.3. Global Sewage Treatment Facilities Market, Segmentation By Application, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, Value ($ Billion) 10.3.1. Industrial 10.3.2. Municipal 11. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Metrics 11.1. Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Size, Percentage Of GDP, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, Global 11.2. Per Capita Average Sewage Treatment Facilities Market Expenditure, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, Global For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4g9hqo 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 DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "4D Bioprinting Market by Type of Technology, Application Area, End-user and Key Geographical Regions: Industry Trends and Global Forecasts, 2023-2035" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The concept of 3D printing has been one of the biggest revolutions across the globe. Various industry stakeholders and academicians have undertaken several initiatives to further develop / improve this technology for a variety of applications. One such application area is 3D bioprinting that includes the printing of living cells and enables the development of highly complex tissues that mimic the structure and performance ability of desired organ, within the body. Although 3D bioprinting results in the printing of an exact replica of primary human organs, however, the printed 3D objects are inert and static in nature and are unable to change shape when subjected to environmental changes. 4D bioprinting makes this possible; 4D bioprinting refers to the incorporation of a fourth dimension that enables these structures to change their shape with time. The additional element in the bioprinting technology that enables the fourth dimension, includes application of smart materials, which have the tendency to morph in the presence of stimuli (such as, heat, water, light, electricity, magnetic energy, stress, strain, and pressure). In addition to the ability to morph, structures from 4D printing, have the ability to self-repair and can adapt to various environmental changes. This technology, though, is currently associated with several challenges; these include printing the existing stimuli-responsive materials and optimizing them with bio-inks. Assembling and folding deformations in structures from 4D printing is also quite demanding. Owing to the ongoing advancements in the 4D biofabrication technology, several players are actively adopting and developing 4D bioprinters and smart biomaterials. It is worth highlighting that 4D bioprinting is garnering a lot of attention from academicians and industry players. In fact, the volume of affiliated scientific literature has increased at a rate of ~130% since last five years, demonstrating the growing popularity of 4D bioprinting. Further, looking at the wide range of applications associated with the 4D bioprinting, such as tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and drug related applications, a number of start-ups have also emerged in this domain. Given the rising interest of stakeholders towards technological advancements and growing adoption of 4D bioprinting for above mentioned applications, we believe that the overall market for 4D bioprinting is anticipated to witness substantial growth in the coming years. Amongst other elements, the report includes: An executive summary of the key insights captured during our research. It offers a high-level view on the likely evolution of the 4D bioprinting market in the short to mid-term, and long term. A general overview of the 4D bioprinting and its working principle, which features details on the different stimuli responsive materials used in 4D bioprinting (including, physical and chemical stimulus). Further, the chapter includes details on the various technologies (such as, stereolithography, selective laser sintering, fused filament modeling, jet 3D printing, direct ink writing and selective laser melting) being used in 4D bioprinting. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the applications, limitations associated and factors which would lead to projected growth in the coming years. A detailed assessment of the current market landscape of 4D bioprinters, featuring information on the status of development (commercial and under development), type of biomaterial (natural, polymer, synthetic, ceramic and others / undisclosed), type of technology (extrusion-based technology, polymer-based technology, laser-based technology, micro-valve technology, electro-writing, fused filament fabrication, vector technology and others / undisclosed), type of stimulus used (heat, light, moisture and others / undisclosed), product specifications (remote accessibility, and software and service), applications area(s) (tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, wound healing, electronics, drug discovery and development, orthopedics and others) and end-user(s) (academic and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies). In addition to this, the chapter features information on 4D bioprinter developers and a detailed analysis based on several relevant parameters, such as year of establishment, company size (in terms of employee count) and location of headquarters ( North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World). , , and Rest of the World). A detailed assessment of the current market landscape of smart biomaterials, featuring information on the status of development (commercial and under development), type of biomaterial (polymer, metallic, natural and others / undisclosed), form of biomaterial (sheet, liquid, gel, fibre, versatile and others / undisclosed), type of stimulus used (heat, electric field, magnetic field, moisture, enzymes / chemicals and others / undisclosed) and application area(s) (tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, wound healing, drug-based applications, orthopedics and others). In addition to this, the chapter features information on smart biomaterial developers and a detailed analysis based on several relevant parameters, such as year of establishment, company size (in terms of employee count) and location of headquarters ( North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World). , , and Rest of the World). A benchmarking analysis of the various players engaged in developing 4D bioprinters and smart biomaterials. It highlights the capabilities of the players in terms of their expertise across the products developed or under development. The analysis allows companies to compare their existing capabilities within and beyond their peer groups and identify opportunities to gain a competitive edge in the industry. A detailed competitiveness analysis of 4D bioprinters, taking into consideration several relevant parameters, such as product strength (including, commercial status, type of biomaterials, type of technologies used, type of stimulus used and number of specifications) and product diversity (including, application area(s) and end-user(s)). Tabulated profiles of the key players involved in developing 4D bioprinters and smart biomaterials. Each profile features a brief overview of the company, its financial information (if available), details on its product portfolio, recent developments and an informed future outlook. An in-depth analysis of various publications for 4D bioprinting, based on several relevant parameters, such as year of publication, type of article, emerging key focus areas, popular publishers (in terms of number of publications), popular journals (in terms of number of number of publications), journal impact factor, popular journals (in terms of journal impact factor) and popular funding bodies (in terms of number of publications). It also highlights the timeline analysis (by article type and journal impact factor), along with the benchmarking of the publications to develop more insightful opinions on the recent trends related to research and development in this area. A qualitative analysis of the five competitive forces, including threats of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threats of substitute products and rivalry among existing companies under an insightful Porter's Five Forces framework. The report features detailed transcripts of interviews held with the following individuals: Suhridh Sundaram (Chief Operating Officer, Avay Biosciences ) ) Preethem Srinath (Doctoral Candidate, CURAM) (Doctoral Candidate, CURAM) Sam Onukuri (Independent Consultant, the US) Frequently Asked Questions What is meant by 4D Bioprinting? How does 4D bioprinting work? What are the benefits of 4D Bioprinting? Who are the leading developers of 4D bioprinters and smart biomaterials? Which is the hub of 4D bioprinter and smart biomaterial developers? What is the relative competitiveness of different 4D bioprinter and smart biomaterial developers? What is the relative competitiveness of different 4D bioprinters? What are the strengths and threats for the developers engaged in the 4D bioprinting industry? What is the focus of various publications related to 4D bioprinting? What is the current / future market of 4D bioprinting? Companies Mentioned 3D Systems 3d.FAB 3DBio Therapeutics 4D Biomaterials Avay Biosciences BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) BioG3D Brighter CELLINK CURAM Production and Validation Center for Advanced Therapies (Creatio) DJO (now part of Envis) Duke University ETH Zurich Evoke Medical Ferentis First Graphene GKSS Research Center Geesthacht Grolltex Guangzhou Medical University Harvard Medical School Harvard University Institute of Polymer Research (Part of University of Waterloo ) ) Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragon Interdisciplinary Research Center of Autoimmune Diseases (Part of University of Eastern Piedmont ) ) Johnson and Johnson Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden Maastrich University Massachusetts Institute of Technology mimiX Biotherapeutics mNEMOSCIENCE Nano3D Biosciences NanoBio Lab National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology National Natural Science Foundation of China National Science Foundation Nuclera Ourobionics PhotoPolymer Poietis Politecbico di Milano Precise Bio Readily3D REGENHU Rheolution Ritsumeikan University ROKIT Healthcare Rutgers University RWTH Aachen University Sculpteo Smart3D Stratasys The George Washington University Tissue Regeneration Systems TissueLabs University of Bayreuth University of Birmingham University of California University of Chicago University of Eastern Piedmont University of Georgia University of Illinois University of Illinois Chicago University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Maryland University of Tsukuba University of Twente University of Washington University of Wollongong Virginia Tech VIVAX BIO Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/hr3egw About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. 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 DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets The "Conductive Polymers Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global conductive polymers market size reached US$ 4.0 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 6.4 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.15% 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. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor. Conductive polymers (CPs) are a specific group of organic materials that exhibit electrical and optical properties of both metals and semiconductors. They offer numerous advantages over carbon-based electrode materials, including low cost, high porosity, ease of synthesis, and low equivalent series resistance (ESR). CP electrodes deliver incredible potential energy, power density, and high specific capacitance due to their excellent intrinsic conductivity. Besides this, they are added at small concentrations to improve the resistance of marine paints against corrosion. Conductive Polymers Market Trends: As CPs are environmental-friendly, they are widely used as an alternative to metallic interfaces in the production of biomedical devices, such as sensors and tissue scaffolds, and artificial muscles and drugs controlled-release agents. The rising demand for these devices and other medical supplies for clinical diagnosis and surgical interventions on account of the growing prevalence of chronic diseases represents one of the key factors bolstering the market growth. They are also integrated on a textile surface via plating, printing, coating, and other surface techniques to manufacture smart and interactive textiles. Apart from this, with the emergence of nanoscience, CPs are gaining traction in transparent solar cells. This, along with the rising sales of solar panels across the globe, is contributing to the market growth. Furthermore, the growing trend of miniaturized electronic devices like integrated circuits (ICs) and rechargeable batteries is also positively influencing the market. Additionally, CPs are being used for developing inexpensive, flexible organic electronics. This, in confluence with the escalating demand for consumer goods in the residential sector due to changing lifestyles and inflating income levels, is anticipated to drive the market in the coming years. Competitive Landscape: The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being 3M Company, Agfa-Gevaert N.V, Avient Corporation, Celanese Corporation, Heraeus Holding, KEMET Corporation, Parker Hannifin Corp., SABIC, Solvay and The Lubrizol Corporation. Key Questions Answered in This Report: How has the global conductive polymers market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global conductive polymers market? What are the key regional markets? What is the breakup of the market based on the product? What is the breakup of the market based on the application? 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 conductive polymers 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 Conductive Polymers Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Product 6.1 Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 Polycarbonates 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 6.3 Polyphenylene-polymer (PPP) based Resins 6.3.1 Market Trends 6.3.2 Market Forecast 6.4 Nylon 6.4.1 Market Trends 6.4.2 Market Forecast 6.5 Inherently Conductive Polymers (ICP) 6.5.1 Market Trends 6.5.2 Market Forecast 6.6 Others 6.6.1 Market Trends 6.6.2 Market Forecast 7 Market Breakup by Application 7.1 Capacitors 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 Anti-static Packaging 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 7.3 Batteries 7.3.1 Market Trends 7.3.2 Market Forecast 7.4 Actuators and Sensors 7.4.1 Market Trends 7.4.2 Market Forecast 7.5 Solar Energy 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 Region 9 SWOT Analysis 10 Value Chain Analysis 11 Porters Five Forces Analysis 12 Price Analysis 13 Competitive Landscape 13.1 Market Structure 13.2 Key Players 13.3 Profiles of Key Players 13.3.1 3M Company 13.3.1.1 Company Overview 13.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.1.3 Financials 13.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis 13.3.2 Agfa-Gevaert N.V 13.3.2.1 Company Overview 13.3.2.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.2.3 Financials 13.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis 13.3.3 Avient Corporation 13.3.3.1 Company Overview 13.3.3.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.3.3 Financials 13.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis 13.3.4 Celanese Corporation 13.3.4.1 Company Overview 13.3.4.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.4.3 Financials 13.3.4.4 SWOT Analysis 13.3.5 Heraeus Holding 13.3.5.1 Company Overview 13.3.5.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.5.3 SWOT Analysis 13.3.6 KEMET Corporation 13.3.6.1 Company Overview 13.3.6.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.7 Parker Hannifin Corp. 13.3.7.1 Company Overview 13.3.7.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.7.3 Financials 13.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis 13.3.8 SABIC 13.3.8.1 Company Overview 13.3.8.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.8.3 Financials 13.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis 13.3.9 Solvay 13.3.9.1 Company Overview 13.3.9.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.9.3 Financials 13.3.9.4 SWOT Analysis 13.3.10 The Lubrizol Corporation 13.3.10.1 Company Overview 13.3.10.2 Product Portfolio 13.3.10.3 SWOT Analysis For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/204x77 Media Contact: Laura Wood | +353-1-481-1716 | [email protected] SOURCE Research and Markets DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Automotive Air Filter Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global automotive air filter market size reached US$ 4.81 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 6.6 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.41% 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 sectors. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor. An automotive air filter refers to the automotive component that restricts dirt particles and other impurities from entering an automobile's engine or cabin. In these air filters, dry particulates and contaminants, including microbes, dust, and pollen, are collected and removed from the air as it passes through specific filtration media, such as fabric, sintered metal, or ceramic. In addition to capturing pollutants like dust and allergens, these filters prevent contamination, ensure a good mixture of air and fuel so that a vehicle can perform well, and maintain the air quality inside the vehicle. There are a variety of materials used in the manufacturing of automotive air filters, including paper, cotton, and foam. Automotive Air Filter Market Trends: Market is primarily driven by stringent vehicle emission and fuel economy regulations across the globe. This can be attributed to the growing concerns regarding the increasing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution levels and carbon footprint. In addition to this, the rising rates of vehicle production are resulting in a higher consumption of automotive filters, thereby fueling the product demand. Moreover, the escalating demand for luxury automobiles with enhanced cabin comfort and multi-filtration systems is providing an impetus to the market. Continual technological advancements, including improved airflow, brake dust and transmission filters, better filter media, and less sensitivity to water, are also creating a positive market outlook. Furthermore, the growing sales of passenger transport vehicles are further creating lucrative growth opportunities for the key market players. Some of the other factors contributing to the market include the flourishing automotive industry, the advent of electric vehicles (EVs), inflating disposable income levels, improved living standards of the masses, and extensive research and development (R&D) activities. Competitive Landscape: The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Ahlstrom-Munksjo Oyj, ALCO Filters (Cyprus) Ltd., Cummins Inc., DENSO Corporation, Donaldson Company Inc., Freudenberg & Co. KG, General Motors Company, MAHLE GmbH, Mann+Hummel, Parker Hannifin Corporation, Robert Bosch GmbH, Sogefi SpA, Toyota Boshoku Corporation (Toyota Motor Corporation) and Valeo. Key Questions Answered in This Report: How has the global automotive air filter market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global automotive air filter market? What are the key regional markets? What is the breakup of the market based on the type? What is the breakup of the market based on the propulsion? What is the breakup of the market based on the vehicle type? What is the breakup of the market based on the sales channel? 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 automotive air filter 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 Automotive Air Filter Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6. Market Breakup by Type 6.1 Air Intake Filters 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 Cabin Air Filters 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 7. Market Breakup by Propulsion 7.1 ICE and Hybrid Vehicles 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 Electric Vehicles 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 8. Market Breakup by Vehicle Type 8.1 Passenger Cars 8.1.1 Market Trends 8.1.2 Market Forecast 8.2 Light Commercial Vehicles 8.2.1 Market Trends 8.2.2 Market Forecast 8.3 Heavy Commercial Vehicles 8.3.1 Market Trends 8.3.2 Market Forecast 9. Market Breakup by Sales Channel 9.1 Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) 9.1.1 Market Trends 9.1.2 Market Forecast 9.2 Aftermarket 9.2.1 Market Trends 9.2.2 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 Ahlstrom-Munksjo Oyj 15.3.1.1 Company Overview 15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.2 ALCO Filters (Cyprus) Ltd. 15.3.2.1 Company Overview 15.3.2.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.3 Cummins Inc. 15.3.3.1 Company Overview 15.3.3.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.3.3 Financials 15.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.4 DENSO Corporation 15.3.4.1 Company Overview 15.3.4.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.4.3 Financials 15.3.4.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.5 Donaldson Company Inc. 15.3.5.1 Company Overview 15.3.5.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.5.3 Financials 15.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.6 Freudenberg & Co. KG 15.3.6.1 Company Overview 15.3.6.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.6.3 SWOT Analysis 15.3.7 General Motors Company 15.3.7.1 Company Overview 15.3.7.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.7.3 Financials 15.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.8 MAHLE GmbH 15.3.8.1 Company Overview 15.3.8.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.8.3 SWOT Analysis 15.3.9 Mann+Hummel 15.3.9.1 Company Overview 15.3.9.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.10 Parker Hannifin Corporation 15.3.10.1 Company Overview 15.3.10.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.10.3 Financials 15.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.11 Robert Bosch GmbH 15.3.11.1 Company Overview 15.3.11.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.11.3 SWOT Analysis 15.3.12 Sogefi SpA 15.3.12.1 Company Overview 15.3.12.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.12.3 Financials 15.3.13 Toyota Boshoku Corporation (Toyota Motor Corporation) 15.3.13.1 Company Overview 15.3.13.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.13.3 Financials 15.3.14 Valeo 15.3.14.1 Company Overview 15.3.14.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.14.3 Financials 15.3.14.4 SWOT Analysis For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/23bt6f 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 DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets The "Automotive Hypervisor Market Size, Market Share, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2022 to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Overview: The global automotive hypervisor market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.3% during the forecast period from 2022 to 2030. Hypervisor is software that provides virtual representation of hardware components in an autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle. It is used for establishing seamless communication between hardware and virtual machine which helps in controlling the vehicle in an efficient manner. Continuous advancements and growing demand for automotive technologies such as autonomous driving mode, vehicle telematics, etc. are some of the major factors driving the global automotive hypervisor market across the globe. Automotive hypervisors are used across various vehicle types such as passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, heavy commercial vehicles as per their level of autonomy i.e. fully autonomous or semi-autonomous. Among all vehicle types, passenger car segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment as passenger car owners are increasingly opting for either autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles citing benefits offered such as better efficiency and improved safety. Autonomous vehicle provides advanced driver-assistance systems which eliminate accidents caused due to human errors. As a result, growing demand for autonomous vehicles is projected to facilitate the growth of automotive hypervisor market in the years to come. Type-1 hypervisors accounted for the Largest Market Share in 2020 Type-1 hypervisors accounted for the largest market share in 2020. This type of hypervisor provides better performance as compared to its counterparts. The virtual layer of type-1 hypervisor interacts directly with the kernel of the operating system, making the hardware of the vehicle more efficient. Type-1 hypervisor is independent from the operating system of vehicle as it directly runs on the host's hardware. In case of any problem in one virtual machine, the other guest operating systems running on the hypervisors does not get affected. Hence, it is regarded as the more secure and efficient automotive hypervisor type. North America Garnered Largest Market Share in 2020 In terms of geography, North America led the automotive hypervisor market in 2020 and is expected to remain dominant during the forecast period from 2022 to 2030. The growth of this region is mainly backed by stringent government regulations in countries like U.S. and Canada where installation of specific automotive safety technologies is mandatory. North America is a house to large number of well-established manufacturers that are investing in autonomous technologies. Relatively better penetration of autonomous cars coupled with growing inclination towards road safety has attracted significant investments towards R&D of autonomous vehicles. This, in turn is supporting the demand for automotive hypervisors in North America region. Competitive Insights Major players profiled in the automotive hypervisors market study include Mentor Graphics Corporation, BlackBerry Limited, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Sasken Technologies Limited, Continental AG, Visteon Corporation, Wind River System, Baidu Inc., NXP Semiconductors N.V., Siemens AG, Harman International Industries, Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., VMware Inc., etc. These companies are heavily investing in R&D for gaining an upper hand in the market. Market Segmentation Product Type-1 Type-2 Vehicle Passenger Cars Light Commercial Vehicles Heavy Commercial Vehicles Key questions answered in this report What are the key micro and macro environmental factors that are impacting the growth of Automotive Hypervisor market? What are the key investment pockets with respect to product segments and geographies currently and during the forecast period? Estimated forecast and market projections up to 2030. Which segment accounts for the fastest CAGR during the forecast period? Which market segment holds a larger market share and why? Are low and middle-income economies investing in the Automotive Hypervisor market? Which is the largest regional market for Automotive Hypervisor market? What are the market trends and dynamics in emerging markets such as Asia Pacific , Latin America , and Middle East & Africa ? , , and & ? Which are the key trends driving Automotive Hypervisor market growth? Who are the key competitors and what are their key strategies to enhance their market presence in the Automotive Hypervisor market worldwide? Key Topics Covered: 1. Preface 2. Executive Summary 3. Automotive Hypervisor Market: Competitive Analysis 4. Automotive Hypervisor Market: Macro Analysis & Market Dynamics 5. Automotive Hypervisor Market: By Product, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 6. Automotive Hypervisor Market: By Vehicle, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 7. North America Automotive Hypervisor Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 8. UK and European Union Automotive Hypervisor Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 9. Asia Pacific Automotive Hypervisor Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 10. Latin America Automotive Hypervisor Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 11. Middle East and Africa Automotive Hypervisor Market, 2020-2030, USD (Million) 12. Company Profile Companies Mentioned Mentor Graphics Corporation BlackBerry Limited Renesas Electronics Corporation Sasken Technologies Limited Continental AG Visteon Corporation Wind River System Baidu Inc. NXP Semiconductors N.V. Siemens AG Harman International Industries, Inc. Citrix Systems Inc. VMware Inc. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/x5hj9b About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Media Contact: Laura Wood | +353-1-481-1716 | [email protected] SOURCE Research and Markets DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets The "Research Report on China's Lithium-ion Battery Export 2023-2032" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Lithium batteries are widely used in electric vehicles, energy storage, consumer electronics and other fields. Lithium batteries are divided into disposable batteries and lithium-ion batteries, of which lithium-ion batteries account for most of the market share of lithium batteries. As downstream applications continue to expand, the global market demand for lithium-ion batteries continues to rise. According to the publisher's analysis, China is the world's leading producer and exporter of lithium-ion batteries, exporting large quantities of lithium-ion batteries every year. In 2021, China exported 3.427 billion lithium-ion batteries, up 54.34% year-on-year, with an export value of US$28.423 billion, up 78.32% year-on-year. From January to October 2022, China exported 3.195 billion lithium-ion batteries, up 18.16% year-on-year, with an export value of US$39.754 billion, up 82.74% year-on-year. The publisher's analysis shows that the average price of China's lithium-ion battery exports grows continuously from 2018-2022.The average price of China's lithium-ion battery exports maintains a 10%-15% growth rate in 2018-2021, rising from US$5.58 each in 2018 to US$8.29 each in 2020.From January to October 2022, the average price of China's lithium-ion battery exports was US$12.44 each, up 54.65% year-on-year. In 2021, China exported lithium-ion batteries to more than two hundred countries and regions worldwide. The publisher's analysis shows that Hong Kong SAR, Vietnam, India, the United States, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Malaysia, Hungary and Taiwan are China's major lithium-ion battery export destinations by export volume. Among them, Hong Kong SAR is the largest destination for China's lithium-ion battery exports. According to the publisher's analysis, in 2021, China exported 675 million lithium-ion batteries to Hong Kong, China, accounting for 19.70% of total lithium-ion battery exports in that year, with an export value of US$2.279 billion, accounting for 8.02% of total exports. If divided by export value, the U.S. is the largest destination for China's lithium-ion battery exports. In 2021, China's exports of lithium-ion batteries to the U.S. amounted to US$4.971 billion, accounting for 17.49% of total exports. China is the world's leading producer and exporter of lithium-ion batteries. With the development of new industries such as electric vehicles worldwide, the publisher expects that China's lithium-ion battery export market has a bright future. Topics covered: China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Status and Major Sources in 2018-2022 Lithium-ion Battery Export Status and Major Sources in 2018-2022 What is the Impact of COVID-19 on China's Lithium-ion Battery Export? Lithium-ion Battery Export? Which Companies are the Major Players in China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Market and What are their Competitive Benchmarks? Lithium-ion Battery Export Market and What are their Competitive Benchmarks? Key Drivers and Market Opportunities in China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Lithium-ion Battery Export What are the Key Drivers, Challenges, and Opportunities for China's Lithium-ion Battery Export during 2023-2032? Lithium-ion Battery Export during 2023-2032? What is the Expected Revenue of China's Lithium-ion Battery Export during 2023-2032? Lithium-ion Battery Export during 2023-2032? What are the Strategies Adopted by the Key Players in the Market to Increase Their Market Share in the Industry? What are the Competitive Advantages of the Major Players in China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Market? Lithium-ion Battery Export Market? Which Segment of China's Lithium-ion Battery Export is Expected to Dominate the Market in 2032? Lithium-ion Battery Export is Expected to Dominate the Market in 2032? What are the Major Adverse Factors Facing China's Lithium-ion Battery Export? Key Topics Covered: 1. 2018-2022 China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Analysis 1.1. China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Scale 1.1.1. China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Volume 1.1.2. China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Value 1.1.3. China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Price 1.2. China's Main Export Destinations of Lithium-ion Battery 1.2.1. By Export Volume 1.2.2. By Export Value 2. 2018-2022 China's Cobalt-based Lithium-ion Battery Export Analysis 2.1 Export Volume of Cobalt-based Lithium-ion Battery 2.2. Export Value of Cobalt-based Lithium-ion Battery 2.3 Export Price of Cobalt-based Lithium-ion Battery 2.4 Export Destinations of Cobalt-based Lithium-ion Batteries 2.4.1. By Export Volume 2.4.2. By Export Value 3. 2018-2022 China Manganese-based Lithium-ion Battery Export Analysis 3.1 Export Volume of Manganese-based Lithium-ion Battery 3.2. Export Value of Manganese-based Lithium-ion Battery 3.3 Export Price of Manganese-based Lithium-ion Battery 3.4 Export Destinations of Manganese-based Lithium-ion Batteries 3.4.1 By Export Volume 3.4.2. By Export Value 4. 2018-2022 China's Export Analysis of Iron Phosphate Lithium-ion Battery 4.1. Export Volume of Iron Phosphate Lithium-ion Battery 4.2. Export Value of Iron Phosphate Lithium-ion Battery 4.3. Export Price of Iron Phosphate Lithium-ion Battery 4.4 Export Destinations of Iron Phosphate Lithium-ion Battery 4.4.1. By Export Volume 4.4.2. By Export Value 5. 2018-2022 China Ternary Lithium-ion Battery Export Analysis 5.1 Export Volume of Ternary Lithium-ion Battery 5.2. Export Value of Ternary Lithium-ion Battery 5.3. Export Price of Ternary Lithium-ion Battery 5.4 Export Destinations of Ternary Lithium-ion Battery 5.4.1. By Export Volume 5.4.2. By Export Value 6. 2018-2022 China Lithium-ion Battery Major Export Destinations Analysis 6.1. Hong Kong, China 6.2. Vietnam 6.3. India 6.4. United States 6.5. South Korea 6.6. Other Export Destinations 7. China's Export Outlook for Lithium-ion Battery, 2023-2032 7.1 Factors Affecting China's Lithium-ion Battery Exports 7.1.1 Favorable Factors 7.1.2. Unfavorable Factors 7.2. China's Lithium-ion Battery Export Forecast, 2023-2032 7.2.1. Export Volume Forecast 7.2.2. Major Export Destinations Forecast 7.2.3. Major Export Types of Lithium-ion Battery Forecast For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1fyhwq About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Media Contact: Laura Wood | +353-1-481-1716 | [email protected] SOURCE Research and Markets GUANGZHOU, China, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Happy Chinese New Year! GDToday invited Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong and the foreign Consuls General in Guangzhou from five continents to send their best wishes in different languages to people worldwide. Chinese New Year's greetings from Chinas Guangdong Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit. In Chinese culture, the rabbit symbolizes good luck, longevity and fertility. As we say hello to the Chinese New Year, it is a tradition to send New Year greetings to family and friends at home and abroad. SOURCE GDToday DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Cyber Security Market by Component, Security Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Cyber security market size was valued at USD 197.4 billion in 2021, and is predicted to reach USD 657.02 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 12.8% during the forecast period, 2022 to 2030. Rise in number of cyber-attacks from hackers and data miners, which can maliciously disable computers, steal data, or use a breached computer as a launch point for other attacks is thus expected to fuel the Cyber security market share. However, high cost for small and medium size enterprises hinders the cyber security market trends. On the contrary, introduction of blockchain cybersecurity is expected to create ample opportunities for key players operating in the cyber security industry during the coming decade. Market Dynamics Drivers Rise in Threats of Phishing and Malware Among Businesses Increase in Adoption of the Internet of Things, AI, and BYOD Trend by Various E-Commerce Platforms Increase in the Number of Cyber-Attacks Restraints High Cost for SMEs and Lack of Cybersecurity Experts Opportunities Introduction of Blockchain Cybersecurity Segment Overview The global Cyber security market is segmented on the basis of component, security, deployment mode, organization size, vertical, and region. By component, the market is classified into hardware, software, and services. By security, the market is segmented into network security, endpoint security, application security, cloud security, and others. By deployment mode, the market is categorized into cloud and on-premise. By organization size, the market is divided into small & medium-sized enterprises and large enterprises. By vertical, the market is divided into BFSI, IT & telecommunication, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, energy & utilities, government, travel & transportation, and others. Region wise, the market is segmented into North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW. Regional Analysis North America market is projected to hold a dominant share by 2030. North America dominates the Cyber security market share and is potently expected to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to high adoption of cyber security solutions owing to surging cases of cyber-attacks in North America, especially in government and education sectors propel growth of the market. For instance, in February 2020, the economy ministry of Mexico detected an intrusion on some of its servers, but no sensitive information got leaked as some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) temporarily isolated their networks and servers. In addition, introduction of various laws and regulations to prevent cybercrimes in the region further increases growth of the market. For instance, in June 2022, the government of Canada introduced Bill C-26, an Act Respecting Cyber Security (ARCS). This proposed legislation protects Canadians and bolster cyber security across financial, telecommunications, energy, and transportation sectors, which in turn drives the cyber security market growth. Key Market Players Emerging and efficient key players in the cyber security industry research include companies such as: IBM Cisco Systems Ltd. Norton Lifelock Fortinet Inc. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Trend Micro Amazon Web Services Microsoft Proofpoint Inc. Trellix Palo Alto Networks Recent Developments September 2022 Norton LifeLock announced its commitment of Cybersecurity Awareness Month campaign, It's Easy to Stay Safe Online. Cybersecurity Awareness month will provide access to resources that help keep people safe and secure online. These resources are available to all consumers, small and medium-sized businesses, corporations, educational institutions, and young people worldwide. April 2022 Fortinet Inc announced the launch of Security Awareness and Training service for companies for protection of their security posture by advancing their employees' cybersecurity skillsets and knowledge. June 2022 IBM aquired cybersecurity platform Randori, as Randori helps in identify external-facing assets, both on-premise or in the cloud, that are visible to attackers. The company also announced that by this acquisition the company will strengthens its portfolio of AI-powered cybersecurity products and services. May 2022 Microsoft launched three new cybersecurity services for businesses in an effort to provide more support in the battle against ransomware and other online threats. The three new services will be placed under an umbrella service category that also includes Microsoft's pre-existing security services such as Microsoft Security Services for Incident Response. May 2022 Cisco System Ltd launched a cybersecurity assessment tool to enable small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the Asia Pacific for understanding their overall security posture. The new online assessment tool assesses the cybersecurity readiness of each organization through the lens of Zero Trust, the concept that all attempts to access an organization's network architecture is not granted until trust can be verified. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Cyber Security Market - Executive Summary 3. Market Overview 4. Market Share Analysis 5. Global Cyber Security Market, by Component 6. Global Cyber Security Market, by Security Type 7. Global Cyber Security Market, by Deployment Mode 8. Global Cyber Security Market, by Organization Size 9. Global Cyber Security Market, by By Vertical 10. Global Cyber Security Market, by Region 11. Company Profiles For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qhi8bq About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. 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 DUBLIN, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market (2022-2027) by Type, Technology, Service, Application, and Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market is estimated to be USD 12.17 Bn in 2022 and expected to reach USD 19.8 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 10.22%. Market Dynamics Drivers Growing Demand for Global Connectivity Rising need to Improve Baggage Services Restraints Lack of Planning in Design and Deployment Opportunities Airport Modernization and Green Field Development Technological Advancements in Optimized Baggage Handling Challenges Complexities Available in Architecture Errors in Systems Can Introduce a Variety of Security Problems Market Segmentations The Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market is segmented based onType, Technology, Service, Application, and Geography. By Type, the market is classified into Conveyor System, and Destination Coded Vehicle. By Technology, the market is classified into Barcode System, and RFID System. By Service, the market is classified into Assisted Service Bag Check-In, and Self-Service Bag Check-In. By Commercial, and MIlitary, the market is classified into Commercial, and MIlitary. By Geography, the market is classified into Americas, Europe , Middle-East & Africa and Asia-Pacific . Competitive Quadrant The report includes a Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc. Ansoff Analysis The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach. The analyst analyses the Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position. Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth. Why buy this report? The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies. The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry. The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report. The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies. The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's competitive positioning tool. Report Highlights: A complete analysis of the market, including the parent industry Important market dynamics and trends Market segmentation Historical, current, and projected size of the market based on value and volume Market shares and strategies of key players Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market Key Topics Covered: 1 Report Description 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Market Dynamics 5 Market Analysis 6 Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market, By Type 7 Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market, By Technology 8 Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market, By Service 9 Global Airport Baggage Handling System Market, By Application 10 Americas'Airport Baggage Handling System Market 11 Europe's Airport Baggage Handling System Market 12 Middle East and Africa's Airport Baggage Handling System Market 13 APAC's Airport Baggage Handling System Market 14 Competitive Landscape 15 Company Profiles 16 Appendix Companies Mentioned Alstef Group Ansir Systems AVA Merchandising Solutions (P) Ltd. Aversan Inc. Babcock Airports Ltd. Beumer Group A/S CapitalWorks LLC Daifuku Co. Ltd. Fives SAS G&S Airport Conveyer IMARC Services Pvt. Ltd. Logplan LLC. Martin Engineering Company Pteris Global Ltd. Siemens Logistics GmbH SITA Vanderlande Industries Inc. Kietek International Inc. Dalmec Industrial Manipulators India Pvt. Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lqlrs3 About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. 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 DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets The "Data Center Cooling Market - A Global and Regional Analysis: Focus on Application, Product, and Country - Analysis and Forecast, 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global data center cooling market accounted for $17.82 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.99% and reach $44.52 billion by 2027. The growth in the global data center cooling market is expected to be driven by the increasing number of data centers and government initiatives for energy-efficient data centers. The need to address the water scarcity issue has further resulted in the adoption of data center cooling technologies. The data center cooling market is in a growth phase. Cooling is a standard part of data center operations as servers constantly run 24/7, which increases the core temperature, which, if not controlled, can lead to a data center outage. Excess heat and humidity can damage appliances and equipment, triggering them to malfunction and stop functioning. Hence, the need of the hour is to accommodate innovative data center cooling systems in retrofits or newly built data centers. Data center cooling involves the collective equipment, tools, techniques, systems, and processes that ensure standard temperatures and humidity levels inside a data center facility. Therefore, a growing number of data centers are resulting in a boost in the utilization of data center cooling techniques High-performance workloads will continue to require more power per rack, which will, in turn, require more power and cooling. However, with the right cooling technology, businesses can save space in their data centers and lower their energy costs. For efficient data center operations, smart technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) is used, which assists in automatic cooling control of the facility. Additionally, AI could identify issues with cooling systems before they fail and cause costly shutdowns. For instance, Google keeps its data centers cool without human intervention. Key Market Players and Competition Synopsis The companies that are profiled have been selected based on inputs gathered from primary experts and analyzing the company's coverage, product portfolio, its market penetration. The top segment players who are leading include data center service providers, which capture around 43.3% of the presence in the market. Impact of COVID-19 The lockdowns due to the pandemic affected economies around the world. Data centers were also impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. As a result of the pandemic, it is anticipated that the global data center cooling market is expected to grow faster in the future due to the increasing requirements to bolster IT execution, flexibility, and security across the globe. Therefore, corporations and big technology companies are adopting sustainable data center cooling technologies and systems to meet increasing data storage requirements. Market Segmentation Application The IT and telecom segment is the dominating application segment. With the introduction of new technologies such as 5G, IoT, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, the telecommunications industry is evolving to cater to huge data processing. As a result, telecom data centers are also transforming to handle high data volume and low latency needs. The banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) segment is expected to anticipate the highest growth rate due to being digitized, which involves utilizing the most cutting-edge technology, which will boost the data center usage, thereby augmenting the data center cooling solutions. Data Center Type The hyperscale segment is the dominating segment due to the demand for hyperscale data centers being driven by the need for more data and processing power. Solution The air cooling market segment is expected to dominate the global data center cooling market because the majority of data centers are old currently and still continue to use air conditioners and other air cooling systems. Additionally, the retrofit data centers also adopt air cooling technologies. However, liquid cooling is expected to witness the highest growth rate from 2022 to 2027 as it efficiently cools the data center area, which results in less usage of fans leading to better acoustics. Air Cooling Based on air cooling, the air conditioner segment dominates the data center cooling market as it supports keeping servers cool, enhancing airflow between the aisles, treating hot air from the servers, and keeping humidity at a suitable level. Air handling units witness the second-highest growth rate after air conditioners due to their ability to maintain the mandatory environmental conditions to guarantee optimal performance and reliability of the information technology equipment (ITE) hardware. Liquid Cooling Based on liquid cooling, the indirect segment is expected to dominate the global data center cooling market due to the fact that it is a highly efficient way to minimize energy usage while maximizing chilling capabilities. Moreover, the direct segment witnesses a higher growth rate due to emerging cooling solutions such as direct-to-chip and immersion. Indirect Based on indirect, the in-row segment dominates the data center cooling market as it can be used for small and highly densified data centers such as edge data centers. In-row cooling units implanted between the rows are standard for removing hot air generated from the back of rows and reducing air recirculation. Furthermore, it can directly impact energy costs and power usage. However, a higher growth rate can be anticipated for the in-rack segment as in-rack is the most precise cooling technology available, which operates in a closed relationship with the air conditioner. Direct In direct-to-chip cooling, the liquid coolant absorbs heat, evaporates into a vapor, and carries heat out of the IT equipment. Therefore, this is one of the most effective and efficient forms of heat removal from the data center components, as this system cools processors directly. Thus, the direct-to-chip segment captures a significant market share as compared to the immersion cooling segment, as the latter is an emerging technology that is expected to witness a considerable growth rate in the future. This is due to immersion cooling helping to reduce electricity consumption at a much larger scale than direct-to-chip cooling and giving a greater return on investment. Rack Density The medium rack density (5-9 kW) captures the significant market size of the global data center cooling market. This is because around 46% of the data centers have adopted medium rack density. However, the high rack density segment is booming as it achieves better space utilization, and the response time of system failure is reduced significantly. A high rack-density data center usually consumes more than 9 kW of power; hence, it needs better airflow management to ensure efficient cooling, driving the overall data center cooling market. Region North America is expected to have a massive demand for data center cooling technologies due to numerous data centers and the growing demand for innovative technologies and spending in the region. Recent Developments in Global Data Center Cooling Market In September 2022 , one of the most research-intensive universities in Europe , University College Dublin, received data center cooling infrastructure from Schneider Electric. The IT infrastructure at universities can benefit from the scalable, effective, and resilient cooling provided by Schneider Electric's Uniflair In-Row Direct Expansion (DX) cooling solution. , one of the most research-intensive universities in , University College Dublin, received data center cooling infrastructure from Schneider Electric. The IT infrastructure at universities can benefit from the scalable, effective, and resilient cooling provided by Schneider Electric's Uniflair In-Row Direct Expansion (DX) cooling solution. In May 2022 , the first commercial colocation provider in Asia , Digital Edge ( Singapore ) Holdings Pte Ltd., utilized StatePoint liquid cooling technology from Nortek Air Solutions, LLC, in its brand-new data center, NARRA1. To create the most energy and water-efficient data center in the nation, Digital Edge will utilize the sustainable cooling solution from Nortek Air Solutions, LLC , the first commercial colocation provider in , Digital Edge ( ) Holdings Pte Ltd., utilized StatePoint liquid cooling technology from Nortek Air Solutions, LLC, in its brand-new data center, NARRA1. To create the most energy and water-efficient data center in the nation, Digital Edge will utilize the sustainable cooling solution from Nortek Air Solutions, LLC In April 2022 , as part of a restructuring program to realign its manufacturing operations, increase profitability, and boost global competitiveness, MODINE MANUFACTURING COMPANY announced the intended closure of three North American plants producing cooling packages, charge-air coolers, and oil coolers. , as part of a restructuring program to realign its manufacturing operations, increase profitability, and boost global competitiveness, MODINE MANUFACTURING COMPANY announced the intended closure of three North American plants producing cooling packages, charge-air coolers, and oil coolers. In January 2022 , Munters acquired EDPAC, an Irish company that makes air handling and cooling systems for data centers. Through the acquisition, Munters, a pioneer in energy-efficient data center cooling solutions in North America , expanded into Europe . Some of the prominent names established in this market are: ALFA LAVAL Asetek, Inc Black Box Condair Group COOLIT SYSTEMS Danfoss Delta Power Solutions EVAPCO, Inc FUJITSU MODINE MANUFACTURING COMPANY Munters Nortek Air Solutions, LLC Rittal GmbH & Co. KG Schneider Electric STULZ GMBH Submer Trane Vertiv Group Corp. Business Dynamics Trends Increased Data Requirements Increasing Rack Power Density - New Data Center Reality 5G Services to Drive Exponential Growth in Data Centers COVID-19 Implications for Data Centers Growing Demand for Environment-Friendly Cooling Systems Carbon Neutrality Utilization of Renewable Energies Green Initiatives by Government Body Ecosystem and Ongoing Programs Associations and Consortiums Government Programs and Initiatives Landscape Europe North America Asia-Pacific China Rest-of-the-World Business Drivers High-Efficient Cooling Systems Emerging Technologies Promote Cost-Effectiveness AI-Assisted Automatic Cooling Control Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) Optimization with Economic Cooling Solutions Increasing Number of Data Centers and Spendings Thermal Energy Recovery Conversion from Data Centers Water Usage Effectiveness Driving Adoption of Alternate Cooling Solutions Retrofitting to a Free Cooling Data Center Business Challenges High Investment Costs for Non-Conventional Cooling Systems Technical Challenges to Cooling Systems Air and Free Cooling Systems Adaption Complexities Reliability Limitations with Immersion Liquid Cooling Lack of Synergy between Hardware and Cooling Vendors Infrastructure Development Gap between End Users and Data Centers Business Opportunities Growing Emphasis for Retrofit Data Center Data Center Infrastructure Management for Power Management Increasing Number of Distributed or Edge Data Centers Developing Innovative Cooling Technologies Market Strategies and Developments Business Strategies Product Launches Business Expansions Corporate Strategies Mergers and Acquisitions Partnerships, Collaborations, and Joint Ventures Key Start-Ups in the Global Data Center Cooling Market For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8vj3id About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Media Contact: Laura Wood | +353-1-481-1716 | [email protected] SOURCE Research and Markets DUBLIN, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets The "Agriculture Equipment Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global agriculture equipment market size reached US$ 156.32 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 213.71 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.35% 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. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor. Agriculture equipment is used for performing various tasks in farming, such as harvesting crops, spraying fields, seeding, tilling fields, breeding cows, and feeding livestock. It comprises mowers, backhoe, harrow, cultivator, rake, tractor, combine harvester, sprayers, chain saw, brush cutters, and sawmills. It enhances the efficiency and productivity of farming by minimizing human labor and reducing errors, physical shortcomings and wastage in agriculture. It assists in cultivating land by smoothing hillocks, filling in depressions and gullies, and removing deep-rooted weeds while preventing soil erosion. In addition, it reduces fodder area and enlarges crop area to produce food for human consumption. Agriculture Equipment Market Trends: At present, the growing awareness among farmers about the benefits of using agriculture equipment represents one of the key factors driving the market. Besides this, governments of several countries are promoting the usage of agriculture equipment by providing loan waiver schemes to farmers. They are also providing funds to farmers for adopting sustainable agriculture practices and enhancing productivity using machinery, which is contributing to the growth of the market. Moreover, the integration of technologically advanced agricultural robotics in farming, such as autonomous tractors and flying drones, to help farmers produce food at low costs is propelling the growth of the market. In addition, the growing demand for electric tractors to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions is offering a positive market outlook. Apart from this, key market players are extensively investing in research and development (R&D) activities to introduce self-propelled machines in farming. They are also focusing on various marketing strategies to expand their customer base. Additionally, the rising demand for enhanced machines with high-power to farm hard-to-access areas and handle a wide range of implements is bolstering the growth of the market. Competitive Landscape: The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being AGCO Corporation, Agromaster Agricultural Machinery, Argo Tractors S.p.A., Bellota Agrisolutions, China National Machinery Industry Corporation, CLAAS KGaA mbH, CNH Industrial N.V., Deere & Company, Escorts Limited, Iseki & Co. Ltd., JC Bamford Excavators Ltd., Kubota Corporation, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited and SDF Group. Key Questions Answered in This Report: How has the global agriculture equipment market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global agriculture equipment market? What are the key regional markets? What is the breakup of the market based on the equipment type? What is the breakup of the market based on the application? What is the breakup of the market based on the sales channel? 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 agriculture equipment 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 Agriculture Equipment Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Equipment Type 6.1 Agriculture Tractor 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 Harvesting Equipment 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 6.3 Irrigation and Crop Processing Equipment 6.3.1 Market Trends 6.3.2 Market Forecast 6.4 Agriculture Spraying and Handling Equipment 6.4.1 Market Trends 6.4.2 Market Forecast 6.5 Soil Preparation and Cultivation Equipment 6.5.1 Market Trends 6.5.2 Market Forecast 6.6 Others 6.6.1 Market Trends 6.6.2 Market Forecast 7 Market Breakup by Application 7.1 Land Development 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 Threshing and Harvesting 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 7.3 Plant Protection 7.3.1 Market Trends 7.3.2 Market Forecast 7.4 After Agro Processing 7.4.1 Market Trends 7.4.2 Market Forecast 8 Market Breakup by Sales Channel 8.1 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) 8.1.1 Market Trends 8.1.2 Market Forecast 8.2 Aftermarket 8.2.1 Market Trends 8.2.2 Market Forecast 9 Market Breakup by Region 10 SWOT Analysis 11 Value Chain Analysis 12 Porters Five Forces Analysis 13 Price Analysis 14 Competitive Landscape 14.1 Market Structure 14.2 Key Players 14.3 Profiles of Key Players 14.3.1 AGCO Corporation 14.3.1.1 Company Overview 14.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.1.3 Financials 14.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.2 Agromaster Agricultural Machinery 14.3.2.1 Company Overview 14.3.2.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.3 Argo Tractors S.p.A. 14.3.3.1 Company Overview 14.3.3.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.4 Bellota Agrisolutions 14.3.4.1 Company Overview 14.3.4.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.5 China National Machinery Industry Corporation 14.3.5.1 Company Overview 14.3.5.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.6 CLAAS KGaA mbH 14.3.6.1 Company Overview 14.3.6.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.7 CNH Industrial N.V. 14.3.7.1 Company Overview 14.3.7.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.7.3 Financials 14.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.8 Deere & Company 14.3.8.1 Company Overview 14.3.8.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.8.3 Financials 14.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.9 Escorts Limited 14.3.9.1 Company Overview 14.3.9.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.9.3 Financials 14.3.10 Iseki & Co. Ltd. 14.3.10.1 Company Overview 14.3.10.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.10.3 Financials 14.3.11 JC Bamford Excavators Ltd. 14.3.11.1 Company Overview 14.3.11.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.12 Kubota Corporation 14.3.12.1 Company Overview 14.3.12.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.12.3 Financials 14.3.12.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.13 Mahindra & Mahindra Limited 14.3.13.1 Company Overview 14.3.13.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.14 SDF Group 14.3.14.1 Company Overview 14.3.14.2 Product Portfolio For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2eynyd Media Contact: Laura Wood | +353-1-481-1716 | [email protected] SOURCE Research and Markets TOKYO, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- French Raoul Follereau Fondation, Italian Association Amici di Raoul Follereau and Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen's Disease) Initiative, in collaboration with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will co-host the "International Symposium at the Vatican on Hansen's Disease: Leave No One Behind" on January 23-24, 2023 at Auditorium "P. Agostino Trape", Patristic Institute Augustinianum. International Symposium at the Vatican on Hansens Disease To Focus on Theme of Leave No One Behind The two-day symposium brings together health and human rights experts, NGOs, religious organizations, persons affected by Hansen's disease (also known as leprosy) and other NTDs (Neglected Tropical Diseases) to discuss what actions are needed to achieve the goal of "zero leprosy" and realize a society in which no one is left behind. The event is scheduled to hear messages from the Holy See through the Dicastery, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Mr. Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Alice Cruz, UN Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, as well as representatives of the hosting organizations, including Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and chairman of The Nippon Foundation. The symposium is a follow-up to an International Symposium held at the same venue in 2016 titled "Towards Holistic Care for People with Hansen's Disease, Respectful of their Dignity." In the years since, the coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on leprosy services, disrupting case-finding activities and making it harder to receive treatment and disability care. The current symposium will review how the pandemic has impacted the lives of persons affected by Hansen's disease and other socially vulnerable individuals, especially persons with disabilities due to disease, while showcasing best practices to address their needs, with special attention on the role of religious organizations. In addition, the symposium will incorporate the launch ceremony for Global Appeal 2023 to End Stigma and Discrimination against Persons Affected by Leprosy. Initiated in 2006 by Yohei Sasakawa, the Appeal is issued annually to focus attention on the issue of leprosy and discrimination and generate momentum for an inclusive society. This year's Appeal is being endorsed by the organizers and participants of the symposium and will be read out by Miss World Brazil 2022, Leticia Frota, who has been using her platform to act as an ambassador for the fight against Hansen's disease in her country. The symposium is taking place as part of Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen's Disease) Initiative's ongoing "Don't Forget Hansen's Disease" campaign, which was launched in 2021 to ensure that Hansen's disease and the needs to those it affects are not overlooked amid the coronavirus pandemic. A press conference is scheduled from noon on January 23: Representatives of persons affected by leprosy, French Raoul Follereau Foudation, Italian Association Amici di Raoul Follereau and Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination will participate as speakers at this moment. To participate in the symposium physically or virtually, please go to this webpage for further details: (https://sasakawaleprosyinitiative.org/latest-updates/initiative-news/3120-2/). PRESS ACCREDITATION Journalists and media operators who wish to participate must apply, no less than 48 hours before the event, through the Holy See Press Office online accreditation System available at: press.vatican.va/accreditamenti. In addition, media that would like to interview participants during the symposium can contact: For the Dicastery: Roberto Paglialonga at [email protected] For the French Raoul Follereau Fondation: Clemence Andre at [email protected] For the Amici di Raoul Follereau Association: Clelia Faraone at [email protected] For Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen's Disease) Initiative: Chikako Masuzaki at [email protected] A general email is also active: [email protected] About Leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is an infectious disease that mainly affects the skin and peripheral nerves. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted case-finding activities, over 200,000 new cases were being reported annually. Leprosy is curable with multidrug therapy, but left untreated can result in permanent disability. An estimated 3 to 4 million people are thought to be living with some form of disability as a result of leprosy. Many myths and misunderstandings surround the disease. In various parts of the world, patients, those who have been treated and cured, and even their family members continue to be stigmatized. The discrimination they face limits their opportunities for education, employment and full participation in society. About Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen's Disease) Initiative The Initiative (https://sasakawaleprosyinitiative.org/) is a strategic alliance between WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination Yohei Sasakawa (https://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en/who/message/profile), The Nippon Foundation (https://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en) and Sasakawa Health Foundation (https://www.shf.or.jp/en) for achieving a world without leprosy and problems related to the disease. Since 1975, The Nippon Foundation and Sasakawa Health Foundation have supported the national leprosy programs of endemic countries through the WHO, with support totaling some US$200 million to date. In cooperation with the Japanese government and other partners, the foundations have played an important role in advocating with the United Nations, helping to secure a 2010 UN General Assembly resolution on elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members and the appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on leprosy by the UN Human Rights Council in 2017. SOURCE Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen's Disease) Initiative EVANSTON, Ill., Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kerrygold recently launched The Magical Pantry: a first-of-its-kind experience, bringing delicious recipes to life through fable-like stories. In collaboration with Energy BBDO and The Dynamite Shop, The Magical Pantry was designed to help families cook together through an innovative digital platform that integrates recipes seamlessly into children's stories so kids can learn and practice cooking skills every time they read. In less than six months, The Magical Pantry has already received over 135,000 page views overall, and over 17,000 page views of the avatar creation page alone. Available on both desktop and mobile, The Magical Pantry allows for young families to fully customize a character, pick from almost 40 recipes, and select one of 4 unique fables to read and enjoy. Their character is then incorporated right into the pages of the story where hundreds of combinations of recipes and stories magically come to life. You can experience The Magical Pantry here: www.themagicalpantry.com. "The Magical Pantry was created to inspire millennial parents with delicious recipes that they can create together with their families. The Kerrygold brand has always been synonymous with bringing people together over food and so we are excited to bring this experience to life through a digital storytelling platform that all the family can enjoy," said Brian Cleere, Global Marketing Director, Kerrygold. Kerrygold and Energy BBDO set out to help parents involve their families in the cooking experience, and purposefully crafted every step of the program. In order for readers to feel well-represented, Energy BBDO brought together a team of 15 DE&I champions from different backgrounds to contribute from their points of view. The recipes were crafted by The Dynamite Shop, an interactive cooking school that specializes in creating kid-friendly recipes, and stories were consulted by Ireland's award-winning children's writer Vicky McFarland. Recipes, characters, and stories were illustrated by multidisciplinary artist & illustrator Dan Gartman, and the entire experience was brought to life by the global interactive design studio, makemepulse. "Our goal with The Magical Pantry was to evolve the instructional recipe format into narrative storybooks that engage and entertain as they teach. The result is an intuitive, immersive way for parents to involve the whole family in the cooking experience," says Dane Canada, Creative Director at Energy BBDO. Kerrygold's The Magical Pantry is part of a global initiative for the brand to reach younger consumers, specifically millennial parents. The platform launched in the US in September 2022 and is the centerpiece of a multi-channel integrated campaign, amplified across social, digital, PR and experiential through their agency partners PHD and Weber Shandwick. Roll-out of The Magical Pantry will continue throughout 2023, with localized versions of the platform also launching in Germany, UK and Ireland. About Kerrygold Kerrygold was established in 1962 as a premium brand, befitting the rich quality of grass-fed Irish milk. Kerrygold initially launched as a single product brand and is now regarded as Ireland's most successful food brand, reaching 1 billion in annual sales in 2019. Since its creation, Kerrygold has been synonymous with quality, and today, Kerrygold has a special place in the hearts of consumers all over the world. Kerrygold dairy farmers are committed to the co-operative ideal; working together to produce only the very best grass-fed dairy products. Kerrygold cows graze freely on the fields of 14,000 small Irish family farms; each one using unique dairy farming traditions passed down through generations of family. It is this grass-fed milk that delivers the rich tasting, higher quality dairy products that Kerrygold is famous for. Today, consumers all over the world enjoy the unique taste of Irish grass-fed dairy. Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter is the number two butter brand in the USA and Kerrygold Dubliner Irish Cheese is the number one specialty cheese. Contact: Libby Hudson [email protected] SOURCE Kerrygold 'Participatory budgeting' model lets communities decide HONOLULU, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Participatory Budgeting Project, in partnership with Ulupono Initiative, today released a report titled, "Let communities decide: Using participatory budgeting for renewable energy community benefits packages." A participatory budgeting (PB) framework provides the opportunity for more inclusive conversations and decision-making around community benefits as part of renewable energy projects, particularly for those communities most impacted by such projects. These benefits may include grants, sponsorships, educational and cultural initiatives, and more. PB can also bring transparency to spending decisions, with greater opportunity for communities to build relationships and trust with local government and developers. "It's not a question of whether Hawai'i's communities will or will not have a say in our state's clean energy future they will demand it," said Leo Asuncion, chairperson of the Hawai'i Public Utilities Commission, in the report's introduction. "This report explores 'participatory budgeting' as a community-led approach to renewable energy community benefits decided not solely by the developer or elected officials, but with full involvement of the communities affected by the development." In 2022, Hawaiian Electric, the electric utility for O'ahu, Maui, and Hawai'i Island, initiated a competitive solicitation to procure utility-scale renewable energy for each of the islands. One of the RFP's requirements is that developers set aside money to invest in the communities in which they build. Despite finalizing this requirement, there is no formal process for identifying community needs or allocating funding. Developers currently have the option to directly fund community-identified projects or select a nonprofit organization to administer and distribute the community benefits package, but neither of these options provide a clear blueprint for centering the needs of impacted community members in how funds are allocated. "The heart of PB is a clear, proven process for community members and other stakeholders to follow," said Murray Clay, Ulupono Initiative president. "PB provides a practical model for sharing real decision-making power with the people most impacted by a project in their community." "As Hawai'i gears up to lead the way toward the ambitious renewable energy goals we need in the U.S., it also has the opportunity to do it in a way that centers the needs of the people who will be most impacted by developments," said Ingrid Haftel, Participatory Budgeting Project's director of community education. "Having supported hundreds of participatory budgeting processes across the country, we know that letting community members decide how to spend community benefits funds will lead to more equitable and effective investments." Participatory Budgeting Project's report lays the groundwork for PB, including integrating PB into the RFP process, conducting community-led needs assessments, identifying a manager and key stakeholders, and deciding how to structure the PB process. The report also outlines next steps advocates and organizers can take to champion and lay the groundwork for using PB to decide how to allocate community benefits packages. Read: Participatory Budgeting Project's report About The Participatory Budgeting Project The Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) is a nonprofit organization that collaboratively transforms democracy to center community power. Since 2009, PBP has supported dozens of governments, public institutions, and organizations in launching and deepening participatory budgeting processes. For more information, visit www.participatorybudgeting.org . About Ulupono Initiative A mission-driven venture of The Omidyar Group, Ulupono Initiative was founded in 2009 and strives to improve the quality of life for the people of Hawai'i by working toward sustainable solutions that support and promote locally produced food, renewable energy, clean transportation, and better management of freshwater resources. For more information, visit www.ulupono.com or connect with Ulupono on Twitter, Facebook , Instagram and LinkedIn . SOURCE Ulupono Initiative RALEIGH, N.C., Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Saint Augustine's University (SAU), and Carter agreed to a proposal valued in excess of $75 million, which includes developing a 320-unit multifamily project on the property and offers the University the option to invest in the project as a partner. The proposal also includes a partnership between Carter and Swift Services as a minority partner on the development. The agreement was approved today in the SAU board of Trustee's meeting. The ground lease agreement between SAU and Carter exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that the university teaches to its students. Photo courtesy of Saint Augustine's University. Carter will ground lease property on the northwestern side of the SAU campus. The option to invest in the project as a partner could prove to be a lucrative opportunity that the university will likely opt to do. The ground lease agreement exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that SAU teaches to its students. The partnership allows the university to continue to own the land, while utilizing the space to not just raise the quality of life in and around the university, but to also make an economic impact on the entire community. The agreement has generated a lot of excitement throughout the campus and Raleigh community. The Honorable Justice James E. Perry, Chairman, Board of Trustees, and a 1966 graduate of SAU stated, "This development opportunity is a beacon of light for students, the Raleigh community, and the global society to engage with SAU in this transformative venture. As the Board chair, I am delighted for this opportunity and thank my fellow Trustees for their continued support and commitment to this illustrious institution. I also thank the leadership, faculty and staff of SAU for their tireless work and commitment to our students and their success." "I am excited to see the impact that this development venture will have on SAU and the city of Raleigh. This venture is a great opportunity for the institution to expand its revenue stream while enhancing housing options for the city. As the vice chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the facilities committee, the Board along with the SAU administration continuously seek opportunities that strengthen the institution and advance our mission", stated Mr. Brian A. Boulware, Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees, and a 1995 graduate of SAU. "As the 13th president of Saint Augustine's University, I am proud of the historic opportunity this venture affirms for our 156-year-old institution." Said Dr. Christine Johnson McPhail, President of SAUShe continued "The development proposal presented by Carter will allow SAU to increase housing options for our growing city and enhances the economic impact SAU provides to the Raleigh community. I appreciate the continued support of the SAU Board of Trustees for the administration, faculty, staff and most importantly, our students as we all strive to make the university stronger. This venture is just the beginning as we will continue to use our collective talents and resources to carry out the mission and vision of Saint Augustine's University." About Saint Augustine's University Founded in 1867 by the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, the mission of Saint Augustine's University is to sustain a learning community in which students can prepare academically, socially and spiritually for leadership in a complex, diverse and rapidly changing world. A four-year liberal arts university with an average enrollment of approximately 1,200, SAU sits on 105 lush acres just north of Downtown Raleigh. The institution offers more than 20 undergraduate degree programs and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). About Carter Carter is a leading national real estate investment and development firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1958, Carter is one of the most experienced, proven, and recognized real estate development firms in the country. The firm currently has over $1.3 billion of active development throughout the Southeast, including mixed-use and multifamily projects. A strengths-based organization with a culture based on trust and candor, Carter's purpose is to make a difference in the world by transforming communities and spaces so people can thrive. Learn more at www.carterusa.com. SOURCE Saint Augustine's University SEATTLE, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SkinnyDipped of Seattle, WA is voluntarily recalling a limited quantity of SkinnyDipped Dark Chocolate Cocoa Almond 3.5oz and SkinnyDipped Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cashew 3.5oz due to an undeclared peanut allergen in an ingredient from a raw material supplier. People who have an allergy to peanuts run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reactions if they consume these products. The recalled products do not declare peanuts in the ingredient statement or as a disclosed allergen. SkinnyDipped Dark Chocolate Cocoa Almond 3.5oz and SkinnyDipped Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cashew 3.5oz This recall is limited exclusively to the products and Best By Dates listed in the table below and were sold in retail stores nationwide from January 8, 2023 to January 20, 2023: Product: SkinnyDipped Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cashews 3.5oz Item UPC: 8-51562-00841-2 Lot Code: B23005 B13006 Best By Date: 05/05/2024 05/06/2024 SkinnyDipped Dark Chocolate Cocoa Almonds 3.5oz 8-61297-00030-8 B22354 B12355 B22355 B12354 04/20/24 04/21/24 04/21/24 04/20/24 The lot code and best buy information can be found on the back of the package in the lower right corner as shown in the above images. No other SkinnyDipped products are part of this recall. No allergic reactions have been reported to date. Consumers who have the recalled product should not eat it, should discard any product, and should keep any packaging to return to the retailer where it was purchased for a replacement or refund. If you have any questions, please reach out to SkinnyDipped at 1-866-957-9907 (M F, 9am 5pm PT) or [email protected] or for more information visit www.skinnydipped.com/pages/recall. This recall is being conducted with the knowledge of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The quality, safety and integrity of our products remain the number one priority of SkinnyDipped. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to both our consumers and retail customers. SkinnyDipped, Seattle WA 1-866-957-9907 [email protected] SOURCE SkinnyDipped GREENSBORO, N.C., Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE:SKT) announced today that its 2022 dividend distributions should be treated as follows for income tax purposes. Common Shares: 100% as ordinary income Detailed information regarding each distribution for 2022 is below. Shareholders are encouraged to consult with their personal tax advisors as to their specific tax treatment of the Company's dividend distributions. Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. - Common Stock (Symbol SKT) (CUSIP No. 875465106) Totals % of Annual Total Record Date 1/31/2022 4/29/2022 7/29/2022 10/31/2022 Ex-Dividend Date 1/28/2022 4/28/2022 7/28/2022 10/28/2022 Payable Date 2/15/2022 5/13/2022 8/15/2022 11/15/2022 Total Distribution Per Share $0.1825 $0.2000 $0.2000 $0.2200 $0.8025 Amount Included In Shareholders' 2022 Income $0.1825 $0.2000 $0.2000 $0.2200 $0.8025 Box 1a Total Ordinary Dividends $0.1825 $0.2000 $0.2000 $0.2200 $0.8025 100 % Box 3 Non Dividend Distributions $0.0000 $0.0000 $0.0000 $0.0000 $0.0000 0 % Box 5 Section 199A Dividends $0.1825 $0.2000 $0.2000 $0.2200 $0.8025 About Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE: SKT) is a leading operator of upscale open-air outlet centers that owns (or has an ownership interest in) and/or manages a portfolio of 36 centers with an additional center currently under development. Tanger's operating properties are located in 20 states and in Canada, totaling approximately 13.9 million square feet, leased to over 2,700 stores operated by more than 600 different brand name companies. The Company has more than 42 years of experience in the outlet industry and is a publicly-traded REIT. For more information on Tanger Outlet Centers, call 1-800-4TANGER or visit the Company's website at www.tangeroutlets.com . Investor Contact Doug McDonald SVP, Finance and Capital Markets T: (336) 856-6066 [email protected] SOURCE Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. SINGAPORE, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- XT.COM , the world's first socially infused trading platform, is thrilled to announce the listing of BTNC on its platform in the innovation zone and the BTNC/USDT trading pair will be open for trading from 2023-01-20 06:00 (UTC). Users can deposit BTNC for trading at 2023-01-19 06:00(UTC) Withdrawals for BTNC will open at 2023-01-21 06:00 (UTC) About BTNC Binance-Peg TNC (BTNC) is a BEP20 token deployed on Binance Smart Chain with a max supply of 10,889,928. BTNC tokens can be acquired through TNCswap , a platform that allows users to convert TNC Coins into BTNC tokens. TNC Coin is the main digital asset of the TNC network. The platform uses TNC to facilitate the company's Crypto Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) program. Tokens from participating companies that are merging with TNC will be converted into TNC. Additionally, TNC can be used in various operations on the TNC network such as partner allocation, charity, operation expenses, and business developments. About the TNC Coin Network TNC Coin Network is a company composed of blockchain experts worldwide. With the help of its team members, TNC Coin Network seeks to represent a robust mainnet to support its upcoming projects on its network. TNC Coin Network aims to address the problems in the current blockchains with its own third-generation blockchain. The network seeks to implement a Dual Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DDPoS) protocol to guarantee security, asset immutability, and scalability to cater to the development and needs of decentralized applications. TNC Coin Network offers scalable and secure blockchain solutions designed specifically for innovative fintech and cryptocurrency projects. The network is able to handle 300,000 transactions per second. Website: tnccoin.com Whitepaper: tnccoin.pdf Telegram: https://t.me/tncitgroup "We're delighted to have BTNC listed on our trading platform. 2023 will be a great turning point for XT.COM as I'll be ensuring the utmost quality in trading opportunities and experience for XT.COM users," said Albin Warin , CEO of XT.COM. "The company is headed toward a brighter future and users can look forward to more unique web3 opportunities with our various trading portfolios." About XT.COM Founded in 2018, XT.COM crypto exchange now serves more than 6 million registered users, over 1,000,000+ monthly active users, 40+ million users in the ecosystem, and 800+ trading pairs. Covering spot trading , margin trading , and futures trading together with an NFT aggregated marketplace , our platform strives to cater to its large user base by providing a secure, trusted, and intuitive trading experience. As the world's first social-infused digital assets trading platform, XT.COM also supports social networking platform-based transactions to make our crypto services more accessible to users all over the world. Furthermore, to ensure optimal data integrity and security, we see user security as our top priority at XT.COM. Website: https://www.xt.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/XTexchange Telegram: https://t.me/XTsupport_EN SOURCE XT.com Berlin, Jan 21 : Germany has yet to decide whether it will send German-made Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine. "There are good reasons for the delivery, there are good reasons against it," the country's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday after meeting his US and European counterparts in Ramstein, Germany. Pistorius added that his ministry would check the country's stocks of the Leopard tank for possible delivery to Ukraine in the next few weeks, Xinhua news agency reported. "We are preparing for all eventualities," he said. The delivery of lighter Marder infantry fighting vehicles, announced in early December 2022, has been criticised by some as inadequately prepared. According to the Defence Ministry (BMVg), it was unclear at the time where the vehicles would come from. Instead of Leopard tanks, Pistorius announced further deliveries of Marder and Gepard tanks as well as a Patriot surface-to-air missile system. With this, the value of Germany's military support for Ukraine is to reach 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion). The US, meanwhile, has increased its support to Ukraine by $2.5 billion to $26.7 billion. The new package includes 59 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. Other members of the NATO, such as Poland, have reiterated their intention to supply Ukraine with Leopard tanks from their own stocks. However, this would require the approval of the manufacturing country, Germany, which has not yet decided on this matter. Russia has repeatedly said that the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine does not help resolve the conflict but prolongs the suffering of the Ukrainian people. (1 euro = $1.08) Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Instagram is introducing a handful of features designed to give users more control over the app, starting with a new Quiet Mode. The tool functions a lot like your phones Do Not Disturb setting. When active, Instagram wont push notifications to your device. Your profile will also display a note that youre in quiet mode, and anyone who attempts to message you will receive an automatic reply that youre not available. You can set Quiet Mode to activate automatically at certain times of day. Once youre outside those hours, Instagram will send you a summary of your notifications. Anyone can use Quiet Mode, but the company says it will prompt teens to use the feature if it notices theyre spending a lot of time scrolling through their feed late at night. Quiet Mode is available starting today in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom. Instagram Quiet Mode Alongside the new mode, Instagram is introducing a handful of features designed to give people more control over the photos and videos they see on the platform. Specifically, you can now tell the app the types of content you dont want to be recommended to you. Starting with the Explore tab, you can select multiple tiles and tap Not Interested to shape Instagrams content algorithm. Doing so will also affect what you see when you search for posts. Additionally, in an expansion of a feature that was already available for comments and direct messages, you can list specific words, hashtags and emoji you want Instagram to filter for when recommending content. You can access that tool through the Hidden Words section of the app's privacy settings. One limitation is that filters will only work when the app detects the words you listed in hashtags and captions. Lastly, Instagram notes it recently added a feature that allows parents to see their teens app settings. The subject of inappropriate recommendations came up during Adam Mosseris congressional hearing in 2021 . Members of the Senate subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security grilled the head of Instagram about the content they saw the app steer them toward after creating fresh Instagram accounts designed to impersonate teens. Specifically, Utah Senator Mike Lee said he saw the Explore page of his finsta account change dramatically after following a single account recommended by Instagram. According to Lee, the app began recommending posts promoting body dysmorphia, sexualization of women and other content inappropriate for teen girls. It went dark fast, he said. Whether the changes Instagram is introducing today will sufficiently address the concerns raised by lawmakers is hard to say, as Instagram is putting the onus on teen users to filter their feeds instead of doing that work itself. Belgrade, Jan 21 : Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic discussed the issue of his country's autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija on Friday with representatives of the EU, the US, France, Germany and Italy in an attempt to resolve the frozen conflict between Belgrade and Pristina amid frequent tensions in the province. The meeting here was attended by the EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak, the US' Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing policy towards the countries of the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, the advisors on foreign and security policy to the French President and German Chancellor, Emmanuel Bonne and Jens Plettner, respectively, and the diplomatic adviser to the Prime Minister of Italy, Francesco Talo. "What we agree on is that a frozen conflict is not a solution and that when you have a frozen conflict, it is only a matter of time when someone will unfreeze it and when irresponsible individuals will collapse the peace and stability of the entire Western Balkans," Vucic said after the meeting, according to the statement of the President's office. In 2022, the fragile dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina was interrupted by tensions around the validity of Serbian identity documents, travel documents and license plates, which resulted in Serbs quitting Kosovo's institutions and protests, Xinhua news agency reported. The Serbian President expressed Serbia's willingness to consider the "plan proposed in September 2022" in light of "problems and challenges that would be put before our country if we did not agree with the proposed plan". According to the version leaked to the media, the aim of the proposed plan is to achieve "full normalisation" of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. "We are ready to accept the concept and work on the implementation of the proposed plan, with the fact that I made one thing very clear and showed all care and reserve on one important issue," Vucic said, without fully disclosing his concern. Vucic added that consultations will be held "with members of government, members of parliament and all significant social groups" regarding the proposed plan. Lajcak said that the meeting was "intensive and open," and that Vucic demonstrated a responsible approach and will to make difficult decisions in the interest of peace and the European perspective for Serbia. Lajcak added that the "plan presented in September is the best way to normalise relations between Belgrade and Pristina and the European integration of the region". Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province. Washington, Jan 21 : Nikki Haley, the Indian- American Republican who is eyeing a bid for the White House in 2024, has been accused of plotting to become former US President Donald Trump's Vice-President. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who made this accusation in his memoir that just hit the stands, goes on to claim in the book that Haley's co-conspirators were Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who both held senior position in the White House at the time. Haley dismissed the charge as a stunt to sell the memoir. Pompeo does not specify if Haley was supposed to replace Pence in this plot or join Trump as running mate in his 2020 re-election bid. If the move was for Haley to replace Pence as Vice-President, it would have been her and not Vice-President Kamala Harris who would have gone down in history with a clutch of firsts -- the first person of colour to rise so high in the US government, and the first Asian-American and Indian-American. She would have made history as Trump's running mate as well -- but jointly with Harris. Neither situation happened. Pompeo is himself considering a 2024 White House bid and takes swipes at others in the Republican party who he could face in the primaries, with the exception of his former boss Trump, who has already announced his intention to run a third time, and Vice-President Mike Pence, who is also mulling a run. Pompeo's account of Haley's plot is not firsthand. He cites Mark Kelly, then Chief of Staff to the President, who felt "played" as the alleged move came at a meeting he cleared for Haley with Trump. Haley, it turned out, was not alone, but was joined by the President's daughter and son-in-law. "As best Kelly could tell,"Pompeo writes in his memoir, "they were presenting a possible Haley for Vice-President' option". I can't confirm this, but (Kelly) was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America." Pompeo sounds uncertain of his claims here. And Haley hit it out the park predictably, calling the charge "lies and gossip to sell a book". Haley was US Ambassador to the UN at the time and a rising star in the Republican party on reputation made and burnished as the two-term governor of South Carolina, one of America's most Conservative states. As Ambassador to the UN, Haley was accorded a federal cabinet position and could often called and met Trump without going through the State Department protocol. Then she resigned unexpectedly in 2018, with two more years left of Trump's term. And she wasn't very convincing about her reasons. "There's no personal reason," she had said, appearing with Trump at a joint news conference. "It's very important for government officials to understand when it's time to step aside." And then, without being prompted. she said, "No, I am not running for 2020," True to her word she did not not run in 2020. But shortly after Trump lost the 2020 re-election bid, Haley signalled her intentions in an interview to a US media outlet, saying it was time for the Republican party to move on. Jammu, Jan 21 : Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday launched a probe into a firing incident near the house of a former MLA in Poonch district. Police said there were reports of some 12 bore gunshots having been fired towards the house of former MLA Choudhary Muhammad Akram in Lassana village of Surankote area. "Since the house is in the vicinity of a forest, it could be shots from a hunter's gun those hit a street light near the outer wall of the MLA's house. "There was no damage. We have taken cognisance of the incident and started investigation," the police said. Kolkata, Jan 21 : Hinting towards a new political equation in the hills of Darjeeling, BJP Lok Sabha member Raju Bista on Saturday sent a message of solidarity towards the newly-founded understanding involving Hamro Party's Ajay Edwards, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)'s Bimal Gurung and erstwhile Trinamool Congress leader Binoy Tamang, who recently severed all his associations with the West Bengal ruling party. Bista launched a scathing attack against the Anit Thapa-led Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) and Trinamool Congress alliance in the hills, for "unethically" taking control of the Darjeeling Municipality by roping in six elected councillors from Hamro Party. "Just 11 months ago, Hamro Party, a regional force, took control of Darjeeling Municipality after getting democratically elected by the people. The Hamro Party-controlled board started demolishing the illegal constructions in the hills and they had to pay the price for that. The state government misused its power in removing the Hamro Party from the board. The state government will be responsible if Darjeeling faces the same fate as Joshimath," Bista said. His statements of solidarity give a clear signal of friendship towards the Hamro Party as well the new equation evolving in the hills over the Edwards-Gurung- Tamang trio. Earlier on January 6, Bista gave a similar expression of solidarity by suddenly paying an unscheduled visit to Gurung's residence in Darjeeling. After the meeting, Bista acknowledged the role played by Gurung behind his victory from Darjeeling in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. On the other hand, Gurung said that he reminded the local Lok Sabha member of his commitments towards the Gorkha community and requested him to work for the sake of Gorkhaland. Political analysts feel that a possible understanding between the BJP and the trio seems inevitable for mutually beneficial reasons. If the BJP wants to retain the Darjeeling Lok Sabha in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, they will need the support of local hill parties and in that case the trio will be the natural choice of the saffron camp. On the other hand, the support of BJP will give the trio the backing of a national party. Bhopal, Jan 21 : The India International Science Festival, an annual flagship programme of the Union Ministry of Science and Technology in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh government, got underway at Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) here on Saturday. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan lightened the ceremonial lamp in the presence of hundreds of scientists from across the country. Promotion of science and technology among the general public and celebrating science as a festival is said to be the aim of the four-day event. As per the information, ISRO Chairman S. K. Somanath, CMD of Bharat Biotech Krishna Ella along with many scientists will attend the event. Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh is also likely to participate. CM Chouhan said that the Indian International Science Festival being held in Bhopal should be used to develop the scientific attitude of the students of the state. "This event will help in understanding scientific concepts and attracting youth towards new trends in science. The effort should be that the students get inspiration and guidance from this event. India's ancient scientific contribution and outlook should also be presented in the festival," Chouhan said. He also asserted that the achievements made by the youths of Madhya Pradesh in the field of Science should be publicised using social media. All science colleges, engineering colleges, polytechnics, ITIs etc. of the state should be linked virtually with the various activities to be held in the festival. Mumbai, Jan 21 : Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone, who plays a spy in the upcoming spy-thriller film 'Pathaan', has been called a bonafide action star by the film's director Siddharth Anand. As one can see from the trailer and the assets that have been released so far, the actress can be seen pulling off the action and sultry bit with equal ease. Talking about his liking towards femme fatale in films, Siddharth said, "There is nothing more cool or sexy than a woman wielding a powerful weapon on screen. As a film-buff, I have always loved women doing sick action sequences and so, when we got Deepika Padukone in 'Pathaan', we wanted to present her in her most badass self - a gorgeous, gun-toting, femme fatale spy that people have never seen before!" Recollecting a sequence from the film, the director added, "In one of the action sequences of 'Pathaan', Deepika wields the gatling gun and you have to see the sequence to believe how legit she is as a bonafide action superstar! She steals the show in this scene and I'm sure people will cheer the loudest for her every time she does action in 'Pathaan'." 'Pathaan', which sees Shah Rukh Khan returning to the silver screen after four years, also stars John Abraham. The film is set to release on January 25 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. -- Syndicated from IANS Hyderabad, Jan 21 : Five people were killed and four injured in two separate road accidents in Telangana's Bhadradri Kothagudem district, police said. According to the police, four people were killed and one injured in a collision between a truck and a car that occurred near Kotilingala between Yellandu and Mahabubabad on Friday night. The victims were all photo and videographers who were proceeding to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for a pre-wedding shoot. The car driver and two others died on the spot, while the fourth person succumbed at a hospital at Yellandu. The deceased were identified as Kalyan and Shiva, both residents of Warangal; and Arvind and Ramu from Kamalpur of Hanamkonda district. Randheer, who was injured, was admitted to Khammam hospital. Police registered a case and took up investigation. In the second accident, a child was killed and three others were critically injured when a car in which they were travelling overturned in Yellandu mandal The accident occurred when the car driver tried to avoid hitting a truck coming from the opposite direction. Police shifted the injured to Yellandu hospital. Mumbai, Jan 21 : In the upcoming weekend episode of 'Bigg Boss 16', Bollywood superstar Salman Khan will be seen blasting at Tina for talking ill about Shalin Bhanot with co-contestant Priyanka Choudhary. Tina recently made some despicable claims about Shalin. She was seen telling Priyanka that Shalin was desperate to meet her and form a 'team' before they entered the house, adding that the actor has demanded something 'cheap' from her. In the promo, Salman said: "Shalin had demanded cheap stuff before entering the house. You kept all this in your heart for 15 weeks when things were good with Shalin, now you are revealing all this because things are not right with him?" Tina started crying and said: "Aisa nahi tha sir." Salman said: "Aur koi limit rakhi, koi limit rakhi aapne?" "I am tired, I want to go home sir. Har cheez ka mere upar blame aa raha hai." Latest updates on Bigg Boss Season 16 -- Syndicated from IANS January 21 : Chinese New Year 2023: Chinese New Year, otherwise known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is grand celebration of festivals by the people of China across the world with much glam and pomp. Starting from the Little Year, followed by the Spring Festival, and ending with the Lantern Festival, Chinese New Year happens to be one of the most important holidays for the people of China. The 15-day festival that commences with the sighting of the New Moon marks the beginning of the lunisolar Chinese Calendar. This year, Chinese New Year falls on January 22nd, 2023. Since the Chinese New Year is celebrated with the sighting of the new moon, the festival falls on different dates every year with respect to the Gregorian Calendar. In 2023, the celebrations begin with the Little Year on January 14th, 2023, the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival on January 22nd, 2023, and the Lantern Festival on February 5th, 2023. In the Chinese culture, the zodiac system is a cycle of animal signs that repeats in a particular order every twelve years. Legend has it that the order in which the animals appear on the Chinese zodiac cycle was determined by a race called the Great Race. Every year is associated with an animal from the Chinese Zodiac, starting from one Chinese New Year followed to the next, ie, each Chinese New Year has a zodiac sign. Each zodiac animal is characterized by a unique set of traits and personalities, and it is believed that the personalities of the animals correspond to that of the people born in their years.The zodiac animals in the order of occurrence are as follows: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Chinese animal year of 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit (Year of Yin Water Rabbit). Streets and houses are adorned in red lanterns and scrolls, and people, especially elders of the family gift their children money in gold-inscribed red envelops. Fireworks are a major attraction during Chinese New Year celebrations. People cloak in red clothes on this day as they believe that the color attracts health, fortune and good luck. As traditions go, people clean their houses on New Year's eve to ward off everything evil from the past year and to start afresh. Red couplets and new year pictures are pasted on doors. They honor their dead by offering sacrifices; they add an extra glass and plate for them at the dining table. Family reunions are a major theme during the holidays. Their traditions also follow superstitions when they do not sweep their house on New Year's day, in the belief that they will wash their luck away. They do not wash their clothes and hair that day or else they wash away their fortune. They do not feast on porridge for breakfast, or they will be poor for the rest of the year. A season to manifest love, health, good luck and companionship, Chinese New Year is a celebration one looks forward to. Xinnian kuaile Happy Chinese New Year! Latest updates on New Year 2023 Melbourne, Jan 21 : Switzerland's 12th seed Belinda Bencic on Saturday stormed into the women's singles fourth round at the Australian Open with a hard-fought 6-2 7-5 victory over Camila Giorgi of Italy. The two players have not met since 2019 but Bencic, the Tokyo Olympic Games gold medallist, enjoyed a 3-2 head-to-head advantage going into their sixth clash. She is also on an unbeaten run in January, having begun the 2023 season with a bang, defeating players like Garbine Muguruza, Caroline Garcia and Daria Kasatkina en route to the Adelaide International title. But Giorgi has a reputation for slaying seeds and that set the scene for an intriguing clash in the Round of 32 at Melbourne Park on Saturday. However, Bencic held the upper hand in the first set and broke Giorgi's serve in the third and seventh games to pocket the set 6-2. In the second set, the two players traded serve in the first two games before Bencic broke Giorgi's serve again in the third game. She survived a tough eighth game which went to advantage four times before Bencic held her serve to lead 5-3. Giorgi broke Bencic's serve in the 10th game to make it 5-5 but the Swiss star broke right back in the 11th game and then held her serve to seal the set 6-4 and victory in one hour and 40 minutes. This brings to an end to Giorgi's campaign in the Australian Open wherfe she was forced to deny allegations that she had used fake Covid-19 documents to participate in the 2022 event. Giorgi, 31, fielded several questions about the allegations during a press conference following her victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday. "The doctor is being investigated, she had trouble in this [past] year with the law - a few times. I did all my vaccinations in different places so the trouble is with her, not me," she had claimed. TORONTO, January 20, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ORAGIN Foods Inc. ("ORAGIN" or the "Company") (TSXV: OG) (OTC: OGGFF) (FRA: 9CW) announces that it has been issued a failure-to-file cease trade order (the "CTO") by the Ontario Securities Commission (the "OSC"), and also provides a corporate update as the Company otherwise continues to operate without disruption. Matt Lurie, CEO of Oragin Foods stated, "Both our Retail and CPG divisions continue to operate normally and the Company has sufficient cash on hand to meet its day-to-day obligations pertaining to all areas of business, despite the current halt of our stock as a result of situations which we are working toward resolving, while laying the groundwork for long-term sustainable success of the Company and value for our shareholders. We are pleased to provide an update on the key areas of business within the Company, as well as a clear outline of the cease trade order and current halt of our stock." CORPORATE UPDATE Retail Division All of the Companys Organic Garage locations continue to operate normally and there has been no impact to the day-to-day functions of the stores in relation to the halt and CTO of the Parent Companys shares. CPG Division The Future of Cheese continues to operate normally and there has been no impact to the day-to-day functions of the manufacturing and selling of the Companys products due to the halt and CTO of the Parent Companys shares. The Company continues to work on the following: US Co-Packer: The Company is in the final testing phase with a US-based co-packer, and anticipates the successful completion of testing within calendar Q1/Q2 of this year. Following the testing and manufacturing pre-production phase, commercial production of the Future of Cheese products will commence with an anticipated initial launch into the US market this calendar year. Product Development: Several new products are being finalized to launch in late calendar Q1 or early calendar Q2. The Company also plans to continue to build on its successful award winning plant-based Brie by launching additional varieties within that category. Story continues Retail growth: The Company is excited to onboard a large US-based retailer in Canada as well as a large Canadian independent grocery chain in calendar Q1/Q2. The Company believes that interest continues to grow in the Companys products both in Canada and in the US markets. CTO As anticipated following the information previously disclosed in its news releases dated November 23 and 24, 2022 (the "November PRs"), the Company has been issued the CTO due to its failure to file on or before December 30, 2022 its interim financial statements, corresponding managements discussion and analysis, and CEO and CFO certificates (the "Interim Filings"), for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2022. As disclosed in the November PRs, the Companys common shares have been and continue to be suspended from trading on the TSX Venture Exchange following the resignation of the Companys independent directors, thereafter followed by the resignation of the Companys Chief Financial Officer (the "CFO"). The Interim Filings require approval of a properly constituted board of directors and certification by the CFO, and as the Company is unable at this time to meet these requirements, it was unable to complete and file the Interim Filings as and when required. The CTO prohibits all trading in the Companys shares until all filing requirements are completed. The CTO will remain in effect until the Interim Filings have been filed. Revocation of the CTO is expected to occur within a few days after the Interim Filings are completed (provided all other filing requirements are also met at that time). A copy of the CTO is posted on the OSCs website. Despite the foregoing and the CTO, a beneficial security holder of the Company who is not, and was not at the date of the CTO, an insider or control person of the Company, may sell securities of the Company acquired before the date of the CTO if the following apply: (a) the sale is made through a "foreign organized regulated market", as defined in section 1.1 of the Universal Market Integrity Rules of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada; and (b) the sale is made through an investment dealer registered in a jurisdiction of Canada in accordance with applicable securities legislation. Holders of the Company's securities are urged to consult with their own investment advisors or legal counsel about the implications of the CTO. The Company confirms that, other than as disclosed in this and prior press releases and material change reports, there have been no material business developments since the filing of the Companys prior latest interim financial reports for the period ended July 31, 2022. The Company intends to file the Interim Filings as soon as it is able to do so in accordance with applicable laws. At this time, the Company is unable to anticipate the timing of filing, however updates will be provided as and when known and required. About Oragin Foods Inc. Oragin Foods Inc. (TSXV: OG) (OTC: OGGFF) (FRA: 9CW) is a Canadian multi-pronged food company where new and innovative food and beverage brands are developed, acquired, grown and commercialized through a Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Division. The company also houses a Retail Division which owns and operates one of Canadas leading natural and organic food retailers, Organic Garage. For more information please visit the Oragin website at www.oragin.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should" or similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes. Forward looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Oragin Foods, that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Oragin Foods to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Although Oragin Foods has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. In this news release, the Company is making forward-looking statements including but not limited with respect to: the timing of the filing of the Interim Filings, the timing and process for the revocation of the CTO following the filing of the Interim Filings; and timing and details regarding Future of Cheese developments. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are described herein. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause Oragin Foods actual performance and results to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, Oragin Foods assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230120005482/en/ Contacts Bill Mitoulas T: (416) 479-9547 E: ir@oragin.com W: www.oragin.com Panaji, Jan 21 : An Azur Air Moscow to Goa flight was diverted to Uzbekistan on Saturday after receiving a bomb threat via email, a second such incident involving the Russian airline this month, officials here confirmed. Director of the Dabolim Airport in South Goa, S.V.T. Dhanamjaya Rao said the flight was supposed to land at 4.38 a.m. in the coastal state. "We received an email of the bomb threat and we soon contacted the airlines and then the plane was diverted to Uzbekistan and landed there," Rao told IANS. Airport sources said local police was also informed of the bomb threat mail. Additional police force was deployed at the Dabolim Airport in the wake of the incident. On January 9, the Moscow-Goa Azur Air flight ZF2401 had received a bomb threat and made an emergency landing at the Jamnagar airport in Gujarat. After thorough checking, the plane landed in Goa the next day. San Francisco, Jan 21 : The US has blamed the third-party contractors for last week's mega outage that grounded thousands of flights, saying that "contract personnel unintentionally deleted files" while working on the 30-year-old software. In a statement, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the files were deleted "while working to correct synchronisation between the live primary database and a backup database". "The agency has so far found no evidence of a cyber-attack or malicious intent. The FAA continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the outage," it added. A glitch in the FAA software, which grounded thousands of flights in the country earlier this week, is at least 30 years old and six years away from being updated. The aviation administration said it has made the necessary repairs to the system and has taken steps to make the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system "more resilient". The agency is acting quickly to adopt any other lessons "learned in our efforts to ensure the continuing robustness of the nation's air traffic control system". As a result of the massive nationwide technical glitch, more than 10,000 flights in and out of the US were delayed, while more than 1,300 others were cancelled. The CNN reported that the core operating system for the database has been around since the 1990s. "Regardless of the improvements made to the system in recent years, it still has the heart of an 89-year-old man," a government source was quoted as saying in the report. President Joe Biden had called for a "full investigation" into the incident. Ahmedabad, Jan 21 : Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Gajendrasinh Parmar and one Mahesh Patel from Himatnagar have been booked by Rajasthan Police under POCSO Act for sexual assault on a minor girl. Victim's mother from Ahmedabad city in her complaint has stated, she and her family had family relations with Gajendrasinh Parmar, a political leader from Gujarat. She alleged that during a tour to Jaisalmer in November 2020, Gajendrasinh and Mahesh had tried to sexually assault her minor daughter near Abu Road. She also quarrelled with Gajendrasinh and Mahesh over the matter. In this connection, she had attempted to register a complaint against the accused in the past, but the police did not entertain, so she approached the Sirohi court in Rajasthan. On the court order, the complaint was registered on Friday afternoon. Gajendrasinh Parmar is BJP's sitting MLA and in the last government he was a minister, said the victim's mother. The complainant stated that earlier she had lodged a complaint with Ahmedabad Police, after which she started receiving threats, because of which she even attempted suicide in 2021. Kochi, Jan 21 : A delegation of 100 women entrepreneurs who are members of FLO, the women's chapter of FICCI (Federation of India Chamber of Commerce and Industries) paid a visit to the ongoing fifth edition of the Kochi Biennale, being held here at multiple venues. The group, led by Jayshree Menon, Chairperson, had an unforgettable experience as they benefitted immensely from the aesthetic value of the thought-provoking creations on display. "The visit aims to empower women in the field of art learning," said Menon. "The members of FLO, which runs many charity organisations, will be inspired to work towards the betterment of society after being influenced by the rich ideas presented here," she added. The Bengaluru-based FLO chair said that "such artworks enable the audience to find meaning at levels beyond the scope of thoughts. That such a diverse exhibition of art is being held in my own country is a rich experience in life". The delegation's visit was coordinated by T.S. Prasad, Director of the Sandeep and Gitanjali Maini Foundation, Bengaluru, with a focus on art, heritage, and culture. The foundation, which runs its own art gallery, has an education project aimed at bringing people closer to contemporary art. Ahmedabad, Jan 21 : After cops intervened and ended social boycott of 17 families of the 'Nai' (barber) community, which were facing discrimination post one of its member marrying an upper caste woman in Bhutavad village here, now the woman concerned has been kidnapped, allegedly by her father and three others. The affected families were facing social boycott after Sachin Nai and Manasvi, who came in contact two years ago, got married at the Mirzapur Court in Ahmedabad on December 12, 2022. On Thursday, the affected families were rehabilitated at the village by the police, and members of the upper caste were asked to resume social relations or face action under the law. However, later Manasvi was allegedly kidnapped. In a complaint to Sardarnagar police station on Friday, Sachin, who runs a salon in Nikol, said when he was visiting his friend Khusbuben's house along with Manasvi, her father Arvind Chaudhary and three others came, beat him up and kidnapped her in a vehicle, which did not carry RTO registration plate. Pune, Jan 21 : In a bizarre case of superstitions, a married woman was allegedly forced to consume a concoction of water containing human bone powder and ashes ostensibly to help her get pregnant, police said here on Saturday. The victim, aged around 27, lodged a complaint with Sinhgad Police Station which swung into action and arrested the woman's husband Jayant Kokale, his parents, his brother and three others for the torture meted out, said Investigating Officer Inspector Jayant Rajurkar. Simultaneously, taking serious note, the Maharashtra State Commission for Women Chairperson Rupali Chakankar has sought a detailed report on the shocking allegations. According to Inspector Rajurkar, the woman was married with the accused in 2019 and the weird black magic rituals were started by the family after she reportedly failed to conceive. In her complaint, the woman has contended that she was forcibly taken to a crematorium, made to take bath with some strange water mixture and compelled to drink water allegedly mixed with powdered human bones or ashes. The family also made repeated demands for money from her and fed up with all the harassment, she finally walked out of the Kokale household nearly two years ago, Rajurkar said. "Presently, in connection with their divorce proceedings, the victim has filed a detailed complaint with the police in which she has narrated her ordeal, how she was subjected to black magic, superstitions and other behaviour during her stay with her husband and in-laws," Rajurkar told IANS. Taking serious cognisance of the victim's plaint, the Sinhgad Police have arrested several members of the Kokate clan on various charges under the relevant laws and further investigations are on, including the possible involvement of any local godmen (tantrik) or black magiciains. On her part, the MSCW chief Chakankar appealed for strict exemplary action by the Pune Police to ensure that similar blind beliefs are not repeated by anyone in future. San Francisco, Jan 21 : The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, thinks that traditional photo posts suffered last year because of the platform's lopsided emphasis on videos and reels. While answering a question from his weekly Q&A about photographers 'losing faith' in Instagram as a platform for showcasing their work, Mosseri mentioned, "I think we were overfocused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos," reports The Verge. According to Mosseri, the company has since been working behind the scenes to restore a more equitable balance, and internal analytics indicate that it is effective. "Things like how often someone likes photos versus videos and how often someone comments on photos versus videos are roughly equal, which is a good sign that things are balanced," Mosseri mentioned. "To the degree that there is more video on Instagram over time, it's going to be because that's what's driving overall engagement more. But photos are always going to be an important part of what we do," he added. During the Q&A, Mosseri also addressed spam on the platform, which is still a constant concern, the report said. "We definitely have spam and bots on Instagram. We're doing our best to reduce it. I'm particularly worried about comments right now; it's something that we're actually actively looking into and hope to improve over the course of the year," he said. Agartala, Jan 21 : The Election Commission (EC) has issued a statutory notification for the February 16 elections to the 60-member Tripura Assembly inviting the candidates to submit their nomination papers from Saturday, officials said. Election officials said that with the issuance of the notification candidates can submit their nomination papers to the returning officers across the state . According to the notification, the last date of filing of nomination papers in Tripura is January 30 and the scrutiny of papers and relevant documents would be done the next day. The last date of withdrawal of the candidatures is February 2. Officials said that for the convenience of the candidates and the political parties, unlike the previous elections, the poll panel has appointed 60 returning officers and 180 Assistant Returning Officers (AROs). In the previous Assembly polls in Tripura, one returning officer was appointed for two or three constituencies. Even though the official process of filing of nomination has begun, no political party is yet to announce the names of candidates even though the selection process has been going on both in Agartala and New Delhi. However, some candidates of different political parties, including Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha who would be the ruling BJP's Chief Ministerial face, has already started door-to-door campaigns in his Bordowali Assembly constituency in Agartala. Election officials said that it is proposed to work in mission mode to conduct the elections with an aim of "Zero Poll Violence". To hold the election violence free, a series of administrative and awareness steps were taken. The steps, which would continue until the poll process is over, include sensitisation workshops to be held in all the 60 constituencies involving political parties, workers and eminent citizens highlighting the negative effects of violence on the persons, families, society and overall image of the state. Following the request of the state authorities, the Union Home Ministry has agreed to provide 400 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), comprising Assam Rifles, Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force. Majority of the CAPF have already deployed in different parts of Tripura. "The flag marches by the CAPF have already started since last week to ensure confidence building among the political workers for campaigning and among the citizens to cast their votes freely without any fear. The security forces are deployed well before the poll process so that they get familiar with the locality. Local police should extend necessary cooperation to the CAPF," said an EC statement. It said that the state police shall ensure all miscreants, trouble mongers, history sheeters are either kept in constant watch or bound under relevant sections of the CrPC. Counting of votes will be held in Tripura on March 2. Tirupati, Jan 21 : Tirumala temple authorities have ordered a probe into the alleged drone video of the temple making rounds on social media platforms. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the affairs of Sri Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala, has taken note of the video posted by a person from Hyderabad. TTD Chairman Y. S. Subba Reddy on Saturday said a criminal case would be booked if anyone was found involved in using drones to shoot the video. The TTD officials have virtually ruled out the possibility of the drone camera being used. They believe that the video may have been shot using still photography. There is also the possibility of the video being obtained from Google. "A Video of Tirumala temple which is making rounds on social media platforms as taken through a Drone camera is baseless. However, it will be sent to the forensic lab for verification," said TTD Chief Vigilance and Security Officer (CVSO) Narasimha Kishore. He said the entire Tirumala is under the eagle eye of hi-fi vigilance and security and it is not possible to capture the video through a drone camera. The CVSO also warned of legal procedure against the persons who videographed Tirumala temple if proved guilty. As per Agama Shastra rules, flying of aircraft or drones over the hill shrine is prohibited. The video in question was said to have been uploaded by a man from Hyderabad in November last year on his Instagram account. However, it went viral over the last couple of days, forcing the TTD authorities to take note of the same and react. Following the development, the Instagram user has taken down the video. Imphal/Kohima, Jan 21 : Three years before Indias Independence, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the nationalist iconic leader of the freedom movement against British rule, not only set foot in northeast India but also boosted the struggle against the British Raj. Manipur's Moirang, 48 km from capital city Imphal in Bishnupur district, has a special place in the history of India's freedom struggle only due to Subhas Chandra Bose as the flag of the Indian National Army (INA) was unfurled there on April 14, 1944. As the local people were celebrating Cheiraoba (Manipuri New Year), a column of the INA's Bahadur Group (Intelligence wing) led by Col Saukat Ali Malik reached Tringlaobi, a village about 5 km from Moirang. A few local leaders went to meet them and ushered them in to Moirang, where Col Malik hoisted the Tricolour on April 14, 1944, with a springing tiger on it, at the historic Moirang Kangla (an ancient spot for the ceremonial coronation of the kings). Thus, Moirang became the second place on Indian soil where the Azad Hind flag was hoisted, the first being in Port Blair in the Andamans where Netaji hoisted it on December 30, 1943. The INA Museum in Moirang, inaugurated on September 23, 1969, has a collection of priceless letters, invaluable photographs, badges of ranks and other war memorabilia that reminds the visitors of the sacrifices made by the INA soldiers under the charismatic leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on January 6 hoisted the Tricolour at the INA headquarters at Moirang on a 165 feet high pole. Not only in Manipur's Moirang, villagers of different Nagaland villages specially at Ruzazho and Chesezu villages, both in Phek district, kept the legacy of Subhas Chandra Bose alive. According to Dr Samudra Gupta Kashyap, a veteran Guwahati-based author and journalist, Ruzazho is a small village, which a section of local people claim, was liberated from the British by the Azad Hind Fauj or INA in April 1944. The Azad Hind government is said to have 'administered' it for a few months thereafter, with local historians claiming that Netaji had himself visited the Naga Hills, had spent a few days at Ruzazho, and had also appointed a local youth Vesuyi Swuro as a dobashi (interpreter). The INA had apparently also set up a small operational base at Ruzazho for some time in 1944 till the defeat of Japanese forces in the Battle of Kohima. A house, said to be where Netaji had stayed, is preserved as also some artefacts of the Azad Hind Fauj, Kashyap told IANS referring to the villagers and historians. Kashyap, in his recent book titled 'Untold Stories of the Freedom Struggle from Northeast India', said on October 21, 1943, Netaji formed the Provisional Government of Free India in Singapore. In March 1944, when Japan decided to attack British India, the focus was directly on Manipur, and for that matter the entire north-eastern region. While the 1,15,000-strong Fifteenth Army of Japan was directed towards India, three Japanese divisions and one division of the INA were the first to make a combined march from Myanmar to Manipur. The book said that on March 18, 1944, the INA moved from Burma (Myanmar) into India through Manipur, targeting Imphal and Kohima. The objectives of the Japanese and the INA were different. While the Japanese invasion was intended as a 'pre-emptive strike' to prevent British attempts to take back Burma, Netaji's idea was that once Imphal and Kohima were captured, the INA would march into Assam and Bengal, where they would receive a hero's welcome, and the Indian national movement to oust the British would receive a massive boost, the author said in his book. The INA soldiers marching alongside the Japanese troops chanted the mantra "Chalo Dilli" and sang "Kadam kadam barhaye jaa" while crossing the India-Burma border to step onto Indian soil. The goal was to see the Indian flag flutter atop the Red Fort in Delhi by driving out the British, Kashyap said in the book. There is a list available of prominent Nagas who had rendered valuable assistance to the Azad Hind Fauj during the siege of Imphal and Kohima. They include Hepuni Asikho, Kaikhu Angami, Kevialia, Kapuphizo, Kaikho, Raisung, Nikhino Mao, Saunglou and a young woman called Shiningla. Each of the three Japanese divisions had a regiment of the INA with it. Netaji's concept was that once the INA marched onto Indian soil, it would further intensify the freedom movement. Prior to that, Manipur had already had the first experiences of the Second World War when two powerful Japanese bombs were dropped on Imphal on May 10 and 16, 1942, leading to a number of civilian casualties. Prisoners escaped from the jail, banks, treasuries and markets were looted, educational institutions shut down, and prices of essential commodities skyrocketed. Most people left the capital and Imphal became a ghost town. The combined Japanese-INA forces stepped into Indian territory on March 18, 1944 through the southern hills, and the World War finally reached Manipur. Kashyap said that 32 Manipuris who were working in Myanmar, not only joined the INA under the leadership of L. Guno Singh, but were also part of the advance party to enter Manipur. Of them, M Ahanjao Singh, B Balhop Sharma, M Chaoba Singh and S Yaima Singh were arrested in Churachandpur, and shifted to Kolkata, from where they were released only after the war ended. Many Kuki youth on the other hand were enrolled as informers, porters, civil suppliers and soldiers, the author said. In Tripura, to pay rich tribute to Netaji, a mammoth, colourful procession on the occasion of the iconic freedom fighter's birth anniversary on January 23 has been held for the past 74 years, the largest of its kind in India. The procession, organised every year by Netaji Subhas Vidyaniketan, portrays themes like Netaji's contribution and role in India's freedom struggle, the dream of freedom fighters of a united India, the country's cultural diversity and unity, harmony among Hindus and Muslims, conservation of water, prevention of child marriage, empowerment of the girl child and awareness about differently-abled children and others. (Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in) In early December, an injured dog was found outside in a dog crate at a veterinarian's office in Rochester. Taken inside out of the elements, upon examination, the small male black terrier was found to have a broken pelvis and tail. Was he hit by a car? The vet would never know. Whoever left him outside cared enough to take him where he could be helped or euthanized. He was soon transferred to Lollypop Farm, the well-known facility of the Humane Society of Rochester New York. Humane indeed, I soon learned. The staff at Lollypop cared for the dog for one month. In the beginning, he could not even walk. They kept the dog isolated and quiet so his pelvis could heal. He was placed on medication. One was to reduce the swelling and inflammation, the other was a sedative. Quiet, and no excitement was needed. Before Christmas, my daughter Lynne paid a visit to her friend Jeanette in Rochester. They went together to Lollypop Farm. It was 10 minutes away from Jeanette's home. Lynne was looking for a pet for me. I was grieving over the loss of my cats Molly and Little Guy. My Labradoodle, Bear, was gone too. The two retired teachers were taken to a a reception room for a meet-and-greet session with prospective pets. There, they met the recovering dog now called Patches. He was named this because of the patch of white down his chin and chest. The dog was exuberant and happy, happy, happy to be out of the kennel and with people. Somehow even after all he endured, he was still trusting and loving. He was eager to show this, to let you know. He would climb on your lap and wash your ears and face, his body all vibrating with happiness. A week before New Year's Day, Lynne was called by the staff at Lollypop looking for volunteers who would take in pets over the long holiday weekend as foster parents. I became a foster mom to Patches. He had been to two other foster homes. One lasted a day, the other two days. Both foster adults brought him back. There were children in both homes, and it was too exciting for him. My quiet home was ideal. He now needed rest and recuperation from his surgery. He was now neutered. We drove home from Rochester with a large bag of rubber toys, a long leash, canned food and dry dog food to last a month, and one whimpering dog in a crate. He doesn't like being in a dog crate I understand. We are getting used to each other. He hasn't soiled inside the house, or destroyed the Christmas decorations all over. Patches follows me every where. Won't let me out of his sight. He is still being monitored by the vet at Lollypop. In one month I am to bring him back for X-rays and to determine if he is ready for adoption. Will I be the one? New Delhi, Jan 21 : Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Saturday joined the growing debate on the serious side-effects of Covid-19 vaccines, saying he had "major side effects from my second booster shot". In a tweet, he said that he "felt like I was dying for several days". "Hopefully, no permanent damage, but I dunno," the billionaire said, adding that "first mRNA booster was ok, but the second one crushed me". He said that he had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with no bad effects, "except my arm hurt briefly". Musk's admission about the side-effects of Covid vaccines came as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla evaded difficult questions about the effectiveness of the company's vaccine during the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davis. Bourla refused to answer any questions and instead repeatedly responded with phrases such as "Thank you very much" and "Have a wonderful day". Musk also revealed that his cousin, who is young and in peak health, "had a serious case of myocarditis" and "had to go to the hospital" after the Covid vaccine jab. The debate over the side-effects of Covid vaccines is gaining ground worldwide, including in India. In India, the government earlier this week re-affirmed the after-effects of different Covid-19 vaccines, but refuted a report based on an IANS RTI plea pertaining to the potential ramifications of these jabs as "ill-informed" and providing "erroneous" information. "As is the case with all other vaccines, those who get vaccinated with different Covid-19 vaccines may experience mild symptoms like injection site tenderness, pain, headache, fatigue, myalgia, malaise, pyrexia, chills, arthralgia etc. Rarely, few individuals may experience severe adverse events depending upon certain predisposing conditions," according to an official statement. Kochi, Jan 21 : The opposition in Kerala boycotted the investor meet on Saturday and accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and State Industries Minister P.Rajeev of misleading the people regarding the growth of the state's industrial sector. Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan alleged that the state government was "blatantly" lying about the progress made in the state. "It's in contrast to the figures put out by the Reserve Bank of India in its latest report. Here claims are being made that in the past one year, one lakh new units started functioning and two lakhs new jobs were created. "According to the RBI report, Kerala lags behind other South Indian states. While in Tamil Nadu Rs 4.5 lakh crore capital investment took place in the industrial sector, in Kerala it was just Rs 0.76 lakh crore. Likewise, in numerous units in Tamil Nadu, 26 lakh jobs were there, in Kerala it stands at 3.34 lakh. Surprisingly, this government has added to the list even those units which were started by the people who took loans from banks," said Satheesan. "The Vijayan government has miserably failed in making any progress in the industrial sector and they are sitting tight doing nothing. The only thing that happens is the airing of statements which are nothing but 'bluffs'. We skipped the investor meeting only to protest that," he added. New Delhi, Jan 21 : Delhi Police have filed an FIR against an astrologer and head of maintenance at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, over content piracy for a book the two men have authored, a senior official said. The senior police official said that on the basis of a complaint filed by Umang Taneja, the author of the book 'Accurate Predictive Methodology', the FIR was registered on December 6, 2022 against Rahul Kaushik, purveyor of modern analytics in Jyotish, and Anuj Gaur, head of maintenance at IIT Delhi, under Section 63 of the Copyright Act at the Tilak Nagar police station. Taneja in his statement claimed that the content of his book, which has been in circulation since 1999 and is also translated into Hindi and Spanish languages, was copied by Rahul and Anuj in their book titled, "KP Astrology-The Hidden Secrets". Taneja also stated that despite agreeing to withdraw the book from circulation after the complaint, Rahul did not comply and took no action and instead claimed that he authored the book under the guidance of K.N. Rao, who teaches astrology. "Rahul agreed to withdraw the book from the market on October 31, 2022 within a month and I agreed if he withdraws the book my complaint filed on March 6, 2020, should be deemed withdrawn. Unfortunately, he did not withdraw the book from the market. Hence, I had to pursue my case further and an FIR was lodged on both the accused," said Taneja. The police official said that they are looking into the matter. Jammu, Jan 21 : Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has strongly condemned the blasts that have taken place in Narwal in Jammu, on Saturday morning. Senior police officials briefed the LG about the blast and on the state of investigation, an official statement said. He called for urgent steps to identify and take action against those responsible. "Such dastardly acts highlight the desperation and cowardice of those responsible. Take immediate and firm action. No efforts should be spared to bring the perpetrators to justice," the Lt Governor told the security officials. The Lt Governor has offered heartfelt sympathies to those injured. He also announced relief of Rs. 50,000 to those injured in the incident. He added that the administration would ensure best possible treatment and extend every help required to the families. Bengaluru, Jan 21 : Karnataka High Court has quashed an FIR filed against two staffers of a matrimonial site for allegedly cheating a young woman by promising a good bridegroom through its site. A single bench of Justice Hemanth Chandan Goudar, which had taken up the petition by Kannada Matrimony staffers Vijay Kumar and Chandrashekar, delivered the order recently. The bench after verifying the complaint and documents in this regard stated that the main allegation against the accused is of receiving of Rs 3,700 by promising a good bridegroom. The allegation is made that they have not done their job and cheated the complainant. There are evidence to prove that the matrimonial staffer intended to cheat the girl and hence the case against the staffers of the matrimonial site, the bench said. It also opined that there are no elements to prove the allegation under IPC Section 420 and if the case is continued, it amounts to the misuse of judiciary. This case against the petitioners is illegal. A woman had registered in the matrimonial site by paying Rs 3,700. One Amit Deepak from America had got introduced to her through the site. He took Rs 1.70 lakh from her saying that he had been stopped by customs authorities while bringing jewels and cheated her. The woman had lodged a complaint against Amit Deepak and two staffers of the matrimonial site under IPC Section 420 and IT Act Section 66 (D). The police had registered a case against the accused and carried out an investigation. The staffers had approached the court seeking quashing of FIR against them. Vadodara, Jan 21 : A woman constable posted at Dabhoi, who went missing on Monday, was found and transferred to Desar Police station, here. When Maniben Chaudhary, who had taken one week leave, did not reach her native place in north Gujarat after leaving from office on January 16 evening, her elder sister, who is serving in the Police department, informed Dabhoi police that her sister has not reached home. Police formed team to search for her and found her along with her boyfriend on board a bus in Maharashtra on January 19. The man was identified as Sadam Garasiya. Both of them were missing since Monday morning. After bringing them back to Gujarat, their statements were recorded. The DSP had ruled out the love jihad case, as only a missing complaint was filed and not of elopement. On Friday evening, Vadodara District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rohan Anand transferred Maniben from Dabhoi to Desar police station. Canberra, Jan 21 : More than 17,000 weapons were surrendered in the first year of Australia's permanent national firearms amnesty, the government revealed on Saturday. The government released the first annual report on the amnesty program, which allows Australians to hand in unregistered, illegal or unwanted weapons without facing punishment, revealing 17,543 weapons were surrendered in the first 12 months, reports Xinhua news agency. The permanent amnesty was set up in mid-2021 following temporary programs in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 and again in 2017. According to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, there are approximately 260,000 illicit firearms in circulation in Australia. Among the weapons handed in between July 2021 and June 2022 were 8,140 rifles, 2,896 shotguns and 789 pistols. "It is an important measure to reduce the number of firearms circulating in our community, and keep Australians safe," the country's Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Saturday. New Delhi, Jan 21 : The first G20 environment meeting under G20 India Presidency will be held from February 9-11 in Bengaluru. Officials said that four meetings of the Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) are scheduled to be hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). The discussions at ECSWG will focus on the agenda 'Promotion of Blue Economy along with Coastal Sustainability', 'Restoration of Degraded Lands and Ecosystems' and 'Enhancement of Biodiversity' and 'Strengthening of Circular Economy'. India will be holding the Presidency of G20 for one year till November 30, 2023. The forum will bring together the G20 member countries, guest countries and international organisations invited by India. Through the Sherpa Track, 13 Working Groups and two initiatives will meet under India's Presidency to discuss priorities and provide recommendations. Environment, Climate & Sustainability is one of the working groups under the Sherpa Track. Leading to the first meeting in Bengaluru, Mysuru Zoo in coordination with Central Zoo Authority organised a Two-Day National Conference for Zoo Directors of India on January 18 and 19. Officials said that the conference mainly focused on "Master Planning and Building the National Capacity for species Management & Conservation Breeding." In this conference, 59 participants from 25 states and a union territory participated. It was inaugurated by the Mayor of Mysuru City corporation and succeeded in drawing attention to conservation practices. The G20 delegates are scheduled to visit the Kalkere Arboretum and Bannerghatta Biological Park at Bengaluru. At Kalkere, the delegates will have an opportunity to visualise and experience four predominant forest ecosystems of Karnataka state. The State Forest Department will also showcase the forest restoration models adopted in these ecosystems and the successful revival of faunal biodiversity in these areas. The Bannerghatta Biological Park will showcase the state-of-art butterfly park and animal safaris to the delegates. The Karnataka Forest Department will also highlight the flagship ecotourism model, the Jungle Lodges Resort, which is extremely popular for nature lovers, globally. New Delhi, Jan 21 : The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued directions for blocking of multiple YouTube videos which published the first episode of the BBC Documentary "India: The Modi Question". As per informed sources, orders were also issued to Twitter for blocking of over 50 tweets containing the links of the concerned YouTube videos. The directions were reportedly issued by Secretary, Information and Broadcasting on Friday using the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021. Both YouTube and Twitter have complied with the directions, the sources said. The documentary produced by British Broadcasting Corporation, UK's Public Broadcaster, has been earlier called by External Affairs Ministry as a "propaganda piece" that lacks objectivity and reflects colonial mindset. While it was not made available in India by BBC in India, some YouTube channels appear to have uploaded it to promote an anti-India agenda. It is reported that YouTube has also been instructed to block the video if it is again uploaded on its platform. Twitter has also been directed to identify and block the tweets containing the link to the video on other platforms. Reliable sources have confirmed that senior officials of multiple Ministries, including MEA, MHA and MIB, examined the documentary and found it to be an attempt to cast aspersions on the authority and credibility of the Supreme Court of India, sow divisions among various Indian communities, and make unsubstantiated allegations regarding actions of foreign Governments in India. The documentary was accordingly found to be undermining sovereignty and integrity of India, and having the potential to adversely impact India's friendly relations with foreign States as also public order within the country. January 21 : Actor Vicky Kaushal shares an interesting story of positivity and dreams coming true, as he shoots Sam Bahadur with Meghna Gular. Vicky posted a picture with filmmaker Meghna Gulzar and recalled how badly he wanted to play Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw in the directors Sam Bahadur. The Sam Maneckshaw biopic would be Vickys second film with Meghna as they had earlier teamed up for the spy-thriller Raazi, also starring Alia Bhatt, which shot him to instant fame. Vicky Kaushal wrote, 6 years ago, in 2017, while Shooting for Raazi here in Punjab, on this very terrace@meghnagulzar briefly mentioned #SamBahadur for the first time, as one of her future projects. Quietly in my heart, I sent out a wish to the universeto one day be considered for the role...Todaysitting on the same terrace with Meghna, as we are set for an all-nighter, shooting for a beautiful episode from Sams life. Living Sam is probably the most magical journey Im on as an Actor! Director Meghna Gulzar also replied to the post, she wrote, Couldnt have asked for a better deja vu @vickykaushal09! Sam Bahadur, which also stars Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra, is a biopic based on the life of India's first field Marshal, Sam Manekshaw. The team is busy wrapping the final leg of the shoot, as the film is slated for 1stDecember 2023 release. U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney's district offices are open for business. Tenney, R-Canandaigua, held grand opening events at her offices in Oswego and Victor this week. Both are full-time district offices that are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Oswego office is at 46 E. Bridge St., Suite 102. The address for the Victor office is 7171 Pittsford-Victor Road, Suite 210. The offices are a key part of Tenney's constituent service strategy in the sprawling 24th Congressional District. The 12-county district extends from western New York to the North Country. All of Cayuga County is in the district. "It is a great privilege to join so many members of our community to celebrate the opening of the Victor office, which has already been assisting constituents with casework needs," Tenney said after Friday's event. "My team of expert caseworkers in our Victor office and all our other offices across New York's 24th district are ready to serve any constituent in need of assistance. Please call us anytime if you have questions or need assistance with federal agencies." Tenney announced in early January that she would have three full-time district offices the other is in Lockport, Niagara County and a satellite office in Watertown, Jefferson County. The Watertown office, located 317 Washington St., Suite 418, is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday and 1 to 5 p.m. Thursday. Beginning in February, Tenney's office will announce mobile office hours in other counties within the 24th district. Congressional offices provide assistance to constituents on a variety of issues, including help with the Social Security Administration or Department of Veterans Affairs. Washington, Jan 21 : Nikki Haley, the Indian American Republican who is eyeing a bid for the White House in 2024, has been accused of plotting to become former President Donald Trump's vice-president. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who made this accusation in his memoir, goes on to claim in the book that Haley's co-conspirators were former President Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who both held senior position in the White House at the time. Haley dismissed the charge as a stunt to sell the memoir. Pompeo does not specify if Haley was supposed to replace Mike Pence as vice-president in this plot or join Trump as running mate in his 2020 re-election bid. If the move was for Haley to replace Pence, it would have been her and not Vice-President Kamala Harris who would have gone down in history with a clutch of firsts - the first person of colour to rise so high in the US government, and the first Asian American and the first Indian American. She would have made history as Trump's running mate as well - but jointly with Harris. Neither situation happened. Pompeo is himself considering a 2024 White House bid and takes swipes at others in the Republican party who he could face in the primaries, with the exception of his former boss Trump, who has already announced his intention to run a third time, and former Vice-President Pence, who is also mulling a run. Pompeo's account of Haley's plot is not firsthand. He cites Mark Kelly, then chief of staff to the president, who felt "played" as the alleged move came at a meeting he cleared for Haley with Trump. Haley, it turned out, was not alone, but was joined by the president's daughter and son-in-law. "As best Kelly could tell," Pompeo writes in his memoir, "they were presenting a possible 'Haley for vice-president' option. I can't confirm this, but [Kelly] was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America." The book is slated for release on January 24. This so-called plot was reported by The Guardian, which had early access to the book. Pompeo sounds uncertain of his claims here. And Haley hit it out the park predictably, calling the charge "lies and gossip to sell a book". Haley was US ambassador to the UN at the time and a rising start in the Republican party on reputation made and burnished as two-term governor of South Carolina, one of America's most conservative states. As ambassador to the UN, Haley was accorded a federal cabinet position and could often call and meet Trump without going through the state department protocol. Then she resigned unexpectedly in 2018, with two more years left of Trump's term. And she wasn't very convincing about her reasons. "There's no personal reason," she had said, appearing with Trump at a joint news conference. "It's very important for government officials to understand when it's time to step aside." And then, without being prompted, she said, "No, I am not running for 2020." True to her word, she did not not run in 2020. But shortly after Trump lost the 2020 re-election bid, Haley signalled her intentions in an interview to a US media outlet, saying it was time for the Republican party to move on. Kolkata, Jan 21 : The CISF on Saturday arrested a US citizen with a Chinese satellite phone while he was attempting to board a Delhi-bound flight at the Bagdogra airport near Siliguri in West Bengal. The arrested person has been identified Thomas Esroh Seitz (45). According to Bagdogra airport sources, three US citizens, including Seitz, arrived at the airport on Saturday afternoon to board a Delhi-bound flight. However, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) jawans, while checking the luggage of Seitz, detected a Chinese satellite phone. Airport sources said that there are several restrictions on carrying satellite phones in aircraft in India. As per the rules of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), barring satellite phones provided by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), no other sattelite phones or any other similar devices are allowed to be carried in an aircraft. Also, for carrying a satellite phone in an aircraft, one needs to obtain authorisation and documents stating the reasons for the same. However, when questioned by the CISF personnel and the security staff, Seitz was unable to furnish any such document justifying him carrying the device. Thereafter, the CISF arrested him and later handed him over to the local police. Seitz told the police that he and two other US citizens were representatives of Shield AI, a US-based company, and they were in India for drone surveillance training at an Indian Army base at Lachung in Sikkim. He claimed that he arrived in India on January 12 and received the satellite device through Air Cargo on January 16. He also said that he was going back after completing the drone surveillance training. The police have contacted the Indian Army to authenticate the claims made by Seitz. The police are also investigating whether Seitz got the satellite phone for the purpose of espionage at Indian Army bases. Hyderabad, Jan 21 : Indian Police Service (IPS) probationers toured the state-of the-art Telangana State Police Integrated Command & Control Centre(TSPICCC) and Hyderabad City Police Commissionerate to get awareness and functioning of the facility and to understand how technology plays a key part in policing. As many as 195 IPS probationers of the 74th RR, visited TSPICCC which was recently inaugurated. The probationers on arrival at TSPICCC were briefed on the engineering features of the building and given an overview of the technology fusion centre, crisis management centre, CCTVs and analytics features of the Command Control Centre. The trainees got an exposure to police operations, technical, administrative and other coordination aspects. Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand explained the history of city police, the kotwal system since 1847 and the challenges being faced by Hyderabad City Police (HCP) and outlined the importance of adapting IT technologies in policing. The commissioner touched upon sensitive communal and the social issues as well which police have to tackle. Through a powerpoint presentation, he explained how the state government has paid special attention to the paradigm of "peace and law and order brings about economic growth" and given such facilities for the Telangana Police to show results. He explained the novel initiatives such as H-NEW, SMASH, Operation 'ROPE', Bharosa and recited the modernisation of police department post formation of Telangana. He asked the probationers to remember the significance of the time they are entering their career when policing is undergoing transformation at all levels. He asked them to keep pace with the developments in the world of cyber crime and the threat of narcotics to our future generation. The teams of HCP also explained the concept of war room, integration of IT applications and how all government agencies work in tandem to deliver public service and offer swift response during calamities. Anand said that the overall impact of the TSPICCC, which is the brainchild of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, is being realised across multiple facets of policing, internal security, crisis management and urban development. The probationers were enthused by the grandeur of the iconic structure. The trainee officers thereafter visited the museum, helipad and other wings in the building. Bengaluru, Jan 21 : The Congress' Karnataka unit is upbeat about achieving the victory in upcoming assembly elections riding high on the anti-incumbency factor against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state. The party has organised massive padayatra programmes across the state. Karnataka unit Congress president D.K. Shivakumar and Opposition leader Siddaramaiah are leading the party with poignant attacks on ruling BJP on one hand, while pitching in at the ground level to boost morale of Congress workers and strategise for elections, on the other hand. The Congress has carried out 'Mekedatu Padayatra' demanding speedy implementation of the Mekedatu project to ensure drinking water for Bengaluru. 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' led by Rahul Gandhi has also evoked good response in the state. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party's other top national leaders took part in the rally. Sonia Gandhi walked alongside her son Rahul Gandhi in Mandya, considered as a bastion of the JD-S. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had participated in 'Na Nayaki' women's convention in Bengaluru recently and slammed the ruling BJP, saying "the situation in Karnataka is shameful". She referred to the PSI recruitment scandal and the attempt to change the school syllabus. Congress has also anointed Mallikarjun Kharge to the position of the party's national president. Kharge who hails from Kalaburagi in Karnataka has a special place in the hearts of Dalits and oppressed classes. The party is hoping that it would benefit them in the assembly elections. The Congress leaders are currently busy with "Prajadhvani Yatra" in the state. Shivakumar, who is at the forefront of preparations of elections, stated that earlier, BJP leaders claimed that the elections will be fought under the leadership of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. "Now, they are claiming that the elections would be held under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The BJP government has failed completely in the state. BJP leaders are demanding to join the Congress party and we are being choosy," Shivakumar stated. "The change is setting in the state," he added. Siddaramaiah, the Opposition leader stated that if the Congress returns to power, it would increase the quota of reservation for women. He had charged the debt when his tenure ended was Rs 2.42 thousand crore. "After the BJP government came to power, the debt has doubled and every citizen has Rs 86,000 debt on his head. The Congress will achieve power in the state and there shall be no doubt about it," the senior Congress leader said. Party's state Legal Cell General Secretary Surya Mukundraj said that the Congress had appointed booth level agents one year ago. As part of the "Freedom March" in August last year, pada yatra was taken up in every constituency. "Membership drive and digital membership drive have been taken up. The war room has been created and heads of various departments are involved in making strategies. "The Congress has taken up 'Pay CM' poster campaign successfully. Besides, PSI scam, teachers' recruitment scandal, links of BJP leaders with criminal Santro Ravi, 40 per cent commission charges against BJP, the cheap statements by BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal calling BJP minister as a pimp, all these developments are going to help the party," he said. "The people of Karnataka after supporting JD-S and helping H.D. Kumaraswamy becoming CM twice are all set to support D.K. Shivakumar, who has a good chance of making it to the post of Chief Minister," he further said, adding: "Siddaramaiah can also influence the results in 40-50 seats and with the efforts of both the leaders, Congress will make it to power." Talking about infighting, Mukundaraj said that both the leaders are persevering for the party's victory. Bengaluru, Jan 21 : Ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, Karnataka is witnessing a politics of polarisation like never before. Right from hijab crisis, revenge killings, allegations of saffronisation of syllabus, boycott of Muslim traders and the NIA investigations revealing shocking connections of locals with global terror network, all these developments have left a deep impression on the mindset of voters of Karnataka. Ruling BJP is pursuing Hindutva agenda without any hesitation by enacting the laws in connection with forceful religious conversions and banning cow slaughter. State BJP President, Nalin Kumar Kateel's statement that "questions should not be raised on the condition of roads or gutters, rather people should focus on 'Love Jihad' and protection Hindu women", has stirred a controversy. Commenting on the moral policing in coastal Karnataka region, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that "there will be a reaction to an action". Opposition Congress leaders blamed Chief Minister Bommai's statements for revenge killings. When the hijab crisis seemed to be settling down in the state after threatening the law and order situation and drawing the attention of global terror outfit Al Qaeda, the revenge killings shook the state. Harsha, a Bajrang Dal activist, who was in the forefront of the campaign against hijab was hacked to death in Shivamogga. Similarly, Praveen Kumar Nettare, a BJP Yuva Morcha activist was lynched in Dakshina Kannada district. Mohammad Fazil was allegedly killed by Hindu activists as "revenge". The probe revealed that Nettare was killed to avenge the death of one Masood, who was allegedly killed by Hindu activists in a road rage case. Further investigations revealed a well planned terror network operating in the state. The probe into the cooker bomb blast case in Mangaluru by the NIA revealed the anti-nationals taking deep root in Karnataka and are preparing to carry out a bomb blast in the state. The controversy surrounding the installation of Veer Savarkar's flexes and banners also resulted in stabbing incidents and Karnataka police reined in the situation by shooting the accused in the leg. Chief Minister Bommai and Home Minister Araga Jnanendra have said that they will ensure that probing agencies go deep into the investigation and get to the roots. The allegation of saffronisation of school syllabus led to a big controversy. The developments have left a deep impact on students, threatening to develop a divisive mindset in their formative years. Influential Pejawar Mutt seer said that though the government has enacted the bills on religious conversion and cow slaughtering, the incidents are recurring. "The government should give special attention to make the laws in this regard more powerful," he said. "The governments are enacting laws as per the demands of the people. But, these are becoming an eye wash. There is a need to implement the laws in its true spirit," he stated. Pramod Muthalik, founder of Sri Ram Sena, has said that the BJP is pursuing Hindutva just for the sake of elections. He claimed that his party's candidates will defeat BJP in the upcoming assembly elections. Hindu Mahasabha has also announced that it will prevent BJP's victory in the coastal region. Academician and activist Niranjan Aradhya V.P. says, "The divisive politics will create more and more divisions among people based on caste, creed, and religion. Certainly it affects political, social and economic life." "... it is more of ghettos. Ghettos in terms of calling things like 'us' and 'they'. Kind of a silos in society, the community has to live with peaceful co-existence, fraternity, brotherhood, sisterhood. Polarisation is a threat and it is more of a division," he asserted. "Gradually it leads to a civil war-like situation; what exactly happened in Sri Lanka. Society will certainly witness riots and fighting among communities more often," the activist said, adding that "it is already visible in Dharwad and other places where Muslim traders were boycotted. Politically, these developments are not good for democracy". "Democracy is a system governance based on certain core principles. Everyone should vote while keeping core issues in mind, but, it is more of caste and religion. It is weakening the democracy... and it will be a big threat to the constitutional democracy," Aradhya explained. "After 75 years of independence, instead of moving forward, it is kind of moving backward towards varna system, caste divisions, it is very painful and worrying. I am more concerned about the younger generation. They will find it difficult to live peaceful co-existence," he underlined. Bengaluru, Jan 21 : With the Karnataka Assembly polls due in a few months from now, the political scene is warming up with the BJP, the Congress, and the Janata Dal (S) launching their road shows and bus yatras. In contrast, the Aam Aadmi Party -- the latest kid on the political block -- announced last week that it has dissolved it's state and district units in Karnataka. "We are making preparations to face the Assembly election with a new team which will be announced soon," the party's chief whip in the Delhi Assembly and the AAP's Karnataka election in-charge Dilip Pandey had told the media. While other parties may question the wisdom of making such a move ahead of the elections, the AAP has always been a bit of a political maverick, ever since it broke on the scene in Delhi around ten years ago. Apart from sweeping the Delhi assembly elections twice and winning the Delhi Municipal Corporation election recently, the party went to win the Punjab assembly elections late last year. "Silent voters will rally behind the party like they did in 2013 in Delhi even though it was predicted that AAP won't get a single seat. It is going to be repeated in K'taka. The BJP and the Congress rely on the same strategies, but no one can reach out to the people like AAP," party member and former state media coordinator, Jagadish V Sadam said. While it could not spin it's magic on the Gujarat electorate in the assembly polls of December 2023, the AAP is confident about its chances in Karnataka. The party is going ahead with plans to contest all the 224 assembly seats, a party source claimed. "Our candidates profiles of education, career, good name, honest background are liked by people. They have been working from 6 months to 1 year," the source explained. The party is quietly but surely working on its ground presence, especially in state capital Bengaluru where corporation elections are due to be held. Taking up civic issues, promising health and educational facilities are some of the focus areas for the party in Karnataka. Schemes like 200 units of free electricity, free bus travel for women that the party effectively used to conquer Delhi, are expected to be the party's mainstay for the Karnataka assembly campaign. According to party sources, party founder and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other senior party leaders will soon start making frequent visits to Karnataka for streamlining and fine tuning the poll campaign. For the moment, the political heft of the BJP, Congress, and the Janata Dal (S), does not seem to have fazed the AAP in Karnataka. Bengaluru, Jan 21 : As the national parties -- BJP and Congress -- are ruling out JD-S as a competitor in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls, 89-year-old former Prime Minister and JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda has declared that "he will bring his party to power no matter what". Former Chief Minister and Deve Gowda's son H.D. Kumaraswamy has even claimed that both the national parties will have to come to his doorsteps after the elections. The JD-S, once a force to reckon with in the state, is now confined to south Karnataka. The Vokkaliga vote bank, from which it derives power, is likely to divide, as after 20 years, state Congress President D.K. Shivakumar, who hails from Vokkaliga community, has a good chance of becoming the Chief Minister. Ruling BJP in the state is trying to persuade the voters to its fold to achieve a majority in the Assembly elections. Though the BJP made it to the power, the party has failed to get a simple majority in the state elections. Union Home Minister Amit Shah's recent programme in Mandya, considered as the power centre of Vokkaligas, was aimed at impressing upon the voters of the region. The JD-S has launched "Pancharatna Yatra" to reach out to the people across all districts of the state. The Yatra is receiving good response from the crowd and political analysts say that it would be interesting to see whether these large crowds will get translated to votes during elections. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had paid a visit to Deve Gowda's residence, while Kumaraswamy had also gone to Hyderabad to participate in events of Bharat Rastra Samithi (BRS). Insiders claim that both, JD-S and BRS, come to an understanding over the Assembly polls and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Reacting to Shah's visit to Mandya and its outreach to the Vokkaliga community in south Karnataka, Kumaraswamy reiterated that Mandya is a strong fortress of the JD-S and his party will win all seven segments in the district. "There will be no impact (of Shah's visit) whatsoever," he stated. Ruling BJP has installed a 108-foot tall statue of Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda in the premises of the Bengaluru International Airport. Also, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has performed ground worship for the building of statues of Kempe Gowda and social reformer Basavanna in the premises of Vidhana Soudha (state Assembly) recently. However, Kumaraswamy had ridiculed the attempts, saying that the BJP cannot impress the people by building statues. In December 2022, the JD-S has announced the first list of candidates for 93 assembly constituencies. Kumaraswamy stated that the leaders would get enough time to reach out to the people ahead of polls. JD-S leader and spokesperson, Raju Gowda stated that Kumaraswamy's Pancharatna Yatra is evoking "very good response and a new trend is being created in the state". Sources explain that when compared to national parties, the committees and digital publicity is lacking. The party insiders also say that the Pancharatna Yatra is turning out to be a one man show. However, political analysts say that the JD-S has the ability to emerge like a dark horse and with its limitations, can also emerge as a king maker by winning about 30 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections. New Delhi, Jan 21 : The Congress is trying hard in Karnataka to talk about the issues of development and corruption and not to fall in the polarisation trap of the BJP as the party is pushing it's election agenda and talking of the '40 per cent cut' issue which has been haunting the BJP. The party has appointed a senior leader from a different state to oversee the election preparations in each Lok Sabha constituency while state in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala is devoting more time to the state and trying to bridge differences between senior leaders of the party and push the party's agenda. Surjewala has been consistent in talking about the corruption issue and that there is one scam a day in the Bommai government. The party has also raised the issue of water disputes with other states which is an emotive issue. The party organised a Mahadayi Water Rally in Hubli and said it will smoothen the way for Mahadayi water for the drinking water needs of Belagavi, Hubli and Dharwad. "The Congress conceived and started the Mahadayi project. The Congress constituted a Mahadayi Tribunal in 2010 and the award came in 2018. The Congress will get the Mahadayi water," Surjewala said. The party has also spoken about income guarantee and its leader Priyanka Gandhi declared at a recent rally: "Defeat BJP-made price rise!" Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi had announced that if the party is voted to power in the state, Rs 2,000 would be given to every woman household head in Karnataka under the 'Gruhalakshmi' scheme. She had launched a full-fledged attack on the BJP government in Karnataka by stating that the situation in the state is 'shameful'. Addressing a women's convention -- 'Na Nayaki' -- this week, Priyanka said that she was told that the situation is shameful in Karnataka. "Crime against women is high and 40 cases of such crimes are taking place every day. The government is also creating a controversy over the school syllabus," she said. "I don't want to criticise the BJP. But I want to ask just one question. In the last few years of BJP rule, has your life become better? Elections are going to be held in a few months. Evaluate yourself. Has the BJP government cared for you," Priyanka asked. Addressing the large gathering of women, she said, "Only you can change the situation. Is it not time for you to make a change? What is it that you want? Education, jobs, career, freedom of choice and right of choice. Who is going to give these to you? The Congress party would deliver them," she added. The party is talking about corruption and charged that Rs 1.5 lakh crore has been looted. The Congress is cautious not to get involved in the polarisation game of the BJP as the central agencies are cracking down on the PFI. The party is trying to sidestep these issues but it also cautioned the minorities after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a mega outreach programme. BK Hariprasad, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council says, "The Prime Minister telling his party leaders to take Muslims into confidence is like the devil quoting scriptures. Ahead of the elections, the BJP wants to go for such gimmicks but the people are not ready to accept this." The Congress is also promising free electricity as its leader DK Shivakumar promised 200 units of free electricity to every household if elected in the 2023 assembly polls. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai understanding the promise said: "The Congress leader's statement shows his frustration and this has given a feeling that Shivakumar doesn't have the intention of implementing it. The Congress party wants to win the election by making false promises." With the assembly polls due to be held in the first half of this year, political activity is heating up. In this context, the Congress had launched a bus yatra from Belagavi. Bengaluru, Jan 21 : With the Assembly elections in Karnataka drawing nearer, ruling BJP is leaving no stone unturned in its preparations. The party, aiming to retain the power at any cost, has launched campaigning meticulously on ground as well as virtual platforms on lines of Gujarat. The Gujarat model of reaching out to the common voter physically as well as on digital platforms, yielded good results in the state, and is now being implemented in Karnataka. Political analysts explained that ruling BJP has already started aggressive campaigning in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the state twice, and former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has stated that Prime Minister Modi will arrive in Shivamogga to inaugurate the airport in February. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has visited Mandya, considered as the bastion of JD-S, and sounded poll bugle. The party insiders say that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will also start campaigning in the state soon. BJP MP Saadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had paid a visit to slain Bajrang Dal activist Harsha's house and addressing a public rally, she issued a controversial statement while talking about protection of Hindu girls and women. Apart from roping in national mass leaders, the party is making meticulous planning towards reaching out to every voter. Kota Srinivas Poojari, the minister for Social Welfare has said that the BJP has formed 51,872 booth committees, while 13,21,792 'Page Pramukhs' are being appointed. "We have created 50,260 WhatsApp groups and the party flags have been hoisted on 32.83 lakh houses in the state. The drive was conducted with the 15,93,848 party workers," Poojari elaborated. BJP State General Secretary Mahesh Tenginakayi has said that Home Minister Amit Shah has laid out plans at the booth level to ensure the party's victory. "We have a mission to win 150 seats. We will achieve it. Along with establishing contacts by reaching to the doorsteps, plans are being made to touch the hearts of people," he asserted. N.R. Ramesh, BJP Bengaluru South President, explained that the party is different from other national and regional parties. "Our organisation is different," he said. "There are 58,000 booths in Karnataka and 8,600 booths in Bengaluru. The party has a 12-member team for every booth. These members will have a WhatsApp group of voters. The policies and programmes of Prime Minister Modi, achievements of former Chief Minister Yediyurappa, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai would be communicated to them," he said. All booths in Bengaluru, including 550 booths where Muslims are in majority, are being covered. In the entire state, in 58,000 booths, the booth committees are made for 54,000 booths, Ramesh added. Apart from this, 'Page Pramukhs' are appointed on the basis of voters' list. BJP voters will be identified and page pramukhs are asked to contact eight to 12 houses for about 40 to 50 times. They will communicate to voters about the government's programmes and help them to get benefits of Union and state governments' programmes, he said. The 'Page Pramukh' drive was conducted from January 2 to January 12. When asked about the anti-incumbency factor, Ramesh Said that people very well know about "how false and fake cases are lodged on BJP workers, how internal security was challenged, how cases were withdrawn on terror suspects and how Tipu Jayanthi was thrusted on Muslim community". Under Kisan Samman Yojna, which was launched in 2016, only 17 beneficiaries were added when the Congress and JD-S coalition government was in power. After Yediyurappa took over, the number of beneficiaries rose to 10,000. Now, the 44 lakh farmers in the state are beneficiaries under the scheme, he claimed. "People have observed the statements by Congress leaders regarding the cooker bomb blast case in Mangaluru and Rahul Gandhi's statements about demonetisation. There is no question of anti-incumbency," Ramesh asserted. Bengaluru, Jan 21 : Early this month, the Election Commission announced the poll schedule for a handful of states in the Northeast. However, it is the Karnataka assembly election due later in the first half of this year, the month of May to be more precise, that has everyone's attention. Apart from being one of the economic powerhouses of the country, this major south Indian state has a special significance for the primary pan-India political players - BJP and Congress. It could well be a portent of how the 2024 Lok Sabha polls play out in the state which sends 28 members to Parliament. Both parties are prime claimants for the 224 assembly seats at stake in Karnataka. The incumbent BJP government in the state hopes to return to power on the strength of the 'Double-Engine' sarkar model propounded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The Congress which has ruled Karnataka for the most time, is eyeing a return to power on the anti-corruption and anti-communalism planks. However, the current situation in Karnataka politics is a minefield that makes it equally complicated for both the rivals to achieve a majority on their own in the Legislative Assembly, come May 2023. For starters, the electorate has exhibited a willingness to experiment with alternatives whenever they arise. For instance, from a Congress bastion in the initial years of state formation, the state gradually emerged as a strong base for the Janata Parivar, and in later years inclined towards the BJP. Of the 15 Assembly formations since 1952, the first seven were led by the Congress. In 1983 the Janata Party stormed to power for the first time with Ramakrishna Hegde as the chief minister. Even as the battle for supremacy raged between the two political ideologies over the next two decades, the BJP was making inroads in the state. The party formed it's first government in south India with the swearing in of BS Yediyurappa as Karnataka chief minister in 2008. The electoral battle's evolution into a triangular fight increases the chances of a hung Assembly, opine insiders from all the three parties. The recent entry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Karnataka is set to further complicate the outcome of the forthcoming assembly polls. In the 2018 Assembly elections, the BJP led by BS Yediyurappa emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats, followed by the Congress with 78 seats and the Janata Dal (S) with 37 seats. Unleashing 'Operation Lotus' to lure legislators from the opposition ranks, Yediyurappa managed to take the BJP strength to 120 seats, and form the government. But the outlook for the 2023 assembly polls is not looking so rosy for the party right now. According to BJP sources, the high-level internal meeting on Friday night projected a gloomy scenario for the 2023 Assembly polls. "Of the 224 assembly seats, only 30 have been categorised as 'A' or 'sure BJP win seats', while as many as 70 seats have been categorised as 'D' or 'definite BJP defeat' seats," the sources said. Apart from anti-incumbency, corruption, and administration-deficit issues, the ruling BJP will be hamstrung by the half-hearted efforts of old warhorse and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa, who is miffed ever since he was forced to step down a little over a year ago, and has been sidelined by the party ever since. With a 'younger' Bommai leading the government, the BJP has adopted a pro-Hindutva approach as the elections approach. Critics say that the BJP has taken up aggressive Hindutva to tide over the public resentment over corruption and scams in government departments. On the other hand, the opposition Congress is battling it's own internal devils. While it has two strong leaders, former chief minister Siddaramaiah and state unit head DK Shivakumar, both are eyeing the chief ministerial seat if the party regains power. Adding to the party's electoral challenges is the surcharged communal atmosphere in the state, especially in the crucial coastal and north Karnataka regions. The party is treading cautiously in an effort to avoid antagonising Hindus. For instance, when the Congress' Karnataka working president Satish Jharkiholi recently stated that the term 'Hindu' is of Persian origin and denotes a slave, the party clamped down on it. Its ambivalent stand is costing the Congress party the minority vote which has been drifting gradually towards the Janata Dal (Secular). Former Prime Minister and former Karnataka chief minister HD Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (S), largely confined to some areas of Old Mysore region and north Karnataka, has been the beneficiary of the triangular battle in the state. While the party leadership claims that it will contest all the seats and form the next government, party insiders concede, "We will be the biggest gainers in case of a hung assembly which seems extremely likely in the present scenario." The recent setback in the Gujarat assembly polls has not dampened the AAP's spirits in Karnataka. The party has been steadily adding to its ranks prominent citizens from various walks of life. Hampered by its lack of grassroots presence, the party is aggressively highlighting civic issues which is the Achilles heel of the Bommai government, especially in capital city Bengaluru. While the AAP may not create waves in the Karnataka assembly elections just as the Janata Dal (S) might not form the government, the fact remains that the presence of these players will have a bearing on the winning prospects of both, the Congress and the BJP. When votes are counted after the assembly polls in May, Karnataka may well prove to be a riddle for the two parties, especially with Lok Sabha polls set for early 2024. LOS ANGELESGay brand SayUncle has recently introduced four new scenes on its network of sites. The four scenes are as follows: Military Dick makes the most of Privates Private Time with some action in the field, starring Felix Harris and Mateo Roger. Therapy Dick is Releasing the Sexual Tension in the therapists office, starring Brody Kayman, Emrys Angel, Drake Von, and Nick Floyd. Family Dick gets a little Alternative Massage Therapy with Donovin Rece, Muscled Madison, and Rob Quin. Bully Him makes way for A Real Man when Jack Waters goes all in with school jock Jordan Starr Prospective members can save with a 12-month membership when they join today. For more information, visit SayUncle.com. Mumbai, Jan 21 : Filmmaker Vaan Bala, who earlier tasted success with his streaming film 'Monica O My Darling', is back with another OTT release, this time a docu-series centering the pulp film industry of India titled 'Cinema Marte Dum Tak'. The director revealed that actress Richa Chadha used to organise screenings of pulp films along with her then roommate. Talking to IANS, Vasan shared his earliest memory of watching a pulp film which was on VHS. He said, "My earliest memory of watching a pulp movie is on VHS. Ramsay films would be lot in demand back in the day but, when the VHS were not available, the vendors would give VHS of Hari Ram Singh films, Vinod Talwar films which had similar actor but one could figure out that they were a little different in terms of making and the structure of the film." Then came the revelation, as he shared, "When we grew up, Richa Chadha and her roommate Radhika would organise the screenings of these pulp movies like 'Khooni Dracula' and 'Raat Ke Andhere Mein' that's how I came to realise that there is a tribe that relate to this line of content". On bringing the legend Kanti Shah in 'Cinema Marte Dam Tak', he said, "Ab pizza bana rahe ho toh bina cheese ke kya hi banega (you can't make pizza without cheese). He is one figure that stands tall in the pulp movie industry so, to have him onboard was both a necessity and an honour" 'Cinema Marte Dum Tak' is available to stream on Prime Video. Hyderabad, Jan 21 : Telangana attracted investments worth Rs 21,000 crore during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting at Davos where the state delegation was headed by state minister for information technology and industries, K.T. Rama Rao. This was the fifth visit of Minister KTR to Davos, and like in the past his efforts to bring investments to the state have yielded fruitful results, claimed the government. Presenting the growth story of Telangana and pitching for investments, KTR has participated in meetings with leaders of top global organisations, attended round tables and spoken at panel discussions and shared his thoughts on a wide array of subjects in the four-day trip. In addition to this, the minister also interacted with the Indian diaspora in Zurich and highlighted the progress of Telangana to the NRIs in Switzerland. At a juncture where the global economy is on the brink of recession, Telangana managed to bag some big-ticket investments. The Telangana delegation was successful in showcasing the state as a global investment destination and gateway to India. The Telangana pavilion grabbed the attention of many top companies with representatives of several global organisations visiting the stall. Telangana pavilion presented information regarding Telangana's geography, investments it attracted in the last eight years and initiatives of IT and Industry departments such as T-Hub and T-Works. Videos of various government programmes, policies and projects like Kaleshwaram played at the pavilion were a special attraction. Sharing his experience of the visit, Minister KTR observed that the WEF is the right platform to introduce Telangana, a progressive state which has exceptional industrial policies and infrastructure and said that Telangana is strengthening its ties with companies on the WEF platform. "All the meetings at the WEF were highly productive and we were able to attract Rs 21,000 crore at the meet," said KTR. He said that bringing huge investments to the state and thereby creating employment is the driving force. "I believe that all the new investments and meetings regarding prospective investments will yield favourable outcomes," added KTR. The big draw of this edition of Davos trip was the WEF coming forward to establish its first Indian centre in Hyderabad. This thematic centre will focus on life sciences and health care. This announcement further consolidates the city's position as the hub for life sciences and pharmaceuticals. Microsoft announced to set up three more data centres in Hyderabad with an investment of Rs 16,000 crore. Bharti Airtel Group said it would set up a large Hyperscale Data Centre in Hyderabad with Rs 2,000 crore. Eurofins, a global leader in the pharma sector, announced the establishment of a state-of-the-art laboratory campus in Genome Valley with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore. Other global companies such as PepsiCo, P&G, Allox, Apollo Tyres Ltd, WebPT, and Inspire Brands came forward with investments worth Rs 2,000 crore. --IANS ms/uk/ A Ahmedabad, Jan 21 : Parents and relatives of a Class 11 student's created ruckus on a school campus here on Saturday, alleging that their son has gone missing from the school premises since Friday morning. They claimed that their son Manav, studying at Raghuveer school, has gone missing from the school premises, and the school management has neither informed them nor is looking for the boy. Manav's mother Shilpaben told media persons that the "class teacher had scolded Manav on the grounds that he had stolen a notebook of a classmate, about which Manav had clarified that he had put the notebook by mistake". "Yet, the teacher punished him and asked him to stand outside the classroom, around 9.20 a.m., Manav had fled away from the school, but school management did not informed parents," she alleged. Manav's father Dharmesh said that even today (Saturday), "the school management is not responding properly and is claiming that he must have ran away because of family reasons. Over 24 hours have passed but Manav has not returned, and finally we informed the police on Saturday". Along with the police, family is also searching for Manav. Washington, Jan 21 : Tens of thousands of Chinese students studying overseas on government-backed scholarships are required to sign a document pledging loyalty to the ruling Communist Party, as well as putting up guarantors who could be forced to repay their funding should they break the agreement, before arriving at overseas universities, Radio Free Asia reported. Sweden's Dagens Nyheter newspaper had reported on January 13 that 30 doctoral students arriving in the country had signed contracts pledging loyalty to their government while overseas, requiring them to serve China's interests during their stay. A review of publicly available documents found evidence that this practice has been going on quietly for more than a decade, with several versions of the contract and related regulations freely available online, RFA reported. "During your time studying abroad, you must hone your sense of responsibility and your ability to follow orders, and not engage in any activities that could harm your country's interests or national security," the contract states. "You must consciously protect the honor of the motherland and of your school, and abide by both the laws of China and the country where you are studying," it says. Students must also provide the names of two guarantors who countersign the document, in case a student fails to report to the local Chinese embassy or otherwise breaks the terms of the agreement, the documents revealed, RFA reported. Anyone who tries to resign from their scholarship without authorization or who "behaves extremely badly," or who just disappears or moves to another country or school without authorization will trigger the repayment of around one third of their funding by their guarantors, they show. China had said it would send 27,000 students to study overseas on public money for all of 2021, and that their scholarships were entirely conditional on their party loyalty, including a pledge to "come back and serve their country" on completion of their studies, according to another publicly available document, RFA reported. New Delhi, Jan 21 : A 28 year-old man died after he set himself on fire in Delhi's Kalyanpuri area, an official said on Saturday. The incident occurred on Friday night, and the deceased has been identified as Rahul, who used to work as a private driver. According to Amrutha Guguloth, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), a PCR call was received at around 10 p.m. on Friday at Kalyanpuri police station that a person is setting himself on fire near Mother Dairy booth, near Kalyanpuri Bus stand, Khichripur. "A police team reached the spot while the victim was already taken to LBS hospital. On initial enquiry it was revealed that the victim had come in a Santro car and had put some inflammable substance on his body before setting himself on fire, as stated by witnesses," the DCP said. The crime and FSL teams also inspected the spot. The victim was shifted to Safdarjung hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. "The victim's wife had left him about a year ago and he was presently living with his parents and brother. A case under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered, and investigation is being done," said the official. Bengaluru, Jan 21 : Reacting for the first time on the aircraft's emergency door opening incident, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya on Saturday said a clarification on the matter has already been provided, and he will "not further glorify the criticism of the Congress". While the airline -- IndiGo, did not name the passenger, some passengers travelling on the same flight had claimed that it was Tejasvi Surya. The BJP leader, however, had maintained a silence on the issue. Speaking to reporters on Saturday after flagging off Namo Charity Run in Bengaluru, Surya said the airlines and the DGCA have given clarification regarding the incident. "The Union Minister for Civil Aviation has explained that it was an incident that took place accidentally. K. Annamalai, the Tamil Nadu BJP president who was travelling with me also explained what exactly happened. Two other passengers have also given clarification over the incident," he said. "I don't want to react in the backdrop of criticism from the Congress party or someone asking something, and glorify their criticism," MP Tejasvi Surya claimed. A controversy had broken out recently after IndiGo Airlines had released a statement that a passenger had opened the emergency door of its Chennai-Tiruchirapalli flight on December 10, 2022 leading to a two hour delay in the flight departure. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia confirmed on Wednesday (January 18) that the door was opened last month "by mistake", and the person who opened it has apologised. IndiGo had said on Tuesday that a passenger accidentally opened the emergency exit of a plane at the Chennai airport on December 10. The passenger had apologised, said the airlines. While the airline did not name the passenger, few opposition parties have reacted on the matter, claiming that the person responsible for the act is Tejasvi Surya. Without naming Surya, the Civil Aviation Minister on Wednesday confirmed that the passenger who by mistake opened the emergency exit, leading to a two hour delay of the flight, has apologised for his act. "I won't respond to what the opposition is saying. It's important to look at the facts. The door was opened by him by mistake when the flight was on the ground and after all checks, the flight was allowed to take off," Scindia said. Vijayapura : , Jan 21 (IANS) BJP President J.P. Nadda inaugurated a nine-day long 'Vijaya Sankalp Abhiyaan' in Karnataka at a 'mega' rally organised in Sidhagi town of Vijayapura district on Saturday. Addressing the rally, Nadda said that he is confident that "the people will ensure blooming of lotus in Karnataka in the upcoming Assembly elections". "I can see the signs... BJP is marching ahead with an agenda of ensuring welfare of all," he added. "The good work by (B.S.) Yediyurappa is being continued by Chief Minister (Basavaraj) Bommai in the state," Nadda said. The BJP leader claimed that mobile handsets sold in the country were earlier made in China, but now, they are made in India. "In production of steel, India has moved to second position from 14th position. In automobile (sector), India is on the third place... In terms of economic growth, Karnataka is on second position," he noted. "As per the vision of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, 12 crore women have been given houses in the country. He (the Prime Minister) has ensured women empowerment in the state by building 27 lakh toilets. All four lane roads are going to be eight lane roads soon," Nadda asserted. Former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa said, "Congress leaders are in imagination. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, Nadda and Amit Shah, BJP will win more than 140 seats in the state." "Foreigners are praising PM Modi. Even Pakistani PM is praising him," Yediyurappa added. Local BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal remained absent in the programme and he did not even turn up to welcome Nadda on his arrival. Hyderabad, Jan 21 : Aiming to end the infighting and forge unity in the Congress party in Telangana ahead of this year's Assembly elections, the new in-charge for the party in the state Manikrao Thakare made it clear on Saturday that he neither is in anyone's favour nor against someone. He asked the party's state unit leaders to work with unity and if they are any issues bring them to his notice. He advised them not to speak on the internal issues before the media as this would damage the party's interests. Addressing the extended executive meeting of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) in Hyderabad, the in-charge told the leaders that his duty is to act as per the orders of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). He asked the party leaders to make the 'Hath Se Hath Jodo' programme in the state a huge success like Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'. Thakare directed the party leaders and cadres to work with unity to take the programme to every village and every street. He told the participants in the meeting that Rahul Gandhi undertook the nation-wide yatra in a bone-chilling cold and it is 'our responsibility to take the message of the yatra' to every house. The AICC in-charge said TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy will undertake yatra in at least 50 Assembly constituencies in the state and asked senior leaders to cover another 20-30 constituencies. Thakare said everyone in the party should work hard to make the yatra successful in view of the coming Assembly elections. "If all of us work together, the Congress party will definitely win the election and come to power," he said. Revanth Reddy said Hath Se Hath Jodo Yatra in Telangana will begin on February 6 and will continue for two months. He said a resolution was passed during the meeting, appealing to the central leadership to arrange a day's visit to Telangana by Priyanka Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi. He said the yatra would be formally launched from Bhadrachalam on January 26. The meeting was attended by Revanth Reddy, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, former PCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy, three AICC incharge secretaries and other leaders. Manikrao Thakare also had meetings with the Campaign Committee, Election Management Committee and AICC Program Implementation Committee Chairman regarding expansion of these committees and their work. The AICC on January 4 appointed Thakare as the new in-charge amid infighting in the party's state unit. Thakare, a senior leader from Maharashtra replaced Manickam Tagore, who was shifted to Goa following complaints by a section of senior leaders he had been supporting Revanth Reddy and taking unilateral decisions. A section of senior leaders had last month slammed Revanth Reddy for packing the party panels with his loyalists. They had also announced to save Congress in Telangana movement, terming it a fight between what they called real Congress and the leaders who came from other parties. This was an open attack on Revanth Reddy and others who quit Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to join Congress a few years ago. A day after senior leaders raised the banner of revolt, 13 loyalists of Revanth Reddy had announced resignations from party posts. The crisis had forced the high command to send senior leader Digvijay Singh to Hyderabad. He individually met the leaders from both the groups and based on the feedback received submitted a report to the high command. Mumbai, Jan 21 : Bengaluru-based bike aggregator Rapido has slammed the Maharashtra government's decision to ban such private aggregators and ride-pooling vehicles from plying, and said it will examine legal remedies, here on Saturday. Referring to the state government's notification of Thursday (January 19), a Rapido spokesperson said that this could adversely impact livelihoods and opportunities of over 200,000 bike captains. Besides, the company claimed the 'arbitrary decision' will deprive millions of citizens from availing a reliable and efficient mode of local transport, and throw them at the mercy of poor transport facilities and lack of urban infrastructure which doesn't provide a low-cost last-mile connectivity. Rapido said it is planning a legal challenge for the rejection of its licence ostensibly as the government lacks the will to formulate a policy in this regard. The state government's move came barely a week after the Bombay High Court (January 13) had rapped the 'illegally run' Rapido and ordered it to disable its app within one hour and suspend all its services in the state till January 20. A division bench of Justice Gautam S. Patel and Justice Shivkumar G. Dige had warned that if the company did not suspend services immediately, it would permanently bar it from getting a license and impose a heavy fine. The court's order came in a petition filed by Rappen Transportation Services Pvt Ltd -- which operates Rapido bike taxis in Mumbai and Pune -- challenging the state government communication of December 29, 2022, refusing to issue it a bike taxi aggregator licence. Advocate General Dr. Birendra Saraf had informed the court that the state government has appointed a committee to examine the issue, and formulate guidelines on various aspects, including safety, before licensing. However, he said that Rapido was operating illegally without a licence and said first it should discontinue the illegality before coming to the court. The state government had also produced a list of all such aggregators including two-wheeler and three-wheeler services for passengers and goods. Providing statistics, the 7-year-old Rapido said that there are over 200,000 bike captains and 120,000 auto-rickshaw captains in Maharashtra who cater to around 22,00,000 customers daily through nearly 87,000 rides, presently operating in Mumbai and Pune. Srinagar, Jan 21 : The Jammu and Kashmir administration is making "advance arrangements" for the upcoming G20 meeting in Kashmir to be held in the month of May. In this regard, the J&K government has also constituted a Union Territory-level health committee to ensure pre-operationalisation of medical care arrangements and services. Earlier, the Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, P.K. Pole, had hinted at holding the G20 meeting in Kashmir, saying that Srinagar is likely to host one of the G20 events for which the administration has already started making preparations. It is noteworthy that this kind of summit meeting will be held for the first time in a Union Territory, which will be a proud moment for J&K, according to the Divisional Commissioner. "G20 member nations are home to 70 per cent of the world's population. Hosting the G20 summit in Srinagar holds special significance as it will help promote tourism and many misgivings, which our neighbouring country tries to spread, will get clarified," the official said. Many large-scale works have been taken up in Srinagar district, including repair of roads, replacement of rotten poles and beautification of flyovers etc. According to the provincial commissioner, the administration is gearing up the city for the important event as it will go a long way in promoting tourism in Kashmir. "All major roads are being repaired. We are currently going through the winter months, so there are some difficulties. But we will be ready by the time the event is held," Pole said. Following the presidency of Indonesia last year, India assumed the G20 presidency for 2023 from December 1, 2022. India will host more than 200 meetings at over 50+ locations across the country through out 2023. Coconino Community College student Grace Abell works at a preschool in Flagstaff, and her goal is to become an elementary school teacher. Its never really been a question, Abell said. Its all Ive ever really wanted to do. She said she remembers turning 5 years old and bringing her younger sister into the picture. Ever since she could sit up, I made her my student, she said with a laugh. Ive always had the desire to be a teacher of children. Abell is making that goal a reality with the help of scholarships she has received from the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce Foundation in collaboration with the Helios Education Foundation. In the last two years, the Chamber/Helios partnership has awarded $13,500 in scholarships to CCC students. The Greater Flagstaff Chambers of Commerce's deep commitment to education attainment is reflected in these CCC scholarships, said Julie Pastrick, CEO of the Chamber. In partnership with the Helios Educational Foundation, we endeavor to support and mentor students who can use financial and moral support. The scholarships were awarded by the CCC Foundation to five CCC students in 2021-22 academic year and to four students in the upcoming 2022-23 academic year at $1,500 each. Our Foundation is dedicated to transformational change, and to support specific economic development and educational and labor force needs relating to the business community and their owners," said Randon Cupp, Flagstaff Chamber Foundation treasurer and Chamber board member. Abell received a Flagstaff Chamber/Helios Educational Foundation scholarship last year, and she received another for the upcoming year. Its been helpful to have support and not have to pay for my education all by myself, Abell said. Without it, I dont know if Id be able to graduate in a reasonable time. Im very thankful. A CCC2NAU student, Abell said she loves children, and shes dedicated to contributing to her community -- an action that her church emphasizes. Helping children gives her that feeling. She wants to be that person who helps children in their journey of discovery as they navigate their lives. It makes you feel really good, she said. Now that shes received scholarships, she can focus on her school studies more and cut back a bit on her work at the preschool. She plans to make the move to Northern Arizona University to complete her studies in the spring semester, and she also has received a scholarship to help with that transfer from the Raymond Educational Foundation, which has a scholarship designed for CCC2NAU students. For more information about the scholarships available through the CCC Foundation, visit www.coconino.edu/foundation. Kolkata, Jan 21 : The Trinamool Congress on Saturday said it will contest alone in the upcoming assembly polls in the north-eastern state of Tripura and will field the party's own candidates in all the 60 assembly constituencies there. The decision was taken at a meeting between the Tripura Trinamool Congress leadership and the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at the latter's office at Camac Street on Friday, said the party observer for Tripura, Rajib Banerjee. "Our prospects in each of the seats were discussed at the meeting. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee are the principal assets of the party and hence we have decided to move alone," Rajib Banerjee said. He said that the Tripura Trinamool Congress leadership has submitted a total of 120 names as prospective candidates, two names for each constituency. "The party's top leadership will finalise the names of the candidates and announce the final list of candidates shortly," Rajib Banerjee said. The polling for the 60-seat Tripura assembly is scheduled on February 16. Rajib Banerjee expressed confidence that the party's performance in the upcoming assembly polls will be much better than "what it was in the past". It was learnt that both Mamata Banerjee as well as Abhishek Banerjee will visit Tripura and campaign on behalf of the party there for the assembly polls. According to Banerjee, the Left Front-Congress alliance in Tripura will not be a factor for Trinamool Congress' efforts to take on the ruling BJP there. According to him, neither Congress nor Left Front got any relevance after both being reduced to zero in terms of assembly presence after the 2021 West Bengal polls. "Rather, this alliance in Tripura will indirectly help the BJP by dividing the opposition vote," he said. New Delhi, Jan 21 : A group of retired judges, bureaucrats and armed forces veterans on Saturday released a statement rebutting the BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as 'delusions of British Imperial resurrection'. "Not this time. Not with our leader. Not with India. Never on our watch!" read the letter. "Yet again, the staple, dyed-in-the-wool negativity and unrelenting prejudice of the BBC toward India has resurfaced as a documentary, 'India: The Modi Question'. This production, the BBC claims, has been 'rigorously researched according to the highest editorial standards', and 'examines the tensions between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority and explores the politics of India's PM Narendra Modi in relation to those tensions' and 'a series of controversial policies implemented by him'," it said. "So now we have the archetype of British past imperialism in India setting itself up as both judge and jury, to resurrect Hindu-Muslim tensions that were overwhelmingly the creation of the British Raj policy of divide and rule. Not only is the BBC series, judging from what we have seen of it so far, based on delusional and evidently lopsided reporting, it presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India's existence as an independent, democratic nation, a nation which functions according to the will of the people of India. Glaring factual errors apart, the series - which uses the words 'allegedly' and 'reportedly' repeatedly, (not 'factually') - reeks of motivated distortion that is as mind-numbingly unsubstantiated as it is nefarious," it added. A total of 302 eminent citizens signed the letter, including 13 retired judges, 133 retired bureaucrats and 156 retired armed forces personnel. The signatories include names like former Foreign Secretary Shashank, former Home Secretary L.C. Goyal, ex-RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, O.P. Singh, among others. They also said that the Supreme Court had upheld the closure report filed by the top court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) after years of painstaking investigation into the Gujarat riots. "So now we have a British media organisation, the BBC, which naturally thrives on sensationalism regardless of how false its basis, setting itself up to second guess and dismiss the verdict of the apex of the Indian judiciary, the Supreme Court. This alone exposes the BBC's malafides, and leads one to question the motivations behind this series," said the letter. "Instead of making a documentary titled 'India: The Modi Question', the BBC should begin by questioning its own bias against Prime Minister Modi (yes, their own too) and make a documentary called 'BBC: The Ethical Question'," the letter said. The letter also urged people to sign the petition. "Join us by signing this petition in the fight against BBC's series. We start it here and we end it here by demonstrating, through our overwhelming 'Satyagraha', our true might: our patriotism," the letter concluded. Chennai, Jan 21 : The Tamil Nadu government will take a decision on whether to cut the liquor sale timings by half an hour. The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) has informed the Madras High Court that the government will take a decision. The first bench of Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy asked the Corporation whether the liquor sale timings in retail outlets could be reduced by half an hour before closing time. The bench posed the query while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking orders to check liquor consumption in open places after bars are closed at 10 p.m. The court directed the TASMAC counsel to take instructions from the government and report back. The Corporation counsel argued that the opening and closing of TASMAC shops and the attached bars are purely the policy decision of the government and petitioners have no locus standi to interfere with it. The court was also informed that TASMAC has sent a proposal to the state government, seeking extension of bars by half an hour beyond 10 p.m. The proposal is pending consideration. Patna, Jan 21 : Patna Police busted a mini gun factory in Puraini village under Dhanarua police station of the district on Saturday. Manavjeet Singh Dhillon, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Patna, said that three persons were arrested in connection with the gun factory, but the kingpin of the gang managed to flee from the spot. They were running the factory in an agriculture field. "Recently, we unearthed two mini gun factories in Naubatpur locality. During the interrogation of the accused, we obtained the information about it (Puraini-based gun factory)," Dhillon said. "We constituted a dedicated team for the raid, and sent a decoy customer to the mini gun factory. It was not that easy. That decoy customer established contact with the kingpin Bharat Yadav. After winning his trust, he provided the actual location of the gun factory to the decoy customer and also allowed him to go there to purchase weapons of his choice," the DIG elaborated. "Accordingly, the decoy customer went there and did the photography of the place. When he signaled us, we raided the place and arrested three persons. The accused are makers of the weapons. They were hired by the kingpin Bharat Yadav," Dhillon said. The arrested persons are identified as Vijay Bind, Dhananjay Kumar and Sitaram Jatan Singh. "We have also seized large numbers of semi manufactured country-made Kattas, equipment, barrels etc from the place. Efforts are on to nab the main accused," the DIG added. New Delhi, Jan 21 : Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets will conduct air combat exercise in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and other northeastern states amid the tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the eastern sector with China. The IAF said the Eastern Air Command will be conducting its annual Command-level exercise during the first week of February. This exercise, named POORVI AKASH, will be conducted after a gap of two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The exercise will involve activation of the Command's fighter, helicopter and transport assets towards routine practice of aerial drills, including joint exercises, an Air Force official said. Earlier, after tension erupted between India and the Chinese PLA in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang area in December last year, IAF aircraft had done patrolling of the skies in Arunachal Pradesh. The IAF official said that the Eastern Air Command had conducted a pre-planned exercise in its AOR on December 15 and 16, 2022. "That exercise was planned well in advance, before the developments in Tawang, and was not associated with these events. The exercise was conducted for the training of IAF crew," the official said. China has built many villages near the borders. Be it Uttarakhand, Ladakh or Tawang, satellite images show that China has constructed roads and villages on their side of the borders. The Chinese PLA is also increasing its troops in their area near the eastern border of the LAC. India has this vital information and forces are keeping a close vigil on the developments. A few days back, without naming China, Army Chief General Manoj Pande had said that there was slight increase in the deployment of adversary troops at the eastern border. India has also maintained adequate force deployment along the LAC, and is ready to deal with any situation, he had said. General Pande had also said the situation at the northern border remains stable but unpredictable. Agartala/Shillong/Imphal, Jan 21 : Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur on Friday separately celebrated their 51st Statehood Day by holding numerous colourful cultural programmes and other functions. In the poll-bound Tripura and Meghalaya, the Statehood Day functions were low key and the ministers and politicians did not attend the celebrations due to the model code of conduct. President Droupadi Murmu, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, BJP President J.P. Nadda and several Union ministers and Chief Ministers of the neighbouring northeastern states greeted the people of the three states on the occasion. Congratulating the people of the three states, the Prime Minister, in separate tweets, said: "On their Statehood Day, best wishes to the people of Tripura. The last 5 years have been remarkable for Tripura's growth trajectory. From agriculture to industry, education to health, the state has seen great transformation. May this trend continue in the coming times." "Greetings to the people of Meghalaya on their Statehood Day. This state is known for its vibrant culture, particularly music, art and passion towards sports. People from Meghalaya have excelled in diverse fields. I pray for Meghalaya's continuous progress in the years to come," Modi said. In another tweet, the PM said: "Statehood Day greetings to the people of Manipur. The state has been progressing on several counts during the last few years. I pray that the aspirations of the people of this state are fulfilled and Manipur keeps strengthening India's growth trajectory." In Tripura, the Day's main function was held in Agartala in which Chief Secretary J.K. Sinha, Director General of Police Amitabh Ranjan, Vice-Chancellor of Maharaja Bir Bikram University Satadeo Poddar among others participated in the celebration organised by the Information and Cultural Affairs department at the Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan. In Meghalaya, state governor B.D. Mishra handed over the Meghalaya Day excellence awards on the occasion at a function at U. Soso Tham auditorium in Shillong. A glittering cultural programme was organised by the Department of Art and Culture in the city on the occasion of the 51st Meghalaya Day. In Manipur, the main function of the Statehood Day was held at the 1st Battalion Manipur Rifles Parade Ground in Imphal. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh said that the state has been able to attract a large number of domestic and foreign tourists. He informed that many visitors had acknowledged the progress and development of the State. Singh said that the state will be holding events in connection with G20 and the Grand Finale of Femina Miss India this year. He said that his government aims to bring governance and development in far-flung rural and hill areas to redress their grievances and provide services to the people at their doorsteps. Raising concern about large-scale deforestation, the Chief Minister informed that a mass tree plantation campaign would be organised from March to July this year. The erstwhile princely states of Tripura and Manipur were merged into the Indian Union in October 1949 and became full-fledged states on January 21, 1972. Meghalaya was part of Assam before becoming a full-fledged state on the same day. All the three northeastern states became full-fledged states under the North Eastern Region (Re-Organisation) Act, 1971. All the three northeastern states have taken a series of programmes to celebrate the day and announced a slew of welfare programmes and various plans to develop these states in future. New Delhi, Jan 21 : An accused absconding in an attempt to murder case of Delhi was finally held from Faridabad by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police. A senior official said that the accused was identified as Yogesh Singh alias Yogi. Yogesh along with one Aman had intercepted and attacked one Sameer Khan (20) during the intervening night of December 3-4 when Khan was on his way home in Delhi's Sangam Vihar. The accused also opened a fire at Khan. Hearing the commotion, people gathered at the spot due to which the accused ran away. Later, the victim was taken to a nearby government hospital. The police lodged an attempt to murder case in this respect at Sangam Vihar Police Station. During investigation the victim identified one Rohit too. Three accused, Rohit, Ravi and Aman were arrested by the police but the accused Yogesh managed to give the cops a slip many time. The Crime Branch got a tip off that the accused was hiding in Faridabad. The crime branch sent a team to Faridabad and nabbed him. "He was previously arrested in one case of NDPS in Odisha in 2017, while carrying cannabis in Innova car. He was released from Odisha jail in October 2022," the official said. New Delhi, Jan 21 : The Patiala House Court on Saturday extended the judicial custody of Shankar Mishra, the man accused of urinating on an elderly female co-passenger in a drunk state on board a New York-New Delhi Air India flight in November last year, by 14 days. On January 7, the court had sent Mishra to 14-day judicial custody, which was extended till February 4 on Saturday. Earlier, in the wake of Air India banning Mishra from flying for four months on the basis of its internal committee report, his legal counsel had opposed the findings of the panel, saying that they are ready to file an appeal. "We respect the authority and mandate of the internal inquiry committee, but we disagree with its findings and are already in the process of challenging this decision in accordance with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA) civil aviation requirements for unruly passengers," Mishra's lawyers had said. Aviation regulator DGCA had also imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Air India besides suspended the licence of the pilot-in-command for three months in connection with the Air India urination case. Moreover, the regulator had imposed a penalty of Rs 3 lakh on the director of inflight services of Air India for failing to discharge her duties on November 26, 2022. The incident of passenger misbehaviour which occurred on the AI-102 flight from New York to New Delhi came to the notice of DGCA on January 4. After Mishra claimed that the complainant had soiled her own seat, the latter had rubbished the allegation, saying it was "completely false and concocted". "The said allegation is also in complete contradiction and a complete volte-face of the statements and the pleaded case of the accused in his bail application," she had said. The victim had said that her intention has all along been to ensure that institutional changes are made so that no individual has to go through the "horrendous experience" she went through. "Instead of being remorseful for the utterly disgusting act committed by him, he has adopted a campaign of spreading misinformation and falsities with the intent of further harassing the victim," she had said. On January 13, Mishra told the court that he is not the accused. "There must be someone else who peed or it must be her who urinated," he had said. He also claimed that the woman was suffering from some prostate-related disease. New Delhi, Jan 21 : The main building of one of Indias premier educational institutes, the St. Stephen's College in Delhi, is apparently in need of repair. The plaster of a large part of the ceiling on the first floor of the main building has come off at many places. Because of this, bricks of the ceiling are clearly visible at many places. Plasters have come out places from where teachers and students pass, posing a threat to their safety. People in the know of things confirmed that chairs were kept at those place to alert the passersby to avoid passing through those areas. When an IANS reporter reached the college on Saturday to know more about the issue, a security guard present there refused him entry. The guard did not even allow the reporter to talk to the management inside the college premises. IANS then got in touch with Nandita Narayan, a professor at St. Stephen's College who is also the president of the Joint Forum for Movement on Education. Commenting on the state of disrepair in the college, Narayan told IANS that it was like this earlier. "The plaster of the ceiling was broken, and bricks were visible. Chairs were placed under that place for safety reasons. So that if any part of the roof falls, there is no harm," she added. She said that recently when she was going to take classes, she did not notice the chairs. "The chairs were not there, but I did not pay attention to whether the roof has been repaired. Maybe they have repaired the roof, I have no idea. I didn't pay attention to this," she added. Narayan also said that it is possible that now that part of the roof has been repaired. "New students have joined after the first year admission. I think the roof has been fixed. But I can't confirm it since I didn't pay attention. I will go tomorrow to see whether the roof has been fixed," she added. St. Stephen's College under Delhi University is one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges for arts and sciences in India. It was established in 1881 by the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. New Delhi, Jan 21 : A man, working as sergeant at the Indian Air Force (IAF), has made a hoax bomb call to the police control room (PCR) to "stop" the Mumbai-bound Rajdhani Express as he was getting late to catch the train, the police said on Saturday. A senior police officer said that a call was received at around 4.48 p.m. The caller said that there was a bomb on the New Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani Express scheduled to depart for Mumbai from the New Delhi Railway Station. "The Railway officials were also informed about the scheduled departure of the train. A police team later went to platform number 3 where the train was stationed. Bomb Disposal Squads were also requisitioned. The Railway Protection Force also joined in the operation," said the official. The official said that the number of the caller who made the call to the PCR was also not reachable. The cell phone number was found registered in the name Anand Kumar, a resident of Chhapar village, Bhiwani (Haryana). "We found an alternate number on the same address and he was contacted. One Anand responded to the phone call, and said that the owner of the mobile number Sunil Sangwan was his younger brother, a Sergeant in IAF. Sangwan was scheduled to board the above train from New Delhi Railway Station but got late. And this was the reason he called the PCR," the official said. The police learnt that Sangwan was also a habitual drunkard. Anand was asked to provide the photograph of Sangwan. "The photo was circulated amongst the police and RPF staff to trace him. The booking chart was scanned to find out the passengers having booking with the name of Sunil. Based on the above inputs Sangwan was finally traced," said the official. Identity of Sangwan was established through his Air Force ID Card. The phone which he used to make the PCR call was recovered. He disclosed that he was getting late for the train as he had to go to his place of posting at Air Force Station, Santacruz, Mumbai. He was then detained. He joined the Air Force as an Airman on September 27, 2006. "Legal action as per law being taken against him," said the official. Mikayil Jabbarov, the minister of economy for Azerbaijan, spoke with Axel Lehmann, the head of Credit Suisse, one of the biggest banks in Switzerland, about potential avenues for collaboration, Azernews reports per the ministers tweet. In accordance with the tweet, the Davos Economic Forum's framework was used to discuss cooperative issues. In addition, concerns about maintaining financial stability in the face of global challenges, as well as economic opportunities and cooperation outlook, were discussed during the meeting with Lehmann, held on January 18 as part of the participation of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in the Davos Economic Forum, the tweet added. Revival in Flagstaff Jan 21 2585 E. Seventh Ave., 2585 E. Seventh Ave., Flagstaff. 520-891-1514. 5-7 p.m., Rev. CJ Garcia from the Arizona District of the UPCI will be ministering to Life Church of Flagstaff. January 21-22. Saturday will begin @5pm and Sunday will begin @ 11am. Youre invited!!!. https://go.evvnt.com/1414699-0. PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH Jan 22 Peace Lutheran Church, 3430 N. Fourth St., Flagstaff. 928-526-9578. 10-11 a.m., We invite you to join the family of Peace Lutheran Church (LCMS) on Sunday at 10:00am for in person blended service (Combined Liturgical, hymnal based and Praise Worship) with Holy Communion. Pastor William Weiss Jr. (Pastor Bill) will be presiding. The service will be live streamed on our website (peacelutheranflagstaff.org) and on YouTube. https://go.evvnt.com/1517554-0. LIVING CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH Jan 22 500 W. Riordan Road, 500 W. Riordan Road, Flagstaff. 928-526-8595. 10-11 a.m., We invite all to celebrate with us God's love and presence in our lives and be God's hands in the world. We are intentionally inclusive. We worship through music, teaching, prayer, and the sacraments each Sunday at 10 a.m., at the Campus Ministry Center located on the NAU campus or join us online. Join Rev. Kurt Fangmeier for the Third Sunday after Epiphany! Jesus begins his public ministry by calling fishers to leave their nets and follow him. In Jesus the kingdom of God has come near. We who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. We see this light most profoundly in the crossas God suffers with us and all who are oppressed by sickness, sin, or evil. Light dawns for us as we gather around the word, the font, and the holy table. We are then sent to share the good news that others may be caught in the net of Gods grace and mercy. We will hear more with Reading Isaiah 9 :1-4 (Light shines for those in darkness), along with Reading 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (Appeal for unity in the gospel) and the Gospel Matthew 4:12-23 (Revelation of Christ as a prophet). https://go.evvnt.com/1515761-0. Unity of Flagstaff Spiritual Center Jan 22 Unity of Flagstaff Spiritual Center, 1800 S. Milton Road, Flagstaff. 10:30-11:30 a.m., DEEP And WIDE or FAST and FURIOUS? Which describes your spiritual journey? We are called by our Higher Consciousness, Higher Power, Great Spirit, God, to be our Greater Selvesall the time. Do your current spiritual practices require you to go deep enough to sustain you when life gets tough? Do you feel satisfied with your connection to the God of your understanding? Is your commitment to your spiritual growth wide enough to allow for expansion? Does the knowledge that intrigues us translate into Wisdom for those times that we are stuck? Join Rev. Penni and musician Max Selby, Live or LIVE STREAM (youtube.unityofflagstaff.org) at 10:30 am for our Sunday Celebration, as we discover together, DEEP And WIDE or FAST and FURIOUS? Unity of Flagstaff, Where God is TOO big to fit into Religion. https://go.evvnt.com/1520425-0. Flagstaff Federated Community Church: Please join us for in person services Sundays at 10 a.m. We are located at 400 W Aspen Ave. on the corner of Aspen and Sitgreaves in Downtown Flagstaff. All are welcome to our services. For more information about Flagstaff Federated Community Church please call our office at 928-774-7383, Mon Thurs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Church of the Resurrection Sunday Church Services: 740 W. University Heights Drive S., 740 W. University Heights Drive S., Flagstaff. 928-853-8522. 10-11:30 a.m., Church of the Resurrection Presbyterian Church in America (PCA): We invite you to join us for worship at 10 a.m. on Sundays at 740 W. University Heights Drive South. Please feel free to contact us for information on our mid-week gatherings and for more information on our church. You can find us at www.cor-pca.org and www.facebook.com/CORFlagstaff or we can be reached at corflagstaff@gmail.com and (928) 699-2715. Living Christ Lutheran Church: Living Christ Lutheran Church is a diverse and LGBTQ-affirming community of disciples embraced by Gods unconditional love and enduring grace. You are invited to celebrate with us Gods love and presence in your life, grow in your discipleship, and leave empowered to be Gods hands in the world. We worship through music, teaching, prayer, and the sacraments each Sunday at 10 a.m. with Rev. Kurt Fangmeier leading. We offer worship both in-person (masks are respected, not required; encouraged for unvaccinated) and online. Learn more about us at our new website: lclcflag.org. Leupp Nazarene Church: The church, near mile post 13 or Navajo Route 15, has been holding services by teleconferences and doing drive-up meetings. For information, call pastor Farrell Begay at 928-853-5321. Teleconference number: 1-7170275-8940 with access code 3204224#. Services are 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Christian Science Society of Flagstaff: 619 W. Birch Ave. The Christian Science Society of Flagstaff has opened for Sunday services while continuing to have them available via Zoom for online and phone. Wednesday testimony meetings are available only via Zoom. For phone Sunday Services: Dial: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 369 812 794#, Passcode: 075454#. For phone Wednesday meetings, dial: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 971 672 834#, Passcode: 894826#. The access for Zoom on Sundays is: https://zoom.us/j/369812794. The Zoom access for Wednesdays is: https://zoom.us/j/971672834. The password to use to enter both is CSS. We welcome all to attend our Sunday Services in person, or live by Zoom, at 10:00 oclock, and to attend our Wednesday Testimony meetings live by Zoom, at 5:30 oclock. Our Reading Room will be open on Wednesdays from 4:005:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10-12 noon. For further information please call 928-526-5982. Kohima, Jan 21 : The Nagaland police, as part of their pre-poll raids against drugs and arms peddling and unauthorised monetary transactions, have seized various contrabands and cash amounting to Rs 18.50 crore during the past one week, officials said on Saturday. A senior police officer said that various drugs worth of Rs 3.43 crore, foreign liquor valued at Rs 21.25 lakh, various other contrabands worth Rs 14.84 crore have been seized from different parts of the state during the past one week. The police also seized arms and ammunition worth Rs 50,900. The officer said that after the Election Commission of India announced the schedule for Nagaland Assembly elections on Wednesday, raids were stepped up against all kinds of illegal activities and clandestine trading. The police have also sought public cooperation and support during the election period for proper implementation of the Model Code of Conduct. The 60-member Nagaland Assembly will go to the polls on February 27, while the results will be announced on March 2. Amaravati, Jan 21 : The Centre has provided security cover to Jana Sena Party (JSP) leader and industrialist from Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district, B. Ramachandra Yadav. The Union Home Ministry has granted 'Y+' category security to Yadav, who was last month attacked allegedly by the followers of Mines and Energy Minister P. Ramachandra Reddy. The first batch of security personnel from New Delhi arrived at Punganur on Saturday. Yadav had claimed that he was facing threat to his life from Ramachandra Reddy, who represents the Punganur constituency in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. Yadav had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on January 11 to demand security. He had briefed Shah on the attack on him and sought security for him and his family members. On December 4, 2022, Yadav was stopped by the police from organising 'Rythu Bheri' of the JSP at Sadum village. The event was intended to speak against the alleged injustice, exploitation and problems faced by the farmers. The same night, a group of YSRCP cadres had allegedly ransacked the residence of Yadav at Punganur. The JSP leader had blamed the Reddy for the attack. Yadav has already announced that he would continue to fight for the rights of the farmers and youth and would contest the 2024 elections from Punganur. Bhopal, Jan 21 : Bharat Biotech will launch its intranasal Covid-19 vaccine iNCOVACC on January 26, the company's CMD Krishna Ella announced here on Saturday. The vaccine manufacturer had already received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) earlier this month for the nasal vaccine, the first of its kind in India. "Our nasal vaccine will be officially launched on Republic Day on January 26," said Ella while participating in a session during the 8th edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF) that began at the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), here on Saturday. The session was titled 'Face-to-Face with New Frontiers in Science'. The company had earlier announced that it would price the intranasal vaccine at Rs 325 per shot for procurement by the government, and 800 per shot for private vaccination centres. As per the vaccine manufacturer, the nasal route has excellent potential for vaccination due to the organised immune system of the nasal mucosa. Thus, intranasal immunisation of ChAd-SARS-CoV-2-S can create an immune response in the nose, which is the point of entry for the virus, thereby protecting against disease, infection, and transmission. The nasal vaccine can be taken after six months of the second dose. -IANS avr/arm New Delhi, Jan 22 : The Centre on Saturday approved the appointment of IAS officer Vikram Dev Dutt as the next chief of aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Dutt as the next Director General of DGCA, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training said on Saturday. Dutt, a 1993 batch IAS officer, is currently serving as the CMD of Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL). He will take over as the head of the aviation regulator on February 28, upon the superannuation of incumbent DGCA chief Arun Kumar. "Dutt's appointment will be in the rank and pay of additional secretary to the government of India, and he will take charge upon the superannuation of Arun Kumar on 28.02.2023 by keeping the recruitment rules of the post in abeyance," the statement said. Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer, was leading the DGCA as its DG since July 2019. Earlier, Dutt had also served as the CMD of Air India. He had taken charge in January last year. As per the order, the ACC approved more appointments on Saturday, including that of Arti Bhatnagar as Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor, Ministry of Commerce & Industry; Amardeep Singh Bhatia as Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce; Alok as Additional Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority; and Satinder Pal Singh as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs. The ACC has also approved the extension of the central deputation tenure of Ashutosh Jindal, Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, for a period of one year beyond 16.02.2023 which is up to 16.02.2024 or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 22 : A fresh controversy has erupted after top Congress leaders and a CPI(M) leader came out heavily against the way All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and former Lok Sabha member from Alappuzha, K.C. Venugopal, was not invited for the inauguration of a Rs 175 crore hospital block of the state-run Medical College Hospital at Alappuzha. The block was inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. State Congress President K. Sudhakaran said it was shameful that Venugopal, who was instrumental in getting the funds for this project during the second UPA government headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was not invited. "This act shows the pettiness of Vijayan and this was pointed out by none other than the former cabinet member of Vijayan, G. Sudhakaran, a top CPI-M leader from Alappuzha. The local CPI(M) legislator H. Salam made it clear that it's Vijayan who decides who should be called for the inauguration," the State Congress President added. Eyebrows have been raised when G. Sudhakaran wrote on his Facebook account that it doesn't matter if he was not invited, instead Venugopal and the former State Health Minister, K.K.Shailaja, who was her cabinet colleague in the first Vijayan cabinet, should have been invited. Protesting that Venugopal, who is the AICC Organising Secretary was not invited, Ramesh Chennithala, a Congress legislator from Alappuzha and Kodikunnil Suresh, a Congress Lok Sabha member from Mavelikera, who were both invited decided to boycott the event. Venugopal said he has no issues at all in not being invited to the event. "I did my job as a people's representative and worked to help the people with a new health facility. I know there was a delay in the work, but am now very happy that the facility is finally open and will benefit the people," he added. Ramallah, Jan 22 : A Palestinian was killed by Israeli soldiers after he tried to stab an Israeli security guard near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian and Israeli sources said. The Palestinian Health Ministry on Saturday said in a statement that it was informed Tariq Maali, 42, was killed northwest of the city, and that his body is being held by Israeli security. The statement did not give more details about the incident, Xinhua news agency reported. Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that a Palestinian carrying a knife tried to stab an Israeli security guard, adding that Israeli soldiers in the area opened fire at the Palestinian man. Since early January, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been flaring. Nearly 20 Palestinians have been killed, and dozens injured by Israeli soldiers since January 1, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. New York, Jan 22 : An Indian-origin man has been killed during a robbery at a Philadelphia petrol station where he was working, police said. The police on Friday announced a $20,000 reward for the capture of three suspects wanted in the killing of Patro Siboram on Tuesday morning when he was working during the night shift. Patro, 67, was born in a small town in eastern India and immigrated to the US in 1988, according to an obituary posted by the funeral home taking care of the final rites. According to police, Patro was killed during the robbery by three masked persons, one of them with a handgun. The police circulated pictures of the suspects from surveillance cameras. According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, people working in sales have the highest rate of being killed. Indians and other South Asians who work in large numbers at petrol stations, which are open in late hours, are often victims. In September, Paramveer Singh was killed at a petrol station in Tupelo, Mississippi. In November, a Pakistani immigrant, Ali Zulfiqar, was killed at a petrol station in New York and his alleged shooter was arrested following the killing of a Philadelphia police officer in which he is a suspect, according to police. On a Gofundme page, set up for Patro's family, his son Sachin wrote, "My dad, was one of the most kind-hearted and friendly people you could've ever met. He lit up any room with his energy and jokes. He made sure his friends were taken care of and reminded us all, constantly, that life is too short to sit and be stressed." As of Saturday afternoon, Gofundme had raised donations of $26,980 from 325 people. Jerusalem, Jan 22 : Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in several cities on Saturday evening to voice their dissatisfaction over the government's plan to make sweeping reforms in the country's judicial system. Israeli media quoted police as saying that more than 100,000 protesters arrived at the main demonstration in Tel Aviv. Smaller demonstrations were also held in other cities. This is the second week in a row that massive protests are being staged against the government. The demonstrators said the reforms will weaken the courts and give the ruling coalition limitless power, Xinhua news agency reported. The government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the changes are necessary in order to rein in the judicial system which has become "too powerful" in recent decades. They also said the Supreme Court often intervenes in political issues that should be determined by the parliament. Netanyahu and his coalition partners have said they will continue to push for the reforms despite the widespread protests. The reforms include allowing the parliament to override Supreme Court rulings with a simple majority. In addition, politicians will have greater influence in appointing Supreme Court judges. Baghdad, Jan 22 : The Iraqi military said that it killed two IS militants in an airstrike in Salahudin province, north of Baghdad. According to a statement from the Joint Operations Command's media office on Saturday, the militants were spotted by Iraqi forces in a rocky area near the town of Tuz Khurmato, which is located in eastern Salahudin. They were killed when Iraqi airplanes attacked their position with an airstrike. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb explosion wounded two soldiers of the government forces in the eastern Diyala province on Saturday, Colonel Alaa al-Saadi from the Diyala police said, adding the soldiers were hunting down IS militants in orchards near the provincial capital Baquba, Xinhua news agency reported. The security situation in Iraq has been improving since the defeat of the IS in 2017. However, IS militants have since melted into urban centres, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. On Thursday, January 19th, 2023 at the Chattanooga Rotary Club, CO.LAB CEO Tasia Malakasis announced a new programmatic focus on the sustainable mobility sector. CO.LAB is a nonprofit startup accelerator based in Chattanooga, TN. On Thursday, January 19th, 2023 at the Chattanooga Rotary Club, CO.LAB CEO Tasia Malakasis announced a new programmatic focus on the sustainable mobility sector. CO.LAB is a nonprofit startup accelerator based in Chattanooga, TN. Sustainable mobility encompasses the future-forward movement of people, goods, energy, and datasomething that unequivocally reflects Chattanoogas spirit of innovation. In celebration of this focus, CO.LAB will launch its sustainable mobility programming in May 2023 with a community-wide startup event featuring a special guest. More details will be available in the coming months. With our new sustainable mobility program, CO.LAB and Chattanooga will once again be front and center supporting startups who are building the innovative companies of tomorrow. Our accelerator participants will have access to multiple technology platforms along with capital, mentorship, talent, and pilot customers, says Charlie Brock, Chairman of CO.LABs Board of Directors. CO.LAB is thrilled to announce this focus, as Chattanooga is well positioned to be a global destination for sustainable mobility innovations. With the citys strength of industry backed by cutting-edge research teams dedicated to exploring clean, sustainable energy sources, Quantum networking, freight technology, Smart Traffic solutions, and electric + autonomous vehicles, Chattanooga now has testbeds in these areas that exist nowhere else on the planet. CO.LAB is uniquely equipped to scale forward-thinking companies in these areas, thanks to the teams expertise in providing invaluable business support and connecting startup founders to Chattanoogas unparalleled resources. The CO.LAB team firmly believes that the success of the sustainable mobility program depends upon the strength of its partners. CO.LAB is currently supported by Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN), Freightwaves, US Express, EPB, Brickyard, VentureSouth, Chattanooga Smart City Collaborative, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanoogas Center for Urban Informatics and Progress. Im very excited that Tasia and the team are focusing on a sector of great promise and opportunity for our city, says Craig Fuller, CEO of Freightwaves. A smart city and urbanization research center at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Center for Urban Informatics and Progress, CUIP, is uniquely positioned to partner with CO.LAB in the sustainable mobility sector, states Dr. Mina Sartipi, founding director of CUIP. Leveraging our growing and dynamic testbeds with the support of numerous community partners, CO.LABs new programmatic focus will help fast-track Chattanoogas place as the hub for mobility electrification, connectivity, and automation. CO.LAB also seeks additional support from both the Chattanooga community and the greater national ecosystem: We are actively recruiting startups, mentors, and industry partners who are engaged in the mobility revolution and if you want to work with us on this please reach out. We are open to exploring potential partnerships and opportunities to collaborate together, says Tasia Malakasis, CEO of CO.LAB. CO.LAB will continue to support entrepreneurs with access to capital, programming, talent, connections, and voicewhile also bolstering businesses in search of Chattanooga's competitive advantage. The companys programs such as KIVA, CO.STARTERS and rural outreach will lead the way in providing critical business resources to the Greater Chattanooga area. Additionally, CO.LAB provides resources to entrepreneurs as LaunchTNs Chattanooga-area entrepreneur center partner. CO.LAB looks forward to collaborating with Chattanoogas greatest innovators and is committed to moving the needle of progress forward. For more information, please visit: http://www.comobility.org Watch our Launch Video here. (Screenshot of CMG animated promo for 2023 Spring Festival Gala) CGTN America releases Year of the Rabbit Spring Festival Gala On January 22, Chinas 12-year zodiac cycle welcomes the Year of the Rabbit. In Chinese astrology, rabbits symbolize longevity, peace and prosperity. They also represent a specific time of day the hours of 5 am and 7 am when the sun has just surfaced but has not yet risen, and when the moonlight has not yet faded, says Chinese folk culture expert, Zhu Yi. On January 14, to celebrate the Chinese New Year, CMG officially released its first animated promo for 2023 Spring Festival Gala. This video uses a special form of stop-motion animation to convey a vibrant atmosphere of the Spring Festival. In real-life, hares a phylogenetic cousin of rabbits can reach a top speed of around 72 kilometers per hour. So, it is perhaps fitting that China Media Group (CMG) will broadcast this years Spring Festival Gala in 5G the fastest wireless transmission speed. CMG will also transmit the four-and-a-half-hour broadcast in the highest available resolutions 4K/8K and will be powered by AI. When this technological extravaganza airs on January 21 (Chinese New Years Eve), CMG will beam it outdoors across the country onto giant, immersive, ultra-HD screens in the public squares of an estimated 500 Chinese cities. This year marks the galas 40th anniversary. Since the inaugural broadcast in 1983, watching the show has become an annual family tradition. That means hundreds of millions of viewers in China alone, enabling the program to set a Guinness World Record for the Most-watched national network TV broadcast. The Lunar New Year is Chinas most important festivaland a time for family reunions. Each year, the Spring Festival holiday witnesses the worlds largest annual human migration. In 2023, the first day of travel, January 7, logged 34.7 million passenger trips. The Chinese Ministry of Transport forecasts 2.1 billion trips this year an increase of nearly 100 percent from 2022. The flower is the shows main symbol this year. For the Chinese people, flowers express prosperity and vitality. The broadcast, called Chunwan in Mandarin, will feature Chinese mythical creatures and architectural motifs from the Forbidden City all created with CGI. Watching the show is becoming a global event, too. Thanks to technology, it will be available in more than 160 countries and regions. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. (This material is distributed by MediaLinks TV, LLC on behalf of CCTV. Additional information is available at the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.) Tillie Walton Rivers can be considered the veins and arteries of our planet. They contain the magic of water, which we are all made of and connects us to each other. The river is where I have felt most at home and connected to myself, to nature, and to others. --Tillie Walton Exclusive Viewing of the New Public Television Series Wild Rivers With Tillie Planned for January 27, 2023 on the Prescott College Campus Prescott Alumna Tillie Walton 07 (B.S. in Environmental Science and Hydrology) to Share Her Experiences of River Exploration in the American West Prescott College is excited to welcome Tillie Walton 07 to campus on January 27th at the Crossroads Center for a special evening of storytelling about her journeys on the last remaining wild rivers of the American West. Starting with a 5:30 p.m. social, the evening will include a 7:00 p.m. Q & A and screening of the series premiere of her public television series, "Wild Rivers with Tillie" with Emmy Award-winning producer and director Dan Duncan. Hosted by Tillie Walton, award-winning river conservationist, hydrologist, and river guide, the inaugural season takes viewers down some of the finest, remaining wild rivers of the Westvisiting places few have ever seen. From world-renowned icons to hidden gems, Tillies unscripted adventures showcase the people and wildlife who depend upon these hardworking, and oftentimes, threatened river systems. Rivers can be considered the veins and arteries of our planet. They contain the magic of water, which we are all made of and connects us to each other, says Tillie. Her love of rivers began after high school when she guided commercial whitewater expeditions through the Grand Canyon and on other rivers around the world. The river is where I have felt most at home and connected to myself, to nature, and to others. I want to share that feeling and my passion for rivers with as many people as possible. The series is produced and directed by Emmy Award-winning creator Dan Duncan. Dan has been at the helm of a handful of nationally distributed programs, including Producer/Director of The Desert Speaks, a PBS documentary series, and the internationally distributed series In The Americas with Dave Yetman. He is the recipient of 24 Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards and numerous other awards for directing, cinematography, and editing. The first time I collaborated with Tillie was on a Grand Canyon river trip while producing an episode for In The Americas with David Yetman. Tillie was a natural on camera, demonstrating a genuine passion for not just the Colorado River but for all rivers. She is a subject-matter expert speaking for rivers, giving them a much-needed voice. Its exciting to collaborate with her on this new series, says Dan Duncan of their teaming up to create the program. Walton has served on the board of many local, national and international organizations. She is passionate about meditation and wellness and has been blessed to have worked with incredible world leaders and teachers in these fields. Walton holds a B.S. in Environmental Science and Hydrology and a Masters in Environmental Management and Planning. "Wild Rivers with Tillie" will be airing on public television stations nationwide this spring; check your local listings. Event location: The Crossroads Center, 220 Grove Avenue, Prescott, AZ 86301. This event is brought to the Prescott College campus as part of Water in the West, an On-Campus Undergraduate course. It is supported by the College's Advancement and Alumni Relations Office. About Prescott College Prescott College seeks to educate students of diverse ages and backgrounds to understand, thrive in, and enhance the world community and environment. Prescott College sets the standard for academic excellence through experiential, collaborative education that transforms diverse learners into leaders who make a difference. Committed to social justice and environmental sustainability, the college serves local and global communities through innovative and intellectually adventurous liberal arts and professional programs. For more information, visit http://www.Prescott.edu. Contact: Heidi Robbe, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications heidi.robbe@prescott.edu, (630) 400-3329 Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against The Permanente Medical Group, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today. The Sacramento employment law attorneys, at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action lawsuit against The Permanente Medical Group, Inc., alleging the company violated the California Labor Code. The lawsuit against The Permanente Medical Group, Inc. is currently pending in the Sacramento County Superior Court, Case No. 34-2022-00332012. To read a copy of the Complaint, please click here. According to the lawsuit filed, Defendant allegedly (a) failed to pay minimum wages, (b) failed to pay overtime wages, (c) failed to provide legally required meal and rest periods, (d) failed to provide accurate itemized wage statements, (e) failed to reimburse employees for required expenses, and (f) failed to pay sick pay wages, all in violation of the applicable Labor Code sections listed in California Labor Code Sections 201-204, 226, 233, 226.7, 233, 246, 510, 512, 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 2802, and the applicable Wage Order(s), and thereby gives rise to civil penalties as a result of such alleged conduct. The Complaint further alleges The Permanente Medical Group, Inc. failed to pay employees their accurate sick pay wages, which violates California Labor Code Section 246. Employees routinely earned non-discretionary incentive wages which increased their regular rate of pay. However, when paid sick pay wages, it was allegedly paid at the base rate of pay rather than the higher regular rate of pay. For more information about the class action lawsuit against The Permanente Medical Group, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today. Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is a labor law firm with law offices located in San Diego County, Riverside County, Los Angeles County, Sacramento County, Santa Clara County, Orange County, and San Francisco County. The firm has a statewide practice of representing employees on a contingency basis for violations involving unpaid wages, overtime pay, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, and other types of illegal workplace conduct. ***THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT*** For someone who didnt know anything about coffee shops, Im confident I can call anyone at Crimson Cup, and theyll be able to help me with whatever I need ... It has more of partnership feel than a franchise. - Bob Opitz, Owner, Spire Coffeehouse Something new is brewing in Toms River! Area resident Bob Opitz is thrilled to announce the opening of Spire Coffeehouse at 1922 Hooper Avenue. He developed the coastal-inspired coffee and tea shop through the 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program of award-winning coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea. A play on inspire, the shops name also alludes to the New Jersey Shore lighthouses and his goal of reaching the pinnacle of success and community service. We offer a wide variety of hot and iced drinks, and provide a selection of baked goods and snacks, Opitz said. So, whether you're stopping for your morning coffee or an afternoon snack, we've got you covered! Roasted by Crimson Cup, the coffee and espresso-based beverages have received an enthusiastic welcome from Toms River coffee lovers. The best hot chocolate ever, wrote one Google reviewer. Cappuccino was awesome. So friendly and nice. Highly recommend!! Spire Coffeehouse offers Opitz a second career. After 30 years in the insurance industry, he yearned to follow in his fathers entrepreneurial footsteps and open his own business. My father ran a computer consulting business and a sporting goods franchise, so Im an entrepreneur by blood, he said. A coffeehouse seemed like a good way to have fun and enjoy social interaction while giving back to the Toms River community. With no prior coffee industry experience, he searched for information on how to open a coffee shop. I knew I didnt want to go the franchise, route, he said. I wanted to be independent. I didnt want to have to put a ton of money down up front and then be locked into doing whatever they told me to do. The search led to Crimson Cup, which offers a coffee shop franchise alternative called the 7 Steps to Success. Based on the book, Seven Steps to Success: A Common-sense Guide to Succeed in Specialty Coffee, by Crimson Cup Founder and President Greg Ubert, the program teaches entrepreneurs with little or no coffee experience how to run a profitable coffee business. The book was great, concise, to the point, without being preachy, Opitz said. After he read the book, Crimson Cups 7 Steps coffee shop startup consulting team guided him at every step, from writing a strong coffee shop business plan to designing and laying the coffee shop, choosing coffee shop equipment, hiring and training staff, and much more. To this point, I think the most valuable of the 7 steps has been in the location and layout, Opitz said. That really helped me figure out where I wanted to have my shop. Knowing what to look for in a site was critical. In December, 7 Steps Project Manager and Trainer Steve Bayless spent the week leading up to the opening of Spire Coffeehouse training Opitz and the Spire Coffeehouse baristas in all aspects of drink preparation and coffee shop operation. He stayed on site through opening day to ensure everything went well. A Customer Growth Rep continues to work with Opitz and will return for Grand Opening Celebrations in February. Its amazing just how open and helpful everyone has been, he said. For someone who didnt know anything about coffee shops, Im confident I can call anyone at Crimson Cup, and theyll be able to help me with whatever I need. I think that ties to Crimson Cups business model. They believe that they succeed when I succeed. It has more of partnership feel than a franchise, where I would have to cut a check every month regardless of how my shop is doing. Its a more collaborative relationship, and I appreciate that. Asked to give advice to other aspiring coffee shop owners, he said, Be prepared for it to take longer and cost more than you initially thought. Definitely do your homework on location and design. The biggest challenge for me was the construction process. Opitz invites everyone in Toms River, Ocean County and the Jersey Shore to visit Spire Coffeehouse. Our shop offers a comfortable, neighborhood feel for hanging out with friends, doing some work or studying, and enjoying community events while enjoying the highest quality coffee, tea and snacks, he said. We pride ourselves on serving award-winning coffee and tea products, and we work with local dairies and bakeries to source the freshest and tastiest additions to your coffee. Spire Coffeehouse is open seven days a week at 1922 Hooper Avenue. Follow the shops Facebook page for updates about the menu, hours and upcoming events, including Grand Opening Celebrations planned for February 2023. About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea Founded in 1991, Crimson Cup is at the forefront of the coffee industry. Its attentive roasting, startup support and global partnerships are consciously designed for the greater good of communities around the world. Among other national recognitions, the company has earned 2020 and 2017 Good Food Awards, the 2019 Golden Bean Champion for Small Franchise/Chain Roaster and Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year. Crimson Cup travels the world searching for the perfect cup driven by meaningful relationships, honesty and a shared vision for the future. Its Friend2Farmer initiatives foster respect and decency through mutually beneficial collaboration across local and global communities. Through its 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, the company teaches entrepreneurs how to open and run independent coffee houses in their local communities. By developing a coffee shop business plan, entrepreneurs gain insight into coffee shop startup costs. Crimson Cup coffee is available through over 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, college and universities, restaurants and food service operations across 30 states, Guam and Bangladesh. The company also owns several Crimson Cup Coffee Shops and a new CRIMSON retail flagship store. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com, or follow the company on Facebook and Instagram. This past weeks snowmageddon inspired world-renowned astronomy historian and my good friend Bill Sheehan to compare it to past snowfall activity in Flagstaff. Bill discovered that one of the snowiest months in recorded history was in 1895.* This is intriguing because of how that 1895 winter in general affected the near-term future of Flagstaffs first permanent scientific establishment, as well how it inspired a humorous scale of seeing. On April 3 of the previous year, a young astronomer named Andrew Douglass arrived in Flagstaff aboard an eastbound train. This would be his final stop on a Territory-wide (this was 18 years before Arizona became a state) search to identify an ideal location to set up an observatory for his boss, Percival Lowell. Based on Douglasss research, Lowell chose Flagstaff. Lowell arrived in Flagstaff the following month on May 28, 1894 to officially open Lowell Observatory. For the next 10 months, Lowell, Douglass, and various assistants observed Mars and other celestial bodies through borrowed telescopes. They enjoyed moderate success until winter set in with cloudy skies and heavy snows. Conditions were so bad that Stanley Sykes, who would later work with his brother Godfrey to build the dome for the 24-inch Clark refracting telescope that continues to overlook the town today, created his own scale of seeing just for Flagstaff. (A scale of seeing is a method of evaluating the quality of atmospheric conditions when viewing the night sky, ranging from a best of 10 to worst of one.) Douglass explained the new scale in a January 14, 1895, letter to Lowell, who had long since departed the snowy landscape of Flagstaff. The younger Sykes has devised a new scale of seeing which he thinks will better suit our climate. 10, he says, is when you can see the moon. 5, is when you can still see the telescope. 1, is when you can only feel the telescope but not see it. By March 1895, Lowell began looking for another site to carry out observations, largely because of the poor weather. He soon ordered his own telescope, the 24-inch Clark Refractor, and ordered Douglass to return the borrowed ones. The new telescope was built in Massachusetts and shipped to Flagstaff in July, where the Lowell team assembled it in the dome used for the borrowed telescopes and observed with it for several months. The telescope was too large to practically be used in this dome, so Lowell hired the Sykes brothers to build a new one, which they did on their property at the northwest corner of West Dale Avenue and North Humphreys Street. In November, workers disassembled the telescope and dome, loaded them onto a railroad car, and shipped them to Mexico, where the Lowell team would observe until the following spring. Percival Lowell ultimately decided to return the dome and telescope to Flagstaff in April 1897. Despite future snowy winters, the dome and telescope never left again and remain in use today, standing as a visible beacon (except perhaps during snowmageddons like we had this week) on the skyline of Flagstaff. *The exact amount of snowfall for January 1895 has not been reliably confirmed. Special thanks to Brian Klimowski of the National Weather Service Flagstaff office for clarifying this. Julie Flett has written and illustrated several picture books that reflect her Cree-Metis culture, including Birdsong, which won the 2020 TD Canadian Childrens Literature Award. Shes also illustrated numerous books by other Indigenous authors, including two Governor Generals Literary Award winnersWhen We Were Alone and On the Trapline, both written by David A. Robertsonand Just Like Grandma by Kim Rogers (Heartdrum, Jan.), which PWs starred review said emphasizes a love of family and sense of tradition. Flett spoke with PW about sharing her heritage across generations. How did you get started in your career? My sister was working for Theytus Books, one of the first publishers of Indigenous voices in Canada. She asked me to draw the pictures for The Moccasins [by Earl Einarson, 2004]. I sent in sketches and three weeks later I turned in collage-based illustrations. I thought it was just for our community, but it made its way into libraries, and Ive heard that many non-Indigenous kids have read it. You often incorporate Mischif or Cree words into English textwhy is that important to you? Im not a speaker, but my grandfather was. Once I asked him to speak to me in Cree and he started talking before all the words to my question were out of my mouth. There are few teaching books in Indigenous languages. I try to bring it in organically. In Birdsong, a neighbor tells a girl about the waxing and waning of the moon. We say it this way, the girl responds. Kids can learn a few words and they get excited to know a new language or their own language. As I learn Cree, Im starting to understand my dad more. He didnt speak the language, but he carried its worldview with him. What appealed to you about Just Like Grandma? The content is just so tender. I love working on books about intergenerational relationships in this beautiful world that we share. Thats what makes this a profound story. I thought of all the grandmothers in my life and brought them into my work. Elders are so important to us, which is a universal theme. Can you talk a bit about your artistic process? You cant always go to the places youre illustrating, so Ill find photos on the internet; its natural to pull colors from that. After a while, I realized that made sense, to respond to where the characters are from. Its a lovely way to start. I have a background in fine arts, not illustration. Paring an image to its essence is something that I developed over time. My first books, I wasnt as happy with. Now I find connection with the heart of the story: its about saying a lot with very little. What do you find most satisfying about your work? I love the connections books make with kidsits the best. I love how engaged they are and the questions they ask. I had one boy, who was really shy, speak to me after I read Birdsong and tell me his favorite bird. I was a shy kid, so I love when my work opens up the shy kids. Patricia Buckley, who is Mohawk from the Kahnawa:ke Reserve, is the author of the forthcoming early reader The First Woman Cherokee Chief, illus. by Aphelandra Messer (Random House, Feb.). Return to the main feature. Little Free Librarywhich moved its headquarters from Hudson, Wis., to St. Paul, Minn., in Julycontinues to fulfill its mission of providing access to books to underserved communities. Its latest initiative, the Indigenous Library Program, which launches this spring, will provide book-sharing boxes for installation on tribal lands, as well as in other Indigenous communities throughout the U.S. and in Canada. The LFL boxes will be shipped at no cost to volunteer stewards and come with two starter sets of books. One set will include 25 books written and/or illustrated by BIPOC authors and artists, and the other set will feature 25 books with content centering Indigenous people and communities. Stewards subsequently will be responsible for keeping the boxes stocked with books. The Indigenous Library Program is an outgrowth of LFLs Native Library Initiative, which was part of its Impact Library Program. The latter provides library boxes and starter sets at no cost to volunteer stewards in communities in the U.S. and Canada with limited or no access to books. To date, more than 1,800 boxes have been issued under LFLs Impact Library Program, and the starter sets feature more childrens books than typical LFL starter sets. Noting the lack of access to books on tribal lands, as well as the scarcity of public libraries there, LFL stated in a release that the goal of the Indigenous Library Program is to, in partnership with Native leaders and community members, strengthen community, inspire readers, expand easy book access, support positive literacy outcomes, and make little free libraries available in high-need locations serving Indigenous peoples. Until recently, the Indigenous Library Program had been directed by Valarie Kingsland, who also managed the Impact Library Program, but Kingsland left LFL for another position after we spoke with her for this piece. (LFL executives said the scope of the Indigenous program will remain unchanged.) The new initiative also has an advisory group comprising half a dozen educators, librarians, and authors who have previous experience as LFL stewards. Most of the advisory groups members are Indigenous, and all have long served Indigenous communities in some capacity. LFL intends to expand the advisory group by adding Canadian, Hawaiian, and Alaskan representatives. The Native Library Initiative in the Impact Library Program really informed all our decision making with the Indigenous Library Program, noted Kingsland, a librarian who is an enrolled member of Alaskas Native Village Unalakleet. I was hired to develop that into a culturally responsive program. Theres more intentionality and Indigenous community involvement. Its important to me, as I am Indigenous myself, that it not just be paying lip service. LFL is committed to recognizing and respecting the unique needs of various Indigenous communities, Kingsland said, noting that, for example, the color orange has a special significance to Indigenous Canadians and may not be appropriate for an LFL box. Were not going in with the assumption that we know what they need, Kingsland said. I think thats the mistake a lot of others have madepeople from outside Indigenous communities assume and say, This is what were doing, rather than ask, What do you need? So we have a lot more options in what the Indigenous Library Program is, compared to the Impact Library Program. Valerie Janis, a technician at the Oglala Lakota College Woksape Tipi Library in Kyle, S.Dak., and a member of the Indigenous Library Programs advisory group, became a steward in 2021 of 11 LFL boxes on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The closest bookstore, depending where you are on the reservation, is an hour, an hour and a half away, Janis said. And we are the only library. Theres not a lot of access to books, especially new books. Weve created relationships with our donors, and weve gotten brand-new books. Weve given away close to 2,500 books. It gives equal-opportunity access to resources the recipients wouldnt normally have. People and organizations living in or serving Indigenous communities may apply to receive LFL boxes and started kits, along with an LFL charter sign in English, English and Spanish, English and French, or with customized wording in an Indigenous language. The kit also includes an Indigenous Library Program medallion. We dont require that the applicant be Indigenous, Kingsland said. Thats a difficult thing to saythat somebody has to be Indigenous in order to serve an Indigenous community. We want to recognize that the people who really do have a heart for an Indigenous community come from all kinds of backgrounds. In a bid to make prestigious artists residencies accessible to Indigenous talent, MacDowell and the Santa Fe, N.Mex.based Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) have announced a fellowship for graduates of the IAIAs low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFACW) Program. MacDowell was founded in 1907 and is the nations longest-running artist residency. With the new initiative, it seeks artists we have historically struggled to reach, said executive director Philip Himberg in a press release, adding that the fellowship represents a tangible example of how we can and should act to support a diversity of voices that will enrich our culture. At present, MacDowell and IAIAs partnership will fund one fellowship for an IAIA graduate annually. The number of applicants is not limited, said MacDowell admissions director Courtney Bethel, and we hope to reach artists working in a variety of artistic disciplines who are IAIA alums. MacDowell considers applications on a rolling basis: residencies last from two to six weeks, and fellows stay an average of 30 days. The partnership developed when MFACW director Deborah Jackson Taffa, a citizen of the Yuma Nation and Laguna Pueblo, spent November 2021 at MacDowell and spoke with Bethel to discuss how to attract more Native writers and artists. MacDowell invited eight past fellows, all U.S.-based and Indigenous, to convene for a virtual conversation about their residency experiences. We learned that several of these artists experienced MacDowell as the only Native artist in residence during their stay, Bethel said, so MacDowell invited them back as a cohort. In August 2022, four returned to participate, including Tonita Cervantes, Jay B Muskett, Cheryl Savageau, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden. Currently there is no specific session for Indigenous artists in residence, Bethel said, and because MacDowells residency model is self-guided, all engagement opportunities are voluntary. At the August session, MacDowell invited local Abenaki artists to share their artistic practices with the artists in residence, which included our Indigenous fellows. IAIA has no say in the admissions process, and MacDowell determines candidates for residency. If the panel doesnt select an IAIA applicant (or none apply), no funding will be directed to IAIA grads that year. Yet theres no shortage of accomplished MFACW students, present and past. Alumni include Coast Salish author Sasha LaPointe, Mikmaq/settler writer Amanda Peters, and Native Hawaiian screenwriter Bryson Chun, who works on the Disney+ series Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Tommy Orange, another IAIA grad and a two-time MacDowell fellow in 2014 and 2019, is a MFACW mentor; Ponca and Ojibwe writer/producer Migizi Pensoneau, a producer on the FX series Reservation Dogs, teaches at IAIA. The one group I would love to see increased in the MFACW is the screenwriters, Taffa added. We have a Warner Bros. partnership in which the film company pays a huge chunk of tuition. According to Robert Martin of the Cherokee Nation, president of the IAIA, The collaboration with MacDowell will be mutually beneficial to our respective missions by amplifying Indigenous voices in the arts. We are confident that access to MacDowell fellowships and interactions with other fellows will enhance our Indigenous students knowledge and arts practice, thereby promoting their success in the field. IAIA celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2022, and enrolls approximately 80% Native students and 20% non-Native students, Taffa said. Students in the MFACW program need not identify as Native, Indigenous, or First Nations people, but must have a common desire to tell stories of an alternative America, tell stories on the margins, and challenge people to think about America in new ways. Taffa emphasized that theres no one single type of Native American: we have so much diversity, religion, narratives and counternarratives. Bringing more Indigenous voices into publishing and the media, she added, unsettles the danger of the single story. A member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada, Ned Blackhawk is a professor of history and American Studies at Yale University and the author of Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the early American West (2006). His next book, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, is forthcoming in April. Ignored for generations, American Indian history has become among the most dynamic fields of U.S. historical inquiry, contributing significantly to the rise of settler colonial studies as well as global Indigenous history. As scholars now recognize, Indian peoples have fundamentally shaped and defined the North American past. From the founding of the first European settlements in North America to continuing debates over the meanings of American democracy, American Indian history remains integral to understandings of U.S. history and culture. Here are 10 essential titles from this burgeoning area of scholarly inquiry. 1. Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee by Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior Few works in Native American history from the late 20th century carried a narrative commitment to exposing the ideas and lived experiences of Native American activists or treated contemporary Native Americans as determinative actors in modern politics. Smith and Warrior broke new ground, infusing their overview of the American Indian activist movement with interviews, in-depth biographical sketches, and passion. 2. Parading Through History: The Making of the Crow Nation in America, 18051935 by Frederick E. Hoxie In one of the premier reservation histories ever authored, Hoxie offers a thorough, rich, and convincing examination of Crow history across the 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the most iconic of Plains Indian nations, the Crow struggled to retain autonomy over their reservation homeland during the trying economic, political, and religious ordeals unleashed by U.S. colonialism. Brilliant in its methodological depth and exposure, Hoxies study historicizes Crow adaptations and highlights a series of remarkable achievements, including the brilliant political careers of Plenty Coups, Robert Yellow Tail, and other Crow leaders. 3. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War by Lisa Brooks Brook's account challenges the most storied (and studied) of all English colonies: Puritan New England. Tracing the lives of Indigenous leadersmost notably Weetamoo (Wampanaog) and James Printer (Nipmuc)throughout the 17th century, Brooks uncovers an astonishing degree of cultural continuity in Northeastern Native kinship systems, gender relations, and land-use patterns. Deploying a rich archive and understanding of Algonquian placenames, she re-writes the familiar teleology of Puritan expansion and Indigenous decline, revealing how even after the cataclysmic revolution brought by King Philips War, Indigenous diplomacy, confederations, and survival characterized the Native Northeast. 4. The Indians New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact Through the Era of Removal by James H. Merrell Adopting a centuries-long perspective, this regional history of Catawba ethnogenesis along the Carolina Piedmont began a profusion of scholarly studies that similarly chartered the place of Indians and Empires across the colonial world. Haunting in its recognition of the disruptions that preceded English settlement, Merrells account helped to unsettle familiar assumptions about the colonial world, exposing the centrality of violence, disease, and Indigenous enslavement to the making of the lower South. 5. The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South by Elizabeth N. Ellis With remarkable alacrity, Ellis extends the transformation of early American history currently underway and examines the adaptations, incorporations, and skillful diplomatic efforts of Louisianas petites nations, or small nations, who comprised the majority of French Louisiana. Painstaking in its reconstruction of 18th-century village life, The Great Power of Small Nations identifies how numerous migratory and refugee communities from eastern North America sought refuge within Mississippi Valley societies, thereby redefining the nature of Indigenous affairs across the sprawling French empireNorth Americas largest colony until 1763. 6. The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs by Joshua L. Reid Reid explores the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest through the lens of the Makah Indian nation, whose reservation sits astride the tip of the Olympic Peninsula and has witnessed the only sanctioned whale hunts in modern U.S. history. As Reid outlines, whaling was enshrined into U.S. law in the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay, a recognition of the essentialness of maritime economics and culture to Makah society and history. A detailed and suggestive study that includes beautiful artwork and an afterword by former Makah councilman and chairman Micah McCarty, this is Indigenous borderlands history at its best. 7. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andres Resendez Few histories of American slavery mention the ubiquity of Indigenous captivity and enslavement. Fewer still track its development across the American continent. The Other Slavery tackles both and does so admirably. Largely rooted in the Spanish empirethe Caribbean, Mexico, and northern New SpainResendezs book also exposes the importance of Indian slavery, which potentially trafficked upwards of five million Indigenous laborers, as a key explanation for the demographic collapse of Indigenous populations. 8. Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory by Christian W. McMillen Unlike other American minorities, Native nations retain unique legal powers under the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, few American educators know much about these distinctions or their significance to contemporary Native nations. Making Indian Law explores a particular area within federal Indian lawthe emergence of the doctrine of aboriginal titleand does so in clear and effective ways. Focusing on how the Hualapai Nation of Arizona fought the expropriation of its land and resources, McMillen traces how a small number of tribal citizens organized themselves and eventually sought not only redress but also statutory remedies as their case reached the Supreme Court in 1941. In a unanimous decision handed down the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the court affirmed the tribes land rights and suggested the need for compensating them for their illegal seizure. 9. American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Masking of Justice by David E. Wilkins The distinctiveness of Indian nations in modern American politics remains understudied and often misunderstood, with profound consequences for Indian communities. The collective works of David Wilkins offer the most sustained path through this thicket of problematics. Most notably, in American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court, he analyzes the emergence of various themes and precedents of federal Indian law and policy and also periodizes them, offering a critical overview of a series of constitutional concerns that have plagued tribal nations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. With a depth of familiarity and engagement, this book offers a direly needed interpretive arc for gauging the faulty logics of Supreme Court rulings vis-a-vis Native nations. 10. Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England by Jean M. OBrien Despite being founded after Virginia and other French, Dutch, and Spanish colonies, New England, over time, came to be seen as the birthplace of American history due to its regional distinctions and attributes. OBrien richly exposes the myriad ways that visions of Native peoples facilitated this regional distinctiveness, particularly in local histories in which Native peoples remained either the first or last members of their representative communities. Tracking such visions of alleged disappearance across hundreds of local histories, OBrien identifies the production of historical knowledge itself as a constitutive element of settler colonialism. Return to the main feature. Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, received numerous accolades for her debut YA thriller, Firekeepers Daughter, including the 2022 Printz Award and the 2022 Edgar Award for Young Adult. Her follow-up, Warrior Girl Unearthed (Holt), is due out in May. Lois Duncans Stranger with My Face was a watershed book for memy first exposure to a Native American protagonist. I was a senior in high school. My worldview shifted upon seeing a Native teen as the main character, because I hadnt realized my absence in books until then. I had mixed feelings about the actual story. Cringey elements included an Indian princess birth mother and an adoptive father who referenced his daughters alien eyes. Representation in YA literature is about being present on the page and seeing ourselves, our families, and our communities portrayed authentically. Native authors arent only telling a story, we are sharing Indigenous knowledge. Each of us must decide what to leave off the page. My personal author mantra is, I write to preserve my culture; I edit to protect it. Here are 10 must-read books that set the bar for representing Indigenous characters authentically. 1. The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (DCB) My favorite YA novel of all time begins with an all-too-familiar scene: 16-year-old Frenchie is on the run, desperate to evade truancy officers (known as Recruiters) from government-operated residential schools. Dimalines story isnt set in the past, howeverit takes place in a chilling future close enough to feel goosepimples. Rooted in Canadian and U.S. government policies of dismantling Indigenous nations through the extraction of precious resourceschildren and their connection to culture and communityFrenchies coming-of-age story is a dystopian thriller where everyone except Indigenous peoples has lost the ability to dream. 2. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, illus. by Rovina Cai (Levine Querido) Aspiring authors are cautioned not to write for the current market because vampire stories, like bell-bottom jeans, go in and out of fashion. I cry foul! I want all the vampire and vamp-adjacent stories from Indigenous YA authorseverything from Drew Hayden Taylors The Night Wanderer to Little Badgers endearing speculative fiction debut. Title character Elatsoe is a Lippan Apache teen who can raise the ghosts of dead animals (including her dog, Kirby). El seeks answers when her cousin is murdered, a quest that leads to my favorite book momentwhen Elatsoe is threatened by a vampire and defends herself by invoking an Indigenous land acknowledgment. #LandBack more 3. My Good Man by Eric Gansworth (Levine Querido) Brian is a 25-year-old reporter returning to the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in search of details after someone he knows has been violently attacked. Brians homecoming sparks recollections of the formative eras of his life and illustrates the widening chasm between his Haudenosaunee and American identities. As in Gansworths other sublime novels, If I Ever Get Out of Here and Give Me Some Truth, music frames his beautiful, funny, nuanced, and utterly transcendent storytelling. more 4. The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson (Heartdrum) This impressive YA debut delves into the color spectrum to describe a range of ice cream flavors, particularly those derived from the berries and plants of the main characters Metis homeland on the Canadian prairie. Louisas summer job at her familys ice cream shack is complicated by the presence of an ex-boyfriend, an exbest friend, and her ex-con biological father. Ferguson crafts a story rich in the bitter and sweet of healing trauma. The conversation between Lou and her friend, King, about sexual identity and consent is the sweetest treat. more 5. Walking in Two Worlds by Wab Kinew (Penguin Teen Canada) Walking in two worlds is a common phrase in coming-of-age narratives for biracial and mixed-heritage teens. Kinews debut YA novel carries the theme into the virtual world of a multiplayer video game universe. Bugz is an Anishinaabe teen whose bifurcated identities could not be more different. In the real world, she is shy and struggles with her body image. In contrast, Bugz of the Floraverse is a badass legend whose every move is cheered by fans or loathed by a legion of misogynistic gamers. I so enjoyed the Indigenous knowledge embedded in the verse. more 6. Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick) When her boyfriend makes disparaging remarks about Native Americans, Muscogee teen Lou dumps his insensitive ass. The budding journalist regroups quickly and focuses on her high school newspaper. When a group of parents form Parents Against Revisionist Theater to protest the racially diverse casting decisions in the schools production of The Wizard of Oz, Lou and fellow staffer Joey cover the big story. Sparks ensue. Leitich Smiths story about first loves, missteps, and lessons learned is a delight. more 7. Crazy Horses Girlfriend by Erika T. Wurth (Curbside Splendor) Wurths most recent novel, White Horse, is getting much-deserved praise and attention. But its her debut novel that has stayed with me. Teen Marguerite navigates a violent home, determined to protect her younger siblings. Her coming-of-age story is about the complicated and dangerous choices that are made when the alternatives are even worse. The first chapter is a creative-writing master class in voice. more 8. Man Made Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers (Levine Querido) This collection of horror stories spans a Cherokee familys past, present, and future. The monsters are real: werewolves, forced relocation, intimate partner violence, and zombies. Rogerss debut YA earned high praise from PW, Kirkus, Tommy Orange, and Stephen Graham Jones, who provided the best blurb ever: Andrea Rogers writes like the house is on fire and her words are the only thing that can put it out. more 9. Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon (Cinco Puntos) Technically not YA, but I would not hesitate to share Rendons work with teens. Renee Cash Blackbear is a 19-year-old Anishinaabe making her way in 1970s Fargo, N.Dak. She drives truck for local farmers and plays (wins) pool for cash. Sometimes she helps Sheriff Wheaton with murder investigations. Rendon is the most underrated author, IMHO. She writes the way Anishinaabe people see the worldcrafting rich, sensory descriptions that transport the reader. more 10. The Round House by Louise Erdrich (Harper) No best-of list would be complete without my literary idol. Another technically not YA novel that I would not hesitate to share with teens. Thirteen-year-old Joes mother is sexually assaulted and wont speak to anyone about what happenednot even to Joes father, a tribal judge. This coming-of-age story captures the fleeting passage from boyhood to manhood, the sense of injustice and lost innocence. As I read Erdrichs novel, Joe and friends became as familiar to me as the boys who gathered at my home with my two sons. more Return to the main feature. Project 562 Matika Wilbur. Ten Speed, Apr. In 2012, social documentarian Wilbur, from the Swinomish and Tulalip peoples of coastal Washington, set out to visit with and photograph people from each of the then 562 federally recognized Native American tribal nations (there are 574 today). One decade, 50 states, and 600,000 miles later, her profiles paint a diverse portrait of the people she met, from those in Seminole country (known as the Everglades) to Inuit territory (at the Bering Sea). Miley Cyrus' new single "Flowers" is vaulting up the global charts and setting records. But what many of her fans want to know is whether the song is about her relationship with her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth. ADVERTISEMENT After meeting in 2010, Hemsworth and Cyrus dated on and off for the next decade. They were briefly married from 2018 to 2020. Last year, after helping facilitate a fan's wedding proposal at her concert in Brazil, Cyrus wished the couple luck, saying "Congratulations! Honey, I hope your marriage goes better than mine. Mine was a [expletive] disaster." On Friday, Cyrus thanked her fans for making "Flowers" the top-streamed song in a single week in Spotify history. It also ironically topped the Australian charts and came in at #2 on the U.K. chart. The U.S. Billboard chart won't release its numbers until Monday. Like several other songs Cyrus, 30, has written during and after her relationship with Hemsworth, 33, this one has received its fair share of fan speculation. Lyrics in the song seem to reference or respond to similar ones in the Bruno Mars hit "When I Was Your Man." His lyrics read: "I should have bought you flowers And held your hand. Should have gave you all my hours when I had the chance / Take you to every party 'cause all you wanted to do was dance / Now my baby's dancing, But she's dancing with another man." "Flowers" includes the lyrics: "I can buy myself flowers / Write my name in the sand / Talk to myself for hours / Say things you don't understand / I can take myself dancing / And I can hold my own hand /Yeah, I can love me better than you can." While Miley has neither confirmed nor denied that the lyrics in "Flowers" refer to her ex-husband, her sister, Brandi, shared her own theories on the podcast Your Favorite Thing. Us magazine reported that she told Wes Adams she finds the theories funny. "Miley's new song, all the tea ... and all the narratives that fans are making on TikTok. It's so good," she said. "The song did come out on his birthday -- was that on purpose? I don't know. Can't say. Genius, though." FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Brandi who's a deejay, said the rumors and TikTok speculation are helping make the song a hit. And for that, she credits her sister's ability to keep her fans guessing. "Then there was, 'The suit she's wearing is the suit Liam wore at the Avengers premiere, where he told her that she needed to behave for once," Brandi continued. "And so, this is a [expletive] you because she's in the suit.' Hilarious. Then the other one was, 'The house is the house where Liam used to take people [to] cheat on her with.' "The narratives are [expletive] hilarious, but it's so great. The best PR that could ever happen because it gets people talking about the song on TikTok and it's everywhere. And it's just so fun to watch it all play out. Miley fans, I love ya." One thing Miley has confirmed is that her album Endless Summer Vacation is coming out March 10. Recorded in Los Angeles, it features production by Tyler Johnson, Greg Kurstin, Kid Harpoon, and Mike Will Made-It. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Athens legend William Orten Carlton, otherwise known as Ort, died at St. Marys hospital Saturday afternoon at 73 years old, according to Flagpole Magazine. Carlton was known for his influence on Athens culture, and contributed to Flagpole for decades, writing on various topics, from beer to road trips. Memorial services have not yet been shared, according to Flagpole. 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. BENNINGTON Main Street in Bennington is about to have an empty shop a few steps from the Four Corners. W. Collective is closing its doors at An independent Russian rights group says Belarus has repatriated a Russian activist and journalist detained while observing the trial in Minsk of the prominent Vyasna (Spring) human rights center, instead of releasing Yekaterina Yanshina as expected after a 15-day jail sentence. The OVD-Info organization said Yanshina had contacted a relative after her deportation to a Moscow airport. Yanshina has cooperated in the past with the Memorial human rights group, which is now banned in Russia. She was taken into custody in a courtroom in Minsk on January 6 and sentenced to 15 days in jail on administrative charges of petty hooliganism for allegedly streaming and taking photos of the proceedings against four Vyasna (Spring) activists, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski. Byalyatski and his three associates are on trial on smuggling and tax-evasion charges that rights defenders and Western governments call politically motivated retribution on the part of longtime authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Yanshina's 15-day jail term was scheduled to end on January 20 but she did not emerge from the Minsk detention center where she was being held. OVD-Info said that, once in the Russian capital, she contacted a relative. The Belarusian authorities kept all of Yanshina's belongings, it said. The Front Line Defenders (FLD) rights group describes Yanshina as a human rights defender and journalist who has worked since 2021 with a rights-media outlet for lawyers and began collaborating with Human Rights Center Memorial last year. Vyasna's Byalyatski, the banned Human Rights Center Memorial, and the Kyiv-based Center for Civil Liberties, which has chronicled alleged atrocities since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October. The Memorial group, which long documented Soviet-era crimes but also tracked Putin-era abuses, was labeled an "undesirable" organization by Russian authorities. The Vyasna defendants have been in Belarusian custody since July 2021 and face up to 12 years in prison if convicted. Byalyatski and two other men, along with a fourth defendant who is being tried in absentia, are accused of bringing money into the country for "illegal activities and financing Vyasna," the largest rights body in the former Soviet country and one of the main sources of information on political detentions and arrests. Lukashenka has appeared increasingly compliant to Moscow since launching a brutal crackdown after a flawed presidential election in 2020 in which he claimed a sixth presidential term. He has also shown his willingness to allow Russian troops to use Belarusian territory to stage their unprovoked full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine since February. New parliamentary elections will be held in Bulgaria in the spring after the third and last possible attempt to form a new government failed. Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova, who was handed the third mandate to form a new government on January 16, said she will return it to President Rumen Radev on January 23. Ninova met on January 20 with the leaders of three other parties, but they could not reach a majority. She said the parties had been "extremely responsible in trying to form a new government. We were looking for what would unite us, not what would divide us. We were looking for a solution to get out of the political crisis," Ninova said. Under the constitution, Radev must dissolve the parliament and schedule elections within 60 days of issuing the dissolution decree, but there is no restriction on when he can do this. If Radev dissolves the parliament next week, a new election would be held March 26. The parliamentary elections will be the fifth vote in Bulgaria since April 2021. Radev chose the BSP to fulfill the mandate because he believed the party had the "best chance" to form a government and had preserved the "dialogue with all the political parties represented in the parliament." Two parties -- GERB and the reformist We Continue the Change -- finished first and second in the last parliamentary elections on October 2, but they failed to cobble together a coalition government. The meeting on January 20 included the chairmen of GERB, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), and the Bulgarian Rise (BV) parties. Representatives of We Continue The Change (PP), Democratic Bulgaria (DB) and the pro-Russian far-right Vazrazhdane (Revival) party did not attend the meeting. Boyko Borisov of the GERB party said after the meeting that he would ask GERBs leaders whether they would agree with a negotiation on the formation of an expert government, including with the BSP, in a reversal of the GERBs previous position not to hold negotiations on forming a government with the socialists. Borisov, who spent three divisive tenures as prime minister between 2009 and 2021, and his GERB party have been the target of widespread corruption accusations, and most groups have dismissed talk of cooperation with Borisov. Despite the failure of the attempt to achieve a mandate, Ninova said that the socialists remain "open to conversations that are important for the Bulgarian people." She also rejected claims that the party was responsible for the failure to form a government. "The suggestion that the third mandate holder, whoever he is, is to blame for something is manipulation. After the first failed, and then the second, the responsibility should hardly be borne by the third," she said. With reporting by dpa TASHKENT/DUSHANBE -- "Will you turn it on, or not?" asked a woman in the Uzbek town of Chirchik, as she grabbed a grid electrician from behind and held a kitchen knife to his neck in an exchange captured on camera. "If you are going to cut me, cut me," responded the electrician, after power-starved residents descended on company premises for a control room showdown. The incident in Chirchik, an hour outside the capital, Tashkent, that led to the 35-year-old woman's arrest speaks to the desperation that has set in as parts of Central Asia clocked up their coldest cold snap in 15 years, triggering electricity, water, and heating failures. While frontline workers have borne the brunt of the frustration, fingers are also being pointed at officials higher up the food chain, whose tendency is to hope for the best instead of planning for the worst when winter comes around. Power outages are nothing new for most of the region's population --villages across much of Central Asia lack electricity for all or most of the day during the coldest months. When temperatures plunge, rural residents have to burn more coal, or, if they cannot afford it, dried dung. Residents of larger Central Asian cities tend to be spared the worst of systemic energy shortages. This winter has been different, with residents of apartment blocks in Tashkent spending days without power, heating, and water, and residents of the Tajik capital Dushanbe also suffering badly. "This is the first time they have completely failed in the capital," said Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Uzbekistan's energy crisis. "That is important because residents of the capitals have the closest connection to business and political elites. So it is precisely in the capitals where the image of these governments is being damaged," Umarov said. Temperatures have plummeted in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian nations in the past 10 days to below minus 30 degrees Celsius in some locations. Tashkent and Dushanbe, the Tajik capital, have regularly seen temperatures of minus 20 degrees or below during that period. Massive Shortages For many old enough to remember, this winter has been an unwelcome flashback to the winter of 2007-08, an event that still evokes shudders from those who experienced it. Seemingly, nobody thought it could happen again. But massive shortages in Uzbekistan's gas supply became evident as early as November 2022, when the weather was also unseasonably cold, forcing the government to shut down gas filling stations and send gas-powered industrial assets into hibernation. The shortages complicated life for a Dushanbe heating plant that has used gas from Uzbekistan to power its operations in recent years. Tajikistan's grids have rarely benefited from an abundance of supply. Now the country is exporting electricity to Uzbekistan's southern Surkhandarya region where shortages have been especially acute. Saidmurod Murodov, a resident of one Dushanbe apartment block, complained that his apartment building has had heating problems for the last three or four years. "We have children at home, everyone is sick. We called the heating network, and in response they said that it would be getting a little warmer soon, and so the buildings would be warmer," Murodov told RFE/RL's Tajik service. "Why should we wait for it to be warmer outside to have heat in the buildings? If we need to, we will collect the signatures of 2,000-3,000 and appeal to the president." A representative of Dushanbe's municipal water department meanwhile insisted that preparations for the winter season had been thorough. "Nobody could anticipate that strong frosts would hit unexpectedly," said the representative Mehrodjiddin Boborahimov in response to questions about pipes that had frozen, choking the water supply. A Powerful Mayor Pays The Price In Tashkent, Central Asia's largest city with around 3 million people, residents have been seen cooking meals on open fires on the street, echoing scenes from early December 2002 in the city of Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan, where a power plant went offline for the best part of a week. More than a fifth of the city's neighborhoods have experienced extended shortages of electricity and power, according to officials. The National Guard and the army have been put into action in the last week, helping to set up heated tents where people can warm themselves and drink tea. Erstwhile Tashkent Mayor Jahongir Ortikhojaev's attempt to get in on the act by offering out free bowls of pilaf proved too little too late, however. On January 16, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev said that he had fired Ortikhojaev and several top-level energy officials including Deputy Energy Minister Sherzod Khodjaev over their failure to prepare the city for the winter. Mirziyoev branded Ortikhojaev as "shameless" and accused him of "empty words." Ortikhojaev's fall from grace is all the more striking since he has been one of the most prominent politicians of Mirziyoev's reign, which began in 2016 after the death of the country's first leader, Islam Karimov. A wealthy businessman with little experience in politics, Ortikhojaev's appointment back in 2018 was hailed by the president as investment-friendly. Mirziyoev stuck by Ortikhojaev through scandals over property developments, which saw buildings in the city's historic neighborhoods demolished, and a dispute in which Ortikhojaev appeared to threaten two journalists. Nikita Makarenko, a well-known Tashkent blogger, argued in an interview with RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that the building spree during Ortikhojaev's tenure had played a role in Tashkent's energy collapse, because "the infrastructure could not support [the new developments]." Tashkent's difficult winter was "the last straw" ending his mayoral reign, Makarenko said. Another Tashkent-based journalist, Aleksei Volosevich, argued that the move was to head off a "protest mood," which has emerged on the back of the shortages. "He's the right hand of Mirziyoev," Volosevich said of Ortikhodjaev. "That says something. There is so much displeasure now that he had to do that." Unsung Heroes If Ortikhodjaev and other officials are being held up as the villains of the regional cold snap, then its unsung heroes are people like Gulrukhsor Boeva, an orange-vested streetcleaner who works for Dushanbe's municipality. Earning around $120 per month her day begins in the earlier hours of the morning after a commute from Vahdat, a town outside the capital, where she lives with her children and husband, a former migrant worker in Russia who is currently unemployed. "Of course it is hard, but what is to be done?" Boeva said as she took a break from batting snow down from roadside trees and shoveling it off the city's sidewalks. "I am grateful for this work." Although the weather across the region has already begun to warm, sub-zero temperatures are expected to continue into next week. The grid operator for Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, on January 19 confirmed that parts of the city would see scheduled blackouts in the coming days to spare grid equipment from burning out amid growing consumption. Turkmenistan, Central Asia's most closed country and the holder of the world's fourth-largest gas reserves, has also seen massive disruptions in its supplies of the fuel due to the cold, causing power outages. Although the government has not officially acknowledged the problem, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service received reports this week that private bakeries were among the buildings cut off as officials scrambled to improve the supply. Written by Chris Rickleton with reporting from RFE/RL's Uzbek, Tajik, Kyrgyz, and Turkmen services 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. www.rferl.org/a/31793259.html 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 appears to be making headway toward renewing official ties with Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf states that in some cases have been publicly avoiding Tehran for decades. The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia held talks in Beijing on April 6 in a significant step toward restoring diplomatic relations, which were cut in 2016 after protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran following Riyadhs execution of prominent Saudi Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Iran also accepted an invitation from Saudi King Salman for President Ebrahim Raisi to visit Riyadh, while Tehran said it will send a similar invitation to the Saudi king. Meanwhile, a Saudi delegation traveled to Iran on April 9 to discuss the reopening of the embassy in Tehran and a consulate in Mashhad. The trip came as Iranian media reported on April 8 that a street sign near the Saudi consulate in Mashhad provocatively named after Sheikh al-Nimr had been quietly removed. An Iranian delegation also arrived in Saudi Arabia on April 12 to pave the way for the reopening of Iranian diplomatic missions there. Iran is meanwhile taking steps to improve ties with other countries in the region, naming an ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and working to decrease tensions with Egypt and Bahrain. Why It Matters: Iran and Saudi Arabia appear to be pursuing implementation of last months Chinese-brokered agreement, possibly clearing the way for Tehran to de-escalate tensions with other countries that followed Riyadhs lead on a rupture seven years ago. What's Next: Tehran and Riyadh could move surprisingly swiftly toward normalization, but its no sure thing. Abdolrasool Divsallar, a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Milan (UCSC), told me that the political environment between the two regional rivals could encourage the start of military and security talks within months. But Divsallar also warned that opponents at home and abroad could still undermine the agreement. Hard-liners in Iran may act as a spoiler rather than as a supporter of the deal, he said, adding that Israel could do the same. The regional tensions between Israel and Iran, on one side, andbetween Iran, Saudi [Arabia] and the United States, on the other side, are two dynamics that make this process very fragile, he said. Divsallar also suggested that any normalization between Iran and countries with less appetite for a quick restoration of ties, for instance Bahrain, could take longer. They feel more secure under the current status quo rather than immediately normalizing their ties with the Islamic republic and losing their leverage, he said, adding, They may wait to see a major change of policies. Stories You Might Have Missed Irans civil aviation sector has for years been under Western sanctions that prevent it from purchasing new aircraft or spare parts for repairs. Now, Russia's oldest airline, Aeroflot, has sent one of its passenger planes to Iran for repairs for the first time ever. Aeroflot reportedly ran into obstacles at home stemming from Western sanctions over Russias ongoing, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The RBK media group cited an Aeroflot representative and sources close to the company on April 11 as saying that an Airbus A330-300 had been sent to Tehran on April 5 to be repaired by specialists from Iran's Mahan Air. Iranian pensioners staged protests in more than a dozen cities across Iran, demanding higher pensions amid soaring prices. Protests were reported on April 9 in Tehran, Ahvaz, Mashhad, Isfahan, Arak, Qom, Shush, Tabriz, and several other cities where retirees complained of poor living conditions and chanted anti-government slogans. Labor protests in Iran have swelled as the economy deteriorates following years of mismanagement compounded by crippling U.S. sanctions. What We're Watching Prominent Iranian female religious scholar Sedigheh Vasmaghi has challenged Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the Islamic republics mandatory hijab law. In a letter published online, Vasmaghi asked about the reasoning behind Irans strict model for womens dress and said the Koran does not specify the need for women to cover their hair in public. There is no evidence to show that during the time of the Prophet Muhammad women were harassed and punished for not covering their hair or even their bodies, Vasmaghi, who has published several books on Islamic jurisprudence, wrote. Why It Matters: Vasmaghis letter is significant for its timing -- just days after Khamenei asserted that the removal of the hijab in public was religiously banned. But it is also important because it comes from a religious woman who wears the veil while opposing the mandatory hijab, which is seemingly being defied by a growing number of women. 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. The European Union's special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue led a delegation of Western envoys to Pristina and Belgrade on January 20 as part of a push by the EU and the United States to spur the process of normalization between them. Miroslav Lajcak said he was encouraged by what he heard, but it was too early to draw any conclusions from the talks that he and the four other envoys held on an EU proposal submitted at the end of the summer. The 10-point proposal, which RFE/RL has seen, does not envision mutual recognition between Kosovo and Serbia but lays out the commitment of each party not to hinder the other in the normalization process. "It is too early to make dramatic statements because, as you know, we are in the middle of our mission, Lajcak said in Pristina before departing for Belgrade. Lajcak and envoys from the United States, France, Germany, and Italy traveled to Pristina for talks with Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Kosovo. They later met in Belgrade with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to discuss possible next steps toward normalizing relations. Lajcak said that the EU and the U.S. commitment to achieving the normalization was demonstrated by the presence of so many envoys. He said he and the other envoys have been waiting for a better understanding of the possibilities offered by [the EU] proposal" as ongoing efforts to defuse tensions continue. Kosovo broke away from Serbia after a war in 1998-99 and declared independence in 2008, but Belgrade, its allies Russia and China, and a number of other countries have never recognized it. The dispute remains a source of instability in the Balkans amid Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kurti said after the meeting that the EU proposal is "a good basis for further talks," while Vucic said that Serbia was "ready to accept the concept and work on the implementation of the European plan." Vucic added that he has "concern and reservations about an important matter" but did not elaborate. After meeting with Kurti, Lajcak said that the delegation expected more understanding from Pristina about the possibilities offered by the EU proposal, which he described as "the best way for the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo and for European integration of the region. Vucic, he said, demonstrated a responsible approach and willingness to take difficult decisions in the interest of peace and European perspective for Serbia, adding: We feel encouraged. Our work will continue without delay. Lajcak also reiterated the importance of the timely implementation of the Agreement on the Association of Serbian Municipalities, calling it a key element for stability. The formation of the association in Kosovo is the most controversial issue in the dialogue. Kosovar officials say that it cannot be monoethnic. In addition, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has found several violations in the agreement and has concluded that the association can only be formed according to the constitution. Serbia insists that the association be formed according to a 2015 agreement, and Vucic said the association must be formed urgently. U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet, who visited Pristina and Belgrade last week, has also stressed the importance of the formation of the association. Chollettold RFE/RL in an interview on January 19 that he did not expect any solutions to come out of the meetings on January 20, but said they represented "an important turning point." With reporting by AP Two U.S. senators have written a letter to Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov to voice their concerns about recent attacks on press freedom in Kyrgyzstan, including a decision last year to freeze RFE/RLs bank account. U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (Democrat-New Jersey) and Jim Risch (Republican-Idaho), who respectively serve as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned Kyrgyzstans use of its false information law to crack down on independent media in the letter, in particular its decisions to indefinitely block the websites of RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, and to freeze the services bank account. While we recognize the historic role that the Kyrgyz Republics leadership has played in upholding the most free, independent media landscape in Central Asia, we are concerned the decisions to block Radio Azattyk websites indefinitely and freeze the services bank account jeopardize your countrys international reputation as a beacon of free speech in Central Asia, the senators wrote in their letter dated January 20. They said the decisions violate international norms on freedom of speech and freedom of the press, including Kyrgyzstans own constitutional guarantees of these freedoms, the senators said. The Kyrgyz government blocked Radio Azattyks websites in Kyrgyz and Russian on October 26 after the broadcaster refused to take down a video about clashes along a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. The broadcaster was informed on October 31 that its bank account had been frozen. RFE/RL's President and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Fly condemned the move to freeze the account, saying Radio Azattyk is a trusted source of news and should be allowed to continue to operate unimpeded. RFE/RL last month filed an administrative suit appealing the blocking of its websites. Menendez and Risch in their letter emphasized Kyrgyzstans commitment to uphold freedom of the press as a critical pillar of the U.S.-Kyrgyz Republic relationship. The senators also expressed alarm over reported threats of violence against journalists, including those made against RFE/RL staff during a demonstration in October. They called on the Kyrgyz government to immediately lift the restrictions on Radio Azattyk, cease attacks on free and independent media, and investigate threats of violence against journalists. Recalling your commitment to uphold human rights and the rule of law, we urge you to establish conditions for independent media to freely operate and to ensure Kyrgyz journalists can carry out their work without fear of retaliation, the senators said. A number of international organizations criticized the restrictions on Radio Azattyk, and some Kyrgyz cultural and public figures have appealed to authorities to stop the tactics against the broadcaster and to preserve freedom of speech. Representatives of the Kyrgyz government have denied that the work of the free media is limited in the country. In August, 20-year-old Elina Ukhmanova fled her home in the Russian region of Daghestan for the third time. She feared for her safety after what she describes as years of violence and abuse from her relatives capped off with several harrowing months undergoing forced treatment for atheism and bisexuality at a dubious rehabilitation center in the regional capital, Makhachkala. Only now, after several months under the protection of human rights activists in an undisclosed location, does she feel safe enough to tell her story. Anyone running away from their family in the [North] Caucasus -- it doesnt matter if it is a young man or a woman -- is never completely safe, even outside of Russia, Ukhmanova told RFE/RLs Caucasus.Realities. Even abroad, there are no 100 percent guarantees. Ukhmanova, a college physics student from the city of Khasavyurt, said she remained terrified for some time after activists from the support group SK SOS, which assists LGBT people threatened with violence in the North Caucasus, helped her escape Daghestan. I was constantly afraid, she recalled. I felt as if they might burst into the room at any moment and force me to go back. Ukhmanovas story is far from unique in the North Caucasus, a patchwork of regions -- most of them predominantly Muslim -- in southern Russia. In October, a young man from Daghestan named Magomed Askhabov complained publicly that the authorities were doing nothing to investigate his allegations that he had been tortured at a self-proclaimed rehabilitation center called Start, where he had been sent by his parents to cure him of homosexuality. In late 2021, a gay Chechen woman named Khalimat Taramova alleged that she had been abducted and held for three months at a clinic outside of Moscow called Invia Elite. During that time, she was allegedly subjected to exorcisms and other procedures aimed at chasing away demons. Russian authorities did not react to her claims. 'Beatings And Arguments' Ukhmanova said her problems at home began when she was about 10, when her mother began instructing her and her younger sister in the daily Muslim prayer rituals. I didnt understand why I needed this, but the adults used force and beatings to force me to pray, she said. Any attempt to talk to them just led to more beatings and arguments. Around the age of 14, she began to realize her bisexual orientation when she developed feelings for a girl at her school. I told my parents about my orientation when I was in college, she wrote in an essay for the Kholod website. They started calling me a prostitute. Her first major act of disobedience came when she was already a university student in Makhachkala in June 2021. Her department had several days off to prepare for exams, and Ukhmanova concealed this from her parents and did not return home as usual. Instead, she took a job in a cafe. On the very first day, my father called, she said. He had found out about the break and knew that other students had come home. I understood that I couldnt hide from them anymore, so I wrote to my mother and said I was not coming back home. Together with a boyfriend, we hid in [the Daghestani city of] Kaspiisk. We stayed there for two days. At that point, they found out that the police had been questioning their friends. When Ukhmanova called the police, she was told her parents were worried about her, concerned that she intended to join a terrorist group or run off to Syria. The police, she said, told her to come in and write a statement saying that she had left of her own volition and that all was in order. They promised to release her. But when she showed up at the station, she was immediately taken back to Makhachkala and handed over to her parents. 'A Mass Phenomenon' A few months later, she and her boyfriend ran off again. This time they remained hidden for several months and Ukhmanova was even able to get a passport, potentially enabling her to leave Russia. But in the end, she said, she was discovered by employees of the Alyans Rekaveri rehabilitation center in Makhachkala, working at the behest of her parents. They abducted her, she said, and took her by force to the center for purported treatment. Over the four months I was there, there were between five and 10 others, Ukhmanova said. Mostly they were drug addicts or alcoholics. Several of them had been in rehabilitation centers before and said that they had seen other problematic young people like me. They couldnt say what their problem was. Ukhmanova added that most of the others at the center had also been abducted against their will. She said there were no doctors or psychologists at the center. All the staffers were former patients. The addicts were, she said, regularly punished by having to do hundreds of push-ups or squats and were sometimes handcuffed to railings in such a way that they had to stand on their toes for prolonged periods. Such methods werent really used on me, she said. Most likely because they knew my parents or because I wasnt an addict. Mostly they just made me write a lot. Once when I had an argument with another patient, we were handcuffed together for an entire day. RFE/RL was unable to contact any representative of Alyans Rekaveri for comment. The center is not registered as a medical organization in Russia. Its website stopped working shortly after Ukhmanovas story was published. Ater Ukhmanovas allegations, the Russian website NewsTracker published comments from an unnamed man who was presented as the centers director. He claimed all the charges were false and that the center had closed 18 months ago. At some point after she had been at the center for several months, Ukhmanovas relatives told her the family planned to send her to an Islamic education center in neighboring Chechnya. She had been thinking about running away a third time, but this news made up her mind. The day before I left, a neighbor came over to visit my mother, which distracted her, Ukhmanova said. I was able to find my passport, which they had hidden. I had been searching for it at every opportunity. I took this as a good sign. In her previous escape attempts, she had confided in friends who were later pressured into revealing information about her whereabouts and plans. This time, she realized she couldnt do that. The main mistake is trusting anyone, she said. And the second mistake is thinking you can do it on your own. This time, she turned to SK SOS. Now Elina is in relative safety, a spokesperson for the group told RFE/RL. She is not under direct threat. Many families in the North Caucasus have connections in Moscow and other major cities, so we are not revealing her location. In an interview with RFE/RL in October, SK SOS spokesperson Miron Rozanov said there are quite a few such rehabilitation centers in the North Caucasus and there have been numerous complaints of LGBT people being abducted and forcibly treated at them. Aminat Lorsanova, a native of Chechnya, has told how she was held in a rehab center for several months in 2019, Rozanov said. She was forcibly medicated with drugs that affected her cognitive abilities under the guise of treatment for a made-up diagnosis. But Lorsanovas allegations never became the basis for an investigation, although thanks to her we learned about the existence of such centers. We cant say exactly how many there are, but it is a mass phenomenon, he added, explaining that officially they present themselves as spiritual centers -- which are unregulated -- rather than medical facilities. Written by RFE/RL feature writer Robert Coalson based on reporting by RFE/RLs Caucasus.Realities The Russian Defense Ministry said on January 21 that it held a training exercise in the Moscow region on repelling air attacks on military industrial and administrative facilities. The ministry announced the exercise in a statement, saying that it involved an S-300 antiaircraft missile system. "As they marched, soldiers repelled an attack by a mock enemy sabotage group on a military convoy," the statement said. The ministry said 150 soldiers took part in the exercise but did not say where in the Moscow region the training took place. The exercise took place days after images showing Russian officials installing air defense systems on the rooftop of the Russian Defense Ministry building in Moscow and elsewhere near the city began circulating on social media. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the images. Asked whether the photos indicated that Russia was concerned Moscow could be a target, he referred questions to the Defense Ministry. "They are responsible for ensuring the security of the country in general and the capital in particular, therefore it is better to ask the Defense Ministry about all measures that are taken," Peskov told reporters on January 20. The State Duma Defense Committee called the photos and videos fakes. Ulterior Motives? The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a report on January 20 that the possible deployment of air defense systems in Moscow was not associated with the threat of an attack from Ukraine and is most likely based on ulterior motives. The Kremlin likely deployed the air defense systems in Moscow to generate inflammatory images that portray the war as more threatening to the Russian public, the U.S.-based ISW said. It added that is unlikely that the Kremlin believes that Ukraine would target Moscow but likely that the Kremlin engaged in the activities to prepare the Russian domestic information space for a protracted war in Ukraine and further sacrifices. Reports about the deployment of air defense systems in Moscow also may demonstrate the intention of Russian authorities to draw parallels with World War II, presenting Ukraine as a country that poses a real threat to Russia, the ISW said. This is likely meant to increase Russian support for the war effort and any further mobilization by absurdly portraying Ukraine as threatening Moscow and the rest of the Russian heartland in a way to the way Nazi Germany did during its invasion of the Soviet Union, the institute said. Photos and videos showing antiaircraft missile systems installed on rooftops in central Moscow and near the residence of President Vladimir Putin in Novo-Ogaryovo, as well as near the Ostafyevo airport, began to appear on Russian social networks earlier this week. One of the systems, the Pantsir S-1, was installed on the helipad of the main building of the Russian Defense Ministry, but the date of its installation could not be determined. Earlier, new S-400 air defense systems were seen on the outskirts of Moscow. Reports on the installation of air defense systems on the rooftops of buildings in Moscow made note of drone attacks last month on Russian military airfields near Ryazan and Saratov, hundreds of kilometers from the battlefield in Ukraine. With reporting by AFP U.S. authorities have arrested a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman in connection with the investigation into the leaking of top-secret defense and intelligence documents that have been circulated online, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on April 13. Garland identified the guardsman as Jack Teixeira, who will be charged with the unauthorized removal of classified national defense information in one of the biggest U.S. security breaches in years. Heavily armed federal agents arrived at Teixeira's home in the U.S. state of Massachusetts during the afternoon of April 13 and took the man -- wearing a T-shirt and shorts -- into custody without incident," Garland said. The identification of a 21-year-old Guardsman with a relatively low rank has quickly raised questions about how he could have had access to such highly classified documents. The U.S. Air Force National Guard, without confirming his identity, said, We are aware of the investigation into the alleged role a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman may have played in the recent leak of highly classified documents. U.S. President Joe Biden sought to allay concerns about the leak of the classified documents, which supposedly reveal details about the military capabilities of some U.S. allies and adversaries. The Department of Justice opened a formal criminal probe into the matter after it was referred to the case by the Pentagon, which continues to assess the damage done by the release. The Washington Post reported on April 12 that the person who allegedly posted the documents on a small chat group on the Discord social media platform was a gun enthusiast in his 20s who worked at a military base. The daily based its reporting on interviews with two unnamed members of the group. The documents were posted months ago without attracting attention until The New York Times reported on them. Theres a full-blown investigation going on, as you know, with the intelligence community and the Justice Department, Biden told journalists in Dublin on April 13 before the arrest was announced. And theyre getting close. Biden, who is in the middle of a four-day visit to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, said that he was not concerned about the leak because there is nothing contemporaneous that Im aware of. The White House said earlier in the day that Biden did not discuss the matter with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when the two met in Northern Ireland earlier this week. The number of documents leaked, some of which were reportedly marked top secret, is not clear. They purportedly include sensitive disclosures about Ukraine, South Korea, Israel, and others. The Biden administration fears the leak could cause lasting damage to U.S. relations with key allies and strategic partners. They purportedly include sensitive disclosures about Ukraine, South Korea, Israel, and others. The Biden administration fears the leak could cause lasting damage to U.S. relations with key allies and strategic partners. The Discord group allegedly included people from Russia and Ukraine, The Washington Post reported, and was focused on a mutual love of guns, military gear and God. The social media platform itself is popular with players of online games. The man who posted the documents, who went by the online handle OG, allegedly told group members he sometimes worked in a secure facility at the base that prohibited cell phones and other electronic devices. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Ukrainian television on April 12 that the risk of leaks is very minimal because only a very narrow circle of people is aware of Ukrainian military planning. With reporting by AP, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Ukraine's military on January 21 cited ongoing fighting in the east of the country after Russia claimed to capture a village in the area, while Western officials offered more help but also tested Ukrainian "resiliency" as Russia's full-scale conflict approached its 12th month. The British Defense Ministry suggested that "overall" the war currently appeared to be "in a state of deadlock." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, meanwhile, signaled growing impatience on the key question of whether the West will provide his country with the newest battle tanks, saying "a decision...must be made." A key Zelenskiy aide later added bluntly that "global indecision" is costing Ukrainian lives. Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. Ukraine has specifically requested that Western countries send German-made Leopard 2 tanks, but Germany has resisted. White House national-security spokesman John Kirby said German leaders are working through their own process with respect to the Leopard 2. "The Leopards are great tanks, very capable, won't require an exorbitant amount of training for the Ukrainians should Germany want to move in that direction," Kirby said on January 20 in an interview with Voice of America. He added that the United States wants countries to contribute what they can, but said the question of sending Leopard 2 tanks is "for Germany to decide." He added that he would not describe the situation as a "standoff," and stressed that the NATO alliance remains "incredibly, solidly behind and supportive of Ukraine, and we don't see that fracturing at all." Kirby spoke after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group of Kyiv's Western allies at the Ramstein U.S. Air Base in Germany, where defense ministers and other representatives of 54 countries gathered for talks aimed at coordinating the military aid they are sending. Germany was said to be resisting pressure by Poland and other countries to green-light the supply of Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv. U.S. military officials have suggested that the country's latest pledge of weaponry is ready to use and provides sufficient firepower for Ukraine to defend itself. It includes air-defense systems, Humvees, ammunition for artillery, and missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). In his regular video address late on January 20, Zelenskiy cast the stalemate over the Leopard tanks as part of an ongoing debate and suggested that the meeting in Ramstein would "strengthen our resilience." He said some of the meeting's details could not be announced publicly. "Yes, we will still have to fight for the supply of modern tanks," Zelenskiy said, "but every day we make it more evident that there is no alternative that a decision about tanks must be made." Then, on January 21, senior Zelenskiy adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak expressed frustration on Twitter over Ukraine's request for the tanks. "Today's indecision is killing more of our people. Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster," he said. On the battlefield, the Ukrainian military's General Staff said on January 21 that it had carried out 18 strikes on concentrations of Russian forces while it blamed the Russian side for attacks on 12 settlements in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. It said three of seven Russian missile strikes targeted the cities of Kramatorsk and Hulyaipole, and cited rocket salvos that appeared to target "civilian infrastructure" in the city of Nikopol. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed a day earlier to have captured the village of Kleshchiyivka, in the Donetsk region about 5 kilometers south of the city of Bakhmut, echoing an unconfirmed claim by the head of the Wagner mercenary group. But the ministry said regular Russian troops were involved, while Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin credited the purported success to his private fighters. The Ukrainian General Staff initially said only that Russian forces had shelled Kleshchiyivka and did not explicitly mention that village in its January 21 update. RFE/RL cannot confirm battlefield developments in the areas of heavy fighting. But hours later, the British Defense Ministry's daily intelligence assessment acknowledged "a realistic possibility of local Russian advances around Bakhmut," although it said "overall, the conflict is in a state of deadlock." The U.K. intelligence update said "the heaviest fighting" was concentrated in three areas, including near Bakhmut; in the northeast near the town of Kreminna where Ukraine "has likely made small gains"; and in the Zaporizhzhya region in the south where Europe's largest nuclear plant is in Russian hands. The British update said both sides had "massed significant forces" in the Zaporizhzhya region but had "avoided any large-scale offensive effort." It said Russian regular troops and Wagner proxy forces "have likely been reconstituting" in the salt-mining town of Soledar captured last week. With reporting by Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for the removal of obstructions that he said continue to disrupt food exports from his country's Black Sea ports. Speaking on January 21 to an international conference of agriculture ministers in Berlin, Zelenskiy also urged participants to support the Black Sea Grain Initiative -- the program that for nearly six months has enabled exports of grain and other foodstuffs through Ukraine's major ports on the sea. "The world needs more determination and more cooperation to stop the aggressions that are disrupting the food market, Zelenskiy told the conference in a video message. Stop any nation that blockades the sea and destroys food supply chains. Prosecute any tyrant who tries to make hunger a tool of his policy." Before the Black Sea Grain Initiative was agreed in late July, Ukraine -- a critical supplier of grains, oilseeds, and vegetable oils to global markets -- and other countries accused Russia of using hunger as a weapon by blockading Ukraine's Black Sea ports. Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, and the United Nations reached the agreement, which also paved the way for Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets. The shipments are monitored by a joint coordination center in Istanbul that includes representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey. Zelenskiy said there currently are more than 100 ships lined up near the Bosphorus waiting to be inspected. He claimed that ships are being detained for weeks while Russian representatives block the inspections. This could affect food prices in Europe and mean a growing risk of social instability for Asia, he warned. For countries in Africa such as Ethiopia or Sudan it could mean empty dining tables for thousands of families, Zelenskiy added. Russia on January 21 denied blockading Ukrainian grain ships and blamed Kyiv for creating an "artificial traffic jam." It said there currently are 64 ships at anchor off Ukrainian ports and in inspection zones. The order of their inspection is determined by the Ukrainian side, Russian representatives have no influence on this at all," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement quoted by the dpa news agency. With reporting by dpa Ukraine held an emotional memorial ceremony in Kyiv on January 21 to honor the late Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy and the 13 other victims killed when a helicopter crashed into a kindergarten and the surrounding residential area of Brovary, close to the capital, on January 18. Monastyrskiy's first deputy minister, Yevhen Yenin, and State Secretary Yuriy Lubkovych were among the victims. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and first lady Olena Zelenska attended the ceremony. Hundreds also waited in a silent line outside to pay their respects. The Ukrainian cabinet has ordered an investigation into the crash, which officials are calling a tragedy brought about by Russia's invasion. The latest package of military support for Ukraine from its Western allies is focused on providing combat capability that Ukrainian forces can use immediately on the battlefield, the Pentagons spokesman said on January 20 as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group met in Germany. Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. U.S. Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the additional military equipment announced by the contact group -- including air defense systems, Humvees, ammunition for artillery, and missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) -- will help Kyivs forces make progress defending Ukrainian territory and take back territory occupied by Russia. The package of weapons is intended to make a difference to change the equation on the front line, he said, though it does not include the Leopard 2 tanks that Ukraine has requested. Ryder spoke in an interview with Alhurra television on the sidelines of the contact group meeting at the Ramstein U.S. Air Base, where defense ministers and other representatives of 54 countries gathered for talks aimed at coordinating the military aid they are sending. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top Ukrainian officials have pleaded with allies to send Leopard 2 tanks, but the meeting ended without a commitment to send them. Germany, which must approve sending the German-made tanks from the NATO countries that have them, has not made a decision on whether to do so, newly appointed German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. Ryder referred questions about sending the tanks to German officials but touted the package overall. I would say the most important thing here is that there's not one single capability that's key to victory in the campaign that Ukraine isconducting to defend its nation, Ryder said. The security assistance -- particularly the assistance from the United States -- is focused on giving Ukraine combat capability that they can use right now on the battlefield, he said. It also is aimed at helping Ukraine during the spring, when a new offensive by Russia is expected, he said. Ryder also discussed the training of Ukrainian military personnel in Germany, saying battalion-level combined-arms maneuver training integrating the Bradley Fighting Vehicle has already begun. The training combined with the package announced on January 20 is going to give Ukraine a mechanized armor, mechanized infantry capability that will change the equation on the battlefield, Ryder said. With reporting by Alhurra We wanted to tell America and the whole world about what is happening in Ukraine, said 17-year-old dancer Maria Honyukova of the Light Balance Kids dance troupe, describing the groups recent triumph on the premiere of a popular new U.S. television talent program. And we also wanted to convey to the audience that light always wins. When the house lights went up after the video-game-themed number in which the performers seemed to defy the laws of physics while dancing in darkness wearing illuminated costumes, the live audience for Americas Got Talent All Stars sprang to its feet and cheered. It was your best performance youve ever done, said competition judge and recording executive Simon Cowell. I cannot tell you how brilliant that was. A moment later, fellow judge and comedian Howie Mandel lauded the kids for bringing light from arguably the darkest place in the world before pressing the shows Golden Buzzer, sending them immediately to the finale in eight weeks time and setting off fountains of golden confetti across the stage. More than 9 million people were watching the January 2 program. The number ends with the image of a castle, with Ukrainian flags and a trident [the Ukrainian national symbol], Honyukova told RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service. This symbolizes the fact that Ukraine will win. We have a mission, fellow Light Balance Kids member Denys Loshakov, 16, said. To remind everyone that there is a war going on. That it continues. Even in America, Ukraine is often in the news. But not everyone watches the news. So we need to talk about it on other platforms. On all platforms. And we need to talk about what talented and strong people we have. A Remarkable Triumph The backstory behind the Light Balance Kids triumph makes their tale even more remarkable. The troupe first appeared on Americas Got Talent (AGT) as fresh-faced children in 2019, earning another Golden Buzzer honor and making the finals. They are affiliated with the Light Balance dance company formed in 2012 in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Light Balance describes itself as a hi-tech neon and LED show with elements of acrobatic and dance choreography. When Russia launched its full-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the youths were scattered, most of them being driven out of the country, with some taking refuge in safer parts of Ukraine. Loshakov, for example, lives in Shoeneberg, outside of Berlin, where he teaches a hip-hop group at a local dance studio. I miss Ukraine very much, he said. I recently visited Ukraine and for the first two hours at home, I just walked around the apartment, remembering where things were and just looking at everything. It was very difficult to go back to Germany. Sixteen-year-old Light Balance Kids dancer Liza Baklan spent the early part of the war under Russian occupation in the Kyiv region town of Motyzhyn. When I had to go outside, I tried to look as much like a boy as possible, she recalled. You see, if you are a boy, it is much easier. No one knows what might happen to a girl. I tried to hide my hair and walk hunched over. For more than a month, the family lived under near-constant shelling, spending most of their time in a windowless corridor or a basement. 'Impossible Grief And Pain' After Motyzhyn was liberated, Baklans family moved to Lviv, where word came that Light Balance Kids had been invited to the United States for the AGT All Stars premiere. She dedicated her performance on the show to her uncle, who has been defending Ukraine since Russia fomented a separatist uprising in eastern parts of the country in 2014 and who surprised her with a quick visit home the day before she headed overseas. He just said Im great, and he knew Id be fine, she said of the man who is also her godfather. He said he loves me very much. Fifteen-year-old Maryna Zaytseva dedicated her performance to her father, who went to the front in May and who has been involved in the severe fighting around the Donetsk region city of Bakhmut. Maryna and her mother have been living with a family in the Polish city of Wroclaw, where Maryna attends a Polish school while simultaneously studying remotely with a school in Ukraine. Her Polish host family, she said, were among the first people to congratulate her after the Light Balance Kids victory. When Light Balance Kids appeared on AGT in 2019, there were 14 of them. Only five were able to make the January 2 performance. None of them had danced together since the Russian invasion, and they had just five days of rehearsal in the United States to pull together the number. The special computer effects were created by a graphic designer in Kyiv, and a generator had to be arranged for him to ensure he was able to create them in time amid the rolling blackouts caused by Russian air strikes against the electricity grid. Dancer Honyukova dedicated her performance to her uncle, who enlisted as a volunteer and was killed near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk during the summer. My uncle was a very kind, handsome man with three academic degrees, Honyukova told RFE/RL. But he wanted to go to the front and fight for Ukraine. It is an impossible grief and pain. This wound will not heal, she added. Written by RFE/RL feature writer Robert Coalson based on reporting by Maria Horban. Has any battle ever been fought globally under risk-free, fully prepared conditions? Even the most erudite historian will struggle to find such an example. The same is true of the fight against the novel coronavirus. In this battle against the elusive enemy, the only certainty is that you can never be "100 percent" prepared for it. China decided at the end of last year to shift the focus of its COVID response from preventing new infections to medical treatment and moved to further downgrade response measures earlier this month after three years of stringent prevention and control measures. Not surprisingly, some "know-it-all" Western media and politicians, blinded by their prejudices, impatiently heaped their accusations on China's policy shift -- "bad timing," "no clear exit plan," "a loss of faith," and "policy U-turn." "China is ill-prepared for the policy shift." They tried to prove the assumption using their groundless analysis and modeling. The fact is, China's policy shift is a choice shrewdly yet resolutely made during what it sees as a "window period" earned after three years of painstaking yet effective fight against COVID-19. Why now? In general, China's policy shift is based on several facts: First, the Omicron variant is much less deadly. Warding off the much more dangerous virus strains with its prevention and control measures, China has chosen a less costly time to lift its COVID restrictions. Second, the country has launched the world's largest vaccination campaign in scale to build a relatively strong immunity barrier among its citizens. More than 90 percent of the Chinese population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and over 86 percent of people aged 60 or above are fully vaccinated. Explaining why China has not chosen the summer of 2022 to lift the restrictions, a senior health expert advising the Chinese government said the elderly population was not adequately vaccinated at the time, without enough booster shots administered. Third, the improvements in the medical treatment, prevention, and control capabilities in China's healthcare system and properly exercised public health measures across the society. To use an expression popular among the Chinese: "The virus is weaker, but we are stronger." China has been fine-tuning its response measures in light of the evolving situation, adhering to the principle of "seeking truth from facts" in its fight against the virus. The "dynamic zero-COVID approach," the "optimization of response measures," and "Class B management" are all decisions made after scientific analysis and shrewd calculation based on the evolving nature of the virus and to respond to people's demands. They are by no means impulsive decisions. The past three years of prevention and control efforts have laid a solid foundation for China to make such a major policy shift and serve as a precondition for China to optimize its response measures more. Leveraging its strong grassroots mobilization, organization, and governance capabilities, China has made strenuous efforts to prepare for its policy shift. To address a temporary shortage of drug supply caused by a spike in infections and hoarding, the Chinese government has given support to pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce drugs or medical equipment at full steam to make sure the daily output of COVID test kits expand from 60 million to 110 million in a month. The daily output of painkillers such as ibuprofen has expanded over four times. When the hospitals faced an influx of severely-ill COVID patients, China managed to increase its ICU beds by 20 percent. The government has also made arrangements to swiftly increase the accessibility of medical services in rural areas, where fewer doctors and drugs make people more vulnerable during outbreaks. There is no such thing as perfect timing, but there is good timing. China has chosen the time when it believes the situation can be controlled. "To be fully prepared" is a mere pseudo-proposition. No one can claim to be fully prepared in the face of a virulent strain that is severely transmissible and mutable. Of course, China does not deny that it is under pressure to tame the outbreak. The country has been upgrading its response plan while seeking to remedy the shortcomings. The Chinese government and people are working together to "flatten the curve" to shorten the lines outside hospital emergency rooms and reduce the number of heartbreaking deaths. Now, let's look at the question of "Is China prepared?" in another dimension: the results of China lifting restrictions. It is not to use the ends to justify the means as Machiavellianism does. But before accusing China of being "ill-prepared," one should first check if the "dark COVID winter" and "COVID nightmare" predicted by the critics actually exist. If you visit a Chinese metropolis now, you will see that masked commuters are packing subway trains, postponed travel plans are back on the agenda. And the lines at Disneyland are getting long. Under the protection of the country, many Chinese people were exposed to the virus for the first time three years after the initial outbreak. After weeks of recuperating and social distancing during the first infection wave, life is gradually returning to normal for Chinese people. Businessmen across the world have undoubtedly been "well-prepared." Many sectors in China are seeing a rebound. "What we can be sure of now is that the policy is going in the right direction," said Wang Dan, chief economist of Hang Seng Bank (China) Limited. If China, as some Western media claimed, had chosen to optimize its COVID policies only because it had no alternative but to be forced to do so, the country of 1.4 billion people would not have been able to get back on track in such a short time and send such strong signals of economic recovery. The ease of COVID policies will result in an exponential spike in infections, as has happened in any other country. But China has passed the infection peak, and its medical resources, including hospitals, hospital beds, medical workers and drug supply, are sufficient. The occupancy of ICU beds has not yet reached the critical mark of 80 percent. China's transition to the new phase of the COVID response has been generally smooth. Is the "ill-prepared" accusation against China substantiated? But for those China bashers, no matter when China chooses to optimize its COVID policies, it will always be a "bad choice," and China will always be "ill-prepared." It has nothing to do with facts and science. To them, China is a sin in itself, a "threat" -- no matter what. However, the opposite is true. At the moment, hundreds of millions of Chinese are preparing for the Spring Festival holiday. It has been predicted that China will see over 2 billion journeys made during the holiday travel rush, up 99.5 percent from last year. (Source: Xinhua) Editor's note: The University of Montana's Office of Research & Creative Scholarship along with the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West have produced a series of stories called the "This Is Montana Community Vitality Program." In partnership with the program, Lee Newspapers will be regularly running their Treasure State treasure trove of stories. EKALAKA A historical sign on the edge of town states Ekalaka was established in 1885 by a bison hunter who set out to erect an edifice for the eradication of ennui. His wagon became stuck in the snow, and thats the point where he started the underpinnings of a community. His explanation was Hell, any place in Montana is a good place for a saloon. He unloaded the lumber he had in the wagon and commenced construction on the spot. However, the town wasnt named after this initial resident but rather for the wife of one of the first white settlers in the area, a Sioux woman named Ijkalaka. Although a saloonkeeper founded Ekalaka, the country grew on cattle. The first herds came through from Texas and Wyoming in the 1870s, and by the 1880s big ranch outfits were in place. The rich grasses of the area supported huge bison herds and later were prized for cattle grazing. Sheep were also a mainstay of the early-day economy. At one time Carter County led Montana in sheep production. If Miles City is the capital of southeast Montanas cowboy country, then Ekalaka is next in line. This Carter County seat of about 400 people is the gathering spot for ranchers and other folks from a wide expanse of territory. Often this land was called Miles Citys south side, as it was south of the Yellowstone River and east of the Northern Cheyenne and Crow territory. A two-block-long Main Street encompasses, among other businesses, a cafe, bank, two motels, one bar, coffee shop, the old Masonic Lodge and the Ijkalaka Grocery. The 6,000-square-foot Carter County Museum, also on Main Street, houses dinosaur bones and the collection of Bucking Horse Memorabilia from the famous Tooke Bucking Horse bloodlines. Opechee Park and Camp Needmore, an old Civilian Conservation Corp camp that the county now oversees and can be rented out for events like 4-H camp and family reunions, or weddings, is a highlight of the area. Prairie stretching from Ekalaka in all directions is some of the most beautiful mixture of landscapes in Montana east of the mountains. Most prominent are several sections of the far-flung Custer-Gallatin National Forest, including the Long Pines, Ekalaka Hills, Chalk Buttes and Medicine Rocks State Park. While these places may not be mountains to folks in western Montana, theyre tall landmarks out here. The high points in most of them reach upward nearly 700 feet above the surrounding topography. Just southeast of Ekalaka, the Chalk Buttes are a collection of buttes and hills, with a high point of 4,140 feet. Theyre forested up to the rims of their flat tops an oasis on the almost treeless plains stretching for as far as the eye can see. Like other vantage points out here, Native Americans used them for religious purposes and vision quests. Many legends have been recorded about the area, including the story of Starvation Butte. It is said that an Indian woman climbed it, and as she reached the top, her footing crumbled beneath her. Unable to return, she died of starvation. Fighting Butte was the site of a skirmish in which Sioux chased a hunting party of Crows to the top. Backed to the steep edge of the table of rocks, the Crows were forced to leap to their deaths when the enemy set the top ablaze. On the southern edge of town, the Ekalaka Hills are another rise of limestone. A road climbs through them to the edge of their precipitous south side, where far-reaching views into Wyoming and South Dakota can be enjoyed. Their highest point is 4,111 feet. The Long Pines, a partially timbered island uplift in far southeast Montana, begin about 15 miles southeast of Ekalaka. Several unimproved roads lead into the area. There are campsites in the Pines but very little water. The same situation existing in the Chalk Buttes and Ekalaka Hills. Soft limestone surface rock soaks up any liquid. Capitol Rock, so called because it resembles the nations capital, stands out on the far eastern edge of these hills. Its a massive deposit of light-colored volcanic ash. The routes leading to it require a 4-wheel-drive vehicle with clearance. It perches high up on the cliffs and crags of the Long Pines, providing homes for hundreds of eagles, hawks, and falcons, including the rare merlin falcon. Medicine Rock State Park is 12 miles north of Ekalaka. Sacred to the Indians, it is managed by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Heres a mix of twisted and odd-looking formations, some towering 80 feet above the prairie. Tribes gathered here each fall to call on the medicine spirits they believed lived in these rocks to protect their hunters. The Sioux name for the Medicine Rocks is Inya-oka-la-ka, meaning rock with hole in it. Strong winds coming from the west have over the eons continued to etch holes and other sculptures in this easily eroded sandstone. A Yellowstone County jury found a Billings man guilty Friday of multiple counts of rape, attempted rape and kidnapping. The verdict against Donald Edward Foster came about a year-and-a-half after he held his mother and a teenager against their will at a home in the Heights. Foster surrendered to police after the teen, whom he raped during the standoff, convinced him that prison was better than suicide. The trial began Tuesday, and jurors reached their verdict after just over an hour of deliberation. This case is about what happens when a man, in this case that man, said Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Jacob Yerger in his closing argument to the jury, motioning to Foster, decides that hes going to do whatever it takes to gratify his own desires. He would kidnap his elderly mother at knifepoint, tie her up and lead her to the downstairs bathroom. He would rape an 18-year-old strangernot once, twice but three times. Those are the lengths to which the defendant would go, Yerger said. Billings police arrested Foster in May 2021. For nearly eight hours, court documents said, he stayed inside his mothers house on Stillwater Lane while nearly every available officer in Billings amassed outside. Law enforcement responded to the house after receiving a call from Judith Foster, who testified on Wednesday. Judith Foster called the police in the early hours of May 3. She told dispatch her son had restrained her and an 18-year-old woman. While the 18-year-old testified in court in graphic detail about Fosters attack, the Billings Gazette is not identifying her. In court documents, she is referred to as M. Around 2 a.m. on May 3, Donald Foster walked into his mothers room, where was lying in bed. He had a knife in his hand, she said in court. Donald grabbed his mom by the throat and told her to do what he said. Donald Foster tied up Judith Foster and M. using shoe laces and headphones, then guided his mom to a bathroom. Inside the bathroom, Judith freed herself from her restraints and used her cell phone to call her granddaughter, then the police. I think hes going to kill me, she told a dispatcher. Judith Foster escaped the house, and met with a Billings officer dispatched to Stillwater Lane. She needed several stitches to close a cut on her hand from the knife. Over the next several hours, Donald Foster, now alone with the teen, raped her three times and tried to rape her twice more. He was in regular contact over the phone with Billings Police Department officers and his brother in Great Falls. That contact, however lapsed several times throughout the standoff. Jurors heard testimony from BPD Sgt. Samantha Puckett and retired BPD officer Jerry Smidt, who negotiated with Foster. Foster made no demands throughout the standoff, Smidt said during the trial, but Smidt believed Foster saw M. as his insurance policy. M. led Foster out the front door of the house and into police custody around 9:30 that morning. At the hospital, M. underwent a sexual assault evaluation that lasted another nine hours, according to testimony from Tiffany Deaver, a Billings Clinic nurse who performed the exam. While some DNA samples analyzed by the Montana State Crime Lab proved inconclusive, according to testimony from crime lab analysts in court, forensic analysts found evidence of M.s DNA on Fosters penis. Foster entered Yellowstone County Detention Facility that same day. He was charged in district court May 4, and has remained in custody since his arrest on a $2 million bond. After county prosecutors amended the charges against Foster prior to the start of the trial, he faced three counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent, two counts of attempted sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of aggravated kidnapping. Foster appeared for his trial in a collared shirt and slacks, while still under the watch of YCDF corrections officers. Defense attorneys for Foster did not dispute that he tied up his mother and M., and later held the 18-year-old against her will for several hours. He did not, they said, ever rape her. In her closing argument to the jury, Natasha Hammack with the Office of the State Public Defender said there was not enough DNA evidence to prove he raped the 18-year-old. Foster, Hammack said, tried to keep his mother and M. under control and the situation escalated into the standoff. As the court clerk announced him guilty count-by-count, Foster remained stoic. At the close of the trial, he was led away from the court by corrections officers. Foster has several prior convictions. Most recently, he was sentenced to six years in prison in 2012 for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Fosters sentencing will be scheduled after he undergoes a psycho-sexual analysis. All seven counts of which the jury found him guilty come with the possibility of up to life in prison. District Judge Michael G. Moses presided over the trial. By Azernews Sabina Mammadli President of International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Gunay Afandiyeva and Chairman of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) Serkan Kayalar discussed possible future cooperative projects, Azernews reports. During her visit to Ankara, the official highlighted the multifaceted activities of the organization on the preservation of the ancient cultural and spiritual values of the Turkic people, their international recognition, and transmission to future generations. She then briefed her interlocutor about various projects carried out by the organization in Turkic states and other foreign countries in order to spread the all-Turkic heritage. Afandiyeva expressed her satisfaction with the development of mutual relations between the two organizations, emphasizing that she believes in the successful continuation of the cooperation. In turn, Kayalar noted the importance he attaches to cooperation with the foundation. The Turkish official appreciated the organization of important events outside the borders of the Turkic World and the publication of books by the organization in the direction of promoting the rich culture of the Turkic states. He noted his readiness for joint activities with the foundation. Initiated in 2012, the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation focuses on the preservation of the Turkic heritage in member countries as well as conducting projects in collaboration with partners in third nations. The foundation provides assistance in the protection, study, and promotion of Turkic culture and heritage through supporting and funding various activities, projects, and programs. The organization carries out its activities in cooperation with TURKSOY and the Turkic Academy. The executive board of the Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee has named three candidates to fill the vacated House District 50 seat. The position was left empty by Mallerie Stromswold who resigned recently citing mental health, her current enrollment at Montana State University, and pressure from her caucus to vote the party platform. The board requested emails of interest and sent out questionnaires to 19 interested individuals. Ten responses were received by the deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17. The submissions were reviewed by the executive board and on Jan. 19, the five top candidates were interviewed in 30-minute Zoom sessions. On Friday, the board met in Zoom session and narrowed the selection to three individuals. Each of the candidates recognize that crime is the number-one issue in our community. This board will encourage an investment in more beds in the state prison and local jail as part of the solution to making our city and county a safer place. The candidates include: Naarah N. Hastings, a small business owner. She and her husband own Proof Donuts in Billings. She is also the founder of a talent acquisition firm, 6H Talent, Inc. Hastings is a wife and mother of four and is a champion Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor. Anthony Nicastro, a civil attorney and managing partner of Knight, Nicastro and McKay. Nicastro is a husband and father of three. He has assisted with political campaigns and served in Congress as an intern and worked for the Republican Senatorial Committee. Denis Pitman, who served on the Billings City Council and the Yellowstone County Board of Commissioners. Pitman is a small businessman and entrepreneur. He is a licensed mortician, property owner, manages commercial and residential properties, and is a licensed Realtor. He lost his seat on the commission in the most recent primary election to Mark Morse. After San Marcos struck a deal in 2005 to rent an old reservoir a small lake near Double Peak at $1 a year for 50 years, city officials planned to create a park on the 45-acre property, with boat rentals and an amphitheater. The city eventually sunk more than $2.9 million into the project, including nearly $1.9 million to buy 10 acres of land off South Twin Oaks Valley Road so users could access the lake, and $850,000 on design work for the park. But Mother Nature and the California legislature had different ideas. Advertisement The state abolished redevelopment agencies in 2012, leaving San Marcos without funding to build the park. Since then, years of devastating drought have shrunk the man-made lake to a little more than half its typical size. Now, after years stuck on pause, a sliver of the project is poised to move forward: an overlook with shaded picnic tables and a parking lot on those 10 acres of access land. If feasible, the work could include a small fishing dock. In need of a new design, the city in June hired a firm for nearly $200,000 to redesign the project. Tack on other $1 million for construction, and San Marcos expects to spend nearly $1.2 million to get the South Lake overlook open for business. The design of should be done by next summer. The overlook should open in 2018. City Manger Jack Griffin said last week that he will recommend that the City Council move forward with the scaled-down project The community is expecting the park to be there, City Manger Jack Griffin said last week. Its been in the plans for a long time. Back in 2007, residents attended workshops to come up with a wishlist of amenities. In 2010, the city hired a firm to design the look, handle paperwork and even come up with a park theme Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer emerged as possibilities. The initial idea also included an amphitheater, boat rentals, a concession stand, a caretaker residence and more than 100 parking spots. The trouble for South Lake came two years later, when the state killed off redevelopment agencies. It meant significantly less funding that the millions San Marcos had banked on. It was not alone; the demise of the agencies led to the demise of projects across the state. Do I wish that we had not spent that money at that time? Sure, Griffin said of the $850,000 for the old design. But hindsight is 20/20. Nobody knew what was going to happen in 2012. Griffin said it might be possible that some of that old design work is salvageable. He also noted that the money for the downsized park will come from proceeds from redevelopment bonds money that can be used solely on redevelopment projects on the books before agencies went away. San Marcos spokeswoman Sarah MacDonald acknowledged that while the South Lake project has changed scope dramatically, the city is still committed to providing the overlook. And, she said, the hope is that someday South Lake will have trails that link up to paths leading to Double Peak and Discovery Lake, which is owned and operated by the city. South Lake is not accessible to the general public. It sits behind locked gates, and behind an in-the-works development of 346 two-story homes at the end of Village Drive (where Hanson Aggregates had operated a rock quarry until 2008). It is separate from a roughly 20-acre park that the new housing development will provide to the city. North County residents might be surprised to learn that the reservoir is there, not far from Double Peak. But some may have caught a glimpse of it while driving along South Twin Oaks Valley Road, shortly before the road crests the hill. A few others may remember fishing there. South Lake reservoir, which has an earthen dam, was build in 1959. It was used as a source of drinking water until 1984, when the state changed the rules and standards for water treatment. South Lake now serves as an emergency water storage reservoir, according to Vallecitos Water District, which owns the lake and rents it to San Marcos. An aeration system runs along the bottom. Even though Vallecitos does not stock the little body of water with fish, there are fish in it. Water district officials said it the water also hosts mud hens, mallard and sometimes Canadian geese. The reservoir can hold about 73 million gallons. But natural runoff is its only source of water, so its typically less than half full. Now, after years of drought, there are only about 20 million gallons of water in it. In 1996, fire crews drew water from South Lake for helicopter water drops to fight the Harmony Grove fire. There was too little water to draw from it during the 2014 Cocos fire. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Longtime restaurant owner, Yellowstone County commissioner, and all-around decent man, James Ziggy Ziegler, died of cancer Thursday at age 89. He died on the 66th anniversary of his wedding to Stella, whom he married when she was 17. He took me to my senior prom and that was it, weve been together ever since, Stella said Friday morning. He was quite a guy. Together Ziegler and Stella had six kids, ran a KOA campground, a bakery and then a restaurant in downtown Billings that still serves homemade dishes and the best cinnamon rolls ever created. Ziegler served 12 years as a Yellowstone County commissioner beginning in 1990, and before that four years as county auditor. But it may have been his prison ministry that, aside from family, is his greatest legacy. Ziegler developed a soft spot for prisoners as an antidote to the anger he felt after his father was murdered by two armed robbers in 1973. To get over his hurt, a friend suggested he visit the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge as part of the Catholic Churchs Cursillo prison ministry, talking to prisoners from a victims perspective. In time, his heart softened as he made the monthly 500-mile roundtrip from Billings to Deer Lodge. For 40 years, he made that trip. It was just who he was, said Stella. It was during one of these prison trips that he met Barry Beach, who had been sentenced to 100 years for the murder of a teenage girl. Beach maintained his innocence, and Ziegler believed him. Ziegler was among many who advocated for Beachs release. And, it was Zieglers vow to support and employ Beach that helped convince a judge to set him free in 2011 after serving 28 years. I lived with the Zieglers in their house for eight months after I got out of prison, Beach said Friday. It was based on Ziggys word that the judge agreed to release me. It wouldnt have happened without people like him believing me. Beach is now a successful handyman in Billings. Ziggy was a wonderful man who put his faith into action. He didnt just talk about his faith, he lived it, Beach said. Im so thankful for my years of friendship with the Zieglers. Over the years, Ziggy and Stella employed hundreds of ex-cons at their restaurant. Ziggy said of the parolees in 2010, If nobody gives them a chance, whats going to happen to them? It was that experience with inmates that informed his time on the board of directors for Alternatives Inc., a prison pre-release center in Billings. It was there he advocated for options besides jail for lesser offenders. As children, Ziggy and Stella Marapese went to the same grammar school in California. Stella was in the third grade and Ziggy the eighth. Their families went to the same parish and their parents were friends. But, it wasnt until Ziggy returned home from the Korean War that he finally noticed how special Stella really was. I grew up while he was away, Stella recalled. When she needed a date to her senior prom, she called Ziggy. He said he would take me, and that was the beginning, she said on their 60th anniversary. The couple worked together in the campgrounds, the bakery, and the restaurant for 50 years, something many marriages dont survive. We just found a way to do it. It could be difficult, but we talked about what needed to be done and he took care of his part and I took care of mine, Stella said. Jacque Ziegler is the youngest of the six children in the family. Although shes been married, shes kept her family name out of a sense of pride and loyalty. Ill be a Ziegler until the day I die, she said Friday. Although her father was very busy with his ministry, the restaurant and his government work, he was never absent, she said. When he and Stella took the rare vacation, they took all the kids with them. He and mom always made sure the family was first, she said. He would rather be with his family than anything else he did. Jacque worked with her parents at the restaurant, and came to share their fondness and appreciation for the numerous ex-cons who got to restart their lives there. She was never nervous about sharing a shift with someone who had a spotted past. I saw how mom and dad treated them, like friends, and that was enough for me, she said. Steve Wahrlich, owner of the Best Western Plus Clocktower Inn downtown, purchased Stellas Kitchen & Bakery from the couple in 2019. The trio had been friends for years. It was Wahrlich who persuaded the Zieglers to move their restaurant in 2005 to its current location next door to the motel, renting the space from him. I had the privilege of having an 18-year business and friend relationship with Ziggy, Wahrlich said Friday. A true gentleman who brought out the best in people. We've truly lost one of Billings greats today. Current County Commissioner John Ostlund ran against Zeigler in 2002, beating him to take his seat. But, even after the election, the two remained friends. Ziggy was committed as an auditor for the county. He was committed as a commissioner. He was committed as a Christian, Ostlund said. He never missed an opportunity to help someone. Under banners saying Protect Our Home, climate change advocates rallied at the state Capitol Friday, blasting inaction on climate and demanding politicians move on solutions. The Climate Advocacy Day featured a panel discussion with legislators, a climate fair and roundtable with activists, but it was a noon rally attended by nearly 300 people that anchored the event as attendees pushed their message of urgently needed action. We are here in our capitol because we know every person in Montana is going to be impacted by the climate crisis. Its happening already, said Winona Bateman with Families for a Livable Climate, one of the hosts of the event. Were losing crops to high heat and drought, floods, wildfires and smoke are impacting families and business across the state. The rally featured speakers from Montanas Native American tribes, environmental policy advocates, religious leaders and young Montanans concerned about the future. Many of the speakers pointed to Montanas constitutional guarantee of a clean and healthful environment, saying that current energy and pollution policies jeopardize those rights. Amber Shaffer, community organizer with All Nations Health Center in Missoula, said the center teaches traditional practices that includes seeking out natural ingredients found in Montanas landscape. Acquiring those materials has become more difficult as weather extremes have made access difficult at times and some ingredients have become scarce. If we are going to continue teaching future generations of our ways, we need to step up and acknowledge that climate change is real and it is affecting us every day and that it will take all of us working together, across party lines and across races, to return the earth to the way it should be, she said. Anne Hedges with the Montana Environmental Information Center criticized continued policies focused on fossil fuels in Montana, by the Montana Public Service Commission, Legislature, governor and utilities. We have the momentum but we dont have the time, she said. We dont have time to pay millions of dollars to a utility to destroy the climate. We must demand change at every level of government. We must be loud, we must be insistent, we must be unified and we must hurry. Kyle McIntyre spoke as a member of the republicEN Leadership Council, a conservative group concerned about climate change. He endorsed bridging a divide by incorporating conservative principles into the climate discussion, such as analogizing national debt with climate debt impacting future generations. I believe in order to solve climate in a way that survives the next changing of the political guard, its insufficient to focus on beating or converting conservatives, rather we must enter into a joint ownership of this issue and look to the unique value that a conservative perspective can bring, he said. Victoria Gasparakis, a junior at Park High School, led four youth speakers who tore into policies that would saddle them with the consequences. The truth of the matter is our planet is decaying, dying and the people in power are not doing anything, she said. We are not going out with a bang, but rather a whimper. The slow decent into extreme natural disasters, the rise in sea levels and unbreathable air. This needs to stop, we need to change. Gwen Lankford, Climate Smart Missoula board member and a member of the steering committee for the CSKT Climate Change Advisory Committee, was flanked by her two daughters, and talked about acknowledging a deeper connection between all people and the planet. When I say I have gratitude for these things like the landscape that gives us food, gives us shelter, that protects us in so many ways, you know the land does not belong to us, we belong to the land, she said. The Montana Freedom Caucus branded themselves the constitutional North Star before an enthusiastic crowd of supporters Thursday evening in an event that filled the old Supreme Court chamber of the state Capitol. The group is newly formed as part of a network of ultraconservative state lawmakers across the U.S. in tow of a band of congressional agitators whose ranks include Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana. Montanas 14 Freedom Caucus members got together in Washington, D.C., in late December to go through a stringent vetting process by the House Freedom Caucus counterparts there, said Rep. Jerry Schillinger, R-Circle, who serves as vice chair for the caucus. Members said Thursday the D.C. members looked through their voting records and more before finalizing the membership. Hamilton Republican Sen. Theresa Manzella, who chairs the Montana Freedom Caucus, said Thursdays event was "all about trying to get the groups message out. "Have you ever wondered why you continue to send Republican majorities to Helena and yet we still seem to creep to the left incrementally a little bit at the time?" she asked the crowd. "We do too. So that's what we're all about: The truth constitutional North Star of Montana is right here behind me." Whether the caucus will play a role in campaigns and financing is so far undetermined, although caucus treasurer Sen. Barry Usher, a Republican from rural Yellowstone and Musselshell counties, said the group was taking pledges from the public for the organization's future work. Asked about whether the congressional group's resources to the state networks will include fundraising horsepower, Rosendale said, "I haven't even given that a thought whatsoever." Twelve states now have state caucuses in the network, and Montanas delegation outlined a mix of priorities shaped by Montana-specific quarrels as well as nationalized talking conflicts. Montanas judiciary, for example, has been in the state GOPs sights for two years, and was identified Thursday as one of the freedom caucus biggest threats to passing legislation. "We pass conservative laws and they deem them unconstitutional," Manzella said. The group also highlighted the states $2.4 billion surplus, arguably the premier topic in this years legislative session. Republicans in control of the Legislature have already shown some willingness to split from the executive branchs ideas on how to spend it. The Montana Freedom Caucus would prefer to kick the money back to the state's taxpayers, an effort some of the caucus members began building during the 2022 election cycle. The groups additional priorities outlined Thursday include parental rights, election integrity and foreign ownership, a loose term for concerns that other countries are buying up property in Montana, particularly around nuclear silos. Rosendale, the evening's headliner, highlighted in his speech the impact that a small handful of disruptive elected officials can have on the greater congressional process. He recalled the political blockbuster that was the election of the Speaker of the U.S. House in late December, during which he and a small number of Republican representatives stalled the process for nearly a week in order to secure concessions in the House rules that he said would generate more dialogue among lawmakers. Im not afraid to debate anybody, Rosendale told the crowd of supporters Thursday. ... We will win those debates every day. Rosendale told the crowd the changes his group sought would redistribute power that's concentrated with the Speaker of the House and in turn drive more collegiality in Congress. He also went viral for some of his speeches during the episode, raising arguments that political analysts later said were embellished. Rosendale, a former state lawmaker and state auditor who is expected to run for U.S. Senate in 2024, told reporters after the hearing Montana does not have the same procedural mechanisms that he took issue with in Congress. "It is unbelievably different," he said of the Montana Legislature. The second-term Congressman said while he raised the prospect of assembling a Freedom Caucus from Montana lawmakers, other members of the D.C. outfit handled the organization. "I said, 'Look, Montana needs a Freedom Caucus. We have these super majorities in both chambers of Republicans, but they need to have a smaller group that can be the organized, unified voice for the conservative movement,'" he recalled. At least 15 Republican lawmakers attended the gathering Thursday evening at the state Capitol, although that didn't include GOP leadership from either the House or the Senate. Usher said after the event said organizing into the Freedom Caucus doesn't draw a line between themselves and the rest of the party. He said the Freedom Caucus hopes to act as a sort of ultra-conservative liaison between GOP leadership and the rest of the partys lawmakers. Upon announcing their formation in the first week of the Legislature, the Montana Freedom Caucus noted not all members wished to be identified. Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal. Please purchase an Enhanced Subscription to continue reading. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! San Mateo, CA (94402) Today Sunny with gusty winds. High 61F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear skies. Low 46F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Russia claims its forces have captured a village in an intense and monthslong push toward the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday that a village 5 miles south of Bakhmut had been "liberated." Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim. An analyst at the Chatham House think tank in London said the Ukraine battlefield situation is "inconclusive" with a renewed Russian push expected in the spring. He told The Associated Press the war is "quite delicately poised." Hollywood actor Ryan Gosling performed his own stunts on Sydneys Harbour Bridge for a blockbuster action film on Sunday morning, while the bridge and surrounding city roads were closed to traffic for seven hours. Nine News cameras captured exclusive vision of Gosling, wearing faded blue jeans and a red jacket, riding on the back of a truck. The bridge was closed in both directions from 3am to 10am to allow filming of The Fall Guy a movie adaptation of a 1980s television series. Its cycleway and footpath was closed from 5.30am to 10am. Ryan Gosling filming his new movie on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday morning. Credit: Nine News The Cahill Expressway Circular Quay Overpass will be closed until 12.30pm. The Cahill Expressway walkway, which was closed from 2.30am, will also reopen at 12.30pm. Plans for Airbnb-type rentals in a Sydney national park have sparked opposition from residents who fear it will attract unruly people making noise and playing loud music. The Assistant Lighthouse Keepers Cottage and Boatmans Cottage at Barrenjoey Head are among heritage-listed buildings in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park earmarked for holiday rentals by the NSW government. Heritage-listed buildings at Barrenjoey Head may become Airbnb-type rentals under plans from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Credit: iStock Three other historic buildings within the national park are also listed as possible short-stay visitor accommodation in a draft plan of management. Cities Minister and Pittwater MP Rob Stokes, who is retiring at the March state election, said future use of the cottages at Barrenjoey Head should focus on charities and families who might never otherwise have the opportunity to enjoy such an amazing public place. Tucked away in a wooden booth at the back of an unmistakably Melbourne bar, four people clink glasses under the glow of fairy lights. Like those on the other tables, occupied by groups of 20-something-year-olds, the foursome share knowing smiles as they drink their matching whiskies. But unlike the other groups, these four are complete strangers to each other. Will (left), Rhiannon (centre) and Sid (right) on their blind friend date through Foura. The fourth member of the group, Gaby, asked not to be photographed for privacy reasons. Credit: Paul Jeffers Theyre on a blind date not for love, but for a mate. They were paired through Foura, a friend matchmaking service that recently launched in Melbourne. The platform began in Sydney in 2021, when London-born Tam Al-Saad a self-proclaimed extrovert decided to lend a helping hand to those struggling to make connections after the COVID-19 lockdowns. To use Foura, you add in your details, answer a few questions about your interests, and then wait for it to arrange a time and place for you to meet three other like-minded people. A man from Melbournes north-east has been charged over using the elaborate Hi Mum SMS scam to dupe people into handing over a substantial amount of money. The 21-year-old Templestowe man is facing five counts of obtaining property by deception following a six-week investigation, Victoria Police said. Police allege the man obtained electronic goods in person using false documents, as well as a substantial amount of money via the Hi Mum scam. The charges relate to fraudulent transactions that occurred over online marketplaces between December 3 and 7, across Ringwood, Narre Warren, Mill Park, Mitcham and Doncaster East. Its nearly that time of year again when random couples are thrown together in holy matrimony for the mother of all experiments. Married at First Sight season 10 kicks off on January 30 and to launch the new season some of the stars from the show gathered in Perth for an exclusive long-table dinner party at Lamonts Bishops House in the CBD. Suzy Oldfield, Aimee Sparkes and Kelly Langley. Credit: Fairfax Media The group enjoyed live acoustic music before sitting down to a three-course meal and were able to enjoy a sneak peek of episode 1. The real star of the show, MAFS Relationship Expert John Aiken gave an exclusive insight to media representatives, with an open forum Q&A after the episode aired. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Health Minister Mark Butler knows what its like to fight Big Tobacco. As a junior minister to Nicola Roxon in 2011, he had a front-row seat when she as health minister took on the multinationals to introduce plain packaging. Butler remembers the fight as a legal and rhetorical onslaught from an industry with deep pockets and powerful friends. Within hours of announcing our policy, two tobacco companies declared they would challenge the decision in the High Court, he says. More than a decade later, he wants to take on the sector again. The new Labor government hopes to put its own stamp on Australias tobacco control legacy with reforms that include streamlined standards for cigarette packages and individual warning labels on each product. An artists impression of a cigarette branded with a smoking kills warning. Credit:Kathleen Adele But Butlers biggest battle wont be against cigarettes: the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the adult daily smoking rate declined to 10.1 per cent in December, just shy of the governments target of 10 per cent by 2025. This time around, its the runaway vaping market that appeals to the tobacco industry and has the health sector most concerned. We know our renewed tobacco and vaping reforms will have [their] opponents but we are up for the challenge, Butler says. Advertisement He has asked the Therapeutic Goods Administration to probe whether the government should tighten border controls, create a regulated source of products and strengthen standards around e-cigarettes, also known as vapes. Regulations introduced by former health minister Greg Hunt in late 2021 established Australias regulatory framework for vapes: they were only to be available as a tool to stop smoking, with a prescription from a GP, and under-the-counter sales were prohibited. But a black market has flourished. Ask at many corner stores and youll be presented with a list of e-cigarettes from Chinese brands, offering single-use devices costing between $20 and $40 in flavours ranging from cola to a hybrid of pomegranate and cherry. Loading Talk to families, and stories abound of teenagers hooked on nicotine, or teachers trying to stamp out vaping in school toilets. NSW Health last year reported the number of 16-to-24-year-olds who said they vaped jumped from 4.5 per cent in 2020 to 11 per cent in 2021. Figures from Roy Morgan put the number of regular Australian users at 1.2 million. With thousands of vapes swapping hands in Australia every day, the fight over both regulations and the public health narrative has escalated. In submissions to the TGAs consultation, which closed this week, the health sector warned Australia was sleepwalking into a public health disaster while vaping advocates said the devices helped people quit smoking and were being unfairly demonised. Retailers pushed to sell vapes from behind the counter so both they and the government could cash in. Advertisement Tobacco companies, which produce their own vaping products, also stand to gain from an expansion into the Australian consumer market, which has been otherwise dominated by illegal imports from China. British American Tobacco launched the Responsible Vaping Australia movement shortly before Butler announced his crackdown in November, with the support of tobacconists and retailers including the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association. A BAT spokesman did not specifically answer questions about whether it would fight the governments cigarette reforms or if it was seeking a greater foothold in the Australian vaping market, but said the movements purpose was to support adult consumers, responsible retailers and industry associations who promote the sensible regulation of vaping products. Responsible Vaping Australia is advocating to end the black-market trade of nicotine vaping products and to ensure Australian adult consumers are able to purchase products in a responsible and regulated way, he said. State health campaigns warn vapes are addictive, have been linked to serious lung disease, and often contain harmful chemicals found in cleaning products, nail polish remover, weed killer and bug spray - while there are also long-term unknowns. Credit:Wolter Peeters BAT and fellow multinational tobacco company Philip Morris did not make submissions to the TGA, their spokespeople said, but Imperial Brands did. A spokesman said Imperial encouraged the government to develop balanced regulation that supported tobacco harm reduction and acknowledged vapes had a reduced risk. The current regulatory framework ... has contributed to the significant and growing illicit vape market, he said. It is our belief that adult smokers are unlikely to transition to potentially less harmful products if they perceive them as more expensive, less appealing or more difficult to buy and use. Advertisement The Australian Association of Convenience Stores, which counts the three tobacco companies among its 100 members, also called for vapes to be regulated behind the counter like cigarettes, as did MGA Independent Retailers. The convenience store groups head, Theo Foukkare, who is a former BAT executive, has been seeking to overturn the governments prescription vaping model since he became chief executive in January 2021. The same year, the lobby group also hired former Philip Morris executive Ben Meredith as its full-time strategy and policy adviser. Loading Market research conducted for the industry group by Roy Morgan estimated 6.1 per cent of Australias population vaped each month, with 88 per cent of products purchased through the black market. The lobbys argument is that enforcement has failed and illicit trade can only be reined in with a consumer model that includes regulations around retail sales, product standards and age verification. Our concern is that the TGA is going to double down on a model theyve already said has failed. If they do that, well still be having this conversation in 18 months, Foukkare told this masthead. But the pro-vaping campaign was labelled a cynical attempt to hook a new generation on nicotine by the countrys GPs. Big Tobacco fought Australias efforts to reduce harm from smoking at every step. Times have changed, and theyve adapted by becoming Big Nicotine, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Nicole Higgins said. Advertisement Big Nicotine has taken advantage of a lower evidence base to create an impression of a safe alternative to cigarettes and built a customer base of new users including young people. That rhetoric frustrates Colin Mendelsohn, a doctor who promotes using vapes for smoking cessation. Vaping opponents like to frame vaping as a Big Tobacco conspiracy. It is not. Big Tobacco entered the market in 2012 and has been trying to catch up ever since and only controls 20 per cent of the global vaping market, he said. Tobacco companies are transitioning from combustible products to safer alternatives such as vaping, which is a good thing. Mendelsohns submission to the TGA warned against doubling down on the current model, arguing countries that had embraced vaping had reported declines in their smoking rates. But across the Tasman, where New Zealand adopted a consumer model, its not been so straightforward. Advertisement When 3-year-old Arden Pepion went missing on the Blackfeet Reservation in 2021, more than 150 members of the Blackfeet community showed up to search for her. They brought dogs and flashlights. They learned how to ward off bears, and they waded through rivers. When a loved one goes missing, Native families often get tangled in a web of criminal jurisdictions shared among state, federal and tribal law enforcement entities. Frustrated with law enforcement response and a general lack of media coverage and public outcry, Indigenous families often turn to their communities for immediate assistance in finding loved ones. Their searches rarely get the attention and public assistance that missing white people receive, to the point sociologists have a special term for the difference. Missing White Woman Syndrome refers to the idea that young white women and especially those who adhere to common beauty standards and who come from wealthy backgrounds are overrepresented in media coverage, when compared with women of other demographics. A new Columbia Journalism Review tool estimates a 21-year-old missing Native woman in Montana would receive about 35 news stories, where as a missing white woman in her early 20s would receive at least 120 articles. These community-led searches are not uncommon. When Hanna Harris, a 21-year-old Northern Cheyenne woman, went missing in 2013, it was her mother, Malinda, who posted on Facebook to organize a search. When Selena Not Afraid, 16, went missing in 2020, her aunt Cheryl Horn helped coordinate the search, gather resources for volunteers and share updates on Facebook. While the Blackfeet community turned out for Ardens search, the effort did not go as planned. According to several people who attended, the search was chaotic, as it lacked a leader, coordination, resources and direction. Diana Burd is a member of Holding Hope, a grassroots search and rescue team created for Arden. She said she was sure the search team would find baby Arden, but added that because of the lack of collaboration she was not found. She recalled participants wondering, What exactly should we look for? How should we organize the group? Who is in charge? These are some of the questions that plagued grieving community members as they roamed the reservation looking for Arden. While community members do their best to assist in these searches, they often lack formal training and appropriate resources. A bill brought by Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, D-Browning, on behalf of the State-Tribal Relations Committee aims to bolster these community-led search efforts by providing formal training, resources and structure. The bill passed the House and was heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday. Whats this bill about? Specifically, House Bill 18 would establish a missing persons response team training grant program administered through the Department of Justice. In his address to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, Running Wolf emphasized that House Bill 18 is not just for Native people but would benefit all Montanans. It would create a corresponding grant account and provide a fund transfer. The bill establishes July 1 as the effective date, and the initial appropriation would cost the general fund $61,000. The bill would also fund training opportunities for community-based response teams made up of members across agencies and jurisdictions as well as local entities and volunteers. House Bill 18 would also fund expenses, including the cost of a training program and facilitator as well as conference location fees and travel expenses for staff and trainees. Running Wolf carried a similar bill last session, but it died in the Senate due to objections over its funding. Native Americans in Montana go missing and are murdered at disproportionately high rates. While Indigenous people comprise 6.7% of the states population, they account for, on average, 26% of the states active missing persons population. As of Friday, there were 45 active missing Indigenous persons cases reported in Montana. Burd, who traveled to the Capitol from the Blackfeet Reservation for the hearing, spoke of Ardens initial search. Nobody (was) collaborating, she said through tears. Everybody wanted to be the boss. It was horrible. Rhonda Grant-Connelly also traveled from Browning to provide testimony. She spoke of her nephew Matthew Grant, who was killed in 2016. She also alluded to Leo Wagner, who went missing shortly after Ardens disappearance, and Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, who has been missing since 2017. I cannot stress enough how beneficial this bill would be for all reservations and missing Indigenous people, she said. We are in need of proper equipment and training personnel, and it would be beneficial if we had our own search and rescue team. Tawna Bradford also recalled the effort for Arden. When we started our own little search team for baby Arden, we had no resources, training or funding, she said. We used our own money, our own vehicles, our own time, taking days off work. With your support (on) House Bill 18, a search and rescue team can be put into place with a structured protocol. In his closing, Running Wolf acknowledged those who provided emotional testimony and said the bill strengthens collaboration, communication, coordination and cross training. No one spoke in opposition of House Bill 18, and the committee did not take immediate executive action. Other MMIP bills Running Wolf also sponsored House Bill 163, which went before the Legislature on Wednesday. That bill would extend and expand Montanas Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force by adding a new position and pushing its termination date back by two years. Running Wolf introduced HB163 in the House Judiciary Committee. As of Friday at noon, the committee had not yet issued executive action on the bill. Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, R-Great Falls, introduced a resolution that requests an interim study of missing youth and asks that the results of that study are shared with the Legislature. A Montana Department of Justice report found that in 2021, more than 80% of missing Indigenous people in the state were under the age of 18. Several people, including representatives on behalf of the Blackfeet Nation, ACLU Montana, Montana Department of Justice and Montana Human Rights Network, spoke in support of both HB18 and the resolution at the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Friday. No one spoke in opposition. When there was a refugee crisis to the countrys north in the past, most of the time Australian governments saw it as their problem. This is because many of the refugees were trying to get to Australia. Through a brutal combination of turnbacks and offshore detention centres, Australia stopped the boats and asylum seekers havent been a domestic political issue for the past three election cycles. Many of the boats carrying ethnic Rohingyas are trying to get to Indonesia. Credit: AP There is, again, a refugee crisis brewing on the high seas to Australias north, but it hasnt been getting the same attention as those in the past. Over the past two months 15 boats have left or attempted to leave Myanmar and Bangladesh, and it is believed hundreds of Rohingya Muslims, originally from Myanmar, have either drowned or died of starvation. There is this kind of Armageddon-type view that the world is going to fall apart if we let some of the most disadvantaged people in this country, that are the first people of this country, have a body that can provide advice to government or parliament, she said. I mean, that is patently ridiculous and a bit obscene to sort of throw that around. This is a principle of making sure Indigenous Australians have a body that will provide advice to the parliament on legislation that affects them. Theres no veto; its a Voice. And its about bloody time they had a Voice. Whilst people can hyperventilate about this and bring on doomsday kind of predictions, I think thats over the top and ridiculous. Madeleine King, federal resources minister And the resources sector needs to get behind that as well because they know their record. Asked whether it supported the Voice, Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable said: The MCA supports a Voice and has a long demonstrated history of listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. A spokesperson for Fortescue said the company acknowledges and respects the Albanese Governments commitment to establishing a First Nations Voice. Loading Importantly, this will be a matter for the Australian people to decide at a referendum. We support all initiatives that will improve the lives of Australias First Nations people and end the disparity that currently exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, the spokesperson said. Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association chief executive Samantha McCulloch, who represents the large oil and gas companies, said her body was consulting with its members on this important issue for Australia and will formalise the industrys position prior to the referendum. Australias oil and gas industry acknowledges and recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first peoples of Australia, she said. The Albanese government has had a fraught relationship with the gas sector since it intervened to install a price cap in a bid to bring down soaring household power costs last month. Treasurer Jim Chalmers last week warned gas producers their behaviour was being closely watched by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after complaints they were withholding new offers to supply retailers with cheaper gas under the emergency caps. Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Saturday promised the impact of the governments intervention would start flowing through to Australians by May when the Australian Energy Regulator sets its new default market offer. The increases will be less than they otherwise would have been, Bowen said. Gas producers have argued the temporary price cap announced last month will deter investment in new projects and could exacerbate the risk of gas supply shortfalls. King acknowledged that gas companies arent necessarily that happy with the price cap but said it was a short-term measure to deal with the international global energy crisis and was only put in place after the industry failed to self-regulate. This is not a pathway we embrace with joy, this is not something we necessarily wanted to do, she said. The industry remained locked in talks with government officials over a mandatory code of conduct to come into place when the price caps end, with the government wanting to include a rule that would permanently require producers to sell gas at a reasonable price. King said she was encouraging gas companies to strongly put forward their views because she wanted a code of conduct that can work beyond the short term. Asked whether there was a real risk of international investors from countries such as Japan deciding to invest in gas projects elsewhere in the world because of the price caps, King said: Im always very mindful of the need for international investment in this country. Whilst people can hyperventilate about this and bring on doomsday kind of predictions, I think thats over the top, she said. Loading Australia remains a very safe and secure place for all kinds of investment in all kinds of industries. King said the gas industry has a long-term future in Australia and around the world as long as it continued to invest in the latest technologies to minimise and capture carbon emissions, as well as invest in carbon offsets. The industrial uses for gas are not going to change to anything else in the foreseeable future one day we hope that hydrogen can get up and become part of that manufacturing process, but thats not the case yet, she said. King also laid out her agenda for the year which included an emphasis on developing Australian critical minerals and rare earths, which would be a major feature of a meeting with state and territory resources ministers in March. The government is currently reviewing the nations critical minerals strategy to work out how to better attract investment to extract and process Australian resources such as lithium. What the world needs is what Australia has, and getting it out of the ground and processing it here in an ethical and sustainable manner is what the world wants, she said. I see it as a national mission really to develop our critical minerals in a way that makes it worlds best practice. She said she also wanted to hold the resources sector to account for the treatment of women after a series of allegations surfaced over the past year of bullying, sexual harassment and rape. Home buyers have been splashing out: a swimming pool can add hundreds of thousands of dollars in value to a home, agents say. Pools are in hot demand among young families looking to upgrade their homes since the pandemic hit, but they are not for every buyer type or suited to all properties. Swimming pools are hot property and the amount spent on them has increased since the pandemic hit. Spending, and spending intentions on swimming pools is up in the past year on Commonwealth Bank figures and pool was the number one search term among prospective buyers for the past three years on Domain.com.au. In general, a swimming pool can add value to a property, especially if young families are interested in the home, said James Sarzano of Stone Real Estate North Ryde. London: Kevin Rudd has been overheard in Switzerland saying he was going to shut the f--- up because he had been appointed Australias ambassador to the United States. The outspoken former leader also quipped about being slowly demoted, having been prime minister, foreign minister and now being appointed as the envoy to Washington. Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, right, speaking at the annual World Economic Forum this week. Credit: World Economic Forum Rudd attended the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos this week. The forum assembles the globes private and public elite annually. Among the speakers this year were Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, British adman Martin Sorrell and climate activist Greta Thunberg. He was then reported by Politico as saying: Ive been appointed ambassador so Im going to shut the f--- up, then observing: Im slowly being demoted. I was prime minister, then foreign minister and now Im ambassador. London: Church of England bishops have apologised to LGBTQI+ people for the rejection and hostility they have faced, but the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby acknowledged the religious body was still very divided on the subject. The apology comes days after the church set out proposals developed by the bishops that showed it would refuse to allow same-sex couples to get married in its churches, while saying priests could bless them. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Credit: AP We have not loved you as God loves you, and that is profoundly wrong, the bishops said in an open letter. We affirm, publicly and unequivocally, that LGBTQI+ people are welcome and valued: we are all children of God. The occasions on which you have received a hostile and homophobic response in our churches are shameful and for this we repent. The real George Santos who has previously gone by the name of Anthony Devolder is wanted by prosecutors in Brazil for allegedly committing elder fraud and cheque forgery. According to former associates there and photos and videos that have gone viral, he also used to compete as a drag queen in Brazilian beauty pageants although he insists this is not true. And in one of the most gut-wrenching revelations so far which the Republican has also dismissed Santos as Devolder, allegedly helped a homeless military veteran raise $US3000 on GoFundMe for his dying dog, Sapphire, to get treatment for a stomach tumour in 2016. He then is alleged to have disappeared without giving the veteran, Rich Osthoff, the funds. Sapphire died the following year. Little girl never left my side in 10 years, Osthoff this week told Oyster Bay Patch as he recalled having to put his beloved pet down. I went through two bouts of seriously considering suicide, but thinking about leaving her without me saved my life. I loved that dog so much, I inhaled her last breaths when I had her euthanised. Two months since being elected, Santos now faces a string of investigations into his financial disclosures and campaign finances, as well a revived criminal probe in Brazil over his alleged use of a stolen chequebook to purchase nearly $US700 worth of items under a false name. While the Congressman admits he embellished parts of his life and heritage he meant he was Jew-ish was one bizarre defence he insists he is not going anywhere. I was elected to serve the people of #NY03 [New Yorks third congressional district], not the party & politicians, Santos tweeted this month. I will NOT resign! Nonetheless, the calls for him to stand down are getting louder, including within his own ranks. Earlier this month, Republican officials from Nassau County, which takes in Santos seat, accused the congressman of deceiving voters and described him as a stain on the House of Representatives. But inside the House of Representative, now controlled by Republicans and led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Santos was last week appointed to two panels that consider bills and oversee government agencies: the Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The party line, at least for now, is that its up to the voters to decide his fate. I try to stick by the constitution. The voters elected him to serve, McCarthy said. If there is a concern, and he has to go through the ethics [committee] let him move through that. Under the US constitution, members can be expelled with a two-thirds majority vote, which is unlikely in a chamber where Republicans hold 222 out of 435 seats. After enduring 15 rounds of voting to become speaker, McCarthy also knows that every seat counts. Loading If Santos resigned, he would be vacating a district that President Joe Biden carried by eight points at the 2020 presidential election. Republicans would run the risk of the seat swinging back to the Democrats, further diminishing their narrow majority in the House. But veteran analyst Larry Sabato points to a broader problem: the erosion of trust in democratic institutions, and a Republican Party that has been redefined by former president Donald Trump. Theres almost nothing that will eliminate anyone from public office these days, says Sabato, the founder and director of the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia. Ive kidded people for years that I think murder might do it, but now I think it has to be first-degree murder. Manslaughter isnt enough. The question, of course, is how a seemingly pathological liar like Santos was elected in the first place. Part of it, says Sabato, comes down to poor vetting practices, a lack of media resources, and the fear of crime in New York, on which Republicans capitalised during the midterms. But part of it is also the sheer luck of a boundary redistribution. Santos district a predominantly white and Asian American seat connecting north-east Queens with the north shore of Long Island had initially been gerrymandered by the Democrats (a process in which parties manipulate voting maps) to swing in their favour. However, New Yorks top court threw out the map in June and reassigned a new map for congressional districts across the state, giving Santos an electoral advantage. The embattled politician now occupies an office on the first floor of the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill. When Congress sits, he cant go anywhere without being chased by reporters and photographers, while most Republican colleagues keep their distance. Santos cut a noticeably lonely figure on his first day of the new Congress as a right-wing mutiny erupted over the speakership. By the following week, however, he seemed to have found a place among the mutineers, appearing with hard-line Republican Matt Gaetz on the podcast of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Republican Matt Gaetz from Florida. Credit: Bloomberg Asked by Gaetz, who was filling in for Bannon at the time, how he responded to those calling for his resignation, Santos was as defiant as ever. I wish well all of their opinions, but I was elected by 142,000 people. Until those same 142,000 people tell me they dont want me, well find out in two years, he said. Once, in Idaho Falls, I had dinner at Chick-fil-A, and went back the next morning for breakfast. Neither meal was very good. But I did it anyway. Thats the allure of these semi-regional fast food joints. Places like Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out and Culvers are their own guerrilla marketing campaigns. They serve greasy, cheap food. And they do it quickly. Nothing that different from McDonalds. But these spots, theyre exclusive. Theyre unique. Theyre a destination. People will tell you Oh, Chick-fil-A is so good, and you have no way to disprove that. The only way to have a reply is to jump at the chance to visit next time you see one. That is, until now. On Thursday, the Billings Chick-fil-A finally opened after two years of feverish, furious anticipation. I was there at 6 a.m., both out of journalistic interest and morbid curiosity. It was freezing, and people were waiting. Some had come in the early morning. One person jubilantly exclaimed that theyd never been more excited in their life. A lifetime of triumph and tragedy, beautiful sights and wonderful smells and gorgeous sounds, and this chicken sandwich trumped them all. I really wanted to get it. I really wanted to be a part of all this excitement. I figured Id pop back one more time to see if I could get it to click. It was Thursday afternoon, and I was anticipating a line. Long before you get within sight of the Billings Chick-fil-A at 670 S. 24th St. W., big flashing signs instruct cars to use the entrance at King Avenue West and 26th Street West. That didnt seem to stop a steady stream of cars as they tried to use the 24th Street entrance and got turned around and confused. But once you get that figured out, the line is pretty smooth. A Chick-fil-A press release promised that off-duty police would be on hand to facilitate traffic, but the ones there looked pretty on-duty. Three big BPD SUVs sat, cherries blazing, blocking out the rough dimensions of the extended drive-thru queue. One thing is clear when youre in line at Chick-fil-A. This place moves. One employee takes your order. And theyre at your car window, tapping away on a tablet. No yelling into a speaker here. Another checks later on in the line to confirm your order. Then another person hands it to you. There are moving pieces everywhere. Theyre like ants. And that endless wait, that traffic nightmare everyone has been afraid of since the plans for this location were announced two years ago? From entering the parking lot to exiting with food took 22 minutes. Not the greatest use of my time, but far from the apocalyptic delays folks were worried about. Heck, Ive waited longer for Popeyes, and I was the only person in the drive-thru. But theres one big difference between a Popeyes sandwich and a Chick-fil-A. Mayo. The lack of sauce is Chick-fil-As greatest culinary sin. A proprietary Chick-fil-A sandwich contains only three ingredients: chicken patty, bun, and exactly two pickle chips. Mayo, or at least some sauce of similar makeup, is integral to the success of a chicken sandwich, both to add moisture and flavor. It is the binder. And the worst part? Chick-fil-A has delicious sauces. Their signature, eponymous sauce? A flawless take on honey BBQ. Their Polynesian? Delightful. But you cant get them on the sandwich. They only come on the side. You can enjoy the sauce with Chick-fil-As waffle fries, but its just not the same. The fries, once puzzlingly named the best fast food item in America by The Ringer, are unremarkable as anything other than a sauce vehicle. I also got nuggets, to taste the chicken unfiltered by anything else. The meat and breading work better on their own, without the daunting task of having to be a chicken sandwich. I tried a chocolate milkshake, which isnt even something I knew Chick-fil-A had until someone commented about them on the Gazette Facebook (see, someone does read those). It was well and truly awful, chalky and artificial tasting. That was especially clear juxtaposed against the lemonade, which was probably the star of the show. It places tartness over sweetness and, with its hunks of lemon pulp, really feels like something that youd get in a real Southern restaurant. But this food, that cant be it. That cant be all there is to inspire this devotion. Since their start, Chick-fil-A have been eager soldiers in the culture war. No restaurant, maybe no business, has played social and political tensions quite like Chick-fil-A. Being closed on Sundays is a nice way to ensure your workers get a built-in day off, but its also a virtue signal. And there is, of course, the restaurant's long history of bigotry aimed at LGBT people. Founder S. Truett Cathy used his WinShape Foundation to donate millions to anti-gay charities. All that cash mostly flew under the radar until Cathys son, Dan Cathy, doubled down in a string of public comments in 2012 and 2013. It was a decade ago, one of those things that feels like it was maybe blown out of proportion until you read his comments again. Cathy suggested that gay people invite gods judgment, and called the full legalization of gay marriage a Sad day for our nation. These feelings might be genuine, but theyre also good business. By aligning themselves with Evangelical Christianity, Chick-fil-A picked a side, and one that big businesses, always worried about offending any customers, rarely do. Republicans buy sneakers, too, as Michael Jordan supposedly once quipped. But theyll really buy sneakers with elephants and American flags on them. Were a tribal people. We want to support those in our tribe, in the hopes that maybe one day theyll support us, too. It's comforting, in a cold world, to feel like you're a part of something. If you can spend money to support a cause you agree with, and get a sandwich out of the deal, then maybe the hype starts to make some sense. I wound up eating at a picnic table in a nearby park. And even as temps nearly touched 50 degrees, my food grew ice cold pretty quickly. There, divorced from the politicking and pageantry, it became pretty clear what Chick-fil-A really is, deep down: just another chicken sandwich place. A citizen group trying to save the 140-year-old Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge argued on Friday against a state permit thats one of the last approvals BNSF Railway needs to begin building a new bridge that railroad officials maintained is necessary for safety and modern service. The two sides also clashed over whether the bridge project over the Missouri River is a precursor to a two-track system through the capital city. Members and supporters of the Friends of the Rail Bridge nonprofit and BNSF officials testified at a two-hour hearing before the state Department of Water Resources, which is considering whether to grant the railroad two sovereign lands permits. They would give BNSF permission for the project within sovereign lands of North Dakota, which are defined as areas lying within the ordinary high-water marks of navigable lakes and streams. Supporters of saving the bridge touted the historical and cultural attributes of the bridge, as well as the recreational opportunities in the area. The permit request should be denied as presently constituted, with new bridge construction only permitted after consideration of the critical public trust obligations to protect recreation, aesthetics, cultural and historical resources and potential alternative uses of the historic rail bridge, FORB board member Nicholas Bradbury said. The new construction should not undermine the integrity of the historic rail bridge. Its eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the federal governments list of properties it deems worthy of preservation and recognition. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named the bridge one of Americas 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2019. The bridge is part of the Northern Plains National Heritage Area, one of 55 congressionally designated areas in the United States, encompassing five counties along an 80-mile stretch of the Missouri River in central North Dakota. Congress dedicated the heritage area in 2009. There is not a more significant cultural or historic place in North Dakota or the Northern Great Plains, said Claudia Berg, former director of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. BNSF officials testified that the bridge has deteriorated to the point where the railroad has been forced to impose weight and speed restrictions. BNSF Environmental Attorney Laura Mona said the condition of the bridge has put service and safety at risk and is limiting new and existing industries from doing business in North Dakota. Railroad Bridge Construction Director Mike Herzog testified that the bridge is nearing the end of its useful life. FORB has said it does not oppose a new bridge it just wants to keep the existing one. A 2019 feasibility study conducted by North Dakota State University estimated the cost to turn the current structure into a foot bridge at just under $7 million. The U.S. Coast Guard which decides on projects proposed along that part of the river in its final environmental study said there were no feasible proposals to retain the bridge due to additional project costs and projected floodplain rise that would occur with side-by-side bridges in the river channel. FORB members on Friday argued that the floodplain issue would be moot if a new bridge were built farther north. BNSF officials said that option isnt feasible a contention that federal permitting officials agree with. Clearing hurdles FORB has indicated its considering a lawsuit to try to save the bridge. Attorney Lyle Witham said previously that the group must first exhaust its potential administrative remedies, one of which could be a state rejection of the sovereign lands permits. Two such permits are required one for construction of a new bridge, and one for removal of the old, according to Water Resources spokesman Lee Greuel. Fridays hearing technically was just on the construction-related permit, though Witham argued that removal and construction cant be separated. The proposed new bridge is located too close to the historic bridge to allow preservation of the historic bridge, so granting the permit to construct as proposed results in the eventual destruction of the historic bridge, he said. BNSF has cleared nearly all of the hurdles it needs to begin construction. Last October the Coast Guard finished a nearly three-year environmental review of the plan, concluding the bridge is approaching the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced. Officials determined the best alternative is to build a new bridge about 20 feet upstream and remove the existing bridge. The Coast Guard in late December published its record of decision finalizing the federal position, and issued a construction permit. The railroad last month also obtained a needed permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers related to working in the river, according to BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth. North Dakota regulators in December issued a water quality certification necessary for BNSFs plans, following a public comment period. The Department of Environmental Quality concluded that the proposed project will comply with state water quality standards. DEQ rejected a FORB request for a hearing on the matter, saying concerns the group raised related to historical ownership and cultural significance of the bridge are beyond the scope of the departments authority. Officials also said the public comment period had provided due process. FORB late last year also asked for a hearing before Water Resources, which the agency granted and held Friday. The Bismarck City Commission in December approved agreements giving BNSF the right to access certain portions of city property and to obtain soil from city property to be used for an embankment on the Morton County side of the replacement bridge. The city will be compensated 50 cents per cubic yard of material. BNSF will reclaim the site so as to leave it in a good state of repair once the work is done. Bridge ownership Bridge supporters who testified Friday offered both general and technical arguments against removing the existing bridge, and reiterated FORBs assertion that the project cant proceed until ownership of the bridge is determined. FORB maintains that the state has held ownership of the Missouri River bed up to the high-water mark since statehood, along with any permanent fixtures attached. The group argues that North Dakota took over ownership of navigable rivers from Congress when it became a state in 1889, and since Congress did not transfer ownership of the bridge to the railway before the state joined the union, the state retains the property. The nonprofit believes state ownership might help save the bridge because it could not be destroyed without approval from the State Historical Board. State Historic Preservation Officer Bill Peterson previously determined that the bridge is historically significant and that removal would be an adverse effect on a historic property. BNSF has called the argument legally absurd, and the state Attorney Generals Office has refused to wade into the debate, suggesting that the courts would be the proper venue for the dispute. The Coast Guard in its environmental study stated that the railroad provided evidence that BNSF has clear title to the bridge. The Coast Guard said that based on that evidence and the fact that the state of North Dakota has not asserted ownership, BNSF is the proper party under (federal) regulations to submit an application for replacement of the existing bridge. FORB officials on Friday said they dont believe the ownership issue is settled. This project involves one of the most important historic landmarks arguably the most important historic landmark located on state-owned land in North Dakota, Witham said. Tracy Potter, a former state senator from Bismarck, maintained that North Dakota owns that bridge BNSF inherited only a right to use the bridge from its original builder, the Northern Pacific Railway. Mona, the railroad attorney, disputed that contention. BNSF has clear title to the bridge through an 1864 act of Congress which granted BNSFs predecessor a right of way through public lands, she said. Federal law is clear that all property located within the right of way and used in building and operating the railroad became part of the real estate of the railroad. Two tracks? BNSF says it plans to build a single-track bridge with the capability of carrying a second track in the future if train volume made it necessary. FORB has expressed worries about the impact of a two-track system through Bismarck. The capacity and intent for a second track brings in factors that must be considered before approval of their plans, Potter said, adding that Expansion to two rails threatens downtown. Downtown Business Association CEO Dawn Kopp said a two-track system would result in the decimation of downtown Bismarck and the private property that is currently there. Mona stressed that the new bridge will have piers wide enough to accommodate a second track, but Nothing else for a second track will be constructed at this time. If and when rail demand increases to the point that extra capacity is needed, only then would plans for a second track be proposed, which would require additional permits and approvals including notice to the public, she said. Herzog testified that a rail bridge in Valley City that dates to 1908 was built to accommodate two tracks, and here it is roughly 115 years later, and we still have one track across that bridge. The railroad expects construction of a new Bismarck-Mandan bridge to take 2-3 years once physical work begins. The existing bridge will be left in service until the new one is operational. The cost of construction and removal is estimated at more than $64 million. (Reporter David Velazquez contributed to this story.) Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen is dodging rumors that he will be turning blue in the Star Wars universe anytime soon. After voicing the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the last two seasons of Star Wars: Rebels, rumors have abounded over the past couple of years that he will be transitioning into live-action in the new Ahsoka series. However, in a new interview with Express.co.uk, the actor said that, while hes aware of what the Internet is saying, he has not been offered the live-action role. When asked if hes aware of the ongoing fan campaign for him to play the role in live-action, he said that he is, and when asked if he would like to do it, he simply said: Well, I havent had the offer. But, yes, sure. Lars Mikkelsen and the Liam Neeson effect Whether or not Mikkelsen is playing with us, we dont know yet. His statement is very reminiscent of what Liam Neeson said about playing Qui-Gon in Obi-Wan Kenobi back in 2021, but with a major difference Qui-Gons involvement, as minor as it was, in Ewan McGregors series was all but guaranteed, given the basic story pitch and the overall timeline of events. And if they were going to have the character around, it wouldnt make any sense not to approach Neeson, especially given the years-long fan campaign to have him back in the role. As explained later, Thrawns appearance in Ahsoka is also more than likely, but the character has not appeared in live-action before, and there is precedent for Lucasfilm offering these roles to the people who voiced them in animation (see Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze). But theres also precedent for them going to other people (look no further than Ahsoka Tano, played by Rosario Dawson). There have been multiple reports on whether or not it will be Lars Mikkelsen playing Thrawn, and some of them have even been contradictory. From Cinelinxs Jordan Maison saying it might not be Mikkelsen, to then The Playlists Christopher Marc saying it is him, to then Maison reaffirming it. Now, the actor is saying no, so its definitely all up in the air at the moment. We might get more answers during Star Wars Celebration, where the first public trailer for Ahsoka will likely be released. How Thrawn ties into Ahsoka While not confirmed, it is a foregone conclusion that Grand Admiral Thrawn will appear in Ahsoka, and he will likely have a pivotal role. The episode from The Mandalorian season 2 where Rosario Dawson made her debut as the Togruta essentially served as a backdoor pilot for her spin-off series (announced just two weeks later), plus the character namedropped Thrawn during her confrontation with Morgan Elsbeth. Lucasfilm has confirmed that Sabine Wren is in the new series, played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo, and during the panel at Star Wars Celebration, Dave Filoni strongly hinted at a live-action reunion of the Star Wars: Rebels team. Hera was featured in the 60-second trailer previewed to audiences there (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead if the latest rumor is correct); Chopper made a cameo at the panel (surely for no reason at all); and The Inspection actor Eman Esfandi is reportedly playing Ezra Bridger. All signs point to Ahsoka being a fifth season of Rebels, now in live-action; the animated finale closed with Ezra and Thrawn being thrown into outer space, and years after the Battle of Endor, Ahsoka (The White) recruited Sabine to go look for them. Filoni has hinted this scene may have happened after the events of The Mandalorian, setting the following chain of events: after being rescued by Ezra through the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka learned about what happened in the Battle for Lothal and spent years looking for hints about Ezra and/or Thrawns whereabouts. She ended up on Corvus, outside a fortified village where someone connected to Thrawn, and to a larger threat in the Outer Rim, is located. With the help of Din Djarin, she is able to enter the place and face off against Morgan Elsbeth. After retrieving the information, she went looking for Sabine as we saw in the final moments of Rebels, and then Hera followed soon. Whether Zeb and Alexsandr Kallus will also join the crew, we dont know yet. But we are expecting the Ahsoka series to be the culminating event of not just Rebels, but everything Dave Filoni has been setting up in Star Wars animation over the years. No release date has been set for Ahsoka, but we should expect it sometime this summer on Disney Plus. After the years of the pandemic, society faced new problems in 2022. The Romanian Orthodox Church stood beside the afflicted. Fr. Ciprian Ionita, patriarchal adviser overseeing the Social-Philanthropic Sector of the Patriarchal Administration, and President of the Romanian Patriarchates Filantropia Federation, provided Radio Trinitas with an update on the previous years activities, according to basilica.ro. The year 2022 was a year with many challenges for the social-philanthropic work of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Through its social programmes, each diocese attempted to assist the underprivileged. Beneficiaries varied from children to the elderly, and throughout the year, we endeavoured to meet their varying requirements, Fr. Ciprian Ionita said. One of the years challenges was to support Ukrainian refugees and Ukrainians left behind in their country, affected by shortages and war. Since the beginning of the war at the end of February, the Romanian Orthodox Church has mobilised and made significant efforts to aid these hard-pressed individuals. Until the beginning of July alone, the dioceses of the Church and the Filantropia Federation of the Romanian Patriarchate provided support worth approximately 7.6 million euros, the patriarchal adviser noted. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and dioceses of the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC) continue to help persons impacted by the violence in Ukraine. In 2023, according to Father Ciprian Ionita, the social-philanthropic effort will continue with the same devotion and seriousness. Certainly, special attention will be paid to social services for the elderly, 2023 being the Solemn Year of the pastoral care of the elderly in the Romanian Orthodox Church. During his homily last Sunday, His Grace Bishop Ignatie of Husi spoke about the attitude of those who consider that they deserve everything they receive from others, becoming indifferent to the sacrifice or effort made for them. Reflecting on the healing of the ten lepers, Bishop Ignatie said that in despair and hopelessness, when man sees his own limitations, he humbles himself, obviously and naturally, he can humble himself to obtain what he wants most. When a man gets what he wants, humility, lowliness and gratitude disappear, the bishop noted, because man is already in possession of what he wanted most., according to basilica.ro. The Bishop of Husi remembered that we can find ourselves in the same situation as the nine lepers who didnt return to thank the Saviour for their healing. When we want to get something with a lot of ardour, we humble ourselves, precisely in the idea of receiving what the soul wants so much. Then, when we see ourselves with our wishes fulfilled, we no longer turn towards our benefactors. We do not stay close to them, thanking them and being grateful, because, somewhere, deep in our consciousness, we believe that we deserve that gift. When we receive gifts and believe that they are due to us, we no longer need gratitude or humility, Bishop Ignatie said on January 15. We can check a mans character by the way he relates to his benefactors, by the way, he knows how to be close to them, in any kind of circumstance, even if these benefactors end up, at a given moment, becoming the reproach of the world. The man who knows that he has benefited from someones love stays by the side of the one who helped him when he needed it the most. But, unfortunately, many of us fail this test of our character. Many people betray their benefactors, slander them and smear their identity, as if they never brought light and hope into their lives. They renounce them, repudiate them from their lives, as if they didnt even exist, Bishop Ignatie lamented. The Bishop of Husi urged the faithful to follow the example of the Samaritan, who knew how to turn to his Benefactor and thank Him, express his joy and, above all, tell God that he did not deserve the gift of healing. May the Lord protect us from entitlement and fill our hearts with gratitude and much thanksgiving, His Grace Bishop Ignatie said, ending his sermon. His Grace Marc of Neamt attended last week the meeting of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France (AEOF). The hierarchs spoke against a bill that would allow active assistance in dying specifically euthanasia for people. This goes against all fundamental Christian and human values, the hierarchs said in a Statement clarifying the theological and ethical foundations of the Orthodox Church regarding end-of-life care, according to basilica.ro. Whether we like it or not, ethics has a metaphysical dimension. One current of opinion would like to eliminate this dimension, which would open the way to a so-called right to grant death. In this case, life would no longer be considered a gift, the hierarchs write in the statement. This relativisation of values seems dangerous to us. Doctors, too, are concerned about this shift in emphasis and the ethical and practical implications that would arise from it. Death is part of the human condition marked by the fall of Adam, but the life of a human person cannot be reduced to death. The human condition should always be seen in the light of Christs Resurrection, Frances Orthodox bishops write. Metropolitan Dimitrios of France chaired the meeting. The hierarchs exchanged information about the dioceses they guide, welcomed the election and enthronement of the new Archbishop of Nova Justiniana and All Cyprus, His Beatitude George of Paphos, and wished the Orthodox faithful a happy new year. The meeting was followed by the Divine Liturgy celebrated at the Greek Cathedral of St Stephen in Paris. The next AEOF meeting is scheduled for 23 March 2023. On Thursday, January 19, 2023, Mr Igor Grosu, President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Mr Ion-Marcel Ciolacu, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Romanian Parliament, and Mr Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca, Prime Minister of the Government of Romania, met at with His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania at the Romanian Patriarchate to discuss concrete ways to more intensively support the activities of the Metropolis of Bessarabia within the Romanian Orthodox Church. During the meeting, issues related to the fact that the Metropolis of Bessarabia has been discriminated against in all aspects for three decades compared to the Metropolis of Chisinau and All Moldova, which is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Patriarch of Romania requested equal treatment for the Metropolis of Bessarabia so as to allow its clerics to provide religious assistance in the army, penitentiaries and hospitals, as well as to be invited to official events to which clerics from the other church structure on the territory of the Republic of Moldova are invited. At the same time, the Patriarch of Romania reiterated the request that the state authorities of the Republic of Moldova retrocede the buildings of the former Faculty of Orthodox Theology and the former Theological Seminary in Chisinau. He also demanded the compensating assignment of a building in return for the previous headquarters of the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which was dismantled during the communist era and the current building of the Government of the Republic of Moldova was constructed in its stead, according to basilica.ro. The Moldovan Parliaments President Igor Grosu stated that some matters pertaining to equal treatment are being settled, as are petitions about the assignment of certain buildings to the Metropolis of Bessarabia. This meeting of the President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova with the Patriarch of Romania shows the openness of the new state leadership of the Republic of Moldova to the Metropolis of Bessarabia within the Romanian Orthodox Church, as well as the active contribution of Mr Ion-Marcel Ciolacu, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of Romania, and Mr Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca, Prime Minister of the Romanian Government, in this change of attitude of the Chisinau authorities. Chancellery of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church Mohammad Murad, reactie in cazul Dan Diaconescu, dupa ce s-a spus ca faptele au avut loc la hotelul lui: Nu poti sa pleci din tara si sa se spuna ca am fugit His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania sent condolences to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Thursday, over the repose of His Holiness sister, Zacharo Anastasiadou: Bucharest, January 18, 2023 His Holiness BARTHOLOMEW, Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch Your Holiness, We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Your Holiness late sister Zacharo Anastasiadou. We express our deepest condolences and entreat our Lord Jesus Christ who conquered death to give rest to the soul of His servant Zacharo in the light, peace and joy of the Most Holy Trinity. May her memory be eternal from generation to generation! DANIEL Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church He was born in Constantinople around 580 and raised in a pious Christian family. He received an excellent education, studying philosophy, grammar, and rhetoric. He was well-read in the authors of antiquity and he also mastered philosophy and theology. When Saint Maximus entered into government service, he became first secretary (asekretis) and chief counselor to the emperor Heraclius (611-641), who was impressed by his knowledge and virtuous life. Saint Maximus soon realized that the emperor and many others had been corrupted by the Monothelite heresy, which was spreading rapidly through the East. He resigned from his duties at court, and went to the Chrysopolis monastery (at Skutari on the opposite shore of the Bosphorus), where he received monastic tonsure. Because of his humility and wisdom, he soon won the love of the brethren and was chosen igumen of the monastery after a few years. Even in this position, he remained a simple monk, according to basilica.ro. In 638, the emperor Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius tried to minimize the importance of differences in belief, and they issued an edict, the Ekthesis (Ekthesis tes pisteos or Exposition of Faith), which decreed that everyone must accept the teaching of one will in the two natures of the Savior. In defending Orthodoxy against the Ekthesis, Saint Maximus spoke to people in various occupations and positions, and these conversations were successful. Not only the clergy and the bishops, but also the people and the secular officials felt some sort of invisible attraction to him, as we read in his Life. When Saint Maximus saw what turmoil this heresy caused in Constantinople and in the East, he decided to leave his monstery and seek refuge in the West, where Monothelitism had been completely rejected. On the way, he visited the bishops of Africa, strengthening them in Orthodoxy, and encouraging them not to be deceived by the cunning arguments of the heretics. The Fourth Ecumenical Council had condemned the Monophysite heresy, which falsely taught that in the Lord Jesus Christ there was only one nature (the divine). Influenced by this erroneous opinion, the Monothelite heretics said that in Christ there was only one divine will (thelema) and only one divine energy (energia). Adherents of Monothelitism sought to return by another path to the repudiated Monophysite heresy. Monothelitism found numerous adherents in Armenia, Syria, Egypt. The heresy, fanned also by nationalistic animosities, became a serious threat to Church unity in the East. The struggle of Orthodoxy with heresy was particularly difficult because in the year 630, three of the patriarchal thrones in the Orthodox East were occupied by Monothelites: Constantinople by Sergius, Antioch by Athanasius, and Alexandria by Cyrus. Saint Maximus traveled from Alexandria to Crete, where he began his preaching activity. He clashed there with a bishop, who adhered to the heretical opinions of Severus and Nestorius. The saint spent six years in Alexandria and the surrounding area. Patriarch Sergius died at the end of 638, and the emperor Heraclius also died in 641. The imperial throne was eventually occupied by his grandson Constans II (642-668), an open adherent of the Monothelite heresy. The assaults of the heretics against Orthodoxy intensified. Saint Maximus went to Carthage and he preached there for about five years. When the Monothelite Pyrrhus, the successor of Patriarch Sergius, arrived there after fleeing from Constantinople because of court intrigues, he and Saint Maximus spent many hours in debate. As a result, Pyrrhus publicly acknowledged his error, and was permitted to retain the title of Patriarch. He even wrote a book confessing the Orthodox Faith. Saint Maximus and Pyrrhus traveled to Rome to visit Pope Theodore, who received Pyrrhus as the Patriarch of Constantinople. In the year 647 Saint Maximus returned to Africa. There, at a council of bishops Monotheletism was condemned as a heresy. In 648, a new edict was issued, commissioned by Constans and compiled by Patriarch Paul of Constantinople: the Typos (Typos tes pisteos or Pattern of the Faith), which forbade any further disputes about one will or two wills in the Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Maximus then asked Saint Martin the Confessor (April 14), the successor of Pope Theodore, to examine the question of Monothelitism at a Church Council. The Lateran Council was convened in October of 649. One hundred and fifty Western bishops and thirty-seven representatives from the Orthodox East were present, among them Saint Maximus the Confessor. The Council condemned Monothelitism, and the Typos. The false teachings of Patriarchs Sergius, Paul and Pyrrhus of Constantinople, were also anathematized. When Constans II received the decisions of the Council, he gave orders to arrest both Pope Martin and Saint Maximus. The emperors order was fulfilled only in the year 654.Saint Maximus was accused of treason and locked up in prison. In 656 he was sent to Thrace, and was later brought back to a Constantinople prison. The saint and two of his disciples were subjected to the cruelest torments. Each ones tongue was cut out, and his right hand was cut off. Then they were exiled to Skemarum in Scythia, enduring many sufferings and difficulties on the journey. After three years, the Lord revaled to Saint Maximus the time of his death (August 13, 662). Three candles appeared over the grave of Saint Maximus and burned miraculously. This was a sign that Saint Maximus was a beacon of Orthodoxy during his lifetime, and continues to shine forth as an example of virtue for all. Many healings occurred at his tomb. In the Greek Prologue, August 13 commemorates the Transfer of the Relics of Saint Maximus to Constantinople, but it could also be the date of the saints death. It may be that his memory is celebrated on January 21 because August 13 is the Leavetaking of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Saint Maximus has left to the Church a great theological legacy. His exegetical works contain explanations of difficult passages of Holy Scripture, and include a Commentary on the Lords Prayer and on Psalm 59, various scholia or marginalia (commentaries written in the margin of manuscripts), on treatises of the Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite (October 3) and Saint Gregory the Theologian (January 25). Among the exegetical works of Saint Maximus are his explanation of divine services, entitled Mystagogia (Introduction Concerning the Mystery). The dogmatic works of Saint Maximus include the Exposition of his dispute with Pyrrhus, and several tracts and letters to various people. In them are contained explanations of the Orthodox teaching on the Divine Essence and the Persons of the Holy Trinity, on the Incarnation of the Word of God, and on theosis (deification) of human nature. Nothing in theosis is the product of human nature, Saint Maximus writes in a letter to his friend Thalassius, for nature cannot comprehend God. It is only the mercy of God that has the capacity to endow theosis unto the existing In theosis man (the image of God) becomes likened to God, he rejoices in all the plenitude that does not belong to him by nature, because the grace of the Spirit triumphs within him, and because God acts in him (Letter 22). Saint Maximus also wrote anthropological works (i.e. concerning man). He deliberates on the nature of the soul and its conscious existence after death. Among his moral compositions, especially important is his Chapters on Love. Saint Maximus the Confessor also wrote three hymns in the finest traditions of church hymnography, following the example of Saint Gregory the Theologian. The theology of Saint Maximus the Confessor, based on the spiritual experience of the knowledge of the great Desert Fathers, and utilizing the skilled art of dialectics worked out by pre-Christian philosophy, was continued and developed in the works of Saint Simeon the New Theologian (March 12), and Saint Gregory Palamas (November 14). Troparion Tone 8 Champion of Orthodoxy, teacher of purity and of true worship, / enlightener of the universe and adornment of hierarchs: / all-wise father Maximus, your teachings have gleamed with light upon all things. / Intercede before Christ God to save our souls. The Holy Martyr Neophytus He was a native of the city of Nicea in Bithynia, was raised by his parents in strict Christian piety. For his virtue, temperance and unceasing prayer, it pleased God to glorify Saint Neophytus with the gift of wonderworking, while the saint was still just a child! Like Moses, the holy youth brought forth water from a stone of the city wall and gave this water to those who were thirsty. In answer to the prayer of Saint Neophytus mother, asking that Gods will concerning her son might be revealed to her, a white dove miraculously appeared and told of the path he would follow. The saint was led forth from his parental home by this dove and brought to a cave on Mt. Olympus, which served as a lions den. It is said that he chased the lion from the cave so that he could live there himself. The saint remained there from the age of nine until he was fifteen, leaving it only once to bury his parents and distribute their substance to the poor. During the persecution by Diocletian (284-305), he went to Nicea and boldly began to denounce the impiety of the pagan faith. The enraged persecutors suspended the saint from a tree, they whipped him with ox thongs, and scraped his body with iron claws. Then they threw him into a red-hot oven, but the holy martyr remained unharmed, spending three days and three nights in it. The torturers, not knowing what else to do with him, decided to kill him. One of the pagans ran him through with a sword (some say it was a spear), and the saint departed to the Lord at the age of sixteen. Troparion Tone 4 Your holy martyr Neophytus, O Lord, / through his suffering has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God. / For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries, and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. / Through his intercessions, save our souls! Holy Virgin Martyr Agnes was born at Rome during the third century. Her parents were Christians and they raised her in the Christian Faith. From her youth she devoted herself to God, and dedicated herself to a life of virginity, refusing all other suitors. When she refused to enter into marriage with the son of the city official Symphronius, one of his associates revealed to him that Agnes was a Christian. The wicked Eparch decided to subject the holy virgin to shame and he ordered that she be stripped and and sent to a brothel for disdaining the pagan gods. But the Lord would not permit the saint to suffer shame. As soon as she was disrobed, long thick hair grew from her head covering her body. An angel was also appointed to guard her. Standing at the door of the brothel, he shone with a heavenly light which blinded anyone who came near her. The son of the Eparch also came to defile the virgin, but fell down dead before he could touch her. Through the fervent prayer of Saint Agnes, he was restored to life. Before his father and many other people he proclaimed, There is one God in the heavens and on earth: the Christian God, and the other gods are but dust and ashes! After seeing this miracle, 160 men believed in God and were baptized, and then suffered martyrdom. Saint Agnes, at the demand of the pagan priests, was given over to torture. They tried to burn her as a witch, but the saint remained unharmed in the fire, praying to God. After this they killed her by stabbing her in the throat. Through her death at the age of thirteen, Saint Agnes escaped everlasting death and inherited eternal life. The holy virgin martyr was buried by her parents in a field they owned outside of Rome. Many miracles occurred at the grave of Saint Agnes. Her holy and grace-filled relics rest in the church built in her honor, along the Via Nomentana. Troparion Tone 4 Your lamb Agnes, / calls out to You, O Jesus, in a loud voice: / I love You, my Bridegroom, / and in seeking You, I endure suffering. / In baptism I was crucified so that I might reign in You, / and I died so that I might live with You. / Accept me as a pure sacrifice, / for I have offered myself in love. / Through her prayers save our souls, since You are merciful. Where does a text exist? A book seems like the obvious answer, but texts can be orally transmitted, etched onto banana leaves, or downloaded from cyberspace and read on a screen. Yet whereas a text is metaphysical, books are decidedly physical (leaving aside, for now, e-books and audiobooks), and Oxford professor Emma Smith explores books as material objects in "Portable Magic," a book for people who love books. Lifting her title from Stephen King, who in "On Writing" wrote that books are "a uniquely portable magic," Smith accordingly begins her delightful introduction with the fable of the Sorcerer and the Apprentice, retold many times but most indelibly in Disney's "Fantasia." Books, the fable tells us, contain power. If not handled by a properly trained scholar, they can unleash not only danger but evil think "Mein Kampf," to which Smith devotes a chapter. Yet she's most interested in the form of books, not their content. Books are symbols, that is, and Smith initially stumbles with her chapter on Gutenberg's Bible, debunking the "Western myth" of it symbolizing innovation in printing, as the process previously existed in China and elsewhere. But no one seriously thinks "print is a European invention," as she claims, just that books are. Smith's weakest passages are such rote, post-colonial critiques, which she delivers perfunctorily, as if obliged. Previous to Gutenberg, of course, there were scrolls, which is how the books of the Bible were originally kept. The first codex, Smith tells us, was able to collect these scrolls of the Bible into one book, allowing the reader to flip pages, easily compare earlier or later parts of a text, keep our place with a mark, and do other activities we now take for granted. In other words, as Smith clarifies, books "are vital exemplars of a resilient technology that has barely changed over more than a millennium but that has changed us, our habits, and our culture." Chapter by chapter, Smith offers case studies to promote theories about how books as objects convey meaning. For instance, a book's presentation determines how it's read. Large and heavy leather-bound books with elaborate designs and an iron latch are treated as sacred objects, even guarded behind lock and key, whereas mass-market paperbacks are flippantly left in little free libraries for the next reader. Revealingly, books are burned not to eradicate their content but as symbolic gestures of political theater. It's not the destruction itself that bothers us, but the reasons behind it; no one complains when publishers pulp remaindered books by the thousands, but the Nazi book burnings of 1933 epitomize anti-intellectual barbarism. More recently, and stupidly, J.K. Rowling's books are burned by the religious far-right for their promotion of pagan witchcraft, and by the fanatic far-left enraged at the author's professed belief in biology. Books not only signify ideology but also serve as accessory. With "shelfies," the Zoom era allowed us to present our personalities by the books we have as a backdrop, just as Marilyn Monroe declared she was an intellectual by posing with James Joyce's "Ulysses." With such examples, Smith shows that though we read books, we do many other things with them, too. Ultimately, she argues convincingly, a book is never just a book. And perhaps that's why despite a decade of premature obituaries, books are alive as ever. Randy Rosenthal teaches writing for Harvard University. Robert Burnham grew up in a small town in Vermont during the Great Depression. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1940 and served with distinction as a bombardier-navigator during the Second World War and then again in Korea. He returned to his hometown on leave and married a woman 13 years his junior. He was 32; she was 19. Her name was Ann. She had nine children in very quick succession. In fact, at one point, she and Robert had nine children under the age of 10. With no multiple births. Robert was assigned to the Strategic Air Command, the fixed-wing component of our nuclear arsenal. He retired from the Air Force in 1964 and moved to St. Louis to work for the Aeronautical Chart and Information Agency, which eventually became the Defense Mapping Agency and is now the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency. The family lived in South County. The fifth child of this family Tom was 9 years old when the family moved here. As middle child, he considered himself the family diplomat, able to bridge the differences between his older and younger siblings. Tom thought about becoming a writer. In fact, he did become a writer. After a short stint in college, he worked as a deck hand on a tugboat. Up and down the river he went. He spent a lot of time reading and writing. He was not alone. Every boat had a scribbler, he remembers. Eventually, Tom gathered all his writings and burned them. He had read something from a German philosopher, Rainer Maria Rilke, who made the argument that poetry is not about feelings, but about experiences. Tom had written about feelings. He did not have much time to straighten out his writing philosophy on the river because the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. That led Jimmy Carter to embargo the grain that was supposed to go to Russia. That decimated the towing industry. Tom was a scribbler out of work. He hung wallpaper. He got a job at Library Limited, a bookstore in Clayton. He got an office job for a contractor. Mostly, though, he lived in Soulard. Soulard was already hip, but not yet fashionable. It was a Jack Kerouac novel, a Charles Bukowski poem and a Tom Waits song, said Tom. One of the leading characters in Soulard was Zeno, who looked something like Santa Claus, and had a hip and mysterious vibe. His pockets were always a-jingle with the strangest stuff bits of jewelry, odd coins, poker chips with strange markings. Zeno and a couple of friends established the Soulard Culture Squad, which organized poetry readings in the saloons. Sometimes 30 people would read. Tom was clearly a literary type, and Zeno challenged him to bring a poem to a reading. Tom accepted that challenge and wrote something. He was thinking in terms of Alan Ginsbergs Howl, and he wrote how the Lost Generation led to the Beat Generation and now here we are in Soulard. Something like that. Kindred spirits. A rant, Tom calls it now. After his reading, a man came up to him and said, You have the right attitude to volunteer at the homeless shelter. That man was Richard Neitzel, and he was the associate pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church and the director of the homeless shelter in the basement of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church. The homeless services industry at that time was not yet an industry. The city didnt have anything to do with the problem of homeless people, and wouldnt until 1985 when Legal Services of Eastern Missouri filed a class-action lawsuit against the city Graham vs. Schoemehl that ended in a consent degree in which the city accepted some responsibility for the problem. In the days before officialdom became involved, services for the homeless were wild and unregulated. The Rev. Larry Rice ran New Life Evangelistic Center downtown and organized sleep-ins in the park in front of City Hall. He called those temporary encampments Schoemehlvilles, after Mayor Vincent Schoemehl. The Rev. Dan Tobey, a rough and tumble ex-drinker, ran Someone Cares Mission on the near north side. Asked by Post-Dispatch reporter John Michael McGuire if he ever missed drinking, Tobey confided that he sometimes missed the camaraderie of alley-drinking. McGuire said he understood completely. The shelter in the basement of Peter and Paul had been established by three churches Peter and Paul, Trinity Lutheran and St. Vincent DePaul after a homeless person froze to death on a street in Soulard in 1981. At Neitzels suggestion, Tom volunteered. It was absolute bedlam, Tom said. Men, women, kids. We just opened the door and let people in. I loved it. Nobody got paid. Most volunteers worked one night every other week. Tom, whose apartment was only a block away, started showing up almost every night. In fact, when he wouldnt show up, somebody would call him. Where are you, Tom? By 1986, he was on the payroll. His middle-child diplomatic skills stood him in good stead not only inside the shelter, but also in the neighborhood. As Soulard became fashionable and property values rose, there were people who wondered about a homeless shelter in the heart of the neighborhood. Tom went to neighborhood meetings, listened to peoples concerns and worked with them. Over the years, service to the homeless changed. Of course, there is still a need for shelter, especially in the winter, but there is now a focus on providing services that help people get off the street and live independently. Agencies work together in what is called the St. Louis Continuum of Care. Peter and Paul Community Services, led by Steve Campbell, is a big player in the coordinated effort, which is, by the way, a public-private partnership. For instance, the citys shelter for men, the Biddle House, is staffed and managed by Peter and Paul Community Services. The shelter in the basement of Peter and Paul has changed, too. Walk-ins are no longer accepted. A referral from the Continuum is necessary. And, of course, the wild west aspect is gone. Rices shelter was shut down years ago. Tobey, perhaps suspecting that the 21st century would not be to his liking, died in 1999 and was buried with a rose in one hand a a pack of cigarettes in the other. Now Burnham is retiring. He has not been running the shelter for a while. His official title at Peter and Paul Community Services has been community relations officer, but Campbell hung a different sign on Burnhams door Guru. What will the guru do in his retirement? He will take up scribbling again. Actually, he never stopped. He has compiled a collection of short stories, character sketches, anecdotes. He writes with understanding and respect of the people he has met. Postcards from the Edge. Too bad that title has been taken. He will have to come up with another. FARMINGTON, Mo. Apart from a desperate urge to be free, the five inmates who escaped from the St. Francois County Detention Center here Tuesday evening four of them still on the lam had several strokes of good fortune. A few hours before nightly lockdown, they somehow gained entry into cell D-1 in their pod. Chief Deputy Gregory Armstrong of the St. Francois County Sheriffs Department said in an interview that the cell was supposed to be closed off because it had plumbing issues. He said thered been damage from a previous escape attempt in the area, but the five were able to overcome the repair. Not only did they unseat the stainless steel sink and toilet, they climbed through the wall and made it down from the roof. The jail, which Armstrong said holds about 200 inmates, is undergoing an expansion for a medical wing. One of the contractors left a ladder up against the building, Armstrong said. On the hunt for a getaway car, they ran one mile away, to a secured lot at a Centene Corp. office, just off Highway 67. There, Armstrong said, after searching other vehicles, they found a 2009 Scion tC with temporary tags. Keys in it. Full tank of gas. They just got lucky, he said. Its a black eye, of course, that we didnt want. Sometimes things happen. By Friday, the jail lobby was quiet and the construction crews were back on the roof working on the medical wing. There were no roadblocks around town. Armstrong didnt want to disclose many details about the range of the search, other than to say it is extensive and includes other law enforcement agencies beyond Farmington. We dont believe they are still in the area, Armstrong said. Farmington is about 70 miles south of St. Louis. The escapees, who were all in custody for felony charges, are Dakota Pace, Michael Wilkins, LuJuan Tucker, Aaron Sebastian and Kelly McSean. Late in the day Friday, Armstrong said in a press release that one of the five had been captured. Poplar Bluff police took Wilkins into custody Friday morning at a second-hand retail store without incident. A tip led investigators to the area. A person matching Wilkins description was seen at a bar in Poplar Bluff on Wednesday evening. Hed entered the bar alone, according to the tip, mostly kept to himself, only drinking water. In a twist that speaks to the legacy of mental health treatment in Farmington, Tucker, Sebastian and McSean were recent residents of the nearby Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS, facility. Like others deemed sexually violent predators, they were civilly committed, held against their will as patients because of what they might do. Theyve already served prison sentences for their convicted crimes. Few people get out of SORTS, a controversial program since it began in 1999. While prosecutors say SORTS is a good public safety tool, some patients, including those who were elderly, have died while trying to complete treatment. In a review of the program, a federal judge once said SORTS had systemic failures but ultimately passed scrutiny. Though SORTS is beside the Farmington Correctional Center, a state prison, its a high security hospital run by the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Some patients have said they prefer being in prison because there are more freedoms. Nobody stopped to question why we are so willing to go back to prison, Dennis Strutton, a SORTS patient, told the Post-Dispatch by phone Friday. Its because we dont have any hope. I have been in treatment 20 years. Weve all been trying to find a way out thats legit. But theres not. You have to be selected. The majority of the guys selected, theyve been brought back. Debra Walker, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Mental Health, said there are 265 SORTS clients in Farmington and at Fulton State Hospital, and 21 detainees in county jails. She said 24 people have been granted conditional release since the program. Asked about the apparently hopelessness, she wrote by email: The Missouri Circuit Courts determine the conditional release of SORTS program clients. While Strutton said hopelessness likely helped motivate Tucker, Sebastian and McSean to run, they were being held in the jail at the time of their escape for a range of alleged criminal offenses at SORTS, which tends to raise questions for officials about how seriously they were taking treatment. Tucker, 37, a former resident of the Maryland Heights area first convicted in 2003 of raping a 12-year-old girl, has pending cases including third-degree assault while at SORTS and second-degree sodomy. Hed already gone back to prison once for assaulting SORTS staff. Sebastian, 30, formerly of Greene County, and McSean, 52, a transgender woman from Holts Summit formerly named Larry Bemboom, are both accused of knowingly committing violence upon a SORTS employee. A county jail is not the appropriate place to house those folks, Armstrong said. We are not a mental health facility. We are a county jail. A petition to recall Bismarck School Board member Emily Eckroth has been approved for circulation. The North Dakota Secretary of State office approved it Friday, according to Karen Dunlap, chair of the recall organizing committee. The petition is an attempt at removing Eckroth from public office following her guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of physical obstruction of a government function during a DUI traffic stop involving her husband. Eckroth has refused to resign from the school board despite calls by other board members for her to do so. The board earlier this month censured her. A censure is a formal reprimand. The board does not have the power under state law to remove Eckroth because she is an elected official. The board also stripped her of her learning excellence portfolio and school visit duties during her probation. Police video footage released to the Tribune in December shows Eckroth cursing out Burleigh County deputy sheriffs, ignoring their commands, and urinating in the back of a patrol vehicle as they dealt with her husband during a DUI traffic stop in Bismarck on Sept. 3. Her husband was not arrested or charged with DUI. Eckroth was sentenced to nearly a year of unsupervised probation and $325 in court fees. She issued a statement last month in which she said she accepted responsibility for my regrettable actions and asked for understanding and respect of my privacy in this matter as I move forward. She also criticized the media for reporting about her arrest. The Facebook group Recall Emily Eckroth from the Bismarck Public School Board is seeking to recall Eckroth for behavior unbecoming to the office which she holds. The group has 90 days to gather 2,709 signatures required by state law to bring the matter to voters via a special election. The number is equal to 25% of the voters in the most recent school board election. ST. LOUIS Firefighters found a body in the rubble of a puppet theater on Saturday here, after a fire destroyed the Central West End building the night before. A two-alarm blaze engulfed Bob Kramers Marionnettes, in the 4100 block of Laclede Avenue, around 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Kramer and partner Dug Feltch have been putting on shows at the home for about 60 years, one of the countrys longest running puppet theaters. Neighbors feared the body was Kramers. The theater was a fixture not just on the tight-knit street but across the world, said Harold Karabell, president of the neighborhood association. Kramers artistry was unmatched, he said. Its a cultural loss, Karabell said. Its an even greater human loss. Firefighters said two people, whose names were not released, were inside the building when the fire started. One was sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation; his injuries were not considered life threatening. Firefighters thought the other person had been caught inside the building. Neighboring buildings were evacuated out of precaution. On Saturday morning, firefighters had taped off the site and were still spraying water on hot spots. Officials were waiting until the property was cool enough to bring out a dog to check the rubble. They werent sure how stable the structure was. The first floor of the property, built around 1913, had housed the theater, gift shop and wood shop where Kramer and Feltch built their own marionettes. Neighbors said the two lived on the second floor. By Saturday morning, the roof was gone, with broken and scorched brick crumbled on top. The second floor had collapsed. What interior walls still stood were blackened. Karabell, the neighbor, said he got a call Friday night about a fire in the neighborhood and rushed over on his bicycle. He arrived to find the property engulfed in flames and Feltch, a longtime friend, in the street. Feltch told Karabell that he and Kramer were upstairs on the second floor watching TV when they smelled what they thought was a barbecue. Then the house erupted in flames. Its unimaginable, Karabell said. Summer Violett and her husband, Ben Zurawski, came from their home in Fenton to pay their respects on Saturday. They taped to a fence post a bright green sign that said We love you Bob and Dug. Violett, who grew up going to shows here, took Zurawski and their toddler son to their first show on Easter. Kramer and Feltch took an hour to show them how they made the puppets, and she remembered how proud they were to show off their artistry. Violett recalled how her son screamed with delight when the show started, and how Feltch stopped the show to say how much he enjoyed her sons reaction. The family returned again for the Halloween show. It was special, she said. By early afternoon, the site was cool enough for the cadaver dog. Firefighters searched for about 20 minutes before the dog indicated it had discovered a body in what officials described as an addition to the property. Firefighters confirmed the death, but said they couldnt immediately identify the body. Later that afternoon, the citys Building Division sent a mid-sized excavator to demolish part of the structure firefighters had deemed unsafe. Another fire crew arrived around 2:30 p.m. to help put out some lingering hot spots. Update: Updated Monday, Jan. 23 with more details from charging documents in Georgia. ST. LOUIS A woman facing murder and child abuse charges in Georgia is now accused of killing her 5-year-old daughter in St. Louis. Tiaerra M. Woods, 33, was charged Friday with second-degree murder and abuse or neglect of a child after her daughter died July 25, 2020, of a fluid-filled cyst in her brain along with medical neglect and severe malnutrition, charging documents say. She is also charged in Georgia with murder and cruelty to children for the death of her son, Kaleb Woods, who suffered from malnutrition and pneumonia before his death in December 2017, according to court documents. Woods' daughter, who died in Missouri, is identified in court documents only by the initials K.W. That child suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was two months old, causing cerebral palsy, blindness, seizures, and developmental delays, and was dependent on a feeding tube, according to court documents. The child had a lengthy medical history, investigators wrote in charging documents, including a history of neglect and malnourishment. When she was in the hospital, she gained weight, but then lost it again when she was in her mothers care, court documents said. Medical examiners declared the cause of death homicide because the child was underweight and small for her age at the time of her death. Woods is incarcerated at the Clayton County jail in Georgia, just south of Atlanta. An attorney was not yet listed in Missouri court documents. ST. LOUIS Thomas A. Tom Villa, a longtime player in St. Louis area politics and a proud lifelong Democrat, died about 10:30 p.m. Friday (Jan. 20, 2023) after suffering a heart attack. He was 77. Villa was president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen from 1987 to 1995 just one part of a political career that spanned 42 years and included holding elected office at both the local and state level. He was the best of politics, and we will miss him, current aldermanic President Megan E. Green said. Villa, the son of legendary St. Louis Alderman Albert Red Villa, was born March 16, 1945, in St. Louis. He graduated from St. Stephen Protomartyr grade school, St. Marys High School, and earned a bachelors degree in 1967 from St. Louis University and a masters degree in 1971 from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Villas first public speaking was done in front of a class, as an English teacher in the late 1960s at Augustinian Academy and in the early 1970s at Central High School. Tom was a genuinely smart and funny guy, who had a deep love for the city of St. Louis, and for the political atmosphere he put himself in, St. Louis Collector of Revenue Gregory F.X. Daly said on Saturday. Daly was a former student of Villas at Augustinian, his administrative assistant when Villa was aldermanic president, and they became close friends. Villa started in politics in 1974, when he was elected as state representative. He served in the state House for 10 years, including the last four years as House Majority Leader. During legislative recesses, Villa worked for Villa Lighting Co., a business run by his brother and nephews. After losing the 1984 race for state treasurer, Villa returned to St. Louis government and, in 1985, became the citys public safety director. In 1987, Villa won the election for aldermanic president; he was reelected in 1991. In 1993, Villa ran to succeed Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. as mayor. He narrowly lost to Freeman R. Bosley Jr. in a four-candidate race. After finishing out his aldermanic president term in 1995, he decided not to seek reelection to city office. He then worked as governmental relations director for Mayor Clarence Harmon. But the call to politics proved too hard to resist. He successfully ran for the Missouri House in 2000 and was reelected three times. He left the state House for a second time in 2008, then returned to the Board of Alderman in 2011 when he was elected as the 11th Ward alderman the same Carondelet-area district that was represented by his father for a record 37 years, then later by nephew Matt Villa. Green said she first met Villa when she was elected as the 15th Ward alderman in 2014. He was kind of a mentor for me, she said. He was one of the few veteran aldermen who was willing to take a newbie under their wing and show them how things worked. Green said Villa was capable of arguing with a colleague during floor debate and then chat amiably with them when the meeting was over. You could argue vehemently with him, and then when that was done, it was done, she said, recalling a time when after the two had a floor dispute, Villa came up to her after the meeting. And he tells me some other points I could have brought up against him, she said with a laugh. Alderman Anne Schweitzer, D-13th Ward whose grandfather, former St. Louis Sheriff Gordon Schweitzer, was a political contemporary of Villas posted the following tribute on Twitter: RIP, Tom Villa, You represented us with intelligence and good humor. You set the gold standard for public service. We will miss you. RIP, Tom Villa. You represented us with intelligence and good humor. You set the gold standard for public service. We will miss you. Anne Schweitzer (@Schweitzer88) January 21, 2023 Mayor Tishaura O. Jones gave a nod to his career in both St. Louis and Missouri politics: Tom always showed kindness and found ways to work alongside his colleagues even when they disagreed, she said. Matt Villa said his uncle didnt know a stranger and had the ability to work with others, who recognized Villas charm, logic, and commitment to service. Tom was an old-school politician who was a role model and mentor for so many, he said. Former Mayor Lyda Krewson had known him for 30 years and said she best remembered Villas sense of humor. I loved getting his little notes that he would send to people, always handwritten and usually with a newspaper clipping that mentioned you, said Krewson, who served with him during his second stint on the board. He was quite an astute politician, Krewson said, and just the nicest guy. Schoemehl, who appointed Villa as public safety director in 1985, seconded the motion on Villas wit. He had the best sense of humor of anyone Ive ever known, inside or outside of politics, Schoemehl said. You didnt have a meeting with Tom without laughing at some point. But Schoemehl also said Villa was a man who simply had a good heart. With Tom, there was never a hidden or personal agenda, he said. There never was a question about the fact that he wanted what was best for the city of St. Louis. No question at all. Evidence of Villas sense of humor was visible to anyone who left his office while he was aldermanic president. Above the door, there hung a sign: You are now leaving the office of Thomas A. Villa. Please resume normal behavior. Villa is survived by his wife, Karen Harvey Villa; a brother, Jack Villa; a sister, Jane Jockenhafer; and nieces and nephews. Visitation is set for Friday at Kutis Funeral Home, Affton Chapel, 10151 Gravois Road. A funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, 4900 Ringer Road. ST. LOUIS The charismatic young doctor promised to beat cancer a second time and return to work. As soon as I get this straightened out, I plan to go back to Laos, he said. It was classic bravado from Dr. Thomas A. Dooley III, who established jungle hospitals in southeast Asia and financed them by writing books and wowing big-time donors with stirring warnings about communism. But on Jan. 18, 1961, one day after his 34th birthday, he died of skin cancer in a hospital in New York. At his funeral in the St. Louis Cathedral, U.S. Sen. Stuart Symington, D-Mo., called him one of those rare Americans who is truly a citizen of the world. He packed much good into a brief adulthood, especially for a former party boy and indifferent medical student. Dooley grew up in a wealthy family in St. Louis, attended St. Louis University High School and Notre Dame University and became a Navy medical corpsman during World War II. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1953, he returned to the Navy and was assigned to assist refugees fleeing the newly created country of North Vietnam. Dooley worked in crowded camps in Haiphong, shepherding refugees onto ships. He described gripping scenes to his mother, Agnes Dooley of St. Louis, who shared his letters with reporters eager for news behind the Bamboo Curtain, the phrase of the time for communism in Asia. Dooley was among the last Americans to leave Haiphong in 1955. The following year, he published a best-selling book, tellingly entitled, Deliver Us From Evil. His condemnation of communism riveted Cold War audiences, although he also warned against brute power: We are hated in most of the Orient. ... They think freedom means freedom of the capitalist to exploit the Oriental people. No Americans have ever gotten down to their level. During his book tour, he suddenly quit the Navy. (Research three decades later disclosed that he was forced to resign for being gay). He then traveled to Laos, adjoining Vietnam, and established a simple hospital in a jungle village five miles from China. With a few helpers and donated supplies, Dooley treated people who had never seen a doctor. His nickname became Thanh Mo America Dr. America. Americans knew that because he told them through two more books, regular radio broadcasts and national fundraising tours. Among his backers was President Dwight Eisenhower, who personally collected $10,000 for Dooleys organization, known as MEDICO. Back home in 1959, after a first round of cancer treatment, Dooley urged educators at Kiel Auditorium to arouse in your students a sense of duty to all men. Teachers gathered $1,600 on the spot. He returned to Laos. So did the cancer. President John F. Kennedy cited his work in creating the Peace Corps. But without Dooley, MEDICO lost sponsors and was absorbed by CARE Inc. Upheaval in Laos crippled his health network. His unabashed brand of anti-communism lost favor after the Vietnam War. A statue of Dooley is on the Notre Dame campus, near the Grotto. Dooley is buried in Calvary Cemetery. A Look Back The jungle doctor, Tom Dooley Dooley arrives at Lambert Navy Lt. Thomas A. Dooley in North Vietnam Dr. Thomas A. Dooley in Laos Dr. Thomas A. Dooley in Laos Dr. Thomas A. Dooley with staff in Laos Dr. Thomas A. Dooley signs autographs in St. Louis Funeral for Dooley Mother of Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Dooley statue at Notre Dame I appreciated the excellent reporting on the MOScholars program by the Post-Dispatch (Missouri lawmakers look to expand tax-credit voucher program mostly serving religious schools Jan. 15), public school supporters have seen their worst fears come true: Vouchers take tax dollars to pay for tuition at private religious schools that get to decide which students they do not want to admit. These schools, representing 93% of all those involved, get to deny acceptance to students who are not in compliance with their moral view or even to those who have less than average academic ability. So much for school choice. MONTREAL QC / ACCESSWIRE / January 20, 2023 / Alphinat Inc. (TSXV:NPA) announces a profit of $9,919 for the financial quarter ended November 30, 2022. During the quarter ended November 31, 2022, Alphinat concentrated most of its commercial efforts on its partnerships and accelerating sales in the public sector. Furthermore, SmartGuide software continues being used by federal government departments & agencies, state / provincial and municipal governments to accelerating solution deliveries, enhance productivity gains and user experiences. In order to accelerate future growth, Alphinat has considerably broadened its horizons by now counting five main areas of solution deliveries: SmartGuide Grants and Contributions solution (www.SmartGrants.ca) was developed in conjunction with a federal department of the Canadian Government. This platform offers unparalleled productivity for federal, state and municipal clients creating calls for grants including financial program creations for applications, adjudication and payments; SmartGuide Portal Edition for Dynamics 3651 ( www.SmartD365.com ) has optimize the way that clients can now create and deploy online services on top of Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solutions. This offering is available in SaaS mode as well as on-premises; SmartGuide Green House Gas Registry solutions (www.SmartGHGR.ca) is a green fintech solution allowing governments and industry to work together in reducing the harmful effects of greenhouse gas. Alphinat currently has three provincial clients for our SmartGHGR.ca solution; SmartGuide Claims solutions (www.SmartClaims.ca) was developed in conjunction with a major IT consulting partner, which aims at offering unparalleled productivity to federal, state and municipal clients for financial claims applications, adjudication and settlements for financial compensation and class action settlements; SmartGuide CIVIC Portal, CIVIC Portal for Permits & Licensing (www.PermitSmart.ca) and SmartGuide Municipal Cloud are Municipal Cloud and on-premises solutions front ending partner solutions and other digital services for improved user experience for both the cities and their citizens. The company delivers solutions to various federal, state / provincial agencies and municipalities across North America. In addition, the company continues to be involved in supporting its partners to ensure the delivery of solutions to government customers. For the 3-month period ended November 30, 2022, the Company recorded total revenue of $365,954 compared to $402,974 for the same period in 2021. The net earnings for the quarter ended November 30, 2022 amount to $9,919 or $0.0002 per common share compared to net earnings of $ 122,358 or $0.002 per common share for the same period ended November 30, 2021. Alphinat's financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the period ending November 30, 2022 can be found on SEDAR, at www.sedar.com. About Alphinat At Alphinat, we are driven by the passion to make application development easy for everyone and system interoperability issues a thing of the past. We enable people with the vision of how a finished application should look and behave to be a major part of the development process. After all, what better way to ensure a favorable outcome than to provide those closest to an application's end-users with a vested interest in its success throughout its development? That's why we bring you new ways to empower the right people at the right time in the application development process. At the same time, we're constantly working to reduce the need to code in order to make application development and maintenance simpler and less error prone. So, whether you choose to develop your applications with the help of our low-code platform SmartGuide, kickstart your project using one of our pre-built apps or engage us or one of our partners to do the work for you, we're here to help you deploy better applications in record time. Visit us at https://www.alphinat.com for more information. We look forward to hearing from you. Forward-looking statements Certain statements in this document, including those which express management's expectations or estimations with regards to the Company's future performance constitute forward-looking statements" as understood by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are, of necessity, based on a certain number of estimates and hypotheses; while management considers these to be accurate at the time they are expressed, they are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and risks on the commercial, economic and competitive levels. We advise readers that these forward- looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other known and unknown factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause significant differences between actual results and those described in forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's capacity to increase acceptance of its products on the market, and to penetrate new markets; the potential existence of defects or undetected problems in the Company's products; the Company's ability to manage its growth; the Company's ability to compete with others; potential commitments; maintaining the Company's intellectual property rights and defending against litigation putting those rights in question; the Company's reliance on the knowledge of its key personnel; and the Company's access to sufficient capital to finance its future needs. This is a partial and non-exhaustive list of factors that could bear on any of our forward-looking statements. Investors are advised to not rely unduly on the forward-looking statements. This advisory applies to all forward-looking statements, whether expressed orally or in writing, attributed to Alphinat or to any individual expressing them in the name of the Company. The Company is under no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events, or other circumstances. Risks and uncertainties that bear on the Company are described in greater detail in the Company's Annual Report. 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. For further information please contact: Mr. Curtis Page Chief Executive Officer Alphinat Inc. (514) 398-9799 ext 225 1 Dynamics 365 is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation SOURCE: Alphinat Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: Aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, Magnom and Forbes plan new zero-carbon commercial tower in Cairo, Egypt, which will elevate standards of green design and push boundaries of modern construction DAVOS, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Solidifying a commitment to long-term sustainability, Magnom Properties and Forbes, joined hands at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, to announce their plans to build an innovative, environmentally responsive tower set in the heart of the rising New Administrative Capital in Cairo, Egypt. Envisioned by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG Architecture), the planned Forbes International Tower marks the start of a new era of building design as Magnom Properties, a subsidiary of Rawabi Holding, pushes the boundaries of modern construction to pursue a zero-carbon strategy in collaboration with Forbes. The partnership, which marks the first time that Forbes has branded a commercial tower, was announced on the concluding day of WEF 2023 where world leaders and experts discussed, amongst other important topics, the need for mainstreaming smart and sustainable climate solutions in urban development to enhance the livability, efficiency, and productivity of cities. A Memorandum of Understanding to develop the project was signed at the Dome at WEF by Abdulaziz Al Turki, Group Chairman of Rawabi Holding and Chairman of Magnom Properties, and Mike Federle, CEO, Forbes, in the presence of Othman A. Ibrahim, CEO of Rawabi Holding, Vice Chairman of its Board of Directors and Vice Chairman of Magnom Properties; Maged Marie, CEO, Magnom Properties; and architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill. The partnership agreement comes under the backdrop of a global study that has underpinned the strength of real estate in the Middle East as a core driver of economic growth and investment of choice buoyed by strong demand fundamentals, high GDP growth, and diversification strategies in the non-oil sector. "We are excited to partner with Magnom Properties to work with the world-renowned architect, Adrian Smith, and build the first sustainable international tower under the Forbes name, said Mike Federle, CEO, Forbes. Forbes continues to create impact around the world, whether it be our trusted brand of journalism, summits to promote womens rights or the power of entrepreneurial capitalism, to endeavoring to build a cutting-edge and responsible tower where businesses can thrive in the heart of one of the most iconic cities in the world. Paving the way for sustainable transformation Commenting on the new partnership and launch, Abdulaziz Al Turki, Group Chairman of Rawabi Holding and Chairman of Magnom Properties, said: Cities play a critical role in our race to reach net zero and buildings, which are responsible for up to a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally, are a great opportunity to improve urban efficiency and build inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities. A key pillar of Egypts ambitious Vision 2030 is Urban Development, and the launch of the Forbes International Tower, primed to achieve a Platinum LEED certification, reflects our vision of setting new standards in sustainability. Othman A. Ibrahim, CEO, Rawabi Holding; Vice Chairman of its Board of Directors and Vice Chairman of Magnom Properties, added: The launch of the project comes at a time when overall macroeconomic outlook in Egypt remains favorable and investments in MENA are at an 8-year high, with studies projecting a 6.5 per cent CAGR growth in real estate from 2022-2030 for the region, which is higher than the global market average. Maged Marie, CEO, Magnom Properties, said: We are happy to announce the signing of our agreement with Forbes at WEF 2023, where constructive dialogues on issues of global importance are inspiring action to shape a better future for all. We are partnering with some of the best brands in the world to harness advanced technologies and deliver a carbon neutral development that represents the best in architectural design, green building standards, and sustainable engineering and specification. Futuristic sustainable technologies The visually striking, beautifully futuristic 'Forbes International Tower, by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, is a contextually responsive soaring glass, steel, and photovoltaic-laced design. The tower features captivating curves of glass and steel that launch skyward to form 55 floors of flexible office space and two stories of high-end retail experiences, elaborated Adrian Smith. Located in the northern Central Business District of Cairos New Administrative Capital, the innovative commercial tower harnesses the power of surrounding natural resources and elevates energy performance standards with a solar panel rooftop, fully automated HVAC field devices, and modern intelligent building technology. The harmonious biophilic designs assist in air circulation, brings nature indoors, and aims to enhance employee wellbeing. Gordon Gill added: Marked by a conscious commitment to exploring low carbon pathways, the Forbes International Tower adheres to the highest standards of green building principles and will utilize several advanced technologies in partnership with leading global partners to drive energy efficiency and reduce emissions. More details will be released in due course. Having launched Forbes Global Properties, our first real estate brokerage business, three years ago, we are taking an important step forward in our real estate plans with the development of Forbes International Tower, the first commercial building in the world with the Forbes brand, said Peter Hung, President, Licensing and Branded Ventures, Forbes. About Magnom Properties: Transcending physical borders, Magnom Properties, a subsidiary of Rawabi Holding Group, is setting new benchmarks as part of its pioneering role in redefining the real estate sector by overseeing the construction of high-value commercial, residential and lifestyle projects in KSA, Egypt and the wider MENA region. The company is focusing on creating dynamic environments and developments, which will cater to the rapidly evolving lifestyles, aspirations of businesses, industries, and future generations. To ensure that the core values of quality, reliability, timely delivery and sustainability are followed across all future projects with LEED certification standards, Magnom Properties is partnering with global experts including the world-renowned architect, Adrian Smith, along with his partners Gordon Gill and Robert Forest, representing their international design firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG Architecture), who are designing their first project in Egypt's New Administrative Capital (NAC). For more information, please visit Magnom Properties and follow the company on https://twitter.com/MagnomPro. About Forbes Forbes champions success by celebrating those who have made it, and those who aspire to make it. Forbes convenes and curates the most influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are driving change, transforming business and making a significant impact on the world. The Forbes brand today reaches more than 140 million people worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature LIVE and Forbes Virtual events, custom marketing programs and 48 licensed local editions in 82 countries. Forbes Medias brand extensions include real estate, education and financial services license agreements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230119005822/en/ For media enquiries: ASDAA BCW: Nivine William [email protected] Yasser Alvi [email protected] Forbes: Bill Hankes [email protected] and [email protected] Source: Forbes Gitanas Nauseda, the president of Lithuania, published a tweet in remembrance of 1990's Black January, which saw Soviet troops attack Baku and commit a cruel massacre against the Azerbaijani people, Azernews reports. "Commemorate 1990 Black January-Soviet troops invasion of Baku & cruel massacre of Azerbaijani people. Soviet attempts to crush Azerbaijani independence movement did not succeed. 33 years later, the aggressor is committing same brutal crimes in Ukraine. They will not succeed. Not then. Not now. Not ever," he tweeted. On January 20, 1990, 40,000 strong Soviet troops entered the Azerbaijani capital Baku from several directions, invading the city in a desperate, brutal, and yet futile attempt to strangle the growing independence movement and to prevent the fall of the Soviet communist regime in Azerbaijan and punish ordinary people who had rallied on the streets to voice their legitimate protest against the violation of their homeland's territorial integrity. Some 137 people were killed, 611 were wounded, 841 were illegally arrested, and five went missing as a result of the intrusion of troops into Baku and other regions of the country. January 20, 1990, is marked in the modern history of Azerbaijan as one of the most tragic days of the country, and at the same time as a heroic page. Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - January 19, 2023) - Hemostemix Inc. (TSXV: HEM) (OTCQB: HMTXF) ("Hemostemix" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has received a $250,000 Letter of Commitment for funding from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation. The Letter of Commitment confirms that the MUHC Foundation will fund $250,000 of the clinical trial expenses and partner with Hemostemix, Dr. Nadia Giannetti and Dr. Renzo Cecere to complete a phase II double blind randomized clinical trial of ACP-01 as a treatment of ischemic cardiomyopathy at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). In 2020, the MUHC Foundation launched its $200 million Dream Big Campaign to change the course of lives and medicine. The Dream Big Campaign is designed to ensure bold innovations like ACP-01 are well supported by philanthropy. To reach that goal, Hemostemix and the MUHC Foundation are committed to working together with federal and provincial partners alongside donors to fund the phase II clinical trial at the McGill University Health Centre. "Given our three investigator led studies of 179 ischemic cardiomyopathy subjects demonstrates ACP-01 is safe and generates a statistically significant improvement in left ventricle ejection fraction, the interest of Dr. Giannetti and Dr. Cecere and the MUHC Foundation is pivotal, as it enables Hemostemix to raise additional non-dilutive clinical trial funding. Investors can also choose to support this exciting innovation through a tax-deductible donation to the MUHC Foundation," stated Thomas Smeenk, CEO. "Innovation is key to advancing medicine. The MUHC Foundation is proud to help bring this ground-breaking clinical trial to the MUHC. Our partnership with Hemostemix will not only benefit patients at the MUHC living with cardiomyopathy, but create new knowledge that will benefit people with the disease across Canada and around the world," says Julie Quenneville, President, MUHC Foundation. Dr. Giannetti received her medical degree from McGill University. After training in cardiology at McGill, she went on to pursue a Fellowship in Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation at Stanford University in California. She returned to McGill to become an Attending Cardiologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine. Along with her team, Dr. Giannetti participates in the care of over 1,000 patients with heart failure. She is the former Chief of Cardiology at the McGill University Health Centre (2010-2021) and since 2021 she has been the Associate Physician-in-Chief for the Department of Medicine at the McGill University Health Centre. Dr. Cecere is the McGill University Chief of Cardiac Surgery, Surgical Director of the Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation Program, and Director of the Mechanical Circulatory Support Program. He is also Associate Member of McGill University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and a Director and Principal Investigator of the Research Institute of the MUHC's Myocardial Regeneration Laboratory. For over a decade, Dr. Cecere's lab has been investigating novel methods to strengthen the stem-cell induced regeneration of infarcted heart tissue. Dr. Cecere has utilized placenta-derived stem cells and investigated their regenerative potential in different animal models of myocardial infarction ("MI"). More recently, Dr. Cecere's lab is actively involved in a project to create a platform to generate patient-specific cardiomyocytes from the blood of patients with heart failure. In Dr. Cecere's recent project (under review, Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine), the team encapsulated placenta derived stem cells in a hydrogel scaffold and implanted it in a rat MI model. The stem cell/scaffold composite enhanced several parameters of cardiac function, including ejection fraction and fractional shortening, while also reducing fibrosis and increasing angiogenesis. In fact, Dr. Cecere's lab recently published a systematic review and meta-analysis that demonstrated that stem cells combined with bioactive scaffolds provide enhanced tissue regeneration in animal models of MI, compared to stem cells injected alone. This study paves the way for future research and clinical trials, supporting the use of ACP-01-based bioactive scaffolds to improve the stem cell-induced repair after a MI. ABOUT HEMOSTEMIX Hemostemix is an autologous stem cell therapy company, founded in 2003. A winner of the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award, the Company has developed, patented, and is scaling a patient's blood-based stem cell therapeutics platform that includes angiogenic cell precursors, neuronal cell precursor and cardiomyocyte cell precursors. For more information, please visit www.hemostemix.com. For further information, please contact: Thomas Smeenk, President, CEO & Co-Founder EM: [email protected] PH: 905-580-4170 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information in relation to: the lead product ACP-01, the Phase II Clinical Trial of ischemic cardiomyopathy and related results, the retrospective study of ischemic and dilated cardiomyopathy, and the commercialization of ACP-01. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects Hemostemix's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Hemostemix and on assumptions Hemostemix believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the underlying value of Hemostemix and its Common Shares; the successful resolution of the litigation that Hemostemix is pursuing or defending (the "Litigation"); the results of ACP-01 research, trials, studies and analyses, including the analysis being equivalent to or better than previous research, trials or studies; the receipt of all required regulatory approvals for research, trials or studies; the level of activity, market acceptance and market trends in the healthcare sector; the economy generally; consumer interest in Hemostemix's services and products; competition and Hemostemix's competitive advantages; and Hemostemix obtaining satisfactory financing to fund Hemostemix's operations including any research, trials or studies, and any Litigation. Forward-looking information is Subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Hemostemix to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the ability of Hemostemix to complete clinical trials, complete a satisfactory analyses and file the results of such analyses to gain regulatory approval of a phase II or phase III clinical trial of ACP-01; potential litigation Hemostemis mayface; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; the actual results of future operations including the actual results of future research, trials or studies; competition; changes in legislation affecting Hemostemix; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; long-term capital requirements and future developments in Hemostemix's markets and the markets in which it expects to compete; lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals; and risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures service disruptions, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, disruptions to economic activity and financings, disruptions to supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession or depression;the potential impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have on Hemostemix which may include a decreased demand for the services that Hemostemix offers; and a deterioration of financial markets that could limit Hemostemix's ability to obtain external financing. A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Hemostemix's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although Hemostemix has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of Hemostemix as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, it is Subject to change after such date. However, Hemostemix expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/151892 Singapore, Jan 21, 2023 - (ACN Newswire) - - Sir Ralf Speth, Chairman of TVS Motor Company, has been conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in the field of Science (Doctor of Science, honoris causa) from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. The honorary degree was conferred by the University of Warwick Chancellor Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland. Sir Ralf is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. An honorary professor at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), he has been closely associated with WMG ever since obtaining his engineering doctorate in 2008, under the pioneering leadership of former WMG Chairman, Lord Bhattacharyya. An outstanding engineer with a vast experience in the global automotive industry, Sir Ralf has held leadership roles with some of the renowned automotive and industrial giants such as Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, Ford, Tata Motors, and The Linde Group. He was appointed Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire and an Additional Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Commenting on the honour, Venu Srinivasan, Chairman Emeritus, TVS Motor Company, said, "My heartiest congratulations to Ralf for this well-deserved recognition. Over his distinguished career in automotive and industrials of more than four decades, he has built world class products and brands. He has been relentlessly working towards transforming the industry with his passion for technology and strive for excellence. This honour is a testament to his leadership, vision, and dedication to the industry, and we are privileged to have him lead TVS Motor Company in its transformational journey." Sudarshan Venu, MD, TVS Motor Company, said, "Sir Ralf's exemplary leadership skills, tremendous vision for the industry, and discerning approach towards technology make him unique. His energy and passion is inspiring. We are proud to have him amongst us. We wish him many more accolades recognising his immense contributions to the industry." Sir Ralf has a degree in engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim, Germany, and a doctorate of engineering in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration at the University of Warwick. About TVS Motor Company TVS Motor Company is a reputed two and three-wheeler manufacturer globally, championing progress through Sustainable Mobility with four state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Hosur, Mysuru and Nalagarh in India and Karawang in Indonesia. 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. 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. For more information, please contact: Priyanka Kumar [email protected] Copyright 2023 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. 'Participatory budgeting' model lets communities decide HONOLULU, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Participatory Budgeting Project, in partnership with Ulupono Initiative, today released a report titled, "Let communities decide: Using participatory budgeting for renewable energy community benefits packages." A participatory budgeting (PB) framework provides the opportunity for more inclusive conversations and decision-making around community benefits as part of renewable energy projects, particularly for those communities most impacted by such projects. These benefits may include grants, sponsorships, educational and cultural initiatives, and more. PB can also bring transparency to spending decisions, with greater opportunity for communities to build relationships and trust with local government and developers. "It's not a question of whether Hawai'i's communities will or will not have a say in our state's clean energy future they will demand it," said Leo Asuncion, chairperson of the Hawai'i Public Utilities Commission, in the report's introduction. "This report explores 'participatory budgeting' as a community-led approach to renewable energy community benefits decided not solely by the developer or elected officials, but with full involvement of the communities affected by the development." In 2022, Hawaiian Electric, the electric utility for O'ahu, Maui, and Hawai'i Island, initiated a competitive solicitation to procure utility-scale renewable energy for each of the islands. One of the RFP's requirements is that developers set aside money to invest in the communities in which they build. Despite finalizing this requirement, there is no formal process for identifying community needs or allocating funding. Developers currently have the option to directly fund community-identified projects or select a nonprofit organization to administer and distribute the community benefits package, but neither of these options provide a clear blueprint for centering the needs of impacted community members in how funds are allocated. "The heart of PB is a clear, proven process for community members and other stakeholders to follow," said Murray Clay, Ulupono Initiative president. "PB provides a practical model for sharing real decision-making power with the people most impacted by a project in their community." "As Hawai'i gears up to lead the way toward the ambitious renewable energy goals we need in the U.S., it also has the opportunity to do it in a way that centers the needs of the people who will be most impacted by developments," said Ingrid Haftel, Participatory Budgeting Project's director of community education. "Having supported hundreds of participatory budgeting processes across the country, we know that letting community members decide how to spend community benefits funds will lead to more equitable and effective investments." Participatory Budgeting Project's report lays the groundwork for PB, including integrating PB into the RFP process, conducting community-led needs assessments, identifying a manager and key stakeholders, and deciding how to structure the PB process. The report also outlines next steps advocates and organizers can take to champion and lay the groundwork for using PB to decide how to allocate community benefits packages. Read: Participatory Budgeting Project's report About The Participatory Budgeting ProjectThe Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) is a nonprofit organization that collaboratively transforms democracy to center community power. Since 2009, PBP has supported dozens of governments, public institutions, and organizations in launching and deepening participatory budgeting processes. For more information, visit www.participatorybudgeting.org. About Ulupono InitiativeA mission-driven venture of The Omidyar Group, Ulupono Initiative was founded in 2009 and strives to improve the quality of life for the people of Hawai'i by working toward sustainable solutions that support and promote locally produced food, renewable energy, clean transportation, and better management of freshwater resources. For more information, visit www.ulupono.com or connect with Ulupono on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/report-explores-community-led-approach-to-renewable-energy-301727460.html SOURCE Ulupono Initiative (Tribune News Service) The U.S. Air Force has assumed full responsibility for the unredacted release of congressional candidate Jennifer-Ruth Greens military record, according to officials. Green, a Republican, continues to blame U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan and the Democratic Congressional Campaign for illegally obtaining and releasing the information to damage her campaign in the weeks leading up to the November election. Ann Stefanek, chief of media operations with the Department of the Air Force, in a statement Friday wrote: The Air Force takes full responsibility for releasing the information. The investigation determined a junior individual didnt follow proper procedures, the statement continued. Green on Thursday posted to her Facebook page she received the results of the investigation. The letter I have received from the United States Air Force is vindication of what I have been saying all along. Congressman Frank J. Mrvan and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee owe the American people and especially our veterans an apology, Green wrote. Green asked that a request for comment be sent to her communications director Kevin Hansberger. Hansberger did not respond. In the wake of the investigation, Stefanek said the Air Force undertook a thorough review of its records-release procedures, elevated the approval level for release of information to third parties and conducted intensified retraining for personnel who handle record requests. SF-180s are commonly used by veterans, authorized legal recipients and surviving next of kin to obtain information from personnel records. Third party requests require the members authorizing signature, according to the statement. Greens military records were released via SF-180 request. Freedom of Information Act requests can cover a much broader range of topics and documents. Release of information via SF-180 or FOIA is subject to restrictions imposed by the military services consistent with Department of Defense regulations, the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974. The Friday statement from the Air Force confirms the agencys initial findings. An official with the U.S. Air Force in October confirmed to the Post-Tribune that information from Greens military record, including details about a sexual assault while she was serving in Iraq, were released to a third party by an individual who did not follow proper procedure. The details, first released earlier that month by the online media source Politico, set off a firestorm in one of the most competitive congressional races in the country. Mrvan retained the seat, which has been held by Democrats for decades, by a narrow margin. Mrvans office did not respond to a request for comment. Based on the preliminary findings of an investigation, it appears information from Jennifer-Ruth Greens service record was released to a third party by a junior individual who didnt follow proper procedures and obtain required consent, Stefanek said at the time via email. The Department of the Air Force takes its responsibility to safeguard private information seriously and the matter remains under investigation. (c)2023 the Post-Tribune (Merrillville, Ind.) Visit the Post-Tribune (Merrillville, Ind.) at www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune BRASILIA - For conservative wunderkind Nikolas Ferreira, the election last fall was a triumph: He garnered more votes than any other member of Brazils Congress. Then he set about undermining the very election hed just won. To his audience of nearly 10 million followers online, the 26-year-old lawmaker questioned the reliability of Brazils electronic voting machines - and suggested, without evidence, that defeated former president Jair Bolsonaro might have been robbed of victory by an unscrupulous left. The Brazilian judiciary, calling disinformation a singular threat to Latin Americas largest country, has launched a crackdown on anti-democratic speech and incitement thats ensnaring politicians and influencers on the political right. And in the days after Bolsonaro supporters, many driven by misinformation and disinformation, stormed the countrys Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court, Ferreira found himself among the growing list of Brazilian conservatives banned by the courts from their social media platforms. What is democracy when only one side speaks? Ferreira asked The Washington Post. This is clearly political persecution. Brazil, one of the worlds largest democracies, is emerging as a global laboratory for a highly charged experiment: How to address the rapid rise of misinformation, hate speech and incitement thats increasingly fueling real-world actions? The new administration of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, saying far-right misinformation should be taken as seriously as Islamist extremism, is taking several steps. A new watchdog within the executive branch will be charged with working more systematically to flag offending content to online platforms. Teams in the justice ministry and the office of the president are drafting legislation aimed at curbing online conspiracy theories of the kind that drove the Jan. 8 insurrection in Brasilia. No one wants to curtail freedom of expression, said Estela Aranha, Lulas coordinator for digital rights, a new position. What we want is to limit what is illegal: Both violent calls for a coup - which we see are a concrete threat in Brazil - as well as hate speech that leads to the commission of crimes. The effort follows a polarizing push by Alexandre de Moraes - a judge on the Supreme Court, president of the countrys top election court and, some say, Brazils most powerful man - to take the fight against fake news to new levels. In recent months, the Bolsonaro nemesis has jailed five alleged offenders without trial and ordered social media platforms to block dozens of accounts of politicians, commentators and influencers for allegedly trafficking in lies, hate, incitement and other anti-democratic acts. Most of the targets have been on the political right. Some, including Ferreira, have been barred repeatedly (Ferreira was first blocked in November but won his accounts back on appeal). In October, at the height of the toxic election campaign, the nations electoral court granted Moraes broad authority to police lies and decide what is truth in Brazil. Moraes declined to be interviewed. But his peers defended his moves. Of course you have to guarantee free speech, Ricardo Lewandowski, a Supreme Court judge who is vice president of Brazils electoral court, told The Post. The great question is: Is it possible to guarantee free speech when it attacks democracy itself? From June to now, according to the fact-checking organization Aos Fatos, social media here hosted an avalanche of anti-democratic content compared with the same seven-month period a year earlier, including a 1,278 percent increase on Twitter, 281 percent on WhatsApp and 115 percent on YouTube. A sample review of 400 posts showed about 35 percent contained misinformation, including false claims that the October vote was rigged. Another 10 percent openly called for a coup against Lulas government. The anti-democratic content overwhelmingly originated from far-right accounts, Aos Fatos said. Far-right content is also more widely consumed than material from the left. The Rio de Janeiro-based think tank Igarape Institute found that YouTube videos promoting far-right causes racked up more than 3 billion views in Brazil from August to December last year. Videos promoting leftist causes, meanwhile, stalled at less than a third of that number. Yes, there are instances of the left using disinformation that seemed to increase marginally during the election last year, said Robert Muggah, co-founder of the Igarape Institute. But its overwhelmingly coming from the right. That content, Lula administration and judicial officials say, is radicalizing a dangerous segment of Brazilian society. They point to the insurrection as the latest evidence. The riot came as conservative social media accounts circulated unfounded claims not only about a stolen election, but also that Lula planned to shut down churches and set up a LGBTQ-loving, abortion-promoting, leftist dictatorship. As in the United States, much of the disinformation has originated at the top. The Trumpian Bolsonaro, now holed up in Florida as he is investigated in Brazil for incitement, spent his four-year term undermining trust in the election system. He has yet to concede his defeat. As a result, 40 percent of Brazilians believe Lula did not win, according to one recent poll. The election was a fraud, said Lucia Navarro, a 61-year-old Bolsonaro supporter who took part in the Jan. 8 protest. I thought we would get them out. The United States maintains broad constitutional protection for free speech. The laws in Brazil are more like those in countries such as Germany, where incitement and hate speech are more easily prosecuted. Brazils political center and left have largely welcomed the judicial and executive efforts to restrain speech, calling it long overdue after four years of Bolsonaros often false, sometimes race-, gender- and sexual-orientation-baiting rhetoric. The countrys main press freedom advocacy groups are monitoring the moves but have not publicly criticized the Supreme Courts actions, said Renata Neder, a Brazil representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Former allies and other observers claim that Bolsonaro kept a hate office on the third floor of the presidential palace - a digital strategy operation that allegedly worked to sow doubts in Brazilian elections, spread disinformation and hurl misinformation at opponents, journalists and others. I dont think this is about free speech, said Celso Rocha de Barros, a columnist for the Brazilian outlet Folha de S.Paulo. He argued that authorities are pursuing crimes against democracy. Bolsonaristas see an Orwellian crackdown. They say activist judges have forced right-wing pundits into self-censorship. Guilherme Cunha Pereira, owner of the right-wing newspaper Gazeta do Povo, accused Moraes of conducting a witch hunt. He compared Lulas Brazil to the rise of the socialist dictatorship in Venezuela under socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez, who worked little by little to strangle the media. His newspaper has been targeted by Moraes once, when the Supreme Court ordered Twitter to remove a post referencing an article about Nicaragua in Gazeta do Povo. The tweet included the headline: Dictatorship supported by Lula takes CNN signal off the air. Lula praised communist Cuba in the election debates but has tread more carefully on the subject of increasingly authoritarian Nicaragua. Theres a permanent climate of worry, Pereira said, particularly among his papers columnists. One of them, Paulo Polzonoff, who often writes humor columns, said he has been afraid to use irony or satire in his writing since Jan. 8. He worries the Supreme Court will misinterpret his work or will censor him for using certain terms in reference to political leaders such as Lula. One challenge for conservatives is that the court has operated largely in secrecy - it often refuses to disclose which content drew penalties. When I call [Lula] a dictator, maybe its an exaggeration, its a figure of speech, Polzonoff said. But its not violence. It cannot be called an attack against democratic institutions. Sen. Carlos Portinho, the former leader of Bolsonaros government in the Senate, recalled an interview he gave to Gazeta do Povo after the election Oct. 30. Before it started, he said, the journalist warned him: You cannot say two words: fraud or algorithm. Portinho wasnt planning on using either, he said, but he was stunned by the request. It amounted to prior restraint - precensorship. Even the journalists are afraid, he said. Portinho said a lack of trust in Moraes played a role in galvanizing the mob on Jan. 8. The fact that the Supreme Court building suffered the most damage that day - rioters at one point celebrated the removal of what they said was Moraes chair - was emblematic of conservative anger toward the judiciary. Moraess actions since the insurrection, he said, have only poured fuel on the flames. Lula and his government have to find a solution to change that perspective. Lewandowski, the Supreme Court judge, said conservative critics are being disingenuous. The courts aggressive posture, he argued, was a response to the elevated threat against democracy during the Bolsonaro years. With the far-right leaders departure, he said, he hopes the court can begin to take a step back. We silence the radical voices, not the voices of normal bolsonaristas, he said. What we saw on [Jan. 8] was the result of fanaticism - the same thing we saw with Trump in the invasion of the Capitol on January 6. The Washington Posts Gabriela Sa Pessoa in Rio de Janeiro and Amanda Coletta in Toronto contributed to this report. Arrangements are being made for the leaders of the Group of Seven nations to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum when they visit Hiroshima for the G7 summit on May 19-21, several government sources said. If realized, it will be the first group visit by all G7 leaders to the museum, which features exhibits about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who will preside over the summit, plans to emphasize the importance of working toward a world without nuclear weapons and convey the unity of the G7 to the world. The United States has already given its informal consent for the visit to the museum. Japan has also made arrangements with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Canada through embassy channels. The G7 nations are increasingly concerned that Russia has continued its threats to use nuclear weapons in connection with its invasion of Ukraine. Under the circumstances, the G7 leaders are showing positive interest in Japans suggestion, according to a government source. The museum opened in 1955 with the mission of contributing to the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of peace. It exhibits parts of damaged buildings, artifacts of atomic bomb survivors and materials that show the landscape of Hiroshima before and after the bombing. The museum comprises the Main Building and the East Building, which opened in 1994. Former U.S. President Barack Obama visited the museum during a trip to Hiroshima in 2016, and he was shown around by then Foreign Minister Kishida during the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Kishida, whose constituency is in Hiroshima, wanted to hold the G7 summit in the atomic-bombed city and is eager for the leaders to visit the museum. If the leaders of G7 countries which include nuclear powers Britain, France and the United States visit the museum together, it would convey a vision for peace and nuclear disarmament around the world. During a trip to G7 member states in Europe and the United States earlier this month, Kishida told his allies of his mission to realize a world free of nuclear weapons. Together with the G7 leaders, I will convey to the world from Hiroshima a pledge that we will never repeat the horror of nuclear weapons, Kishida said in a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Jan. 13. Kishida told French President Emmanuel Macron that the G7 leaders must demonstrate a firm commitment to absolutely reject the threat or use of nuclear weapons. Arrangements are also being made for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to participate in the summit remotely. LVIV, Ukraine Alina Pidchenko, her husband Serhii and their three children ages 11, 9, and 3 months now live in a single room in a camp of prefabricated housing for displaced Ukrainians on the edge of Lviv, the main city in Western Ukraine, about an hours drive from the border with Poland. When the family escaped here nine months ago from their home some 500 miles east in Kramatorsk, where Moscows troops were regularly shelling the civilian population they thought they were moving to a safe haven. But the war has followed them. Last Saturday, dozens of Russian missiles rained down across Ukraine, including in the west, where strikes severely damaged an electrical substation and a power plant in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, plunging hundreds of thousands of people, including the Pidchenko family, into cold and darkness. The power and heating went out for five hours, Alina said, and then again overnight as they slept. No corner of Ukraine is untouched by the war not even in the far west, a mostly agricultural region, dotted with farming villages and split down the middle by the Carpathian Mountains, which was long viewed as a place of refuge. Russian airstrikes have reached into the mountains and even small towns as Moscow tries to destroy transmission lines connecting Ukraines power grid with its European Union neighbors. Millions of displaced people are strewn throughout the country, especially in the west. Soldiers funerals take place in villages hundreds of miles from the front line. Last Saturday, in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, a missile strike destroyed an apartment building, killing at least 40 people. Local officials and residents in Western Ukraine say they are equally at risk. Were afraid, Alina Pidchenko said. What happened with the building in Dnipro could happen in any city of Ukraine its horrible. As in the rest of the country, officials in Western Ukraine have introduced regular daily blackouts lasting anywhere from four to eight hours to ration the electrical supply. After each major missile attack, the region grows darker. A bombardment just before New Years Eve knocked out the lights for an extended period for some 90 percent of the city of Lviv and about 1.5 million people in the Lviv region as a whole, officials said. Russian missiles have hit every electrical substation in the region crucial nodes for electricity transmission, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said, adding some were hit multiple times. None survived all are heavily damaged, Sadovyi said in an interview. This is catastrophic. Western Ukraine has just slightly more warning time, given its distance from Russias launch sites, Sadovyi said. Missiles from Belarus fly 17 minutes to Lviv, missiles from the Caspian Sea 30 minutes, he said. But some missiles manage to avoid Ukraines air defenses. The solution lies in the West supplying more and better air defense systems, Sadovyi said but the commitments so far, including one Patriot system from the United States, are unlikely to be enough. Adding to the problem, the head of Lvivs regional administration Maksym Kozytskyy said, is that the region produces little of its own energy supply. At the moment, we are critically dependent on generation in other areas, he said. Even where the airstrikes have been limited, blackouts are the rule. In Mukachevo, in the Transcarpathian region on the Slovakian and Hungarian borders, once the sun sets, the city is cloaked in darkness. The Latoritsa River, which snakes its way through the town center, is a black ribbon. In March, Ukraine connected its energy grid in western Ukraine to the European Union and began to export small amounts of electricity to its neighbors. Russias air campaign put an end to this, however. As a result of Russias attacks, Ukraine now consumes 25 percent more electricity than it produces, officials at Ukrenergo, the countrys main electricity distributor, said. Kyiv is exploring the possibility of importing electricity from the E.U. We would like Europe to help us with the supply of electricity - we would be grateful for that, Kozytskyy said. But electricity in the E.U. costs double or triple Ukraines prices. These prices arent attractive to Ukrainian business, and for households it would be a shocking cost, said Andriy Gerus, chairman of the energy, housing and utilities committee in Ukraines parliament. Still, Moscow is well aware that E.U. energy imports are possible and has repeatedly targeted substations in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk region to stop them. The main issue is not just to make blackouts in western Ukraine it was and is to disconnect Ukraine from the European grid, said Mariia Tsaturian, a spokesperson for Ukrenergo. The outages have hit local economies hard. In the Lviv region, where there have been more than 20 attacks on infrastructure, production dropped by 11 percent last year. Businesses cannot run stably, Kozytskyy said. If this situation continues, we will have a downturn in the economy next year as well. Other western regions reported similar declines. But there are also bright spots. Thousands of businesses have relocated to the west for security reasons, boosting local tax revenue. Some 400 companies have moved to the Transcarpathia region alone, including a watermelon farm from Kherson in the south, said Roman Moldavchuk, a regional spokesman. Four days after the Pidchenko family left their home in Kramatorsk in April, Russian missiles struck the citys train station, killing 60 and wounding more than 100. Three months ago, they moved into the prefabricated room in the Mariapolis displaced persons camp in Lviv, a community of about 300 people in small one-room dwellings, named after the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which Russian forces destroyed and occupied. The familys room is crammed with two bunk beds, a crib, childrens toys and possessions hanging from the walls. Even with the slightly warmer weather, blackouts are a strain. During the most recent attack, the temperature was about 40 degrees during the day, but dipped below freezing overnight. The temperature in their room was about 60 degrees. To keep warm, we closed the door and didnt let anyone come in or go out, Alina Pidchenko said. Some 250,000 displaced people are registered in the Lviv region, and another 150,000 may be living there unregistered, Kozytskyy said. And about 500 live in the county of Novy Yarichiv in the Lviv region about an hours drive to the east of the city of Lviv, said the head of the local administration, Petro Sokolovsky. Power outages are a regular occurrence, with the longest, in late November, having lasted about 30 hours. Many villages have installed large generators so that schools and other critical facilities can function. But the biggest reminder of the war is the number of local residents fighting in the east. About 600 of our men, Sokolovsky said, out of a community of about 18,500. Many are dying. On a recent day, the town of Novy Yarichiv, population 3,000, buried Yury Loyko, 30, who was killed on Dec. 29 by artillery shelling near Bakhmut, where some of the wars fiercest fighting is taking place. When the war broke out in February, he was working abroad, but he returned home to enlist, said Katya Kremin, a member of the local administration who knew Loyko. The funeral was held in the towns main church. Afterward, a line of cars and about 100 mourners moved slowly toward the cemetery on a hill about a mile away for the graveside ceremony. Eternal memory, intoned the priest in Ukrainian. An honor guard presented a folded Ukrainian flag from the coffin to Loykos mother, Olga, who accepted it, stone-faced. Four female military cadets fired a gun salute. The gathered sang the Ukrainian national anthem, more subdued than usual. Every day they bring more dead back from Bakhmut, said Oksana Servylo, 49, a school director in the neighboring village of Neslukhiv. Young men are dying very young men. Thats the hardest thing for me so many of my acquaintances are dying, she said. The Washington Posts Roman Baluk in Lviv and Serhiy Morgunov in Kyiv contributed to this report. Some northern Burleigh County residents worry that a proposed pipeline that would transport carbon dioxide emissions from Midwestern ethanol plants to North Dakota for permanent underground storage could hamper development as Bismarck continues growing to the north. The concerns come as the state Public Service Commission reviews the permit request filed by pipeline developer Summit Carbon Solutions in October for the transportation component of the project, and as local and state officials discuss the company's potential use of eminent domain to acquire needed land use rights from reluctant property owners. The Midwest Carbon Express pipeline would cross 2,000 miles through Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota and North Dakota to Oliver and Mercer counties northwest of Bismarck, where CO2 emissions would be injected and stored underground. The route is 5 miles to the north of Bismarck -- a distance Summit Executive Vice President Wade Boeshans said is adequate. Former Mayor John Warford, who owns a ranch in Naughton Township northeast of the capital city, disagrees. "It's way too close to the city of Bismarck and will impede the city growth," he said. Impeding development? Warford told the Tribune that the pipeline route is 1.5-2 miles northeast of Bismarck's extraterritorial area. "This pipeline will be in direct line of sight, so to speak, of where a lot of the growth over the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years will be in Bismarck. And I feel that the pipeline was located too close to Bismarck. It is the only metropolitan area along the entire 2,000 miles that the pipeline is close to," Warford said. The pipeline route is slated to go through a mile of Warford's property. He cited concerns about safety, noting the 2020 rupture of a CO2 pipeline that prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people in Satartia, Mississippi. Boeshans said 5 miles outside the city is a significance distance. He also said that carbon dioxide pipelines have been operating in the U.S. for more than 50 years, adding that North Dakota has had a high-pressure CO2 pipeline in place for more than 20 years. The line transports carbon dioxide captured at the Great Plains Synfuels Plant in Beulah to oilfields in Canada. I think its largely a lack of understanding and education around pipelines and pipeline safety," Boeshans said. "Im confident that this line will be the safest pipeline ever built. Why is that? Because its the most recent pipeline ever built and it will incorporate all of the design standards and lessons learned over decades of operations." Bismarck Community Development Director Ben Ehreth said the city has no control over the route. The North Dakota Public Service Commission is the entity responsible for issuance of the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions CO2 pipeline permit, he said. Eminent domain worries Warford said there also are concerns among landowners that Summit will use eminent domain to acquire land rights. Eminent domain involves taking private property for use even if a landowner opposes such an action. The landowner is still compensated. Warford said 32 ethanol facilities are set to benefit from the pipeline, yet only one is in North Dakota -- Tharaldson Ethanol west in Cass County. "This is a private pipeline by a private company for their private gain," Warford said. "... I don't think that a private company should be able to take my land and force me to have a pipeline on my property ... It seems to me that it is unreasonable why I should put up with a pipeline on my property for the benefit of 31 ethanol plants that are outside of North Dakota." Warford is one of several landowners northeast of Bismarck who attended the Nov. 21 Burleigh County Commission meeting and suggested that the commission pass an ordinance banning eminent domain. Commissioners discussed the matter on Jan. 4. The idea is to get a local ordinance, not to stop this pipeline -- its already in review stage. But the idea is to protect the people of Burleigh County, County Planning Director Mitch Flanagan said. ... Century code does allow local zoning as long as its not considered too restrictive, and I dont think its too restrictive to require some life safety issues. The County Commission will hold a public hearing on Feb. 6 on a proposed ordinance that would require an emergency response plan for hazardous liquid pipelines. The Burleigh County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on March 8 on a separate ordinance pertaining to special use permits required for hazardous liquid pipelines. The exact language is still being drafted, according to Flanagan. He said that there are no other ordinances in North Dakota restricting a pipeline such as this. Sen. Jeff Magrum, R-Hazelton, has introduced several bills in the Legislature in response to the Summit pipeline. One would allow companies to use eminent domain in a county only if they acquire 85% approval from landowners in the path of a CO2 pipeline, and one would remove CO2 pipelines from state law that allows the use of eminent domain for pipelines. Support for Summit Summit has previously stated that it hopes to come to agreeable terms with landowners on easements before considering eminent domain. We continue to work with landowners and county and state officials to determine a safe route. We welcome the opportunity to meet with any of those landowners along that route, Boeshans said. Summit as of the end of 2022 had reached agreements with 2,350 landowners on 3,775 easements projectwide -- which accounts for 56% of the route. In North Dakota, 315 landowners had signed 515 easement agreements -- or 56% of the route in the state. Boeshans told the Tribune that once Summit officials and landowners sit down, they're generally able to reach agreement on a suitable location for the pipeline route and terms of easement. Kimi Fischer and her husband, of Mercer County, initially had concerns about easement terms, and whether the pipeline would disrupt the soil on their property. They signed an easement with Summit after going to meetings and sitting down with the company. "We could see it wouldn't do a lot of damage or really disrupt our farm and ranch work that we do. We felt confident in signing up for that," Fischer said. She and her husband found the terms of the easement fair, and the proposed project worthwhile. "This is going to help with what's coming with pollution controls," she said. "(CO2) is going to be stored in a place that's safe and not going to harm anybody, either." Oliver County landowner Ken Hintz signed an easement with Summit. He told the Tribune that its important to keep coal-fired plants in operation. Theres people that arent interested in signing the leases for various reasons, Hintz said. Some of those reasons might be (because) they feel they aren't adequately compensated for using their (property) How do you put a value on providing clean air for future generations to come? River crossing The pipeline will cross the Missouri River northwest of Bismarck. Summit plans to use horizontal directional drilling about 60 feet beneath the river bottom, according to Boeshans. The company has done geotechnical borings along the river to determine safety for design and depth of drilling operations. Summit has secured the easements needed on both sides of the river crossing, and expects to soon award the construction bid. There will be shutoff valves on both sides of the river that will allow for isolation of that section of pipe in the event of a rupture, Boeshans said, adding that pressure levels will be continuously monitored. In the event that you saw a pressure drop, within minutes theyll shut in and isolate the line, he said. Summits pipeline in areas other than rivers and roads will be buried at a minimum of 4 feet, Boeshans said, noting that frost impacting the pipeline is a misguided concern. The minimum standard pipelines can be buried is 3 feet, according to Boeshans. Officials with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said they can't confirm the validity of statements made by private companies. The PSC will review the river crossing as part of its permit decision. Boeshans said that in places where the pipeline will cross roads and rivers, it will be buried significantly deeper. Summit will seek road crossing permits from Burleigh County. As for the private land, Were hopeful that we'll be able to continue to engage with those landowners northeast of Bismarck and arrive at an acceptable solution," Boeshans said. "But the bottom line is, pipelines are the safest mode of transportation for any liquid -- regardless of that liquid including CO2. And CO2 pipelines have a tremendous track record, actually impeccable track record, of safety." Spokesman Darius Kirkwood with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration told the Tribune that the agency is in the early stages of updating safety regulations for carbon dioxide pipelines, including requirements related to emergency preparedness and response. No dates have been set regarding state public hearings on the pipeline route, according to PSC staff. Administrative Law Judge Tim Dawson late last year was appointed as a substitute decision-maker in the case. He will replace Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, who recused herself from any siting decisions pertaining to the pipeline in early November. Fedorchak and her husband own land in Oliver County and signed a contract with Summit a year ago to store carbon dioxide there. The three-member regulatory panel also approved adding Bismarck attorney Zachary Pelham, who has previously helped with legal counsel on siting cases, to serve as advisory council for any Summit-related decisions. (Tribune News Service) The federal judge in Florida presiding over a mountain of earplug lawsuits against 3M has terminated efforts to mediate a settlement. But in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indiana, mediation continues between 3M and attorneys representing thousands of former and current military members who allege that defective 3M earplugs damaged their hearing. Its the latest odd twist in a tortuous legal duel with potentially billions of dollars in damages at stake. In one of the largest U.S. mass torts, 3M faces over 200,000 lawsuits in U.S. District Court in northern Florida. Over the past two years, military plaintiffs won 10 of 16 earplug bellwether trials in Florida and juries awarded them nearly $300 million. But the trials failed to spark a global settlement of all suits. So, Pensacola-based U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers in June required formal mediation. On Wednesday, Rodgers declared an impasse. In light of the parties seemingly intractable positions, the Court concludes that further formal mediation proceedings would be unproductive at this time, she wrote. Rodgers also wrote that 3M has said it has no desire to reach a global resolution in her court, and it is absolutely determined to resolve all claims solely through the bankruptcy system. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs attorneys say they categorically reject any bankruptcy only solution, Rodgers wrote. After years of litigation in Rodgers court, 3M last summer put its Aearo Technologies subsidiary into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, automatically freezing litigation against Aearo. 3Ms earplug business originated in Aearo, which is also named as a defendant in the earplug suits against 3M. Aearo asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis to extend the litigation freeze or automatic stay to 3M itself, a controversial move aimed at taking away earplug litigation jurisdiction from Rodgers court. Judge Jeffrey Graham denied 3Ms request. In December, Graham appointed two co-mediators, including one who had been a mediator in the earplug litigation before Rodgers. In a bankruptcy court filing Friday, the co-mediators said they have had phone conservations and extensive emails and texts with lawyers for 3M and the plaintiffs. Both have acted in good faith, and a formal mediation session is planned for early February. The co-mediators noted that they expect any resolution in bankruptcy court to also involve Rodgers court. In a statement, 3M said it continues to support Aearo Technologies by engaging in mediation discussions toward a resolution in the Chapter 11 process. Our focus remains on efficiently, equitably and expeditiously resolving this matter and to working with all parties, as well as the mediators and the courts. Plaintiffs attorneys, led by Bryan Aylstock and Chris Seeger, said in a statement that they will continue to mediate in good faith as directed by the bankruptcy court, although 3M has now made it clear the ultimate goal is not an efficient and equitable resolution but an indefinite delay in justice for the service members they harmed. 2023 StarTribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. (Tribune News Service) The U.S. military has two battles its fighting in Africa, Assistant United States Attorney Mark Pletcher said Friday in San Diego federal court. One is against extremist groups such as Boko Haram and al-Shabaab, and one is to win the hearts and minds of the African people. So when a building in rural Africa constructed by a U.S. military contractor falls down, or wind blows its roof off, the opposition uses it as propaganda, Pletcher said. Thats what happened on multiple occasions at an aircraft hangar in Niger, a shooting range in Senegal and a school in Togo due to fraud perpetrated by a U.S. military contracting company and its CEO, Micheline Pollock, according to a plea agreement. Pollock, a Canadian who pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, was sentenced Friday by Chief U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw to time served after being in custody since September 2020. She was also ordered to pay nearly $7.2 million in restitution. Sabraw said that while Pollock and her company had done amazing contracting work for the military in Afghanistan, that changed when the company expanded to Africa. You cut corners (and) it snowballed to outright fraud, Sabraw told Pollock. That damages the reputation of the United States. According to her plea agreement and sentencing documents, Pollock was CEO of Dover Vantage Inc., a construction company incorporated in the U.S. with headquarters in Dubai. After launching the company in 2009, the company completed several projects in Afghanistan, where Pollock, a former member of the Canadian Army Reserves, had previously spent time working for nonprofits promoting womens rights. In 2011, the company began bidding on jobs in Africa, winning 22 construction contracts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the next seven years for military and humanitarian projects. But work on civilian projects in remote areas of Africa proved far more challenging than operating on Western military bases as the company had done in Afghanistan, Pollocks defense attorneys wrote in a sentencing memorandum. Thats when the fraud conspiracy began, Pletcher argued Friday during Pollocks sentencing. It may have started with cutting corners, Pletcher said, but ultimately advanced to out-and-out fraud ... on project after project, year after year. The conspiracy lasted from at least September 2011 to February 2018, according to the plea agreement, and included submitting fraudulent quality-control documents, concrete strength tests and material certification records. Due to the fraudulent conduct, many of the structures were so poorly constructed that they collapsed, Pletcher wrote in a sentencing memorandum. Most of the other structures are now unusable. The fraud cost the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Navy Facilities Engineering Command at least $9.5 million, according to the plea agreement. I brought disgrace to the United States, Pollock said Friday, adding that she was deeply apologetic and truly ashamed to be here. She said she abused the power given to her and her company because of pride and ambition. I compromised my integrity. Devin Burstein, one of Pollocks defense attorneys, said she lost her moral compass. But he also described Pollock, a mother of three, as a remarkable woman who has spent her time in federal custody mentoring other women, something that friends told the court in support letters that shed done much of her life. Sabraw said Pollocks rehabilitation in custody is remarkable. Youve returned to the person you were before you lost your way. Pollocks plea agreement stipulates that one of her co-conspirators was her business partner and husband, who has not been charged. Pollocks case was the first to arise from the Africa Strike Force initiative based out of the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Diego. The initiative was developed to combat fraud and corruption as the United States expends military and humanitarian resources across Africa, according to a statement. The U.S. Attorneys Office declined to grant an interview with prosecutors from the initiative or answer questions about when it began and why its based in San Diego. In a news release, the office pointed to a second case arising from the initiative , which involved a French company with concrete contracts at a naval base, airfield and the U.S. embassy in Djibouti. The company, Colas Djibouti, agreed to pay more than $12.5 million in penalties, forfeitures and restitution, and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the government stipulating that prosecutors will drop criminal charges against the company if it fulfills its portions of the agreement. 2023 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com . Legislators this session have launched an assault on transgender people with bills ranging from restrictions on health care to a ban on the use of personal pronouns in schools. Its an unprecedented attack on one group by the Legislature. Whether prompted by lack of understanding of transgender people, a fear or dislike of them or a genuine desire to protect minors, the bills as a whole reflect an attempt to demonize transgender people. The bills sponsors may claim to want to protect minors, but the intent of some of the bills seems to be to make life more difficult for them. We believe House Minority Leader Josh Boschee, D-Fargo, was on the mark when he said the bills were trying to exclude people from participating in communities. The bills would limit access to medical care, restrict K-12 athletes and threaten doctors and parents with fines and prison time. There are bills on who can and cant use bathrooms and showers, on limiting who plays on college teams and who can use certain facilities. On Wednesday there was one indication that all the legislation wont have smooth sailing. The Senate overwhelmingly rejected Senate Bill 2199 sponsored by Sen. David Clemens, R-Fargo. The bill would ban schools and other entities from using personal pronouns preferred by transgender people. Under the bill, violators could be fined $1,500. The bill drew 94 pieces of testimony with all but one against it, and that one was neutral. The Tribune finds the bills dealing with the health care of transgender minors most egregious. House Bill 1254, sponsored by Rep. Bill Tveit, R-Hazen, would create a Class B felony for doctors who perform sex reassignment surgery or prescribe hormone treatments to transgender minors. Doctors could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined $20,000. Freshman Rep. Brandon Prichard, R-Bismarck, has House Bill 1301, which creates a civil penalty for doctors and parents involved in gender-affirming surgery for minors. It allows the attorney general to impose hefty fines. Prichard also is sponsoring House Bill 1332, which puts into law that performing conversion therapy isnt an ethical violation by social workers. If passed, it would overturn an administrative rule adopted in 2021 that the therapy violates an ethical standard. Testimony by Bismarck psychiatrist Gabriela Balf provides a clearer picture on what types of treatment are being provided in the state. She noted that the industry standard is for no gender-affirming medical treatments prior to puberty. Sex reassignment surgery hasnt been performed on a minor in North Dakota, according to Balf. She treats teens experiencing gender dysphoria, which the American Psychiatric Association says is psychological distress due to a mismatch between ones gender identity and ones assigned sex at birth. Balf said transgender youth suffer high rates of suicide, depression and drug use. Barring treatments, she added, would worsen the situation. Thats the major flaw with most of the legislation. It puts transgender youth at more risk. The treatment of transgender minors should be based on decisions made by parents and doctors working with the transgender child. Not by some legislators who appear to have a fear of, or antipathy toward, transgender people. Legislators need to see these bills for what they are an attempt to isolate and punish a faction of society. Its no different than passing laws to segregate Blacks or hurt Jews. The North Dakota Legislature needs to be better than these bills. The court heard the defendant lived at home with his parents and worked as a car wash attendant. A 26-year-old car wash attendant who collided with a garda vehicle as he drove the wrong way up a one-way street in Dundalk has pleaded guilty to eight charges stemming from an incident which began in the town centre and ended at Xerox when he crashed into a garda van. Jason Mackin, Newtown Road, Belleeks, Newry, pleaded guilty to drink driving at Xerox, Dublin Road and to damaging an official garda vehicle at Xerox Technology Park on 5 February 2022. He also admitted six counts of dangerous driving at Park Street, Rampart Lane, Inner Relief Road, Blackrock Road, Dublin Road and Xerox Technology Park. The defendant, who has no previous convictions, had compensation in court to cover the damage. Court presenter Sgt Jimmy McGovern said that gardai on patrol in Park Street saw a BMW 5 Series travelling the wrong way on a one-way street. This car collided with them. It continued and sped off, again on the incorrect side. This vehicle subsequently collided with a patrol van at Xerox junction, other garda units having been made aware of the situation. Mr Mackin was arrested. He later gave a breath sample which showed an over the limit reading of 64mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. Solicitor Ciaran Hughes handed in a cheque for 1,564.93, the full amount of compensation. He said his client fully accepted his driving was dangerous. There had been no trouble since. Mr Mackin lived at home with his parents. He worked as a car wash attendant. Judge McKiernan remarked she hoped he had learned a lesson. For drink driving a 300 fine and three-year driving disqualification were imposed. The other charges were taken into consideration. She will remain on the sex offenders register for five years and was handed a sexual offences prevention order for the same duration. A sex offender who was behind bars after repeatedly breaching bail conditions by contacting the child victim while awaiting sentencing has been freed again having avoided imprisonment. Eleanor Moore (29), of Craigavon Park, Fintona, admitted intentionally sexually touching a male child and communicating with him sexually between November 2020 and March 2021. Today at Dungannon Crown Court, Judge Brian Sherrard imposed a three-year probation order which will involve work to address Moores offending behaviour. She will remain on the sex offenders register for five years and was handed a sexual offences prevention order for the same duration. It was previously disclosed that Social Services alerted police over concerns around Moores engagement with the boy. When made aware of his age, she appeared shocked as he had claimed to be older. However, contact continued and the relationship remained a concern, with the boy initially reporting Moore had raped him, but he subsequently withdrew the complaint. Examination of her phone found sexual communications with the boy, as well as instructions to tell police he had lied about the alleged rape. Moore was remanded on bail to have no contact with the child, but she breached this several times, on each occasion being found with him after repeated reports that he was missing from home. Following one arrest, a detective believed Moore would continue to tell (the boy) not to engage with police or other services. There is a high risk of child sexual exploitation. Social Services have made numerous reports of her continuing to engage with the child. Its evident she shows no regard for bail conditions, despite charges for serious sexual offences with a child. Eleanor Moore When the case reached Dungannon Crown Court last November, Moore pleaded guilty. Judge Sherrard ordered pre-sentence reports and directed Moore to sign the sex offenders register. He remanded her on bail, highlighting the no-contact condition. However, she was arrested within days after police observed the child seated in her car. Bail was refused, but subsequently granted by Judge Sherrard after he was assured she had no intention of contacting the child. Earlier this month, she was arrested again after the victims friend alerted police to messages from her on his phone. The friend enquired if Moore should even be texting him? to which she replied, You know too much. Again bail was refused, but on appearing for a pre-sentencing review on January 9, Judge Sherrard once more ordered her release. Within hours, though, she contacted the victim, and was angry at his friend for getting her put in jail. She also claimed they would be together forever. Moore was remanded in custody, appearing for sentencing on Friday where defence counsel contended she is a vulnerable person who displayed emotional immaturity and low intelligence. It was heard that she has a very unsettled domestic history from a previous relationship. The victim was there for her, providing support which was something she never experienced previously she thought she loved him. A defence-obtained psychologist report said the relationship seemed to be a consequence of naivety, poor social judgment and the apparent opportunity for solace. Judge Sherrard said while Moore initially may not have known the victims age, she was made aware by police, yet continued the sexual relationship with that knowledge. The judge stressed no difference can be made between male and female offenders, but there must be analysis of each instance. He told Moore: Your behaviour was unambiguously wrong and you knew it to be wrong but continued regardless. It is of profound concern even at this juncture you are unable to offer insight into the possible significance of your behaviour. You lack responsibility and show limited victim awareness. Yesterday, Lurgan man 25-year-old Kevin Conway, from Deeny walk, was remanded into custody accused of murder Shane Whitla (inset) was shot in an alleyway off Woodville Street, before making his way to Lord Lurgan Park where he died Two more men were remanded into custody today accused of the murder of Shane Whitla in Co Antrim. Appearing separately at Lisburn Magistrates Court by videolink from police custody, 27-year-old Jake OBrien and Joshua Cotter (29) confirmed they understood the charges. While Cotter, from Madrid Street in Belfast and OBrien are jointly charged with the murder of the father-of-four on 12 January this year OBrien, from Church Walk in Lurgan, is also accused of having a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. Yesterday, Lurgan man 25-year-old Kevin Conway, from Deeny walk, was remanded into custody accused of murder and the court heard that he totally denies any involvement. Mr Whitla, a 39-year-old father-of-four, was shot in an alleyway off Woodville Street, before making his way to Lord Lurgan Park where he was sadly pronounced dead. OBriens defence solicitor Gavin Booth argued there was not enough evidence to link his client to the murder but Det. Srg. Brannigan outlined how police had obtained CCTV footage and indicative samples of cartridge discharge residue from clothing seized from OBrien. He told the court the victim left his home and walked towards the alleyway after receiving a phone call at 19.35, adding that police believe they can link the phone number to OBrien. After he goes into the alleyway, 23 seconds later two men can be seen running down the alleyway and police believe that from cctv footage captured half an hour before the shooting, that those individuals are OBrien and Cotter. In relation to cctv footage, the court heard that while OBrien has refused to confirm its him in footage taken at 19.06, Cotter does accept he appears on it but emphatically denies the murder. DS Brannigan conceded in cross examination from Mr Booth there is a half hour gap between the men being captured together on CCTV and the shooting and that geographically, its a two minute walk between the two areas. He also conceded the footage of the two individuals running from the scene is bad quality, the men have their backs to the camera and theyre running so theres no way to definitively identify who they are. The detective told the court however that two days after the shooting, OBrien was captured on a shops cctv buying a top up for the mobile which called Whitla just before he was shot and at the time of the purchase, he was wearing the same clothing as the individual on cctv of the night of the murder. Those clothes were seized when OBrien was arrested and although the forensic examination is 20% complete.a sample from the pocket gave a positive indication for cartridge discharge residue. Although DS Brannigan conceded that CDR does appear on other times such as fireworks, the suspect has been asked to account for that and how it might come to be on his person and its up to him to explain how it comes to be there. We say that the charges are not met, argued Mr Booth, submitting there was not enough evidence to establish a connection. District Judge Amanda Brady said to establish a connection the court can rely on the sworn evidence of a police officer and told the solicitor it was her view however that between cctv and forensic evidence, Im satisfied at this stage that theres circumstantial evidence to link him. The connection having been established, Mr Booth confirmed that he was not lodging an application for bail today (sat) but asked for OBriens case to be listed on Friday when he would ask for the alleged killer to be released. In relation to Cotter, who appeared wearing a navy Ralph Lauren jumper and check shirt, his solicitor conceded that he could be connected to the charge but declared that he emphatically denied the charge against him. Like Conway yesterday, OBrien and Cotter were remanded into custody but their lawyers will mount bail applications this Friday. This is a horrific incident for everyone involved including the guards family as I understand these are very significant injuries. A criminal high on a cocktail of cocaine, cannabis and benzodiazepines bit a garda and severed his finger as he was being arrested following a crash in Dublin on Saturday morning. The garda, who is a member of the roads policing unit, had to get the top of his finger stitched back on and also suffered a fractured finger in the incident descried as horrific and shocking by colleagues. Gardai were responding to reports of a man driving at speed and crashing into a car and bollards at Gullivers Retail Park in Santry around 11.30am when the incident occurred. Gardai suspected by his demeanour that he had taken drugs and he became violent as gardai went to arrest him. A drugs swab tested positive for cocaine, cannabis and benzodiazepines. The man bit the top of a gardas index finger which was understood to have been severely damaged. The arrested man is from the Finglas area of Dublin and has convictions for violent offences. The member of An Garda Siochana was taken to James Connolly Hospital to be treated for their injuries which are understood to be serious but non-life threatening, a garda spokesperson said. A man in his 30s was arrested and was brought to Ballymun Garda station where he is currently detained. Sources said the garda had to have the top of his finger stitched back on in hospital. He is also believed to have suffered a fractured finger in the incident. Doctors will now have to see if the finger refuses properly but it is understood the garda was released from hospital on Saturday evening. Garda Damian McCarthy of the Garda Representative Association described the incident as shocking and horrific. This is a horrific incident for everyone involved including the guards family as I understand these are very significant injuries. These are very, very serious and horrific injuries which will have a profound impact on the guard and his family and his garda colleagues who were present and whom responded. Its a clear indication of the type of violence and aggression that gardai are experiencing all too frequently. This is becoming all too common. Garda McCarthy had only spoken out on Thursday about the worrying rise in attacks on gardai in recent years. He said there were 5,000 garda assaulted from 2016 to 2022 and the number of assaults annually increased from 700 in that period to around 1,000 a year in for the past two years. It is unquestionable that the level of violence that gardai are facing has increased dramatically. This attack this morning is another prime example of where the system is failing for guards and equally for the communities we are serving it is not good enough to have a reduced service. Its not fair to the existing guards and the communities we serve. He called on the Government to set up a taskforce to examine issues facing gardai including recruitment and retention of gardai. We have to have Government intervention. The Minister and Taoiseach have to sit down and see what is happening in An Garda Siochana. Obviously, things are not good and the GRA have been raising this for a number of years and its falling on deaf ears. There has obviously been a reduced visibility of garda in our communities. The attacker was being held at Ballymun garda station last night. Gardai are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed this incident to come forward. Any road users who were in the area at between 10:30am and noon yesterday who may have camera footage (including dash cam) is asked to make it available to investigating Gardai. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Ballymun Garda station on 01 666 4400, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station. In the CAB case against him a Detective Inspector said Keatinge was a player of significance in the Freddie Thompson gang. SHOWBZ drug dealer and significant player in the Fat Freddie Thompson gang has lodged a court bid to stop his stash of gold bars, a house and 10,000 in cash being seized. Promoter and DJ Adam Keatinge turned up at High Court hearing this week where the Criminal Assets Bureau was due to seek an order to take possession of the property. The convicted drug dealer said he had fired his solicitor and was now representing himself, adding that he has lodged an appeal against a court decision deeming the property the proceeds of crime. Last November Judge Alex Owens ruled in favour of CAB granting orders being sought that the gold, cash and the Co Kildare property were the proceeds of crime. Keatinge had denied the allegations in the CAB case despite his previous arrest and conviction after being caught with a kilo of cocaine. This week he asked the judge if there was now a stay on the case to have his home in Ellistown, Co Kildare being seized until the Court of Appeal had dealt with his case. Judge Owens explained that would be a matter for those judges to decide as would his request for a digital recording of the previous hearing which he did not attend. The CAB case against Keatinge was then adjourned until such time CAB are in a position to continue with it. Fat Freddie Thompson Last November it emerged that one of Keatinges roles in the Kinahan Cartel-linked gang had been to rent properties which were then used by known criminals. Keatinge, also known as Marcus Lane and Michael Keating, had also been caught in Northern Ireland in June 2016 in a van with 60,000 on his way to Belfast airport to fly to Amsterdam. He also had 10,000 in 500 notes in his underpants when arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland along with three other men. The arrests in Northern Ireland and the evidence found on the phones kick-started the investigation by CAB who had previously probed the Dubliners financial dealings. In the CAB case against him a Detective Inspector said Keatinge was a player of significance in the Freddie Thompson gang. While Keatinge had denied the claim the officer in a replying affidavit to the High Court said Keatinge did not contest the evidence on his connections with the crime gang and stood over his assertions. Keatinge, a music events coordinator and DJ, and his partner Ms Veronika Saly, a former dancer who had worked in a Dublin hairdresser, had claimed that CAB's investigation was incomplete. They rejected the claims that money used to pay for their properties originated in the proceeds of crime and sources of legitimate income that was not investigated by CAB. He claimed that businesses he operated, FNO Promotions Ltd and Ace of Clubs in Belfast were cash based. When contacted by the Sunday World in November, Keatinge said that he would be appealing the decision against him which he described as fabricated. In his November judgement Judge Owens described Keatinge as a person who was "heavily involved in criminal operations" including the planned importation and supply of cocaine. There was no explanation for large sums of money that went through his bank accounts or the accounts of entities linked to him other than the moneys were from the proceeds of crime. CAB claimed for many years large sums of money were received by Keatinge which he used to buy a home in Knocklyon in Dublin. That property was subsequently sold and used to acquire his home in Ellistown, Co Kildare for 300,000 in 2014, which was funded with a mortgage from a financial institution. Survivor encourages other victims of sexual abuse to come forward A survivor of sexual abuse has spoken of her fears that her attacker may organise for her to be targeted by his criminal associates while he is in prison. Derek Reid (35) of Clonliffe Road, Dublin 3, was this week jailed for five and a half years after the Central Criminal Court heard that he repeatedly assaulted and sexually assaulted his then partner and later held her in her home against her will. Reid has a previous conviction for the assault of another former partner who was heavily pregnant at the time. He slapped his latest victim in the face, choked her, headbutted her, dragged her around her flat by the hair and sat on her chest and put his hands on her mouth to stop her screaming out for help. He threatened to make her son go missing and said her sister would die screaming from what he would do to her. Shortly before he was due to go on trial, Reid pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault committed between March 10 and 13, 2018. He also pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of the woman from March 15 to 16, 2018. In an interview with the Irish Independent, his victim said she believed Reid deserved a longer sentence. I am just full of fear and I am terrified of him even though he is in prison, the woman said. The survivor, who is aged in her 30s, said the sex offender showed no remorse and sniggered while looking at her during Thursdays sentencing hearing. The inner city-based woman told a previous court hearing that Reid had made a gun gesture towards her when he was refused bail and she has serious concerns she may be targeted in a revenge attack. She outlined the devastating effect the ordeal has had on her life. Im barely able to sleep at night sometimes I wake up on the hour crying and other times when I wake up, I think about him and what he did to me. He has destroyed me and I will never get over it it is burnt into my brain for the rest of my life she said. The woman is now calling for other victims of sexual abuse to come forward. If I had message, it would be dont stay silent, and once you get the case over with you can then start to properly deal with the trauma, she said. There is always hope, there is always someone out there to help, she added as she paid tribute to the support of her partner and the help she has received from the Saol Project in Dublin, a community project focused on improving the lives of women affected by addiction and poverty. There is no shame in asking for help or showing your vulnerable side and my partner will never know how much he helped because I could not tell my parents what happened. In court, the survivor said she was a strong woman who went on to get a college degree after her ordeal . I will never let anyone hurt me like you [Reid] did. I will continue to be the best version of myself I can be, she said. Reid and his victim met online in February 2017 but they didnt meet in person until February 2018. Within days of this meeting, Reid had effectively moved in to her city centre flat, where all the offending later took place, and he began talking about getting engaged. The woman felt controlled by Reid, who made her believe she had nobody to turn to. In the first assault Reid had drank a pint of vodka. He ripped the womans clothes off and had sex with her, biting her cheek and telling her he wanted her to have his baby. She told gardai it happened out of nowhere and she didnt consent but she was too afraid to tell Reid to stop. Later that evening Reid forced her to give him oral sex, pulling her hair and forcing her head down. He left the next day but came back and repeatedly assaulted her over the course of the night. At one point, she managed to get out of the flat and was making her way to the security gates in the courtyard of the apartment complex when Reid caught up with her and dragged her back inside. He began slapping her again and spitting in her face. He told her do you want your ma and son to go missing, or even better your sister? She will not die screaming of cancer, she will die screaming of what Im going to do to her. At one point during the six days, the woman texted a friend saying this thing is gonna kill me. The woman eventually managed to get out of the flat and went to the Saol Womens Refuge, where a support worker had been helping her. When she returned a day later to collect her belongings, she saw that Reid had defecated on her bed and carpet and smashed up the furniture and a TV set. Reid was still there and he repeatedly assaulted her again, before forcing her to pick up her social welfare payment and hand it over to him. Justice Paul Burns said this was an atrocious violation of the victim and that Reids actions were deliberately intended to degrade her. He noted that during the false imprisonment he threatened her and made demands for money. He also noted that the Probation Service assessed him as being at a high risk of committing intimate partner violence again. While Reid made an apology in this assessment, he spoke of the victim in degrading terms and tried to deflect blame on to her, the court heard. Mr Justice Burns imposed concurrent sentences of six and a half years for the sexual assaults and suspended the final year on conditions, including that Reid keep the peace, engage with drug addiction and alcohol abuse treatment, remain drug-free and engage with victim awareness programmes. Nicola Tallant discusses the CAB case against the former socialite and his alleged links to notorious crime gang Marcus Sweeney has been mentioned in CAB documents in the High Court CELTIC tiger businessman Marcus Sweeney once appeared to be the man who had everything - successful investment interests, a fast car and Ireland's most-beautiful model on his arm. But this week, his final facade of respectability fell when a Judge described him as up to his oxters in organised crime. From his heyday as a Dublin restaurateur and partner of tragic Katy French to money laundering for heroin gangs like 'The Family', the fall of Sweeney was completed during a damning CAB case this week. Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World colleagues Niall Donald and Eamon Dillon as they discuss the Bureau cases against Sweeney, mob boss Owen Maguire and others. The panel also catch up on what has been happening as the State completes its case against Gerry The Monk Hutch. Crime Word Podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Soundcloud. MORE EPISODES Rory McGrath (64) has been in prison in Leeds since last July awaiting trial The family of an Irish-American man who was extradited to the UK to face a 1980 assault charge have launched a campaign to fund his legal expenses overseas. Rory McGrath (64), who has dual citizenship in Ireland and the US, was extradited to England in July of 2022 where he remains behind bars ahead of his trial. He is accused of breaking a West Yorkshire Police officers nose during a brawl outside of a pub in Leeds. Ahead of his trial, which is due to begin on January 23, a GoFundMe page was set up with the goal of raising $20,000. The page says that McGrath maintains his innocence. His family hope to raise awareness of Rory's case and hopefully get him back home to New York, it reads. They hope that some good will come from shedding light on his situation, the conditions that he has been kept in and the unusual nature of this case being brought to trial after over 40 years. Explaining Rorys situation, the organiser of the fundraiser said: In May of 2021, Rory was arrested at his family home and charged in connection with the assault of a police officer in Leeds, in 1980. The assault in question, which Rory McGrath maintains he is not guilty of, resulted in a minor, non-life-threatening injury to the police officer who returned to work, lived a full life and has since retired from the police force. The page claims that many of the potential witnesses either have very little memory of the details of this altercation or have passed away over the past 42 years. It added that he has been unable to live a normal life since May 2021. Rory McGrath He spent over a year under house arrest in New York awaiting more information and, in July of 2022, Rory was extradited to the UK where he has since been awaiting trial. He is currently imprisoned in HMP Leeds. He has been separated from his wife and two sons, taken from his home, denied his right to a fair and speedy trial and amassed massive amounts of legal debt in the process. Rory is also confined in his cell for approximately 23 of the 24hrs in the day. He has had multiple requests to be present at his hearings ignored and has also had his trial date postponed on numerous occasions. The fight from which the charges stem, allegedly kicked off when one of McGraths friends, Leslie Swithenbank, attacked another youth outside a pub. They were giving us a load of lip, so I went and cracked one everybody joined in and we knacked em, Swithenbank later told police. When a local police officer intervened to break up the fight, a group of Swithenbanks friends, including McGrath, ran over and allegedly began assaulting the officer. After being thrown off Swithenbank, the police officer chased down the gang and grabbed hold of McGrath in a nearby car park. The silly ct got hold of Rory this time, one of the youths involved in the fight later told police, according to the documents. McGrath then allegedly booted the cop and punched him in the face, breaking his nose. The officer, who is still alive, needed surgery to repair the injury. McGrath and several of his friends were arrested shortly after the brawl broke out, but rather than face court he fled to New York, where he has lived ever since. When a local police officer intervened to break up the fight, a group of Swithenbanks friends, including McGrath, ran over and allegedly began assaulting the officer. After being thrown off Swithenbank, the police officer chased down the gang and grabbed hold of McGrath in a nearby car park. The silly ct got hold of Rory this time, one of the youths involved in the fight later told police, according to the documents. McGrath then allegedly booted the cop and punched him in the face, breaking his nose. The officer, who is still alive, needed surgery to repair the injury. McGrath and several of his friends were arrested shortly after the brawl broke out, but rather than face court he fled to New York, where he has lived ever since. Refugees are at risk of being left on the streets of Ireland while 150,000 homes remain vacant People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has said the Government has failed refugees that have come to Ireland for safety. Describing the Government's lack of planning as "scandalous, Deputy Murphy said: "Over 100 people now living in tents after the government said last month that won't be happening. Deputy Murphy was speaking after the United Nations High Commission for Refugees indicated that hotels accommodating refugees are set to revert back to holiday spots. But the Dublin TD said that refugees being asked to leave hotels to make way for tourists is a poor reflection on the people who run this country. "There's people in extremely substandard accommodation and of course the homeless crisis in this country continues to get worse," he said. "150,000 homes vacant in total across the state and we need to be saying to those people, 'you have to use it or lose it'." Minister for Integration Roderic OGorman has said that asylum seekers arriving into Ireland may have to live on the streets as there is a very real risk the Government will not be able to accommodate them. Its becoming increasingly difficult to secure new accommodation and particularly, over the next few weeks into the middle of February, he told RTE News at One. "Its difficult to get a line of sight over enough accommodation of what we anticipate will be the number of arrivals when we look back to what we have seen in the last number of months, There is a very real risk, particularly on the international protection side [asylum seekers not from Ukraine], that we wont be able to accommodate everybody. He said that vulnerable applicants, such as families with children, will be prioritised and for those who arent provided accommodation, the Government will look to provide contingencies. We will look to provide them with food vouchers, we will look to take their details so we can contact them again once additional accommodation can be secured. At present, there are 88 asylum seekers living in tents in Knockalisheen direct provision centre in Co Clare. The state is currently accommodating over 19,000 International Protection (IP) seekers and 54,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing Putins war. Subscriptions dont equal transparency When I ran for Insurance Commissioner in 2016 and 2020, I promised North Dakotans improved accessibility and efficiency. Thats precisely what I have done and will continue to do, but sign me up when theres an opportunity to do both. An editorial published in the Bismarck Tribune on Jan. 16 doesnt see it that way, so allow me to explain. Currently, insurance companies in North Dakota are required by law to publish an abstract of their annual statement in community newspapers where they conduct business. These are basic financial statements of a companys performance. For some, this may be the first time youve heard of these. By continuing to require this, The Bismarck Tribune argues that it makes this information more transparent to consumers. They fail to mention that to access the information in the paper, consumers must purchase a paper or have a subscription. There is also no date requirement for publishing the information, so a consumer must read every paper daily and then recall it when needed. In my comments to the legislature, those seeking this information are unlikely to look in the paper and will visit our website or call our office to have the information sent to them. We happily provide this information for free when the consumer wants it. Consumers are unlikely to go to their local paper and even less likely to have kept whichever issue in which that statement was printed. This information is on our website, which is accessible 24/7 and is free to use. Even better, you can effortlessly search for companies in our system. This actually enhances transparency and does not reduce it. Furthermore, the editorial fails to mention that newspapers charge insurance companies to publish these statements and then charge citizens to access their paper. By alleviating the pre-internet-era requirement, it does save insurance companies money, which also, in turn, saves their consumers North Dakotans money. This begs a question: who is more concerned about public access? This seems more about revenue to the newspapers than transparency. I am and will always be a supporter of local journalism. Still, we must continue using modern technology to reduce costs, gain efficiencies, and increase transparency. That is something we can all get behind, which is why I support Senate Bill 2143. Jon Godfread, North Dakota insurance commissioner Editors note: The Bismarck Tribune public notices are available for free to non-subscribers at bismarcktribune.com/public-notices. Monica Donnam (72) say she makes sure the dishes are full of vitamins for those who need them. A Dublin woman who makes 65 lasagnes a week for homeless people, says they are filled with love. Monica Donnam (72), from Clonshaugh, spends her Thursdays prepping meat and vegetables as part of the homemade meals before giving them to the charity A Lending Hand on Fridays. About five years ago, I saw A Lending Hand were looking for donations. I had a pile of wool here and I decided to knit beanies for them, Monica said. I brought them down and I saw food in the hall, and I asked if they took food as well. I asked if I could help and cook whatever I can. I make lasagnes in big roasting dishes. My friends realised what I was doing, so theyd throw me the odd 20 for the food. I started doing 40 individual ones, then it went up to 65, thats the maximum I could do in my kitchen. A lot of thought goes into the process too, as Monica makes sure the dishes are full of vitamins for those who need them. Different places donate and weve an account in the butchers where the money goes, and I can pick up the meat. A Tesco branch donates pasta sauce and someone else donates the foil trays. People are very good, and it all helps. I get the vegetables in Aldi, and I try to put in as much as possible, they need the nourishment. I wouldnt give people what I wouldnt eat myself. Theyre made with love. I finely cut the veg and and it gives it loads of flavour. They get carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms and I prep it all on Thursday. It goes into the oven on Friday, and I bring it down to the girls to deliver. Its nice to have something like this to focus on, I like to keep positive, she added. Monica's homemade trays of lasagne Monicas cooking has got a lot of praise from those who eat it, and she has made friends for life from A Lending Hand. One of the guys wanted to send me a card to say thanks for the lovely food and that he looks forward to it every week. I dont be looking for that, but its nice to hear, she said. Society looks down on these people, but theyre human beings. Theyre the same as us and theyre just having hard times. A lot of these people have been in care, and theyre thrown out, theyve no basic knowledge of how to budget or anything. A Lending Hand does everything they can for them. Its not just feeding them and giving them clothes, its helping them with their CVs, helping them prepare for interviews. Some of the people theyve helped throughout the years have come back to help. We did a fundraiser for A Lending Hand. We had great craic; I shaved my head for it. We got around 6,000 and went into Penneys too for bits. The money has gone a long way. My husband would give someone a few euro outside a shop, but once I started doing this, hed stop to talk to them. Its a knock-on effect. The All-Ireland winning former Hurler of The Year will be seen becoming teary-eyed in the TG4 production Galway hurling legend Joe Canning has paid a loving tribute to his late mother Josephine, who sadly died in January last year. The All-Ireland winning former Hurler of The Year will be seen becoming teary-eyed in a TG4 documentary when he describes how his mum bravely battled against cancer. Joe (34) also recalls his joy as Galway won their first Liam McCarthy Cup in 29 years when they lifted the All-Ireland in 2017, and how he sought out his father Sean and mum Josephine in the crowd to share his big moment. To find Mam and Dad, to find their face, he recalls. That was the best thing about the day. They shaped me to get there and to be part of that team. So, for me it was them winning it. He explains that Josephine was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She recovered, but in 2020 we played Limerick. I got knocked out that night and she said how are you feeling and I said Im awful sore down here, me arm and me neck and me back, I cant move it. Joe Canning "I asked, how are you, and she said, Im grand. Im complaining about a sore neck and she is suffering from cancer. So thats how she was. Yeah, we were very close, he reflects, as he chokes back tears. His family have an adorable little shrine placed in their kitchen in Josephines memory, with a picture of her smiling face sitting next to a stature of the Virgin Mary. Joe also reveals how the same house near Portumna was the target of hate mail over comments he maintains was taken out of context about Kilkenny. I made a remark, a stupid enough remark obviously, about Henry (Sheflin) not being sportsmanlike, he said after a Under 21 final. In my next sentence I said but we need to be more like them. Whatever way you look at it, I was complimenting him in a way, that we needed to be like Henry and Kilkenny if we were to win the next day. I remember waking up the following morning and my phone was going mad and I was what the f**k is going on here. What did I say?. The captain of the All-Ireland winning team, David Burke, recalls the fuss. Joes comments probably didnt mean to make the headlines as they were. It was more admiration for Kilkenny than anything, but I could see how Kilkenny might use that. Automatically I was like ah the boys are going to kill him, he recalls. Joe Canning with his mum Josephine after a match Joe remembers the hate mail coming to his family home. Mam and dad got a letter from Kilkenny, that they burned, never showed me. Which is worse for me. Id rather see it and not them, he notes. Sean does not take it too seriously. We usually wouldnt open Joes letters, but the sight of this we knew it was not good, he smiles. So, we burned it before Joe seen it. We knew it would hurt him. Thats what parents do. It warmed the house for a while (laughs). Caning announced his retirement from intercounty hurling in July of 2021, after a 13 year career that saw Galway take home four All-Ireland titles, including the coveted senior victory in 2017. Sinn Fein MP John Finucane is suing a DUP councillor over Twitter allegations of supporting and promoting the IRA. Defamation proceedings against Marc Collins relate to postings made during the 2019 Westminster election campaign. Senior judges today allowed Mr Finucanes appeal against a previous preliminary decision on the meaning pleaded in defence of his action. Proceedings relate to a tweet published in November 2019 amid media coverage of banners which attacked and made allegations about the Sinn Fein representative and members of his family. At the time Mr Finucane was standing as the partys candidate in the General Election for North Belfast - a seat he went on to win. The Court of Appeal heard that a posting on Mr Collins Twitter account claimed: He supports and promotes the IRA, he isnt innocent by any means. DUP Councillor Marc Collins In June last year the DUP politician was suspended from Mid and East Antrim Borough Council for eight months after a watchdog standards investigation found he had breached the code of conduct. He now faces a High Court lawsuit seeking damages over the contents of the tweet. A statement of claim by Mr Finucanes lawyers contended it had a defamatory meaning that he not only supports and promotes the IRA, but also condoned acts of terrorism perpetrated by the organisation. Defences of justification and honest comment have been raised, along with a dispute about the connotation to the words. At a previous hearing a judge allowed an added meaning which introduced Mr Finucanes membership of Sinn Fein as part of an amended defence to the action. Counsel for the MP challenged that development, contending it was impermissible and equated to an absurd assertion that every representative or supporter of the party also promotes the IRA. Ruling on the preliminary appeal, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan confirmed Mr Finucanes membership of Sinn Fein can be raised as part of any defence of justification or honest comment. But she held that the defendant was wrongly permitted to specifically refer to the party as a pleaded meaning of the tweet. Setting aside the earlier judicial order, Dame Siobhan stated: The political identity of the appellant is relevant to the defences of justification and honest comment but should not have been included as a meaning. Having established the proper meaning, we remit the remaining legal issues for determination to a different judge who can manage the case to trial. The Chief Justice added: We express no view on the overall merits of this case. Ms Bailey said that double standards were at play when she was demoted within the party following swing-gate Bailey, who hit the headlines in May 2019 when it emerged she had started legal proceedings against the Dean Hotel on Dublins Harcourt Street. Ms Bailey claimed she injured her back after falling off a swing in Sophies restaurant in 2015. She later withdrew her case after a public backlash when details of the claims were made public in 2019. She then faced further criticism, including from her own party colleagues, when she took part in a now-infamous radio interview with then-RTE Today host Sean ORourke. In an interview with The Irish Times, Bailey said she believes that there was double standards within her party after a criminal investigation into Leo Varadkar for leaking GP contracts led to no charges. How is Leos position not untenable? He has brought the party into disrepute in terms of his leak of a confidential document. The polls reflect that. He damaged the party. There was no review of Leo Varadkar, she said. In July 2022, An Garda Siochana said that the DPP directed that there were to be no charges brought against Vardkar for the 2019 incident in which he leaked the IMO contract he gave to then NAGP President Maitiu O Tuathail. Bailey said that she doesnt understand the very cold and manipulative manner in which she was destroyed by her party over the incident. She also told the publication that she doesnt accept the unfounded grounds in which Varadkar demoted her, claiming his reasons were not supported by an internal review. In July 2019, following a review into the incident, she was removed as chair of the Oireachtas Housing Committee. Privately, it destroyed me, she continued. It had an enormous impact not just on my family my kids, my husband and my immediate family. I didnt realise that my family had me on suicide watch for a period of time. It was only afterwards that that came to light. She said she became a character beyond recognition to what the actual facts were. I just became unrecognisable. I was just a laughing stock. 'Around 5pm on a Friday in June 2015, a loud message came over the tannoy that the store was to close,' recalls former Clerys worker Gerry Markey. Photo: Mark Condren Gerry Markeys heart sinks when he passes what he calls the jewel in the crown of OConnell Street on the Luas on his way home from work. Memories flood back of his days working in the stylish building that once housed Clerys department store with its large, bright window displays and famous art deco clock. At first, he was a tailor in a workshop producing made-to-measure suits and carrying out alterations, at a time when customers could buy cloth by the yard. Later, he became a supervisor in the mens department. On one occasion, he gave Gerry Adams advice on a coat. Oh, God, yeah, I was there for a long time, he says. For over 33 years. I was looking forward to ending my working days there. It was a fantastic place to work in. It was great management-wise and there were great work colleagues, like a large family. Christmas time would be an amazing time to work in the store and looking after all the children coming up to see Santy. He speaks of an Ireland of not so long ago that now seems lost forever. I used to cut soutanes for the priests, he says. They had buttons on the front and different coloured piping, depending on the different ranks of bishops. This involved trips to Maynooth to measure men about to be ordained. He would compete with another tailor, Donal Stanley of Marlborough Street. I was the last man when they closed the workshop as it was not viable, he says. I knew I had to do something, so I asked to be moved to the sales floor. But then about 5pm on a Friday in June 2015, a loud message came over the PA system at the store. While the arms of the landmark clock outside kept moving, Clerys as hed known it had come to a halt. They made an announcement that the store was to close, and all departments should send their money to the vault, he says. They had a lock keeper come in and he knew every lock in the store that needed to be changed. Some staff refused to leave. All food was put in the bin, he says. There was nothing to eat. Some customers had bought gift vouchers that day and went home and didnt know what was happening. At 9pm, we heard an announcement on TV that the store had ceased trading and the jobs were gone. They didnt have any money. Clerys had been sold for 1 and the building for 29m by its American owners Gordon Brothers to a consortium called Natrium Investment Group. A total of 460 jobs were lost. He was broken-hearted. Oh, God, yeah, I felt like my life had been stolen from me after 33 years service, because I felt I was going to finish all my days there, he says. That was my life plan and what I was going to do. To have it stolen from you and no redundancy, no respect, no negotiations It was poorly done. There were two or three people from some families working there. Nobody realised what they were up to. There were no rumours. Everything was kept hush-hush. He was grateful for the government giving the minimum statutory redundancy almost instantly. That kind of kept me going, he says. He recalls a woman who used to work there couldnt come into town after that. It really affected her. It was part of her routine to go to Clerys and do a bit of shopping and it was like a second home for her. But in the last few weeks, Gerry has felt happier looking out the window of the Luas on his journey home to Finglas from work at Harvey Norman in Rathfarnham a move he describes as crossing the border to the southside. The landmark building is being prepared for its reopening later this year as a new Clerys Quarter. When the Luas passes by, Id see the hoarding coming down bit by bit, he says. Im certainly bitter at the way my life was stolen from me but going forward Im a person for whom the glass is half full rather than half empty. Its lovely to see it reopening again. Seven-and-a-half years is a long time for it to be closed. OConnell Street lost its jewel in the crown. It certainly needs it. For nearly 30 years its been very desolate. Hotels and banks have closed. So theres a lot gone wrong with OConnell Street and I hope with Clerys opening up, it will breathe new life into the air. Tobys owner Suman is hoping the five-year-old boxer terrier can get back to normal Toby the Gentleman is described as the most followed dog in Ireland A Dublin dog suffering from epilepsy and seizures is being helped by the generosity of his fans on TikTok. A Dublin dog suffering from epilepsy and seizures is being helped by the generosity of his fans on TikTok. Toby the Gentleman, described as the most followed dog in Ireland on social media, has been having five-minute-long seizures and needs expensive treatment. His owner, Suman Gurung, from Castleknock, told Independent.ie: Toby has seizures because of his epilepsy. It started last year, he had one in 2022 and this month so far, hes had four of them. We went to the vet and an MRI was recommended, but it costs 2,000 to 3,000. Its so expensive and other tests might be needed too. Im so scared and frightened right now, it breaks my heart in a million pieces. Toby is a good boy, hes my son, he added. Tobys social media accounts have brightened up so many peoples days and Suman is hoping the five-year-old boxer terrier can get back to normal and keep cheering up others. Toby the Gentleman Toby connects with the people. I get thousands of people saying they love the TikToks, that their grandmother is sick but Toby cheers them up. Kids with special needs love him too, I get messages from their mams or siblings. Its a nice thing to connect with so many people through Toby. Toby is on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube. "Hes huge, he has around 2.5 million followers overall. Hes the most followed dog in Ireland and had his own documentary on RTE. Toby with his owner Suman After receiving almost 14,000 through a fundraiser he set up for Toby, Suman has enough money for the MRI and is using the spare cash to help other dogs in need. I work as a barman in Castleknock. Weve helped 300 dogs in the area and abroad through Tobys account, Suman said. A Dublin dog suffering from epilepsy and seizures is being helped by the generosity of his fans on TikTok. They get food for the next four to five months, their own blanket, and their own bed. Toby helps save the lives of so many dogs and now he needs help himself. Hes getting his MRI tomorrow if hes well enough. The actress is expecting with her husband Tom Neville, an ex-TD for Fine Gael Former Fair City star Jenny Dixon has revealed she shrieked with joy when she found out she was pregnant with twin girls. The actress is expecting with her husband Tom Neville, an ex-TD for Fine Gael, and has been sharing their journey to parenthood with followers on Instagram. As Jenny approaches her due date, she shared sweet snaps from their gender reveal party in November. "Shrieked with joy when I found out it was two girls. Pics 2 months apart. "8 weeks of baby girls growing. Swipe to today... #28weeks! What are your suggestions for cute twin girl names?! Love to know!! The former Fair City actress posted a smiling snap of her in a white dress and white heels, holding a pink box with Its a Girl! written on all sides. Jenny and her husband Tom met at a film festival in Limerick in 2016, just as the long-term county councillor had been elected as a TD for Limerick. I didnt actually know he was a politician when I met him, I just thought he was an aspiring actor, she told The Irish Sun of their meeting. The star admitted that last week was a big one for her as she reflected on what her husband would be like as a dad. "What has struck me most this week is him, Jenny wrote on Instagram. "He is going to be the best dad.. and it makes me fall in love with him all over again. Your cute dad books youve bought on Amazon and your fierce overprotective-ness mode is hot. "Love you @tomnevilleinsta. Jenny Dixon and her husband Tom Neville enjoyed a catch-up with Leo Varadkar and his partner Matt this weekend. The actress who played Kerri Ann on Fair City has been keeping followers up-to-date on her life as a mum-to-be, even giving an insight into a recent night out with pal Leo Varadkar and his partner Matt. With a smiling selife snapped with the Taoiseach, his partner and Jennys husband Tom, Jenny said her weekend was full of great conversations, catch-ups, family and food. "And at 26 weeks twin pregnant Im so thankful for finding a stretchy velvet dress in my wardrobe! It works I wanna shout out! Chris "Chippy" Hipkins is set to become New Zealand's Prime Minister, following an announcement from the Labour Party this morning. Here's a look back at his career in politics, and rise to the top job. 1978 - Christopher John Hipkins is born in the Hutt Valley. He attends Waterloo Primary School, Hutt Intermediate and was Head Boy at Hutt Valley Memorial College (later called Petone College) in 1996. Hipkins received his Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in politics and criminology from Victoria University of Wellington. After completing university, Hipkins worked for the Industry Training Federation and Todd Energy. He also worked in Parliament as an advisor to Trevor Mallard and Helen Clark. 2008 - Hipkins enters parliament, standing in the Remutaka seat following the retirement of MP Paul Swain. He was appointed Labour spokesperson for Internal Affairs and became the Chief Whip following the 2011 general election. He also held the State Services and Associate Education spokesperson roles. Labour MP Chris Hipkins in 2017. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith 2017 - Hipkins is elected as a Cabinet Minister by the Labour Party caucus and became Minister for Education. During this time, he supported the abolition of National Standards and charter schools and signalled a review of the National Certificate of Educational Acheivement (NCEA) system. In 2019, Hipkins proposed merging the country's polytechnics into a single entity - a move criticised by many including the National Party. 2020 - David Clark resigns as Health Minister and Hipkins is appointed Interim Health Minister. In November 2020, Hipkins was Minister of Education, Minister for the Public Service and Covid-19 Response Minister. In August 2021, Hipkins set Twitter alight with a blooper at a media briefing while trying to encourage people to take some exercise. NZs Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins wants to make sure that we can all have the opportunity to spread our legs. Thank you Minister! #SpreadYourLegsNZ pic.twitter.com/Mb9W1TlDsX Cleo (@cleotibbitts) August 22, 2021 Chris Hipkins accidentally saying spread their legs instead of stretch is exactly what we needed today pic.twitter.com/hNME8hAlAA Bex Quilliam (@bexquilliam) August 22, 2021 In December 2021, Hipkins took time out of his summer holiday break to front a Covid-19 news conference to discuss the border-related Omicron case, a DJ from the UK, who went out in the Auckland community. He held the conference in a nature reserve in Raumati. His mum apologised on his behalf to waiting media as Hipkins was nearly half an hour late to the conference. His walk down a hill in a nature reserve caused a social media stir and became the subject of many memes. Chris Hipkins strolls down a hill in Raumati to attend a press conference. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham And hugging his children afterwards. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham 2022 - In defence of the country's MIQ system, Hipkins publicly shared personal information of New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis, and said she had ignored consular assistance. However, following legal action taken by Bellis, Hipkins apologised for releasing personal information and making inaccurate statements. In June 2022, Hipkins was moved from being Covid-19 Response Minister and picked up the Police Minister portfolio from Poto Williams. Williams had "lost focus" and had not handled issues like ram raids and Auckland's gang shootings well, the government said. In September 2022, Hipkins issued an apology in the House to former Finance minister Bill English for suggesting he had granted family members government contracts. He made those remarks following remarks made about Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta's husband Gannin Ormsby being awarded government contracts. 2023 - Following Jacinda Ardern's resignation announcement, Hipkins quickly became the front-runner to take over as prime minister, although he said he had not been shoulder-tapped by Ardern. "I think we will have a good, constructive discussion, we will select a new leader that the party will then unite behind. Leadership contests don't have to be like the Hunger Games as the National Party seem to have perfected the art of. It is actually possible to do it differently and that's what we'll be striving to do," he said on Thursday. RNZ Bay of Plenty Police investigating the serious assault of a woman in Te Puke are asking for the public's help to locate a vehicle of interest. Shortly after midnight on Friday, January 20 2023, a woman was found injured on Te Matai Road. A silver Honda Stream, registration HNP55, was seen in the area around the time of the assault and is of interest to investigators, say Detective Inspector Craig Rawlinson. "We're asking for the public's help to locate this distinctive-looking vehicle. We believe it could help us as we piece together the events on the night. Detective Rawlinson says the vehicle is distinctive. "It has a black bonnet, mag wheels, rear spoiler, and large dent on the left-rear door. "It has possibly been parked up in the Te Puke or Western Bay of Plenty area." A silver Honda Stream, registration HNP55, was seen in the area around the time of the assault. Photo: Police. Police also want to hear from anyone who may have witnessed the assault. Anyone with information is asked to call Police on 105 or fill out a report online at www.police.govt.nz/use-105, using 'Update My Report'. Please reference 230120/4732. Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111. A phenomenal 40 years worth of reading has been achieved by local kids taking part in Tauranga City Librarys summer reading challenge, Kia Kaha te Panui. The Tauranga City Library has been running reading challenges for more than 20 years yet none have ever been of this years calibre. This year has been our biggest ever in terms of numbers participating and also in exciting evolutions, says library manager Joanna Thomas. More than 1400 children from ages zero to 18 years old registered in the challenge. Each day that kids read gets logged onto a reading tracking app called Beanstack. Joanna says the number of days kids doing Kia Kaha te Panui have done some reading is close to 15,000. That comes to 40 years of daily reading, if you add all their efforts together. This figure grows every day and its really exciting to watch. Joanna says that getting kids involved in summer reading challenges gives them a great start to the new school year. Its been proved that consistent reading is the best way to prevent the summer slump, ensuring children dont return to school after the holidays with a lower reading level than when they left. At its heart, Kia Kaha te Panui: Summer Reads has also always been about encouraging children to discover a love of reading and stories. Its a win for parents, teachers, and kids! So what have these book worms been reading? Joanna says books such as Hairy Maclary, Geronimo Stilton, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and all of Anh Dos series remain firm favourites among kids. But the variety is great to see weve had kids share with us books of science experiments, atlases, comics and poop the poo that animals do! Joanna hopes that kids take away an appreciation of how awesome libraries and reading are. We always hope that participating in Kia Kaha te Panui and chatting to the librarians makes them enjoy the library and feel comfortable in our spaces. Its wonderful when they return regularly throughout the year to get their hands on lots more stories. The final day to check-in in with the library team and share what youve been reading is Monday, January 23. Kids aged 0-10 years old who complete their reading challenge missions receive a certificate, prize book and an invite to the finale party. Teens are awarded a Prezzy card to choose their own book, so get reading this weekend! Tulsi Gabbard U.S. Should Stop Being The World\'s Policeman Current Print Subscribers will be prompted to either login to their current site user account or to create a new one. A confirmation email will be sent when a new user account is created, which must be confirmed within three days in order to provide uninterrupted online access through your Print Subscription. Once the email address is confirmed please provide your Account Number to activate your Print Subscription Service. Facebook's gol' durn algorithm is acting up again, say humans working at Meta, who apparently have no control over the automated system that approved ads calling for the murder of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his children. Fortunately, the ads were submitted by the nonprofit Global Witness, which wanted to test Facebook's filters against violent advertising. The ads never ran. From Global Witness: Out of sixteen test ads submitted by Global Witness to the platform, only two were rejected. Those approved included text in Portuguese such as "unearth all the rats that have seized power and shoot them", "Death to the children of Lula voters" and "They should be in jail or dead and buried, not in the presidential palace". Global Witness deleted the ads before they could be published on the platform. Whilst Facebook approved 87 percent of the tested ads, when faced with the same test YouTube did not allow any of the ads to be published, suspending the accounts from which Global Witness submitted them. This test comes just days after thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsanaro violently stormed government buildings in Brasilia, with violent demonstrations instigated and spurred by social media posts. A spokeshuman for Meta told Global Witness that its "small sample of ads" was "not representative" of how the company enforces policies. "Like we've said in the past, ahead of last year's election in Brazil, we removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of content that violated our policies on violence and incitement and rejected tens of thousands of ad submissions before they ran. We use technology and teams to help keep our platforms safe from abuse, and we're constantly refining our processes to enforce our policies at scale." And yet, compared to Twitter, Facebook feels like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. Since the 1970s, Judith Heumann has worked tirelessly for human rights and dignity, for "equal rights in an unequal world" for disabled people. Working with non-profits, NGOs, and community-based groups, Judy is a fierce advocate, a "Rolling Warrior." Diagnosed with polio at a young age, Judy has lived the majority of her life in a wheelchair, and the majority of that life creatively struggling to transform the world. Disabled in Action, founded in 1970 at Long Island University, Brooklyn campus, was one of the first organizations to lobby, organize, and eventually "sued the New York City Board of Education when [Heumann's] application to obtain a teaching license was rejected because of her disability." Susan Mizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Disability Rights Program, calls Heumann "the mother of the disability rights movement in so many ways" an activist "who doesn't take crap, never has." Heumann published, with Kristen Joiner, her memoir Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist in 2020. "One of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human. A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn't built for all of us and of one woman's activismfrom the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of WashingtonBeing Heumann recounts Judy Heumann's lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy's struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a "fire hazard" to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher's license because of her paralysis, Judy's actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people. As a young woman, Judy rolled her wheelchair through the doors of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in San Francisco as a leader of the Section 504 Sit-In, the longest takeover of a governmental building in US history. Working with a community of over 150 disabled activists and allies, Judy successfully pressured the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples' rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act." In 2021, Beacon Press released a "young readers" edition, Rolling Warrior: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels Who Helped Spark a Revolution. The Heumann Perspective, her podcast, is accessible here. Heumann's Ted Talk, "our fight for disability rights and why we're not done yet," is available here. For more on Heumann's life and the movement she was part of, check out the documentary film Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution , Audience Award Winner for best documentary at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. "No one at Camp Jened could've imagined that those summers in the woods together would be the beginnings of a revolution. In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination and institutionalization. Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp "for the handicapped" (a term no longer used) in the Catskills, exploded those confines. Jened was their freewheeling Utopia, a place with summertime sports, smoking and make-out sessions awaiting everyone, and campers experienced liberation and full inclusion as human beings. Their bonds endured as many migrated West to Berkeley, California a hotbed of activism where friends from Camp Jened realized that disruption, civil disobedience, and political participation could change the future for millions." kvsneela BHPian Join Date: Jun 2022 Location: Pondicherry Posts: 68 Thanked: 224 Times A short trip to Wayanad via bus & train Prelude: There are many migration theories moving around the world and also in India (like Aryan migration theory) and one such migration happened from Tamilnadu to Kerala due to the invitation from Kerala kings ( from 13th Century). It seemed that my ancestors settled in Mananthavady in Wayanad like many of other families settled in Palakkad, Trivandrum etc., So our family deity (Kula Deivam) is Valliyoorkavu Bhagavathy which is few km outside Mananthavady. Searching for better prosperity my grandfather moved his family first to Dindigul and finally to Pazhani (famous for Murugan temple) in post-independence time (meaning back to where it was started). During my younger years, we never visited this place as my grandfather used to tell one needed to go to Kozhikode (Calicut) and then could only reach the place by travelling through hills in jeep and so considering the transportation facilities available in those days, we never thought of visiting the temple. Few years ago (2017) suddenly I heard from my brother that he had visited the temple successfully (I think while waiting for his sons +2 results). So immediately as per wifes order we also visited the temple and from then onwards it became a yearly ritual on my sons birthday (which falls in December or January) either by date or by star (whichever is suitable for getting train tickets). But due to Covid restrictions we could not complete the ritual in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 April we had a function at Hosur and with that we visited the temple by road (in our newly purchased Spresso) through Mysore (Chamundeeswari temple also) and Nagarahole National Park. (I could not plan to write a report as I was not a member that time and latter regretted after finding that many people post old trips also). The Planning: The route actually was that we had to reach Kozhikode by train and take a bus from there to reach Manandhavady which is about 100km away. In the past , we had travelled from Chennai which had 3 trains to Mangalore. One train starting at 4.30 PM and reaches Kozhikode by 4 AM which was convenient for us. Normally we dont stay in any hotels and return back by same train catching at 8 PM. This year sons birthday was on 13th Jan (11th Jan by date) and unlike from Chennai, there are only 2 weekly trains from Pondy to Mangalore (one on Thursdays and same train on Saturdays with a slightly different route) and so for convenience we booked ticket for 12th Jan (which was Thursday) starting at 4.45 PM. (2 AC). Since it was one day trip much planning was not required. Only thing wife wanted to enquire about retiring rooms at Kozhikode station for taking hot water bath in early morning but the online booking did not list Kozhikode in RR available station list. (I dropped an email enquiry and yet to get a reply from ccm/SR). Considering that we packed sweater for our resent trip to Munnar /Thekkady and not required to use, packed only casual dress. The trip: We reached Pondy station on 12th Jan by 3.30 PM. Our train was already in the platform (3) and looked like has not seen a wash for long time (but not surprised for a weekly train). Fortunately, it was ok inside the compartment. This train had one 2AC and one 3AC compartment. Train started on time and reached Kozhikode at around 5.15 AM (late by 20 minutes). Pondy Station Train Display Platform Train 2 Charging points View of the compartment Compositable plastic Bags Home-made dinner of Chappathis and Ivy gourd/Coccinea( Kovaikkai) Brief history lesson about Kozhikode: Kozhikode is famous for something which turned the Indian history upside down. Trades were going on between Asia (China, India etc.,) and Europe from ancient time for spice and silk and pearls(pepper is essential to keep meat palatable in winter). These routes were through land or ports of Eygypt /Red Sea. Rise of Ottoman Empire in 2nd half of 15th century killed the silk route and monopoly of the Italian merchants forced Portugal and Spain to find alternate route to Asian countries especially to India and Molucca(Indonesia) for spices. In 1492, Columbus (born Italian, lived in Portugal and sponsored by Spain) reached West Indies while searching for India in west direction. The 1494, Treaty of Tordesillas (along with Treaty of Zaragoza in 1529) was signed between the monarchs of Spain and Portugal to divide the world between them into two spheres of influence. The imaginary dividing line ran down the centre of the Atlantic Ocean, leaving the Americas to Spain and West Africa and anything beyond the Cape of Good Hope to Portugal. That is why all the Central and South American countries were occupied by Spanish except Brazil (which is Portuguese) due to the reason Brazil falls to the east for the agreed line. Due to the agreement, Vasco da Gama (Portuguese) went around the African continent and reached the shores of Kozhikode in 1948 which marked the first entry sponsored by Governments which was followed by others like Dutch, French and the British to follow (because of the treaty, Spanish could not come to India fortunately). Imagine when Shakespeare was creating his boring plays, the real drama was happening in the seas with a piece of wood called ship and piece of paper called map with nothing on it as nothing was discovered at that time. We finished out bath and other duties in the waiting room on platform no 4 itself and were ready by 6 AM (water was not cold at all). Reached KSRTC bus stand by auto (Rs 60/-) by 6.30 and got the bus (not crowded) immediately (Rs 130/- for single ticket) and were on the move. Kozhikode station Waiting room KSRTC bus stand, Kozhikode Bus inside Since we were sitting at the rear end could not take much pictures of the road. Bus went through Thamaraserry, Adivaram, Vythri and Kalpetta. Once up the hill, it was misty and chilly (regretted wearing casual dress). Roads were ok. Some repair work was going on between Kalpetta and Mananthavady. Reached Mananthavady at about 10 AM. On the way Kalpetta Bus stand Kalpetta town Misty roads When we got down the bus, the town looked deserted. All the shops were closed and no autos were in the stand near bus stand. Suddenly one auto appeared from nowhere which someone was about to enter. When enquired we came to know that general strike was called for that day only in that town (even Kalpetta, the Wayanad district HQ, was normal) and so minimum transportation would be available. I have heard about the sudden strike stories in Kerala but never faced one until then. (My brother had already informed that they were aware of Kerala state strike only after reaching Kozhikode in the first trip and they had to take a taxi to complete the trip). When we explained our situation to reach the temple, the passenger was kind enough to allow us to ride and so we could reach the temple by 10.30 AM. We waited for the 12 PM Puja and finished our free lunch by 12.30 (provided by the temple for which we had also donated which was one of the many donation modes available) contains(always) white parboiled rice with a mixed vegetable sambar with pickle and rice payasam. It was ok to fill our stomach. Temple entrance The temple( Melakavu) Other way Old temple( Keezhakavu) Kabini river But the problems started when tried to return to the bus stand. Temple was on the Mananthavady-Panamaram shortcut road which usually have less buses. Somebody advised us to walk to bus stand (3 km) as there was no chance of getting anything(which was not a problem for me as I used to walk 6/7 kms daily). One or two empty autos were crossing us but none was willing to take a chance. But wife also agreed to walk and after a few metres one empty auto came that way who was willing to take us and dropped us at the bus stand at around 1.30 PM without any problems as the whole town was under police surveillance. One bus already just left as we reached but we had to wait up to 3.00 PM to catch the next bus and by the time heavy crowd started gathering. So, when the bus arrived there was big rush but once settled, I found some empty seats. On way the bus became full and reached Kozhikode by 6.30 PM. Since the bus was very late there was very very heavy crowd to get in so that we alighted with much difficulty. Took an auto to station but got dropped at a chips shop nearby. Purchased some Plantain( Rs 320/-/kg) and Tapioca (Kappa or Maravalli Kizhangu) chips( Rs 240/- /kg) and reached the station. Finished dinner at the station (which had few restaurants veg and non veg). Train came before the scheduled time of 8.05 PM and reached Pondy at 10.00 AM. Mananthavady Bus Stand Inside the bus Hairpin Bend While returning Through the refraction of the Train door glass , I could see a small sun along with big sun. I could not help it without clicking..2 suns.. Some observations: 1. First time bus travel after Covid restrictions. Buses in Kerala had not changed a bit during our travel for the past few years. No digital display or sliding windows (still shutters) and seats were uncomfortable too. But one design I liked was that the floor was fully flat with no projection above the front and rear wheels (compared to TN buses (except SETC) which keeps the passengers in those seats above the wheels totally uncomfortable). 2. Auto drivers are systematic in Kerala compared to TN and Pondy (where no system at all). Charged Rs 60/- (Station to Bus stand) and Rs 50/- (Bus stand to station) in Kozhikode. In Mananthavady Rs 100/- and Rs 80/- between Bus stand and temple (even on strike day) which I found little unbelievable after the experience here. For example We were charged Rs 200/- from our house to station (in Pondy) but from back to house were asked Rs 400- first then 300/- then 250/- but wife did not accept as she had the data already ( Rs 200/-) for which finally they accepted. All these are wifes department as I hated to travel in autos( one of the only 2 things I hated in my entire life and other one being wearing various coloured threads in any part of the body no offence to those like wearing )and I would rather walk instead taking one . If there is an auto- haters association, I would be the president (concerned with only TN and Pondy autos as I think in Delhi/Kolkata/Mumbai /Bangalore/Hyd they charge by meter rates.). They might be having their problems but no justification in not following a system (Kerala fuel rates are higher that TN and Pondy). 3. Temple is in such a beautiful place (Kabini river is flowing nearby) but the crowd is always less except for the yearly 10-day festival which will be in March/April( 4. Kozhikode Railway Station has good waiting room facility in P1 and P4 with running water etc.,. Even in peak winter the water was not cold to make bathing easy. A short trip to WayanadPrelude:There are many migration theories moving around the world and also in India (like Aryan migration theory) and one such migration happened from Tamilnadu to Kerala due to the invitation from Kerala kings ( from 13th Century). It seemed that my ancestors settled in Mananthavady in Wayanad like many of other families settled in Palakkad, Trivandrum etc., So our family deity (Kula Deivam) is Valliyoorkavu Bhagavathy which is few km outside Mananthavady. Searching for better prosperity my grandfather moved his family first to Dindigul and finally to Pazhani (famous for Murugan temple) in post-independence time (meaning back to where it was started). During my younger years, we never visited this place as my grandfather used to tell one needed to go to Kozhikode (Calicut) and then could only reach the place by travelling through hills in jeep and so considering the transportation facilities available in those days, we never thought of visiting the temple.Few years ago (2017) suddenly I heard from my brother that he had visited the temple successfully (I think while waiting for his sons +2 results). So immediately as per wifes order we also visited the temple and from then onwards it became a yearly ritual on my sons birthday (which falls in December or January) either by date or by star (whichever is suitable for getting train tickets). But due to Covid restrictions we could not complete the ritual in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 April we had a function at Hosur and with that we visited the temple by road (in our newly purchased Spresso) through Mysore (Chamundeeswari temple also) and Nagarahole National Park. (I could not plan to write a report as I was not a member that time and latter regretted after finding that many people post old trips also).The Planning:The route actually was that we had to reach Kozhikode by train and take a bus from there to reach Manandhavady which is about 100km away. In the past , we had travelled from Chennai which had 3 trains to Mangalore. One train starting at 4.30 PM and reaches Kozhikode by 4 AM which was convenient for us. Normally we dont stay in any hotels and return back by same train catching at 8 PM. This year sons birthday was on 13th Jan (11th Jan by date) and unlike from Chennai, there are only 2 weekly trains from Pondy to Mangalore (one on Thursdays and same train on Saturdays with a slightly different route) and so for convenience we booked ticket for 12th Jan (which was Thursday) starting at 4.45 PM. (2 AC). Since it was one day trip much planning was not required. Only thing wife wanted to enquire about retiring rooms at Kozhikode station for taking hot water bath in early morning but the online booking did not list Kozhikode in RR available station list. (I dropped an email enquiry and yet to get a reply from ccm/SR). Considering that we packed sweater for our resent trip to Munnar /Thekkady and not required to use, packed only casual dress.The trip:We reached Pondy station on 12th Jan by 3.30 PM. Our train was already in the platform (3) and looked like has not seen a wash for long time (but not surprised for a weekly train). Fortunately, it was ok inside the compartment. This train had one 2AC and one 3AC compartment. Train started on time and reached Kozhikode at around 5.15 AM (late by 20 minutes).Pondy StationTrain DisplayPlatformTrain2 Charging pointsView of the compartmentCompositable plastic BagsHome-made dinner of Chappathis and Ivy gourd/Coccinea( Kovaikkai)We finished out bath and other duties in the waiting room on platform no 4 itself and were ready by 6 AM (water was not cold at all). Reached KSRTC bus stand by auto (Rs 60/-) by 6.30 and got the bus (not crowded) immediately (Rs 130/- for single ticket) and were on the move.Kozhikode station Waiting roomKSRTC bus stand, KozhikodeBus insideSince we were sitting at the rear end could not take much pictures of the road. Bus went through Thamaraserry, Adivaram, Vythri and Kalpetta. Once up the hill, it was misty and chilly (regretted wearing casual dress). Roads were ok. Some repair work was going on between Kalpetta and Mananthavady. Reached Mananthavady at about 10 AM.On the wayKalpetta Bus standKalpetta townMisty roadsWhen we got down the bus, the town looked deserted. All the shops were closed and no autos were in the stand near bus stand. Suddenly one auto appeared from nowhere which someone was about to enter. When enquired we came to know that general strike was called for that day only in that town (even Kalpetta, the Wayanad district HQ, was normal) and so minimum transportation would be available. I have heard about the sudden strike stories in Kerala but never faced one until then. (My brother had already informed that they were aware of Kerala state strike only after reaching Kozhikode in the first trip and they had to take a taxi to complete the trip). When we explained our situation to reach the temple, the passenger was kind enough to allow us to ride and so we could reach the temple by 10.30 AM. We waited for the 12 PM Puja and finished our free lunch by 12.30 (provided by the temple for which we had also donated which was one of the many donation modes available) contains(always) white parboiled rice with a mixed vegetable sambar with pickle and rice payasam. It was ok to fill our stomach.Temple entranceThe temple( Melakavu)Other wayOld temple( Keezhakavu)Kabini riverBut the problems started when tried to return to the bus stand. Temple was on the Mananthavady-Panamaram shortcut road which usually have less buses. Somebody advised us to walk to bus stand (3 km) as there was no chance of getting anything(which was not a problem for me as I used to walk 6/7 kms daily). One or two empty autos were crossing us but none was willing to take a chance. But wife also agreed to walk and after a few metres one empty auto came that way who was willing to take us and dropped us at the bus stand at around 1.30 PM without any problems as the whole town was under police surveillance. One bus already just left as we reached but we had to wait up to 3.00 PM to catch the next bus and by the time heavy crowd started gathering. So, when the bus arrived there was big rush but once settled, I found some empty seats. On way the bus became full and reached Kozhikode by 6.30 PM. Since the bus was very late there was very very heavy crowd to get in so that we alighted with much difficulty. Took an auto to station but got dropped at a chips shop nearby. Purchased some Plantain( Rs 320/-/kg) and Tapioca (Kappa or Maravalli Kizhangu) chips( Rs 240/- /kg) and reached the station. Finished dinner at the station (which had few restaurants veg and non veg). Train came before the scheduled time of 8.05 PM and reached Pondy at 10.00 AM.Mananthavady Bus StandInside the busHairpin BendWhile returningThrough the refraction of the Train door glass , I could see a small sun along with big sun. I could not help it without clicking..2 suns..Some observations:1. First time bus travel after Covid restrictions. Buses in Kerala had not changed a bit during our travel for the past few years. No digital display or sliding windows (still shutters) and seats were uncomfortable too. But one design I liked was that the floor was fully flat with no projection above the front and rear wheels (compared to TN buses (except SETC) which keeps the passengers in those seats above the wheels totally uncomfortable).2. Auto drivers are systematic in Kerala compared to TN and Pondy (where no system at all). Charged Rs 60/- (Station to Bus stand) and Rs 50/- (Bus stand to station) in Kozhikode. In Mananthavady Rs 100/- and Rs 80/- between Bus stand and temple (even on strike day) which I found little unbelievable after the experience here. For example We were charged Rs 200/- from our house to station (in Pondy) but from back to house were asked Rs 400- first then 300/- then 250/- but wife did not accept as she had the data already ( Rs 200/-) for which finally they accepted. All these are wifes department as I hated to travel in autos( one of the only 2 things I hated in my entire life and other one being wearing various coloured threads in any part of the body no offence to those like wearing )and I would rather walk instead taking one . If there is an auto- haters association, I would be the president (concerned with only TN and Pondy autos as I think in Delhi/Kolkata/Mumbai /Bangalore/Hyd they charge by meter rates.). They might be having their problems but no justification in not following a system (Kerala fuel rates are higher that TN and Pondy).3. Temple is in such a beautiful place (Kabini river is flowing nearby) but the crowd is always less except for the yearly 10-day festival which will be in March/April( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valliyoorkkavu ). There are 2 temples called Melakavu (where route activities takes place) and Keezhakavu( where the idol is believed to be self-manifested and opened only during yearly festival)); Temple Timings: 6.00 am to 12.00 noon & 5.30 pm to 8.00 pm. Though I thought less people visit the temple, there is always something newly added every year by infrastructure(by the way the priest drives an Ertiga and the counter lady drives Alto K10).4. Kozhikode Railway Station has good waiting room facility in P1 and P4 with running water etc.,. Even in peak winter the water was not cold to make bathing easy. Last edited by kvsneela : 17th January 2023 at 11:19 . Using satellite imagery, researchers in West Antarctica made a startling discovery: they found a new colony of emperor penguins consisting of approximately 1,000 adult birds living in about 500 breeding pairs with their young. Since only 66 known emperor penguin colonies are in the area, this discovery is deemed significant, Weather.com reports. In Time for Penguin Awareness Day A geographic information officer with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) made the recent discovery after noticing penguin guano (droppings) staining the ice in images from the European Space Agency's two Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites. Higher-resolution photographs of the Maxar WorldView-3 satellite in October 2022 confirmed the images. The ground-breaking discovery was made on Jan. 20, which the scientific community recognizes as Penguin Awareness Day. "This is an exciting discovery," said British Antarctic Survey researcher Dr. Peter Fretwell. "[But] like many of the recently discovered sites, this colony is small and in a region badly affected by recent sea ice loss." Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest penguins and are considered a threatened species. According to Animal Diversity, emperor penguins are the largest sea birds in the Antarctic, standing 101 to 132 cm tall. Their wingspan ranges from 76 to 89 cm. They breed only on packed sea ice, which is melting at an alarming rate due to climate change, putting them at risk of extinction. Scientists predict that 90% of emperor penguin colonies will be extinct by the end of the century. Research and Preservation Efforts Satellite technology is a critical tool in emperor penguin conservation efforts. Understanding and protecting the emperor penguin population requires detecting new colonies from space. Read Also: Japan Seeks to Explore if AI-powered Robotic Seals Can Relax Astronauts The British Antarctic Survey intends to monitor the colony using satellite imagery, providing information on the population's size and distribution. While the discovery of the new colony is wonderful news, it also serves as a reminder of the vulnerable situation that emperor penguins face due to climate change. The melting sea ice is decreasing the emperor penguin population, and conservation efforts are needed to ensure their survival. According to Mongabay, under the business-as-usual scenario, in which countries fail to halt climate change, penguin numbers will drop by 86 percent by 2100. However, if nations can limit emissions and global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, emperor penguin numbers will drop by about 31%, giving them a fighting chance of survival. The emperor penguin is a species that is unique to and symbolic of the Antarctic, and the fact that its population is on the decline indicates the impact of climate change on the region. The finding of a new colony highlights how important it is to maintain research and conservation efforts to protect the delicate ecosystem of the Antarctic, as well as the birds that live there. It is also worth noting that the discovery of this new colony is not necessarily indicative of an expanding population but instead of a new area where they have been able to establish themselves. The colony can also be viewed as a sign of the species' adaptation and resilience, allowing them to survive in different areas as their original habitats become inhospitable. Stay posted here at Tech Times. Related Article: New Place on Earth? Melting Ice Caps Due to Global Warming Unveil Antarctica's Mystic Hidden Island 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In its earnings report on Friday, Jan. 20, Netflix revealed that it intends to implement new regulations regarding the paid sharing of passwords "more broadly" towards the end of the first quarter of 2023. Latest Deets According to The Verge, Netflix acknowledges this is a shift for customers who use their accounts for more than just their family. It says, "While our terms of use limit [the] use of Netflix to a household, we recognize this is a change for members who share their account more broadly." Therefore, members in several countries will soon be able to pay extra if they wish to share Netflix with non-household members. It was also revealed that co-CEO Ted Sarandos and former chief operating officer Greg Peters will take over for retiring CEO Reed Hastings. Hastings has been Netflix's head for the last 25 years. He will not be departing the firm entirely but rather transitioning into the post of executive chair. Netflix anticipates a "cancel" response in each market once password sharing is introduced. Still, the long-term benefits of customers paying for additional accounts would result in better overall income. Without specifying a price or effective date, "later in Q1'23" might refer to any period after April. Related Story: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Retires, to Assume Executive Chairman Position-Who Will Replace Him? New Password-sharing Guidelines For months, all signs pointed to this inevitable conclusion. In October 2022, the streaming service giant unveiled a feature that made it simple for customers to transfer their profiles to another household member. Netflix has also released a new feature that allows you to remotely control the devices connected to your account and lock out any unwelcome guests, such as friends or family members who have been watching without permission. As part of its ongoing efforts to reduce password sharing, Netflix in South America has started requiring customers to pay for a second sub-account if the service determines that an account is being used by someone who does not live in the primary residence. This is happening in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. According to a Rest of World study from May 2022, subscribers in Peru said they had not been properly informed about the new rules and that enforcement levels differed across users. In a separate development, the service began allowing subscribers in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic to purchase secondary "homes" for usage by anybody who does not live in the subscriber's main household. Reassuring Investments As subscriber growth lags, Netflix is taking measures to appease investors. One of these measures is a crackdown on password sharing. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Wednesday, Bullet Train, and Harry & Meghan are just a few of the excellent new releases from the firm in recent months. In November 2022, an ad-supported tier was released. Despite Netflix's claims that it is pleased with the early results, data from subscriber analytics firm Antenna suggests that the company may be having trouble getting off the ground. Related Story: Netflix Defies Wall Street Estimates After Adding More than 7 Million Subscribers 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. T-Mobile announced a new massive security breach affecting millions of user data. (Photo : Photo credit should read JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images) A Deutsche Telekom T-Mobile logo hangs under pink umbrellas at the stand of the German telecommunications giant at the 2014 CeBIT computer technology trade fair on March 10, 2014 in Hanover, central Germany. The telecommunications giant confirmed the hack on Thursday, Jan. 19. The broadband service provider said it identified a "bad actor" obtaining data without authorization on Jan. 5. In its official SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filing, T-Mobile said that the hacker acquired sensitive information through a single API (Application Programming Interface). Now, should T-Mobile consumers worry about this massive security breach? T-Mobile Security Breach According to Gizmodo's latest report, over 37 million user data has been compromised. (Photo : Photo by Patrick Lux/Getty Images) Participant hold their laptops in front of an illuminated wall at the annual Chaos Computer Club (CCC) computer hackers' congress, called 29C3, on December 28, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. The 29th Chaos Communication Congress (29C3) attracts hundreds of participants worldwide annually to engage in workshops and lectures discussing the role of technology in society and its future. Also Read: About 6% of Internet-Facing Sophos Firewalls Are Exposed to Critical Exploit, Expert Warns The security breach affects both postpaid and pre-aid customer accounts. Based on the SEC report of T-Mobile, the hack has been going on for over a month. The internet service provider confirmed that the data affected was dated around November 25, 2022. "We currently believe that the bad actor first retrieved data through the impacted API starting on or around November 25, 2022," said T-Mobile. Should T-Mobile Users Worry? T-Mobile said the security breach seems to be fully contained as of writing. But, to ensure the safety of its users' information safety, the telecommunications firm said it would continue investigating the hack. T-Mobile added that they found no evidence that the hacker compromised their systems or networks. When it comes to the affected data, the broadband service provider said that credit cards, social security numbers, and other sensitive financial details were not part of the breach. However, the hacker was able to access billing addresses, emails, contact numbers, names, birth dates, and phone lines. T-Mobile is no longer new when it comes to security hacks. In 2021, the ISP commenced a multi-year investment, working with leading external cybersecurity experts to enhance their systems' security capabilities. This shows that the company is trying to protect your personal data. Aside from T-Mobile, other tech firms are also facing massive security breaches. Recently, over 200 million Twitter users were affected by a massive hack. A massive PayPal credential-stuffing hack was also confirmed, affecting over 5,000 accounts. For more news updates about security breaches and other cybercrimes, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Google Fears Unlicensed Apps Will Emerge and Compromise Security Following Indian Antitrust Verdict 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Award-winning playwriter, performance artist, director, and producer Virginia Grise has teamed up with producer and conceptual embroidery artist Maricella Infante to create "A Todo Dar Productions." A todo dar means to give everything, all in. Creating at the generative, risky, and thrilling intersections of art and politics, emphasizing issues of identity, power, and community struggles, A Todo Dar "stages public interventions and builds convivial spaces for and with community to study, think, imagine, create and dream together beyond black boxes, border walls, prisons, and cages." Based in Austin, Texas, while producing and performing from Los Angeles and Mexico to Cuba to Rwanda, A Todo Dar has "produced theatre in a women's prison, under the freeway, in cargo boxes, lesbian bars, public plazas and virtually. Currently, we are working on a concept album with Martha Gonzalez [MacAthur Foundation Fellow] from the Grammy Award-winning band Quetzal, a touring version of Your Healing is Killing Me directed by Kendra Ware, a Toolbox for Self-Defense with Adela C. Licona and the Art of Change Agency and talleres [workshops] for dreamingcentering autonomy, abolition, and self-determination as art and life practice." Grise is the author of Your Healing is Killing Me, blu, and with Irma Mayorga, The Panza Monologues, and is a recipient of the Yale Drama Award, Whiting Writers' Award, the Princess Grace Award in Theatre Directing, and the Jerome Fellowship from the Playwrights Center. Infante is the organized and brilliantly imaginative production manager for theater in prison, under freeways, in public plazas, and in other community spaces. Check out Infante's embroidery exhibition Thread in Motion, part of a group showing of works created through AAA3A workshops. General Motors Co. and LG Energy Solution have canceled their battery joint venture partnership to build a fourth plant in the United States. This comes after tension between the two companies started with timeline indifferences. (Photo : JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images) Head of Advanced Automotive Battery Division (EVP)-LG Energy Solution, David(Dong-Myung) Kim (R) speaks at an event where General Motors announced an investment of more than $7 billion in four Michigan manufacturing sites on January 25, 2022 in Lansing, Michigan. - General Motors will create 4,000 new jobs and retaining 1,000, and significantly increasing battery cell and electric truck manufacturing capacity. Canceling Joint-Venture Plans A battery-cell factory in the United States that had been in the works for months has been shelved indefinitely. Electrek reported that this was supposed to be a joint venture between two companies, LG Energy Solution and General Motors Inc. This made GM look for other potential partners in the industry. The company is currently discussing plans with at least one battery supplier to proceed with this venture, but specifics were not discussed. "We've been very clear that our plan includes investing in a fourth U.S. cell plant," GM said. The company is still planning to build its fourth battery plants to have enough supply and production to build 400,000 electric vehicles in North America by 2024 and 1 million in 2025. The Ultrium Plant in Tennessee will open this year, while another plant in Michigan is scheduled to start production next year. Disagreements In a report from Wall Street Journal, the talks between GM and LG ended without an agreement to move forward, which could have been the fourth battery to be developed in the United States. The battery maker did not commit to the timeline presented by the company. Aside from this, a couple of incidents have tested the partnership of the two companies, including the recall of all built 143,000 Chevrolet Bolt EVs due to battery fires that made the partner pick up most of the cost. Both companies also have different views on managing a union organizing drive in Ultrium Cells LLC, located in Lordstown, Ohio. LG Energy Executives in Korea were also hesitant to commit to the project by just looking at the rapid pace of the company's recent investments in the United States. One of their deciding factors is the uncertainty in the global economy. While the battery plant is halted indefinitely, the two companies will continue their joint venture plant and the two planned facilities in Tennessee and Michigan. Bloomberg reported that all of these joint ventures represent a total investment of more than $6.5 billion. The partnership of GM and LG is one of the first several car-company joint ventures with battery makers aiming to secure enough supplies to support the target of the car industry in dominating the market with EVs. Also Read: GM, LG to Build 3 EV Factories in the US from Energy's $2.5B Loan-What Locations? By 2025, the Ultium Battery plant will be used for 30 different electric vehicles, with Hummer pickup and Cadillac Lyriq being the first two in the lineup. GM also plans to build the electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup, Blazer, and Equinox before the year ends. All of the mentioned vehicles will get battery cells from the Lordstwon plant. Related Article: GM Mulls Release of Compact and Futuristic Electric Pickup 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Antarctica is not the ideal place to be due to its extreme temperature and harsh surroundings. However, it is among the top locations in the world for meteorite hunting. This is partially due to Antarctica's desert environment, which limits how much weathering the meteorites undergo through. But more importantly, the environment is perfect for finding meteorites since the snowy plains make the black space rocks stand out sharply. This was recently proven by researchers from around the world who returned from the icy region with five new meteorites, including a massive one that weighs 16.7 pounds (7.6 kg). Rare and Exciting Meteorite According to scientist Maria Valdes of the Field Museum and the University of Chicago, only a hundred or so of the 45,000 meteorites collected from Antarctica over the previous century are this massive or larger. "Size doesn't necessarily matter when it comes to meteorites, and even tiny micrometeorites can be incredibly scientifically valuable," Valdes said in a press release statement. "But of course, finding a big meteorite like this one is rare, and really exciting." Vinciane Debaille of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (FNRS-ULB) served as the mission's commander, while Valdes was one of four scientists on the crew. Ryoga Maeda and Maria Schonbachler, the ETH Zurich, completed the research team. The scientists were the first to investigate previously untapped meteorite sites that Veronica Tollenaar, a ULB glaciology thesis student, had identified using satellite photography. Read also: Lyrids Meteor Shower Is Coming, Here's How to Watch It and Take Photos Using Camera or Smartphone Braving Antarctica Despite traveling in late December during Antarctica's summer, the temperature stayed around 14 F (-10 C). Although Valdes claims that on some days of their expedition, it was colder in Chicago than in Antarctica, the experience of traveling by snowmobile, hiking over ice fields, and then spending the night in a tent made the Antarctic climate seem more severe. The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences will examine the five meteorites the team retrieved. The sediment that may have contained minute micrometeorites was distributed among the researchers for investigation at their respective universities. Valdes claims that she is curious to see what the investigations of the meteorites reveal because studying meteorites aids in helping us better understand our position in the universe. She adds that a bigger sample size of a meteorite will help scientists better understand the solar system. Related Article: Scientists Found Evidence of Early Human Settlements Destroyed by Cosmic Impact 10,000 Years Ago 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A Buffalo man who admitted kidnapping a woman at gunpoint from a downtown parking lot in 2021 was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office. On Aug. 11, 2021, Christopher L. Taylor, 33, forced the woman into his vehicle, blindfolded her and then drove to an unknown residence. Then he drove to two banks in Buffalo, forcing her to try to withdraw money from her account using ATMs. When the ATMs declined the transactions, Taylor drove to Wick Street in the Genesee-Moselle neighborhood, where he let her leave. Taylor stole the woman's cellphone and bank card before ditching her purse into a garbage tote. The victim ran toward Broadway where she found an off-duty Erie County sheriffs deputy and reported the crime. Taylor pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree kidnapping on Sept. 16, 2022. District Attorney John Flynn commended detectives Erin McCarthy and Molly Sanford of the Buffalo Police Department, as well as the Erie County Sheriffs Office, for their investigation. "Inspired by the human brain": the specialist spoke about promising areas of application of neural networks "Inhuman cruelty": the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation publishes archival documents on the destruction of people in Nazi concentration camps The restaurant that nobody should miss in Madrid, according to the 'New York Times' 80 euros for eating naked a vegan menu with strangers, the latest in exclusive dinners that arrives in Spain "A person can withstand a lot": cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky - about the modern status of the profession and preparation for flights The FBI launches an alert about 'hacking by load' at mobile charging points at airports, hotels or shopping centers Las Margaritas is called 'food house', but it is much more "Thousands of corpses discovered": FSB published documents about Nazi atrocities in the prisoner of war camp near Stalingrad The Future of Online Casinos and the Technologies That Will Shape It "A deliberate and premeditated act": in Angers, an investigation opened after the ransacking of a church "Can cause very serious complications": doctors - about the increase in the incidence of measles in Russia What is true in the natural Botox used by Kate Middleton, Michelle Obama and Queen Letizia, according to foreign press One hundred years without Sorolla: on the trail of the master of light in Valencia Foreign investors are optimistic about the business opportunities of China's consumption recovery and look forward to winning a "big order" at the sugar and wine fair-China News Network video Cannes Film Festival: who is the Franco-Senegalese Ramata-Toulaye Sy, in the running for the Palme d'Or? A small and remote galaxy reveals what the early universe was like thanks to James Webb Trump is back. Who faces the "political monster"? And who wins the game of domination in America? Seven years after the Kumamoto earthquake, seismic activity continues to increase around the active fault Kylian Mbappe reiterates his wish to continue at PSG and "dreams" of participating in the Paris 2024 Olympics Tennis: the WTA announces the reinstatement of Chinese tournaments, all withdrawn since the Peng Shuai case Zealous Horse: Yan Nepomniachtchi lost to Ding Liren in the fourth game of the match for the world chess crown Cross playoffs, salary cap and Lada's return: what was discussed at the KHL board of directors Europa Conference League: Nice hangs Basel (2-2) in the quarter-finals first leg and will have its fate in its hands Explosion of 3 times without fees: split payment has increased by 20% in one year The Government launches a decaffeinated pilot for the four-day day with a fifth of the money promised Escriva defends in Washington the withdrawal of tax benefits to Ferrovial: "No one can be surprised by that" Stock price rises slightly, and buy orders gather for stocks of companies that are performing well Three major convenience store companies Domestic business increases sales and profits Factors such as relaxation of restrictions on movement Spain revalidates its position as the country with the highest unemployment in the OECD and the second with the highest youth unemployment Rafael del Pino rules out the sanction of the Treasury and adds a majority in favor of taking the headquarters of Ferrovial to the Netherlands Calvino "respects" the result of the Ferrovial meeting, but Belarra demands "forcefulness" against the company The Government admits the abuse of the discontinuous fixed in Education and announces an inspection "without consideration" Corriere della Sera: The Italian Ministry of Justice has launched an investigation into judges after Uss's escape Nuland promised that the United States will continue to transfer money confiscated from Russia to Ukraine Qatari Prime Minister: Supporting Palestine is our top priority and our position on the suspension of Syria's membership in the Arab League is clear Podemos bursts the pact of the left in the style of Sumar in the historical fiefdom of Rivas Former Pentagon adviser McGregor: Ukraine may disappear as a state by the end of the year Where and when to see the Holy Week processions in Madrid Alessandro Lequio breaks his silence: "It makes me sad that my son is once again the protagonist of today" Political scientist Dudchak on Hersh's statement about Zelensky: there are probably a lot of such stories Mass poisoning on MasterChef 11: "We're sorry. It is an absolutely exceptional case in these 11 years" Naoko, Emma Nogueiro and the other women in Sanchez Drago's life (always younger and with short hair) The sexist murder of an influencer shakes the Dominican Republic: her ex shoots her in the head three days after trying RT: the total number of Ukrainian forces in Artemovsk may be just over 6 thousand people Collapsed building in Marseille: the last two bodies found, bringing the death toll to eight "Pocket the funds allocated by the United States": Hersh announced the misappropriation of at least $ 400 million by Zelensky and his entourage The pope says women are "generous" although there is some "neurotic" Arrived in the DRC, Swiss President Alain Berset will visit the field to the east "A deliberate and premeditated act": in Angers, an investigation opened after the ransacking of a church Holger Rune punches the referee straight on the arm: "I got to talk to her" The Future of Online Casinos and the Technologies That Will Shape It Communities 2019 - Privacy The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them. The investigation began more than three months ago with the seizure of 2 kilos of cocaine. A second bust followed this time involving 6 kilos. On Wednesday night, the Erie County Sheriff's Office SWAT team descended upon an Airbnb rental house on the edge of downtown and made what law enforcement officials say may be one of the largest drug seizures in recent Buffalo history. And they suspect the Sinoloa drug cartel in Mexico may be involved. Inside the garage of the Pine Street house, Timothy C. Tucker, 48, of Inglewood, Calif., and Loany G. Gato Aronategui, 19, of Henderson, Nev., were dismantling a Ford Explorer that Gato Aronategui and another woman, Chastity Y. Banks, 23, of Palmdale, Calif., had just driven across the country, according to authorities. They were allegedly trying to retrieve plastic-wrapped bricks of cocaine from hidden compartments in the vehicle, authorities said. Authorities say they found 14 kilos of cocaine in the raid. Combined with the earlier seizures, the 22 kilos nearly 50 pounds of cocaine would have fetched an estimated street value of over $2 million. All three suspects were arraigned Thursday morning in Buffalo City Court, each charged with first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. City Court Judge Kevin Keane ordered the trio to be held without bail. The judge assigned attorneys to represent them. On Friday, with the bricks of cocaine seized in the raid piled on a table in front of them, officials with the Sheriff's Office, Buffalo police and the FBI discussed the arrests. Undersheriff William Cooley said that the investigation points to the cocaine originating in Mexico. "This drug pipeline that they interrupted is part of a transnational criminal organization also known as the Sinoloa drug cartel," Cooley said. "This is evidence that the problems of the southern border have reached Erie County." He would not comment on whether there is any connection to another California-to-Buffalo drug ring with ties to the deadly El Chapo cartel in Mexico and a former Mexican mayor with a history of drug trafficking. In that case, the drugs were stored in insulated containers labeled "sea cucumbers." He pointed out that in recent years drug dealers locally and across the country have been cutting cocaine with other products, including fentanyl. "What you see right here is a killer," Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said pointing to the bricks of cocaine. "It is a killer especially when it is mixed with fentanyl." Investigators said they cannot yet divulge all of the details in the case. But they talked about how Wednesday's raid went down. Investigators say they believe the two young women drove the Ford Explorer from California to Buffalo while Tucker flew to the Buffalo airport, with a stop in Detroit. Sheriff's personnel observed Tucker leaving the airport in a car and traveling into Buffalo at about 5 p.m. Wednesday. By that time, other investigators were watching the two women who were at a suburban hotel. At about 6:30, they were allegedly seen leaving the hotel and heading for the Airbnb on Pine Street. The raid at the Airbnb took place at 7:30 p.m. Investigators found 13 kilo bricks of cocaine in secret compartments within the Ford Explorer. They also allegedly found one more kilo in a bucket in the garage. They were not armed. Tucker and Gato Aronategui were taken into custody at the garage. Deputies arrested Banks following a traffic stop in Buffalo. The three suspects are being held in jail as they await their next court date on Jan. 24. "This investigation is far from over," said D.J. Granville, chief of the sheriff's narcotics unit. "We do expect some local arrests in the near future." The Mauser USA plant in Geismar. Less than two months after it avoided a state penalty over issues with its industrial property tax exemption, Mauser received a small penalty from the Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry for failing to submit a renewal application for a payroll tax break on time. The Azerbaijani Army held a number of events to raise morale and fighting spirit among the military personnel and to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the January 20 tragedy in accordance with a plan approved by the defense minister of Azerbaijan, Azernews reports, citing the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. The Alleys of Martyrs were visited by servicemen as part of the activities. Documentaries, videos, and book exhibitions about the January 20 tragedy were screened in military units, institutions, and organizations with the involvement of collectives from the Army Ideological and Cultural Center named after Hazi Aslanov and the Ganja Garrison Ideological and Cultural Center. The ceremonies emphasized the tragedy of January 20's historical significance and the effective strategy used by Heydar Aliyev, the country's leader, and Ilham Aliyev, the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to inform the international community of the events' reality. In the Azerbaijani Army, a moment of silence was observed in memory of fallen heroes. A Buffalo woman was arraigned before Buffalo City Court Judge Peter J. Savage III on Wednesday for possessing stolen merchandise that was allegedly looted from a Bailey Avenue store during last month's blizzard, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said that on Jan. 7, 32-year-old Shamika A. Dean was found in possession of sneakers, fitted hats and shorts, all allegedly stolen from a store in the 2800 block of Bailey Avenue, which was looted on Dec. 25. The items are valued at more than $1,000, according to the District Attorney's Office. Dean, who was released on her own recognizance, is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday for a felony hearing. She faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison if convicted of the charge. Twelve people have been arraigned on various charges related to lootings during the blizzard. District Attorney John J. Flynn Jr. commended the Buffalo Police Department Anti-Looting Task Force for its investigation. Lara Nicholson writes for The Advocate as a Report for America Corps Member. Email her at lnicholson@theadvocate.com or follow her on Twitter @LaraNicholson_. To learn more about Report for America and to support our journalism, please click here. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size If the referendum to establish a First Nations Voice to Parliament succeeds, it will be the fourth attempt in 50 years to establish a representative Aboriginal body to advise the federal government. First, there was Gough Whitlams National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (NACC) from 1973 to 1977. Next was Malcolm Frasers National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) from 1977 to 1985. Both had a purely advisory role. Then came Bob Hawkes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), which survived from 1990 to 2005 and operated like a mini-government, with elected Indigenous officials and a bureaucracy that also had responsibility for delivering programs and funding in community. Linda Burney, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, says there are key differences this time. The Voice will be better than past representative organisations. We have been very clear that the Voice will not have a program delivery function, and by updating the Constitution to include an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice we will ensure that the Voice cannot be abolished at a whim by future governments. Then prime minister Malcolm Fraser in 1978 with Indigenous leaders at the National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) inaugural meeting in Canberra. Credit:Fairfax All three predecessors lived and died at the discretion of the government of the day. Labor set up the NACC, the Coalition abolished it. The Coalition set up the NAC, Labor abolished it. Labor set up ATSIC, the Coalition abolished it. Advertisement There are two schools of thought about why. One argument is that the predecessors to the Voice were brought down by governance issues and lack of representativeness. The counter-argument is that they did not fail but were rather abolished because of ideological opposition or political expediency. Harry Brandy, 75, a Bundjalung man who worked in the NAC, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and ATSIC in the 1980s and 1990s, says the Voice to Parliament is not a new idea but the outcome would be different because it will be enshrined in the Constitution. These organisations that were set up, they could be wiped at any time with the stroke of a pen, which they were, Brandy says. The way I see it is that they were becoming too powerful and too strong for the government to control them. From federation in 1901 until the 1967 referendum, responsibility for Indigenous affairs rested solely with the states. The power of the federal government was limited to the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. In 1972, the newly elected Whitlam Labor government adopted the principle of self-determination for Aboriginal people. The following year it established the first Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the NACC, as a democratically elected body with the main role of advising the fledgling department and the relevant minister on issues of concern to Indigenous people. Advertisement In 1977, after a review, the Fraser Coalition government replaced the NACC with the NAC. The main difference was the structure, but it remained democratically elected and fulfilled the same role as an advisory body. The NAC became a leading voice for self-determination, and in 1979 called for a treaty between the government and an Indigenous nation. Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser and Aboriginal leader Lowitja ODonoghue met to discuss reconciliation in 2000. Credit:Heath Missen The Fraser government also established a statutory authority run by 10 part-time Indigenous commissioners appointed by the government to manage some Indigenous programs functions later assumed by ATSIC. The Hawke Labor government abolished the NAC in 1985, reportedly because relations between the government and the committee members had frayed, and there was also some controversy about financial administration. The Hawke government then founded ATSIC in 1990, establishing it as the main body through which Indigenous people could be involved in government decisions affecting them. It also had a powerful role in overseeing grants programs. As the legislation was being debated, then-opposition leader John Howard described ATSIC as a monumental disservice to the Australian community and likened it to another parliament. Advertisement I take the opportunity of saying again that if the government wants to divide Australian against Australian, if it wants to create a black nation within the Australian nation, it should go ahead with its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission legislation, Howard said in 1989. The ATSIC legislation strikes at the heart of the unity of the Australian people. In the name of righting the wrongs done against Aboriginal people, the legislation adopts the misguided notion of believing that if one creates a parliament within the Australian community for Aboriginal people, one will solve and meet all of those problems. Then prime minister John Howard and then minister for immigration and Indigenous affairs Amanda Vanstone at a press conference at Parliament House to announce the planned abolition of ATSIC in 2004. Credit:Penny Bradfield Howard was elected prime minister in 1996. In the early 2000s, ATSIC came under investigation for allegations of corruption and embezzlement. The Aboriginal affairs minister at the time, Philip Ruddock, sought to increase accountability by giving oversight of ATSIC to a senior public servant through executive agency ATSIS (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services). A review of ATSIC in 2003 also recommended reforms that would give greater control of the organisation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at a regional level. But Ruddocks successor in the portfolio, Amanda Vanstone, decided to abolish ATSIC instead. This took effect in 2005, with the support of Labor under then-leader Mark Latham. Advertisement Vanstone declined to comment, but Ruddock shares his view that the experience with ATSIC holds some lessons for the Voice. All of us are very anxious to ensure that Indigenous voices are heard, that they need to have some ownership over programs that are intended to benefit their communities, but you need to ensure theyre done with probity, Ruddock tells The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. You need people of integrity and people with a track record and you need to be able to remedy your mistakes if you choose the wrong people. Geoff Scott, the former deputy chief executive of ATSIC and a member of the Uluru Dialogue, believes the decision to abolish the organisation was politically motivated. ATSIC was always going to come under the gun in the Howard era because, ideologically, he was opposed, Scott says. We dont want another spin on the merry-go-round where you have another go at the Voice, we work very hard developing and getting the positions up and aligning everything, and then for it to be abolished because of ideology, not any factual basis. Advertisement Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The states public school children will be the first in Australia to be banned from accessing the powerful artificial intelligence robot ChatGPT in the classroom after the NSW Department of Education put the controversial technology behind a firewall. But private school principals approached by The Sun-Herald will allow students to access the sophisticated tech when school begins in just over a weeks time saying teachers had a duty to prepare pupils for the future, could easily spot plagiarised writing and said the new technology would reduce teacher workload. ChatGPT has sent the education world into a spin since it was launched less than two months ago because of its powerful ability to compose convincing pieces of human-like writing in response to almost any prompt or specific instruction. ChatGPT has prompted universities to alter how they assess students, been used for plagiarised and banned in New York City schools. Credit:istock New York Citys department of education blocked access to it earlier this month on school networks because the tool did not help students build their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Australian universities last month updated their academic integrity policies and from this year will make students sit more pen and paper exams, so there are less opportunities to plagiarise work with ChatGPT which has already occurred at a handful of universities in the US. Megan Kelly, the NSW Department of Educations acting deputy secretary for learning improvement, said the ban in schools would be in place while a review was under way. Advertisement The Department of Education will be restricting student access to generative AI applications, including ChatGPT, on student devices or using their own device on the departments network, she said. This will take effect from the start of the new school year and will be in place while we review how to safely and appropriately use this emerging technology in the classroom. The department will also be providing further guidance to teachers on our robust assessment practices in place to ensure all students play by the rules. One of the central reasons for the ban by the department is the threat of exposing children to explicit and harmful content, while its terms and conditions say users must be over the age of 18. Sydney Catholic Schools chief executive Tony Farley said there would be no blanket directive to ban ChatGPT at the 149 schools in his diocese, while the Diocese of Parramatta also has not issued a ban. In Mosman, Queenwood principal Elizabeth Stone said teachers could spot plagiarised work and said ChatGPT was limited when it came to higher level critical analysis or evaluation. Banning it isnt our style, and not likely to be effective, she said. Queenwood principal Elizabeth Stone said teachers could find ChatGPT useful to save time. Credit:James Brickwood Advertisement ChatGPT does, however, have real potential to reduce teacher workload by quickly producing draft worksheets, quizzes and simpler tasks which establish the foundation of knowledge, she said. More efficiency here releases teachers to apply their expertise to the higher level tasks and thats a win for both students and teachers. Loading St Andrews Cathedral School head Dr Julie McGonigle said while the technology appeared to make cheating easier, she said a heavy weighting on final exams meant it was not a significant issue. Also, hand-in tasks are first crafted in the classroom and submitted in draft form before final submission, she said. If a final submission was quite different to the draft worked on in class, it would raise a red flag with the students teacher. Monte San Angelo principal Nicole Christensen said teachers would recognise immediately if a student had used artificial intelligence. We thought Google would change everything, it has been the opposite, it has made students more curious, she said. Advertisement Monte Sant Angelo Mercy College principal Nicole Christensen. Credit: Australian Council for Educational Research deputy chief executive Dr Catherine McClellan said moral panics about technological advances threatening education went back as far as education began. Every advance in learning technology, paper, slate, chalk, every piece of tech, has been called the death of learning, she said. So I dont think panicking and saying you cant touch that is the way to go it is how we use it so it is valuable for students. Is this a year 6 student, or ChatGPT? We collected sample questions from the Australian curriculum and answers written by real students. We then asked ChatGPT to answer the questions to the standard expected of a year 6 student. Dont be fooled by spelling and grammar mistakes, artificial intelligence can make those too, if asked ... Advertisement Police allege they found a teenage boy running with a 45-centimetre knife concealed in a sheath under his clothes after a mans body was found along a busy Brisbane road overnight. Police have since charged the 17-year-old with murder after the stabbed body of a man, 43, was found by a member of the public along Newmarket Road in Wilston about 1.50am, across the road from the train station. The Queensland Ambulance Service said paramedics performed first aid on the lifeless man, who had critical injuries, for about 10 minutes, but he was unable to be revived. Police said they found a 17-year-old boy running along Newmarket Road about an hour earlier, and intercepted him. The Andrews government has quietly shelved its Australia Day parade a move welcomed by the co-chair of the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria who described the event as an annual slap in the face. A flag raising ceremony will go ahead at Government House, as will a gun salute at the Shrine of Remembrance, but the parade down Swanston Street, in Melbournes CBD, will not return this year after two years of cancellations. The 2017 Australia Day Parade in Melbourne. Credit: Jesse Marlow Instead, the government will host an event in Federation Square to reflect, respect, celebrate on January 26. Attendance at official Australia Day events dropped dramatically from 72,000 in 2018 to 12,000 in 2019 and just 2000 in 2020, according to City of Melbourne figures. A man has been released from police custody after a woman was found dead in Melbournes outer-east on Saturday evening, and police are no longer treating the death as suspicious. The woman, who has yet to be formally identified, was found in a house on John Street in Lilydale at about 5.30pm on Saturday after police responded to a call for help. A man has been arrested after a woman was found dead in Lilydale on Saturday night. Credit: Louise Kennerley A 46-year-old man was arrested by police but later released following the results of a post-mortem. Police are not treating the death as suspicious. A report will be prepared for the coroner. As the drone hovered without navigation lights just past 2 a.m. in the backyard of a Lewiston home, the police were ready to pounce. Border surveillance technology pinpointed where they needed to be for the return flight of the drone that flew across the U.S.-Canada border to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., and then back. It was the early morning hours of Sept. 21 and the trafficking of illicit drugs across the border usually involving hidden packages in the cargo of commercial trucks was taking a different twist: Police discovered ecstasy with a street value of $110,000 attached to the drone. And they were there when it landed behind the $630,000 home where nobody seemed to live, according to court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo. A rope utility cord was tied around a package containing the ecstasy and attached to the bottom of the drone. The amount of ecstasy indicated the work of a narcotics trafficker not a casual user, authorities say. "Simple users in drugs and narcotics are not known to import the drugs themselves using highly sophisticated smuggling methods such as a drone," Timothy Carroll, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, said in an affidavit that sought a search warrant. "This behavior is consistent with individuals that are importing and re-selling a drug/narcotic for sale." U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to say how often or rare it is for drug traffickers to fly drones near or across the border in the Buffalo area. "We have been using technology such as unmanned aircraft systems to combat cross-border criminal activity for many years," said Mike Niezgoda, the agency's public affairs officer for the Buffalo field office. Citing the ongoing case, he referred other questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Buffalo, which declined to comment. Around 1:30 that early September morning, the Border Patrol discovered a drone launched in the Lewiston area near the Niagara River. The federal agency monitored the drone as it crossed the lower Niagara and landed at 1:38 a.m. near the On Seven Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. About 15 minutes later, the drone launched from the site near the winery. It entered U.S. airspace at 2:03 a.m., according to court filings. In a minute the drone returned to its initial launch location at the Lewiston home. Law enforcement tracked the drone using an electronic surveillance system that can recognize drone signatures, map flight paths and identify starting and stopping points via GPS technology, according to the court filing. At 2:05 a.m. the Border Patrol agents and New York State Park Police officers observed the drone hovering in the backyard of a home on Wolf Run Drive, spotting the package hanging from the drone. The drone landed near Edvin Yug Deng, who authorities identified as the drone pilot, and another person. When the agents and police officers entered the backyard and announced themselves, the two suspects ran into the home and law enforcement followed them "in hot pursuit," according to court records. Deng surrendered and was placed under arrest. But the other person eluded the police and could not be found in the house. Inside the house, the police saw other drones and noticed the house was outfitted with numerous exterior and interior webcams. So they secured the scene and did not reenter the residence until a search warrant could be obtained. When they got the warrant and searched the house later that day, authorities found six personal and commercial grade drones, controllers and other electronics. They also found on a kitchen counter three spools of paracord, a lightweight nylon rope, like that used on the drone containing the drugs. Shortly after arresting Deng, law enforcement received a call from a person requesting medical attention not far from the home, according to a court record. The person on the phone claimed to be short of breath. An ambulance was dispatched to the location near a home on Lower River Road, not quite half a mile from the Wolf Run Drive house. When officers arrived there, they encountered two people emerging from the woods: Jinxin Chen, who police said ran from them at the Wolf Run Drive residence when the drone landed, and Yong Chen, who police first encountered at the Lower River Road location. Agents who later reviewed a video hard drive seized from the home said it showed Jinxin Chen and Yong Chen on the front porch appearing to look up and down the street at 1:02 a.m., about 25 minutes before the drone launch from the Lewiston home, with Jinxin Chen holding what appears to be a drone controller. They then walked off the porch and went out of view of the surveillance camera. The next time they appeared on surveillance footage came at 2:07 a.m., when both ran out of the front door of the home when police entered the backyard. Yong Chen told police he was staying at the Wolf Run Drive house for a few days while on vacation. He said he was from Long Island and worked at a nail salon on Long Island called Y & L Beauty Nail Inc. Yong Chen said he knew the other two, saying they were from California. They met playing online games, he said, and he had seen and spoken to them via webcam, according to court records. Yong Chen told agents the other two had arrived in Lewiston two days before him and that he gave them the security code to the Wolf Run Drive home so they could get inside. Yong Chen told the agents he believed the drone had arrived at the home before he arrived and that it was used to play some sort of online game. Neighbors told law enforcement that the home was rarely occupied and that people would arrive in expensive cars about once a month and stay for a few days. The home rarely had interior lights on and the grass grew to an unmanageable length, the neighbors said, according to court records. One neighbor saw a few people arrive at the home a few days before the police showed up on Sept. 21. When law enforcement searched the home, they noted little to no furniture with exception of a sectional couch and mattresses on the bedroom floors but few other items and no clothing. There was no home decor such as artwork or photographs within the residence. There were no food, supplies or any household items which would establish anyone lived in the home as an everyday residence. Authorities said the home last sold on April 21 for $630,000 to Y & L Beauty Nail Inc., which took out a mortgage loan for $425,250. While the handwriting on the transaction paperwork is not clear, the signature appears to be from the nail salon's owner, who is also Yong Chen's sister, according the court paperwork. The U.S. Attorney's Office has begun a civil action seeking to seize the home, saying it was used to facilitate the commission of a felony crime. Deng has been charged with unlawfully importing a controlled substance into the United States and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. He was released from custody and placed on home detention with electronic monitoring. Attorney Kevin E. Morgan, who's representing Deng, declined to discuss the case other than to say "my client has pled not guilty and maintains his innocence." Authorities have not charged Jinxin Chen or Yong Chen. Important step Sharing their voices provides perspective on the challenges that we face in improving the lot of our Indigenous brothers and sisters. The Voice is an important step, but it is only a step. Lets look for reasons to support it, instead of listening too much to those who push against it. Voice details needed Given that some Indigenous Australians are calling for more information about the Voice to parliament (Sharing their voices, 21/1), it is more difficult to argue that such details are unnecessary and will be determined by parliament after the referendum is passed. It is becoming clear that many Australians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, are not prepared to simply vote for a broad principle. Many probably dont trust politicians to fill in the details later. For Indigenous Australians, that lack of trust is well justified. Reluctant as it may be to respond to the oppositions demands, it seems inevitable that the Albanese government will have to provide greater clarity about the Voice. Beyond comparison The article Can we recognise ourselves? Just a year ago we persecuted Djokovic (15/1) is derelict in the absence of another important truth. Novak Djokovic was only in detention for nine days in the Park Hotel, where many people rightly seeking asylum have/had been incarcerated for nine years either on Manus Island or other detention centres. Djokovics situation at that time in no way could ever be compared to the plight of those incarcerated. We must recognise the brutality/criminality of our treatment of refugees: many still languishing in our communities with uncertain futures. We will always carry this shame while Novak Djokovic has the freedom to play tennis. Judith Morrison, Nunawading Sound policy It was very reassuring to hear the Qantas spokesman state that when there are engine problems during flights the policy is to always turn around rather than keep on going. John Hennessy, Montmorency Library lament The loss of inter-library loans (21/1) will be greatly felt in my house. With a young family of avid readers in a rural area, we rely on the service for our children to access books that arent available in smaller rural libraries. With no book stores in the area, it has been the library that has helped my children to read so many series of novels that we simply couldnt access or afford to buy. I do hope it is soon restored or I will have some very frustrated readers in my house. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Phil Muscat constantly feels like his hand has been slammed in a door. It is a kind of excruciating pain that shoots up through his fingertips, radiates down the right side of his body, and leaves him unable to walk up flights of stairs without clutching onto handrails. Phil Muscat has been waiting for a discectomy, a procedure to remove a degenerative disc in his neck, for two years. Credit:Justin McManus Im a bit of a tough nut who can handle a lot of pain, but sometimes you just break down, Muscat said. You cant sleep. Its just pain all day, every day. For two years, the 57-year-old has been living in daily agony, while he waits for a discectomy, a procedure to remove a degenerative disc in his neck. He is one of thousands of Victorians who have been left languishing for years on the states record-long elective surgery waitlist. In a significant pre-election health pitch, the Victorian government promised elective surgery would be cranked up to 125 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, with an extra 40,000 operations to be undertaken this year, building up to 240,000 every year from 2024. But serious doubts are being cast over the ability of the $1.5 billion plan to clear the massive backlog. Advertisement Australian Medical Association Victorian vice president Dr Jill Tomlinson said she is yet to see any evidence the state will be able to perform the additional 40,000 surgeries it promised this year. It is going to take years to get on top of this, she said. While the investment is extremely welcome, our biggest, biggest issue continues to be workforce. I am not convinced that the new facilities announced will be sufficient. Dr Jill Tomlinson, Australian Medical Association Victorian vice president, cant see how 40,000 extra elective surgeries can be completed in the state this year. Credit:Wayne Taylor Leading Victorian orthopaedic surgeon Associate Professor John Cunningham said public patients on his list for spinal surgery were facing delays of more than two years and wait times continued to climb. My public elective surgery waiting list is catastrophic, Cunningham said. Thats a fair and realistic adjective to use for it. Tomlinson said severe shortages of nurses, doctors, surgeons, physiotherapists and even clerical staff were plaguing hospitals, leading to ongoing delays of essential surgery, such as joint replacements and hernia repairs. Victoria has almost 135,000 patients on the elective surgery waitlist, close to 60,000 more people than the estimated backlog of 77,845 in New South Wales, according to a new analysis by the Australian Medical Association. Advertisement The analysis indicated Victoria makes up 44 per cent of the countrys entire elective surgery backlog, the legacy of 150 days of restrictions on surgery during lockdowns and the battering of hospitals amid continual coronavirus waves. Victorias official surgical waitlist stands at 84,955. The AMA said their analysis included the backlog of people who have not yet been added to the official waitlist as well as those with debilitating and painful chronic conditions who have been waiting more than three years to see a specialist. Cunningham, who treats both public and private spinal surgery patients, said all major metropolitan hospitals in Melbourne were balancing soaring public surgical waitlists, alongside increasing numbers of trauma patients, who require urgent surgery. Orthopaedic surgeon John Cunningham says his public elective surgery waiting list is catastrophic. I only get through one elective spinal surgery case a month at the moment and Im putting two or three patients on the list every fortnight, Cunningham said. I only get through one elective spinal surgery case a month at the moment and Im putting two or three patients on the list every fortnight. John Cunningham, surgeon Patrick Lo, chair of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Victoria, said the government investment had failed to filter through yet, and he was doubtful the state could realistically churn through an extra 40,000 surgeries this year. Advertisement Its not going to be a steep drop, it will be more of a slow burn, Lo said. However, the neurosurgeon warned investments into combating elective surgery waiting lists failed to address Australias struggling primary healthcare system, including GP shortages. Lo said an inability to afford a doctors appointment and delays in booking in with overrun GPs had meant extraordinary numbers of Victorians, who had delayed medical care during the pandemic, were now landing in emergency departments seriously ill and requiring urgent surgery or hospital beds. Lo said pre-pandemic surgical patients could spend more than a week in hospital following surgery, but health services were now completely overwhelmed and there were not enough beds. These old ways cannot be recovered, Lo said. Those days must be gone. As part of the $1.5 billion plan, Victorian hospitals will be operating at night and on weekends to try to catch up. Frankston Private Hospital is set to be effectively taken over by the state government, and run as a public surgery centre, in the hope it will handle up to 9000 public patients a year, from this year. The Bellbird Private Hospital in Blackburn will also be transformed into a public surgery centre. Advertisement You would not know it by looking at Muscat, a burly personal trainer, who has spent years weightlifting, but the right side of his body is slowly wasting away. One arm is bigger than the other, one pec muscle is bigger than the other, he said. Ive got a wasted calf, wasted quad and hamstring on my right side. All that muscle that takes years of building up just goes in weeks. It has actually robbed me of my personality a little bit. Phils chronic pain impacts every aspect of his life. Credit:Justin McManus An MRI recently detected that as well as a compressed nerve in his neck, Muscat also now has spinal stenosis, caused by the narrowing of the cervical spinal canal. The severe pain in his back is being intensified by one of his discs pushing onto his spinal cord, which he requires spinal surgery for. I went back to my GP and basically just broke down in his office, Muscat said. I told him I cant do this anymore and he went into bat for me. Hes ringing up the hospital saying this needs to be done now. Muscat said having his surgery booked in and then cancelled during the pandemic was akin to psychological torture. He is still waiting for an official date to be confirmed for both his surgeries. Advertisement Former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley has described Premier Mark McGowan as a liar while criticising his continued hard-line rhetoric around Banksia Hill Detention Centre detainees despite knowing most children there had significant mental health issues exacerbated by poor treatment. Stanley made the comments at a symposium in Perth on Friday afternoon alongside the McGowan governments biggest critics of its youth justice system including former Childrens Court judge Denis Reynolds, National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery director Megan Krakouer and Greens MLC Brad Pettit. Former Australian of the Year professor Fiona Stanley, Credit: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images It was also revealed at the forum that the federal government offered to run a Royal Commission into Banksia Hill if lawyers running a class action lawsuit with current and former detainees suspended the action. In the face of doubling down by the government over the past three months that it was running a tight ship in youth justice, the symposium focused heavily on how the government attempted to shift the blame for disturbances at Banksia Hill onto the detainees. Andrew Leynse ( David Gordon) Andrew Leynse, the longtime artistic director of off-Broadway theater company Primary Stages, has died after a mulitweek hospitalization with a staph infection that turned into sepsis, according to social media posts from family and friends. Leynse began his career as an intern at Playwrights Horizons while in high school, working on productions including the Ahrens and Flaherty musical Lucky Stiff. He graduated with a BFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon and began working with Casey Childs, the founder of Primary Stages, as an assistant director on several of the company's productions. Following that, he worked with producer Julian Schlossberg at Castle Hill Productions. Returning to Primary Stages the early 2000s, Leynse then took over as artistic director, a position he has held ever since. Over the last two decades, he shepherded works by playwrights including Terrence McNally, Horton Foote, A.R. Gurney, Theresa Rebeck, Billy Porter, David Ives, Charles Busch, Kate Hamill, Donald Margulies, Charlayne Woodard, Tina Howe, Sharon Washington, and more, to the stage, at venues including 59E59, the Duke on 42nd Street, and the Cherry Lane Theatre. Primary Stages productions that transferred to Broadway are In Transit, Bronx Bombers, and Dividing the Estate. This season's productions at Primary Stages included Clarence Coo's On that Day in Amsterdam, Jiehae Park's Peerless, and Karen Hartman's New Golden Age. It's forthcoming work is Judy Gold's Yes, I Can Say That!, beginning performances at 59E59 on March 4. Leynse was the former artistic director of the Colorado New Play Festival, and also taught at Carnegie Mellon and Syracuse University. He is survived by his wife, Mary Bacon and their son Abadi, as well as his brother, James Leysne, among others. Hometown International's sole asset was this deli in Paulsboro, New Jersey. Google Maps Thai police arrested a man over an alleged fraud involving a firm that owned a New Jersey deli. Peter Coker Jr. was detained on January 11 at a hotel in Phuket, the Bangkok Post reported. His father, Peter Coker Sr., and James Patten were arrested in September and have pleaded not guilty. Police in Thailand have arrested an American man linked to an alleged stock market conspiracy that left a deli in New Jersey worth about $100 million. Jirabhop Bhuridej, commissioner of Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), told the Bangkok Post that Peter Coker Jr was arrested on January 11 in a hotel room near Surin Beach on the island of Phuket. Coker Jr was on the run from authorities after he, his father Peter Coker Sr, and James Patten were allegedly involved in boosting the value of shares in Hometown International, which owned the deli, to give the company a valuation of as much as $100 million. Hometown's only asset was the Paulsboro sandwich shop, which had sales of just $35,000 over a two-year period. The Department of Justice said the owners had "conspired to enrich themselves through a scheme to manipulate securities prices" in its arrest warrant for the men. Coker Jr was the subject of arrest warrants issued by Interpol, per the Post, after being accused of stock market manipulation and fraud in September. Bhuridej told the newspaper that the suspects had listed the business on the OTC Marketplace at $1.25 a share before they hired stock traders to manipulate its share price. Hometown stock soared by more than 900%, and was delisted in 2021 for failing to comply with "over the counter" market rules. E-Waste, another company set up by the group, spiked by almost 20,000%. The Bangkok Post reported that the CIB had been working with the FBI to locate Coker Jr. Coker Sr. and Patten were arrested in North Carolina in September last year and have pleaded not guilty. Matt Reilly, a spokesman for the US Attorney's Office in New Jersey, confirmed in an email to CNBC on Wednesday that Coker Jr. had been arrested in Thailand. Story continues The Post reported that Coker Jr. admitted he was the man wanted on the Interpol register. The US Attorney's Office in New Jersey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours. Read the original article on Business Insider Batavia, NY (14020) Today Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 55F. SW winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 55F. SW winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph. A new year, a new surge? People across Asia are celebrating the Lunar New Year, and in China, many are traveling to see loved ones for the first time in years. But what about the virus? Officials are telling people not to report what they see back home in rural areas. But why is that, especially after Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinpings comments about seeing the light ahead in terms of the virus surge? At the same time, Chinas own top official has warned that this might not be the only virus surge China will face off against. Has COVID-19 peaked in China? Topics in this episode: 911 Call Led to Mans Own Arrest; 28 Firearms, Drugs Seized in San Diego ENCINITAS, Calif.A 25-year-old man called the police saying that he found several dead people in his Encinitas apartment. However, there were no dead people in the residence, but the police arrested two people and seized weapons and drugs because of the call, the San Diego County Sheriffs Department reported Jan. 20. Around 11 a.m. on Jan. 9, deputies responded to the apartment where Ryan Lander, 25, lived to conduct a welfare check. No dead people were found, but law enforcement found multiple illegal firearms in plain view, according to the department. A search warrant for Landers apartment was served, and detectives seized 28 firearms, four firearm suppressors, metal knuckles, body armor, meth, and drug paraphernalia, according to authorities. Several of the firearms were in violation of state and federal firearms laws, police reported. Lander was booked into the Vista Detention Facility for being under the influence of a narcotic while in possession of a firearm, felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of a firearms silencer, according to authorities. As the investigation progressed, detectives discovered the firearms were owned by Landers 32-year-old roommate, Luc Suter, according to the department. On Thursday, Suter was arrested and booked in the Vista Detention Facility for possession of meth, narcotics addict in possession of a firearm, possession of illegal firearms, possession of a firearm suppressor, and possession of a prohibited weapon. Anyone with information regarding this investigation is urged to call the Sheriffs Department at 858-565-5200. Alberta Premier Responds to Allegation That Staffer Contacted Prosecutors About Group Charged at Coutts Blockade Following a news report that said a staffer for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had emailed the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service in regard to the case of a group charged with firearms possession at the Coutts border blockade last winter, the premiers office issued a statement saying it is a serious allegation and will take appropriate action if it is proven true. CBC News reported on Jan. 19 that emails sent by Smiths staffer challenged the Crown prosecutors assessment of the case, in which 13 individuals were accused of possessing a weapon, while four were also accused of conspiracy to commit murder. CBC cited sources whose identities were kept anonymous for fear that they would lose their jobs. In a statement to CBC, the premier said she has not been in contact with Crown prosecutors and has no knowledge of anyone on her staff doing so. This is a serious allegation, the statement reads. If a staff member has been in touch with a Crown Prosecutor, appropriate action will be taken. Is it in the Public Interest? The statement came after Smith clarified previous comments she had made at different times to prosecutors on their approach to cases related to the protests against the federal COVID-19 vaccination mandates and other restrictions. Her comments were interpreted as interfering with the judicial system and caused an uproar from the opposition. In a December 2022 interview with Rebel News, the premier said that regarding the Coutts case, questions she can ask and have asked and continue to ask is: Is it in the public interest' and whether there would be a conviction. Ive put it to the prosecutors, and I have asked them to do a review of the [COVID-19] cases with those two things in mind and Im hopeful that well see a true turning of the page, Smith said. Speaking to reporters on Jan. 12 in Edmonton, the premier also said she had contacted Crown prosecutors, CBC reported. We do have an independent justice department and independent Crown prosecutors, and I have asked them to consider all charges under the lens of is it in the public interest to pursue?' she said. Comments Smith made on her radio show earlier this month were also questioned. The premier said she had urged Justice Minister Tyler Shandro and his deputy attorney general to consider whether the cases were in the public interest and whether there was a reasonable chance of conviction before proceeding, reported CTV News. On her radio show on Jan. 14, Smith said she may have used some imprecise language, but she was referring to the Justice Department in her Jan. 12 comments. The Justice Department issued a statement earlier this month supporting the premiers clarification. The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed that the premier has never spoken with any Crown prosecutors about any court/legal matters that they deal with. No further action is therefore required, said Justice Department spokesperson Jason Maloney. A spokesperson for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service also confirmed to Global News that neither the assistant deputy minister of the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service nor the Crown prosecutor involved in the Coutts files have any recollection of receiving any emails from the premiers office. Such communication would be exceptionally rare and as such, would stand out, said spokesperson Michelle Davio. However, without seeing the emails in question, no further comment can be provided. Questions From the Opposition Member of Albertas opposition NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi said at a press conference on Jan. 20 that the CBCs Jan. 19 report highlighted extremely serious allegations, reported Global News. These reports follow a series of reversals, contradictions, she said, adding that even if Smith was only speaking with Shandro and the deputy attorney general about plans for prosecutions related to last years protests, she believes it may still constitute political interference in the justice system. In a Jan. 20 Twitter statement, Pancholi reiterated her call for Shandro to launch an independent investigation into the issue. She previously endorsed fellow NDP MLA and justice critic Irfan Sabirs call for an independent investigation into whether Smith had interfered with the provincial justice system. Coutts Border Protest Apple Wins Appeal to Keep $308 Million US Patent Verdict at Bay The Apple Inc. logo at the entrance to the Apple store in Brussels on July 2, 2021. (Yves Herman/Reuters) A U.S. appeals court on Friday affirmed a decision to throw out a $308.5 million jury verdict against Apple Inc. for allegedly infringing a patent related to digital rights management. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., upheld an East Texas federal judges ruling that Personalized Media Communications LLCs patent was invalid because the company engaged in misconduct before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. PMC declined to comment on the decision. Representatives for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. PMC, a patent licensing company, first sued Apple for infringing several patents in 2015. An East Texas jury said in August 2021 that the FairPlay software used in Apples iTunes and App Store to decrypt movies, music and apps infringed one of the patents and awarded the company $308.5 million in damages. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap overturned the verdict four months later. He said PMCs patent was unenforceable because the company had used a deliberate strategy of delay in applying for the patent, representing a conscious and egregious misuse of the statutory patent system. Gilstrap said PMC had used an improper submarine strategy that some applicants employed before 1995 to delay patents from becoming public until a market developed for their invention. The Federal Circuit affirmed Gilstrap in a 21 ruling, finding that PMCs inequitable scheme to extend its patent rights had prejudiced Apple. By Blake Brittain Arizonas Death Penalty Halted by Gov. Hobbs and Attorney General Mayes Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs (R) looks on as Kris Mayes (L), Democratic candidate for Arizona Attorney General, speaks at a press conference calling for abortion rights outside the Evo A. DeConcini U.S. Courthouse in Tucson, Ariz., on Oct. 7, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.) announced a new executive order on Friday to establish a Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner to provide transparency around the states processes and protocols for executions. In a statement, Hobbs office said she signed an executive order establishing the commissioner as part of her First 100 Days initiative to build an Arizona for everyone, which outlines the first 100 actions she will take as governor. Hobbs office said the commissioner would be tasked with reviewing and providing transparency into the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR) lethal injection drug and gas chamber chemical procurement process, execution protocols, and staffing considerations, including training and experience. With the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry now under new leadership, its time to address the fact that this is a system that needs better oversight on numerous fronts, Hobbs said in a statement. Arizona has a history of mismanaged executions that have resulted in serious questions and concerns about ADCRRs execution protocols and lack of transparency. Im confident that under Director [Ryan] Thornell, ADCRR will take this executive action seriously. The appointment of the Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner is expected to improve the transparency and accountability of the ADCRRs execution process, and to provide recommendations for improving the overall safety of the process, according to Hobbs office. The governors office said that at the end of the review period, the commissioners report will be released, which would include recommendations on improving the transparency, accountability, and safety of the execution process. I welcome Governor Hobbs efforts to increase transparency and oversight into Arizonas execution process and protocols, said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. I look forward to the full report from the Commissioner and to ensuring that if executions are carried out, they are handled in a transparent and accountable manner in our state. AG Withdraws Prisoner Death Warrant On Friday, Mayess office filed a motion (pdf) in the Arizona Supreme Court to withdraw the only pending death warrant, effectively halting executions in the state. Mayes sought to withdraw the death warrant for prisoner Aaron Gunches, who initially filed to begin his own execution proceedings on Nov. 25, 2022, but later reversed his decision in a filing on Jan. 4, requesting his motion be withdrawn, according to Mayes. My predecessors administration sought a warrant of execution for Mr. Gunches after he initiated the proceedings himself. These circumstances have now changed, Mayes said in a statement. However, that is not the only reason I am now requesting the previous motion be withdrawn, she continued. A thorough review of Arizonas protocols and processes governing capital punishment is needed. Arizona wouldnt be alone in ordering such a review of execution practices, with Mayes office noting that similar reviews had been ordered by officials from both parties around the country, and at least one such review recently revealed numerous problems, including failures to follow execution protocols. If Arizona is going to execute individuals, it should have a system for doing so that is transparent, accountable, and faithful to our Constitution and the rule of law, Mayes continued. I look forward to working with the Governor, the newly established commissioner, and others to ensure the publics confidence in Arizonas capital punishment system. Bottles of the sedative midazolam at a hospital pharmacy in Oklahoma City on July 25, 2014. (AP Photo) Executions Paused Arizona halted executions for eight years after the July 2014 execution of Joseph Wood who was administered 15 doses of a two-drug mixture over a period of two hours, in a process that his legal representatives argued was botched. Arizonas protocol only calls for two doses. Wood was reported to have made repeated snorting sounds and gasped more than 600 times before his death. The state has had difficulties procuring execution drugs in recent years as U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies have refused to allow their products to be used in lethal injections. Former Gov. Doug Ducey and former state Attorney General Mark Brnovich resumed executions in 2022. The executions of three death row inmates were carried out in 2022 for Clarence Dixon, Frank Atwood, and Murray Hooper. In May 2022, Dixon was the first to be executed since 2014, for killing a college student in 1978. In June 2022, Atwood was executed for killing an 8-year-old girl in 1984. In November 2022, Hooper was executed for killing two people in 1980. Gunches, whose execution has effectively been halted, was given a death sentence for the 2002 killing of Ted Price, a former long-term partner of Gunches girlfriend. He kidnapped Price and shot him several times in a desert area near the Beeline Highway. In 2004, Gunches pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping and has consistently declined legal representation, mitigation efforts, and post-conviction proceedings. After Gunches requested his own execution in November 2022, Brnovich filed a response on Dec. 7, 2022, moving for the state Supreme Court to issue a warrant of execution. In her court filing, Mayes said the state wouldnt have moved for that death warrant if Gunches had not asked to be executed. Arizona has employed lethal injection as a means of execution since 1993, with multiple lengthy pauses in carrying out death sentences in the years since. Armed Man Fatally Shot After Police Chase in San Diego SAN DIEGOA 37-year-old man was fatally wounded at the end of a short vehicle pursuit with police officers in San Diego, authorities said Jan. 21. It was the second fatal shooting by San Diego police officers in four days. Officers conducting a routine traffic stop in the 1800 block of Logan Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. Friday contacted the driver, who suddenly sped away eastbound on Logan Avenue, said Lt. Chris Steffen of the San Diego County Sheriffs Department. The pursuit ended about two blocks later in the 2000 block of Logan Avenue, where the man exited the vehicle, allegedly armed with a handgun, and the shooting by police occurred, Steffen said. As the man fell to the ground the handgun dropped from his person. Officers ordered the man to move away from the handgun, but he did not comply, Steffen said. A police K-9 was used to pull the man away from the firearm. Paramedics rushed the man to a hospital, where he died from his injuries. The Sheriffs Homicide Unit responded and was investigating the shooting. No officers were injured, Steffen said. There is body-worn camera footage of the incident. The suspect was identified but his body was not immediately released pending family notification. 4 Days Prior On Jan. 17, authorities identified a murder suspect who was fatally shot by police when he allegedly reached for a gun during a confrontation outside his home near El Cajon. Frank Brower, 77, died at the scene of the shooting in the 800 block of La Cresta Boulevard in the unincorporated community of Crest, according to the sheriffs department. The events that led to the deadly gunfire began shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday, when the San Diego Police Department received a report of a violent dispute at a pharmacy in the 5500 block of Reservoir Drive, just east of San Diego State University. Officers arrived to find the business locked, police department Lt. Steve Shebloski said. After forcing entry, they found 66-year-old Mary Ellen Carter of Lakeside suffering from stab wounds to her upper body. Paramedics took her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Investigators soon identified Brower, a workplace colleague of Carters, as the suspected killer and determined that he had left the area in a dark-colored SUV. Police then went to his home on La Cresta Boulevard. They found Brower near his vehicle, which was parked behind his house. When contacted, the suspect failed to comply with instructions, prompting officers to [shoot him with] beanbag rounds, which had no effect, Steffen said. The suspect then reached for what appeared to be a shotgun from inside his vehicle. San Diego Police Department Officers Salvador Laurel-Torres and Robert Raynor opened fire with their service firearms, killing Brower. Aussie GPs Blast Out-of-Control Pharmacists A war of words has erupted between the peak bodies for general practitioners and community pharmacy owners, with one side accused of whipping up a media frenzy after they labelled the other out of control. The confrontation was sparked by reporting of a speech given by Pharmacy Guild president Professor Trent Twomey, who allegedly labelled GPs twits who allowed their sector to become commercialised. In his speech to students in Canberra, Twomey pushed for pharmacists to be given greater powers to prescribe medications. We do not support, at the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, being able to only prescribe if someone else is looking over my shoulder, Twomey said, reported the Australian Journal of Pharmacy. You dont see a plumber needing to look over the shoulder of an electrician before they put in your air conditioner. He went on to explore the benefits of pharmacists being able to prescribe, dispense, administer and review medications. The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr. Nicole Higgins, said the speech was nothing short of astonishing. The Pharmacy Guild is out of control, Higgins said in a statement. She said the speech should send a shiver down the spines of politicians everywhere. The language used, the brazen way he addresses very serious health care issues and the underlying arrogance informing this speech demonstrates that the Pharmacy Guild should be approached warily. Twomey discussed issues facing the entire health system, which he reportedly described as stuffed. In Queensland, pharmacists are allowed to refill and prescribe certain medications and similar pilots are being rolled out in Victoria and NSW, partly as a way to reduce pressure on GP clinics. Higgins said band-aid solutions such as extending prescribing powers would not fix the GP crisis. Part of the skill of general practice is knowing when not to prescribe, Higgins said. The Pharmacy Guild seems to think that everything can be fixed with a drug. Pharmacists just dont have the expertise and training to perform the function of prescribing medications, that is a job that should be left to medical practitioners. The Pharmacy Guild hit back, saying Twomey stood by the speech and would always speak out in the best interests of patients while promoting safe, evidence-based health care. It is disappointing, but unsurprising, that the (GP group) has repurposed Twomeys comments to whip up a media frenzy, a spokesperson said in a statement. Brett Kavanaugh Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images A new documentary about misconduct allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh premiered on Friday. The film was a last-minute addition to Sundance and was kept under wraps until Thursday. The filmmakers said they started getting new tips about Kavanaugh right after the film was announced. After a surprise announcement that a documentary focusing on sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh would premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, more tips started to roll in, according to the filmmakers. Programmers of the indie film fest, held annually in Park City, Utah, revealed Thursday that the film "Justice" from director Doug Liman would screen on Friday evening. The film centers on accusations initially made against Kavanaugh in 2018, when he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump. The film revealed additional details about accusations made against Kavanaugh. It covers incidents alleged by accusers including Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before Congress in 2018, and Deborah Ramirez, a former classmate of Kavanaugh's at Yale. The film, which Liman self-financed, also includes new details of allegations about a separate incident at Yale that involved a different woman who is not named and declined to be part of the film. Those allegations were provided to the FBI by another Yale alumnus, Max Stier, during its investigation of Kavanaugh there were more than 4,500 tips provided to the FBI, according to the film, with the most credible tips being passed on to the White House. The filmmakers acquired a recording of Stier sharing his recollection of the incident, which provides one of the documentary's most gripping segments. "That material like that was just shielded and sent to the White House and never pursued, for me that was the most shocking" discovery of the film, Liman said during a Q&A after the screening. Liman, who is best known for directing movies like "Swingers" and "The Bourne Identity," answered questions about the film alongside Amy Herdy, his coproducer who led the film's investigative team. Story continues "I thought the film was done but it looks like we're not going home," Liman said. "The team is staying on it." Asked what he originally hoped would result from the film further investigations or other impacts Liman said what happens after the film is "so beyond my control," adding, "We live in a climate where, no matter what we put in this movie, it is likely that the people that support the status quo are going to keep supporting it, and I sort of came to the answer for myself: Maybe the truth matters. It matters now, it'll matter in the future, and maybe that's it." For Herdy, that's not enough, she said. "I do hope that this triggers outrage, I do hope that this triggers action, I do hope that this triggers additional investigation with real subpoena powers." The filmmakers also said they kept the film a secret because they thought word getting out could jeopardize their work. Liman cited "the machinery that was put into place to prevent anyone from who would dare to speak up." If word had leaked out, he added, "There would've been some kind of injunction. This film wouldn't have been showing here." Herdy said that code names were even used for the subjects and that everyone who worked on the film or was interviewed by the filmmakers signed a non-disclosure agreement. The filmmakers interviewed about 20 people, including friends of Blasey Ford from her current circle and from her teen years, friends of Ramirez, journalists, and psychologists who described the features and impact of traumatic memories. Blasey Ford speaks with Liman briefly in the opening of the film and there are extensive, emotional interviews with Ramirez. Liman's interest in making his first documentary arose, he said, in 2018 during the Congressional hearings ahead of Kavanaugh's confirmation. He previously told the Hollywood Reporter that "the Supreme Court, which is sacred for all of us, holds special meaning for me." His father, Arthur L. Liman, was a prominent lawyer and activist, and his brother, Lewis, once clerked for the Supreme Court and is now a federal judge in the Southern District of New York. The film is seeking a distributor but, as Liman and Herdy noted Saturday, it may still be expanded as they continue to investigate the new tips they've received. Read the original article on Business Insider Biden Spending Weekend in Delaware but Not at Home Where Classified Documents Were Found U.S. President Joe Biden departs after attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Jan. 20, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) President Joe Biden is spending another weekend in his home state. Instead of staying at his Wilmington, Delaware home, where classified documents were discovered more than one week ago, he is choosing his Rehoboth Beach residence. During a White House press briefing on Jan. 20, a reporter asked, The president is going to his home in Rehoboth Beach today. Does that have anything to do with classified documents being found at Wilmington and nothing being found in the other home? Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded by saying, Im just going to continue to be prudent and consistent and respect the Department of Justice process. As it relates to his travel, as you know, he often travels to Delaware on the weekends. I just dont have anything else to share. Biden visited his Wilmington house on Jan. 13, a day after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur to investigate the discovery of classified documents from Bidens tenure as vice president in the houses garage and library and his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. President Joe Biden speaks as California Gov. Gavin Newsom looks on in Seacliff, Calif., on Jan. 19, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) On Jan. 19, Biden was touring California and assessing the damage caused by deadly storms that have hit the region in recent weeks. In a press conference, Biden said he has no regrets about opting not to inform the general public about the finding of the classified materials ahead of last Novembers midterm elections. You know, what quite frankly bugs me is that we have a serious problem here were talking about, Biden said in an exasperated tone. Were talking about whats going on. And the American people dont quite understand why you dont ask me questions about that. Biden added, Okay, look, as we found, we found a handful of documents were failed, were filed in the wrong place. We immediately turned them over to the archives of the Justice Department. He is fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly, he explained. I think youre going to find theres nothing there. I have no regrets, Biden said. Im following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. Thats exactly what were doing. The first batch of documents was found on Nov. 2 last year at the Penn Biden Center. A follow-up search resulted in the discovery of more materials on Dec. 20 in the garage of Bidens Wilmington residence. More documents were located in that homes library on Jan. 11 and Jan. 12. On Jan. 12, Biden told a television news reporter that the classified materials were stored in a locked garage with his Corvette. Im going to get the chance to speak on all of this, God willing, itll be soon, Biden said. But I said earlier this weekand, by the way, my Corvette is in a locked garageits not like its sitting out in the street, Biden responded. People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously, Biden added. I also said were cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Departments review. Marine One, carrying U.S. President Joe Biden, takes off from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Jan. 20, 2023. Biden is traveling to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the weekend. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Speech to Mayors On Jan. 20, Biden touted what he has done since taking office on the two-year anniversary of his inauguration. In a speech at the White House to a bipartisan group of mayors visiting Washington for an annual meeting, Biden highlighted an array of legislation passed during his term. Now, two years in, its clearer than ever that our plan is working, Biden said Were building the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not just the top down. Later in the day, he emerged from the White House at 5:40 p.m., posed for selfies, and shook hands with supporters as he drifted away from media members and boarded Marine One. He arrived in Rehoboth Beach and departed in a motorcade for his weekend respite around 6:45 p.m. Bill to Block Bidens Student Loan Forgiveness Back on the Table U.S. Rep.-elect Bob Good (R-Va.) delivers remarks in the House Chamber during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Jan. 5, 2023. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Republican efforts to block the Biden administrations relentless drive for student loan forgiveness are back on Congresss table. On Wednesday, Virginia Republican Congressman Bob Good reintroduced his bill entitled the Federal Student Loan Integrity Act. Under it, the U.S. Department of Education would be barred from using legislation known as the HEROES Act to extend the moratorium on the repayment of student loans originally set under the coronavirus emergency declaration. Student loan cancellation doesnt make the debt go awayrather, it shifts the costs from student loan borrowers to American taxpayers, said Good in a statement announcing the reintroduction of an anti-student loan forgiveness legislation. According to Good, President Joe Bidens current cancellation plan would cost taxpayers roughly $500 billion. The plan forgives up to $20,000 in student loan debt to taxpayers earning less than $125,000. The controversy was a divisive subject during midterm elections and has evolved into a constitutional issue with Bidens partial student loan forgiveness plan now under review in the Supreme Court, where two separate cases challenge its constitutionality and the Bidens administration authority to even implement such a plan. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments on the issue on Feb. 28, with a projected decision by June. President Joe Biden announces student loan relief in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Aug. 24, 2022. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images) Among the myriad of arguments made in the cases is one that suggests Bidens student loan debt forgiveness is discriminatory because it includes only federally-backed student loans and not private student loans. That complaint surfaced after a quiet modification in September by the Biden administration that nixed its one heralded loophole that allowed private student loan holders to become eligible for loan forgiveness by consolidating their student loans into one loan under the federally-run Direct Loan program. Student Loan Justice Revamped For obvious reasons, the issue has given birth to a movement of student loan debtors seeking freedom from their college debts. It has revamped the nearly two-decade-old group Student Loan Justice, which runs daily action alerts on issues along with social media pages, blogs, instructions to start a state chapter, and a website dedicated to the cause. It spearheaded a change.org petition calling for Biden to use his executive orders to cancel federal student loans. The group even has a live stream show on YouTube hosted by its founder Alan Collinge who authored the book The Student Loan Scam. On Jan. 17, the day before Good reintroduced his anti-loan forgiveness legislation, Collinge opened his Student Loan Justice Livestream show by playing several bars of a solemn Johnny Cash song on the piano. Theres no good reason for anyone with student loans to be suffering in silence, Collinge tells his audience. Im here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, youre not the only ones 85 percent of all student loan borrowers were never going to pay their students loans even before the pandemic, he says. Collinge goes on to say that this is not a bad borrower problem, this is a bad, catastrophically failed unconstitutional and predatory lending scam. In an attempt to draw conservative support, the group claims on its petition that more than half of all student loan borrowers identify as being independent or republican. It even goes on to say that Red states are being hurt significantly worse than Blue states. This is not a partisan issue, it states. So far, however, the issue remains just that, with Republicans like Good promising to use the GOPs newly-established House control to defeat Bidens student loan cancellation agenda. Student loan debtors hold a rally in front of the White House to celebrate President Joe Bidens intent to cancel student debt, which was later blocked by the Supreme Court on Aug. 24, 2022. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for We the 45m) The legal challenges have also wholly been brought by Republican-led statesArkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina and has the backing of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a nonprofit group that tracks federal government spending. The Democratic Partys push to drive student loan relief also carries potentially broader political party implications as well, especially in the Democrats growing push for globalism and immigration. According to a recent report by the Institute of International Education, U.S. colleges and universities saw an increase in admission applicants from foreign countries for the 2022-2023 school year. In a Jan. 12 article on its website, Nova Credit, which bills itself as a premier cross-border credit bureau for immigrants, posted detailed instructions on how international students can garner U.S. student loanswith emphasis on federally backed ones. Student Debt Relief for Government Workers As Bidens one-time student loan debt forgiveness initiative remains in constitutional limbo, his administration wasted no time reauthorizing a program that cancels all student debt for government workers. Called the Limited Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Waiver, it erases all student loan debt after 10 years of public service. While PSLF has been around for years, a waiver was added to it in 2021 that granted the workers credits for past student loan payments. The program expired on Oct. 31, but the Biden administration reauthorized it the following day on Nov. 1. According to a Department of Education press release, about $2.82 billion worth of student loan debt forgiveness is available under the PSLF. The World Economic Forum is currently holding its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where the worlds elites come together in order to mingle, plan out the future, and lay the groundwork for reducing the worlds carbon footprint. One of the main topics going to be discussed at this years World Economic Forum is the topic of ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance). And while a sympathetic interpretation of ESG is that it forces companies to be more inclusive, more diverse, and more environmentally friendlythere is another way to look at it, which is that its actually a way for the Davos individuals who believe in this ideology to force their agenda on other nations. Watch The Shadow State on Epoch TV https://ept.ms/3WNFynk Episode Resources: AMAC: https://ept.ms/3bzYr8f Epoch TV: https://ept.ms/3WNFynk Californians for Equal Rights Foundation to Release Rebuttal Responding to PTAs Myth Busters People hold up signs during a rally against critical race theory (CRT) being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER), a nonprofit group focusing on equal rights and merit, is planning to release a rebuttal against a document titled Myth Busters that was published by a parent-teacher association (PTA) group. The Palomar Council PTA JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) Committee published Myth Busters in December 2022. It lists 10 myths about various controversial topics in education, including critical race theory (CRT), sex education, parents involvement, and more. JEDI Committee chair Casey Doan said the document aims to clarify what JEDI is NOT by addressing some of the myths and misinformation we most commonly hear. CFER executive director Wenyuan Wu told The Epoch Times that Myth Busters is filled with lies and mistruths intended to smear and silence those dissenting to political correctness and ideological conformity, including CFER. The Myth Busters is troublesomely divisive by presenting politicized opinions as facts and by attacking parents and groups critical of their work as intolerant, Wu said. The first item in the Myth Busters list states that CRT is not being taught in our schools. The JEDI Committee is associated with the Poway Unified School District (PUSD), San Diego. The document states that those who suggest CRT is being taught in schools are waging a political war against the effort to teach students about systemic racism. The draft rebuttal document obtained by The Epoch Times argues that this is a disingenuous non-denial denial. The rebuttal states that CRT might not be taught as a legal theory or hypothesis, but major tenets of CRT are being applied in Ethnic Studies, History, Social Studies, English, and even Math! According to an empirical research project by CFER, which looked into the implementation of CRT-themed curricula in nearly 100 school districts in California, PUSD was rated 0, meaning all-encompassing promotion of DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] and CRT. Wu said the research found that in California school districts, tenets of CRT have been fused into various subject areas and have commanded significant funds, many of which come from local taxpayers. Myth Busters denied that JEDI is pushing a radical gender & sexuality agenda. The rebuttal states that JEDI is a strong vehicle for that. Fact #5 of the rebuttal refers to firsthand evidence from whistleblowers at the April 25, 2022 JEDI Committee meeting involving PUSD leadership and TransFamily Support Services. The rebuttal states that in that meeting, there was a discussion on planning for an upcoming LGBTQ+ event for elementary, middle and high school families and introducing gender literature to young students because ages 35 is often when children begin to recognize their gender and there is a rapid rise in trans/nonbinary identification in the last years. Doan told The Epoch Times that the meeting notes were private conversations and one cannot be certain of their authenticity. At no point did anyone [from the JEDI committee or TransFamily Support Services] say that we are trying to reach out to children about their gender, Doan said. In the seventh item of Myth Busters, parents who want to participate more in their childrens education are called pro-parent, a term the document defines as the new term for the anti-equity coalition that exists in communities across America. While the term sounds positive, these groups are working to ban books, restrict any discussion of race, gender & sexuality in our schools & return to the basics, the document states. The rebuttal argues that in recent years deteriorating academics alarm parents who are sending their kids to a high performing school district to be properly educated. Concerned parents who demand restoring merit, academic transparency and accountability are not the enemy, the rebuttal argues. Parents are the primary stakeholder in their childs upbringing, Wu said. They should be involved in education policymaking and be given the respect they deserve. Wu also worries that JEDI Committee members meet with school district officials regularly to discuss how to indoctrinate other peoples children, she said when talking about the leaked meeting notes. Myth Busters also addresses the idea that we should be colorblind when it comes to race. It states: At worst, colorblindness is a tool used to intentionally gaslight Black, Indigenous, & people of color (BIPOC) & give White people a justification for turning away from the experiences & voices of BIPOC. Wu stated, In the eyes of the government, we are all Americans and we are all equal on an individual basis. She emphasized that the constitutional principle of equality is fundamentally and radically colorblind. Chinese People Say the CCP Forces Doctors and Community Staff to Not List COVID as Cause of Death Mourners gather outside the memorial hall for the deceased at a funeral home in Shanghai, China, on Dec. 31, 2022. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Western media have recently reported that doctors in China are discouraged from citing COVID-19 as the cause of death in an attempt to downplay the severity and extent of the ongoing explosive COVID infection wave. A number of Chinese citizens spoke to the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times and shared their personal stories, saying that the regime orders doctors and community workers to falsify the cause of death on death certificates. On Jan. 17, Zhang Miao (pseudonym), a community worker in Changchun City, Jilin Province, told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times that she had just prepared a death certificate for a senior resident who passed away from COVID-19. The local police chief came to our community office on Jan. 14 and asked me to issue a death certificate for his father-in-law, Zhang said. I asked him if the death was caused by COVID-19, and he said yes. Then I explained to him that we received an instruction from above, saying the cause of death cant be listed as COVID-19, Zhang said. She further explained that if the patient died at home, his family first needed to go to the community office to get a death certificate, then present it to a public hospital in exchange for a hospital-issued death certificate. The local police will only acknowledge a hospital-issued death certificate before they will remove the residential registration of the deceased. These steps are necessary before the body of the deceased can be sent to a crematorium. However, the thing is, the community cannot state that COVID-19 is the cause of death on the certificate; otherwise the hospital will not issue the formal death certificate. Even if you go back to the community asking for a re-issuance, the hospital wont give you this chance. You only have one chance to get it right. The death certificate I gave to his father-in-law said the elder died of a cerebral infarction, Zhang said. Hospitals Ordered to Lie on Death Certificate Liu Chen (pseudonym), a doctor at a hospital in Dalian, Liaoning Province, told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Jan. 17 that the government has set a rule that patients who die due to COVID-19 aggravation of underlying disease(s) cannot be counted as COVID-19 deaths. That is the standard we all have to follow. So from the top to the bottom, no one knows the exact mortality rate of COVID-19. Even for the top authorities, there is no way they can have the exact figures, he said. A patient on oxygen is wheeled on a gurney into a busy emergency room at a hospital in Beijing, China, on Jan. 2, 2023. (Getty Images) Cheng Ying (pseudonym), a doctor at the Yantai Mountain Hospital, made a similar statement when he spoke to the Chinese language Epoch Times on Jan. 17. Even our hospital does not have the exact number of people who died from COVID-19 in our facility, as the government does not allow us to register them as COVID-19 deaths. Wang Ling (pseudonym), a doctor at another hospital in Yantai, Shandong Province, revealed on Jan. 15 that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 was so large that the Shandong medical system issued an emergency notice forbidding doctors to cite COVID-19 as cause of death. As long as there are other underlying diseases, those diseases can be listed as the cause of death. Basically, whatever cause can be cited, other than COVID-19. Moreover, the doctors must get approval from the hospital authorities on the specific details before filling out a death certificate; they are not allowed to do it on their own. Gu Cheng (pseudonym), a resident of Yantai, Shandong Province, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 17 that a friend just lost his father last month. His father was hospitalized in Yantai Hospital for the treatment of heart disease in early December last year and was originally scheduled to be discharged in a week. But after the sudden removal of lockdown and restrictions, his father tested COVID positive while still in the hospital, and passed away a few days later. Doctors refused to list COVID-19 as the cause of death, and cited heart disease instead. Its the same in other hospitals. The doctors are forbidden to list COVID-19 as the cause of death, Gu said. Chinese Question the Official Death Toll Chinas National Health and Wellness Commission reported on Jan. 14 that 60,000 COVID deaths occurred between Dec. 8, 2022 and Jan. 12, 2023. A woman holds a picture of a loved one at a crematorium in Beijing on Dec. 20, 2022. Workers at Beijing crematoriums said on Dec. 16 they are overwhelmed as China faces a surge in COVID cases that authorities warn could hit its underdeveloped rural areas during upcoming public holidays. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images) However, the visible explosive wave of infections and the overcrowded funeral homes are telling a different story. Qu Li (pseudonym), a Beijing resident, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 18 that she saw a very long line of vehicles outside a crematorium. My mother passed away after COVID-19 infection. Our wait time for her cremation was a whole week at the Pingfang Crematorium in Chaoyang District, and this was the result of our cutting in line using a personal connection. On the day of the cremation, there were huge crowds of people outside queuing up to get their numbers, and you cant see the end [of the queue] at a glance. When we left the crematorium, the car drove for a long way and you could still see the people in line, Qu said. Qu heard that the same is true at other crematoria in Beijing. My brother said that 21 people he knew of recently passed away, including three relatives of my family. None of the death certificates said that these were COVID-19 deaths. The number of recent COVID deaths can be said to be shocking. The authorities said 60,000 people died, but I dont believe it, she added. Yang Hai (pseudonym), a resident of Hailun City, Heilongjiang Province, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 17 that his uncle just passed away due to COVID-19 infection. Inside the funeral home, there were layers of coffins on the shelves. The employees were transporting some corpses to another crematorium more than 50 kilometers (31 miles) away to be cremated. There are two crematoriums in Hailun City. Both are too busy to handle all the cremation requests because there are so many corpses. The deceased are mostly elderly people, there are also some in their 50s. Zhang, the community worker, said she issued five death certificates that day, including the one for the police chiefs father-in-law. On most certificates, she cited heart failure as the cause of death. There are three police stations in our area. The police chief told me that he removed 23 deceased from the registration system in one day when he was on duty. If thats the average number for one police station, wouldnt there be an average of 70 deaths a day in three police stations? Zhang said. Chinas State Council held a press conference on Jan. 17 on the topic of the countrys economy in 2022. When asked about death toll and population data in December, Kang Yi, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that in non-census years, the time point of population sampling survey is Nov. 1 every year, so there is no data on the number of deaths in December 2022 yet. He also claimed that the data about the pandemic, including the number of infections and other aspects, is released to the world and shared with the relevant organizations as soon as it is available. Chinese netizens expressed anger at his remarks. They left comments such as, With such a strict household registration system that requires timely submission of a death certificate, how come you dont know the number of deaths? and Now that household information is all online, you should be able to find out the total number of death certificates within your system. How come you claim you dont have Decembers data? The authorities claim that they put people first, putting life first is a sheer lie. They falsified COVID-related data when people were under lockdown, and they continued to falsify data when restrictions were removed. They have been lying all along, Zhang said. Chris Hipkins Nominated to Succeed New Zealands PM Jacinda Ardern The then-New Zealand COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins addresses a press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand on Oct. 11, 2021. (Robert Kitchin/Pool Photo via AP) New Zealands ruling Labour Party has nominated Chris Hipkins to succeed Jacinda Ardern as the countrys prime minister after Ardern announced on Thursday that she would be stepping down from the top role. Hipkins, 44, currently serves as the education minister and previously led the countrys COVID-19 response. He is expected to receive formal endorsement from his Labour Party colleagues on Sunday for the takeover. There is still a bit to go in this process. There is still a meeting tomorrow and a vote, and I dont want to get too far ahead of that, Hipkins said at a media briefing on Saturday after the party named him their sole nominee. I do want to thank them for the way the process has been handled. I do think were an incredibly strong team. We have gone through this process with unity, and we will continue to do that, he added. Hipkins told reporters that a cabinet reshuffle would occur but that Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson could retain his position as the Finance Minister in the new government, local media RNZ reported. Robertson posted a photo of them with Ardern on his Instagram account and congratulated Hipkins on his nomination, saying that Hipkins has been there through thick and thin, referring to Hipkins 15 years of experience in politics. He is experienced and deeply grounded in Labour values. When I think of him, one of the first things that pop into my mind is that he is an amazing dad. His care and love for kids is something I so admire. He is going to be a great leader and PM, he wrote. Hipkins will have only a little more than eight months in the role before contesting a general election. Opinion polls have indicated that Labour is trailing its main opponent, the conservative National Party. Besides holding the education portfolio, Hipkins is also minister for police and the public service, and leader of the House. He is known as a political troubleshooter who has taken on a variety of roles to try to iron out problems created by other lawmakers. Hipkins is considered more centrist than leftist Ardern, and colleagues hope that he will appeal to a broad range of voters. Among his biggest challenges during an election year will be convincing voters that his party is managing the economy well. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during a post-cabinet press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on May 23, 2022. (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images) Ardern, 42, who was elected as prime minister in 2017, said she was resigning because she no longer has enough left in the tank for another four-year term. I am leaving because with such a privileged role comes responsibility, she said at the Labour Partys caucus meeting in Napier. The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. She leaves behind a mixed legacy, with many praising her for her empathy as prime minister when responding to events such as the March 2019 Christchurch massacre that resulted in the death of 51 people in two mosques. But her legacy was marred by her governments COVID-19 response, which saw New Zealanders rally in the thousands multiple times during 202122 over government-mandated lockdowns, strict vaccine mandates, and quarantine measures. Stephen Hoadley, an assistant professor of politics and international relations at the University of Auckland, believes that Ardern could be tapped by the United Nations or other organizations, given her extensive experience and prominence. She has the potential, she has the ability, she has the profile, she has the acceptability to do a whole lot of things, Hoadley told AP. Give her a few weeks to rest up, and to refill the tank, to use her phrase. But I would imagine by the end of this year, shell be off and running on a whole new career line. Victoria Kelly-Clark and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Cory Morgan: Trudeaus Surprise Position on Provincial Health-Care Initiatives Is Welcome Commentary For the second time in as many months, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has surprised me on the national health-care file, and in a positive way. The health-care system has been well-established as a sacred cow in Canadian politics. Many politicians will decry the state of health care in the nation, but few will dare to muse about changing the system itself. Trudeau hasnt exactly been an advocate for systemic health-care reform, yet he has been signalling that he is receptive to supporting it. During a year-end CBC interview with Rosemary Barton last December Trudeau said: If I were to send people all the money they need in the provinces, there is no guarantee that folks would be waiting less time in the hospitals. There is no point putting more money into a broken system. It was a bold statement from a prime minister who is not typically inclined to give frank, clear statements on policy issues. Trudeau didnt try to walk back his statement and its clear he didnt misspeak. Not only did he admit the system is broken, but his statement could also be interpreted as an invitation for provinces to start changing the system. Premier Doug Ford has taken the invitation to heart and his proposals to change aspects of Ontarios health-care provision model are being supported by the prime minister. When interviewed by Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star on the issue, Trudeau said: Im not going to comment on what Dougs trying to do on this one. Were supposed to say a certain amount of innovation should be good as long as theyre abiding by the Canada Health Act. The usual suspects have gone wild over Trudeaus statement. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said, The real question is, where does the prime minister stand if he says hes going to defend public health care, and hes allowing this to happen in Ontario? The delivery of health care is a provincial jurisdiction and premiers dont need the prime ministers permission to expand delivery options, even if they are private. Singhs posturing and demands run contrary to the Constitution, but that is of little concern for an opposition leader who wants to paint himself as a defender of public health care. The health systems in every province are severely stressed right now. Surgical backlogs and staffing shortages are common, and premiers are forced to examine changes to the system. The Canada Health Act only prohibits extra billing for insured services, it doesnt prohibit private delivery of care. Every province has all sorts of private provision options, from diagnostic services to walk-in clinics. Whether expanding the scope of private surgical facilities will take pressure from the system remains to be seen, but it isnt in contravention of Canadian health-care legislation. Aside from seeking to increase the number of private medical services in Ontario, Premier Ford plans to introduce changes to legislation loosening rules for interprovincial migration of health-care workers. Under the changes, health-care professionals moving to Ontario will be able to immediately begin working rather than enduring bureaucratic delays with regulatory colleges. This move could indeed help address Ontarios health-care worker shortage, but it will also spur more competition between provinces for those workers. This could lead to some testy relations between premiers. Now for the politics of it all. Why would Trudeau wade into an issue that may threaten his governance deal with Singh and could lead to interprovincial battles over health-care provision? Ford was very supportive of the Trudeau government during the COVID-19 pandemic while federal restrictions were put in place. Is Ford now calling in favours from Trudeau? Its an odd alliance, but Trudeau could feel obligated to have Fords back now, and perhaps is hoping for support from Ford when the next federal election comes. It was interesting hearing Trudeau referring to Ford informally as Doug rather than Premier Ford. It does imply they have developed a close relationship. Premier Danielle Smith has made no secret of her intention to make major changes to Albertas health-care system, including implementing a controversial plan for personal health-care savings accounts. Will Trudeau maintain his hands-off approach to provincial innovation when it comes to Alberta as he has with Ontario? It would be quite a demonstration of a regional double standard if he didnt. Perhaps Trudeau is trying to end his coalition with the NDP. He will need a deal-breaker to do that, and supporting the expansion of private health-care options in provinces could lead to that. How can Singh keep supporting the Liberal government when it departs so far from NDP principles? Whatever the reasons may be, Prime Minister Trudeau has become an unlikely champion for provincial health-care initiatives, including expanding private care options. Canada needs to allow provinces to innovate, and lets hope Trudeaus uncharacteristic pragmatism on the issue continues. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. An expert has dubbed Chinas COVID management as a crisis of a scale unseen since Mao in regard to its death toll. In an opinion piece published on Jan. 5, sinologist and military adviser Ben Lowsen warned that Chinese citizens potentially face the countrys largest mass-death event since the Great Chinese Famine of 19591961. Chinese officials revealed on Jan. 14 that there have been 59,938 COVID-related deaths from Dec. 9, 2022, to Jan. 12, 2023. Yet health experts including virologist Dr. Xiaoxu Sean Lin and Stanford Senior Fellow Dr. Scott Atlas are concerned that the numbers may still be underreported. While this increase seems more reasonable than the 37 deaths previously reported during that timeframe, Lin expressed that a death toll of roughly 60,000 does not justify the reports of inundated morgues. Drop in Population Chinas recent announcement about its population decline for the year 2022 has also sparked speculation that the country has been faring a lot worse than its let on. Chinas 2022 decline of roughly 850,000 people to a total of 1.41 billion, according to the countrys National Bureau of Statistics, is the first drop officially reported by China since 1961the last year of the countrys great famine. Official recognition of the declining population in 2022 is an extremely important historical inflection point, Fuxian Yi, a researcher from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a longtime critic of Chinas single-child policy, wrote on Twitter. Other evidence of higher death tolls comes from Tongjiang County in Sichuan Province. The countys official reports showed that by the end of 2019, there were over 670,000 residents, but at the end of November 2020, this number fell to just over 520,000. Within 11 months, the resident population fell by more than 148,000, which is over 20 percent of the residents. The population decline is unlikely to be caused by migration, considering Tongjiang County provides a major labor force for Sichuan Province and is marked by many employment opportunities. Since the discovery of these numbers, Tongjiang Countys official webpage reporting these data has been inaccessible. Tongjiangs neighboring Nanjiang and Pingchang Counties have similarly reported a precipitous population decline in 2020. Unreasonable Fatality Rate Health experts and political analysts alike have expressed skepticism of Chinas official death tolls. With estimates of 900 million people infected in China, this would mean that the infection fatality rate for COVID-19 in China is less than 0.0067 percent. But such a case fatality rate would be significantly lower than any of those belonging to first-world countries that lead in health care resources and technology. China reports that the dominant COVID variant is Omicron, which is associated with a lower case fatality rate of about 0.30.4 percent in the United States. However, researchers are uncertain if Omicrons reduced severity is attributed to peoples immunity to the virus, or because the variant causes less pathology. Hong Kong, which has a better health care distribution compared to mainland China, reported an overall death toll (pdf) of around 0.1 percent during the Omicron wave. Political analyst Tang Jingyuan and former physician in China expressed disbelief at the calculated infection fatality rate. Atlas, a COVID-19 adviser during the Trump administration, expressed similar skepticism. We cannot trust the numbers coming out of China. They didnt make sense in the beginning, Atlas said of Chinas COVID data in a recent interview with NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times. While Chinese authorities may have made revisions to the death toll, Atlas suggested that the true situation remains concealed. Its very difficult to figure out whats going on when theres no transparency, said Atlas. Lin, a virologist and former lab director at the viral branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, expressed reservations on whether it was Omicron causing the outbreak. He pointed to the rapid outbreaks reported in Chinas leading cities and immediate rural areas, remarking that the speed of the infections may indicate that the viral load in China is many folds higher than outbreaks seen outside of China. Lin compared the countrys recent outbreak to a tsunami or sandstorm. The [progression] to severe symptoms can be very different when the body is attacked by [a] large volume of [the] virus, he said. If the viral load is small, severe symptoms may present in a few days, but if youre really overloaded, the whole process will speed up. Overwhelmed Morgues Reports of crematoriums inundated with corpses suggest that the actual situation in China may be a lot more severe than weve been led to believe. Tang told NTD, the sister media of The Epoch Times, that with less than 60,000 deaths in a month, the number of funeral homes in Beijing alone would be enough to manage the bodies. There are 94 furnaces in Beijing, and if all of these furnaces increased operating hours to 24/7, it would take less than 27 days to cremate all these bodies. However, that has not been the case. Hebei, a province near Beijing, has also had several of its funeral homes increase their hours to 24 hours operating time, indicating that the real body count is much higher. A worker at Baoxing funeral home in Shanghai told The Epoch Times in December 2022 that they were burning 400 to 500 bodies a day, up from the maximum of 90 before the pandemic restrictions were lifted. Babaoshan Funeral Home, Beijings main crematorium, also had to increase to 24 hours of operation within a week after reopening, due to overwhelming demands. A funeral home employee who identified as Lin told The Epoch Times on Dec. 14, 2022, that there was a weeks backlog in cremations. We are very busy every day, and we had never been so busy, the employee said. There are more people being cremated every day than before, and the appointment calls are too many for us to handle. Many people are queuing up [for our service]. We dont have any rest time here at all. The facility hosts 19 cremation furnaces, according to 2017 reports, and is apparently Beijings only place for specialty cremation, containing wider, longer, and taller furnaces for tall or obese corpses. From Dec. 8, 2022, to Jan. 12, 2023, Babaoshans business volume was almost seven times its average preopening volume. Looking at many reports of 24-hour operating crematoriums, Lin figured that if all of Chinas reported cremation furnaces were now running 24/7, that would amount to around 6 million deaths between Dec. 8, 2022, to Jan. 12. But that figure is likely only about half of all deaths, as cremation only made up less than 60 percent of Chinese peoples funeral procedures in 2021. The death toll could have reached 10 million by now, Lin said. Since early January, NTD has found at least 37 crematoriums that have put forward bidding documents for furnace construction on government websites. Perhaps the most telling example of cremation demands is what happened with Shantou Funeral Management Station Funeral Home in Guangdong Province. According to what NTD uncovered, the center needed to make an urgent purchase of two furnaces. Construction was to begin within three business days and the furnaces had to be installed within 10 days of payment. History Repeated Even prior to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, data from official sources suggested suppression of real death tolls, or conflicting reports. The Chinese Center for Disease Control reported 3,869 COVID deaths in Wuhan over the entirety of 2020, with a third of the deaths added on April 17 of that year. Prior to the update, the city reported around 2,500 deaths. Yet a Chinese report published in the British Medical Journal contradicted Chinas official reports, showing that between January and March 2020, there were 5,954 excess deaths in Wuhan, with COVID-related pneumonia accounting for 3,653 cases. The studys authors were affiliated with Chinas Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and therefore had access to all-cause mortality data from the countrys national surveillance system. The studys supplement registered around 2,500 excess deaths in Wuhan through the surveillance system, but the system only covers a fifth of China and Wuhans total population. However, researchers from The Economist suspected that the total excess deaths and COVID-related deaths were even higher. These researchers assumed that the other untracked areas in Wuhan would experience similar rates of excess mortality, and modeled the data to be around 13,400 or more. That is more than triple the official count, and more than double the estimate in the BMJ paper, the authors investigating for The Economist wrote. During the two years of the Great Chinese Famine, an estimated 15 to 55 million people died. After 1960, the Chinese Communist Party stopped publishing any statistical data that might indicate economical performance. Data publication did increase, though, beginning in 1979. Lowsen noted how the Chinese regime also withheld the death tolls during the famine, and that we are now seeing an ominous repeat, with the regime essentially [giving] up on providing COVID-19 statistics. Defense Chiefs Fail to Resolve Dispute on Tanks for Ukraine U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (L) and the Ukrainian participant Oleksii Reznikov (R) attend the meeting of the 'Ukraine Defense Contact Group' at Ramstein Air Base in Ramstein, Germany, on Jan. 20, 2023. (Michael Probst/AP Photo) RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, GermanyUkraine will have to wait longer to find out if it will get advanced German-made battle tanks. A dispute over sending the tanks from Western allies to help Ukraine against Russias invasion played out both in public and private on Friday, as more than 50 defense leaders meeting in Germany failed to hammer out an agreementstalled by Berlins hesitation. Failure to reach agreement on what has become an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders largely overshadowed commitments from a number of nationsincluding the United Statesto send billions of dollars in equipment and weapons to the war effort. While U.S. and NATO leaders denied any dissension in the ranks and praised Germany for its widespread weapons and training contributions to Ukraine, a smaller group of leaders met privately with the Germans to try to find common ground. They were unable to forge a consensus on sending the German-made Leopard tanks. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said Friday that 15 countries that have the Leopards discussed the issue but no decisions were made. He called the meeting a good discussion among allies and said the matter would be discussed again at future talks. Germany would need to agree for the tanks to be given to Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO. Despite pleas from Ukrainian officials, Germany has so far resisted mounting pressure to quickly supply Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv, or at least clear the way for other countries, such as Poland, to deliver them from their own stocks. Asked at the close of the Friday meeting whether Germany was doing enough, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin responded, Yes, but we can all do more. They are a reliable ally and theyve been that way for for a very, very long time, he said. And I truly believe that theyll continue to be a reliable ally going forward. Austin also downplayed the immediate importance of tanks, noting that the U.S. Stryker combat vehicles and Bradley armored vehicles that are being sent would give Ukraine new capabilities in the war. This isnt really about one single platform, he said. The defense leaders heard an impassioned plea for more military aid from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Speaking via video link, he told the gathering that terror does not allow for discussion. He said the war started by Russia does not allow delays. Germany acknowledged there had been no resolution. But, speaking to reporters outside the conference hall, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, We will make our decisions as soon as possible. He said he had ordered the ministry to look into Germanys tank stocks so he can be prepared for a possible green light and be able to act immediately. Pistorius added that Germany will balance all the pros and contras before we decide things like that I am very sure that there will be a decision in the short term but I dont know how the decision will look. The issue, however, has grown increasingly complicated. The United States has resisted providing its own M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing extensive and complex maintenance and logistical challenges with the high-tech vehicles. Washington believes it would be more productive to send German Leopards since many allies have them and Ukrainian troops would need less training than on the more difficult Abrams. U.S. and German officials have given mixed signals about whether the U.S. and German decisions are linked. Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesman for the German government, denied that Berlin has demanded that the U.S. supply Abrams tanks alongside any shipment of Leopards. Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman said deployment of Western tanks would trigger unambiguously negative consequences. All these tanks will require both maintenance and repairs, and so on, so [sending them] will add to Ukraines problems, but will not change anything with regard to the Russian side achieving its goals, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a media briefing. Austin and U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, laid out the latest massive package of aid the United States is sending, which totals $2.5 billion and includes Stryker armored vehicles for the first time. It also will provide eight air defense systems, 350 Humvees, 53 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, more than 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and rockets, and missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. Other pledges announced ahead of the Ramstein meeting included S-60 anti-aircraft guns from Poland with 70,000 rounds of ammunition, additional Stinger air-defense systems and two M-17 helicopters from Latvia, and two Russian-made Mi-8 helicopters and dozens of L-70 anti-aircraft guns with ammunition from Lithuania. Germanys Pistorius, who took office Thursday, said that opinions among allies were mixed on the tank issue, and added that the impression that has occasionally arisen that there is a united coalition and Germany is standing in the way is wrong. Milley told reporters traveling with him this week that new U.S. training of Ukrainian troops, combined with an array of new weapons and armored vehicles, will be key to helping the countrys forces take back territory that has been captured by Russia in the nearly 11-month-old war. The influx of new weapons, tanks, and armored carriers comes as Ukraine faces intense combat in the countrys east around the city of Bakhmut and the nearby salt mining town of Soledar. The battles are expected to intensify in the spring. Djibouti Signs Deal With Hong Kong Company to Build Rocket Launch Site Djibouti Presidnet Ismail Omar Guelleh poses as he arrives at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, France, on Nov. 10, 2018. (Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images) The Republic of Djibouti has signed a preliminary $1 billion deal with a Hong Kong company to build a facility to launch satellites and rockets in the African nation where the Chinese Communist regime has established a military base. Djiboutis President Ismail Omar Guelleh signed the partnership agreement with Hong Kong Aerospace Technology on Jan. 10 for a five-year project to ensure the safe transportation of aerospace materials. Guelleh said the project will include the construction of a port and highway in the northern Obock region. The infrastructure will be transferred to Djibouti after 30 years of co-management with the Hong Kong company, he added. I am delighted to see our country commit to this promising technological and energy development project. The agreement provides for the final concession of the infrastructure built to the Djiboutian side after 30 years of co-management, he said on Twitter. The agreement follows a visit by a Hong Kong Aerospace Technology delegation to Djibouti on Jan. 4 to discuss business cooperation with the government. The firm promised to provide a win-win situation and promote cooperation with the Djibouti side, according to its statement. Chinas Naval Base General Stephen Townsend, then-Commander of the U.S. Africa Command, said in April 2021 that the Chinese regimes naval capability includes a facility at its modernized base in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa thats capable of supporting the countrys growing aircraft carrier force. Their first overseas military base, their only one, is in Africa, and they have just expanded that by adding a significant pier that can even support their aircraft carriers in the future. Around the continent, they are looking for other basing opportunities, Townsend told the House Armed Services Committee on Apr. 20, 2021. Beijing opened its base in Djibouti in 2017; it sits just 7.4 miles (12 kilometers) from Camp Lemonnier, which is home to about 4,500 U.S. military personnel and the primary base of operations for the U.S. African Command. Several other countries also have a base in Djibouti, including France, Japan, and Italy. The presence of so many different military bases is due to Djiboutis strategic locationit sits next to the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, which separates the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea; the latter is the gateway to the Suez Canal. About 12 percent of world trade passes through the Suez Canal every day. Chinese military officials have publicly denied that its Djibouti base was intended for military expansion and claimed that the base was needed to support anti-piracy and humanitarian relief missions. But Townsend told the committee that China very much ha[s] the intent to establish additional overseas bases in Africa, whether that be on the Atlantic coast of Africa or the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. China is of great concern. They are literally everywhere on the continent. They are placing a lot of bets down. They are spending a lot of money, Townsend said. Frank Fang contributed to this report. Research Report Finds Distinct Gender Gap in College and Career Readiness A new report from college and career readiness company YouScience reveals that while 44% of female high school students showed aptitude for careers in architecture and engineering, they showed 0% interest in them when interest-based, instead of aptitude-based, tools were used to gauge student talents, abilities, and pathways. The Post Graduation Readiness Report Part II offers insights from a survey of more than 500 recently graduated students about how prepared they felt they were for careers beyond high school. Interest-based tools reflect primarily what the student already knows, while aptitude measures surface known and unknown talents that are less recognized and can surprise students, teachers, and parents, YouScience said in its report, Career Insights: Women, STEM, and the Talent Shortage. Researchers also noted that because female students are not encouraged to consider engineering and technology careers, lack of knowledge in these choices translates to lack of interest. Part I of the college readiness report, released in November 2022, showed that 75% of all graduates were not ready to make college and career decisions, even though graduation rates were up to 86%. Of those, 57% reported five or fewer conversations with teachers or counselors about opportunities following graduation, and 80% felt they would have been more engaged in their learning if they better understood their own aptitudes and potential career opportunities. Key findings from Part II of the report revealed: Sixty percent of female high school graduates reported not being exposed to a wide enough variety of options for college and career versus less than 30% of males. More male graduates (78%) also reported having a conversation with a teacher or school counselor about post-high school opportunities than female graduates (63%). Forty-five percent of males feel that they are in a job that they like or that is putting them on a good career path compared to 27% of females. Sixty-eight percent of males are where they want to be in their education or career path compared to 57% of females. Only 50% of females reported knowing that CTE (career technical education) courses were available versus 70% of males that were aware of them. This signals the importance to work collectively to reduce gaps and expose students to more career pathways, YouScience noted in the executive summary. In the Career Insights report, the company said, Women have the natural talent for todays in-demand STEM jobs. Female students have a high aptitude for technology careers. YouScience currently serves over 7,000 educational and career institutions and provides an integrated college and career readiness platform that delivers aptitude-based assessments, personalized career guidance, and industry-recognized certifications, based on research and industry input. For more information, visit the YouScience site. Falun Gong Founder Mr. Li Hongzhi Publishes How Humankind Came To Be Mr. Li Hongzhi is the founder of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong. The practice combines meditation and gentle exercises with a moral philosophy centered on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. After Mr. Li introduced the practice to the public in China in the early 1990s, an estimated 100 million people started practicing. Since then, the practice has spread to more than 100 countries around the world. Despite this, in China, the practice has been subjected to extreme persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This includes a campaign of hate propaganda and censorship by the CCP, both in China and in the West. The Epoch Times, on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, is honored to provide a platform to Mr. Li. Mr. Li is a four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and was nominated by the European Parliament for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. He is also the recipient of Freedom Houses International Religious Freedom Award. Mr. Li is the author of the book Zhuan Falun, which has been translated into 40 languages. The following is the article How Humankind Came to Be by Mr. Li, translated from Chinese. *** How Humankind Came To Be I would like to first pass along my greetings to everyone on the advent of the Chinese New Year. New Years would normally be a time for sharing a few pleasant remarks about the occasion. But I am seeing imminent danger approaching humanity, and have been called upon by divine beings to pass along, for this reason, several things to everyone in this world. Each of what I am about to disclose is a higher, closely guarded secret, and these are being shared to provide a true picture of affairs, and to give people another chance at salvation. First is the question of how humankind came about. From the dawn of its creation to its final days, the universe has gone through an exceptionally long passage of time consisting of four stages: Formation, Stasis, Degeneration, and Destruction. When the final point of the Destruction stage is reached, the complete obliteration of everything in the greater cosmic bodywhich includes the universe in which we existtakes place instantaneously, and all living things perish! When a person dies, it is just a matter of his physical body declining and breaking down, while his true soul (which is who he really is, and which does not die with the passing of his physical body) will continue on in a next life, being reborn. So just as the universe goes through formation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction, so too do human beings go through birth, aging, illness, and death. These are laws of the universe, to which even higher beings are subject, only the time span is longer, with the process being more drawn out in proportion to how great the beings are. Life and death are not painful for them, and they remain cognizant throughout these processesto them, it is as if but changing outfits. Put differently, normally, lives do not really die. When the universe and the cosmos disintegrate at the final stage of the Formation-Stasis-Degeneration-Destruction process, however, lives will not be reborn, and there will be no more existence of life or matter, with all turning to dust and there being only emptiness. Currently, the human world is experiencing the last period in the Destruction phase of the Formation-Stasis-Degeneration-Destruction progression. Everything has changed for the worse in these end times, as fated, and destruction is thus imminent. And it is for this reason that the world is so troubled. Good thoughts are rare, peoples minds have become twisted, debauchery and drug abuse are rampant, and people subscribe to atheism. These are inevitable in the last stage of the cosmos, and bespeak of the time at which we have arrived! The Creator cherishes all of the heavenly beings that exist as well as all of the lives that are good and kind, and all of the glorious creations in the cosmos. So at the beginning of the Degeneration stage, the Creator led a number of divine beings to the outermost plane of the cosmic body (known generally as that which is outside the Divine Realm), a place where there are no divine beings, and created Earth. But Earth hadnt the capacity to exist independently; it needed for there to be a corresponding cosmic structure with which it could form a circulatory system involving life and matter. For this reason, the Creator made a larger expanse outside of the Earth, which higher beings refer to as the Three Realms. Before the final time of salvation arrived, no higher beings, however great, would be allowed to enter this expanse without the Creators permission. The expanse of the Three Realms comprises three major realms: the Realm of Desire (yu), which is made up of the lives on this earth, including humankind; a second realm, the Realm of Likings (se), which is above it; and a third realm, further above, known as the Realm Without Likings (wu se). Each successive realm is higher and more glorious than that below it, though none can compare to the Divine Realm or the many heavenly kingdoms still higher. The heaven that people normally refer to is in fact within either the Realm of Likings or the Realm Without Likings, within the Three Realms. Each of the Three Realms has 10 planes within it, making for a total of 33 planes in all, if you include the Three Realms themselves. Human beings reside in the Realm of Desire, and this is the lowest of all planes, with the worst environment. Life is painful and short here, but more dreadful still is the fact that in the human world, few of the things people take to be truths are actually valid. What human beings hold to be true is on the whole considered the opposite in the larger universe (but an exception is the higher truths that holy beings have taught to man). For example, the divine does not consider it right for whomever is victorious in battle to become ruler, for territory to be seized by military force, or for the powerful to be seen as heroes, since killing and forcefully taking from others are involved. That is not the way of the universe, nor how higher beings go about things. Yet in the human world, these are inevitable and accepted. Those are the ways of the human world, but they are contrary to the ways of the universe. Thus, if a person wishes to return to heaven, he must follow true, higher laws and work on himself. Some people are content when they are doing a bit better in life than others. But such people are only comparing themselves with other human beings within this human realm, when everyone here is in fact living in what is considered to be the trash bin of the universe. The Three Realms were established at the outermost perimeter of the cosmic body, and everything here is made up of the lowest, crudest, and filthiest of particlesmolecules, atoms, and the like. In the eyes of higher beings, this is where the trash of the universe is cast away. They thus regard this plane of molecules as dust or clay and see it as the lowliest of places. This is the origin of the belief held in some religions that man was made by the divine out of clay. Man was indeed formed out of matter at the molecular plane. When divine beings made man, they did so at the Creators behest, and He instructed them to each make human beings in their own unique image. For this reason, there are the white, yellow, black, and other races. While their outward appearances differ, the souls within them were given by the Creator. And that is why they have common values. The purpose that the Creator had in directing divine beings to make man was to make use of man in the final times when He would offer all lives of the greater universeincluding holy beingssalvation. But why would the Creator have divine beings create humans in such a lowly and inferior place? It was because, with this being the universes lowest plane, it is the most grueling of places, and only when things are trying and painful may a person elevate himself through spiritual practice and shed his or her karma. When a person, amidst painful experiences, still manages to keep kind thoughts, have gratitude, and be a good person, he or she is growing through it. Salvation is a process of ascending from low to high, and so one has to start from the bottom. Life is trying for anyone living here. There are the tensions between people when they are trying to make out better, there is the terrible state of the natural environment, and there is the fact that just getting by in life takes a great deal of thought and effort, to name just a few examples. All of these circumstances provide people with opportunities to develop themselves and lessen their karma. It is certain that going through hardships can help people to atone for their sins and karma. And anyone who manages to stay good-natured amidst painful situations and interpersonal troubles is going to build up merit and virtue and, as a result, will achieve the elevation of his or her soul. With the arrival of modern times, the Creator had intended to utilize mainly the human body to save the many lives of the universe. And so the souls originally in the majority of human bodies here were replaced by those of higher beings, who incarnated in them. With a human body, they could reduce their karma and sins by enduring hardship. And in this place that is devoid of truth, they could, by holding fast to the higher truths taught by God and persevering in goodness and kindness, achieve the elevation of their souls. The end times are now upon us; the Heavenly Gate that leads out of the Three Realms has been opened, and the Creator is choosing such beings for deliverance. Everything in the universe had become impure during the Formation, Stasis, and Degeneration phases, and inferior to when creation was begun. And this is why things are heading for Destruction. In other words, everything in the greater universe has gone bad, the lives of creation are no longer as good as they were in the very beginning, are no longer pure, and all of them have accrued karma and sins. And this accounts for Destruction coming about. This kind of sin is what has been referred to in religious contexts as original sin. So that the universe could be saved, the Creator directed a multitude of higher beings and divine sovereigns to descend to the earth and assume human form in this setting, where they would suffer, elevate, atone for their sins, and forge themselves anewre-ascending to heaven as a result. (The Creator has been re-making the universe at the same time as saving humankind.) The new universe is perfectly pure and simply glorious. If, in a trying setting like this, a person can still keep his thoughts virtuous; if he can hold his ground against the onslaught of modern values and views, and stick to traditional ones; and if he still believes in the divine in the face of assaults from the atheist and evolutionary camps, then that person will fulfill his purpose: to gain salvation and return to heaven. All of the madness now unfolding in the world was planned as such, for the final phase, by divine beings. Their goal was to test the lives here and see whether they were worthy of salvation, and give them a chance to, in the process, work off their sins and karma while going through difficult things. And all of this was done so that people could be saved and gain deliverance back to heaven. All of this is to say that the purpose of peoples lives on this earth isnt to accomplish something in the world. All of the intense efforts and attempts people make in life, and their drive to get what they want, which can even involve resorting to unscrupulous means, only make people immoral in the end. The reason people came to this world and became human was to atone for their sins and karma, and to make significant spiritual progress. People came to this world to gain salvation. They came and assumed human form to await the Creator and his salvation back to their heavenly kingdom. And while they waited, they built up merit over their many past lives, and that was the purpose of peoples rebirths. The troubled nature of this world is meant to make something great of these lives. Of course, there are some people who, when seeking divine help in times of duress, havent been satisfied with the outcome and started to loathe Godeven turning against Him as a result. Some have even turned to the demonic, dark side, and committed still further sins and made yet more karma. Those whom this applies to had best quickly come around and beg God for forgiveness, if they are still to have a chance of reaching safety. Everything that happens in ones lifewhether it seems warranted or notis, in reality, the karmic consequence of what one did in ones past lives, for better or for worse. The amount of blessings and virtue that one built up in ones past lives determine what fortune is in store in this lifetime, or perhaps the next. If one lives a blessed and virtuous life now, perhaps it will translate in ones next lifetime into a high position and salary, or it might translate into different kinds of wealth and fortune. And this would also include whether one has a happy family, or even how ones children turn out, and so on. This is the fundamental reason why some people are wealthy and others poor, why some hold positions of high rank while others are destitute and homeless. Its nothing like the diabolical nonsense that sinister communism spouts about equality between rich and poor. The universe is fair. Those who do good are blessed for it, while those who do bad things will face paybackif not in this life, then in the next. For this is an immutable law of the universe! Heaven, Earth, the Divine, and the Creator alike are compassionate toward all lives. Heaven and Earth, just as was man, were made by the Creator, and it is never the case that He plays favorites with some lives and shortchanges others. The reason some people lead happy lives and others do not all comes down to rewards and retribution for past deeds. When you see people winning or losing in life, it appears to come about in a normal way from things in this world. But it is ultimately the karmic consequences of those peoples past doings. Whether people have something or not, or are winning or losing in life, is going to play out in ways that accord with this world. So no matter whether you are rich or poor in life, you should be sure to do good, refrain from doing bad things, stay good and kind, be spiritual and devout, and be happy to help others. And by doing so, you will build up blessings and virtue, and reap their rewards in the next life. In the past, the older generation in China would often talk about things like not lamenting your lot in life when things are hard and about earning a better next life by gaining virtue through good deeds. And the point was that its useless praying to God for help if you didnt do good things in your former life and earn blessings. The universe has its laws, and even higher beings must obey them. Even they will be punished if they do things they shouldnt. So things are not as simple as people take them to be. Should people expect higher beings to give them whatever they pray for? The prerequisite is that one has to have built up the blessings and virtue for it over past lifetimes. And so the things that come to you are on account of the blessings and virtue you have! This is what the laws of the universe dictate. But speaking on a fundamental level, getting what you want is not the ultimate goal of accumulating blessings and virtue. The real purpose of building those up is to pave the way for you back to heaven. And that is whats most crucial, not the brief round of happiness that they can bring you in this lifetime! Teacher Li Hongzhi Jan. 20, 2023 *** Editors Note Falun Gong is practiced by more than 100 million people worldwide. Yet despite the scale of this cultural phenomenon, it has largely been underreported. The Epoch Times, as a media organization that cherishes religious freedom, is honored to be the first media to publish this article by Falun Gongs founder. We welcome feedback; however, we expect comments to be civilized and respectful. We were forced to disable the comment section on this article because some debate fell short of this expectation. We also need to protect our content from attacks by the Chinese Communist Party. As always, we would still love to hear your thoughts; to contact us, please click here and fill out the contact form. Feds Committed to Completing WEF-Initiated Digital ID Project, Says Transport Canada Canadas participation in a World Economic Forum (WEF) initiative to test digital ID in travel had stalled due to the pandemic, but Transport Canada says the entities involved are committed to bringing the project to a close. All partners remain committed to working together to close out the project and disseminate the knowledge gained through this initiative, Transport Canada spokesperson Hicham Ayoun told The Epoch Times. He said that during the pause, partners in the aviation industry proceeded with the testing of advanced technologies such as biometrics and digital identity credentials, with the intention of reducing or replacing the analogue processes currently in place. The Known Traveller Digital Identity (KTDI) aviation industry partners include Montreal Trudeau and Toronto Pearson airports, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Air Canada, and Royal Dutch Airlines. Other partners include the Netherlands, and IT and services firm Accenture. The Dutch government said last fall there was no concrete plan to implement the KTDI pilot, but its current stance is unknown. A request for information was sent to the Dutch government. Ayoun pointed to a 2021 WEF white paper, Accelerating the Transition to Digital Credentials for Travel, saying the KTDI was instrumental for the lessons learned as outlined in the paper. The WEF takes credit in the paper for designing and building with its partners the first public-private ecosystem to test the technologies. As the use of verifiable documents (e.g. government-issued identity vaccination certificates, proof of negative COVID-19 tests) becomes a requirement for safe crossborder movement, global demand for trusted digital credentials across sectors and borders has surged, the paper says. Ayoun said details on new pilot projects involving Canadian airports and carriers will be available this spring, but he didnt mention whether those involve outside entities. This is a current area of focus for the department, he said, with the intent to streamline passengers journeys. Canada is involved in another digital ID project with the WEF under the Agile Nations network, which seeks to herald the Fourth Industrial Revolution through the streamlining of regulations to allow new technologies to proliferate. The WEF recently held its annual meeting in Davos, and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and International Trade Minister Mary Ng participated in panel discussions. Freeland also attended a meeting of the WEF board of trustees, of which she is a member. No department involved in organizing the Canadian delegations visit has responded to questions from The Epoch Times. The WEF is an organization which brings together leaders in fields such as politics, industry, and activism. French Court Orders Uber to Pay Some $18 Million to Drivers, Company to Appeal The logo of Uber at a temporary showroom at the Promenade road during the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 in the Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20, 2023. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters) PARISFrench court on Friday ordered Uber to pay around 17 million euros ($18.43 million) in damages and lost salaries to a group of drivers who argued they should have been treated like employees rather than self-employed, both parties to the case told Reuters. This is a huge victory after a long legal battle which started in 2020, said lawyer Stephane Teyssier who represented the 139 drivers that had brought the case before the Conseil des Prudhommes labour court in Lyon. The court decided that the work relationship of his clients should have been qualified as employment contracts, which means that Uber should have reimbursed them for professional expenses like the purchase of a car, fuel and overtime, he added. Uber said it would appeal, adding: We are determined to make progress on the issue of platform workers rights and are convinced that the right way forward is through social dialogue with drivers representatives. The ruling only applies to the past and does not mean the drivers necessarily have employee status going forward, Teyssier said. The issue of how to qualify the legal status of gig economy workers on online platforms in sectors like ride-hailing or food delivery is being debated in many countries. Platforms argue that workers are independent and can choose how much and when work, while workers and unions often argue they should be given the same benefits as employees as they depend on the platforms to earn their living. The Uber spokesperson said it was the companys aim to build a model that preserves the flexibility they want while guaranteeing concrete improvements in their working conditions. In 2020, Frances top court first recognized the right of an Uber driver to be considered an employee, a ruling that has affected the U.S. firms business model, requiring it to pay more taxes and benefits to workers such as paid holidays. Earlier this month, Uber announced a landmark sector deal with drivers in France, guaranteeing a minimum of 7.65 euros net ($8.25) per ride, setting up a precedent after months of bargaining talks. ($1 = 0.9223 euros) By Tassilo Hummel In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we discussed the HPV vaccine and its links to ovarian insufficiency and autoimmune disease. In part 3, we turn to questions regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, and the limitations of relevant clinical trials to detect such a type of effect. Summary of Key Facts There are multiple obstacles in designing a valid clinical trial to prove the HPV vaccine could prevent cervical cancer, e.g. long lead time, lack of adequate informed consent, complexity between HPV infection and cervical cancer, and the negative impact of girls sexual behavior, which may worsen the risks of cervical cancer. Most of the HPVs interventional clinical trials have too short a follow-up time to draw a concrete conclusion. In a large Swedish observational trial, which is treated as the most convincing study to prove the HPV vaccines effects on cervical cancer, a few confounding factors were not adequately balanced between the HPV vaccination group versus the unvaccinated group. The National Cancer Institutes Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) data and another U.S. study found the HPV vaccine has no effects in reducing cancer rates. Two other registry-based studies in Australia and the UK suggest that HPV vaccination is associated with increased cervical cancer rates in certain age groups. Long Lead Time from HPV Infection to Cervical Cancer Typically, there is a long period from HPV infection to cervical epithelium abnormalities, then cervical cancer. HPV infections usually last 1218 months and are eventually cleared by the immune system. Fewer than 10 percent of HPV infections are persistent. There are two types of precancerous cervical lesions, low-grade or high-grade. Low-grade cervical neoplasia grade 1 (CIN1) is usually transient and resolves naturally within one to two years. Only a few persistent infections progress to the clinically meaningful high-grade, CIN2 or 3. Meanwhile, the median time from CIN2/3 to transition to cancer is estimated to be 23.5 years. Among those with weakened immune systems, HPV-related cancer might progress more quickly. In a review of the natural history of HPV infection, the complex pathway from infection to cancer is elucidated, including what is known (purple boxes) and where uncertainty remains (blue boxes). Schematic model of the population-level natural history of HPV infection and cervical cancer. Purple boxes indicate well-accepted natural history model parameters; blue boxes represent uncertainties. (Viruses/MDPI) Difficulty Running Clinical Trials for the HPV Vaccine Because of the long lead time from HPV infection to cervical cancer, a prospective, randomized controlled trial is not easily designed and feasibly implemented. Lack of long-term follow-up is a common issue for most clinical trials to prove the HPV vaccines effectiveness in preventing cervical cancer. For example, a 2007 study found that Gardasil was effective in reducing HPV-associated cervical precancerous lesions rate by 20 percent. This study followed their subjects for only an average of 3 years after administration of the first dose. Furthermore, due to the complex uncertainties in the natural history between HPV infection and cervical cancer, it is not easy to claim the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine. A randomized trial is designed to balance the two groupsvaccine and placeboso that any unmeasured confounding variables which might influence the outcome of the trial are distributed evenly. However, if the treatment group knows they got the vaccine, might their behaviors change? Might they be less risk-averse, thinking they have some protection? For example, girls might think they are vaccinated and protected from cervical cancer and may tend to initiate sexual intercourse at a younger age or engage in sexual activities with more partners. However, sexual intercourse at a young age, multiple sexual partners, and oral contraceptive use are associated with an increased risk of cervical cancer in women. In other words, HPV vaccination may offer some protection if offered before sexual activity is initiated, but it may also be associated with increased behavioral risk factors. Whether the benefits of vaccination outweigh any risks is therefore a multifactorial question deserving of careful longitudinal study. Systemic Analysis of 12 Clinical Trials on HPV Vaccine Efficacy In 2020, a Queen Mary University study led by Dr. Claire Rees reviewed 12 randomized clinical trials for Cervarix and Gardasil. The investigators found that the trials did not include populations representative of the vaccination target groups, and the trial design may have overstated vaccine efficacy. For example, one trial design generated evidence that the vaccine prevents CIN1. But this is not meaningful because these lesions usually resolve on their own. Furthermore, the study accessed efficacy against low-grade precancerous lesions. But this is not necessarily suggestive of efficacy against the more serious but much less frequent high-grade lesions. Finally, the cytology screenings were done every six to 12 months instead of every 36 months (normal screening interval), meaning the efficacy of the vaccine may have been overestimated, as low-grade lesions could go away spontaneously. All this is to say the HPV vaccine may be effective at preventing more serious lesions which lead to cervical cancer, but it is hard to know because of these poorly designed trials. Nothing is conclusive without a larger trial powered to detect a difference in rates of more serious cervical changes according to the typical screening schedule. However, such a trial has not yet been performed. Swedish Nationwide Health Registry Study A nationwide Swedish health registry-based study followed 1,672,983 women for 12 years to assess the association between HPV vaccination and the risk of cervical cancer. In this study, the cumulative incidence of cervical cancer was 47 cases per 100,000 women vaccinated and 94 per 100,000 unvaccinated, suggesting that HPV4 vaccination was associated with a reduced risk of 49 to 63 percent of invasive cervical cancer at the population level. Even though the results are positive, the study researchers raised a few concerns themselves. First, HPV-vaccinated women could have been generally healthier than unvaccinated women. This is known as healthy volunteer bias. Second, a mothers history of cervical cancer might be associated with both vaccination uptake and underlying risk of cervical cancer as well as screening rates. Third, lifestyle and health factors such as smoking, sexual intercourse at a young age, multiple sexual partners, oral contraceptive use, and obesity are reportedly associated with the risk of cervical cancer. These factors have not been thoroughly analyzed by this study and could have contributed to the data. Furthermore, parental education level and annual household income level may be interconnected with lifestyle factors such as smoking status. Strengths of this study include its size, duration, and outcome of interest being invasive cancer, not low-grade lesions. However, it is impossible to exclude the relationship between lifestyle factors, vaccination uptake, and cervical cancer. Only a randomized controlled trial (RCT) could balance the two groups on these unmeasuredbut relatedrisk factors. However even if the risk factors (sexual behaviors) are fully balanced at baseline with an RCT, it is hard to keep them still balanced during the whole study course after HPV vaccination. No Association Found in a US Database Meanwhile, researchers found no association between vaccination and cancer mortality in the United States. According to the National Cancer Institutes SEER program, the incidence of deaths from cervical cancer before Gardasils introduction in the United States had been steadily declining for years and, in 2006, was 2.4 per 100,000 women. The data from 20162020 is 2.2 per 100,000 womenessentially unchanged. In a cross-sectional study using a nationally representative sample of United States adults aged 2059 years, among 9,891 participants, the researchers did not find an association between HPV vaccination and HPV-related cancers. Increase in Cervical Cancer After HPV Vaccine Rollout: Australia In Australia, government data similarly reveal an increase in cervical cancer rates in certain age groups of women following the implementation of the Gardasil vaccine. Thirteen years after Gardasil was recommended for teenagers and young adults, there has been a 30 percent increase in 30- to 34-year-old women (4.9 cases/100,000 compared to 6.6 cases/100,000 in 2020) being diagnosed with cervical cancer. Even though the rates decreased in other age groups, the abnormal increase in the 3034 age group needs an explanation. 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. People injured by COVID-19 vaccines are in great need of support from family and friends, the head of a nonprofit that aims to provide that support says. I dont think people realize that, if youre not supporting someone that you know thats injured, most likely nobody else is either, Brianne Dressen, head of React19, told EpochTVs American Thought Leaders. People who experienced adverse events after vaccination have largely found that medical professionalsespecially early in the mass vaccination campaignrefuse to acknowledge the vaccines cause problems, compounding their difficulties. U.S. authorities have also consistently downplayed side effects, and have only worked behind the scenes to try to guide medical care for the vaccine-injured rather than roll out public guidance for healthcare workers to follow. Dressen herself suffered an adverse reaction after receiving AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine in a clinical trial. She was told for months by various doctors that her condition was linked to anxiety, but a psychiatrist said that was not true. The U.S. National Institutes of Health eventually agreed to treat her, after diagnosing her with a vaccine injury. While the full extent of vaccine injuries is not known, Dressen estimates that many Americans know somebody who has suffered from one. Simple tasks like checking in with that person to see how theyre doing can make the difference, she said. React19, a volunteer-run nonprofit, tries to step in by pairing what they call an advocate with each vaccine-injured person, with advocates helping them apply for financial assistance and find doctors to treat symptoms. We want to do everything we can to make sure that we can get these people their lives back to stop the progression of their disease, because they have nobody. A lot of these people dont have families that believe them, they dont have; we all have friends that dont believe this, Dressen said. Big Tech is definitely against us. And so, hopefully, what were able to build through React19 is a refuge for these people. And in turn, these people will be able to find their voice and find physical strength to be able to come out and push and stand with us and be able to share their voices and the injustices that have happened to help us enact change so this doesnt happen again. Suicides Climb There have been gut-wrenching moments for Dressen, who is still recovering from her vaccine injury. In the fall of 2022, a member of React19 flew to Switzerland and killed himself through euthanasia. He sent a suicide note that explained he was suffering from 10 symptoms, including small fiber neuropathy, after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. After 18 months of suffering with extreme nerve damage and other chronic pain, Im no longer going to continue to deteriorate/suffer or risk winding up in a care home. This has simply caused too much body wide damage for me to continue. I did not want to end my life but needed to end my suffering, the man wrote in the note, which was reviewed by The Epoch Times. He said that he went above and beyond and tried to get medical treatment to no avail and believed there was no known cure for what he described as a spike-induced illness, or induced by the spike protein the vaccines introduce into the body. Dressen sent the note to top U.S. authorities, lamenting the lack of support from the government. We KNOW what has happened to us. To spell this out plainly, we KNOW the vaccine caused this. There is zero question what drove this man to his death. Because existing this way, then hidden and abused, without question is worse than death. You refuse to see it, but I see it. I see it in 20,000 Americans every single day, she said, referring to React19 members. They have held on for so long, trapped in a nightmare. I can no longer tell them hope and help is coming. There have been several dozen suicides among the vaccine-injured, and others are considering taking their own lives, Dressen told The Epoch Times. A common link among those who committed suicide? Lacking support. Theres only two that I know of that were from families that were supportive and watching them. The rest were people that their family members had walked away [from], Dressen said. She recounted one woman who had a husband and adult children, all of whom abandoned her. And so she went and found a way to do it. That was sanctioned by the Canadian government. And so she went through with it and ended her life, Dressen said. And I know that people see that as just a number. But thats a real human being, thats someone that deserved better. Battling the Temptation Dressen was tempted to end her life for several months due to the cascade of symptoms she was fighting. With a vaccine reaction, its not like its fleeting. Its not like its a moment in time where youve had a couple of bad days, and then its over, Dressen said. I hadnt slept for months. I had raging tinnitus. The electrical sensations all over my body, which I still have to this day, every moment of every day. My brain fog was off the charts. I couldnt eat. You could see every single rib in my body. I was not in a good place. The Utah woman was questioning whether life was still worth living with so much pain and wanted to be done. She made a plan and even wrote goodbye letters to her children. Dressen battled the temptation, though, and ultimately chose against suicide, accepting her life will be hard. I overcame that and I learned to accept it, Dressen said, adding later: All these weird things are going on. And I can accept that though. It doesnt mean that Im okay with it. But it means that I can accept it and go, Yes, this is part of my life. But my kids need XYZ, the injured need ABC. And if Im trapped, and if all Im doing is being miserable and suffering inside my head, Im not doing any of them any good. And also, Im not doing myself any good, because then there goes all my healing energy for myself. Dressen later began to speak about what nearly happened because she feels other vaccine-injured need to know theyre not the only ones who have reached a low point. I hid that whole process because I was so embarrassed. And so its humiliating to think that youre brought to your knees to the point where you want nothing more than to just be dead, right? Nobody wants to admit that they were that vulnerable and that their life was that bad, right? Because its seen as a weakness, but thats not what it is, Dressen said. The crystallizing moment came when a friend committed suicide. Before carrying out the deed, the friend had told Dressen that she was strong. When she said that I was kind of taken aback and embarrassed, right? Because I knew where I just was in my head. I knew where I was just like almost about ready to checkout. And so I didnt say anything to her, I just said thank you. But in reality, what I should have told her is just how bad it was. I should have told her the journey that I had just been on myself. I should have told her just how hard it was, Dressen said. Because then maybe that would have given her the reason to hang on. Maybe that would have given her a little bit of the understanding that look, Im not strong, Im just like you. Im just like anyone else. Im just doing my best. And yes, it sucks. Theres Always a Chance Robert Fusaro, a member of React19, suffered an allergic reaction to Pfizers vaccine, according to a medical record reviewed by The Epoch Times. Fusaro soon needed heart surgery and a pacemaker, and has suffered from a number of other serious symptoms such as heart inflammation. Fusaro has seen virtually all of his friends drift away over time. Though he has had support from family members, some relatives have had trouble dealing with the chronic illness. In the vaccine-injured community, some people have gotten better over time. Others have seen their conditions worsen. And there are cases of fluctuations. People are still working to figure out potential solutions to problems that the medical establishment has largely ignored. Fusaro said some of his symptoms have improved, and hes now able to drive for short distances. For him, one of the best treatments has been acupuncture from a medical doctor. Other symptoms are so bad that Fusaro still thinks about committing suicide. But he holds on because he has hope one day his situation will change. I think about suicide, definitely; pretty pretty frequently, Fusaro told The Epoch Times. But I wont do it just out of hope that someday some kind of treatment or cure comes. You just have to hold on to hope because you cant fix dead. Thats my philosophy. This is what I tell everybody I talk to who talks about suicide. If you live one more day, theres always a chance, theres always hope. But once youre dead, youre dead. You cant undo that. If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis or is considering suicide, has mental health issues, or engaging in substance abuse, dial or text the U.S. Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 to speak with a counselor. If youre in the UK, call the Samaritans at 116123. House Oversight Launches Probe Into Border Crisis Under Biden Administration Flanked by House Republicans, U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Nov. 17, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) The Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Jan. 19 is investigating the Biden administrations handling of the border crisis amid record numbers of illegal aliens entering the United States from Mexico and continued fentanyl smuggling into the country. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the committee, issued a letter (pdf) to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), requesting documents and internal DHS communications to understand DHSs policies, the costs of the emergency measures needed to respond to the worsening crisis, and the national security risks created by these policies. He also called on chief border patrol officials to testify at an upcoming hearing to be held on the week of Feb. 6. Chief Border Patrol agents Jason Owens, Gregory Bovino, Gloria Chavez, and acting chief Patricia McGurk-Daniel, who oversee border sectors in Texas, Arizona, and California, were called to testify at the hearing about how U.S. Border Patrol agents are managing the crisis and the impact of the crisis on their mission to secure the border. President Bidens radical open borders agenda has ignited the worst border crisis in American history. The Biden Administrations deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws, Comer said in a statement announcing the border investigation. Republicans will hold the Biden Administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town. Read More Record Number of Border Deaths During Bidens 1st 2 Years Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas prepares to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill on Nov. 15, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/ Getty Images) Mayorkas was asked to produce documents about DHSs role in undermining efforts to secure the southern border, Comers office announced. Such documents include communications about the numbers of illegal aliens released from DHS custody into the United States, as well as communications on any plans to secure the border and increase the seizure rate of dangerous drugs like fentanyl. Comer also requested communications related to the decision to end former President Donald Trumps Remain in Mexico (Migrant Protection Protocols) policy; communications on how the soaring illegal crossings have affected retention, recruitment, and morale among border agents; and much more. DHS will respond to members of Congress through official channels, a DHS spokeswoman said in a statement. Failed Policies In the letter to Mayorkas, Comer accused the Biden administration of having failed to ensure that the U.S. immigration system is safe, orderly, and humane. The Oversight chairman also accused President Joe Biden of having waited until there was a Republican majority in the House of Representatives to finally visit the border in early January. The visit, however, comes long after DHSs rollback of deterrent-focused policies that were working to reduce the number of illegal border crossings, Comer told Mayorkas, adding that the rollback has given power to human smuggling groups and cartel criminals over the past two years. Comer also charged that the Biden administrations recently-announced parole program for people from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti is an unlawful abuse of the parole process. As the border crisis worsens, DHS and the Biden Administration continue to implement failed policies, Comer wrote, adding, Instead of working to resolve the situation, the Biden Administration is lying to the American people that the border is securedespite thousands of illegal aliens and massive quantities of deadly fentanyl evading apprehension every dayand persisting in its ultimate goal to enact a massive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. Read More Biden Admin Releasing Convicted Criminal Illegal Aliens Into US Illegal aliens seeking asylum line up to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at a gap in the border fence U.S.-Mexico near San Luis, Ariz., on Dec. 26, 2022. (Rebecca Noble/AFP via Getty Images) Since Biden took office in 2021 and scaled back or terminated key Trump-era policies, illegal immigration has soared to record levels. The DHS has since struggled to manage the influx of illegal immigrants, even though Mayorkas has repeatedly claimed that the border is closed and that no crisis exists. More than 2.3 million apprehensions were recorded at the U.S.Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, which ended on Sept. 30, 2022up about 37 percent from the previous year. Republicans have threatened to impeach Mayorkas, with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) in early January filing three articles of impeachment against the DHS chief. But Mayorkas has no plans to resign, the DHS confirmed. The department asserted that the charges against Mayorkas were not only factually inaccurate but also failed to meet the constitutional standard of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Meanwhile, Biden, in early January, pushed back at congressional Republicans for having rejected his administrations request back in December 2022 for an additional $3.5 billion in funding for the DHS that he said would secure the border. Biden also said that Congress had also rejected his request for funds for 2,000 new asylum officers and personnel, and 100 new immigration judges so people dont have to wait years to get their claims adjudicated. Tom Homan, former acting ICE director and Heritage visiting fellow, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement on Friday: Joe Biden is the first president in my lifetime to intentionally un-secure the border. By way of more than 90 executive orders, he undid the successful Trump-era policies that brought illegal immigration to a 40-year low and gave us the most secure border of our lifetimes. He added: More Americans than ever dying from fentanyl flooding across the southwest border. More women and children abused and sexually assaulted on the dangerous journey through Central America and Mexico. More migrants found dead on U.S. soil than ever. Record profits for the cartels as they traffic and smuggle historic numbers of drugs and people across the border. Its inhumane. Its a slap in the face to the men and women of the Border Patrol, who are absolutely overwhelmed, as well as to ICE agents whove been told they cant detain or deport most of those who break our laws. Joe Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have embraced open borders for political benefit, and innocent people are the ones paying the consequences. Charlotte Cuthbertson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Japan Plans to Downgrade COVID-19 to Seasonal Flu Status, Evolve From Pandemic-Era Mandates Japan's Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare Katsunobu Kato, wearing a face mask, speaks during a budget committee meeting at the lower house of parliament on April 28, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images) Japan intends to downgrade the legal status of COVID-19 from a Class 2 disease to a Class 5 this spring, a decision that is expected to result in a major change in pandemic restrictions, with the government also planning to ease face mask rules. In order to return to our ordinary daily life in Japan while pursuing measures to adapt to living with the coronavirus, we will study concrete measures to gradually move on to a next step, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Friday, according to AP. The government intends to gradually change the measures in place. Kishida indicated that his administration will review face mask rules as well. COVID-19 is currently classified as equivalent to a Class 2 disease in Japan and, as such, is subject to strict measures like restrictions on the movement of infected individuals as well as their close contacts. Such steps are stricter than other Class 2 infectious diseases like SARS and tuberculosis. In recent weeks, the number of daily COVID-19 infections has fallen. However, Japan still sees roughly 100,000 new infections on a daily basis. Once the classification of COVID-19 is downgraded, it will remove self-isolation rules and other requirements and enable people infected with COVID-19 to seek treatment at any hospital rather than having to visit specialized facilities. Changing Pandemic-Era Regulations Under current rules, Tokyo can order people to be hospitalized if they are suspected of having COVID-19. Infected individuals also have to report their health status if the government requests them to do so. Once COVID-19 is moved to Class 5, it will be treated the same way as seasonal influenza, and quarantine rules will be eliminated. According to health minister Katsunobu Kato, the reclassification to Class 5 will ease the strain on the healthcare system as more hospitals and clinics will be able cater to COVID-19 patients. However, the reclassification will also mean that individuals will have more personal responsibility, he noted. With the categorization change, we will move from a system where the government intervenes when people test positive to one where people will take necessary action themselves, just like they do now when they contract seasonal flu, Kato said, according to The Japan Times. That would be the big change. The fundamental need to respond to the disease will remain unchanged. At present, Japan recommends the use of face masks indoors, the only exception being when people maintain a distance of two meters from each other. When outdoors, people are encouraged to wear masks when among a crowd. Kato said that the administration will soon begin discussions on relaxing the mask rules. However, we have yet to nail down the specifics. The change in COVID-19 classification might also mean that foreigners are allowed to enter Japan without taking a PCR test or submitting to quarantine. Chinese Visitors At a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that the government will review border controls for visitors. However, he expressed apprehension about lifting restrictions on visitors from China which is seeing a surge in infections. Tokyo will monitor Chinas infection situation and discuss how to deal with Chinese visitors. Based on estimates cited by the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times, the COVID-19 pandemic and the CCPs zero-COVID measures have brought about hundreds of millions of deaths in China. Japan has been slow in removing COVID-19 restrictions compared to other industrialized nations. In the United States, most pandemic restrictions have been lifted. In Britain, where border controls have also been lifted, such restrictions were removed in February last year. In South Korea, the government intends to soon do away with its mask mandate for indoor places. Judge Criticizes DeSantis But Doesnt Reinstate Suspended Prosecutor Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren addresses the media after learning he was suspended of his duties by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Tampa, Fla., on Aug. 4, 2022. (Octavio Jones/Reuters) A federal judge on Jan. 20 declined to reinstate a Tampa-area prosecutor suspended in August 2022 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Federal Judge Robert L. Hinkle criticized DeSantis throughout a 59-page opinion, saying the governors office investigation of suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren was politically motivated and cursory, and the official doing it didnt even take notes. Hinkle detailed that Warrens declarations that he wouldnt enforce certain laws were not, in fact, blanket prohibitions against doing so. But Hinkle ruled he didnt, as a federal judge, have the power under the U.S. Constitutions 11th Amendment to interfere in this type of state matter. Hinkle ruled that Warren could pursue the case in state courts, but his federal lawsuit was concluded. DeSantis suspended Warren by executive order on Aug. 4, 2022, claiming four of Warrens writings constituted blanket non-prosecution policies and arguing that those policies, in turn, showed neglect of duty and incompetence, among the reasons for which a Florida governor may legally suspend an official including a state attorney. State attorneys in Florida are elected. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks in Tampa, Fla., on July 22, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) In June, Warren and other prosecutors signed a document that said, enforcing abortion bans runs counter to the obligations and interests we are sworn to uphold. We decline to use our offices resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and commit to exercise our well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who provide or support abortions, the prosecutors stated. No other state attorneys in Florida signed the document. Warren, a Democrat, has put himself publicly above the law, DeSantis, a Republican, told reporters during a press conference. DeSantiss order also cited how Warrens office avoided prosecuting people who commit misdemeanors such as resisting arrest without violence, stating that the policies arent a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion and also usurp the authority of the Florida Legislature by not enforcing the law. DeSantis appointed Susan Lopez, whom he had previously appointed to a judgeship, as the interim prosecutor to replace Warren. DeSantiss action came against the backdrop of woke prosecutors declining to enforce laws in several large cities. Financier George Soros had contributed to many of them, directly or through intermediary organizations like the Democratic Party or the Tides Foundation. Hungarian-born U.S. investor and philanthropist George Soros looks on after having delivered a speech on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images) Hinkle considered the facts of the case at length after a non-jury trial. He found that DeSantis violated Warrens First Amendment rights but says the violations were not essential to the outcome and so do not entitle Mr. Warren to relief in this action. The suspension also violated the Florida Constitution, and that violation did affect the outcome. But the Eleventh Amendment prohibits a federal court from awarding declaratory or injunctive relief of the kind at issue against a state official based only on a violation of state law, Hinkle held. Hinkle ruled that Warrens claims against DeSantis under state lawthat DeSantis violated the Florida Constitutionare dismissed without prejudice under the 11th Amendment. That means that Warren can pursue the matter further. Warrens claim that DeSantis violated federal lawthe First Amendmentwas rejected with prejudice, meaning that case is closed, Hinkle wrote. Hinkle completely rejected the basis of DeSantiss suspension of Warren. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended elected State Attorney Andrew H. Warren, ostensibly on the ground that Mr.Warren had blanked policies not to prosecute certain kinds of cases. The allegation was false, wrote Hinkle, appointed to the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1996. Hinkle is a senior judge, meaning he is semi-retired but available to work part-time, according to Ballotpedia.org. Hinkle painted a picture of DeSantiss adviser Larry Keefe conducting a cursory investigation, one, evidence suggested, designed to find a progressive prosecutor for DeSantis to suspend for political purposes. But Hinkle didnt address the time span: Keefe began his work in December 2021, and Warren wasnt suspended until August, suggesting the investigation wasnt rushed. Factors in the case, Hinkle wrote, included how Warren did his job, his advocacy of what Hinkle termed reform-prosecutor positions associated with a left-leaning organization, a statement from which Warren signed, and two office policies, one dealing with bicycle and pedestrian stops and the other low-level offenses. This is not over, Warren said at a news conference. He did not specify what action hell take, but he can appeal in federal court or file a state lawsuit, according to reports. Warren accused DeSantis of abusing his power and suspending me not in the pursuit of justice, but in the pursuit of politics. Judge Puts Illinois Assault Weapon Ban on Hold Temporary restraining order issued by 14th Circuit Court judge In this photo illustration, a Rock River Arms AR-15 rifle is seen with ammunition in Miami on Dec. 18, 2012. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) An Illinois judge has blocked the gun control law Protecting Illinois Communities Act (the Act), enacted on Jan. 11, saying the state is violating a clear and discernible constitutional right and ignoring the publics right to know. Thomas DeVore represents Accuracy Firearms LLC and 866 other plaintiffs from 87 counties who requested a temporary restraining order (TRO) in the 14th Judicial Circuit Court on Jan. 17. He told The Epoch Times that the issue is about more than gun rights. His clients want to expose their states cavalier attitude toward the peoples right to be involved in the legislative process, he said. This is how they pass these laws, and we have to draw attention to it, DeVore said. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued a statement vowing to defend the new law. We disagree with the courts decision. We have filed a notice of appeal and will ask the Appellate Court to reverse and vacate the TRO, an email from Raouls office reads. Thomas DeVore. (Courtesy of Thomas DeVore) DeVores clients claim that the law was passed in a manner meant to hide the states true intentions until it was practically too late to act. He said the Illinois General Assembly has routinely ignored the constitutional process for so long that it has become the de facto process. It has become a process of disregarding the process, he said. DeVores clients claim that from Jan. 28, 2022, to Jan. 8, 2023, HB 5471 (also known as Public Act 102-116) was a change to the Illinois Insurance Code. DeVore said the bill initially required that insurance adjusters include email addresses in contracts. Then, over the course of two days, the law was gutted and changed to a gun control bill, passed through the General Assembly, then put before Gov. J.B. Pritzker for his signature. This was an insurance bill for 345 days, DeVore said. In his ruling, 14th Circuit Judge Joshua Morrison agreed. Morrison wrote that bills must be read publicly under Illinois law three times before they can be voted on or signed. This includes amendments or changes to proposed legislation. Except for the record of actions, the public record regarding this bill, including the hearings that were held, was almost entirely regarding this bill as an insurance regulation, Morrisons order reads. The order clarifies that the judge views the violation as more than a procedural error or oversight. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at a rally at the Federal Building Plaza in Chicago on April 27, 2022. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) The court finds that the defendants unequivocally and egregiously violated the three readings rule to circumvent the constitutional requirements and avoid public disclosure, the order reads. Morrison also ruled that the law causes the plaintiffs irreparable harm by violating their constitutional rights, has no adequate legal remedy for this harm, and violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail if their case goes to court. Weapon Ban The act was implemented on Jan. 11. The actwhich passed on a final vote of 6841bans certain types of semiautomatic rifles and magazines that hold more than 12 rounds of ammunition. The act defines a so-called assault weapon as a semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and features a pistol grip or thumbhole stock, a flash suppressor, a grenade launcher, a barrel shroud, or other features. A semiautomatic pistol that accepts a detachable magazine or may be modified to accept one has a threaded barrel, a second pistol grip, a flash suppressor, a barrel shroud, or other features also falls into this category, as do most AK- and AR-style rifles. Also banned are .50-caliber firearms. An AR-15 rifle at FT3 tactical shooting range in Stanton, Calif., on May 3, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Existing firearms are grandfathered in under the law if the owners register them and pay a fee. Under the act, the term of an Illinois Firearms Restraining Order (FRO) law is extended from six months to one year. The list of people who could ask the court for a FRO was expanded. A FRO is also known as a red flag law and authorizes the confiscation of firearms owned by people who may pose a risk to themselves or others. Gun rights supporters oppose these laws as they may not provide enough due process protection for the person whose property is being taken. The act also increases the age to obtain a firearm owner identification card (FOID) to 21. People younger than 21 can receive a FOID card if a parent or guardian signs it. The law would make exceptions for people younger than 21 serving in the U.S. military or Illinois National Guard. It would also permit guardian-supervised hunting or shooting sports. People look past crime tape near the scene of a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., on July 6, 2022. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images) On his webpage, state Rep. Bob Morgan, a Democrat, wrote that he was motivated to sponsor the act after a mass shooting on July 4, 2022. In that shooting, a 22-year-old man opened fire during a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois. He reportedly killed seven people and wounded dozens more. Hes currently facing more than 117 charges, including 21 counts of murder. Morgan didnt explain how his law would have prevented that shooting. The shooting occurred more than six months after HB 5471 was first introduced as a change to Illinois tax regulations. Much of State Is Red Since its implementation, most of Illinoiss sheriffs and several states attorneys have come out against the law. Several sheriffs made social media posts and issued public statements calling the law unconstitutional and vowing not to enforce it. In response, Pritzker said he would take any legal actions available to enforce the law. DeVore said three of the states most populous counties have a Democratic majority and have a firm grip on Illinois politics. He said this was the reason the law passed, even though a majority of the states county law enforcement officials opposed it. [The majority] of Illinois counties are deep red, he said. DeVore was a Republican candidate for attorney general in 2022, taking 44 percent of the vote to Kwames 53.8 percent. Part of DeVores platform was to expose how things were being done in the Illinois state Capitol. Labour Calls for UK Conservative Party Chairman Zahawi to Be Sacked Over Tax Claims Nadhim Zahawi, Conservative Party chairman and minister without portfolio, arrives at 10 Downing Street for a Cabinet meeting, in London, on Nov. 29, 2022. (Leon Neal/Getty Images) The British Labour Party has called on the prime minister to sack Tory Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi after he reportedly paid millions to settle a dispute over his tax. The former chancellor, who attends Rishi Sunaks Cabinet, has been under pressure since the Sun on Sunday revealed the tax dispute. He allegedly avoided tax by using an offshore company registered in Gibraltar to hold shares in the polling company he co-founded, YouGov. Labour called for an explanation after The Guardian reported on Friday that Zahawi paid HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) a 30 percent penalty, which was a seven-figure sum. The government website says a penalty of between 0 and 30 percent is due if it arises because of a lack of reasonable care. A deliberate error can incur a penalty of between 20 and 70 percent. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy leader Angela Rayner at the launch of Labours 2022 local election campaign at The Brown Cow, Burrs Country Park, Bury, Greater Manchester, England, on March 31, 2022. (Danny Lawson/PA) Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said on Friday: Rishi Sunak promised a government of integrity, professionalism, and accountability but instead hes propping up a motley crew of scandal-ridden ministers. Nadhim Zahawis story doesnt add up. The position of the man who was until recently in charge of the UKs tax system and who this prime minister appointed Conservative Party chair is now untenable. Its time for Rishi Sunak to put his money where his mouth is and dismiss Nadhim Zahawi from his Cabinet. Talking to the BBC on Saturday, Rayner said: The fact that Nadhim hasnt been out on the airwaves explaining himself, to me adds insult to injury, especially given that he called this smears at the time and sent legal letters to those that asked questions legitimately about it. And when youre the chancellor, who is in charge of the tax affairs of the UK, and youve got a wealth of that nature, you would be expected to know about your tax affairs or to seek that advice at the time as opposed to not paying those taxes and having to pay a penalty notice. She added: I believe his position is untenable. If hes lied and misled the public and HMRC regarding his tax affairs then I think his position is untenable. Right and Proper Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has defended Zahawi. He told Sky News: Nadhim has been very clear that hes paid all the tax that hes owed, that hes paid it on time, that theres nothing outstanding due, and I think thats of course right and proper. Asked whether he is confident that Zahawi is being open and honest about his tax affairs, Raab said: Yes, I think he has been in the way Ive described. Asked if Zahawi will still be in his post in a months time, Raab said: A months a long time in politics. I certainly hope so. He added: Theres no tax due. I mean, I think thats the critical point in this, but if theres further questions of course Im sure therell be the proper transparency. But Labours shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves rejected Raabs defence of Zahawi. She said after a speech at the Fabian Society: Dominic Raab, whos being investigated for bullying, is passing judgment on Nadhim Zahawi, whos just had a 1 million [$1.24 million] fine for not paying his taxes on time. That pretty much epitomises this Conservative Cabinet. A few months ago, he was chancellor of the Exchequer. You may forget because there were four of them last year, but he was chancellor of the Exchequer and responsible for Britains tax affairs and tax collection and we now find that he wasnt so keen to pay himself. So if the prime minister wants to stick by his commitment for integrity, honesty, and professionalism, he should do the right thing and sack Nadhim Zahawi. Special Treatment A spokesman for Zahawi previously said his taxes were properly declared and paid in the UK and the minister had never had to instruct any lawyers to deal with HMRC on his behalf. Sunak has defended him, telling Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday that Zahawi has already addressed this matter in full and theres nothing more that I can add. The prime ministers press secretary said Zahawi has spoken and been transparent with HMRC. On whether Sunak believes the matter is now closed, she said: I dont know whether the prime minister has reviewed it in full, but I do know that he takes Nadhim Zahawi at his word. A spokesperson for HMRC said that it could not comment on identifiable taxpayers. Labour suggested that an inquiry might be required to look into the matter and the party has now submitted a series of questions to HMRC seeking clarity over the allegations. In the letter, Rayner said: I understand that HMRCs position is that you do not comment on the tax affairs of individuals. However, given the public interest in this case as well as the serious questions raised about a potential conflict of interest at the heart of government, the public require answers. In particular, there appears to be an element of special treatment directed towards Nadhim Zahawi by HMRC, she claimed. PA Media contributed to this report. 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The lawsuit, filed by Speech First, a Washington-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense of freedom of expression on campuses, challenges several university policies that it says deter, suppress, and punish speech about political and social issues of the day. Under these policies, students can be disciplined for ambiguously defined intimidating speech, discussing politics in emails, commenting in class, or even, in the words of the University, for showing a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, the group said in a Jan. 10 statement. In an interview with The Epoch Times, Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, no relation to Donald Trump, said that contrary to what people might expect, some of the most serious cases of censorship that have come to her organizations attention have happened on campuses in red states, namely Texas, Florida, and now Oklahoma. For a university to try to censor words and curtail students legal political activities, while drawing on taxpayer money, sets the school directly at odds with the explicit language of the First Amendment, Trump noted. Public universities are taxpayer funded, and therefore extensions of the state, and they are going to be very much more beholden to the Constitution than private universities, Trump said. Obviously, Oklahoma is a red state and you would think they would be favorable to the Constitution. But students there have told us the campus is not friendly to free speech. Trump said that the public character of the university hasnt stopped it from enacting and enforcing official policies that bar students from engaging in online activity that wouldnt get them into trouble at most schools and that make it easy for one student to report another for perceived bias, without offering a clear definition of what such bias does or doesnt entail. This has resulted in a censorious atmosphere and an environment where students who might otherwise want to engage in good faith in discussion or debate over social and political topics refrain from speaking up, for fear of the potential consequences. In its complaint against OSU, filed in the Western District of Oklahoma on Jan. 10, Speech First draws attention to the schools policies regarding the use of computers, under which its a punishable offense for a student to use his or her OSU email account to transmit political campaigning. Under OSUs Code of Conduct, the complaint alleges, violations of this policy can result in the offender being locked out of the schools network. The complaint characterizes OSUs email accounts and internet networks as traditional public forums and charges that the prohibition against the transmission of such political content amounts to a content-based restriction on political speech and therefore a violation of the First Amendment. Right to Assemble In her interview with The Epoch Times, Trump characterized this prohibition as one that would curtail totally harmless activities, not just on the part of conservative students but of those with any ideology or affiliation. You have college Democrats and Republicans. What if they want to host a campaign watch with their fellow students? If they send out an email, would they lose access to their email account? she said. Another section of the complaint addresses the universitys policies with respect to bias incidents. These policies complement, and go considerably further than, the bans already in place at OSU against harassment, bullying, verbal abuse, and threats, the complaint charges. On top of its speech codes, the university has adopted a bias incidents policy designed to deter, suppress, and punish disfavored and controversial speech, the complaint states. In that policy, according to the plaintiffs, the school relies heavily on a vagueness and lack of definition so severe as to fall afoul of commonly understood legal standards under the vagueness doctrine codified through such landmark Supreme Court decisions as Grayned v. City of Rockford in 1972. The complaint cites the definition, in OSUs official policies, of bias as a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is close-minded, prejudicial, or unfair and of a bias incident as actions committed against or directed toward a person or property that are motivated, in whole or in part, by a bias against a person or group of persons who possess common characteristics. The vagueness of such definitions falls far short of commonly accepted legal standards, and under this standard, making a comment such as Democrats are wrong about the economy could be considered a bias incident subject to disciplinary action. The complaint goes on to enumerate some of the instances of speech subject to the bias incident policy, such as a Comment in Class, a Comment in Writing, an Offensive Picture or Image, or even Incorrect name or pronoun usage. Informing on Others OSU explicitly encourages anyone who has seen or experienced such a bias incident to report it using the Bias Incident Report form posted on the universitys website, the complaint notes. People can submit such reports anonymously, and they are encouraged to provide the personal details of the alleged perpetrators of such incidents, including their name, phone number, email address, and other sensitive personal information. The complaint lists, but doesnt name, a number of students who have come to the attention of Speech First because they feel that their mainstream positions on certain issues, such as opposition to illegal immigration, affirmative action, or abortion, or criticisms of Black Lives Matter, might incur charges of harassment or bias, and they feel too cowed to express their views in class or even to engage in discussion of these topics at all. The definitions of bias and harassment that OSU has codified are unconstitutionally vague, Speech Firsts complaint alleges. Students know this definition could mean anything, anyone who has an opinion you disagree with. Its all determined by how someone interprets something that youve said, Trump said. Our goal is to get these policies removed or rewritten. Trump said she believes the OSUs lawyers are currently working on a reply brief. OSUs policies arent unique but are increasingly favored at universities that draw on taxpayer funds. One case where Speech First brought a successful challenge involved the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Speech Firsts attorneys argued the case before the 11th Circuit Court and brought about a settlement under which the university agreed to abolish its bias response team and refrain from bringing it back in anything close to the same form. In response to an inquiry from The Epoch Times about the Speech First lawsuit, a representative of Oklahoma State University didnt address any of the specific claims raised, saying it was inappropriate to comment on pending litigation. Oklahoma State University values and cherishes everyones right to free expression on campus as an essential pillar of democracy. The free exchange of ideas and opinions is part of the educational experience and fosters excellent critical thinking insight. We respect different viewpoints and strive to promote healthy and considerate discussion, the spokesperson wrote in an email. Man Charged for Killings 2 Dogs in Sun Valley Home Invasion SAN FERNANDO, Calif.A man arrested on suspicion of killing at least two dogs in Sun Valley was charged Friday with animal cruelty. Alejandro Flores, 45, of Sun Valley, is charged with five counts of animal cruelty, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office. He is set to be arraigned Monday at the San Fernando courthouse. Flores was arrested by officers, who were called to the 9200 block of Cayuga Avenue about 3:40 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Witnesses advised that the suspect was in the backyard of a residence, armed with a knife, and was possibly being attacked by dogs at the property, police said in a statement. Witnesses advised that the suspect was also stabbing dogs at the location. Arriving officers saw the suspect with a knife in his right hand, and saw two dead dogs in the yard, police said. A use-of-force occurred, and the suspect was taken into custody without further incident, police said. Officers made contact with the homeowners and learned that the suspect was a known relative who resided at the location. An injured dog was taken to an animal shelter in unknown condition, police said. Flores has remained behind bars since his arrest, according to jail records. McCarthy Declares End of Controversial Proxy Voting in House of Representatives House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks at a news conference in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, on Jan. 12, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday declared an end to the controversial practice of proxy voting that allowed lawmakers to cast their votes remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. No more proxy voting, McCarthy declared. Effective immediately, Members of Congress have to show up to work if they want their vote to count. The controversial proxy voting system in the U.S. House of Representatives was extended one final time through the Christmas period until the end of the 117th Congress on Jan. 3 by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who cited an ongoing public health emergency. Pelosi originally pushed the absentee voting measure through Congress in May 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and consistently extended it thereafter. The measure passed by a vote along party lines in January 2021, allowing lawmakers to work from home amid the pandemic while purportedly satisfying the Constitutions requirement that lawmakers be present at Capitol Hill to vote on and approve legislation. This was achieved by allowing other legislators to vote on their behalf. Proxy voting was expected to be in effect for a limited time under the provisions outlined in H.R. 965, sponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) because not much was known about COVID-19 in 2020. Republicans and the chambers sole independent member, Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), voted unanimously against the rule. Only three Democrats voted against it. Since its approval, Republicans have generally been against the proxy voting measure. Mostly Used by Democrats The Ripon Society conducted a study and found that the proxy voting practice was mainly and extensively used by Democrats in 2021. According to the study, most Republican House members have avoided using it. Out of the 17,263 proxy votes cast in 2021, representing 9.3 percent of all votes that year, 72.4 percent were cast by Democrats and 27.6 percent were cast by Republicans. Out of the 440 members in the House, 339 of them utilized the proxy voting system at least once. Broken down by party, 89.78 percent of Democratic House members, or 202 of 225, have used the proxy voting system at least once. In contrast, 63.72 percent of Republican House members, or 137 of 215, have voted by proxy at least once. McCarthy previously attempted to have the proxy voting rules overturned by the judiciary. However, an appeals court ruled in favor of Pelosi, which prompted Republicans to take their case to the Supreme Court. McCarthy and other Republicans argued in their petition that the practice of proxy voting was illegal, citing a clause in Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution, which states that lawmakers shall not be questioned in any other place. Pelosi, on the other hand, argued that the Constitution gave the House the authority to make its own rules. In the end, the Supreme Court denied the Republican request, upholding the previous ruling by the appeals court that courts do not have the jurisdiction to rule on internal House rules. Joseph Lord contributed to this report. This report has been updated to include the date proxy voting officially ended. Meet the Man Who Pens Stories of Weird and Wonderful Canadian Folklore and History Mysteries, legends, and the unexplained are all fodder for Hammerson Peters In 1795, settler Daniel McGinnis discovered a curious depression in a forest clearing on Oak Island off the southeast coast of Nova Scotia. With the help of friends, he began to dig, hoping to find a rumoured trove of pirate treasure. At a depth of 90 feet, McGinnis uncovered a stone slab with strange markings. After digging a few feet deeper, the shaft filled with seawater. As it turned out, a 500-foot horizontal tunnel connected the money pit to an ocean cove. Artifacts discovered in the 200 years since have only added to the mystery. I honestly have no idea what happened on Oak Island, but I am convinced that something happened, and something very unusual, writer Hammerson Peters said in an interview. Parchment, leather, and bones belonging to a 17th-century Arabian woman do not wind up 160 feet underground on a tiny Nova Scotian island by accident. This intriguing mystery is just one of many Peterson has written about. The fiddler and carver who grew up in the Pacific Northwest unearths and writes about hidden gems of Canadian history, exploring unexplained accounts from past centuries and our own. Peters began to pen northern tales in 2016 when the self-described history nerd got a writing gig that took on a life of its own. For as long as I can remember, Ive enjoyed reading about different historical events and periods. I was drawn to Western Canadian history in particular after high school, because I could actually go and visit the places I read about, he says. I ended up getting paid to write articles for a site called MysteriesOfCanada.com which specialized in Canadian history and mysteries. I began to dabble in both genres and found that the mystery articles I wrote tended to get a lot more views than the historical ones, so I focused my attention on those. The Oak Island mystery was an early topic of Peters writing. In time, he penned The Oak Island Encyclopedia in two volumes. However, his first book was the 2018 work, Legends of the Nahanni Valley. Nearby Dene and Slavey tribes spoke of fearsome and hairy giant wildmen, called the Nakani, who lived near the South Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories. Traders, explorers, and missionaries put the accounts to writing. Later, in 1908, the discovery of two decapitated gold prospectors gave the gorge a new moniker: The Valley of Headless Men. Canadian history prior to the 20th century is completely intertwined with First Nations history, Peters says. Since most natives, historically speaking, did not make a distinction between the natural and preternatural worlds, it is impossible to learn Canadian history without also learning something about First Nations belief, some elements of which wed call folklore. The Nahanni Valley held other mysteries in more recent years. Peters interviewed Frank Graves who explored the area in 1965. Graves spoke of a giant white wolf-like creature he fired at with a shotgun, though strangely to no effect. Cryptid zoologist Ivan Sanderson called the beast a dire wolf, or Waheela, and speculated it might be an Amphicyon, a bear dog left over from prehistoric times. Peters intersperses the accounts of anthropologists and fur traders with more contemporary reports, some shared firsthand. But he says ghost ships, dwarves, medicine men, and slips in time where past and future temporarily overlap are just some of the topics that he would have dismissed as fantasy at an earlier stage of life. I became a true believer in the reality of certain unexplained phenomena, namely ghosts, wildmen, and UFOs despite that we cannot yet wrap our heads around them, he says. What I find especially compelling is when history and mystery intersectwhen I come across an old primary source describing an experience with an unexplained phenomenon which corresponds perfectly with modern accounts of the same thing. Although many people cling to their preconceived notion that the material world is all there is, Peters says, there are also many who are more broad-minded. Most Canadians, I think, are open-minded enough to recognize that theres more to existence than that which our limited human faculties allow us to perceive and comprehend, despite what the humanists and atheists would have us believe, he says. A Bottomless Well Peters wrote Mysteries of Canada Volume I in 2019 and published Volume III last year. He promotes his six books on his self-named website and YouTube channel, which has over 12.2 million views. Here, mystery and history, research and creativity, intersect. About half of the music I use in my videos is of my own making, and comprised of 100 percent real instruments and vocalsa fact that I am very proud of. Theyre just simple background loops nothing very complicated, musically-speakingbut Im pleased with the flavour they give my videos. I write the music and hire freelance musicians to play [or] sing the various parts for me, unless I need a fiddle part, in which case I play it myself, Peters said. What does surprise me are the things people like about my work. For example, I get so many comments from people telling me how much they enjoy my narration, but I really dont like the sound of my own voice. Some of Peters videos are short, while others are long-form documentaries, such as Ogopogo: Canadas Loch Ness Monster, which lasts more than two hours. His exploration of the famous but elusive creature of Okanagan Lake began at the request of his cousins but turned into a three-year research project. The author said its difficult to balance regular updates to his YouTube channel and wrap up longer projects. His research keeps opening new possibilities, as do people who come to him with accounts neither they nor he can explain. One thing Ive wanted to research for over a year now is the phenomenon of flying humanoids, expressly because a subscriber, who strikes me as very sincere, got in touch with me to tell me about a very eerie experience he had in an Ontario city some years back. This project will require a lot of research, and will probably result in a feature-length video. In 1930, historian Harold Innis wrote that Canada was settled by hewers of wood and drawers of water. Ironically, that history itself has become deep waters for Peters. Im actually astonished at the amount of Canadian material there is. Its like drawing from a bottomless well. Whenever I research a story, Ill come across at least two more stories in the process, or even a whole new aspect of Canadian history of which Id previously been ignorant, he said. Unfortunately, I think its fair to say that most Canadians are not only unaware of the richness of our countrys history, but also have false conceptions of it due to misinformation propagated by the educational systems and mainstream media. More Cash but Australian Schools Dont Make the Grade School students arrive for the first day of face-to-face schooling in Brisbane, Australia, May 11, 2020. (AAP Image/Dan Peled) Students are struggling and so are teachers. Thats the conclusion of a scathing review into Australias education sector with the number of students failing literacy and numeracy standards not budging despite extra funding being pumped into schools. The Productivity Commission review of the National School Reform Agreement found almost 90,000 students each year failed to meet minimum reading or numeracy standards. Indigenous students were three times more likely to fall behind at school, the report found, as were those with parents who had lower levels of education. Commissioner Natalie Siegel-Brown recommended Australian governments commit to firm literacy and numeracy targets to lift results. Targets do not guarantee success but they create a clear direction for reform and make governments accountable, Siegel-Brown said. The commissioner said a lack of data for students in regional and remote areas, as well as those with a disability and from disadvantaged backgrounds, meant states and territories werent being held accountable. As well, teacher shortages meant they often had to teach subjects they were not trained for. Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the report was pretty damning and while Australia had a good education system, it could be a lot better. I dont want your chances in life to be dependent on where you live, Clare said. But this report tells us if you are a child from a poor family, Indigenous, from the bush, you are less likely to meet the standards. Clare said school funding needed to be tied to education reform and be targeted. This report doesnt say, cut funding for schools where theyre not getting results, Clare said. What its saying is, get targeted reforms in place to help those schools. The Australia Education Union said the government also needed to look at inequitable funding arrangements between public and private schools. The unions president Correna Haythorpe said there has been a denial of full and fair funding for the 2.7 million kids in Australias public schools, which was overlooked by the review. The current funding agreements are so deeply flawed because they leave public schools way below the minimum funding standards, Haythorpe said. Improving educational outcomes for all students cannot be separated from school funding. The Independent Education Unions Queensland and Northern Territory branch secretary Terry Burke said educators were overwhelmed by admin work and their students results would not improve unless teacher workloads improved. Paperwork, more red tape and an obsession with data are sucking the life out of our profession, Burke said in a statement. The federal government is working to address teacher shortages in rural areas by offering to scrap student debt for teachers who spend four years teaching in a remote community. It will save teachers an average of $35,000 (US$24,370), with up to 2000 people able to immediately benefit and an additional 500 extra teachers expected to become eligible each year. Ontario Doctors Critical of COVID Policies Rejected by Medical College in Their Motion to Stop Disciplinary Hearings A health worker draws out a Moderna vaccine dose during a drive-through COVID-19 vaccine clinic at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ont., on Jan. 2, 2022. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press) An Ontario medical college tribunal has rejected a motion by three doctors critical of COVID-19 policies who sought to stop disciplinary hearings against them. The doctors are at risk of losing their licences for allegedly committing professional misconduct in certain actions they engaged in while taking issue with some of the COVID-related public health directions given by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSO), such as to do with vaccination and treatment. The doctors involved are Mark Trozzi, Patrick Phillips, and Crystal Luchkiw, who argued in their motion that the CPSOs prosecution against them is unlawful on jurisdictional grounds. Allegations against them include making misleading, incorrect or inflammatory statements about vaccinations, treatments and public health measures concerning COVID-19, failing to cooperate with College investigations, and issuance of vaccine exemptions. The trio have been speaking out against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions publicly, appearing in videos and interviews. Currently being suspended from their practice, they sought to have the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal dismiss their cases without referring them to merits hearings. Their argument was based on both administrative law and constitutional law. The administrative law argument asserted that the allegations are based on investigations that college registrar Dr. Nancy Whitmore lacked statutory authority to launch. The constitutional law argument was that the allegations relied on the colleges COVID-related direction that itself breached two guarantees in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: freedom of expression and the right to life, liberty, or security of the person. The tribunal dismissed their motion on Jan. 19. In our view, several court decisions (involving physicians including the three moving parties before us) released before our hearing of the motion have effectively disposed of the administrative law arguments, the tribunal ruled. The tribunal added that a charter ruling should not be made on the motion as the doctors charter arguments could be relevant at the disciplinary hearings, where the doctors can argue that the panel has to apply a constitutional analysis to determine whether and to what extent the [CPSOs] Statements can support findings of professional misconduct. Merely Guidelines The tribunal noted that in 2021 and 2022, the CPSO published statements on its website as guidance to the profession about COVID-19. The statements centred on medical exemptions for vaccines, whether precautionary drugs should be prescribed to combat COVID-19, and concerns about misleading or deceptive comments made by some doctors that put the public at risk by rejecting scientific evidence and encouraging conduct that is contrary to public health orders and recommendations. The doctors contested that the statements were merely guidelines and not binding legal norms, and that the college was attempting to limit free speech and discipline them on the basis of prohibitions or directions that it has no statutory authority to order. They submitted that the Statements amount to a direction that limits medical exemptions, curtails physician comments about COVID-19, targets anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers and impedes the discussion for informed consent of patients to the use of precautionary medications, the tribunal said in its ruling. The CPSO did not disagree with the doctors. The tribunal held that the college was not seeking a finding of professional misconduct based on a breach of its statements, but for other alleged actions. In addition, the tribunal held that since the college agreed that its COVID statements are only guidelines, the doctors charter challenge on the motion has become hypothetical. Fishing Expeditions The doctors argued that the investigation launched by Whitmore exceeded her jurisdiction when she authorized investigators to engage in overly broad fishing expeditions, requesting them to cooperate and provide documents including in relation to COVID-19 and [his or her] completion of medical exemptions for COVID-19 vaccinations and diagnostic testing. The registrar had said she had reasonable and probable grounds to believe the doctors had committed acts of professional misconduct or were incompetent, the tribunal heard. Objections to the investigations were heard previously in a Divisional Court and Superior Court, but werent successful. Response Attorney Michael Alexander, who represents all three doctors, told The Epoch Times in an email that he and his clients will be seeking a review of the tribunals ruling. The hearing panel simply refused to address our key submission, which was that the Registrar, Dr. Nancy Whitmore, did not have reasonable and probable grounds to order investigations of the doctors, he wrote. Furthermore, the panel also ignored our submission that the College had failed to establish that the doctors had violated a standard of practice. On the tribunals stance to regard CPSOs statements as merely guidelines and not binding rules or regulations, Alexander said, in taking this position, the panel could not explain the basis for the charges brought against the doctors. This decision does not meet the most basic standards of legal reasoning. Thus, we plan to appeal the decision within the College and also bring another motion to resolve these issues, he said. The dates of the disciplinary hearings have yet to be scheduled. Paper-Thin Supply Sparks Australian School Books Fear Test scores in our elementary and secondary schools are either stagnant or falling. (Syda Productions/Shutterstock) Parents shopping for back-to-school stationery could face price hikes and empty shelves, as logistics and materials pressures cause suppliers to ration goods. The Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association has called on the federal government to ease white paper import duties, after timber shortages blocked production at Australias last white paper mill in Victoria. Theres some rationing sort of going on around the amount that we can order but weve still got product on shelves, association chief executive Ben Kearney told AAP. Down the line we might start to see that situation where theres a lack of availability. Kearney said newsagents and other retailers were looking at a more than 50 percent increase in paper costs over a matter of months. White paper production at Opal Australian Papers Maryvale mill was impacted in late December due to timber shortages after state-owned supplier VicForests was ordered to scale back harvesting in parts of Victoria. The Victorian Supreme Court found VicForests failed to adequately survey logging coupes for two protected possum species. VicForests is appealing against the decision, with a hearing in the Court of Appeal on Mar. 23. Office product companies have called for an end to white paper import tariffs as shortages push them towards foreign paper. The tariffs were there to stop injury to the Australian manufacturing market, but there is no Australian manufacturing market at the moment, Office Brands chief executive Adam Joy told AAP. The association and Office Brands said they supported workers at Maryvale mill and hoped the supply disruption would be resolved as quickly as possible. A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Australias import duties were low at 5 percent. And under Australias existing network of free trade agreements, FTA partners have duty-free access into Australia, including major countries supplying paper into Australia, such as China and Indonesia, it said in a statement. The Department of Industry, Science and Resources, which handles anti-dumping and countervailing duties, acknowledged the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Associations concerns about the supply of white copy paper. We encourage all purchasers to continue to engage with Opal Australian Paper in the hope that any supply disruption can be minimised or avoided, a department spokesman said. The rules governing anti-dumping measures are complicated and require inquiries to be undertaken by the independent Anti-Dumping Commissioner before changes to existing duties can be made. The CFMEU is calling for an audit on the amount of white paper available in the country and wants the Victorian and federal governments to intervene to reinstate production at Maryvale. The manufacturing union flagged a potential shortfall in paper products including doctor scripts, exercise books and government services documentation. We dont have a sense of how much white paper is actually available in the country, secretary of the Pulp and Paper Workers District, Denise Campbell-Burns told AAP. The disruption at Opal has led to 49 production workers being stood down, but their pay will be guaranteed by the Victorian government until mid-February. Opal, owned by Japans Nippon Paper Group, said no decision on further stand-downs had been made, but it was considering scaling down white paper manufacturing. On Wednesday, Victorian Environment Minister Ingrid Stitt said talks were continuing between the government and Opal. Parents Use Inclusion Rules to Remove LGBT Symbols From School School choice advocates hold signs as they rally outside the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on March 4, 2015. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) Putting up signage that represents only sexual minority groups is not inclusive, parents told New Jerseys Long Valley Middle School. For about five years, the middle school posted square signs showing a rainbow triangle outside many of its classrooms, parents said. This designated the classrooms as a safe space for LGBT students. But the school lacked signage declaring any safe spaces for other groups, said local Board of Education member John Holly. And for this reason, the rainbow triangle signs violated the schools policies. Theyre saying that these stickers are safe spaces for some kids, but our view was the classrooms in our schools need to be safe spaces for all kids, Holly told The Epoch Times, noting that he is giving his personal opinion and not speaking in his capacity as a board member or military officer. An LGBT safe zone designation in Long Valley Middle School in Long Valley, New Jersey. (Courtesy of John Holly) Long Valley Middle Schools online Vision page announces that the school values diversity. Furthermore, its township school boards first goal is to monitor the school to create a plan that embraces the diversity of all students. The school has an LGBT club called Free 2 Be for sixth to eighth grade students. But its failure to sufficiently encourage non-LGBT students left the school open to many legal troubles, Holly said. The rainbow triangle signs were supposed to prevent bullying and self-harm, he explained, but, ironically, this also suggested certain parts of the school might be open to these activities. What happens when a kid goes into a classroom when theres no sticker? Does that room become unsafe? he asked. What about the school buses? Theres no stickers on the school buses. Even worse, if a child not included in the sticker self-harmed or experienced bullying, it suggested the school didnt mind, said Holly. John Holly, a school board member in Long Valley, N.J. (Courtesy of John Holly) Are we not opening ourselves to a massive lawsuit for preferential treatment of this group of kids as opposed to another group? he asked. Political Pressure The rainbow signs also made school employment political, Holly said. The principal of the school had a pro-LGBT sticker on his office door. But not all teachers did. Imagine if your boss is putting his politics on his door, and you happen to not agree with that, Holly said. Its difficult for [employees] to raise their voice on an issue like that when their boss has clearly chosen sides. Holly voiced his concerns in a school board meeting alongside other parents. Pushing ideology while people are teaching your kids is wrong, he told the school board on Dec. 13, 2022. In the same meeting, he noted that the last six accusations of bullying the school dealt with did not touch on sexual preference. Another parent, Matt Hackenberg, said he supported children learning about LGBT issues, but deemed the stickers inappropriate. Kids need to learn about their sexuality and things like that, he said. Everyone needs to just get along. Lets stop creating these classifications and these divisions. Some opposed his request. Michelle Rupert, a mother and teacher, spoke out. I just cant process why any adult would want to remove a sticker that literally says a safe place on it. As a lesbian and genderqueer individual, I can say the LGBTQ+ community is constantly bullied and belittled in our school system, stated Rose, a Long Valley student. The safe zone rainbow stickers let kids like me know that they are not alone despite their differences. Voicing Values According to local parent Meghan Teeling, many parents felt disturbed by their childrens exposure to LGBT ideology. A lot of this is a social contagion, she said. When they are treated as a special, prioritized group, I think youve got kids that are influenced in a way that they otherwise wouldnt be, she said. The stickers were yet another example of an LGBT ideology seemingly eager to thrust itself into every childs life, Teeling said. Watching banners with political messages unfurl over places where children go to school bothered her. Its just not appropriate, and it favors one particular group and ideology, Teeling said. If the school intended to prevent self-harm and bullying, its standard programs should be enough, she added, questioning why a particular group needed its symbol in most of the schools classrooms. I dont have any disrespect for anyone who feels that way, Teeling said. I just dont feel its the public schools place to be forcing that upon my child or anyone elses. It doesnt align with our familys values. Even so, parents didnt expect to win the fight to remove them, she said. We just kept fighting because these are our kids, she said. These are the students that my children are going to have as peers. Teeling, Holly, and local Cassie Anderson said Long Valley Middle School told them placing the stickers in school was a student-led effort. Superintendent Peter Turnamian told parents the initiative was student-led, said Anderson. Still, they strongly suspected the students themselves didnt have much to do with it. Holly noted the rainbow signs werent just in places where students had access. Some were in faculty rooms. Others were in the teachers conference room. They looked professionally designed and were laminated. Youre gonna tell me that the students put up that flag in the conference room for the teachers? Holly asked. The Epoch Times couldnt find where these stickers might be available online. How do students get these types of things implemented? Why did they have to do this? Anderson said she asked faculty. We never got straight answers. And that bothered many of us. What Makes Something Inclusive? Teeling said she would understand putting up special stickers for one group of children if they were experiencing more bullying than others. But to her knowledge, that was not the case with Long Valley middle schoolers. I would venture to guess that thats probably not the situation, she said. Teeling said she saw flags for new gender identities like pansexual, demisexual, and aromantic in the schools display cases but doesnt know how many children in the school of 800 even identify as such. It pushes beyond teaching a message of inclusivity and respect, and goes into an area that I just dont feel is appropriate for our educators to be pushing on kids, she added. A school bus waits to pick up children outside an elementary school in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Jan. 19, 2023. (Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times) Anderson also noted that Long Valley deployed the rainbow stickers while it struggled to keep up with basic education. Get the focus off the sex and put it back on academics, she said. The signs were taken down over winter break. In response to parents requests, Long Valley Middle School changed its poster strategy. It now shows its commitment to helping all students by using a likeness of its school mascot, a panther, Turnamian announced at a board meeting two weeks ago. We did get clarity on legal opinion and counsel on whether or not the placards and flags should remain up or come down, and I remained engaged with our legal team throughout the break, he said. Turnamian noted the LGBT rainbow signage left the school vulnerable to accusations of point of view favoritism. The new picture would be a more common symbol thats developed by our students with feedback from our school community and is aligned and born from our SEL (Social Emotional Learning) ongoing Social Emotional Learning work, he told the meeting. The Epoch Times reached out to Long Valley Middle School, but they declined comment. Pressure Builds to Send Tanks to Kyiv; Russian Forces Close In on Bakhmut Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin delivers a closing statement during a press conference at Ramstein Air Base in Ramstein, western Germany, on Sept. 8, 2022. (Andre Pain/AFP via Getty Images) Leading allies of Kyiv are slated to meet Friday in Germany as pressure mounts on Berlin to provide the Ukrainian military with German-made Leopard combat tanks. Russian sources, meanwhile, continue to report battlefield gains following the Jan. 10 capture of Soledar, a salt-mining town in the Donetsk region. A tank fires a round amid Russias attack on Ukraine in Soledar, Donetsk region, in this screen grab released on Jan. 8, 2023. (State Border Guard Service of Ukraine/via Reuters) New German Defense Chief Vows Support Only hours after being sworn in on Jan. 19, Boris Pistorius, Germanys newly-appointed defense minister, hosted talks with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. During the meeting, Austin reportedly urged Pistorius to approve the delivery of German combat tanks to Ukraine. Poland and Finland have both pledged to send Leopard tanks, which are widely used by NATO-aligned armies, if Berlin greenlights the move. The United Kingdom promised to give Ukraine 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks and a range of other advanced offensive equipment. If fulfilled, it would be the first delivery of western-made tanks to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country almost 11 months ago. A Challenger 2 tank fires during Exercise Tractable in Salisbury, England, on March 19, 2015. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) Allies Meet in Germany In Germany, the issue of sending tanks to Ukraine has proven contentious, with Berlin slow to approve the move. Christine Lambrecht, Pistorius predecessor, resigned on Monday amid mounting pressure on her and her government to approve tank deliveries. The Kremlin, for its part, has warned that western-supplied tanks would burn on the field and fail to turn the tide of battle. After meeting with Austin, Pistorius stressed his countrys continued support for Ukraine in its struggle for freedom and territorial independence and sovereignty. He did not, however, mention the sought-after tank deliveries. A U.S. Navy aircraft flies over the Ramstein Air Base of the U.S. Air Force in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, on Aug. 26, 2021. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images) Russia Claims More Gains in Donetsk Meanwhile, Russian sources continue to report gains on the battlefield, especially in the Donetsk region. In September, Moscow incorporated Donetskand three other regions of Ukraineinto the Russian Federation. Encouraged by its powerful allies, Kyiv has vowed to recover all lost territories. Russian forces fighting in Donetsk include the Donetsk Peoples Militia and the Wagner Group, a paramilitary organization directed by the Kremlin. On Jan. 19, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his forces had captured Klishchiivka, a village near the strategic town of Bakhmut, which has long been the scene of fierce fighting. We can safely say that the settlement of Klishchiivka has been completely taken under the control of Wagner PMC units, Prigozhin said in a statement. On Jan. 20, the Russian Defense Ministry also asserted that Russian forces had captured Klishchiivka. The Epoch Times was unable to verify the assertions. Klishchiivka is located roughly 6 miles south of Bakhmut (Artyomovsk in Russian), a key transport hub for Ukrainian forces. Control of Klishchiivka could pave the way for Bakhmuts encirclement, thereby trapping Ukrainian forces in what Russian strategists call a cauldron. Last week, Russian forces overran the town of Soledar, located roughly 5 miles northeast of Bakhmut. According to military experts, the fall of Bakhmut would disrupt Ukrainian supply lines and pave the way for a Russian advance on key Ukrainian positions to the northwest. A Ukrainian soldier stays covered in Bakhmut, Donetsk region of Ukraine, on Sept. 25, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images) No Quick Fix in Bakhmut: Wagner Chief According to a commander of the Moscow-backed Luhansk Peoples Militia, Bakhmut is now surrounded on all but one side by Russian forces. Bakhmut is close to operational blockade, Apty Alaudinov said in televised comments on Jan. 19. He added: The enemy is pinned down from all sides. The Wagner Groups Prigozhin, however, dismissed reports that Ukrainian troops were now in the process of fleeing the town. Contrary to various opinions that Ukrainian forces are fleeing Bakhmut, this is not so, he said, adding that Ukrainian troops in the area were well-entrenched. As of the time of writing, officials in Kyiv had yet to respond to Russias purported battlefield gains. Reuters contributed to this report. Record-High 250,000 Illegal Immigrant Encounters Across USMexico Border in December 2022: CBP 'Our new border enforcement measures are working,' CBP official says Illegal aliens seeking asylum line up to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at a gap in the border fence U.S.Mexico near San Luis, Ariz., on Dec. 26, 2022. (Rebecca Noble/AFP via Getty Images) The number of illegal immigrant encounters across the U.S. southern border for December 2022 rose to a monthly record, with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) reporting a figure that topped a quarter of a million. The 251,487 encounters, according to CBP data, surpasses the previous record of 241,136 in May 2022; its also 7 percent higher than the month-earlier number of 234,896. The most recent tally also far surpasses December enforcement encounters in the prior two years: 179,253 in 2021, and 73,994 in 2020. Among the December encounters, 14 percent of involved individuals who had been stopped by a U.S. border agent in the previous 12 months. There were a total of 216,162 unique encounters in December 2022, which is 11 percent higher than a month earlier. The increase is driven largely by an increased number of individuals fleeing authoritarian regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua, CPB says. New Border Enforcement Measures Despite the record-breaking figure, CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said that the Biden administrations efforts at the border have been effective. The December update shows our new border enforcement measures are working. Even as overall encounters rose we continued to see a sharp decline in the number of Venezuelans unlawfully crossing our southwest border, down 82 percent from September 2022, Miller said in a statement. Early data suggests the expanded measures for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans are having a similar impact, and we look forward to sharing the additional data in the next update. Millers remarks refer to the Biden administrations recent border changes, which include a parole program to focus on Venezuelans that was begun in October 2022. The program allows up to 24,000 Venezuelans to enter the United States under parole authority, which grants them entry and work authorization for a year, but isnt a legal status. A Venezuelan national must meet certain criteria to be eligible, including having a sponsor in the United States to provide financial and other support. Under the parole program, Venezuelans who walk or swim across the border as of Oct. 12, 2022, will be returned to Mexico under the Trump-era policy Title 42, which allows for blocking asylum claims and swift expulsion of most unauthorized border crossers under the grounds of keeping contagious diseases out of the United States. Until Oct. 12, 2022, Venezuelans werent subject to expulsion under Title 42 because neither their home country nor another country was willing to take them. Prior to the new measures, illegal immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico were subject to expulsion from the United States under Title 42. Read More New Biden Administration Immigration Program Adds Loopholes to Title 42 Order Biden Expands Parole Authority President Joe Biden in early January expanded the parole program to nationals of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti, which means they can apply for parole, and if they meet eligibility criteria, they can receive a two-year permit to work in the United States. Now, the nationals from these three countries and Venezuela who unlawfully cross the U.S. southern border are now also subject to expulsion under Title 42, with Mexico agreeing to receive up to 30,000 expelled people a month. Miller attributed the rising number of overall enforcement encounters in December 2022 to smugglers spreading misinformation around the court-ordered lifting of the Title 42 public health order. The Epoch Times cant independently verify the assertion. Currently, Title 42 remains in effect for the time being due to a U.S. Supreme Court order in late December 2022. Republican lawmakers have accused Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of breaking immigration law in the way the department has implemented the parole authority. Prior to it being used for Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans, the parole authority was implemented under Biden on a mass scale to alleviate swamped Border Patrol stations amid soaring illegal crossings, and to allow in tens of thousands of Ukrainians. Catastrophic Crisis Mark Morgan, former acting CBP commissioner and Heritage Foundation visiting fellow, called the situation at the border a catastrophic crisis and said the Biden administration has misrepresented the situation there. Whats been happening at the border the last two years continues to be a catastrophic crisis, and the White House, Secretary Mayorkas, and the open-borders advocates on the left continue to lie about it, he told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. Under the last Democratic president, 25,000 encounters was a borderline crisisfor the Biden administration, 10 times that number is simply business as usual. Morgan said the Biden administrations open-border policies have all abjectly failed, yet [Mayorkas] continues to absurdly claim the opposite. No sane person could look at the border and claim were on the right course. Any other secretary would have long ago resigned in shame and disgrace, but its clear Secretary Mayorkas simply has no shame to begin with. So, Congress must immediately move to impeach him, begin meaningful oversight, and pass legislation to end the crisis and reduce illegal immigration. The House Oversight Committee began a probe on Jan. 19 into the border crisis by issuing a request for multiple documents from Mayorkas and calling on multiple border chiefs to testify at a hearing to be held the week of Feb. 6. Since Biden took office in 2021 and scaled back or terminated key Trump-era policies, illegal immigration has soared to record levels. More than 2.3 million apprehensions were recorded at the U.S.Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, which ended on Sept. 30, 2022up about 37 percent from the previous year. Joe Biden is the first president in my lifetime to intentionally un-secure the border. By way of more than 90 executive orders, he undid the successful Trump-era policies that brought illegal immigration to a 40-year low and gave us the most secure border of our lifetimes, Tom Homan, former acting ICE director and Heritage visiting fellow, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. This president and his team were warned what would happen if they got rid of those policies. They did it anyway, and youre looking at the consequences. More Americans than ever dying from fentanyl flooding across the southwest border. More women and children abused and sexually assaulted on the dangerous journey through Central America and Mexico. More migrants found dead on U.S. soil than ever. Record profits for the cartels as they traffic and smuggle historic numbers of drugs and people across the border. Its inhumane. Its a slap in the face to the men and women of the Border Patrol, who are absolutely overwhelmed, as well as to ICE agents whove been told they cant detain or deport most of those who break our laws. Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report. Rep. Boebert Introduces Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on June 23, 2021. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has proposed a new draft bill that aims to defund Planned Parenthood by placing a one-year moratorium on federal funding to the organization, in line with the longstanding goal of many Republicans who oppose the organizations provision of abortions. The bill is Boeberts first in the 118th Congress, which Republicans took control of in the midterm elections and are now pressing ahead with their Commitment to America agenda. The nations largest abortion provider has no business receiving taxpayer dollars, Boebert said in a Jan. 20 press release. Planned Parenthood claims these funds go to healthcare for women, but last year, Planned Parenthood performed a record number of abortions while also reducing the number of well-woman exams and breast cancer screenings it performed. The bill, named Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2023 (pdf), aims to prohibit federal funds from being made available to the organization, or any of its affiliates or clinics, unless they certify that they will not perform abortions. Exceptions are made for abortions in cases of rape, incest, or when the womans life is in danger. The Planned Parenthood in St. Louis on June 24, 2022. (Jeff Roberson/AP Photo) The legislation also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture to recover any federal aid received by Planned Parenthood or its affiliates or clinics, in case of non-compliance with the certification that they will not perform abortions during the moratorium period. Federal tax dollars that would have gone to Planned Parenthood would instead be directed to community health centers, according to the draft bill. Specifically, the bill seeks to redirect $235 million to such centers across the United States that provide healthcare to women. Republicans have also introduced three other pro-life bills this week that seek to impose conditions on the use of abortion pills, restrict abortions due to a Down syndrome diagnosis, and curb federal funding for colleges and universities that have on-campus abortion clinics. Profit Off the Violence of Abortion Boeberts bill has been endorsed by Students for Life of America, the National Right to Life Committee, Heritage Action, and Concerned Women for America. Theres no single entity that stands to make a profit off the violence of abortion more than Planned Parenthood, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said in a statement. Deceitfully, Planned Parenthood guises their business model as one that helps women while their latest annual report shows they made $633 MILLION from taxpayers while ending 383,460 little lives in that same time frame, Hawkins said, adding that screening services provided by Planned Parenthood have dropped by double digit percentages proving theyre in the business of abortion. Since 2010, there has been a 74 percent decrease in cancer screenings, a 72 percent decrease in prenatal care, and a 41 percent decrease in contraceptive services provided by Planned Parenthood, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, citing Planned Parenthoods own annual reports. From July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, Planned Parenthood received $633.4 million in government funding, up from $618.1 million the previous year, according to the organizations latest annual report (pdf). Planned Parenthood replied to a request for comment from The Epoch Times by pointing to the organizations response to prior defund initiatives, which states that such moves keep patients from receiving preventive services like birth control and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases. Background The move to defund Planned Parenthood has been a longstanding goal of many Republicans, who object to the organizations provision of abortion services. They argue that federal funds should not be used to support an organization that performs abortions, and that the money should instead be redirected to other healthcare providers. Planned Parenthood, on the other hand, has argued that it provides a wide range of critical healthcare services, including cancer screenings, birth control, and testing for sexually transmitted infections, in addition to providing abortion services. The organization has argued that defunding it would result in a loss of access to important non-abortion services for many low-income communities. If passed, the Defund Planned Parenthood bill would likely face significant opposition from Democrats and abortion advocates, who would see it as an attack on womens reproductive rights and access to healthcare. The bills future is uncertain as it will need to pass through several legislative stages before it can become law. Introduction of the bill comes amidst a larger conversation in the country regarding abortion rights. The Supreme Court recently ruled in a case that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Other Anti-Abortion Legislative Actions Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) on Friday introduced the Teleabortion Prevention Act, which would mandate that individuals seeking an abortion pill must have a physical examination, take the medication on-site at the clinic, and attend a post-treatment visit. Abortion is always wrong under any circumstance but allowing women to have chemical abortions alone without ever being physically examined is outright dangerous, Good wrote in a post on Twitter on Friday. Also on Friday, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced the Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act and the Protecting Life on College Campus Act in their respective chambers. The proposed Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act would prohibit doctors from performing abortions due to a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis and make it illegal for anyone to coerce a mother into having an abortion for this reason. Those who break the law would face fines and/or up to five years in prison, but the mother would not face prosecution. Every life is created with God-given dignity and potentialno matter how small or how many chromosomes they may have, Daines wrote in a tweet. Ill always fight to protect young moms and their unborn children from the violence of abortion. The Protecting Life on College Campus Act would bar colleges and universities that have abortion clinics targeted at students or staff, or have affiliations with such clinics, from receiving federal funding. Like Boeberts bill to defund Planned Parenthood, the other pro-life legislation is likely to face opposition by Democrats and other groups that oppose curbs on access to abortions. NR | 1h 22 min | Drama | 1944 The year 2023 marks the 80th anniversary of the Broadway play Tomorrow, the World! that inspired the eponymous film that critiques the insidious impact of fascist propaganda. Orphaned child Emil (Skip Homeier), indoctrinated for years by Hitlers Jungfolk (Hitler Youth) in Nazi Germany, acts out his antisemitism even after hes adopted by a kind American family headed by his uncle, professor Mike (Frederic March). In spite of Emils provocative ways, Mikes Jewish fiancee Leona (Betty Field), Mikes daughter and Emils cousin, Pat (Joan Carroll), try to impart empathy to him. (LR) Pat (Joan Carroll) introduces Emil (Skip Homeier) to townsperson (Tom Fadden), in Tomorrow, the World! (United Artists) Emils intransigence shocks them, but what strikes them more is his borrowed falsehoods about his late father Karl, killed in a concentration camp for defying Nazism and upholding tolerance and peace. Emil appears to have unquestioningly swallowed Nazi propaganda that Karl was a traitorous coward whod committed suicide. To Leona, his new teacher at school, Emil looks like any other 12-year-old, but speaks and acts with malice beyond his years. Even his games mirror Hitlers maxim of domination, Today Germany, tomorrow, the world. Outsiders, Leona and Emil, evoke different reactions. Pats Aunt, Jessie (Agnes Moorehead) is cold to both. Mike loves Leona but dismisses her concerns about Emil, bound by a sense of obligation as his new guardian. Pat showers Leona with fondness and Emil with affection, introducing him to schoolmates, bearing no grudges, buying him a gift, and orchestrating a party for his birthday. But identity complicates things. Before hes told that shes Jewish, Emil shakes Leonas hands warmly, You are most kind. When he sees her as merely American, hes blind to her Jewishness. Likewise, that hes German, suffices for Jessie to detest Emil and want to exterminate the German race, well before she discovers that hes a little Nazi. Emil tries to befriend the maid Frieda because shes German, before realizing shes not, by default, also a Nazi. Convinced that boys are superior to girls, he tries to bully Pat into betraying Mikes confidential work with the American military. Through his film, director Leslie Fenton is saying: our humanity should matter above every other identity whether thats race, or nationality, or gender. An obsession with identity is just a label, or two, shy of fascism. Both are about controlling, who does what and how and whya frenzy to control born of a fear of losing control. The Antidote to Fascism Using the family as a metaphor for the nation, Fenton studies not full-blown fascism but its seeds and roots. It doesnt always arise from without, it can arise from within too (a nephew, an aunt). It isnt always explicitly hostile, strutting about in a forbidding uniform: Emil has to be ordered to shed his silly Jungfolk insignia. It can start small, look harmless, even playful or friendly. But if not tackled soon enough and well enough it can overwhelm. And it can spread as swiftly in peacetime as during a war or revolution. A classroom scene, in Tomorrow, the World! (United Artists) Fenton is also saying that given the right dose of freedom and equality from a benevolent but vigilant family or state, anyone can turn, from callous to caring, from reckless to responsible. He says this through two seemingly frail characters, Leona and Pat, who embody noble ideas and values. First, just as childrens minds can be twisted by demagoguery, they can be molded by democracy. Second, what makes us human is our ability to make new choices that defy, even confound, the old if theyre too destructive. Finally, faith in the goodness of man justifies sunny optimism even under the darkest fascist clouds. Its why, in response to Emils bravado, Mike and Leona hint at secret weapons of American power: truth, ideas, reason, equality, liberty, and fraternity. Fentons also saying that being misguided (as Jungfolk here appear) is no less dangerous than being malicious (as Nazi adults are). Beyond a point, the onus for thought, word, and deed rests on individuals, no matter how misguided they are when young and impressionable. After a point, I was brainwashed, is a poor excuse. Fenton so gutsily allows his child stars to carry entire scenes that its hard to quibble over inauthentic German accents and rushed character arcs. Homeier (Emil in the play), is chilling in his film debut. Carroll is outstanding as the girl determined to find a gentle nature in Emil, no matter how much he masks it. Field sensitively portrays a teacher who prides herself on transforming her stubborn wards through empathy, but is frustrated by the slippery Emil. Trivia fans may be interested to know that the Nazis executed real-life brother and sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl. They too had Jungfolk roots as children, but turned anti-Nazi as adults, after stumbling upon what concentration camps were really up to. Its unclear if they inspired the play that opened in 1943 (the year they were executed) and, therefore, this film, released a year later in 1944. Still, theres enough in their true stories to suggest that the disturbing, if fictional, Emil isnt as far-fetched as he seems. Tomorrow, the World! Director: Leslie Fenton Starring: Skip Homeier, Betty Field, Joan Carroll, Frederic March MPAA Rating: NR Running Time: 1 hour, 22 minutes Release Date: Dec. 29, 1944 Rated: 3 stars out of 5 Mr. Nakazono Akihiro, the president of a floor-cleaning machine company, attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Kawaguchi Comprehensive Cultural Center Lilia in Kawaguchi, Japan, on Jan. 19, 2023. (Annie Gong/The Epoch Times) KAWAGUCHI, JapanBusiness leaders and designers said they felt very happy after attending Shen Yun Performing Arts on Jan. 19 in Kawaguchi, Japan. A company president repeatedly used the word incomparable to describe New York-based Shen Yun. From the beginning to the end, every moment is amazing. I really appreciated the performance, said Mr. Nakazono Akihiro, the president of a floor-cleaning machine company. Its incomparable. Mr. Nakazono said he obtained happiness after attending Shen Yun. Listening to the orchestra playing and watching the dancers dancing, I was really very happy, he said. If I have a chance to attend Shen Yun again, I will be too happy. New York-based Shen Yun is the worlds top classical Chinese dance company and has in recent years set a new bar for the art form internationally. Shen Yun is very sharp! said Mr. Kubo Hiroshi, a social dance teacher. He attended Shen Yun with his wife Mrs. Kubo Mie, who is also a dance teacher, and son Kubo Yusuke. The show is amazing. It has so many great factors. Its very sharp, he said. I like all the programs. In detail, he explained: The costumes present unique glorious color schemes the dancers are excellent and very well coordinated the backdrop is fantastic. It surprised me. Mr. Kubo said there were several times when the dancers suddenly jumped from the stage into the backdrop, and some figures in the backdrop landed on the stage and became the dancers. This backdrop is a unique piece of technology and set design that Shen Yun holds a patent for. This is very special and difficult. Others cannot copy from Shen Yun, Mr. Kubo said. Mrs. Kubo was amazed by the dancers skills and techniques. They are well-trained. I was shocked when I saw their dances cooperate with the music so harmoniously, she said. Without any words, the dancers only used their bodies to express the stories. And all of us received it with deep understanding. Each Shen Yun performance consists of nearly 20 vignettes, presented through highly-expressive art forms such as classical Chinese dance, original orchestral music performed live, soloists who sing in the bel canto tradition, animated digital backdrops, and more. Mr. Kubo Hiroshi (R), a social dance teacher, attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Kawaguchi Comprehensive Cultural Center Lilia with his dance teacher wife Mrs. Kubo Mie, and his son Mr. Kubo Yusuke in Kawaguchi, Japan, on Jan. 19, 2023. (Fujino Takeshi/The Epoch Times) Appreciation for Culture Mr. Alexander Kiwitz, a German stage designer, enjoyed Shen Yun. The stage in this theater is normal. But Shen Yun changed it into a wonderful and beautiful land by using the lights, backdrop, choreography, and artists performing, he said. The scenes on stage are very very beautiful. Mr. Kiwitz liked the culture that Shen Yun presents. I received the message of respecting the divine beings. This is very important. People need beliefs, cultures, and values. These can unite us, he said. Mr. Kiwitz was surprised that he understood all programs that Shen Yun presented, without any explanation in English or German. I was deeply touched, he said. Shen Yun has a mission to show the beauty and goodness of the 5,000 years of Chinas civilization. Chinese culture was built on values and virtues from the spiritual teachings of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, virtues like loyalty, propriety, wisdom, justice, and benevolencevalues that are universal and shared the world over. Mr. Alexander Kiwitz, a German stage designer, attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Kawaguchi Comprehensive Cultural Center Lilia in Kawaguchi, Japan, on Jan. 19, 2023. (Fujino Takeshi/The Epoch Times) Very Strong Energy Mr. Shimamura Taro is a management consultant who has worked with well known companies. He said Shen Yun is very special because he felt strong energy when he listened to the music and felt the divine nature of the show. Especially the vocal soloists. They brought me very strong energy. Its very special, he said. I felt there were divine beings [on the stage]. Mr. Shimamura believed that Shen Yun told audiences that humans should believe in divine beings. The messages that Shen Yun delivered are bright and positive, he said. Some programs presented divine beings. They made me believe that the dancers must have strong faith. This is the reason why they can spread the energy to us. Mr. Shimamura said its very interesting and enjoyable to attend Shen Yun. Shen Yun Performing Arts World Company has finished its three performances in Kawaguchi this season. It will perform next in Utsumoniya, Tokyo, and Nagoya before going to South Korea. Reporting by Epoch Times Staff in Kawaguchi, Japan. The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006. Sri Lanka Secures Indias Support for IMF Deal, Chinas Approval Pending Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe (R), shakes hands with Indias Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar (L), in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 20, 2023. (Sri Lankan President's Office via AP) Sri Lanka has secured Indias support for its debt restructuring plan, a key to Sri Lanka securing a $2.9 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but it still requires support from its biggest bilateral lender, China. Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Friday that India will extend financing assurances to the IMF to clear the way for Sri Lanka to move forward with its economic recovery. Jaishankar made the remarks at a press conference following his meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Ali Sabry, and President Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo on Friday. During the meeting, Jaishankar reaffirmed Indias commitment to being a reliable partner to Sri Lanka, saying that India had decided not to wait on others but to do what is right, according to Sri Lankas Presidential Office. We felt strongly that Sri Lankas creditors must take proactive steps to facilitate its recovery. India decided not to wait on others but to do what we believe is right, he told reporters. Our expectation is that this will not only strengthen Sri Lankas position but ensure that all bilateral creditors are dealt with equally, he added. Both sides agreed on a renewable energy framework to deepen bilateral cooperation, Sri Lankas Presidential Office said. Jaishankar also suggested that Sri Lanka make use of its renewable energy to boost revenue. Im confident that the gravity of the situation is realized by policymakers. So energy security is today one of Sri Lankas most serious challenges. A search for solutions must necessarily encompass the larger region. Only then will Sri Lanka get the full benefit of scale, he said. Sri Lanka had $13.8 billion in bilateral debt as of September 2022, of which 52 percent is owed to China, according to Sri Lankas finance ministry (pdf). Japan holds 19.5 percent of Sri Lankas debt, while India holds another 12 percent. Pending Chinas Support Sri Lanka and the IMF have reached a preliminary agreement on a $2.9 billion bailout plan over four years, but final approval depends on assurances given by creditors on the debt restructuring. Japan last year conveyed its support for Sri Lankas debt restructuring plan, leaving China as the only creditor who has not yet approved it. Deputy Secretary to the Treasury Priyantha Ratnayake said Friday that Sri Lanka expects China to give its financing assurances within the next few days as discussions with the Chinese regime have reached the final stage. It is difficult to give details of the debt restructuring negotiations because of the confidentially of discussions, Rahnayake told reporters, according to Reuters. In November last year, Wickremesinghe announced that loans borrowed from the Exim Bank of China by some state-owned enterprises would be classified as government debt. These companies include Ceylon Electricity Board, Sri Lanka Ports Authority, and Airport and Aviation Services. Sri Lanka would also take over the guaranteed foreign exchange debt owed by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. According to the president, removing the loans from these companies balance sheets will strengthen their financial statements, which will draw in more investors. Consumers in long lines to buy cooking gas use their empty cylinders to block a main intersectional road in Colombo on May 8, 2022, after a local store ran out of supplies. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images) The countrys unprecedented economic crisis has left millions of its people in need of life-saving aid, with severe shortages of essential medicines and frequent power cuts jeopardizing the countrys health care system. Sri Lanka has since shown some signs of progress with shortages reduced and day-to-day functions restored. However, daily power cuts continue due to the fuel shortage and the government is struggling to find money to pay government employees salaries and conduct other administrative functions. [AP] The government announced this month it is cutting 6 percent from the budgets for each ministry this year and plans to downsize its military, which had swelled to more than 200,000 personnel due to a long civil war. The government plans to cut the militarys size by nearly half by 2030. The Associated Press contributed to this report. State Moves to Revoke Dr. Ryan Coles License for Prescribing Ivermectin, COVID-19 Vaccine Comments Dr. Ryan Cole speaks during a panel discussion on COVID-19 on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 24, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Washington states medical commission has brought charges against Dr. Ryan Cole, a pathologist, over alleged false and misleading statements about COVID-19 vaccines and his prescribing of ivermectin to treat COVID-19. The Washington Medical Commission announced the allegations on Jan. 18 against Cole after receiving complaints about Coles conduct. Cole lives in Idaho but is licensed in Washington state. The state alleges that Cole made numerous false and misleading statements during the COVID-19 pandemic about the pandemic, vaccines, ivermectin, and the effectiveness of protective masks. The statements were harmful and dangerous to individual patients, generated mistrust in the medical profession and in public health, and had a wide-spread negative impact on the health and well-being of our communities, the commission said. Cole also provided negligent care to four patients by prescribing ivermectin, which is not indicated for a COVID-19 infection, according to a statement of charges. Cole did not respond to requests for comment. Cole has until Jan. 30 to file a response to the charges, according to the commission. Cole will have a chance to defend himself against the allegations at a hearing. The commission is a licensing authority. The charges can lead to the suspension of Coles license. Statements on Vaccines, COVID-19 Washington state authorities say that Coles alleged false and misleading statements include claims that the COVID-19 vaccines have caused more deaths than COVID-19 and that the vaccines can lead to cancer and infertility. Cole, the founder of Cole Diagnostics, has said in interviews with The Epoch Times and other outlets, as well as during public presentations, that he observed a spike in unusual cancers and other problems after the messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccines were introduced in late 2020. He asserted that heart inflammation is known to be caused by the shots, as well as other issues not proven to be linked, that stem from introducing the spike protein into the human body. The naysayers [say], Oh, the spike isnt [a] toxin, Cole said during one interview with The Epoch Times American Thought Leaders. Im like, The cells dont lie. And thats my defense. The cells dont lie. These people arent looking at the cells under the microscope. Theyre not seeing the damage I am. Many of my colleagues are. The cells dont lie. If its inconvenient to what you want to tell yourself, thats fine. But the cells dont lie. The clots dont lie. The damaged organs dont lie, he added. Cole has also said COVID-19 vaccines are fake and referred to vaccination with them as needle rape, the commission noted. Some of the statements the commission referenced as false and misleading: were actually accurate. Among them: Coles noting that natural immunity, or post-infection immunity, against COVID-19 is superior to the protection bestowed by vaccines. Thats been shown or indicated in many studies, including a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a paper from Israel. According to the commission, Cole said it in a written statement in 2022 that he has not advised people not to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Ivermectin tablets. (Natasha Holt/The Epoch Times) Treatment Cole was part of MyFreeDoctor.com, according to archived versions of the website. The website is a telehealth service that enables doctors to correspond with and see patients remotely using the internet. The charges say Cole treated patients for COVID-19 over a virtual telemedicine platform. Cole prescribed medicine to four patients after reviewing their records and speaking with them over an instant chat function on the platform, according to authorities. He prescribed ivermectin multiple times. Ivermectin is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat conditions caused by parasitic worms but the administration says it should not be used against COVID-19, though some of the studies it cites actually support its use. Coles treatment of the patients, including not documenting appropriate medical decision-making for them, constituted unprofessional conduct, according to the commission. State law defines unprofessional conduct as the commission of any act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty, or corruption relating to the practice of the persons profession, whether the act constitutes a crime or not. A practitioner can also violate the law if they commit Incompetence, negligence, or malpractice which results in injury to a patient or which creates an unreasonable risk that a patient may be harmed, though the code stipulates that the use of a nontraditional treatment by itself shall not constitute unprofessional conduct, provided that it does not result in injury to a patient or create an unreasonable risk that a patient may be harmed. Cole has told The Epoch Times in previous interviews that he has seen 500,000 patients in his 26-year career and has never had a patient complain about him or file a lawsuit. Now all of a sudden I find myself in the crosshairs for sharing science. Because of that, I lost one of my major insurance contracts for my unprofessional behavior of talking about ivermectin and helping save a handful of lives with that for free. I never charged a patient, he said. Then they say, Well gosh, youre a pathologist. I did years of emergency medicine, years of family medicine, years of dermatology, Cole said. I never quit being a doctor. Im the doctor to the doctor, as a laboratory physician now. Tens of Thousands Rally Against Abortion in First March for Life Since Roe v. Wade Overturned People participate in the March for Life rally in Washington on Jan. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington on Jan. 20 to demonstrate their opposition to abortion in the first March for Life annual event since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and delivered a long-sought victory to the pro-life movement. Participants spread across a section of the National Mall to hear speeches and later took part in a march, holding signs with phrases such as Its a Child, Not a Choice, I Demand Protection at Conception, and I Am The Post-Roe Generation. The mention of being part of the post-Roe generation refers to the fact that, on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled 54 in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, ruling that theres no constitutional right to abortion and thus returning the regulation of abortion to the states. That decision effectively overturned the high courts landmark decision on Jan. 22, 1973, in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. Pro-life and pro-abortion rights activists protest during the 50th annual March for Life rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 20, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, spoke at the event, calling it a somber reminder of the millions of lives lost to abortion in the past 50 years, but also a celebration of how far we have come and where we as a movement need to focus our effort as we enter this new era in our quest to protect life. Some movement leaders hope to persuade congressional lawmakers to impose a federal abortion restriction in the future. Such a proposal would likely face stern opposition in the Democrat-held Senate. One of those to speak at the rally was House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who encouraged participants to stay focused on the mission of extending protections for the unborn. You are showing us and giving us hope that the young people of America support life, defend life, are here to march for life, he said. When youre in a battle, its important to keep your focus on what the mission is. But every step of the way, its also critical that we celebrate victories along the way. And boy, did we get a huge victory just a few months ago when Roe was overturned. People participate in the March for Life rally in Washington on Jan. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Elsewhere in Washington, President Joe Biden delivered a counterpoint by issuing a proclamation highlighting the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, praising it as a balanced decision that protected a womans constitutional right to choose, while denouncing the Supreme Courts decision to overturn it as extreme. Today, trailblazers who fought heroically for the Roe v. Wade decision are watching the next generation grow up without its protections, Biden said. He said he would use his executive powers where possible to preserve abortion while urging Congress to enshrine it in law. About 15 or so activists gathered outside the court building in a counter-protest to the pro-life march, holding signs of their own with phrases such as Bans off our Bodies, Stop Prosecuting Abortion, and I Will Aid & Abet Abortion. Since the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, the legality of abortion has become a matter for states to decide, with roughly a dozen implementing near-total abortion bans. In the run-up to the Jan. 20 March for Life, congressional Republicans issued a flurry of anti-abortion proposals. Abortion rights activists protest during the 50th annual March for Life rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 20, 2023. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Republicans Introduce Anti-Abortion Bills Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) proposed a new draft measure on Jan. 20 that aims to defund Planned Parenthood by placing a one-year moratorium on federal funding to the organization. The nations largest abortion provider has no business receiving taxpayer dollars, Boebert said in a Jan. 20 statement. Planned Parenthood claims these funds go to healthcare for women, but last year, Planned Parenthood performed a record number of abortions while also reducing the number of well-woman exams and breast cancer screenings it performed. The bill, named the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2023 (pdf), aims to prohibit federal funds from being made available to the organization or any of its affiliates or clinics unless they certify that they wont perform abortions. Exceptions are made for abortions in cases of rape, incest, or when a womans life is in danger. The Planned Parenthood in St. Louis on June 24, 2022. (Jeff Roberson/AP Photo) Planned Parenthood replied to a request for comment from The Epoch Times by pointing to the organizations response to prior defund initiatives, which states that such moves keep patients from receiving preventive services such as birth control and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases. Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) on Jan. 20 introduced the Teleabortion Prevention Act, which would mandate that individuals seeking an abortion pill must have a physical examination, take the medication on-site at the clinic, and attend a post-treatment visit. Abortion is always wrong under any circumstance but allowing women to have chemical abortions alone without ever being physically examined is outright dangerous, Good wrote in a post on Twitter on Jan. 20. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas.) on Jan. 20 introduced the Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act and the Protecting Life on College Campus Act in their respective chambers. The proposed Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act would prohibit doctors from performing abortions because of a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis and make it illegal for anyone to coerce a mother into having an abortion for that reason. Every life is created with God-given dignity and potentialno matter how small or how many chromosomes they may have, Daines wrote in a tweet. Ill always fight to protect young moms and their unborn children from the violence of abortion. The Protecting Life on College Campus Act would bar colleges and universities that have abortion clinics targeted at students or staff or have affiliations with such clinics from receiving federal funding. The Republicans pro-life legislation is likely to face opposition from Democrats and other groups that oppose curbs on access to abortions. The male olive-backed sunbird of Southeast Asia and Australia is a small beauty with a colorful feature tucked beneath its wings. His metallic blue and yellow plumage is augmented by a sudden burst of apricot when it comes time to find a mate. Meanwhile, the female olive-backed sunbird is less colorful than her male counterpart, who pulls out all the stops during mating season. The small songbird also has a bright yellow belly, attractive iridescent blue feathers on his upper chest and throat, and olive-colored back and wing feathers, but the splash of apricot feathers beneath his wings is truly his secret weapon only displayed when the male tries to attract the female. The birds usually mate from April to August in the Northern Hemisphere, and August to January in the Southern Hemisphere. When a pair mates successfully, the female will build a pear-shaped nest from grass stems and other fibrous material with a small entrance on the side by herself, according to One Big Birdcage. She will lay up to three pale green eggs with brown speckles and incubate them for 11 days. (kajornyot wildlife photography/Shutterstock) The male returns once the chicks are hatched and shares feeding duties with his mate for 16 days until the fledglings fly from the nest. The olive-backed sunbirdcinnyris jugularismeasures around 12 centimeters long and is omnivorous, feeding on the nectar of coconut and papaya flowers and foraging for invertebrates such as spiders, ants, and caterpillars. They fly fast and many take nectar by hovering but often prefer to find a perch from which to feed according to Thai National Parks. These birds have an extensive habitat range, including Southern China, Philippines, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Northeast Australia. Although they were initially linked to mangrove swamps, they have now become acclimatized to human spaces. It is not uncommon to see Olive-backed sunbirds in woods, orchards, and coconut plantations bordering towns and villages. Their population is believed to be stable and their special apricot-colored wings may delight bird lovers for generations to come. Domzjuniorwildlife, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons 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 The ancient citadel of Machu Picchu in the southern Peruvian Andes is not only world-renowned for being the most impressive legacy of the Inca people; its also a feat of architectural ingenuity that survived a massive earthquake in the mid-15th century and stands towering to this day. Machu Picchu, meaning old mountain in the Quechua Indian language, is a sprawling sanctuary 2,430 meters above sea level in the tropical mountain forest region of Urubamba Province, Cusco. Located on a precipitous ridgeline between two mountain peaks with Sacred Valley of the Amazon basin below, the citadel comprises around 200 structures and was allegedly commissioned by the ninth Inca ruler, Pachacutec, as a self-sufficient royal summer retreat. Machu Picchu seen from a high, cloud-strewn perch amid the southern Peruvian Andes. (icelight/CC BY 2.0) The remains of several stone chambers in the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu. (Russell Johnson/Shutterstock) Scientists believe that the citadels construction was interrupted by a powerful earthquake along the Tambomachay fault line, registering at least magnitude 6.5, that caused a number of the granite building blocks to separate, according to by Peruvian news agency Andina. Scars overlaying Machu Picchus temple of the sun and ceremonial centersthe Inca were devoted to their worshipping the suncan still be seen today. But the Inca resumed the citadel build after the quake. They utilized polished dry-stone walls that were so perfectly carved and fitted that they had no need for mortar. They innovated trapezoid-shaped structures with giant stone blocks providing a ground-laying foundation for smaller stones and narrower walls set atop them. Built along a geological fault, Machu Picchu displays damage from local seismic activity. (camiguti/Shutterstock) The remains of an ancient sundial made from carved stone. (Jordan Klein/CC BY 2.0) These structures proved to be so resistant to seismic activity that similar architectural styles echo throughout Cusco today, according to the 2019 Cusco-Pata Research Project, a study launched to help current-day city planners analyze the earthquake hazards of active Cusco region fault lines. Project coordinator Carlos Benavente Escobar told Andina, Some edges of the rocks [at Machu Picchu] are broken, which means that in the undulation of the earth they hit each other, which caused the breaks. After that, they continued the building in a different manner. They knew how to coexist with diverse geologic dangers, like earthquakes, landslides, and avalanches. A stone doorway at Machu Picchu frames a view of neighboring peak Huayna Picchu. (Uwe Bergwitz/Shutterstock) Meticulously cut blocks fit perfectly to form enormous windows overlooking the Peruvian Andes from Machu Picchu citadel. (WMrapids/CC BY 1.0) As for why they would knowingly build the mountain sanctuary on a fault line, Escobar explained that the geological fissures at the site were a convenient conduit for water. The Inca preferred to improve the structural conditions of their homes rather than move away from the water resource, he said. Richard L. Burger, professor of anthropology at Yale University, revealed through radiocarbon dating in 2021 that Machu Picchu may have been occupied from as early as 1420 until its abandonment in 1530 when the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire. The site was occupied by around 750 people, whose legacy remains mysterious owing to sculptures and structures that allude to a rich relationship with spiritual and astronomical phenomena. The remains of Machu Picchu exhibits heavily worked topography on a steeply inclined ridge located between two peaks in the Peruvian Andes. (RAF-YYC/CC BY 2.0) Much of Machu Picchus stonework remains remarkably well-preserved today. (Public Domain) Machu Picchu was left abandoned for almost four centuries and the world at large did not find out about this cloud-strewn wonder until it was rediscovered by American historian and explorer Hiram Bingham in 1911, with the help of a local guide. Today, Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007 in a global internet poll. 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 US Fines J&J $9.75 Million Over Kickbacks to Surgeon for Overseas Surgeries The Johnson & Johnson logo on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on May 29, 2019. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Synthes unit will pay $9.75 million to settle U.S. Department of Justice accusations that DePuy illegally provided free products to a Massachusetts surgeon who used them in spinal surgeries in six Middle Eastern countries. According to settlement papers, the surgeon used more than $100,000 of DePuys implants and instruments between July 2013 and Feb. 2018 in more than 20 surgeries in Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Justice Department said DePuy provided the products to induce the surgeon to use its products in spinal surgeries he performed in Boston on patients who, unlike in the overseas surgeries, were covered by the governments Medicare and Medicaid health programs. This activity violated the federal False Claims Act and an anti-kickback law meant to ensure that doctors act in their patients best interests without being compromised by improper financial incentives, the Justice Department said. The $9.75 million payment includes a $4.33 million fine and $5.42 million in restitution. A whistleblower, Aleksej Gusakovs, will receive about $1.85 million from the settlement. The Justice Department credited DePuy for cooperating in the probe. In a statement, DePuy said the settlement avoids further lengthy legal proceedings, and that it was committed to ensuring our employees conduct business in a way that complies with our credo and with all laws and regulations. The False Claims Act lets whistleblowers sue on behalf of the government, and share in recoveries. DePuy is based in Raynham, Massachusetts, and Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, New York. By Jonathan Stempel US No-Fly List Exposed Again by Hacker, TSA Investigating A United Airlines Boeing 737 takes off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles on June 16, 2022. (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images) U.S. authorities are investigating after a hacker claimed to have found a version of the countrys no-fly list on an unsecured server linked to a commercial airline company. The Swiss hacker, who goes by the name maia arson crimew, said in a blog post that she recently discovered the list on an unsecured Jenkins server belonging to national airline CommuteAir. The Transportation Security Administrations (TSA) no-fly database lists known or suspected terrorists who are prohibited from flying. The server was found while the hacker was browsing Shodan, a search engine for internet-connected devices, looking for exposed servers that may contain valuable information. Among the 20 servers that crimew said she clicked through, this particular server caught her attention due to the presence of familiar keywords such as ACARS and crew which were related to the aviation industry. ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) is a digital communication system used for messaging between aircraft and ground stations. The hacker described the discovery as a jackpot. Crimew said she discovered a text file on the server named NoFly.csv which contained sensitive information about almost 1,000 CommuteAir employees and a list of over 1.5 million entries about individuals (and their aliases) from the Terrorist Screening Database. TSA Investigating The TSA has said it is investigating a potential cybersecurity incident following the hackers claim but had nothing further to say. TSA is aware of a potential cybersecurity incident, and we are investigating in coordination with our federal partners, the agency said in a statement to The Epoch Times. The breach, first reported by Daily Dot, reportedly includes the identities of hundreds of thousands of individuals and was left publicly exposed online by CommuteAir. CommuteAir stated that the exposed server, used for testing purposes, was taken offline before publication and their initial investigation indicated that no customer information was compromised. They also confirmed that the data on the server was a version of the federal no-fly list from about four years ago. The server contained data from a 2019 version of the federal no-fly list that included first and last names and dates of birth, CommuteAir Corporate Communications Manager Erik Kane said in a statement obtained by Daily Dot. In addition, certain CommuteAir employee and flight information was accessible, he continued. We have submitted notification to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and we are continuing with a full investigation. CommuteAir is an Ohio-based regional airline that took over the role of ExpressJet as the carrier for United Express in June 2020, which is Uniteds regional branch that operates short flights. The Epoch Times contacted CommuteAir for further comment. Not First Time The U.S. governments federal no-fly list was previously exposed in 2021 by another security researcher, Volodymyr Bob Diachenko. Diachenko said he came across the exposed data on July 19, 2021, after it was indexed by search engines Censys and Zoomeye, both similar to Shodan. I discovered the exposed data on the same day and reported it to the DHS, Diachenko wrote on LinkedIn. The exposed server was taken down about three weeks later, on August 9, 2021. Its not clear why it took so long, and I dont know for sure whether any unauthorized parties accessed it. Diachenko warned that in the wrong hands, the no-fly list could be used to target individuals. The terrorist watchlist is made up of people who are suspected of terrorism but who have not necessarily been charged with any crime, he wrote. In the wrong hands, this list could be used to oppress, harrass, or persecute people on the list and their families. It could cause any number of personal and professional problems for innocent people whose names are included in the list. Environmental officers disinfect themselves after disinfecting a body at Bwaila hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, Jan. 17, 2023. As of Thursday, Malawi has recorded 27,501 confirmed cholera cases and 899 deaths since the disease broke out in March 2022. (Photo by Roy Nkosi/Xinhua) BLANTYRE, Malawi, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Malawi has run out of cholera vaccine amid a rise in confirmed cases of the outbreak, the country's Health Ministry disclosed on Thursday. Ministry of Health spokesperson, Adrian Chikumbe, confirmed this to the local media, saying he has since asked Malawians to adhere to the strict preventive measures for the disease as outlined by the government through the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and cholera. Chikumbe said the ministry is currently engaging the World Health Organization (WHO) for more support, adding that there is no immediate indication that the vaccines will come in anytime soon. "I can confirm that we have depleted all the cholera vaccine doses that we had. We are now in talks with WHO for another consignment, but looking at the fact that there is only one manufacturer of the vaccine globally, and that we are competing for the same, there is no guarantee that we may get another consignment in a few days," he said. In November 2022, the WHO through the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision facilitated the procurement of 2.9 million vaccines for the Malawi government with funds from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi). As of Thursday, Malawi has recorded 27,501 confirmed cholera cases and 899 deaths since the disease broke out in March 2022. On the 33rd anniversary of the January 20 tragedy, Azerbaijan's Aghdam residents marched to the Alley of Martyrs, Azernews reports. The march was attended by Emin Huseynov, Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha district), employees of the representative office, the executive director of the public legal entity "Restoration, Construction, and Management in the Karabakh Economic Region," employees of this structure, military personnel, martyr families, representatives of law enforcement agencies, and representatives of civil society. Participants in the procession, which began at the headquarters of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan's special representative office, visited the Alley of Martyrs, where prayers were offered for the repose of martyrs' souls and flowers were laid at their graves. In memory of the martyrs, a minute's silence was observed. Emin Huseynov delivered a speech at the event's conclusion. On January 20, 1990, 40,000 strong Soviet troops entered the Azerbaijani capital Baku from several directions, invading the city in a desperate, brutal, and yet futile attempt to strangle the growing independence movement and to prevent the fall of the Soviet communist regime in Azerbaijan and punish ordinary people who had rallied on the streets to voice their legitimate protest against the violation of their homeland's territorial integrity. Some 137 people were killed, 611 were wounded, 841 were illegally arrested, and five went missing as a result of the intrusion of troops into Baku and other regions of the country. January 20, 1990, is marked in the modern history of Azerbaijan as one of the most tragic days of the country, and at the same time as a heroic page. Centro, a community organization focused on developing meaningful relationships and fostering intentional change around diversity, inclusion and equitable opportunities for all, is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to its board of directors. Dr. Victor Romero, Kara Asmus and Breanna Flaherty have been appointed to the board and will bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the organization. "We are thrilled to have these three exceptional individuals join our board," said Karina Perez, executive director of Centro Hispano. "We are confident that their contributions will be invaluable as we work towards our mission of fostering intentional change in our community." Dr. Victor Romero, of Family First Dental, brings a background in dentistry and a passion for health, wellbeing and happiness. We believe that his skills and experience will be invaluable as we work to make a positive impact in our community. Kara Asmus of the Nebraska Community Foundation has a strong track record of leadership in the nonprofit industry and a commitment to empower local leaders to identify community assets, invest in their own resources, and bring about their own positive change. Her mission, vision and values guide in helping Greater Nebraska reach its full potential. Her insights and guidance will be invaluable as we strive to make a difference in the lives of those we serve. Breanna Flaherty of Platte County Attorney's Office contributes a wealth of experience in legal practices and a dedication to the county and those who reside in it. We know that her gifts will be invaluable as we work towards our mission of fostering intentional change in our community. We are also proud to announce the appointment of Quelbin Izaguirre as board chair, Alejandrina Lanuza as co-chair, Stephanie Rodriguez as treasurer and Catherine Kwapnioski as secretary; effective January 2023. There is tremendous leadership in our executive board and we are looking forward to whats to come! Centro looks forward to working with its new board members in the coming years and making a positive impact in the community. Vermont Supreme Court OKs Noncitizen Voting in Municipal Elections This file photo, taken in 2018, shows a roll of "I Voted" stickers sit on a table inside a polling station. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) The Vermont Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 20 that the city of Montpelier didnt violate the state constitution by allowing foreign nationals to vote in municipal elections. The lawsuit stemmed from a 2018 amendment to Montpeliers charter that permits noncitizen voters to register to vote in Montpelier City elections. The amendment was placed on that years general election ballot and approved by voters. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, vetoed the General Assemblys authorization of the changes in June 2021, only to have his veto overridden. Since its adoption in 1777, Chapter II, Section 42 of the Vermont Constitution has been listing U.S. citizenship as a requirement one must meet to be entitled to the privileges of a voter in this state. However, the Jan. 20 decision (pdf) states that legal precedent and a close reading of the provision proved that local elections can have different voter qualifications from statewide elections. The text of Section 42 reviewed through a historical lens and our precedents support the conclusion that Section 42 does not apply to municipal elections, wrote a panel of five judges, including Chief Justice Paul Reiber. The original complaint, backed by the Vermont Republican Party, argued that the nature of municipal elections has changed so substantially since the Revolutionary era that all Vermont elections affect statewide affairs and therefore must be conducted in accordance with Section 42. The judges found that argument unconvincing. This Court has stated that the framers drafted Chapter II with an intent to form a plan for the general government of the State,' the judges wrote. The idea that the Constitution sought to provide a framework for statewide government specifically and therefore the provisions in Chapter II do not apply to local government is prevalent throughout our precedents. Scott, who was reelected to a second term in 2022, said in his veto message that he wanted the state Legislature to take time to debate on that matter and come up with a consistent policy, instead of simply approving each towns proposed changes. This is an important policy discussion that deserves further consideration and debate, Scott told the lawmakers. Allowing a highly variable town-by-town approach to municipal voting creates inconsistency in election policy, as well as separate and unequal classes of residents potentially eligible to vote on local issues. I believe it is the role of the Legislature to establish clarity and consistency on this matter. This should include defining how municipalities determine which legal residents may vote on local issues, as well as specifying the local matters they may vote on. As is inherently inevitable with a brutal 33 vs 7 majority, the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-led treasury benches, in the end, had their way in the short four-day winter session of the Goa legislative assembly which concluded a little over an hour short of midnight on Thursday. On Mhadei, its tactic of getting a rather antagonistic Opposition on board to push through a resolution unanimously and cool off the issue, for now, was successful. Nonetheless, the Opposition, saddled as it is with low numbers, political fragmentation and inexperience, had its flashes of brilliance. ASSEMBLY SESSION: FAST REWIND The four-day session of the Goa legislative assembly is done and dusted. And as expected, the government headed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, came out virtually unscathed largely owing to its brutal majority aided by the mass defection of eight legislators from the Opposition Congress last September. Apart from enabling it to fend off its more than disadvantaged position on the controversial and narrative-hogging Mhadei issue, another glaring example of the government using the brutal majority to its advantage was the hurried passage of as many as 10 government bills with little or no debate of note. Some of these bills, particularly those dealing with land issues, give the government sweeping powers. One, the Goa Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill, 2023, virtually affords the government the power to modify the regional plan at a drop of a hat. Yet another, the Goa (Regulation of Land Development and Building Construction) Amendment Bill, 2023, gives it the power to violate any provision of the building regulations under the garb of promoting "affordable and inclusive" housing. Govt, Oppn confrontation The session began on a highly confrontationist note, escalated by the re-ignited Mhadei water-sharing dispute with Karnataka, with the Centre's approval through the Central Water Commission to the detailed project reports (DPRs) of the two dams the neighbouring state plans to build at Kalasa and Bhandura to divert the river waters. Unsuccessful in getting the government to agree to an additional day dedicated to the Mhadei issue, the Opposition escalated the confrontation by raising a ruckus on day one itself when it interrupted the Governor, PS Sreedharan Pillai when he took the podium to deliver his address. Raising slogans and holding placards, the Opposition members even trooped to the well of the House demanding that the Governor first speak on the 'burning' Mhadei issue and speak the government's mind on it. Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar may have brought in the marshalls to eject them from the House, but the Opposition seemed to have scored a brownie point when the Governor's entire one-hour-long address completely skipped the Mhadei issue, a faux pas which earned the government widespread criticism. Even members of the treasury benches raised the issue of the Governor's address omitting Mhadei entirely, in their speeches on the motion of thanks. The tone for the government v/s Opposition confrontation was set even before the session began when the latter's demand for a longer session fell on deaf government ears. The Speaker's ruling citing rule 307 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, which gives him unquestionable power, that in terms of Rule 37 (21) legislators will be permitted to seek through LAQs past information pertaining to up to just five years, raised the heckles of Opposition members further. While the rule states that LAQs may not "ordinarily ask information of past history" Tawadkar defined 'past history' as beyond five years and in one stroke of his ruling, prohibited access to government information before 2017 to the legislators through the handy tool of a LAQ. Another reason why the Opposition was ticked off by the government's move to restrict the session to just four days was the complete elimination of the private member's business day, provided for by the Rule 31 of the Rules of Conduct of Business. Given their low numbers, the private member's business (resolutions and bills) is a tool available to members, particularly those in the Opposition, to espouse their political and constituency-level agendas. Attempts by the Opposition, led by Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao, had failed to get the government and the Speaker to do any adjustments or change in the schedule of the session. This was one major reason that deepened the government v/s Opposition confrontation as did the Mhadei issue. Mhadei: Resolution, House Committee buys time When the Goa v/s Karnataka battle for Mhadei got re-ignited with the CWC approval for the neighbouring State's DPRs to build dams at Kalasa and Bhandura to divert the river waters, clearly the Sawant-led government was put in a bind -- unable to defend the development which punctured its oft-repeated 'Double-Engine Sarkar' slogan to denote the coupling of the two governments -- State and Centre. But three weeks later, the unanimous passage of the government-sponsored resolution by the House, asking the Centre to withdraw the CWC consent to the DPRs and urgent constitution of the Mhadei Water Management Authority, has earned it a long breather. How did the government manage to navigate the difficult Mhadei issue in the House? The numbers, obviously. It is the brute 33 v/s 7 advantage that enabled the government to go through with its resolution and the setting up of a House Committee, with zero concessions to the views and propositions of the Opposition. Almost every member of the Opposition, save the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP), was attempting to get the government to articulate a deadline for getting the Centre to withdraw the consent to the DPRs: simply ignored. Then, Alemao and Goa Forward Party's Vijai Sardesai suggested precipitating a 'Constitutional Crisis' with all 40 legislators resigning: ignored. And then you had the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas proposing notification of the Mhadei Tiger Reserve to strengthen Goa's case on grounds of protection of Wildlife: summarily rejected. United Opposition? Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao is a first-timer. Yet, the Alemao scion has demonstrated an appreciable performance in floor management bringing his politically fragmented benches to demonstrate some sort of unity. The cracks are there and visible but Alemao's effort and his outcomes to bring all seven to the discussion table is noteworthy. Inherently, the seven-member Opposition has a few handicaps apart from its low number. First, it is fragmented into four distinct parties, all jostling for political space and constituencies. Second, barring Sardesai and Carlos Alvares Ferreira, they are all gen-X politicians who may have trouble reconciling to conventional politics. And lastly, they are all first-time legislators, save Sardesai, who is serving his third term. Like Alemao though, almost all the Opposition legislators have demonstrated they are fast learners and have improved leaps and bounds from their outing in the last assembly session in July last year. Chinese New Year influx, tour groups set to resume BANGKOK: About 240 direct flights are expected to fly from China to Thailand during the Chinese New Year holiday, according to the Aeronautical Radio of Thailand (Aerothai). ChineseCoronavirusCOVID-19tourism By Bangkok Post Saturday 21 January 2023, 11:15AM Officials welcome the first group of Chinese tourists to arrive in Thailand at Suvarnbhumi airport on Jan 9. Photo: Varuth Hirunyatheb Aerothai president Noppasit Chakpitak said yesterday (Jan 20) that Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob has instructed all related agencies to ensure they are prepared to handle the influx of Chinese tourists during the Chinese New Year period between Jan 19 and 25. There are expected to be 240 flights, or 34 per day on average, reports the Bangkok Post. Of the total, 75 flights will land at Suvarnabhumi Airport, 52 at Don Mueang Airport, 78 at Phuket Airport and 35 at Chiang Mai Airport. The number of flights from China for this month is expected to reach 1,160, which is lower than the pre-pandemic level in January 2019 of 12,209. However, in light of Chinas reopening, the number of flights from the country is expected to rapidly rise to 36,896 this year, an increase of 227.6% from 2022, Mr Noppasit said. Given the increase, Aerothai has stepped up air traffic management measures by participating in flight slot allocation committees to ensure airports capacities can accommodate flight volumes efficiently, as well as issue air traffic management guidelines. Earlier, Kittipong Kittikachorn, director of Suvarnabhumi airport, said some 1.81 million visitors, 1.36mn of whom are international visitors, or about 139,938 passengers on average a day, are expected to land and depart from the airport between Jan 16 and 28. Mr Kittipong said that ten airlines have asked to increase their flights during the Chinese New Year period. He said a total of 86 flights were requested, 26 of which were requested by Tway Air, 24 flights by Jeju Air and ten flights by Xiamen Airlines. In response to the growing number of Chinese tourists, the airport has Chinese interpreters on hand to assist. The airport also launched a welcome video to create a positive first impression among tourists around the arrival terminal in eight languages - Thai, English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German and Indian, Mr Kittipong added. Meanwhile, China confirmed yesterday it will allow overseas group tours to resume to 20 countries including Thailand. The approval, effective from Feb 6, covers trips organised by tour agencies and online travel companies for Chinese citizens, it said. Authorities will allow group tours and flight+hotel services to 20 countries. In addition to Thailand, they are: Indonesia, Cambodia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba and Argentina. Phuket can accommodate Chinese tour groups, says tourism chief BUSINESS: Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, advisory chairman of the Phuket Tourist Association, has said the private sector should be able to adjust workflow to accommodate a new wave of Chinese tour groups. Chinesetourism By Bangkok Post Saturday 21 January 2023, 03:52PM Tourists from China dressed in traditional Thai costumes visit Wat Arun in Bangkok on Wednesday (Jan 18) ahead of the Chinese New Year. Photo: Bangkok Post However, he urged the government to immediately solve bottleneck issues such as the slow approval of flight slots and the shortfall of ground handling services, which caused delays at the airport. Mr Bhummikitti said as Chinese tourists will also come via the China-Laos railway in the near future, border immigration offices must be ready in terms of staff and counters, as well as digitising TM6 immigration cards to save time at entry points, reports the Bangkok Post. As airfares remain expensive, most independent Chinese tourists this year will be those with high purchasing power, he said. When tour groups are allowed to venture out, increasing flights will lead to more affordable prices, which could match tour demand, said Mr Bhummikitti. Some 20% of hotels in Phuket that were closed because of the lack of Chinese tour groups will eventually reopen, said Suksit Suvunditkul, president of the southern chapter of the Thai Hotels Association (THA). The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) estimated 5 million Chinese visitors this year, and Mr Suksit predicts 1.5mn will visit Phuket. His comments came after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha suggested China will soon allow tour groups to visit Thailand, which could lead to more hotels reopening and higher demand for bus tours. Prayut said on Thursday (Jan 19) at a Chinese New Year event in Ratchaburi that Beijing indicated Thailand will be among the first destinations approved for outbound tour groups, while the TAT confirmed yesterday that Chinese groups are allowed to visit Thailand and 19 other nations from Feb 6. Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said travel agents in Thailand and China are prepared to start group sales while waiting for an official announcement from Beijing. However, he said it would take time for airlines to increase flights between Thailand and large cities in China to allow a large number of Chinese tour groups, likely in the second quarter. Tourism operators have to urgently hire more staff, especially Chinese speakers to accommodate not only Chinese tourists, but also those from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, he said. Wasuchet Sophonsathien, president of the Thai Transportation Operators Association, said there are 10,000-15,000 buses for tour groups, but with Chinese groups expected to return, demand is expected to increase to 40,000, a similar level as in 2019. He said bus operators still have insufficient budget for maintenance and face a shortage of drivers. The association earlier proposed to the Finance Ministry a subsidy scheme to help partly absorb the B500,000 in maintenance costs per bus. It also asked the Labour Ministry for a scheme to help hire at least 3,000 drivers for six months. Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, THA president, urged the government to regulate accommodations without hotel licences, as well as work to prevent unfavourable impacts from mass tourism, such as limiting the carrying capacity at tourist attractions. In the long term, the country should focus on high-spending travellers by promoting medical and wellness tourism as well as the Mice (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) segment, said Mrs Marisa. The site Trip.com reported searches from China for tour packages during the Lunar New Year surged six-fold, with Thailand one of the most-searched destinations, said Boon Sian Chai, managing director and vice-president, international markets at Trip.com Group. Accommodation and attractions bookings by Chinese tourists also soared by 447% and 10 times year-on-year. Uzbek woman in cocaine bust at Phuket Airport PHUKET: Sakhu police arrested a woman from Uzbekistan at Phuket International Airport yesterday (Jan 20) morning who was found to be in possession of 2.23kg of cocaine. drugscrimeimmigrationpolice By The Phuket News Saturday 21 January 2023, 12:20PM The woman, named as 41-year-old Shoila Rachmonova, was found to be carrying the drug in a total of eight plastic bags that had been concealed in a specially modified laptop bag and three mobile phones. Officials confirmed the woman was travelling alone and had arrived in Phuket around 7:40am yesterday morning on a Qatar Airways flight from the Qatari capital of Doha. Police had been tipped off that a suspicious person was aboard the flight and managed to apprehend Ms Rachmonova after a search by customs and immigration officials. The arrest was led by Pol. Maj. Gen. Sermphan Sirikong, Phuket Provincial Police Chief, who was was joined by Pol. Col. Kantchawit, Superintendent of Sakhu Police Station and two Deputy Superintendents of Sakhu Police Station Pol. Lt. Col. Salaan Tantisasankul and Pol. Lt. Col. Supap Sae-Lim. Following the detailed search of Ms Rachmonovas luggage, officials confirmed they discovered the eight bags hidden in the laptop bag and three mobile phones. Ms Rachmonova was taken to Sakhu police station where she will be charged with the illegal importation of cocaine, a category 2 narcotic, into the country and prosecuted in due course. Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices On Cusp of Igniting Sustainable Crypto Bull Run The crypto market is on the verge of igniting a sustainable bull run. Bitcoin and Ethereum are on the verge of breaking through to new yearly highs, which could spark a more widespread crypto market rally in the coming weeks. Bitcoin has continued its strong winning streak and spiked over 8.5% to $23,162. The second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH), is also experiencing a significant rise as it has increased by roughly 5% to $1,655. Despite the ongoing negative news from two major exchanges, Coinbase and Gemini, bitcoin appears to be ignoring all of the market turmoil this week. Coinbase Under Fire: How Weak Security Practices Led To A Mass Lawsuit In an effort to keep their class-action lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase out of arbitration, a group of investors is keeping their account details secret. They hope that their case will eventually be heard in an American court. Customers are alleging that Coinbase's security measures weren't very good and led to the loss of funds. They also allege that Coinbase is trying to avoid any compensations for their victims. A plaintiff in the lawsuit had $6,000 of crypto funds illegally taken from his wallet and moved to an address that wasn't his. He also alleges that Coinbase did nothing to stop the hackers, who stole $1,000 from his bank account. Hence, the mass lawsuit can weight on the cryptocurrency market. Investors Take Legal Action Against Gemini Exchange Over Fraud Allegations In addition to Coinbase, Gemini is also under the spotlight, causing a slowdown in the rise of the cryptocurrency market. A class action lawsuit claims the corporation breaches the Exchange Act. The Earn Program, through which Gemini pays its traders up to 7.4% interest, is at the crux of a lawsuit brought against the company and its founders in the US Southern District of New York. When the program stopped accepting investment in December 2022, those who had already invested couldn't get their money out. The FTX market crashed in late November which led to a halt in the Earn program, and that's when Founder Sam Bankman-Fried created Alameda Research. This company is said to have received $10 billion in digital client cash from FTX. Genesis Global, which works with Gemini and is an institutional crypto business, felt the effects of one of FTX's decline. Max J. Hastings and Brendan Picha are the people who filed the complaint. This answer questions whether Gemini registered assets as securities in the US law. Furthermore, it is claimed that Genesis owes Gemini close to $1 billion. On November 16, 2022, Genesis announced that due to "issues with FTX," all loan redemptions will be delayed. In other words, the company is not available for any future lending. Hence, the mass lawsuit can weight on the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin Price Bitcoin's current price is $23,240.65 and the daily trading volume is $35 billion. Bitcoin has increased by 7% in the last 24 hours, with a market cap of $447 billion. CoinMarketCap currently ranks first. Bitcoin is now holding just below the $23,150 mark. On the daily timeframe, Bitcoin has formed a bullish engulfing candle which suggests that there is a chance for an uptrend continuation. If Bitcoin breaks above the $22,750 level, it could target the $24,000 or $24,550 levels. Bitcoin Price Chart - Source: Tradingview On the lower side, Bitcoin's immediate support prevails at $22,500 and an additional drop below this level can expose it towards $21,550. Ethereum Price Ethereum's price over the last 24 hours is $1,654.74 with a trading volume of $10 billion. They are valued at 4% over the course of the past day. CoinMarketCap, which provides live cryptocurrency and token market alerts, currently ranks second in terms of average daily trading volumes On January 21, the ETH/USD pair is facing strong resistance near $1,680. The price of ETH closed under $1,680 resistance on December 22, with a bearish gap-down doji around the minor bullish candle at $1,690. Ethereum Price Chart - Source: Tradingview There is a chance (albeit not very high) that the price of ETH might reach $1,610 in the short-term if it manages to close candles above this level. Let's keep an eye on $1,610 to watch for any closing above this level. If it does close above this level, we could see a potential buying trade. 3 Coins To Look Out For During Presale: Make Returns Before Everyone Else Does! Investing in altcoins at the presale stage is beneficial to investors who prepare and follow through with proper research and recommendations. They'll be able to take advantage of the potential for these coins. Fight Out (FGHT) Fight Out is a convenient and cost-effective way to stay fit. By purchasing their FightOut tokens, you can gain access to expert personal training services at a low cost, allowing even those on a tight budget to reap the benefits of exercise. Despite the new fitness app from Move2Earn's strong lineup of features, it is their unique capacity for tracking physical and mental fitness, along with their NFT Avatar and social competition feature, that sets them apart from other M2E programs. Fight Out's real-time tracking of a user's performance allows people to monitor and track their progress on strength, cardiovascular endurance, and more. As a user, you can even compete against friends of similar skill levels. Once you reach a goal in reality, your avatar levels up like mine did preparing it for possible fights against other users' avatars to earn rewards. Investors are opting for Fight Out's $FGHT cryptocurrency with its promising concept and impressive presale bonuses that can vary from 50% to even more based on how much you invest. With partners like LBank Labs, Cryptonews.com, Transak, and BlockMedia Labs offering operational and financial assistance, this project is poised for success and has already raised more than $3 million so far. The FGHT will be on sale for a limited period. If you are considering investing, then act quickly and take advantage of this opportunity. Visit FightOut Now C+Charge (CCHG) C+Charge is launching a groundbreaking online payment system for people who are electric vehicle (EV) owners. It will allow users to convert their initial charge into credits that can be exchanged for carbon credit. The ultimate goal is to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by car trips. Since the potential for this technology is completely game-changing, it has the power to completely transform the carbon credit market. This allows a wide range of companies to participate and adds greater value to them as well. VCMs are forecast to reach $100 billion by 2030, making them a booming investment opportunity for businesses. C+Charge has raised over $344,000 in its pre-sale, indicating that there is a lot of demand for VCMs. Visit C+Charge Now Meta Masters Guild (MEMAG) The Meta Masters Guild has skyrocketed from $200,000 to a stunning $550,000 in just a few days. This remarkable rise indicates that the public has a high level of confidence in the company's future growth and profit-generating ability. In the third quarter of 2023, Meta Masters Guild will release its first mobile game. The MEMAG network has been around for a while, allowing users to create and manage with staking their own cryptocurrencies in addition to trading on the public exchange. They are also developing games that allow users to earn rewards for playing as well as ones that are powered by Web3, an Ethereum-compatible system. As it is right now, the process of investing in MEMAG starts with you purchasing $10 worth of MEMAG tokens. If you participate in the presale, what's offered is 1 token for just $0.01; early investors have a limited window of opportunity to participate. Visit Meta Masters Guild Now Find The Best Price to Buy/Sell Cryptocurrency The Park Hills City Council met in a special session Thursday evening, voting on a proposed tax of 3% on all marijuana sales within the city. Following a unanimous council vote, the sales tax will be presented to Park Hills voters for approval on the upcoming April ballot. In November, Missourians passed Amendment 3 to the Missouri Constitution, legalizing the sale, possession, and use of recreational marijuana. Since then, local governments across the state have been preparing tax measures to bring to their voters on April 4 in hopes of benefiting from a new cash crop. Revenue generated from the sales tax would go to the citys general fund. The money can be used for any project or other city expense, unlike state marijuana tax revenue which has specific designations under Amendment 3. While consumption of the plant became legal for adults age 21 and older on Dec. 8, marijuana dispensaries are waiting on licenses to sell the recreational herb. The states Department of Health and Senior Services said some requests to transition medical facility licenses to full recreational facilities would be approved by early February. Park Hills is currently home to one medical marijuana dispensary. City Attorney Nathan Bollinger mentioned that most cities are proposing similar taxes. He noted that the coming election cycle is the time to present a marijuana tax to voters as the state prepares to start issuing recreational sales licenses next month. Other area cities are seeking voter approval of their marijuana sales tax. Last month, Leadingtons Board of Aldermen passed their proposed 3% tax question for the April ballot. The Farmington City Council is set to decide this month on whether to add a 3% tax on the sales in their city, which has two medical marijuana dispensaries currently. Levels of government from city to state can propose their own pot taxes on the April ballot. The St. Francois County Commission decided last month to ask voters for a 3% tax on all county weed sales. Likewise, Madison County is looking to voters for a tax of 3%. Missouri already collects a 4% tax on medical marijuana sales under Article XIV of the Missouri Constitution. As recreational marijuana begins hitting dispensary shelves next month, Article XIV also allows the state to levy a 6% tax on each sale. Revenue generated from the state tax will be used to run the marijuana program. Additional funds will go toward processing expungements for past marijuana offenses. Amendment 3 specifies that the remaining revenue goes to state public defenders, nonprofits, addiction treatment agencies, the Missouri Veterans Commission, and other allied state agencies. Ultimately, the voters will decide on April 4 whether to accept the marijuana taxes proposed in cities and counties throughout the state. Its still unclear exactly how much revenue could be generated by the local taxes if passed. SEAN BERGEL, Wheeler, Baseball, Junior; Bergel struck out eight and allowed only five hits as Wheeler defeated Griswold in its season opener. Bergel walked just one batter and allowed two earned runs. CAMI BROWN, Stonington, Softball, Junior; Brown finished 11 for 16 in four games for the Bears. Brown doubled four times, tripled twice and drove in nine runs. CASEY MACERA, Westerly, Girls Lacrosse, Freshman, Macera scored five goals in a Division III win against Rocky Hill. Westerly ended a 15-game losing streak with the victory. ADAM CARPENTER, Chariho, Baseball, Junior; Carpenter pitched a two-hitter in his varsity debut as the Chargers beat East Providence. Carpenter carried a no-hitter into the sixth. He struck out 10 and did not walk a batter. Vote View Results JEFFERSON CITY A potential challenger to Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has cashed campaign checks from at least three high-profile GOP figures, a signal the incumbent could face a bitter party primary in 2024. The potential challenger, Will Scharf, received a $2,650 check from Leonard Leo, the co-chairman of the conservative law organization The Federalist Society, in December. Leo worked to confirm Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, according to his online biography. Scharf also banked a $2,000 check from West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and $250 from Peter Bisbee, the executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association, in December, according to a review of state ethics commission records. Im proud to be supported by conservatives here in Missouri and around the country really excited about the campaign ahead, Scharf said Friday. Asked which campaign he was launching, he said, well have an announcement on that before the end of the month. The contributions followed Gov. Mike Parsons much-anticipated announcement in November that Bailey, a political newcomer and Parsons then-general counsel, would become the next attorney general after then-Attorney General Eric Schmitts election to the U.S. Senate. It was unclear Friday whether the Republican Attorneys General Association would back Bailey in 2024. A spokesman didnt respond to requests for comment. We hope that the organization set up to support Republican attorneys general will support Andrew Bailey in his election, said Michael Hafner, adviser to Baileys campaign. Though Scharf hasnt yet announced which office he will run for, all signs point to the former federal prosecutor who also worked on Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barretts Supreme Court confirmations entering the attorney generals race. With Parson pledging his full support to Bailey in 2024, Scharfs entry along with any other high-profile Republicans who decide to run could trigger an intense battle among party factions. I wouldnt run in a race in which I didnt think I was competitive, Scharf said. Pete Bisbee, executive director of RAGA, hes an outstanding conservative leader. Hes done incredible things with that committee, and Im proud to have his support. Bisbee has been tied to a robocall urging patriots to march toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 through his work as executive director for the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a fundraising arm of RAGA that sent the robocall. Scharf said he didnt know about those reports, and that it wasnt a concern. Scharf called Morrisey a friend and an outstanding attorney general for the state of West Virginia. He said Morriseys fight against President Barack Obamas Clean Power Plan and Waters of the United States rule was a model of what a good conservative attorney general looks like. Scharf said of Leo, co-chairman of the The Federalist Society, I consider him a dear friend and mentor and Im honored to have his support. Scharf has given $505,000 to his campaign account since the end of November, after Parson announced Bailey as his pick. Scharf also raised an additional $294,000 from a network of nearly 250 donors, according to ethics commission records. Scharf, the former policy director for ex-Gov. Eric Greitens, tapped former members of Greitens team to help fund his potential campaign against Parsons pick. Parker Briden, former spokesman for Greitens, gave $100 to Scharf; and Jordan Duecker, another former Greitens official, contributed $250. Austin Chambers, Greitens former campaign manager, gave the maximum allowed donation of $2,650. Nicholas Maddux, former advisor to Greitens and current consultant for Axiom Strategies, also contributed the maximum amount to Scharf. Bailey this week formed his own campaign account, which has yet to report contributions. Would you pay up to 70,000 for a Kia? That's around 10,000 a seat for the forthcoming all-electric, seven-seater Kia EV9 crossover, seen here as a near production-ready prototype. The Korean car firm, once renowned for its value-for-money vehicles but becoming increasingly upwardly mobile, is set to launch the striking new EV9 officially early this year ahead of first deliveries in the UK by the end of the year. The current EV6 electric crossover was launched last year along with a new generation Niro and new Sportage SUV and already costs from 45,345, with a sporty GT variant from 62,645. Pricey: The brand is soon to launch the all-electric EV9 which can cost 70,000 The new EV9 will sit above this and is just one of 14 EVs being launched globally by 2027. Nine are coming to the UK ahead of a fully electric lineup by 2030, with some built in Slovakia from 2025. Famed for its pioneering seven-year warranties, it's a sign of how things are kicking off at Kia which has, for the first time, broken through the landmark 100,000 cars a year barrier in the UK. It is now our sixth biggest seller, having raised sales last year by 10.3 per cent against a market fall of 2 per cent. I popped into Kia's British headquarters in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, this week to see energetic UK president and chief executive Paul Philpott who spelled out to me just how far they've come in the past 15 years and where they're going next. Kia celebrated record sales of 100,191 in 2022 four times as much as in 2007. Top sellers last year were the Sportage SUV, the Niro family and the Ceed family of vehicles. Philpott says 20 per cent of this year's advance order bank is already for electric vehicles and that is expected to rise. Sales of Kia's 'electrified' vehicles are now 43 per cent of the mix (16.3 per cent pure electric, 22 per cent hybrid, and 5 per cent plug-in), with 54 per cent petrol and just 4 per cent diesel. The UK average electrified mix is 34 per cent. And while Kia's total electrified sales soared by 48 per cent year on year, those of traditional internal combustion engines fell by 7.4 per cent. Kia celebrated record sales of 100,191 in 2022 four times as much as in 2007 While Kia's total electrified sales soared by 48 per cent year on year, those of traditional internal combustion engines fell by 7.4 per cent As a result, average CO2 has fallen from 164g/km in 2007 to 106g/km in 2022, compared to an industry average of 111.4g/km In 2025 it will be launching the first of its fully electric eLCV commercial vans Slide me Kia has sold nearly 1.4m cars in Britain since it launched in the UK in July 1991 As a result, average CO2 has fallen from 164g/km in 2007 to 106g/km in 2022, compared to an industry average of 111.4g/km. And in 2025 it will be launching the first of its fully electric eLCV commercial vans. With 191 dealerships in the process of being revamped, Philpott is conscious of competition from emerging Chinese brands like MG and Polestar, and recent hefty price cuts by Tesla. He said: 'China is big competition. Anytone who thinks otherwise has got their head in the sand.' But he adds that many are moving from premium brands such as BMW, Audi and Jaguar: 'They can get a highly specced EV6 for 58,000 and see it as fantastic value.' Kia has sold nearly 1.4m cars in Britain since it launched in the UK in July 1991. Philpott said: 'Since Kia first entered the UK car market 32 years ago, the brand has gone from strength-to-strength.' Jeep Avenger is European car of year The all-electric Jeep Avenger has been crowned European car of the year 2023 by an international jury. It is the first time that the U.S. brand now part of the giant Stellantis group has won the accolade in the 60th anniversary of the award, this year presented at the Brussels International Motor Show. Sleek: The all-electric Jeep Avenger has been crowned European car of the year 2023 by an international jury Electric vehicles took the top three slots, with VW's electric ID Buzz named runner-up by the 57 member jury from 22 European countries. Pre-orders for the compact, zero-emissions Avenger 1st Edition have opened in the UK priced from 36,500, ahead of the full range launch in June. Powered by a 156hp (115kW) electric motor, Jeep claims a 248-mile range. Features include six terrain modes, hill descent control, voice recognition, 360- degree parking sensors, automatic tailgate and intelligent speed assist. Compared to most other global investment trusts, AVI Global has negotiated the tricky stock market conditions of the last year remarkably well. Although generating overall losses of just under four per cent, they are considerably less than the 14 per cent registered by the average global fund. The reason for the relative outperformance is the defensive nature of this 952million stock market-listed investment trust. Manager Joe Bauernfreund, chief executive of investment house Asset Value Investors, is not interested in buying shares in growth stocks such as Amazon, Alphabet or Apple. His whole modus operandi is built around searching for investments that are undervalued by the market, but which offer long-term potential. It's a process that involves a lot of research the fund draws upon a ten-strong bank of in-house analysts and not that many companies fit its bill. It's also a strategy not without risk some companies remain forever undervalued but it works. Over the last five years, it has produced returns of 42.9 per cent, compared to 15.6 per cent for its peer group. Bauernfreund says: 'We like to buy quality businesses at a discount to their true value. In other words, they are mispriced by the market. 'If our analysis is right, the trust in time benefits from a double whammy a premier business delivering good financial results and driving its share price upwards, and in time an eradication of the discount.' He adds: 'What we do is something quite different from our global fund peer group.' The portfolio usually comprises no more than 40 stocks, with the top ten holdings accounting for more than 61 per cent of assets. 'It gives us a better chance of outperformance,' he says. Among its biggest holdings is French luxury fashion house Christian Dior, chaired by Bernard Arnault with its shares listed in France. The Arnault family own more than 90 per cent of Dior. In turn, Dior has a 40 per cent stake in LVMH, a company that owns prestigious brands such as Bulgari, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and Veuve Clicquot. 'Dior's main asset is its holding in LVMH,' says Bauernfreund. 'Dior's shares trade at a discount and have done so ever since Covid became an issue in 2020. 'We see this as an opportunity to get cheap exposure to the growth story that is LVMH. For the past three years, LVMH has weathered all the storms it has encountered. 'At some stage we anticipate the Arnault family will take Dior private, which should be a positive for shareholders like us as we are likely to get a price that is closer to the value of the company's assets.' Bauernfreund says market conditions have been difficult, but the trust remains fully invested. 'Yes, the outlook is uncertain, but nervous markets give us the opportunity to identify good buying opportunities that can produce some idiosyncratic returns.' One quirk of the trust is that its own shares stand at 8 per cent discount to their underlying asset value. So in effect, investors could buy attractively priced shares in a trust that in turn hunts down undervalued assets. AVI Global currently generates an annual income of 3.3pence a share and the trust's board is determined to at least maintain the dividend for the foreseeable future. Reassuringly, the fund has more than a year and a half's dividends tucked away in its locker which can be drawn upon if needed. Dividends are paid twice a year and the trust's total annual charges are just under 0.9 per cent. The stock market identification code is BLH3CY6 and the ticker AGT. De La Rue is embroiled in a corruption probe in India involving the country's former finance secretary. The bank note and passport maker was made aware that the Central Bureau of Investigation in India (CBI-I) had begun investigating Arvind Mayaram and its activities in the country before 2016 were part of the probe. Mayaram, 67, alongside other officials at the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India, faces charges including cheating, criminal conspiracy, corruption and abuse of his official position. Probe: The bank note and passport maker was made aware that the Central Bureau of Investigation in India had begun His houses in Delhi and Jaipur have been recently raided by the authorities. The CBI-I said the accused were involved in a conspiracy to unduly favour De La Rue in a deal to sell security features for bank notes, which resulted in 'wrongful loss' to the Indian exchequer. De La Rue said it learned of the probe from 'public sources' after reports about the case in the Indian press. It said it had not worked for the Indian government or central bank since 2016 and believed there was 'no merit' to the allegations. Royal Mail investors will meet with trade union bosses next week to try to negotiate an end to the bitter industrial dispute that has paralysed the business. The Mail understands that on Monday afternoon several major shareholders in Royal Mail's parent company International Distributions Services (IDS) will meet in London with Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), to try to hash out a solution. Topics on the agenda will include alternative ways of running the business as well as growing the firm in new sectors and addressing shareholder worries over the union's demands. Change of direction: Topics on the agenda will include alternative ways of running the business One person who will not be at the meeting is Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson, who was castigated by MPs on the business committee earlier this week where chairman Darren Jones said his answers raised 'grave concerns' over the running of the group. Another matter looming over the talks will be Thompson's future as chief executive. It follows a chaotic few months for Royal Mail as strikes crippled the company over the crucial Christmas period and a Russian cyber-attack knocked out its overseas delivery operations. It is not yet known exactly which IDS shareholders will be at the meeting with Ward, but it is understood that several major investors who initially opposed the CWU are now trying to engage with the union after Thompson's lacklustre committee appearance on Monday. One notable absence will be Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire and IDS's largest shareholder, who owns just over 23 per cent of the business through his vehicle Vesa Equity. Kretinsky, dubbed the Czech Sphinx for his inscrutable approach to investing, is thought to still be supporting Thompson, with rumours he could be advising the embattled chief executive to resolve the crises facing the business. But the prospect of Thompson being ousted has sparked speculation around his possible replacement. Meeting: One person who will not be at the meeting is Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson Martin Seidenberg, the head of IDS's more successful international delivery arm GLS, is thought to be a viable candidate, while there is also speculation that Thompson's predecessor Rico Back could make a return to the top job. Back waded into the row at Royal Mail earlier this month, criticising the company's board for its 'confrontational' approach to the strikes. Shareholder concerns have steadily mounted as Royal Mail's losses ballooned following the disruption, with market analysts pencilling in a loss of nearly 750m for the year to the end of March. That represents more than 2million per day and follows a 416million profit last year. So large are Royal Mail's projected losses that it would push IDS to a 290million loss for the year from a 662million profit in 2022. The eye-watering sum also stands in stark contrast to GLS, which is predicted to rake in a profit this year of 317million. IDS shares rose 3.4 per cent to 221.3p yesterday. Jeremy Hunt is poised to hand British Steel a 300million lifeline in a bid to save thousands of jobs. The Chancellor is expected to tell the UK's second-biggest steel maker within days that the Government will pay the support package in instalments over the next few years. The cash is designed to stem thousands of job losses in the UK's industrial heartlands and is linked to a project to replace British Steel's blast furnaces with a greener electric-arc furnace. Heating up: The Chancellor is expected to tell the UK's second-biggest steel maker within days that the Government will pay the support package in instalments over the next few years It comes after the Scunthorpe-based company, which was rescued by Chinese group Jingye in 2020, said earlier this month it would shut one of the site's two blast furnaces within weeks if it did not receive state help. The funding will be dependent on Jingye committing to protect jobs and invest at least 1billion in the group by 2030, according to Sky News, which first reported the story. Experts fear that if British Steel shuts down one furnace, its other one could follow suit later this year. There are just four blast furnaces left in the entire UK. The Chancellor has been considering whether to extend funding to British Steel, which employs around 4,500 people, for several months. In December, Business Secretary Grant Shapps and Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove both urged Hunt to stump up the cash to ensure the blast furnaces could keep running. In a letter, they said that the company 'does not have a viable business without government support'. Tata Steel, which runs the UK's other two blast furnaces, has also been wrangling for government funding to switch to green electric arc furnaces. Tata could also receive taxpayer support, the Financial Times reported last night, but the company declined to comment. Poised: Jeremy Hunt is poised to hand British Steel a 300m lifeline in a bid to save thousands of jobs Jingye's need for cash surprised many in the City and Whitehall. Its rescue of British Steel in early 2020 was controversial but the deal was sealed when Jingye insisted it would plough money into the group. A presentation given at the time, seen by The Mail on Sunday, said: 'Need funds? No problem! Jingye is here to invest.' Last week, Liberty Steel, run by controversial metals magnate Sanjeev Gupta, said it would cut up to 440 jobs in the UK and reduce production as it battles high energy costs. Liberty employs around 2,350 people at 11 sites. The 440 jobs under review are almost a fifth of its workforce. Alun Davies, Community steel workers' union national officer, described the announcement as a 'body blow' to employees, while the Unite union said it would fight 'tooth and nail' for every job. The UK's steel industry has long complained it faces higher power prices than steel companies in France and Germany. And the price of carbon credits certificates that firms buy to allow them to emit greenhouse gases has also spiralled. These have placed additional burdens on a sector that had already been struggling for several years. It faces stiff competition from cheap imports, especially from China, which makes more than 1bn tonnes a year. The UK employs 34,500 people in the steel industry and produces around 7million tonnes a year. A British Steel spokesman said: 'Jingye are committed to our long-term future but we also require the Government to provide the necessary support, policies and frameworks to back our drive to become a clean, green and sustainable company.' The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) said the Government 'recognises the vital role that steel plays within the UK economy'. The Pantops Community Advisory Committee plans to discuss concepts to improve Free Bridge Lane at its monthly meeting on Monday. Albemarle County Transportation Planner Jessica Hersh-Ballering is expected to present two design concepts for Free Bridge Lane, which runs near Darden Towe Park along the Rivanna River. There will be time for questions afterwards, according to a statement. Both proposals for Free Bridge Lane feature spots along the riverbank with picnic and fitness areas. The Multi-Modal Boulevard proposal has a one-way boulevard for bicycles and automobiles, a separated bike lane and a footpath near the river bank. Meanwhile, the Promenade proposal features a shared two-way lane for bikers and pedestrians, more picnic space and extra seating areas. The project incorporates the objectives of environmental preservation and expanding outdoor recreational opportunities, according to a statement, both of which are recommended in the 2019 Pantops Master Plan. The Pantops Community Advisory Committee meets at 6:15 p.m. on Monday in the Kessler Conference Room at Martha Jefferson Hospital Outpatient Center at 595 Martha Jefferson Drive in Charlottesville. For more information and other meeting times, visit https://www.albemarle.org/community/county-calendar. Western allies on Friday dampened Ukraines hopes for a rapid shipment of battle tanks to boost its firepower for a spring offensive against Russian forces, with the United States urging Kyiv to hold off from mounting such an operation. The top U.S. general, speaking after a meeting of the allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, also said it would be very hard for Ukraine to drive Russias invading forces from the country this year. The run-up to the Ramstein meeting had been dominated by the issue of whether Germany would agree to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, or permit other countries that have them to do so. In the end, no decision on supplying Leopards was reached on Friday, officials said, although pledges were given for large amounts of other weapons, including air defence systems and other tank models. We had a frank discussion on Leopards 2. To be continued, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleskii Reznikov said after the meeting. The United States was also holding fast to its decision not to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine yet, a senior U.S. official said in Washington. In Ramstein, U.S. General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference: From a military standpoint, I still maintain that for this year, it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine. The developments likely came as a disappointment to Ukraine, as the war unleashed by a Russian invasion last February grinds on, with no solution nor let-up in sight. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had specifically requested more battle tanks. Ukraine was hit especially hard this week, reporting 44 people confirmed dead and 20 unaccounted for after a Russian missile attack on an apartment block in Dnipro. Russians in St Petersburg and Moscow have been laying flowers at improvised memorials to the victims. GERMANY WARY U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference at the end of the Ramstein meeting that while time was of the essence for Ukraine to take the fight to Russias forces in the spring, Ukraine was well-equipped even without the Leopards. Ukraine is not dependent on a single platform, he said. U.S. President Joe Bidens administration faces pressure at home to supply more advanced weaponry. A group of U.S. senators visiting Kyiv on Friday blasted the delays. We should not send American troops to Ukraine, but we should provide Ukraine with whatever we would give our troops if they were fighting on the ground, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters Ukraines backers needed to focus not only on sending new weapons, but supplying ammunition for older systems and helping maintain them. For its part, the Kremlin said supplying tanks to Ukraine would not help and that the West would regret its delusion that Kyiv could win on the battlefield. Germany has been under heavy pressure to allow Leopards to be sent. Chancellor Olaf Scholzs Social Democrat party is traditionally sceptical of military involvements and wary of sudden moves that could cause Moscow to further escalate. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he could not say when there would be a decision on the tanks but Berlin was prepared to move quickly if there was consensus among allies. All pros and cons must be weighed very carefully, Pistorius said. Defence ministers from NATO and other countries met at Ramstein amid concern that Russia would soon reenergize its military campaign to seize parts of Ukraines east and south that it says it has annexed but does not fully control. Zelenskiy thanked allies for their support at the start of the meeting, but said more was needed and more quickly. We have to speed up. Time must become our weapon. The Kremlin must lose, he said. SOURCE:- REUTERS Dozens of Peruvians were injured after tensions flared again on Friday night as police clashed with protesters in anti-government demonstrations that are spreading across the country. In the capital Lima, police officers used tear gas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones, as fires burned in the streets, local TV footage showed. In the countrys southern Puno region, some 1,500 protesters attacked a police station in the town of Ilave, Interior Minister Vicente Romero said in a statement to news media. A police station in Zepita, Puno, was also on fire, Romero said. Health authorities in Ilave reported eight patients hospitalized with injuries, including broken arms and legs, eye contusions and punctured abdomens. By late afternoon, 58 people had been injured nationwide in demonstrations, according to a report from Perus ombudsman. The unrest followed a day of turmoil in Thursday, when one of Limas most historic buildings burned to the ground, as President Dina Boluarte vowed to get tougher on vandals. The destruction of the building, a near-century-old mansion in central Lima, was described by officials as the loss of a monumental asset. Authorities are investigating the causes. Romero on Friday claimed the blaze was duly planned and arranged. Thousands of protesters descended on Lima this week calling for change and angered by the protests mounting death toll, which officially stood at 45 on Friday. Protests have rocked Peru since President Pedro Castillo was ousted in December after he attempted to dissolve the legislature to prevent an impeachment vote. The unrest has until this week been concentrated in Perus south. In the Cusco region, Glencores (GLEN.L) major Antapaccay copper mine suspended operations on Friday after protesters attacked the premises one of the largest in the country for the third time this month. Airports in Arequipa, Cusco and the southern city of Juliaca were also attacked by demonstrators, delivering a fresh blow to Perus tourism industry. Its nationwide chaos, you cant live like this. We are in a terrible uncertainty the economy, vandalism, said Lima resident Leonardo Rojas. The government has extended a state of emergency to six regions, curtailing some civil rights. But Boluarte has dismissed calls for her to resign and hold snap elections, instead calling for dialogue and promising to punish those involved in the unrest. All the rigor of the law will fall on those people who have acted with vandalism, Boluarte said on Thursday. Some locals pointed the finger at Boluarte, accusing her of not taking action to quell the protests, which began on Dec. 7 in response to the ouster and arrest of Castillo. Human rights groups have accused the police and army of using deadly firearms. The police say protesters have used weapons and homemade explosives. SOURCE: REUTERS Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, has announced it will donate hundreds of thousands of servings of protein to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, which has a distribution center in Charlottesville, serves 25 counties and eight cities, according to a statement. At 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Smithfield said company representatives will present the donations and provide lunch for employees at the food banks headquarters in Verona. Later in the week on Friday, the company said it will donate food at Feeding Southwest Virginia, which serves Montgomery County where Virginia Tech is located. The two events are part of Smithfields Helping Hungry Homes initiative, according to the statement. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Thousands of people have taken part in protests across the country to express anger at hospital overcrowding. One of the biggest demonstrations was held in Limerick where people voiced anger at the long-term situation at University Hospital Limerick. They demanded the reinstatement of full accident and emergency provision at other hospitals, such as Ennis in Co Clare and Neigh in Co Tipperary, to help tackle the problems at UHL a hospital that regularly top the lists for trolley waits. One of those who addressed the crowd was Melanie Cleary, whose 21-year-old daughter Eve died from a blood clot after leaving UHL following a lengthy trolley wait in 2019. This is no longer a health crisis, its a national disaster, she said. Eve deserved better. We all deserve better. My children deserve better. She added: When will this be enough for our government and the HSE, when will they be held to account? When another child dies? Another husband dies. Another mother, another father, sister, brother. One of our basic rights is decent healthcare. At some point in all our lives, were going need an A&E. The protests were organised as part of a national Day of Action to highlight concerns with hospital provision and overcrowding. Among the other events organised were protests in Cork, Galway, Navan and Letterkenny. While thousands attended the Limerick demonstration, some of the other rallies were much smaller in scale. Minister of State for Law Reform James Browne said the situation with trolley waits was not acceptable. These patients who are on trolleys should not be going through what theyre doing, he told RTE Radio One. Nobody can stand over it, not the Government, not the HSE and not the healthcare workers. He said the Government was now making record investment in the health service. Whats necessary is the increase of capacity in our hospitals right across the country, said the minister. Weve seen a deficit of investment for a significant amount of time and we are now seeing record investment in that capacity right across the country. [January 20, 2023] GS EQUITY ALERT: Rosen Law Firm Encourages The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Investors to Inquire About Securities Class Action Investigation - GS WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces an investigation of potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) resulting from allegations that Goldman Sachs may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public. SO WHAT: If you purchased Goldman Sachs securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=11359 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On January 20, 2023, during trading hours, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled "U.S. Fed probes Goldman Sachs consumer business." The article stated that "The U.S. Federal Reserve is probing whether Goldman Sachs Group Inc's consumer business had apprpriate safeguards in place as the bank ramped up lending." Further, the article stated that "The central bank is concerned the Wall Street giant did not have proper monitoring and control systems inside Marcus, its consumer unit, as it grew larger." The article added that "The probe, which grew out of a standard Fed review of the business in 2021 and intensified into an investigation last year, is also examining instances of customer harm and whether they were properly resolved." On this news, Goldman Sachs's price fell $8.91, or 2.54%, to close at $341.84 on January 20, 2023. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230120005487/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 20, 2023] Lido Advisors Announces Hiring of John McInerney as Director, Senior Wealth Manager Lido Advisors, LLC ("Lido"), a leading wealth management firm, announced today that John McInerney has joined the firm as Director, Senior Wealth Manager. Mr. McInerney will provide strategic and financial advice to Lido clients leveraging years of comprehensive wealth management experience. Prior to joining Lido, he worked for 13 years at Morgan Stanley with senior-level professionals of public companies in the risk management, insurance, and healthcare industries, specializing in equity compensation and concentrated stock positions. Mr. McInerney holds a BBA i Finance from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University and is a CFP. "Lido Advisors' commitment to excellence is paramount. Their innovative offerings are precisely what I believe clients need to make informed decisions and work toward their goals," said Mr. McInerney. "I'm looking forward to working with an exceptional group of colleagues as we work to bring best in class industry expertise to our clients." "We are excited to welcome John to the firm. He brings deep experience and strong relationships across the industry that serve to enhance our commitment to our clients," said Jason Ozur, Lido's Chief Executive Officer. "It is as important as ever to have a strong, passionate, and skilled team to guide our clients' wealth strategy, and we have no doubt that John will be an excellent addition to the Lido family." About Lido Advisors Lido Advisors is a nationally recognized wealth advisory firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with over $12 billion in assets under management and 28 offices across the United States. The firm embraces an active approach to asset management focused on risk mitigation and access to alternative, core, and tactical investment strategies. Lido provides a family office experience to its clients with a deep commitment to personalized, comprehensive wealth planning and access to affiliated professionals providing bespoke tax, estate, and legacy solutions. Lido is focused on creating an innovative, high-touch client experience and becoming its clients' financial life partner. For more information, please visit www.lidoadvisors.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230120005502/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 20, 2023] California American Water Partners with Wayfinder Family Services To Install Water Bottle Filling Stations on its Main Campus California American Water and EchoTech Services, Inc. held a ribbon cutting unveiling seven recently installed water bottle fill stations at Wayfinder Family Services' main campus in Los Angeles. California American Water partnered with Wayfinder, a statewide nonprofit organization serving children in foster care, individuals with vision impairment or multiple disabilities and their families, to install the units with the goal of upgrading existing aging water fountains and promoting the benefits of drinking from our local water supply. With over 150 staff members, residents and students on the campus, the filling stations will not only help to reduce the amount of single use plastics, but will also provide clean water in a safe, touchless way. "We are so grateful to California American Water for their support of this important initiative at our main campus," said Jay Allen, Wayfinder's President, and Chief Operating Officer. "Access to clean, filtered water for our residents, families and staff will not only contribute to health and wellness, but also reinforces our community's commitment to going green." California American Water is proud to partner with Wayfinder on this water bottle filling station initiative which is part of the company's overall conservation outreach program. Drinking enough water plays an important role in a child's overall health, and when water bottle filling stations are installed on campuses, students nearly triple how much water they drink throughout the day. "We hope the students, families and staff will embrace the refillable water bottle stations and inspire positive behavioral changes that promote water conservation," said Patrick Pilz, California American Water's Senior Manager of Field Operations. "It is a pleasure partnering with Wayfinder and we appeciate their support in helping us inspire change in water usage behavior that promotes our local supply and protects our watershed from plastic bottles." All the hydration stations were installed in high-traffic areas to ensure maximum exposure and encourage users to refill personal, eco-friendly water bottles to reduce plastic waste. About California American Water: California American Water, a subsidiary of American Water (NYSE: AWK), provides high-quality and reliable water and wastewater services to more than 725,000 people. Information regarding California American Water's service areas can be found on the company's website www.californiaamwater.com. About American Water: With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs more than 6,400 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and regulated-like drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people in 24 states. American Water provides safe, clean, affordable, and reliable water services to our customers to help keep their lives flowing. For more information, visit amwater.com and diversityataw.com. Follow American Water on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230120005504/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 20, 2023] Kerrygold brings magic to the kitchen through "The Magical Pantry," a first-of-its-kind digital experience that takes children's stories from fable to table EVANSTON, Ill., Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kerrygold recently launched The Magical Pantry: a first-of-its-kind experience, bringing delicious recipes to life through fable-like stories. In collaboration with Energy BBDO and The Dynamite Shop, The Magical Pantry was designed to help families cook together through an innovative digital platform that integrates recipes seamlessly into children's stories so kids can learn and practice cooking skills every time they read. In less than six months, The Magical Pantry has already received over 135,000 page views overall, and over 17,000 page views of the avatar creation page alone. Available on both desktop and mobile, The Magical Pantry allows for young families to fully customize a character, pick from almost 40 recipes, and select one of 4 unique fables to read and enjoy. Their character is then incorporated right into the pages of the story where hundreds of combinations of recipes and stories magically come to life. You can experience The Magical Pantry here: www.themagicalpantry.com. "The Magical Pantry was created to inspire millennial parents with delicious recipes that they can create together with their families. The Kerrygold brand has always been synonymous with bringing people together over food and so we are excited to bring this experience to life through a digital storytelling platform that all the famly can enjoy," said Brian Cleere, Global Marketing Director, Kerrygold. Kerrygold and Energy BBDO set out to help parents involve their families in the cooking experience, and purposefully crafted every step of the program. In order for readers to feel well-represented, Energy BBDO brought together a team of 15 DE&I champions from different backgrounds to contribute from their points of view. The recipes were crafted by The Dynamite Shop, an interactive cooking school that specializes in creating kid-friendly recipes, and stories were consulted by Ireland's award-winning children's writer Vicky McFarland. Recipes, characters, and stories were illustrated by multidisciplinary artist & illustrator Dan Gartman, and the entire experience was brought to life by the global interactive design studio, makemepulse. "Our goal with The Magical Pantry was to evolve the instructional recipe format into narrative storybooks that engage and entertain as they teach. The result is an intuitive, immersive way for parents to involve the whole family in the cooking experience," says Dane Canada, Creative Director at Energy BBDO. Kerrygold's The Magical Pantry is part of a global initiative for the brand to reach younger consumers, specifically millennial parents. The platform launched in the US in September 2022 and is the centerpiece of a multi-channel integrated campaign, amplified across social, digital, PR and experiential through their agency partners PHD and Weber Shandwick. Roll-out of The Magical Pantry will continue throughout 2023, with localized versions of the platform also launching in Germany, UK and Ireland. About Kerrygold Kerrygold was established in 1962 as a premium brand, befitting the rich quality of grass-fed Irish milk. Kerrygold initially launched as a single product brand and is now regarded as Ireland's most successful food brand, reaching 1 billion in annual sales in 2019. Since its creation, Kerrygold has been synonymous with quality, and today, Kerrygold has a special place in the hearts of consumers all over the world. Kerrygold dairy farmers are committed to the co-operative ideal; working together to produce only the very best grass-fed dairy products. Kerrygold cows graze freely on the fields of 14,000 small Irish family farms; each one using unique dairy farming traditions passed down through generations of family. It is this grass-fed milk that delivers the rich tasting, higher quality dairy products that Kerrygold is famous for. Today, consumers all over the world enjoy the unique taste of Irish grass-fed dairy. Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter is the number two butter brand in the USA and Kerrygold Dubliner Irish Cheese is the number one specialty cheese. Contact: Libby Hudson [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kerrygold-brings-magic-to-the-kitchen-through-the-magical-pantry-a-first-of-its-kind-digital-experience-that-takes-childrens-stories-from-fable-to-table-301727465.html SOURCE Kerrygold [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 20, 2023] LUV INVESTOR NOTICE: Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Announces that Southwest Airlines Co. Investors with Substantial Losses Have Opportunity to Lead Securities Class Action Lawsuit The law firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP announces that purchasers or acquirers of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) publicly traded securities from June 13, 2020 to December 31, 2022, inclusive (the "Class Period") have until March 13, 2023 to seek appointment as lead plaintiff in the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit. Captioned Teroganesian v. Southwest Airlines Co., No. 23-cv-00115 (S.D. Tex.), the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit charges Southwest Airlines and certain of its top executives with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. If you suffered substantial losses and wish to serve as lead plaintiff of the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit, please provide your information here: https://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases-southwest-airlines-co-class-action-lawsuit-luv.html You can also contact attorney J.C. Sanchez of Robbins Geller by calling 800/449-4900 or via e-mail at [email protected]. CASE ALLEGATIONS: Southwest Airlines is a major U.S.-based airline carrier. The Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit alleges that throughout the Class Period defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Southwest Airlines continuously downplayed or ignored the serious issues with the technology it used to schedule flights and crews, and how it stood to be affected worse than other airlines in the event of inclement weather; and (ii) Southwest Airlines did not discuss how its unique point-to-point service and aggressive flight schedule could leave it prone to greater cancellations in the event of inclement weather. During the 2022 winter season, storms disrupted the holiday travel season. As a result, Southwest Airlines cancelled thousands of flights, accounting for the vast majority of domestic flight cancellations. Thereafter, on December 26 and December 27, 2022, several news outlets published various articles detailing Southwest Airlines' operational meltdown. For example, Business Insider published an article entitled "US Department of Transportation says it plans to look into Southwest Airlines following the airline's 'unacceptable' holiday flight cancellations." On this news, Southwest Airlines' stock price dropped more than 12%. Then, on December 31, 2022, The New York Times published an article entitled "The Shameful Open Secret Behind Southwest's Failure," which discussed how it was an "open secret" within Southwest Airlines that it needed to modernize its scheduling systems. On this news, Southwest Airlines' stock price declined, further damaging investors. THE LEAD PLAINTIFF PROCESS: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased or acquired publicly traded Southwest Airlines securities during the Class Period to seek appointment as lead plaintiff in the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit. A lead plaintiff is generally the movant with the greatest financial interest in the relief sought by the putative class who is also typical and adequate of the putative class. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice to litigate the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff of the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit. ABOUT ROBBINS GELLER: Robbins Geller is one of the world's leading complex class action firms representing plaintiffs in securities fraud cases. The Firm is ranked #1 on the most recent ISS Securities Class Action Services Top 50 Report for recovering nearly $2 billion for investors in 2021 - more than triple the amount recovered by any other plaintiffs' firm. With 200 lawyers in 9 offices, Robbins Geller is one of the largest plaintiffs' firms in the world, and the Firm's attorneys have obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history, including the largest securities class action recovery ever - $7.2 billion - in In re Enron Corp. Sec. Litig. Please visit the following page for more information: https://www.rgrdlaw.com/services-litigation-securities-fraud.html Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230120005451/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A not-so-quick jaunt to grab a freebie cup of coffee (thanks to one of our MOST KICK-ASS TKC FANS) has us thinking this weekend might be a bit violent given that a lot of peeps seem to have their fangs out. Hopefully the weather will find a way to make everyone chill. In the meantime we're sharing this collection of crime reporting, ongoing criminal cases with even a bit of political intrigue . . . First we start with a recent bit of tragic testimony that deserves to be highlighted . . . According to a court document, Douglas Menser died Thursday about 90 minutes after the shooting. Menser told officers SUSPECT shot him and left the house in the 7600 E. 108th Terrace. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Kansas City man shot 8 times managed to call police, wait for officers on front porch before dying KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City, Missouri, man who suffered eight gunshot wounds managed to call police, identify the man who shot him and wait for police on the front porch of a house. According to a court document, Douglas Menser died Thursday about 90 minutes after the shooting. Kansas City man charged with second-degree murder after victim calls 911, says he was shot eight times The Jackson County, Missouri, Prosecutor's Office has charged a 39-year-old Kansas City man with second-degree murder after a shooting that turned fatal Thursday. Officers were dispatched to the 7600 block of 108th Terrace on a shooting call around 10:30 a.m.According to probable cause documents, the victim, Douglas Menser, called 911 to say he had been shot eight times. Man charged in fatal South Kansas City shooting KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A 39-year-old Kansas City man has been charged in a fatal shooting that happened Thursday in South Kansas City. Donald Crowe, 39, has been charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Court documents state the victim was shot eight times by the defendant, who fled the scene on foot. Now, here's more recent crime news to check TKC news gathering . . . Police respond to double shooting in south Kansas City KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two people were injured in a shooting at a home in south Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday afternoon. According to police, the shooting happened in the 1600 block of east 97th Street at around 2:30 p.m. Both suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Initially, police reported four people had been shot. Father discovered vehicle where KC police found missing son's body KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Court documents say a Kansas City-area father discovered the vehicle where police would soon find his 24-year-old son's body. Adam Blackstock, of Grandview, was found dead Tuesday inside a vehicle near E. 46th Street and Montgall Avenue in Kansas City. FBI investigating $690,000 wire theft from Jerry Moran's Senate campaign The FBI is investigating allegations that a thief stole from Sen. Jerry Moran's campaign fund while he was running for U.S. Senate last year, according to a letter his campaign sent to the federal elections commission. Moran's campaign wrote a letter to the FEC on Dec. KCK man sentenced for 2022 Leavenworth deadly shooting of 20-year-old woman LEAVENWORTH, Kan. - A 28-year-old Kansas City, Kansas man is sentenced for the killing of a 20-year-old woman in Leavenworth last summer. A Leavenworth County judge sentenced Jerell Dewayne Martin Friday to life in prison for the July 15, 2022 first-degree murder of Ericka Hopkins. Overland Park woman sentenced for bank fraud KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KCTV) - An Overland Park woman was sentenced Friday to 33 months in prison for bank fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice announced that a review of Stephanie Stites, 52, of Overland Park, found that she'd embezzled more than $712,000 from Norbrook Inc. by creating two fake companies and manipulating invoices. Kansas City Mob Figure Banned from Nevada Casinos Dies of COVID-19 Posted on: January 20, 2023, 09:47h. Last updated on: January 20, 2023, 11:05h. A reputed underboss of the Kansas City crime family, who was banned from all Nevada casinos because of his alleged Mob activities, died Tuesday after a long battle with COVID-19, The Kansas City Star reports. He was 73. After another deadly year, Partners for Peace will work with KCPD on crime intervention Kansas City recorded its second highest rate of homicides in 2022, but a new program is underway with hopes of reducing violent crime in the metro. Partners for Peace - a collaboration between Kansas City, Missouri, Jackson County Combat, Kansas City Police Department, community leaders and more than a dozen social service providers - is working to intervene and prevent retaliatory crime. Developing . . . Thank you for reading! To read this article and more, subscribe now for as little as $1.99. This morning hottie heiress Gracie earns global headlines with her fashion tribute to the home team as we check pop culture, community news and top headlines. A tribute to her greatness that might or might not be more important than one of many genocides being perpetrated around the world without much awareness from American news watchers. "Hunt was named Miss Kansas in 2021 and finished in the top 15 of the Miss USA contest that year." And despite her billions of dollars, obvious genetic gifts and beuty . . . Today she deserves even more attention than most of the offensive lineman who are mostly interchangeable and unknown even to some diehard fans. Check TKC news gathering . . . Warm Weather Flights Open Up Southwest Airlines to offer nonstop service from Kansas City to Long Beach According to KCI, with the addition of LGB, Southwest will have 62 daily departures from MCI and 26 nonstop destinations in March of this year. Northland Pleads With Crooks Platte County family asking for return of sentimental item after home break-in KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Platte County, Missouri Sheriff's Office is investigating a break-in that happened in broad daylight Tuesday near Parkville. The Crum family left around 9 a.m. and came home around 3 p.m. to find their front door kicked in and their TV sets, watch, and money gone. Community Resource Celebrated Kansas City G.I.F.T. hosts Black business pop-up marketplace Jan. 28 Vendor featured at the last pop-up event. // Courtesy of Kansas City G.I.F.T On Jan. 28th, Kansas City G.I.F.T will be hosting a pop-up from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the event space at 5008 Prospect Avenue. This community marketplace will feature Black-owned businesses selling fashion, jewelry, and accessories-essential oils, candles, and books-as well as food vendors. Working-Class Breakfast Burned Restroom set on fire at Denny's on Front Street KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Emergency crews were called early Friday morning to a fire at the Denny's restaurant on Front Street in Kansas City, Missouri. Firefighters responded shortly before 1 a.m. to 6887 E. Front Street. The fire was contained to a bathroom, and no injuries were reported. Not But Boss But Still Creeper Lawrence man to face prison time for child porn convictions LAWRENCE, Kan. - A 65-year-old Lawrence, Kansas faces prison time for child sex crimes committed in 2021. On Friday, Bruce S. Springsteen plead no contest to attempted sexual exploitation of a child by conducting internet searches for child sexual abuse material, a violation of his probation terms set in a similar 2021 case, according to Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez. Peek At Your Better . . . Daughter of Chiefs owner shows off team bikini ahead of playoff game The temperature may be in the 30s in Kansas City, but Gracie Hunt isn't fazed. The daughter of Chiefs part-owner and CEO Clark Hunt donned a Chiefs bikini despite the elements and showed it off for loyal fans of the Chiefs. Hunt's snaps came on the eve of the Chiefs' divisional round game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. MAGA SECURES SAFETY NET!?! Trump to GOP: Don't touch Medicare or Social Security in debt ceiling fight Republicans have vowed not to raise the federal government's borrowing capacity unless Biden makes steep cuts to federal spending, potentially impacting social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. Trump's video is a warning to his fellow party members not to go there. Cash Conversation Kevin McCarthy agrees to Biden meeting on debt ceiling House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Friday that he will meet with President Biden to discuss increasing the debt ceiling. "President Biden: I accept your invitation to sit down and discuss a responsible debt ceiling increase to address irresponsible government spending," the newly elected speaker tweeted Friday afternoon. "I look forward to our meeting." American Euro-Trashed Former Navy SEAL Killed During Intense Ukraine Battle A former American special operator died early Thursday morning after being wounded days before fighting alongside the Ukrainian military during intense combat in the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut. Daniel Swift, 35, lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and served as a Navy SEAL. The U.S. Funny Money For Realz Feds have seized nearly $700M from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried Federal authorities have seized almost $700 million from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, mostly from shares of Robinhood that he owned. A court filing from Friday shows that the federal government seized more than 55 million shares of Robinhood stock along with tens of millions of dollars from each of several bank accounts. Hollywood Drama After Tragedy After prosecutors announced charges against Alec Baldwin for film set shooting, experts say they could be making a 'strange play' to 'threaten' him into taking a plea deal Prosecutors said Thursday they plan to charge Alec Baldwin in connection to the "Rust" shooting. Making the announcement before charges have been filed could be a legal tactic, experts said. Experts told Insider that prosecutors may be looking to force Baldwin into taking a plea deal. Tragic Testimony Brooke Shields reveals details of sexual assault in new Sundance documentary: 'First time I've ever spoken about what happened' ' Brooke Shields is speaking out for the first time about a sexual assault she experienced in her early 20s. The actress and model shares her story in Lana Wilson's new two-part documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, which premiered today at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Tribute Falls Flat The Problem With Boston's MLK Memorial Isn't That It Looks Like a Penis There's a new memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Boston titled the Embrace. It was created by the artist Hank Willis Thomas and architecture firm MASS Design Group to represent the couple hugging in a famous 1964 photograph. Show Tunes & Times WeKC- January 23-31, 2023- Upcoming Concerts (Kansas City / Lawrence, KS) Read More The Lone Bellow Nashville-based country trio The Lone Bellow are returning to a sold-out show in Minnesota's The Turf Club. The band are touring in support of their second album ... Read more Kansas City Music Guide. January continues and it hasn't exactly been the "dog days of... Weekend Forecast For Now . . . Joe's Blog: The fight for snow continues (FRI-1/20) KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Let's start with this. Since no snow is expected today, this is now the 12th least-snowiest start to the snow season in KC record history. I can probably make an argument that it's the 11th least-snowiest start too because one of the years above us is 1889, and we're missing numerous days of records from that year. Drake - Jumbotron Sh*t Poppin is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now. Follow-me here . . . If there is a critical issue with widespread support that can be ABSOLUTELY MISHANDLED AND DEFEATED . . . Then trust Missouri Democrats to do just that. For starters, here's a peek at their off-putting logic . . . Or lack thereof . . . Missouri lawmakers have introduced a slew of bills aimed at restricting voters ability to directly amend our states constitution. Proponents claim its too easy to change the constitution and that the process allows billionaires and out-of-state money to influence our laws. First, its anything but easy to amend the State constitution. Its not easy to collect the mandatory 170,000+ signatures by hand, not online to get a proposal on the ballot. Its not easy to mount a grassroots campaign to educate voters about an initiative. You know whats easy? Passing legislation with a super majority in the legislature and party control in the governors mansion. Thats easy. Nope. If it was "easy" than Missouri Democrats might be able to do it. In fact . . . Building a statewide constituency of loyal voters willing to accept some absolute batsh*t crazy ideas just to keep the even more unstable party out of power . . . That's actually a very tough trick to pull off. Meanwhile . . . Instead of reaching across the aisle and finding support and common ground with Republicans in a much more powerful bi-partisan effort . . . Our progressive friends risk losing a critical means of progress for voters in Missouri. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . EXPLAINER: What you need to know about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Imagine a child jumping out in front of your car as you drive down a residential street. Now count to three. Thats how long it could take a self-driving car with insufficient data confused over whether to brake or swerve to turn control over to the driver. By then its too late to react. In dynamic urban environments, three seconds is an eternity, says Ehsan Hashemi, an expert on autonomous navigation in the University of Albertas Faculty of Engineering. Its called a handover situation, when the autonomous driving system realizes its not capable of driving the vehicle, he says. The current standard transition of between three and 10 seconds is huge, and really scary. The ability for an autonomous vehicle to quickly perceive and understand the scene around it remains a big hurdle to safe commercialization of the technology, says Hashemi, mainly because of computer processing constraints and uncertainties in the environment. He and his team are aiming to dramatically improve that processing speed by limiting the information a vehicle receives to what is most relevant, allowing them to set the processing bar (including decision making) at about 20 milliseconds for vehicles to refresh available data and make faster, safer decisions in real time. Shared perception provides a wider view Hashemis shared perception system works by combining on-board sensors which read the vehicles immediate surroundings and track moving objects with remote camera and LIDAR sensors mounted on nearby fixed objects such as lampposts and buildings at intersections, providing a much wider view. Together, they have a more comprehensive view of the vehicles environment, catching obstructed or unexpected moving objects in their sights and reducing the need to hand over control to the driver. There might be some limited field of view if, for example, a pedestrian crosses in front of a bus, or a cyclist suddenly emerges from around a corner, says Hashemi. If a child chases a ball across a residential street, a remote sensor could detect that movement before the car enters the scene from as far away as 100 metres. This would allow for proactive measures, braking or steering ahead of time rather than waiting for a driver to see a moving object and understand the circumstances. A key innovation in Hashemis work is the filtering of information using artificial intelligence. Rather than accounting for everything in a vehicles field of view, as would a human driver, the systems algorithm targets only relevant data such as objects moving in its path and important features like traffic lights and signs. The co-operative perception system is also scalable for various urban environments considering higher probabilities of occlusion or faster dynamic objects, he says. Testing technology for Canadian weather Hashemi hopes to launch a small pilot project using perhaps 10 remote sensors in downtown Edmonton as part of the citys Vision Zero initiative, aimed at reducing the number of collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists. With the harsh weather conditions we have in Edmonton, snow and ice can occlude many of the features autonomous vehicles rely on, even lines separating lanes, he says, adding that much of the technology so far has been tested in milder climates such as California and Arizona. Hashemi and his team of three doctoral candidates, two masters students and one post-doctoral fellow have received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to test their system on the U of As North Campus. Four LIDAR sensing units installed on light poles will analyze traffic in the area. He has met with TELUS to explore a partnership to take advantage of the high speed and low latency of 5G networks to enable safe and fast shared perception for autonomous driving. The technology also has potential for warehouses where robots navigate through environments in close proximity or in co-operation with humans, or for networked mobile robots performing maintenance/repairs in dynamic environments, says Hashemi. Our lab is developing technology to enhance the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. As a result, our technology is well poised for immediate commercialization in various communities in Alberta and Canada. By Janice Phelan, January 20, 2023 The Missouri Innovation Campus building in Lee's Summit hosts the Summit Technology Academy/Missouri Innovatioan Campus (MIC) program, where high school students embark on opportunities to earn a bachelor's degree in less time and with less debt than a traditional education pathway. Want to learn more about the Summit Technology Academy/Missouri Innovation Campus (MIC) program? High school students and their families are invited to attend an informational open house at 6 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Missouri Innovation Campus in Lees Summit. A session focusing on the Missouri Innovation Campus program will begin at 6:45 p.m. To learn more about the open house, visit this webpage. To participate in the nationally recognized program, students must attend one of Summit Technology Academys 33 sending high schools. Students begin the program the summer before their junior year, so the open house events are for current high school sophomores. To qualify for the MIC program, a 10th-grader must be accepted to the Lees Summit R-7 School Districts Summit Technology Academy for their junior year, have a 3.0 minimum GPA, 95 percent attendance and test into college English and college algebra either on the ACT or Accuplacer exams. The recruitment process for the 2023-27 MIC program cohort will conclude at the MIC program Enrollment Night on March 9. At this event, students meeting the programs requirements are invited to enroll for the program, which begins in June 2023. Through the four-year MIC program students earn a bachelors degree just two years after graduating high school while also participating in three-year, year-round, paid internships with one of the programs business partners. Students completing the MIC program graduate with in-demand career-ready skills all with little or no college debt. The 2023-27 cohort will be the 12th since the one-of-a-kind Missouri Innovation Campus program started in 2012 with just one academic program and three MIC business partners. Since then, the program has expanded to include 70 business partners and six programs: Software Development, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Design and Drafting, Big Data/Business Analytics and Computer Information Systems. Students interested in learning how to get started with the application process are encouraged to visit this link. The Missouri Innovation Campus program is a partnership including the University of Central Missouri, the Lees Summit R-7 School District, Metropolitan Community College and industry-leading business partners. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that Ukrainian forces will train on Leopard 2 battle tanks in Poland, despite Western allies failure to reach a decision on whether to supply Kyiv with the German-made tanks. Reznikov said this in an interview with VOAs Ukrainian Service on Friday, Ukrinform reports. "Countries that already have Leopard tanks can begin training missions for our tank crews. We will start with that, and we will go from there, the minister said. He said he hopes that Germany will follow their process, conduct their internal consultations, and will arrive at the decision to send tanks to Ukraine. I am optimistic regarding this because the first step has been made. We will start training programs for our tank crews on Leopards 2, Reznikov said. According to him, agreements were reached thanks to the initiatives of Poland and Britain regarding the Leopard and Challenger tanks, respectively. As reported, the UK will begin training the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use Challenger 2 tanks in the coming days. iy Representatives of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War have said that Russia refuses to confirm capture of Ukrainian civilians. This issue was discussed at a meeting of relatives of prisoners with representatives of the Coordination Headquarters and the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Ukrinform reports. A representative of the Coordination Headquarters said that according to the Geneva Conventions, civilians must be released without any demands. However, Russia refuses not only to release civilians, but also to confirm their detention in most cases. At the meeting, Turkey's participation in the return of Ukrainians from captivity was noted. It is noted that with the assistance of Ankara, a positive result has already been achieved, so Kyiv seeks to continue work in this direction. "There are already positive results. At the end of last year, Russian ombudsperson [Tatyana] Moskalkova confirmed the capture of about 120 civilians who were considered missing," a representative of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights said. According to him, "the Russians grabbed civilians like in the thirties of the last century - in the middle of the night from their homes. Therefore, there is no information about many of them. Now they are inventing accusations against them: they say, some of them allegedly helped the Armed Forces or served in the army." The Coordination Staff representative added that Russia holds Ukrainian civilians in order to manipulate and destabilize the Ukrainian society, saying that Ukraine allegedly does not want to return them. "We did not refuse from any person whom the Russians agreed to exchange, he said. As reported by Ukrinform, the Russian side canceled another prisoner exchange scheduled for Saturday, January 14. Photo: facebook.com/koordshtab iy The prosecutor's office and investigative bodies have at their disposal information on Iran supplying drones to the Russian Federation. While the evidence base is still being gathered, the guilt of certain officials and other individuals will be proven in courts. Thats according to Yurii Belousov, chief of the Department for Prosecuting Crimes Committed in Conditions of Armed Conflict with the Prosecutor General's Office, who spoke at the national telethon, Ukrinform reports. "The prosecutor's office and investigative bodies have no doubt that Iran officials, entities, and individuals are involved in the production and delivery of these drones to the Russian Federation with the aim of their further use against our people," he said. According to the prosecutor, this is evidenced by the available data, including that gathered by Ukrainian intelligence and its foreign counterparts. "That is, we have information that confirms Iran's involvement in this," the head of the PGO department said, commenting on Iran's involvement in UAV supplies to Russia. Belousov noted that the guilt of certain persons will be proven both in national and international courts. "Right now, the investigative bodies and the prosecutor's office are gathering evidence with which we will be able to convince the court of the involvement of these persons in crimes. And for this purpose, hundreds of investigative actions, hundreds of examinations are being conducted, which will be completed in the near future," he explained. The PGO official assures that there will be enough evidence proving guilt of officials and individuals of Iran, as well as representatives of any other countries that assist Iran in the development or supply of these drones, as well as their use in Ukraine. "It is extremely important for us to trace the entire production and supply chain, as well as the direct use. All individuals who supply components, who assemble these machines, who supply them, who train Russians to use these drones, and those who directly launch drones at our citizens, at our cities, all of them must be identified," Belousov emphasized. According to him, there are thousands of people, on many of whom information has already been obtained, but it will take time to identify others. The situation in the Belarusian direction remains fully controlled as no movement of enemy military equipment is being observed near the border. Thats according to a spokesman for the State Border Guard Service, Andriy Demchenko, who spoke on the air of the national telethon, Ukrinform reports. "This direction remains fully controlled, although, of course, the situation is also somewhat tense. We understand that Belarus supports Russia in the war the latter has been waging against Ukraine, offering it its territory, where exercises are constantly taking place," he noted. The spokesman for the agency added that, as before, the Ukrainian side records no movement of military equipment directly near the border, and no enemy warplanes fly in the area, operating deeper into the territory of Belarus. "So far, the intelligence units and other elements that monitor the situation in this direction are not seeing a strike group formed on the territory of Belarus, which could invade as of today, but the enemy must never be underestimated, so Ukraine is preparing for any developments," Demchenko added. As reported, on January 16, joint aviation and tactical exercises began, involving Belarus and Russia air force units. Photo: Operational Command North Following the 8th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced that Ukraine would receive more weapons and ammunition. The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov on Twitter, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. Ramstein 8 meeting at Ramstein Air Base has ended. It was a great meeting of friends. The free world stands with Ukraine and applauds brave Ukrainian soldiers and our courageous nation. The Ukrainian Army will receive more weapons and ammo. We will win. Evil will be defeated, Reznikov wrote. In addition, Reznikov commented on a number of bilateral meetings, which were held as part of the 8th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. In particular, Reznikov met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloys Austin. I appreciate US efforts on behalf of Ukraines freedom and independence. Bradleys and Patriots will change the course of this war. Thank you for the leadership! Reznikov noted. Reznikov and Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom Ben Wallace discussed the capabilities of Challenger 2 MBT being delivered to the Ukrainian Army. These actions will help us to prevail over russian tyranny and liberate our land. Our cooperation will continue and expand, Reznikov stressed. Reznikov also met with Canadian National Defence Minister Anita Anand. The Ukrainian minister noted that the country is looking forward to the delivery of Canada-funded NASAMS. These systems will save countless Ukrainian lives. Thank you, Canada! We will win together, Reznikov wrote. Additionally, Reznikov expressed gratitude to Polish National Defence Minister Mariusz Baszczak for the morally courageous decision to provide Leopard 2 tanks to the Ukrainian Army. Ukraine will always remember Polands support. A tank coalition will be established. The aggressor will be punished, Reznikov emphasized. At the same time, Reznikov thanked Lithuanian National Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas for another package of security assistance to the Ukrainian Army. We have won together in the past, and we will win this war together now. Our mission to restore peace and justice to Europe will be accomplished, Reznikov noted. In addition, Reznikov met with Danish Defence Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen and thanked him personally for the decision to deliver CAESAR self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. Reznikov also expressed gratitude to Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur for all Estonia does to help Ukraine defend itself.. I can guarantee that you invested 1% of GDP not only in the Ukrainian Army but also in your own security. With friends like you we will definitely win, Reznikov emphasized. As part of the Ramstein-8 meeting, Reznikov met with Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson. In his words, CV90 and Archers will help brave Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield. Had a fruitful meeting with my Finnish colleague, Mikko Savola at Ramstein 8. Your country has shown great for support for Ukraine and we will never forget your solidarity. I believe in our common future and integration with NATO, Reznikov wrote. Additionally, Reznikov met with Minister of Defence of the Netherlands Kajsa Ollongren and expressed gratitude to the Dutch government for all the security assistance provided to Ukraine. Reznikov also commented on his meeting with Turkish National Defence Minister Hukusi Akar: We highly value all activities of Turkish government in supporting Ukraine, especially for releasing our POWs. Our common Black Sea will secure and free for all good people. Reznikov and Albanian Defence Minister Niko Peleshi discussed the ways and means of strengthening the Ukrainian Army. Reznikov thanked Peleshi for everything that the Albanian side had done, does and will do to help Ukraine protect itself. Congratulated German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on the appointment to his new position. We had a frank discussion on Leopards 2. To be continued, Reznikov noted. The Ukrainian minister also thanked the German government and the German people for their military assistance to Ukraine and hospitality. mk Venezuelan diplomat Diego Arria, the initiator of the Arria-formula meetings at the UN Security Council, condemned Russia for using this format to spread lies and justify aggression against Ukraine. I felt so bad today because after all, it has my name. That's something that has proven to be so valuable for the international community, could be misused by the Russian mission, Arria told Ukrinform, commenting on the meeting at the UN Security Council, which Russia held to once again spread disinformation about the situation in Donbas. According to him, the format was originally created to open the Security Council for the defense of human rights and freedom all over the world. It was to include members of government or institutions that were being mistreated or vandalized by regimes. It was never, never intended to be used by criminal estate regime like Putins, the diplomat stressed, noting that Moscow uses this format to justify aggression against a peaceful governing country. They are transmitting to the world the falsehoods. And they have created falsely to deny the crimes they are committing in Ukraine, Arria explained. He underscored that in a fairer world, it will be unthinkable to have a country like Russia as a member of the UN Security Council. I've never been able to forget that when Russia presided over the Security Council in February last year, Putin invaded Ukraine. That was a very strong message to the world: he couldn't care less for the charter of the United Nations, could not care less for the world's opinion. That's actually the public position that Putin has today, the diplomat said. The Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN told an Ukrinform correspondent that our country condemns Russia's attempts to justify its armed aggression and to whitewash crimes on Ukrainian soil by spreading disinformation and fakes at the Arria-formula meeting. We regret that Arria-formula format has been instrumentalized today by Russia for its propaganda purposes. It is another example of deliberate misuse of the Security Councils toolbox by the country that illegitimately occupies the permanent seat of the Soviet Union, the Mission said. The Ukrainian diplomats noted that Russia deliberately undermined the negotiation process and blocked all peaceful initiatives of Ukraine and its partners within the Normandy format and the Trilateral Contact Group in 2014-2021. Numerous ceasefire violations against the Ukrainian forces in Donbas were regularly registered by the OSCE SMM. Friday's Arria-formula meeting was a Russian attempt to shift the focus from its missile terror against the civilian population of Ukraine and the countrys critical infrastructure, the Permanent Mission believes. On Friday, Russia initiated an Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council to once again spread disinformation about the situation in Donbas. Such meetings are informal, they can be organized by any UN Security Council member to exchange views with the involvement of various people. The format is named after the diplomat Diego Arria, who initiated such meetings in 1992 as the Ambassador of Venezuela, then a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Photo: facebook.com/Arria.Diego ol Germany and France share an often uneasy history as neighbors, but today they stand together for peace and order on the continent. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this in his Saturday KanzlerKompakt video podcast, Ukrinform reports. "We are facing a common challenge. Putin's imperialism shall not win. We will not allow Europe to return to the days when violence replaced politics. We will continue to support Ukraine. Together. In defense of our European peace project," said Scholz. He noted that over the past 60 years, Franco-German friendship has become "natural" and routine but if you look back, for centuries the relationship between the two states has been difficult, marked by wars and destruction, deep mistrust. When Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and President Charles de Gaulle signed the Elysee Treaty 60 years ago, less than 20 years had passed since the end of World War 2 unleashed by Germany. "The wounds were far from healed. But France extended a hand to the Germans as a sign of reconciliation. A historic gesture," the Chancellor of Germany noted. He emphasized that now - 60 years on - it is possible to say: "the peace project has been completed." Germany and France are friends and close partners. Today this is about the European peace project at the turn of the century, about common values that countries seek to preserve, protect, and strengthen. On January 22, Scholz will travel to Paris leading his government delegation to participate in the Franco-German Council of Ministers, which, at the initiative of President Emmanuel Macron, is timed with the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Elysee Treaty. Photo: ALT The President's Office held a briefing for a delegation of United States senators regarding the situation at the front and the needs of the Ukrainian Army. The briefing was organized by the Office chief, Andriy Yermak, the press service of the head of state reports. Senator Lindsey Graham (GOP), Senators Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse (DEM), and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink attended the meeting. "I am glad to welcome you again to the Presidents Office. Today you will hear information directly from the front, which is very important in the context of understanding the current situation," Yermak said. He thanked the senators for supporting Ukraine in the most critical moments. It is noted that during the meeting, the senators were updated on Ukraines resistance to the Russian full-scale invasion. According to the Presidents Office, Ukrainian intelligence officials and commanders of military groups informed the American delegation about the situation around the borders of Ukraine and the assessment of prospects for further actions of Russian troops, the situation on the eastern front, and the effectiveness air defenses. The senators were also briefed on the needs of defense forces to improve their effectiveness, in particular regarding protection against enemy airstrikes. Particular attention was paid to the issue of protection of critical infrastructure facilities, among other technologically vulnerable sites. "We are concerned that these attacks will continue. You know that some came on New Year's holidays, in particular on New Year's Eve. About 200 missiles and drones were launched then. They will not stop," said the head of the Presidents Office. He also emphasized the importance of air defenses because after such strikes, millions are left without electricity, sometimes without water, for several days, even though the relevant services, in particular Ukrenergo, are working around the clock to restore power supplies to households as quickly as possible. As reported earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham, Richard Blumenthal, and Sheldon Whitehouse, who are visiting Kyiv. Photo: Ukrainian Presidents Office UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi greets Sofia, an 8-year-old Ukrainian refugee, at Causeni community centre in Moldova. UNHCR/Colin Delfosse The text below is attributed to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. I am delighted to be in Moldova to congratulate the Government on its decision to activate temporary protection for refugees fleeing Ukraine. The Moldovan people and Government have shown remarkable solidarity with refugees since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began nearly one year ago. This support was visible from the first days and weeks of the war, when tens of thousands of refugees mainly women and children fled Ukraine, and continues to this day. Despite many pressing economic challenges and limited resources, Moldovans opened their country and their homes. Almost 750,000 Ukrainian refugees entered in the past 11 months and over 102,000 Ukrainian refugees remain, almost half of whom are children. The Governments decision earlier this week to activate temporary protection is another concrete and tangible expression of continued and sustained solidarity with the Ukrainian people. It provides a more secure legal status for refugees and paves the way for a more sustainable and planned response. Temporary protection will help refugees access employment, become self-reliant, and will also allow them to contribute to their host communities until they can return home in safety and dignity. It also provides the framework for even more sustainable access to education and other basic services, providing stability during a great trauma and upheaval. UNHCR's Grandi praises Moldova's role in supporting Ukrainian refugees UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is committed to supporting Moldova and deepening our cooperation on refugee inclusion while also mobilizing strong donor support for host families and communities. Since the beginning of the refugee influx, UNHCR alone has delivered more than US$100 million worth of assistance and support in Moldova, in addition to the contributions of other humanitarian and development actors, as well as direct bilateral donor support to the Government. We will continue to invest in strengthening social protection systems in Moldova for refugees and Moldovans alike. But it is imperative that the international community steps up to provide renewed support for the refugee response and for the communities generously hosting refugees in Moldova. This means urgent and enhanced development investments in the country, as well as significant international efforts to shore up and grow the countrys economy, including encouraging private sector investment that can provide sustainable opportunities for both Moldovans and refugees. For more information on this topic, please contact: Support was shown for Azerbaijani environmental activists holding a peaceful demonstration on the Khankandi-Lachin road inside the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), Azernews reports, citing the the State Committee on Work with Diaspora of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani activists participated in the Green Up organization's action on Davos' Promenade Street, according to the Committee. During peaceful demonstrations on the Khankandi-Lachin road, citizens showed their support for Azerbaijani civil society representatives by holding signs that read, "Stop the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's natural resources!" and "Stop environmental terrorism in the territories of Azerbaijan!" Residents of the city were informed about Armenia's illegitimate use of Azerbaijan's natural resources in the region where Russian peacekeepers were temporarily stationed. Tural Aliyev, a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Geneva's Institute for Environmental Sciences, stressed the introduction of green technologies and infrastructure as well as the sustainable use of natural resources when speaking at the event on "Revamping Investment for Regenerating Nature" in Davos. Tural is a member of the Coordination Council of Swiss Azerbaijanis. He pointed out that legitimate public discontent is caused by the illegal exploitation of mineral resources. The German and Azerbaijani protests that are currently taking place are an example given by the Azerbaijani scientist. Posters and booklets illustrating the demands of environmental activists were displayed as part of the event, which was organized in collaboration with the UN, the EU, and the University of Geneva. Hereford, United States, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2023 ) :A wall of shipping containers installed just a few months ago by the then-governor of Arizona at a $100 million cost to US taxpayers was being dismantled Friday. Republican Doug Ducey ordered the huge line of shipping containers to be placed at the frontier between the United States and Mexico, during the final months of his administration, in what he said was a bid to stem illegal immigration. But after being sued by Washington for putting the containers on Federal land in the Coronado National Forest, Ducey -- who has since been succeeded by Democrat Katie Hobbs -- agreed in December to remove them. "I couldn't believe that Governor Ducey thought that it was a good idea," said Debbie McGuire, as a truck barreled down a dusty road carrying an empty container away. "It's absolutely ludicrous. To put containers that weren't going to work ever to keep anybody out," added McGuire, who until recently owned a home in nearby Tucson. "I just can't believe he thought it was a good idea. Ridiculous, and a total waste of taxpayer money." Ducey's container wall effort began in the middle of 2022, and quickly ran into opposition, with critics slamming it as a cynical political move that would damage the environment and make no difference to the number of illegal border crossings. Opponents said the corrugated containers, which snaked like a huge cargo train for four miles (seven kilometers) through federal lands, divided an important conservation area. They also pointed out that the terrain is so difficult to traverse that people traffickers have never really used it. In practice, the double-stacked containers were ill-suited to keeping people out -- their rigid shape means they didn't always line up, leaving gaping holes between boxes easily big enough for a person to fit through. In some areas, the terrain was too steep to accommodate them, and workmen had to leave spaces. "It's just political gamesmanship," said Bill Wilson from nearby Sierra Vista, as he watched the wall being dismantled on Friday. "It's a travesty and a waste of government money, tax money, time and effort," the 77-year-old told AFP. Arizona shares around 370 miles (600 kilometers) of border with Mexico, including environmental preservation areas, national parks, military zones, and indigenous reservations. Until the 2017 arrival in the White House of Donald Trump -- who was propelled to power on his pledge to "Build That Wall" -- there was very little in the way of a physical barrier separating it from Mexico. Now vast stretches of the border have a fence that towers up to 30 feet (nine meters) high. Before the containers arrived in the Coronado National Forest -- an area that can only be reached by dirt roads -- the border here was demarcated by a wire fence. (@FahadShabbir) Leipzig, Germany, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Jan, 2023 ) :A second-half equaliser from RB Leipzig defender Marcel Halstenberg helped RB Leipzig hold Bayern Munich to a 1-1 home draw on Friday in the first Bundesliga match since the winter break. Bayern looked on course for their seventh straight Bundesliga win after striker Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting scored in the 37th minute, but Halstenberg levelled in the 52nd minute. Veteran Bayern forward Thomas Mueller had a chance to win the match in injury time with a shot from point blank range, but dragged his effort just wide. Bayern manager Julian Nagelsmann lamented his side's concession of a "totally unnecessary goal" but said a point was "worth a little bit more" to his side than to Leipzig, considering the teams' relative positions in the table. BEIJING, Jan. 20 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jan, 2023 ) :Chinese scientists have developed an ultra-thin, anti-microbial and breathing-friendly wearable sensor that can monitor human body movements and even subtle facial expressions. The researchers from Tsinghua University and Xi'an Polytechnic University described their design in a study published recently in the journal Nano Research. The sensor is a three-layered nanogenerator with a sandwich structure, which can harvest renewable and abundant mechanical energy with high efficiency, according to the study. The nanofiber in the middle serves to convert the mechanical energy into electricity, and it is plated by two nanofiber membranes on both sides, with a 110-nanometer silver layer on one side that serves as the electrode layer. The sandwiched structure is only 91 micrometers thick and has a high air permeability and significant antibacterial effects, according to the study. Auckland, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Jan, 2023 ) :New Zealand's former Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins will replace Jacinda Ardern as prime minister after receiving the only nomination from fellow MPs, the ruling Labour Party said Saturday. The 44-year-old senior politician must be formally endorsed by the party's caucus on Sunday to take over as the country's 41st prime minister, after Ardern's shock resignation on Thursday. "The Labour Party caucus will meet at 1pm on Sunday to endorse the nomination and confirm Chris Hipkins as Party Leader," said a statement by senior Labour Party member Duncan Webb. The new prime minister will lead his party in an uphill battle to win general elections in October, as it lags in opinion polls. Hipkins won plaudits for his nearly two-year term as the Covid response minister in a country that shut down its borders to keep the coronavirus out, only fully reopening in August last year. Chairman National Highway Authority (NHA), Capt retired Muhammad Khuram Agha, on Saturday visited Balochistan to inspect emergency operation launched by the NHA after snowfall in parts of the province QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Jan, 2023 ) :Chairman National Highway Authority (NHA), Capt retired Muhammad Khuram Agha, on Saturday visited Balochistan to inspect emergency operation launched by the NHA after snowfall in parts of the province. The Chairman NHA accompanied by Zonal Head, Shahid Ihsanullah, Member Wet Zone Balochistan and Reginal Head Balochistan North Agha Inayatullah and his team visited National Highways Kuchlak-Khanozai-Kan Mehtarzai-Muslimbagh (N-50). Later, he visited Quetta-Lukpass Tunnel- Sultan Charayi (N-40), Kuchlak-SHela Bagh-Khojak Top (N-25) and reviewed emergency camps established for removal of snow at Khanozai, Kan Metarzai and Muslimbagh including the Salt stocked by NHA for snow removal. The Chairman (NHA) also inspected the Machinery and Emergency Camps established at Shela Bagh and Khojak Top. During his visit to Emergency Camps, the Chairman NHA directed the concerned official for timely removal of snow during the upcoming spell of snowfall and keep close liaison with Provincial and District Administration. In this regard, he instructed that it must be ensured that traffic must not get stuck in snow. Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan's Ambassador to the UAE has discussed investment opportunities offered by Pakistan in energy, hospitality, tourism, IT and manufacturing sectors in a meeting with Mohamed Ali Musabbeh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Jan, 2023 ):Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan's Ambassador to the UAE has discussed investment opportunities offered by Pakistan in energy, hospitality, tourism, IT and manufacturing sectors in a meeting with Mohamed Ali Musabbeh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ambassador Tirmizi appreciated Ras Al Khaimah Chamber's role in the economic development of the UAE. He invited chamber members to visit Pakistan and explore the immense economic opportunities in Pakistan. The two sides expressed their desire to collaborate with Pakistan in Education, Sports, Culture, and Architecture. The meeting discussed the ways to enhance the partnership and increase trade exchange, reinforcing the relations between the business communities in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah and their counterparts in Pakistan through organizing joint events and exhibitions that bring together the businessmen to explore the various business opportunities and to reinforce the investors' cooperation and partnerships. Al Nuaimi highlighted the range of services provided by the Chamber to its members, in addition to the innovative initiatives launched by Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce to support the economic sector. He noted that the Chamber is fully prepared to intensify the efforts that will reinforce the bilateral trade and investment relations to serve the business environment for the two sides, Emirates News Agency reported . He welcomed the Ambassador and the accompanied delegation and wished him success in his mission which would contribute to enhance ties between the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, which witnesses development and growth with the keenness and support of the leadership in both countries to develop the ties across the various economic sectors. He pointed out that more interactions shall follow this meeting to develop business plans and explore future opportunities for boosting bilateral trade and investment to meet aspirations of the two nations. He noted that the Chamber is keen to offer facilities for the Pakistani companies that seek to invest in Ras Al Khaimah, he invited businessmen from Pakistan to participate in the exhibitions and events organized by Saud bin Saqr Establishment for Youth Enterprise Development and Ras Al Khaimah Exhibition Centre. The Ambassador thanked the delegation and expressed his hope to intensify and exchange visits between the Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Emirati businessmen and their counterparts in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan alike. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali on Saturday administered the oath to Mohammad Azam Khan as the caretaker chief minister of the province PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Jan, 2023 ) :Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali on Saturday administered the oath to Mohammad Azam Khan as the caretaker chief minister of the province. The oath taking ceremony was held here at Governor House that was attended by concerned authorities. The appointment was made a day after the departing chief minister Mahmood Khan, and opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani decided to nominate Khan after discussions at a meeting in Peshawar. The newly appointed caretaker Chief Minister KP, Mohammad Azam Khan was a renowned bureaucrat and has served as Chief Secretary KP (1990-93), Finance Minister KP (2007-2008), and has worked on other key posts. (@FahadShabbir) President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians Asif Ali Zardari has strongly condemned the terrorist attack at a police station in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Jan, 2023 ) :President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians Asif Ali Zardari has strongly condemned the terrorist attack at a police station in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In a statement, Asif Ali Zardari expressed his concerns over the increase in terrorist attacks on the police force in KP. He said the police officers and jawans will continue to defeat the terrorists' design. He paid rich tributes to the police officers and jawans. He said the Federal and KP governments should take strict measures to defeat terrorists. Asif Ali Zardari expressed sympathy and condolences to the families of the martyred policemen. (@ChaudhryMAli88) NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) A Russian air company Azur Air flight bound for Goa was diverted to Uzbekistan after receiving another report on an explosive device on board, the Indian news agency ANI reported on Saturday, citing airport sources. The flight, which departed from the city of Perm, was scheduled to land in Goa at 04:15 a.m. local time on Saturday (22:45 GMT on Friday), a high-ranking Indian police officer told ANI, adding that the flight was diverted to Uzbekistan before it entered Indian airspace. "It (flight) was redirected after the Dabolim Airport (Goa airport) head received an email tip about a bomb on board," the police officer specified. The flight had 238 passengers, including two infants, and seven crew members on board. Last Monday, an Azur Air plane flying from Moscow to Goa was diverted to the Jamnagar Airport in the Indian state of Gujarat for security checks after it was reported that there was an explosive device on board. After a thorough check, Indian authorities did not find any suspicious devices. Belarus and Russia signed on Thursday an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding on ensuring biological security, a Sputnik correspondent reported MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2023) Belarus and Russia signed on Thursday an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding on ensuring biological security, a Sputnik correspondent reported. The document was signed following a joint meeting of the collegia of the Belarusian and Russian foreign ministries in Minsk. The sides also signed a plan of consultations between the countries foreign ministries for 2023. (@ChaudhryMAli88) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi will pay an official visit to India from January 24-26 and be the chief guest at the Republic Day, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said on Saturday. The Republic Day is an annual celebration to mark the adoption of India's constitution on January 26, 1950. "President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, H.E. Mr. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, will pay a State visit to India from 24-26 January 2023 at the invitation of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. President Sisi, who will be on his second State Visit to India, will also be the Chief Guest on India's 74th Republic Day," the statement read. As part of his visit, Sisi is set to hold a bilateral meeting and delegation-level talks with Modi on "bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest." He will also meet with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the ministry said. The upcoming visit is expected to further bolster "the time-tested partnership" between Cairo and New Delhi, the ministry added. Russia will retaliate against French media operating in the country after bank accounts of the RT France broadcaster's desk were frozen in France, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) Russia will retaliate against French media operating in the country after bank accounts of the RT France broadcaster's desk were frozen in France, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik. On Friday, RT France editor-in-chief Ksenia Fedorova said that bank accounts of the broadcaster's desk had been frozen in France, adding that the bank refers to the authorities' order. Despite the fact that RT France does not appear on the sanctions list and has the right to work in France, such a decision effectively paralyzes the work of the media, according to Fedorova. "The blocking of RT France accounts will lead to retaliatory steps against French media in Russia," the ministry said, adding that these measures "will be designed to be remembered, if the French authorities do not stop terrorizing Russian journalists. " Since the start of Russia's special military operation, a number of jurisdictions, including the European Commission, have decided to censor Russian media and affiliated journalists. In early March, the European Union banned the broadcasting and distribution of content of RT and Sputnik as part of the sanctions against Russia, applying the restrictions to all means of content transmission and distribution, such as cable, satellite, IPTV, platforms, websites and apps. All relevant RT, Sputnik licenses and agreements are suspended. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin will pay an official visit to Tehran on January 23, where he is expected to discuss the two country's arrangements on transport, energy and investment, a spokesman for the Iranian parliament told Sputnik TEHRAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin will pay an official visit to Tehran on January 23, where he is expected to discuss the two country's arrangements on transport, energy and investment, a spokesman for the Iranian parliament told Sputnik. In late December 2022, the Iranian spokesman said that Tehran had a program for Volodin's visit to the country, but no exact date had been set yet. This past Tuesday, Volodin said that he would travel to Tehran until the end of January. "Russian State Duma Speaker will visit Iran the day after tomorrow, on Monday, as the head of the delegation from the Russian Parliament," the spokesman said. He noted that Volodin would hold a meeting with the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and a number of other Iranian officials. They are expected to discuss accelerating the implementation of the arrangements between Russia and Iran, including in the areas of transit, investment and energy and will also focus on fostering business cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. A meeting of the High Commission for Parliamentary Cooperation between Iran and Russia will also be held during Volodin's visit to Tehran, the spokesman said. Turkey expected the Swedish government to take steps to prevent the planned burning of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) Turkey expected the Swedish government to take steps to prevent the planned burning of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. Media reported on Friday that leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs, Rasmus Paludan, had received permission to burn a copy of the Quran, islam's holy book, in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. The protest was supposed to start at 2 p.m. local time (13:00 GMT) on Saturday. "No one can call it freedom of speech and expression. Racism and hatred cannot be called freedom of expression ... We hope that Sweden will take appropriate measures to prevent this protest from being held," Cavusoglu told reporters. The Turkish top diplomat added that Ankara had taken "appropriate steps" upon learning about the scheduled protest. In particular, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador in connection with the matter, while the Turkish ambassador held a meeting with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom. Earlier on Saturday, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also condemned the planned protest, calling it "a hateful crime against humanity. " The official accused the Swedish authorities of greenlighting the action, which, as Ankara believes, encourages "hate crimes and Islamophobia." "Attacking sacred values is not freedom but modern barbarism," Kalin tweeted. Earlier in January, the supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), labeled as terrorist in Ankara, held a demonstration in the Swedish capital, hanging an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by its feet. The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara in protest of the PKK rally. In addition, the Turkish Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case in connection with the demonstration. On January 15, Erdogan said that Sweden and Finland needed to extradite about 130 terrorists to Turkey if they wanted the Turkish parliament to ratify their NATO bids. On Saturday, Turkey unilaterally canceled the upcoming visit of Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson to Ankara, where he was supposed to discuss Stockholm's application for NATO membership. (@ChaudhryMAli88) ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Swedish ambassador in connection with the upcoming action of burning the Quran in Stockholm, a diplomatic source in Ankara told Sputnik. Media reported on Friday that leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs, Rasmus Paludan, had received permission to burn a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, January 21. "Having learned that tomorrow the burning of our Holy Book of the Quran will be allowed near our embassy in Stockholm in Sweden, the Swedish ambassador in Ankara was summoned to our ministry today," the diplomatic source told Sputnik on Friday. The source added that insult to sacred values cannot be defended under the guise of "democratic rights" and the Turkish foreign ministry strongly condemns such provocative acts and is waiting for Sweden to withdraw the permission for the burning of the Quran. The diplomatic source also told Sputnik that on Saturday, groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), labeled as terrorist by Ankara, were planning to hold a demonstration in central Stockholm on Saturday. "Allowing the propaganda activities of terrorist organizations and their supporters is a clear violation of the trilateral memorandum (on security threats) signed (by Turkey, Sweden and Finland) in Madrid (on June 28, 2022)," the source said. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week that Ankara expected Sweden to take specific steps against the PKK, rather than just condemn protests of its members and supporters in Stockholm. Earlier in January, PKK supporters held a demonstration in the Swedish capital, hanging a figure of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by its feet. The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara in protest of the PKK rally. In addition, the Turkish Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case in connection with the demonstration. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) The number of employees at Twitter has decreased by about 80% since US entrepreneur Elon Musk's multibillion-dollar acquisition, CNBC reports citing internal company records. Before Musk finalized the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late October, 2022, the San Francisco-based company had about 7,500 employees, but that number has gone down to approximately 1,300 active employees, CNBC said on Friday. Twitter now has fewer than 550 full-time engineers and the trust and safety team includes fewer than 20 full-time employees. The company also has around 1,400 non-working employees who are still being paid. In addition, about 75 of the company's 1,300 employees are on leave, including 40 engineers, CNBC specified. Musk has changed the company's day-to-day operations, including the termination of Twitter executives who were responsible for the platform's privacy, cybersecurity and censorship. According to CNBC, Musk has authorized about 130 people from his other businesses, including Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Company, to work at Twitter. In December, The New York Times reported that Twitter had stopped paying rent for office space for several weeks to cut costs. (@ChaudhryMAli88) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) Florian Philippot, leader of the French Eurosceptic political party The Patriots, says that American politicians are aiming to start a world war, in Europe. "Under pressure from American hawks, EU countries are going into a total delirium over the delivery of increasingly heavy weapons to (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky(y)," Philippot said in a Twitter post, adding that "American hawks want world war, in Europe!" The US and several Western countries recently announced new military supplies to Kiev, including battle tanks, armored infantry vehicles and artillery systems. The US Department of State said that Ukrainians may acquire possibilities to carry out strikes against Russian troops in Crimea thanks to weapons supplied by Washington. In April 2022, Moscow sent a note to NATO member states condemning their military assistance to Kiev after Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that pumping Ukraine with weapons did not contribute to the success of peace negotiations and would have a detrimental effect on the conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly emphasized that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2023) Unfriendly countries started to realize that abandoning Russian mineral fertilizers would not end well and the West is already easing up on its rhetoric to resume trade, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko told Sputnik on Saturday. "As for mineral fertilizers, my observations over the last year showed that unfriendly states have begun to realize that it is impossible to refuse mineral fertilizers, including Russian, as it will end badly. There are already some changes in the official position of unfriendly countries in order to resume such trade and the rhetoric is softening," Abramchenko said. On July 22, 2022, the deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations was signed by Ukraine and Russia to unblock shipments of grain, food and fertilizer in the Black Sea despite hostilities. The agreement was initially set to expire on November 19, with a possibility of extension if signatories consent. It was extended for 120 days on November 17. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that most vessels carrying Ukrainian grain do not reach the world's poorest countries and have ended up in Europe. Putin has also voiced concerns that Russian grain and fertilizer products are not entering the global markets as stipulated by the agreement. According to Russian Ambassador to Turkey Alexei Yerkhov, Latvia, Estonia and Belgium continue to keep Russian agricultural products in ports, while the resumption of ammonia supplies is blocked by Kiev. The Vaticans General Secretariat of the Synod tells Catholic African media professionals that the Church counts on them to circulate clear and precise information about the Synod process. Paul Samasumo Vatican City Bishop Luis Marin de San Martin O.S.A, Under Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, has expressed his appreciation for the work that African Catholic media are doing in disseminating information about the ongoing Synod on Synodality initiated by Pope Francis. Synod is a process In his opening remarks during a Zoom Tuesday meeting with over 50 African Catholic media, the Under Secretary reminded the media that the Synod is a process, not an event. For me, the Synod is a process of profound renewal and hope for the universal Church. It is not about creating a new Church. Its about finding coherence of Christian unity with Christ and unity with the communion of sisters and brothers in the faith, he said. Bishop de San Martin continued: This process is also a drive, as it were, in our evangelisation efforts within the context of our specific history. It is a process and not an event. His Excellency, Luis Marin de San Martin, OSA, Under Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod Synod and cultural diversity Explaining the continental stage of the Synod, Bishop de San Martin emphasised the importance of listening to the Holy Spirit and each other because what the Church is engaged in is a spiritual process of discernment, rather than a mere pastoral reorganisation or restructuring of the Church. Bishop de San Martin assured the meeting participants that the continental stage of the Synod is necessary because the Church recognises the importance of cultural diversity. Just as the word of God incarnated itself in history, so too the Synodal process needs to eventually take decisions that recognise and are enriched by the cultural diversity of Africa and other continents. This cultural diversity will enrich the universal Church. African Synod outcomes and challenges Africas regional secretaries-general were asked during the Zoom meeting to briefly share experiences from their regions. They were asked two questions. What are the primary outcomes and challenges of listening in your region? In their responses, most secretaries-general spoke of a successful consultative listening phase with many of the faithful participating in the various parish and diocesan Synod activities. According to the reports, the Catholic faithful were thankful to Pope Francis for the opportunity to air their views. They hope and pray that the Church in Africa will emerge stronger and more united. AMECEA Secretary General based in Nairobi, Fr. Anthony Makunde, seemed to summarise the overall message of the reports. The African continent today carries out its mission in a mixed society environment. In most countries on the continent, the Catholic faith is not the main religion. As such, the Catholic faith on the continent has to find a way of co-existing and working with other faiths. Fr Makunde also spoke of the political instability that plagues the African continent and is manifested as both low-level or all-out civil war, and sometimes as war with neighbouring countries. Several countries in Africa, the secretaries-general said, are having to come face to face with religious extremism that is exerting a toll on the practice of the Catholic faith. It was suggested that the Church in Africa needs to strengthen its ecumenical approach to deal with religious extremism. Strengthening family life in Africa Other challenges include the need to scale up and constructively engage the youth in Africa before they become disenchanted with life and their faith. Coming up now and again from the sharing of the secretaries-general were challenges having to do with family life. These consist of challenges about broken families, cohabitation, teenage pregnancies, polygamy and single parents struggling to raise children alone. Overall, the view is that the African Church needs to do more to strengthen the family. Elsewhere, the Church in Africa recognises it has a role in accompanying the socio-political aspects of life on the continent to entrench democratic governance. This entails a Church engaged in approaches of integral development as well as justice and peace concerns. The image of the tent The second question the general secretaries were expected to share with the media was about image and representation. They were asked to answer the question: What is the image of Africa coming through from the listening process? The synod presents a biblical icon, the image of the tent derived from the Old Testament book of the prophet Isaiah in Chapter 54:2 Widen the space of your tent. This image of a tent is proposed for the Synod as a space of communion, a place of participation, and a foundation for the Churchs evangelisation mission where no one is excluded. Most of the African secretaries-general said while the faithful in Africa appreciated the sentiments and narrative surrounding the tent imagery, many expressed the need for a different symbol or image. Most Africans preferred a more contemporary image of the Church as a family. This is because, in the African context, the tent is associated with refugee camps and temporary shelter: places of misery and suffering. Listen to the full Zoom call here: https://we.tl/t-AzQ7a7HhLQ Evangelization campaigns and ecumenical celebrations of the Word have been organised in the Archdiocese of Douala and several other Dioceses of Cameroon. A new development is the growing number of Christians forming and meeting on social networks to pray together. Stanislas Kambashi, SJ - Vatican City with Paule Valerie Mendogo - Edea, Cameroon. The ecumenical activities organised in Douala to mark the 2023 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity were inaugurated by Father Michael Tchoumbou, a priest of the Archdiocese of Douala. He is the head of the Diocesan Commission for Biblical, Pastoral Care and Ecumenism ministries. Catholics, Evangelists - we live together Promoting Scripture and common prayer are the two significant points marking this week's ecumenical celebrations in Douala. During the week, celebrations of the Word are taking place in Catholic, Presbyterian, Evangelical and Methodist Churches, with the support of the pastors of these different Churches. The Word of God unites various Christians. "The Week of Prayer for Christian unity is both spiritual and prophetic for us here in Cameroon because we live together in the same communities: Catholics, Evangelists, Baptists ... we all live together and share similar problems every day. It is, therefore, important that we work together to solve all these problems," said Father Tchoumbou. The priest of Douala is convinced that Christians in Cameroon can bring a common and united voice that would contribute significantly to the country's development and unity. It can also foster justice and peace concerns in the country. Do good, seek justice The worldwide theme for this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is, Do good; seek justice. The week is thus a time to develop a shared Christian vision while encouraging people to live together and open up the possibility of "doing good deeds for justice and the common good," said Father Tchoumbou. Coming together on social media On Cameroonian social networks, associations are being set up to share the Word of God and carry out joint charitable actions in favour of the poor and vulnerable. An example of this, is the case of a group of former students of the Catholic University of Central Africa (UCAC) led by Didier Tchoumela. They decided to live the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as intensely as possible. For Sister Marie Simone Tamtabi, a member of this group, many young people from other denominations, including some who do not belong to any religion, have been motivated to come together simply with the idea of doing good. "Our wish to do good is above everything else... So, we said to ourselves that there is something to do in this world, and religion should not be a barrier," she said. "In the association, we have those in a position to provide material resources that we donate to the poor and vulnerable. Others have been giving their time in teaching classes. We also have doctors who are providing free medical care esepcially to children," Sister Tamtabi testified. Pope Francis meets Saturday morning with the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso Mendoza. The president subsequently met with the Cardinal Secretary State and the Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations. Holy See Press Office Communique This morning, Saturday 21 January 2023, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the President of the Republic of Ecuador, His Excellency Mr. Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, who subsequently met with His Eminence Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by His Excellency Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations. During the cordial discussions, which took place in the Secretariat of State, appreciation was expressed for the contribution offered by the Church in the spheres of education, health, the promotion of human and spiritual values, and in the field of charitable activities, emphasizing the importance of a sincere and ongoing dialogue between the Church and the State to face fundamental changes in society. In addition, there was a fruitful exchange of views on the political and social situation in the region, with attention to the efforts aimed at fostering development and promoting peace, and the parties focused on some matters of common interest such as the protection of life, care for childhood, the reform of the prison system, respect for indigenous populations and their culture, and the protection of the environment. The ruins of the Church of the Assumption in Chan Tar, which was burnt to the ground by Burmese soldiers. The Metropolitan Archbishops of Myanmar Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, Archbishop Marco Tin Wan of Mandalay, and Archbishop Basilio Athai of Taunggyi have issued a passionate appeal for peace in the country, insisting that all of us need to undertake the pilgrimage of peace." By Christopher Wells Religious leaders in Myanmar (also known as Burma), have launched a passionate appeal for peace, urging that all of us need to undertake the pilgrimage of peace. The appeal, signed by the three Metropolitan Archbishops of the country, recalls the great threats to the sacredness of human life, the lives lost, the lives displaced, and the lives under starvation. A heart-wrenching tragedy The southeast Asian nation has suffered a series of political, social, and economic crises, and has descended into a spiral of violence since the 2021 military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. Thousands of people have subsequently been arrested or killed without cause. In a great country blessed with so many resources, the destruction of lives is a heart-wrenching tragedy. Moreover, the appeal notes that places of worship and monasteries, where communities sought peace and reconciliation are themselves increasingly under attack. Just last week, Burmese soldiers burned the historic Church of the Assumption in Char Tan to the ground; only the Adoration chapel was spared by the flames. A nearby convent housing Franciscan sisters was also set ablaze. Protecting places of worship International instruments like the Hague Convention call for the protection of places of worship, places of learning, and places of healing, the Archbishops note, asking, with pain and anguish why these sacred places are attacked and destroyed? They insist that places of worship promote the interdependence and sense of interrelatedness that are necessary for the nation to heal, and lament that when they are mercilessly burnt, returning to normalcy becomes a great challenge. 'Let all guns fall silent' Arguing that we have suffered enough as a people, the Archbishops, as leaders of various faith traditions, plead with all stakeholders in Myanmar: Let all guns fall silent, let us reach out to all, as brothers and sisters, and start the sacred pilgrimage of peace united as a nation and as a people. Demonstrations intensify in Peru's Capital, as more protesters arrive from the Andean region demanding the resignation of the President and calling for immediate elections. By James Blears The air was still pungent with clouds of police tear gas rounds blotting out the searing bright sunshine. The protesters blocked many of the main roads of Lima, staging sit-down sessions in the plaza in front of the Congress building. They are demanding the immediate resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the dissolution of Congress, and immediate elections. Stalemate Peru's first female president, who was promoted from vice president and hurriedly sworn in on 7 December demurs. In a fiery and defiant speech, she condemned the violence, which has already killed more than fifty people in the south of the country, vowing that those who have sown and perpetrated it will be put on trial according to the process of the law, and jailed if found guilty. She is accusing protesters of fermenting violence reaping and harvesting its consequences, holding firm on her pledge to bring forward and conduct elections next year, while thousands of riot police are backing up her authority. The elections were due to take place in 2026. Swelling numbers of protesters As night fell, running street battles pockmarked Lima, with the protesters adding to their numbers, thousands of police holding them off, and the stalemate set to continue through the weekend. Meanwhile, former President Pedro Castillo, who had tried unsuccessfully to dissolve Congress, is still in prison, accused of rebellion. Congress turned on him and had him arrested, and he has been denied bail. His trial has yet to be set, as the crisis deepens. Abdul Wasi Safi carefully protected documents detailing his time as an Afghan soldier who worked with the U.S. military as he made the monthslong, treacherous journey from Brazil to the United States-Mexico border. He fled Afghanistan fearing retribution from the Taliban following the August 2021 American withdrawal and hoped the paperwork would secure his asylum in the U.S. Despite thick jungles, raging rivers and beatings, he kept those documents safe. But after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass, Texas, in September, Wasi Safi was arrested on a federal immigration charge. He remains jailed at a detention center in Eden, Texas, and fears his asylum claim may be denied. Wasi Safi's brother, attorneys, military organizations and a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to free him say his case highlights how America's chaotic military withdrawal continues to harm Afghan citizens who helped the U.S. but were left behind. "He tried every way possible to save these certificates in the hopes that once he presents his appropriate documents at the southern border he would receive a warm welcome and his service would be appreciated and recognized," said Sami-ullah Safi, his brother. If sent back to Afghanistan, he could be killed by the Taliban. Since the Taliban takeover, more than 100 Afghan officials and security force members have been killed, according to a United Nations report. "It's honestly just shameful that we've treated people that helped protect our country this way," said Jennifer Cervantes, one of Wasi Safi's immigration attorneys. Journey to the United States Wasi Safi, 27, had been an intelligence officer with the Afghan National Security Forces, providing U.S. forces with information on terrorists, said Sami-ullah Safi, 29, who goes by Sami. Sami Safi had been employed by the U.S. military as a translator since 2010, making him eligible for a special immigrant visa for interpreters and others paid by the U.S. government. The visa allowed him to move to Houston in 2015. But Wasi Safi was not eligible for that visa because he was not employed directly by the U.S. When American forces withdrew from Afghanistan, Wasi Safi went into hiding and learned that friends in the Afghan military had been killed by the Taliban. He was able to get a visa for Brazil and traveled there in 2022. But he realized he wasn't much safer as he and other migrants were beaten and robbed by gangs. In the summer of 2022, Wasi Safi began his journey to the U.S. When he crossed a huge river in the Darien Gap, the imposing and dangerous stretch of thick jungle between Colombia and Panama, Wasi Safi kept a backpack with his documents above his head, so they wouldn't get wet. When police officers in Guatemala tried to extort him and took his backpack, Wasi Safi endured their beatings until he got the documents back, according to his brother. On his journey, Wasi Safi suffered serious injuries from beatings, including damaged front teeth and hearing loss in his right ear. Zachary Fertitta, one of his criminal defense attorneys, said Wasi Safi has not received proper medical care while in detention. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for medical care if he's released. Sami Safi said his brother has become disillusioned since his detention, believing the documents he thought would save him are worthless. But Fertitta said those documents show "he's clearly an ally, was trained by our troops, worked with our troops." 'Willing to die for this country' U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, last week sent a letter to President Joe Biden, asking him to pardon Wasi Safi for his immigration-related charges. She said Thursday that his documents show he's "an individual who obviously loved this country and was willing to die for this country." Republican Congressmen Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Michael Waltz of Florida, as well as more than 20 veterans groups have also called for Wasi Safi's freedom while his asylum claim is reviewed. The White House declined to comment on Friday, referring questions to the Justice Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, which is prosecuting his case for the Justice Department, and Customs and Border Protection didn't immediately return emails seeking comment. During a news conference Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said he couldn't comment on Wasi Safi's case but that the Defense Department is "supportive of any efforts that we can make to ensure that we're taking appropriate care of" the country's Afghan allies. Fertitta said Wasi Safi's criminal case has to be resolved before his asylum claim can be considered, and he's hoping that resolution doesn't include a conviction, which could imperil the asylum request. Status unclear for many Nearly 76,000 Afghans who worked with American soldiers since 2001 as translators, interpreters and partners arrived in the U.S. on military planes after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. But their immigration status remains unclear after Congress failed to pass a proposed law, the Afghan Adjustment Act, that would have solidified their legal residency status. Fertitta said Wasi Safi's case highlights the country's "broken immigration system" and its failure to help Afghan allies. "You have all of those things colliding at our border and it's a very difficult problem to sort out," Fertitta said. Sami Safi said he remains hopeful. "I am hoping that President Biden and those who have authority over this case step up and save his life. He has given enough sacrifice for this country. My whole family has sacrificed for this country," he said. I feel bad for the Ukrainian people, and for innocent Russians, too, for that matter, said Jamie Moorman, an independent voter from Fort Walton Beach, Florida. But my opinion is shifting. I was in favor of the U.S. providing funding to Ukraine at the start of the war, but at this point, havent we done enough? Earlier this month, President Joe Bidens administration announced a new $3 billion military assistance package to support Ukraine in its war to repel Russias invasion. As the anniversary of the start of the conflict nears, some Americans are growing skittish about what they see as a blank check to fund a never-ending war on foreign soil. According to a report published in December by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute, the United States sent nearly $50 billion in military, humanitarian and financial aid to Ukraine in 2022. As that number continues to climb, Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the U.S. Congress in December to appeal directly to lawmakers and the American people for additional assistance. It made me angry, to be honest, Moorman told Voice of America. Its good for us to back Ukraine against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to some degree, but Zelenskyy has become shamelessly greedy. Hes demanding more and more money for a war we have no obligation to. Despite some voters growing doubt, polls indicate the majority of Americans still back sending some level of aid to Ukraine. In a YouGov/CBS News survey from earlier this month, 64% of respondents said they wanted their representatives to support U.S. aid to Ukraine. I feel proud that we are helping them to the extent we are, James Delawyer, a Democratic voter from Hudson, Wisconsin, told VOA. Im actually more in favor of funding Ukraines efforts than I was at the beginning, he continued. This is a struggle to preserve the Western world order thats existed since the end of World War II, and it would be a major blow to democracy and to the autonomy of nations if we let Ukraine fall. Mounting criticism Delawyer said he can see that enthusiasm for continued funding for Ukraines defense is waning among some Americans. He is hopeful the Biden administration will give as much as possible before criticism reaches a tipping point and aid is possibly slowed or halted. Jordan Cohen, a policy analyst at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, said there are indicators the country is moving in that direction. We can see members of the Republican Party in the House [of Representatives] are beginning to signal they do not want to continue with unrestricted aid, Cohen explained. Americans that support those politicians and that watch conservative news stations are in turn adopting those talking points. In fact, a series of YouGov/CBS News polls found evidence of a growing partisan divide on the issue of U.S. backing for Kyiv. In March, at the beginning of the war, the percentage of Republicans who wanted their representatives to provide military and other support to Ukraine was nearly as high as it was among Democrats (75% for Republicans to 80% for Democrats). By last month however, the polling outfit found the gap had widened significantly. Eighty-one percent of Democrats now wanted their representatives to provide assistance for Ukraines defense, compared with 52% of Republicans. What is the end goal here? asked Chad Daniels, a Republican voter from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Theres no oversight for the money were giving, and we conservatives know Ukraine is a corrupt country. Should we just piss away $120 billion at a time to Ukraine forever? he continued. If we can define what the end goal is, maybe Id reconsider. But now it just seems like a blank check I cant support. Many still support funding When Zelenskyy addressed the U.S. Congress in December, he expressed gratitude for the help Americans have provided thus far. At the same time, however, he stressed that the aid the U.S. has sent to his country shouldnt be viewed as a handout. Your money is not charity, he said. Its an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way. That message has resonated for many Americans, particularly among Democratic voters. Its important that Putin sees Ukraine has global support behind them, said Michele Harrison, a retired business owner living in Portland, Oregon. I dont know how people can say this is a waste of money. Were talking about a sovereign nation and a democracy under threat. We see how hard theyre fighting this evil invasion, and its our responsibility to back them wed hope for the same if we were invaded. Even among many who bristle at the growing price tag of Americas backing of a foreign war, there is an understanding that U.S. involvement has global implications. The issue isnt sending money, Garrick Willis, a sales manager from Fairfax, Virginia, told VOA. The issue is the amount of money, and the frequency were being asked to send it. Were giving all of this money to Ukraine, but we have our own issues that need attention at home. Were making ourselves vulnerable. Growing debate Many who feel the U.S. is spending too much in Ukraine point to domestic causes that could be funded instead. But some in favor of continuing to fund Ukraines defense at current levels feel this is a dubious argument. I mean, I can understand people feeling like theyd want that money spent at home, said Daq Bazzini, a musician and Democratic voter from Santa Monica, California, but most of the people saying that now are Republicans. Where were they when [former President George W.] Bush raised hell in Iraq and Afghanistan for eight years? Dillard University public policy professor Robert Collins said that remembering Americans attitudes toward the Afghanistan War can be instructive in understanding shifting opinions regarding the war in Ukraine. War fatigue always sets in, he told VOA. At the beginning of our war in Afghanistan, for example, sending troops over there to fight was popular. But that didnt last. Eventually, we didnt see the point anymore and we wanted our people home. I think well see a similar pattern with our appetite to fund the war in Ukraine, he added. Even many of the people who currently support us sending money over there will eventually get tired of it. A December poll from Morning Consult found that 41% of American voters were very concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Thats down from 58% last March at the beginning of the war. Personally, Im more concerned about solving the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine than in giving them more weapons, said David Brown, a retired information technology specialist in Seal Beach, California. Lets keep giving money to provide food, shelter and gainful employment to refugees and those in need, he continued, but Ukraine doesnt seem interested in a cease-fire right now and unless we stop sending them weapons and money for security, I dont think they ever will be. This war will go on forever. Soldiers rescued a group of 62 women and four babies abducted by suspected jihadis last week in northern Burkina Faso, state television and a security source said Friday. The news came just hours after security sources said a series of attacks on Thursday had left around 30 people dead in the volatile West African nation that has been battling an insurgency since 2015. The abduction of the women and babies last week prompted alarm from the United Nations, while the country's military junta warned of a rise in jihadi attacks on civilians. In its main evening news bulletin, Burkina Faso's RTB channel, referring to an army operation, showed images of the women freed on Friday and brought to the capital, Ouagadougou. Several security sources confirmed the news to AFP. The women and babies were abducted last week on Thursday and Friday near Arbinda, in the northern Sahel region, as they foraged for food outside their village. Security sources said they were found in the Tougouri region, 200 kilometers further south. Helicopters flew them to Ouagadougou, where they were met by senior army officers. "Their debriefing will allow us to know more about their abductors, their detention and their convoy," one security source said. The authorities had mobilized search teams on the ground and in the air to trace the women. Parts of Burkina Faso, including the Sahel region, have for months been under a blockade by jihadi groups in the region, making it increasingly difficult to supply the communities there. The resulting shortages forced local people to leave the safety of their villages to search for food. News of the women's return came as security sources reported four attacks by suspected jihadist attacks Thursday, killing 30 people, including 16 members of a civilian auxiliary supporting the army. Every Lunar New Year without fail, Kat Lieu's mother would make her steamed nian gao, which is a sweet rice or mochi cake. It was a tasty tradition of having dessert for breakfast. The Seattle-based author of the "Modern Asian Baking at Home" cookbook and founder of the Subtle Asian Baking online group switches things up for her 9-year-old son. He gets mochi waffles made with bright green pandan the first morning of the new year. "This year again I'm going to make the waffles," said Lieu, who is half Chinese and half Vietnamese. "I'm also going to make the steamed nian gao and things like that, and try to have him appreciate it more, too." Unlike Thanksgiving, when pie is a given at many households, desserts and confections at Lunar New Year are as varied as the Asian diasporas around the world that celebrate it. Families from China to the U.S. to Vietnam will mark the new year on Sunday with the usual customs such as elaborate dinners and red envelopes with money for children. There will be customary sweet snacks like nian gao. But in this age of social media, food savviness and cultural pride, younger generations of Asians also are getting more inspired to have dessert courses that are whimsical and creative from black sesame financiers to peanut butter miso cookies. In Beijing, residents have been flocking to the flagship store of Daoxiangcun, one of the city's best-known bakeries, for new year-themed dessert gift boxes in which some of the pastries were shaped like a rabbit, the animal of the upcoming year's Chinese zodiac. On Saturday, people stood in line outside the store for hours for the chance to buy baked goods, according to a staffer. Even at a less popular branch half a block away, customers still had to wait 40 minutes. For Lexi Li, it was about bringing a little something to loved ones even though it meant waiting in the line for seven hours in sub-freezing temperatures. "I don't really like desserts and pastries, but I just want to bring something home as a gift," said the 30-year-old, who walked out with a stack of eight boxes for friends and family in her hometown Taiyuan, in central China's Shanxi province. Known for its diverse food culture, China offers a variety of Lunar New Year desserts that are usually rice-based or flour-based. They include tang yuan, which are mochi-esque rice balls with black sesame or peanut paste in soup, as well as sesame balls, almond cookies, candied lotus seeds and fat goh steamed cakes also known as prosperity cakes. Nian gao remains one of the most popular options. Its key ingredient is glutinous rice flour, along with other things such as taro, dates, jujube and red bean paste, depending on the variety. Its name is a homonym for "higher year" in Chinese, meaning a more prosperous year ahead and expressing wishes for children to grow taller. The well-preserved tradition plays a vital role in passing on Chinese culture because it keeps alive a food culture honoring grains and reminding people of how festivals are celebrated going back to the seventh century, according to Siu Yan Ho, a Hong Kong-based expert in Chinese food culture. "Food is memory, and this memory is connected with festivals," Siu said. In Vietnam, which is celebrating the Year of the Cat, sweets also differ by region. Vietnamese people eat nian gao, which they call banh to. They also eat che kho gao nep, a pudding made with sticky rice and a mixture of water, ginger and either sugar or molasses. Other delectables include che kho dau xanh a mung bean pudding made with coconut milk and sugar and banh tet chuoi, a glutinous rice cake with bananas. "On Lunar New Year, for three days you go visit family, friends and teachers," said Linh Trinh, a Vietnamese food historian who is getting a PhD in the subject at the University of Michigan. "So everybody has to store a lot of snacks in their house for people to come visit and have tea. It becomes like the pride of the household to serve their traditional snacks." More U.S. companies are finding a sweet spot in incorporating Lunar New Year elements. Cupcake chain Sprinkles, in collaboration with the pan-Asian cultural support nonprofit Gold House, is selling red velvet cupcakes with an almond cookie crust and almond cream cheese frosting. At Disney California Adventure Park, guests can order milk tea cheesecake with taro mousse. Judging by the 150,000-plus membership of the Subtle Asian Baking Facebook group, a lot of Asians are more about showing off something they made for the holiday rather than bought. The community has come a long way from when Lieu started it in 2020. For the third year, there has been a virtual Lunar New Year bake-off on Facebook and Instagram where members share photos of stunning macarons, chiffon cakes and other pastries. "You're innovating. You're bringing appreciation to all these amazing ingredients," Lieu said. "And then you're you're making it your own traditions, which is amazing." Kelson Herman, of San Francisco, crafted a sourdough boule with an illustration of Miffy, a girl bunny from a popular Dutch children's book series, for the Lunar New Year. Already an avid baker, the 44-year-old got inspired by seeing online what other people were doing. "I see a lot of boundaries being pushed, people trying to not just one-up each other but be more creative," Herman said. "I feel like it always comes down to flavors that bring back kind of familial memories. ... It could be things that just evoke conversation and family." In Queens, New York, Karen Chin made a two-tier cake frosted in coconut buttercream topped with a white chocolate rabbit. One layer was vanilla with red bean paste. The other was spiced cake with cardamom and mango curd. It's a far cry from the fat goh her grandmother makes. "I told my grandma that I was going to make a cake. And she's like, 'Don't make it too complicated,'" Chin said, chuckling. Yet, Chin's creativity yielded some special family moments. "I was so touched because last time when she came and she ate something, she's like 'You make good food.' I was like, 'Wow, that's the first time she complimented me,'" Chin said. Sue Ng, who was born and raised in Canada but now lives in Hong Kong, loves to "cute-ify" pastries for special occasions. During the pandemic, she found a passion for combining baking and her love of Asian pop culture. Past Lunar New Year creations included a rolled cake that looked like a White Rabbit Creamy Candy, a Chinese brand as iconic as the Hershey bar. Ng said that because her two school-age daughters have grown up in Hong Kong, they've learned the importance of the Lunar New Year, including the food. But she also likes to throw in something different, such as black sesame financiers and salted egg yolk cookies. "A Lunar New Year dessert to me is something made using Asian elements with reference to traditionally-made goods during this time," Ng said in an email. "Now we can be creative and make something like nian gao-filled cookies and the ideas are limitless! Sweet treats are a must during this time because it symbolizes a sweet life." Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a veiled warning to the United States in his new year message to the country, stressing that China will be engaged in "serious struggles" against separatism and interference in its relations with Taiwan, state media, CCTV and the Xinhua news agency reported Friday. In a Lunar New Year reception in the Great Hall of the People attended by top party leaders in the Politburo, Xi said in a speech to the Chinese people that his party and the military have in the past year risen to the challenge of high winds and choppy waters in the international situation, a reference he also made in his speech at the 20th Party Congress in a warning about what he saw as a hostile international environment. In a subtle message that referred to the United States and its relations with Taiwan, Xi vowed to resolutely carry out major struggles against separatism and interference and firmly grasp the initiative in cross-strait relations, state television, CCTV and Xinhua reported. He also pledged to make more friends in the international arena and to actively engage in major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics to ensure stability in a turbulent international environment. In recent years, the leadership has increasingly emphasized the importance of asserting a China-centered diplomatic and historical narrative and a determination to shift away from a Western-dominated world order. On national defense, Xi said China has taken solid steps to modernize the defense and armed forces in the past year. Xi, the chairman of the partys Central Military Commission, also told the military in charge of border defense to raise their vigilance during the Lunar New Year and be ready for combat, according to a separate report in the Communist partys flagship newspaper, the Peoples Daily. Xi spoke with soldiers responsible for border, coastal and air defenses via a video link ahead of the Lunar New Year and urged them to fulfil their combat readiness to safeguard national security and social stability to ensure the Chinese people will be able to have a happy and safe Spring Festival. The report was prominently featured Friday on the front page of the Peoples Daily, with a large portrait of Xi in an army uniform flanked by smaller photos of troops. Xis securing of an unprecedented third term as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party has fueled speculation on whether he will try to forcefully reunify with Taiwan in the next few years. China has often accused the United States of supporting Taiwan independence by sending wrong, dangerous signals to the island it considers a renegade province. It insists that issues related to Taiwan are internal matters that the United States has no right to interfere in. U.S. President Joe Biden and Xi met at the G-20 summit last November, during which Biden raised U.S. objections to Chinas coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan. Xi told Biden that the Taiwan question was at the very core of Chinas core interests and the first red line in bilateral ties that must not be crossed. While China has softened its aggressive wolf warrior rhetoric since the 20th Party Congress in October, analysts say the shift in tone should not be seen as a fundamental pivot in its position. Wang Yi, who stepped down as foreign minister but now oversees Chinas foreign policy after being promoted to the 24-member Politburo, wrote in the January issue of the partys Qiushi magazine that China is against the monopolization of the definition of democracy. In reference to the U.S. on Taiwan issues, he denounced interference in the internal affairs of other countries in the name of so-called democracy." China is not afraid of bullying and will build a strong defense to safeguard national interests and national dignity, he wrote. Twitter lit up Saturday with European officials decrying Germanys indecision about sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics called on Germany to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine now. This is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly. Germany as the leading European power has special responsibility in this regard, he asserted, speaking for himself and Lithuanian and Estonian foreign ministers. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called for many more weapons to be sent to Ukraine and faster. Regarding Russias war on Ukraine she said, Were in it for the long haul. Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Ray urged action now. "Ukrainian blood is shed for real, he wrote. This is the price of hesitation over Leopard deliveries. Tank training Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Saturday expressed his frustration with the pace of the military support the countrys allies are providing. "You'll help Ukraine with the necessary weapons anyway and realize that there is no other option to end the war except the defeat of Russia," Podolyak posted on Twitter. "But today's indecision is killing more of our people. Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster." Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops will start training to use Leopard 2 battle tanks on Polish soil, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Voice of Americas Ukrainian Service on Friday. Reznikov described the development as a breakthrough. "Countries that already have Leopard tanks can begin training missions for our tank crews. We will start with that, and we will go from there. I hope Germany will follow their process, conduct their internal consultations, and will arrive at the decision to transfer tanks. I am optimistic regarding this because the first step has been made. We will start training programs for our tank crews on Leopards 2, Reznikov said. Reznikov said he was pleased with the results of the international conference on Ukraine support held Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. I consider that the key concepts of this meeting today were unity, timelines of delivering aid, and enhancement of the capabilities of the armed forces of Ukraine to continue counteroffensive operations in order to liberate temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, he said. All the previously announced [military aid] packages have been confirmed. In addition, some new packages were discussed behind closed doors, but I am not at liberty to announce them just yet. This is inspiring. I am very satisfied, he added. Britains Defense Ministry said Saturday the conflict in Ukraine is in a state of deadlock. However, the agency warned that there is a realistic possibility of local Russian advances around Bakhmut. The ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter that the heaviest fighting recently has been in three Ukraine locations: northeastern Kreminna, the Donetsk province in Bakhmut, and Zaporizhzhia province. Return of bodies Earlier Saturday, the Wagner Group, the private Russian paramilitary group, announced through its RIA FAN website that it plans to send the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed during fighting in the captured town of Soledar to Ukraine-held territory. Wagner said on January 11 it had captured Soledar, and Russian-installed authorities in Ukraines eastern Donetsk region said earlier this week they were in control of the salt-mining town, where intense fighting had taken place. The RIA FAN website, part of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's media holdings, quoted a Wagner commander as saying the mercenary company would send the bodies from Soledar to Ukrainian-held territory in four or five convoys totaling about 20 trucks. Saturday's report did not say how many bodies would be returned to Ukrainian authorities but claimed Ukraines forces had suffered heavy losses in Soledar. It said Prigozhin had made clear that soldiers' bodies should be returned to Ukraine in a "dignified" way but did not provide further details. In a separate letter addressed to White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, Prigozhin's press service read: "Dear Mr. Kirby, could you please clarify what crime was committed by PMC Wagner?" The question was in response to Washingtons decision to impose new sanctions on the military group. Kirby called Wagner "a criminal organization that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses." Last month, the White House said Wagner had taken delivery of an arms shipment from North Korea to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine. North Korea's Foreign Ministry called the report groundless and Prigozhin at the time denied taking such a delivery, calling the report "gossip and speculation." The European Union imposed its own sanctions in December 2021 on Wagner, which has been active in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Mozambique and Mali, as well as Ukraine. VOAs Ruslan Petrychka contributed to this story. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. The Troy Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. will host former NASA astronaut Dr. Bernard Harris as the keynote speaker for the 2023 Scholarship Breakfast on Saturday, Jan. 28. A scientist, medical doctor, and a Kappa brother, Harris became an astronaut in July 1991 after being selected by NASA in January 1990, qualifying for assignment as a mission specialist on future Space Shuttle flight crews. He flew on board Space Shuttle Columbia from April 26, 1993, to May 6, 1993. During this flight, Harris logged over 239 hours and 4,164,183 miles in space. His second mission was as the Payload Commander on STS-63 in February 1995, the first flight of the new joint Russian American Space Program. During the flight, Harris became the first African American to walk in space. On this mission, he logged 198 hours, 29 minutes in space, completed 129 orbits and traveled over 2.9 million miles. This year, TAC will invest $6,000 in scholarships to six high school students from the Pike County area: a male and a female each from Charles Henderson High School, Pike County High School and Goshen High School who are planning to attend Troy University. Each student will receive $1,000 to get them started on their college journey. TAC Polemarch Lee Maddox said the scholarship event is just a token of the appreciation the chapter has for the city of Troy and Troy University. What better way to give back to a community than to invest in its youth, Maddox said. The scholarship is just a way of us letting the young people in the community know we are here, we see you, we believe in you. A $25 donation to Troy Alumnis Kommunity Outreach organization is requested for tickets to attend the 2023 Scholarship Banquet. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite. The breakfast will be held in the Adams Center Ballroom on the Troy Campus beginning at 9 a.m. For more information, contact Dr. Michael Sibley at 334-657-8401. A BBC documentary that looks into Prime Minister Narendra Modis role during communal riots that wracked the western Indian state of Gujarat in 2002 has been criticized by the Indian government as a propaganda piece while the broadcaster has said its two-part series was rigorously researched. The BBC says India: the Modi Question examines the tensions between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority and explores the politics of Mr. Modi in relation to those tensions." The first part was broadcast in Britain on Tuesday, while the second will be aired next week. The communal riots erupted in Gujarat when Modi, who became Indias prime minister in 2014, was the states chief minister. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the violence that broke out after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire, killing dozens. The documentary highlights an unpublished report that the BBC said it obtained from the British Foreign Office. The report had, according to the broadcaster, raised issues over Modis actions during the riots and claims that he was "directly responsible" for the "climate of impunity" that enabled the violence. The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset is blatantly visible, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters in response to questions at a press briefing Thursday. Questioning the motives behind the documentary, he said it was designed to push a particular discredited narrative. It makes us wonder about the purpose of this exercise, the agenda behind it and frankly we do not wish to dignify such efforts," Bagchi said. In 2012, an inquiry by Indias Supreme Court had exonerated Modi for any complicity in the riots, including charges that he had told police officers not to restrain the rioters. Last year, the top court also dismissed a petition that questioned his exoneration. A day after the Indian governments sharp criticism of the documentary, the BBC said in a statement that the program was "rigorously researched according to highest editorial standards. The British broadcaster said that "a wide range of voices, witnesses and experts were approached and we have featured a range of opinions, including responses from people in the BJP [Modis Bharatiya Janata Party]." The statement also said that it had offered the Indian government an opportunity to reply to the matters raised in the series, but the government declined. The BBC statement said the company was "committed to highlighting important issues from around the world." In response to a question on the documentary by British lawmaker Imran Hussain in Parliament on Thursday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that we dont tolerate persecution anywhere but added that he did not agree with the characterization of the Indian prime minister. Indonesias Ministry of Manpower said Thursday that PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry, a China-owned nickel smelting facility in Indonesia, needs to revisit the contract work and wage system that led to dissatisfaction among the companys Indonesian workers. Two workers, one Chinese and one Indonesian, were killed in a protest last weekend at the companys smelter in North Morowali. A December accident at the site left two Indonesian workers dead. During the protests, dozens of dormitories were torched, and equipment was damaged. Reuters and the Chinese Embassy in the capital city of Jakarta said many people were injured in the melee. According to Deputy Manpower Minister Afriansyah Noor, the violence between Indonesian and Chinese workers at the nickel processing site was caused by issues that date back to 2020, including a gap in pay between Indonesian and Chinese workers, and the early, involuntary, ending of contracts, which would normally last three to six months. We saw these issues accumulated, combined with lack of communication [and it] finally blew up. Hopefully through a mediation and communication that is going on now, these issues can be addressed, Noor said Thursday to VOA Indonesia during his visit to PT GNI in Morowali. [The Indonesian] workers are not happy with their wages and think they are not paid enough, plus there are cases where they are terminated before the end of their contract, he said. There should be a regulation, [the company] should not unilaterally terminate a contract, he added. PT GNI currently employs about 10,900 Indonesian contract workers and 31 permanent Indonesian workers. There are about 1,300 Chinese workers at the facility. Indonesian workers in this industry are generally paid less than foreign workers, Labor Party president Said Iqbal said. According to the deputy minister, the Ministry of Manpower has provided guidance to PT GNI to improve workplace safety and relations with workers through the workers union. He did not provide details. This is a valuable lesson for us because we also have to secure investments in Indonesia. This investment is very important, and it supports our country, Noor said. He hopes with this improvement, both Indonesian and Chinese workers at PT GNI can work safely. Amirullah, the Morowali Utara Workers Union chief at the facility, told VOA that since 2022, workers have demanded that PT GNI implement occupational security and safety procedures, provide personal protective equipment to workers, and rehire union members who were fired because they had gone on strike. But their demands were unanswered. Thats what triggered the incident, because the company never kept its promises, and workers are angry, Amirullah, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told VOA Indonesia on Sunday. Production at the PT GNI facility resumed Tuesday under tight security. The World Food Program and Madagascar government have launched an innovative green energy project to help rural communities develop their economies and withstand climate shocks. Madagascar is famous for its flora and fauna, as well as its inclement weather. The northern and central parts of the country are subject to cyclonic rains while drought conditions prevail in the south. The World Food Program reports more than 2.2 million people in the southern regions suffer from food insecurity leading to high rates of chronic malnutrition among children under five. To alleviate this situation, WFP and the government have launched the so-called Rapid Rural Transformation Initiative in two southern regions, Androy and Anosy. Hot and dry weather is the norm in these regions, so is the abundance of sunlight. That, says WFP spokesman, Tomson Phiri, makes them ideal for establishing solar-powered hubs, a sustainable water source, and information and communication technology. Speaking from the Madagascar capital, Antananarivo, Phiri says the project will provide essential services, such as energy, water, and digital platforms to communities in remote areas. I visited two of those villages serving upwards of 2,500 villagers in a very environmentally responsible, sustainable manner," said Phiri. "Now, these hubs as well are providing digital classrooms for learners. I saw young people who were nurturing dreams there. He says the solar-powered hubs allow various partners to set up integrated community services, such as training centers for women and young people. He says he has seen communities brought together by technology. We have brought connectivity. We are enhancing agricultural productivity," said Phiri. "We are going to hone peoples business skills, and we are giving opportunities to people, especially women and the youth, so that they can start embarking on their own enterprises. Phiri calls the project a game changer. For example, he notes women in villages in the south who previously were unable to consult medical practitioners, now can do so through the digital hubs. He says the initiative is making it possible for people in remote communities to stand on their own two feet without waiting for handouts from the international community. When Aida Ghajar saw a tweet that a young woman was in a coma after being taken into custody by Tehrans morality police, the IranWire reporter immediately contacted her sources to try to verify the information. Within hours, she had a name: Mahsa Amini. Her contact also provided the phone number of someone inside the hospital. Ghajar confirmed the name with two others, then called the number. It was Kiarash, Mahsas brother, on the line. "Ive had his voice in my head for the past four months, Ghajar told VOA. He was distraught. He said, I have nothing to lose and I'm gonna tell everyone in Iran what's happened to Mahsa. Despite personal risk the hospital was filled with police and talking to foreign media is considered a crime in Iran Kiarash insisted that his name and his sisters be published. At the time, Ghajar had no idea the story would become so huge. But as news of Aminis death spread, protests erupted across Iran. Four months later, they are still taking place. Its a paradoxical feeling, because on one hand, its history; now the world understands what kind of political regime they are, Ghajar said. On the other hand, so many people are in jail, so many people are changing their lives, so many families don't have their children now. I know everyone's talking about, This time it's different but at the same time, it's a tragedy. Ghajar, 40, was born just a few years after the revolution and grew up under the Islamic regime. She recalls her father telling her: Don't read the newspaper. You shouldn't read books. You shouldnt go outside. You should be at home because this political regime, they can kill people. Still, Ghajar said, her generation is different: They are willing to stand up for their rights, even if it means going to prison or into exile, something she knows all too well. When, at 18, she became pregnant, Ghajar left Iran because of the social and familial stigma she felt in a society that prohibits sex outside marriage. Ghajar said she felt she had nothing left to lose, a sentiment she said any woman in Iran can relate to. In 2009, after protests broke out over a disputed election, Ghajar, who was working as a reporter in Lebanon, received word that the Iranian regime had put her on a list of journalists against God a crime in Iran and had called for her deportation and arrest. With the help of the nonprofit group Reporters Without Borders, Ghajar moved to Paris, where she felt safer. Even in exile, Ghajar has kept a pulse on Iran, first as a freelance reporter, and now with IranWire, working with sources inside the country to verify information and make sure news gets out. She and others at IranWire have a circle of trust with sources inside the country and in exile. Although much information can be found on social media, every video, photo or document must be verified. Ghajar and her team conduct interviews, dispatch citizen journalists inside the country, and consult with lawyers and doctors to make sure the information is accurate. Masih Alinejad, a VOA Persian host who also lives in exile, agrees that social media has become a valuable tool for covering Iran. The people don't have weapons, but they have their mobile phones and the social media through which they use to spread news, Alinejad told VOA via a messaging app. The social media is our battleground because the Islamic Republic controls all media inside Iran and uses its propaganda to disseminate its lies. Trying to get the message out carries serious consequences. Since the start of the protests in September, 92 journalists have been imprisoned, making Iran the top jailer of journalists around the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit organization in New York. CPJ senior researcher Yeganeh Rezaian, an Iranian journalist who lives in exile in the U.S., said that despite the risks, her sources have been proactive, eager to share information about their colleagues and family members. The government will do whatever it can to silence anybody the journalists, their families, their colleagues, the newsrooms that they work in, Rezaian told VOA. But it's a good lesson that people are giving to the government that they are no longer willing to stay quiet, especially when it comes to journalists who are just getting arrested for doing their job and nothing beyond that. Like those at IranWire, Rezaian and others at CPJ have built a network of trusted sources that includes journalists, citizen journalists and others. Theyve found ways to connect via social media, apps and phone calls. The information they gathered has been distressing. Rezaian said the regime has created an environment of fear through raids on journalists homes after midnight, ransacking houses, confiscating personal items such as laptops and notebooks, and making arrests without showing any warrants. Those within prison have been kept in solitary confinement for long periods, some for over three months at a time, or in overcrowded cells with little access to medical care, showers or bathrooms in one instance 100 women were forced to share three toilets. CPJ has also heard reports of those in prison under mental duress being given tranquilizers containing high doses of morphine. Journalists sent to trial have not been able to choose their own lawyers or in some cases did not have any access to legal representation. And after closed-door trials lasting only five to seven minutes, several have been handed extremely heavy sentences, Rezaian said. Yalda Moaiery, the first journalist to be arrested, was sentenced to six years in prison, followed by a two-year ban on leaving the country and on using social media and smartphones, and a three-year ban on working as a journalist, all for taking photos of the protests. Iran's Mission at the U.N. did not respond to VOA's request for comment. Rezaian said the ban on leaving the country is a message that [Irans regime] doesn't want journalists to get out and be more outspoken in the international community. But even from exile, journalists like Ghajar, Alinejad and Rezaian continue to ensure news gets out. I'm in contact with families, here in my room, Ghajar told VOA. Every day, every night I am listening to them. I try to figure out how I can be their voices. Here is a summary of some of the top Native American-related news stories this week: Former FBI agent petitions White House to release Leonard Peltier A retired FBI agent who was directly involved in the case against former American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier has appealed to President Joe Biden, arguing for Peltier's release. As VOA reported in 2016, Peltier, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe of Lakota and Dakota descent, was convicted in the murders of two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. Peltier, 78 and in ill health, has spent 46 years in confinement and lost numerous appeals and petitions for parole. "Retribution seems to have emerged as the primary if not sole reason for continuing what looks from the outside to have become an emotion-driven 'FBI Family' vendetta," former agent Coleen Rowley said in her letter to Biden, which was shared exclusively with London's Guardian newspaper. Amnesty International and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention support ending his confinement. But FBI director Christopher Wray opposes clemency for Peltier, calling him a "ruthless murderer" who shows no remorse for his crime. Read more: Muscogee tribal newspaper vs. Muscogee government: new documentary highlights their fight Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend is a documentary that chronicles one tribal newspaper's fight for press freedom. As VOA reported previously, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma established in 2015 an independent media organization, Mvskoke Media (MM), and set up an independent editorial board to protect against interference from the tribal government. Three years later, the tribal council repealed the law and placed the outlet under the tribe's executive branch. "Bad Press," co-directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, a Muscogee journalist and executive director of the Native American Journalists Association, and filmmaker Joe Peeler documents efforts by MM reporters to counter what they call "tyranny." Read Salon's recent interview with Landsberry-Baker here: To register for an online viewing January 24, click here: Alaska Natives outraged over botched translation job The Federal Emergency Management Agency has fired a California company it hired to produce and translate documents that would assist Yup'ik and Inupiaq peoples applying for emergency aid. Instead of an accurate translation, however, they found complete nonsense: "Tomorrow he will go hunting very early, and will [bring] nothing," read one passage. "Your husband is a polar bear, skinny," read another. As it turns out, the company pulled random words from English translations of field notes taken by a Russian linguist studying Yup'ik dialects in Siberia's Chukotka peninsula 70 years ago. For Alaska Natives trying to rebuild after a devastating typhoon last September, it was a double insult and a painful reminder of the past. "When my mother was beaten for speaking her language in school to then have the federal government distributing literature representing that it is an Alaska Native language, I can't even describe the emotion behind that sort of symbolism," said Tara Sweeney, Inupiaq, who served as an assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the Interior Department during the previous administration, The Anchorage Daily News reported. Read more: Behring Strait land bridge wasn't a one-way street The traditional understanding of the origins of most Native Americans is that 12,000-13,000 years ago, shrinking sea levels created a temporary land bridge linking Siberia and Alaska. This allowed small groups of people the ancestors of modern Native Americans to leave their homes behind forever and establish thriving populations across North America. But a new study published in the journal Current Biology shows that humans coming from Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula had a mixture of genetic backgrounds; some even had links to the Japanese archipelago. Moreover, DNA sampling suggests that it wasn't a one-way trip humans traveled back and forth between Alaska and Siberia for thousands of years, even after glaciers melted and the Bering land bridge was once again submerged. Read more in the journal Science: Student newspaper to give up Indigenous mascot A student-run newspaper in a Massachusetts high school has announced that after several years of deliberation they will change the name of their newspaper. For 130 years, Brookline High School's student newspaper has been The Sagamore, derived from an Algonquian word for a tribal leader. "Continuing to use the name actively disregards the meaning of the word and the history that surrounds it, thereby harming Indigenous communities," reads an editorial on the paper's website. "Our newspaper aims to be a source of unbiased and relevant news for the school community," the editorial continues. "We hope to represent the community fairly and accurately. With these values in mind, a name like The Sagamore does not make sense. It does not symbolize who we are and it actively counteracts our goal to make all people feel heard and represented on the pages of our paper." Students made the decision after consultations with the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, a cultural heritage group that is not recognized by the federal government or the state of Massachusetts. Read more: This week on "The Inside Story," VOA reporter Natasha Mozgovaya looks at the 150th anniversary celebration of Yellowstone National Park and what it means to Native American tribes with historic ties to the land. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Pakistani women studying medicine in Afghanistan have been affected by the Taliban decision to ban women from universities. VOAs Munaza Shaheed spoke to some of them. The White House announced Friday new sanctions to be put in place by the U.S. Treasury Department next week on the Wagner Group, designating the Russian private military company as a transnational criminal organization. The Biden administration urged other countries to join the U.S. in targeting the group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian oligarch and confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has been playing a key role in Moscows invasion of Ukraine. The administration also released newly declassified photos taken in November of what it says are Russian rail cars delivering infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea for use by Wagner forces. It submitted the imagery to the U.N. Security Council panel charged with enforcing North Korea sanctions to push for action on what it believes is a violation of Security Council resolutions on arms transfers. VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara spoke Friday with John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, about the significance of the designation and possible further actions concerning the Wagner Group, which the administration says has recruited 40,000 convicts to fight in Ukraine. This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity. VOA: Well focus on the Wagner announcement, but briefly, can you clarify the U.S. position on this debate on tanks for Ukraine that's going on in the donor conference in Germany? Does the U.S. want Germany to send Leopard tanks and allow the transfer of Leopard tanks from other countries? Would the U.S. send Abrams tanks if that's the only way to get Germany to send their Leopard tanks? John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman: We believe that it's important that every nation that can support Ukraine and their defense needs, and right now, President Zelenskyy has talked about this, one of the critical needs for the Ukrainian armed forces this winter and probably into the spring is going to be armor, armor capability, because of the kinds of fighting they're doing in the Donbas. That can include tanks, and the Ukrainians do have a real need for additional tanks. They've been using largely T-72s, which are old Soviet-made tanks and, you know, it's been almost a year. So we certainly welcome the contributions of other nations, including the U.K., which just in the last week or so agreed to send Challenger tanks. And we know that Germany is working through their own process here with respect to the Leopards. The Leopards are great tanks, very capable, won't require an exorbitant amount of training for the Ukrainians should Germany want to move in that direction. It's Germany's decision to make. We are not out there arm twisting and pushing and cajoling. We want countries to give what they can, contribute what they can, when and where they can, and on the size and scale and scope that they're comfortable with. And that's for Germany to decide. I will add, though, that Germany has increased their contributions they were already, even early on in the war, one of the world's leading financial contributors to Ukraine, in terms of just financial aid and assistance, and they have over, certainly, the last several months really [were] aware of their own willingness and ability to provide advanced capabilities. And that's been deeply appreciated by everybody. VOA: Is this standoff on tanks an example of the threat to NATO unity that President Biden spoke about in December? Kirby: I would not describe this as a standoff. I mean, these are ongoing iterative discussions that we have with all our allies and partners about what they can provide and at what scale. And again, these are sovereign nations, they get to decide, because they have their own national security needs they have to consider as well, just like we do. But in just stepping broadly back, the alliance has been just incredibly, solidly behind and supportive of Ukraine, and we don't see ... we don't see that fracturing at all. VOA: The U.S. is designating [the Wagner Group] as a transnational criminal organization. As I understand, that primarily means freezing Wagner assets in the U.S. and also prohibiting Americans from providing support. How significant is this move? What size assets are we talking about? Kirby: It will give us more flexibility. We were already sanctioning Russia writ large across the board, and some of those sanctions and export controls we know also tangentially had an effect on private military contractors like Wagner. But this is really targeted towards Wagner specifically, and I'll let Treasury talk to this in more detail. They'll have more to put out on this next week, but you're right about what that designation does. It blocks and prevents the transfer of monies to Wagner from any U.S. entity. And it might lead to additional measures by other countries now that we're doing this, so we'll see where that goes. VOA: How immediate will the impact be? Will it impact Wagner operations not just in Ukraine but also other countries? Kirby: Once the designation is in place, we're executing it. So, there'll be an immediate effect. And again, we encourage other nations as well to help us in cracking down on Wagner's ability to literally commit atrocities around the world. Its not about just cutting off their ability to commit atrocities in Ukraine. It's about their ability to commit atrocities around the world. VOA: Why is the U.S. designating the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization (TCO) and not as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO)? Kirby: I think we believe that this move right now is the appropriate move, and it will have an impact on Wagner. VOA: Is the goal FTO next? Kirby: Im not going to get ahead of where we are, but right now we're deciding that we're going to designate them as a TCO, and we're going to continue to try to further squeeze their ability to operate and to fund themselves, and I'm not going to get ahead of where that is. VOA: The other thing that you underscored today was the sharing of information about the transfer of weapons from North Korea to the Wagner Group that you will share with the Security Council's North Korea Sanctions Committee Kirby: We shared it today. VOA: You did share it today. So, what is the goal here specifically for North Korea? Kirby: We believe it's two things. The most important thing is to try to stop this flow of support from North Korea to Russia. And that's why what I also said was, "We urge them to stop this immediately." They are violating existing U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the reason we brought it up today is because we want to see if there's additional sanctioning flexibility here. We don't know. Thats one of the reasons why we brought it up to the committee of experts. But we certainly want it to stop. The second component here, and this isn't unimportant either, is the North Koreans had just been baldly lying about their support to Russia. They've just said they're not doing it. They've claimed they had nothing to do with it. And today, we felt it was important, in keeping in conjunction with our conversations at the U.N., to lay out demonstrable evidence that, in fact, they are supporting Russia with arms and ammunition, and we got the goods on them, and we put it out there. VOA: You've said that they are using 40,000 Russian convicts to fight in Ukraine. Experts who study the group say that the casualty levels are quite massive 80% to 90% die in battle during their standard contract. Is this something that you can confirm? Kirby: We can confirm that they certainly are the bulk of their manpower, at least in the Donbas, are convicts. I said today some 50,000 Wagner employees are in Ukraine and 40,000, the vast majority, we believe, are convicts. I mean, they're going into the jails and they're opening up the cells and they're just pulling people out, putting them right into the fight. VOA: Do you know the casualty levels? Kirby: The casualty rate, we believe, for the convicts is extraordinarily high. As a matter of fact, what we think is that 90% of their casualties are convicts themselves. They're just throwing them into the flight. No training, no organizational capability, no command and control. They're just throwing them into this meat grinder in the Bakhmut and Soledar areas, and they're paying a heavy price for it. VOA: But do we have an understanding of the exact number of how many Russian convicts have died in battle? Kirby: I'm afraid I wouldn't have that exact number for you. VOA: At this point, does the U.S. believe that Vladimir Putin should be prosecuted for his use of Russian convicts in Ukraine? Kirby: We believe that Russia needs to be held properly to account for the atrocities and war crimes that we know Russian soldiers and Wagner contract employees are conducting inside Ukraine, which is why we're helping the international community document that. We're going to help provide whatever support to international investigative efforts are ongoing and make sure that the Russian armed forces, and in this case Wagner as well, can be properly held to account. VOA: Specifically on the use of Russian convicts, does the U.S. believe that this is a violation of human rights? Kirby: I'll leave that to the international lawyers to determine. Without a doubt, Wagner employees and Russian soldiers are committing atrocities and war crimes in Ukraine, and that's as plain as the nose on your face. You can see what they're doing. We just want to make sure it's properly documented so proper accountability measures can be held. VOA: Can you speak more about the tension between Prigozhin and the Russian leadership? What does it tell you about cohesion in the Russian top leadership at this point? Kirby: We know that the tensions between Prigozhin individually, Wagner institutionally, and the Ministry of Defense are increasing because Mr. Prigozhin wants to take credit for all the work he's doing in the Donbas region and the progress that he's making in towns like Bakhmut and Soledar, and that is causing tensions. In addition to that, he has been a very open critic of Russian generals and the way that the Russian military has been prosecuting the war, not just in the Donbas but elsewhere as well. I mean, he's been very open. And it appears to us that he's trying to raise his profile with Mr. Putin and make himself seem more relevant and more viable than even the Russian military. When in fact, what he's also doing is trying to fill his own coffers, and it appears he also has economic gains here at play for what he's trying to do. VOA: Is the tension between Prigozhin and the Russian leadership something that the U.S. can take advantage of? Kirby: We think it's important for the world to know what we're seeing in respect to these tensions. We think what should be taken advantage of is the opportunity for Putin to end this war. He could do it today. He could pull the Wagner group out, he can pull all his troops out. That's the opportunity that needs to be taken advantage of. But we do think it's important to showcase for the world the utter brutality with which Mr. Putin is willing to keep fighting this war, this unprovoked war against the Ukrainian people. And now, in addition to everything else, the cruise missiles, the drones, hitting apartment buildings in the last couple of days, he has taken people out of jail. Putin is allowing Prigozhin to just empty out the jails and throw convicts into the fight. No training, no skills, no leadership, to do nothing more than just kill Ukrainian soldiers and innocent Ukrainian civilians. And we believe it's important for that to be out there publicly so that everybody can see exactly the depravity with which he and his forces are running this war. VOA: Is there anything else you can share about the Wagner Group? For example, is the flow of convicts to fight in Ukraine lessening? Is there any indication that the Wagner Group is getting fighters from Syria, former ISIS fighters? Kirby: We know Mr. Prigozhin has tried to recruit for Ukraine in places like Syria. I couldn't give you the exact numbers of how many he got or whether they're still in the fight. But it is certainly one of his plays, to go ahead and recruit fighters from outside Russia and other countries, and we know that he's, as I said, clearing out prisons. Now how many he's got on any given day, what the throughput is, I don't believe we have, you know, that specific. But in general, as I said, today, we know that he has, you know, thrown about 50,000 people into Ukraine. VOA: Do you believe they are a formidable force? How effective are they, the Wagner Group? Kirby: Without question they have made some incremental progress in Bakhmut and Soledar that are in the Donbas, but at a heavy, heavy price in casualties, as we talked about. It's a meat grinder. He is throwing literally throwing ill equipped, ill prepared, almost no training individuals into this fight with the Ukrainian armed forces, who, while they may not have the same numbers, in terms of advantage, have a huge advantage in skill, organizational alignment, command and control, weapons systems provided by so many countries including the U.S., and they're just chewing these prisoners up. Because manpower doesn't seem to be a problem for Mr. Prigozhin, they have made some incremental progress. But as we've also said, and Ukrainians are still fighting over Bakhmut and Soledar, and so that's not over, we still consider that contested territory. But even if they the Prigozhin group end up with Bakhmut and Soledar, there's no guarantee they're going to keep it for very long, because the Ukrainians have proven time and time again that even when they lose territory, they'll go back and retake it. And even if that doesn't happen, it's not as if those two towns are going to change the strategic direction of the war. They're not going to put the Ukrainians on their back feet to a degree that the whole war changes character. These are two mining towns in the Donbas, and the fact that they're mining towns ought to give you some clues as to why Mr. Prigozhin is so interested in them. From New York to Los Angeles, hate crimes continued to rise in major American cities last year, with preliminary police data showing that at least six metropolitan areas recorded levels not seen since the 1990s. That's according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino. The unpublished report, based on data from 20 police departments, was exclusively shared with Voice of America and comes months before the FBI is due to release its annual hate crime report for 2022. Brian Levin, director of the research center, said while national hate crime trends generally mirror those of big cities, his data show a more modest uptick of 1.2% for the 20 cities surveyed. "If current data hold, the FBI report is likely to be up when compared to the incomplete report for 2021," Levin said. Last month, the FBI released its annual hate crimes statistics, which showed there were 7,262 hate crime incidents in 2021; however, the report excluded data for New York City, Chicago and most of California. Of the 20 cities surveyed by the research center, six posted multidecade highs in hate crimes. Up 18% in New York City In New York City, the nation's largest city with about 9 million residents, police investigated 619 hate crimes, up 18% for the year and the most since 1992. In Los Angeles, the second most populous U.S. city, police recorded a total of 643 hate crime victims in 2022, up 13% from 2021 and the highest number since 2001. In contrast to most other police agencies, the Los Angeles Police Department counts hate crimes by the number of victims rather than incidents. Other major cities that saw multidecade highs in reported hate crimes include Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Austin, Texas. Levin said improved hate crime reporting was partly responsible for last year's spike in reported incidents. "There was a real scramble by not only law enforcement but by many NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and advocacy groups to get victims' experiences reported," he said. Many definitions of hate The FBI defines a hate crime as a criminal offense "motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias(es) against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity." The bureau has been collecting and publishing annual hate crime statistics submitted by police departments since 1991. In the decades since, most hate crimes have been motivated by racial bias, with African Americans the top target. That remained the case last year in most cities studied by the research center. Among the most horrific anti-Black hate crimes last year: An 18-year-old white supremacist gunman shot and killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in May. Elsewhere, a wave of antisemitic attacks remained unabated. In New York City, home to the largest Jewish population in the U.S., nearly half of all reported hate crimes involved Jewish victims, with the total number of antisemitic criminal incidents jumping 31% to a record high of 271. "It's very shocking but perhaps not surprising for those who deal with this every day," said Scott Richman, the New York and New Jersey director for the Anti-Defamation League, commonly known as the ADL. "I can tell you that we literally respond to antisemitic incidents every single day in this region." The ADL tracks both hate crimes and hate incidents, which do not rise to the level of a crime. "There are many things that happen that are antisemitic and very troubling that don't rise to the level of a crime that we deal with," said Richman. Decline in anti-Asian hate crimes Anti-Asian hate crime, which rose sharply during the pandemic because of the perceived association of the COVID-19 virus with China, was the only category to see a decline in most cities. In New York, anti-Asian hate crime fell from 133 to 86 incidents; in Los Angeles, from 42 to 32. Despite the decline, Levin said, anti-Asian hate crimes remain at "disturbingly elevated levels when compared to pre-pandemic [levels]." As damaging as it was for more than 32 trillion gallons of rain and snow to fall on California since Christmas, a worst-case global warming scenario could juice up similar future downpours by one-third by the middle of this century, a new study says. The strongest of California's storms from atmospheric rivers, long and wide plumes of moisture that form over an ocean and flow through the sky over land, would probably get an overall 34% increase in total precipitation, or another 11 trillion gallons more than just fell. That's because the rain and snow is likely to be 22% more concentrated at its peak in places that get really doused, and to fall over a considerably larger area if fossil fuel emissions grow uncontrolled, according to a new study in Thursday's journal Nature Climate Change. The entire western United States would likely see a 31% increase in precipitation from these worst of the worst storms in a souped-up warming world because of more intense and widely spread rainfall, the study said. Scientists say the worst-case scenario, which is about 4.4 degrees Celsius (7.9 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times, looks a bit more unlikely since efforts are being undertaken to rein in emissions. If countries do as they promise, temperatures are on track to warm about 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Climate Action Tracker. The National Weather Service calculated that California averaged 11.47 inches of precipitation statewide from Dec. 26 to Jan. 17 including 18.33 inches in Oakland and 47.74 inches in one spot 235 miles north of San Francisco because of a series of nine devastating atmospheric rivers that caused power outages, flooding, levee breaks, washouts and landslides. At least 20 people died. "It could be even worse," said study author Ruby Leung, a climate scientist at the U.S. Pacific Northwest National Lab. "We need to start planning how would we be able to deal with this." Leung used regional scale computer simulations to predict what the worst of the western winter storms will be like between 2040 and 2070 in a scenario where carbon emissions have run amok. She looked at total precipitation, how concentrated peak raining and snowing would be and the area that gets hit. All three factors grow for the West in general. California is predicted to get the highest increase in peak precipitation, while the Southwest is likely to see more rain because of a big jump in area of rainfall. The Pacific Northwest would see the least juicing of the three areas. Overall precipitation is a bit lessened from adding all the factors, because just as the peak rainfall grows the rainfall on the edges of the storms is predicted to weaken, according to the study. There are two types of storms that Leung said she worries about: Flash floods from intense rain concentrated over a small area and slower, larger floods that occur from rain and snow piling up over a large area. Both are bad, but the flash floods cause more damage and hurt people more, she said. And those flash floods are likely to get worse from what Leung's paper calls a "sharpening" effect that happens in an ever warmer world. That means more rainfall concentrated in the central areas of storms, falling at higher rates per hour, while at the outer edges rainfall is a bit weaker. This happens because of the physics of rain storms, Leung said. Not only can the atmosphere hold 4% more moisture per degree Fahrenheit (7% per degree Celsius), but it's what happens in the storm that changes and makes the precipitation come down even more, Leung said. You've got air rising inside the storm with more water vapor condensing to produce rain and snow; it then releases heat "that kind of causes the storm to become more vigorous and stronger," she said. When water vapor condenses it comes down as rain and snow along the edges of the storm, but heating sort of squeezes that falling precipitation in toward the middle, Leung said. "The concepts and impacts of how precipitation features are likely to change are well quantified and well explained," said David Gochis, an expert in how water affects the weather at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, who wasn't part of the study. When she used computer simulations, Leung chose the most severe worst-case scenario for how the world's carbon emissions will grow. It's a scenario that used to be called business as usual, but the world is no longer on that track. After years of climate negotiations and the growth of renewable fuels the globe is heading to less warming than the worst case, according to climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the tech company Stripe and Berkeley Earth. "We are providing more of a worst-case scenario, but understanding that if we do take action to reduce emissions in the future, we could end up better," Leung said. "If we control the emissions and lower the global warming in the future, we can limit the impacts of climate change on the society, particularly flooding and extreme precipitation that we are talking about in this study." Thousands of people packed into central Madrid Saturday to protest the Socialist government and accuse it of undermining the constitution, in a rally backed by rightist parties. Protesters massed in the Plaza de Cibeles in front of City Hall, waved Spanish flags, called on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to resign and shouted out "traitor." More than 100 groups - including the conservative opposition Popular Party, center-right Ciudadanos and the far-right Vox - called the rally under the slogan "For Spain, for democracy and the constitution." Speakers attacked the government for a string of policies and decisions, ranging from the release of Catalan independence campaigners to its pacts with regional separatist parties. Around 30,000 people took part, according to local government estimates. Vox leader Santiago Abascal, the only party leader to attend, told the crowd the government had trampled the constitution by locking up Spaniards, in reference to COVID lockdowns. Around 200km (120 miles) away in the northwestern city of Valladolid, Sanchez told a Socialist rally that the protesters in Madrid were defending a "uniform" and therefore "discriminatory" Spain. In June 2021, Sanchezs government pardoned the nine jailed leaders of Catalonias failed 2017 independence bid "in the spirit of dialog." Its recent decision to replace the crime of sedition with a lesser crime was opposed by the right. Plainclothes security officers in Tunisia detained a prominent critic of President Kais Saied in the early hours of Saturday after a military court ruling, his lawyer told Agence France-Presse. Seifeddine Makhlouf had been found guilty of insulting police during a standoff at Tunis airport in March 2021. Makhlouf, head of Islamist nationalist party Al-Karama, shouted "down with the coup" and "long live Tunisia" before being bundled into a car, according to a Facebook video posted by the lawyer. Rights groups say military trials of civilians have become increasingly common in Tunisia since a power grab by Saied. Tunis military appeals court on Friday sentenced Makhlouf to 14 months in prison with immediate effect, his lawyer Ines Harrath told AFP. A court had initially sentenced him to five months' jail. "Around 25 officers in plainclothes surrounded his house at 11 p.m.," Harrath said. After a two-hour standoff, "they came into the house and he left with them." Makhlouf has been a prominent critic of Saied, who in July 2021 froze parliament and seized far-reaching executive powers in what critics have called a "coup" and an attack on the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings more than a decade ago. Saied later took control of the judiciary and pushed through a new constitution giving his office almost unlimited powers. Makhlouf in March 2021 led a group of Al-Karama MPs to Tunis airport in a bid to force authorities to lift a travel ban against a woman barred from boarding her flight, sparking a standoff that was widely shared online. The court on Friday also sentenced several other Al-Karama members and a lawyer to shorter prison sentences, but they were not immediately detained. The head of the National Salvation Front opposition alliance told journalists on Saturday that the rulings reflected "a mentality of vengeance." "We're seeing the killing of freedoms and the destruction of democracy," Ahmed Nejib Chebbi said. "There's a desire to decapitate the leadership of the civilian and political opposition." A statement on the presidency's Facebook late on Friday called for efforts to "tackle all the corrupt and those who believe they are above the law." Makhlouf also received a year-long suspended prison sentence last February for "attacking the dignity of the army" after losing his parliamentary immunity following Saied's power grab. He was also banned from working as a lawyer for five years. A military court upheld the one-year prison sentence in June but his lawyer in that case said he would appeal. "Putting civilians on trial in military courts is an attack on freedoms," Harrath said. "This case is related to the defendants' positions on Kais Saied." Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov says Ukrainian forces will train to use Leopard 2 battle tanks, despite Western allies failure Friday to reach a decision on whether to supply Kyiv with the German-made tanks. Reznikov told VOAs Ukrainian Service Friday that Ukraines troops will train on the tanks in Poland and described the development as a breakthrough. "Countries that already have Leopard tanks can begin training missions for our tank crews. We will start with that, and we will go from there. I hope, Germany will follow their process, conduct their internal consultations, and will arrive at the decision to transfer tanks. I am optimistic regarding this because the first step has been made. We will start training programs for our tank crews on Leopards 2, Reznikov said. A senior adviser to Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, expressed his frustration with the pace of the military support the countrys allies are providing and has urged them to think faster. "You'll help Ukraine with the necessary weapons anyway and realize that there is no other option to end the war except the defeat of Russia," Mykhailo Podolyak posted on Twitter. "But today's indecision is killing more of our people. Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster." Earlier Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army General Mark Milley said no Leopard tanks would be given to Ukraine by Germany at this time. They made the remarks at a briefing at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany following an international conference on Ukraine support. The meeting was held amid Kyiv's frustration with the dissent over sending tanks to Ukraine as the full-scale invasion reaches the 11-month mark. Zelenskyy made direct pleas for tanks at the meeting. Reznikov said he was pleased with the results, I consider that the key concepts of this meeting today were unity, timelines of delivering aid, and enhancement of the capabilities of the armed forces of Ukraine to continue counter-offensive operations in order to liberate temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. All the previously announced [military aid] packages have been confirmed. In addition, some new packages were discussed behind closed doors, but I am not at liberty to announce them just yet. This is inspiring. I am very satisfied. Austin denied there is a link between Germany not sending its Leopard tanks and the U.S. not committing its Abrams tanks. "What we're really focused on is making sure that Ukraine has a capability that it needs to be successful right now. So, we have a window of opportunity here between now and in the spring whenever they commence their operation, their counteroffensive," he said. The new U.S. aid package, worth $2.5 billion, brings American military assistance to Ukraine to almost $27 billion since Russia's invasion nearly a year ago. Austin reaffirmed the allies' commitment to defending Ukraine. "It is not only about Ukraine security, it is about European security and about global security," he said. He expressed confidence the group will remain united and continue to build momentum. Milley echoed Austin's comment and noted this is the most unified he has seen NATO in his 40 years in uniform. He said the U.S. assistance package, along with unified donations from other countries, signify their resolve to defend Ukraine. "As much as it takes, as long as it takes in order to keep Ukraine free, independent and sovereign," he said. However, Milley said it would be very hard for Ukraine to drive Russia's invading forces from the country this year, and he stressed the importance of solidifying Ukraine's defensive front. Britains Defense Ministry said Saturday that the conflict in Ukraine is in a state of deadlock. However, the agency warned that there is a realistic possibility of local Russian advances around Bakhmut. The ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter that the heaviest fighting recently has been in three Ukraine locations northeastern Kremina, the Donetsk oblast in Bakhmut, and Zaporizhzhia oblast. In an interview with VOA's Patsy Widakuswara on Friday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the NATO alliance remains "very, very solidly behind Ukraine." However, he said NATO allies, as "sovereign nations, they get to decide because they have to have their own national security needs, they have to consider as well, just like we do." Zelenskyy said in his evening address Friday that Ukraine will have to fight to secure a supply of modern heavy armor. "Every day we make it more obvious there is no alternative to making the decision on tanks," he said. Moscow said Friday any additional tanks supplied to Ukraine will have no effect on the course of the conflict. "We have repeatedly said that such supplies will not fundamentally change anything but will add problems for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. He said the West will "regret its delusion" that Ukraine can win on the battlefield. In Kyiv on Friday, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal, Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse met with Zelenskyy and Ukrainian military officials. VOA's Kyiv correspondent Anna Chernikova reported that during a news conference, the senators asserted the U.S. should provide tanks and long-range weapons to Ukraine to stop Russia's invasion. They expressed their conviction that Ukraine needs this help now, because time is not on the side of Ukraine and its allies. They also said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin is not stopped now, NATO countries would be next. The senators appealed to their voters, asserting that their money is necessary to restore the world order. The main message to Ukrainians was that the U.S. would stay with them for as long as it takes. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. Western defense ministers meeting at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany did not agree on providing tanks to Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia's invasion. Still, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the alliance is focused on providing Kyiv with credible combat capability as Ukraine prepares for a spring counteroffensive. VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. U.S. officials say a National Guard member in the Southwestern U.S. state of Texas shot and injured a migrant who was trying to escape from immigration authorities. Federal officials say the shooting, which was first reported jointly by The Texas Tribune and the Military Times, took place early Monday in Abram, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. According to the joint report, border agents found four migrants in an abandoned house before dawn Monday. Three of the migrants surrendered, but a fourth tried to escape and was shot in the shoulder by a member of the Texas National Guard. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the migrant, whose nationality has not been revealed, was taken to a hospital and released later that day. The Texas Department of Public Safety said a state police agency, the Texas Rangers, is leading an investigation into the shooting. The National Guard member involved in the shooting was deployed to the border as part of Operation Lone Star, launched by Texas Governor Gregg Abbott in 2021. The operation partners guard members with state police to help manage the influx of migrants at the border. Stars and Stripes reported that soldiers in the operation can use the minimum force necessary for self-defense or in the defense of others, according to training materials for the operation. The shooting is the first known incident since the operation began in which a soldier has shot and injured a migrant, according to The Texas Tribune and the Military Times. Stars and Stripes reported that a U.S. solider fired a rifle while on patrol in January 2022, but no one was injured. Also that month, a service member who was kicked in the face by a migrant aimed a weapon at the migrant but did not fire, according to the outlet. Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse. The White House on Friday announced it will designate the Wagner Group, the Russian private military company supporting Moscow's war on Ukraine, as a Transnational Criminal Organization, hitting it with sanctions and limiting its ability to do business around the world. Declaring Wagner a TCO freezes its assets in the U.S. and prohibits Americans from providing funds, goods or services to the group. "It will give us more flexibility," John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said in a Friday interview with VOA. "We were already sanctioning Russia writ large across the board, and some of those sanctions and export controls we know also tangentially had an effect on private military contractors like Wagner, but this is really targeted towards Wagner specifically," he said of the sanctions that will be put in effect by the U.S. Treasury Department next week. Kirby said the U.S. is urging other countries to target the group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In recent years the group has significantly increased its footprint not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria, Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Mozambique and Mali and has been accused of human rights violations in countries where it operates. The Biden administration also released newly declassified photos of what it says are Russian rail cars delivering infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea in November for use by Wagner forces. The administration submitted the imagery to the U.N. Security Council panel charged with enforcing North Korea sanctions to push for action on what it says is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on arms transfers. "The North Koreans had just been baldly lying about their support to Russia," Kirby said, adding the U.S. wants to "lay out demonstrable evidence" of Pyongyang's support. 40,000 Russian convict fighters Last month the White House confirmed that Wagner deploys about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, 40,000 of them recruited from Russian jails. Olga Romanova, executive director of the civil rights movement Russia Behind Bars, told VOA that prisoners who agree to sign the contract with Wagner are paid about $3,000 a month. "By the end of 2022, the desire to go serve in Wagner group in Ukraine has diminished significantly among the Russian convicts," she told VOA, citing extrajudicial executions, unfulfilled promises and extremely high casualties. Experts who study the group say up to 80% of Russian convicts used by Wagner die in Ukrainian battlefields. Out of thousands of Wagner-recruited convicts, only 106 were pardoned and allowed to go home after the fulfillment of their six-month contracts, Romanova said. Prisoners are deployed without training, organizational capability, or command and control, Kirby said. "They're just throwing them into this meat grinder in the Bakhmut and Soledar areas, and they're paying a heavy price for it," he said, referencing two Ukrainian towns that are the focus of recent intense fighting. Kirby spoke of mounting tensions between Prigozhin and the Kremlin, accusing the Wagner founder of making himself "seem more relevant and more viable than even the Russian military" while "trying to fill his own coffers." The Wagner group posted a picture of Prigozhin and his fighters in Soledar, which the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have captured last week without mention of Wagner's role. Foreign terrorist organization Kirby would not confirm whether the U.S. is aiming next to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In December a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced the Holding Accountable Russian Mercenaries (HARM) Act, bipartisan legislation that would require the Secretary of State to designate Wagner as an FTO. A similar measure has been introduced in the U.S. Senate. In November, the European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the European Council to place Wagner on the EU terrorist list. Designating the group as a terrorist organization would not only freeze its assets, ban recruitment, financing and travel of its members said Meryl Demuynck, research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. "It would send a very strong message and has a symbolic function, not only to Russia," she told VOA. "But also to countries that are already resorting to the group or considering resorting to it." Ihar Tsikhanenka contributed to this report. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen went to Gorree Island in Senegal Saturday, and spoke of the unspeakable cruelty of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. "Ultimately, Goree Island reminds us that the histories of Africa and America are intimately connected," Yellen said after touring the island. "We know that the tragedy did not stop with the generation of humans taken from here." Yellen began her 10-day trip to Africa Friday with a visit to a U.S.-funded business incubator for youth and women in Dakar, Senegal. As the first female U.S. treasury secretary, Yellen got a warm round of applause from the businesswomen at the meeting. In a speech following the visit, Yellen emphasized Americas intention to expand trade and investment in Africa. The United States is all in on Africa, and all in with Africa, she said. And our engagement is not transactional. Its not for show. And its not for the short term. While in Senegal, Yellen will also meet with Senegalese President and head of the African Union Macky Sall, as well as ministers of finance and economy. Yellen plans to discuss infrastructure projects, pandemic preparedness, democracy strengthening and anti-corruption partnerships. She will also highlight the steps the U.S. has taken to counter the spillover effects of Russia's war in Ukraine by means of food security assistance. Russia's war and weaponization of food has exacerbated food insecurity and caused untold suffering, Yellen said. And with global economic headwinds caused by the actions of a single man, [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is creating an unnecessary drag on Africa's economy. Yellen also acknowledged Africas susceptibility to the climate crisis, noting that 17 of the worlds top 20 climate-vulnerable countries are African. She announced U.S. plans to expand partnerships with Africa on conservation, climate adaptation and access to clean energy, and noted U.S. President Joe Bidens intentions to provide over $1 billion to support African-led climate resilience efforts. Yellen acknowledged Americas contribution to the construction of West Africas largest wind farm, located just outside Dakar. On Saturday she will attend the groundbreaking of a U.S.-financed rural electrification project that is being led by an American engineering firm. Yellens trip comes on the heels of last months U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, where Biden committed $55 billion in economic, health and security aid to the continent over the next three years. Several members of the Biden administration, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Special Climate Envoy John Kerry, have already traveled to Africa. Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris also have plans to visit. U.S. engagement with Africa took a backseat during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Beijing was investing billions in African infrastructure projects and becoming Africa's largest trading partner, while Russian-backed paramilitary forces fanned out across the continent. Africa is home to some of the worlds largest mineral reserves, which will be critical for the Biden administrations plans to promote clean energy. Sarah Danzman, an international studies professor at Indiana University Bloomington, summed up the purpose of Yellens Africa visit. The U.S. wants to emphasize that U.S. investment is a better and more reliable way to deliver widely shared growth and prosperity across the continent, she said, precisely because it is transparent, aligned with values of democracy and human rights, and also tied to governance reforms to reduce corruption. That is in stark contrast to the Chinese model of investment, which has prioritized quick construction and resource extraction over good governance requirements, she added. After Senegal, Yellen will continue her trip with stops in Zambia and South Africa. A Uyghur rights groups legal challenge against the British government for not investigating the import of cotton produced in the Chinese region of Xinjiang was dismissed by a London court Friday. The World Uyghur Congress, an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups, had taken legal action at London's High Court against Britain's Home Office, tax authority HMRC and the National Crime Agency. Judge Ian Dove said in a written ruling that he had dismissed the WUCs case. Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labor in camps. Beijing vigorously denies any abuses. Dove said there was clear and undisputed evidence of instances of cotton being manufactured in the XUAR (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) by the use of detained and prison labor as well as by forced labor. But he found that the Home Offices approach to the law on foreign prison-made goods was legally sound, and ruled that the view of the tax authority and the National Crime Agency on the law on the proceeds of crime was correct. The WUC argued in October that the Home Office had wrongly refused to launch a probe into the import of foreign prison-made goods, and that HMRC and the National Crime Agency had failed to investigate whether cotton from Xinjiang amounted to "criminal property." Lawyers representing the British government had argued there had to be a clear link between "the alleged criminality and its specific product" to investigate whether goods were made in a foreign prison. Dolkun Isa, the WUCs president, said the ruling was "a greatly disappointing outcome for the Uyghur community." A British government spokesperson said: "The government is committed to tackling the issue of Uyghur forced labor in supply chains and is taking robust action. "Over the last year we have introduced new guidance on the risks of doing business in Xinjiang and enhanced export controls. We keep our policy response under constant review and welcome todays judgment." A spokesperson for the National Crime Agency said in a statement that the agency considered information provided by the WUC and "assessed that there is insufficient material from which to commence a criminal investigation at this time." The statement added that the agency will "assess any new information received and will review accordingly." As China gears up to welcome the Year of the Rabbit, Lunar New Year looks slightly different in Vietnam, where the Year of the Cat is about to begin. Across the country, streets are decked out with statues of felines and shops are stocked full of cat-themed decorations, popular gifts during Vietnamese New Year, known as Tet. Vietnam and neighboring China share 10 of the zodiac calendar's 12 signs the rat, tiger, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. But the Vietnamese honor the cat instead of the rabbit, and the buffalo instead of the ox. There are a host of theories to explain why the Vietnamese opted for the cat. Nguyen Hieu Tin, an expert on traditional Vietnamese culture, said the answer may lie in the rice fields prized by farmers. "Rice is a huge part of Vietnam's agriculture, but with the threat of many rats in the fields, the cats [that hunt them] are a popular animal for the Vietnamese," he told AFP. "Another explanation is that the Vietnamese don't want to observe two years with a similar animal. They see the mouse and the rabbit as being closely linked," Tin said. There is also a theory the Vietnamese made their own interpretation of the Chinese word for rabbit, "mao." In Vietnamese, this sounds like "meo," which means cat. The Year of the Cat is believed to bring good luck and smooth sailing in Vietnam. Hoang Thi Huong Giang, an office worker in Hanoi, a city filled with traditional orange kumquat trees and pink blossoms ahead of Tet, said she had never paid attention to the reasons that Vietnamese honored a different zodiac animal to the rest of the world. But she believes that those who were born in the Year of the Cat, like her, have things easier than most. "It seems to be true that those who are born in the Year of the Cat are often more active, hard-working and easy to get on with," Giang said proudly. When her husband didnt call as expected one night last August, Syeda knew something was wrong. Syed Fawad Ali Shah, a Pakistani journalist living in exile in Malaysia, never missed their daily call. But despite Syedas efforts to find answers, it has been five months since she's heard from her husband. Syedas pleas for answers from Malaysian and Pakistani authorities have largely been met with silence. This is mental torture, she told VOA, asking that we use only her first name. The last time Syeda saw her husband was in the spring of 2022, when she was able to visit him in Malaysia. The last time she heard his voice was during a phone call on August 22. The first inkling of her husbands fate came on January 4, when Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail acknowledged at a press conference that Shah had been deported to Pakistan in August, at the request of the Pakistan High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia said Pakistani authorities contended that Shah was a police officer who was the subject of disciplinary proceedings. Syeda, a business professor who lives and works in Pakistan, said her husband has never worked for the police. But even with Malaysia saying the journalist had been deported, questions remain. The most obvious is: Where is Shah? Pakistani officials have told Syeda her husband is not in the country. But media rights analysts believe Islamabad is holding him. Attempts by VOA to seek comment from Pakistani and Malaysian officials and embassies were not successful. A spokesperson for Pakistans Foreign Ministry told VOAs Urdu Service in a Thursday briefing that deportations are finalized after consultations between governments through specific channels under certain legal provisions. The spokesperson directed VOAs other questions about the case to the Ministry of Information. VOA contacted the information minister via a messaging app but did not receive a response by the time of publication. Efforts to seek comment from Pakistans Interior Ministry and Federal Investigation Agency were also unsuccessful. VOA also reached out to Malaysias home affairs and immigration ministries, and the Pakistan High Commission, but as of publication had not received a response. Intimidation tactics For years, Shah reported critically on Pakistan, including the countrys powerful military and intelligence agencies. Writing for the Pakistani daily The Nation, he produced a series of investigative stories about enforced disappearances and probable links between Taliban groups and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a Pakistani intelligence agency. Then in January 2011, the ISI abducted Shah and tortured him for months in a cellar, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. At that time, said Daniel Bastard, head of the Asia-Pacific desk at RSF, intelligence agencies would hold reporters for months, just to intimidate the whole community of journalists in Pakistan. Shortly after Shah was released, he fled to Malaysia and applied for refugee status. Despite the distance, Pakistans intelligence agencies made efforts to forcibly repatriate him, even contacting Interpol on multiple occasions, according to RSF. Interpol refused. In December 2019, a letter stamped ISI was sent to his Malaysian home, the news website Free Malaysia Today reported. He had one last opportunity to go to an agency in Kuala Lumpur to get an emergency passport, the letter said. If you refuse to do so then we will make a horrific example of you, it said. Syeda shared a screenshot of an email her husband wrote to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in 2021. In it, he wrote, "I am always afraid that I will be deported to Pakistan secretly or dramatically without informing to the UNHCR Malaysia." Paper trail Analysts who spoke with VOA believe the Malaysian government likely deported Shah in error, saying the country did not have much to gain from the move. There should be paperwork documenting Shahs deportation, including when and how he left the country, according to Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy, a Malaysian lawyer Syeda hired to investigate her husbands case. But that paperwork doesnt appear to exist, he said. Someone is hiding something, Ponnusamy told VOA. Thats the reason why we are trying to get to the bottom of it. Ponnusamy is among those who believe Shah was deported through an error. Still, he blames a select few Malaysian and Pakistani officials for what happened. Syeda traveled to Malaysia in mid-December. She had wanted to travel earlier, but she was pregnant. Eventually, she said, the stress and anxiety caused by her husbands disappearance became too much, leading to a miscarriage in October. After arriving in Kuala Lumpur, Syeda worked with Ponnusamy to push Malaysia to reveal more information, but with no success. Since the deportation, elections in November 2022 brought a change of power to Malaysia. Even though the officials are new, the governments indifference is not, according to Predeep Nambiar, a journalist at Free Malaysia Today who is helping Syeda. The apathy that really, frankly, pisses me off, he told VOA. Its very opaque. In a country that ranks low on press freedom indexes, that has little freedom of information, that has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, and that does not respect the principle of non-refoulement, the Malaysian governments indifference in this case is not surprising, Nambiar said. Transnational repression Shahs disappearance underscores the lengths Islamabad will go to to muzzle its critics, analysts told VOA, as well as the dangers dissidents face, even when thousands of miles away. Authoritarian governments have long blurred borders to silence dissent, according to Yana Gorokhovskaia, who researches transnational repression at Freedom House. Theres a whole universe in which governments cooperate to target people, or at least facilitate the targeting of people, she told VOA. Shahs disappearance followed several other cases in which Pakistani exiles have been harassed and sometimes even killed. Its a pattern that Taha Siddiqui is acutely aware of. After barely escaping a 2018 kidnapping attempt in Islamabad, the reporter fled to France. He still receives intimidating phone calls and messages from Pakistani officials, he said, and people affiliated with the embassy surveilled him, even checking up on him at the bar he runs in Paris. He said an American intelligence agency told him a few years ago that he was on a Pakistani kill list. Pakistans Paris embassy did not respond to an email requesting comment. Pakistani intelligence agencies have also harassed his family members, Siddiqui said. They told my mother that Taha thinks that hes safe in Paris, but no one is safe anywhere. He added that the disappearance of Shah has made him nervous for his own safety. Since advocating for her husband in Malaysia, Syeda said she has received intimidating messages and calls telling her to return to Pakistan. Fearful that she would be disappeared, Syeda applied to extend her visa. The request was denied. It is very risky for me, but I have no other option, she told VOA hours before she left the country. My life is at risk but still I am going. A day after arriving in northern Pakistan, she told VOA that two men who said they were with ISI came to her home and instructed her to keep quiet. Dont make your life difficult, they told her, adding that her husband was not in Pakistan. I am worried, she told VOA. Please pray for me. VOAs Urdu Service contributed to this report. Supporters of Zimbabwe's opposition party were seen with their fingers in the air - as they marched to court for a bail hearing. The gesture is a sign of support for their party - Citizens Coalition for Change, or CCC. Twenty-five people including two members of parliament - were arrested over the weekend for an unlawful gathering with intent to incite public violence. The CCC says tear gas was fired on them by police. Opposition supporters have increasingly faced a wave of politically motivated violence against them in rural Zimbabwe. It comes ahead of the harmonized elections this year, stoking fears of repression. Fadzayi Mahere is a spokeswoman for the CCC. Almost every province, in fact, every province of the country, we are seeing these escalated incidences of violence. Weve said, we want elections, we dont want war. And this does not bode well for a free and fair election. Zimbabwean law requires political parties to notify authorities two weeks before holding a political meeting. The CCCs massive urban support is seen as a threat to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Fronts 43-year hold on power. Theres now more than just smoke hanging around the site of an underground landfill fire near Birmingham. In the two days since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed up to take control of the scene, the area has been abuzz with EPA trucks, bulldozers and excavators moving in to begin putting out the fire. Terry Stilman, one of two EPA on-scene coordinators brought in to the site, said that the preferred option was to use dirt to smother the fire, rather than using a mix of water and chemical wetting agents, an option that had been discussed before the federal agency took the lead. Were looking to cut off the oxygen, Stilman said. We will have a water truck out here in case theres any active flame, but were not looking to use a great deal of water or wetting agents to do that. Generally in a landfill situation, you try and snuff it out. The fire has been burning for two months. EPA took over operations this week after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, and air samples collected near the site showed elevated levels of two compounds that are known human carcinogens, benzene and trichloroethylene. The plan may still change, but the agency hopes using dirt will hopefully allow contractors working for the EPA to extinguish the fire without endangering nearby waterways like Big Black Creek, a Cahaba River tributary. We have kind of a preliminary plan but you know, once we start moving and actively trying to put out the fire, we may amend the plan, he said. Stilman said EPAs goal is not just to extinguish the fire, but to reduce the amount of smoke being released as quickly as possible. To that end, he said the agency is installing additional air monitors in the area. Were reestablishing those [air sampling] locations so that we can determine how effective were being in reducing the amount of smoke thats leaving the site, Stilman said Thursday. By Friday, the real work had begun. St. Clair County Commission Chairman Stan Batemon visited the site Friday afternoon and said the progress was apparent. You can tell theres been a lot of dirt already moved around, Batemon said. I dont know exactly about the process, but the company thats doing this has put out several of these landfill fires, and they they dont seem to think therell be any problem. Stilman said that the EPA has contractors on retainer who are able to be deployed quickly in situations like this. EPA has national contracts with environmental companies on the technical side and on the cleanup side, Stilman said. These contracts are multi-year contracts. And we have that because in situations like this, going through the whole contract selection process for each individual site would take a great deal of time. But we have these national contracts, so when we determine that a site needs action, we already have the contracts in place. Batemon said hes pleased with the EPAs response so far, but not that it took so long to get the federal agency to the site. Once we got through the logjam of the red tape, EPA was in there within 48 hours, Batemon said. Its just frustrating. You know, our governments are not very efficient on some of these things. Charles Kombe DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA The family of a Tanzanian student who was in prison in Russia says it has confirmation that he was killed fighting for Russia's Wagner Group of mercenaries in Ukraine. Tanzanian media reported that Nemes Tarimo, 33, had been arrested on drug-related charges in Russia and was told he'd be released if he fought in Ukraine. Tarimo's relatives said that in late December, they received information about his death from some of his friends in Russia. They later got confirmation of his death from the Tanzanian Embassy in Moscow. They said there were reports that Tarimo was killed in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, a site of heavy fighting in Russias war against Ukraine. Those reports have not been confirmed. No one in Tarimos family has seen his body yet. A video circulating on social media shows men in military fatigues holding candles around a casket. In the video, a picture of Tarimo, two medals and a certificate are placed on the casket, which is draped with a Wagner flag. Rehema Kigobe, Tarimos sister, said the family does not fully understand what happened to him. She said his relatives were hurt because they had seen news circulating that showed he'd been killed fighting for Russia, something they were not aware he was doing. She said he'd received a master's scholarship to study in Russia. No military training Some family members, like Alphone John, Tarimos grandfather, were shocked by the news that he'd been on the battlefield. "We wonder how he managed to go to the war, because he has never undergone any military training, even at the primary level when he left here," John said through a translator. Tarimos mother, Luoida Sambulika, said her son was polite, God-fearing and supportive. "Nemes grew up to be a very handsome young man," she said through a translator. "He has been very respectful, calm and kind. He used to come out of school, and often youll find him at his computer, doing his work. He was not a person who prefers bad groups." Last year, a Zambian national who had also been arrested on drug charges and convicted in Russia died in Ukraine while fighting for Wagner. Like Tarimo, Lemekhani Nyirenda was promised his freedom if he worked as a mercenary. Several other Africans who immigrated to Russia reportedly were recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Tarimos body apparently remains in Russia. The Tanzanian Embassy originally said it would be brought back to Tanzania by January 10. The embassy remains in touch with the family members and says it will notify them when Tarimo makes his last journey home. DAKAR, SENEGAL U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has begun a 10-day trip to Africa to discuss economic growth strategies and to reaffirm Americas commitment to strengthening ties with the continent. She began her trip with a visit to a U.S.-funded business incubator for youth and women in Dakar, Senegal. As the first female U.S. treasury secretary, Yellen got a warm round of applause from the businesswomen at Fridays meeting. In a speech following the visit, Yellen emphasized Americas intention to expand trade and investment in Africa. The United States is all in on Africa, and all in with Africa, she said. And our engagement is not transactional. Its not for show. And its not for the short term. That's a stark contrast to the Chinese model of investment, which has prioritized quick construction and resource extraction over good governance requirements, she added. While in Senegal, Yellen will also tour the former slave trading post of Goree Island and meet with Senegalese President and head of the African Union Macky Sall, as well as ministers of finance and economy. Yellen plans to discuss infrastructure projects, pandemic preparedness, democracy strengthening and anti-corruption partnerships. Shell also highlight the steps the U.S. has taken to counter the spillover effects of Russia's war in Ukraine by means of food security assistance. Russia's war and weaponization of food has exacerbated food insecurity and cau Yellen also acknowledged Africas susceptibility to the climate crisis, noting that 17 of the worlds top 20 climate-vulnerable countries are African. She announced U.S. plans to expand partnerships with Africa on conservation, climate adaptation and access to clean energy, and noted Bidens intentions to provide over $1 billion to support African-led climate resilience efforts. Yellen acknowledged Americas contribution to the construction of West Africas largest wind farm, located just outside Dakar. On Saturday she'll attend the groundbreaking of a U.S.-financed rural electrification project that's being led by an American engineering firm. After Senegal, Yellen will continue her trip with stops in Zambia and South Africa. sed untold suffering, Yellen said. And with global economic headwinds caused by the actions of a single man, President Putin is creating an unnecessary drag on Africa's economy. Aisha Diallo works as the office manager at the Delegation generale a lEntrepreneuriat Rapide des Femmes et des Jeunes, a women and youth business incubator in Dakar, Senegal, Jan. 20, 2023. Yellens trip comes on the heels of last months U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, where President Joe Biden committed $55 billion in economic, health and security aid to the continent over the next three years. Several members of the Biden administration, such as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Special Climate Envoy John Kerry, have already traveled to Africa. President Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris also have plans to visit. U.S. engagement with Africa took a backseat during the Trump administration. Meanwhile, Beijing was investing billions in African infrastructure projects and becoming Africa's largest trading partner, while Russian-backed paramilitary forces fanned out across the continent. Yellens visit sends a clear message that the U.S. is ready to compete. Africa is home to some of the worlds largest mineral reserves, which will be critical for the Biden administrations plans to promote clean energy. Sarah Danzman, an international studies professor at Indiana University Bloomington, summed up the purpose of Yellens Africa visit. The U.S. wants to emphasize that U.S. investment is a better and more reliable way to deliver widely shared growth and prosperity across the continent, she said, precisely because it is transparent, aligned with values of democracy and human rights, and also tied to governance reforms to reduce corruption. No Leopard tanks will be given to Ukraine by Germany at this time, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Mark A. Milley said Friday at a briefing at U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany following an international conference on Ukraine support. The international meeting was held amid Kyiv's frustration with the dissent over sending tanks to Ukraine as the full-scale invasion reaches the 11-month mark. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made direct pleas for tanks at the meeting. Later Friday, in his evening address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine will have to fight to secure a supply of modern heavy armor. "Every day we make it more obvious there is no alternative to making the decision on tanks," he said. Zelenskyy thanked the U.S., European allies and Canada for military weapons and stressed the significance of their speedy delivery. "The only thing worth emphasizing is the time, the delivery time," he said. "Each agreement must be implemented as quickly as possible for our defense." At the Ramstein briefing, Austin and Milley discussed an extensive U.S. military assistance package to Ukraine, including 59 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers. The new U.S. aid package, worth $2.5 billion, brings American military assistance to Ukraine to almost $27 billion since Russia's invasion nearly a year ago. Austin denied there is a link between Germany not sending its Leopard tanks and the U.S. not committing its Abrams tanks. Downplaying the immediate importance of tanks, he emphasized that Stryker combat vehicles and Bradley armored vehicles would give Ukraine new capabilities in the war. "What we're really focused on is making sure that Ukraine has a capability that it needs to be successful right now. So, we have a window of opportunity here between now and in the spring whenever they commence their operation, their counteroffensive," he said. The aid package includes three types of missiles, tens of thousands of artillery and mortar rounds, and additional HIMARS ammunition, with eight Avenger air defense systems. The U.S. already announced it would send a Patriot missile system, while the Netherlands will supply two launching pads for them as well as missiles, Dutch news agency ANP reported. Austin reaffirmed the allies' commitment to defending Ukraine. "It is not only about Ukraine security, it is about European security and about global security," he said. He expressed confidence the group will remain united and continue to build momentum. Asked if Germany is a reliable ally, Austin responded, "They are a reliable ally, they've been that way for a very, very long time, and I truly believe that they'll continue to be a reliable ally going forward." Milley echoed Austin's comment and noted this is the most unified he has seen NATO in his 40 years in uniform. He said the U.S. assistance package, along with unified donations from other countries, signify their resolve to defend Ukraine. "As much as it takes, as long as it takes in order to keep Ukraine free, independent and sovereign," he said. However, Milley pointed out that "synchronizing, sending all these armaments and training Ukrainian troops in a short window before spring is challenging; equipment getting married to the people and creating a coherent plan." He also said it would be very hard for Ukraine to drive Russia's invading forces from the country this year, and he stressed the importance of solidifying Ukraine's defensive front. Defense ministers from about 50 countries, including all NATO members, met at Ramstein to discuss further support for Ukraine. This was the eighth Ramstein summit since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Regarding tanks, Germany's new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, suggested the issue was inching forward. Speaking to reporters outside the Ramstein conference hall at midday, Pistorius said, "We will make our decisions as soon as possible." In an interview with VOA's Patsy Widakuswara Friday, NSC Coordinator John Kirby said that it is up to Germany to decide the size, scale and scope of military assistance they are comfortable with providing to Ukraine. "We are not there, arm twisting and pushing and cajoling," he said. Kirby pointed out that the NATO alliance remains "very, very solidly behind Ukraine." However, he noted that NATO allies, as "sovereign nations, they get to decide because they have to have their own national security needs, they have to consider as well, just like we do." Earlier Friday, the head of NATO's Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, also said Germany and other countries supporting Ukraine will have to decide individually on whether to supply it with tanks but warned that "giving away stuff now costs money but the cost for all of us will be much higher if Russia wins the war in Ukraine. We need to seriously look at what Ukraine requires, and if possible, give them what they ask for." Moscow said Friday any additional tanks supplied to Ukraine will have no effect on the course of the conflict. "We have repeatedly said that such supplies will not fundamentally change anything but will add problems for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. He said the West will "regret its delusion" that Ukraine can win on the battlefield. In Kyiv on Friday, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal, Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse met with Zelenskyy and Ukrainian military officials. VOA's Kyiv correspondent Anna Chernikova reported that during a news conference, the senators asserted the U.S. should provide tanks and long-range weapons to Ukraine to stop Russia's invasion. They expressed their conviction that Ukraine needs this help now, because time is not on the side of Ukraine and its allies. They also said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin is not stopped now, NATO countries would be next. The senators appealed to their voters, asserting that their money is necessary to restore the world order. The main message to Ukrainians was that the U.S. would stay with them for as long as it takes. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. Chinas borders are open for the first time since the pandemic began, and some of its citizens are heading to the United States in their first trips outside the country. VOAs Elizabeth Lee has this report, with contributions from VOAs Mandarin Service reports. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Manhattans Chinatown, one of the oldest Asian enclaves in the United States, is experiencing a rebirth. A new generation of social media-savvy Asian Americans are revitalizing their family businesses and attracting new visitors to the distinctive neighborhood. Tina Trinh reports. A still from "The Battle of Pupils" "Vo Sinh Dai Chien" (The Battle of Pupils) will be available on streaming service Netflix on January 23. The film centers around a group of young people with a passion for traditional martial arts. It stars Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat, a five-time muay Thai world champion and four-time SEA Games medalist. In January 2021 "The Battle of Pupils" was withdrawn from cinemas by its producer because it was not being given enough shows by the distributors. Director Thai Ba Dung and producer Ba Cuong claimed that though it was appreciated by critics, distributors and cinemas gave it the cold shoulder because the cast and crew were newcomers. So the movie was screened at odd hours like early morning and lunchtime, when few people would come to watch, they said. According to Dung, the movie was shown at non-peak hours like 8:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. In the event, it only collected VND1 billion ($42,660) while it reportedly cost VND24 billion to make. Imported cars line up at a showroom in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nhan Indonesia surpassed Thailand as Vietnams largest car exporter in 2022, with 72,671 cars exported in total. Vietnam imported 173,467 cars in 2022, an 8.5% increase from 2021, according to statistics released by Vietnam Customs. Indonesia, Thailand and China were the biggest car exporters to Vietnam, but Indonesia surpassed Thailand to be the country that exported the most cars to Vietnam, with 72,671 cars exported in total, a 64.2% increase from 2021, and worth $10.5 billion. Thailand exported 72,032 cars worth $1.42 billion to Vietnam in 2022, a 10.9% decrease in number from 2021. The number of cars imported from Indonesia and Thailand amounted to 144,703 cars, accounting for 83% of all imported cars. China stood in third place, exporting 17,240 cars to Vietnam in 2022. For the first time in decades, the number of cars sold in Vietnam in 2022 reached 508,547 cars, according to statistics from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association and TC Motor. (The Phantom of the Opera) The Phantom of the Opera is set to leave Broadway after a 35-year run. The Post interviewed six women who played leading lady Christine Daae through the decades. Chairman of the upper house of Parliament of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov met with President of the Republic of Tatarstan of the Russian Federation Rustam Minnikhanov, who arrived in Turkmenistan on a working visit on January 19. During the meeting, the current state and priorities of further cooperation were discussed, which has great prospects, given the existing interest, backed up by the potential and experience of many years of joint work within a number of large-scale projects. Speaking about the interest of Tatarstan business circles in expanding their presence in the promising Turkmen market, Minnikhanov noted that this is due to the favorable investment climate created in the country and the high international authority of Turkmenistan as a reliable partner, clearly following the commitments undertaken. Furthermore, the parties discussed the promotion and intensification of inter-parliamentary contacts and the exchange of experience in lawmaking. In this regard, Berdimuhamedov spoke about the expediency of establishing effective interaction between representatives of the parliaments of Turkmenistan and Tatarstan. At the end of the meeting, the sides expressed confidence that friendly and fraternal relations between the two countries have great prospects and will continue to develop on the basis of trust and mutually beneficial partnership. Despite a sharp fall in exports before the end of 2022 due to global inflation, tuna still brought home US$1 billion in revenue last year, up 34% from 2021, becoming a billion-dollar commodity for the first time, data showed. Tuna products of Vietnam were shipped to 99 markets, of which the U.S., the EU, members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Israel, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the Philippines, and Egypt were the largest importers, accounting for 92% of total exports, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). Germany, Spain, and Belgium were the biggest EU buyers of Vietnamese tuna. Notably, shipments to Germany and Spain shot up 161% and 117% last December, respectively. Tuna exports to Japan, a CPTPP member, grew fast in the last quarter of 2022. The value surged 131% year on year in December alone, helping raise the export turnover to CPTPP markets to nearly $136 million, up 48%. Meanwhile, strong declines were recorded in shipments to many other markets, VASEP said, noting that after dropping in November, tuna exports to the U.S. fell by another 38% in December. However, last years exports to this market still rose 44% to approximate $487 million. VASEP forecast the export in the first quarter of 2023 will be unable to sustain its 2022 performance, but markets may recover in the latter half of this year. Free trade agreements are the driver for tuna exports in the years beginning. The airline industry has moved to reassure customers about their safety after an engine failure and three turnbacks on Qantas flights this week. Qantas domestic chief executive Andrew David said mechanical issues were common across the complicated industry, and it was important to look at individual faults in context. The aviation industry has stressed more care should be given to the context of the four unrelated mechanical faults that plagued Qantas this week. Credit: Wolter Peeters Aircraft are complex pieces of machinery with millions of moving parts, and its not uncommon to have a problem with one of them. Whats important to know is that aircraft are designed with that in mind and have a lot of built-in redundancy, and our crew are trained to deal with those situations so that they can land safely, David said. A failed engine on a Qantas Boeing 737-838 travelling to Sydney from Auckland resulted in a temporary mayday alert on Wednesday. The mayday was quickly downgraded to a less severe PAN alert and landed safely after securing priority landing. Lion dance is a passion that is often passed down through families. The Chinese Masonic Society Lion Dance Team is the oldest team in Melbourne and one of the earliest to embrace women performers. Their roots trace back to the gold rush, though they moved over to the city early on. Julie Chen with her father You Ching Chen, 87, her daughters Maya, 16 and Kayla, 14. Credit: Paul Jeffers Having performed since the 1940s, many current members have family who were involved in earlier years, including Julie Chen who was one of the first female lion dancers in Australia whose daughters Maya and Kayla are now also learning the dance. Amber Lee is a fourth generation lion dancer with CMS, with the love of the art-form being passed down through her fathers side of the family. It started with my great-grandfather, she explains, then went on to her grand uncle, who then brought her father in during the 1980s. As a kid I always wanted to follow wherever Dad was going, she says. Julie Chens father, You Ching Chen, performing with the Chinese Masonic Society Lion Team in 1974. In the early 2000s she was tentatively interested in getting involved, but I guess at the time, I was a little bit too shy because there werent too many girls around and the firecrackers seemed a little bit scary too she adds with a laugh. In 2018, when she started at university, she also decided to fully embrace lion dance and now regularly features in performances as well as helping out as an instructor. How to train your lion There are a lot of different roles in a lion dance performance. There are the musicians, the two performers in the lion, and the big-headed buddha which is often a role given to a returning member who may have long since retired. We even have people in their 90s still performing, says Zhen Lim, who following in his fathers footsteps, has been involved with the Chinese Masonic Society for the last six years. From getting started to performing in front of an audience is rarely a quick process. How long things takes depends on the individual. Lim started at age 30 but came from a martial arts background. Generally, he explains Youre looking at one year to get all the foundations right, and then the next one to five years to be actually proficient in the art. Clinton Miller, lion team leader at the Bendigo Chinese Association also came from a martial arts background, with a focus on judo. For him, it took six months from getting started to performing, but he explains that is unusually fast. The Chinese Masonic Society Lion Dance Team perform a practice parade in Chinatown, January 2023. Credit: Paul Jeffers All three clubs emphasise the importance of regular training, ranging from once to three times a week depending on the goals of both the individual and the team. Its like any other sport the amount that you put into it is what you get out of it, says Lee. She trained intensively for two years, which is around the average for most performers. But, she emphasises :its not two years and youre straight into the lion or youre straight into these fancy VIP performances. Its quite a gradual process. In terms of who goes where, the idea behind training is that performers are flexible, though people do sometimes specialise. Miller often is the back of the lion. The tails have to do a lot of the lifting, so its typically a stronger person, he explains. For Lee, generally, because I am lighter to lift, Im usually the lion head and more recently, Ive been doing a bit on the drums, which is pretty fun. A significant part of the training involves learning key stances which form the foundation of the lion dance choreography. If you dont concentrate on your stances or get them really strong, nothing will work the way it should, says Miller. Youll wear out, your upper body will tire out a lot easier than your legs and so forth. Members of the Lion Dance Kids group train at their Kingsgrove studio in January 2023. Credit: Wolter Peeters Leung agrees that drilling your stances until they are second nature is essential. The whole idea is to make the costume look like a lion. So if your legs are standing straight, then youre looking more like a horse. At the same time, Lim highlights the importance of being across every aspect of the performance, including the music. Trainees start with the cymbals, then move on to the gong, with the drums coming later. You cant do music without knowing the lion, you cant know the lion without knowing the music. Times are changing Across the different generations, and even over just recent years, lion dancers have witnessed changes happening within the art-form. Its continually evolving, says Lim. We have people here five, 10 years, and theyre still working on their skills and the stamina and developing the art. Amber Lee (left) training with other members of the Chinese Masonic Society Lion Dance Team. Credit: Paul Jeffers A beautiful thing about lion dancing is that the style has evolved a lot since my great grand uncle brought his style from the 60s and 70s, says Lee. Her father, who performed in the 80s has seen her in action and hes definitely observed a few tweaks in the moves that I do. All of the performers emphasise the importance of bringing in the next generation. The Bendigo Chinese Association team has opened up training to younger people, with a specific hour each week dedicated to juniors. Yau Kung Mun, in addition to training adults also has lion dance kids where every participant from the lion, to the monk, to those playing instruments is a child between the ages of 5 and 12, with about 50 children altogether signed up for training. Johnny Leung leads a training session for Lion Dance Kids. Credit: Wolter Peeters CMS also has a youth team made up of teenagers between 14 and 18 who have been learning since they were 10. Theres a big focus for us on developing the new generation, says Lim. A lot of kids come to us very shy and reserved and we try and encourage them to come out of their shell gradually by giving them responsibilities and giving them performances. Loading All of the lion dancers this masthead spoke to underscore their love of the dance itself and the community that forms around it as well as the connection it brings to Chinese culture. Lion dancing is unique. Its a full age spread, and everyones involved in some way or another, says Lim. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The stereotype of the hot mess has become as pervasive as it is popular. You know the Fleabag-inspired female character all sexual, emotional and psychological chaos. But Liz Kingsman who grew up on Sydneys lower north shore and has been hailed as Britains new queen of comedy is dismantling the genre, and to great effect. She pulls no punches in her acclaimed One Woman Show, which made its debut on Londons West End and comes to the Malthouse Theatre this monthas part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, before moving to New York. The actor and writer is a star on the rise thanks to her breakthrough sensation, which she describes as the Robin Hood: Men in Tights version of female storytelling tropes. Liz Kingsman is bringing her acclaimed One Woman Show to Melbourne. Credit:Sequoia Ziff The show follows the travails of a chaotic 20-something hurtling through her inner-city London life in a darkly comic way, throwing darts at the Fleabags and Bridget Joneses and all the hot-mess women theyve inspired. Before making the jump to the West End, a rarity for a comedy, it was nominated for best show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. The show won five-star reviews in Britain last yearand in Sydney, where it ran in February. Because of the pandemic, l think there is an appetite for that right now, to just wipe your brain clean with comedy, says Kingsman, whose acting credits include the French satirical series, Parlement. Arent we meant to just go to the theatre and have a nice time? Advertisement The meta-theatrical comedy is something of a babushka doll with layers of the show and different stereotypes stacked upon each other, blurring until youre not quite sure what story youre following. In many ways, the show is eating itself, Kingsman says, describing it as an extended Saturday Night Live sketch. TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO LIZ KINGSMAN Worst habit? Saying like in interviews. Greatest fear? Being made into a meme or attacked by a snake. A combo of the two would be my worst nightmare. The line that stayed with you? I have trouble leaving places, from Frances Ha. Sounds lofty out of context but it really is about time spent physically leaving places. Biggest regret? When Wordle was at its peak I used YACHT to start every time. The other day I played after months away. I used HOUSE to start and the word was YACHT. Ive not known regret like it. Favourite room? I like that patio where they hold the Council of Elrond. The artwork/song you wish was yours? Ooooooooh, Ill have an original Matisse please. If you could solve one thing The locks on train toilets. But the gags are so ridiculous, the subversion so clever and the puns so wonderful, that you cant help but be carried away by the show. In the opening scene, our heroine wakes up in bed after a one-night stand with a man whose name she doesnt know. Shes terrified to discover theres a photograph of her stuck up on the refrigerator. We later learn its her house. Is there a specific amount of sexual freedom that weve deemed acceptable and not sad? the audience is asked by boss Dana, one of the characters Kingsman plays, who is the voice of reason as she dismantles the exaltation of women in freefall. The popularity of those characters at the moment is a reaction to the sensible, humourless woman that dominated for such a long time in popular culture, Kingsman says. So you get the average joe guy character, hes a schmuck, and he hangs out with his mates, and he drinks too much beer, and he has this girlfriend who has her arms folded, and shes not having any fun. Advertisement So all of the women who were just living their life and being, quote-unquote messy I hate that phrase but look, were here now thats just a reaction to what they were seeing before them. Kingsman drives the point home with Danas searing line: Youre not a mess, you just want to be seen as one. Messy is relatable, likeable. And now Im reacting to that, Kingsman says. So someone else will come along and react to that, and well all just keep reacting to each other. But its a bold gambit to take on a genre thats still so popular, and when a show like Fleabag undeniably opened a path for female creatives. I like the idea of being the first to do something, thats for sure, but thats just me being egotistical, Kingsman says. I was less worried about what critics would say about it. I worried that the audience would be like, No, no, youve taken it too far. This was fun and games but now youre damaging the cause or something. Arent we meant to just go to the theatre and have a nice time? Kingsman asks. Credit:Will Brembridge Kingsman says the ultimate point of her show is simple to diversify the representation of women in popular culture. If we only have one type that becomes an x and these things that break through, and they feel like new ways of acting womanhood or whatever you want to call it, then they become new tropes and then the tropes become expectations and you all just sort of go round and round, she says. But again, with the show it was never intended to be a soapbox delivery message like that. The inspiration, Kingsman says, came not from a single show, movie or book but emerged over time. Advertisement Loading Id seen so many blurbs, like fringe brochures that used like the words raw and unflinching and it would always be like fiercely honest, and I was like, what does that mean? She believes the obsession with honesty is a byproduct of women being painted for so long in ways that didnt feel real but super honesty isnt something she intends to trademark any time soon. Im never honest, so Im not going to be honest on stage. I keep it all here, its not for all other people, she says, with her hand over her heart. And to prove her point, Kingsman prefers not to share her age. Shes coy on dates and years about her biography and when she moved to London, insisting that shes still getting auditions for roles far younger than her age and that she needs to pay rent. Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag. I call it survival instinct for an actor, she says. Advertisement It was watching The Lord of the Rings when she was a teenager that sparked her desire to act but she kept that dream to herself for some time. She was accepted into Sydney University, but after four weeks quit to work at the Sydney sound production studio Song Zu for a year. Still, she didnt confess to her acting aspirations, out of what she calls, personal cowardice. I was too scared. In my head I knew I wanted to be an actor, but I didnt want to sound deluded, so I told everybody I wanted to be a director, she says. She headed to Britain, the land of all the sitcoms shed loved growing up watching, including the all-female sketch show Smack the Pony and Absolutely Fabulous. Kingsman grew up on Sydneys lower north shore before moving to Britain. When I moved here, it was way before I was admitting to anyone other than myself that I wanted to be in the industry, I was coming here to go and live in a castle and be near sitcoms, she says. She chose Durham University because she wanted a ye olde experience, not quite realising its one of Britains most prestigious universities. What I got was a lot of posh boys, she says. Advertisement Bucharest: A judge in Romania has granted a request to extend by another 30 days the arrest of Andrew Tate, the social media personality who was detained on charges of being part of an organised crime group, human trafficking and rape. Tate, 36, a British-US citizen who has 4.7 million followers on Twitter, was initially detained on December 29, in Bucharest, Romanias capital. His brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women were arrested and held in the same case. Andrew Tate leaves the Court of Appeal in Bucharest on January 10. Credit: AP Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romanias anti-organised crime agency, DIICOT, said prosecutors requested the second 30-day extension on Thursday (Romania time) to keep all four in detention while the investigation continued. A judge approved the request on Friday, she said. The judges decision at the Bucharest Tribunal came after all four lost an appeal last week in a Bucharest court against a judges December 30 ruling to extend their arrests from 24 hours to 30 days. Richie Nguyen, a Vietnamese living in Toronto, go out to celebrate Tet in HCMC's District 1, January 17, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Tam Huong hadn't felt "at home" in four years, until her feet touched the ground at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport on January 10. Vietnamese-American Nguyen Lan Huong, 60, has spent three decades living in Texas. She normally returns to Vietnam for Tet, but she had not been able to so for the last four years, mostly due to the Covid shutdown. She said it was too long a time for her and many other Vietnamese living abroad. "Even now, the exhilarating feeling of walking on my motherland's soil still remains," she said, adding that there were many other Vietnamese-Americans on the same flight as hers. They were all excited to celebrate Tet at home, she said. On Friday, Huong asked her niece to take her to a flower market at Gia Dinh Park in Go Vap District. She took photos the whole time, noting how much Saigon has changed over time. "I was like a child again, pointing at things and marveling at how beautiful they are," Huong said. Huong had planned to return to Vietnam for Tet back in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic canceled all that. 2021 was the same. But as the coronavirus situation lessened last year, Huong started to get excited. Even amid a global economic crisis, she was determined to go home and saved up money to do so. "I bought my tickets six months prior and just wanted time to go quickly so I could come home." During her years in the U.S., she still retained her Tet rituals, buying decorations and making traditional Tet meals, toasting her loved ones for a happy new year. But there's still no place like home. "At those times," she said, "I still thought to myself that there was no Tet like Tet in Vietnam." This Tet, Huong said she wanted to go to the market herself to buy decorations, fruits and other snacks. She also canceled invitations to go traveling, choosing to spend time with her family instead. "After Covid-19, I realized how fleeting life is. That's why we should choose to prioritize the families we love," she said. Official data say there are over 5.3 million Vietnamese living in 130 countries and territories, including over two million associated with Ho Chi Minh City. A Tan Son Nhat representative said the airport had been fielding around 300 international flights per day recently. The representative said this Tet season had welcomed over 42,000 entrants into Vietnam so far. 'Wherever I am, I am Vietnamese' After spending five years living in Toronto, 32-year-old Richie Nguyen returned to Vietnam for Tet this year. The moment she landed, she took five minutes to breathe in the air around her. "Saigon is a lot hotter than Canada, but I feel so excited to be home now," she said. Nguyen, who's from Saigon, said so much had changed in the southern metropolis, including many new bridges and skyscrapers. "But one thing in Saigon that has not changed is the crowded streets and traffic jams," she laughed. In 2020, Nguyen had planned to return to Vietnam, but the pandemic got in the way. "I was shocked back then, worrying for my family back home, wondering if it was dangerous. My thoughts ran around all day, and I could not do anything," she said, adding that for two years after that, she worked her hardest to save money for a flight back home. Nguyen said people still buy red envelopes and prepare "lucky money" during Tet in Canada. Her uncle and aunt's family there still keep some Tet traditions alive, but they also "keep things light." During the years in which she spent Tet far from home, she felt emptiness inside her, despite the fact that she still had loved ones by her side in Canada. On Lunar New Year's Eve, Nguyen would always video call back home to wish her family a happy new year. "During those times, I wondered why I'm here," she said. "I wanted to go home so bad." This Tet, Nguyen plans to take her mother shopping at the supermarket, then buy flowers and decorations for her father's apricot blossoms. "Wherever I am, I am Vietnamese. I will still crave banh chung (Tet sticky rice cake), give out 'lucky money' to kids and go to people's homes to wish them a happy Tet." January 20, 2023 | 05:00 pm PT I recently received a group of 10 French tourists who went on a cruise tour of Ha Long Bay for two days and one night. They loved the beautiful landscape of the world-renowned bay but were very critical of the environment after being bothered by dust and rubbish throughout the trip. "Ha Long is full of garbage," they complained at the end of the trip and decided right then they did not want to visit the bay ever again. They said they could not understand why such a beautiful bay where they had to pay very high prices had so much garbage. They asked why tourists could not buy tickets online and had to wait in line for a long time for something so basic. They also pointed out that the people offering tourism services there want to rip off foreigners. As someone who has worked for many years in the tourism industry, I am no stranger to these complaints. My team and I used to run a campaign to promote Vietnamese tourism. We named it "WOW Vietnam" and listed seven reasons why one must come to the country and explore it. We used the seven letters of the countrys name: V - Varied landscape, I - Indigenous culture, E - Exotic beaches, T - Timeless charm, N - Natural heritage sites, A - Ancient cities, M - Memories to cherish forever. But then over the years, as I tried to show them seven reasons to visit Vietnam, they told one another the seven things that scare them in Vietnam: robbery, theft, traffic jam, road accident, bad service attitude, dirty restrooms, and polluted environment. Vietnam became one of the first Asian countries to reopen its borders and welcome foreign visitors after the Covid pandemic. However, the tourism industry has failed to make full use of that advantage. In 2022 we only received 3.5 million foreign visitors, far below the target of five million. Many conferences have been held and experts have analyzed why we failed to achieve the target. Most agree that the main reason is the absence of Chinese tourists, who usually make up 30% of all foreign visitors to Vietnam, due to Chinas zero-Covid policy which caused its borders to be closed until recently. However, even after China reopened on January 8, a survey by travel agencies found that Vietnam was not among the top destinations for Chinese travelers. Therefore, we cannot and should not rely on Chinese visitors. Foreign tourists check for bags at Ben Thanh Market, HCMC, November 2022. Photo by Thanh Loc Over the long term, if we cannot save tourists from those seven fears, Vietnam's tourism industry will face failures for which we have to take responsibility. As the government already considers tourism a major industry which contributes more than 10% of the economy, we need effective solutions and their implementation must be consistent, determined, and strict. In addition to a more open visa policy, which has been spoken about frequently, there are three other things that need to be done immediately to create a vision and a solid foundation for the tourism industry. First of all, we need to identify the national brand. For example, if Vietnam is identified as a "heritage destination," we should provide tourists with high-class, authentic and unique travel experiences by being creative with heritage travel services. But if we are a "nature destination," we need more interesting travel products to give tourists the best "back to nature" experience aside from building better infrastructure. Experience shows me that if Vietnam wants to attract wealthy European, Australian, and American visitors, who usually love nature and want to have unique experiences, and get them to stay for a long time and visit many places around the country, we should limit the construction of cable cars and keep our beaches and forests as pristine as possible and ensure that everywhere we take them is clean and civilized. Brutal interference in the natural landscape and creating cheap travel experiences will not just destroy our tourism resources but also detract from Vietnam's brand value. We should not ignore tourists of middle and upper classes, as well as elderly visitors from developed countries such as Japan and South Korea who often choose to travel for medical care after they retire. Vietnam can become an ideal destination for people to enjoy life in their old age. Secondly, we should invest in infrastructure and digital applications in tourism management from central to local levels. Authorities should use specific figures in their reports rather than vague descriptions about the situation, which create misconceptions about the performance of the tourism sector. For example, the effectiveness of attracting foreign tourists must be fully considered in terms of the amount of foreign currency they bring in and not just the number of visitors since not many spend significantly in Vietnam. The quality of life is increasingly improving, and therefore visitors demands will not be limited. With tourists willing to spend money to be able to go straight from the plane to the limousine to the hotel, making them queue up to buy a paper ticket to visit a landscape is outrageous. Finally, we have to ensure good management of tourist destinations. The target is to keep them clean and green, free of garbage and wastewater. In addition to eliminating prejudice about the seven fears, it requires close supervision by localities and encouraging local people to do tourism in a civilized manner. Every citizen can be a tourism ambassador, be it a smiling immigration officer greeting visitors when they arrive at the airport, a taxi driver who is not greedy and charges visitors accurate fares or the man on the street who does not litter. All of them can contribute to the creation of a tourist nation. I believe that, with the country's strengths, a long-term development strategy and the desire to welcome visitors graciously, Vietnam's tourism can far exceed the target of eight or 10 million foreign visitors this year. *Pham Ha is the chairman and CEO of a travel company in Vietnam. Manila hosted a high-level security dialogue with its top defense ally as part of efforts by President Ferdinand Marcos to restore a seven-decade partnership that was unsettled by his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. The allies agreed "to invigorate defense and security cooperation and ensure the alliance adapts effectively to face new and emerging challenges," a joint statement said. "I can assure you that during our conversations, the important issues related to the South China Sea were central to our conversations," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink told a news conference. China and the Philippines are at odds over the South China Sea, with Beijing claiming sovereignty over almost the entire area despite an international court ruling that its claims have no legal basis. "We agreed on several important initiatives that demonstrate our unwavering commitment to our alliance and partnership," Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Maria Theresa Lazaro told the news conference. The two countries, bound by a 1951 mutual defense treaty, agreed to hold talks in mid-2023 that would allow their governments to "plan ahead for and ensure more coordinated responses to potential flashpoints." They also agreed to speed up the completion of projects that allow U.S. forces to store equipment at select Philippine military bases, as well as to identify "additional agreed locations" for the purpose. Washington will host a "maritime dialogue" with Manila this year to identify potential joint maritime activities. Poorly armed Manila also agreed Friday to take steps to "streamline technology transfer" and develop a "roadmap for defense modernization." On Wednesday President Marcos expressed renewed concern over the South China Sea including tense interactions between U.S. and Chinese warships in the area. "If something goes wrong here we are going to suffer," Marcos said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During his 2016-2022 presidency, Duterte repeatedly made public his doubts that the United States would come to the aid of the Philippines in the event of armed conflict with China, despite their defense pact. He worked to build ties with Beijing to bring in trade and investment, while setting aside the territorial dispute. Kritenbrink reiterated Friday what he called "America's ironclad commitment to the security of the Republic of the Philippines." NWS Weather Alert NOTE: This information is provided by the National Weather Service. Forecast may differ from local information provided by our own 69News Meteorologists ...ELEVATED RISK OF WILDFIRE SPREAD THIS AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING... A combination of low relative humidity, westerly breezes, and dry fine fuels will lead to an elevated risk for fire spread with any potential fire starts Thursday afternoon and evening across eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the eastern shores of Maryland. Minimum relative humidity values this afternoon will range from 22 to 26 percent across the region. Winds will be somewhat lighter and not as gusty as the past couple of days. However, this afternoon into early evening west winds will still be sustained 8 to 12 mph, and a brief gust to 20 mph cannot be ruled out. Fine fuels in the form of dry or dead vegetation will be quite dry as well, and conducive to fire starts and fairly quick fire spread. This is particularly true in areas that have not received hardly any rainfall in the last 10 days, across much of Pennsylvania to northern and central New Jersey. Residents are urged to exercise caution if handling any potential ignition source, including machinery, cigarettes, and matches. Be sure to properly discard all smoking materials. Any dry grasses, dead leaves, and other tree litter that ignite will have the potential to spread fire quickly. For more information about wildfire danger, burn restrictions, and wildfire prevention and eduction, please visit your state's forestry or environmental protection website. READING, Pa. - The Reading School District is speaking out about safety following an attack on a student inside the high school earlier this week. "Upon hearing about the incident, the administration knew right away that this was more than just a fight," said Reading School District communications director Kristine Parkes. She said the district is cooperating with Reading Police. "At this point we don't have a cause for what happened," said Parkes. "It's an active investigation. It is horrific and it does make you pause." The student was assaulted Wednesday by six people inside a school hallway. The assailants beat the victim until he was unconscious and then took his shoes and his phone. "There's been a lot of conversation happening," explained Parkes. "This is not something, again, that the administration or the board takes lightly. It is something we're very concerned about." Violence and student safety were heavily discussed at a town hall meeting back in November. Parkes said there are already a number of safety measures in place but the conversation is constantly continuing and evolving. The district assures parents and students that student safety continues to be a top priority. "We are a community and we're here to make sure every child gets an education and is safe in school," said Parkes. 18-year-old Leonardo Matute is charged with robbery, aggravated assault and theft. The district said it's still working to identify one of the students involved. Kraken Energy Corp. has announced that it has staked mining claims encompassing the Huber Hills Uranium Project in Elko County. The site is about a mile east of Mountain City and 85 miles north of Elko. Huber Hills is a highly prospective land package that fits well with our strategy to acquire and explore high-grade, past-producing US-based uranium projects with the potential to feed a central milling facility as part of a hub and spoke model, said Kraken CEO Matthew Schwab. We plan to approach this project with rapid and cost-efficient exploration activities, such as drone magnetics and radiometrics, geological mapping, and prospecting to confirm existing targets and outline new anomalies, followed by a drilling program targeted for the second half of 2023. The Huber Hill property comprises 129 unpatented lode mineral claims covering about 2,580 acres. The mineral claims encompass the historic Race Track uranium mine and the Autunite and October uranium showings, plus numerous molybdenum prospects. According to Kraken Energy, the Race Track Mine was the largest producer of uranium during the 1950s and 1960s in Elko County, producing nearly 10,000 pounds of uranium oxide from ore grading 0.24%. The last sampling program in the Race Track Mine open pit was done by Samba Gold Inc. in 2007. Kraken Energy also owns the Apex uranium property about 90 miles south of Battle Mountain. The Apex Property is recognized as Nevadas largest past-producing uranium mine, having produced about 106,000 pounds of uranium oxide in the 1950s, contributing about 50% of the historic uranium output from the state of Nevada. The company said recent soil sampling at Apex included 91 samples returning results of 50 parts per million uranium or greater. Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti joined other mayors from across the nation Friday at the White House, where President Joe Biden addressed the bipartisan group. In Washington, D.C., for the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting, Cognetti also met Friday with Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner and Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose to advocate for the return of passenger rail service between Scranton and New York City, she said. Biden opened his remarks to the group of mayors by calling himself a kid from Scranton. He noted shortly thereafter that he began his political career as a county councilman in Delaware, joking he ran for the U.S. Senate because serving as a local official is too hard. Ive always had enormous respect for the job you do, Biden told the group, adding later that mayors know the measure of success isnt how many partisan points you score, its how many problems you fix. Biden also touted his legislative record as president, noting that his American Rescue Plan Act delivered funding directly to cities for local officials to deploy. Its a feature of the mammoth relief package Cognetti mentioned in a phone interview Friday evening. With the rescue plan especially, you see that he made sure and worked very closely with mayors in the U.S. Conference of Mayors to get the funds directly to cities, Cognetti said, adding individual cities are able to tailor their individual ARPA programs. The general issues are the same across cities, but how we find solutions are different. Scrantons $68.7 million federal ARPA allocation will fund stormwater, infrastructure and business corridor improvements, small business and nonprofit grants, housing and economic recovery initiatives and other projects and programs. Bidens remarks were one element of the conference of mayors broader, multi-day meeting. Cognetti, who noted she pays her own travel expenses, seized the opportunity to discuss with officials how Scranton can best use and leverage federal ARPA, infrastructure and other funding, she said. The benefit of the U.S. Conference of Mayors is they have incredible access to administration officials, she said. Not just the White House officials, but (Housing and Urban Development), Transportation, Labor, Commerce, Department of Energy those administration officials are in our conference the entire time ... connecting us to resources, connecting us to people we can follow up with. Video of the presidents remarks, which included references to his boyhood hometown of Scranton, is available online via the official White House YouTube channel. The president knows that mayors get things done and that its in our cities, on the ground, that the real change happens, Cognetti said. And we know that he believes this and have seen that in the legislation hes put forward. Department 1 Judge Kriston Hill Jan. 3Devin Patrick Davis, 25, pleaded no contest to aiming a firearm at a human being, was sentenced to one year in jail and was ordered to forfeit a black Ruger-LPC/.380 Auto and Ruger Mag X6 RND. Department 2 Judge Al Kacin Jan. 10Jerry Burt Ratliff, 53, pleaded guilty to possession of a Schedule I or II controlled substance and was sentenced to 32 to 12 months in prison to be served concurrently to a previous sentence. Jan. 11Jennifer Lorraine Lang, 38, pleaded no contest to attempted fraudulent use of a credit card illegally possessed, was given a suspended sentence of 15 to 38 months in prison, ordered to pay $1,200 restitution to the victim, pay $846.83 restitution to the Nevada Attorney General and was placed on probation for 18 months. Department 3 Judge Mason Simons Jan. 19Austin William Himmelman, 32, pleaded no contest to one count of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm and one count of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 48 to 210 months in prison and ordered to pay $10,468.70 restitution to Jeanette Theel. A 61-year-old Onalaska man has been accused of recording employees using the restroom at a business he owns in Onalaska. James B. Dinsmoor was charged Thursday in La Crosse County Circuit Court with four felony counts of capturing an intimate representation without consent. According to the criminal complaint, an employee of Dinsmoor Strategies said he entered a bathroom normally used by employees Jan. 10, when he noticed a camera hidden inside a decorative figurine. He said the camera was recording when he found it. He removed the camera and turned it over to police later that afternoon. The employee told police that Dinsmoor operates the business from his home. He said the business has five employees and that he had been working there for six months. The complaint says 261 photos and 124 videos of at least four different men using the bathroom were located on the camera, which was connected to Wi-Fi and Dinsmoor's home. The complaint also says there was a recording of an employee changing into a suit provided by Dinsmoor. Police made contact with Dinsmoor at his home later in the evening. The complaint says Dinsmoor first told police he originally bought the camera to track packages and monitor "porch pirates." He said he later moved the camera to the bathroom to make sure a plumber correctly fixed a water issue. The complaint says Dinsmoor, under further questioning, admitted the device was installed to record people inside the bathroom. He reportedly told police, "It's to look at people. It's terrible." Dinsmoor reportedly told police he had been recording employees in the restroom for the past six months. The complaint says the photos date from Aug. 20, 2021, to Sept. 1, 2022, and the dates of the videos range from June 28, 2021, to Jan. 10. Police obtained a search warrant and seized a MacBook computer, cell phone, USB drives and two wireless cameras. The complaint says police also found the figurine, which has been moved from above the toilet to the sink. Dinsmoore was released by police on a signature bond, and he voluntarily turned himself in to police Jan. 11. His next court date is a Jan. 27 preliminary hearing. COLLECTION: Good morning photos of the day Saturday ... in the park, definitely not the 4th of July Strolling swans Eagle watch First robin of spring? Opossum passing by Eagles at sundset Saturday ... in the park, definitely not the 4th of July Snowy skyline Towering Spring rain drop The end of ice fishing season Arcadia flyer Bridge sunset A foggy morning hello Spring rain drop End of ice fishing is a drag Spring snow HARBORMASTER CAPPED Hitting the open water Bikes for everyone Helping our neighbors HyVee work continues PICTURE OF THE DAY PICTURE OF THE DAY: Spring migration A tradition unlike any other... Feeling squirrelly Elm tree flowers Sitting on the dock of the bay A holiday hunt Colorful sunset A nice day for a walk A beautiful sunset Tulip blooms Sunrise in the neighborhood A great day for reflection Enjoying the breeze Right on the river Morning visitor Beautiful blossoms A patriotic pair A trip to the Capitol Misty Mississippi Mallard on the march A balancing act Apple blossoms Flowering Crab trees River overflow Flag Day next week Ready to go for a spin Riverside sunset Doggone beautiful The cat-bird seat La Crosse River at Veterans Memorial Park bike bridge in Riverside Park French Island fiery sunset Cass Street Bridge from Riverside Park End of the Day Holding it together A flower named Sue Hanging out at Goose Island Beautiful day Riding in style On parade at Catfish Days A sun-dappled cemetery lane Pecking away Bunny meets world Cranes by the creek River at Veterans Memorial Park The cat-bird seat Fingers in the fog Dragonfly on the line Breakfast at the birdhouse Spreading her wings Relaxing in the park A view from the stage The Quenten Brown Band Rocking out in Arcadia Viceroy butterfly Dog or lion? Pure Water Days, Chippewa Falls Visiting in style Pedaling is for the birds Working on the new Fire House Dockwork Hurling in the park Swimming swans Hibiscus bloom 'The Remainders' rock the stage Land of milk and honey? French Island dining Anything for a free meal A babbling creek Finches munch on cones Stunning sunset Pucker up Chowing down Hibiscus bloom China will resume outbound group travel to a selected group of countries early next month, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The ministry said in a notice on its website on Friday that a pilot program will take effect on Feb 6 to allow travel agencies to open outbound group travel for Chinese citizens to 20 countries - Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba and Argentina. Travel agencies will also be allowed to offer flight and hotel packages to tourists starting the same time, according to the notice. The decision was made at the request of the foreign affairs panel of the State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism, the country's top COVID-19 response task force, and was based on considerations over COVID-19 control measures and socioeconomic development, the ministry said. The notice stipulates that tour organizers strictly obey official COVID-19 measures at home and abroad. Tourists will be urged to make sure they are not infected with the highly contagious disease before boarding flights, pay attention to their own safety and health and follow local COVID-19 rules during the journey, and comply with epidemic prevention requirements after returning to their hometown. On social networking platform Sina Weibo, many micro-bloggers said in comments about the news that they were eager to travel overseas. A user named Elegance of Snow Lotus wrote, "I will travel around the world", while another who goes under the name Bryant Manbahun said, "I have taken my passport out of the box". The National Health Commission announced on Dec 26 that China would scrap the quarantine requirement for international arrivals starting on Jan 8, as it downgraded management of COVID-19 from Class A to Class B. Data from Trip.com, a major tourism platform in China, showed just half an hour after the release of the announcement, the search volume for outbound flight tickets and overseas hotels reached a three-year high on the company's search engine. In 2019, Chinese people made 155 million outbound trips, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. TOWN OF PARIS A man shot and killed Monday by law enforcement in Kenosha County has been identified as a 24-year-old resident of Racine. It happened just over the Racine-Kenosha county line, outside Union Grove. Hunter J. Hanson died following what authorities described as a car chase that ended in a field where Hanson had a gun. The Kenosha County Sheriff's Department released the shooting victim's name Thursday but continued to withhold other details about the incident, including the identity of the deputies involved in the shooting. Sheriff's Capt. David Wright said three Kenosha County deputies are on administrative leave while the fatal shooting is being investigated. Wright said officers from Racine County and the Wisconsin State Patrol also were involved. The Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation has taken over the investigation, which is common in shootings that involve law enforcement officers. According to authorities, the Racine County Sheriff's Department began a chase at about 3:30 p.m. Monday involving a vehicle that later crossed into Kenosha County. The vehicle then crashed in the town of Paris, and the driver ran into a nearby field. Authorities said the motorist had a gun, and after directing the subject to drop the weapon, officers fired and shot the man, who died later at a hospital. The reason for the initial chase that began in Racine County has not been disclosed. Different types of alerts and what they mean What exactly is a Silver Alert? What exactly is an AMBER Alert? What exactly is a Blue Alert? What exactly is an Ashanti Alert? What exactly is a Green Alert? Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Statistics showed that total agricultural production value went up 3.33% while the rate of forest coverage hit 42.02%. Along with this, over 73% of communes were recognised as new-style rural areas under criteria set by the government. Eleven groups of goods raked in over 1 billion USD each, including coffee, rubber, rice, fruits and vegetables, cashew nuts, shrimp, tra fish and wooden furniture that earned more than 2 billion USD. Trade surplus of the sector was estimated at 8.5 billion USD, up 30% year-on-year. Durian officially exported to China in 2022 (Photo: TTO) In the first 11 months of last year, Asia remained Vietnams biggest market with a market share of 44.7%, followed by America 27.4%, Europe 11.3%, the Pacific 1.7% and Africa 1.7%. The US was still the biggest importer of Vietnamese farm produce with a combined value of 12.3 billion USD, accounting for 25% of the market share. Coming next was China with roughly 9.3 billion USD and Japan 3.9 billion USD, equivalent to 18.9% and 7.9% of the market shares, respectively. Deputy Director of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences Dao The Anh expressed his belief that farm produce exports will continue thriving this year. He underlined the need to further diversify export markets, including China and rearrange production to meet market requirements for food safety and post-harvest packaging. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan also called on businesses, associations and manufacturers to maintain their reputation in the market. Mekong Delta rice farming to become a leading sector in agricultural production Farmers in the Mekong Delta contribute over 50% of the country's rice production and 90% of rice exports. However, quality, efficiency, product competitiveness and income of rice farmers in the region remain low, reported Nhan Dan newspaper. Mekong Delta rice farming to become a leading sector in agricultural production (Photo: VNA) To increase the rice value chain, adapt to climate change and protect the environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is developing a project on sustainable production of 1 million hectares specialising in high-quality rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta. The project is expected to shift rice farming to become a leading sector in agricultural production with a multi-valued approach. This is also a programme to implement Resolution No. 13-NQ/TW dated April 2, 2022 of the Politburo on the direction of socio-economic development and assurance of national defence and security in the Mekong Delta to 2030, with a vision to 2045. It will contribute to the implementation of Vietnam's commitment at COP26, and demonstrate production growth and protect the environment. Dang Kim Son, former Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, said with the goal to develop a project of this kind, rice production must be on a large scale to apply harmonious mechanisation and automation. Vo Tong Xuan, Honorary Rector of Southern Can Tho University, said that Vietnam already has good rice varieties and it is important to pay attention to how to organise production to bring efficiency and ensure sustainable development. He added that, to make the project work well, it is necessary to have mechanisms and policies in place, as that is how to help find markets and diversify products, thus improving the value of Vietnamese rice. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said that not only high-quality rice varieties, the region must ensure sustainable production processes, protect the ecological environment, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Besides, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will work with localities in the Mekong Delta, industry associations, rice production and trading enterprises, and cooperatives to determine specific deployment production areas for rice production. This will encourage businesses, cooperatives and local authorities in the Mekong Delta to participate in the project implementation. More activities welcome Lunar New Year overseas The Vietnamese Embassy in Russia has freshly organised a get-together with musical performances, a lucky draw, and a firework display to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year Festival (Tet) Vietnams biggest and longest annual traditional festival, reported Vietnam News Agency. Ambassador Dang Minh Khoi speaks at the gathering in Russia. (Photo: VNA) Addressing the January 19 gathering of the embassy's staff and overseas Vietnamese (OV), Ambassador Dang Minh Khoi expressed his joy that in the face of many difficulties, the expatriate community in Russia has still made contributions to the development of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. He hoped efforts to promote bilateral trade in the past year will create momentum for growth in 2023. President of the OV association in Russia Do Xuan Hoang said the close relationship between generations of diplomatic missions and the expatriate community remains unchanged despite many fluctuations in the community's life over the years. Earlier, with a similar purpose, the Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela on January 18 held an event to introduce the cultural charms of Tet, featuring photos on Vietnamese people and landscapes, musical performances, and traditional dishes. Ambassador Le Viet Duyen took this occasion to highlight remarkable progress made in the two countries cooperation across fields in the past and thank the host nations competent agencies and international friends for their contributions to the ties. Echoing the view, President of the Venezuela-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians Group Saul Ortega highly appreciated the good results that the two countries have achieved in all spheres from politics, diplomacy, cooperation at international forums, to economy, society, people-to-people exchanges. He also expressed admiration for the Vietnamese culture, country and people. Winner of logo design contest marking Vietnam-Singapore diplomatic ties announced The winner of the contest to design a commemorative logo for the 50th founding anniversary of Vietnam-Singapore diplomatic ties and the 10th anniversary of strategic partnership was honoured at an award ceremony held in both face-to-face and online forms in Hanoi on January 19, reported Vietnam News Agency. The logo designed by Le Thanh Hong - the student at Singapore Polytechnic (Photo: The organising board) Co-hosted by the Vietnam - Singapore Friendship Association under the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) and the Singaporean Embassy in Vietnam, this was an opening event for a series of activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relations, and 10 years of the strategic partnership between the two countries. The contest was initiated by the Vietnamese Students' Association in Singapore and the Singapore Global Network (SGN) in October last year for Vietnamese students studying from the high school to doctoral (PhD) levels in Singapore. The first prize went to Le Thanh Hong, a student at Singapore Polytechnic. Addressing the event, Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam emphasised that the strong economic relations between the two nations are the foundation of the bilateral relations. He also highlighted the exchange relationships in terms of tourism, education and culture between Vietnam and Singapore, saying that Singapore always welcomes Vietnamese students to study and research at its educational institutions. The organising board has received many creative and original entries, which reflect the spirit of the fruitful relationship between the two countries, he said, adding that the selected logo will be used by the Embassy of Singapore in Hanoi, the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore, SGN and their partners in events celebrating the 50th anniversary of relations between the two nations in 2023./. US pilot shot down four Soviet MiGs in 30 minutes -- and kept it a secret for 50 years Zhu Xiaoli (R), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, instructs crew members in an emergency response training aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit take part in a training in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, patrols aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tan Lin (C) and Bao Jie (L), members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, take alcohol breath tests before work in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Su Yeping (R), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, talks with her colleague in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, looks around before train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station departs from Chongqing, southwest China on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tan Lin (L) and Bao Jie, members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, store personal belongings in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Li Hang, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, patrols outside train No.G2233 at Chengdu East Railway Station in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Li Hang (L), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, walks home with her husband after work at a square of Chongqing West Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit take part in a training in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, has lunch aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, after a patrol task on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tan Lin (L) and Bao Jie, members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, prepare for work in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Li Hang (C), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, is welcomed by her husband after work at Chongqing West Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Xie Yu (L) and Zhu Xiaoli, members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, groom each other before work at Chongqing West Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli (R), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, helps a passenger with her luggage at Chongqing West Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, heats her meal aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, checks fire extinguishers aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tan Lin (L) and Bao Jie, members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, check their video recorders in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Editor: GSY Paul, a nurse at Royal Bournemouth Hospital, told the WSWS why National Health Service (NHS) nurses held a second round of strike action across England on January 18/19. We urge all health care workers to join and support NHS FightBack, initiated by the Socialist Equality Party. Sweden and Finland are moving ahead with negotiations to finalize defence cooperation agreements (DCA) with the United States in what amounts to a further escalatory step in the US/NATO war with Russia. The agreements, which would allow US troops to operate unhindered on both countries territories, and store weaponry and other equipment at advanced bases, would strengthen Washingtons ability to open up a northern front in its drive to subjugate Russia to the status of a semi-colony and seize control of its natural resources. Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson met in Helsinki (left) and Pekka Haavisto, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland (right). [Photo by Finnish Government/Dean Calma / IAEA / CC BY 2.0 Swedens right-wing coalition government led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson declared in its announcement of bilateral talks with Washington that the DCA would enable Stockholm to get more effective and faster support from the US in crisis or war situations. Defence Minister Pal Jonson told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter that the deal will allow the US to store weaponry at bases in Sweden during peacetime and deploy more rapidly in a crisis, adding, We are moving from being close partners to allies. A similar process is underway in Finland, where Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told Iltalehti on January 8 that talks on the bilateral deal are in the preliminary stages. Haavistos ministry said in a statement that the agreement would create conditions for closer cooperation if the security situation so requires. Washington is the most important external actor in Northern Europe, the statement continued, before adding that Washington is committed to security in Finland and Europe. Finland and Swedens joint application to join NATO last May marked a major escalation of the US-led military confrontation with Russia in northern Europe. While Finland shares a 1,300-kilometre border with Russia, Sweden is strategically positioned on the northwest of the Baltic Sea, placing forces based there in easy striking distance of St. Petersburg and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which lies just 300 kilometres southeast of the Swedish island of Gotland. While the vast majority of NATO members, including the European imperialist powers, are determined to integrate Sweden and Finland into NATO as quickly as possible, Turkey has refused to approve the applications, citing Swedens alleged protection of Kurdish nationalists with ties to the PKK. Unanimous consent by all NATO members is required to approve a new member. DCAs are critical in facilitating the deployment of American military personnel on foreign soil. They regulate the extent to which American soldiers will be subject to local laws, grant Washington sweeping authority to move troops as it sees fit, and allow the US military to create forward supply bases for weaponry and military equipment. The US currently has 17 DCAs with EU members and six with non-EU states. Last June, Washington and Oslo announced the finalization of a DCA to facilitate the expansion of American military activity, especially in Norways Arctic, where it shares a 196-kilometre border with Russia. It included four agreed areas, zones to which US forces have unhindered access. In and around these agreed areas, US forces can exercise authority over Norwegian citizens, including by taking a proportionate response to any perceived security threats. The areas include Ramsund Naval Base and Evenes Air Base in the arctic. In a submission to the Norwegian parliament, the countrys Judge Advocate General, Sigrid Redse Johansen, noted, The access to exert authority (and power) is located with each troop member, and authority can be exerted towards anyone who comes into contact with the agreed area or who, in extraordinary cases, comes in the way of an American operation Power can thus be exerted by any American troop member towards Norwegian civilians to restore order or protect the force. Johansen also addressed the lack of controls in place for Norwegian authorities to challenge US decisions or actions, writing in somewhat understated language, Genuine Norwegian control over the conditions for the USAs exertion of power do not appear prominent. The agreement also gives US authorities the first right to prosecute soldiers who commit crimes off-duty, and define what is considered an act of duty. In other words, American forces can act with virtual impunity while in the country. The agreements Washington is negotiating with Finland and Sweden appear set to contain similarly sweeping provisions guaranteeing US military operations and legal immunity. As Teemu Tanner, Finlands ambassador to Norway, put it in an interview with High North News, I think we can learn a lot from how Norway builds its NATO activities. In November, Finland, Sweden and Norway announced the upgrading of a trilateral defence agreement to enable joint military activities in the Arctic areas of all three countries. The agreement allows for joint exercises, military planning and the carrying out of joint military operations in a crisis situation. It followed the participation of Finnish and Swedish troops in a joint brigade under Norwegian command in NATOs Cold Response exercise last August. Also in November, Swedens new right-wing government announced a plan to massively increase military spending in order to reach the NATO target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defence. The coalition, which is led by the conservative Moderates but relies on support in parliament from the fascistic Sweden Democrats to obtain a majority, intends to hike military spending by 64 percent by 2028. Just days after this announcement, the government unveiled a military aid package to Ukraine worth 3 billion kronor (about 270 million). It included an air defence system and light armoured vehicles, and totalled 1 billion kronor more than all Swedens previous aid packages to Ukraine combined. Earlier this month, the government revealed a plan to reintroduce civilian conscription. Young people will be trained in disaster relief and other emergency services at the municipal level in a move that the government explicitly linked to the need to strengthen Swedens defensive capabilities in the event of a war. Military conscription was already reintroduced by the Social Democrat government in 2017. The latest plan commits to doubling annual military conscripts to 10,000. A major factor driving the intensifying conflicts over the Arctic is the vast quantities of oil, gas, and rare earths in the region, which are becoming easier to access due to the impact of capitalist-induced climate change. Territorial claims involving Arctic states, which include Canada, Denmark, Russia and the United States, are also being driven by the opening up of new trade routes as the ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean recedes. The US, Canada and the European imperialist powers are determined to strengthen their respective positions in the region, recognizing that it could mean access to the resources necessary to play a big part in the clean energy economy of the future, control the flow of world trade, and gain a military-strategic edge over their rivals. Underscoring the vast economic interests at stake in the region, Swedish iron ore miner LKAB revealed last week the discovery of a huge deposit of more than 1 million tons of rare earth oxides in Kiruna in the Swedish Arctic. While the site represents less than 1 percent of global rare earth deposits, according to US Geological Survey estimates, it is the largest such find in Europe. LKAB explained that the deposits were sufficient to supply a substantial part of Europes needs for electric vehicle production as part of the so-called clean energy transition. Far from being motivated by the desire to stop climate change, the key concern of the European powers is to reduce their dependence on Russia and China for critical economic supplies so that the European imperialist powers can act more aggressively on the world stage, not only against Russia and China, but ultimately, where necessary, the United States. As Ebba Busch, Swedens Minister for Energy and Business, and leader of the right-wing Christian Democrats, put it, electrification, the EUs self-sufficiency and independence from Russia and China will begin in the mine. World leaders met this week (January 16 to 20) at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, an exclusive and remote mountain ski resort in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland, to discuss the bleak state of world affairs. It was the first in-person meeting of the WEF at Davos since the outbreak of COVID-19, but the assembled heads of state, billionaires and their minions did not treat the pandemic as a thing of the past. On the contrary, they were exceedingly vigilant, and participants had to be tested for coronavirus as a condition of attendance. There was the usual massive entourage of security personnel, with more than 5,000 armed guards, including snipers, at a cost exceeding 30 million Swiss francs, provided by the Swiss army to ensure the heads of state and global business leaders were kept safe from protests. More importantly, every conceivable means to protect them against COVID-19 infection has also been employed. The measures to protect these billionaires, world leaders and their staff from COVID-19 were kept under wraps until leaked to the press towards the end of the assembly, raising a storm of online controversy. Statements like Do as I say, not as I do, let them eat cake, and although we are in the same stormthe same pandemicwe are not in the same boat are just some of the comments that have exploded on social media. This outpouring underscores the deep divide that separates the thin layer of fabulously wealthy parasites from the billions among the working class whose labor is exploited 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure the capitalists coffers are overflowing with riches. The revolutionary sentiment and comparisons between the global capitalist elite and the doomed French monarchy and aristocracy cannot be missed. The hypocrisy couldnt be more vivid as many of those in attendance have been openly declaring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic and calling for the elimination of any public health measures in support of protecting the population from the continuous assault of a deadly virus that is constantly mutating. Their slogan appears to be: A pandemic for thee but not for me. Guidance on COVID-19 safety measures instituted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. [Photo: World Economic Forum] While these attendees bask in fresh, disinfected air, on their agenda was how the world could shift its COVID-19 strategy from pandemic mitigation to managing it as endemic, i.e., permanent. In other words, declare the pandemic over and move on! No one can believe their rhetorical call for equitable distribution of vaccines and therapeutics or equitable access to health care is even remotely serious. Perhaps the only comment that approached reality came from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who warned that the worlds failure to prepare for future pandemics was straining credulity. He added, Somehowafter all we have enduredwe have not learned the global public health lessons of the pandemic. We are nowhere near ready for pandemics to come. As a recent WSWS perspective on Davos declared: [The] ruling elites with a collective wealth of trillions of dollars, whose actions over decades have led to an existential crisis for humankind, have no policies to halt the deepening catastrophe, nor can they develop any, because, in the final analysis, it is rooted not in their psyche, but in the objective contradictions of the capitalist mode of production, which they defend above all else. Hence the high level of security to protect the assembled elites both from protesters and the coronavirus. Every participant at the meeting had been strongly encouraged to be vaccinated with the latest booster jabs prior to their arrival. At the meeting they were given unique identification badges that allowed them access to several testing centers where they were offered free PCR test to ensure they did not have COVID. In their Guidance on Health Measures , organizers of the WEF wrote, Participants are required to get tested in one of the Forum testing centers after arriving in Davos and picking up their badges. Conducting a test will keep the badge active and grant the access to the Annual Meetings venues. Failing to conduct an onsite test or a positive test result will lead to the badge being deactivated. One should note that these same individuals have private physicians at their beck and call and access to the best healthcare services imaginable should they have been identified as infected with the virus. Additionally, state-of-the-art ventilation and HEPA air cleaners have been made available in common spaces and private rooms and the over 3,000 attendants will ensure these areas are cleaned and disinfected several times a day. Free access to N95s and respirators was provided because the participants, who have called such measures useless (for working people), know very well that they work. In fact, meeting organizers said that on Forum-provided official transport, the requirement is for all drivers (chauffeurs) [to] wear masks at all times. And if this wasnt enough, there have been reports that Upper Room Ultraviolet Disinfection systems and Far-UVC lights have been installed to disinfect the spaces and remove any virus that gains unauthorized access to the meeting. Though they misused the term ventilation when they wrote, Additional state-of-the-art ventilation systems have been installed in areas with restricted air circulation, the photos of these UV devices, which are more efficient and faster at disinfecting spaces than HVAC systems, reveal the real situation. Photos have been seen that indicate such technology is par for the course. In a recent review on the history of UV air disinfection, the World Socialist Web Site explained that this technology was first deployed on a broad scale against COVID-19 in the US Air Force and later among White House staff such as Dr. Ashish Jha, who has been seen using it during his lectures or speeches. Even the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) commissioned Purified Air towards the end of 2020 to supply it with mobile virus irradiation units (VIU Mobile) in order to reduce airborne SARS-CoV-2 in indoor spaces. Even though these significant precautions are available to prevent the wealthiest and most powerful from catching COVID-19, they in turn have called such measures meaningless and useless when applied more broadly. Schools and health care systems are crumbling from lack of funding, with burnt out teachers and health care workers facing the prospects of forever COVID, Long-COVID, permanent poorer health and financial impoverishment. The objective fact is that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a significant toll every day on the lives of the most vulnerable. In 2022, it remained the third leading cause of death in the US, with approximately 600 daily coronavirus deaths on a seven-day average, as XBB.1.5 continues to dominate all other subvariants of Omicron. Globally, in the last four weeks, 53,000 deaths were reported, a 20 percent increase from the previous month. A review of the excess death figures for much of 2022 demonstrates that these are 10 to 20 percent above pre-pandemic baselines for many countries in Europe and North America. Even more devastating is the rapidity and ferocity with which the virus has exploited the Chinese governments decision to abandon Zero-COVID to join in this pack of criminals and subject the Chinese people to a virus they had previously pushed back and eliminated. While his country was facing a harrowing rate of infections and deaths, Chinas Vice Premier Liu He stood before the worlds billionaires at Davos to assure them China was quickly opening for business and ready to pursue common prosperity. With more than 2 billion travelers ready to begin Lunar New Year celebrations and bring the virus home to their families, the toll of infection and death is certain to increase dramatically. The World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee of the Fourth International are the only forces, through the mechanism of the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, to investigate the pandemic policy of the capitalist elite and alert the working class against it. The working class must unite and strengthen its forces across all national boundaries and hold these criminals accountable and put an end to the profit system, which is incapable of a genuine mobilization of humanitys resources to defeat the pandemic. On Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley gave a briefing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where they pledged the United States to the military defeat of Russia. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Nov. 16, 2022. [AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File] Milley announced the commitment of the United States and NATO to go on the offensive to liberate Russian-occupied Ukraine. He repeated that Ukraine would use NATO armored vehicles and tanks to go on the tactical and operational offensive to liberate the occupied areas. With this declaration, the entire prestige of the NATO alliance has been staked on the reconquest of all Ukrainian territory, which, according to the United States, includes both the entire Donbas and the Crimean Peninsula. As the immense challenges posed by the new American strategy emerge in the coming months, and as the death toll among Ukrainian troops rises, the demand will inevitably be made for the direct deployment of NATO troops in the war. This would mean that American and Russian soldiers would be shooting at each other in the first general engagement between nuclear-armed states in history. Milley is an active-duty military officer, and Austin is a retired four-star general who was granted a special dispensation from Congress to serve in the civilian office of defense secretary. These two four-star generals were effectively setting the foreign policy of the United States in a sweeping display of the power of the military in American society. The explicit assertion by Milley and Austin that the weapons being provided by the US and NATO are of an offensive, not defensive, character is a 180-degree reversal of public statements by the Biden administration, which justified the escalation of US involvement in the war with the declaration that it would not provide offensive equipment. The equipment that weve provided is defensive, as you know, not offensive. And we see that as being a difference, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a briefing in May. The idea that were going to send in offensive equipment, Biden said that same month, and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews, just understandand dont kid yourself, no matter what you all saythats called World War III. Late last month, Biden declared, The idea we would give Ukraine material that is fundamentally different than is already going there, would have the prospect of breaking up NATO, and breaking up the European Union. He added, Theyre not looking to go to war with Russia, theyre not looking for a third world war. If one accepts both the public statements of Milley and the repeated assertions of Biden, it means that the United States is in reality at war with Russia. This undeclared war is being waged without congressional authorization or any effort to seek the approval of the American people. The announcement by NATO that it is sending offensive weapons to Ukraine has exposed the Biden administrations entire narrative of US involvement in Ukraine as a fraud. It has repeatedly claimed that the US and NATO are not involved in the war. But NATO is not only a party to the conflict, it is its driving force. As in all wars, as the fighting progresses the debate over who fired the first shot fades away, and the real, complex social forces driving the war come into view. Throughout 2022, the Biden administration claimed that it was intervening in the conflict in order to save Ukrainian lives. In the year-long conflict, it has become clear that Americas only use for the Ukrainian population is as cannon fodder for a war to dominate the Eurasian landmass. Opening the meeting, Austin declared, As President Biden said, this is a decisive decade for the world. This was a quotation from Bidens introduction to the United States National Security Strategy, which declares that the United States will seize this decisive decade to advance Americas vital interests, position the United States to outmaneuver our geopolitical competitors. Throughout the event, there was no mention of the word ceasefire or peace. Instead, Milley declared, This war, like many wars in the past, will end at some sort of negotiating table. But what Milley was describing as a negotiating table is like the one plated aboard the USS Missouri, where Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the unconditional surrender of Japan, with the alternative being, in the words of the Potsdam Declaration, prompt and utter destruction. Following the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japanese cities and a series of fire-bombings that killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians, that war, too, ended at the negotiating table. Even as they admitted that the United States intentions in the war were fundamentally offensive, the generals engaged in the obligatory lies and hypocrisy with which the gears of war are oiled. International aggression, where large countries use military force to attack small countries and change recognized borders, cannot be allowed to stand, declared Austin. This comes from a country that has, in the past quarter century alone, illegally attacked or occupied Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. Austin continued, Its about the world that we want our children and grandchildren to inherit. In fact, the catastrophe unleashed by US imperialism in its decisive decade will, if not stopped, leave the next generation with a charred wasteland, if there is a generation left to witness it. Responding to NATOs assertion that its goal is the defeat of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russias Security Council, penned a brief statement on Telegram: The loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war. Nuclear powers do not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends. The position of American imperialism, however, is that the use of nuclear weaponseither by Russia or the US itselfcannot be a deterrent in the escalation of the conflict. In an editorial published Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal demanded strikes inside Russian territory, declaring, Why should a dictator who rolled over a foreign border be free to claim his territory as sacrosanct? It concluded, The rejoinder is that Mr. Putin might unleash a nuclear weapon, but the past months have shown that he will make that decision based on his own calculations in any case. This editorial reflects the utterly reckless mood that has gripped the capitalist oligarchy, which sees war as a way out of the myriad social, economic and political crises gripping the capitalist social order. The social forces driving the war were shown at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where billionaires and the heads of major banks hobnobbed with Ukrainian oligarchs and warmongers, such as the disgraced former British Prime Minister Boris Let the bodies pile high in their thousands Johnson, who declared, Give them the tanks! Theres absolutely nothing to be lost. But the same crisis that underlies imperialist war is propelling the growth of the class struggle throughout the world. It is the international working class, mobilized on the basis of a socialist program, that will put an end to the conspiracies of the ruling elites and the capitalist profit system. Indias Narendra Modi-led Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has responded with vitriol to a BBC documentary that examines the current prime ministers role in facilitating and overseeing the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom. The communal violence that convulsed the western Indian state of Gujarat for three days, from February 28 through March 2, 2002, officially killed 1,044 people, of whom the vast majority, 790, were Muslims. The true death toll is believed to be closer to 2,000. In addition, hundreds of thousands of impoverished Muslims were rendered homeless after mobs of vigilantessome led by well-known BJP politicians, others by leaders of Hindu communalist groups closely associated with the BJPterrorized them and burned their homes to the ground. The role Modi, Gujarats chief minister from 2001 to his ascension to the prime ministership in 2014, played in instigating and enabling the February-March 2002 pogrom has long been known. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi [Photo: Narendra Modi Facebook page] Under conditions of a war-crisis with Pakistan whipped up by Indias then-BJP-led national government, Modi fomented anti-Muslim violence. He did so first by immediately blaming Muslims for a February 28 train fire at Godhra in which 59 Hindu fundamentalist activists perished, and in a manner that effectively declared Gujarats Muslim minority collectively responsible; then by supporting calls from Hindu communalist groups for a state-wide general strike. When, as could only be expected given the state-backed communal incitement, anti-Muslim violence erupted, Gujarats chief minister instructed police not to intervene. If Modi has not spent the last two decades languishing in a prison cell it is because he has been protected by a highly communalized state apparatus, from the police and judiciary to the Gujarat state and Indian governments, with the complicity and support of Indias capitalist ruling elite. That said, the two-part documentary titled India: The Modi Question, the first part of which aired on BBC 2 last Tuesday, has provided additional corroboration of the calculated and coordinated character of the 2002 riots and Modis culpability in mass murder. The documentary cites at length from a secret British government report on the Gujarat pogrom, whose very existence was hitherto unknown. It was prepared by a Foreign Office inquiry team that travelled to the western Indian state shortly after the communal bloodletting. The report says that the extent of the violence was much greater than reported, and was well-orchestrated: a systematic campaign of violence with all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing. The report goes on to state that The aim of the riots was to purge Muslims from Hindu areas, adding that Widespread and systematic rape of Muslim women was perpetrated to terrorize the populace. The report highlights the role of activists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in fomenting the violence. The VHP is an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a paramilitary organization dedicated to the revival of the Hindu nation. Modi has been a life-long member of the RSS and routinely consults its leaders on major government decisions. However, the BBC report underlines that the Hindu communalist thugs of the VHP and their ilk could never have inflicted so much damage without the climate of impunity created by the state government. For that, it asserts, Narendra Modi is directly responsible. The BBC documentary also points to the results of a separate investigation conducted by the European Union. That inquiry reportedly concluded that ministers in Modis BJP state government took an active part in the violence and the senior police officers were instructed not to intervene in the rioting. India: The Modi Question also includes an interview with a former diplomat, whose identity is not revealed and who presumably was actively involved in the work of the Foreign Office inquiry team. At least 2,000 people were murdered during the violence, says the ex-diplomat. The vast majority were Muslims. We described it as a pogroma deliberate, and politically driven effort targeted at the Muslim community. The BBC documentarians also interviewed the then-British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who, as one of the architects of the illegal 2003 US-British invasion of Iraq, has hands, like Modis, that are dripping with blood. Straw explained the background to the Foreign Office establishing the Gujarat inquiry team, saying, These were very serious claimsthat Chief Minister Modi had played a pretty active part in pulling back the police and in tacitly encouraging the Hindu extremists. Straw called the teams report very thorough, then defended the British Labour governments failure to make its findings known on the grounds that it would have hurt Britains interests, i.e., the commercial and strategic interests of British imperialism. While Straw was invoking human rights in fronting British imperialisms predatory foreign policy, including in justifying the Iraq war, when it came to India, he had, he claims, fairly limited options. We were never going to break diplomatic relations with India, he says, but it is obviously a stain on his (Modis) reputation. Much further evidence of Modis complicity in the Gujarat pogrom emerged in the months and years after the British Foreign office conducted its inquiryan inquiry, it need be noted, that did not have at its disposal any of the compulsory investigative powers of the Indian police and courts. Of especial importance is evidence provided by Haren Pandya, revenue minister in Modis Gujarat state government, and Sanjiv Bhatt, a deputy commissioner of police who participated in an unofficial meeting Modi convened at his residence on the night of Feb. 27, 2002. According to Pandya, who was assassinated under mysterious circumstances in March 2003, the meeting had a singular purpose. Modi instructed those assembled to allow people to vent their anger and not come in the way of a Hindu backlash. In 2009, Bhatt testified that he was present at that meeting and corroborated Pandyas account. But at every step of the way, Indian authorities have thwarted investigation of the 2002 events, especially any in which Modi and his chief henchman, Indias current home minister, Amit Shah, were implicated. The few convictions that have taken place have generally been the result of tenacious efforts on the part of the victims, as in the case of Blikis Bano, who was 21 and five months pregnant when she was brutally gang-raped in 2002, while 14 other members of her family were killed. So blatant were the efforts of the police, judicial and government authorities in Gujarat to shield those responsible for the 2002 pogrom that ultimately the Supreme Court was compelled to intervene. Indias highest court, however, was quick to put its ill-deserved reputation for judicial probity at the service of Modi and his accomplices. This culminated in a verdict last June that will live in ignominy. The Supreme Court dismissed the plea of Zakia Jafri, the widow of a Congress MP who was slaughtered along with 68 others in a Muslim neighbourhood of Ahmedabad on February 28, 2022, that it investigate whether their deaths were part of a larger conspiracythat is, a calculated campaign of anti-Muslim violence and ethnic cleansing. In so doing, the court not only absolved Modi, Shah and the Gujarat authorities, giving them a so-called clean chit, it denounced Jafri and her co-petitioner, the journalist and activist Teesta Setalvad, for wanting to keep the pot boiling for ulterior design, and said they should themselves be in the dock and prosecuted. The next day, citing this Supreme Court judgment, the Gujarat Polices Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested Setalvad and R.B. Sreekumar, a former top Gujarat police officer who has exposed police complicity in the pogrom. This is part of a larger process in which the Indian ruling class has embraced Modi as the strongman it needs to wage class war against Indias workers and toilers and aggressively pursue its great power ambitions in alliance with US imperialism. The BJP, whose activist base is made up of fascistic Hindu supremacists, has been transformed into its principal party of government. In addition to leading Indias national government, it now holds power in some two-thirds of Indias states. As elsewhere, the rise to power of far-right forces has been facilitated at every point by the sharp turn to the right of the ostensible left and liberal parties. In the name of fighting Hindu fascism, the twin Indian Stalinist parliamentary parties, the CPM and the CPI, have for decades subordinated the working class to the big business Congress Party, and where they have held power in various states, they have implemented what they themselves describe as pro-investor policies. Two decades on, the Gujarat pogrom remains a festering wound on the Indian body politic. Tens of thousands of Muslims driven from their homes by the events of February-March 2002 are now ghettoized in what are for all intents and purposes internal displacement camps. Modi and his BJP continue to use the 2002 events to rally their Hindu supremacist base and polarize the electorate. In the run-up to last years Gujarat state election, the state government released to a heros welcome all 11 of those sentenced to life prison terms for their role in the murder of Blikis Banos family. The BJP also delisted its sitting state legislative assembly member for the Naroda neighbourhood of Ahmedabad so that it could stand as its candidate Payal Kukrani, the 30-year-old daughter of a BJP activist who was convicted for the Naroda Patiya Massacre, in which 96 Muslims were killed. Predictably, Indias government, much of the corporate media and the BJPs extensive diaspora network have responded to the BBC documentary with a deluge of vitriol. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi denounced it as a propaganda piece, shaped by bias and a colonial mindset. Well aware of Modis role in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, Western imperialist governments initially thought it wise to keep some distance from him. He was not allowed to travel to the UK for a decade or so, and only after he became Indian prime minister in 2014 was he welcome in Washington. But that is all ancient history. Throughout his nine-year tenure as prime minister, but especially since his re-election in 2019, Modi and his BJP have fomented anti-Muslim and anti-minority bigotry with the ideological aim of transforming India into a Hindu rashtra (a state where the supremacy of Hindus is acknowledged and minorities live in sufferance), and with the political aim of channeling mounting social anger over mass joblessness and deepening poverty and social inequality along reactionary lines and splitting the working class. Yet this communalist gangster is now lauded and feted by the likes of Biden, Macron, Scholz and Trudeau as the leader of the worlds most populous democracy and a staunch defender of freedom against autocratic China. In keeping with this, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rushed to disassociate himself from the BBCs exposure of Modis role in the Gujarat pogrom. He told the British Parliament Wednesday he did not agree with its characterization of Indias prime minister. Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov said, following a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, that the Ukrainian army will receive more weapons and ammunition, and the evil will be defeated. "Ramstein 8 meeting at Ramstein Air Base has ended. It was a great meeting of friends. The free world stands with Ukraine and applauds brave Ukrainian soldiers and our courageous nation. The Ukrainian army will receive more weapons and ammo. We will win. Evil will be defeated," the minister said on Twitter on Friday, January 20. On January 19, US federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment revealing that three active-duty US Marines had been arrested the previous day on multiple misdemeanor charges related to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as part of former President Donald Trumps failed coup. Corporal Micha Coomer and Sergeants Joshua Abate and Dodge Dale Hellonen are each facing four charges, including disorderly conduct, demonstrating inside the Capitol and entering restricted grounds without lawful authority. According to prosecutors, all three men spent over 50 minutes inside the Capitol, including the Rotunda, where one of them put a red MAGA hat on a statue and photographed it. From right to left, Micah Coomer, Dodge Dale Hellonen and Joshua Abate. All three active-duty US Marines are facing charges for storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021 as part of former President Donald Trump's failed coup. [Photo: US District Court] According to Military.com, all three Marines work in intelligence and have been enlisted in the Marine Corps for more than four years. Hellonen, the longest serving of the three, enlisted in 2017. The publication noted that [O]n paper, the three Marines hold demanding jobs tied to the intelligence community, are stationed at major commands, and have personal commendations and awards to their name. At least one held a significant security clearance. All three had been awarded good conduct medals. The arrest of the three Marines is just the latest instance of current and former military members being charged for participating in Trumps attempt to overthrow the 2020 elections. According to the George Washington Project on Extremism, of the over 940 people charged in the attack, at least 118 defendants, roughly 13 percent, had a military background. It should be noted that the figures compiled by the university only denote the arrest of one active-duty soldier, James Mault. Mault was sentenced to 44 months in prison last year after being found guilty of assaulting police with chemical spray on January 6. In its report on the arrests of the three men, Military.com wrote that Abate was assigned to the Marine Corps Cryptologic Support Battalion at Fort Meade, Marylandalso home to the National Security Agency headquartersas a signals intelligence operator and analyst. According to military records, Abate had been awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, an unusual and prestigious medal for a junior Marine, wrote Military.com. In their criminal complaint, prosecutors claim that during a June 2022 interview as part of obtaining a security clearance, Abate admitted to investigators that he went into the Capitol on January 6 with two buddies. Military.com reported that Hellonen, the most senior soldier arrested, is assigned to the 3rd Marine Raider Support Battalion, a unit that supports Marine Corps Special Operations Command, as a signal intelligence operator and analyst. Hellonen was stationed at Camp Lejeune and was arrested in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The lowest-ranking Marine of the group, Coomer, is assigned to the 1st Radio Battalion, I Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group, located at Camp Pendleton in California. Coomer, who was arrested in Oceanside, California, is a systems engineer for intelligence and reconnaissance systems. Less than a month after storming the Capitol, Coomer, according to court documents, communicated over social media with an associate regarding his desire for a fresh restart, adding, Im waiting for the boogaloo. The person replied to Coomer asking him what boogaloo meant. Coomer replied, Civil war 2. The Boogaloo Boys are a fascist paramilitary movement that draws heavily from the military. Boogaloo memes first appeared online in the early 2010s, however the movement gained in popularity following limited COVID-19 lockdowns in the spring of 2020. Encouraged by Trump and right-wing media, Boogaloo elements, wielding military-grade rifles and ostentatious flower-print shirts, staged protests against lockdowns, including at the Michigan state Capitol in Lansing. This was part of the ruling class drive to reopen the economy in April 2020 following the passage of the misnamed CARES Act, leading to over 1.1 million COVID-19 deaths in the US. In the summer of 2020, Boogaloo Boys were frequently spotted at anti-police violence protests, acting as fascist instigators. Throughout the summer and fall, Boogaloo fascists were arrested for shooting at police stations and murdering cops during the protests. These actions were taken in the hope of starting a civil war that would result in the creation of an authoritarian ethno-state. Unsurprisingly, Boogaloo Boys also participated in the January 6 coup. Coomer, Abate and Hellonen are not the only military intelligence figures revealed to have participated in Trumps coup. Last year, Petty Officer 1st Class Navy Reservist Hatchet Speed was arrested in McLean, Virginia, on five misdemeanor charges stemming from his actions on January 6, including disorderly conduct. Speed is set to go on trial this year for those charges. However, this past Wednesday, a Virginia jury convicted Speed of unlawfully possessing three unregistered silencers, which he had purchased after he allegedly stormed the Capitol with the Proud Boys on January 6. According to court records, Speed, who was assigned to the National Reconnaissance Office which operates US spy satellites, told an FBI agent last year that going to the Capitol on January 6 with the Proud Boys to try and prevent the certification of the election was always the plan. We would listen to Donald Trump then all of us would go to the Capitol. Now the reason we were going to the Capitol was to protest what was going on in the Capitol what they were doing was counting the ballots, Speed told the FBI, according to a report in the Navy Times. This image of Hatchet Speed was provided by the Alexandria, Virginia Sheriff's Office. Speed is accused of storming the Capitol with Proud Boy fascists on January 6. On Wednesday, a jury convicted the Navy reservist from Virginia on separate charges of illegally possessing silencers. [AP Photo/Alexandria Sheriff's Office via AP] In addition to working in some of the most sensitive areas of the US military, Speed recently worked as a military contractor for Novetta Solutions LLC, a defense contractor that conducts advanced analytics for the Defense Department and other federal agencies, according to the FBI. Prosecutors allege that after Speed stormed the Capitol, for the next several months he went on a $50,000 shopping spree, purchasing at least 12 firearms and several gun parts, including the silencers. Revealing the fascist attitudes that permeate police departments and military commands across the US, Speed allegedly told an FBI undercover agent that the weapons were going to be used to wipe out the Jews. The FBI said that Speed described Adolf Hitler as one of the best people thats ever been on this earth. The Navy Times noted in a report last year that charges against Speed only emerged after an intelligence contractor, Dan Gilmore, claimed he was fired from his job after reporting that colleagues were posting racist and misogynistic comments on classified intelligence community message boards. The Navy Times reported that after he was fired, Gilmore wrote on his blog that many employees across the intelligence community posted their belief that Trumps coup was justified. The outsized role played by elements of the police and military in the fascist assault on Congress refutes the false one-man coup narrative advanced by the House Select Committee on January 6 in its final report. Nowhere in the report does the committee acknowledge the more than 100 current and former soldiers arrested in the attack. Instead, the committee whitewashes the 199-minute delay in the deployment of Washington D.C. National Guard troops to the Capitol by Trump-appointed Pentagon officials, despite repeated pleas from the commander of the D.C. National Guard, the chief of the Capitol Police, the D.C mayor and others. The committee writes that the stand-down was merely the byproduct of military processes, institutional caution, and a revised deployment approval process. (p. 775) The failure of the major establishment media to even report the arrests of the three active-duty Marines underscores the corporate medias ongoing role in the cover-up of the complicity of significant sections of the military, the police and the intelligence agencies in the attempted coup. Oklahoma City Police Department Tactical Team deploying from an armored BearCat vehicle in a training exercise. [Photo by Oklahoma City Police Department / CC BY 1.0 A worker at a Seaboard Foods pork processing plant in Guymon, Oklahoma was killed by police while working on the line on January 9. Chiewalthap Mariar, 26, was a refugee from Sudan. A worker who filmed the incident and was fired by the company in retaliation told the Guardian that Mariar was fired by his supervisor and then told to finish his shift by human resources. The supervisor confronted Mariar, presumably afterwards, and police arrived to escort him off the premises. Seaboard Foods did not comment on, nor refute this characterization. The worker said that management kept workers on the job after the shooting. I worked in maintenance. All they had us do was cover the scene with plastic, and we proceeded to finish what was on the production line. He added that This company fired me for recording the truth they were trying to brush under the mat. They never asked me if I was OK. It was my first time seeing a guy get killed and then I get fired. I witnessed the entire thing, from when they [presumably the supervisor] started arguing with him until he was shot, the worker said, explaining that Mariar had a company-issued band-cutter in his hand. When the police got to the plant, the guy was already working, minding his own business. The video shown to the Guardian showed Mariar doing just this. They made him out to be a danger when they said he had a knife in his hand, when it wasnt. And thats wrong on so many levels, the worker said. Another worker from a different shift criticized management and stated that the on-site human resources department was hard to work with. The worker said They didnt have to bring the police in, and that The whole thing is unfair. He did not have to have his life taken away. A spokesperson for Seaboard Corporation, the parent company for Seaboard Foods, claimed that Following the incident, operations were ceased for the remainder of the evening and the following day, and we provided in-person counseling services for employees throughout the week, in addition to ongoing phone counseling services available 24 hours, seven days a week. Feigning sympathy, the spokesperson added We express our heartfelt sorrow to Chiewelthap Mariars family, co-workers, friends and those affected by his death following an incident at our Guymon processing plant involving the Guymon police department on 9 January. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) announced an ongoing investigation on January 10 of the officer-involved shooting at the request of the Guymon Police Department, whose officer was responsible for the shooting. The release claimed that Guymon police answered a call for service at that same address in reference to an agitated and disgruntled employee at a local business and that While speaking with the employee, identified as Chiewelthap Mariar, 26, Mariar produced a knife and began advancing on officers. The release claims that Officers attempted to de-escalate the situation before eventually deploying a taser and that the taser was unsuccessful and Mariar continued advancing on officers at which point an officer fired his service weapon striking Mariar. The OSBI declined to comment to the Guardian and did not clarify if the knife was in fact the company-issued band-cutter seen in the video. The release is a white-wash, and indicates the character of the investigation will be the same. Police kill an average of over 1,100 people each year in the United States, including 1,176 people last year. Seabords parent company, Seaboard Corporation, is one of the largest corporations in the world, ranked number 382 on the Fortune 1000 Revenue Rank. According to Dun & Bradstreet, it had a sales revenue of $9.23 billion for 2022. The facility in Guymon, Oklahoma is responsible for the bulk of the pigs processed by the company, approximately 6 million hogs per year, at a rate of more than four million pounds (~1814000 kilograms) of product per day. This is equivalent to 5 percent of the 27.7 billion pounds of pork produced in the country in 2021. The plant was cited by OSHA in June of 2022 for failing to properly document worker injuries and illnesses 51 times in just a two month period. It was also cited by OSHA for ergonomic issues facing workers in December 2021. According to The Associated Press, in November 2022 three meat plant workers accused Seaboard, along with ten of the other largest beef and pork producers in the United States, of conspiring to depress wages and benefits. As with the rest of the meatpacking industry, Seaboard has allowed the coronavirus to spread in their plant. Nationwide, nearly 60,000 meatpacking workers had been infected and 298 died by September 2021, according to the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Other estimates put the death toll at at least 86,000 infections and 400 deaths in the first 11 months of the pandemic. Meatpacking plants have served as a major point of transmission for the spread of the virus, particularly in rural areas. The union at the Seabord plant, the United Food and Commercial Workers, filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) arguing in April 2021 that Seaboard Foods failed to protect its employees from COVID-19. At the time, Seaboard said that six of its workers had died from COVID-19 and 41 percent of its 2,500 employees tested positive. But despite union members getting infected and dying from a preventable disease, the UFCW did not call for a strike to prevent its members from dying. This is in keeping with the UFCWs role in other plants, including at a Tyson pork plant in Iowa where managers bet on the number of workers who would be infected in the opening months of the pandemic. The UFCW has not called any action in response to Mariars death. UFCW Local 2s president released a statement on Facebook merely calling for a federal investigation and an impartial review by the state in the pending investigation into the killing. Less than one month after the historic strike of 48,000 academic workers at the University of California (UC), their employers, the UC Regents, are attempting to retroactively dock the wages of those who struck. Unable to distinguish between those who struck and workers who did not, wages were paid out to all members, who on average make $2,200 a month. The vindictive maneuver, if carried out, will claw back about $900 from the majority of workers who already live below the poverty line and are reliant on aid and food pantries. The powerful six-week strike ended due to the betrayal of rank-and-file workers by the United Auto Workers (UAW) bureaucracy, which sabotaged the strike and accepted and pushed a contract that was favorable only to the UC. Now the UAW apparatus is helping the UC collect attestation forms that will be used to dock pay. The UAW wrote to the membership falsely claiming that the University is entitled to such information, so you should answer truthfully and accurately. The UAWs notice merely said that members should include or change language in the form that would supposedly create an administrative hurdle for UC. The academic workers and faculty received an email from the UC on January 13 requesting that strikers sign attestation forms indicating whether they had withheld labor during the strike and to indicate the time frame they struck. In McCarthyite fashion, faculty members are also being asked to attest to if they engaged in sympathy strike actions and withheld labor. One worker expressed fear that if attestation forms are not returned, the UC may ask faculty to name who was on strike. The form includes the following language, You are a member of a bargaining unit that has engaged in a strike at the University. Therefore, it is necessary that you confirm which days or hours, if any, that you withheld your labor during the work stoppage. The stated deadline to submit these forms is January 23. There are growing questions about the role played by UAW bureaucrats in helping the university dock strikers pay. One UC academic worker identified the author of the attestation form as UAW official Kavitha Iyengar, who is apparently a legal adviser to the UAW. As recently as 2020, Iyengar served as president of the UC-wide UAW Local 2865 while pursuing her Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC Berkeley. She is currently on the Executive Board of Local 2865 as the Northern Vice President. This document authorship listing indicates at the very least that the UAW assisted UC in drafting this attestation form. Furthermore, the legal basis for such statements is highly questionable. A similar form was distributed to UC faculty, who in many cases canceled classes in solidarity with the strike. In response, the UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) Faculty Association has filed a January 17 cease-and-desist letter arguing that UCs action is illegal. The role of the UAW bureaucracy in helping the UC Regents claw back pay from workers is further proof that this bureaucratic apparatus is entirely opposed to the interests of the rank-and-file members. As many workers have noted, the UAWs debt-collecting was likely part of the deal that was accepted behind closed doors. Facing a barrage of anger, Local 2865 has attempted to save face, tweeting from its official account, No one in the union authored or agreed to this form. Kavithas name appears because she wrote on the UCs document that it is unlawful to dock pay without consentUC rejected this. If the university does move forward with unlawful pay docking, the union will fight it. However, workers have snapped back, noting the UAW apparatus loyalties are clear in the language it has used to coerce workers to complete the form, pointing out that the unions communication to workers stated, The University is entitled to such information, so you should answer truthfully and accurately. The UAW has responded by sending conflicting messages to strikers, encouraging them to truthfully complete and return the form; in others asking them to cross out sections of the form but still sign and return it; with others calling on workers not to return the form. There are no doubt concerns by the UAW apparatus that such blatant anti-worker activities will spark a struggle they are unable to control. This past week at a January 17 meeting of the rank-and-file membership, workers at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) voted unanimously against submitting attestation forms. It is significant that UCSC was the epicenter of the 2019-2020 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) wildcat strike and where UCSC strikers voted in large margins against the current contract. A student at UC Berkeley told the WSWS, I received two emails: the attestation form from the university and an email from the union telling us to change some wording in the form. My faith in the union right now is zero. They are saying the school has a legal right to send this form to us, but if we dont fill it out we should contact them. When the strike started, the union said that the university could dock our pay as a bargaining move but didnt mention it could happen later. If our pay is docked, I am expecting the UAW to just say we sent you strike pay and thats it. Another worker at UC Irvine told the WSWS, It is very political depending on the campus. Where UCSC voted to not fill out the forms no matter what, things at UCI are neutral where theyre telling us that they will support whatever we decide, but that we should answer truthfully and lawfully. Several of the people I know that campaigned for a no vote [on the contract] with me are willing to withhold answering the attestation forms. But myself and others have been explicitly told by faculty we worked for that we would be reported if theyre asked to do so. The workers also noted, Both of the BT [bargaining team] members at UCI voted in favor of most concessions throughout negotiations, and were seeing the responses to attestation forms also follow that pattern now too and it seems like the current union leadership is assisting with attestation forms, whether through contractual agreement, Im not sure. But since Kavitha [the legal adviser] was found within metadata on Qualtrics to be the author of one of the forms, it has heightened scrutiny from some factions of membership. UC workers are going through a critical experience, and the fight is not over. Just a month ago the largest strike in higher education in world history brought the powerful and multibillion-dollar UC system to its knees in California, the worlds fifth-largest economy. What this experience must make clear is that workers face not only the UC Regentsincluding Regent Gavin Newsom, Darrell Steinberg, the predatory Blackstone Group and the entire Democratic Partybut also the UAW bureaucracy, which has exposed itself as an obstacle to meeting the just demands of the rank and file. All the central demands of the strike were betrayed by the UAW apparatus. The powerful strike could have and should have continued until all the demands of the strikers were met, which included: an annual salary of $54,000 year, an end to NRST (Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition) fees, $2,000/month child care reimbursements, an end to the red tape for disabled workers, COVID-19 protections and health care. This strike was sabotaged by the UAW bureaucracy, which used workers dues money to hire a PR firm and push for a yes vote on the sellout contract. As the rights of UC workers were being trampled on by a snap vote over the agreement that dropped all the central demands of workers, the same bureaucracy was riding roughshod over the democratic rights of all UAW members as it systematically suppressed voting by rank-and-file workers in its national elections, which was itself called due to a widespread corruption scandal that jailed a dozen leaders of the organization. Socialist autoworker and candidate for UAW president Will Lehman filed a formal protest to the Monitor overseeing the election which outlined shocking revelations of widespread voter suppression, including the fact that more ballots were marked return to sender (110,000) than ballots cast (104,000) in the election, where only 9 percent of the entire membership voted. And the real participation by rank-and-file workers was closer to 6 percent. The attestation pay back forms are only the most recent expression of the hostility of the UAW and trade union bureaucracies to the rank and file. Workers must organize themselves into rank-and-file committees to harness their strength across all campuses and take the power out of the hands of the bureaucrats. Join the UC Rank-and-File Strike Committee by emailing ucstrikerfc@gmail.com and read its latest statement. Next month, Spanish-Russian journalist Pablo Gonzalez will have been in prison for a year after being arrested for allegedly spying for the Russian government. Gonzalez was detained on February 28, days after the NATO-provoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he covered the refugee crisis in the Polish town of Rzeszow. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison. Pablo Gonzalez [Photo: #FreePabloGonzalez] On November 24, a regional Polish court in the southeastern city of Przemysl ruled that Gonzalezs preventative detention would continue for a further three monthstaking his imprisonment to a full year. This is the third time his detention has been extended, after previous court orders in May and August, despite Gonzalez not having been put on trial or found guilty of any crime. Last week, the appeals court of the Polish town of Rzeszow rejected Gonzalezs appeal against the extension of preventive detention. No proof has been presented that the journalist handed any information to the Russian secret services or that he ever had any intention of doing so. Among the spurious evidence cited by the Polish authorities is that Gonzalez, who has dual nationality, was in possession of two passports bearing different names, one Russian and one Spanishimplying that one was a false identity used for espionage. Gonzalezs Russian passport names him as Pavel Rubtsov, using his fathers surname; his Spanish document identifies him as Pablo Gonzalez Yague, using his mothers two surnames. Pablo is the Hispanicised version of the Russian name Pavel. The arrest of a journalist on unsubstantiated espionage charges is an anti-democratic attack on freedom of speech. It is a reactionary measure aimed at intimidating reporters and silencing opposition to the official, state-sanctioned narratives on the imperialist proxy war in Ukraine instigated by Washington and its NATO allies. It has far-reaching implications for the ability of journalists to report on and criticise the actions of the imperialist powers globally, amid a concerted campaign to obscure and falsify the real origins of the war in Ukraine, presenting it as a one-sided Russian attack on its defenceless neighbour. In reality, the war in Ukraine is the latest escalation in the imperialist drive to militarily encircle and weaken Russia, which has seen NATO expand hundreds of miles eastward since the end of the Soviet Union, provoke a coup in Ukraine in 2014 and carry out dozens of large-scale military exercises on Russias borders. Since the Russian invasion in February last year, Washington and its NATO allies have funnelled billions of dollars in weapons, training and other military aid to Ukraine, and encouraged this country to take direct offensive action targeting Russian territory. Madrid had donated 238 million in military aid to Ukraine by October last year and is now training hundreds of soldiers on Spanish soil. The Spanish coalition government of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and Podemos is fully complicit in the arbitrary detention of Gonzalez. At the end of July, during an official visit to Poland, PSOE Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stated that the arrest of the journalist had been discussed with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, but refused to provide any specific information about the conversation. Since then, the PSOE-Podemos government has done nothing to secure Gonzalezs freedom. At the end of November, at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers to discuss the war in Ukraine, Spains PSOE Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares issued a pathetic appeal to his Polish counterpart, Zbigniew Rau, to bring Gonzalez to trial as soon as possible once the investigation is completed. But speaking to the Spanish press the same day, Albares made clear that his government would do nothing to defend Gonzalez: We have to respect the Polish legal system in this matter. What I am asking is that, as soon as possible, he can be brought to trial, where he has a right to [legal] defence, as he has already had. His lawyer knows the charges, he can present whatever appeals he wants. He [Gonzalez] has access to him. This utter disregard for the democratic rights of its own citizen makes a mockery of any claim by Spains PSOE-Podemos government to be a progressive or even left-wing administration. After making a few perfunctory calls for Gonzalezs freedom after his arrest earlier this year, the left-populist Podemos, the junior partner in the Spanish government, has largely dropped the issue. Recent letters, reported in the Spanish press and revealing the appalling conditions of Gonzalezs imprisonment, are an indictment of the PSOE-Podemos government. In a letter to the platform #FreePablo received on November 21, but likely written earlier in the autumn, Gonzalez had expressed his concerns about the Polish winter weather and his poor state of physical and mental health. Over here, truthfully, nothing much is new; its what solitary confinement is like, the letter begins. Most of the time Im in good spirits, although I sometimes have moments when Im feeling much lower. Its been several months in complete isolation and its weighing down on me. I suppose that this winter we will not have heating, Gonzalez continued. They [the Polish government] have barely anything for schools, so imagine the prisons. I asked, and the Spanish Embassy has asked too, for thermal indoor clothing. They refused. On the other hand, the [prison] director did allow me to have an extra blanket. Speaking about his cell block, the journalists letter added: In my section [of the prison] the windows dont open, and there is no way of ventilating; its hot in summer and condensation builds up in winter. As for food, Gonzalez explained that Im lacking protein; what I do consume I have to buy with the money that is sent to me from outside the prison. Im lacking a lot of vitamins, so Im fighting to be able to buy them, as well as antioxidants. In a separate letter to the Polish interior minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, also towards the end of November, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also described the particularly hard conditions facing Gonzalez. He has to use handcuffs at all times when hes allowed out of his cell, his cell and bathroom are constantly watched by cameras, the prison officers make him undress various times a day and put him through meticulous searches, the RSF letter explains. It continues: He is only allowed to shower once a week and he has not received a visit from a dermatologist for weeks for his skin problem. Denouncing the unusually severe preventive methods used against Gonzalez, RSF also adds: The [Polish] authorities have refused to inform him about what the accusations of spying are based on, and the journalist has still not been given a trial. RSF does not, however, call for Gonzalezs release, instead making a tentative plea to the Polish government to consider if it is necessary to keep a person who is presumed innocent in isolation for such a long time. The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) demands the immediate release of Pablo Gonzalez and an end to the intimidation and censorship of anti-war journalists and activists. This must be part of a broader movement against the NATO war in Eastern Europe, and the participation of the PSOE-Podemos government in it. The dean of the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) issued a statement on Thursday reversing his previous decision to deny a fellowship to Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Rights Watch (HRW), on the grounds that Roth held an anti-Israel bias. Following widespread public condemnation and calls for his resignation by students and faculty, Douglas W. Elmendorf, dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, sent an email to the HKS community saying he would name Roth to the fellowship. As reported by The Harvard Crimson, Elmendorf wrote, I now believe that I made an error in my decision not to appoint him as a Fellow at our Carr Center for Human Rights. The dean added, I am sorry that the decision inadvertently cast doubt on the mission of the School and our commitment to open debate in ways I had not intended and do not believe to be true. At the same time, Elmendorf claimed that he had not come under pressure from financial contributors to veto Roths appointment, saying, Donors do not affect our consideration of academic matters. In a further effort to save face, Elmendorf also claimed he did not block the retired Human Rights Watch leader from being granted the position at Harvard because of his criticism of Israel. Instead, the dean said he made the decision based on my evaluation of his potential contributions to the school. Responding to an inquiry by the New York Times, Roth said he was pleased by the decision and acknowledged that the outpouring of support by faculty and others had forced Elmendorf to reverse course. Roth also said, Dean Elmendorf has said he made this decision because of people who mattered to him at the university. He still refuses to say who those people who mattered to him were. Roth is now a fellow at the University of Pennsylvanias Perry World House, having accepted a position there following his rejection by Harvard. Kenneth Roth during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, 2018. [AP Photo/Lee Jin-man] The Nation first published an article on January 5 reporting that Roth had been denied the Kennedy School fellowship following his retirement as executive director of HRW because of concerns about his tweets on Israel, according to Kathryn Sikkink, a noted HKS professor. When Sikkink inquired further about the decision, Elmendorf told her that HRW has an anti-Israel bias. Elmendorfs initial decision against Roth was motivated by the increasing attempts of the Israeli government and the US national security apparatus to label any exposure of the racist and criminal treatment of the Palestinians by the Zionist state as a manifestation of anti-Semitism. Since Roth had, during his tenure at HRW, referred to Israeli policy as apartheid, both he and the organization had been labeled as being biased. Kenneth Roth, who is the son of a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany, is a leading figure of the Democratic Party political establishment. Under his direction, HRW became a principal vehicle for the development of imperialist military intervention around the world based on human rights justifications. Roths work also included participation in the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which the US government does not recognize. Last April, after Roth announced plans to step down from Human Rights Watch, he was actively pursued for the fellowship by the Kennedy Schools Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. The center recruited Roth because he is one of the most distinguished human-rights leaders of our time, according to director Mathias Risse. However, when Roth met with Elmendorf to introduce himself, the dean asked him if he had any enemies. In an op-ed in the Guardian, Roth wrote, It was an odd question. I explained that of course I had enemies. Many of them. But I had a hunch what he was driving at, so I also noted that the Israeli government undoubtedly detests me, too. Two weeks later the fellowship was withdrawn. The campaign against Elmendorfs decision included hundreds of Harvard affiliates signing an open letter calling for the dean to resign because he carried out an act of censorship and a threat to free expression and academic freedom. The current director of HRW, Tirana Hassan, wrote that the vetoing of Mr. Roths fellowship because of his important work on a specific country sends a chilling message to all scholars and advocates, whatever part of the world they research, that Harvard University may not judge them by the quality of their work, but rather on the say-so of well-funded detractors, Hassan wrote. What did Roth and HRW actually say about Israel? In a report titled, A Threshhold Crossed, published in April 2021, HRW wrote that Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians ... authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity ... these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. At the time of the HRW report, Roth told the New York Times, While much of the world treats Israels half-century occupation as a temporary situation that a decades-long peace process will soon cure, the oppression of Palestinians there has reached a threshold and a permanence that meets the definitions of the crimes of apartheid and persecution. That these statements of fact could be characterized as biased is a measure of the desperate lengths that supporters of Zionism and US imperialism in the Middle East will go to in defending and covering up the brutal treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. The forced reversal by Elmendorf also takes place while mass protests have erupted in Tel Aviv against the most far-right government in the history of Israel. Two weeks after the formation of the new coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahuwhich includes racist and fascist parties that stand for Jewish supremacy and apartheid rule100,000 people demonstrated at Habima Square against undemocratic measures being prepared by the new regime. The fact that bilateral trade between Uzbekistan and Belarus exceeded $500 million in 2022 is evidence that the two countries are actively enhancing their economic and trade ties. On Friday, Leonid Marinich, Belarus' Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Uzbekistan told Azernews, citing TASS. "We are glad that relations with the Republic of Uzbekistan in the trade and economic spheres have been rapidly developing and expanding in recent years. By the end of 2022, we had attained the largest figure of mutual trade volumes in the history of bilateral ties, surpassing the $500 mln mark," the ambassador said. According to the diplomat, Uzbekistan and Belarus are actively cooperating in the field of healthcare and education - in particular, 4,250 students from Uzbekistan receive education in the universities of Belarus and within the framework of joint programs. U.S. to impose sanctions against Wagner PMC next week White House The Unites States will impose new sanctions against the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) next week, White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Adviser John Kirby said on Friday, January 20. "Today, we are announcing additional actions that we are taking to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian and Wagner forces. First, the Department of the Treasury will be designating Wagner as a significant Transnational Criminal Organization," he told a press briefing. In coordination with this designation, the U.S. will also impose additional sanctions next week against Wagner and its support network across multiple continents, Kirby said. Biden on Leopard 2: Ukraine to receive all help it needs to fight against Russian troops President of the United States Joseph Biden said Ukraine will receive all the help it needs, including Leopard 2 tanks, to fight against the Russian troops, CNN reported on Friday, January 20. "Ukraine is going to get all the help they need," he said when a reporter asked if he supports Poland's goal to send the German-made tanks to Ukraine. As reported, Germany is guided by the U.S. in its decision whether or not to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Politico reported, citing informed sources. According to two German officials, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's stance on the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine is largely dependent on U.S. President Joe Biden. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) repelled enemy attacks near 13 settlements in Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the past 24 hours, the General Staff has said. "In the past 24 hours, the defense forces repelled occupiers' attacks near Novoselivske, Ploschanka and Chervonopopivka in Luhansk region and Bilohorivka, Rozdolivka, Vasiukivka, Krasna Hora, Yahidne, Bakhmut, Predtechyne and Maryinka in Donetsk region," it said in Saturday morning updates on the situation at the front. In Volyn, Polissia, Siversky, and Slobozhansky directions, there are enemy units in the areas bordering Ukraine, however, no offensive groups of the enemy have been detected. The Russian forces deployed in the territory of Belarus actively conduct reconnaissance in the neighboring countries, including Ukraine. The enemy shelled residential areas in Sumy and Kharkiv regions, Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, Novopavlivske, Zaporizhia, and Kherson directions using artillery systems, mortars, and tanks. There are casualties among the civilian population. Head of Sumy Regional Military Administration Dmytro Zhyvytsky has reported another attempt to cross the border by a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group. "Yesterday, at around 5 a.m., a group of six people tried to enter Yunakivska community from the territory of Russia. Our military opened fire, the enemy ran away," he said on the Telegram channel on Saturday. Firefighters rescued 70 dogs from a home that caught fire twitter A house caught fire in the San Francisco Bay area this week and miraculously 70 dogs, mostly pomeranians, and three cats made it out safely. Three people also self-evacuated from the blaze. Contra Costa County Fire Protection District responded to the two-story house fire on Barber Lane in Martinez, a suburb about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco, according to The Press Democrat. There they were met with numerous dogs, three cats and three people to rescue, according to the East Bay Times. RELATED: Apple AirTag Helps Dog Reunite with Owner After Pet Is Swept Away by California Floodwaters In one photo, posted by the fire department's Twitter page, show a number of the rescued pomeranians. The fire started in the garage and sent one person to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Two others were not injured. The blaze fully engulfed the attached garage and spread to the second story, Steve Hill, a spokesman for the fire district told SFGATE. None of the animals were injured. Barber Lane garage fire in Martinez has been knocked down. One resident transported to hospital for smoke inhalation, two other residents uninjured. Firefighters rescuing multiple dogs. Fire under investigation. #barberic pic.twitter.com/sf9LzzGDzy Con Fire PIO (@ContraCostaFire) January 17, 2023 Firefighters safely removed as many as 70 dogs and cats with the help of police, animal control and "many helpful neighbors," the fire district said on Twitter. The investigation determined the fire was not suspicious in nature, according to the fire department. RELATED: Texas Woman Saves Malnourished Dachshund After Finding the Dog in a Filthy Abandoned Backpack "The vast majority were pomeranians," Hill told SFGATE. "There were some other dogs mixed in there. A few cats in the mix. They were hard to inventory because they were all running around." Story continues Hill said the dogs belonged to a breeder who is a friend of the residents of the home. The animals were taken to the Contra Costa County Animal Services Department where they awaited to be picked up by their owner, according to SFGATE. 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. Anima Services Lt. Alana Weissman told the East Bay Times that animal control officers were "happy to come out and assist and give the animals a quick once over to make sure they were healthy. They all look happy and healthy." About 50 defense leaders from around the world wrapped up a meeting in Germany on Friday without an agreement to send tanks to Ukraine. Well talk more in-depth about the tanks decision and how Kyiv has responded to the news. Well also discuss new sanctions against Russias Wagner Group and three U.S. Marines who were charged this week with breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. This is Defense & National Security, your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, Im Brad Dress. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Close Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Defense and National Security newsletter Pentagon defends position on tanks Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, dug in on the tanks position at a press conference. What were really focused on is making sure that Ukraine has the capability that it needs to be successful right now, Austin said. That means a new, $2.5 billion package of weapons and equipment the U.S. announced on Thursday for Kyiv. It includes Stryker armored vehicles for the first time, but not the prized M1 Abrams main battle tanks. What Kyiv is saying: Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky thanked the U.S. and other nations for the security aid, but also expressed clear disapproval for the decision not to send over Western tanks. I can thank you hundreds of times, Zelensky told the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, but hundreds of thank yous are not hundreds of tanks. Kyiv has used upgraded, Soviet-era tanks in the war but has yet to receive modern, Western tanks from partners, which would offer more firepower. No to Leopards: After five hours of talks, there remains an impasse from the defense leaders on sending over Germanys Leopard 2 tanks. Germanys new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told The Associated Press a decision may shape up in the short term, but he is unclear what that might look like. Story continues Several European nations who have the Leopards in stock cant ship them to Ukraine without Berlins approval, and they are likely to continue pressing Germany on the issue. Read more of the story here. Russias Wagner Group hit with US sanctions The Biden administration announced sanctions against Wagner Group, a private mercenary company fighting in Ukraine along with Russian forces. The sanctions include labeling Wagner Group a significant Transnational Criminal Organization and warning nations and businesses not to do business with them lest they run afoul of the U.S. government. Brutality: Wagner Group, headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, is accused of brutal war crimes, human rights violations and of meddling in conflicts in West Africa and the Middle East. In Ukraine, Wagner forces led a vicious assault this month against the eastern salt mining town of Soledar, which Russia claimed victory over after thousands of lives were lost and buildings completely leveled. U.S. action: The new U.S. sanctions build on action taken last month by the Commerce Department to restrict Wagner Groups ability to procure foreign produced items and U.S. tech and equipment. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby also said additional sanctions against Wagner are expected next week. These actions recognize the transcontinental threat that Wagner poses, including through its ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity, Kirby told reporters. North Korean ties: Kirby also presented evidence that North Korea is supplying weapons to Wagner, showing what appeared to be Russian rail cars traveling to North Korea and then returning in November. The U.S. has previously assessed that North Korea has provided rockets and missiles to Russia for use by Wagner. Read the full story here. Three Marines charged in Jan. 6 Capitol riots case The Jan. 6, 2021, defendants list is continuing to grow. The FBI on Wednesday charged three active-duty U.S. Marines with four misdemeanor offenses each, including disorderly conduct with the intention of disrupting government business. The Marines are Micah Coomer, Dodge Dale Hellonen and Joshua Abate. According to the FBI, the defendants placed a red MAGA hat on a statue and posed for photos with it on Jan. 6. The FBI said they identified the Marines through video footage inside the U.S. Capitol, which was paired with personal identifications. Everything in this country is corrupt: Agents said in an unsealed affidavit they also identified Coomer after he posted photos of the rioting on Instagram. And in a conversation with another user on the social media platform after the riots, Coomer said he was glad to be apart of history [sic], the FBI said. Coomer also allegedly wrote that the 2020 election was unfair and that everything in this country is corrupt, expressing a desire for a fresh restart and also making a reference to a second civil war. The bigger picture: The Department of Justice has had its hands full since the pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn the 2020 election. More than 950 rioters have been arrested and more than 484 defendants have pleaded guilty to a wide range of federal charges. Other defendants in the Jan. 6 cases have included military veterans or reservists. The first known active-duty military member, Maj. Christopher Warnagiris, was charged in May 2021 with assaulting and impeding police officers during the rioting, among other charges. Read more here. Toxic burn pits victims seeking justice Remember the big hullabaloo last summer over Republicans derailing a bill (over spending concerns) to compensate veterans exposed to toxic burn pits? Congress did end up passing the Honoring Our PACT Act, which expanded access to veterans exposed to toxic chemicals, but thousands of Americans are still in the dark about when their claims will be approved by the government. Technicalities: Some victims have been turned away because of a legal technicality. Mike Partain saw his lawsuit seeking compensation from the government over toxic chemical exposure at Camp Lejeune, N.C., dismissed. Partain was ordered to refile an administrative claim, which he says already submitted years ago. The law says you have to file an administrative claim with the Department of the Navy, Partain said. Our position was we already did. In limbo: Partain is a breast cancer survivor born at Camp Lejeune, a military base that experienced a contaminated water supply decades ago. Within the Honoring our PACT Act is a provision permitting lawsuits for those exposed to toxic chemicals in Camp Lejeune. Partain said he refiled his new claim months ago as required by the judge, but has yet to hear back from authorities on the case. Im in limbo in that sense, Partain said. But the thing is, for those people who didnt and just filed suit, now they would have to file a new claim all over again. Read more here. ON TAP FOR MONDAY The American Enterprise Institute hosts an in-person event to discuss China, Russia and Americas military readiness with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) at 1 p.m. in Washington, D.C. Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst will moderate an event for the Atlantic Council discussing a new book from the Center for Economic Policy Research, Rebuilding Ukraine: Principles and Policies. The event is available to stream on the Atlantic Councils website at 10 a.m. ET. The Wilson Center hosts a virtual event at 4 p.m. ET on the topic of Ralphe Bunche, the first Black Nobel laureate known for his civil rights and decolonization activism. WHAT WERE READING OPINIONS IN THE HILL We need an open source intelligence center Thats it for today! Check out The Hills Defense and National Security pages for the latest coverage. See you next week! For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. House Continues Voting For New Speaker After Three Failed Attempts Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kevin McCarthy react amid a day of votes that culminated in McCarthy's election as House Speaker at the U.S. Capitol on January 04, 2023 in Washington, DC. Credit - Getty Images2023 Getty Images As President Bidens handling of classified documents draws congressional scrutiny, Congress is in a position to get answers to important questions: How did classified material from his time as Vice President get to Bidens private D.C. office and his home in Delaware? Who packed them up and who had access to those rooms? Why didnt Biden tell the public when the first secret documents were discovered on Nov. 2, four days before the midterm elections? What needs to be fixed so the next time a President and Vice President move out of office, their records are protected and preserved? Instead of focusing on those questions, House Republicansnewly installed at the top of congressional committees with subpoena powerare winding up their inquiries as vehicles for amplifying unfounded conspiracy theories and landing political hits on Biden. An early sign of this strategy came on Jan. 15, when a key Republican made clear he would be focused on Bidens classified document issues, but not Donald Trumps, despite the former President having fought official requests for the return of boxes of secret papers for more than a year. Rep. James Comer, the Kentucky Republican leading the House Oversight Committee, told Jake Tapper on CNN that he wasnt concerned with investigating how classified documents got to Trumps residence at Mar-a-Lago. When it comes to Trump, Comer said, at the end of the day, my biggest concern isnt the classified documents, to be honest with you. My concern is how there is such a discrepancy with how Trump was treated, by raiding Mar-a-Lago by getting the security cameras, by taking pictures of documents on the floor, by raiding Melanias closet. Tim Stretton, who trains House committee staff on how to conduct investigations, says congressional investigations should be focused on gathering information to make recommendations for reforms. It will be difficult for inquiries by House Republicans to appear legitimate if they are not also exploring the discovery of hundreds of classified documents at Trumps home in Palm Beach, Fla. Story continues If you narrow it to the point where it looks partisan, the public has a hard time seeing the legitimate problems, says Stretton, who is the director of the congressional oversight initiative at the Project On Government Oversight, a non-profit watchdog organization. The exclusion of Trump in their inquiry is just one hint of how House Republicans plan to conduct their investigations. Comer has peppered his initial requests for information with unfounded theories about China trying to influence Bidens foreign policy through donations to the university that employed him. Theres also Speaker Kevin McCarthys decision to name Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, both election deniers and spreaders of false conspiracies, to Comers oversight committee, as well as the position of Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a firebrand Trump defender, as head of the House Judiciary Committee, which is also investigating the issue. The approach echoes the Republican-led investigations into the deadly 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic compound and a CIA facility in Benghazi, Libya. Multiple investigations and scores of hearings didnt uncover wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton, who was Secretary of State at the time of the attacks, but Republican leaders believed the inquiries and headlines damaged her credibility in advance of Clintons 2016 presidential campaign. In a Fox News interview in 2015, McCarthy said Clinton looked unbeatable at the time. But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping, McCarthy said on air. Heather Sawyer, the executive director of American Oversight, a progressive watchdog group, served as chief counsel to the Democratic members of the Select Committee on Benghazi. She argues that the exclusion of Trump from an investigation into the classified documents lays bare House Republicans real goal. When exercised responsibly, congressional oversight is an important cornerstone of American democracy, she said in a statement. Unfortunately, the clearly selective targeting of a political opponent is not responsible or objective. More from TIME What have House Republicans asked for so far? Comer has sent requests to the White House, the National Archives, and the University of Pennsylvania, where Biden was employed as a professor after he left the vice presidency in 2017. The university manages the D.C. office space Biden used for a period and where his personal lawyers told the National Archives they found classified documents on Nov. 2. The House committee has requested documents and information be handed over by the end of January, and plans to discuss issuing subpoenas for the information if the requests are ignored, a spokesperson for Comer tells TIME. No House Democrats have signed onto the requests so far. Comer is demanding information from the university on Bidens time at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a think tank which opened in 2018. The details Comer requested on Wednesday included a list of people who had keycard access to the Biden Penn Center office in Washington, D.C., a log of visitors who met with Biden there, and documents related to the security of the luxury office building near the U.S. Capitol. Comer also wants information about donations to the university from China, citing an unfounded theory that donations to Penn from China were intended to be passed through to Biden to influence his foreign policy positions. Comer has requested a list of Chinese donors to the university starting in 2017 and correspondence about such donations. Ron Ozio, a University of Pennsylvania spokesman, disputed Comers insinuations about foreign influence on its think tank. The Penn Biden Center has never solicited or received any gifts from any Chinese or other foreign entity and the Penn Biden Center budget comes from university funds, he said in a statement. He added that the university would respond to Comers requests in a timely manner. The focus on foreign influence reveals Comers interest in linking his investigation of Bidens handling of classified documents and a separate committee investigation into the business dealings of Bidens son Hunter. In his letter to Mary Magill, University of Pennsylvanias president, Comer wrote that Hunter had listed Joe Bidens Wilmington home as a primary address in 2018, and expressed concern that Hunter may have had access to the classified documents found in the Wilmington garage. Separately, Jordan, in his role as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting all documents related the discovery of the classified materials at Bidens D.C. office and Wilmington home; all communications between Bidens lawyers and the FBI and Justice Department; and all documents related to Attorney General Merrick Garlands decisions to have John R. Lausch, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, conduct the initial review of the case and to have Robert Hur, the former U.S. Attorney in Maryland, take over the investigation as special counsel. What comes next? The litany of requests around Bidens handling of classified documents sets the stage for protracted legal battles between House Republicans, the executive branch, and the University of Pennsylvania. Public hearings on Bidens handling of classified documents are likely, Comers spokesperson said, but nothing has been announced yet. The White House has referred questions about how classified documents ended up in Bidens private office and Delaware home to the White House counsels office and the Department of Justice, where Garland appointed Hur as special counsel last week to handle the review of the case. The President takes classified information seriously, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday. While the White House is being careful not to discuss specifics about the classified documents case, it has not held back in remarking on the lawmakers McCarthy has tapped to help investigate the matter, criticizing Republican leaders for putting extreme MAGA members on House oversight committees. These are members who have promoted violent rhetoric and dangerous conspiracy theories, including suggesting violence against political opponents, trafficking in antisemitic lies, and defending and downplaying a violent insurrection against our democracy, Jean-Pierre said. In the run up to the 2020 election, Jordan wrote on Twitter that Democrats were trying to steal the election and also spoke at a Stop the Steal rally in Pennsylvania after the election. In addition, Greene and Gosar are set to join the House Oversight Committee. In the previous Congress, Greene was stripped of committee assignments for promoting a Facebook post about shooting then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, questioning whether the US government planned the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and confronting a survivor of a school shooting. Rep. Paul Gosar lost his committee assignments after posting to social media an animated video showing him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Both Trump and Biden face situations involving classified documents that are now in the hands of special counsels. Garland appointed Jack Smith in November to handle both Trumps taking of classified documents and his role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Federal officials had negotiated for over a year with Trump about returning all the documents he took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. In court filings justifying the FBIs search of Mar-a-Lago, federal officials said they were concerned Trump had taken steps to obstruct their investigation. The Biden White House has tried to show that Bidens lawyers reached out to federal officials as soon as they discovered classified material in his private D.C. office in November and when they found more classified documents at his Wilmington home in December in January. Nonetheless, there are plenty of unanswered questions related to Bidens situation. And the White House has released information piecemeal rather than all at once. Biden hasnt explained why he didnt tell the public immediately that such documents were found in November, and instead has had his lawyers and press secretary give narrowly tailored answers to questions after the news broke on Jan. 9. FBI investigators found yet more classified documents on Jan. 20, when Biden agreed to let the FBI search his Wilmington home nearly 13 hours. The FBI took six items containing documents with classified markings dating to Bidens time in the Senate and as Vice President, some materials near those papers, as well as handwritten notes from Bidens time as Vice President, according to a description of the voluntary search from Bidens personal attorney Bob Bauer. The communications strategy by the Biden White House has been really awful and inconsistent, says Lauren Wright, a political scientist at Princeton University who studies presidential politics. The White House response cuts against that administrations message heading into 2024, which is, We are competent and organized and ethical. And thats really good for Donald Trump and really bad for President Biden. Bidens approval rating dipped slightly to 36% after the news about the classified documents became public, according to a survey of American adults released on Jan. 18 by Quinnipiac University. Roughly two-thirds of Americans were concerned about the classified documents found in Bidens home and private office, but didnt think Biden should face criminal charges, the pollsters found. While the situation creates an opportunity for Republicans to undermine Biden, they could end up shooting themselves in the foot, Wright says. The committees have a lot of political baggage, says Wright, who adds, Even though they do have something really serious to look into nowand most Americans agree it is serious and requires investigationthey are at risk of turning it into a political sideshow. With reporting from Eric Cortellessa/Washington NEW YORK - Recently elected Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., is facing a host of questions: He's accused of faking his resume and the circumstances of his mother's death along with having questionable campaign finances reporting and allegations of pilfering from a fundraising campaign for a dying dog, among other things. He has acknowledged embellishing his educational background and job history, but has denied most of the other allegations, even as he was sworn in to a seat in the House of Representatives. The allegations have sparked multiple demands for his resignation, as well as at least three investigations and calls for additional probes. Santos, 34, has repeatedly said he will not resign from Congress but did step down from his House committee assignments. Here's a summary of the investigations and reviews. State investigations Santos' district includes a portion of northern Nassau County, N.Y., on Long Island, as well as part of Queens, New York City's eastern borough. Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly, a Republican, announced that her office would investigate Santos after he publicly acknowledged having embellished his resume. "The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning. The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the Third (Congressional) District must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress," Donnelly said in a statement issued by her office in late December. "No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it," Donnelly concluded. Her office provided no details of the investigation, leaving it unclear what potential crimes could be under review. Separately, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz's office is also conducting a preliminary investigation, according to several media reports. While as a matter of course we do not comment on open investigations, we are reviewing whether Queens County has jurisdiction over any potential criminal offenses," Katz's office said in a statement. Story continues New York State Attorney General Letitia James' office said in late December that it was "looking into a number of issues" involving Santos. However, the announcement stopped short of confirming a formal investigation. Federal investigation The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, headquartered in Brooklyn, includes Santos' congressional district. An investigation by U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, the top prosecutor for the Eastern District, is focused in part on Santos' financial dealings, according to reports by The New York Times, CNN and other news organizations. A spokesperson for Peace did not respond to a message seeking comment. Questions about Santos' financial dealings have included the sources of funding for his 2022 campaign, as well as a sharp increase in his reported earnings between his unsuccessful 2020 congressional campaign and victory in 2022. What we know: Companies linked to embattled congressman George Santos draw scrutiny USA TODAY investigates: George Santos' college education is a myth. Is he the only one lying? We checked Concerns about Santos campaign filings: Rep. George Santos' finances are raising questions. Here's what public records show. Complaint over GoFundMe effort: Rep. George Santos pushes back on 'insane' claim he stole funds for veteran's dying dog Calls for campaign finance investigations Several organizations and elected officials have called on the Federal Election Commission to investigate Santos' campaign funding and spending. The Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan advocate for voters, filed a complaint with the FEC. The organization also sent the complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice's public integrity section. The complaint alleges that Santos: Concealed the true sources of his 2022 congressional campaign funding, including the "unexplained and highly suspicious origins of $705,000 Santos purportedly loaned his campaign." Unknown companies and individuals may have illegally funneled money to the campaign through a limited liability company he created, the CLC said. Falsified reports on his 2022 campaign spending. In all, Santos reported 40 disbursements between $199 and $200. And 37 of the expenditures were for $199.99, one penny below the FEC threshold for requiring receipts, invoices or canceled checks. Illegally used campaign funds for personal expenses, including a residence for Santos. The FEC and Department of Justice have not commented publicly on the CLC complaint. However, DOJ's public integrity section asked the FEC to delay any action against Santos while federal prosecutors conduct a parallel criminal investigation, The Washington Post reported. End Citizens United, a political action committee that focuses on money in politics, also filed three complaints with the FEC over Santos' campaign finances. The latest alleges: Sam Miele, who worked as a fundraiser for Santos' campaign in 2020 and 2022, sent emails and made calls soliciting money and identifying himself as House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy's chief of staff Dan Meyer. Miele impersonated Meyer over the course of two campaign cycles and McCarthy's office was aware of the campaign's actions as early as August 2021. Miele misrepresenting himself when soliciting campaign funds and giving the impression that McCarthy endorsed donations violates federal law. Separately, Reps. Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman, both Democratic House members from New York, have asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Santos. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose slim, four-seat majority can ill afford to lose a GOP member, has largely avoided the controversy. As McCarthy's tenure as speaker began, Santos was named to two House committees by his fellow Republicans in the chamber. McCarthy: Santos will be removed from Congress if ethics probe finds he broke law However, Santos told House Republican colleagues on Jan. 31 that he would step down from committees until the many legal and ethical reviews focused on him and his campaign have been resolved. The development came a day after McCarthy initiated a private meeting with Santos. Revived criminal allegations in Brazil Law enforcement authorities in Brazil, where Santos' parents were born, plan to reopen an investigation into Santos' alleged use of a stolen checkbook in 2008, The New York Times reported. Allegedly using a false name, he used the checkbook for nearly $700 in spending at a shop outside Rio de Janeiro, the Times reported. The investigation went dormant because Brazilian authorities were unable to locate Santos. Now, the officials plan to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to notify Santos about the charges, a move that would enable the case to proceed. I am not a criminal here not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world, Santos told the New York Post in December before the Times report of the Brazilian case being revived. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Santos investigations: A breakdown of the Republican's troubles Photofab/Shutterstock Ginger Spices former fiance is being sued after allegedly refusing to pay eight months rent for his luxury New York City apartment. Italian Fabrizio Politi, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur who is best known for being briefly engaged to Geri Halliwell in 2009, has allegedly not paid upwards of $39,600 in rent for his fully furnished apartment at the historic Essex House building/hotel on Central Park South, according to a civil complaint filed Saturday in New York Supreme Court. The complaint alleges that Politi signed his lease in December 2021 and paid his monthly rent of $4,950 for about four months before he stopped paying rent completely. In or around November 2022, Defendant Politi promised [his landlord] that he would make good on his unpaid rent, citing a purported mix-up with his banks, but he never did, the complaint, alleging breach of contract and unjust enrichment, states. Melanie C on the Dark Side of Being a Spice Girl and Why She Wants the Group to Headline Coachella The allegation of skipping out on his rent seemingly defies Politis online persona, where he promotes himself as a successful entrepreneur and globe-trotting CEO of a social-commerce platform, United Free. He made international headlines in 2009, however, when the once-luxury yacht tycoon proposed to the Spice Girl just weeks after meeting. According to the Daily Mail, Halliwell called off their engagement in March 2009, three months after they announced their marriage plans. Despite the brief engagement, it seems like Politi still tries to maintain at least online ties with Halliwell and other celebrities. On his Instagramwhich bears the caption #entrepreneur #investor #founder #ceo #inventorPoliti has a pinned photograph of himself with Ginger Spice and her then toddler daughter from 2010. He also posted two other photos of him and Halliwell this month aloneand made her latest Instagram his story on Saturday. In another pinned photograph, Politi has a photo of him alongside supermodel Naomi Campbell. Story continues But despite his luxurious social media presence, the landlord of his New York apartment alleges he has been saving money by not paying for his one-bedroom apartment directly across Central Park. A listing for the apartment boasts that the unit comes with the conveniences of a five-star hotel, including a 24-hour doorman, fitness center, dry cleaning service, and a newly renovated spa. The complaint claims that Politi, an Italian citizen, and resident of Luxembourg, signed his one-year lease on Dec. 2, 2021. Politi regularly and frequently travels to New York City for business and social purposes, including to further the interest of his companies, including United Free, Inc., the complaint alleges. While he paid until March 2022 via wire transfers, the complaint alleges he did not pay for the last eight months until he eventually left the unit that December. The landlord allegedly sent notices of unpaid rent to Politi twice in November 2022and several times in Decemberto notify him he was in default, in the amount of $39,600. However, the complaint alleges he never paid. Politi obtained rent-free possession of the Unit for (8) eight months, during which time Defendant Politi, a foreign citizen, could visit New York, do business on behalf of Defendant United Free in New York, and promote Defendant United Free and himself as an officer of Defendant United Free and successful resident of the prestigious and historical building on Central Park South, the complaint alleges. In a statement to The Daily Beast, Politi said he had not been aware that the rent payments were not being made, and that there was an issue with his bank due to online access to all non-resident customers in the States being blocked after the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he has every intention of paying and will hopefully complete the checks this week. Ive never had or created problems, this is a problem created by the bank during the pandemic, he said. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A jury on Jan. 20 rejected a woman's allegations that a former police chief in Virginia and three other officers protected a prostitution ring that she said trafficked her. The eight-person civil jury found that the woman, identified in court only as Jane Doe, was not a victim of trafficking but was instead a willing sex worker. Once the jury reached that conclusion, it did not have to consider the question of the officers' alleged involvement in protecting the prostitution ring. Asheville Police Department Deputy Chief Jim Baumstark The officers sued included former Fairfax County Police Chief Ed Roessler and James Baumstark, a retired captain in Fairfax County who now serves as a deputy chief in Asheville, North Carolina. During the two-week trial, the woman said she was lured to the U.S. from Costa Rica in 2010 with promise of work as a nanny and housekeeper, and also as a high-end escort. She said she was told she wouldn't be required to have sex with clients but could if she wanted, and that she would be paid for it. Instead, Doe said she was forced to engage in often degrading sex acts with as many as 17 men a day, and that the leader of the operation, Hazel Sanchez, kept her employed by confiscating her passport and threatening to harm her family if she ran away. More:Jury hears case alleging APD deputy chief, 3 other cops enabled prostitution ring More:Woman accusing APD deputy chief, 3 other cops, of aiding sex trafficking testifies But defense lawyers pointed to an email exchange between Doe and Sanchez before she came to the U.S., in which they discussed the rates that would be charged to men on dates. Defense lawyers said the discussion of hourly rates did not comport with Doe's claim that she was promised work as a high-end escort who would go on dates with wealthy clients and would only have sex if she chose to. They also noted that Doe traveled to Costa Rica often between 2010 and 2015 when she alleged that she was trafficked only to return to Sanchez each time. Doe said she did so because she feared for her family's safety. Story continues "She's willing to say whatever it takes to get what she wants in that moment," Kim Baucom, a lawyer for two of the officers, said in her closing statement. Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler briefs reporters on reports of a man with a gun entering the USA Today headquarters building on Aug. 7, 2019, in McLean, Virginia. Both Roessler and Baumstark denied that they ever used sex workers in Sanchez's operation or that they did anything to protect it. The other two former officers, Michael Barbazette and Jason Mardocco, admitted they were clients of Sanchez and resigned from the force after their phone numbers were found on her phone. But they denied that they knew Doe, that they were Doe's clients, or that they ever engaged in any conduct to protect the prostitution ring. Doe filed the lawsuit in 2021 against unnamed Fairfax county police officers. The lawsuit came after a criminal case against Sanchez in which she was convicted and sentenced to more than 2 years in prison for running a prostitution ring. Some sex workers told the FBI during its investigation of Sanchez that law enforcement officers were clients of her Virginia-based operation and provided protection to Sanchez by tipping her off when police were conducting sting operations in the area. Authorities searched through the 10,000 names and numbers in Sanchez's contact list and found the numbers of Barbazette and Mardocco. More:As sex trafficking trial naming APD deputy chief starts, why are Asheville leaders quiet? When Doe's lawyer, Vic Glasberg, learned their names he added them to the lawsuit as defendants. He also added Roessler and Baumstark as defendants when a former sex-trafficking detective in Fairfax County, William Woolf, reached out to Glasberg and alleged that Roessler and Baumstark had tried to interfere in his work. The initial allegations against Roessler and Baumstark never suggested that they were clients of the prostitution ring. But last week, as the trial began, Doe and her lawyer alleged publicly for the first time that they were. Doe and another sex worker in Sanchez's ring testified at trial that they were trafficked, and both identified all four officers in court as clients. But on cross-examination, numerous discrepancies emerged, including confusion about the officers' names and their identifying characteristics. Defense lawyers also raised doubts about how the women could identify these officers as clients when they had been unable to do so during the prosecution of Sanchez. Doe sued under the federal law Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act; that law required Doe to establish that she had been trafficked to claim any damages. Once the jury concluded she did sex work voluntarily, the allegations against the officer became a moot point. Lawyers for the officers declined to comment after the Jan. 20 verdict. This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Jury rejects woman's sex trafficking claims against 4 police officers Courtesy of Sundance Institute For much of the 1980s and 90s, Michael J. Fox was one of Americas favorite stars, which is why the news that he had Parkinsons disease landed such a shocking blow. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is the endearing and affecting story of the beloved Family Ties and Back to the Future actors journey from Canada to Hollywood to the forefront of a fight against an incurable malady. Its poignancy and humor is amplified by its canny decision to let Fox tell his own tale. An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim places Fox front-and-center throughout Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, with close-up interviews between filmmaker and star affording the former a chance to draw audiences near to his subject, and the latter an opportunity to candidly discuss his ups and downs while radiating the charisma that first made him a TV and movie sensation. From the moment he arrived on NBCs Family Ties, Fox was a whirlwind of witty charm. As a result, arguably the most touching component of Guggenheims documentarypremiering at this years Sundance Film Festival ahead of its forthcoming Apple TV+ debutis the revelation that, despite wrestling with a condition thats transformed the way he looks, acts and interacts with the world, he hasnt let his ailment dim his irrepressible magnetism and winning sense of humor. Sitting in a study, Fox describes the feeling of biding time until his Parkinsons medication takes hold (he refers to it as waiting for the bus), details the numerous injuries that are an inevitable component of his day-to-day (and cant be avoided simply by being careful), and the heroic commitment and love of his wife Tracy Pollan, whom he praises for assuming an onerous burden that wasnt hers to shoulder. What Michael J. Foxs Return to TV Tells Us About the Power of Optimism In those instances, Fox is all the more admirable for tackling his obstacles head-on, his pragmatism as staunch as his comedic instincts are sharp. Even when pressed about why he doesnt talk about his perpetual discomfort, hes both forthright (I am in pain!) and yet unwilling to dwell on it, instead barreling forward with inspiring full-speed-ahead determination. Story continues Motion is central to Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, since as Fox himself admits, his on-screen presence was defined byand his characters were shaped throughhasty, exuberant movement. Plentiful footage of Fox racing across the screen captures his youthful exuberance, just as scenes from his most famous projects (Family Ties, Back to the Future, The Secret of My Success) convey his megawatt appeal. Guggenheims documentary, however, reveals that Foxs stardom was not always a sure thing. Foxs diminutive stature and boyish appearance proved to be an initial social curse (if an eventual professional advantage), and his adolescence was marked by bad grades and car crash-punctuated delinquency. He only found himself courtesy of his high schools drama department, but even after convincing his father to relocate with him to Los Angeles, where he nabbed bit parts, Fox quickly found himself on the precipice of destitution. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Foxs spotlight dreams were saved when a last-shot audition for Family Ties earned him laughs from creator Gary David Goldberg and, consequently, the part of Alex P. Keaton (whose middle initial he ad-libbed during the pilot). That led to an offer to replace Eric Stoltz in Robert Zemeckis Back to the Future, which immediately turned him into the next big thing, propelling him onto magazine covers and talk shows, and reconfiguring his reality into a hedonistic fantasyland. In archival interview clips, he comes across as alternately cocky and self-effacing, as well as somewhat befuddled and amused by the sudden celebrity insanity in which hes been caught up. Today, Fox remembers this period fondly, but admits that it was all an ephemeral illusion built out of paper. Fox doesnt shy away from his negative and destructive impulses, be it his workaholic ambition (driven, he claims, by deeply rooted fears and insecurities) or the ceaseless drinking that was his response to his Parkinsons diagnosis and the stress of concealing his symptoms. Throughout, Guggenheim allows Fox to relay his own autobiographical odyssey via on-camera chats and narration (taken from his books). Brooke Shields Reveals She Was Raped by Hollywood Insider in Powerful Sundance Doc Shrewder still, the director melds that material with dramatic recreations and a wealth of smartly chosen film and TV snippets that dovetail with certain stops along Foxs path. Astutely and beautifully edited by Michael Harte, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie creates fleet, harmonious parallels and echoes between the actors genuine and fictional experiences, and yet it refrains from underlining them as a way of making larger, heavy-handed one-to-one conclusions about life imitating art that might have tipped the proceedings into corniness. What ultimately resonates most in Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is Foxs indefatigable spirit in the face of adversity. On a morning walk in Manhattan with his physical therapist, a passerby says hi, causing Fox to turn around and, in doing so, to take a nasty tumble. As the woman rushes back to check on him, Foxwithout missing a beatquips, You knocked me off my feet! His candor is remarkable, whether hes reminiscing about his painful efforts to hide his shaking left hand on the set of Spin City, recounting the disassociation and escape he craved from alcohol and distant movie sets, or the difficulty of grappling with a disease that restrains the facial, verbal and physical expressiveness that was key to his success. Simultaneously, his humor shines through Guggenheims portrait, seen in everything from his Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Late Show with David Letterman appearances to an off-the-cuff scene of his kids mocking him for his terrible texting habits. Youre only as sick as your secrets, confesses Fox, and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is a biopic about the strength and resolve attained from facing the truth, no matter its ugliness or hopelessness. Sitting beside his son at the beach, Fox articulates the irony of finding calm and peace in his life only upon developing a condition that plagues him with constant shaking and trembling. Nonetheless, Guggenheims documentary is, in the end, a movingand unfinishedportrait of a man, artist and crusader who refuses to sit still. Keep obsessing! Sign up for the Daily Beasts Obsessed newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. The Defense Ministry of the Czech Republic has denied recent reports about alleged transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. "Nobody asked or invited the Czech Republic to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine. This is false information. Tank supply agreements for the Czech Republic are still valid," the ministry said on Twitter on Saturday. Earlier, FAZ reported, citing sources in diplomatic circles, that Slovakia and the Czech Republic supported the idea of supplying German-made Leopard 2 heavy main battle tanks to Ukraine. As the newspaper said, both Slovakia and the Czech Republic have already delivered dozens of their own Soviet-designed battle tanks to Kyiv. The Soviet tanks handed over to Ukraine were to be replaced in smaller numbers with refurbished Leopard 2A4s. The first tanks were already delivered to Prague and Bratislava in December, and crew training also began. "The Czech Republic and Slovakia are proposing to refuse these German deliveries for the time being and transfer the tanks intended for their armies to Ukraine," the publication said. In total, it was about almost 30 Leopard tanks. Nope / Jordan Peele Of all of Jordan Peeles movies , Nope seems to be his most divisive with critics and fans alike. While the audiences initial reactions to the spectacle-focused horror movie were primarily positive, many have sounded off their frustration with the films unanswered mysteries. Well, the filmmaker is finally answering some of those lingering questions, including the mystery of the floating shoe. The director and his Nope cinematographer, Hoyte Van Hoytema, appeared on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast to talk about a variety of the films spoilers. The host, Josh Horowitz, held nothing back by asking the movie maker, What the hells going on with the shoe? Jordan Peele answered candidly about what that floating shoe meant to him, and revealed an answer to one of the movie's many mysteries. According to the Get Out director, the precarious floating footwear represents a moment for the audience and Steven Yeuns Jupe to check out from his traumatic backstory . The director explained: The shoe represents a moment of where we check out of a trauma. And Jupe, he zones in on this little shoe, thats Mary Jos shoe, that has landed in a precarious, odd situation. And this is the moment that he disassociates. So the shoe for me is, in essence, in one way its the impossible shot. Thats an impossible moment. The shoe is meant to mirror the unbelievable aspects of the UFO the main protagonists will encounter later in the film. The shoe and the creature from space are forces our characters cannot fathom. They are impossible. The shoe also reflects the themes of spectacle, which are present throughout the movie. The podcast hosts aptly asked Peele if the shoe could be considered a bad miracle,-- a concept the films protagonist, OJ, comes up with during a moment of pondering after the realization that aliens are behind the mysterious things happening at his familys horse ranch. The filmmaker was ecstatic by the hosts connection and agreed with Horowitzs assessment. Peele added: Story continues Yes, its a bad miracle! Very good! You got it. You got the shoe. Well, there you have it, folks. It seems the mysterious floating shoe in Jordan Peeles Nope is not merely an impossible shot meant to work as some frustrating J.J. Abrams mystery box but is, in fact, a symbol that works as a skeleton key that unlocks all the movies deeper themes and meanings. Along with the mysteries of Nope, the interview also touched on everything from Peele's early awareness of cinematography, shooting day for night, whether or not the writer-director reads fan theories, the filmmakers love for Akira, and the nod to anime he put in Nope. If Nope wasnt for you on first viewing, perhaps after this great in-depth spoiler talk, you might want to give it a second chance. The sci-fi flick is available to stream with a Peacock subscription. There have also been talks about a potential Nope sequel, so its never too late to change your mind about Jordan Peeles third directorial effort. Fans of Nope might also be interested in checking out our full schedule of upcoming horror movies, so, please, stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all your movie news. Ana Walshe and her husband, Brian Walshe, said goodnight to their New Year's Eve guest at around 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 1. "We hugged and celebrated and we toasted, just what you do over New Year's," Gem Mutlu, who spent the evening with the couple, later told CBS News Boston. "There was a lot of looking forward to the new year. There was no indication of anything other than celebrating the new year, problems on hold." But Mutlu never saw Ana again, and neither has anyone else, according to police in Cohasset, Mass., who were first to entreat the public's help in locating the 39-year-old mother of three. For several days, Massachusetts State Police and Cohasset Police led the search, bringing in troopers from the MSP Special Emergency Response Team, three K9 teams and the State Police Air Wing to comb the woods near the Walshes' rental house, while divers searched a stream and a pool. They found no trace of Ana, and police announced the end of the ground search on Jan. 7. Celebrity Deaths: 2023s Fallen Stars The next day, Brian was arrested on suspicion of misleading the investigation, detectives alleging in a criminal complaint affidavit filed Jan. 9 in Quincy District Court that the 47-year-old had lied to detectives about his actions following Ana's disappearance. At his arraignment, at which he pleaded not guilty, Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland told the judge that a search of the Walshe home had turned up a knife and traces of blood in the basement. And on Jan. 17, Brian was charged with murdering and dismembering his wife. He has again pleaded not guilty. Instagram In a statement released after his Jan. 18 arraignment, Brian's lawyer Tracy Miner said she'd prefer that media outlets "not inundate" her with requests for comment, as the court of public opinion "has already tried and convicted Mr. Walshe." "It is easy to charge a crime and even easier to say a person committed that crime," she said. "It is a much more difficult thing to prove it, which we will see if the prosecution can do. Story continues Despite the multiagency search and seemingly everyone on the Internet on the case, Ana's body has still not been found. But here's a breakdown of the investigation that led to a murder case against her husband: Lynn Police What was Brian and Ana Walshe's relationship like before she disappeared? Naturally, once the public got wind of the investigation, the theories started flying and every tidbit of information was parsed on social media, the case of yet another young, pretty mom gone missing serving as the usual catnip for online sleuths. And while police conducted the physical search for Ana, the other kind of digging also commenced. Multiple outlets unearthed a 2014 police report Ana filed in Washington, D.C., alleging her then-boyfriend had threatened over the phone to kill her and a friend. A Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson told NBC News that Brian (who was unnamed in the report) was the accused and that the case was closed after Ana refused to assist with an investigation. The couple, who had met in 2008 when Ana was working as a reservations manager at a hotel in the Berkshires, married on Dec. 21, 2015, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston. They have three sons, ages 2, 4, and 6, who are now in the custody of Massachusetts Children and Family Services, NBC News confirmed. TV's Most Killer True Crime Transformations Injecting a preemptive twist into the entire case, the aforementioned Jan. 9 affidavit noted that Brian had been on pre-sentencing probation and had to request permission from authorities to leave the house to transport his kids to and from school, visit his mother, go to the grocery store, etc. He pleaded guilty in April 2021 to wire fraud and other charges for selling two counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings on eBay that the buyer was led to believe were the real deal. In a June 2022 letter pleading for leniency on her husband's behalf, Ana wrote to a federal judge about the time he'd been at home awaiting sentencing, per Boston 25 News, "During these eight months, our family was able to be together during many of the milestones: our youngest son turned one, our middle son started to speak and our eldest son who had just started kindergarten when we saw you last is now only a few weeks away from completing the year and preparing for first grade. He also lost his first tooth." MEGA After her mother suffered a brain aneurysm in December 2021, Ana continued, "Not only did [Brian] save her life, but he also brought her and the entire family comfort and joy during the course of her illness." He was also devoted to their boys, she explained, writing, "Brian has been working consistently on breaking the past bad habits of his family and we are all looking forward to the new chapter of his life." (It's unclear what she meant by saving her mom's life, but Brian's late father was a neurologist.) Ana's mother Milanka Ljubicic, who lives in Serbia, told Fox News Digital that Ana had asked her in a Dec. 25, 2022, text message to fly to D.C.where Ana commuted weekly for work at real estate firm Tishman Speyerthe very next day, but didn't explain why. Ljubicic said she offered to come on Jan. 5 or 6, to which her daughter replied, "'You don't have to come in January. Brian and I are making plans for February.'" Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Where was Brian Walshe when Ana Walshe went missing? Ana was first reported missing Jan. 4 by her employer after she never showed up at the office in D.C. that week. Brian told police who went to their house that day for a welfare check that Ana had said a work emergency required her to fly to D.C. on Jan. 1. She'd kissed him goodbye, ordered a car and left for the airport sometime between 6 and 7 a.m., Brian said, according to the affidavit. Per the affidavit, Brian told detectives he made breakfast for their three young sons at around 7 a.m. on Jan. 1, Ana having already left. A babysitter came that afternoon and he ran errands till 3 p.m., he said, then drove out to Swampscott, where his mother lives, about 38 miles away by car. He didn't have his cell phone, he told police, so he ended up on a route that added at least 20 minutes to what should've been a 60-to-70-minute ride. While he was out there he shopped for his mom at Whole Foods and CVS, his account of events continued, then was back home by 8 p.m. Brian said he found his phone under his pillow the next day, and ventured out to take his sons for ice creamwhich he did, according to the affidavit. But, detectives stated, he also made a trip on Jan. 2 that he didn't mentionto a Home Depot in Rockland, Mass., where he made a cash purchase. Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Brian's attorney reportedly said during his Jan. 9 arraignment that he had called Tishman Speyer to inquire about his wife's whereabouts, after which someone from the firm called police Jan. 4. But according to a Cohasset Police call log reviewed days later by Boston 25 News, the company's head of security called police after first contacting Brian and finding out that he hadn't yet filed a missing person report. After Brian was charged with murder, CEO Rob Speyer told NBC News, "Ana's vivacious energy and warmth made her a true friend to so many at Tishman Speyer and in the broader Boston and D.C. communities. All of us at Tishman Speyer are devastated by the tragic and untimely passing of our beloved colleague." Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Did Brian Walshe lie to police? The Jan. 9 affidavit states that investigators determined Brian didn't drive his mother from his home in Cohasset, where he said she was recovering from cataract surgery, back to her house in Swampscottwhich he had received permission from authorities to donor did they find evidence to prove he was at Whole Foods or CVS during the time he specified. Brian told detectives that his mom drove herself home, but he still used the time to visit and run errands for her. And though he had said he didn't have his phone on him that day, cell data showed that the phone was in nearby Brockton and Abingdon, neither place on the list of his approved travel destinations, according to the affidavit. Alleging in the affidavit that Brian had willfully misled investigators, Cohasset Police Detective Harrison Schmidt emphasized that time was always of the essence when it came to tracking down missing people, and Ana's husband had clearly intended to delay their quest. Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Beland, the Norfolk County ADA, said in court Jan. 9 that investigators also hadn't been able to find any evidence that Ana had taken a car to the airport on New Year's Day, nor did she board her scheduled Jan. 3 flight to D.C. for her regular commute. After pleading not guilty to misleading detectives, Brian was jailed in lieu of a $500,000 bail at the Norfolk County House of Correction. Greg Derr/AP/Shutterstock What other evidence led to Brian Walshe being charged with wife Ana Walshe's murder? Brian's online search historysome of it Googled on his son's iPad right around the time he told police he last saw Anaincluded "how long for someone to be missing to inherit," "can you throw away body parts?," "10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to" and "how to stop a body from decomposing," Beland said in Quincy District Court during Walshe's Jan. 18 arraignment on murder charges, per NBC News. He also searched for "what's the best state to divorce for a man" on Dec. 27, the prosecutor said, adding, "Rather than divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body." True Crime: Kidnapping Survivors Laying out the prosecution's case, Beland said that Brian bought three rugs at a HomeGoods on Jan. 2 and then paid $450 cash at Home Depot for cleaning products, mops, brushes, tape, tarp, a Tyvek suit with boot covers, buckets, goggles, baking soda and a hatchet. Store security cameras captured him putting those items in his cart while wearing a surgical mask and gloves. Brian's online searches that day, Beland said, included "hacksaw best tool to dismember," "can you be charged with murder without a body" and "can you identify a body with broken teeth." David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images On Jan. 3, the prosecutor continued, surveillance footage showed a man who appeared to be Brian getting out of his Volvo and dropping a bag in a dumpster near an Abington apartment complex, and then he allegedly made two more drops, another in Abington and one in Brockton. (Those bags were apparently transported to a processing center and their contents were destroyed before police could find them, Beland said.) The next day, Beland said, Brian went to Home Goods and TJ Maxx, buying towels, bath mats and men's clothing, and then bought squeegees and a trash can at a Lowe's. Beland also told the court that, in addition to the knife that had been recovered from the family's basement, investigators found 10 trash bags that had been originally dumped outside his mother's Swampscott apartment complex containing, among other things, a hacksaw, a hatchet, cutting shears, towels, rugs and a Tyvek suit. Authorities recovered those items, as well as Ana's COVID-19 vaccination card, a necklace she'd been seen wearing in photos, a Prada purse like one Brian had previously described as Ana's, slippers and more at a waste transfer facility in Peabody, about 20 miles from Cohasset. Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Traces of the couple's DNA was found on various objects in the bags, Beland said, while cell phone data and surveillance video put Brian in the area near the dumpster at his mother's complex on Jan. 5. Miner, Brian's lawyer, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf to charges of murder and improper transport of a body. He's been remanded without bail and a status hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9. The only thing he said in court, when asked if he understood the charges against him, was "I do." In her statement to reporters afterward, Miner said she wouldn't be commenting on what prosecutors had laid out so far because she planned to "try this case in the court and not in the media," and the other side hadn't yet provided her with any evidence. "In my experience," she continued, "where, as here, the prosecution leaks so-called evidence to the press before they provide it to me, their case isn't that strong. When they have a strong case, they give me everything as soon as possible. We shall see what they have and what evidence is admissible in court, where the case will ultimately be decided." For more true crime updates on your need-to-know cases, head to Oxygen.com. Tar In her first queer role since Carol, Cate Blanchett stars as Lydia Tar, a renowned, egomaniacal, and wildly charismatic conductor whose sexual predations finally ruin her. Its the first film from director Todd Field (Little Children) in 16 years, one he says has long been in the works and that he would not have made without Blanchett. Tar is poised to nab scads of nominations, if not awards this year. But in a year of increased attacks on LGBTQ+ people from legislation to protests at drag queen story hours, is there room for a complicated queer villain, even if shes a towering genius playing in the arena that men built and have thrived in for centuries? One of Tars early scenes features Lydia in a highfalutin chat onstage with The New Yorkers Adam Gopnik about her storied rise. The far-flung topics include her role as one of classical musics few women conductors (although she prefers her gender be left out of the discussion), her EGOT status, her mentor Leonard Bernstein, her immersive work with the Shipibo Conibo people of Peru, and the meaning of time itself. Exiting the talk, shes approached by a fetching young woman carrying a Birkin bag. The woman is a fan of both Tars work and the maestros endless charm. A lesbian with a wife and child back in Berlin, where she leads the citys orchestra, Lydia sizes up the woman and praises the bag before the fawning devotee drops that shes a Smith College alumna. As Lydia feeds on her admirers interest, her assistant, Francesca (Portrait of a Lady on Fires Noemie Merlant), looks on with a knowing eye roll. Shes seen this dynamic before. A character akin to the masochistic assistant in queer filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinders lesbian classic The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Francesca is Lydias mentee whos also been that besotted admirer. Tar Its a delightfully queer moment for Tars lesbian antihero that offers insight into Lydias soft spot (and eye) for adoring followers. In a fell swoop, the scene hearkens to Alfred Hitchcocks queerish Marnie while signaling the historically sapphic hotbed that is Smith. Fields use of the handbag as a fetish object conjures Marnies opening scene where Tippi Hedrens Marnie is seen from behind, her identity obscured. The camera zeroes in on the yellow handbag she carries under her arm, the folds of which have been considered and deconstructed as stand-ins for labia for decades in many a queer and feminist film class at Seven Sisters schools. Its not the only piece of Tar that evokes Hitchcock, and its no surprise that the bag turns up later in Lydias Berlin apartment. When her wife, Sharon (Nina Hoss), asks about the new bag, Lydia lies. If the Birkin is an allegory for women and sex, its an early symbol of her downfall. Story continues To this point in the film, Lydias predations have not been fully revealed. Theres a relish in watching her toy with the obsequious donor to her foundation that elevates young women conductors. One marvels at Lydias 10-minute dressing down of cancel culture during a Juilliard master class, even if the point she makes to a BIPOC pangender student who eschews Bach and other problematic white male artists is awful. Part of the awe in the scene is Blanchetts mastery of it a highly choreographed single tracking shot thats later chopped up and regurgitated online in a takedown video of the maestro (she hates Maestra). At first, Lydia comes off as a rake, a lothario having it all. And the audience is on her side. That is until shes revealed to be more insidious. The cracks in her veneer begin to show. She gaslights Sharon (a virtuoso in her own right as the first violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic) about her medication and lies about how she came into the possession of said Birkin bag. She bullies a child who bullied her daughter. In an egregious moment of unfettered lust and narcissism, Lydia manipulates the entire orchestra to spotlight and later seduce a young Russian cellist, Olga (Sophie Kauer). Its enthralling to behold as Lydia and Blanchett play the orchestra. Most damning is the revelation that shes preyed on her young female students and spat them out when they no longer serve her. One student, Krista Taylor (Sylvia Flote), whos eventually spurned by Lydia only to have her mentor ruin her career by failing to recommend her for a job, dies by suicide. Kristas death leads to Lydias unraveling and eventual undoing. Since the films release in October, Tar has divided audiences, its virtuosity notwithstanding. Blanchetts performance has been hailed as the finest in a career that includes her acclaimed roles in Elizabeth, The Aviator, Blue Jasmine, Carol, and Manifesto. Critic Richard Brodys dyspeptic review for The New Yorker called it a regressive film that takes bitter aim at so-called cancel culture while Ann Hornadays Washington Post review subtitles the film a seductive deep dive into a womans unraveling psyche. Fields film presents a deeply subjective world that has Lydia scurrying down a rabbit hole of paranoia about her transgressions when no one is watching. The viewer is left to discern if the film is, as Brody asserts, a takedown of important topics including the #MeToo movement. Some have said the film is a lazy inversion of gender norms, with Field problematically making his lead not only a woman who acts like a man (although he said he wrote it with Blanchett in mind). But it could also be read as a Rorschach test for viewers to mine their views of cancel culture, power, and genius. Tar Regarding gender, Blanchett, like Lydia, prefers that the fact shes a woman isnt the focal point of how shes viewed. I never ever think about my gender until its brought up to me as a defining characteristic or a door is closed in my face because of it, Blanchett says. And I think that Lydia, and I hazard a guess, Sharon too believes in the power of being the exception. But Lydia isnt just a woman doing horrible things. Shes queer. And a predatory lesbian at that the age-old Hollywood trope that had Barbara Stanwyck seducing pretty young things in Walk on the Wild Side and a butch prison guard tormenting a hapless young inmate in Caged. In her rarefied world, Lydias sexuality is secondary until its not, when her predations come to the surface. And Blanchett says Lydia prefers the moniker of musician/artist above all. Im a musician, says Blanchett, speaking in first person as her character. I dont want to self-identify via my sexuality or my gender first and foremost, in the way that men dont necessarily have to within the traditional confines of the classical music world. It wasnt particularly remarkable that it was a same-sex relationship. It just was what it was. At a time when respectably coupled queer characters have proliferated in films like Bros, Spoiler Alert, and any number of Christmas rom-coms from Lifetime to Netflix, Lydia is viewed by many as a queer villain, like those Hitchcock villains of yore from Rebeccas Mrs. Danvers to Strangers on a Trains Bruno. Like those queer villains from the classical Hollywood era who were imprisoned, died, or forced to live, as Carol Aird would say, against their grain, Lydia pays a price, losing everything that keeps up her facade. By Tars close, her world of private jets and suites at the Carlyle morphs into cab rides and a stay at her humble childhood home. Her reputation is sullied, Sharon leaves her, she loses her child, and shes reduced to recording the soundtrack for a fan-favorite video game. Like Fields subjective universe, which is also partly a gothic ghost story questioning the reality of Lydias point of view, its not clear that Lydia is a villain. She may be a product, albeit a dangerous one, of her tone-deaf environment, one who loses touch with what she once loved. Somehow in the relationship with Nina, theyre slightly estranged from the thing that got them together in the first place, and Lydia herself is estranged from the why, and I think thats [with] a lot of things, Blanchett says. You dont have to be a musician to understand that particular experience at the moment and that we all feel slightly outside ourselves. Mitigating factors for Lydias predations and the debate over if shes a villain in the truest sense aside, shes a troubling queer character on the big screen at a time when LGBTQ+ viewers have yet to see enough positive images of themselves on-screen. Although, what the tipping point of enough queer characters is yet to be revealed. According to GLAADs 10th annual Studio Responsibility Index, 2021 saw a drop in representation of LGBTQ+ characters in films. Last years Academy Awards had Benedict Cumberbatch and Kodi-Smit McPhee nominated for roles as ethically questionable queer characters in The Power of the Dog (Penelope Cruz was nominated for playing a queer character that was mostly nonproblematic in Parallel Mothers). Olivia Colman won an Oscar for her Queen Anne in 2018s The Favourite, hardly a villain, but she was manipulative and solipsistic nonetheless. Blanchett and her costar Rooney Mara were nominated for Oscars for Carol in 2016. While the film is beloved by many, a contingent of viewers read Carol an older married socialite who actively courts a young shop girl as a predator rather than as a survivalist. They see a queer woman in an era where everything had to be played close to the vest and other queers were few and far between. In her memoir, In the Dream House, about an abusive queer relationship she endured, author Carmen Maria Machado touches on queer villainy. I should be indignant about Rebecca, and Strangers on a Train, and Laura, and The Terror, and All About Eve, and every other classic and contemporary foppish, conniving, sissy, cruel, humorless, depraved, evil, insane homosexual on the large and small screen, Machado writes. And yet, while I recognize the problem intellectually the system of coding the way villainy and queerness became a kind of shorthand for each other I cannot help but love these fictional queer villains. I love them for all of their aesthetic lushness and theatrical glee, their fabulousness, their ruthlessness, their power. After all, they live in a world that hates them. Theyve adapted; theyve learned to conceal themselves. Theyve survived. As with Tar, there are no easy answers to whether queer viewers can or should abide another questionable LGBTQ+ character after a century of mostly villainous portrayals on-screen. But theres also no denying their delicious appeal. Even as Lydia spirals poco a poco, shes magnetic. As Lydia spouts to the class at Julliard, The narcissism of small differences leads to the most boring conformity. This article is part of Out's January/February 2023 issue, out on newsstands February 7. Support queer media and subscribe or download the issue through Amazon, Kindle, Nook, or Apple News. Related | Spoiler Alert's Jim Parsons & Ben Aldridge Know a Love Story's Power A West Virginia teen received the maximum sentence for fatally shooting four family members. Gavin Smith, now 18, was ordered to spend life behind bars for the shooting deaths of his mother, stepfather and two young brothers, all of whom he fatally shot on Dec. 13, 2020, at their Elkview, West Virginia, home, just northeast of Charleston, according to ABC Charleston affiliate WCHS-TV. I do regret this, and if I could, I would take it back because it is one of my deepest regrets, Smith said at sentencing. Smith was found guilty of first-degree murder in December for killing his mother, Risa Mae Saunders-Long, 39, stepfather Daniel Dale Long, 37, and his youngest brother, Jameson Long, 3, for which he was handed three life sentences. The judge also sentenced him to 40 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder for the death of his brother, Gage Ripley, 12, plus another 10 years for the use or presentment of a firearm during the commission of a felony. A police handout of Gavin Smith Gavin Smith Photo: WV Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation However, because Smith committed the murders while 16 years of age, the life sentences were handed with mercy, meaning the defendant can apply for a pardon after he becomes eligible for parole after serving 15 years of his sentence, according to West Virginia state law. The mandate can be applied retroactively to fit the defendants age when the crimes occurred, despite his now being over 18 and being tried as an adult. Judge Kenneth Ballard said he only granted mercy because it was mandated by law, according to NBC Huntington, West Virginia affiliate WSAZ-TV. In December, a Kanawha County jury agreed with prosecutors that Smith murdered his parents because they allegedly forbade Smith from seeing his girlfriend, Rebecca Walker, then 17. During the trial, evidence showed Smith and Walker were on a video chat before, during, and after the murders. RELATED: University Of Idaho Suspect Allegedly Once Wrote He Had No Emotions And Could Do Whatever I Want With Little Remorse Walker claimed she didnt personally witness the murders because the screen went black, according to WCHS-TV. Story continues Smith killed his parents and the 12-year-old brother before returning to the video call. After hearing the youngest child crying in the background, Smith returned and killed the youngest victim. Relatives found the bodies four days after the murders. Walker was accused of letting Smith hide at her grandmothers home and later pleaded guilty to four counts of being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, for which she is currently serving a 10-year sentence. A police handout of Rebecca Walker Rebecca Walker Photo: WV Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Judge Ballard called the murders "an act of pure evil, according to WCHS-TV. This was a heinous crime. You murdered your entire family in cold blood, Mr. Smith. You devised this plan to kill your family days and weeks in advance for the selfish reason of spending time with your girlfriend, said Ballard. You executed your mother and stepfather by shooting them in the head while they were asleep. Then you executed your two brothers by shooting them in the head, the youngest of which was hiding under his crib. Ballard said the defendant showed zero remorse, citing probation officers who reported Smith allegedly felt justified with his actions, according to the Charleston outlet. Smiths attorneys had challenged the prosecution's request to sentence Smith to the max, arguing he had been in jail since his arrest. They previously argued that Smiths home was basically a pressure cooker, according to West Virginia Metro News. He was basically trapped in a household from a combination of his familys rules and COVID shutting down the schools, Smiths attorney, John Sullivan, stated. Gavin wasnt allowed to leave the house. Milanka Ljubicic, mother of of Ana Walshe The victims loved ones, including Daniel Longs adoptive parents, pushed for the harshest sentence. Doug Long gave an emotional statement at sentencing regarding his dead son and grandchildren, according to WSAZ-TV. I never expected my life to be in such turmoil at this stage in my life, said Mr. Long. No one knows what life brings, and the situation surrounding this horrific murder was unimaginable. Nothing could prepare me for the sorrow and hurt inflicted on me and my family by this incident. Doug Longs wife, Susan Long, also spoke at sentencing, claiming she wished the sentences hadnt come with mercy, according to Metro News. Oxy App I believe it is the best interest of our world to have someone who has murdered four individuals, including a defenseless baby, not to be considered for parole, said Mrs. Long. Just because he was 16 at the time doesnt make a difference. He still took lives. Records show Smith is housed at the South Central Regional Jail and Correction Facility in Charleston before his expected transfer to state prison. Walker is eligible for parole in June, with a projected release date listed as Dec. 15, 2025. More and more evidence is stacking up against Bryan Kohberger, who has been accused of killing four University of Idaho students, Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. As prosecutors are working to determine a motive for the killing, more information about the Ph.D. student's connection to the four victims is coming to light. According to some new reports, Kohberger had his eye on the three girls prior to their murder. Here are five shocking new details about how the accused killer stalked his victims. 1 Kohberger Allegedly Followed All Three Female Victims on Instagram Kohberger followed all three of the female victims, Mogen, Goncalves, and Kernodle, on Instagram. However, none of the girls followed him back, according to People, who claim to have seen the account before it was removed. 2 Kohberger Allegedly Messaged One of the Victims "Again and Again" According to People, Kohberger messaged one of the three female victims repeatedly two weeks before the slayings, per an investigator. After no response, he continued messaging her. "Basically, it was just him saying, 'Hey, how are you?' But he did it again and again," the source told the publication. "[The victim] may not have seen them, because they went into message requests," says the investigation source. "We're still trying to determine how aware the victims were of his existence." 3 Kohberger Ate Vegan Pizza at the Restaurant Where Two of the Girls Worked, Source Claims Mogen and Kernodle worked at the Mad Greek restaurant in Moscow for years. A former employee recently told People that he dined at the spot twice prior to the murders, eating vegan pizza. They added that there was nothing suspicious about his visits other than the fact he was insistent no animal products had come into contact with the food. Authorities are aware of the connection and have interviewed staff and requested surveillance footage from both the restaurant and nearby businesses. Story continues 4 He Allegedly Stalked the Home at Least 12 Times Before the Murder According to cell phone data, Kohberger regularly canvassed the victim's home. Pings have him around the area at least 12 times prior to the murders, according to the affidavit. However, the exact dates and times are not listed. However, all but one were in the late evening or early morning hours. 5 Kaylee Goncalves Reportedly Complained of a "Stalker" Goncalves reportedly believed someone was stalking her, according to a local Moscow vape shop manager, who told NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin that she and Maddie came into the store in a group. "You could tell they were all obviously trying to keep Kaylee safe and be there for her as good friends," the manager said. She also reportedly told him that she saw the stalker at night when she was going to or from bars, "either by the campus or down on Main Street." He added that the stalker was "apparently something that Kaylee had tons of issues with. Apparently, she always had somebody who was constantly walking behind her like that." "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below." Heidi Klum 's modeling skills certainly translate well to the red carpet. Back in November, the America's Got Talent judge attended the Disney+ premiere of Elton John's Farewell, Yellow Brick Road documentary. Ahe dressed in a matching sheer black lace-detailed blazer and wide-leg pants. Heidi Klum's modeling skills certainly translate well to the red carpet. Back in November, the America's Got Talent judge attended the Disney+ premiere of Elton John's Farewell, Yellow Brick Road documentary in Los Angeles, California. As a multi-hyphenate supermodel, it's no surprise she took the red carpet by storm with her latest ensemble. Though it's not exactly as eccentric as the star's iconic Halloween costumes, she dressed in a matching sheer black lace-detailed blazer and wide leg pants. What's more, the nighttime outfit appeared to be made of a sparkly material that glimmered as she struck poses at the Hollywood event. Heidi layered a plunging top underneath that resembled a lingerie bodysuit. Steve Granitz/FilmMagic - Getty Images Steve Granitz/FilmMagic - Getty Images Keeping it sultry, she completed the look with smoky kohl eyeliner, while the rest of her makeup remained neutral. The former Project Runway host styled her long platinum blond hair to look pin-straight as her fringe framed her face. To pull the whole look together, she accessorized with a statement diamond bracelet. Proud of the showstopping moment, Heidi took to Instagram to share the glam moment. Her husband, Tom Kaulitz, joined the NBC star on the carpet in a matching head-to-toe black outfit. America's Got Talent Shop Now She captioned the photos: "Farewell yellow brick road @eltonjohn thank you for the performance of a lifetime. #EltonFarewellTour #EltonLive." Heidi's not slowing down on rocking risque looks. In August, the TV personality talked about her evolving fashion style with SheKnows. "You shouldnt put a time limit on anything, and I feel like we should be able to wear anything at any age, she told the outlet. If it weren't evident from her range, she went on to describe her closet as insanely crazy because she has too many personalities." Story continues I have so many different moods all the time, Heidi said to the publication. Sometimes I want to be sassy, then I want to be super sexy, then I want to be Business Barbie, then I love to be bohemian ... so its all very eclectic. You Might Also Like Kahne Outlaws 2023 After being sidelined for more than half of his rookie season in the World of Outlaws, Kasey Kahne will once again attempt to run the full 80+ race schedule in 2023 in the No. 9 Kasey Kahne Racing (KKR) car. He will compete alongside four-time defending champion Brad Sweet, who has won all his titles with Kahnes team. Last years effort to win Rookie of the Year honors was thwarted by hard crashes at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Florida, Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and Jackson (Minnesota) Motorplex. Kahne made only 29 A-Mains, failing to advance into the big show on another 14 occasions. Those accidents caused Kahne to miss 27 of the 69 Outlaws races that were held in 2022. Kahne did not win last year, but earned his first career podium at Husets Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota after leading 23 of the 30 laps in that feature. He was passed by Spencer Bayston with five laps remaining in that race. Getting that first [World of Outlaws] win is obviously at the top of our bucket list, and it would be huge, Kahne said in a press release. Weve been fortunate enough to win so many races with so many drivers at KKR, but I want to be on that list too. It feels incredibly rewarding to win as an owner considering all Ive put into the sport and continue to put into it, but purely as a race car driver, I want to win myself. Its been a while since I felt that and that feeling is why we do it; its why we love racing. While Kahne has not yet won with the Outlaws, he has six victories in the All Star Circuit of Champions, which also run 410 sprint cars. In an Outlaws career that dates back to 1997 when he made three starts on the West Coast tracks of Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Washington and Cottage Grove (Oregon) Speedway, Kahne has made 169 A-Mains with 33 top-10s and five top-fives. In 2021, filling in for James McFadden while that driver returned to his native Australia for the birth of his child, Kahne scored his third career top-five and 11 top-10s in 32 starts of the 77-race season. Last year was not quite as successful with two six top-10s. Story continues I feel really, really good, Kahne said. Im excited to go full-time sprint car racing again this year and I feel like personally, I got a lot better last year going this route. We definitely had a lot of ups and downs during 2022, so Im hoping for a much smoother and more successful season this year. Justin Adams will return as Kahnes crew chief in 2023, along with crew members Brad Tunny and Payton Gries. The 2023 World of Outlaws season begins February 9-11 with the DIRTCar Nationals at Volusia. One of Kahnes six All Star wins came at Volusia in 2002. Click here for the complete 2023 Outlaws schedule. '23 Were looking forward to a full season of sprint car racing! @kaseykahne It's going to be busy! @WorldofOutlaws @HighLimitRacing Merch : https://t.co/Kc32INBFcD pic.twitter.com/xBkbOWOQgf Kasey Kahne Racing (@KKRdirt) January 20, 2023 Read more about Motorsports Marvin Musquin will miss San Diego Supercross with wrist injury Supercross Round 2 at San Diego by the numbers Carson Mumford to fill in for Austin Forkner in Supercross 250 West, debuts... Kasey Kahne returns full-time to World of Outlaws sprint cars in 2023 originally appeared on NBCSports.com A judge in Romania has granted a request to extend by another 30 days the arrest of Andrew Tate, the social media personality who was detained in the country on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape, an official said Friday. Tate, 36, a British-U.S. citizen who has 4.7 million followers on Twitter, was initially detained on Dec. 29, in Bucharest, Romanias capital. His brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women were arrested and held in the same case. Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romanias anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, told The Associated Press that prosecutors requested the second 30-day extension Thursday to keep all four in detention while the investigation continued. A judge approved the request Friday, she said. The judges decision at the Bucharest Tribunal came after all four lost an appeal last week in a Bucharest court against a judges Dec. 30 ruling to extend their arrests from 24 hours to 30 days. Andrew Tate leaves the Court of Appeal Andrew Tate leaves the Court of Appeal, in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. Photo: AP The Tates are also likely to appeal Fridays extension. Ioan Gliga, a lawyer for the Tate brothers, said he considered the ruling Friday as totally unjustified. Only an hour ago, the session was closed and the file has 20 volumes, he said, I find it very hard to believe that someone has the physical capacity to study the file in such a short time, as only yesterday it reached the tribunal. A post on Andrew Tate's Twitter account Thursday read: "Im in detention as they 'look' for evidence. Evidence they will never find because we are not guilty. They have and will continue to ignore and throw away any and all testimony or hard evidence (that) we are innocent." A group of Police Cars My case isnt about the truth. This is about Politics," the post continued. Tate, a former professional kickboxer who has reportedly lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech. Story continues Romanian authorities descended on a compound near Bucharest last week and towed away a fleet of luxury cars that included a blue Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari and a Porsche. They reported seizing assets worth an estimated $3.9 million. Prosecutors have said that if they can prove the owners gained money through illicit activities such as human trafficking, the assets would be used to cover the expenses of the investigation and to compensate victims. Tate also unsuccessfully appealed the asset seizure. Oxy App After the Tates and the two women were arrested in December, DIICOT said in a statement that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to acts of physical violence and mental coercion and were sexually exploited by the members of the alleged crime group. The agency said victims were lured with pretenses of love, and later intimidated, kept under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into engaging in recorded pornographic acts. "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below." It's a good day, and a rare one, when Cuyana has a sale. It's an especially good day when Meghan Markle's iconic wide brim Panama hat is also marked down in the promotion. Now through January 22, you can get the straw hat she wore to Wimbledon in 2019 for nearly 30 percent off as part of the brand's archive sale. Panama* Hat (Earlier Version) cuyana.com $118.00 Shop Now cuyana.com Markle is a longtime supporter of the brand, having sported Cuyana pieces several times over the years. She has donned the brand's hats on a handful of occasions, be it at Prince Harrys polo match last May or shopping in Montecito in the fall. She also recently launched a partnership with the brand. Teaming up with Markle's patronage Smart Works, Cuyana donated 500 of its Classic Structured Totes to the women's empowerment charity. Markle loves the totes almost as much as the hats, so much so that she had gave them in gift bags at her baby shower. For the uninitiated, Cuyana creates timeless apparel and accessories for modern women, designing products with longevity in mind. Founded by two women about 10 years ago, the brand celebrates a style of life that's simple and smart. Also included in Cuyana's archive sale are sling bags, cashmere cardigans, and wool jackets. We've rounded up some of the best products below in case you needed some help getting started. You can shop the sale on the brand's website, so get cracking on these deals right now before they end on Sunday. You Might Also Like Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov has expressed satisfaction with the results of a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base on Friday, January 20. "The key words that mattered today are unity, timeliness, immediate assistance, strengthening of capability of the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine], defense and security sector, further counteroffensive to release the occupied territories," the minister said in an interview with the Ukrainian Service of the Voice of America. In addition to the military assistance announced for Ukraine, "some packages were voiced behind closed doors it is inspiring, and that is why I am very satisfied." This time much attention was paid to the strengthening Ukraine's air defense at the Contact Group meeting. "This issue is seriously developing. We discussed not only Patriot, but other systems as well as at Ramstein. It is about short-, medium- and long-range opportunities," Reznikov said. "Our task is to not lose the initiative. Therefore, today, one of the key words were voiced timeliness and immediate assistance Everyone understands that "mastering of complicated new techniques requires time, however, Ukrainian defenders have shown that they are able to master modern complicated systems rapidly, from artillery to drones. For example, training on Patriot will be held much faster, and so on," the minister said. He also said that the Ukrainian military have already arrived in the territory of the United States and started the process of training on Patriot air defense systems. "They have to complete it dramatically faster than it is foreseen by the traditional standards. So, fingers crossed It is important for us to have them delivered to the landfills, where our units will train, and they will be prepared for resisting a possible repeated attack, let's say, in early spring this year," the minister said. He emphasized that Ukraine is preparing for a potential large-scale attack by Russia this spring, and partners are aware of this. "We have been talking about this for a long time our intelligence, analysts, and the General Staff. That is why, of course, we are preparing for this. Of course, we have signaled our partners about this. We are on the same page with them in understanding all these risks," Reznikov said. United States prosecutors have seized nearly $700 million worth of assets either owned by collapsed crypto exchange FTX or tied to founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, authorities disclosed in a Friday court filing. Federal authorities in the Southern District of New York have seized just over $698 million worth of assets linked to the disgraced crypto founder, according to the filing, which was first reported on by CNBC. The bulk of the value comes from a stack of shares that Bankman-Fried purchased in Robinhood, the stock and crypto trading app, allegedly using stolen FTX customer funds. The document submitted by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams details the holdings, with nearly 55.3 million shares of Robinhood stock seized on January 4. As of this writing, the shares are collectively worth about $526 million. They were held by Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a shell company that Bankman-Fried created with FTX co-founder Gary Wang. FTX Restructuring Team Has Clawed Back $5B in Lost Assets In a December affidavit, Bankman-Fried wrote that he and Wang formed the new companyusing funds loaned by FTX sister company Alameda Researchto acquire shares in Robinhood Markets Inc. totaling $546.4 million. FTX customer funds were reportedly used to plug a trading hole in Alameda's balance sheet last summer, ahead of the exchange's eventual collapse. Other funds seized on January 4 include $20.7 million held by Emergent at ED&F Man Capital Markets, Inc, and another $49.9 million at Farmington State Bank, held under FTX Digital Markets. Between January 11 and 19, authorities seized just over $100 million of FTXs funds held in Silvergate Bank. Todays court filings also list three accounts held at rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its Binance US affiliate. However, the value of the assets in those accounts was not specified. FTX and Alameda filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November following a liquidity crisis at FTX, with billions of dollars apparently missing from the once-popular crypto exchange. Bankman-Fried now faces various charges from the U.S. Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) related to his actions at the companies. The FTX restructuring team, led by new company CEO John J. Ray III, said last week that it has separately recovered more than $5 billion worth of company assets between cryptocurrency, cash, and liquid investments in securities. WASHINGTON When thousands of protesters gather Sunday for this year's National Women's March, the site of the rally may say as much about the state of the abortion rights movement as any sign they hold aloft or chant they call out. The decision to march on Madison, Wisconsin, was intended to underscore the fact that after last year's Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the nation's abortion battle has shifted to state capitals. And that, in turn, has led to a greater focus on state judicial elections, especially when seats open up on state supreme courts. Wisconsin is home to what has become a closely watched Supreme Court race. "The political landscape has so fundamentally changed," said Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of the Womens March, who noted that there is still a lawsuit pending in Wisconsin over the state's 1849 ban on abortion. "Writ large, the Wisconsin ban will be decided by the Supreme Court, which will be decided by the people of Wisconsin." Marches: 'Dream bigger': As Roe marks 50th anniversary, advocates push further Next: Medication abortion next focal point in the fight over abortion access Guide: A look at the key cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court Advocates supporting abortion rights, meanwhile, have been raising arguments in state courts that wouldn't work at the federal level and they have scored some early wins, even in conservative states. That's prompted a backlash from anti-abortion groups, some of whom are holding their own march on Friday to push for further restrictions. "It took us 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade in the United States Supreme Court. We're not going to get all these laws in effect in a day," said Katie Glenn, state policy director at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group. "Courts matter because they can either become a veto on the legislature and invalidate the will of the people or they can uphold these laws and say this is an issue for the elected branches." Story continues Abortion rights protestors chant on the steps of the Alabama state capitol building during a rally and march on the capitol in Montgomery, Ala., on June 26, 2022. Over 150 protestors showed up to protest the overturning of Roe v Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. Supreme Court's decision shifted abortion battle to state courts Two marches are planned this weekend on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Anti-abortion groups will march on Washington, D.C., on Friday. On Sunday, the Women's March will take place in Madison, Wisconsin. Groups on both sides are focused on legislative and legal action unfolding in state capitals. Because so much attention has shifted to state courts, which are deciding whether to allow or block state abortion laws, there has been an increased focus on state supreme court elections. That has been particularly true this year in Wisconsin, where the court's current 4-3 conservative majority is at stake. Abortion rights advocates are raising arguments in state courts that won't fly at the U.S. Supreme Court. Some lawsuits, for instance, rely on guarantees of privacy included in state constitutions a right not explicitly included in the U.S. Constitution. Abortion may put new emphasis on state supreme court justice races Most states hold an election of some kind for their top courts, and generally, those contests receive little attention. The question is whether a bevy of state-based litigation over abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling last year will change that. Three judges and a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice are running for a seat on the state's highest court in a nonpartisan primary that will take place next month and a general election in April. The race has put the court's current 4-3 conservative majority in play at a time when it may need to address major questions on abortion and redistricting. Pennsylvania will fill a seat on its high court in November and three seats are up in Ohio next year. If abortion winds up playing a big role in those races then it will be paired alongside another issue that has frequently bounced between the U.S. Supreme Court, state legislatures and state courts: redistricting. Several groups that focus on how legislative boundaries are drawn have been paying attention to state judicial elections for years. "From abortion and reproductive rights to voting fairness, American life as we know it is at stake in every state judicial election," said Eric Holder, the chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and a former attorney general during the Obama administration. "By attempting to fill state supreme court benches with ideologues, Republicans are going down a dangerous path that will reduce the independence of our courts, reduce respect for them, and weaken our system of checks and balances." Republicans accuse Democrats of playing the same game. Andrew Romeo, a spokesman for the Republican State Leadership Committee, said his group is battling "the lefts sue until its blue gerrymandering playbook" and said it is closely watching the Wisconsin race "for opportunities to ensure it is won by a strong conservative who will uphold the constitution and rule of law instead of the liberal activist candidates running to gerrymander congressional maps in favor of Democrats. How abortion advocates are changing tactics in state courts In South Carolina, reproductive rights advocates challenged the state's ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy on the theory that the law violated the state constitution's explicit prohibition on "unreasonable invasions of privacy." In a 3-2 ruling earlier this month, the state's highest court agreed with that argument. "We hold that our state constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion," the state's highest court ruled on Jan. 5. In Roe, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, a 7-2 majority of the Supreme Court said that the 14th Amendment's guarantee of liberty included a right to privacy that protects a person's decision to end a pregnancy. The court reiterated that holding 19 years later in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. But the word "privacy" isn't explicitly included in the Constitution and the court's current conservative majority took a different view of its meaning in its decision last year. States: Where the abortion fight goes from here: Roe overruled, but battle continues Ginsburg: Abortion fight draws Justice Ginsburg's legacy on Roe v. Wade into spotlight Proximity: Travel times to clinics surged significantly after overturn of Roe v. Wade Another argument being hashed out in state courts is whether state guarantees of equal protection prohibit abortion restrictions because those laws discriminate against women. In the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June, Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote that those arguments are "squarely foreclosed" in federal courts by precedents that "establish that a states regulation of abortion is not a sex-based classification." But the equal protection theory won the day last fall in a trial court in Michigan, which invalidated a 1931 law banning abortion. Some states "have much clearer language about privacy or equal protection when it comes to abortion," said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. But that doesn't mean that abortion rights groups will win in every state. "It's going to depend a lot on court composition," she said, "and the upshot of that is likely to be people putting more money and effort into state supreme court elections." Contributing: Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Post-Roe abortion battle draws attention to state judicial elections The most adorable stolen goods recovered after a burglary. York County Sheriff's Office Police in South Carolina found the most adorable - and cuddly - stolen goods over the weekend. Burglars stole four wrinkly face puppies from a home and led police on a high-speed chase that started in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ended in a crash in York County, South Carolina. A successful pursuit usually ends with no injuries and a suspects arrest. This successful pursuit also ended with the rescue of puppies. The suspects, who ran from the crash scene, were later apprehended thanks to the work of the York County - you guessed it - canine unit and they were taken back to Charlotte where they will face charges. Trent Faris, Public Information Officer for the York County Sheriffs office, was off duty when a deputy texted him pictures of the officers holding the puppies with the message, Ive got a good one for you. The puppies - whose breed is unknown but look to be a Bulldog mix, according to Faris, have been safely returned to their owner. For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on Southern Living. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images) Once again, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has caused widespread outrage by comparing his nations international isolation the result of last years unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine to the murder of European Jews during the Holocaust. Just as Hitler wanted a final solution to the Jewish question, now, if you read Western politicians ... they clearly say Russia must suffer a strategic defeat, Lavrov, a close and longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday. Israel sharply denounced Lavrovs self-pitying view of European history and of the European present, where Russia, not Germany, is seen as the greatest threat to peace and prosperity on the continent. Any comparison or relating current events with Hitlers final solution plan for the extermination of the Jewish People distorts the historical truth, desecrates the memory of those who perished and the survivors and should be strongly rejected, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters) Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem, criticized what it described as an affront to the actual victims of Nazism on Lavrovs part, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In Washington, Lavrovs comments which singled out the United States, the organizing force behind the coalition supporting Ukraine were met with an equally strong rebuke. Our first reaction is, how dare he compare anything to the Holocaust anything let alone a war that they started? National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Yahoo News at a Wednesday press briefing. It's almost so absurd that it's not worth responding to, Kirby said of Lavrovs provocative musings. Kirby pointed out that since it was Russia that invaded Ukraine first in 2014, then much more extensively in early 2022 claims of victimhood made little sense. Today and from the very beginning, he said, Putin has tried to cast this as Mother Russia being under threat. False. Story continues Kirby went on to describe the comparison to the Holocaust as both ludicrous and ridiculous, in a departure from the carefully crafted statements that White House officials tend to use when discussing sensitive international concerns. When it comes to Russia, those concerns vanished long ago. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) The so-called Endlosung der Judenfrage, or Final Solution to the Jewish Question, was the genocide implemented in stages by the Nazis as they conquered much of Europe. The campaign culminated in the creation of several death camps, mostly in Poland, where millions of Jews and other people were murdered. Though it lost millions of civilians and soldiers in World War II, the Soviet Union was instrumental in defeating Hitler. The victory over Nazism remains a central tenet of Russian national identity. When he first invaded Ukraine, Putin said his intention was to de-Nazify the nations leadership, a claim made especially dubious by the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was the first Jew to have been elected to that post. As the invasion faltered, Russia began to invent increasingly outlandish reasons for a war that had been poorly conceived from the start. In an apparent effort to revive the original justification for the war, Lavrov told an Italian outlet last spring that Hitler had Jewish blood. The falsehood appeared to serve however preposterously the argument that Zelenskys heritage did not absolve him of allowing Ukraine to lapse into fascism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Amir Levy/Getty Images) Despite international outrage, the Russian Foreign Ministry deepened the conflict with a social media post that alluded to tragic examples of Jewish-Nazi collaboration, a willfully grotesque misreading of history. Putin eventually apologized to Israels prime minister at the time, Naftali Bennett. The Kremlins latest invocation of the Holocaust could damage the fraught relationship between Russia and Israel, where a new far-right coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is now taking shape. Although domestic issues, including the enduring conflict over Palestinian territorial claims, have dominated Israeli politics, the question of Russia is unignorable in the long run. Returning to office for his sixth term, Netanyahu boasts a close relationship with Putin and none at all with Zelensky. Russias ties with Syria and Iran make it difficult for Netanyahu to offer meaningful military aid to Ukraine. At the same time, Israels closest ally, the United States, is leading the pro-Ukrainian alliance. The United States recently moved some ammunition it was storing in Israel to the battlefield in Ukraine. These are sovereign decisions that nations have to make, Kirby said on Wednesday regarding Israels cautious approach to the war in Eastern Europe. Were not twisting arms. U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY). Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images A Brazilian drag performer said Thursday that GOP Rep. George Santos "couldn't cut it" as a drag queen. The performer, Eula Rochard, also told Insider on Thursday that Santos "is crazy." Santos has denied having performed as a drag queen. A Brazilian drag performer who says she was once friends with GOP Rep. George Santos told NBC News that the newly-elected congressman "couldn't cut it" as a drag queen. The performer, who uses the drag name Eula Rochard, also spoke with Insider via Instagram on Thursday. Santos had an "outgrown sense of grandeur" and "lied all the time," Rochard told NBC, adding Santos "never the type of drag queen who could hold down the show." The New York congressman has denied that he ever performed in drag. "The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or 'performed' as a drag Queen is categorically false," Santos said in a tweet from his official account. "The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results. I will not be distracted nor fazed by this." Insider asked Rochard for a response to Santos' denial. "He is crazy," Rochard said in Portuguese. Santos' denial came after Rochard and another acquaintance told Reuters that he competed as a drag queen in Brazilian beauty pageants over a decade ago. Rochard told the outlet that she first became friends with Santos in 2005, when he was cross-dressing at the first gay pride parade in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. She added that Santos competed as a drag queen at a 2008 beauty pageant in Rio. The other acquaintance asked Reuters not to be named but said they also knew Santos from Brazil and that he participated in drag queen pageants and wanted to be Miss Gay Rio de Janeiro. Santos was consumed by scandal before even arriving in Washington. He lied on his resume, falsely claimed his mom died on 9/11, and has been cagey about how his sudden unexplained wealth helped finance his congressional run. Multiple Republicans, including top officials in New York, have called on him to resign. Santos has rejected those calls. Speaker Kevin McCarthy has also been unwilling to push Santos out, meaning the New Yorker is unlikely to be forced to sashay away from Washington anytime soon. Read the original article on Business Insider By Steven Grattan SAO PAULO (Reuters) -U.S. Representative George Santos competed as a drag queen in Brazilian beauty pageants 15 years ago, two acquaintances told Reuters on Wednesday, adding to contrasts that have drawn criticism of the openly gay Republican congressman's staunchly conservative views. The embattled freshman congressman has also faced calls from fellow New York Republicans to step down over fabrications about his career and history. A 58-year-old Brazilian performer, who uses the drag name Eula Rochard, said she befriended the now-congressman when he was cross-dressing in 2005 at the first gay pride parade in Niteroi, a Rio de Janeiro suburb. Three years later, Santos competed in a drag beauty pageant in Rio, Rochard said. Another person from Niteroi who knew the 34-year-old congressman but asked not to be named said he participated in drag queen beauty pageants and aspired to be Miss Gay Rio de Janeiro. The congressman said on Twitter on Thursday that claims "that I am a drag Queen or 'performed' as a drag Queen" are "categorically false," adding: "I will not be distracted nor fazed by this." Santos is the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat in Congress as a non-incumbent, but has positioned himself as a staunch conservative on many social issues. He has backed Florida's controversial "Parental Rights in Education" law, which prohibits classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, leading critics to call it the "don't say gay" law. Republicans are increasingly denouncing drag shows and performers, claiming they are harmful to children. Santos, responding in October to criticism of his support for the Florida law, told USA Today: "I am openly gay, have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade, and I can tell you and assure you, I will always be an advocate for LGBTQ folks." Rochard said the congressman was a "poor" drag queen in 2005, with a simple black dress, but in 2008 "he came back to Niteroi with a lot of money," and a flamboyant pink dress to show for it. Santos competed in a drag beauty pageant that year using the drag name Kitara Ravache but lost, Rochard said. "He's changed a lot, but he was always a liar. He was always such a dreamer," Rochard said. (Reporting by Steven Grattan; Editing by Brad Haynes, Heather Timmons, Edmund Klamann and Deepa Babington) After knocking TikTok off of state devices in November, Gov. Kristi Noem is further restricting the South Dakota from doing business with what her office called "evil" foreign governments. On Friday, Noem signed an executive order that would bar the state from executing contracts with "prohibited entities," or any organization owned by a foreign government from China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia or Venezuela. Noem's order also prohibits the state from purchasing information or communication technology from an organization owned by the aforementioned countries or considered unsafe for the state's cybersecurity systems by connection to the banned entities. Related: Noem, two legislators draft bill to limit foreign purchases of South Dakota agricultural land The order also requires any telecommunication company entering into a contract with the state to certify it is not owned by a "foreign national, a foreign parent entity, or foreign government" from the listed countries. It is critical that we protect South Dakotans from evil foreign governments, Noem said in a press release. This order ensures that these countries cannot leverage telecommunications or state contract procurements to gain access to crucial state infrastructure and data. The political sentiment of referring to foreign governments as "evil" or adversarial has been espoused by South Dakota legislators previously. In November. Rep. Dusty Johnson joined 129 House Republicans to sign a letter requesting the Government Accountability Office to review foreign investments in U.S. farmland. He referred to China as a "generational adversary" while speaking with Farm Forum and, later, during a dialogue with actors Chris Evans and Mark Kassen on their civic engagement app, "A Starting Point." Related: Johnson, 129 House Republicans ask for review of foreign investments in U.S. farmland President Joe Biden issued a limited ban in December that prohibits the federal government's nearly 4 million employees from downloading TikTok on devices owned by its agencies, NBC News reported. Story continues In November, Noem issued similar legislation blocking the download of TikTok, a popular Chinese-owned social media platform, from device used by state employees, contractors and agencies. So far, South Dakota and 26 other states have banned TikTok from state devices. The order will take effect Jan. 25. This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Gov. Kristi Noem signs order limiting business with certain foreign organizations PEORIA Law enforcement's reaction to the recent assault weapons law approved by Gov. JB Pritzker has been largely negative, with many sheriffs saying they believe the law is illegal. More than 80 sheriffs, including those in Peoria, Woodford and Tazewell counties, have said they will not ask those with a valid Firearm Owners Identification card to register their weapons as required by the law. Others have gone further, saying they will not arrest people "solely for noncompliance with the act." But can a sheriff refuse to enforce a law? Is it legal for a sheriff to decide what laws are legal, or is that the purview of the courts? The Illinois Constitution establishes the office of the sheriff and states that, in addition to duties and powers provided by ordinance, they also have the "duties, powers or functions derived from common law or historical precedent unless altered by law or county ordinance." Dennis Tipsword That has been construed by some to mean a sheriff has discretion. Dennis Tipsword, Woodford County's chief deputy and a newly elected member of the Illinois General Assembly, said his boss, Matt Smith, and other sheriffs can "question such a law until it is proven otherwise." He notes that before the law was passed, some Democrats Tipsword is a Republican were "on record saying they believed it would not pass constitutional muster." The governor has noted that eight other states and Washington, D.C., also have bans on similar weapons. The issue At issue are provisions laid out in the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which bans assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines from being manufactured or sold in Illinois. The bill also bans devices that can transform a semiautomatic weapon into a fully automatic one and requires owners of assault-style weapons to register those with the state. Tazewell County Sheriff Jeff Lower According to Capitol News Illinois, "a gun owners failure to provide the state police with the serial numbers for assault-style rifles they own prior to Jan. 1, 2024, will be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in prison. The degree of charges could increase based on the number of unregistered guns." Story continues The idea of registering weapons seems to have caused the most concern. Jim Kaitschuk, the executive director for the Illinois Sheriffs' Association, said sheriffs shouldn't be investigating lawful gun owners; that's the purview of the Illinois State Police. Peoria County Sheriff Chris Watkins Peoria County Sheriff Chris Watkins issued this statement: "As the Sheriff of Peoria County, I oppose the legislative bill (HB 5471) that was recently passed banning law-abiding citizens from buying certain types of firearms. This is another example of Chicago policy being pushed downstate on responsible gun owners. This bill does not solve the root cause of the problem. The real focus should be on the Mental Health Crisis thats plaguing our communities that I see increasing every day in Peoria County." Watkins joined dozens of sheriffs statewide who released similar statements. Many of the statements were worded almost exactly the same and focused on Second Amendment aspects, saying the new legislation is unconstitutional. Tazewell County Sheriff Jeff Lower said in his statement that he would do everything in his power to "steadfastly protect the Second Amendment and all other individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution." According to Capitol News Illinois, the sheriffs letters "primarily dealt with enforcing the registry portion of the assault weapons law, and Kaitschuk said he wasnt aware of any sheriffs in his organization who dont plan on complying with the laws other provisions, like the ban of sales of assault weapons at Illinois gun shops." Pritzker said that refusing to enforce the new law was not right and threatened to "fire" them if they didn't. He has called the sheriffs' positions and their letters as well as threats of lawsuits "political grandstanding." "They took an oath of office to enforce the laws of the state of Illinois, and they will do so, he said while speaking in Chicago this month. "These are folks who are entrusted by the public to enforce the law. They dont get to choose which laws they enforce. On Jan. 17, the Illinois State Rifle Association, the Firearms Policy Coalition Inc., and the Second Amendment Foundation, along with two gun stores in St. Clair and McHenry counties, filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of Illinois against Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Brendan Reilly, who heads the state police. And in Effingham County, Circuit Judge Joshua Morrison indicated he could rule by Friday whether he'll issue a restraining order sought by Thomas DeVore, an attorney who ran for attorney general last year who also filed several suits challenging the state's pandemic mandates. DeVore filed the suit this week on behalf of an Effingham County gun shop, arguing the law sailed through the General Assembly in an improper manner. What can sheriffs do? Ed Yohnka, a spokesman with the Illinois Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said sheriffs are to enforce the law, not interpret it. "While it is true that, absolutely, a law enforcement agency can decide priorities for themselves, what they can't do is say, 'This crosses the line and we are not going to focus on this because it is unconstitutional,'" he said. "They can't pick and choose based upon their own sense of what is constitutional and what is not." Tazewell County's Lower said his deputies are expected to use their common sense and their training to protect citizens within his county, but given the complexities of law enforcement, officers and deputies often have to use discretion on the streets. Yet, to him, the entire matter comes down to one thing. "What do I have to enforce?" he asked of the new law, noting the ISP has been tasked with handling firearm sales and registration. "This is mostly regulatory, and that's the state police's mandate." Kaitschuk said local sheriffs would be hard-pressed to know who owned such weapons unless those gun owners dont voluntarily comply with the law, suggesting it would be ridiculous to go door-to-door to find out, according to Capitol News Illinois. Regardless, Tipsword said, sheriffs answer to one group the voters. "No matter what is said on the political side of this, the sheriffs report only to the people of their constituencies," Tipsword said. "There is a mechanism if the constituents are not in favor of the stances these sheriffs are taking. That's our representative republic at work. they can vote them out." This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Many Illinois sheriffs will not enforce new gun law. Is it that simple? The Ukrainian law enforcers have no doubt about the involvement of Iranian officials, legal entities and individuals in the production and supply of drones to Russia, Head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in the Conditions of Armed Conflict of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Yuriy Bilousov said on the air of the national telethon. "We have information confirming Iran's involvement in this. And we will prove the guilt of these officials, these individuals both in national and international courts, using evidentiary information for this. And right now, the investigating and prosecutor's offices are collecting evidence with which we can convince the court of their involvement in these crimes," Bilousov said, adding that this is both operational data and data from intelligence units of Ukraine and international partners. The prosecutor added that in order to bring the perpetrators to justice, hundreds of investigative actions are being carried out, hundreds of examinations, which will be completed in the near future. He assured of the sufficiency of evidence to prove the guilt of Iranian officials and individuals, as well as representatives of any other countries that assist Iran in the development or supply of these drones, their use in Ukraine. "It is important for us to trace the entire chain, from production to delivery and direct use. Of course, all these people who supply components, assemble these drones, train Russians to use these drones and people who directly launch them against our citizens, our cities all of them must be identified," Bilousov said. MADISON Nearly 15 years after brutally strangling and stabbing University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann to death, David Kahl will spend the rest of his life in prison, a Dane County judge ruled Friday. Kahl, 56, decided to forgo the opportunity to be considered for parole after serving 20 years in prison. His attorney, Ben Gonring, told the court that Kahl said he had taken a life and he deserved life. "He owns it," Gonring said. "He deserves it. He's telling you that this is the day he gets what's coming to him." Zimmermann's parents, Jean and Kevin, said they were relieved he would remain behind bars forever. But they said they, too, are serving their own life sentence, one without their daughter. In an emotional press conference held after the sentencing, they described an overwhelming sense of loss while attending others' weddings and meeting others' grandchildren. "There's never going to be closure for us," Jean Zimmermann said. "This is over and we are thankful because this has been a nightmare for us for 14 1/2-plus years." Jean and Kevin Zimmermann, parents of Brittany Zimmermann, a University of Wisconsin-Madison junior who was brutally murdered in 2008, speak at a press conference on Friday. The Zimmermann family also doubted the sincerity of Kahl's gesture, calling it "self-serving" and a way to prevent Kahl's mother from hearing the gruesome details of what her son had done. Kahl murdered Zimmermann, of Marshfield, in the middle of the day on April 2, 2008, at the West Doty Street apartment she shared with her fiance. He was a suspect in the case immediately, questioned by police just hours after the homicide. Dane County Circuit Judge Chris Taylor questioned whether Kahl understood the magnitude of his actions on that spring day. The case caused panic and fear across campus and throughout the city. She acknowledged Kahl's guilty plea last fall, which spared the Zimmermanns the anguish of a trial slated to begin this month. But Taylor said the plea doesn't negate his yearslong obfuscation in the case. Kahl pointed police to false suspects, provided fake police sketches, denied involvement and repeatedly changed his story as detectives closed in on him. Story continues Only after being criminally charged and in the face of overwhelming DNA evidence did Kahl admit to taking the 21-year-old's life, Taylor said. He has also tried to shift the blame to others. "It wasn't the police's fault. It wasn't 911's fault," she said. "They didn't cause you to do what you did. That was you." Kahl apologized to Zimmermann's family at the hearing and said he felt "horrible." David Kahl is wheeled into Dane County Court on Friday for a sentencing hearing. A junior at the time of her death, Zimmermann had attended classes earlier in the day and talked to a professor about starting a charity to help homeless children. She was a lover of animals and photographed some bunnies on the way back to her apartment on April 2 to work on a financial aid application. Her fiance told police Zimmermann was safety-conscious and always deadbolted the door. Kahl was a career criminal with a rap sheet that began in 1991 and "basically continued non-stop since then," according to a sentencing memo filed by state prosecutors. He is believed to have forced his way inside Zimmermann's apartment, one stop on a loop he took around the neighborhood bumming for money to buy drugs. While in Zimmermann's bathroom, Kahl heard her call police and "snapped." It is the nightmare of every parent who sends their child to college," the memo said. In conversations last year with his mother and a fellow inmate, Kahl said he had been awake for eight days and taken methamphetamine and crack when he encountered Zimmermann, according to the state's memo. Kahl told his mom he had "no clue" why he killed her. But he also blamed 911, saying if officers had appropriately responded, Zimmermann would still be alive. There were sounds of a struggle and a female screaming in the call made to 911 from Zimmermann's cellphone, but Dane County operator Rita Gahagan said she didn't hear anything that registered as an emergency so police were not dispatched. The Zimmermanns sued and settled with the county for $5,000 that went to the reward fund the family set up to find their daughter's killer. Madison Police Capt. Dan Nale, the investigator on the case since 2017, said the department never classified it as cold and had at least one investigator on it since her death. Asked about the time it took to charge Kahl, he said police were waiting for DNA technology to catch up to us. The Zimmermanns were "so afraid Brittany would be forgotten," Jean said. The family put up billboards and contacted media to ensure their daughter remained in the public's attention. They host a dog walk, Paws for Brittany, every Mother's Day in Marshfield. The event has raised more than $60,000. The family also established a scholarship for Marshfield students attending UW-Madison. Zimmermann studied medical microbiology and immunology at the university. She had hoped to become a doctor, and the sentencing memo said she had recently come across a scholarship for students interested in practicing medicine in rural Wisconsin. Another "big dream" of Brittany's, according to Jean Zimmermann, was to work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her family and friends felt an even greater sense of loss during the pandemic. They wondered what contributions she could have made to save lives. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: David Kahl sentenced in murder of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann Washington The number of migrants processed by U.S. authorities along the southern border soared to a monthly record high in December, before President Biden announced tougher enforcement measures that have reduced illegal entries, government figures released Friday show. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials at the U.S.-Mexico border processed migrants 251,487 times last month, a 7% increase from November, fueled by record arrivals of migrants from Cuba and Nicaragua, according to the agency statistics. The previous monthly record was set in May 2022, when CBP recorded over 241,000 migrant encounters along the southern border. But the sharp increase in unlawful border crossings in December occurred before the Biden administration launched a revamped migration plan that pairs increased expulsions of those entering the U.S. unlawfully with expanded opportunities for vulnerable asylum-seekers and migrants with U.S.-based sponsors to enter the country legally. Migrants wait for their turn to have a Border Patrol agent write down their information in Eagle Pass, Texas, on December 20, 2022. / Credit: VERONICA G. CARDENAS/AFP via Getty Images Since those measures were announced in early January, the number of migrants apprehended along the Mexican border has plummeted. Border Patrol is currently averaging roughly 4,000 migrant apprehensions per day, a 40% drop from the daily average in December, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told CBS News Friday, requesting anonymity to share internal data. Still, the record number of migrant apprehensions in December, a month that has historically seen lower migration flows than warmer parts of the year, illustrates the unprecedented migrant crisis along the southern border, where migrants have been arriving in greater numbers and from more countries than ever before. The extraordinary migration event has been primarily driven by record arrivals of migrants from countries outside of Mexico and Central America's Northern Triangle, the main sources of U.S.-bound unlawful migration before the COVID-19 pandemic. In December, U.S. officials along the Mexican border recorded 42,637 encounters with Cubans, and 35,389 encounters with Nicaraguans, all-time monthly highs for both nationalities. By contrast, U.S. border agents processed migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador nearly 33,000 times last month. Story continues U.S. border officials were preparing in late December to discontinue a pandemic-era rule known as Title 42 that has allowed them to quickly expel some migrants without affording them an opportunity to request asylum. But the Supreme Court put Title 42's termination, ordered by a lower court, on hold while it reviews a request by Republican-led states that want the Trump-era policy to continue. As part of the strategy Mr. Biden unveiled in early January, the U.S. announced that Mexico had agreed to accept 30,000 returns per month of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who attempted to cross into the U.S. illegally. Previously, Mexican officials generally only accepted the return of migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador expelled under Title 42. The Biden administration simultaneously committed to admitting up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela per month and giving them access to work permits if they have sponsors in the U.S. willing to support their arrival. Officials also announced a process for vulnerable migrants in Mexico to make appointments through a mobile app to request U.S. entry at ports of entry along the southern border. In December, U.S. border officials carried out 49,405 expulsions under Title 42, representing only 20% of all migrant encounters last month. That percentage, however, could change in January since Mexico has since accepted the return of additional migrant nationalities expelled by the U.S. via Title 42. Migrants who are not expelled are processed under regular immigration law, which allows them to request asylum. Migrant adults and families could be detained, deported under a process known as expedited removal or released into the U.S. with a court notice or instructions to check in with federal officials in their respective destinations. Unaccompanied children are generally transferred to government shelters. Migrant encounters do not represent individual migrants, as some try to cross the U.S. border multiple times after being expelled to Mexico. In December, 14% of migrants processed along the southern border had been previously stopped by U.S. immigration officials in the last 12 months, CBP data show. Moreover, not all migrants enter the U.S. illegally between legal ports of entry. In December, U.S. border officials processed 23,025 asylum-seekers determined to be vulnerable at ports of entry under humanitarian exemptions to Title 42, according to government data submitted to a federal court. Data stolen from 37 million T-Mobile customers in November Sundance Film Festival returns in-person for first time since 2020 Defense Secretary urges allies to ramp up aid to Ukraine LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) Aman, a 22-year-old transgender man from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, says he was always close to his father. When he was little and it was cold out, his father held his hands to warm them. When he was at university, his father would wait until he got home to eat dinner together, regardless of how late it was. Now they are cut off. Aman's decision to live as a man has cost him everything. His parents and five siblings no longer speak to him. He dropped out of university and had to leave home. He has attempted suicide three times. Trans men face deep isolation in Pakistan. The country, with a conservative Muslim majority, has entrenched beliefs on gender and sexuality, so trans people are often considered outcasts. But trans women have a degree of toleration because of cultural traditions. Trans women in public office, on news programs, in TV shows and films, even on the catwalk, have raised awareness about a marginalized and misunderstood community. The Pakistani movie and Oscar contender Joyland caused an uproar last year for its depiction of a relationship between a married man and a trans woman, but it also shone a spotlight on the countrys transgender community. Trans men, however, remain largely invisible, with little mobilization, support or resources. Trans women have growing activist networks but, according to Aman and others, they rarely incorporate or deal with trans men and their difficulties. Its the worst, said Aman. We are already disowned by our families and blood relatives, then the people we think are our people also exclude us. Trans women have been able to carve out their space in the culture because of the historic tradition of khawaja sira, originally a term for male eunuchs working in South Asias Mughal empire hundreds of years ago. Today, the term is generally associated with people who were born male and identify as female. Khawaja sira culture also has a traditional support system of gurus, prominent figures who lead others. Story continues But there is no space within the term or the culture surrounding it for people who were born female and identify as male. Every khawaja sira is transgender, but not all transgenders are khawaja sira, said Mani, a representative for the trans male community in Pakistan. People have been aware of the khawaja sira community for a long time, but not of trans men. He set up a nonprofit group in 2018 because he saw nothing being done for trans men, their well-being or mental health. Trans people have seen some progress in protecting their rights. Supreme Court rulings allow them to self-identify as a third gender, neither male nor female, and have underscored they have the same rights as all Pakistani citizens. Although Mani was involved in the trans rights bill, most lobbying and advocacy work has been from transgender women since it became law. Nobody talks about trans men or how they are impacted by the act, said Mani. "But this is not the right time to talk about this because of the campaign by religious extremists (to veto changes to the act). I dont want to cause any harm to the community. Another reason for trans mens low visibility is that females lead a more restricted life than males in Pakistan, with limits on what they can do, where they can go and how they can live. Family honor is tied to the behavior of women and girls, so they have less room to behave outside societys norms. On a practical level, even if a girl wanted to meet trans people and get involved in the community, she wouldnt be able to because she wouldnt be allowed out, said Aman. Coming from a privileged and educated family, Aman said his parents indulged him as a child, letting him behave in ways seen as male and dress in a boyish way. He wore a boys uniform to school. But there came a time when he was expected to live and look like a girl. That meant fewer freedoms and the prospect of marriage. He didnt want that life and knew there were operations to change his gender. But his father told him he was too young and would have to wait until he was 18, apparently hoping he would grow out of it. Aman had nobody to speak to about his gender identity struggles. He used social media and search engines, making contact with a trans man in India who connected him with a WhatsApp group of trans men in Pakistan. Aman grew his hair long and dressed like a girl just to survive while still at home, he said. He also felt he shouldnt do anything to jeopardize the familys honor. These restrictions created a war in my mind, he said. You have to socialize, and it was difficult for me because I had to socialize as a girl. He wasnt allowed male friends because of the taboos around mixing with the opposite sex, nor was he allowed female friends because his parents feared it would lead to a lesbian relationship. Still, Aman set goals to get educated, earn money and be independent, planning eventually to live as a man. By 2021, he was on hormone therapy and his voice was changing. But it all changed when a family member asked outright if Aman was changing his gender. The question inflamed all the doubts and worries his parents already had about his steps to transition. They disowned him, saying he could no longer live under their roof if he wanted to live as a man. They said everything can be tolerated but we cant tolerate this, Aman said. His mother said it would hurt his siblings and their marital prospects. His sisters locked him in a bathroom once. Only his older brother supported him. Aman moved out and began living alone and fully as a man. Mani has helped, giving him an office job at the non-governmental organization. Still, Aman barely gets by and faces constant problems. One is that he hasnt changed his gender to male officially on his ID card, which he needs to vote, open a bank account, apply for jobs and access government benefits including health care. He went once to NADRA, the government agency responsible for ID cards, but there the officials harassed him. They inspected him, talked derisively about him, and demanded a bribe. One official felt his chest. He feels isolated. Im satisfied with my gender, but Im not happy to live anymore, he said. I love my family. I need my father, I need my brother. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bowed her head and paused before answering a question about how her husband, Paul Pelosi, was feeling nearly three months after a brutal attack at the couples home left him hospitalized. Hes doing OK. Its going to take a little while for him to be back to normal, the former House speaker told CNNs Chris Wallace in a new interview, which was previewed Friday ahead of its Sunday airdate. Wallace noted that Paul Pelosi has been seen out in public a handful of times since the attack. He was spotted in the audience Tuesday as President Joe Biden welcomed the Golden State Warriors to the White House in Washington, on the House floor in early January for the opening of the 118th Congress, and at Statuary Hall in mid-December for the unveiling of a portrait in honor of his wife. Hes been out a bit because the doctor said he has to have something to look forward to, Nancy Pelosi said, adding, So again, one day at a time. In late October, 42-year-old David DePape was accused of breaking into the Pelosis San Francisco home in search of the House speaker. He ended up swinging at her husband with a hammer, hitting his head, right arm and hands. Asked for more detail on the nature of his enduring injuries, the congresswoman told Wallace that many of the surface wounds had healed up. Tendons, you know all that stuff. But the head is a different thing, she said. Anyone whos had a head injury knows that you have to be very careful. You have to be careful about movement. You have to be careful about light. You have to be careful about sound. And it just takes a while, she continued. You get very tired, but, you know ... it will take probably another three or four months, according to the doctors, for him to be really himself. Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, attend a portrait unveiling ceremony in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall on Dec. 14 in Washington. Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, attend a portrait unveiling ceremony in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall on Dec. 14 in Washington. Paul Pelosi was released from the hospital around a week after the attack. Story continues Authorities say DePape had planned to kidnap the speaker, who was in Washington at the time. I feel very sad about it because of what happened, but also more sad because the person was searching for me, Nancy Pelosi told Wallace. My dear husband, who is not even that political actually, paid the price. DePape has entered two not-guilty pleas related to the incident, one each in separate state and federal cases. Related... The police chief of Great Falls, South Carolina, is facing charges of misconduct while in office, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Warrants in the case allege that Police Chief Jeremy Vinson failed to perform his duty as chief following a hit-and-run crash investigated by the Great Falls Police Department in December of 2021. ALSO READ: Security guard at south Charlotte bar posed as CMPD officer for years, owner says The warrant says Vinson negotiated and disposed of the case in Great Falls Municipal Court without the proper authority. He then failed to notify the victims of the negotiations and that their case was dropped, law enforcement said. After failing to perform his duties, law enforcement said Vinson made false statements to SLED and altered reports to show he attempted to contact the victims before the case was disposed. Vinson was charged by SLED on Friday and booked into the Chester County Detention Center. This is a developing story. Check wsoctv.com for updates. (WATCH BELOW: CMPD officer charged with DWI after being found in patrol car along I-277, chief says) Insider spoke with a number of students who had mixed reactions to the ban. Screenshot/TikTok - ettaettaettaetta This week, a number of public universities in Texas announced a TikTok ban on campus servers. Insider spoke with multiple college students affected, including some who post often on TikTok. Their reactions were mixed, with some people agreeing and others worried about what the block would mean. After a swarm of Texas public universities announced they were banning the use of TikTok on campus, students say they're not too concerned. They're simply going to turn to VPNs or use their own cellular service to access the app. "The way that I am planning to circumvent the ban is to simply turn my school WiFi off when I want to use the app on campus," said one student. This week, the University of Texas at Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Arlington campuses, among other major colleges in the Lone Star state, began suspending access to the app on university-issued devices and school WiFi networks. The ban follows a directive from Texas Governor Greg Abbott in December mandating state agencies block TikTok on government servers out of fear that the Chinese-owned company may be harvesting sensitive data and intel from US users. A growing number of US states have enacted similar policies in what has become a national reckoning over the app's potential security risks. TikTok has repeatedly assuaged these concerns. Still, TikTok is one of the most popular apps in the world, especially among young people. Insider spoke with four Uniersity of Texas at Austin students including some who have thousands of TikTok followers who said the ban wasn't going to stop them from accessing the platform. Some students were disappointed, but others, who called the app 'brain rot,' saw the ban as a good thing overall Muturi Mwangi is a sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin. He has over 1,300 followers on TikTok, where he posts little snatches of his daily life at college. When he heard about the ban, which was announced in a public online statement on Tuesday, he was dispirited because he uses TikTok often. Story continues "I do use TikTok quite a bit on campus, usually in between lectures when I'm walking around Speedway, when I'm taking a break during studying," Mwangi said. "It's an inconvenience for most kids to have to turn off their data when they're already part of the UT network." Although Mwangi said he understands the reasoning behind the ban, he plans to continue using TikTok and circumvent it by using his own data and VPNs, or virtual private networks that disguise a user's IP address and encrypt their connection. He already has experience using VPNs because his high school blocked apps like TikTok, he said. Etta Carpender, a senior at UT Austin, also said she was going to find a workaround for the TikTok ban. "It sounds so silly but in today's day and age social media is a really big part of how the younger generation connects and it makes me sad that some will miss out on that," she said. "I think that the University is making it very clear that it is a government decision and it's just a policy the university has to abide by." Carpender is a member of the school's rowing team, and she's concerned that banning TikTok could mean attracting less talent because social media has become a great tool for prospective student athletes to get a peek into what life at the university is like. Carpender posts glimpses like these on her own TikTok account, which has 2,000 followers. Although many students said they would still continue to use the app despite the ban, some also said they generally agreed with the schools' motion. Brienne, a 21-year-old junior at UT Austin who wished to be identified by her first name only, said she doesn't use TikTok anymore. "I personally don't use TikTok but I did in the past," Brienne said. "I recognized that it was basically brain rot so I stopped." Skylur, a sophomore at the school, agreed. "I honestly have zero issue with it. It has been hard to talk to anyone because their phones are glued to their face." The University of Texas at Austin's Reddit page was ablaze with reactions this week after the announcement was issued, with some students joking about how the ban would improve students' average GPAs and make people "touch grass" again. "What are we supposed to do??" the creator of a thread about the topic wrote, seemingly in jest. "Go outside and start making genuine friendships?!" Read the original article on Insider Former President Donald Trump has withdrawn his lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James just a day after he was ordered to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions for what a federal judge called a frivolous lawsuit against Hilary Clinton. Trump hereby voluntarily dismisses his claims in this action against Defendant, LETITIA JAMES, without prejudice, a brief document filed Friday morning with U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said. Trump hit James with the lawsuit in November, accusing her of waging a crusade against him and his great and upstanding businesses which have done nothing wrong. The lawsuit was in response to James civil suit against Trump and three of his children over an alleged years-long tax fraud scheme. James is seeking $250 million in restitution. Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us, James said at a press conference in September. Trump dropped his countersuit against James just one day after Middlebrooks who was also overseeing Trumps lawsuit against James hit Trump and his attorney with a nearly $1 million sanction for what the judge said was a pattern of abuse of the courts for filing bogus lawsuits for political purposes against his former 2016 presidential rival, Clinton. Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose, Middlebrooks wrote in his decision. In Thursdays ruling, Middlebrooks warned Trump and his attorneys that they could face possible sanctions over their lawsuit against James. Trump withdrew his lawsuit the next day. [Trump] is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer, Middlebrooks wrote, according to ABC News. He knew full well the impact of his actions. Related... By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Turkey on Wednesday urged the Biden administration to be decisive in its bid to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey and convince the U.S. Congress to drop its opposition to a planned $20 billion deal. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Washington he had told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Turkey dropping its objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO should not be a precondition for the F-16 sale. "What is important here is whether the administration will be decisive or not.... If it displays a strong stance against any steps to prevent this, the issue would be resolved," Cavusoglu said after meeting Blinken, in comments broadcast by Turkish state television TRT. The Biden administration has expressed its support for the sale of the jets to Turkey, despite opposition from Congress over Ankara's problematic human rights record and Syria policy, as it seeks to keep NATO unity in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But the Congress has been loud in its opposition. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee whose leaders review major foreign military sales, have been against the deal. "The administration should not waste such an important deal between two allies just because one person or a few people are blocking it. It should not bow down," Cavusoglu said. Recently, Ankara's refusal to ratify the NATO membership of Sweden and Finland has become more central to Congress' opposition. "(Turkish President Tayyip) Erdogan's...repeated attacks on our Syrian Kurdish allies, and continued cozying up to Russia --including delaying Sweden and Finland's NATO membership -- remain serious causes for concern," Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement. "As Ive said before, for Turkey to receive the F-16s, we need assurances that these concerns will be addressed," he said. Story continues The two Nordic states applied for NATO membership last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine but their bids need approval from all 30 NATO member states. Turkey and Hungary have yet to endorse the applications. Turkey raised objections, accusing the countries of harboring groups it deems terrorists. It said Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against these groups, mainly Kurdish militants and a group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt. In his meeting with Blinken, Cavusoglu said Ankara's approval of the Nordic countries' NATO bid was not presented as a precondition, but he said the U.S. side made it clear that it would be viewed positively by the Congress. Cavusoglu said Turkey was not denying that the two countries have taken steps to address Ankara's security concerns but there was more they should do and that they knew that. "HOSTAGE" Ties between the United States and Turkey have been strained since Turkey acquired Russian missile defense systems in 2019. While Cavusoglu and Blinken have met numerous times in the past at NATO summits and U.N. meetings, it took the Biden administration almost two years to officially invite Cavusoglu, a delay that analysts say reflects a strained relationship. The United States has praised Turkey for some of its actions during the Ukraine war, including mediating grain corridor talks, but also worries about Ankara's deepening relationship with Moscow. The countries are also at odds over Turkey's plans for a military operation into Syria and its intent to normalize ties with Damascus. For its part, Turkey demands Washington does not support the Syrian Kurdish armed groups that it sees as terrorists. Tensions between Turkey and fellow NATO ally Greece over the Aegean Sea have also negatively impacted the sentiment in the U.S. Congress towards Ankara. Last week, the State Department informally notified the committees overseeing arms sales in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives of its intention to proceed with the sale. But a senior administration official said Washington was unlikely to follow through with the sale unless Menendez reverses his opposition. While Congress can block foreign arms sales, it has not previously mustered the two-thirds majorities in both chambers required to overcome a presidential veto. The U.S. side did not give a date on when they would send the formal notification for the F-16s to Congress, Cavusoglu added. (Additional reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara, Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee and Alistair Bell) The United States of America have shared proof of North Korea supplying weapons to Wagner Group, which it uses in the war against Ukraine, with the group of experts of the United Nations Security Council Committee on Sanctions Against North Korea. Source: Ukrinform citing John Kirby, White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator, during a briefing on Friday; European Pravda reports Quote: "We have seen how the representatives of the North Korean authorities falsely denied the supply of weapons to Wagner PMC," Kirby reminded and added that the American side had already cited specific cases of such supplies. Details: Kirby showed to reporters in Washington the satellite images taken on 18 October, which show "that on 18 November, five Russian rail cars left Russia for North Korea". "The next day, North Korea loaded these railway cars, containers, after which the train returned to Russia," Kirby added. Quote: "The supply of weapons from the DPRK is a direct violation of the UN Security Council resolution, so today we shared information about these violations with the group of experts of the RB Committee on Sanctions Against North Korea. We will continue to speak about these violations in the Security Council together with our allies and partners," Kirby emphasised. Details: Kirby noted that the volumes of supplies from North Korea for the Wagner Group did not change the dynamics of hostilities in Ukraine. However, Russia wants to continue receiving weapons from North Korea. Background: It became known at the beginning of November 2022 that the United States accused North Korea of secretly supplying Russia with a significant amount of artillery shells for use in the war in Ukraine and of trying to hide these supplies. According to intelligence, the munitions are allegedly being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa, but are actually meant for Russia. In December, a high-ranking US representative stated that Wagner Group, which is participating in the war in Ukraine, received a shipment of weapons from North Korea last month. Story continues North Korea has denied all these claims. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Egypt's Public Prosecution ordered an autopsy on the body of a 42-year-old bank manager who died on Sunday nearly six weeks after being attacked by his neighbour's Pit Bull to determine the direct cause of death. A Ukrainian soldier of an artillery unit fires toward Russian positions outside Bakhmut. BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images The US tapped its stockpile in Israel for 155 mm shells for Ukraine, The New York Times reported. Allies are scrambling to supply Ukraine with artillery ammunition amid a new Russian offensive. In November, the Pentagon estimated that Ukraine fired between 4,000 and 7,000 shells daily. The Pentagon is sending a vast quantity of American ammunition from Israel to Ukraine to supply their urgent need for weapons to fight Russia, The New York Times reported. The Israeli and American governments reached an agreement to send 300,000 155 mm shells to Ukraine, with Israeli representatives doing so partially to avoid conflict with the US, per The New York Times. The Pentagon kept the stockpile in place to use in conflicts in the Middle East, but The Times reported that Israel also had access to the supplies to use in military emergencies. The report also said that a South Korean stockpile could send more American arms. The US is also buying 100,000 155 mm shells from South Korea, which it will then send to Ukraine, Insider reported. Ukrainian artillery unit fires with a 2S7-Pion, a self-propelled gun, at a position near a frontline in the Kharkiv region. Photo by IHOR THACHEV/AFP via Getty Images Additionally, Pakistan is sending 159 containers of artillery ammunition to Ukraine, according to India's Economic Times. The US' scramble for more ammunition to send to Ukraine comes as Russia and Ukraine gear up for expected renewed fighting in the spring. Russia says it has launched a new offensive in Zaporizhzhia region Russia and Ukraine have heavily used artillery in the attritional war in Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, that began in the summer. In November, the Pentagon estimated that Russia fired about 20,000 shells daily, while Ukraine fired between 4,000 and 7,000. On Saturday, reports of new fighting on the previously dormant front in the southern Ukrainian oblast of Zaporizhzhia went public. Russian forces launched over 160 shelling attacks at 21 towns and cities overnight, The Telegraph reported, in what Russia described as a new offensive. AFP News Agency (@AFP) January 21, 2023 Story continues Ukraine expects to receive a haul of weapons and ammunition from allies. According to the BBC, nine European countries are sending support packages to Ukraine after meeting in Germany on Friday. The group includes the UK, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The packages include 600 Brimstone missiles from the UK, self-propelled howitzers, anti-tank grenade launchers, and support vehicles. Speaking in Estonia, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: "In 2023, it is time to turn the momentum that the Ukrainians have achieved in pushing back Russia into gains and push them back out of Ukraine and to restore Ukraine's sovereignty, which is their right under international law," the BBC reported. The US also pledged further support for Ukraine, saying the nation will deliver a $2.5 billion military-aid package, which includes 59 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers, 53 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, and 350 high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, Reuters reported. But Ukraine, which has repeatedly called for a supply of hundreds of modern tanks, hasn't been able to get the German-made Leopard tanks at the top of its wish list. And for the time being, that doesn't seem likely to change, Insider reported. Despite mounting pressure on Berlin to supply its own Leopards or, at the very least, allow other groups to send them, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has remained hesitant. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told German television: "You can absolutely keep talking like this for another six months, but here people are dying every day. If you've got Leopard tanks, just give them to us," The Times reported. Read the original article on Business Insider The Emmy Award-winning "CBS Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. "Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. (Download it here.) Host: Jane Pauley WATCH THE FULL JANUARY 22 EPISODE! COVER STORY: AI experts on whether you should be "terrified" of ChatGPT | Watch Video OpenAI's artificial intelligence writing program ChatGPT will, with a few prompts, compose poetry, prose, song lyrics, essays, even news articles. And that has ethicists and educators worried about the program's ease at replacing human ideas with chatbot-generated words. Correspondent David Pogue delves into the minefield of AI communications and what it might mean for homework. For more info: ChatGPT (Open AI)Erik Brynjolfsson, director, Stanford University's Digital Economy LabTimnit Gebru, founder and executive director, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR)Jane Rosenzweig, director, Harvard College Writing CenterJane Rosenzweig's Writing Hacks newsletter (SubStack)Voice actor Keaton TalmadgeThanks to Harvard Extension School HISTORY: LBJ and his monumental presidency | Watch Video Fifty years after the death of Lyndon Baines Johnson, correspondent Rita Braver looks at the legacy of the 36th President, who came into office through the tragic death of his predecessor, and whose own presidency would become one of the most consequential, yet unappreciated in American history. Braver talks with biographer Robert Caro, historian Mark Updegrove, and Luci Baines Johnson (LBJ's youngest daughter) about how Johnson harnessed the power of government (and his own powers of persuasion) to change the nation. For more info: LBJ FoundationRobert CaroLyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, AustinNew York Historical Society Because of its strength and versatility, hanji paper has been used for fans, screens, clothing, or as a canvas for fine art. / Credit: CBS News POSTCARD FROM SEOUL: An ancient tradition: Making hanji paper (Video) The art of making hanji, or paper, derived from the inner bark of a tree native to Korea, helps continue a treasured cultural tradition. Correspondent Seth Doan explores the labor-intensive process of creating hanji, used for writing, artwork and official documents, and strong enough to last a thousand years. Story continues For more info: Andong HanjiHanji Paper (FIDES International) Comedian, writer and director Carl Reiner. / Credit: CBS News TELEVISION: All for laughs: The art of Carl Reiner | Watch Video Carl Reiner's comedy from creating "The Dick Van Dyke Show," to directing films and sharing the stage with friend Mel Brooks shaped our culture with humor that spanned generations. Now, two years after his death, the National Comedy Center, in Jamestown, New York, has named its extensive comedy archives in his honor. Correspondent Jim Axelrod talked with the funnyman's children actor and director Rob Reiner, psychoanalyst Annie Reiner, and artist Lucas Reiner about their dad's museum-quality legacy. For more info: National Comedy Center, Jamestown, N.Y. Guests gather around the ART: Will the public embrace "The Embrace"? (Video) A 22-foot-tall bronze sculpture of arms hugging, inspired by a photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, was unveiled at Boston Common on January 13. But some of the reactions from the public, comedians, and social media have been harsh. Correspondent Nancy Giles talks with sculptor Hank Willis Thomas about the response to his public art honoring love. See also: A monument to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King's love For more info: Sculptor Hank Willis ThomasMabel Wilson, director, Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia UniversityEmbrace BostonBoston CommonMASS Design Group PASSAGE: Passage: Remembering Gina Lollobrigida and David Crosby | Watch Video "Sunday Morning" looks back at the Italian film star once called "the most beautiful woman in the world," and the singer-songwriter who helped form the folk-rock supergroup Crosby Stills & Nash. GALLERY: Notable Deaths in 2013 FROM THE ARCHIVES: David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash on "Deja vu" (Video) We are mourning the loss of musician David Crosby on Thursday at the age of 81. In this 2021 interview, Crosby and his fellow members of Crosby, Stills & Nash talked with Anthony Mason about their shared history and the creation of their classic album "Deja Vu." COMMENTARY: Hey, Boss, David Sedaris wants to correct you | Watch Video The humorist has noticed some irritating habits in the way people address one another. For more info: davidsedarisbooks.com"Happy-Go-Lucky" by David Sedaris (Little, Brown), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound Actor Harrison Ford (right), with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz. / Credit: CBS News SUNDAY PROFILE: Harrison Ford gets real | Watch Video The 80-year-old isn't slowing down; in fact, he's been busier than ever, with two TV series (including the "Yellowstone" prequel "1923"), and a fifth Indiana Jones movie. Harrison Ford talks with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz about playing "ordinary" people; fame and the loss of anonymity; and the attraction of returning to his home in Wyoming. To watch a trailer for the Paramount+ series "1923" click on the video player below: For more info: "1923" on Paramount+"Shrinking" debuts on Apple TV+ January 27"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" opens June 30Thanks to the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyo. HARTMAN: 8th grader without legs makes basketball team (Video) Thirteen-year-old Josiah Johnson, of Louisville, was born without legs, but he is not lacking in confidence. And when he tried out for the one sport where altitude is everything the Moore Middle School basketball team it turned out the long shot was pretty good at making long shots. Correspondent Steve Hartman reports. A closeup of ART: Glass artist Preston Singletary: Shattering expectations | Watch Video Preston Singletary, a member of the Tlingit tribe of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, uses a very untraditional medium when fashioning indigenous art: glass. He talks with correspondent Lilia Luciano about his traveling exhibition, "Raven and the Box of Daylight" (now at the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.), which tells a Native American folktale about the origins of the world entirely through glass. For more info: "Raven and the Box of Daylight," at the Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. (through January 29); and at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va. (March 3-July 2)Preston SingletaryFollow Preston Singletary on InstagramPilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Wash. NATURE: TBD WEB EXCLUSIVES: A scene from the freediving documentary MOVIES: Sundance Film Festival 2023 - Opening highlights While the festival returns to in-person screenings in Park City, Utah, you can also attend virtually via online screenings of world premiere documentaries and narrative films. Here are some of the early highlights. For more info: 2023 Sundance Film Festival (through January 30) FROM THE ARCHIVES: David Crosby on harmony (and disharmony) (Video) Singer, songwriter and guitarist David Crosby died on Thursday, January 19, 2023 at age 81. In this profile that originally aired on "CBS Sunday Morning" on January 20, 2008, Crosby talks with correspondent Rita Braver about joining The Byrds and then forming the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes Young), one of the most influential bands of the 1960s and '70s; overcoming his drug addiction; and becoming a father while also facing death. He is also joined by Graham Nash, who talks about the band's origins. "HERE COMES THE SUN": Peter Dinklage, and a story about trash turned into treasure (Video) Leslie Stahl sits down for a rare interview with the fiercely private actor Peter Dinklage. We also have a story on how the ocean turns trash into treasure. The Emmy Award-winning "CBS Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison. DVR Alert! Find out when "Sunday Morning" airs in your city "Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. (Download it here.) Full episodes of "Sunday Morning" are now available to watch on demand on CBSNews.com, CBS.com and Paramount+, including via Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon FireTV/FireTV stick and Xbox. Follow us on Twitter; Facebook; Instagram; YouTube; TikTok; and at cbssundaymorning.com. You can also download the free "Sunday Morning" audio podcast at iTunes and at Play.it. Now you'll never miss the trumpet! Officials say male suspect in Monterey Park shooting still at large 4 mayors on the challenges facing their cities Face The Nation: Kaine, Mayor Panel Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., wrapped up a bipartisan visit Saturday to war-torn Ukraine, where he and fellow senators encouraged the country's leaders to defeat Russia so those responsible for the invasion can be held accountable for war crimes. Whitehouse joined Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham on the trip to Kyiv. They met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. We are keenly aware that in the last year, Ukrainian families have experienced a lot of suffering, and many mourn loved ones," Whitehouse said, according to a news release. "But in the manner in which you've conducted yourself in this conflict, you have set a high standard for the rest of humanity. Watching Ukraine makes me proud to be a human being." More:RI fugitive turned Ukrainian freedom fighter kisses babies and autographs flags in Kherson More:Reed, after recent visit to Ukraine, calls for U.S. to supply longer-range missiles Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, meets with U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal, left, and Lindsey Graham and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, right, on Friday in Kyiv. Last year, Whitehouse, Graham and Blumenthal backed $100 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine, including $67 million for the Department of Justices "KleptoCapture program an interagency law enforcement task force to enforce sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures that the United States has imposed on Russia." Whitehouse's visit to Ukraine comes around a week after Rhode Island colleague Sen. Jack Reed met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv. We're going to go back to Washington and continue to raise the pressure on accountability to the International Criminal Court, to whatever international tribunal may be established, and to courts of law for the inhumane conduct not only by Putin, not only by the Wagner Group [a Russian paramilitary organization], but right down to the officers and brutal soldiers who've committed war crimes, Whitehouse said. This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Sheldon Whitehouse and Senate delegation visit Zelenskyy in Ukraine The mother of a missing Massachusetts woman is holding out hope that her daughter is still alive. Its been nearly three weeks since real estate executive and mother-of-three Ana Walshe, 39, disappeared from her suburban Boston home just hours into the new year. Despite her husband, Brian Walshe, 47, being charged with her murder, Anas mother told NBC News shes having difficulty believing Brian could be responsible. "I always thought good of him, Milanka Ljubicic said in a Thursday interview from her home in Belgrade, Serbia. Ljubicics comments come one day after Brian appeared in the Quincy District Court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to murder charges. According to police, Brian said he was asleep when on Jan. 1, his wife left their Cohasset home at around 4:30 a.m. Ana reportedly planned to take a rideshare to Bostons Logan International Airport in response to a work-related emergency in Washington D.C., where she commuted weekly via shuttle flight and stayed in the couples second home, according to the man now charged with her murder. Milanka Ljubicic, mother of of Ana Walshe Milanka Ljubicic, mother of of Ana Walshe, speaks with journalists, in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Photo: AP However, investigators say they found no evidence to support Ana ever ordered a rideshare, nor was there anything to suggest she boarded a flight. Police said Brian was being untruthful in his statements. He absolutely adored Ana; the way she is, and said many times he missed her while she was away [for] work, Ljubicic told NBC News. From what I know, everything was just fine between them. Ana has yet to be found. RELATED: University Of Idaho Suspect Allegedly Once Wrote He Had No Emotions And Could Do Whatever I Want With Little Remorse At Brians arraignment on Wednesday, prosecutors painted a grisly picture of the hours and days surrounding Anas disappearance. As detailed by Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland, investigators allegedly found 10 trash bags believed to have been transported from a dumpster located at Brians mothers apartment complex in Swampscott, about 40 miles north of the Walshes Cohasset home. Story continues In the sacks, law enforcement discovered a hatchet, hacksaw, cleaning supplies, and a rug, according to prosecutors. Anas COVID-19 vaccination card and DNA belonging to both Ana and Brian were also among the discarded items believed to be of evidentiary value. A social media image of Ana Walshe Ana Walshe Photo: Instagram A broken knife and blood were previously discovered in the basement of the familys Cohasset home shortly before Brians Jan. 8 arrest, when he was initially charged with interfering with a police investigation. Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey formally announced murder charges on Tuesday. As disturbing as the physical evidence allegedly tying Brian to his wifes presumed murder are the multiple internet searches from the couples sons iPhone, including, 10 ways to dispose of a body if you really need to, What happens when you put body parts in ammonia? and Can you identify a body with broken teeth? Ljubicic told NBC News she just cannot believe Brian made the dubious searches. Yes, I have seen it, of course it made me upset, Anas mother said. But I just dont believe in that. Because Brian was never aggressive, he was never mad or furious, God forbid. Lori Vallow appears in court. Ljubicic said she was unaware of previous accusations by Ana against an unnamed person, confirmed by a police spokesperson to be Brian, according to NBC News. In a 2014 police report filed in Washington D.C., Ana claimed Brian threatened to kill her and a friend over the phone. Criminal charges were never filed because Ana allegedly refused to cooperate in the prosecution. I did not know back then; Ive seen it recently in the media, said Ljubicic. They got married after that, got kids ... I dont know what to say. I had no knowledge about it at all. Brian Walshe faces a Quincy Court judge Brian Walshe faces a Quincy Court judge charged with impeding the investigation into his wife Ana' disappearance from their home Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. Photo: AP Records show the Walshes married in 2015. Ljubicic was also asked about family friends referring to Brian in court as a sociopath and a very angry and physically violent person during a probate battle when friends and relatives accused him of stealing from his late fathers estate in 2018. One relative alleged Brian absconded with almost one million dollars, according to the Boston Herald. Anas mother said she hadnt heard of the accusations until reading about it in media reports after Anas disappearance, claiming she had absolutely no idea. One of Brians alleged Google searches timestamped Jan. 1 at 6:25 a.m. included, How long for someone to be missing to inherit?, according to Fox Boston affiliate WFXT. Although Ljubicic was unaware of the probate case involving his family, she said she knew about Brians federal 2021 conviction for art fraud, where the defendant pleaded guilty to stealing authentic Andy Warhol paintings from a friend and selling bogus prints to the tune of $80,000. The police search for Ana Walshe The police search for Ana Walshe Photo: State Police Association of Massachusetts Brian had yet to be sentenced and was remanded to house arrest for the interim, including when Ana disappeared earlier this month. According to Ljubicic, Ana struggled with her husband being confined to their Massachusetts home, which the couple shared with their three young sons, who are now in state custody. She was bothered by the fact they had to stay because in Washington D.C., they had better living conditions, and she could not cope without children for so long, said Ljubicic. They hoped this legal process around Brian would last only for a couple of months, and they can be together, but it dragged for a year or so. Ljubicic added she wasnt worried at all about the couples marriage, despite Christmas Day texts from Ana to her mother, asking Ljubicic to fly to America the next day. Ultimately, they decided Ljubicic couldnt make the trip on such short notice but hoped to meet in January. After the first text, when she asked me to come promptly, I asked her why the urgency. She replied that Brian and her are not getting along about the kids, where the kids would spend time, whether in Boston, Cohasset, or Washington D.C., where they own a house, said Ljubicic. I understood that they were trying to make an arrangement where to live together ... About what happened that night, I have no idea." Earlier this week, ADA Lynn Beland said Brian searched the internet on Dec. 27 for, "What's the best state to divorce for a man, just days before Ana disappeared, according to ABC Boston affiliate WCVB-TV. Rather than divorce, it is believed that Brian Walshe dismembered Ana Walshe and discarded her body, Beland said in court. Oxy App The prosecution alleges that in the days following Anas disappearance, Brian made numerous purchases at several retail stores, including a hatchet, mops, buckets, baking soda, cleaning supplies, and a Tyvek suit. Prosecutors also say video footage shows the defendant making stops at multiple dumpsters in surrounding towns and disposing of what appeared to be heavy garbage bags. Investigators believe they couldnt gather all the possible evidence, as some trash had likely been incinerated. I think she just left somewhere to get away; maybe she was tired of everything, Ljubicic hopes. It is only my assumption. I still dont know the truth about what happened. I just hope that she is alive. Anywhere, but alive. That is my only hope. Brian Walshe is being held at the Norfolk County House of Corrections without bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 9. The Canadian government has agreed to bring back four men, six women, and 13 infants currently held in an Islamic State detainment center in northern Syria. The news comes as a surprise given that Lawrence Greenspoon, an attorney representing most of the group, revealed Thursday that the men were originally excluded from the repatriation deal. Greenspoon applauded the Trudeau governments decision. There is no evidence any of them have been tried or convicted, let alone tried in a manner recognized or sanctioned by international law, Greenspoon told the CBC. These are Canadian citizens, they are being unlawfully, arbitrarily detained in either detention camps or in prisons, they havent been charged with anything. Among the group of men includes Jack Letts, a dual British-Canadian national who converted to Islam, traveled to Syria, and admitted to joining the Islamic State. Known as Jihadi Jack, Letts said of himself in one interview with the BBC: I was definitely an enemy of Britain. Letts also called his decision to join the Islamic State a big mistake, adding, I did what I did. Lettss parents, who were convicted of funding terrorism for transferring money to their son whilst in Syria, were sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2019 and have maintained their sons innocence. We are overjoyed at todays ruling and believe we will finally get to see our son again after what has been a very long, arduous struggle against the Canadian government, Lettss mother, Sally Lane, said following the announcement. While we are concerned about the lack of time-frame appended to the judges declaration on the mens repatriation, we trust that the government will adhere to his exhortation to bring them home as soon as possible. Alexandra Bain, founder of Families Against Violent Extremism, similarly dismissed the idea that any of the women or children presented a risk to the Canadian public. I dont think theyre dangerous. I think they are broken people. . . . They just want the chance to take care of their children and rebuild their lives, Bain told CTV News. Story continues Greenspoon further noted that if there was any evidence of wrongdoing amongst the group, a criminal investigation could be opened in Canada. However, Phil Gurski, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (Canadas CIA equivalent) analyst, said such a notion was preposterous. The witnesses arent here, the evidence isnt here . . . . As a Canadian citizen, Im outraged that people are going to get away with it. The deal is Canadas largest since the Islamic State collapsed in 2019. More from National Review Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty In the city where the Statue of Liberty once welcomed shiploads of immigrants, Mayor Eric Adams has suggested using empty ocean liners to shelter the modern day homeless, the tempest-tossed refugees who arrive by bus. Adams raised the possibility back in September, and again this week, as one way for the city to cope with an influx of migrants from the southern border that is straining the citys ability to meet its legal obligation to shelter all who come there. Were going to continue to do our moral and legal obligation. Whoever comes to the city, youre not seeing individuals sleeping on the streets with families because were continuing to pivot and shift as needed, he said in an interview with Politico. And if it means using cruise ships, if it means Im finding space on state land were going to continue to pivot and shift to address the influx of migrants and asylum seekers that were seeing. Nothing is left off the table. At one point last year, the city had exploratory talks with the Norwegian Cruise Line. But a company spokesperson told The Daily Beast this week that the company is not engaged in discussions with New York City about a potential charter of a cruise vessel. But the mayor might be roused from musing to action if he looks to Europe for an example of using cruise ships to absorb an influx of refugees. The success there should prompt him to seek at least a flagship, if not a whole flotilla in New York. New Yorks Sneaky New Tactic to Stifle Greg Abbotts Migrant Bus Stunts Since last fall, the Scottish Government has provided temporary housing to 1,170 Ukrainian refugeesincluding 420 childrenaboard the chartered cruise ship M/S Ambition. Another 1,200 refugees were subsequently lodged on a second chartered ship, the M/S Victoria. A high point of the effort came just before Christmas, when those aboard the Ambition put on a holiday show that was by all accounts joyous. The arrangement with the Ambition will end along with the lease in March. But the Victoria is expected to continue providing shelter for another five months, perhaps longer. Story continues And Scotland is not alone in this approach. Holland has been housing Ukrainian refugees aboard three cruise ships. Estonia has been using an outsized overnight ferry to house 1,500. The Coalition for the Homeless in New York City has made known its opposition to the concept. To state the obvious, cruise ships are not designed or equipped to provide adequate long-term shelter and services to homeless people, including asylum seekers, and are unlikely to comply with well-established court orders and local laws governing New Yorks right to shelter, a spokeswoman told The Daily Beast. But as long as cabins afford direct sunlight, accommodations aboard a luxury ship seem to meet the minimum legal requirements. And nobody could unfavorably compare cruise accommodations to a city shelter. Courtesy of Robert Lager According to a veteran Long Island ship broker, Robert Lager of Lager Maritime Corp, New York City could make arrangements with any number of ships, though leasing might not be the best option. Seems to me that the city has a long-term need and [for] much more than even just one ship, Lager said. Long term, [its] probably cheaper to buy. Lager figures that a sale could be completed within weeks. Its generally as fast as the buyer wants to move, he said. Actual delivery depends on where the ship is. New York Harbor has various possible berths, including a Brooklyn pier that is equipped to provide a ship with direct power instead of having the ship generate it by idling its huge engines, spewing pollution. Like 500 buses on diesel, says Ibrahim Desooky, a Cornell-trained designer who has studied and confirmed the feasibility of converting luxury cruise ships into affordable housing. Among the vessels that Lager has available is a 642-foot luxury cruise ship with 485 cabins that could comfortably house 1,000 people or more. Interior rooms could serve as on-site offices for various governmental and nonprofit assistance agencies. There are dining and laundry facilities. There is also a theater such as the one where the Ukrainian refugees put on the holiday show in Scotland. Lager figures the city could have the ship for around $20 million, about the cost of six Brooklyn brownstones and considerably less than it would cost to shelter that many people in other circumstances in New York. Historically, its a great price, he said. He also has a number of other ships available. We have a 880-foot ship, he said. We have a 915-foot cruise ship. We have an 857-foot cruise ship. We have a bunch of em. Lager understands that such an undertaking would encounter all kinds of bureaucratic red tape and complications involving safety and maintenance. But the mayor is still the mayor. My feeling is if the mayor really wanted to push it and put in a serious effort and got people involved they could probably do it, Lager said. If such a deal were to go through and the ship was moored at the logical place with electric power in Brooklyn, that is also where Lady Liberty faces. The migrants who gaze out at her would see her gazing right back at them in silent welcome. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Elon Musk said that just because he tweets something, it "does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly." The Tesla chief took the witness stand in a San Francisco federal court to defend himself (and the tweets he made back in 2018) in a lawsuit filed by a group of the automaker's shareholders. "I think you can absolutely be truthful but can you be comprehensive? Of course not," he added, regarding Twitter's character limits. If you'll recall, Musk famously tweeted in August 2018 that he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420" and that he was already able to secure funding. "Investor support is confirmed," he said in a follow-up tweet. The CEO later revealed that he was in talks with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which reportedly expressed interest in Tesla as part of the country's bid to lessen its reliance on oil. However, the deal didn't materialize, and he later penned a lengthy post on the automaker's website to say that it's staying public. As CNBC notes, shareholders blamed those "funding secured" tweets for their significant financial losses, leading them to file a class action lawsuit against Musk. Tesla's shares apparently remained highly volatile in the weeks that followed. The executive, however, downplayed his tweets' impact and said that they don't necessarily affect stock prices: "There have been many cases where I thought that if I were to tweet something, the stock price would go down. For example, at one point I tweeted that I thought that, in my opinion, the stock price was too high...and it went went higher, which was, which is, you know, counterintuitive." In addition to the shareholder lawsuit, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk over his tweets, calling them "false and misleading statements" that could be constituted as fraud. Musk and Tesla paid $20 million each to settle with the SEC, and the executive had to step down as board chairman. The SEC also required company lawyers to approve any Tesla-related tweet Musk makes a condition the CEO tried (and failed) to get out of last year. Aside from defending his tweets, Musk criticized short sellers during his testimony, telling the court that short-selling "should be made illegal." He added: "It is a means for, in my opinion, bad people on Wall Street to steal money from investors. Not good." Another piece of information to take away from his time on the witness stand is that nobody can tell Musk to stop tweeting. When lawyers asked him about the advice he got to refrain from posting on Twitter after calling a British cave diver a "pedo guy," Musk said: "I continued to tweet, yes." According to Reuters, Musk only testified for less than 30 minutes and that he's not done answering lawyers' questions. He's expected to take the witness stand again to explain why he wrote the funding tweets and why he insisted that he had Saudi Arabia's backing. Detailed tactical plans for imminent police raids, confidential police reports with descriptions of alleged crimes and suspects, and a forensic extraction report detailing the contents of a suspect's phone. These are some of the files in a huge cache of data taken from the internal servers of ODIN Intelligence, a tech company that provides apps and services to police departments, following a hack and defacement of its website over the weekend. The group behind the breach said in a message left on ODIN's website that it hacked the company after its founder and chief executive Erik McCauley dismissed a report by Wired, which discovered the company's flagship app SweepWizard, used by police to coordinate and plan multiagency raids, was insecure and spilling sensitive data about upcoming police operations to the open web. The hackers also published the company's Amazon Web Services private keys for accessing its cloud-stored data and claimed to have "shredded" the company's data and backups but not before exfiltrating gigabytes of data from ODIN's systems. ODIN develops and provides apps, like SweepWizard, to police departments across the United States. The company also builds technologies that allow authorities to remotely monitor convicted sex offenders. But ODIN also drew criticism last year for offering authorities a facial recognition system for identifying homeless people and using degrading language in its marketing. ODIN's McCauley did not respond to several emails requesting comment prior to publication but confirmed the hack in a data breach disclosure filed with the California attorney general's office. The breach not only exposes vast amounts of ODIN's own internal data but also gigabytes of confidential law enforcement data uploaded by ODIN's police department customers. The breach raises questions about ODIN's cybersecurity but also the security and privacy of the thousands of people including victims of crime and suspects not charged with any offense whose personal information was exposed. Story continues The cache of hacked ODIN data was provided to DDoSecrets, a nonprofit transparency collective that indexes leaked datasets in the public interest, such as caches from police departments, government agencies, law firms and militia groups. DDoSecrets co-founder Emma Best told TechCrunch that the collective has limited the distribution of the cache to journalists and researchers given the vast amount of personally identifiable data in the ODIN cache. Little is known about the hack or the intruders responsible for the breach. Best told TechCrunch that the source of the breach is a group called "All Cyber-Cops Are Bastards," a phrase it referenced in the defacement message. TechCrunch reviewed the data, which not only includes the company's source code and internal database but also thousands of police files. None of the data appears encrypted. a screenshot of a tactical report, with redactions by TechCrunch to remove personal and sensitive information, exposed by the breach. A police document, redacted by TechCrunch, with full details of an upcoming raid exposed by the breach. Image Credits: TechCrunch (screenshot) The data included dozens of folders with full tactical plans of upcoming raids, alongside suspect mugshots, their fingerprints and biometric descriptions and other personal information, including intelligence on individuals who might be present at the time of the raid, like children, cohabitants and roommates, some of whom are described as having "no crim[inal] history." Many of the documents were labeled as "confidential law enforcement only" and "controlled document" not for disclosure outside of the police department. Some of the files were labeled as test documents and used fake officer names like "Superman" and "Captain America." But ODIN also used real-world identities, like Hollywood actors, who are unlikely to have consented to their names being used. One document titled "Fresno House Search" bore no markings to suggest the document was a test of ODIN's front-facing systems but stated the raid's objective was to "find a house to live in." The leaked cache of ODIN data also contained its system for monitoring sex offenders, which allows police and parole officers to register, supervise and monitor convicted criminals. The cache contained more than a thousand documents relating to convicted sex offenders who are required to register with the state of California, including their names, home addresses (if not incarcerated) and other personal information. The data also contains a large amount of personal information about individuals, including the surveillance techniques that police use to identify or track them. TechCrunch found several screenshots showing people's faces matched against a facial recognition engine called AFR Engine, a company that provides face-matching technology to police departments. One photo appears to show an officer forcibly holding a person's head in front of another officer's phone camera. Other files show police using automatic license plate readers, known as ANPR, which can identify where a suspect drove in recent days. Another document contained the full contents including text messages and photos of a convicted offender's phone, whose contents were extracted by a forensic extraction tool during a compliance check while the offender was on probation. One folder contained audio recordings of police interactions, some where officers are heard using force. TechCrunch contacted several U.S. police departments whose files were found in the stolen data. None responded to our requests for comment. ODIN's website, which went offline a short time after it was defaced, remains inaccessible as of Thursday. If you know more about the ODIN Intelligence breach, get in touch with the security desk on Signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849 or zack.whittaker@techcrunch.com by email. The city of Holland will explore possible impediments to fair housing through an updated analysis by McKenna Associates. HOLLAND The city of Holland will explore possible impediments to fair housing through an updated analysis by McKenna Associates. During its meeting Wednesday, Jan. 18, Holland City Council voted to award McKenna a bid of $20,500 to help develop an updated Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice. Fair housing laws protect residents from discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, familial status, disability, marital status and age, according to the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan. Discrimination is illegal in housing transactions such as rentals, sales, lending and insurance. Community Development Coordinator Mark Kornelis recommended McKenna for the job because it was the lowest bid, but also because of the firm's overall approach and experience with similar projects. In all, the city received three bids: McKenna ($20,500), Ramsey Group ($21,200) and Veridus Group ($22,000). Kornelis said the Department of Housing and Urban Development expects communities benefitting from the Community Development Block Grant Program to engage in fair housing planning and routinely certify that the municipality is affirmatively furthering fair housing. This includes a periodic completion of an analysis of impediments, which was last completed in 2008. In their proposal, McKenna president John Jackson said the firm is excited to get started and said the study is about more than just fulfilling a requirement. Subscribe:Get all your breaking news and unlimited access to our local coverage We are incredibly excited to work with the city through this process, and believe youll find our team to be the most qualified, most energetic, and most forward-thinking, Jackson wrote. Planning is a hopeful and visionary endeavor, and our team takes to heart Daniel Burnhams adage to aim high in hope and work. The analysis will identify local impediments, consider applicable laws, thoroughly analyze available data and provide pragmatic steps to correct any impediments. Contact freelancer Austin Metz at ametz@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland chooses firm to explore possible impediments to fair housing Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry arrived to Ankara on Thursday for further discussions with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on restoring ties between the two countries. Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi! If you think the House GOP went a little overboard a few years back in holding hearings on the death of U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, youve not seen anything yet. And yes, the same Rep. Jim Jordan will be leading the charge to what will turn into, as Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarin calls it, angertainment. Think faux anger wrapped up with the tidy bow of a Congressional committee hearing. After taking over control of the House after the 2022 election, Republican leaders wasted no time in coming up with a long list of investigations they want to undertake. Kendall P. Stanley If the aforementioned Benghazi hearings were held to damage the political future of Hillary Clinton these new investigations take aim at Joe Biden and his family, notably his son Hunter. Those headed for that hearing make no bones about the fact it is about Joe Biden. The committee has requested financial reports from the treasury department on Joe Biden, his brother and son. The new round of letters from the committee come as House Republicans are looking to flex their investigative might and make good on promises to delve into the Biden family finances and alleged political influence over technology companies after Twitter temporarily suppressed a 2020 story about Hunter Biden and his laptop, according to a recent news story. Now that Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington, oversight and accountability are coming, Comer said of his panels investigation into Hunter Biden and the Biden familys business dealings. This investigation is a top priority for House Republicans during the 118th Congress. Really, a top priority? One can think of many things that are a priority and none of them involve the Biden family. And then there is the upcoming committee that will be checking on the weaponization of the FBI and the Department of Justice on whether their work has gone to advance the Democratic Party agenda. Stay tuned to a lot of demagoguing in that hearing room. Story continues At the same time the Republicans moved to eliminate the ethics committee and have failed to toss newly sworn-in representative George Santos out of the chamber for what can only be described as a made from whole cloth resume and life. If the sky is blue, dont trust him if he says its purple. It should all make for good fun going forward, especially since House Speaker Kevin McCarthy allowed a change in the House rules that allows for any one member of the House to call for the removal of the speaker. We should all be making bets as to when the first time will come that a back-bencher or one of the chambers flame throwers will decide to make a name for themselves by calling for the removal of the speaker. Since it took 15 rounds of voting to get McCarthy elected to the post, it will be interesting to see how many it will take to save his hide. For the time being its hearings, hearings and more hearings. Any thought that the House would actually start to consider legislation to improve the lot of hard-working Americans is a pipedream. What in heavens name? You can be forgiven if you think that something is completely whacko with the weather weve been having nationally this winter. Northern Michigan has certainly seen its share of above normal temperatures and oddball snowfall plenty in December but not so much lately. Plus its been dark, with the sun being a no show. Communities in the middle lands in what is known as Tornado Alley have seen tornadoes already this year. Pity the Californians, whove seen, as of the Jan. 13, up to 26 trillion gallons of rainfall mostly in the center of the state. Of greater help to the drought conditions that are endemic to the West and Southwest is the buildup of snowpack in the mountains, in some cases more than 200 percent above normal snowpack. Weve had rain a couple of times this winter in Arizona and more on the way, they say, which is good for us well take all that we can get. Governor Katie Hobbs said shes willing to work with legislators on the states water issues. High on that list is controlling the states groundwater. When a Saudi prince is capable of drawing all the water he needs to grow alfalfa to be shipped back home for his racing horses, you know you have a problem that is in dire need of correction. New developments need to show plans for providing water for the next 100 years, so housing growth is being slowed in some areas around Phoenix. Im guessing theyll be lucky to make it 50 years. For the time being it would be nice to have weather that can be considered a little more settled. Kendall P. Stanley is retired editor of the News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily of the Petoskey News-Review or its employees. This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Kendall Stanley: Great, now what? Tyre Deandre Nichols, 29, sits by a fire. Nichols died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, three days after a confrontation with Memphis Police officers during a traffic stop. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into the death. The death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop by Memphis Police has resulted in five officers being fired and investigations by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI. Family and friends of Nichols, attorneys and politicians all reacted to the city's decision to dismiss the officers. Here are some of the reactions: Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the attorneys for the Nichols' family: "They must also be held accountable for robbing this man of his life and his son of a father. In the coming days, we will review the video footage from this violent attackproviding the family and community more clarity into what led to the loss of this young man, father, and son." Keyana Dixon, Nichols' older sister: "To see their faces makes me angry. I'm trying to hold it together, but my heart has been ripped open. This is torture." Memphis Police Association, the union representing the officers: Due to the ongoing criminal investigation, the Memphis Police Association will not comment on the termination of officers in the Tyre Nichols case. State Sen. Ramesh Akbari: Its no secret Memphis police officers have a difficult job to do, but there is NO excuse for police brutality against our citizens ... Folks, we have work to do to bridge divides and heal the wounds in our community. Its the hard work that must be done." Jamal Dupree, Nichols' older brother, and Angelina Paxton, a longtime friend of Nichols: "Knowing the history of police interactions with the Black community throughout time, these men took a position of power and instead of doing something to better the future and honor the past, they became no better than the days of Emmett Till. They have let us all down. Justice will be served to them." Memphis-Shelby County Schools board member Michelle McKissack, a prospective Memphis mayoral candidate: "We cannot talk about crime making our communities less safe without acknowledging what role police brutality plays in making our communities less safe as well." Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis: "The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work our officers perform, with integrity, every day." This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Reaction to police officer firings in Tyre Nichols investigation The patio of the closed Foggy Bottom Kitchen restaurant is pictured April 26 at Roman Nose State Park in Watonga. After a failed attempt to solicit bids for a new operator shortly after terminating its contract with Swadley's Bar-B-Q in April, the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation is once again soliciting requests from interested parties for control and operation of restaurants at six state parks. The department announced Friday that it would begin a three-week-long request for information period. During that time, the department will gather "responses from all parties or suppliers interested in providing restaurant services" at state parks. The department also will host open houses at all six state parks. These events will allow the public and any interested potential operators to tour the facilities and ask questions. Following the request for information (RFI) period, which will end at 4 p.m. Feb. 10, the tourism agency plans to review the information provided and then release an official request for proposals (RFP), to which any interested party will be allowed to make a bid, according to a department release. "In order to make sure we are looking at all potential ideas and service options for our state park restaurants, we decided to use the RFI format," said Shelley Zumwalt, tourism agency executive director. "This allows us to gather ideas and questions from the public to understand how the state can best serve the communities that support the parks and offer full transparency to potential vendors so they can submit an informed bid on the RFP once the RFI closes. Swadley's Bar-B-Q and the Oklahoma Tourism Department: What we know about the deal Why does the tourism department need a new restaurant operator? The state park restaurants were previously being operated by Swadley's Bar-B-Q under the name Swadley's Foggy Bottom Kitchen, but a whistleblower came forward alleging misuse of funds. Investigations by legislative committees, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, former Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater and state Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd led to allegations of a number of improprieties and Swadley's was forced to terminate operations at all six locations. Story continues The state tourism agency also filed a breach of contract suit against Swadley's, which countered with its own lawsuits, most recently alleging the state had underpaid it by more nearly $6 million. Swadley's Tourism contract:OMES directors says it was signed a year before he saw it How is this process different from what happened with Swadley's? Zumwalt said in the release that she is seeking "a new partner or partners to restore our parks restaurant services, perhaps indicating that the park restaurants could return to the earlier model of being operated individually rather than by one entity. Tourism officials confirmed in a call Friday that no one has been operating the restaurants since the Swadleys contract was terminated, but that the space have been available for individuals to rent for private event use. The tourism department also pointed out that "no contract will result from any response," to the request for information, and it is not a promise of future business with the state. Interested parties also are not required to participate in order to bid on a future request for proposal, according to the state website. Was Swadley's state parks deal with Oklahoma too lucrative? We dive into records Questions arose during investigations regarding the timing and following of protocol surrounding the bidding of the contract with Swadley's for operation of the restaurants, with the former operator of the Beavers Bend restaurant alleging her lease was terminated without an option to renew or bid to continue providing services. Former tourism Director Jerry Winchester said the request for quotes was sent to 25 companies and the only bid the state got back came in early 2020, from Swadley's, which was awarded the deal to run concessions and contract capital improvements with virtually no financial risk. Additional concerns followed about relationships between Winchester and Swadley's Bar-B-Q owner Brent Swadley, and land purchased by another former tourism official near sites selected for state sponsored improvements. Zumwalt said earlier this week she is working to help her agency right a "toxic environment," as she continues to push for more transparency and success department wide. A 'culture of silence and secrecy,' New Oklahoma tourism director says of troubled agency When will the tourism department host its open houses? The open houses for each park will be at 6 p.m. at the following dates and locations: Jan. 26: Robbers Cave State Park, 4654 NW 1027th Ave., Wilburton Jan. 30: Quartz Mountain State Park, 14722 OK-44A, Lone Wolf Jan. 31: Sequoyah State Park, 19808 Park 10, Hulbert Feb. 1: Lake Murray State Park, 3323 Lodge Road, Ardmore Feb. 2: Roman Nose State Park, 3236 S OK-8A, Watonga Feb. 6: Beavers Bend State Park, 4350 OK-259A, Broken Bow This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Tourism begins hunt for new state park restaurant operators People wait in line at the Dr. Guy Gorman Senior Care Home to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on the Navajo Nation in Chinle on Dec. 18, 2020. Finishing his first full week in office, Navajo President Buu Nygren on Friday called an end to the Navajo Nation's COVID-19 mask mandates, which were first implemented in April 2020 by former President Jonathan Nez. Its time for the Navajo people to get back to work, Nygren said. Its time for them to be able to open their chapter houses to conduct local business and to receive services they are asking for and deserve. Nygren said in a joint press release with the Navajo Nation Speaker's Office that the mask mandate would officially end at 5 p.m. on Friday, even as the contagious new sub-variant XBB.1.5 of the coronavirus has been detected in Arizona. The order applies to public spaces across the 110 chapters. The order leaves the continued wearing of masks optional for the general public and for all businesses. It includes some exceptions. Masks will still be required for early childhood education sites, primary and secondary schools, nursing homes, health care facilities and those who have COVID-19 symptoms, test positive or were exposed, the order states. As of Thursday, there have been 2,009 confirmed deaths on the Navajo Nation due to COVID-19. There have been a reported 81 new cases between Jan. 12-19, with a total of 80,539 cases since the start of the pandemic. The B.1.1.529 variant is the variant of concern right now, though the new subvariant has not been reported on the Navajo Nation yet, according to the Navajo Department of Health. COVID-19: After a 'scary' beginning, Navajo leaders say their response has become a model After Nygren's announcement, Nez tweeted a response, saying the Navajo people should be asking the new administration for comprehensive data to support the decision to lift the mandate, asking whether it was based on politics or public health. The Navajo people should be asking the new administration for the comprehensive data to support their decision to lift the mask mandate. Was it a decision based on politics or the public health of the Navajo people? The reason why the Covid numbers have been relatively low pic.twitter.com/4WmDm1N2ny Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez 2019-2023 (@NNPrezNez) January 21, 2023 "The reason why the COVID numbers have been relatively low compared to regions around the Navajo Nation is largely due to mask mandates," Nez wrote in the statement on Twitter. "To my knowledge, this new administration has yet to publicly share COVID-19 numbers since taking office and that's a great concern." Story continues The pandemic hit the Navajo Nation only a year and two months into Nez's administration and became the main focus of his administration as it spread rapidly across communities. Nez held town halls every day, then twice a week and finally once a week to keep citizens up to date on what was happening with the ongoing pandemic. There has been no mention of continuing these town halls or updates in the new administration. "Whether it's done through online town halls, radio, or press releases, the Navajo People deserve to know the data so they can make informed decisions for themselves and their children and elders," Nez said Friday. "Lifting the mask mandate without being transparent about the comprehensive data raises many red flags. I pray that the numbers of COVID, RSV, and flu cases do not rise, but the new administration needs to be held accountable if we see a surge in new infections, hospitalization, and deaths." During Nez's last town hall, he reflected on the mandates imposed on the Navajo people to keep them safe from the pandemic, such as weekend lockdowns, closure of businesses and schools, mask mandates and other measures. He said they were strict but he would do it again if it meant keeping people alive. His office's work advocating to the Biden-Harris administration and to congressional leaders to get vaccines, test kits and funding were successful. He also mentioned partnerships with Navajo Department of Health, Navajo Area Indian Health Services, Navajo Epidemiology Center, Navajo Department of Public Safety and others. "I felt our Navajo People needed to see their leaders out there in the communities as well, and we took that to heart, just to let them know we would overcome this virus," said Nez during the Jan 9 town hall. "I know we didn't want to wear masks, told to stay home, be locked up on the Navajo Nation. But I think people realized the safest place to be was at home. At times you think, maybe that's why I lost the election. But I would do the same thing over, because I want you all to live." Nygren said Navajo Nation is one of the last jurisdictions in the country to lift the mandate that was ordered by the Navajo Department of Health almost three years ago. Navajo Speaker Pro Tem Otto Tso also talked about the decision. With the executive mandate being lifted, I want to ensure our people the welfare of our communities, families, and elders is still a top priority. As we move forward, our Nations safety will lie directly in our hands, a responsibility that should not be taken lightly, so I ask you to continue taking precautionary measures, Tso said He also thanked Nygren and Vice President Richelle Montoya for "taking this step in opening the Navajo Nation. I extend my gratitude towards former President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer for their work in guiding the Navajo Nation through the COVID-19 pandemic. Because the virus continues to circulate, it remains individuals responsibility to continue healthy habits they learned during the pandemic such as washing hands and being vaccinated, he said. Be responsible, Nygren said. Mask up if youve tested positive. Mask up and take a rapid test if you notice symptoms or suspect youve been exposed. We, as a nation, are much more aware and much more prepared than in April 2020. Arlyssa Becenti covers Indigenous affairs for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send ideas and tips to arlyssa.becenti@arizonarepublic.com. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Navajo President Nygren ends COVID-19 mask mandate In the newest episode of Revolts Caresha Please hosted by Yung Miami, rap icon Trina opened up about not having children and her reasons why. The 44-year-old started, Well, after three miscarriages, I wouldve had three kids. That was a lot for me. The first one was I dont think I really understood it too much. I was younger, younger. Then once I got older, then there was the next one I was like okay, what does that mean? What does the miscarriage mean? Like I just didnt really get it. Then, it just became a point like, third miscarriage. Okay. More from VIBE.com Trina opens up about why shes never had children on @CareshaPlease pic.twitter.com/rRsm9mUUeJ Glock Topickz (@Glock_Topickz) January 19, 2023 Trina Shares Thoughts On Motherhood After 3 Miscarriages Related Story Also mentioning the 2019 passing of her mother Vernessa Taylor, due to cancer, she added: Then, when my mom got sick, honestly, I just went into this phase of I dont even want to have a kid and my mom is not here. Like, how do I raise a kid without my mom? Thats not the happiest thing for me, honestly. Even to this day still Im thinking, I have like, two years to have a kid maybe? Ill give myself two years to have a kid. With the possibility of still having children, in 2021, Trina did get engaged to musician Raymond Taylor a.k.a Ray Almighty, on an episode of Love & Hip-Hop. Story continues As the Baddest spitter was wrapping up a music video, Raymond surprised her as he got down on one knee and asked if she would spend the rest of her life with him. Speechless, Trina hugged him as their friends and family congratulated the couple. The full episode of Caresha Please featuring Trina and Yung Miami aired Thursday (Jan. 19) on Revolt. Watch below. Click here to read the full article. Yakima City Government Reporter Kate Smith is the city government & politics reporter for the Yakima Herald-Republic. She is passionate about connecting people to policy in storytelling that is thorough, fair and compassionate. In Yakima, she is following local elections, city council, budgets & audits, public health, housing & homelessness, public safety, utilities and more. India has invited Egypt to participate as a guest country in the G20 meetings that will be held during the Indian yearlong presidency of the intergovernmental forum starting this December, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday. Indias invitation to Egypt reflects the historic relations between the governments and peoples of the two countries and embodies Egypts regional and international position and influential role regarding the main international economic issues and files, the foreign ministry said. Ambassador Ragy El-Etreby, assistant minister of foreign affairs for international and regional multilateral economic affairs, will be the personal representative of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi at the meetings, the ministry said. The first meeting of the G20 leaders personal representatives will be held early in December, said the ministry. "Egypt is determined to actively and effectively participate in the various G20 meetings in order to enhance global joint action regarding issues listed on the groups agenda," the statement quoted El-Etreby as saying. According to El-Etreby, the G20 meetings will discuss issues of immediate priority for Egypt, Africa, and the developing countries, such as food, energy, climate, development finance, and global economic system reform. The ambassador said that the G20 currently faces great challenges in light of the global economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. He noted that the G20 countries represent 80 percent of the gross world product (GWP), 75 percent of the global trade volume, and 60 percent of the worlds population. This makes the G20 one of the most important frameworks for economic decision making around the world, he added. El-Etreby acted as the personal representative of El-Sisi during the G20 ministerial-level meetings in 2016. He has represented Egypt and the Arab countries in the Board of Directors of the World Bank Group in Washington for several years. President El-Sisi took part in the G20 summit in the city Hangzhou, China in September 2016 and in the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan in June 2019. Last week, the two-day G20 summit that was held in Bali tackled a number of key issues, especially the repercussions of the Ukraine war and the need to reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius. India hosts the G20 India will officially assume the G20 presidency from 1 December to 30 November 2023 after Indonesia. According to local reports, India will host more than 200 G20 meetings across the country starting December. The G20 summit in India is set to take place on 9-10 September next year. Since the launch of the G20 in 1999, finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's top 20 economies have been meeting annually to discuss economic cooperation. However, the first G20 leaders' summit was not held until 2008 following the world financial crisis. The countries comprising the G20 group are Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, the European Union, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Turkey, and South Africa. Search Keywords: Short link: Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. The big-thinking proposal to create a 4,000-acre lake between Omaha and Lincoln is still on track, but also on pause pending a feasibility study that focuses on its potential impact on the future water supplies for Lincoln and Omaha. "I do think it will happen," Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha, a leader in pushing the project, said during an interview. "Yes, we will get there. For the future of the state, it's a project we have to accomplish," he said. Although he is now Nebraska's attorney general and no longer a Lincoln senator who was the leader of the so-called STARWARS Committee that recommended the project, Mike Hilgers said "we're probably on the 35-yard line" awaiting results of a study of big-city water supply issues. "Can we find a location that would not negatively impact the water supply of Lincoln and MUD?" Hilgers said. MUD is the Metropolitan Utilities District political subdivision that delivers water to more than 600,000 people in metropolitan Omaha. Lincoln is aggressively searching for a second water source to meet its growing needs; the city currently is supplied by wells on the Platte River near Ashland. Protecting the water supply for the two big cities as they continue to grow is "the critical threshold" that needs to be addressed in the study undertaken by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, Hilgers said. "We need to find win-win opportunities," he said. McDonnell said he is sensitive to Lincoln's needs. "That's part of our responsibility," he said. Lincoln can't grow without securing a second, dependable water supply, McDonnell said, and that goal needs to be achieved. The proposed 7-mile-long lake between Lincoln and Omaha is viewed as a potential boon to recreation, economic development, tourism and enhanced lifestyle benefits. McDonnell said the lake could help address many of Nebraska's current challenges. "We need a way to recruit and retain people in Nebraska," he said. The proposed lake would be 4,000 acres, larger than Lake Okoboji in Iowa, which is a popular vacation and recreation destination for Nebraskans now. Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln introduced a bill earlier this week to begin development of a second water source for the city. Bostar's proposal (LB506) seeks designation of $200 million in available federal COVID-19 recovery funds to help launch the $1.4 billion project. Lincoln's water source advisory council has recommended that the city consider building a new municipal wellfield along the Missouri River between Omaha and Nebraska City. With his selection as the new speaker of the Legislature, Sen. John Arch of La Vista automatically became the new chairman of the Statewide Tourism and Recreational Water Access and Resource Sustainability (STARWARS) Committee. Four Lincoln senators, Beau Ballard, Jane Raybould, Anna Wishart and Bostar, are members of the 11-member committee. Top Journal Star photos for January 2023 Air India pilots' body IPG is considering legal recourse and other options, regarding aviation regulator DGCA suspending the licence of the pilot-in-command of the flight where a passenger allegedly urinated on a female co-passenger onboard last November. A senior member of the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), which represents the airline's pilots who fly wide-body planes, said it will take up the issue of suspension of the pilot concerned strongly. The urination incident happened onboard New York-Delhi flight on November 26, 2022 and it came to the notice of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) only on January 4. For various violations, DGCA, on Friday, imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Air India, Rs 3 lakh penalty on the airline's director of in-flight services and suspended the licence of the pilot-in-command for three months. "We are considering all options, including taking legal action for the pilot's licence suspension. We are talking to our lawyers on the issue and will soon take a call," the IPG member told PTI on the condition of anonymity. The member claimed that the pilot concerned had acted very maturely. "It has all been reported to the company at that time. If after all of this you still think that the pilot has not acted, then we need to understand what you are talking about and why you find him at fault." The member also alleged that there is a lot of "pressure to find a scapegoat in the entire case. There was no immediate comment from Air India. According to reports, Air India's senior management was informed about the urination incident hours after the flight landed on November 26. The incident of passenger misbehaviour occurred on AI-102 flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year, wherein a male passenger conducted himself in a disorderly manner and allegedly relieved himself on a female passenger, according to DGCA. The watchdog had issued show cause notices to Air India's Accountable Manager, Director in-flight services, all the pilots and cabin crew members of that flight as to why enforcement action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations. DGCA examined the written replies of Air India and the personnel involved, and decided on the enforcement actions. A Goa-bound chartered flight from Russian capital Moscow with 240 passengers on board was diverted to Uzbekistan in the wee hours of Saturday (January 21) following a bomb threat, police said. The flight was scheduled to land at the Dabolim airport in South Goa at 4.15 am, a senior police official said.The flight (AZV2463) operated by Azur Air was diverted before it entered the Indian air space, he said. "It was diverted after an email was received at 12.30 am by the Dabolim airport director that mentioned about a bomb being planted on the plane," the official said. This is the second such incident involving a bomb threat on an Azur Air charter flight, occurring nearly two weeks after a Moscow-to-Goa flight made an emergency landing at Gujarat's Jamnagar airport following a bomb threat. The plane then landed at an Indian Air Force base in Jamnagar, Gujarat and NSG was called upon to check the aircraft. After thorough checking on all passengers and luggage overnight, the flight was let go towards its final destination Goa. In the January 9 incident, the Azur Air office in Russia had received the threat mail, while this time it was received by the office of the Dabolim airport director, sources said. A senior official of the Dabolim airport said a police complaint would be lodged in connection with the incident. The Russian embassy said it is closely following the situation relating to a Goa-bound flight from Russia that was diverted to Uzbekistan apparently due to a bomb threat. "The embassy is closely following the situation around the Azur Air flight AZV2463 en route from Perm to Goa," the Russian mission said. "According to available information, the plane made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan after a report of alleged bomb scare," it added. The embassy said the aircraft is being inspected and the airline is preparing to accommodate the passengers in hotels. With PTI inputs It is no secret that life beyond classroom walls can lead you to a monotonous corporate job. But the ability to think out of the box can direct you on a path of entrepreneurship. However, those wanting to secure their future opt to work for others. To get the best job with a high paycheck, education is of crucial importance. Emphasizing the need for better education infused with practical knowledge, Chintan Patel has been the motivational force for today's generation. He is the Managing Director of Deesan Group, a leading name in India's textile industry. Incorporated in 2004, Patel's company manufactures premium monogrammed bath and hand towels. With an easy entry into the business world, Chintan Patel began his journey at 26. The road to entrepreneurship was easy for him as he comes from a business family. For those wanting to become successful, Chintan has often shared the importance of education. Based in Mumbai, he is the Vice President of Shri Kelvani Mandal where he runs the city's prominent Mithibai College and Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. Apart from this, Chintan's family have roots in the Shirpur town of Maharashtra. In their hometown, Chintan Patel's family established the Shirpur Education Society (SES). Founded in October 1979, he is the trustee of Shirpur Education Society. Over the years, SES has bridged the gap by offering education to children for more than four decades. Under Shirpur Education Society, there are 75 educational institutions from primary and pre-primary school to graduation. For its incredible contribution, the educational society was honoured with the State Award in 2003. Chintan Patel has frequently focused on the importance of education. He says, "I am lucky to live a life I dreamt. But, those living in rural regions do not have access to everything. Therefore, it is my prime responsibility to provide education to the children of underprivileged families for better employment prospects." Offering quality education to students from playgroup to graduation, SES has top-notch faculty for different programs like medicine, engineering and commerce. So far, more than 48,000 students have reached newer heights through SES. Patel's goal is to create an environment where students are nurtured with the best education facilities and are employed by the best companies in India and overseas. On the professional front, Chintan Patel also runs Param Tex Fab Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary under Deesan Group. The parent company was founded in 2005, and it manufactures bed sheet fabric. Chintan Patel has also ventured into businesses selling edible oil and soya products. He has been serving as a director of Deesan Agro Tech Pvt. Ltd, one of the oldest companies under the Deesan Group. Along with running multiple businesses, Chintan Patel is exercising his duty of educating and nurturing students for a better tomorrow. New Delhi: Hours after the centre blocked multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the BBC documentary on PM Narendra Modi, the Congress on Saturday criticised the government for the 'censorship' over series. Taking a jibe at PM Modi, it asked why had the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee reminded Modi of 'raj dharma' after the 2002 Gujarat riots. BBC's latest documentary series 'India: The Modi Question' has triggered a political row in the country. The BBC claims it investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state. The series aired by the UK's national broadcaster also sparked outrage and condemnation from prominent Indian-origin UK citizens, as well as the Indian government. Multiple YouTube videos sharing the first episode of the BBC documentary "India: The Modi Question" were blocked on Saturday as per the directions issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Along with YouTube videos, the Centre has also directed Twitter to block over 50 tweets containing links to the concerned YouTube videos. Also Read: Centre blocks tweets, YouTube videos sharing BBC documentary on PM Narendra Modi Reacting to the developments, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, "PM and his drumbeaters assert that the new BBC documentary on him is slanderous. Censorship has been imposed." "Then why did PM Vajpayee want his exit in 2002, only to be pressured not to insist by the threat of resignation by Advani?" he said. Why did Vajpayee remind him of his 'raj dharma', Ramesh asked. The Congress leader also attached a video clip of Vajpayee talking about "raj dharma" with the then Gujarat chief minister, Modi, sitting next to him. PM and his drumbeaters assert that the new BBC documentary on him is slanderous. Censorship has been imposed. Then why did PM Vajpayee want his exit in 2002, only to be pressurised not to insist by the threat of resignation by Advani? Why did Vajpayee remind him of his rajdharma? pic.twitter.com/wwUkDQvlXi Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) January 21, 2023 AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal had on Friday alleged that Modi "is still scared of the truth about 2002 coming out 21 years later". The MEA had condemned the BBC Panorama programme, which has not been screened in India, alleging it was designed "to push a particular discredited narrative". "The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset is blatantly visible," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters during a press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday when asked about the controversial series. (with agency inputs) Following the eighth meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, and scientific and technological cooperation in Islamabad, Russia and Pakistan signed three intergovernmental agreements, according to a joint statement released on Friday by the ministers of energy for both countries, Nikolay Shulginov of Russia and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of Pakistan, Azernews reports citing TASS. "During the meeting, the following documents were also signed. The first is an agreement on cooperation and mutual aid in customs problems between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Second, the protocol on the exchange of documents and information on the customs value of goods transported between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan between the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation and the Customs Service of the Federal Revenue Council of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The third is the working agreement on airworthiness between the Federal Air Transport Agency of the Russian Federation and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan." Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will travel to India be the chief guest at the countrys Republic Day celebrations for the first time ever in January 2023, Indias Ministry of External Affairs announced on Sunday. This is the first time that the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt will be the chief guest at our Republic Day, the Indian ministry said in a statement. Republic Day is national holiday celebrated annually to commemorate the adoption of the constitution of India on 26 January 1950. Both countries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. India and Egypt enjoy warm and friendly relations based on civilisational and deep-rooted people-to-people ties, the statement said. Egypt and India recorded their highest-ever bilateral trade of $7.26 billion during FY2021-22, up $4.5 billion in FY2019- 2020, according the Indian government figures. Over 50 Indian companies are actively present in Egypt with total investment exceeding $3.15 billion in a range of sectors like manufacturing, chemicals, energy, infrastructure and retail, according to the Indian ministry. According to Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), India is Egypts third largest export market, sixth largest trading partner, and seventh largest importer. India's Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry have agreed in a meeting in October in Cairo to increase trade and cooperation between their markets as well as the investments between them. Last week, India invited Egypt to participate as a guest country in the G20 meetings that will be held during the Indian yearlong presidency of the intergovernmental forum starting this December. Jaishankar said that Egypt will add great value to the G20 meetings during discussions of climate change and support for developing countries President El-Sisi took part in the G20 summit in the city Hangzhou, China in September 2016 and in the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan in June 2019. Search Keywords: Short link: Kolkata: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's daughter Anita Bose-Pfaff has stated that RSS' ideology and Netaji's ideas are vastly different. Her statement comes ahead of RSS' plans to celebrate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary in the city on January 23. She claimed that the fanfare over Netaji on his birth anniversary is for BJP and RSS to serve their own interests in some ways. She said, "As far as ideology is concerned, the Congress has a lot more in common with Netaji than any other party in the country." "BJP and RSS do not reflect the idea of respecting all religions as preached by Netaji, who was a devout Hindu but believed in respecting other faiths. He was in favour of productive cooperation between members of different religions", Bose-Pfaff further said as quoted by PTI. RSS to host public programme on Netaji's birth anniversary RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will address a public programme at Shahid Minar ground in the city to commemorate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary. "The RSS and BJP do not necessarily reflect this attitude ... If you want to put a simple label, they are rightists and Netaji was a leftist," she told PTI over phone from Germany where she lives. Anita Bose lauds initiatives by Centre to honour Subhas Chandra Bose Asked whether Netaji was a critic of the RSS, she said "I don't know any quote (of Netaji) which I can give you. He may have made critical statements about RSS members. I know what his (Netaji's) views are and about RSS. The two value systems do not coincide. RSS and Netaji's ideology of secularism do not coincide with each other," she said. Speaking on the recent pomp and fanfare over Netaji's birth anniversary celebrations, she lauded the BJP-led government at the Centre for taking a "lot of initiatives" to honour him. "This has two aspects. After Independence, the official Congress stand on Netaji was reserved and not shared by all Congressmen. It wanted to keep the narrative that it was only the civil disobedience movement that led to the country's freedom. But after Netaji files were declassified we came to know that Indian National Army (INA) played a very key role in it," she said. 'If Netaji was alive today and held a different view from govt, would BJP have honoured him?' On the second aspect, Pfaff wondered whether BJP would have honoured Netaji if he had held divergent views from that of the present-day government. "The BJP has made a lot of effort to honour Netaji. With any politician, you have first to allow them to look at his/her interest. If Netaji was alive today and held a different view from that of the government, then the BJP would not have honoured him. So (in this case) it is their interest that is served," she said. The Trinamool Congress and BJP had locked horns to appropriate Netaji's legacy on his 125th birth anniversary ahead of the assembly polls in 2021. In 2015, the West Bengal government released 64 files on the leader held by the home department. The Narendra Modi government at the Centre released 100 files on him the next year. After Independence, the Centre formed three inquiry commissions to unravel the mystery of Netaji's disappearance. Two of them -- the Shah Nawaz Commission and Khosla Commission were formed by the Congress governments and concluded that Bose died in an air crash on August 18, 1945, soon after taking off from Taihoku airport in Taiwan. The third one -- the Mukherjee Commission formed by the BJP-led NDA government said he did not. Fire breaks out in a hotel at Connaught Place in Delhi and six fire tenders are present at the spot. Efforts are on to douse the fire. The cuase of fire is not know yet and there is no report of casualties so far. #WATCH | Fire broke out in a hotel in Connaught Place in Delhi this morning. Six fire tenders are present at the spot. Fire fighting operations are underway. pic.twitter.com/DPECAlGNXN ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2023 There was no report of any injury to anyone, said an offcial, adding that the hotel is in 'F' block of Connaught Place. The Delhi Fire Services received information regarding the fire at 8.51 am, following which 13 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the blaze, the officials said. The fire was brought under control at around 10.35 am and the cooling process is underway, they added. The fire broke out in Connaught Place's Suncity Hotel. In July 2022, a fire broke out in another restaurant in Connaught Place in the outer circle. It was brought under control and no injuries were reported. In a similar incident on January 16, a fire broke out in Delhi`s Shakarpur which was doused with the help of eight fire tenders. NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday said the President will address the joint sitting of both the houses of Parliament in the existing building, putting to rest speculations that it could be held in the new building. Amid reports that President Droupadi Murmu can address joint session of both houses in new building, Birla in a tweet said the New Parliament Building is still under construction. "During Budget Session, the Hon'ble President will address Members of two Houses in the existing Parliament House Building," he tweeted. The Budget Session of Parliament commences on January 31 and the first leg will go on till February 13. The Parliament will reconvene on March 13 and go on till April 6. Meanwhile, citing security reasons, a couple of actual pictures of the new parliament building were removed from the dedicated Website for the entire Central Vista redevelopment project on Friday. The new Parliament building is part of the redevelopment of the Central Vista, the nation's power corridor. Revamping the three-km Rajpath from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the India Gate, constructing a common central secretariat, a new office and residence of the prime minister, and a new vice-president enclave are also part of the project being executed by the CPWD, which comes under the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. In December 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament building which will have modern facilities. Tata Projects Ltd is constructing the new Parliament building which will have a grand constitution hall to showcase India's democratic heritage, a lounge for members of Parliament, a library, multiple committee rooms, dining areas and ample parking space. The original deadline to complete the project was November last year. NEW DELHI: The Kejriwal government has written to Delhi University Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh highlighting the difficulties faced by SC/ST students during the admission process and urged him to lower the cut-off for them to fill the vacant seats. The undergraduate admissions, which the university held through Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores for the first time, concluded in December. But thousands of seats of the total 70,000 under various undergraduate courses could not be filled. The vice chancellor, meanwhile, denied any plan to reopen admissions, saying the first semester is about to end now and it is not possible to take in new students. Delhi SC/ST Welfare Minister Raaj Kumar Anand on Friday wrote to Singh, seeking filling up of vacant seats in DU colleges by lowering the cut-off marks for SC/ST students. "In the current year, about thousands of seats are lying vacant in the reserved seats for Scheduled Caste students in DU. Because this year the same process is not being followed for the admission of these students and the admission is based on the marks or rank obtained in CUET (Common University Entrance Test)," Anand said. He said that earlier Delhi University used to reduce the cut-off marks if SC seats were vacant. "The same process is not being followed in the current year. Because the admission of SC students is based on the marks/rank obtained in CUET, the students of SC and ST communities are suffering," he said. "Delhi government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has requested the Vice-Chancellor of DU to re-examine the issue and relax the admission criteria of DU to fill the vacant seats by lowering the cut-off marks for SC students Committed to providing quality education to the poorest of the poor children," he added. More than 65,000 seats in Undergraduate courses have been filled this academic session. Around 5,000 UG seats will remain vacant at various colleges of the University of Delhi. Speaking to PTI, Yogesh Singh said the seats are only vacant in courses which are not in demand. "I know seats are empty but the course is not in demand. We have taken all the steps to ensure seats get filled. However, the seats remain vacant. We have concluded the admission process for this year, and even the first semester is about to conclude. It is not possible to reopen the admission process," he said. New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday released the logo of `Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan` and a "chargesheet" against the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The `Haath Se Haath Jodo` campaign will take place for two months starting on January 26. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that the campaign has been launched to spread the message of the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra. "Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan` will begin on Jan 26 - a house-to-house campaign to spread the message of the Bharat Jodo Yatra to common people," Venugopal said. The party also released a chargesheet against the Modi government. Also Read: 'Congress-Kejriwal ecosystem': BJP demands apology from Opposition over their Pfizer covid vaccine push Delhi | Congress party releases the logo of 'Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan' and a "chargesheet" against the Central Government. pic.twitter.com/slTltKktx4 January 21, 2023 "Respective Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) will make `chargesheets` and if needed against respective state governments," Venugopal added. Coming down heavily on the central government, the Congress General Secretary said that the party would address the pain of the people caused by the Modi government`s "misrule"."After 130 days of this historic programme (Bharat Jodo Yatra), Congress got enough inputs from the people of the country while walking lakhs of people talked to Rahul Gandhi. We can understand the pain which they are in due to the misrule of the Modi government," he stated. Earlier, addressing a press conference in Jammu & Kashmir`s Kathua, Congress` Jairam Ramesh said that the door-to-door canvas of Congress would reach every house in the 10 lakh polling booths of 6 lakh villages and 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. "The `Haath Se Haath Jodo` campaign will be held from January 26 to March 26. The Congress workers will do door-to-door canvassing and will reach out to every single house in 10 lakh polling booths of 6 lakh villages and 2.5 lakh gram panchayats," Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said. Congress leader and general secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh in the national capital on January 13 briefed media persons about the Bharat Jodo Yatra`s follow-up programme Haath Se Haath Jodo, from January 26 to March 26, and said that during the programme party workers will go door-to-door and handover Rahul Gandhi`s letter to people. In a shocking incident, 8 puppies were found dead in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad on Thursday, allegedly due to intentional poisoning by animal haters. The puppies, who were in a healthy state a day earlier, were found dead next morning, with their faces turned blue and their jaws stuck. The heinous act had come to light after a resident of the area, Geeta, informed Animal Rights Activist and lawyer Ashish Sharma about the crime, who lodged an FIR against the miscreants at Sahibabad Police Station. However, the police has denied the claims of the poisoning. On the other hand, Ashish Sharma said that the puppies were in good health and were provided with proper shelter homes. He further said that a local resident of the area informed him that some residents of the locality are "animal haters." Outraged over the improper investigation, the activist has now filed an application to the concerned ACP demanding a proper investigation of the incident. Giving details of the incident, Sharma said the dogs were provided with proper bedding and shelter for protection from cold. Ms Geeta, who used to feed those puppies daily informed Ashish said that they were in good health, however, on January 15, 2023, she found 3 of them dead, and then on January 17 other 5 puppies were also found dead in their shelter home. The activist said that his application at the police station is still pending. "However, this is a confirmed case of dog poisoning because it is not possible that all 8 puppies who were in proper health suddenly die. Somebody gave them to eat something poisonous or used other means to poison them," he said. He further said it's time for the police to act over such cruelty considering killing or poisoning dogs to death is a cognizable offense. Madhya Pradesh Congress chief and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath launched a scathing attack on Union Minister and his former colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia terming him politically redundant in the state. Expressing confidence that Congress will return to power in Madhya Pradesh, Nath said that people of the state are fade up with issues of unemployment and migration while drought-related problems still plague the Bundelkhand region. "Gone are the days when we used to say that this is Congress' village and that is BJP's village. Now voters have their own thinking...We don't need any Scindia (to win polls), if he was such a big gun (bada topp) then why (BJP) lost Gwalior and Morena mayoral polls," said Nath. The Congress in July 2022 won the mayoral elections in Gwalior, once the capital of the erstwhile Scindia kingdom, after 57 years, as well as in Morena where the municipal corporation was formed about eight years ago. Nath also pitched for cast census and old pension scheme in the state. "I don't know what these people (govt) are scared of. What these people are trying to hide? It's important to conduct a caste-based census in the state...When our government will be formed in Madhya Pradesh, we will also implement old pension scheme," said Nath. Nath and Scindia had together campaigned in the 2018 state elections in which the Congress defeated the BJP by a slender margin after 15 years. But Nath stepped down as the chief minister in March 2020 after 22 Congress MLAs loyal to Scindia resigned from the Assembly and moved to the BJP, paving the way for the return of Shivraj Singh Chouhan to the top post. The former Union minister expressed confidence that the Congress would make a comeback in this year's assembly elections and launch 'welfare schemes for farmers, young people and the poor' in the state. If the Congress comes to power, it would pay special attention to the Bundelkhand region to pull it from backwardness, he added. Hitting out at Nath, state minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia said Scindia was a missile that brought the Congress to power in the 2018 Assembly polls and also ensured it fell in March 2020. "Scindia is not a topp (canon), but a missile. This missile will also lead the BJP to victory in the 2023 Assembly polls in MP," Sisodia, a staunch loyalist of the Union civil aviation minister, said. (With agency inputs) NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Friday issued notices to all the state chief secretaries to identify madrassas which are being attended by non-muslim students as well. "We have received complaints from various places about non-Muslim students attending madrassas funded or recognized by the government. We have issued notices to all state chief secretaries to identify such madrassas and shift non-Muslim students from these madrassas to the schools," NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo said while talking to ANI. "The Uttar Pradesh Madrassa Board had made an objectionable and silly statement that it will continue to admit non-Muslim students in madrassas. Hence, we have written to Special Secretary Minorities that giving Islamic education to non-Muslim students is a violation of Article 28(3) and asked them to reply within three days," he added. Madrasas, as institutions, are primarily responsible for imparting religious education to children. They are of three types "Recognised Madrasas", "Unrecognised Madrasas" and "Unmapped Madrasas". Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Council Chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed on January 7 urged the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to reconsider their letter, urging states and UTs to inspect the recognized madrasas admitting non-Muslim children. "Non-Hindus also go to Sanskrit schools," he said. "Child Protection Commission's letter has come to notice. I want to say that we are providing modern education to children under NCERT syllabus and only religious education is not being imparted in madrasas," Iftikhar Ahmed Javed said. Replying to the child rights panel's letter, demanding an inquiry into Madrasas, and inducting non-Muslim students, Iftikhar said, "Non-Muslims are studying in madrasas and non-Hindu children are studying in Sanskrit schools. Children of every religion are also studying in missionary schools. Even though I myself studied at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), NCPCR should reconsider their letter." Earlier in December, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) wrote to the chief secretaries of all states and union territories and directed them to conduct a detailed inquiry of all recognized madrasas admitting non-Muslim children. The NCPCR also recommended the Chief Secretaries admit all non-Muslim students in the said Madrasas to formal schools subsequent to the inquiry besides the mapping of all unmapped madrasas.The letter undersigned by Chairperson-NCPCR Priyank Kanoongo had said based on various complaints received, "...it is noted that children belonging to Non-Muslim community are attending Government funded/ Recognised Madrasas." The Commission's letter said: "However, it is also learnt that those Madrasas which are funded by the Government or recognised by the Government are imparting both religious and to some extent formal education to children....Further, it is also learnt by the Commission that some State/UT Government/s are providing them with scholarships too...This is a clear-cut violation and contravention of Article 28(3) of the Constitution of India which prohibits educational institutions from obligating children to take part in any religious instruction, without the consent of the parent." The statutory body constituted under a Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005, aimed at protecting child rights, said: "Conduct a detailed inquiry of all Government Funded/Recognized Madrasas who are admitting Non- Muslim children in your State/UT. The inquiry should include physical verification of children attending such Madrasas. Subsequent to the inquiry, admit all such children in schools for availing formal education." Jammu: At least six civilians were injured in twin mysterious blasts in the Narwal area of Jammu district on Saturday just four days ahead of the Republic Day and scheduled Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra, police said here. An official said that two back-to-back blasts occurred near the bus yard of Transport Nagar in Narwal today morning. He said in the twin blast six civilians were injured and they have been evacuated to a nearby hospital for treatment. Meanwhile, ADG Police Jammu, Mukesh Singh also confirmed the incident and said 6 people have been injured. #WATCH | J&K: Six people injured in two blasts that occurred in Narwal area of Jammu. Visuals from the spot. Police personnel are present at the spot. pic.twitter.com/eTZ1exaICG ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2023 J&K | Twin blasts occurred in Narwal area of Jammu, 6 people injured. Details awaited. pic.twitter.com/TYkiUoLnCP ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2023 He said, "Following the incident, police, bomb disposal squad and forensic experts reached the spot", adding The nature was the blast was not yet known, while the matter is being investigation." Massive searches have been launched in the area, while special checkpoints have also been set up on different routes. ADG Added The blasts took place even as security forces are on high alert in view of Rahul Gandhis Bharat Jodo Yatra and the upcoming Republic Day. "The whole area has been cordoned off and the injured evacuated to hospital," another police official told PTI. Kolkata: Indian Secular Front (ISF) activists fought a pitched battle with the police at Esplanade area in central Kolkata on Saturday during a protest against alleged attacks on their workers by the ruling Trinamool Congress in South 24 Parganas district. The demonstration threw the traffic out of gear around the key Jawarharlal Nehru Road crossing. The sole ISF MLA Naushad Siddique, who was leading the protest, was detained, as a number of police personnel and agitators were injured. A senior police official said the activists blocked an arterial road in the heart of the city, prompting the cops to request them to clear Jawaharlal Nehru Road and allow traffic movement. However, the workers of the party, which was formed before the 2021 assembly election, refused to vacate the road demanding that the perpetrators behind the attacks on its activists at Bhangar be arrested first. As police baton-charged the workers and lobbed tear gas shells, the demonstrators numbering around 500 retreated but pelted the cops with stones from nearby lanes, injuring several police personnel. The protestors also damaged kiosks and guardrails of the police injuring several policemen, the official said. A strong police contingent, comprising RAF and armed policemen, was deployed in the area. Several top police officers rushed to the spot to control the mob. After about an hour, the police managed to clear the road and chased away the protestors but stray incidents of stone pelting continued for some time. Commuters, who were hiding in shops with their shutters down came out raising their hands. #WATCH | Clash broke out between ISF (Indian Secular Front) activists and Kolkata police at the Esplanade area of Kolkata, West Bengal pic.twitter.com/GbLDjk0ZLF January 21, 2023 Siddique, before his detention, deplored police 'inaction' at Bhangar and the 'high-handedness' of the force in Esplanade by turning on "peaceful protestors". A day back, ISF party offices were burnt down in Bhangar allegedly by TMC workers. The ruling party in turn claimed that the ISF destabilised the situation in the area by bringing in armed men and attacking their supporters for the past few days. ISF is the only opposition party other than BJP to have won a seat in the 2021 West Bengal assembly election. Its allies, the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress failed to bag any seat. The party was formed by Abbas Siddiqui, an influential Muslim cleric of Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district, in February of that year. Egypts Lawyers Syndicate announced Friday the formation of a legal defence team to attend the appeal hearing against the two-year jail verdict handed to six lawyers in Marsa Matrouh over the past week. The decision was taken during a meeting on Friday between the general syndicates board and its sub-syndicates, where they outlined possible legal steps to deal with the matter. The six lawyers were sentenced on Wednesday by a Marsa Matrouh criminal court to two years in prison over a brawl with three court clerks during a session in the governorate on 5 January. In response to the ruling, the syndicate called on Thursday for an "indefinite" strike. "We will stop appearing before the criminal courts and participating in Public Prosecution investigations," it said in an official statement on Thursday. In Friday's meeting, the lawyers' representatives stressed the necessity of adhering to the strike call until another decision is issued, according to a joint statement shared by the general syndicate's official Facebook page. The syndicate views the imprisonment of the six lawyers reflective of lawyers bitter reality, adding that this situation will not end unless lawyers are provided as stipulated by the constitution and law with immunity while carrying on their duties. "The [Lawyers Syndicate] represented in its elected councils and its general assembly adheres to its legitimate rights and that it is a partner in achieving justice, and will not accept encroachment on its legitimate rights," the statement added. The syndicate further asserted that it is dealing with the matter transparently and with respect for all parties. The syndicate "supports its members within the framework of legitimacy and the rule of law and will not accept offences against its members from any side." In its Thursday's statement, the syndicate said there was "a clear intention" to keep the six lawyers in detention "without real justification," and denounced the "rush to bring them to trial without taking the time to carry out a real investigation." The hashtag the dignity of lawyers is a red line in Arabic were shared by several lawyers on social media. In response to the syndicate's strike call, Egypts Judges Club said on Wednesday that its board was following the issue and would take the appropriate response in a timely manner. They added that they would report any violations or insults on social media against the Egyptian judiciary, judges or employees to the authorities. Search Keywords: Short link: Mumbai: Samajwadi Party (SP) Maharashtra president Abu Asim Azmi received death threats for supporting Aurangzeb, informed the Mumbai Police on Saturday. Azmi`s personal assistant received a call. The person who made the call allegedly hurled abuses on the call and threatened to kill Abu Asim Azmi. The Colaba Police Station in Mumbai has lodged an FIR against the unknown person under sections 506 (2) and 504 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). "FIR lodged at Colaba Police Station in Mumbai against the unknown person under sections 506 (2) and 504 of the IPC. Further investigation is underway," said Mumbai Police. Further investigation is underway. New Delhi: A court here on Saturday granted bail to a man accused of molesting and dragging DCW chief Swati Maliwal, saying it will be unfair to subject the accused to a premature trial at the present stage. Maliwal had on Thursday alleged that she was molested by a drunk man while she was on an inspection at night, and dragged by his car for 10-15 metres outside the AIIMS here with her hand stuck in the vehicle's window. The Kotla Mubarakpur police station registered an FIR and arrested the accused Harish Chander (47), who was subsequently remanded in judicial custody. '...I am of the view that no useful purpose will be served by keeping the accused behind the bars. Accordingly, accused Harish Chander is admitted to bail subject to furnishing bail bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety of the like amount," Metropolitan Magistrate Sanghmitra said. Other conditions of the bail include Chander not committing a similar offence, not tampering with evidence, joining investigation as and when required, providing his address and phone number, and not contacting, meeting or threatening the complainant, her family members and other witnesses, directly or indirectly, the court said. Also Read: DCW chief molestation case: 'Swati Maliwal's drama exposed...', says BJP, claims accused is an AAP member "No doubt that the nature of accusations is serious and is a relevant consideration at this stage of deciding the application of bail, however, it is not the only test or factor to be considered. It is the basic principal of criminal law that the accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty and it would be impermissible for the court, at this stage, while deciding the bail application, to subject the accused to a pre mature trial," the court said. Police said an FIR was registered against Chander under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), and section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act. The court said all offences attracted imprisonment of less than seven years and that except section 354 of IPC, all offences are bailable in nature. "During arguments, this court has specifically asked the investigating officer regarding the need of any custodial interrogation of the accused for the purpose of investigation to which she has replied in the negative and the accused has no previous involvement in any other offence," the court said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today greeted northeastern states on their statehood day. PM Modi said that these states have traversed the growth trajectory in the last few years. He wished the states for continuing the growth momentum. "On their Statehood Day, best wishes to the people of Tripura. The last 5 years have been remarkable for Tripuras growth trajectory. From agriculture to industry, education to health, the state has seen great transformation. May this trend continue in the coming times," said PM Modi in a tweet. Wishing the people of Manipur, PM Modi said, "Statehood Day greetings to the people of Manipur. The state has been progressing on several counts during the last few years. I pray that the aspirations of the people of this state are fulfilled and Manipur keeps strengthening Indias growth trajectory." PM Modi also extended his wishes to the people of Meghalaya. "Greetings to the people of Meghalaya on their Statehood Day. This state is known for its vibrant culture, particularly music, art and passion towards sports. People from Meghalaya have excelled in diverse fields. I pray for Meghalayas continuous progress in the years to come," said PM Modi. Meghalaya and Tripura will go to the polls this year. While the BJP is the ruling party in Tripura, it is in alliance with the NPP in Meghalaya. However, the NPP has decided to go to the assembly polls all alone this year. Jammu: Sanjay Raut, a leader of the Shiv Sena party, stated that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has the potential to become the Prime Minister of India. Raut, who participated in Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, a journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, believes that this event will demonstrate Gandhi's leadership abilities and provide a challenge for the ruling BJP in the 2024 general elections. "Ideological and political differences apart, he (Gandhi) will show his leadership qualities and will be a big challenge (for the ruling BJP in 2024 general elections). He will make a miracle," the Member of Parliament told reporters here. Also Read: Sanjay Raut MOCKS Eknath Shinde over installation of Balasaheb Thackeray's oil painting in assembly "Not everyone can walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, covering a distance of over 3,500 kms. It needs a lot of determination and love for the country. He has shown his concern for the country and I do not see any politics in this Yatra," the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader said. Will be joining the March of Love, Friendship & Unity with @RahulGandhi at the #BharatJodoYatra. Shall walk for the Unity of Nation on 20th January from Jammu, - a place that Shivsena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray had a special bonding with. Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra! pic.twitter.com/slbKQ8I3MZ Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) January 12, 2023 Raut also rejected the idea of a third front without the Congress, stating that the party has a strong presence throughout the country and is necessary for any front to be successful. He also emphasized that the purpose of the Yatra is to unite the country and remove hatred and fear, not to unite opposition parties under the Congress banner. "The main purpose of my visit to J and K was to join the Gandhi-led Yatra at the direction of my leader and I had a good experience walking alongside Gandhi. It is not a political Yatra," he said. Raut also criticized the BJP for their handling of issues in Jammu and Kashmir, and stated that his party is open to a grand alliance in the next assembly elections, provided they are given a respectable place. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stepped up its attack on Swati Maliwal, the chief of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) over her alleged molestation charges. In a letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, V.K Saxena, the Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor requested him to suspend Maliwal till the completion of the police inquiry into the incident of alleged molestation on January 19. Kapoor said that the reports indicate the man accused of molesting the DCW chief was an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker. Watch the video of the incident here: Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal molested, 'dragged' by car for 10-15 meters.pic.twitter.com/AmEqOMiUQV Ahmed Khabeer (@AhmedKhabeer_) January 20, 2023 The alleged incident occurred near AIIMS in the early hours of January 19 when Maliwal, who was on a spot check of women's safety measures in the city, was approached by a car driver allegedly in an inebriated condition. Also Read: DCW chief molestation case: 'Swati Maliwal's drama exposed...', says BJP, claims accused is an AAP member "Everyone condemned the incident and it was satisfying to note that Delhi Police acted swiftly after the incident was reported and arrested the accused within an hour," Kapoor said. He also added that "social media reports on this, as well as media reports, indicate that the eve teaser involved Harish Chandra Suryavanshi is an active worker of Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party from Sangam Vihar." Kapoor also pointed out that there are photographs of Harish Chandra Suryavanshi campaigning with an AAP MLA and this has raised questions about the impartiality of the investigation. He said that "This development revealing eve teaser's connection with Aam Aadmi Party has exposed Swati Maliwal and she will try her best to influence the police inquiry in the matter by using her constitutional office," Kapoor alleged. He urged the Lt Governor to suspend Maliwal from the post of DCW chairperson till the inquiry of the alleged molestation incident is completed. (With PTI inputs) Patna: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to take part in Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Jayanti Samaroh and will visit Bihar on February 22. Convenor of Kisan Majdoor Samagam and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Thakur from Bihar confirmed this. The Samaroh is billed as Kisan-Majdoor Samagam at Patna in Bapu Sabhagar where a huge number of farmers of the state will welcome the Home Minister. "Union Home Minister Amit Shah is arriving in Bihar on February 22 and he will take part in Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Jayanti Samaroh at Bapu Sabhagar where the Union Home Minister will address farmers from across the state," Thakur said. Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vivek Thakur said, "Swami Sahjanand Saraswati was the biggest peasant leader of India who has not been accorded the due place that history or governments should have. On the occasion of his birth anniversary, our Honourable Union Home Minister Amit Shah will give a message to the farmers of Bihar and the country that the Modi government is the real doer for farmers and wherever injustice will be done, the Centre stands strongly with farmers." Also read: Amit Shah to inaugurate new Light & Sound Show 'Jai Hind' at Red Fort today, will display history of India Hitting out at the state government over farmers issues the MP said, "Farmers of Bihar have been neglected by all previous governments in the state and the way farmers are being treated by the Grand Alliance government in Bihar is a major concern for us because more than 50 percent people are dependent on agriculture and despite that Nitish Kumar government is not ready to listen to the voice of farmers. They are being treated as ones who do not matter and are only facing police brutality and government apathy and that is not acceptable to BJP," BJP MP Thakur further said. Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was born in Deva Village near Dullahpur, Ghazipur district in Eastern Provinces in 1889 but his `karmabhoomi` was Bihta in the Patna district. It's pertinent to note that even Subhash Chandra Bose after assuming the charge of Congress national president came to Bihta to meet Swamiji seeking his support in the freedom movement. The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Saraswati, who formed the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in 1929 in order to mobilise small peasants against the zamindari system and thus sparking the farmers movements in India. Gradually, the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. All these radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936 with Saraswati elected as its first President. Saraswati organised the Bakasht movement in Bihar from 1937 to 1938. "Bakasht" means self-cultivated. The movement was against the eviction of tenants from Bakasht lands by zamindars and led to the passing of the Bihar Tenancy Act and the Bakasht Land Tax. He also led the successful struggle in the Dalmia Sugar Mill at Bihta, where peasant-worker unity was the most important characteristic. Bihar BJP sources said that BJP is planning to organise a few other programmes during Shahs visit to the state. (With inputs from ANI) Bengaluru: A viral video on social media has shown a creative solution to a common Bengaluru problem: traffic. The footage, shared on Twitter by a page called Forever Bengaluru, features a bride who, instead of getting stuck in the notorious traffic of the city, chooses to ride the metro to her wedding venue. Dressed in a traditional saree and adorned with heavy jewelry, the bride is seen at a metro station with her friends and family, all of whom seem excited and happy. She was initially travelling in a car but due to the immense traffic, she decided to ditch it and take the metro. Also Read: Bizzare incident: Family performs 'Statue' wedding of couple that died by suicide last year, Here's why Despite the unconventional mode of transportation, the bride arrives at the wedding hall just in time for the ceremony, as shown in the video. The bride is seen seated in the mandap during the ceremony and posing for pictures later on, proving that with a bit of resourcefulness, even traffic can't ruin a special day. Watch the video here: Whatte STAR!! Stuck in Heavy Traffic, Smart Bengaluru Bride ditches her Car, & takes Metro to reach Wedding Hall just before her marriage muhoortha time!! @peakbengaluru moment pic.twitter.com/LsZ3ROV86H Forever Bengaluru (@ForeverBLRU) January 16, 2023 Netizens on Twitter left heartwarming replies to the creative video. One user wrote, "Now screening: Metrowaale Dulhania Le Jaayenga", while another said, "She will live a happy life... This smart thinking will ensure it" Bengaluru is infamous for its traffic where commuters spend hours travelling short distances. This video will surely strike a chord with Bengaluru citizens. It also depicts how public transport such as metros may be more convenient where roads are congested. Guwahati: "Who is Shahrukh Khan? I don't know anything about him or the film Pathaan", was Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's curt answer to queries by reporters here on Saturday. The mediapersons had raised questions on the violent protest by Bajrang Dal activists, who stormed a theatre at Narengi in the city on Friday where the film is slated to be screened, tore down its posters and burnt them. "Khan has not called me, though many from Bollywood do so, regarding the problem. But if he does, I will look into the matter. "Action will be taken if law and order has been violated and a case has been filed," he said. Bollywood megastar Shahrukh Khan and his film 'Pathaan' are facing backlash for showing Deepika Padukone in a saffron bikini in the song 'Besharam Rang'. Many leaders, including from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have demanded a ban on the film. Also Read: Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan Advance Booking: Actioner high on demand, set to break many records! When reporters told him that Khan is a Bollywood superstar, Sarma said that the people of the state should be concerned about Assamese and not Hindi films. He said the Assamese film 'Dr Bezbarua - Part 2', the first directorial venture of late Nipon Goswami, will be released soon. "People should see it." 'Pathaan', which has been directed by Siddharth Anand, will be released on January 25. NEW DELHI: Mumbai Police on Thursday night (Jan 19) arrested actor and Karni Sena leader Surjeet Singh Rathore for allegedly molesting and harassing a model. As per ANI, the police registered an FIR at Bangur Nagar police station based on the complaint of a model. A Mid-Day report claimed that the complainant had approached the police in December after someone created her fake Instagram account and sent abusive and obscene messages to her relatives, friends and family members. A case was then registered against an unknown person under Sections 354 (a) (d), 500, 501, 506, 506 (2) and 509 of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 67 of the IT Act, said the report. The team launched an investigation into the complaint and thereafter learnt about Rathore's involvement in the case. Further investigation is currently underway, ANI quoted a Mumbai Police official as saying. NEW DELHI: A Delhi court is likely to hear on March 25 a criminal complaint filed by actor Nora Fatehi against Jacqueline Fernandez for allegedly defaming her by ?unfairly dragging? her name into a Rs 200 crore money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekar. Fatehi, a Canadian citizen, has also arrayed 15 media organisations as accused in her complaint. The matter, which was scheduled to come up for hearing on Saturday, was adjourned since the judge was on leave owing to a judicial training, Fatehi's lawyer said. Fatehi, in her complaint, has said she has 'a pristine reputation apart from a rapidly progressing career which has quite obviously threatened her rivals who are unable to compete with her on fair footing'. A defamatory statement was made by Fernandez in 'bad faith' and with 'mala fide intention' and was circulated by the media houses with an intent to defame her, she said. "The only time the complainant spoke to Chandrashekar was when his wife, Leena Maria Paul, made her speak to him over speakerphone at the event in Chennai where the complainant was invited by Leena. At the event, the complainant was gifted an iPhone and a Gucci bag by Leena. No gifts were ever received by the complainant from Chandrashekar," Fatehi has said in the complaint. Fatehi also denied she had received a luxury car from Chandrashekar and said it was part of payment to her brother-in-law Bobby Khan, who Chandrashekar had approached for directing a movie. "Since the complainant had never even spoken to Chandrashekar let alone having met him, hence the imputation made by the Fernandez and the subsequent publishing of the same by the accused media houses are untrue," the complaint said. The court had on November 15 granted bail to Fernandez, who is an accused in the money laundering case. She was not arrested in the case. The court had on August 31 taken cognisance of a supplementary charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate and asked Fernandez to appear before it. Fernandez, who was summoned by the ED several times in connection with the investigation, was named as an accused in the supplementary charge sheet. Egypt's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Hani Sweilam discussed with his newly-appointed Sudanese counterpart means to develop the work of permanent Egyptian-Sudanese Technical Authority for Nile water -- one of the oldest mechanisms of cooperation between the two countries. Sweilam, who arrived in Khartoum on Saturday, is visiting Sudan for the first time since his appointment in August. The Egyptian minister and his Sudanese counterpart Daw Al-Bait Abdul-Rahman toured the headquarters of the authority. Through the authority, which resumed its meetings in October after a four-year hiatus, data of measurement stations in Egypt and Sudan are exchanged in a way that helps the governments of both countries to manage the Nile water resource effectively, according to a statement by Egyptian irrigation ministry. The permanent Egyptian-Sudanese Technical Authority for Nile water has been working efficiently since its establishment in 1960, based on the 1959 Nile Water Agreement between Egypt and Sudan, said Egyptian irrigation minister. The authority, he added, is specialised in conducting research and studies to optimise the management of the Nile water resource. It also ensures integrated coordination and cooperation in exchanging data and measurements to assist in the hydrological studies of the Nile. The Sudanese irrigation minister, who was appointed on Thursday as part of a new transitional government, said he hoped to discuss all issues of mutual interest with his Egyptian counterpart. He emphasised the necessity of "sincere cooperation with the Nile Basin countries." He also stressed the necessity of attaching importance to South Sudan, especially when it comes to dealing with floods and ways of prevention, the statement added. Both downstream nations, Egypt and Sudan, have been engaging in negotiations with upstream Ethiopia for almost a decade now to reach a legally binding and comprehensive agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Reinassance Dam (GERD), which Addis Ababa started building on the Blue Nile in 2010. Egypt which relies mainly on the Nile for its water needs fears that the unilateral operation of the GERD and the filling of its 74-billion-cubic-metre reservoir will negatively impact its water supply, while Sudan is concerned that the GERD will harm the regulation of flows to its own dams and their safety. Meanwhile, both irrigation ministers also toured the forecast centre that is currently under construction in coordination between the two countries executive bodies. The centre will include a unified hydrological database and a model for forecasting the Niles revenues, the statement added. Search Keywords: Short link: Jaipur: Veteran lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar on Friday, during a media interaction at a literature festival in Jaipur, raised the viral social media trend of 'Boycott Bollywood' and appealed to people to respect Indian films. "We love movies, whether it is from North, South, East or West. Stories are in our DNA. It's in our DNA to listen and to tell stories. So we should respect Indian films," Javed Akhtar said while backing Bollywood amid boycott trend. Akhtar also termed Indian cinema "One of the strongest goodwill ambassadors in the world," and said that people should respect Indian films. "We should respect Indian films. An average Indian film is released across more than 136 nations. Indian cinema is one of the strongest goodwill ambassadors in the world. If people headcount the stars, then our stars will get more recognition in the world than Hollywood," Akhtar told the reporters. The 78-year-old lyricist also acknowledged the stardom of actor Shah Rukh Khan and mentioned how his popularity has been beneficial for the country's goodwill abroad. "Not only in Asia, if you go to Germany and tell someone that you are an Indian, their first question would be, do you know Shah Rukh? Our people and our films are spreading so much goodwill for India in the world. So we are a major soft power of India and it should be protected," Akhtar said. Javed Akhtar is a renowned Indian lyricist and is known for his blockbuster hit films like `Don`, `Sholay`, `Deewar`, `Mr India`, `Zanjeer`, `Dostana`, `Seeta aur Geeta` and many more. NEW DELHI: Conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar, who is currently lodged in Delhi's Mandoli jail in connection with Rs 200 crore money laundering case, has released a new letter through his lawyer and accused actress Nora Fatehi of being jealous of Jacqueline Fernandez. In his letter, Sukesh claimed that Nora brainwashed him constantly against Jacqueline Fernandez and allegedly wanted him to leave her. He further claimed that Nora would call him at least 10 times a day and even wanted him to date her. Sukesh further alleged in the letter that Nora allegedly changed her statement before the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) as it was different from her first statement given to the Enforcement Directorate. "The entire statement is changed and now stories are being made, and the same can be very well verified and compared with the chargesheet by the ED and now the EOW," Sukesh said in the letter. NORA DEMANDED CAR, BAGS, JEWELLERY, HUGE MONEY, CLAIMS SUKESH CHANDRASEKHAR Sukesh further added, "Nora claims that she did not want a car, or she did not take it for herself is a very big lie, as she was after my life that her car had to be changed, as the 'CLA' that she had looked very cheap, so then me and her selected car I have her, and the chats and screenshots are very well with the ED, so there is no lie at all, in fact, I wanted to give her Range rover, but as the car was not available in stock she wanted in urgent, I gave her the BMW S series, which she kept using for a long time, as she was a non- Indian, she asked me to register it on the name of her best friends husband Bobby's name. Me and Nora never had a professional transaction, as she is claiming except for once that she attended an event hosted by my concern foundation, for which official payment was made to her agency." He further claims the statement shows how Fatehi is 'manipulating' with 'malafide' intentions. Sukesh said that Nora would send him pictures of luxury bags from Hermes and jewellery which he gave her. He mentioned in the letter that Nora would not be able to produce bills of her Hermes bags, as none of them has been purchased by her. SUKESH CLAIMS NORA FATEHI WAS JEALOUS OF JACQUELINE Accusing Nora of being jealous with Jacqueline, he claimed that the 'Dilbar' girl would constantly brainwash him trying to make him leave Jacqueline and start dating her. He alleged Fatehi would try calling him 'at least 10 times a day," and would continue to call him if he didnt answer. He further claimed that since 'he and Jacqueline were in a serious relationship', he began avoiding Nora Fatehi. "As I and Jacqueline were in a serious relationship, I started avoiding Nora, but she kept irritating me by calling and also, asking me to help bobby in setting up a music production company which I did. Also she kept sending me multiple pictures of Hermes bags and jewellery that she wanted, which I obliged by giving her, which she was using till date. Ask her to produce one bill of the Hermes bag that she has," he wrote adding that Fatehi would fail to show the bills as the bag costed more than Rs 2 crore," he said. He also claimed that Nora took a large amount from him to purchase a property for her family in Casablanca, Morocco. He also denied recent allegations made by actors Nikki Tamboli and Chahhatt Khanna and called them 'cheap tricks'. "With these women in my association, were only professional as they were supposed to act in my production under the LS film banner. I had no romantic association as news alleged by them, as their statement before the Enforcement Directorate, nine months ago was completely different which can be seen by media to be certain if I am lying. So this new statement given by them before EOW is only to save their skin and to grab publicity in the media, I have no fear to agree with the truth, but this new story is very funny after 9 months, I appeal to the media to verify the ED charge sheet statement and now new EOW charge sheet statement which will clearly show how these two Nikki and Chahath are lying," read the letter. NORA FATEHI's CRIMINAL COMPLAINT AGAINST JACQUELINE FERNANDEZ Nora Fatehi, in her complaint against Jacqueline, said that 'she has a pristine reputation apart from a rapidly progressing career which has quite obviously threatened her rivals who are unable to compete with her on fair footing'. The Delhi court will hear the criminal complaint filed by Nora against Jacqueline on March 25. In her statement, Nora had told the ED that Chandrashekar's wife Leena Maria Paul (Leena Paulose) had invited her to a charity event at a five-star hotel in Chennai, in December 2020, and she was offered a new iPhone, a Gucci bag and a BMW car. She had said the car was given to her brother-in-law who sold the luxury vehicle in February 2021 due to 'some financial issues.' (With inputs from ANI, PTI) New Delhi: South actress Aparna Balamurali, who was seen in Suriya starrer Soorarai Pottru and bagged the National Award for Best Actress, playing her part impressively in the film, recently hogged limelight for a not-so-pleasant experience. She visited Government Law College, Ernakulam to promote her upcoming film Thangam along with her team and co-star Vineeth Srinivasan. However, a college student touched her, without consent and she looked visibly 'uncomfortable'. A video went viral showing how the Law student tried to touch her and pose for a picture while on stage. The actress moved away and looked unhappy. The student then apologised for his behaviour and even explained how he is her fan. He even folded his hands. Now, it has been reported that the Law student has been suspended for a week after the college authorities found his act inappropriate. A college student misbehaved with actress Aparna Balamurali during the promotion function of Thangam movie. @Vineeth_Sree I'm surprised about your silence What the hell #Thankam film crew doing there. @Aparnabala2 #AparnaBalamurali pic.twitter.com/icGvn4wVS8 January 18, 2023 This is not the first time that a celebrity has been made 'uncomfortable' by a fan getting too close for comfort. Many angry netizens reacted to his behaviour by condemning the act. Last year, two female south stars also faced a similar situation at a promotional event in a mall in Kochi. Aparna made her acting debut in the Malayalam film Yathra Thudarunnu (2013) along with Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, directed by Jayan Sivapuram. She was last seen in Malayalam film Kappa, featuring Prithviraj. New Delhi: When Bigg Boss 16 was announced, they said that this year is going to be different than the rest & they made sure it was. From lesser physical tasks to more mental challenges, to give contestants enough hints on their game, Bigg Boss really did up their game, resulting in making this season the most successful of all time. Last night was a night that will be etched in the history of Bigg Boss and will be used as an example over and over again as Shalin did something, we've never seen on national television before, let alone a man doing it. While the loyal audience of the show is applauding Shalin for being able to hold their attention for one hour straight & practically make up for an entire episode, his fans loved his guts for baring his heart out for everyone to read. It is 2023 in India & we still live in a society where we like to spread awareness about mental health but more often than not, do not talk about it while personally experiencing it. In a country where we are still trying to normalize men crying or showing their emotional side, Shalin Bhanot broke down in front of Bigg Boss in last night's episode & spent a considerable amount of time. Aaj Shalin ko dakhke rona agaya . Stay strong champ #ShalinBhanot ur real fans are always with you #ShalinIsTheBoss #bb16 Ayesha Thakur (@ayeshathakur237) January 20, 2023 The bit where #ShalinBhanot was talking about his mental health issue could've been off the grid. Sab kuch content nahi hota #Biggboss16 Nirali Kanabar (@NiraliKanabar7) January 20, 2023 #ShalinBhanot was clearly agitated in tonight's episode. I'd request everyone not to mock or judge him based whatever happened inside the confession room. I wish I could give him a hug and try to calm him down. The whole thing has clearly taken a toll on his mental health. #BB16 Alfie (@MusingsOfAlfie) January 20, 2023 Don't torture him. He is emotionally break but yes he is doing acting thar he is ok . Yes he is faking as he is smiling #ShalinBhanot is himself a content Champa Nandi (@NandiChampa) January 20, 2023 True that mental health is not to be joked or taken as some random content thing!!! People are foolish to call it was fun.#ShalinBhanot Kanishk (@Kanishk98939311) January 20, 2023 At first, we thought, what was he doing, what was happening, he was sometimes talking gibberish & sometimes didn't make sense, an example of an ongoing anxiety attack. He even openly shared that he could not comprehend the thoughts running in his mind & spoke about hearing voices that haunted him. He was earlier not receptive to the idea of talking to a psychiatrist but he came around & agreed & even cracked some jokes with Bigg Boss towards the end. It takes some real guts for a public figure to put himself out there so vulnerable & by doing so Shalin has set quite an example, which may be instrumental in changing the narrative of how Indian television is perceived. Kabul: The United Nations (UN) has apologized for a "significant lapse in judgement" after photographs surfaced of some of its personnel in front of a Taliban flag in Afghanistan. The apology came after a four-day visit to the war-torn country by Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, the highest-ranking woman in the UN, as well as the Executive Director of UN Women Sima Bahous and Assistant Secretary-General of the Department of Political, Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations Khaled Khiari. During the visit, the delegation met with Taliban leaders in Kabul and Kandahar and conveyed their alarm over recent restrictions on education and work for women and girls across the country. However, photographs of some UN security personnel in front of the Taliban flag drew criticism and led to the apology. Also Read: Taliban divided on whether to restore womens rights or not: United Nations Foreign men with UN badges pose in photos infront of Taliban's flag as they smile. Under this same flag women are erased and people of Afghanistan are starved and deprived of basic rights and dignity. Well done UN. pic.twitter.com/gVw0GG3sCF Zubaida Akbar (@ZubaidaAKBR) January 19, 2023 Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the photograph was taken while the Deputy Secretary-General was meeting the de facto leaders in Afghanistan. He added that the photograph should never have been taken and that it was a mistake. The Head of Foreign Relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, Ali Maisam Nazary, took to Twitter to express his concerns, saying that the "UN personnel in Kabul taking a photo w/a terrorist group's flag brings the United Nation's impartiality & integrity into question." Nazary also called for an investigation and for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to prevent such actions in the future. During the visit, the UN delegation conveyed concerns over the Taliban's recent decree banning women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations, a move that the UN said undermines the work of numerous organizations helping millions of vulnerable Afghans. (With agency inputs) Kabul: A delegation led by the highest-ranking woman at the United Nations urged the Taliban during a four-day visit to Afghanistan that ended Friday (January 20) to reverse their crackdown on women and girls. Some Taliban officials were more open to restoring women's rights but others were clearly opposed, a UN spokesman said. The UN team met with the Taliban in the capital of Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar. It did not release the names of any of the Taliban officials. The meetings focused on the restrictive measures the Taliban have imposed on women and girls since they took power in August 2021, during the final weeks of the US and NATO forces' pullout after 20 years of war. The team, headed by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, found that some Taliban officials "have been cooperative and they've received some signs of progress," said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq. "The key thing is to reconcile the (Taliban) officials that they've met who've been more helpful with those who have not." Also read: Taliban says, 'women's rights not a priority' despite global condemnation Haq stressed that "there are many different points of authority" among the Taliban and that the UN team will try to get them to "work together to advance the goals that we want, which include most crucially, bringing women and girls back to the full enjoyment of their rights." Mohammed, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister, and a Muslim was joined on the trip by Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, which promotes gender equality and women's rights, and Assistant Secretary-General for political affairs Khaled Khiari. As the Taliban did during their previous rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, they gradually re-imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law or Sharia. Girls have been barred from school beyond the sixth grade and women are banned from most jobs, public spaces, and gyms. In late December, the Taliban barred aid groups from employing women, paralyzing deliveries that help keep millions of Afghans alive, and threatening humanitarian services countrywide. In addition, thousands of women who work for aid organisations across the war-battered country are facing the loss of income they desperately need to feed their own families. Limited work by women has been allowed in some sectors, including the health field. "What we've seen in terms of basic rights for women and girls is a huge step backwards," Haq said. "We are trying to do more and we'll continue on that front." In a statement, Mohammed said her message to the Taliban was very clear: These restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their rights and depriving the communities of their services." She stressed that the delivery of humanitarian aid is based on the principle requiring unhindered and safe access for all aid workers, including women. "Our collective ambition is for a prosperous Afghanistan that is at peace with itself and its neighbours, and on a path to sustainable development. But right now, Afghanistan is isolating itself, in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis and one of the most vulnerable nations on earth to climate change," she said. During the trip which also included a visit to western Herat, Mohammed's team also met humanitarian workers, civil society representatives, and women in the three cities. "Afghan women left us no doubt of their courage and refusal to be erased from public life," Bahous, of UN Women, said in a statement. "They will continue to advocate and fight for their rights, and we are duty-bound to support them in doing so." "What is happening in Afghanistan is a grave women's rights crisis and a wakeup call for the international community," she said, stressing that the Taliban restrictions and edicts show "how quickly decades of progress on womens rights can be reversed in a matter of days". Before arriving in Kabul, members of the delegation visited Muslim countries in the Middle East as well as Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey. They met leaders of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the Islamic Development Bank, and groups of Afghan women in Ankara, Turkey, and Islamabad, as well as a group of ambassadors and special envoys to Afghanistan based in Doha, the capital of Qatar. "The need for a revitalized and realistic political pathway was consistently highlighted and all remained firm on the fundamental principles, including women's and girls' rights to education, work, and public life in Afghanistan," the UN said. Haq apologised for a photo on social media of seven men from the UN delegation's security team posing in front of a Taliban flag, calling it "a mistake" and "a significant lapse of judgment". No country has recognised the Taliban, and Afghanistan's seat at the United Nations is still held by the previous government headed by Ashraf Ghani. (With agency inputs) London: UK police on Friday (January 20) fined Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for not wearing a seatbelt in a moving car while filming a social media video. Without naming Sunak, Lancashire Police said it had issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of a fixed penalty. "Following the circulation of a video on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seat belt while a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire we have today (Friday, Jan 20) issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty," tweeted Lancashire Police. The conditional offer of a fixed penalty phrasing means that the individual fined has the offer to pay and implicitly accepts guilt within 28 days. Following the circulation of a video on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seat belt while a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire we have today (Friday, Jan 20) issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty. pic.twitter.com/i2VJkFL2oL Lancashire Police (@LancsPolice) January 20, 2023 Still, as a trade-off, they pay much less than the maximum fine and do not risk going to court to answer the case. It tends to be the standard penalty issued in such cases. Sunak was fined Pound 50 (around Euro 57 or USD 62), one-tenth of the theoretical maximum fee for not wearing a seat belt, if taking the case to court, reported DW News. Notably, passengers caught failing to wear a seat belt when one is available can be fined Pound 100. This can increase to Pound 500 if the case goes to court. Also read: UK PM Rishi Sunak apologizes for not wearing seatbelt in back-of-car campaign video Soon after the fine announcement, Sunaks office said in a statement that "the prime minister fully accepts this was a mistake and has apologized. He will of course comply with the fixed penalty." Sunak was in Lancashire when the video was filmed, during a trip across the north of England. The video - to promote the government's latest round of "levelling up" spending - was posted on Sunak`s Instagram account. Earlier, he had apologized after removing his seatbelt to film a campaign video in the back of a moving car. The PM's spokesman said he had made an "error of judgment" by briefly taking it off to film a social media clip during a trip to the north of England. In the clip, recorded for Instagram, Sunak addresses the camera without wearing the safety device while the vehicle he is in keeps moving, reported Politico. The spokesperson said, "The prime minister believes everyone should wear a seatbelt," reported Politico. "It was an error of judgment, he removed it for a short period of time to film a clip, which you`ve seen, but he accepts that was a mistake." It is the second time Sunak has received a fixed penalty notice while in government. Last April, Sunak was one of roughly 50 people, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who received a fixed penalty notice last April for attending a birthday party for Johnson at 10 Downing Street in June 2020, in defiance of the government's own rules on social distancing during the COVID pandemic. The "partygate" scandal and others helped set the wheels in motion, ultimately leading to Johnson`s resignation last July. (With inputs from ANI) Celebrating India's 74th Republic Day, Indian Ambassador to Egypt stressed the importance of fostering relations between both countries, highlighting the importance that India attaches to President El-Sisi's upcoming visit to Delhi. On the occasion of the 74th Republic Day of India, Indian Ambassador to Egypt Ajit Gupte and his wife Priti organised on Thursday a reception party at Conrad Cairo Hotel. The party was attended by an array of senior officials, cabinet members and public figures. Heading the list were Minister of Culture Nevine El-Kilany, Minister of Public Enterprises Sector Mahmoud Essmat, Minister of Civil Aviation Mohamed Abbass, and President of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs Mohamed El-Orabi. The Indian ambassador greeted all of them with bouquets of flowers. Addressing his guests, the Indian ambassador praised the historical ties between his country and Egypt as two of the worlds most ancient civilizations that have been in close contact for many centuries. Gupte said that the past few months witnessed multiple high-level visits from India to Egypt, beginning with Defence Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh in September 2022, External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar in October 2022 and Minister of Environment Mr. Bhupender Yadav in November 2022. Substantive discussions at different levels were held during these visits. An important MoU on Defence Cooperation was also signed during the visit of the Indian Defence Minister. He added that India has also invited Egypt as a Guest Country to G20 during its Presidency period of 2022-23 and it is expected that the two countries will cooperate extensively under this umbrella as well. Gupte noted that in light of the recent threats facing the world it was imperative that the countries come closer to realise a sustainable solution. India has always stood by our friends and have also remained in the forefront in supporting an international rule-based order. Today we renew this commitment, guided by our own culture ethos and constitutional values as well as our deep desire for peace, security and stability. Speaking of President El-Sisis imminent visit to Delhi, Gupte said "we are looking forward to the upcoming visit of President El-Sisi as the Chief Guest of Indias National Day celebrations, which is indeed a momentous occasion for both countries and will undoubtedly herald a new dawn in our bilateral relations." The party was also attended by former Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Ambassador Mohamed Hegazy, former Deputy Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs Ezzat Saad, Secretary-General of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs Hossam Ahmed Haiba, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, as well as heads of Arab and Foreign missions accredited in Egypt and members of the Indian community, media figures and businessmen. The event featured a number of Indian dance shows performed by Egyptian dancers who received their training at the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture. It also featured an exhibition of traditional handmade Indian products and a demonstration of the ways of wearing an Indian sari. Search Keywords: Short link: Safwan Thabet, the chairman of the countrys biggest dairy and juice producer Juhayna Food Industries, and his son Seif El-Din, who were detained over terror charges, were released, the businessmans daughter wrote on social media on Saturday. Thabet has been kept in pretrial detention since December 2020 for allegedly joining a terrorist group in the case 865/2020. Seif El-Din, deputy chairman of Juhayna, was then arrested in the same case in February 2021. The business tycoon and his son faced charges of joining and financing a terrorist group to help it change the regime by force. They were also accused of aiding and abetting assaults against the army and police personnel and their institutions and of harming the economy. God has accepted our prayers, my father Safwan Thabet and my brother Seif El-Din Thabet are with us, Mariam Thabet wrote. Safwan Thabet is an engineer who also served as the chairman of the Chamber of Food Industries at Federation of Egyptian Industries. The case 865/2020 also includes Egyptian business mogul Sayed Ragab El-Sewerky, the owner of El-Tawheed & El-Nour department stores. El-Sewerky was also arrested in December 2020 and is still behind bars. No official statement on the freeing of Thabet and his son has been released at the time of writing. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is scheduled to land in New Delhi, India on Tuesday for a three-day visit, where he will take part for the first time ever in the South Asian countrys 74th Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest, India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Saturday. The Egyptian president will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including five ministers and senior officials, at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. A military contingent from Egyptian army will also participate in the Republic Day's parade, according to the Indian foreign ministry. El-Sisi will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the presidential residence on Wednesday by Indian President Droupadi Murmu. The Indian president will also host a state banquet in El-Sisis honour the same day. El-Sisi is set to hold a bilateral meeting and delegation-level talks with the Indian prime minister on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. A business event with with Indian business community is also set to be held, the Indian ministry pointed out. The ministry added that both nations "enjoy warm and friendly relations marked by civilisational, cultural and economic linkages and deep-rooted people-to-people ties," which are based on a commitment to foster economic growth and collaborate in the fields of defence and security and a convergence of views on regional and global issues. The two countries work closely at multilateral and international platforms, it added. Trade exchange between Egypt and India achieved a record high of $7.26 billion in FY2021/22, with $3.74 billion in Indian exports to Egypt and $3.52 billion imports from Egypt to India. More than 50 Indian companies have invested around $3.15 billion in diverse sectors of Egyptian economy, including chemicals, energy, textile, garment, agri-business, retail, etc, according to figures released by the Indian government. On Saturday, Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry said the volume of trade exchange of non-petroleum products between Egypt and India hit nearly $4.1 billion dollars during the first 11 months of 2022, including Egyptian exports at $723 million. India is Egypts third largest export market, sixth largest trading partner and seventh largest importer, according to Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). El-Sisi's visit is expected to further strengthen and deepen the time-tested partnership between India and Egypt, the Indian statement added. Egypt and India are celebrating 75 years of of diplomatic relations this year. Egypt has also been invited as a guest country during Indias year-long presidency of the G20 intergovernmental forum that started in December 2022. This will be El-Sisis third visit to India. He previously visited India in October 2015 to participate in the third India-Africa Forum Summit and in September 2016 on a state visit. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt has strongly condemned the burning of a copy of the Noble Quran by an extremist on Saturday in Swedens capital, Stockholm, as a disgraceful act. Related Turkey cancels Sweden minister visit over planned protest In a statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that this disgraceful act provokes the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world. Anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line, staged an anti-Turkish protest outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm as per a permission by the police where he burned a copy of the Quran. The incident has triggered official condemnation by Arab countries, while Turkey canceled a planned visit by Swedens defense minister scheduled for 27 January in response to the protests. Paludan is known for burning Quran in protests in Sweden and delivering remarks against Islam. In the foreign ministrys statement, Egypt warned of the danger of such acts that offend religions and fuel hate speech and violence. Egypt also called for upholding the values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence and for preventing all forms of offense against religions and their sanctities through such extremist practices. These extremist practices are inconsistent with the values of respect of others, freedom of belief, human rights and human fundamental freedoms, the ministry stressed. Search Keywords: Short link: Burkina Faso's army has freed 66 women and children who were abducted earlier this month by Islamic extremists while gathering food in the country's northern Sahel region, according to a state television report Friday. National broadcaster RTB reported that armed forces had located the hostages during a military operation in the Center-North region. The group included 39 children, with four infants among them. Authorities have said they had been out in the countryside gathering wild fruit near the town of Arbinda in Soum province when Islamic extremists kidnapped them on Jan. 12 and 13. Extremists have besieged towns around the West African country, preventing people and goods from moving freely. The town of Arbinda has been under jihadi blockade for years, making women more vulnerable to attacks if they try to leave, rights groups say. Jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has overrun Burkina Faso, killing thousands and displacing nearly 2 million people in the West African nation. The failure of successive governments to stop the fighting has caused widespread discontent and triggered two military coups in 2022. The military junta that seized power in September, vowing to restore security, is still struggling to stem the violence. Search Keywords: Short link: Chad has lifted the suspension of political activities by several opposition parties imposed following a violent crackdown on demonstrations three months ago, a government official told AFP on Saturday. The ruling military suspended the parties after a deadly crackdown on anti-junta protesters in late October which forced many into hiding and sparked international condemnation. A government spokesman told AFP on Saturday that the parties could now resume activity provided they complied with the law. "The period of the suspension having come to an end, the seven political parties aforementioned are invited to resume their activities, while now strictly complying with the legislation in force," Minister of Territorial Administration Limane Mahamat said. The suspension came after opposition groups 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 39-year-old took power from his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled the arid Sahel state for 30 years before dying in an operation against rebels in April 2021. Police violently repressed the demonstrations in the capital N'Djamena and several other cities. The government said around 50 people died in the clashes between security forces and anti-regime protesters but the opposition claims the actual toll was much higher with hundreds injured. The protests organized by Les Transformers and Wakit Tamma, the two main opposition groups, had been branded an "insurrection supported by foreign powers". The crackdown forced opposition leaders into hiding both abroad and in Chad and left the parties in disarray. Search Keywords: Short link: Moscow will retaliate against French media in Russia after the bank accounts of RT France, the French arm of its state broadcaster, were frozen, Russian news agencies reported Saturday. "The blocking of RT France accounts will lead to retaliatory measures against the French media in Russia," the TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted an anonymous foreign ministry source as saying. The measures "will be remembered", the source said, accusing Paris of "terrorising Russian journalists." On Friday, the unions of RT France -- already banned from broadcasting -- said their accounts were frozen in the country. The French finance ministry told AFP that the assets of the chain had been frozen in compliance with the most recent EU sanctions, and not on Paris's initiative. Unlike the initial sanctions decided after Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive, fresh EU measures adopted in December provided for an "asset freeze" of targeted entities, the same ministry source said. Among those entities is "ANO TV Novosti, a parent company holding 100 percent of RT France", the source said, explaining the decision. RT was blocked in most Western countries after the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in February last year. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.) Search Keywords: Short link: According to the Turkish Defense Ministry, 11 YPG/PKK terrorists were killed in retaliation for rockets fired into the Turkiye-Syria border area, Azernews reports citing Daily Sabah. "PKK/YPG terrorists carried out a multi-barrel rocket attack from Tal Rifaat to the area of our Oncup?nar Border Post. While there was no damage/loss in our units, the terrorist targets were hit strongly within the scope of self-defense," the ministry said in a written statement. Any attack by the terrorists will not remain unanswered, it reiterated. The statement came shortly after the governor's office of Turkiye's southern Kilis province said eight multi-barrel rocket launchers fired by YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria landed in the Oncup?nar border crossing area in Kilis near the border with Syria. Israeli fire killed a Palestinian Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, after he allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli in a West Bank settler outpost, according to the Israeli military. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as Tariq Maali, 42, saying only that he was shot northwest of the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said the man arrived at the outpost and tried to stab an Israeli civilian. Israeli media reported he was armed with a knife and that the settler shot him. Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of using excessive force against the Palestinians, who have in recent years carried out a spate of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks. The military says soldiers, and in some cases civilians, face complex, life-threatening situations. Saturday's death was the latest in months of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Tensions have soared in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been conducting near-nightly arrest raids since last spring after a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis killed 19 people. Another 10 Israelis were killed in a second string of attacks later last year. Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment of Israel's open-ended, 55-year occupation of lands they seek for their future state. Saturday's death put at 18 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the beginning of 2023. Nearly 224 Palestinians were killed last year by Israeli occupation forces including 59 in the Gaza Strip, including more than 150 fatalities in the West Bank, making 2022 the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank in 18 years. according to Palestinian Health Ministrys statistics. Israel says most of the dead were militants. But Palestinian stone-throwers, youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations also have been killed. Search Keywords: Short link: Canada will repatriate twenty-three citizens who have been detained in northeast Syria in camps for family members of Islamic State group fighters, officials and a lawyer said late Friday. It would be the largest such repatriation of IS family members yet for Canada, and it comes after the families challenged the government in court, arguing Ottawa was obliged to repatriate the group under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Earlier Friday, the foreign ministry announced its decision to repatriate six Canadian women and 13 infants. And a court later ruled that four men seeking repatriation as part of the group must also be sent back to Canada, said lawyer Barbara Jackman, who is representing one of the men. "I've spoken to the parents and they're really, really happy," Jackman said of the court decision, adding that the judge requested that the men be repatriated "as soon as reasonably possible." The foreign ministry said in a statement: "The safety and security of Canadians is our government's top priority. "We continue to evaluate the provision of extraordinary assistance on a case by case basis, including repatriation to Canada, in line with the policy framework adopted in 2021," it said. Up until now the government of Justin Trudeau has treated the detained IS families on a case-by-case basis, and in four years only a handful of women and children have been repatriated. Since the destruction of the so-called Islamic State "caliphate" across Syria and Iraq in 2019, more than 42,400 foreign adults and children with alleged ties to the Islamic State group have been held in camps in Syria, according to Human Rights Watch. Repatriating them is a highly sensitive issue for many countries, but rights groups have denounced their reluctance to bring back their own nationals from the camps, controlled mostly by Syrian Kurds. Human Rights Watch said around 30 Canadian citizens, including 10 infants, remain in the camps. Farida Deif, the group's head in Canada, said that Global Affairs Canada has informed a number of them by letter that they fulfill the requirements for repatriation. However, she said, "none of the men have been notified of anything or have been part of any agreements thus far." The authorities did not say when the 19 would come to Canada or whether any of them would face legal proceedings for their association with Islamic State. Last October Canada brought back two women and two children from Syria. In 2020, Ottawa allowed the return of a five year old orphan girl from Syria after her uncle initiated a legal action against the Canadian government. Search Keywords: Short link: Greece prevented around 260,000 migrants from entering illegally in 2022 and arrested 1,500 traffickers, an official said Saturday. Citizens' Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos was speaking to ambassadors from other European Union countries plus Switzerland and the United Kingdom as he guided them to a still expanding border wall in the country's northeast. Theodorikakos emphasized to the 28 envoys that Greece's border is also the EU's external border. ``The task (of protecting the border) needs the support ... of European public opinion, the European Union itself and its constituent members individually,'' Theodorikakos said. ``It is our steadfast position that member states of first reception cannot be (the migrants') only European destinations. ``There must be solidarity among member-states and a fair sharing of duties...close coordination is a must,'' he said. The Greek minister's sentiments were echoed by Cypriot Ambassador Kyriakos Kenevezos, who spoke of the ``need for understanding'' from countries that don't have external EU borders. U.K. Ambassador Matthew Lodge said that ``our priority is to protect the human life and dignity endangered by the criminal trafficking networks ... even though we are no longer an EU member, we are closely cooperating,'' Greece's five-meter (16-foot) steel wall facing neighboring Turkey to the east across the Evros River _ called Meric in Turkey _ currently extends more than 27 kilometers (17 miles) and, according to Greek authorities, helps cover another 10 kilometers (six miles). Greece is currently expanding the wall, adding a 35-kilometer (22-mile) stretch with the ultimate goal of extending it to cover most of the 192-kilometer (120-mile) border. Greece has repeatedly accused Turkey of weaponizing the plight of migrants by encouraging them to cross the border to discomfit Greece and the rest of the EU _ effectively cooperating with traffickers. Turkey accuses Greece of violent pushbacks that endanger the lives of migrants. Turkey, whom the Cypriot ambassador called ``the elephant in the room'' in Saturday's meeting, also has its own migrants' problem _ hosting about 5 million of them. EU leaders are worried that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could encourage a mass exodus to the EU, where most of the migrants and refugees want to end up, preferably at one of the more prosperous bloc members. The EU's border protection agency, Frontex, will add another 400 border guards in Greece _ 250 of them in February _ to the existing 1,800-member force, Theodorikakos said. Search Keywords: Short link: The Metropolitan Opera will mark the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine with a concert to remember victims of the war. Met music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin will conduct Mozarts Requiem and Beethovens Fifth Symphony. Soprano Golda Schultz, mezzo-soprano Emily DAngelo, tenor Dmytro Popov, and Ukrainian bass-baritone Vladyslav Buialskyi will be the soloists at the Feb. 24 performance. Mozarts Requiem is to remember the innocent victims of the war, and Beethovens Fifth is in anticipation of the victory to come, Met general manager Peter Gelb said in a statement Friday. The concert will be broadcast on radio and will be presented in association with the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. All tickets cost $50 and go on sale Feb. 1, and the Met is encouraging ticket buyers to make donations to Ukraine relief efforts. Search Keywords: Short link: Opposition parties in Tunisia took to the streets of the capital last week in protest against government-led reforms, writes Karam Said Tunisia marked the anniversary of the fall of the Zine Al-Abidine bin Ali regime on 14 January with angry protests against the government of Tunisian President Kais Saied against a backdrop of worsening economic straits in the country. Several parallel marches were organised by an array of opposition forces including the Free Constitutional Party, the Tunisia Salvation Front, and the Islamist-oriented Ennahda Party, and these were joined by various other parties and civil society organisations. The political forces issued statements vowing to continue the struggle to realise the aims of the Tunisian Revolution that overthrew Ben Ali in 2011 and to oppose Saieds anti-democratic course. The demonstrators attempted to break through the security barriers that had been put up in the streets, leading to clashes with the security forces. The day of protests appears to have had little effect, however. Saied continues to enjoy popularity, according to opinion polls, and on the previous day, 13 January, he toured the very area that his political adversaries later chose to stage the demonstrations. Police had to clear the way through the crowds that had gathered to cheer him on as he made his way to the Old City of Tunis. I walk among the Tunisian people. I fear only God and responsibility, Saied said in a televised statement. There can be no turning back. There is no place for traitors in Tunisia. It was the second time in a week that Saied had gone into the streets of the capital to meet people. The previous week, he went to the other side of the Medina, or Old City, to speak with various young people. However, as hard as the government has been working to remedy the structural problems of the economy, it is impossible to deny that the socioeconomic crisis in Tunisia has tightened its grip. The countrys opposition forces have seized on this in order to boost their public profile and to press their demands on the government. It has long been a practice of the opposition forces in Tunisia to take advantage of the complex difficulties that have plagued the country for years to put pressure on the government. This applies in particular to Ennahda, as it was sidelined by Saieds decrees of July 2021 that steered the country back to a presidential system and reduced the influence of the political parties. The irony is that Ennahdas own popularity had plummeted against the backdrop of the same difficulties. Saied holds Ennahda and its allies responsible for the worsening economic straits that Tunisia has experienced during the past decade and accused them of treason and corruption. Many of their leaders currently face prosecution on various charges. The Islamist Party and other opposition forces have pursued various means to recuperate their lost political clout and build up pressure on Saied. Among the most familiar has been the attempt to mar his and the Tunisian governments image abroad by marketing certain stereotypes that are readily consumed in the Western media. Most recently, they have cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the legislative elections that were held in Tunisia in December, citing the low voter turnout and the boycott of the electoral process by many political forces. They have also seized on an opening provided by the tensions between the government and the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), which has called for a national battle to save Tunisia, set the date for a general transportation strike later this month, and warned of possible additional strikes if its demands are not met. Saied is not the only target of the opposition forces. They have also had Prime Minister Najla Bouden and her cabinet in their crosshairs, saying that the governments attempts to stem the economic attrition and the slide of the Tunisian currency the dinar have met with little success. The government has been working to implement a number of structural reforms to the economy in order to obtain a desperately needed $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF executive board was due to issue its final decision on this loan in December, but the fact that it has delayed its decision twice so far has added arrows to the opposition forces quiver. They point to this as proof that international donor organisations lack confidence in the Tunisian economy. Many members of the opposition have genuine concerns that Saieds decrees and policies have precipitated increasing sociopolitical polarisation and socioeconomic deterioration. However, their protest actions, despite the general inefficacy of the opposition due to the antagonism and ideological gulf between its Islamist and secularist factions, may also have adverse effects. They will likely only aggravate the sociopolitical divides in the country, not least because of the tensions between the Islamist Ennahda and the UGTT and secularist political parties. It is also likely that the waves of protests and strikes will further stress government institutions in Tunisia and complicate the management of the economy. It appears that it was the prospect of political unrest that led the IMF Executive Board to defer its final approval of the much-needed loan. Nevertheless, all the signs are that the streets of Tunisia will remain the main arena for the battle between the countrys opposition forces and the president and the government. The economic crisis in the country, along with deteriorating living standards and socioeconomic tensions, generate a fertile environment for the manoeuvres of Saieds political adversaries. However, the president still possesses considerable domestic and foreign support, as well as other assets that should at least enable him to contain the impacts of their actions. This is all the more the case in the light of the sharp divisions within the opposition camp, one manifestation of which was the anti-Muslim Brotherhood and anti-Ennahda placards held up by members of the Free Constitutional Party in their separate march in Tunis on 14 January. *A version of this article appears in print in the 19 January, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: The EU will impose new sanctions on 37 Iranian officials and organisations over the crackdown on protests, but is still debating listing the Revolutionary Guard as a "terrorist" group, diplomats said Friday. Foreign ministers from the bloc are to agree to adopt the fourth package of sanctions on Tehran over its repression of demonstrators at an already-scheduled meeting in Brussels on Monday. Demonstrations have swept Iran since the September 16 death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for allegedly failing to adhere to the Islamic republic's strict dress rules. Iran has arrested at least 14,000 people in the wave of protests, according to the United Nations. Authorities have executed four people for their role in the unrest and imposed the death penalty on a total of 18, triggering widespread international outrage. The EU has already imposed asset freezes and visa bans on more than 60 Iranian officials and entities over the crackdown on protestors, including targeting Tehran's "morality police", Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and state media. But the 27-nation EU has so far stopped short of blacklisting the Revolutionary Guard itself as a terror group despite calls from Germany and other member states to take the step. Iran has warned the bloc against taking the move and EU officials are wary that it could kill off stalled attempts to revive the 2015 deal on Tehran's nuclear programme being mediated by Brussels. "I think it's not a good idea because it prevents you from going ahead in other issues," a senior EU official said. Search Keywords: Short link: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday he will downgrade the status of COVID-19 in the next three months to a Class 5 disease, the same level as seasonal influenza, and will re-examine pandemic preventive measures such as mask wearing. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with his government ministers, Kishida said he instructed officials to examine the specific requirements for a reclassification of COVID, as well as conduct a review of pandemic restrictions that have been in place for nearly three years. Japan currently classifies COVID-19 as a Class 2 infectious disease, like tuberculosis and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. That status allows the government to take extensive steps aimed at preventing its spread, such as limitations on the movements of infected people and their close contacts. A downgrade in classification would mark a significant step toward normalizaling social and economic activities in Japan, and would probably result in foreigners being able to enter Japan without PCR tests or quarantine. KYODO NEWS - Jan 21, 2023 - 12:18 | All, Japan Aspiring Japanese astronauts have taken their final exams on a mock lunar surface at a training facility near Tokyo, with the successful candidates to be revealed next month. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency opened the facility at its Sagamihara Campus in Kanagawa Prefecture to the press on Thursday. Footprints and rover tracks cover the 23-meter-long, 18-meter-wide space that simulates the powdery regolith on the lunar surface. Around 425 tons of fine sand has been used at the facility, which can artificially reproduce the light of the sun on the lunar surface. JAXA began accepting applications for prospective astronauts in 2021. Just 10 people -- eight men and two women -- made it to the final exams, with the agency expected to reveal the few who pass as astronaut candidates in early February. During the exams, the group was split into three teams that assembled and remotely operated exploration vehicles and simulated walking on the Moon while wearing dust-proof suits. Takayoshi Nishikawa, chief engineer at JAXA, said that through the exams, "we were able to evaluate the trainees' teamwork and leadership abilities." KYODO NEWS - Jan 21, 2023 - 07:48 | All, World North Korea continues to assist Russia's military operations against Ukraine by providing weapons and ammunition to a private military company, the White House said Friday. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the Treasury Department will designate the Russian company, the Wagner Group, as a "significant transnational criminal organization" and impose additional sanctions on it next week along with its support network on multiple continents. "Wagner is a criminal organization that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses, and we will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those assisting Wagner," Kirby said in a daily briefing. Kirby accused North Korea of arms transfers that clearly violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, with the U.S. government releasing satellite imagery it said shows Russian railcars traveling to North Korea on Nov. 18 and returning to Russia the following day with containers. Kirby said the imagery shows the "initial delivery" of North Korean arms, including infantry rockets and missiles, to Wagner, which the United States believes is deploying about 50,000 personnel in Ukraine. He said the United States on Friday shared the information with the U.N. Security Council's Sanctions Committee on North Korea, while noting that the amount of weaponry delivered to Wagner has "not changed battlefield dynamics in Ukraine." The release of the images came after North Korea had denied supporting Russia in fighting the war. The U.S. government believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking more help from the private company as the country's military continues to struggle in Ukraine. Of the 50,000, Washington has assessed that 10,000 are contractors and the rest are convicts recruited from prisons, according to Kirby, who said Wagner's growing influence in the war has made it a "rival power center" to the Russian military and is causing tensions between them. According to Robert Saverin, spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Germany sees significant potential in cooperation with Kazakhstan in the area of green energy, Azernews reports. "Experts confirm Kazakhstans favorable production conditions for green hydrogen, as well as wind energy. High solar radiation and sufficient land availability also provide for successful development of renewables in the country," he said. According to Saverin, Kazakhstan and Germany signed agreements on November 7, 2022, to deepen and intensify economic cooperation in the field of critical raw materials and hydrogen. And first projects for implementation have already started. "For example, SVEWIND, a privately owned group of companies in the renewable energy industry from Germany, is planning a first large-scale project in the western Kazakh region of Mangystau. The investment agreement was signed in October 2022," the spokesperson said. He added that German-Kazakh economic relations are characterized by German imports of raw materials, especially oil, and by German exports, especially capital goods, vehicles and pharmaceutical products. Meanwhile, the volume of directs German investments in Kazakhstan's economy grew by 25 percent and exceeded $320 million in 2021. The total value of investments from Germany to Kazakhstan during the previous 17 years exceeded 5 billion euros. KYODO NEWS - Jan 21, 2023 - 08:00 | All, Japan Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. has developed technology that instantly analyzes data collected from tens of millions of connected cars, with an eye to commercializing it as early as fiscal 2023 starting April. The technology, which enables the swift sharing of road information transmitted by cars including that related to traffic congestion and accidents, allows vehicles to travel safely and efficiently, and is expected to become fundamental for the spread of automated driving, the Japanese telecom giant said. In demonstrations jointly conducted with Toyota Motor Corp., NTT has already confirmed that the data can be processed without problems when more than 30 million cars are simultaneously connected. The telecom company has held discussions with several Japanese automakers on the practical application of the technology, leading to its possible incorporation in their car navigation systems, according to an NTT official. The technology can detect objects on a road via an in-vehicle camera and notify cars traveling behind in about five seconds. The system can also identify traffic congestion and its cause on a lane-by-lane basis, allowing users to direct their cars to less busy lanes, the company said. Constant monitoring of location and road conditions is essential for advanced automated driving systems. NTT envisions deploying the technology in overseas markets such as Europe, the United States and China, where connected cars are being developed. GENEVA, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Public health experts and officials attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2023 have cautioned against some major challenges in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, as Omicron variants are still spreading rampantly worldwide. They emphasized the impact of long COVID, vaccine inequality and pandemic-related misinformation at the meeting held at Davos, Switzerland. PANDEMIC "FAR FROM OVER" While the COVID situation has been better than that in the early stages, Michelle Williams, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, warned at the WEF that the "bottom line is this pandemic is far from over." Williams said that there are still 526 deaths per day from COVID-19 across the United States, up from about 400 per day in October last year. "What's really disappointing is nine out of 10 of those deaths could be averted," if vaccines and boosters would have been taken, and other behavioral aspects, such as ventilation, mask-wearing, and appropriate social distancing practised, Williams said. "So for me as a public health person, knowing that we could avert nine out of 10 of those deaths reminds me of the fact that we have to avoid prematurely talking about this pandemic being over," she said. The expert also cited social-economic implications that "long COVID" would inflict upon society in the future. "In the U.S. alone, over 174,000 COVID infants will have a life course impacted by this pandemic," she said. "And it's not only going to be impacting individuals and families, but the economic impact of long COVID ... is that it's going to cost us 3.7 trillion (U.S.) dollars. That's going to have financial impacts." VACCINE INEQUALITY While COVAX was launched in 2020 to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) has long been complaining about rich countries stockpiling the majority of multiple vaccine supplies. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said at the WEF that for three years in half of the lower-income countries, 53 percent of the population have got their primary vaccination. Globally, the coverage rate is 64 percent. "We realize that the disparities were still there," Berkley said. Addressing a panel discussion at the WEF, Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said that "there is no way out of this pandemic right now without vaccines as the central strategic pillar." "Being able to use those vaccines equitably is not only a fair and important humanitarian objective, it's the best way for us all to get out of the pandemic phase that we're currently in right now," Ryan said. To ensure vaccine equity, Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a global vaccine partnership, called on countries and manufacturers at the WEF to prioritize vaccine supply to the global program COVAX and to support the local production of tests, vaccines and treatments around the world. Hatchett also asked pharmaceutical companies to stand in solidarity with developing countries by sharing licences, know-how and technology to find a way out of the pandemic. BUILDING TRUST Even with enough vaccines and preparedness, response to similar public health crises in the future could still be compromised, if there is a lack of solid trust between the public, governments and academia. Meanwhile, the rampant spread of misinformation on social media would also make things worse. Williams said a diverse society needs to have multiple layers of communicators and different styles of communicating. The expert said governments should understand the people and the communities they are serving, reckon with the reasons for mistrust, and then work collaboratively and respectfully in addressing the appropriate message and messenger to promote change. "That's where a better understanding and behavioral sciences are going to help us," said Williams. Berkley pinpointed "intentional misinformation" as one of the challenges, while citing the bad COVID situation in the United States as an example. "It's about the political climate and misinformation ... That's really unfortunate," Berkley said. "And even other external experts, who might have been able to help, were then also demonized." The WHO has labeled the pandemic-related misinformation as an "infodemic," which refers to "too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak." It has called for an infodemic management by listening to community concerns and questions, promoting understanding of risk and health expert advice, building resilience to misinformation, and engaging and empowering communities to take positive action. SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Alphabet, the parent company of search giant Google, announced on Friday mass layoffs of 12,000 roles, about 6 percent of its workforce globally. "Over the past two years, we've seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today," its CEO Sundar Pichai wrote to employees in a note. He apologized and said he took responsibility for the decision's impact on the people involved. Pichai said he was "deeply sorry" for the layoffs "across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions." It wasn't immediately clear how many people would be affected in Google's Mountain View headquarters, or throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Reports last year showed the company has 45,000 employees in this region. Based in Mountain View, California, Alphabet had nearly 187,000 employees at the end of September, up from about 150,000 a year earlier. Many recent layoffs in the hi-tech sector were part of a rebalancing as the economy slowed down. That appeared to be the case with the Alphabet cuts, economists said. "In one email Sundar Pichai has taken away the livelihoods of thousands of workers," Parul Koul, executive chair of the Alphabet Workers Union, said in a statement. "This is egregious and unacceptable behavior by a company that made 17 billion U.S. dollars in profit last quarter alone." Alphabet is expected to announce fourth-quarter earnings around the end of January. In its third-quarter results, the company saw a 6-percent revenue growth compared to a year ago, far below the 41-percent revenue growth in the third quarter of 2021 year over year. UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 32 UN peacekeeping personnel were slain in deliberate attacks last year, with the Mali mission suffering the most, the UN Staff Union said Friday. Among the 32 fatalities were 28 military and 4 police personnel, including a woman police officer, said the Staff Union in a press release. For the ninth year in a row, the mission in Mali, known by its French acronym as MINUSMA, suffered the most fatalities, with 14 deaths in 2022, followed by 13 killed from the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "Peacekeepers and the civilian personnel who work side by side with them are on the front lines of the United Nations' work in the world's most challenging environments," said Staff Union President Aitor Arauz in the press release. "Each malicious attack against UN personnel is a blow to peacekeeping, one of the pillars of the multilateral edifice," Arauz said. "It is a collective responsibility of the international community to put in place appropriate mechanisms to ensure accountability for these heinous acts, which may constitute war crimes under international law." The union said that the 32 killed in 2022 brings to 494 UN and associated personnel killed in deliberate attacks in the past 13 years from improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades, artillery fire, mortar rounds, landmines, armed and successive ambushes, convoy attacks, suicide attacks and targeted assassinations. It said the peacekeepers who died in 2022, by country, were 7 from Egypt, 7 from Pakistan, 4 from Chad, 3 from Bangladesh, 2 from India, 2 from Nigeria, 1 each from Guinea, Ireland, Jordan, Morocco, Nepal, Russia and Serbia. Traffic is seen on a road upgraded by a Chinese company in Kigali, Rwanda, Sept. 16, 2022. (Photo by Huang Wanqing/Xinhua) China's development achieved through meticulous planning, the right mindset, and good leadership policies is an inspiration to Africa as the continent gears toward economic development and improved living standards of the population, an expert on China-Africa relations has said. KIGALI, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's development achieved through meticulous planning, the right mindset, and good leadership policies is an inspiration to Africa as the continent gears toward economic development and improved living standards of the population, an expert on China-Africa relations has said. Gerald Mbanda, researcher and publisher on China and Africa made the remarks earlier this week while speaking at a seminar on the implications of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for Rwanda in the Rwandan capital city, Kigali. "Africa's development will be on the right path following the footsteps of how China did it and is still doing it. China and Africa together are walking toward a shared future," Mbanda said. According to him, the western world has exploited Africa through the extraction of the continent's agricultural raw materials, and minerals and deliberate refusal of technology transfer of industries to Africa. Chinese staff members check the water quality of a borehole in Gatsibo district, Eastern Province, Rwanda, on April 11, 2022. (Photo by Huang Wanqing/Xinhua) "Africa lost in a westernized form of democracy whereby elections of new leaders are held every five years and the opposition has to oppose the ruling government even if there is nothing to oppose," Mbanda said. He pointed out that Africa could learn from China's development path which has propelled the country into a moderately prosperous society in all respects. "China has kept its rich cultural, social, political consciousness. When I visit a Chinese friend or restaurant, I am given chopsticks when having a meal, I envy their respect for their own culture. When you lose culture, then as a people you lose identity. Africa should borrow a leaf from Chinese culture," Mbanda said. According to him, China is leading the establishment of Free Trade Economic Zones in Africa to promote Made-in-Africa exports which will promote the development of industrial and manufacturing sectors on the continent. China-Africa relations have made historic achievements that impressed the whole world over the years. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 13 years in a row. Over the past two decades, China also helped African countries build a large number of infrastructure projects that have improved transport efficiency and energy supply in Africa. The event brought together Chinese embassy officials based in Rwanda, representatives from civil society organizations, members of academia and media as well experts on China-Africa cooperation. Artists perform lion dance at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Jan. 21, 2023. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has extended best wishes for the Chinese Lunar New Year, saying that the peoples of Cambodia and China have always shared weal and woe since ancient times. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua) PHNOM PENH, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has extended best wishes for the Chinese Lunar New Year, saying that the peoples of Cambodia and China have always shared weal and woe since ancient times. In a recent message to the Chinese people and the Cambodians of Chinese descent, Hun Sen wished them good health, happiness and success in all their endeavors in the New Year. "On the occasion of the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, I would like to congratulate and join in the fun with all Chinese people and Cambodians of Chinese descent, who have always lived and stuck together through thick and thin since ancient times," he said. "I would like to express my particular thanks to the Federation of Khmer Chinese in Cambodia, Chinese people and Cambodians of Chinese descent around the world for having invested and actively contributed to the development of Cambodia," he added. In a public speech during a visit to the construction site of a new hospital in the capital's northwestern suburb on Thursday, Hun Sen said his wife, Bun Rany, is a Cambodian of Chinese ancestry and that his family also celebrates the Chinese New Year. The 2023 Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, will fall on Sunday. On Saturday, folk artists from six different troupes jointly performed lion dance at the Royal Palace here, receiving warm welcome from Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Royal Palace Minister Kong Sam Ol. Sambo Manara, vice president of the Pannasastra University of Cambodia, said the Chinese New Year has gained its popularity in the Southeast Asian nation from year to year thanks to the close ties in politics, economics and culture between the two countries. "A large number of Cambodians have Chinese ancestry, and we estimate that about 80 percent of Cambodians living in urban areas and 40 percent in rural areas celebrate the Chinese New Year," he told Xinhua. BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Lunar New Year is just around the corner, and as Chinese people flock back home for family reunions, what is the country's COVID-19 situation at present? With medical services returning to normal and COVID response measures in place at all levels and in all sorts of venues, a safe and sound Spring Festival holiday is expected, according to officials and health experts. RETURNING TO NORMAL The treatment of COVID-19 patients is smooth and orderly as day-to-day diagnoses and treatments gradually resume, Guo Yanhong, director of the Health Emergency Response Office of the National Health Commission, said at a press conference of the State Council joint COVID-19 prevention and control mechanism on Thursday. The number of severe COVID-19 cases in hospitals nationwide reached its peak on Jan. 5 and has dropped by 44.3 percent as of Tuesday, Guo said. She added that the numbers of patients in fever clinics and emergency rooms peaked on Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, respectively, and have decreased by 94 percent and 44 percent as of Tuesday. COVID patient numbers have been declining in day-to-day medical services centers, with 99.5 percent of outpatients and 85 percent of hospitalized patients nationwide being non-COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, Guo said. As for the newly detected XAY.2 variant of the coronavirus, Chang Zhaorui, a research fellow at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said it is yet to be detected in China. Chang warned that personal protection measures are still necessary, and that inbound travelers who have COVID-19 symptoms should monitor their health properly and seek medical treatment when necessary. ENHANCING GRASSROOTS AND RURAL RESPONSE Community-level and rural clinics are gearing up their COVID response measures as the Spring Festival travel rush is in full swing. Guo Yanhong said that 98.8 percent of township-level clinics and community health centers across the country have set up fever clinics, which are required to maintain normal operations during the holidays. Chinese health authorities have also provided community-level medical facilities with the necessary equipment. Jiao Yahui, head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under the NHC, said that 1.17 million finger-clip oximeters have been distributed to village clinics across the country. As of Thursday, community-level medical institutions in China have been equipped with nearly 2.48 million finger-clip oximeters and 191,000 oxygen generators. Moreover, 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have established a special contact system to reach key groups in a timely manner and address their needs, as efforts are being made to distribute more medical supplies to rural areas and send more medical personnel to communities, said Mao Dezhi, deputy head of the Department of Rural Cooperative Economy under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. SAFE HOLIDAYS "The travel rush this year is the first of its kind since the country's COVID-19 prevention and control work entered a new stage, with a notable recovery of passenger flows," said Zhou Min, a Ministry of Transport (MOT) official. To reduce infection risks, the MOT has stepped up efforts to enforce ventilation and sanitation measures at transport hubs and strengthen the protection and management of relevant personnel. The ministry is also raising the quality of transport services and its capacity to ensure safer trips, with measures such as promoting contactless ticket purchases and ticket-checking services. It is estimated that over 60 percent of trips during this year's holiday season will be road trips. To ensure the safety of road travel, the MOT has taken targeted measures to maintain a well-sanitized, sterilized and ventilated environment at highway service stops with high traffic flows, and has set up special zones at eligible stops to treat travelers infected with COVID-19 or feeling ill, Zhou said. Following China's latest anti-COVID protocols, local culture and tourism authorities are also making efforts to ensure both a sound COVID response and the smooth operations of cultural and tourism sites and activities. Routine response measures should be implemented fully at relevant venues to minimize virus transmission risks, said Li Xiaoyong, a Ministry of Culture and Tourism official. RAMALLAH, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian was killed on Saturday by Israeli soldiers after he tried to stab an Israeli security guard near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian and Israeli sources said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that it was informed Tariq Maali, 42, was killed northwest of the city, and that his body is being held by Israeli security. The statement did not give more details about the incident. Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that a Palestinian carrying a knife tried to stab an Israeli security guard, adding that Israeli soldiers in the area opened fire at the Palestinian man. Since early January, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been flaring. Nearly 20 Palestinians have been killed, and dozens injured by Israeli soldiers since Jan. 1, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. ZHENGZHOU, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- With a history of over 1,000 years, Daokou Town strives to preserve traditional culture. As Spring Festival is coming, calligraphers write couplets and give them out for free. Various intangible cultural heritages are presented to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Local cuisine, including Daokou roast chicken, and traditional snacks are popular among visitors and locals. Produced by Xinhua Global Service This video snapshot shows the Shenzhou-15 astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu sending their Spring Festival greetings from China's Tiangong space station in a video released by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on New Year's Eve. (Xinhua) BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Shenzhou-15 astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu sent their Spring Festival greetings from China's Tiangong space station in a video released by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on New Year's Eve. The trio, dressed in blue jumpsuits with dark red patterns, each held a sticker showing their own calligraphy. Two of the stickers were written with the Chinese character "fu", meaning good luck, and the other sending good luck wishes from Tiangong. "Wearing new clothes, eating dumplings and sending blessings -- the festive customs and atmosphere are the same here," said Zhang. The astronauts have decorated the orbiting space station, about 400 km above Earth, with red couplets and Chinese knots. "I believe that, at the moment, many people are sticking to their work posts just like us, which is also a kind of happiness," said Deng, adding that each individual's dreams and efforts can converge together into a vigorous force to promote the country's modernization drive. Fei, the commander, wished the country and its people peace and prosperity. In another video also released by the CMSA Saturday, the astronauts displayed 40 paintings by children in a "space painting exhibition" as a New Year gift to all Chinese people. The paintings, launched together with the Shenzhou-15 mission on Nov. 29 last year, depicted the children's impressions and expectations on the country's rapid development, diverse cultural traditions and brave space exploration. The Shenzhou-15 mission wraps up the last stage of the space station construction and kicks off the first stage of its application and development. During their six-month stay in orbit, the Shenzhou-15 crew will carry out more than 40 experiments and tests in the fields of space science research and application, space medicine and space technology, and will conduct extravehicular activities on three to four occasions. The Opec Fund for International Development (Opec Fund) said it has priced its inaugural benchmark bond issue in the capital markets using the sustainable development goal (SDG) bond framework on which Credit Agricole CIB acted as sole sustainability advisor. Attracting strong demand from investors globally, the three-year fixed-rate sustainability bond raised $1 billion, which will be used to finance or refinance key sustainable development projects that are aligned with the Opec Funds multi-sectoral development mission and directly contribute to achieving the SDGs. The bond attracted very broad interest with 52% of investors coming from Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), 27% from Asia-Pacific (APAC) and 21% from North America (NAM), said the statement from Opec Fund. In terms of investor type, central banks & official institutions accounted for 62 percent, banks 19 percent, asset managers 9% and insurance/pension funds for 8%, it added. Opec Fund Director-General Dr Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said: "The robust demand for our inaugural benchmark is testament to the confidence that investors have in the fund and our long-standing development-focused mandate. It also confirms the appetite for sustainable investments globally." "At a time when there is an increasing need for development finance, the Opec Fund is proud to have achieved this milestone. It will allow us to mobilise additional funds in support of our partner countries. It has a 47-year track-record in delivering successful development outcomes and the additional funds will enable us to further deepen our impact," he added. According to him, Opec Fund is financing development projects in low- and middle-income countries in line with its South-South cooperation mandate. The bond proceeds will be allocated according to the specific criteria defined in the SDG Bond Framework focusing on food security, healthcare, infrastructure, education, employment and renewable energy. The Framework is aligned with the Sustainability Bond Guidelines 2021, Green Bond Principles 2021 and Social Bond Principles 2021 published by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and has received a positive opinion from the Second Party Opinion Provider Sustainalytics. Dr Alkhalifa said the success of the debut benchmark bond was supported by the Opec Funds AA+ (stable) rating from Fitch Ratings and AA (Positive) from S&P Global Ratings, which reflected its prudent financial risk profile, excellent capitalisation, conservative liquidity and risk management, preferred creditor treatment as well as diversified portfolio of purpose related assets. Assistant Director-General (Financial Operations) Tarek Sherlala said these increased financial resources would enable the Opec Fund to step up delivery in partner countries and help boost its development impact. "The support of global investors will add to our credit strength and move us to a new phase in our delivery of impactful and sustainable development cooperation," he noted. Head of Funding Martine Mills pointed out that the bond pricing was a major milestone for Opec Fund and the culmination of several years of intensive work. "The success of our debut bond in the current market environment is a testament to the strength of our credit. We are pleased to join the community of multilateral development banks issuing in the capital markets. This is an important step in the establishment of our borrowing programme and we look forward to continuing our engagement with investors going forward, he added.-TradeArabia News Service Huang Ping (L), Chinese Consul General in New York, and Tony Malkin (C), chairman, president, and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, jointly kick off ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua) NEW YORK, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Well-known landmarks in New York City have been lit in red in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year which falls on Jan. 22 this year. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. "We are so pleased to extend our heartfelt New Year's wishes to the entire Chinese community here in the United States, around the world and especially in China," said Tony Malkin, chairman, president and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, at the ceremony. "This is an extra special Lunar New Year lighting ceremony as it is the first one we have been able to hold in person, live in three years," added Malkin. "Spring Festival is a moment we transfer from one zodiac to another. We're still in the Year of the Tiger. This year is very important ... because this year marks the 50th anniversary of the China-U.S. re-engagement," said Huang Ping, Chinese Consul General in New York. Speaking at the lighting ceremony, Huang said the re-engagement 50 years ago led to the normalization of China-U.S. relationship which delivered greatly. Huang noted that people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States was boosted in the past 50 years and more than 5 million people flew across the Pacific each year before the pandemic. Huang stressed the importance of enhancing the people-to-people exchanges which was interrupted by the deterioration of the bilateral relationship and the pandemic. The Chinese Consulate General in New York will be opened in full size on Jan. 25 so people can easily come to apply for the visa to go to China, said Huang. "I hope to see more people coming to get our service and go to China. In the meantime, I want to bring more people to come back," added Huang. According to Chinese zodiac and tradition, 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit, which symbolizes longevity, positivity, auspiciousness, wittiness, cautiousness, cleverness, and self-protection. The Spring Festival Window Exhibition in the lobby of the Empire State Building on the Fifth Avenue features installation of artistic imagery and representations of the coming year's animal - the rabbit. The Empire State Building is lit in red starting Friday evening around sunset, marking the 23rd consecutive year of such a tradition. Visitors to the deck observatory on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building also have the chance to enjoy a taste of the Year of the Rabbit. "Sheng Mary Bakery will reside on our 86th floor observatory from today through Jan. 29 to offer traditional treats to our guests," said Malkin. The bakery offers specialty cakes for the Year of the Rabbit and other Chinese specialty foodstuffs. Tourists can also get panda toys, red envelopes, candies, fabrics and fans in Chinese style from another stand on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. This is the first time that the Empire State Building has a Chinese stand in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, according to Peter Zhang, president of the Sino-American Friendship Association, which facilitates bilateral exchanges between the United States and China. Meanwhile, the One World Trade Center is scheduled to be lit in red in later afternoons and early evenings from Friday to Sunday in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. A woman poses for photos in front of decorations for Chinese Lunar New Year at the deck observatory of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan) Foodstuffs featuring images of rabbits are displayed at the deck observatory of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan) A woman looks at an installation at the Spring Festival Window Exhibition in the lobby of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua) People pose for photos in front of decorations for Chinese Lunar New Year at the deck observatory of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan) Zhu Xiaoli (R), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, instructs crew members in an emergency response training aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit take part in a training in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, patrols aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tan Lin (C) and Bao Jie (L), members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, take alcohol breath tests before work in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Su Yeping (R), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, talks with her colleague in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, looks around before train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station departs from Chongqing, southwest China on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tan Lin (L) and Bao Jie, members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, store personal belongings in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Li Hang, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, patrols outside train No.G2233 at Chengdu East Railway Station in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Li Hang (L), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, walks home with her husband after work at a square of Chongqing West Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit take part in a training in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, has lunch aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, after a patrol task on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tan Lin (L) and Bao Jie, members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, prepare for work in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Li Hang (C), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, is welcomed by her husband after work at Chongqing West Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Xie Yu (L) and Zhu Xiaoli, members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, groom each other before work at Chongqing West Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli (R), a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, helps a passenger with her luggage at Chongqing West Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, heats her meal aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Zhu Xiaoli, a member of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, checks fire extinguishers aboard train No.D1703 which travels from Guiyang North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station, on Jan. 16, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tan Lin (L) and Bao Jie, members of the "Fanghua" female railway police officer unit, check their video recorders in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2023. The "Fanghua" female railway police unit of Chongqing railway police office consists of seven female police officers with an average age of 29. They are responsible for some passenger trains from Chongqing to Xi'an. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," each member of the unit would work on the train with a travel mileage of about 40,000 kilometers. (Xinhua/Huang Wei) Tourists and residents enjoy playing in the water on the beach during sunset on the Boracay Island, the Philippines on Oct. 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) The Philippines is now hoping more foreign tourists will return to Boracay island as global travel restrictions ease. "We are waiting for the Chinese tourists to visit Boracay," a local official said. MANILA, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Niko Reyes, his wife, and three boys have spent their four-day vacations on Boracay, a world-renowned island in the Philippines famous for its tropical beaches. Reyes' wife Val posted on social media the pictures of the boys frolicking in the powdery white sand and shallow turquoise water, and enjoying the food on the island. Reyes is among the over 84,000 foreign and local tourists that descended on the island since this January. "This is a good sign. Tourists are arriving even at the start of the year," Kim Pineda, an officer at the Malay Municipal Tourism Office, told Xinhua in a phone interview. Tourists and residents gather on the beach during sunset on the Boracay Island, the Philippines on Oct. 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) According to Pineda, over 1.75 million tourists arrived on the tropical island last year, among whom 132,687 were foreign tourists, mainly from South Korea, the United States, Australia, Britain, among others. As a key economic driver, the tourism industry's contribution to the Philippines' gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 12.7 percent in 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data. However, the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a severe blow to the tourism sector, slashing foreign arrivals and displacing almost 1.1 million service workers across the country. The number of tourist arrival in Boracay in 2022 was still 275,007 short of the number recorded in 2019 before the pandemic, Pineda said. The Philippines is now hoping more foreign tourists will return to the island as global travel restrictions ease. Philippine tourism secretary Christina Frasco said in 2022 alone, over 2.65 million foreign tourists visited the Philippines since the Southeast Asian country eased restrictions on foreign travelers' entry, raking in roughly 3.82 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. Tourists are seen at a resort in Batangas Province, the Philippines on Nov. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) Frasco said the government's target for 2023 is to lure some 4.8 million international visitors, with Chinese tourist market remaining on its priority list. In 2019, the Philippines received over 1.74 million Chinese tourists, an increase by 38.58 percent from 2018. Chinese tourists spent more than 2.3 billion U.S. dollars while vacationing in the country, official data showed. "We are waiting for the Chinese tourists to visit Boracay," Pineda said. LANZHOU, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- To ring in the Lunar New Year, Zhang Mingxia donned a red cotton coat and cooked a wok of potato noodles, before switching on the camera to livestream. The 26-year-old swiftly juggled between promoting and pitching the noodle, interacting with first-time watchers, answering their queries for price and delivery, and occasionally slurping some burning-hot noodles as a demonstration. For Zhang, the Chinese New Year holiday which begins on Sunday is not just about family get-togethers. It also brings a golden time for promoting local farm products and improving the income of fellow villagers. Born into a farming family in Longxi County of Gansu Province, Zhang knows how difficult selling agricultural products is for her parents, due to weather-dependent yield and highly volatile prices. So after college graduation in 2019, Zhang returned to her hometown with the ambition of selling agricultural products via livestreaming with seven other college grads who all grew up in rural areas. Livestreaming sales is difficult. In the beginning, Zhang did not know how to present products to the audience, and even felt overwhelmed when addressing questions from her only 14 followers. Some watchers mocked Zhang's large build. In response, she named her account "chubby helper of Gansu farmers" to play up her uniqueness. "It's not a problem for me as long as it helps to sell the farm products." Gansu is an agricultural province in China's landlocked, arid northwest. Zhang's team soon grew unsatisfied with merely selling local potato noodles and planned to bring other unique agricultural goods from Gansu to consumers across the nation. They pooled funds to rent a car and embarked on a "treasure hunt" across the province. "We look young, so it can be challenging to gain the trust of villagers. Occasionally, we arranged the purchase plan only to find them change their minds the next day because they did not believe we could sell their products online," said Yang Xiaoqiang, Zhang's colleague. Through perseverance and learning from her mistakes, Zhang became a local celebrity, and requests began to flood in to help farmers sell unsold harvests. Currently, lily, honey melon and matsutake are on their selling list, and approximately 340,000 people follow their account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. According to Zhang, the team has helped Gansu farmers sell 1.5 million kilograms of agricultural products over the past three years. They sold about 300,000 orders last year alone. "Livestreaming e-commerce is a new approach for farmers to raise their revenue, and is drawing more young people to participate in the cause of rural revitalization," said Zhang, whose team now has a stable source of income from the livestreaming business. Statistics from Douyin estimate that by the end of 2022, the generation born in the 1990s had accounted for 45 percent of all broadcasters selling agricultural products via livestreaming on the platform. "We have also realized our self-worth and enjoyed a feeling of success by helping other farmers," she said. "We wish to prove that even a remote mountain village can be a big stage for college graduates." BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Saturday held a phone conversation with Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister of the Afghan interim government, with both sides pledging to strengthen cooperation and vowing to combat terrorism. Qin said that China attaches great importance to the safety of Chinese personnel and institutions in Afghanistan as the Spring Festival approaches, hoping that the Afghan side will take strong measures to ensure their safety. Muttaqi extended New Year greetings to the Chinese people. He said that Afghanistan prohibits any forces from using its territory for activities that sabotage the Afghanistan-China friendship and undermine China's interests. The country will resolutely combat all forms of terrorism and take strong measures to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and institutions in Afghanistan, he added. Qin said China highly values developing good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation with Afghanistan, and always respects its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, the independent choices made by the Afghan people and their religious beliefs and ethnic customs. China does not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs, nor does it seek self-interest or a sphere of influence in Afghanistan, he said. Qin said China supports the Afghan interim government in building an inclusive and broad-based political structure, implementing moderate and sound domestic and foreign policies, combating terrorism in all its forms and forging friendly relations with all countries, especially its neighbors. China sympathizes with the Afghan people over their suffering and stands ready to provide more assistance to Afghanistan's economic and social development and the improvement of people's livelihood, he said. The Afghan interim government abides by the one-China principle and supports China in safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Muttaqi said, adding that Afghanistan welcomes China in playing a more important role in international and regional affairs and expects to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China. Travelers with face masks arrive at the Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, Canada, on Sept. 26, 2022. (Photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua) XBB variants are expected to increase in Canada and it is not known whether they will become the dominant lineage, a senior official said. OTTAWA, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The proportion of COVID-19 XBB.1.5 was projected to rise to approximately 7 percent in Canada by mid-January, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said on Friday. Tam said in a speech that XBB variants are expected to increase in Canada and it is not known whether they will become the dominant lineage. XBB.1.5 had been circulating in Canada at 2.5 percent during the week of Dec. 25, 2022 to Jan. 2, 2023. "Nationally, the absolute number of cases is not surging at this time, nor is there evidence of increased severity with this or other new variants," Tam added. "Like the winter weather, it can be difficult to predict exactly what we are going to see next but we do know it's too early to put away your winter coats and boots. Similarly, it's still too early to stop taking the personal protective measures that have helped us weather the COVID storm," she said. In the statement released on Friday, Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization said that booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine are an effective tool to reduce the risk of severe illness and death. This aerial photo taken on Jan. 21, 2023 shows sanitation workers collecting floating objects on a river in Shuangjiang Township of Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, central China's Hunan Province. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Photo by Su Yongzhu/Xinhua) A worker works at a chemical fiber company in Huzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Photo by He Weiwei/Xinhua) Firefighters arrange fire-fighting equipment at a fire station of Danzhai County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Photo by Huang Xiaohai/Xinhua) Bullet train drivers prepare to work in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Photo by Zhang Yixi/Xinhua) Medical workers prepare an operation at the Maternity & Child Care Center of Boai County in Jiaozuo City, central China's Henan Province, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Photo by Cheng Quan/Xinhua) Technicians inspect a transformer substation in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Xinhua/Tao Liang) A staff member guides a passenger at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang) A technician checks the heating equipment at a heating station of Beijing Jiaotong University in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Xinhua/Ren Chao) A staff member prepares dishes for students at a canteen of Beijing Jiaotong University in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Xinhua/Ren Chao) A technician checks the condition of a bullet train at a maintenance base in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) Police officers are on duty at Yichang East Railway Station in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province, Jan. 21, 2023. People from various sectors stick to their posts on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 22. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) A staff member checks on the in-wall oxygen supply appliance through hearing at the emergency room of Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Nursing personnel change clothes for a patient with severe illness at the intensive care unit of Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Nurses prepare a patient for hemodialysis treatment at the intensive care unit of Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) A nursing worker takes care of a patient at the emergency room of Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Nurse Wu Fan (1st R) helps family members of an aged patient checking on the patient through a video call at the intensive care unit of Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Nurse Chen Rukun takes care of an aged patient with severe illness at the intensive care unit of Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Li Xiaojing, deputy director of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital, checks on a patient with severe illness at the hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital are busy working at the hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Doctors discuss on patients' conditions at the intensive care unit of Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Chen Xiaolan, chief resident doctor of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital, checks on medical history of patients on a computer at the hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) A bouquet sent from Peking University Health Science Center is seen at the meeting room of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) Nurses conduct sputum suction for an aged patient with severe illness at the emergency room of Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 21, 2023. Medical staff of the emergency department in Peking University First Hospital stick to their posts on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve or "Chuxi" in Chinese. "Chuxi", which falls on Jan. 21 this year, is one of the most important days for family reunion in China. (Xinhua/Li He) MACAO, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Ho Iat Seng said on Saturday the SAR government will focus on expediting economic recovery and diversification in the Year of the Rabbit. In his message for the Chinese New Year, which falls on Sunday, Ho said the Macao SAR government would confidently persist in implementing a sound and stable governance system for Macao in the coming year, firmly promote the Guangdong-Macao in-depth cooperation zone in Hengqin, neighboring Zhuhai city, and unswervingly safeguard national security. The SAR government will also strive to solve deep-rooted problems in socio-economic development, give full play to Macao's own advantages and characteristics to better integrate into overall national development, and break new ground in realizing "one country, two systems" practices with Macao characteristics, Ho added. Zheng Xincong, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR, said on Saturday the dawn is reemerging for Macao after the haze of the pandemic, with festive decorations across the city and crowds returning to tourist spots and restaurants. Zheng stressed, in his message for the Chinese New Year, efforts to fully, accurately and unswervingly implement the "one country, two systems" principle, resolutely safeguard the central authorities' overall jurisdiction, implement the "patriots administering Macao" principle, fully leverage Macao's advantages and characteristics, and better integrate into overall national development to jointly build a brighter future for Macao. Liu Xianfa, commissioner of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Macao SAR, said Macao boasts obvious advantages in terms of international exchanges and cooperation, and plays a special role in stepping up cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries and Southeast Asian countries, as well as in the building of the Belt and Road Initiative, which provide sound conditions and opportunities for Macao's transformation and development. The commissioner's office will actively assist the Macao SAR in expanding external exchanges and cooperation, and create a favorable environment for Macao's long-term prosperity and stability, as well as the steady and sustained development of "one country, two systems," Liu said. People attend a launch of the Children's Heart Foundation in Accra, Ghana, on Jan. 19, 2023. China's Sunda International Group on Thursday set up a foundation that intends to save at least 25 Ghanaian children with heart diseases every year. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng) ACCRA, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Childbirth is a revered development in the lives of African families, and for young couples who go into marriage, their joy is fulfilled when they put their first child to bed. Moreover, parents feel fulfilled and are thankful when these babies are healthy with no serious health issues. Khadidja Adams, a young mother in Ghana, became worried and frustrated when her first child was diagnosed with an atrial septal defect, a kind of congenital heart defect popularly referred to as "hole-in-heart" disease after developing recurrent nasal blockage. "I had my child at the Police Hospital, but after six months, he was always developing a cold. The medicines he was given did not make any impact. When the doctors realized the cold was persistent, they requested us to do an x-ray on him at a medical center, where the baby was diagnosed with a hole-in-heart disease," Adams told Xinhua. Adams said things became difficult for her as she could not raise money for the surgery needed to correct the heart defect in the baby. "But a philanthropist, Herbert Mensah, came to our aid and supported us for the first surgery. But that was not the end since we needed to raise money for the final surgery that would save the child from the heart condition. But we tried all means to raise this money without success," she said. As Adams's hope of saving her child alive was almost lost, help appeared on the horizon with a Chinese investor who had heard about the plight of the mother and decided to come to her aid. Shen Yanchang, chairman of China's Sunda International Group, decided to support the baby in having his heart defect corrected. "My elder son had the same disease when he was a child, so the sufferings of those Ghanaian families have resonated with my wife and me," Shen told Xinhua. Shen set up a foundation named after his two sons on Thursday in the Ghanian capital of Accra, which intends to save at least 25 Ghanaian kids with similar heart conditions every year. According to Shen, as one of the leading private Chinese investors in Africa, Sunda has benefited immensely from Africa's fast-growing market, "it is also our responsibility to take care of underprivileged locals, which is of great significance to China-Ghana friendship." "Sunda's gesture is a sign of greatness. Using his resources to make life better for others is a sign of greatness," said Opoku Ware Ampomah, chief executive officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana's leading tertiary health institution. He remarked that due to the lack of social safety nets in Ghana for parents with such children, many families went through stressful moments, seeking support for the treatment of their children. "With this gesture, more and more who would otherwise have lost their lives through this heart disease would be saved," Ampomah added. Representatives from China's Sunda International Group visit beneficiaries at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana, on Jan. 19, 2023. Sunda International Group on Thursday set up a foundation that intends to save at least 25 Ghanaian children with heart diseases every year. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng) LAGOS, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police confirmed on Friday that six pupils were abducted on their way to school in the country's central state of Nasarawa. Ramhan Nansel, the spokesman for the police in Nasarawa, told reporters in Lafia, the state capital, that the pupils of a public primary school, aged between seven and eight years, were taken away by unidentified gunmen on motorbikes from a road in Alwaza town of the state on Friday morning. Nansel said the police have met with the management of the school and the parents of the victims, and mobilized a joint security team to the area for a search and rescue operation. "We are on the trail of the abductors," he said. He called on the public to provide the police with any information that could lead to the rescue of the victims and the arrest of the perpetrators. The action has reportedly been taken using the Ministry of Information and Broadcastings emergency powers under the controversial IT Rules, 2021. TCN News NEW DELHI The Union government has directed YouTube and Twitter to remove links to the BBCs documentary revisiting Prime Minister Narendra Modis role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, The Indian Express reported. The two platforms have reportedly agreed to take this action. The first part of the documentary, released on January 17, alleged that Modi then the chief minister of Gujarat prevented the police from acting to prevent the violence. The Indian government, however, refuted the allegations and alleged that the film pushed a discredited narrative. The External Affairs Ministry called the documentary a propaganda piece that lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset. While the documentary was not made available in India by BBC, some YouTube channels appeared to have uploaded it. Several tweets and video links posting the documentary, India: The Modi Question, have been removed, The Wire reported. Trinamool Congress MP Derek OBrien tweeted that his tweet sharing a link to the documentary had been removed by Twitter. The notice he received from Twitter confirmed that his tweet was removed based on a request from the Indian government. CENSORSHIP@Twitter @TwitterIndia HAS TAKEN DOWN MY TWEET of the #BBCDocumentary, it received lakhs of views The 1 hr @BBC docu exposes how PM @narendramodi HATES MINORITIES Heresthe mail I recieved. Also see flimsy reason given. Oppn will continue to fight the good fight pic.twitter.com/8lfR0XPViJ Derek O'Brien | ' (@derekobrienmp) January 21, 2023 According to the Indian Express, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has directed YouTube to block multiple videos which had contained episode 1 of the BBC documentary (only one episode has been released so far). In addition, Twitter was told to block over 50 tweets that contained links to these videos, sources told the newspaper. As per reports, this action has reportedly been taken using the ministrys emergency powers under the controversial IT Rules, 2021. The Indian Express said that the documentary had been looked at by senior officials from multiple ministries, who found it to be undermining sovereignty and integrity of India, and having the potential to adversely impact Indias friendly relations with foreign states, which allows the Centre to invoke the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021. YouTube has also been instructed to block the video if it is again uploaded on its platform, NDTV reported. What is the documentary about BBCs two-part documentary India: The Modi Question, looks at the tensions between Prime Minister Modi and the countrys Muslim minority, as well as investigating claims concerning his role in the large-scale communal violence that erupted in Gujarat in the months of February and March, in 2002, that left over a thousand dead. Notably, the documentary cites a hitherto unseen UK government inquiry report which says that Narendra Modi is directly responsible. Former foreign secretary Jack Straw (2001-2006) says in the film that the British team produced a very thorough report. In an interview with The Wire, the former UK foreign minister Jack Straw confirmed the existence of a UK report that held Modi directly responsible for 2002 riots. Straw said that the allegation and belief at the time (2002) was, as the British High Commission report put it, Narendra Modi met senior police officers on the 27th of February and ordered them not to intervene in the rioting. Earlier, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke of the documentary in parliament on Friday, appearing to defend Modi. Mr Speaker, the UK governments position on this has been clear and long-standing and hasnt changed. Of course, we dont tolerate persecution where it appears anywhere but I am not sure I agree at all with the characterisation that the honourable gentleman has put forward, he said. On Thursday, Indias foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the government thinks this is a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, the lack of objectivity, and frankly a continuing colonial mindset, is blatantly visible, he added. BBC has stood by its documentary, noting the documentary was rigorously researched according to the highest editorial standards. BERLIN, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Germany has yet to decide whether it will send German-made Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine. "There are good reasons for the delivery, there are good reasons against it," the country's Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said on Friday after meeting his U.S. and European counterparts in Ramstein, Germany. Pistorius said that his ministry would check the country's stocks of the Leopard tank for possible delivery to Ukraine in the next few weeks. "We are preparing for all eventualities," he said. The delivery of lighter Marder infantry fighting vehicles, announced in early December 2022, has been criticized by some as inadequately prepared. According to the Ministry of Defense (BMVg), it was unclear at the time where the vehicles would come from. Instead of Leopard tanks, Pistorius announced further deliveries of Marder and Gepard tanks as well as a Patriot surface-to-air missile system. With this, the value of Germany's military support for Ukraine is to reach 3.3 billion euros (3.6 billion U.S. dollars). The United States, meanwhile, has increased its support to Ukraine by 2.5 billion U.S. dollars to 26.7 billion U.S. dollars. The new package includes 59 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. Other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), such as Poland, have reiterated their intention to supply Ukraine with Leopard tanks from their own stocks. However, this would require the approval of the manufacturing country, Germany, which has not yet decided on this matter. Russia has repeatedly said that the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine does not help resolve the conflict but prolongs the suffering of the Ukrainian people. (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollar) BELGRADE, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic discussed the issue of his country's autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija on Friday with representatives of the European Union (EU), the United States (U.S.), France, Germany and Italy in an attempt to resolve the frozen conflict between Belgrade and Pristina amid frequent tensions in the province. The meeting here was attended by the EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak, the U.S.' Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing policy towards the countries of the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, the advisors on foreign and security policy to the French president and German chancellor, Emmanuel Bonne and Jens Plettner, respectively, and the diplomatic adviser to the prime minister of Italy, Francesco Talo. "What we agree on is that a frozen conflict is not a solution and that when you have a frozen conflict, it is only a matter of time when someone will unfreeze it and when irresponsible individuals will collapse the peace and stability of the entire Western Balkans," Vucic said after the meeting, according to the press release of the president's office. In 2022, the fragile dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina was interrupted by tensions around the validity of Serbian identity documents, travel documents and license plates, which resulted in Serbs quitting Kosovo's institutions and protests. Vucic expressed Serbia's willingness to consider the "plan proposed in September 2022" in light of "problems and challenges that would be put before our country if we did not agree with the proposed plan." According to the version leaked to the media, the aim of the proposed plan is to achieve "full normalization" of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. "We are ready to accept the concept and work on the implementation of the proposed plan, with the fact that I made one thing very clear and showed all care and reserve on one important issue," Vucic explained, without fully disclosing his concern. Vucic said consultations will be held "with members of government, members of parliament and all significant social groups" regarding the proposed plan. Lajcak said that the meeting was "intensive and open," and that Vucic demonstrated a responsible approach and will to make difficult decisions in the interest of peace and the European perspective for Serbia. Lajcak said that the "plan presented in September is the best way to normalize relations between Belgrade and Pristina and the European integration of the region." Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province. People pose for a photo during the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, Jan. 20, 2023. (Xinhua) LOS ANGELES, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Lunar New Year celebration kicked off Friday at Disney California Adventure Park, ushering in a joyous tribute to Chinese and other Asian cultures. Disneyland, home to Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, has seen its annual Lunar New Year celebration explode in popularity in recent years. Filled with auspicious wishes for health, luck and prosperity throughout the new year, the celebration will last through Feb. 15 this year. The 2023 Chinese Lunar New Year falls on Sunday. It is based on a 12-year Zodiac cycle of characters, with 2023 being the Year of the Rabbit. "The Chinese zodiac calendar plays a significant role in shaping the traditions, holidays and foods enjoyed in Asian communities all over the globe," wrote Kelsey Lynch, Public Relations Director at Disneyland Resort, in a Disney Parks Blog post. "In Chinese culture, the rabbit has the unique characteristic of waiting for an opportune moment and then leaping into action. More than any other zodiac animal, the rabbit symbolizes luck," she noted. Mulan's Lunar New Year Procession is one of the favorite spectacles for visitors from around the world. The vibrant performance hosted by Mulan, an ancient Chinese legendary heroine character, features dozens of spirited parade performers as they honor family, friendship, and the potential for a fortune-filled new year. Another centerpiece of the celebration is a dazzling nighttime water show, Hurry Home, which tells the tale of a little lantern's quest to reunite with family for the annual celebration of good luck and fortune. Accompanied by a stirring musical score, created by Academy Award-winning Chinese-born American composer Tan Dun, visitors will be immersed in the magic of a six-minute tale. The Lunar New Year celebration activities in the theme park include Chinese traditional musical instrument performances and Chinese calligraphy demonstrations. Stopping by the Lucky Wishing Wall, visitors are also welcomed to add their own special message of hope, health and happiness for the upcoming year. Liz Lytle, a California mother holding her infant in Chinese traditional clothing, told Xinhua that it's the second year for the family to experience the Lunar New Year celebrations in Disney park. "We love it. It's great," said the mother, adding that the event makes them feel like a part of the Asian culture. People take part in a parade during the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, Jan. 20, 2023. (Xinhua) Actors perform dragon dance during the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, Jan. 20, 2023. (Xinhua) A woman receives a calligraphy work of Chinese character "Fu", meaning fortune and luck in English, during the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, Jan. 20, 2023. (Xinhua) MEXICO CITY, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's economy may follow its biggest trading partner, the United States, into recession this year, with the former's trade and remittances impacted, the Bank of America (BofA) said Friday. Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to grow by 0.3 percent in 2023, an upgrade from the 0.5 percent contraction projected earlier, the bank forecasts. BofA also expects the U.S. economy to register its first contraction in the second quarter of the year. On the economic front, the main transmission channels of the slowdown in the United States could be remittances and trade, the bank added. As the two countries' manufacturing cycles are highly interconnected, Mexican imports of intermediate goods are slowing down, a trend that will soon impact Mexican exports, said the bank. Mexico's economy, the second largest in Latin America after Brazil, grew by 3.1 percent in 2022, according to BofA estimates. Mexico's economy grew 4.8 percent in 2021, after plunging 8.2 percent the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. Czechia denies reports of intent to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine 21 January, 02:14 PM Leopard 2 tank (Photo:Bundeswehr-Fotos/Wikipedia) The Czech government has denied reports of its alleged intention to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks, the Czech Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Jan. 20. "Foreign media reported that Czech and Slovakia are ready to opt out of Leopard 2 tanks in favor of Ukraine, the Ministry wrote. Read also: No agreement on Leopard tanks supply to Ukraine reached at Ramstein This information isn't true. No one has asked or offered Czechia to transfer these tanks. The MoD also claimed the issue wasn't discussed during the most recent Ramstein meeting on Jan. 20, at which the question of further military support of Ukraine was raised. Video of day "Speculation that the Czech Republic will receive American Abrams tanks instead of Leopard tanks is likewise untrue," the ministry added. Read also: Oleksandr Kovalenko Why we need Leopard 2A5 tanks Earlier, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote, referring to diplomatic sources, that Czechia and Slovakia are supportive of supplying German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine and are willing to send some of the vehicles received as a part of so-called "chain swap" to Kyiv. Polish President Andrzej Duda announced during his visit to Lviv on Jan. 11 that the Ukrainian army would receive a company of Leopard tanks supplied by an international coalition. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has also confirmed his countrys willingness to supply a small number of these tanks to Ukraine. Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Ukraine plans to form a Leopard tank brigade. Germany still plays a key role in the supply of these tanks, as it has to approve re-export of German-made weapons. Last week, German Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economy Robert Habeck said that Berlin would not interfere if Warsaw decided to transfer combat tanks from its stockpile to Kyiv. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany would continue to "carefully weigh every step" in supplying the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weapons, but has so far refused to directly supply Ukraine with the modern armored vehicles. Read also: Germany will greenlight Leopards for Ukraine if US provides Abrams tanks Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News Germany says Scholz gave no conditions to Biden on Leopard tank delivery to Ukraine 20 January, 06:08 PM The conditions of Olaf Scholz were previously reported by the German mass media (Photo:REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann) Berlin has denied that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the supply of German-made Leopard 2 tanks conditional on then supply of U.S.-made Abrams tanks, German news agency DPA reported on Jan. 20. DPA cited the words of German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. The Germany newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported earlier that Chancellor Scholz made it clear to the White House's leader Joe Biden during their meeting on Jan. 18 that he would approve the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine only if the U.S. pledged its Abrams tanks. Video of day "At no time has there been a... demand that one (supply of tanks) must take place so that the other can take place... I find it hard to imagine a German chancellor dictating any conditions or making any demands to an American president," Hebestreit commented on the news. Polish President Andrzej Duda announced during his visit to Lviv on Jan. 11 that Ukraine is to be supplied with a company of Leopard tanks by an international coalition. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has also confirmed his countrys willingness to supply a small number of these tanks to Ukraine. Germany, in turn, appears to be continuing to dither on the matter, shifting responsibility to the United States. Meanwhile, Berlin has a say in the re-export of Leopard tanks as their manufacturer. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News There is not doubt about Iranian involvement in drone supply to Russia, says PGO 21 January, 07:15 PM Training with drones at an undisclosed location in Iran (Photo:Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS) Ukrainian prosecutors have no doubt that Iran is involved in the production and supply of drones to Russia, the head of the War Crimes Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, Yuriy Belousov, said during on national television on Jan.21. "This data is operational, this data is from intelligence units of both Ukrainian and our international partners, he stated. That is, we have this information that confirms Iran's involvement. The Ukrainian government has begun to push for the prosecution of certain Iranian officials in national and international courts, he added, with evidence collection in full swing. The Prosecutor General's Office says they want to trace the entire chain, from production to delivery and use. Video of day "For this purpose, hundreds of investigative actions are being carried out, hundreds of examinations are being conducted, which will be completed in the near future Belousov added. Read also: EU comes forward with new sanctions against Belarus and Iran All the people who supply components, who assemble these drones, who supply and train Russians to use these drones, and those who directly launch drones at our citizens, at our cities, all of them must be identified. Earlier, Ivan Chyzhevskyi, prosecutor of the Department for Combating Crimes in the Context of Armed Conflict at the Prosecutor General's Office, said that the investigation could not yet confirm that the Russian army was using Iranian-made suicide drones. On Jan. 5, White House Strategic Communications Advisor John Kirby said that military cooperation between Russia and Iran could pose a threat to the security of not only Ukraine but also the United States. In late December, the media reported that the U.S. administration had launched a large-scale program to deprive Iran of the ability to produce and supply UAVs to Russia. The efforts were reportedly intensified after the presence of Western components in these devices became apparent. On Jan. 6, the United States imposed sanctions against six top executives of Qods Aviation Industries, Iran's largest drone developer and manufacturer, and the director of AIO, an Iranian company that develops ballistic missiles. On Jan. 10, the European Union announces sanctions against Belarus and Iran for supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News New EU sanctions against Russia expected in February 21 January, 01:48 AM EU countries are working on new anti-Russian sanctions (Photo:REUTERS/Yves Herman) EU countries are currently working on the 10th sanctions package against Russia, which could come into effect on the Feb. 24 anniversary of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported on Jan. 20. The report notes some EU countries demand to speed up the process and limit cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear fuel, ban the import of Russian diamonds, and reduce trade with Belarus, whose authoritarian regime is allied with the Kremlin. Read also: Dutch PM convinced US and EU will agree tanks for Ukraine At the same time, there are countries whose representatives are in no hurry and arent ready to say what new restrictions can be applied. Video of day "It's too early, we just had the ninth package," said an unnamed EU diplomat. It is noted that new sanctions wont be discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Jan. 23. At the same time, the issue of approving a new tranche of military aid, which previously was blocked by Hungary, will be raised. The EU agreed on the ninth package of sanctions against Russia on Dec. 16, 2022, with a focus on technology, finance, and media influence. About 200 individuals and legal entities were added to the sanctions list. Sanctions were also imposed on three Russian banks, as well as four Russian propaganda TV channels. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News Home Technology Artificial intelligence in Nepal: Amid growing use, here are the things you should know Artificial Intelligence Photo: FreePik Today, modern technology and academic discourse revolve around the idea of artificial intelligence and its role in the medical, military, law, and education sectors. As Nepal is also growing used to recent innovations, the use of artificial intelligence in Nepal is also on the rise although it is in an infant state if you compare it with the outer world. It means artificial intelligence, or AI, as it has been popularly abbreviated, is becoming a part of your life in Nepal also. So, here are the basics you should know about. What is AI? The term AI was first coined by John McCarthy during his research in 1956. Simply, AI means a machine that is intelligent as a human. AI is assumed to replicate the skill and reasoning capacity of a human being which also includes reasoning, recognition, and natural language. In a broad sense, AI has been described as a study area of computer science. It emphasises the creation of intelligent machines that make it conceivable to perceive, reason and performance. There are three types of AI on the basis of the task it conducts, which are weak or narrow AI, strong or general AI and super AI. Use of artificial intelligence in Nepal As far as the use of artificial intelligence in Nepal is concerned, the country has been able to use weak AI only. Examples include the application named Siri on iPhone, and Google Assistance on Android. As per a Start.io report, the number of iPhone active users in Nepal is around 872,700. Representational image. Photo: Pexels/ John Tekeridis Machine learning is also a part of AI and banks across the world are using digital platforms and smartphones for SMS banking, internet banking, and e-wallet. As such applications are being widely used in Nepal of late, they can also be considered examples of artificial intelligence in Nepal. Meanwhile, Nepal is gradually moving towards the development of programmes with the use of AI. Various universities and other institutions have also started providing courses about artificial intelligence in Nepal. Startup companies like Fusemachines Nepal and Paaila Technology are the first startup companies in Nepal that used to work with AI and machine learning. Paaila Technology developed a robot named Pari, which was placed at the SBI Banks Dubarmarg branch in Kathmandu. The robot can even identify the banks customers through facial recognition. Similarly, Ginger is another robot deployed at Naulo Restaurant in Dubarmarg, Kathmandu. The hopeful situation Nepals governance system is slowly growing computerised. This means Nepal needs a proper mechanism to store the data in the cloud storage, which has attracted international IT-based companies to Nepal like Deerwalk Incs, Leapforg Technology Inc., Cotiviti Nepal and many more. They can be instrumental in the development of artificial intelligence in Nepal as these companies focus on the development of software products related to health management, data management, digital healthcare product, and even AI solution for customers in Nepal. Meanwhile, the growing use of artificial intelligence in Nepal highlights the need to regulate and create guidelines for developing ethical grounds. The government of Nepal had endorsed a programme named Digital Nepal Framework, 2019, which has a five-year vision for digital Nepal in good governance and prosperity. While bringing the framework, Nepal still lacks such expertise and stakeholder to discuss the pros and cons. Nepal has to be depended on other countries support and assistance and many do not have knowledge about AI ethics. Nonetheless, an increasing number of AI-based companies and software in Nepal indicates the need for the proper regulation of artificial intelligence by the government. What next? Representational image. Photo: Pexels/ Alex Knight The Constitution of Nepal includes the right to privacy as a fundamental right. Further, the Privacy Act 2019 and its regulations try to address the minimum right about data as the right of a citizen. The law restricts obtaining data without the permission of individuals like health examination, property, family matters, biometrics detail, thumb impression, political affiliation and business transaction. However, these laws do not deal with the ethical consideration for the use of artificial intelligence in Nepal. Neither does the country have enough legal systems discussed to address the culprit of abuse of technology in Nepal. The government needs to reform existing laws and make new ones to promote the use of AI here. Artificial intelligence is based on algorithms that are powered by data. All data provided to it plays a crucial role in creating analysis concerning a person. If it is not regulated on time, it can create a situation when big companies buy the data for their benefit, creating physical damage to the individual in future. AI further can create biases, resulting in discrimination and social consequences. So, to avoid such consequences while promoting the use of artificial intelligence in Nepal, it is necessary to be prepared and provide general awareness about AI ethics. Leaders from two regions of Ladakh Kargil and Leh, have put forth four agenda points for the Centre to fulfill. TCN Staff Correspondent SRINAGAR (JAMMU AND KASHMIR) Three years after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government revoked the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated it into two Centrally ruled Union Territories (UT) Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, resentment has grown in Ladakh. Residents of two regions of Ladakh, the Muslim-majority Kargil and Buddhisht-majority Leh, have been protesting for the last two years against New Delhi for not addressing their demands for land, and job protection. The residents are seeking special rights and safeguards for the Union Territory. Even though the BJP-led government constituted a high-powered committee for Ladakh to ensure the protection of land and employment for the people of Ladakh, the same has failed to calm down the tempers as the anger is brewing in the cold desert. The leaders from the Buddhist-majority Leh and Muslim-majority Kargil are on the same page and have decided to launch a massive agitation if their demands arent fulfilled. On January 7, the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) and Leh Apex Body (LAB) in a joint meeting decided to stay away from the Centres High Powered Committee (HPC). The leaders have been demanding Constitutional safeguards along the lines of the 6th schedule of the Indian Constitution. They said they wont engage with New Delhi until or unless their four agenda points include full-fledged statehood for Ladakh, Constitutional Safeguards under the 6th schedule of the Indian Constitution, early recruitment process & PSC for Ladakh and Separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts will be included in the meeting. It may be noted that on January 3, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) constituted a high-powered committee headed by Minister of State Nityanand Rai to ensure the protection of land and employment for the people of Ladakh. The 17-member committee that includes Ladakh Lieutenant Governor R.K. Mathur will discuss measures to protect the regions unique culture and language taking into consideration its geographical location and its strategic importance, an order by MHA said. On 5 August 2019, the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two UTs Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. In response to the revocation of the special status, the Muslim-majority Kargil district showed resentment against the parting away from Jammu and Kashmir, while people from Ladakh celebrated the UT status. However, over three years down the line the people of both regions feel betrayed and ditched. The locals say that the Central Government be-fooled them in the name of UT when they were expecting UT with legislature and protection of land and Job. The region has been demanding Constitutional safeguards on the lines of the 6th schedule of the Indian Constitution On January 7, the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) and Leh Apex Body (LAB) in a joint meeting decided to stay away from the Centres High Powered Committee (HPC). The two groups were formed in the twin districts of Kargil and Leh including Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance following the regions concerns against the central government for failing to provide constitutional, job, and land safeguards to the region after the creation of separate Union Territory in August 2019. On Tuesday, both the apex groups protested in the Jammu region to press their demands. The protesters gathered outside the Press Club Jammu. They also announced a protest calendar which includes a rally in Delhi in the third week of February. Tsering Dorjey Lakruk, LABs vice chairman told TwoCircles.net that they wont settle less than safeguards under the sixth schedule of the Indian Constitution to the region. We are upset with New Delhi because our demands havent been fulfilled. It has been over three years since Ladakh was separated from J & K, Lakruk said. He further said that they are going to hold a protest march to press their demands. Sajjad Kargali, a member of KDA told TwoCircles.net the committee formed by New Delhi is a welcome step but if they wont include their demands in the meeting, it will not be fruitful. The government should include our four points agenda in the meeting, Kargali said. The four agenda points include full-fledged Statehood for Ladakh, Constitutional Safeguards under the 6th schedule of the Indian Constitution, early recruitment process & PSC for Ladakh and Separate Loksabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts. Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal told a news agency that no government has formed such a panel though Ladakh has faced many challenges and agitations. In our political history, Ladakh faced many challenges and agitations, but no government has constituted such an inclusive and high-powered committee. So this is the high and right time for all the members of the HPC to realise its importance, discuss and deliberate the common issues of Ladakh keeping the national interests as well as the larger interest of the future of Ladakh ahead as aspired by the people, Tsering Namgyal said in a statement. Home Lifestyle Food & beverage Xiaomi Mi Smart air fryer 3.5L in Nepal: How can it make your life easier? Xiaomi Smart Air Fryer 3.5L Photo: Xiaomi Xiaomi not only makes smartphones but also TV, laptops, home applications and smart devices. Xiaomis other products include devices such as air purifiers, smart watches, air compressors and smart air fryers. Recently, it launched Mi Smart air fryer 3.5L in Nepal, which can be one of the best smart fryers in the country. Here, we will explain why. Attractive design Xiaomi Mi Smart air fryer 3.5L has one of the most attractive designs in the air fryer segment. The air fryer is lightweight weighing 3.9kg in net weight and 5.2kg in gross weight. The fryer is available in one colour variant with a glossy finish and can blend in with most kitchen types. Photo: Xiaomi This air fryer has a single central dial with a digital OLED display that offers a variety of data, including temperature, time, amount, scheduling, wifi status, and recipe name, as well as a nearly imperceptible on/off switch. The air fryer is 3.5 litres in internal volume and measures 33.5 x 25.2 x 30.4 cm. The rated power of the smart fryer is 1500W. The OLED touch screen has a lot of benefits. Interaction with the fryer is much easier. The screen is easily adjustable with one turn and one press button. The OLED screen displays information when it is time to turn and shake the food. It also displays temperature, time, quantity, schedule, wifi status and recipe name. Smart and easy to use With the help of Xiaomi Mi smart fryer, you can schedule your meal up to 24 hours in advance and have endless cooking possibilities such as yoghurt fermentation or fruit dehydration. The Mi smart fryer can also defrost frozen goods, bake, dry fruits and ferment vegetables with the help of a dual-speed fan configuration. The smart fryer also has over 50 smart recipes on the Mi Home app. You can also create your own custom recipe, mark recipes as favourites, preheating option and notify when a recipe is complete. Healthy and quick cooking The Mi Smart air fryer 3.5L can assist individuals wishing to start living better lifestyles by cooking food without smoke and with less oil. You may eat wonderful low-fat food that is crispy on the outside and soft and flavourful on the inside. Having eight pre-programmed modes and 360-degree hot air circulation, food prepared in the Mi Smart air fryer 3.5L is consistently cooked. Photo: Xiaomi A faster, healthier, and more convenient way of living is made possible by the Mi Smart air fryer 3.5Ls 1500W of heating capacity, which enables rapid temperature rise and more even heat distribution inside the appliance. Additionally, it can operate continuously for up to 24 hours at temperatures between 40 and 200 degrees Celsius. Price The Mi Smart air fryer 3.5L is priced at Rs 12,499 in Nepal. Verdict The smart fryer is a really good way to cook food since there is less amount of oil used for frying. Along with that, the smart fryer is very good-looking and comfortably fits any type of kitchen. (Adds quote, detail) OSLO, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Sweden and the United States have begun negotiations to form deeper security ties in the form of a defence cooperation agreement (DCA), the Swedish government said in a statement on Monday. A DCA will create a legal framework for the presence of U.S. forces in Sweden and enables an even closer bilateral cooperation than facilitated by NATO membership, the Swedish defence ministry said. "The United States is Sweden's most important security and defence partner, both bilaterally and within NATO," the ministry said. Sweden in May applied alongside Finland to join NATO in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but the application is still awaiting the approval of members Hungary and Turkey. (Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Essi Lehto) Jersey City, New Jersey--(Newsfile Corp. - January 20, 2023) - 1 Umbrella Funding, a leading financial technology (fintech) firm, announces the official opening of its second office in the Dominican Republic to provide superior customer service and support to its rapidly growing Hispanic customer base in the United States. The Dominican Republic office will extend 1 Umbrella Funding's services, including business loans, lines of credit, and asset-based financing to all small and medium-sized businesses generating at least 10k per month. "Our mission is to provide financial solutions to businesses of all sizes," said Shawn Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at 1 Umbrella Funding. "We understand that traditional banks may not always be able to meet the needs of our clients and are proud to have opened this new office in order to better serve our Hispanic customers." In addition to its Dominican Republic offices, 1 Umbrella Funding currently operates in Jersey City, NJ. "We are committed to providing our customers with the best services and support," said Thomas. "We believe that by offering our clients more options and greater access to financial solutions, we can help them achieve their business goals." 1 Umbrella Funding says companies can apply for a loan to access working capital, equipment financing, real estate financing, purchase order financing and credit repair. About 1 Umbrella Funding: 1 Umbrella Funding is a financial technology (fintech) firm that provides business financing solutions with up to $10M in unsecured funding. It has offices located in Jersey City, NJ and the Dominican Republic. It offers various services to help entrepreneurs with their financial needs, including same-day working capital loans, purchase order financing, term loans, SBA loans and lines of credit. In addition, 1 Umbrella Funding also offers payment processing solutions to help business owners get paid quickly and securely. Press Contact: Shawn Thomas Shawn@1umbrellafunding.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/151721 In this article, we take a look at 18 countries that produce the most nuclear energy. If you want to see more countries that produce the most nuclear energy, go directly to 5 Countries That Produce the Most Nuclear Energy. Nuclear energy has its positives and negatives. In terms of its positives, nuclear energy is very reliable and zero carbon. According to the Office of Nuclear Energy, nuclear was the most reliable energy source in America in 2021 given nuclear power plants operated at full capacity more than 92% of the time. Given it doesn't emit greenhouse gases, nuclear also provided half of America's carbon free electricity in 2021. Furthermore, the nuclear energy industry supports around half a million jobs in the U.S. and contributes $60 billion to American GDP each year. The industry helps U.S. national security and maintains American global leadership in the peaceful use of nuclear technologies. Nuclear power plants also don't need that much land in terms of the energy it generates as opposed to wind or solar. Emma Derr of the Nuclear Energy Institute writes, "Nuclear energy pairs perfectly with renewables such as wind and solar to create a reliable, clean energy system. It provides carbon-free, around-the-clock power to fill the gaps when the sun isnt shining or the wind isnt blowing. Nuclear also complements renewables because it generates more power with less land31 times less than solar facilities and 173 times less than wind farms. Wind and solar farms are located where wind and sunlight are abundantly available and require sprawling amounts of land for turbines and panels, whereas nuclear energy is contained to nuclear power plants. A nuclear energy facility has a small area footprint, requiring about 1.3 square miles per 1,000 megawatts of energy." In terms of its negatives, nuclear power plants cost a lot of money upfront and take a lot of time to build which could lead to cost overruns. If designed incorrectly, nuclear power plants could lead to environmental and societal disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima. Nuclear power plants also generate radioactive waste that's tough to dispose safely. Story continues Leading Nations in the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy Many of the leading nations in the world have adopted nuclear energy as part of its energy mix. Nuclear energy in the United States, for example, helps power plants avoid emitting over 470 million metric tons of carbon annually, which is about the same as removing 100 million cars off the road. Nuclear energy is also big in other countries such as France, where nuclear power accounts for the majority of the total electricity generated. Given the country's substantial nuclear generation, France is one of the leading industrialized nations in terms of low carbon emissions per capita. Essential Part of the World's Energy Mix Nuclear fission energy will remain an essential part of the world's energy mix in the next few decades. According to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s high case projection, total world nuclear generating capacity could more than double to 873 gigawatts net electrical by 2050, versus existing levels of around 390 gigawatts net electrical. In the agency's low case scenario, nuclear generating capacity remains about the same. Given the need to reduce carbon emissions, nuclear fission energy could remain useful for the next few decades until fusion energy eventually becomes economical. In terms of fusion, which is also a nuclear process, experts are hoping that the technology will become economically viable sometime in the 2030's. Given the immense technological challenges of nuclear fusion, however, scientists have a lot of work ahead of them and it's not clear when the challenges will be solved. Methodology For our list of 18 Countries That Produce the Most Nuclear Energy, we used the IAEA's nuclear share of electricity generation in 2021 list and we ranked them by TWh of nuclear production. For those of you interested, also check out 12 Most Advanced Countries in Renewable Energy. 18 Countries That Produce the Most Nuclear Energy #18 Pakistan 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 15.83 Pakistan has six existing operating nuclear power plants that collectively generated 15.83 TWh of nuclear power in 2021 which is around 8% of the country's total electricity generated. Given the rising electricity prices and the country's dependence on fossil fuels, nuclear energy has been one way for Pakistan to diversify its energy mix. #17 Switzerland 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 18.59 Although it has a population of 8.7 million people, Switzerland is a major producer of nuclear power given the country's nuclear production of 18.59 TWh across 4 nuclear reactors in 2021. With its nuclear production, nuclear accounts for around 36% of total electricity generated while hydropower accounts for around 52% of total electricity generated. In the future, however, Switzerland plans to eventually phase out nuclear in favor of other renewables. #16 Finland 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 22.65 Finland is another country with a relatively small population where nuclear energy accounts for a substantial percentage of the country's electricity generation mix. With a population of 5.541 million, Finland generated 22.65 TWh of nuclear power in 2021, accounting for about a third of the total electricity generation for the year. #15 Czech Republic 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 29.04 The Czech Republic ranks #15 on our list of 18 Countries That Produce the Most Nuclear Energy given its nuclear production of 29.04 TWh across 6 reactors in 2021. Given its production, nuclear accounts for around one third of the country's total electricity generation. For the future, the government plans to substantially increase nuclear capacity by 2040. #14 India 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 39.76 India is one of the fastest growing countries in the world whose energy needs are increasing every year. As a result, India's government has committed to growing its nuclear power capacity to help meet its needs. The country's nuclear power generation has more than doubled from 2000 to 39.76 TWh in 2021 and nuclear energy generation is expected to increase further in the future. #13 United Kingdom 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 41.79 The United Kingdom generated 41.79 TWh of nuclear power in 2021, accounting for around 15% of the country's electricity generation. Although many of the country's existing capacity is expected to retire by the end of the decade, the country has a new generation of nuclear plants that's being built. In terms of the future, the government plans to have nuclear account for 25% of total electricity generated by 2050. #12 Belgium 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 47.96 Belgium generated 47.96 TWh of nuclear power in 2021 or 52.4% of the country's total electricity generated. Although nuclear is a big part of the country's energy mix, Belgium originally had plans to withdraw from nuclear in 2025. Given the war in Ukraine, however, the country has since decided to continue to generate nuclear energy in two nuclear reactors for another 10 years. #11 Sweden 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 51.43 Sweden ranks #11 on our list of 18 Countries That Produce the Most Nuclear Energy given it produced 51.43 TWh of nuclear power in 2021, which accounts for around 40% of the country's electricity needs. For the future, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson recently said the country is looking to potentially expand its nuclear power generation to offset Sweden's reliance on renewables whose output can vary. #10 Spain 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 54.22 Given the country's push for more renewables, Spain's government is planning to phase out nuclear energy by 2035. Under its National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030, the Spanish government plans to gradually decommission nuclear power capacity to 3GW at the end of the decade as renewable energy costs continue to decline and as grid technology improves. As of 2021, Spain nevertheless generated 54.22 TWh of nuclear power, accounting for 21% of electricity generation. #9 Japan 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 61.3 Given it has to import much of its energy needs, nuclear energy has been a strategic priority for Japan's government since the 1973, and up until 2011, nuclear generated 30% of the country's electricity. Given the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, however, public sentiment in the country shifted and Japan's government is now planning for nuclear to account for 20% to 22% of the country's electricity by the end of the decade. In 2021, Japan generated 61.3 TWh of energy from the nuclear reactors that have gained approval to restart. #8 Germany 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 65.44 Before 2011, nuclear was a big part of Germany's energy mix with nuclear energy accounting for around one quarter of the nation's electricity generated. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, however, Germany's government has reduced the country's reliance on nuclear. In 2021, the country generated 65.44 TWh of nuclear power and in 2022, nuclear supplied around 6% of Germany's electricity. #7 Ukraine 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 81.13 Ukraine generated 81.13 TWh of nuclear power in 2021, which supplied around half of the country's energy needs. Given the current war in Ukraine, however, the country's nuclear production might not be as high as it was in 2021. A substantial part of the country's grid needs to be fixed, and some of the country's reactors are offline. #6 Canada 2021 Nuclear Production, TWh: 86.78 Canada produced 86.78 TWh of nuclear energy in 2021, supplying about 15% of the country's electricity needs. In addition to being one of the largest producers of nuclear energy, Canada is also a leader in nuclear power technology and uranium exports. Given its resources, Canada has the third largest uranium reserves globally and the country is the world's second largest exporter of uranium. Click to continue reading and see 5 Countries That Produce the Most Nuclear Energy. Suggested articles: Disclosure: None. 18 Countries That Produce the Most Nuclear Energy is originally published on Insider Monkey. Professors have reported examples of students cheating on their assignments by using AI. Getty Images Some professors say students are using new tech to pass off AI-generated content as their own. Academics are concerned that colleges are not set up to combat the new style of cheating. Professors say they considering switching back to written assessments and oral exams. College professors are feeling the heat when it comes to AI. Some professors say students are using OpenAI's buzzy chatbot, ChatGPT, to pass off AI-generated content as their own. Antony Aumann, a philosophy professor at Northern Michigan University, and Darren Hick, a philosophy professor at Furman University, both say they've caught students submitting essays written by ChatGPT. The issue has led to professors considering creative ways to stamp out the use of AI in colleges. Blue books and oral exams "I'm perplexed about how to handle AI going forward," Aumann told Insider. He said one way he was considering tackling the problem was shifting to lockdown browsers, a type of software that aims to prevent students from cheating when taking exams online or remotely. Other academics are considering more drastic action. "I'm planning on going medieval on the students and going all the way back to oral exams," Christopher Bartel, a philosophy professor at Appalachian State University, said. "They can AI generate text all day long in their notes if they want, but if they have to be able to speak it, that's a different thing." Bartel said there were inclusivity concerns around this, however. "Students who have deep social anxieties about speaking in public is something we'll have to figure out." "Another way to deal with AI is for faculty to avoid giving students assignments that are very well covered," he said. "If the students have to be able to engage with a unique idea that hasn't been covered very deeply in other places there isn't going to be a lot of text that the AI generator can draw from." Aumann said some professors were suggesting going back to traditional written assessments like blue books. Story continues "Since the students would be writing their essays in class by hand, there would not be an opportunity for them to cheat by consulting the chatbot," he said. 'The genie is out of the bottle' Although there were red flags in the AI-generated essays that alerted both Aumann and Hick to the use of ChatGPT, Aumann thinks these are just temporary. He said the chatbot's essays lacked individual personality but after playing around with it, he was able to get it to write less formally. "I think that any of the red flags we have are just temporary as far as students can get around," he said. "My worry is the genie is out of the bottle," said Hick, who believed the technology was going to get better. "That's kind of inevitable," he said. Bartel agreed that students could get away with using AI very easily. "If they ask the program to write one paragraph summarizing an idea, then one paragraph summarizing another idea, and edit those together it would be completely untraceable for me and it might even be a decent essay," he said. A representative for OpenAI told Insider they didn't want ChatGPT to be used for misleading purposes. "Our policies require that users be upfront with their audience when using our API and creative tools like DALL-E and GPT-3," the representative said. "We're already developing mitigations to help anyone identify text generated by that system." Although there are AI detection programs that offer an analysis of how likely the text is to be written by an AI program, some academics are concerned this wouldn't be enough to prove a case of AI plagiarism. "We will need something to account for the fact that we now have an imperfect way of testing whether or not something is a fake," Bartel said. "I don't know what that new policy is." Read the original article on Business Insider ASML Holding logo is seen at company's headquarters in Eindhoven AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands' defence ministry advised the government in 2020 not to allow semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV to export any of its most modern machines to China, Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad reported on Friday. The FD obtained a slightly redacted version of the advice, which it has published on its website, via a Freedom of Information Act request. "From the perspective of the Dutch military and security interests in the mid-to-long-term it is of importance ... that ASML not be granted any export permit for the delivery of EUV machines to China and that this unique technology be protected as much as possible," the advice addressed to the foreign ministry said. EUV refers to ASML's flagship lithography machines, which cost $200 million each and are used by chipmakers to create the circuitry of computer chips. The advice has been heeded, as ASML has not shipped EUV technology to Chinese customers. The publication comes as the Dutch government is weighing additional restrictions on ASML's exports of older equipment to China. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Jan. 17 he expected a "good outcome" to discussions with the United States on the matter after meeting with President Joe Biden in Washington. The letter also spelled out the potential risks of exporting the technology. "The chance that a NATO member state in the future must defend itself against independently produced weapons systems would become much larger if EUV machines are exported," the advice said. "In addition our most important strategic security partner, the United States, has made an urgent appeal to the Netherlands not to export the EUV technology to China." (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Mark Potter) LAS VEGAS, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nevada State High School will join School Choice Week and its mission to build awareness and empower parents to make educational decisions that are the best fit for their family and students' individual needs through a weeklong series of events. NSCW 2023 (PRNewsfoto/National School Choice Week) Over the course of the week, Nevada State High School will engage their student base through a variety of events, culminating with their flagship event: Bowlie Hawkins on Friday, Jan 27, 2023, at the Orleans Bowling Center. Bowlie Hawkins, and the events leading up to it at Nevada State High School, celebrates educational freedom and reasons students and families choose the dual-credit charter school during National School Choice Week. Student bowling will be open 9-11 a.m. and noon-2 p.m. Earlier in the week, students across Nevada State High School's nine campuses will also celebrate with a scarf giveaway, door decorating contest, virtual open house featuring a student and alumni panel, and school choice videos. Additionally, representatives from the school will host a booth at the Las Vegas School Choice Fair on Saturday, Jan. 21. All of these festivities are planned to coincide with the celebration of National School Choice Week (Jan. 22-28, 2023), which will feature tens of thousands of school choice celebrations across all 50 states. Nevada State High School's bowling extravaganza and the Las Vegas School Choice Fair represent two of the largest celebrations in the state during the Week. "At Nevada State High School, we believe that all students deserve access to a quality education," said Amy Spero, marketing and engagement director for the school. "That is why we offer a real college experience to our students at nine locations across the State of Nevada." "As a public charter school, we are offering open houses during National School Choice Week for students and families to learn about how we support students academically, socially, and personally in a college environment and pay for up to five college classes per semester," said Spero. "With this information, Nevada State High School could be their next great choice!" Story continues Nevada State High School is an early college high school for juniors and seniors that serves over 1,000 students across nine campuses in Henderson, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Reno. Students take real college courses with real professors on real college and university campuses in Nevada. The Orleans Bowling Center is located at 4500 W. Tropicana Ave. National School Choice Week (NSCW) informs, inspires, and empowers parents to discover the K-12 education options available for their children, including traditional public, charter, magnet, online, private, and home schooling. Every January, tens of thousands of schools, organizations, and individuals plan unique events and activities to shine a positive spotlight on effective education options in their communities. The Week is a project of the nonpartisan, nonpolitical National School Choice Awareness Foundation. Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nevada-state-high-school-celebrates-school-choice-week-by-providing-a-better-path-to-education-for-nevada-families-301725656.html SOURCE National School Choice Week Caroline Sheriff Scott Moser on Friday announced the arrests of two men in connection with a home-invasion robbery last year in which police say a 69-year-old man was assaulted and held at gunpoint. Dashawn Hunter, 25, of Prince Edward County and Alester Morgan, 35, of Henrico are both charged with armed robbery, breaking and entering, using a firearm in the commission of a felony and possessing a firearm as a felon. Moser said the break-in occurred early Nov. 30 at a residence on Kidds Fork Road in the Sparta area. Two masked men broke into the home, assaulted the resident and held him at gunpoint before leaving with guns, collector coins and money. The victim was not seriously injured. An investigation headed by Caroline Sgt. B.J. Sadler led to homes in Chesterfield and Prince Edward, where search warrants were served and extensive surveillance was conducted. A gun and coins belonging to the victim were seized during the raids. Moser said both men frequently visited the Chesterfield residence. Surveillance camera footage assisted police in identifying the suspects, Moser said. Hunter was arrested Wednesday in Henrico and Morgan the next day in Charlottesville. Both are in jail under no bond. Moser said Sadler was assisted by multiple agencies, including the Virginia State Police, the FBI and the Chesterfield and Henrico police departments. Fremonts premier thrift store aptly named Thriftology offers community members and shoppers both good deals and aid for those in need. That dual aspect of the downtown Fremont store was touted by Mayor Joey Spellerberg in his Jan. 17 state of the city address. The store has been at its downtown location, 300 N. Main St., at the corner of Main Street and East Third Street, since January of 2022, said Care Corps' Lifehouse Executive Managing Director Julie Sleister. The store allows for both free items for those in need who possess a voucher as well as shopping at a reduced price for members of the public. It is open to the public for affordable clothing and household items, among other products, Sleister said. Community members in need can get vouchers to acquire housewares, clothes, bed and bath items and hygiene products. Care Corps' Lifehouse is a community nonprofit focused on helping those in need in Dodge County and Fremont, providing financial assistance for rent and other expenses like utility bills; a food pantry; job counseling and assistance and other services. Sleister said residents in need can receive vouchers from both Care Corps' Lifehouse as well as four other main community charity organizations: the Dodge County Headstart, the Fremont Area United Way, the Salvation Army and Lutheran Family Services. In addition to selling a variety of goods and products, there is a case manager on site inside the store in the event a resident or customer with needs for community assistance asks for more help. On Friday, Jan. 20, the Fremont Tribune visited the store where several customers were perusing items and buying goods, including clothes, small kitchen appliances and DVDs. One shopper, 37-year-old Omrianna Fighter, said she shops at Thriftology frequently and it is helpful for both her and her 3-year-old daughter. Fighter said she is a client of Care Corps' Lifehouse rental assistance program and it has been a lifesaver for her family. I am a participant in the Lifehouse programs. I receive housing rental assistance, Fighter said as she purchased several boxes of goods. I both donate stuff and buy stuff. (Im buying DVDs) to keep the little one entertained. Store employee Maycee Fagan said shes worked at Thriftology for many years and said she loves being able to help community members and give back. I started back working here full time after I finished college in July 2022, Fagan said. I love working with the (Care Corps) volunteers. I really like what we do (at Thriftology), it being affordable helps people. It also brings me a lot of good feelings personally, and helping people is nice. Sleister said she and others at Care Corps' Lifehouse have gotten a lot of positive feedback on Thriftology. It is a great place to get a good deal. A large percentage of my wardrobe, I get there, Sleister said. A lot of people say the store looks like a boutique. We did our best to make it upscale for a thrift store. We want to make it a good shopping experience. We accept gently used items two days a week. Our community, we are so blessed with amazing donors. Thriftology is open Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Thursday, the store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturday, it is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The store is closed on Sunday. Southern New Hampshire University has released its fall 2022 presidents list and deans list. The fall term runs from September to December. Full-time undergraduate students who have earned a minimum grade-point average of 3.7 and above for the reporting term are named to the president's list while students who earned a grade-point average of 3.5 to 3.69 are named to the deans list. Full-time status is achieved by earning 12 credits over each 16-week term or paired 8-week terms grouped in fall, winter/spring, and summer. The following area students were recognized: North Bend: John White, presidents list. Prague: Stephanie Prochaska, presidents list. Uehling: Shannelle Krebbs, deans list. Avalanche in Tibet kills 28, rescue work completed Xinhua) 09:26, January 21, 2023 Rescuers work at an avalanche site in Nyingchi, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on Jan. 20, 2023. An avalanche that hit the city of Nyingchi in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has killed 28 people. The search and rescue operation came to an end at 5:30 p.m. Friday. (Xinhua/Sun Fei) LHASA, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- An avalanche that hit the city of Nyingchi in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has killed 28 people. The search and rescue operation came to an end at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The avalanche took place at 7:50 p.m. on Tuesday, blocking the highway at an exit of a tunnel connecting Medog County with Pad Township in Nyingchi, trapping people and vehicles inside. The emergency rescue headquarters for the incident said that more than 1,300 people, including firefighters, military units, grassroots officials and members of the public, took part in the search and rescue over the past few days, equipped with 236 sets of equipment. The mountains in the area are very steep and the roads are rough. The avalanche was triggered by powerful winds and rising temperatures on Tuesday, according to the emergency rescue headquarters. Rescuers work at an avalanche site in Nyingchi, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on Jan. 20, 2023. An avalanche that hit the city of Nyingchi in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has killed 28 people. The search and rescue operation came to an end at 5:30 p.m. Friday. (Xinhua/Sun Fei) (Web editor: Chang Sha, Kou Jie) Saturday HomeStore open, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 701 E. Dodge St., Fremont. The HomeStore sells donated items at discounted prices. Proceeds support the mission of Fremont Area Habitat for Humanity. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont. Alcoholics Anonymous womens heart-to-heart group, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont. Fremont Eagles Club open, noon to midnight, 649 N. Main St., Fremont. The club may stay open later or close early depending on business. The kitchen will be open from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Menu options will include prime rib, shrimp and chicken tenders. A George Strait Tribute Band will be playing from 8 p.m. to midnight in the clubs ballroom. Everyone is welcome. Back To Basics, 2-4 p.m., Fremont Area Art Association, 92 W. Sixth St., Fremont. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be sponsored by Spinners Web, a Fremont area spinners and weavers guild. Featured will be members spinning wool and other fibers into yarn. Other demonstrations may include processing fleece, weaving, crocheting, knitting, tatting, and other fiber arts using handspun and commercial yarns. There will be many examples of finished projects for all ages to see and touch. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont. Spiritual 12-Step Recovery Program, 7 p.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont. Narcotics Anonymous The Lie is Dead meeting, 8 p.m., LifeHouse, 723 N. Broad St., Fremont. The hotline number is 402-459-9511. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10:30 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont. Sunday Alcoholics Anonymous Happy Sober Sunday Group, 9 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont. Narcotics Anonymous Seekers of Serenity meeting, 10:30 a.m., LifeHouse, 723 N. Broad St., Fremont. The hotline number is 402-459-9511. Fremont Eagles Club open, noon to 6 p.m., 649 N. Main St., Fremont. The club may stay open later or close early depending on business. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont. Narcotics Anonymous Freedom Works Group, 7 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont. Alcoholics Anonymous Sunday speaker, 7:30 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont. Monday TOPS Club (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), 9 a.m., First United Methodist Church, 850 N. Broad St., Fremont. Weigh-ins begin at 8 a.m. Visitors (preteens, teens and adults male and female) are welcome. The first meeting is free. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont. Lightkeepers Womens Group, 10 a.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont. Fremont Eagles Club open, 3 p.m. to midnight, 649 N. Main St., Fremont. The club may stay open later or close early depending on business. There will be a trustees meeting at 4 p.m. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont. Celebrate Recovery, 6:30 p.m., Fremont Church of the Nazarene, 960 Johnson Road. Fresh Hope Mental Health Support Group, 7 p.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont. Narcotics Anonymous Freedom Works Group, 7 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont. Alcoholics Anonymous 12x12 meeting, 8 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont. HARTINGTON Prosecutors have filed notice they plan to seek a death sentence for the man charged with killing four people in Laurel. Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Corey O'Brien on Tuesday filed a charge containing four counts each of first-degree murder and use of a firearm to commit a felony and two counts of first-degree arson against Jason Jones. On each of the murder charges, O'Brien included a notice of aggravators, or statutorily defined aggravating circumstances, as required by Nebraska law in cases in which the death penalty is sought. The aggravating circumstances O'Brien will seek to prove at trial are that Jones committed a homicide at the same time he committed other homicides. On two of the murder charges, Jones is accused of committing a homicide to conceal the commission of a crime of burglary or murder, or to conceal his identity. Jones, 42, of Laurel, is charged with the Aug. 4 shooting deaths of Michele Ebeling, 53, in her home and Gene Twiford, 86; his wife, Janet Twiford, 85; and their daughter Dana Twiford, 55, in another home. He is accused of setting both houses on fire. He's scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Cedar County District Court, but his attorney, Todd Lancaster, on Wednesday filed a waiver of appearance in which he advised the court Jones would not be entering a plea at that time because he plans to file a motion to quash sections of Nebraska's death penalty statute as unconstitutional. Jones is being held without bond at the Nebraska Department of Corrections Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln, where he continues to receive treatment for burns received in the incidents. If found guilty of first-degree murder at trial, a jury or three-judge panel would consider the aggravating circumstances filed with the charges. If those circumstances are found to exist, the case would advance to a three-judge panel to determine if Jones would receive a death sentence. If found guilty of first-degree murder but not given a death sentence, Jones would be subject to a sentence of life in prison without parole. Authorities responded to a reported explosion in the early morning hours of Aug. 4 at 209 Elm St., where they found Ebeling's body with two gunshot wounds. A second fire at the Twiford home at 503 Elm St. is believed to have started at about the same time, and responders found the bodies of the three family members, all with gunshot wounds. Jones' wife, Carrie Jones, was arrested in December and charged with first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and being an accessory to a felony. She is scheduled to be arraigned Monday. Carrie Jones, 43, is accused of killing Gene Twiford, concealing or removing physical evidence and hiding her husband in an effort to prevent his arrest. Jason Jones, who lived with his wife across the street from Ebeling, was arrested without incident at their home about 24 hours after the bodies were discovered. He was airlifted to a Lincoln hospital for treatment of serious burns over a large portion of his body. Investigators believe the Twifords were killed first, then Ebeling a short time later. According to court documents, authorities found receipts Jones had for gas at Ebeling's home and a Ruger pistol traced to Jones at the Twiford residence. Search warrant affidavits filed in her husbands case show Carrie Jones was seen at Ebelings home shortly after the explosion was reported, and she told police during an interview she had been there early that morning. Nebraska's 11 death row inmates Jose Sandoval Nikko Jenkins John Lotter Raymond Mata Jorge Galindo Erick Vela Jeffrey Hessler Roy Ellis Marco Torres Anthony Garcia Saying "there should not be a wait to participate," Nebraskans gathered in the Capitol Friday to support felons getting their voting rights back more quickly. Representatives of the newly formed Voting Rights Restoration Coalition backed two legislative proposals that would expand voting rights for Nebraskans convicted of felonies. The bill (LB20), introduced by Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, would restore felons' voting rights as soon as they finish their sentences, including any period of probation or parole. Current state law requires felons to wait two years after finishing their sentences before they can vote. Wayne said the waiting period served no purpose and that being able to vote offers one of the best ways to get people engaged in their community, which saves the state money by reducing recidivism. "This is a punitive and arbitrary constraint on those who have already fulfilled their obligations to society," said Jasmine Harris, director of public policy and advocacy for RISE, one of the coalition members. A proposed constitutional amendment (LR4CA), introduced by Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, would allow people to keep their right to vote even if convicted of a felony. It would remove language that dates to Nebraskas 1875 Constitution. It would still bar people from voting if they are mentally incompetent or have been convicted of treason. Nebraska is among only 11 states that do not allow felons to vote immediately upon completing their sentences. Two do not take away voting rights at all, while the rest restore voting rights either after a person completes prison time or after they complete prison, probation and parole. Nebraska's current law was passed in 2005 over the veto of then-Gov. Dave Heineman. The two-year waiting period was included as part of a compromise. State lawmakers passed a Wayne-sponsored bill in 2017 to do away with the two-year wait, but the measure was vetoed by Gov. Pete Ricketts. In his veto message, Ricketts said the bill violated the state constitution by assuming the power to pardon that properly belongs to the executive branch of government. He also argued that the two-year waiting period gives felons an incentive to maintain a clean record. Wayne said he has not talked with Gov. Jim Pillen about the issue yet. Shakur Abdullah, advocacy lead for the Community Justice Center and founder of JustUS15Vote, said he was affected by the current law when he finished his sentence in 2016. He said the two-year wait kept him marginalized. He noted that felon voting bans spread after the Civil War as a way to reduce the number of freed slaves who could vote. JustUs15Vote is a reference to the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted the right to vote to Americans irrespective of race, color or previous enslavement. Nicole Porter, senior director of advocacy for the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., said an estimated 20,000 Nebraskans currently cannot vote because they are serving felony sentences or are in the two-year waiting period. A report released in 2017 by Civic Nebraska estimated that more than 7,000 Nebraskans were in the waiting period. Photos: 2023 Nebraska legislative session 010523-owh-new-lege-em01.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em02.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em04.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em05.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em06.jpg 010523-owh-new-lege-em65 010523-owh-new-lege-em37 010523-owh-new-lege-em38 010523-owh-new-lege-em49 010523-owh-new-lege-em60 010523-owh-new-lege-em45 010523-owh-new-lege-em39 010523-owh-new-lege-em48 010523-owh-new-lege-em55 010523-owh-new-lege-em59 010523-owh-new-lege-em43 010523-owh-new-lege-em42 010523-owh-new-lege-em50 010523-owh-new-lege-em53 Sen. Beau Ballard 010523-owh-new-lege-em40 010523-owh-new-lege-em47 010523-owh-new-lege-em51 010523-owh-new-lege-em61 010523-owh-new-lege-em64 010523-owh-new-lege-em52 010523-owh-new-lege-em56 010523-owh-new-lege-em62 010523-owh-new-lege-em63 010523-owh-new-lege-em58 010523-owh-new-lege-em44 010523-owh-new-lege-em41 010523-owh-new-lege-em54 010523-owh-new-lege-em36 010523-owh-new-lege-em31 010523-owh-new-lege-em30 010523-owh-new-lege-em32 010523-owh-new-lege-em33 010523-owh-new-lege-em35 010523-owh-new-lege-em34 010523-owh-new-lege-em24 010523-owh-new-lege-em27 010523-owh-new-lege-em26 010523-owh-new-lege-em28 010523-owh-new-lege-em25 010523-owh-new-lege-em29 010523-owh-new-lege-em23 010523-owh-new-lege-em18 010523-owh-new-lege-em21 010523-owh-new-lege-em15 010523-owh-new-lege-em17 010523-owh-new-lege-em22 010523-owh-new-lege-em19 010523-owh-new-lege-em16 010523-owh-new-lege-em20 010523-owh-new-lege-em12 010523-owh-new-lege-em09 010523-owh-new-lege-em14 010523-owh-new-lege-em13 010523-owh-new-lege-em07 010523-owh-new-lege-em11 010523-owh-new-lege-em08 010523-owh-new-lege-em03 010523-owh-new-lege-em10 010523-owh-new-lege-em03.jpg York County Sheriff Paul Vrbka has agreed to pay a $1,000 penalty for wearing his uniform while appearing in a 2022 campaign advertisement for gubernatorial candidate Charles W. Herbster. The penalty is part of an agreement reached between the sheriff and the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission in December and approved unanimously by commission members on Friday. Under the agreement, the commission found that Vrbka had violated a state law barring the use of public resources for campaign purposes. The public resource in this case was his uniform. Vrbka was one of three elected sheriffs and a captain who wore their uniforms and badges while endorsing Herbster, who was one of the leading contenders in the GOP gubernatorial primary last year. The advertisement ran on television stations in February and March last year. According to the settlement, Vrbka said it was not his intent to violate state law and, had he known it would be a possible violation, he would not have agreed to appear in the ad. He could have faced a maximum penalty of $5,000. The commission said it decided on the lower figure because of his willingness to resolve the matter. The Herbster ad also featured Seward County Sheriff Michael Vance, Lincoln County Sheriff Jerome Kramer and Capt. Josh Gillespie from York County, all of whom appear in uniform and badges. Frank Daley, the executive director of the commission, said he could not comment on whether a complaint had been filed or an investigation started against any of the other three law enforcement officials. But he said the commission has not issued an order concerning any of them. Nebraska law states that public officials and employees cant use or authorize the use of public resources for the purpose of campaigning for or against a candidate or ballot question, with some exceptions. A commission opinion issued in 1994 said that a sheriffs uniform was a public resource. Herbster lost in the primary to Jim Pillen, who went on to be elected governor in November and to take office earlier this month. Top Journal Star photos for January 2023 United Airlines, Inc. has filed suit in federal court seeking a declaration that a 2020 state law mandating paid sick leave does not apply to its employees in Colorado. The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 13, claims the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 prohibits states from enacting regulations related to the "service of an air carrier." Therefore, the law, as well as other federal provisions, allegedly preempts the requirements of the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act. "That federal scheme is the exclusive source of sick leave for airline employees, and so United is not and should not be subject to the HFWA," wrote attorneys for the company. Colorado lawmakers enacted the HFWA in 2020 to provide up to 48 hours of annual, paid sick leave and 80 hours for reasons related to COVID-19 or other public health emergencies. United alleges its collective bargaining agreements with pilots, flight attendants and ground crew contain sick leave policies similar to Southwest Airlines, which Colorado has deemed to violate the HFWA. Southwest filed a similar lawsuit in May of last year, and the government has moved to dismiss it on a variety of legal doctrines, arguing state courts should resolve the dispute there. A federal judge has not yet ruled on the motion to dismiss the Southwest litigation. The case is United Airlines, Inc. v. Moss. An FBI Safe Streets fugitive was arrested Friday in Pueblo. Pueblo police said a patrol officer witnessed a suspicious male in the 1100 block of East Abriendo Avenue. The man was later identified as 19-year-old Angelo Naranjo. Naranjo had a felony warrant for homicide with $250,000 bond and a misdemeanor warrant for carrying a concealed weapon, according to a release. Both warrants were out of the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office. While Naranjo was being taken into custody, police said officers found methamphetamine, fentanyl and a revolver loaded with live ammunition, according to the release. Naranjo was booked into the Pueblo County Judicial Center. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in El Paso County received a distinguished school award and an accompanying $10,000 on Thursday. The Widefield District 3 school is the recipient the 2022 Elementary and Secondary Education Act Distinguished School Award. Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes presented the award at a special ceremony before the student body, according to a news release from the Colorado Department of Education. "The administrators, teachers, support staff and parents have done a tremendous job working together to make sure all of the students at King Elementary are succeeding," Anthes said. High-achieving Title I schools where low-income students comprise 35% or more of the student population are eligible for the honor. King Elementary was selected out of 750 eligible Title I schools for producing exceptional student performance and academic growth for two consecutive years, the release said. The $10,000 will be used to support its Title I programs. The school has consistently been one of the states top-performing schools, according to the Colorado Department of Education, earning the highest rating in Colorados accountability system since 2016. In 2022 King Elementary performed better than 65% of all other Colorado elementary schools on state testing in math better than 70% of all other Colorado elementary schools in English language arts. In an experiment, a four-member team from Westside Cares that will help with Mondays annual Point in Time census of the homeless population in El Paso County will consist of people who have been homeless themselves. They have access and credibility that a once-a-year volunteer might not, said Kristy Milligan, CEO of Westside Cares. The consortium of 24 interfaith communities in El Paso County provides food, clothing, rent and utilities assistance and other aid to homeless and low-income Westside Colorado Springs residents. This is a pilot for us to see how it works, she said. Theyre bringing an expertise that none of the volunteers might have. The helpers will be compensated for their time and tasked with reaching homeless people who may otherwise go uncounted, Milligan said. We are hoping the folks can go to the camps, see folks they may know and invite them to be counted, she said. The underlying premise is every person is counted because they matter. For years, its been a commonly held belief that the number of homeless people staying in emergency shelters and transitional housing and traditionally uninhabitable places such as vehicles, camps, parks, under bridges and other temporary setups are undercounted during the survey, Milligan said. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the headcount in order for communities to receive federal funding for homeless initiatives. Survey data, along with statistics collected year-round from other sources, helps communities better understand why people lose their housing and, in turn, how communities can design responsive programs to help homelessness be rare, brief and non-recurring, according to organizers. Undercounting is a high probably for a few reasons, Milligan said. Among those: volunteers constitute the majority of census takers, most people are counted because they access social services on a given day and report where they slept on a given night this year on Sunday evening into Monday and the survey is voluntary and self-reported. An inaccurate count is problematic, Milligan said, because it can shortchange funding the community receives and present an incorrect picture of the homeless population. The count is a reference point as we are developing a narrative about homelessness in our community, she said, and if it is inaccurate, we are not telling the true story. Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. The data is necessary to refute misconceptions, Milligan added. For example, some residents think that Colorado Springs attracts homeless people from other states because of the services available. But Milligan noted that last years survey showed that 77% of homeless respondents lived in El Paso County when they last had four walls and a key to the door of a residence, and 86% had last lived in Colorado when they had four walls and a key to a unit. Community Health Partnership, which conducts the Point in Time survey with the Pikes Peak Continuum of Care, a network of groups working to end homelessness, has expanded its overall ability to locate homeless people next week, said Evan Caster, senior manager of homeless initiatives. Pikes Peak Library District is involved this year, he said, and will deploy a social work team to scour libraries in rural areas of the county such as Calhan and Fountain, which survey volunteers typically dont reach. That extra coverage will be really helpful to us this year, Caster said. We are seeing a lot of great partners, who will go into encampments and really cover those unsheltered or unhoused people. A total of 75 volunteers, including street outreach teams from fire, city and police departments, agencies such as Homeward Pikes Peak and Rocky Mountain Human Services, as well as Catholic Charities of Central Colorado's Marian House, emergency shelters and other organizations, are assisting, according to Caster. A software application will track locations of where people spent Sunday night on a map. The overarching goal of the census is to help people get into permanent housing, Caster said. Results could be released in late spring, he said. A surge of COVID-19 cases in the community delayed last years survey, which was held on Feb. 21. The 688 people staying in emergency shelters and 488 people living in transitional housing both were the highest ever reported in those categories, organizers said. And the 396 people who were identified as chronic homeless was the largest ever recorded among that population. However, the 267 people living on the streets represented the lowest unsheltered number since 2015, statistics showed. Five Aurora police officers and paramedics pleaded not guilty Friday to dozens of counts they face in connection with Aurora resident Elijah McClains death in 2019. A trial is scheduled for this summer. McClain, 23, died in hospital in August 2019 days after police officers forcibly restrained him, put him in a control neck hold and paramedics injected him with the sedative ketamine. Officers had responded to a call reporting a person acting suspiciously, but McClain was not suspected of any crime. He was walking home from a convenience store. District Judge Priscilla Loew decided in late July a statewide grand jury convened by Attorney General Phil Weiser had found probable cause to indict the two paramedics and three officers: Peter Cichuniec, Jeremy Cooper, Jason Rosenblatt, Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema. The grand jury indicted the five on 32 counts altogether, including criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter. Former 17th Judicial District Attorney Dave Young previously declined to bring charges. District Judge Mark Warner, who has taken over the case, ordered three separate trials in the case. Rosenblatt and Roedema are scheduled to go to trial together starting July 11. Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. Cooper and Cichuniec, the paramedics, are scheduled for an Aug. 7 trial. The trial for Woodyard, the third police officer, has been set for Sept. 18. An autopsy report by Dr. Stephen Cina originally determined McClains cause and manner of death undetermined. An amended autopsy report, released last year after a group of news organizations sued the Adams County Coroner for its disclosure, concluded that McClain would have most likely survived but for the administration of ketamine. It was determined to be too high for his body weight. However, Cina still found his manner of death undetermined, not a homicide. Cina amended his opinion about McClain's cause of death in July 2021, two months before the release of the criminal indictments. But the indictment also cited the opinion of an unidentified forensic pathologist who opined the manner of McClain's death was homicide, and said complications from acute ketamine administration during violent subdual and restraint killed him. The language in the indictment is similar to testimony from Dr. Roger Mitchell, another expert who spoke to the grand jury. A complete shutdown of Suncors Commerce City refinery for repairs after two fires and damage from extreme weather hasnt mollified activists, who argue that the public health remains compromised and the plant should be permanently closed. Located in an industrial area on Brighton Boulevard, some 3 miles north of downtown Denver, Suncor said its refinery the only one in the state provides about 40% of gasoline and diesel fuel, as well as asphalt. Its temporarily closure is expected to lead to a significant hike in fuel prices. Air pollution from the refinery has been a sore point for some residents surrounding the plant for decades. We decided to shut down the entire facility and put into safe mode to allow for the inspection of all units and repair of the damaged equipment, Loa Esquilin Garcia, senior communications advisor for Suncor, said in a statement to The Denver Gazette. Suncor said that emissions from the refinery are continuously monitored and remain within permitted limits. Data gathered from the Commerce City North Denver (CCND) air monitors did not indicate any acute public health concerns, Garcia said. Specifically, concentrations for all compounds measured remained below acute health guideline values before, during and immediately following the event. Such assurances are insufficient for some, hinting that its permanent closure, even if it means higher fuel prices for Coloradans, is an acceptable tradeoff. Suncor Shutdown? Dont hold your breath. Or maybe we should, said Olga Gonzalez, Executive Director of Cultivando, an Adams County nonprofit that focuses on the health needs of the Latino community. Our public health is still being compromised even while Suncor makes these repairs. In a statement to The Denver Gazette, Gonzalez said, The Suncor oil refinery has been polluting our community for nearly 100 years, even with expired permits. Regulations around acceptable toxic levels must be updated now to prevent further damage to the health and well-being of people who live in proximity to the refinery. In March 2020, Suncor had agreed to a $9 million settlement over air pollution violations at the plant. More than $2.6 million of the settlement is designated for environmental projects" benefiting communities near the refinery, area that include southwest Commerce City, the Elyria-Swansea and Globeville neighborhoods and segments of unincorporated Adams County. Part of that settlement was used to purchase a mobile air quality lab and supply individual air pollution monitoring devices to local residents to help quantify emissions, according to Cultivandos website. Suncor sued the state last September after the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Air Pollution Control Division made changes to its air pollution monitoring plan, adding what Suncor said is a laundry list of compounds that are not even hazardous air pollutants. Seven community and environmental groups filed a motion to intervene in the suit in November. The case is ongoing. Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. It produces approximately 98,000 barrels a day and contributes $2.5 billion to Colorados economy annually. The refinery started operating in 1931, long before dense residential communities were built near it. Suncor acquired the refinery in 2003 and 2005. Suncor's refinery also produces jet fuel for aircraft that operate at Denver International Airport and its closing likely will trigger significant increases in flight costs, according to AAA spokesperson Skyler McKinley. Grier Bailey, Executive Director of the Colorado-Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, said price hikes of more than $1 are already happening in Colorado. I think we're probably about a $1.20 higher in some parts of the state than we were even a month ago, and probably even more for diesel, Bailey told The Denver Gazette. That's going to vary between markets and different parts of the state though, depending on where the supply comes from. Bailey doesnt think fuel prices will return to last years pre-Christmas levels until September or October. The reality is that as the Denver Metro area goes into summertime, it requires environmental fuel blends, Bailey said. He added that, as soon as the supply shortage ends, higher, more expensive summer blends show up. More financial pain is on horizon for Colorado's motorists. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has downgraded metro Denver's air quality to "severe," triggering a requirement that Coloradans living in the Front Range buy a more expensive blend of gasoline. The EPA mandate for what's called reformulated gasoline takes effect on June 1, 2024. Grier said thats going to add 40 to 50 cents per gallon for the Denver Metro North Front Range ozone non-attainment area. Suncor said it expects to reopen the refinery sometime in the first quarter of this year. Gonzalez believes it should stay closed. I do not support the reopening because I support the health and well-being of our community, she said. U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen announced this week that she's joining the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force, a group of House members devoted to legislation to address addiction and mental health problems. Elected in November to represent Colorado's 7th Congressional District, the Lakewood Democrat and former state lawmaker led efforts in the General Assembly to combat the crisis inspired, she says, by her mother Stacy's struggles with addiction. Weve lost more people to the opioid epidemic than all world wars combined, and with the increase of fentanyl, overdose deaths continue to rise," Pettersen said in a statement. "My mom suffered with a prescription opioid addiction that led to heroin and lasted for decades until she finally got the help she desperately needed. She has been in recovery for over five years and is an example of what's possible, but there are far too many who arent as lucky." The over-prescription of opioids, a lack of resources for addiction care, and barriers to mental health services have ravaged communities and families across Colorado and the country," she added. "Im proud to join this bipartisan task force and bring my personal experiences fighting to save my mom's life in a broken system to the table as we work to address this public health crisis. Created in 2021 with the merger of two more specialized House caucuses, the task force saw more than a dozen pieces of legislation signed into law last year, its organizers say, and has an ambitious agenda going forward. The task force's co-chairs Democratic U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire and David Trone of Maryland and Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said earlier this month in a joint statement that the group is reaffirming its commitment to address the issues. Last Congress, our bipartisan task force helped secure real progress towards addressing the ongoing crisis of substance use disorder across the country," they said "We helped deliver much-needed resources to the hardest hit communities, expand access to life-saving treatment and recovery programs, and support law enforcement officers to hold illicit distributors accountable. But, our work is not over. As we begin the 118th Congress, we stand more determined than ever to continue this important work and help save lives. The task force counted more than 140 members in the last Congress and says 17 bills from its legislative agenda passed as part of last year's omnibus spending package, all with bipartisan sponsorship or co-sponsorship. Pettersen told Colorado Politics in a recent interview that she's been in touch for more than a year with Kuster, who also has experience with a family member affected by the epidemic. "She brings that personal lens and empathy," Pettersen said. "There's people I've already started building relationships with, and having the state experience what we've been able to do to make systems work to bring up to the national level is very exciting. And there are things that we actually need help on. Even though we are doing what we can in Colorado, we have such significant funding restrictions that we really need federal investments." When she served in the state Senate, Pettersen chaired last year's bipartisan Behavioral Health Task Force under legislation she sponsored, which made spending recommendations on $550 million in federal funds to improve mental health and substance abuse treatment. On his way to the morgue, Dr. Leon Kelly changes his shoes. He switches out his regular walking shoes for a pair of skull-decorated Crocs. Theyre old and spattered with all the stuff you might associate with the kind of work he does. Theyre covered with 15 years of blood, bodily fluids, brains and probably poop, said Kelly, a forensic pathologist who reclaimed his seat as El Paso County coroner in November. He first won the elected position in 2018, though he joined the office as deputy chief medical examiner in 2008. He and his staff of 30 provide autopsy and toxicology services to 22 counties. The Office of the County Coroner morgue holds four stations where five medical examiners, including Kelly, conduct autopsies. Kelly did about 210 of last years 1,500, on top of his elected official obligations and administrative duties, including media relations and working with public health and law enforcement. A short walk brings you to a frigid storage room, where body bags wait to be picked up by funeral homes. Nearby is an autopsy room for bodies that need extra privacy. And then theres a tiny storage room, packed with bags of old bones and boxes of skulls, that houses a creature feature: a large aquarium of flesh-eating beetles the coroners office got from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. A thick layer of barely moving bugs nestles at the bottom of the tank, hungrily waiting for a meaty human bone. They gnaw the meat off in record time, leaving clean bones medical examiners check for trauma. The bugs are a boon. Before their arrival, bones were boiled in crock pots for days and then scraped, causing damage to the bones. Down the hall is the wet tissue storage room with endless stacks of containers: Each jar is one human, Kelly said. The containers, packed with pieces of tissue cut from each organ, are kept for three years, then incinerated, unless its a homicide or unsolved case, in which case theyre kept forever or until solved. The toxicology lab is quiet. A few staff members work at their stations. And in the evidence room are bins of bagged fentanyl pills, prescription bottles of drugs, knives, drug paraphernalia and, maybe the most devastating, the bin of suicide notes, each one kept in a sealed envelope. Family members receive a copy of the note, while the office keeps the original due to whatever bodily fluids or evidence might be contained on the letter. Isnt that the saddest thing youve ever seen? Kelly said. A few Ouija boards decorate the walls here and there. Theres no real reason for their presence, though Kelly speculates its maybe the only way they can communicate with the dead. Gallows humor must be allowed for in such a grim, yet life-affirming, environment where every day is spent solving mysteries. You would think this is a depressing job, but we have a good time, Kelly said. Youre with friends and were helping make a difference. It reminds you how precious life is. Ive seen people die in ways you couldnt imagine. It puts the rest of life in perspective, particularly the unnecessary drama were fixated on, the things that dont matter in the long run. I have zero tolerance for partisan, childish discourse and division. When youve spent the day in the morgue, autopsying the dead and talking to families, its hard to hear the adults in charge focused on what theyre focused on. You see things weaponized, like COVID-19 and fentanyl thats the worst part of the job. To cast light into the shadows of his career, Kelly nurtures a passion some would call ironic an obsession for horror films. And not only does he love all things ghostly, demonic and spooky, he co-founded and co-hosts the quarterly Six Feet Under Horror Film Festival at RoadHouse Cinemas with his comrade in arms, Dr. Dan Lingamfelter, a forensic pathologist he met at the coroners office, though Lingamfelter now operates his private autopsy business. That was kind of the whole schtick behind it two coroners who were in the death industry, Lingamfelter said. How ironic would it be to be hosts for a horror movie festival? Do we not get enough of this in our work? A lot of people want to compartmentalize and forget about their job and not deal with anything gruesome, which is the more normal way to be. But Leon and I are a little different. Plus, we grew up in the 80s decade where horror was at its finest. The third year of their festival kicks off Sunday with featured guest Linnea Quigley, a scream queen from 80s horror films, including Night of the Demons. Shell sign autographs and do a Q&A in-between screenings of two of her films, The Return of the Living Dead and Graduation Day. The daylong event also will feature four horror shorts from mostly Coloradan filmmakers and trivia. Tickets are available online at sixfeetunderhorrorfest.com. Tim Morris calls Kelly a kindred spirit when it comes to their shared love of horror movies. He attended the first festival in 2021 and has made it his lifes duty to make it to most of the festivals ever since, including Schlock Party, the new film series Kelly and Lingamfelter recently started at RoadHouse. They screen terribly bad, but unintentionally awesome movies of any genre, Kelly said, along with trivia and prizes. Next up is the 1988 comedy horror film Vampires Kiss, starring Nicolas Cage, on March 5. This was a bucket list item I never knew I had a horror film festival hosted by the county coroner, said Morris, the special collections manager for Pikes Peak Library District. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I loved all those movies. A lot of them I didnt get to see in the theater. This is revitalizing a lot of youthful joy I had in watching these terrible and great movies. Some of Kellys best memories from childhood are going to the movies with friends. He was terrified the pandemic would extinguish movie theaters for good. So societys return to the big screen has brought a huge sense of relief and joy. Its the way he and his wife and two kids, ages 11 and 13, bond. Offering a film festival is a way for him to remind people of the power of watching film together. And to show horror movies, which arent like other movies, Kelly said. Theyre interactive. People scream at the screens. Theyre the best movies to watch in a group. Its a much more communal, visceral kind of reaction to the screen, versus a comedy or cartoon. The roots of the festival grew in Kellys remote vacation cabin in Teller County about a dozen years ago, when he invited a group of friends, including Lingamfelter, to come eat, drink and watch scary movies. It was a hit, and Lingamfelter decided to offer a similar gathering at his house. It grew into a twice yearly event an October shindig hosted by Kelly and a June party by Lingamfelter. Sign up for free: News Alerts Stay in the know on the stories that affect you the most. Sign Up For Free View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. After a decade, the gatherings grew so popular the two men couldnt fit more people into their homes. They began to consider finding a bigger venue and turning it into a true film festival open to the public. But then the pandemic hit, putting the kibosh on their dream. Months later, as Kelly helped RoadHouse Cinemas decipher their COVID-19 protocols, he mentioned the film festival idea, found receptive ears, and watched as their horror baby grew into a successful event that typically sells out. Its a good partnership, he says. Lingamfelter loves the gorier stuff, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, while Kelly likes the more cerebral scary flick, such as The Exorcist: Im classical music horror and hes heavy death metal horror. He and Dan have a really good sense of humor. They really care about the audience that attends these, Morris said. Ive gotten to know them over the course of COVID-19 and they have a genuine concern for the community. This is something they bring to the community that allows people a little levity. For the love of horror Movies were the soundtrack to Kellys childhood, when he grew up in an Indianapolis trailer park. His parents divorced when he was 1, and he spent most of his time living with his mom, who had bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. He parented himself in many ways, and it didnt help he was pathologically introverted, he says. Scary movies and sci-fi and Star Wars and Indiana Jones were my babysitter as a kid, Kelly said. Theyre the kind of movies that find you friends. You gravitate toward people who like those things and those sorts of movies. Hes not sure one particular horror film led to his lifelong love affair, but he does remember a completely inappropriate late-night viewing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He sat atop his mothers car at the drive-in when he was 5 or 6 and watched Leatherface ratchet up his chainsaw: I remember being scared, he said. But it might have been The Exorcist that sparked a tiny 8- or 9-year-old Kelly to begin spreading the gospel of horror. It took me three nights to get through the whole thing, he said, but once I got through I couldnt stop telling people about it. I couldnt stop showing it to as many friends as I could. Growing up, Kelly had zero dreams of becoming a forensic pathologist, let alone attending medical school. The first in his nuclear family to attend college, he went to Indiana University, where he learned he was especially good at science. A friend later encouraged him to go to medical school, something he knew nothing about. He was accepted and spent the next four years at Indiana School of Medicine, where he had to choose a specialty. He was good with his hands, thanks to his construction worker father. Pathology it was. After being matched with a residency at Penrose Hospital, he and his wife moved west, and in year three of his four-year surgical pathology residency, he did a monthlong rotation in forensics at the coroners office. I was here 20 minutes and thought this is it, Kelly said. There are cops here and everyones waiting to find out what happened. Theres bodies and trauma and mysteries to solve. Living among the dead The juxtaposition of Kellys career and his hobby didnt dawn on him until about five years ago. And it took a friend, who asked wasnt it weird he was a coroner who loved horror movies, to help him make the connection. I was like thats so obvious, Kelly said. I try to keep my life here compartmentalized from the rest of my life because its too hard not to. Once I stop and think about it, I have always liked the darker side of humanity and I wasnt scared of it. Growing up those were the stories I read. I didnt read books other than Stephen King unless I had to at school. A volatile childhood due to his undiagnosed and unmedicated mother also prepared him to tolerate the darkness he sees every day. Police often showed up at their house to deal with the domestic violence and substance abuse, and she first attempted suicide when he was 18. She died six years ago due to a combination of drug overdose and freezing to death on a park bench. Ruled an accident, Kelly believes it was suicide. His extended family also was marked by trauma an uncle killed in a fistfight, other relatives who completed suicide. But those devastating events have helped him foster the compassion and empathy he must extend to the families who show up in his office or whom he must call with bad news. A lot of times these families have dealt with substance abuse from this person and abusive behavior and the fears of what could go wrong, and the guilt of feeling like you could do more, and the weight and chronic trauma of dealing with people who have had these problems, Kelly said. Unless youve lived it, its hard to understand it. He couldnt have known it at the time, but life was working to prepare him for his vocation. The things we see here every day are the worst, the most bloody special effect youve ever seen, and its real life and its real people and real families, Kelly said. You feel the emotional weight and impact of that, whereas in slasher films you dont its just a scary story youre being told. Contact the writer: 636-0270 CHARLES CITY U.S. Marshals have arrested an Arizona man on suspicion of murder in Charles City, according to a press release from the Tuscon Police Department. On Friday morning, members of the U.S. Marshals Service and the Charles City Police Department located 23-year-old Trevontea Howard-Brown at a residence. Howard-Brown reportedly barricaded himself into the residence, but was taken into custody and booked into the Floyd County Jail on a first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder charge. He is currently awaiting extradition back to Arizona. Howard-Brown was wanted for murder in a killing that took place near the University of Arizona campus in Tuscon on April 28. At approximately 2 a.m. that day, police found Harrison Weber, 24, with gunshot trauma along with a second victim, a 21-year-old man, after an officer was flagged down near the university regarding a shooting. Harrison Weber died at the scene. It is believed the shooting arose after a confrontation between Howard-Brown and the victims. Howard-Brown was identified as a suspect, but went on the run, eluding law enforcement for nearly nine months. "The Tucson Police Department sincerely appreciates the assistance of the US Marshals Service Tucson Fugitive Task Force, US Marshals Service Northern Iowa Fugitive Task Force, and the Charles City Police Department as well as the Tucson community and our local media partners," the release said. A Senate subcommittee on Friday recommended that the full committee defeat three abortion-banning bills when it meets next week. With Democrats in control of the Senate, its likely the bills will fail when the full Education and Health Committee convenes next week. But by introducing proposed abortion restrictions, bans and protections, lawmakers are signaling where they stand on the issue to their constituents ahead of key elections for all 140 legislative seats in November. The bills the panel recommended for defeat included a Gov. Glenn Youngkin-backed bill by Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, a life-at-conception bill from Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell, and a bill from Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, that would ban most abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Each of the bills noted exceptions for rape, incest or when health of the pregnant person is at risk. While speaking of his own bill Hackworth said that he didnt want to criminalize women." Under his bill a person who performs an illegal abortion would be guilty of a class 4 felony, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which federally protected abortion access nationwide, several states have enacted abortion restrictions or bans and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., proposed a national 15-week ban in Congress. Debates have emerged over when a fetus can feel pain. People in favor of abortion bans most commonly state this to be around 15 to 20 weeks. Medical professionals who spoke in opposition of bans at the committee meeting Friday asserted that a fetus cannot feel pain at that juncture. The bill from Dunnavant, an OBGYN, would only prohibit abortion after 24 weeks, rather than 15, and she presented it as legislation that could garner enough support to pass. I think this is something we can agree on, she said. Dunnavant said abortions are not a monolithic thing and that there are various reasons a person may want or need to have the procedure. She said she believes there is little reason to have abortions by the time of the third trimester. I have to tell you that any woman that is seeking an abortion in the second trimester is somebody who desperately wants to be pregnant and she is often faced with staggering situations and options, Dunnavant said. Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia told The Times-Dispatch that theres no compromising on fundamental rights and bodily autonomy and theres no place for politics in health care. Every pregnancy is unique and one-size-fits-all laws simply do not work, she added. The subcommittees recommendations to defeat the proposed bans followed about an hour of testimony from members of the public. Jessica Gerts voice choked as she described the abortion she underwent in 2020 and urged legislators to defeat the proposed bans. I was free to make this very personal and difficult decision for myself. I did not want to risk my life going through a potentially traumatic labor and delivery. I did not want to have to tell my son that his sibling would be born unable to breathe or without a heartbeat, she said. My daughter is here today because I had this right to choose. A woman named Molly, who did not give her last name, said she hopes proposed bans will progress and become law. As she gripped her infant son, she told the subcommittee members how she was supported during her unplanned pregnancy by her family and a pregnancy resource center. The centers counsel pregnant people. Secretary of the Commonwealth Kay Coles James accompanied Newman when he presented his bill, which also outlines that if an abortion is performed it must be in a hospital that is licensed by the State Department of Health or operated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Lockhart said that she believes lawmakers seeking abortion bans now will likely focus on restricting clinics such as Planned Parenthood from performing abortions in the future. Known as TRAP Laws, for targeted regulations of abortion providers, they are targeted restrictions on abortion providers, such as requirements that clinics meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers, which can be costly for the clinic and unnecessary for the services provided there. Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation, said she hopes that if the legislature is able to pass abortion restrictions, it will enact common sense laws like ensuring clinics meet the same standards as other outpatient surgical centers. Their ultimate goal is to ban abortion, Lockhart said of lawmakers who support proposed restrictions and bans. Penn State (9-0, 2-0 B1G) dominated visiting Michigan (7-1, 2-1 B1G) 30-8 in front of a sold out Bryce Jordan Center crowd. Penn State won eight of ten bouts, including three from Nittany Lion freshmen. All rankings listed are InterMat/InterMat Team TPI (Jan. 17, 2023).The dual meet was wrestled in front of 15,975 fans, the sixth largest crowd in NCAA wrestling history for an indoor dual meet (and the sixth most in PSU history). The Nittany Lions hold the record for the largest crowd to ever seen an indoor dual meet (15,998 on Feb. 10, 2018 vs. Iowa) and own eight of the top 10 indoor marks.The dual meet began at 125 where Michigan's Jack Medley, ranked No. 23, posted a 19-3 technical fall over Penn State freshmanat the 5:37 mark., ranked No. 1 at 133, cut the Michigan lead to 5-3 with a 4-2 win over No. 12 Dylan Ragusin, using a full third period rideout and 3:04 in riding time to seal the deal., ranked No. 4 at 141, dominated No. 23 Cole Mattin in a 7-2 win, rolling up 1:43 in riding time and giving the Nittany Lions a 6-5 lead.Redshirt freshman, ranked no. 14 at 149, rolled up nearly 4:00 in riding time in a 14-4 major decision over Fidel Mayora. Van Ness' win put Penn State up 10-5. True freshman, ranked No. 17 at 157, sent the BJC sellout crowd to its feet with a takedown midway into extra time to post a 3-1 (sv) win over No. 10 Will Lewan. Haines' win gave Penn State a 13-5 lead at intermission.Redshirt freshman, the fourth freshman in Penn State's line-up and ranked No. 16 at 165, thrilled the Penn State faithful with a rousing win over No. 5 Cameron Amine to start the second half. Facundo used a first period takedown and a late escape to send the bout to sudden victory and then, in the tie-breaker, controlled Amine longer and notched the 5-5 (TB1; RT crit.) victory., ranked No. 1 at 174, added to Penn State's growing lead, notching a fall over No. 30 Max Maylor. Starocci got the pin at the 4:15 mark., ranked No. 1 at 184, dominated No. 9 Matt Finesilver. Brooks connected for six takedowns and rolled to a 14-4 major, putting Penn State on top 26-5., ranked No. 4 at 197, rolled up nearly 4:00 in riding time in a dominant 10-1 major over Brendin Yatooma to give the Nittany Lions a 30-5 lead., ranked No. 1 at 285, gave up a late takedown to No. 2 Mason Parris and dropped a 3-1 decision in the dual's final bout. Penn State rolled to the 30-8 victory.Penn State won the takedown battle 23-9. The Nittany Lions picked up six bonus points off a pin (Starocci) and three majors (Van Ness, Brooks, Dean).The Nittany Lions are now 9-0, 2-0 B1G. Michigan falls to 7-1, 2-1 B1G. Penn State returns to action in two days, hosting Michigan State in Rec Hall at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 22.The 2022-23 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by the Family Clothesline. Penn State Fans are encouraged to follow Penn State wrestling via twitter at @pennstateWREST, on Penn State Wrestling's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatewrestling and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/pennstatewrest.January 20, 2023 Bryce Jordan Center University Park, Pa.125: #23 Jack Medley MICH tech fallPSU, 19-3 (TF; 5:37) 0-5133: #1PSU dec. #12 Dylan Ragusin MICH, 4-2 3-5141: #4PSU dec. #23 Cole Mattin MICH, 7-2 6-5149: #14PSU maj. dec. Fidel Mayora MICH, 14-4 10-5157: #17PSU dec. #10 Will Lewan MICH, 3-1 (SV) 13-5165: #16PSU dec. #5 Cameron Amine MICH, 5-5 (TB1; RT crit.) 16-5174: #1PSU pinned #30 Max Maylor MICH, WBF (4:15) 22-5184: #1PSU maj. dec. #9 Matt Finesilver MICH, 14-4 26-5197: #4PSU maj. dec. Brendan Yatooma MICH, 10-1 30-5285: #2 Mason Parris MICH dec. #1PSU, 3-1 30-8Attendance: 15,975 (71of 73 home sellouts, including 63 straight in Rec Hall and 8 of 10 in BJC)Records: Penn State (9-0, 2-0 B1G); Michigan (7-1, 2-1 B1G)Up Next for Penn State: home vs. Michigan State, Sunday, Jan. 22, 1 p.m. Rec Hall125:battled No. 23 Jack Medley at 125. The first minute was wrestled in neutral with neither man finding an opening on offense. Medley worked Steen's shoulders to the mat at the 1:45 mark and steadily worked his way into control and a 2-0 lead. Steen escaped quickly to a 2-1 score but Medley quickly scored again and led 4-2 after a quick Steen escape. Medley picked up a third takedown to round out the period and led 6-2 after one. Medley chose down to start the second period and quickly escaped to a 7-2 lead. He picked up a fourth takedown at the 1:30 mark and then turned Steen for four back points to lead 13-2 at 1:00. Steen escaped at :50 but Medley took him down again and led 15-3 with 2:06 in riding time after two. Steen chose down to start the third period but Medley quickly took him to his back for four points and a 19-3 tech fall at the 5:37 mark.133: No. 1took on No. 12 Dylan Ragusin at 133. Bravo-Young controlled the middle of the mat for the first minute-plus, looking to break through Ragusin's defense. Bravo-Young took a number of shots that forced the Wolverine to back away towards the outside circle. Bravo-Young took six shots in the first 2:30 and forced a stall warning at :30. Ragusin took a slight shot as the clock hit :10 and was awarded a takedown with :05 left. Bravo-Young, trailing by two, chose down to start the second period. He scrambled his way to a quick escaped and cut the lead to 2-1 and then connected on a single leg to take a 3-2 lead. He maintained control of the Wolverine for the rest of the period and carried that lead, plus 1:04 in riding time, into the third period. Ragusin chose down to start the third period. Bravo-Young controlled the action from the top position off the whistle. He worked his riding time up over 2:00 and maintained control as the clock moved below 1:00. He finished the period on top and rolled to the 4-2 win with 3:04 in riding time.141:, ranked No. 4 at 141, met No. 23 Cole Mattin. Bartlett and Mattin battled evenly for the first 1:30 with Bartlett circling the middle of the mat and Mattin keeping his back to the outside circle. Mattin below through a high double at the 1:04 mark but Bartlett quickly countered his way to a takedown of his own to open up a 2-0 lead with :49 on the clock. The Nittany Lion finished the period on top and carried that lead into the second period. Bartlett chose down to start the second period, and then scrambled his way to a reversal after a Mattin lift to lead 4-0. Mattin escaped at 1:02 and Bartlett led 4-1. Trailing by three, Mattin chose down to start the third period. Mattin escaped to a 4-2 score and Bartlett quickly dove in on a low shot. He steadily worked his way into control for a takedown and a 6-2 lead with 1:20 left in the match. Bartlett put together a strong ride, building his riding time up over 1:00 and working the clock down below the :40 mark. Bartlett finished the period on top and, with 1:43 in riding time, posted the strong 7-2 win.149:, ranked No. 14 at 149, met Fidel Mayora. The duo battled evenly for nearly two minutes before Van Ness' offensive pressure allowed him to break through Michigan's defense for a takedown and a 2-0 lead. Van Ness controlled the action from the top position for the remainder of the period and carried that lead, with 1:14 in time, into the second period. Van Ness chose down to start the second period and quickly escaped to a 3-0 lead while still maintaining over 1:00 in riding time. Van Ness worked the Wolverine to the mat for another takedown and a 5-0 lead with 1:20 left in the period. Van Ness rode Mayora out once more and led 5-0 with 2:27 in riding time after two periods. Mayora chose down to start the third period and Van Ness cut him loose, then worked a low shot into a takedown and a 7-1 lead. He cut the Wolverine again, took him down again, and led 9-2 at 1:30. Van Ness added fifth takedown to up his lead to 11-3 with clinched riding time. He forced Mayora into a stall warning, cut him loose to an 11-4 score, and finished the bout with a low double on the edge of the mat. That sixth takedown, and 3:43 in riding time, gave Van Ness a 14-4 major decision.157: No. 17met No. 10 Will Lewan at 157. The duo battled through an even minute with neither wrestler finding an opening on offense. Haines controlled the center circle, however, taking a flurry of singles with 1:45 on the clock, forcing Lewan backwards. The Penn State true freshman worked his offense on the Michigan senior, but Lewan was able to defend his way through a scoreless first period. Haines chose down to start the second period and quickly escaped to a 1-0 lead. Haines and Lewan battled in neutral over the next minute but Haines kept shooting the Wolverine backwards as the clock hit :50. The second period ended in neutral and Haines led 1-0 after two. Lewan chose down to start the third period and quickly escaped to a 1-1 tie. Haines fought off a high Michigan shot at 1:45 and went back to work on offense. Haines continued to shoot and turned a high single into a scramble. But Lewan was able to work his way out of bounds, forcing a reset at 1:15. Lewan took a high double but Haines quickly forced a stalemate with :46 left in the match. Haines forced Lewan's back to the outside circle as the clock hit :10 and the bout moved to sudden victory. Lewan took a quick low shot and Haines deftly worked his way out of trouble. The Wolverine shot again and Haines rolled out of trouble, scrambling his way back to his feet at 1:02. Haines then connected on a high single, moved down and turned the shot into a takedown and a thrilling 3-1 (sv) win with :41 left in extra time.165: No. 16battled No. 5 Cameron Amine at 165. Facundo and Amine worked neutral on the Lion logo over the first minute of the match. Facundo took a fast low shot at the 1:10 mark and turned it into a takedown and a 2-0 lead with 1:10 remaining the opening period. Amine tried to work his way to his feet but Facundo controlled the action on offense. Amine was able to escape to a 2-1 score with :30 on the clock. Facundo continued to take solid low singles and killed the clock with offense to lead by one after two. Amine chose down to start the second period and quickly escaped to a 2-2 tie. Facundo continued to set the offensive pace as Amine backed away from a series of Lion shots. The Nittany Lion freshman forced Amine into a stall warning at :40 and nearly connected on a high double. Amine was able to defend the shot and the bout moved to the third period tied 2-2. Facundo chose down to start the third period and quickly escaped to a 3-2 lead. The clock hit the 1:00 mark with both men pacing on the Penn State logo, looking for an opening. Facundo took a high shot that Amine defended at :40. Facundo nearly gave up a takedown at the :20 mark, but the Lion continued to roll and scramble his way out of trouble. He finished off the flurry by sliding down to Amine's ankles and picked up a reversal with :02 left to take a 5-2 lead. Michigan, however, threw the challenge brick looking for an Amine takedown earlier in the scramble. The call was reversed and Amine was awarded the takedown (nullifying the reversal) for a 4-3 lead with :20 left. Facundo quickly got to his feet and escaped to a 4-4 tie with :10 left, sending the match to sudden victory. The duo battled evenly for the first minute of extra time. Facundo nearly locked up a high double with :30 left, but Amine was able to work his way out of trouble. A final Facundo shot was defended and the match moved to a first tie-breaker. Facundo chose down to start the tie-breaker and rolled his way to an escape in just :10. Amine was down next and Facundo controlled the action on top for :14 before Amine scrambled out of bounds, forcing a reset. Amine escaped to a 5-5 tie, but Facundo's work on top allowed him to hold a :06 riding time edge and post the rousing 5-5 (TB1; RT crit) victory.174:, ranked No. 1 at 174, met No. 30 Max Maylor. Starocci dominated the action early in the bout. The Nittany Lion took Maylor down quickly for a 2-0 lead, cut him loose and notched another takedown to open up a 4-1 edge. He then controlled action on top and worked his riding time edge over 1:00 before cutting Maylor loose. Starocci finished the period with a takedown and a rideout and led 6-2 with 1:47 in time. Maylor chose down to start the second period and Starocci went to work on top. The Nittany Lion junior wrenched Maylor's shoulders over and picked up the fall at the 4:15 mark.184:, ranked No. 1 at 184, battled No. 9 Matt Finesilver. Brooks controlled the action from the onset, setting a fast tempo while working his offense. He turned a low single in a short scramble and a takedown to open up a 2-1 lead after a quick Finesilver escape. Brooks continued to work his offense. He took a high double from his knees at the :40 mark and turned it into an escaped and a 4-1 lead as the first period ended. Brooks chose down to start the second period and quickly escaped to a 5-1 lead. The Lion senior continued to shoot, turned a high single into a takedown and a 7-1 lead with 1:11 on the clock, and then cut Finesilver loose again. Brooks forced Finesilver into a stall warning, then countered a slight Michigan shot for another takedown and a 9-2 lead with :30 on the clock. Brooks finished the period on top and carried that lead and 1:01 in riding time, into the third period. Finesilver chose down to start the third period and Brooks cut him to a 9-3 score. Brooks took an 11-3 lead with a fifth takedown, cut the Wolverine loose, and went back to work on offense. Brooks added a sixth takedown and finished the match no top. He added a riding time point off 1:51 in time, and rolled to a 14-4 major.197: No. 4took on Brendin Yatooma at 197. Dean was aggressive from the opening whistle, forcing Yatooma backwards with offensive pressure and taking a 2-0 lead with a takedown just under a minute into the bout. Dean then went to work on top, looking for a chance to turn Yatooma. Dean was able to turn Yatooma for two back points as the period ended and led 4-0 with 2:09 in time after one. Dean chose down to start the second period and steadily worked his way to an escape and a 5-0 lead. The Lion senior took a high single that he turned into a takedown and a 7-0 lead. Dean controlled the action on top for the rest of the period and led 7-0 with 2:35 in time after two. Yatooma chose down to start the third period. Dean clinched the riding time with another strong ride, looking for a chance to turn Yatooma. With 1:10 left, Yatooma worked his way to his feet for an escape and a 7-1 score. Dean iced the major with a late takedown. His 3:53 in riding time gave the Lion senior a 10-1 major.285:, ranked No. 1 at 285, faced off against No. 2 Mason Parris. Kerkvliet had the first scoring chance, taking a low shot at the 2:00 mark that Parris was able to turn into a stalemate and a reset. The top-ranked duo worked in neutral in the center of the mat. Kerkvliet took another high shot, forcing Parris to defend once more and the clock moved below :30. The bout moved to the second period tied 0-0. Parris chose down to start the second period and Kerkvliet worked to maintain offensive control. Parris was able to escape at the 1:24 mark to take a 1-0 lead and action moved to neutral. Kerkvliet took another low single that Parris turned into a stalemate with :32 left in the middle period. Trailing 1-0, Kerkvliet chose down to start the third period. He quickly escaped in just two seconds to tie the bout at 1-1. Kerkvliet then fought off a solid Parris shot to keep the bout tied. Kerkvliet was hit for stalling after the escape, however, the bout's first warning. Kerkvliet took a low shot and Parris countered for a takedown and a 3-1 lead with :45 on the clock. The Nittany Lion was unable to break free of Parris' control and dropped the 3-1 decision. Of course Alec Baldwin shouldnt receive special treatment because hes famous. He shouldnt be treated, as the district attorney in Santa Fe, N.M., put it, as if he were above the law. There shouldnt be two legal systems in your county one for the powerful and one for everyone else, as a New Mexico law professor noted. Baldwin should be treated like anyone else would be under the strange circumstances he finds himself in. But at the same time, Baldwin shouldnt be charged or convicted because hes a famous actor or because theres political pressure to bring charges or because when someone gets shot, someone else always must be held responsible. New Mexico prosecutors announced Thursday that they intend to charge Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins with a Colt .45 revolver on the set of the movie Rust in October 2021. The gun fired a live round and Hutchins was killed. To prove involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors dont have to show that the killing was intentional, but they do have to prove that the accused person behaved negligently. Maybe they have evidence of that. Maybe there are facts Im unaware of showing that Baldwins behavior clearly meets the legal standard for conviction. Maybe a jury will agree. But every now and then we have to acknowledge that accidents are accidents. Tragedies are tragedies. As a society we often have an overwhelming urge to punish someone when something goes wrong. We crave justice, and we imagine that justice must require punishment. But maybe, sometimes, no one is to blame, frustrating as that may be. Or maybe, in this case, theres someone to blame and that person isnt Baldwin. Its true he was holding and pointing the gun when it went off but he has said hed been assured that it was not loaded with live ammunition by those whose job it was to know. What happened on that day is obviously a clarion call for tighter rules and better safety protocols on the part of everybody on every movie set in the world. What happened to Hutchins must never, ever happen again. (Its hard to believe any actor in the future will point a gun without confirming for themselves that the gun holds no live ammunition.) But was Baldwins behavior negligent to the point of criminality? Did he behave without due caution and circumspection, which is the language of New Mexico law? The question seems to be whether a reasonable person would have checked to see whether the gun was loaded with live ammunition or whether that reasonable person would have taken the word of the weapons handler and others on the set who were in charge of the gun. Ive got sympathy in this case for Baldwin, and Im not sure what would be accomplished by convicting him. (The Santa Fe prosecutor also intends to charge the weapons handler.) Yes, someone died. Thats horrendous, unfair and irreversible. But whether Baldwin was criminally negligent is an entirely different question. Baldwin says he didnt pull the trigger. Who knows if thats the case; experts have suggested otherwise. Im no expert on New Mexico law. Perhaps prosecutors are right to move forward. A trial, I guess, will tell us whether a jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt that there was negligence that merits a conviction and a potential prison sentence. But I cant help feeling that this could be one of those moments in which were looking for a culprit to punish, just to satisfy our craving for justice. Not everyone involved in every tragedy has behaved like a criminal. Lee Enterprises, the parent company of the Winston-Salem Journal and Greensboro News & Record, announced that Eric Mayberry has been named president of its North Carolina Media Group and vice president of sales for its Carolina region. Mayberry leads the Lee regional sales organization throughout the state, including Lee newspapers in Hickory, Statesville, Morganton, Marion, Concord and Mooresville. Lee said Mayberrys primary mission is enhancing and expanding the newspapers digital sales and marketing efforts. Those areas have become a pivotal part of Lees overall companywide digital transformation in recent years. Mayberry said digital sales and marketing challenges facing the media industry are foremost on his mind. The rapid rate of change we all face every day is not limited to newspapers, he said. Television, magazines, radio are all dealing with the same issues around securing and gaining audience as media continues to evolve. Mayberry said that the best and most exciting thing about our news organization (Lee Enterprises) is that we are evolving much faster than our peers. Our approach to digital delivery of news is a cornerstone of our greatness, he said. We are still the No. 1 destination for news and information in our region. The difference, he said, is that we also own the best digital marketing and advertising agency arguably in America. We have to do a better job about telling that story and how we can help local and regional businesses put their message in front of anyone in the nation, Mayberry said. The key to accomplishing those goals, he said, is investing and developing in local relationships that help shape how we all live and work. We are here to help businesses grow and find new customers, he said, and we are here to lead in the communities we serve. Chris White, president of Lees East Media Group, said in a statement that Mayberry is a skilled executive with extensive digital sales and marketing experience, and is uniquely qualified to lead our operations in the fast-growing region as our company continues its digital transformation. His dynamic leadership and extensive experience will enhance our sales team and help advertisers reach more consumers through our innovative products and services. Mayberry most recently served as president of two Lee newspapers in Virginia: The Daily Progress in Charlottesville and The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg. Mayberry joined Lee in 2019 as vice president of sales for the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska. His career also includes vice president of sales for Gatehouse Medias Illinois group and regional vice president of sales for Digital First Media. He is a former vice president of sales for The News Journal Media Group in Delaware. When the end of pandemic-tied changes to a child care scholarship program took effect at the start of this year, it left both parents and child care facilities in difficult situations. Citing the spending of all the federal money to pay for increased eligibility, lower copays and more stable payments to providers, the state health department ended enhancements to the Best Beginning scholarship program just as lawmakers gaveled into session in January. But now a Democratic lawmaker from Missoula is bringing legislation to restore some of those provisions permanently, saying it would use a proven program to address the states lack of affordable and accessible child care. House Bill 238 will help Montana stay competitive and ensure that working families can stay here and raise their families here, said Rep. SJ Howell in a hearing before the House Education committee Thursday. Howell said theres an increasing and urgent need for child care in Montana and that care can be expensive, with the yearly cost for infant care at roughly $9,500 and toddler care at $8,400. That is more than the cost of in-state tuition and fees at our four-year institutions and that is 16% of household income for a family making $58,000 a year, Howell said. The bill would increase eligibility for the program from 150% of the federal poverty level, which is about $34,500 for a family of three, up to 85% of the state median income (275% of the federal poverty level), which is about $62,400 for the same size of family. The bill would also cap copays at 7% of a familys income. As of Jan. 1, when pandemic-era change to the program ended, Montana became a state with one of the highest copays in the country, with some families paying up to 14% of their monthly income under a sliding-scale model. Howell said that under the scholarship program now, a single parent who earns $2,300 a month would pay a $320 copay. But under the bill, the same family would pay $161. The final change in the bill would pay providers by enrollment, not attendance. While people who pay for daycare without the scholarship pay a facility the same tuition each month regardless of if they use it every available day or not, Best Beginnings reimburses based on attendance after a child misses more than 15% of the days in the month care is available. Howell used the example of this January, which has 22 days a child could receive child care. If a child misses four or more, theyd be below the attendance threshold and the provider is reimbursed only for the days attended. Meghan Ballenger is the executive director of Raise Montana, the statewide network office for the Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and Regions in Montana. Ballanger said staff at the agencies have worked with parents crying in their offices because the recent change in Best Beginnings has left them ineligible for the scholarship and they didnt know what to do. The intention of this program is to support low-income, working families, Ballenger said. Its designed to allow parents who have no other option but to work to access care that they can trust. We are not talking about families that have the option of working or not working, we are talking about low-income, working families. Heather OLoughlin, executive director of the Montana Budget and Policy Center, said a lack of child care has kept some parents, and especially women, out of the workforce. Rising child care costs often force parents to make a difficult choice of whether to stay in the workforce, reduce hours, or leave the workforce entirely. The lack of stable child care options in every community puts pressure on workers and their employers, OLoughlin said. About 40% of businesses cite a shortage of child care in their community that is impacting their ability to recruit and retain a workforce, OLoughlin added. To qualify for the program, a two-parent household must work at least 120 hours a month and a single-parent household must work 60. Parents can also be in school or a training program, and those using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families also qualify. Sheryl Hutzenbiler, the owner of Munchkin Land in Billings, said programs have suffered from the end of the pandemic provisions. The recent changes in the Best Beginnings scholarship program have had huge negative impacts on child care facilities, Hutzenbiler said. Providers have lost staff who had children enrolled where they worked because of the higher co-pays, Hutzenbiler said. With fewer staff, facilities cannot fill their programs with the maximum allowed. That creates a larger child-care crisis, Hutzenbiler said. Facilities have also lost enrollment because some parents, when faced with the decision of working exclusively to pay for child care, just stayed home. When Hutzenbiler received the more stable payments from the state, she was able to retain staff, hire a part-time employee and offer supplemental health insurance to her staff, which helps her keep her workers, she said. Without having that extra income, I would not have the staff that I have, I would not be able to offer the benefits that I have, and I probably would not be able to take on 15 children, Hutzenbiler said. Four different interim legislative committees worked on the issue of child care, and there are several solutions moving forward this session. While Democrats have said they were frustrated to not see child care-specific money in the governors budget, Gov. Greg Gianforte has pointed to his $1,200-a-year child tax credit for families earning less than $50,000 with children under 6, along with previous federal COVID-19 aid for providers. Howell wanted to use the Best Beginnings scholarship to work on the issue because its been around for more than three decades and has been proven to work. It is working for the families who are receiving it, Howell said. We just need to bring those copays down and get those scholarships to more families. The committee did not take immediate action on the bill. A pair of Montana lawmakers drawn out of their current districts in proposed new legislative maps may been thrown a lifeline to run again in 2024. The Joint Select Redistricting Committee on Friday voted unanimously to ask Montanas redistricting commission to tweak the proposed district lines around the home addresses of Reps. Joe Read of Ronan, and Paul Green of Hardin, both Republicans. As currently proposed in the new maps, they would live outside the districts most similar to their current ones. Residency requirements would prevent them from running in those districts. The Districting and Apportionment Commission proposes new House and Senate districts each decade, drawing new lines to accommodate population changes identified by the U.S. Census. The proposed maps are now before lawmakers, who the state Constitution gives a limited window of time to consider the maps and suggest changes to the commission. The commission, made up of two Democrats, two Republicans and a nonpartisan chair, isnt bound by the recommendations. The new map, once finalized, will go into effect for the 2024 elections. Green, a freshman lawmaker whose district includes large portions of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations and the area surrounding Hardin, would be eligible to run for reelection in a similar district under the bipartisan recommendations to the commission. He called it great news in an interview Friday, while acknowledging the commission wont necessarily incorporate those changes into the final maps. I would hate to see there not be an opportunity to follow up" on his work this session, he said. I am excited that I get a chance, that I will have the opportunity to return to the district in won this time. Another recommended change would similarly draw Sen. Dan Salomon, R-Ronan, back inside his current district. But he said in an interview Tuesday he's not planning on running again for the Legislature. Maylinn Smith, the nonpartisan chair of the redistricting commission, took questions from the committee during the first portion of the work session. She reiterated that the commission will consider all the Legislatures recommendations, but those with bipartisan support would carry more weight in her eyes. Smith typically casts the tie-breaking vote when the four partisan members of the commission deadlock on an issue. The recommendations to shift the lines for the three districts were among several areas of agreement for Republicans and Democrats on the GOP-dominated committee. For the most part, Republicans voted in unison against the Democrats, 4-2, to enact changes to Senate Joint Resolution 8, the vehicle for the Legislatures recommendations on the maps. Those party-line votes largely reflected complaints the GOP has raised throughout the process. The states dominant political party has argued against the use of discretionary goals to create the map, including metrics that stress competitiveness and whether the map unduly favors a political party. Democrats have defended the use of those metrics, arguing that once the constitutional requirements have been met, the commission is free to consider other criteria. Also included in the resolution is the Republicans contention that the commission failed to follow the constitutional requirement that each district shall consist of compact and contiguous territory. It seems like it is a directive that is very precise, not open to a whole lot of questioning, Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings, said, referring to constitutional language. Smith said the commissions use of functional compactness was based on the work of prior commissions and practical considerations. Just a mathematical compactness (measure) definitely would probably not work in Montana, just because of things like rivers and mountains and travel restrictions, where there arent roads, Smith said. The committee ultimately voted unanimously for the resolution, after they segregated the committees unanimous recommendations from those only favored by Republicans. It next heads to the Senate State Administration Committee, which will consider whether to send it to the full Senate floor for debate. Jenna Eisenhart spent nearly six years as a licensed therapist in Colorado before deciding to move to a place with a greater need for her services. She researched rural states facing a shortage of behavioral health providers and accepted a job as a lead clinical primary therapist at Shodair Childrens Hospital in Helena in January 2018. But she couldnt start her new job right away because state officials denied her application for a license to practice in Montana on the grounds that her masters degree program required only 48 credits to complete instead of 60. Eisenhart spent nearly $7,000 to earn 12 more credits to meet the requirement, something she acknowledged not every provider would be able, or want, to do. Im coming here as a licensed therapist to provide services that Montana desperately needs and youre saying, no, youre educationally deficient, when thats not actually true, said Eisenhart, now the director of clinical services at Shodair. It kind of made me feel unwanted. Eisenharts difficulties are an example of the problems that health professionals can have in obtaining a Montana license to practice. State lawmakers are considering proposals to make it easier for professionals with out-of-state licenses to work in Montana. The need to attract more workers is particularly acute amid a national mental health crisis and a worker shortage, both heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. But lawmakers, behavioral health advocates, and providers say the need is so great, they doubt that lowering barriers for out-of-state practitioners will be enough. One measure, House Bill 101, sponsored by Republican Rep. Jane Gillette of Bozeman and drafted by the Children, Family, Health and Human Services Interim Committee, covers social workers, professional counselors, addiction counselors, marriage and family therapists, and behavioral health peer support specialists. It would let the Department of Labor & Industry automatically license those providers in Montana if they meet certain requirements, like having an active license from another state for at least a year and having proper educational credentials. Eisenhart said if the bill had been in effect in 2018, she wouldnt have had to jump through as many hoops to work in Montana. It passed the House 95-2 on Jan. 24 and is now with the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee. Another, House Bill 152 sponsored by GOP Rep. Bill Mercer of Billings and requested by the state Department of Labor & Industry as part of Gov. Greg Gianfortes Red Tape Relief initiative, aims to streamline the licensing process for all occupations regulated by the department, from nurses to real estate appraisers. HB 152 is designed to simplify the process for licensing the more than 50 professions and 150 types of licenses under the purview of the labor department, Eric Strauss, administrator of the departments Employment Standards Division, said in a Jan. 18 committee hearing on the bill. Last year, the department received more than 21,300 applications for licensure across professions, and half of those were from out-of-state professionals, said Dave Cook, the departments deputy administrator of professional licensing. Health care-related licenses had an even higher share of out-of-state applicants 60%, he said. HB 152 would improve license mobility by creating a standard the department uses across professions to determine whether out-of-state license holders are qualified to work in Montana, department officials said. It also would establish a timeline of 30 days for the agency to issue a license after receiving a completed application. This helps the engineer, psychologist, social worker, or cosmetologist who has practiced for 20 years to get licensed without being required to get additional education or take an examination, said department spokeswoman Jessica Nelson. Though the two bills have the same aim, labor department officials criticized Gillettes bill on behavioral health worker licensing as not going far enough to remove obstacles for out-of-state workers. HB 101 creates additional burdens to licensure, including requiring residency and mandating that a particular licensing examination has been taken, Nelson wrote in an email. These are issues that HB 152 is attempting to reform. Gillette said she doesnt think her bill or Gianfortes bill alone would solve the workforce problem in health care. To make a substantial change, Gillette said, Medicaid provider reimbursement rates need to be higher. Itll do something but its not going to fix it by any stretch, Gillette said, referring to streamlining the licensing process. A study commissioned by the 2021 Legislature found that Montanas Medicaid provider rates were too low to cover the cost of many of those who work with seniors, people with disabilities, and children and adults with mental illness. The study found that the states Medicaid program is now paying, on average, 85% of the actual cost of care for adult behavioral health services, for example. Gianfortes proposed budget would boost that funding next year to 94% of costs, on average, before lowering it again to 91%. The budget proposal is before lawmakers, and, to fully fund the services, providers are asking them to raise the rates higher than the governor proposes. Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, which strives to make community-based services more accessible to patients, said that her organization recommended the interim committee come up with what became HB 101 but that HB 152 goes further than they could have hoped. Windecker said every agency that her organization represents is experiencing staffing shortages of 25% to 30%. Up to 90% of the alliance members income comes from Medicaid reimbursements, she said, and its not enough. She said speeding up the licensure process and raising the Medicaid provider rates in accordance with a study the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services instigated are the main strategies needed to satisfy demand for behavioral health services. Weve got to get people in here to work, Windecker said. We have a huge labor shortage and with the Medicaid reimbursement so low, were having a really hard time hiring people. According to the Board of Behavioral Health, there were 5,126 active behavioral health providers in Montana as of last April. The Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness reported 163,000 adults in Montana have a mental health condition. BLOOMINGTON Eight felonies and one misdemeanor offense have been filed against a Bloomington man who police said possessed heroin and cocaine with intent to deliver. Jordan M. Haley, 31, appeared for a Thursday bond court hearing before Judge William Workman, who set his bond at $100,000 with 10% to apply for release. That bail amount was requested by Assistant States Attorney Aaron Fredrick, who stated in court that Bloomington Police Department officers responded around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday to a report of an armed subject on Eleanor Drive in Bloomington. Fredrick said after police arrived to that area, a white car pulled in behind a BPD squad car and officers made contact with Haley, a passenger in that vehicle, who appeared to be intoxicated and had a crack pipe sticking out of his sweatshirt. Police asked him to exit the vehicle and placed him under arrest, Fredrick said, but Haley pulled his arms away and ran about 10 yards before officers tackled him. During the arrest, an officer incurred minor injuries to his left hand, police statements indicated. Fredrick said police found seven plastic bags containing crack cocaine near where Haley was grounded. Officers searched the vehicle he was in, the prosecutor said, locating near his seat 1 gram of powdered cocaine, at least two hydrocodone pills and four oxycodone tablets. Police found no evidence of prescriptions for the medications. Fredrick said Haley was searched, and officers found a half-gram of methamphetamine wrapped in tin foil. In total, the prosecutor said police confiscated 11 grams of crack cocaine and 12 grams of heroin.He said Haley admitted the crack and powdered cocaine was his, but denied selling drugs. Haley is charged with two Class 1 felonies: possession of 1-15 grams of cocaine with intent to deliver and possession of 1-15 grams of heroin with intent to deliver; one class 3 felony: possession of less than 5 grams of meth; and five Class 4 felonies: possession of less than 15 grams of cocaine, possession of less than 15 grams of heroin, possession of less than 15 grams of hydrocodone, possession of less than 15 grams of oxycodone, and resisting a peace officer with injury. A misdemeanor charge of drug paraphernalia possession is also filed. Judge Workman approved Fredricks request for Haley to file a motion for a bail source hearing before he is eligible to be bonded out, and prove his bail money is legally obtained. Haleys arraignment hearing is scheduled for Feb. 3. States with the most firearms traced to them by the federal government States with the most firearms traced to them by the federal government #51. Hawaii #50. Vermont #49. Maine #48. Connecticut #47. Massachusetts #46. New Jersey #45. Wyoming #44. New Hampshire #43. New York #42. Rhode Island #41. Washington #40. Idaho #39. Iowa #38. Minnesota #37. Utah #36. South Dakota #35. West Virginia #34. North Dakota #33. Montana #32. Alaska #31. Nebraska #30. Arkansas #29. Pennsylvania #28. Wisconsin #27. Colorado #26. Michigan #25. Oregon #24. Oklahoma #23. California #22. Virginia #21. Kansas #20. Illinois #19. Kentucky #18. Indiana #17. Texas #16. Florida #15. Maryland #14. Mississippi #13. Missouri #12. Arizona #11. Delaware #10. Alabama #9. Ohio #8. Georgia #7. New Mexico #6. South Carolina #5. Nevada #4. North Carolina #3. Tennessee #2. Louisiana #1. Washington DC BLOOMINGTON A Bloomington man was sentenced to nine years in prison on a charge related to weapon possession. James K. Mathis, 35, pleaded guilty Jan. 13 to one count of armed habitual criminal. Mathis was arrested in March 2022 after Bloomington police responded to reports of an armed subject downtown. Initially, Mathis was charged with two counts of armed habitual criminal, unlawful use of a weapon, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and violation of the Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card Act. Upon his plea, the remaining charges were dismissed. Mathis was sentenced to nine years in the Department of Corrections and three years of mandatory supervised release, with credit for 289 days. TAYLORVILLE A Pana man officials describe as a repeat offender has been charged with multiple counts of possession of child pornography and violating the Sex Offender Registration Act. According to a news release, Billy J. Hulfachor, 36, was arrested Thursday after authorities discovered evidence of child pornography during a search of his home. He remains held in the Christian County Jail without bond pending a hearing on Monday. Repeat offenders like Billy Hulfachor must be held accountable to ensure innocent children are protected from exploitation that can potentially leave life-long emotional scars, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a news release announcing the charges. Im incredibly proud of the hard work and collaboration between my investigators, local agencies and our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Raouls investigators, with the assistance of the Pana Police Department and Christian County Sheriff's Office, conducted a search of Hulfachors residence. Hulfachor was charged Thursday in Christian County Circuit Court with 10 counts of possession of child pornography (Class 1 felonies) and one count of violating the Sex Offender Registration Act (a Class 2 felony). The release states the charges are punishable by up to 150 years in prison because Hulfachor was convicted in 2003 in Edgar County for aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child younger than 10 and also convicted in 2013 in Sangamon County for failure to register as a sex offender. Katherine C. Hegarty is handling the case for Raouls High Tech Crimes Bureau. Raouls office, with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement agencies. The task force receives CyberTips, or online reports of child pornography, from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 10 infamous Central Illinois crimes 10 crimes we won't ever forget The Hendricks murders S&S Liquors Jeff Pelo Clinton Lake drownings Jon White Jennifer Lockmiller Beason murders Dalton Mesarchik Duncan and Jack Leichtenberg Jon Morgan sentencing hearing Vote now until noon on April 20th to support the businesses that you think are the best in the New Braunfels area. A Denver man was arrested Friday on multiple sexual offenses involving a minor in Lincoln County, according to the Lincoln County Sherriffs Office. Todd Devon Speight, 48, is charged with three counts of statutory sex offense with a child by an adult and three counts of child abuse by a sexual act on a child, the sheriffs office said in a news release. On Dec. 13, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office received a report in connection to sexual assault involving a child, the sheriffs office said. The reporting party informed officers that the juvenile female told the reporting party that she was sexually abused in the past. An interview was set up at the Lincoln County Child Advocacy Center where it was disclosed the reported assaults began approximately six years ago. The victim was known by the suspect, the sheriffs office said. Speight was placed in the Harven A. Crouse Detention Center under a $375,000 secured bond. Speight is scheduled for a first appearance in Lincoln County District Court on Monday, the sheriffs office said. HICKORY Hickory Career & Arts Magnet High School is accepting applications for the 2023-2024 school year with an early admissions deadline of Feb. 15. There will be an open house for students and parents interested in learning more about the school on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 6 p.m. The academies offered at Hickory Career & Arts Magnet High School are Computer Programming, Criminal Justice, Culinary Arts, Graphics & Photography, Performing Arts, Health Sciences (Certified Nursing Assistant and Emergency Medical Technician), and Visual Arts. Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses are in many of the academy's suggested course sequences. Certifications and credentials within the CTE courses include Microsoft Office Specialist Word & PowerPoint, Adobe Certifed Professional Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro & Dreamweaver, ServSafe, North Carolina Nurse Aide I, CPhT Certified Pharmacy Technician, FAA Part 107 Commercial Drone Pilot License, and Emergency Medical Technician. Students interested in attending the Hickory Career & Arts Magnet High School should consider enrolling for their ninth-grade year to guarantee their space in their chosen career area. Spaces in career classes are limited. Students will receive all required high school coursework, including English, math, science, foreign languages, needed for high school graduation and continuation to a four-year university or community college. Students living in Catawba County and surrounding areas can attend Hickory Career & Arts Magnet High School. Applications for the 2023-2024 school year are being accepted for rising ninth, 10th, and 11th-graders. You may apply online on the school website: https://hickorycam.hickoryschools.net. Hickory Career & Arts Magnet High School is located at 409 Eighth Ave. NE, Hickory. For questions, contact the school at 828-328-6738. HICKORY First Presbyterian Church in Hickory is inviting the community to a free concert in the church sanctuary on Sunday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. The Stephen Lynerd Sacred Jazz Group will be performing at this event. Stephen Lynerd has ministered to enthusiastic audiences all over the country and around the world with his unique blend of sacred and classical music, arranged with a jazz flair. Lynerd toured and recorded for nine years with Tim Zimmerman and The Kings Brass, and for two years with The Dallas Brass. He has also been a featured guest artist on tours to Alaska, Turkey, and Greece with Insight for Living, sharing the stage with Steve Green, Dick and Mel Tunney, Nielson and Young, and Greg Buchanan. Lynerd has also been a featured performer at Moody Bible Institute for pastors conferences and founders weeks. Classically trained at the University of Maryland College Park and SUNY Purchase, Lynerd maintains an active life as a freelance musician and recording artist. He also currently serves as director of music at Tates Creek Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Kentucky. The Stephen Lynerd Group exists to take the love of Christ and minister it through music. First Presbyterian would love to share this evening with the Hickory community. Visit the churchs website, hickoryfpc.org, for directions to the church and information on this and other programs offered. First Presbyterian Church is at 237 Second St. NW. NEWTON Nu Chapter of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International held its January business meeting and annual Treasured Roses Ceremony at the NC Cooperative Extension Catawba County Center in Newton. Attendees enjoyed breakfast and fellowship before the ceremony. They brought donations for Nu Chapter's local and international community service projects: Safe Harbor Hickory, Knickers for New Life, and Schools for Africa. Allison Patton, Nu Chapter second vice president, opened the meeting with her "Minute at the Mic." She shared her excitement and pride at her first Nu Chapter meeting, seeing the caliber of women educators whose ranks she was about to join. Patton also related the responsibility and privilege she feels as a female educator and member of Nu Chapter to fulfill Delta Kappa Gamma's mission to promote the professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education by inviting the next generation of women educators to join the chapter and giving them the support and confidence they need to grow as leaders in not only the chapter but in the profession. The main focus of the January meeting was the annual Treasured Roses Ceremony recognizing long-term members for their years of service to Nu Chapter and DKG. This year, Nu Chapter honored eight members during a ceremony led by Leslie Black, Nu Chapter president, and Michelle Shelly, Leadership Development chair. The chapter recognized the following women for their years of service and leadership: Leslie Black, 15 years, escorted by Dee Snyder; Yvonne Barnhardt, 20 years, escorted by her daughters Stephanie Calderon and Kelly Wright; Candy Moretz, 25 years, escorted by Martha Brown; Janie Morrison (in absentia), 30 years, honored by Allison Patton; Brenda Harbinson, 35 years, escorted by Brenda Eckard; Linda Lutz, 35 years, escorted by Naomi East; Myra Warren (in absentia), 45 years, honored by Michelle Shelly; and Nellie Pruitt, 50 years, escorted by Thalia Holman. Michelle Shelly introduced each honoree, assisted by Nu Chapter member Lee Ann Perry. The escorts, specially chosen for each honoree, read tributes detailing these dedicated members' achievements and leadership positions. Each honoree received a service pin, a certificate, and a long-stemmed red rose to commemorate the occasion. Additionally, Nu Chapter made a $50 donation to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in honor of Nellie Pruitt's 50 years of service. After the ceremony and a brief time of fellowship and celebration with the honorees, Nu Chapter President Leslie Black called the business meeting to order. In her president's report, Black thanked members for their donations to Safe Harbor and shared information about the North Carolina DKG Educational Foundation's Message in a Bottle Fundraiser to fund grants for North Carolina teachers. Black reported that the foundation raised $5,235 on the Nov. 29 Day of Giving and reminded members of the current foundation grant cycle open through Jan. 31. Black also shared the results of Nu Chapter's Taste & Talk fundraiser, held on Nov. 5, 2022, at Tri-City Baptist Church. The event raised $2,373 to support the Nu Chapter Scholarship Fund, Beginning Teachers initiative, and Leadership Development programs. Committee chairs offered updates on their recent work for the chapter, including a report from Allison Patton, second vice president and Chapter Achievement chair, on Nu Chapter's outstanding progress toward the NC DKG Recognition of Society Excellence or ROSE Awards. Members Allison Patton and Lynn Evans presented three Catawba County women educators to the chapter as prospective members, and the membership voted unanimously to extend invitations to all three. Black reminded members of the chapter's spring social on March 3 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and the April 1 meeting at Safe Harbor. She also invited members to attend the NC DKG State Convention in Greenville, scheduled for April 28-30, and to support this year's convention project: collecting food and monetary donations for the Food Bank of the Albemarle located in Elizabeth City. To end the meeting, Black opened the floor for members to contribute to the "Brag Bucket," a meeting tradition where members donate $1 to share a personal celebration or "brag" with the chapter. All proceeds from the "Brag Bucket" go to the World Fellowship Fund of the Delta Kappa Gamma International Educators Foundation, which provides opportunities for international women to pursue graduate studies in Canada and the United States. Delta Kappa Gamma's mission is to promote the professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education in Catawba County, throughout the state of North Carolina, and internationally. CHARLESTON A substitute teacher has been charged in Coles County with indecent solicitation of a child and possession of child pornography. According to the Illinois State Police, 29-year-old Hayden D. Miller of Shelbyville was arrested Thursday on a Coles County warrant. State police described Miller as a teacher in the Shelbyville School District, a representative for which could not immediately be reached for comment Friday afternoon. However, Herald & Review media partner WCIA received a statement from Superintendent Shane Schuricht stating that Miller was a substitute teacher employed by the district and that the arrangement had been terminated. In the statement, Schuricht said the district was informed of the investigation into Miller on Tuesday, two days before his arrest. The district was informed that the crimes Miller is accused of did not involve students nor did they happen on school district property or at school district events, he said. Coles County Circuit Court records show that Miller faces two counts of indecent solicitation of a child involving two victims who were 13 years old at the time. The charging documents allege Miller "knowingly discussed an act of sexual conduct" with each of the victims and that the acts took place in or about July 2018. The child pornography charge states Miller requested and received a photograph taken by one of the victims of her "unclothed pubic area and said image was delivered via compute or cell phone." The charge states the action took place on or about July and August 2018. In its statement, police encouraged parents of youth who have had inappropriate interactions with Miller to call the State Police at 217-278-5000, or the Shelby County Sheriffs Office at 217-774-3941. SPRINGFIELD The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on Thursday was named in a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of children in state care who have been held in juvenile detention centers after a judge ordered their release. Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert is a plaintiff in the 32-page lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois, alleging that children in the care of DCFS are being held in detention for months without necessary medical and mental health treatment, educational opportunities, or consistent access to friends and family. Each of the children, some as young as 11 years old, were wards of the state when they came in contact with the juvenile justice system and were placed in juvenile detention. The lawsuit centers on what happened to those wards after they received what is known as a release upon request order from a judge, which allowed for their release from incarceration at the request of their guardian. The guardian for the children covered under the lawsuit was DCFS, which, the lawsuit argues, failed to place the children in a safe and appropriate environment in a timely manner. Instead, they remained incarcerated. "These wrongful imprisonments and DCFS's years of unending persistence in them are among the most brazen constitutional violations I've witnessed as an attorney," said Megan Pierce, one of the attorneys who represent the plaintiffs. "Wrongful imprisonment is a violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution." The lawsuit alleged this practice by top DCFS officials has continued for decades, jailing children who suffered physical, sexual or other traumas before they were taken into DCFS's care. The lawsuit seeks to represent all individuals placed in DCFS care since Jan. 1, 2018, that spent at least seven consecutive days incarcerated after a court order for their release upon request. The plaintiffs estimated the class includes well over 100 children. The suit named as defendants DCFS Director Marc Smith, assistant deputy directors Lauren Williams and Ryan Goodwin, as well as former directors and senior agency officials. The lawsuit demanded a jury trial and requested plaintiffs be awarded compensatory damages, costs and attorneys fees from all defendants including DCFS, as well as punitive damages from the individual defendants named in the suit. One of the plaintiffs, referred to as J.B. in the lawsuit, is a DCFS ward. He was jailed at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center for five and a half months despite having a court order in place for his release upon request for his entire stay. The lawsuit stated that J.B. did not have access to educational services, mental health treatment or medical attention, specifically an eye exam. J.B. had limited contact with his family during his detention, according to the lawsuit. Kate, another child in DCFS care, was jailed twice within five months despite a court order that mandated that DCFS place her in specialized foster care. Kate, who has multiple diagnoses including ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder, a mood dysregulation disorder as well as oppositional defiant disorder, remained in detention for more than three months after a judge issued a release upon request order. Golbert, who is the legal representative of J.B. and Kate in juvenile court proceedings, said detention causes additional trauma to already traumatized children, exposing them to unnecessary dangers and even violence. DCFS is not only cruelly accentuating the trauma of these young people, inflicting often irreparable harm on society's most vulnerable, they are wasting local taxpayers money doing so, Golbert said. As we detail in today's lawsuit, housing these children in appropriate settings with the full set of social services they need would cost local taxpayers half the cost of imprisoning them in settings that deprive them of these services and only make their symptoms much worse. DCFS director Smith faced 11 counts of civil contempt last year for failing to move children into appropriate placements, although they were later overturned by an appellate court, which ruled they were an abuse of judicial discretion. Golberts office represented the children, who were held in psychiatric facilities and hospitals beyond medical necessity, in the cases that resulted in Smiths contempt of court charges In a statement, DCFS spokesman William McCaffrey said the agency is working to add more placements. Of course, we can only place youth where we have availability that meets their needs, which is why the department is also working to expand the capacity that was hollowed out under previous administrations, he said in the statement. Thanks to this work, in recent years we have made progress in reducing the number of youth who remain in the justice system past the date they are allowed to be released and we are deeply committed to continued progress. Asked about the lawsuit in a phone call Thursday from Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Pritzker said he had not seen it yet so he declined to comment. Four Triad and Northwest North Carolina universities will receive funding from a state health initiative utilizing on-campus recovery services for students with substance use disorders. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Service said recently that a combined $3.2 million have been provided to five public and four private universities. That includes: $797,807 to High Point University to help establish a Collegiate Recovery Program; $394,727 to expand the program at UNC Greensboro; $262,549 to expand the program at Appalachian State University; and $257,576 to help establish a program at Elon University. The programs have been in existence for more than 40 years. Students are asked to reach out to their student counseling center for more information. The programs were developed in response to the growth in drug and alcohol use among adolescents and young adults, the risks posed to students while on campus, and the unique needs of students in recovery. The programs provide services and educational opportunities in a supportive environment and promote personal accountability. DHHS said the funding awards address a growing need for behavioral health care among young adults and DHHS top priority to improve behavioral health and resilience in North Carolina. These recovery programs support young adults at a critical juncture in their lives, said Kelly Crosbie, director of the states Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services. College can be very stressful, especially for young adults struggling with substance use or mental health issues. These programs provide an educational opportunity alongside recovery support to ensure students do not have to sacrifice one for the other. The universities are recommended to use the money to develop and implement comprehensive collegiate recovery programs that: provide access to drug- and alcohol-free places and locations for students to live, study and socialize; provide peer mentorship; and receive other recovery supports. Money may be used to provide alcohol-free and drug-free social activities for students as part of the recovery programming. There are collegiate recovery programs in 13 out of the 17 universities in the UNC system. During 2022, $873,760 was distributed and helped serve 320 students. Todays awards will significantly expand this investment and increase access to substance use disorder recovery services available at public or private, non-profit colleges and universities across the state, DHHS said. The grants are made available through funding from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant. Until the Supreme Court changed the legal standard for obscenity in the early 1970s, comedians routinely faced the threat of arrest over raunchy material performed onstage. Even afterward, comics could still face harassment by police on disorderly conduct charges. Andrew Dice Clay narrowly avoided arrest in Texas in 1990, opting to cancel his Dallas concert rather than risk violating the state's strict anti-obscenity laws. "The Texas district attorney said, 'If you come to perform in Dallas, you will be arrested for obscenity,'" said former comic and comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff. "Obscenity laws were alive and well in Texas, the state that likes to pretend that it's all about freedom and liberty." Here's a shortlist of comics who were arrested over material they said onstage. Marty Wayne, 1946 In 1946, up-and-coming comedian Marty Wayne was arrested in Philadelphia for performing what was considered an "obscene" show including "filthy jokes and pantomime" at two local nightclubs. "The way the newspapers described it was 'for his purple passages,' meaning dirty words," said Nesteroff. "In those days they didn't publish in the newspaper what they said, they just said 'arrested for obscenity.' And by the standards of today, it was probably a pretty mild comment." The proprietors of the venues were fined $25.13 each and Wayne spent six months in prison. "If you have to get into the gutter and present filthy shows you might as well close up," Judge Harry S. McDevitt told him. "This man's sense of propriety is so low that I have no alternative but to send him to prison. You are not fit to be an entertainer." Lenny Bruce, 1961, 1964 Bruce and his stand-up were targeted by police for much of the early 1960s. He was arrested a whopping five times. In 1961, the comedian was arrested and later acquitted of obscenity charges in San Francisco. The following year, he was arrested twice in Los Angeles and once in Chicago on claims of obscenity. Only the Chicago charges stuck. Hoping for reprieve, Bruce took his act to New York City in 1964 and was summarily targeted there as well by undercover cops and district attorney investigators who attended two of his performances. Armed with material gleaned from his act, the D.A. convinced a grand jury to indict Bruce on obscenity charges, which he disputed. When investigators testified with hand-written notes they'd taken from Bruce's act, he said "I'm going to be judged by his bad timing, his ego, his garbled language." Bruce was sentenced to four months in prison. He later appealed the conviction but died of a morphine overdose before he could appear before an appellate court. George Carlin, 1972 Carlin was arrested on disorderly conduct charges at Milwaukee Summerfest in 1972 for performing his classic bit "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television." The charges were eventually dropped, with Judge Raymond E. Gieringer dismissing the case and upholding Carlin's right to free speech despite the indecent language. "By the time Carlin was arrested, most of the federal obscenity laws had been overturned as unconstitutional," said Nesteroff. "This was the same era that 'Deep Throat' was coming out and suddenly there was a proliferation of adult movie theaters and bookstores and pornography became a thing for the first time. And so the battle was kind of lost, but a lot of these police departments were still overseen by real old-fashioned dudes who didn't like that. Because the charges were always thrown out, eventually police departments gave up on trying to enforce any kind of obscenity laws." Richard Pryor, 1974 Although obscenity laws had been overturned in the early 1970s, Pryor was arrested in 1974 for violating a "foul language" ordinance. "(He) was arrested in Virginia for swearing onstage, the same year 'Blazing Saddles' was released, a movie that he co-wrote," said Nesteroff. "All the words that are in 'Blazing Saddles' are the same words that he got arrested for saying onstage." "He was playing a huge concert when he was arrested for [what they called] disorderly conduct because obscenity laws didn't stand up in court," he added. "So when police would bust somebody for obscenity they would issue a different charge." Pryor turned himself in and was released on a $500 bond. Bowley and Wilson, 1981 Obscure comedy team John Bowley and John Wilson were arrested onstage in 1981 for "telling obscene jokes and singing dirty ditties." The comedians, who had been performing the same show for 12 years and specialized in novelty songs, were arrested after a woman called to complain about her 16-year-old daughter being exposed to vulgarity while visiting their club, Bowley and Wilson's Easy Parlor. "They did (a song) called 'The Fart Song' and the Dallas police arrested them," said Nesteroff. "They were facing a year in prison for doing 'The Fart Song.'" The comedians were apprehended alongside the club owner and charged with misdemeanor obscenity charges, facing up to a year in jail. "I'm not doing anything that's obscene or immoral," said Bowley. "I'm doing a comedy routine. The show is written and produced to be funny, it is not written to be dirty." A single-car rollover crash Thursday morning could lead to felony charges for a Lincoln man, who is accused of his fifth DUI offense, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office. Deputies who responded to the crash northwest of Lincoln at about 11:45 a.m. Thursday found Grant Gregory's 2020 Nissan Rogue in a ditch and smelled the odor of alcohol coming from the 26-year-old, Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said. Gregory, whose driver's license had been revoked after his third DUI conviction, rolled his SUV near Northwest 42nd Street and Old Woodlawn Road, just north of the Lincoln Airport, Houchin said. Gregory's blood-alcohol content was 0.096%. He was arrested on suspicion of fifth offense DUI, a felony, and driving during license revocation. Deputies took him to the Lancaster County Jail, where he complained of arm pain as he was being booked, Houchin said. Authorities then drove him to a local hospital for treatment before he was taken back to jail. DNIPRO, Ukraine Before the Russian missile struck the apartment building next door, Anna Kotova had moved closer to the window to take a congratulatory 19th birthday call from her sister. Kotova's boyfriend staggered into the kitchen after the explosion and found her covered in blood. The blast at the neighboring building blew out windows and doors in her apartment, and a shard of glass had pierced one of the young woman's eyes. Another just barely missed a major artery on her neck. Thankfully, she was alive, Denys Kryvulia, 24, said, recalling the first moments after the deadliest single attack on Ukrainian civilians since the spring. The death toll from last weekend's strike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro reached at least 45 people, including six children, officials said. Kotova was among at least 79 people injured; doctors had to remove her eye, and she remains hospitalized. Since Russia invaded Ukraine almost 11 months ago, many Ukrainians had fled to Dnipro, a city with a prewar population of nearly 1 million located about 300 miles southeast of Kyiv. It seemed relatively safe compared to other areas in Ukraines war-torn east. Wounded Ukrainian soldiers are routinely transferred from the frontlines to Dnipro hospitals for treatment. The nine-story apartment tower that took the direct hit Jan. 14 housed about 1,700 residents and stood between two identical buildings. Emergency crews worked nonstop for three days to search the wreckage for the dead and missing. The intense stench of burning still emanates from the site at 119 Naberezhna Peremohy, although the search crews finished combing the debris Tuesday. Volunteers at multiple aid points set up in the area are distributing food, clothes and plastic sheeting to keep out the cold until shattered windows can be repaired. About 400 people lost their homes, with 72 apartments completely destroyed and 236 severely damaged, according to the Dnipro City Council. While the city had experienced power outages from attacks on infrastructure, the civilian deaths and damage has demoralized residents, who feel there is no longer a place to hide from the terrors of war. I wake up with a feeling of mourning, Valeria Murchych said while visiting the blast site to lay the flowers. In her pockets, she carried the sedatives she has taken with her everywhere since Saturday to help her cope, Murchych said. On Wednesday afternoon, mourners gathered in front of a small church not far from the destroyed building. Relatives, neighbors and friends came to say goodbye to a couple, Maksym and Nataliia Shvets, who died under the rubble. They are heroes of Ukraine because, in their peaceful life, they suffered for the whole country, Vitalii Lopushanskyi, an Orthodox priest, said during the memorial service. The couple's daughter, Anastasiia Shvets, 23, accepted hugs from dozens of people wanting to support her after the loss of both her parents. A photograph of Shvets that went viral, taken Saturday when she was trapped on an upper floor, showed her with her hands over her mouth, stunned. Her mother and father were in the kitchen of the family's apartment when the missile hit. There is nothing left of it now. I have no words, I have no emotions, I feel nothing but a great emptiness inside, she wrote on Instagram shortly after emergency workers rescued her from the smoldering ruins. Shvets wrote that she still was grieving the death of another loved one, a soldier, who died on the battlefield months ago. While Dnipro tried to recover, an emergency services helicopter crashed in the suburbs of Kyiv on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people. The victims included Ukraines interior minister and three children, and the crash compounded the grief from Saturday's deadly strike. Kotova had planned an intimate birthday gathering with her close friends and boyfriend. The couple fled the Luhansk province city of Sievierodonetsk the day Russia invaded Ukraine to take refuge in what they believed was the relative safety of Dnipro. Russia eventually seized Siervierodonetsk in June. We lived an ordinary life. It was a calm life, said Kryvulia, Kotovas boyfriend. He is looking after her in the hospital where she is recovering from her severe wounds, including her lost eye. Glass pierced the entire length of her body. She plans to make her way to Poland for plastic surgery and more treatment. Through her pain, Kotova has asked Kryvulia if he will leave her. But why should I leave her? Because her body is mutilated?" he said. "This wont make me love her any less. The Southwest Airlines pilots union is calling for a strike authorization vote in May in the wake of the Dallas-based carriers epic holiday meltdown. Union president Casey Murray described it as a historic action that follows the Christmastime fiasco and an utter lack of meaningful progress on a contract negotiation, with scheduling work rules and information technology asks in particular, that has been ongoing for more than three years. Its scheduling, Murray said. It is their inability to understand how they got here and what they need to do to correct it. The Southwest Airlines Pilot Association represents more than 10,000 pilots, who will begin voting May 1 on authorizing a strike. Union members gave their leaders authority in December to call for a vote. Southwest Airlines vice president of labor relations Adam Carlisle said the strike authorization does not have a bearing on our work at the negotiating table. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Associations call for an authorization vote does not affect Southwests operation or our ability to take care of our customers, Carlisle said. We will continue to follow the process outlined in the Railway Labor Act and work, under the assistance of the National Mediation Board, toward reaching an agreement that rewards our pilots and places them competitively in the industry. Its the first time that the union for pilots at Southwest Airlines has called for a strike authorization, although the union has taken other steps towards striking as recently as 2015 before the two sides came to a deal on a new contract in late 2016. All four major airlines are negotiating with pilots, including Fort Worth-based American Airlines. Pilots are looking at raises of 20 to 30% over the next four years based on contract proposals pushed by Delta, United and American. The Allied Pilots Association representing American Airlines pilots has also complained about crew scheduling issues, although Southwests meltdown in December is the most significant cancellation event in recent years. Murray said union leaders had many discussions on the timing of the vote. We believe that May 1 provides a date that allows our union time to prepare and gives our customers time to book elsewhere so that they can have confidence that their summer vacations, honeymoons, and family outings are assured, Murray said in a statement. Its difficult for pilots to actually strike. Pilots are prohibited from walking out without approval from federal labor officials. It is not a decision we have taken lightly, but given the trajectory of our current leadership group, we have little faith in the stability and future of our airline, Murray said. Southwest Airlines canceled more than 16,700 flights in late December after its flight rescheduling system buckled and broke after a winter storm hit two major airports for the carrier, leaving pilots and flight attendants without flights, hotels and transportation or the ability to contact the company under heavy strain on phone systems. Pilots and flight attendants, which are also in negotiations with Southwest, have been calling on the carrier to revamp its crew scheduling system for years. CEO Bob Jordan said Southwest is planning updates to the GE-developed software program used the reschedule flights after delays and cancellations. Southwest, pilots and flight attendants are working with federal meditators to move the contract process along, although Murray said he doesnt think the company is taking talks seriously, particularly about crew scheduling issues. The two sides have been talking about a new contract since before the COVID-19 pandemic, although talks slowed because of economic uncertainty. The two sides are set to resume negotiations with a federal mediator on Jan. 24. 1. Yes. Having a community member interview panel is an excellent opportunity for input. 2. Yes. Its good that the city will allow residents to meet the finalist at a reception. 3. No. The city should have conducted a public survey early in the process, as KISD is doing. 4. No. Residents should be able to meet candidates before a lone finalist is chosen. 5. Unsure. Its hard to know how to gauge the proper level of public involvement. Vote View Results FAVE 5: Kearney Hub's Mary Jane Skala shares her memorable stories from 2022 Choosing my favorite stories from 2022 is like selecting my favorite piece in a box of chocolate. Ive been a journalist for 52 years, but I still get wide-eyed at the joy, toughness and resilience of people I interview. Here are five of the most memorable of 2022. maryjane.skala@kearneyhub.com Seeking video assistance from the public, law enforcement received a report Friday that Bob and Loveda Proctor might have been seen in Giltner the night of Jan. 11, the day the Aurora couple went missing. Video shows what may be the Proctor vehicle after 10 p.m. that night. The appearance has not yet been confirmed, said the Proctors' granddaughter, Laci Fleming. "No information exists to suggest that they returned to Grand Island after that time," says a Friday Facebook post from the Grand Island Police Department. "Further tips should be forwarded to the Aurora Police Department." Until that Facebook post, the last sighting of the Proctors confirmed by law enforcement was in the area of Faidley Avenue and Webb Road in Grand Island at 8:15 p.m. Jan. 11. That sighting was spotted on video, Fleming said. The couple is known to have visited the VA Medical Center and CHI Health St. Francis on Jan. 11. In a Facebook post earlier Friday, GIPD asked Grand Island residents and businesses to check their cameras for the blue 2007 Chrysler Pacifica the couple was driving. People were urged to check between 8:15 and 10 p.m. on Jan. 11. Fleming said there have been possible sightings of the couple in western Nebraska and Rapid City. She said "it's a possibility" those reports are accurate, but they haven't been confirmed. "There were possible sightings in Omaha as well." But those have also not been confirmed. Reports that the couple was seen at Rath's Cafe in Aurora on Jan. 13 have been disproven, she said. Support from law enforcement agencies has been "overwhelming," Fleming said, referring to the Aurora, Grand Island and Omaha police departments and the Nebraska State Patrol. Fellow Nebraskans have also been helpful. "We've had so many people trying to help us with this, it's been amazing," she said. Bob Proctor is 89 with dementia and needs his blood pressure medication. He is bald on top with grey thin hair on the back and sides. He is 5 foot 9 and weighs 145 pounds. Loveda is 92, has glaucoma and doesnt see well at night. She has thicker white/grey hair for her age. She is 5 foot 2, weighs 180 and has "beautiful bright blue eyes," her granddaughter says. The Pacifica has a Navy-issued Nebraska license plate number 1030. Theres a Seabee sticker on the back window. The Proctors do not have cell phones or debit cards. "Please do not be afraid to approach them and talk with them. They are both very friendly and sweet," reads Laci's Facebook post. "The Proctor family would like to thank everyone for all of your assistance and prayers through this difficult time. From the bottom our hearts, thank you. But please continue to share all the posts and pray," Laci writes. Anyone with information is asked to call the Aurora Police Department at 402-694-5815. Invest in elections While attention is rightfully being paid to a newsworthy start to a new Congress, Im writing to ensure Nebraskans dont forget about a major misstep by Democrats in Washington at the end of last year. Im generally skeptical of federal spending but there are some needs where I find the investment justifiable. Following the annual appropriations in Congress, where federal funding for national and local programs is hashed out between members, there was a critical $400 million for election infrastructure improvements. This would land Nebraska election officials several million dollars to make necessary updates to the nuts and bolts of our democracy staffing, storage for voting equipment, broadband improvements, and even heating and cooling needs. Truly the basics. Unfortunately, despite widespread support for this funding, Democrats failed to pull through. A mere $75 million was allocated instead far short of the original number, and far short of what is needed to improve election infrastructure ahead of the 2024 presidential cycle. Thankfully, Nebraska is represented by level-headed Republican leaders in Washington. And we trust they will do what Democrats couldnt: support the hard-working election officials who keep our democracy running. John Northrop, Hastings Protect our country It seems to me as I have grown older that the movies, television and other types of media with their woke and political correctness and crude jokes and blasphemous words and innuendos are now accepted as a way of life in our wonderful country of America. One wonders how much lower our morals will sink. In this country with the motto displayed on both our coins and bills, In God We Trust, it is my opinion that we are not trusting God and our currency is on very shaky ground. As a veteran I hate to see our flag disrespected and those who are guilty of that disrespect are allowed to compete for the USA. What a terrible example they are to the youth who admire their gifts and talents then they feel free to follow their example. And what about those who died for our flag? And those who are disabled physically, mentally and emotionally, and what about their families? And what about our prisoners of war? As a retired minister, I wonder if we are afraid to mention sin as the Bible calls it. As ministers we should ask ourselves, What kind of an example am I? I am not saying we should be perfect, but our life should be different. Not a holier than thou attitude, but a godly concern for those who are chained by habits that enslave them and those who are broken and have no hope. It has been said, Your life speaks so loud I cant hear a word you are saying. If God has called you to speak his word, speak it lovingly, passionately, prayerfully and truthfully. The truth hurts. It burns, but it brings conviction, repentance and restoration. On judgment day ministers will receive the greatest scrutiny, for we are to be representatives of our world now. During the past Christmas season I have gone to YouTube and enjoyed some oldies, many such as were put together by Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol. There was Washington Irving and his Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip VanWinkle and Frank Capra and its a Wonderful Life. Cursing and perversion were conspicuous by their absence. You can find modern Christian media if you search for it, Not just our children, we all must keep our minds free from being cluttered. The Bible says, Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely or of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8. All is not gloom and doom. God gives us a promise: If my people, which are called by my name, thall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. II Chronicles 7:14 The big word is if. Doug DeNeui, Pleasanton LEBANON, Tenn. The Kent State gymnastics team posted a score of 195.925 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic in Lebanon, Tenn., on Friday night. The Golden Flashes tallied the third-highest score of the night, beating Southeast Missouri State (195.350) and Fisk (190.025). Ball State won the five-team event with a score of 196.550, followed by Lindenwood with a 196.175. Competing in Olympic order, the Flashes started their night on vault. Senior Rachel DeCavitch and junior Kyndall Gilbert both scored a 9.800. Freshman Zoe Rankin posted a 9.750 in her first collegiate vault as the Flashes opened the night with a 48.700. On bars, DeCavitch posted the first 9.900 for the Flashes this season. Gilbert (9.800) and sophomore Brynne Tsipis (9.825) each matched their personal bests in the event as the Flashes scored a 49.050 in the second rotation. Senior Olivia Amodei scored a 9.825 as well. Junior Sarah Haxton led the way for the Flashes on beam with a 9.850, the best individual score Kent State has posted so far this season in the event. Senior Cami Klein scored a 9.825 for her routine, while DeCavitch continued her strong night with a 9.800 as the Flashes totaled a 48.875 team score. The Flashes saved their best event for last, totaling a 49.300 on floor. Senior Karlie Franz and sophomore Alyssa Guns both scored 9.900s to lead the way for Kent State. Amodei (9.850), DeCavitch (9.825) and sophomore Grace Wehry (9.825) all had strong routines, and Haxton matched her personal best with a 9.750. DeCavitch placed second of seven in the all-around competition with a 39.325. FLASHES BY EVENT Vault Rachel DeCavitch 9.800 Kyndall Gilbert 9.800 Zoe Rankin 9.750 Bars Rachel DeCavitch 9.900 Brynne Tsipis 9.825 Olivia Amodei 9.825 Beam Sarah Haxton 9.850 Cami Klein 9.825 Rachel DeCavitch - 9.800 Floor Karlie Franz 9.900 Alyssa Guns 9.900 Olivia Amodei 9.850 All-Around Rachel DeCavitch 39.325 NEXT UP The Flashes will host their first home meet of the 2023 season on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 1 p.m. in the M.A.C. Center. Kent State's "Beauty and the Beast" event, which features the gymnastics and wrestling teams competing simultaneously inside of the M.A.C. Center, makes its return for the first time since 2019. Gymnastics will host Western Michigan while wrestling will take on Clarion. TICKET TIME Fans can purchase season tickets for the 2023 season here or by calling the Kent State Ticket Office at 330-672-4455. Single meet tickets are also available here. FOLLOW THE FLASHES For more information on the Kent State gymnastics team, follow Kent State Gymnastics on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and visit kentstatesports.com for additional information. LOS ANGELES Film production and firearms experts say movie sets probably changed permanently when cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the remote New Mexico set of the Western "Rust" 14 months ago, leading to the announcement from prosecutors Thursday that Alec Baldwin and the film's weapons supervisor will be charged with involuntary manslaughter later this month. "The gun safety experience on set has become more vocal, it's a lot louder," said Joey Dillon, an armorer who has overseen the use of firearms on television shows including "Westworld" and movies including "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs." "I make it a lot louder myself." Baldwin was pointing the gun with a live round inside that killed Hutchins as they set up a shot for an upcoming scene. People at several levels of production are determined to ensure it never happens again. That has meant the increasing use of digital and other technology that could make gunfire of any kind obsolete. It has also meant more simple things, like shouting when using the same safety protocols long in place to make clear to everyone when a gun is present and what its status is. Actors and others are more interested when the gun is handed over. "Now people want to check because people are a little a little gun shy," Dillon said. "I'll stop the whole process just to show them so that they feel comfortable with it." While checking a gun themselves may be in the best interest of actors, how much responsibility they bear for doing so remains in dispute, and will be a central question for jurors should Baldwin's case go to trial. His union, and his lawyer, say this onus can't be placed on performers. "An actor's job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert," the Screen Actors Guild said in a statement Thursday. "Firearms are provided for their use under the guidance of multiple expert professionals directly responsible for the safe and accurate operation of that firearm." Baldwin's defense attorney Luke Nikas said in a statement that he did his job by relying "on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds." Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies disagrees. "It is incumbent on anybody that holds a gun to make sure that it is either not loaded or to know what it is loaded with," she said in an interview with The Associated Press. "And certainly then to not point it at someone and pull the trigger. That's where his actor liability, we think, comes in." She also emphasized that while Baldwin is to be charged as the man with the gun in his hand, his role as a producer, and at least partial responsibility for the lax conditions that led to his having a loaded gun, were a consideration in deciding to bring the charges. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who oversaw the film's firearms, will also be charged with involuntary manslaughter, the district attorney said. Her attorney Jason Bowles said in a statement that they would "bring the full truth to light and that she "will be exonerated of wrongdoing by a jury." Technology may take the safety question out of actors' hands entirely. Productions were already using digital effects to simulate the flash and bang of gunfire more often, but Hutchins' death has almost certainly sped the change along. "There are a lot of bad ways that digital takes over, but this is a good way," said Spencer Parsons, an associate professor and head of production at Northwestern University in the School of Communication's department of Radio/Television/Film who has worked as a director and in other roles on any sets. "I'm not saying that there's no good reason to use real pyrotechnics, but in terms of basic safety and speed, this makes sense." And when it comes to hardware, companies have been making increasingly convincing replicas, essentially enhanced BB guns with moving parts that behave like pistols but don't fire bullets. Muzzle flashes and sounds are added in post-production. But, Parsons said, "there's not a lot of replicas for some of the antique stuff" used in Westerns and other period movies, which he specializes in. Other solutions that have been sought for sets may be misguided, and may not help. In the days immediately after the shooting, much media discussion surrounded the dangers of blank rounds in guns, based on the assumption that one of them killed Hutchins. "From experience I knew it was more than that," Dillon said. "But the immediate reaction in the industry was to try to cancel the use of blanks altogether." Dillon said dummy rounds, prop bullets used in scenes where characters are shown loading guns, are more likely to result in mistakes like what happened on "Rust," since they look like live ammunition and could be confused with them. He said he found that "frustrating because that can accidentally impart to the crew that we've been ignorant" and previously kept them in unnecessary danger. When investigators revealed it was actually a live round, the fear of blanks, which can certainly be very dangerous at very close range, remained. Parsons said the fact that it was misguided to blame the fact that "Rust" was a small-budget independent production. He said the pace and length of large studio productions can put crews in positions where accidents of all kinds can become more likely. "In some cases they can put people through even longer hours, and the need for speed is even greater," he said. "That can be very very dangerous. The need for speed on any set incentives behavior that's not always the best for safety." Photos: Alec Baldwin through the years LOS ANGELES Soaring mortgage rates knocked the housing market into a deep slump in 2022, and the prospects of a swift turnaround in 2023 look dim, especially with the average rate on the benchmark 30-year mortgage still hovering above 6%, or double what it was this time last year. Shares in Redfin, which boasts it runs the No. 1 real estate brokerage site in the U.S., have lost about 90% of their value since hitting a high in early 2021. CEO Glenn Kelman recently spoke to The Associated Press about why he expects 2023 to be another slow year for housing. The Seattle native whos run Redfin since 2005 also discussed the layoffs and other steps Redfin took last year and why many first-time homebuyers will struggle to find an affordable home for years to come. Q: Was the housing slowdown last year avoidable? And is it healthy in the long-term, given how crazy it got in recent years? A: It was unavoidable and absolutely salutary. Home prices were becoming completely out of sight for most American families, and this country has a divided attitude about that. I know we view it as a calamity when prices collapse, and obviously I wish that the process could be more gradual, but nonetheless, its necessary because theres just no other way that millennials are going to be able to buy into the American dream. Q: How do you see the housing market faring in 2023 after its downturn last year? A: 2023 will be a standoff between buyers and sellers. Inventory hasnt really increased. Its up from historic lows in 2020, but only barely. People who got a 3% mortgage, either when they bought their home or when they refinanced it, arent going to give that up easily. Many customers were talking to about selling their homes decide to hold onto their house and rent it out instead because they want to hold onto the mortgage and get somebody else to pay the rent. That just means theres going to be this huge swath of inventory locked by 2020-2021s low rates for the next 30 years. Q: How about prices? A: Even though demand is low, inventory will be low too, and the housing industry will suffer through really low sales volume. The price declines that people are worried could be catastrophic are just unlikely to happen. So, yes, prices are coming down. But in 2008, 30% of homes were underwater. At the end of 2022, it was less than 2%. And even if prices fall another 5%, the number of homes underwater would be 2.2%. So there isnt going to be anything forcing price discovery among individual homeowners. And thats what usually leads to a faster, actually healthier correction. Q: Where does this leave millennials and others who havent bought a home? A: Its still going to be hard for millennials to buy a home. When boomers were about 30 years-old in 1989, they owned 21% of the national wealth. Millennials at this same point now own about 6.5%. Its certainly hard if youre a millennial, and youre in your late 20s, and in 2020 houses start shooting through the roof over the next two years, prices increase 40%. And if youre on the other side of that, where you werent able to buy a house before that run-up occurred, housing prices have a long way to go down before youre going to be able to get back in. And right now, instead of a 40% drop, were looking at maybe a 4%-5% drop in 2023 in home prices. Thatll provide some relief, but mostly the millennials really missed out on a bonanza. Q: You had a couple of rounds of layoffs last year. How much smaller is your work force now than a year ago? A: Our work force is about 30% smaller than it was before we started all of these cuts. Q: You also shuttered your so-called iBuying business, RedfinNow, which made sellers quick cash offers for their homes. Do you think youve made enough changes to weather another possible down year for housing? A: I think weve made enough changes. You can never guarantee that youre not going to manage performance with one employee or another, or that there wont be some kind of tactical maneuver to limit costs. We hope that weve made the changes that we need to make to adapt to this environment. Ive now been in this seat 18 years, I think. Ive seen it all. (The financial crisis in) 2008 was nasty, and it just makes me feel better prepared for 2023. I probably should have closed the iBuying business earlier. It shouldnt have taken a housing market correction to realize how capital-intensive and risky that was. Q: Youve said youre planning on generating your first annual profit in 2024. What's going to get you there? A: The reckoning that we had in 2022 was to eliminate the iBuying business. We closed our own lending business and bought a profitable lender. So really, were just exposing a brokerage that has been profitable for a long time. So its addition by subtraction. The commitment weve made is that were going to generate adjusted EBITDA in 2023. Thats important because that means that well be generating cash to serve our debt. And well generate an overall profit, including stock-based compensation, in 2024. The narrative pushed by the Democratic Party during the 2022 election campaign was to vote Democrat to save Democracy. The January 6th attack on the Capital was a serious attack on democracy. The Democrat narrative was however a smoke screen to take attention away from their actions. The worst threat to our democracy is the FBIs coordinated effort with Big Tech to block information on the Hunter Biden laptop. The New York Post was the only newspaper to have the story right in 2020. They were quickly discredited by the Main Stream Media and banded from Twitter. Again in 2022 information on President Bidens handling of classified documents is blocked from the public until after the 2022 election. Partisan politics is not democracy. We have some hope with recent developments. Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema quit the Democratic Party. In a statement, she said, I have joined a growing number of Americans who have rejected party politics by declaring my independence from the broken patrician system in Washington. Last year Sens. Sinema and Manchin rejected party politics and saved the American taxpayer $2 trillion. We need representatives brave enough to not follow party lines. The Republicans also have shown more independence in the current Congress. It took 15 votes to elect the Speaker of the House. This shows that not all are lock and step with the party line. The news media said the process was messy. As quoted by Robert Kennedy Jr., Democracy is messy, and its hard. Its never easy. Thomas Schank Arcadia Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Saturday that she expects Congress will ultimately vote to raise America's debt limit. But she says demands by House Republicans for spending cuts in return for backing an increase a very irresponsible thing to do and risk creating a self-imposed calamity for the global economy. An Effingham County judge on Friday temporarily blocked Illinois recently enacted ban on high-powered weapons and high-capacity magazines from being enforced on more than 850 people and a handful of licensed gun dealers. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed earlier this week by attorney Thomas DeVore, a Republican who made an unsuccessful bid for attorney general last year, that argued the ban violated the state constitutions due process and equal protection clauses. The Court finds the Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success in relation to the equal protection clause of the Illinois Constitution, Judge Joshua Morrison wrote in an 11-page ruling. The ruling only applies to the more than 850 people from across Illinois named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, as well as four licensed gun dealers, including one in the city of Effingham. DeVore told the Tribune he was pleased with Morrisons ruling and believes that the judge like many people in the state of Illinois have had enough of this. If the General Assembly wants to pass a law then do it in the wide open, dont do it like thieves in the night and let everybody know what theyre doing and see what theyre doing and give them a chance to participate, DeVore said. And I think thats what the judge was trying to say and I look forward to this case as it continues. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate decried the decision in statements issued immediately after Morrisons ruling, which the governor said was not surprising but disappointing. It is the initial result weve seen in many cases brought by plaintiffs whose goal is to advance ideology over public safety. We are well aware that this is only the first step in defending this important legislation, Pritzker said. I remain confident that the courts will uphold the constitutionality of Illinois law, which aligns with the eight other states with similar laws and was written in collaboration with lawmakers, advocates, and legal experts, he said. We look forward to our day in court to zealously advocate for our neighbors who are weary of the gun violence epidemic. Morrison in his ruling cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year that struck down New York states concealed carry law. The high courts 6-3 ruling in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen found that the plain text of the Second Amendment protected the right of the plaintiffs in that case to carry firearms for self-defense. Morrison also said the defendants in the case Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch, Senate President Don Harmon and Attorney General Kwame Raoul did not follow the procedural requirements necessary for this legislation to stand up to the strict scrutiny that is required when restricting rights to avoid definitional irreparable harm. Due to the speed with which this bill was passed, the effect to protected classes could not have been considered, nor could the Legislature have studied if this was the least restrictive way to meet their goal, Morrison wrote. In the lawsuit, DeVore focused largely on procedural issues under the state constitution, arguing that the process by which the measure was approved violated a requirement that legislation be confined to a single subject. In the final days of the their lame-duck session, lawmakers took a bill that was initially about insurance and overwrote it with the weapons ban. While a common practice in Springfield, DeVore argues that its an abhorrent method of excluding the public from participating in lawmaking so they might have a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard to representatives. The gun ban was spurred by the mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park that left sven dead and dozens injured. Signed by Pritzker hours after it was passed by legislators, it immediately bans the delivery, sale, import and purchase of guns that are designated in the law as assault weapons. Starting next year, people who possess guns covered by the ban must either register them with the state or face a misdemeanor for a first offense and a felony for subsequent offenses. The law also immediately bans the delivery, sale or purchase of large capacity ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns. As of April 10, current owners possession of large-capacity magazines will be allowed only on private property, at a firing range or a sport shooting competition or at a federal licensed gun dealer for repairs. Violations will be subject to a $1,000 fine. Also, devices that increase the firing rates of a firearm, known as switches, to turn them into semi-automatic or automatic weapons, are immediately banned and someone in possession would face a felony count for each device. The new law also speeds up to July from January the existing requirement for universal background checks by federal firearm dealers or the Illinois State Police for private gun sales. It also modifies the states current red flag law that allows relatives and police to seek a court approved firearm restraining order to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, extending the duration of the orders from six months to a year. 2022 in review: The year in photos Antonov Asserts, U.S. Policy of Strategic Defeat for Russia Pushes World to Disaster Jan. 20, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)Russias Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov further clarified Moscows view that the U.S. policy of a strategic defeat for Russia is leading to global catastrophe. Antonovs statement appeared on the Russian Embassys website in response to a media question regarding his thoughts on a Jan. 19 statement from the U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel. Patel had taken aim at what he called provocative rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons in earlier statements from the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Medvedev (in Russian) had said on his Telegram channel yesterday that the loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war. The nuclear powers did not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends [emphasis in original]. Medvedevs comments were in the context of the continued military escalation by NATO, regarding more weapons and tanks for Ukraine, and in the context of statements by NATO officials that Russia must suffer a strategic defeat in Ukraine. Kirill had said in a Jan. 19 sermon that an attempt to destroy Russia would mean the end of the world. In response to these statements, the State Departments Patel said that provocative rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons is not only dangerous, it is reckless, adds to the risk of miscalculation and candidly it should be avoided. Patel blithely then remarked that the U.S. is committed to the Jan. 3, 2022 statement of the five nuclear weapons powers that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. Ambassador Antonov responded: Editor's Note: Last week we brought you the first of four programs called A Princess of Mars. Our story is from a series of books by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. They are science fiction stories, a mix of imagination and science. Last week, we met John Carter who begins the story. He enters a cave deep in the desert in the state of Arizona. There something happens. He does not know how, but he has been transported to the Red Planet, Mars. He quickly learns that gravity on Mars is much less than on Earth. The lack of gravity makes him very strong. He can even jump very high without trying. He finds a low wall that surrounds a group of eggs. The eggs are opening. Out come small, fierce-looking green creatures. When we left John Carter, a green adult creature carrying a long sharp spear was coming toward him. Paul Thompson adapted this story was adapted for VOA Learning English. Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter produced it. Shep ONeal was the voice of John Carter. Steve Ember was Tars Tarkas. And Barbara Klein was Sola. And now, the second program in our series, A Princess of Mars. JOHN CARTER: The creature with the spear was huge. There were many other similar creatures. They had ridden behind me on the backs of large animals. Each of them carried a collection of strange-looking weapons. The one with the large spear got down from the back of his animal and began walking toward me. He was almost five meters tall and a dark green color. Huge teeth stuck out of his face, and his expression showed much hate and violence. I immediately knew I was facing a terrible warrior. He began moving quickly toward me with the spear. I was completely unarmed. I could not fight. My only chance was to escape. I used all my strength to jump away from him. I was able to jump almost thirty meters. The green Martian stopped and watched my effort. I would learn later that the look on his face showed complete surprise. The creatures gathered and talked among themselves. While they talked, I thought about running away. However, I noticed several of them carried devices that looked very much like rifles. I could not run. Soon, all but one of the creatures moved away. The one who had threatened me stayed. He slowly took off a metal band from his arm and held it out to me. He spoke in a strange language. JOHN CARTER: Slowly, he laid down his weapons. I thought this would have been a sign of peace anywhere on Earthwhy not on Mars, too? I walked toward him and in a normal voice announced my name and said I had come in peace. I knew he did not understand, but like me, he took it to mean that I meant no harm. Slowly, we came together. He gave me the large metal band that had been around his arm. He turned and made signs with his hands that I should follow him. Soon we arrived at the large animal he had been riding. He again made a sign with his hands that I should ride on the same animal behind him. The group turned and began riding across the land. We moved quickly toward mountains in the distance. JOHN CARTER: The large animals we rode moved quickly across the land. I could tell from the surrounding mountains that we were on the bottom of a long dead sea. In time we came to a huge city. At first I thought the city was empty. The buildings all were empty and in poor repair. But soon I saw hundreds of the green warriors. I also saw green women and children. I soon learned about many cities like this. The cities were built hundreds of years ago by a people that no longer existed. The green Martians used the cities. They moved from one empty city to another, never stopping for more than a day or two. We got down from our animals and walked into a large building. We entered a room that was filled with fierce green warriors. It was not difficult to tell that these were the leaders of the green Martians. One of them took hold of my arm. He shook me and lifted me off the ground. He laughed when he did so. I was to learn that green Martians only laugh at the pain or suffering of others. This huge warrior threw me to the ground and then took hold of my arm again to pick me up. I did the only thing I could do. I hit him with my closed fist as hard as I could. The green warrior fell to the floor and did not move. The others in the room grew silent. I had knocked down one of their warriors with only my hand. I moved away from him and prepared to defend myself as best I could. But they did not move. The green Martian that had captured me walked toward me. He said in a clear voice: TARS TARKAS: "TARS TARKAS -- TARS TARKAS. JOHN CARTER: As he spoke, he pointed to his own chest. He was telling me his name! I pointed to my chest and said my name, John Carter. He turned and said the word, Sola. Immediately, a green Martian woman came close. He spoke to her. She led me to another building and into a large room. The room was filled with equipment carried by the green Martians. She prepared something for me to eat. I was very hungry. I pointed to her and said the word Sola. She pointed at me and said my name. It was a beginning. Sola was my guard. She also became my teacher. In time she would become a close and valued friend. As I ate my meal, my lessons in the language of the green Martians continued. JOHN CARTER: Two days later, Tars Tarkas came to my room. He carried the weapons and the metal armbands the green warriors wear. He put them on the ground near my feet. Sola told him I now understood some of their language. He turned to me and spoke slowly. TARS TARKAS: The warrior you hit is dead. His weapons and the metal of his rank are yours, John Carter. He was a leader of one small group among our people. Because you have killed him, you now are a leader. You are still a captive and not free to leave. However you will be treated with the respect you have earned. You are now a warrior among our people. JOHN CARTER: Tars Tarkas turned and spoke softly. From beyond the door a strange creature entered the room. It was bigger than a large dog and very ugly. It had rows of long teeth and ten very short legs. Tars Tarkas spoke to the creature and pointed at me. He left. The creature looked at me, watching closely. Then Sola spoke about the creature. SOLA: His name is Woola. The men of our tribe use them in hunting and war. He has been told to guard and protect you. He has also been told to prevent your escape. There is no faster creature in our world. And in a fight they can kill very quickly. Do not try to escape, John Carter. Woola will tear you to small pieces. JOHN CARTER: I continued to watch the creature named Woola. I had already seen how the green Martians treated other animals. They were very cruel. I thought, perhaps this beast can be taught to be my friendmuch like a dog on Earth. I walked close to the creature and began speaking in much the same way I would speak to a dog or other animal on Earth. I sat down next to him while I talked softly. At first he seemed confused. I believe the creature Woola had never heard a kind word. For the next several days I gained the trust and friendship of Woola. In a few short days Woola was my friend and fierce protector. He would remain my loyal friend as long as I was on Mars. JOHN CARTER: Several days later, Sola came to me with a look of great concern. SOLA: John Cartercome with me. A great battle is about to take place. An enemy is coming near this city. We must prepare to fight and we must be ready to flee. JOHN CARTER: Sola, what enemy is this? SOLA: A race of red men who travel our world in flying machines. A great number of their machines have come over the far mountain. Take your weapons with you and hurry. JOHN CARTER: I collected my sword and a spear. I hurried out of the building and joined a group of warriors moving toward the end of the city. Far in the distance I could see the air ships. They were firing large guns at the green warriors. I heard huge explosions. The green warriors were firing back with their deadly rifles. The air was filled with the sound of violent battle. Suddenly a huge air ship exploded. It came down, crashing near me. Red Martians were falling from the side of the huge ship. And then it exploded! Join us again next week at this time as we continue A Princess of Mars in VOA Learning English. Download activities to help you understand this story here. Now its your turn to use these Words in This Story. In the comments section, write a sentence using one of these words and we will provide feedback on your use of vocabulary and grammar. __________________________________________________________________ Quiz - A Princess of Mars, Part Two Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz For Teachers This lesson plan, based on the CALLA Approach, teaches the strategy of summarizing to help students understand and remember the story. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story spear - n. a weapon that has a long straight handle and a sharp point warrior - n. a person who fights in battles and is known for having courage and skill device - n. an object, machine, or piece of equipment that has been made for some special purpose equipment - n. supplies or tools needed for a special purpose armband - n. a band worn around the arm, esp. to show who you are Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we will answer a question about the difference between release and relief. Question Hello VOA Learning English, I am Renna. I am glad you saw my email. I want to ask the difference between release and relief. Thank you so much, Renna Answer Dear Renna, These words are often mistaken because they sound similar. Both words come from Latin and old French before making their way into the English language. They have completely different meanings and parts of speech. Lets begin by looking at release. Release The word release can be either a verb or a noun. As a verb it can take a direct object. Release has several meanings. The first meaning is to free or let go, especially if limited in some way. The teacher released the class 15 minutes early. The kidnappers released their hostages when the negotiations ended. Release as verb can also mean to express, especially feelings or ability. Sarah released many emotions during therapy. The acting class will help release my inner artist. Lastly, release can mean to make available or to publicize. VOA Learning English has released its new video series, Lets Learn English with Anna online. The White House press office released the presidents plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. As a noun, a release is the action or process of being released. The activists postponed the fish release when the river level dropped. Now lets move onto relief. Relief Relief as a noun is the easing of pain, difficulty or lack. The only relief for her headache was to lie still in a dark room. It is such a relief to know youre back home safely. The government opened roads so relief, including medicine, could get through to the disaster site. And lastly, relief means a person who takes on the responsibility of others to provide support. As a relief employee, Pat works at all the local hospitals filling in when a nurse takes leave. Relief or relieve? One important note about the word relief. Relief as a verb is relieve, which can sometimes be confused as release. The meanings of relieve are connected to those of relief, but just in the verb or action form. For example, to relieve means to cause something to be less such as pain or stress. A visit to the steam room relieved her back pain. Relieve can also mean to free someone of a job, duties, a burden, or responsibility, like the relief nurse. A relief nurse takes over or relieves another nurse of their work. This meaning of relieve is most closely related to release as to make available. He carried my bags for me, which relieved me. Please let us know if these explanations and examples have helped you, Renna. What question do you have about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com And thats Ask a Teacher. Im Faith Pirlo. Faith Pirlo wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. ___________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story net-zero n. a situation in which nothing is gained and nothing is lost emissions n. (often pl.) something that is released, such as a gas or gasses, from a process steam n. water vapor kept under pressure so as to supply energy for heating, cooking, or mechanical work : v. to apply steam to ___________________________________________________________________ Do you have a question for the teacher? We want to hear from you. We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: Write your comment in the box. Under the box, you can see four images for social media accounts. They are for Disqus, Facebook, Twitter and Google. Click on one image and a box appears. Enter the login for your social media account. Or you may create one on the Disqus system. It is the blue circle with D on it. It is free. Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here. Scientists said this week that they used a high-powered laser to change the direction of lightning strikes for the first time. The laser was aimed at the sky atop Mount Santis in northeastern Switzerland. Lightning is a powerful electrical discharge between a cloud and the ground, within a cloud or between clouds. It kills thousands of people and causes billions of dollars of damage to communication systems, power lines, and equipment each year. American inventor Benjamin Franklin first invented the lightning rod in the 1750s. That technology is still used today but can protect only a small area. Scientists say the new device, called Laser Lightning Rod (LLR), could increase protection by extending the height of rods hundreds of meters. With further development, LLR could improve protection for important places such as power stations and airports. Workers brought the equipment to the top of Mount Santis at 2,500 meters by helicopter and gondola. The laser is the size of a large car and weighs more than 2,700 kilograms. It was aimed at the sky above a 124-meter Swisscom telecommunications tower, one of Europes structures most affected by lightning. The laser works by creating a beam of electrically charged particles called ions. The ions attract lightning, just as a metal lightning rod does. In experiments during the summer of 2021, the LLR sent strong laser pulses 1000 times per second. The laser redirected all four lightning strikes that happened during the lasers operation. "We demonstrate for the first time that a laser can be used to guide natural lightning," said physicist Aurelien Houard of Ecole Polytechnique's Laboratory of Applied Optics in France. He is the coordinator of the Laser Lightning Rod project and lead writer of the research published in the journal Nature Photonics. Houard said that 10 to 15 years more work would be needed before the Laser Lightning Rod can enter common use. One worry is avoiding airplanes in flight. In fact, air traffic in the area was stopped when the researchers used the laser. "Indeed, there is a potential issue using the system with air traffic in the area because the laser could harm the eyes of the pilot if he crosses the laser beam and looks down," Houard said. Im Andrew Smith. Will Dunham wrote this report for Reuters. Andrew Smith adapted it for VOA Learning English. __________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story laser -n. a narrow beam of concentrated light used for special purposes rod -n. a rigid piece of material in the form of a thin bar gondola -n. a car suspended under a moving cable, used to transport people and equipment structure -n. a building or other man-made construction beam -n. a line of energy or particles sent in a line of direction pulse -n. an increased emission of energy or material at periodic, rhythmic intervals potential -adj. possible for the future __________________________________________________________________ We want to hear from you. We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: Write your comment in the box. Under the box, you can see four images for social media accounts. They are for Disqus, Facebook, Twitter and Google. Click on one image and a box appears. Enter the login for your social media account. Or you may create one on the Disqus system. It is the blue circle with D on it. It is free. Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here. Many people in Asia and around the world will celebrate the Lunar New Year starting on January 22. The new year is called the Year of the Rabbit in China and the Year of the Cat in Vietnam. How the cat replaced the rabbit in Vietnam is still the subject of debate. Both countries follow a calendar based on 12 signs of a zodiac represented by 12 animals. No one knows exactly how the 12 animals came to be named. But ancient storytellers said the Jade Emperor, or the Buddha, organized a race across a river for all the animals in the world. The first 12 to reach the other side would appear in the zodiac. In the Chinese version of the story, the cat and the rat were riding across a river on an ox when the rat pushed the cat into the water. The rat won the race, turning the two animals into enemies. That is why cats have been hunting rats ever since. In the Chinese story, the rabbit crossed the river by jumping on the tops of stones in the river. When the rabbit got there, no others were around, so it went off to the side and slept. By the time the rabbit woke up, three others had already arrived. However, in the Vietnamese version which did not have a rabbit the cat could swim and ended up arriving fourth. The top twelve finishers which appear in the zodiac were rat, ox, tiger, cat (or rabbit), dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Philippe Papin is an expert on Vietnamese history at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He told the Northwest Asian Weekly in 2011 that one possible explanation for replacing rabbit with cat might have to do with language. He said in old Chinese, there is a little-used word tied to the sign of the rabbit () that is pronounced like mao. The pronunciation is similar to meo, the Vietnamese word for cat. The Chinese New Year website says males who are born in the Year of the Rabbit are polite and do whatever they can to avoid conflicts. They like organizing and often help their wives with work around the house. Females born in the Year of the Rabbit, the website says, love being social. They are also thoughtful and polite. And they hate violence and arguments. The Year of the Cat last came around in 2011. The website Vietnam+ reported at the time that the number of newborn babies increased in the first days of the Lunar New Year, called Tet in Vietnam. At a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, 72,000 pregnant women visited the hospital in January, an increase of 19,000 over the year before. Doctors said that the Year of Cat is considered a lucky year. This year, another website, VNExpress, said many Vietnamese are buying new cat-themed cases for their mobile phones. And one of the top Google searches in Vietnam is "why there is no cat in the Chinese zodiac." Im Jill Robbins. Hai Do wrote this report for VOA Learning English with additional information from Chinese New Year and Chinese Zodiac. ___________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story calendar n. an account of the days and weeks of the year zodiac v. a way of dividing years or parts of years following a system of special names and signs that some cultures have observed for a long time pronunciation n. the sound of the way a word is said polite adj. showing respect for other people; showing good behavior -themed adj. a subject that is repeated again and again ___________________________________________________________________ We want to hear from you. We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: Write your comment in the box. Under the box, you can see four images for social media accounts. They are for Disqus, Facebook, Twitter and Google. Click on one image and a box appears. Enter the login for your social media account. Or you may create one on the Disqus system. It is the blue circle with D on it. It is free. Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here. New York landmarks lit red in celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year Xinhua) 09:50, January 21, 2023 Huang Ping (L), Chinese Consul General in New York, and Tony Malkin (C), chairman, president, and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, jointly kick off ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua) NEW YORK, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Well-known landmarks in New York City have been lit in red in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year which falls on Jan. 22 this year. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. "We are so pleased to extend our heartfelt New Year's wishes to the entire Chinese community here in the United States, around the world and especially in China," said Tony Malkin, chairman, president and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, at the ceremony. "This is an extra special Lunar New Year lighting ceremony as it is the first one we have been able to hold in person, live in three years," added Malkin. "Spring Festival is a moment we transfer from one zodiac to another. We're still in the Year of the Tiger. This year is very important ... because this year marks the 50th anniversary of the China-U.S. re-engagement," said Huang Ping, Chinese Consul General in New York. Speaking at the lighting ceremony, Huang said the re-engagement 50 years ago led to the normalization of China-U.S. relationship which delivered greatly. Huang noted that people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States was boosted in the past 50 years and more than 5 million people flew across the Pacific each year before the pandemic. Huang stressed the importance of enhancing the people-to-people exchanges which was interrupted by the deterioration of the bilateral relationship and the pandemic. The Chinese Consulate General in New York will be opened in full size on Jan. 25 so people can easily come to apply for the visa to go to China, said Huang. "I hope to see more people coming to get our service and go to China. In the meantime, I want to bring more people to come back," added Huang. According to Chinese zodiac and tradition, 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit, which symbolizes longevity, positivity, auspiciousness, wittiness, cautiousness, cleverness, and self-protection. The Spring Festival Window Exhibition in the lobby of the Empire State Building on the Fifth Avenue features installation of artistic imagery and representations of the coming year's animal - the rabbit. The Empire State Building is lit in red starting Friday evening around sunset, marking the 23rd consecutive year of such a tradition. Visitors to the deck observatory on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building also have the chance to enjoy a taste of the Year of the Rabbit. "Sheng Mary Bakery will reside on our 86th floor observatory from today through Jan. 29 to offer traditional treats to our guests," said Malkin. The bakery offers specialty cakes for the Year of the Rabbit and other Chinese specialty foodstuffs. Tourists can also get panda toys, red envelopes, candies, fabrics and fans in Chinese style from another stand on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. This is the first time that the Empire State Building has a Chinese stand in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, according to Peter Zhang, president of the Sino-American Friendship Association, which facilitates bilateral exchanges between the United States and China. Meanwhile, the One World Trade Center is scheduled to be lit in red in later afternoons and early evenings from Friday to Sunday in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. A woman poses for photos in front of decorations for Chinese Lunar New Year at the deck observatory of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan) Foodstuffs featuring images of rabbits are displayed at the deck observatory of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan) A woman looks at an installation at the Spring Festival Window Exhibition in the lobby of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua) People pose for photos in front of decorations for Chinese Lunar New Year at the deck observatory of the Empire State Building in New York, the United States, on Jan. 20, 2023. The Empire State Building kicked off its Lunar New Year celebrations Friday morning with ceremonial lighting and unveiling of its Fifth Avenue Window Exhibition. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan) (Web editor: Chang Sha, Kou Jie) SPRING GREEN, WIS. My wife and I stopped talking to each other two hours into our three-hour self-guided tour of the House on the Rock in Spring Green, a small town west of Madison, Wisconsin. The displays had grown so large, elaborate and unexpected they shocked us into silence. An hour later walking to our car I was first to speak. What was that about? I asked. While I remain taken aback at what we experienced, I do believe the House on the Rock is perhaps the largest piece of outsider art in America. Outsider art is considered art created by someone untrained in the subject. Moreover, it was masterminded by a man few people have heard of, and about whom little is known. Even Wikipedia begins the page about the creator of the House on the Rock with the sentence: Published information on (Alex) Jordan's life is scant. So, have you ever heard his name? Assuming the answer is no, you will be surprised to learn the House on the Rock rivals a Walt Disney creation. Before I relate how this attraction slowly transforms from an actual house on a rock into a menagerie of unrelated displays in mammoth, dark cavernous rooms without explanatory placards, or directions where to go, or people to direct you, let me relate how it came about. Later I will get to the 218-foot long, all-glass Infinity Room, and the largest carousel in the world with 236 one-of-a- kind animals. First, though, the House on the Rock is, at least in part, a house on a rock. It began innocently enough as a personal retreat for Jordan in 1945. With an awe-inspiring view, the college dropout would picnic on top of what is still known as Deer Shelter Rock. Then he began camping there, but when his tent blew away in a storm he decided on a more permanent structure. Hauling stone and wood singlehandedly 45 feet up a ladder, he began building a one-room retreat. With no training as an architect or builder, or job, his home slowly expanded to 14 rooms that from the outside resembles a Japanese-style residence. Inside, Jordan incorporated the natural stone formations of Deer Shelter Rock as walls and floors. Windows were built tilted outward for spectacular views of the forest floor, and in-room waterfalls were added. Huge fireplaces were built, although he abandoned plans for one where visitors could sit inside. When people started hollering up from the forest floor asking if they could get a tour, Jordan began charging 50 cents, all the while continuing to build. Profits were put toward expanding the house and displaying his few collections that had long been a passion. Visits by Jordan to tourist attractions like Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm in California led to the idea of creating a separate building to house a main street of themed buildings. The store windows were a convenient way to exhibit the ever-growing collections he had hired buyers to search for and acquire from around the world. As admission revenue steadily increased, his ideas jumped into the larger-than-life fantasy world. He began to employ skilled craftsmen to design and build creations he had sketched on paper, and that were then intermingled with the authentic collections he had amassed. As with all his collections, he was determined each be the largest in the world, and he was tenacious in his quest to learn as much as possible about each collection theme. That was his approach when he began to collect dollhouses. He read about dollhouses of note, studied dollhouse plans, and talked to collectors and hobbyists. Soon he determined a collection of at least 265 would be the largest in the world and that number became a goal. But, as had become his style, he did not just buy dollhouses. He had his shop buy kits, and embellish them. Then he had his craftsmen build more from scratch to match what he imagined. When the dollhouse collection was completed, each residence had been given appropriate architectural detailing, painting, wallpaper and electrification. Houses span the period from early American to early 20th century. For shock value he included a brothel. In another he added mice in the attic. As is true with all the attractions in the House on the Rock, the dollhouses are displayed in a dark area, in this case lighted only by the miniature lighting inside each dwelling. The House on the Rock also includes an incredible collection of animated mechanical music machines that operate off compressed air. All are operated by visitors with purchased tokens. Housed in its own room it features over 40 mannequins playing their instruments on a stage with six levels. While any of the collections would suffice as a standalone museum, they emerge unrelentingly as visitors wind their way along darkened corridors. Included are assemblages of mechanical banks, miniature scale-model circuses, model airplane and ship replicas, paperweights, replicas of the Tower of London's Crown Jewels, stained glass lamps, suits of armor, antique guns and more. Much more. The list goes on, and on until it is obvious this is a collection of collections of exceptional scope. Some of what there is to see are not collections, but one-of-a-kind creations. Chandeliers Jordan designed and had built are made up of dozens of smaller chandeliers. He had plans to build a floor on top of one enormous light to use as his office where he could sit at his desk and observe and listen to visitors as they moved underneath. From the time Jordan began building his house in the 1940s, he had always dreamed of adding what he referred to as an infinity room. More than 40 years after the original idea, and after Jordan had sketched countless variations on paper, his dream project opened in October 1985. When a visitor enters, the room is 30 feet wide. But at the end of its 218-foot length, the room has progressively narrowed to one inch in width. He constructed it to jut out over the valley below with no vertical support beneath, building in 3,264 windows and including a glass pane in the floor. And then there is the 236-animal carousel. First, Jordan began purchasing antique, finely carved horses to create a carousel that, like the Infinity Room, he had been designing in his mind for many years. But, after several purchased horses arrived, he thought he could do better. He wanted exotic animals and fanciful creations that were anything but a traditional merry-go-round horse, and he had his cadre of talented artists build them to match his drawings. What Jordan ended up with were fanciful centaurs, dragons, peacocks and mermaids pulling a royal carriage, all swirling in a dark room lighted by 20,000 twinkling lights. At 85 feet in diameter, and 35 feet high, the revolving, never-ending parade of fantasy takes up a visitors entire field of vision as it revolves to an ominous orchestral soundtrack that seems to warn an impending crime is about to occur. Perhaps the music is so foreboding because it is a disappointment when visitors learn that no one is allowed to ride it. However, as was Jordans custom, even the carousel was not enough for the room. Overhead, scores of bare-chested female mannequins with wings and scanty gowns hang suspended, while the walls are covered with the authentic antique carousel horses not used in his creation. Still not satisfied, he had three giant steam tractors placed against a wall named Firefly, Snowflake and Buttercup. Other than their names, there is no explanation. As is true with the entire experience of visiting the House on the Rock, in the carousel room there is plenty of wonder, and plenty to wonder about. Jordon died of congestive heart failure surrounded by friends and associates in 1989. His final request was that his ashes be distributed over the House on the Rock, which was done in December 1989. A year before his death Jordon sold the House on the Rock to a longtime business associate, Art Donaldson, a collector and businessman from Janesville, Wisconsin. The Donaldson family still owns and operates the House on the Rock as a privately held family business. By the content of character When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamt his children would be judged not for the color of their skin but by the content of their character, he was visioning a path not of color blindness but of human wholeness. Have you ever said or thought, I dont see color? Or its sibling sentiments of tolerance, I dont care who you love, It doesnt matter to me if you come from rags or riches. Such expressions arrest Kings vision, imprisoning the potential in one fell swoop of dismissal. Join us Sunday, as our visiting minister Rev. Jenny Peek joins us via Zoom to share her message on the value and necessity of perceiving wholeness in order to love Kings vision into full being. Our service Sunday, Jan. 8th will be both in person at our location 160 Ninth Ave. E. in Twin Falls and on Zoom. To access Zoom, please email mvuuf83301@yahoo.com for sign-in information. In the subject line write Zoom Service. Newcomers of all religious paths or none at all are always welcome. Unitarian Universalists believe in the dignity of every person regardless of race, creed or none at all, immigrant status or sexual orientation. Everyone is welcome, no exceptions. We believe in justice, equality and compassion in human relations, and acceptance of one another. We are handicapped accessible in rear. Please park in the rear of the building or on the street in front or the side of the building. Child care is available. Join us at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. For further information, please call 208-613-3852, email us at mvuuf83301@yahoo.com or visit magicvalleyUU.org. When calling, please state your name in order to be connected. Episcopal Worship; Ascension Reads The Episcopal Church of the Ascension welcomes the community to celebrate Holy Communion at 9 a.m. Sunday. Masks are optional. Services are online as well as in person. To view, click on the link at EpiscopalTwinfalls.org or go to Ascensions YouTube channel The Episcopal Church of the AscensionTwin Falls. A fellowship coffee hour will follow the service. At 4 p.m., Sunday, Ascension Reads will continue a discussion of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari. The class is in person as well as online. Call Linda, 208-490-0960 for the Zoom Meeting information. Ascension Episcopal Church is handicapped accessible and is located at 371 Eastland Drive N., Twin Falls. More information about Ascension can be found at ascension.episcopalidaho.org or 208-733-1248. Full Life Family Church hosting six weekly trivia nights Full Life Family Church in Twin Falls will be hosting six weekly trivia nights beginning 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, January 31. Come out for a family dinner and a friendly game of Bible Trivia. Create your own team or join up with an existing team to battle it out for bragging rights and the world cheesiest trophy. Donations accepted for dinner and childcare. Hope to see you there! The Times-News has joined a coalition of 22 news organizations, including The Associated Press, the New York Times and the Idaho Statesman, opposing a judges gag order in the case of the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last year. The coalition was finalized Friday, a day after Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall broadened her initial gag order by prohibiting any attorneys representing survivors, witnesses or the victims family members from talking or writing about a case that has attracted widespread national attention. This order is unnecessarily sweeping and broad and severely impedes the publics understanding of a significant criminal investigation that profoundly impacted the community, Josh Hoffner, national news director for The Associated Press, said in a statement. The coalition is arguing that media access to law enforcement and others involved in high-profile criminal cases is necessary to provide context to the public about the inner workings of the criminal justice system. Were not lawyers for the most part, nor are our readers, and those explanations can help make sure that inaccurate information isnt spread about whats happening in our halls of justice, Idaho Press Club President Betsy Russell told the AP. Marshalls original gag order, issued earlier in the month, barred attorneys, law enforcement agencies and others involved in the case against Bryan Kohberger from talking publicly about it. Kohberger, a 28-year-old graduate student at Washington State University in Pullman, just a few miles over the state line from Moscow, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, plus burglary, in the November stabbing deaths of U of I students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. A five-day preliminary hearing for Kohberger is scheduled to open June 26. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will seek the death penalty. There is a balance between protecting the right to a fair trial for all parties involved and the right to free expression as afforded under both the United States and Idaho Constitution, Marshall wrote in her amended gag order. To preserve the right to a fair trial some curtailment of the dissemination of information in this case is necessary and authorized under the law. The U.S. Supreme Court has found gag orders can infringe on the publics knowledge of courtroom happenings, the AP reported Friday, but also said that some such orders are permissible if they are the least restrictive way to ensure a fair trial. To that point, defense and prosecution attorneys in the Kohberger case are supportive of Marshalls gag order. This Court has both a constitutional duty and the inherent authority to minimize the effects of prejudicial pretrial publicity and to ensure the efficacious administration of justice, Kohbergers defense attorney Anne Taylor and Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson wrote in a document filed just hours before the judges original gag order on Jan. 3. The coalition of newspapers and TV stations also includes the Idaho Capital Sun, Boise State Public Radio and the Lewiston Tribune, as well as the Seattle Times and The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. There are a lot of reasons to be thankful right now if you rely on water for your livelihood, your community, or for recreation in Idaho no matter whether youre a farmer, rancher, water manager, angler, river rafter, power boater and more. First, weve had a good start to our mountain snowpack this year. Its great to see snowpack values in excess of 140% of normal in some Snake River tributary basins that have been in a drought position for several years in a row. Im talking about the Big Lost Basin, Big and Little Wood Basin and others. Were just nudging 100% of normal snowpack in the Upper Snake right now. Wed like to see that grow to 120% by the end of April to ensure a close-to-normal water supply for the Snake River Basin. Reservoirs were drawn down to near-empty levels by last fall, so we really need Mother Nature to keep sending rain and snow our way this winter. A full water supply in Idaho benefits everyone. Second, we have been blessed with significant budget surpluses at the state level in recent years. We are humbled by the Idaho Legislatures faith in the Idaho Water Resource Board to allocate major funding to much-needed water sustainability and aging water infrastructure projects statewide. We appreciate the wisdom of Gov. Brad Little and the Idaho Legislature to allocate significant funds for these water improvement projects. Many of our irrigation systems were built more than 100 years ago; theyre in dire need of repair or replacement. The surplus funds create a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address these aging infrastructure issues statewide. In addition, Gov. Little and the legislature have placed a priority on some major capital water projects that the Water Board is working on, including a 6-foot raise of Anderson Ranch Dam in the Boise River reservoir system to create additional water storage; a partnership project with Mountain Home Air Force Base to pipe water from the Snake River to the base for a long-term water supply (the base is building the water-treatment plant); and building more recharge basins in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer region for restoring the ESPA to sustainable levels. We also have a Regional Water Sustainability Projects List that includes more than 20 major statewide projects. The list includes cloud-seeding projects, major canal-lining projects, aquifer-restoration projects and more. That list is dynamic and needs to be inclusive statewide. On the demand side, population and business growth have emerged as major issues that could affect our water supplies. We now have a total population of approximately 2 million people in the state. We were the first- or second-fastest growing state in the nation last year, along with Florida. People want a piece of Idaho while they can still get one. The Idaho Water Resource Board is charged with planning our water future at the statewide level and setting priorities to address our greatest needs. We are heartened to see so many project proposals coming our way, showing the great demand for water improvements statewide. If you have a project in mind, go online to https://idwr.idaho.gov/iwrb/programs/financial/aging-infrastructure-grant/. Ultimately, we have to be prudent and wise with our water resources. Conservation is a cornerstone of our work, but were also mindful of how water-saving projects can affect ground water resources. Its a huge balancing act, but with all of the great partners we have involved in water use and management in Idaho, we are dedicated to finding sustainable solutions for the future. UPDATE: A passerby located the vehicle of a missing Stuart man on Saturday and police found him deceased in the vehicle. A large search had been underway to find Charles Edward Martin Jr., 56, who had been missing since Jan. 15. On Saturday morning, someone saw Martin's Ford Explorer that appeared to have run off the road. State Police found Martin's body inside the vehicle. A passerby discovered the vehicle off of Route 8, over an embankment, 100 feet south of Route 660. The Ford Explorer ran off the right side of the roadway and struck several trees, a State Police release stated. At approximately 8:20 a.m., State Trooper R.S. Lawson responded and noticed the ground had been disturbed near the road and into the woods. Lawson climbed the embankment and found Martin's Explorer overturned into thick brush and not visible from the road, a Patrick County Sheriff's Office release stated. Lawson found the deceased Martin inside of his vehicle wearing his seatbelt. State Police have determined the crash occurred at 8:23 a.m. on Jan. 14 on Route 8 at Five Forks Road. The preliminary investigation indicates Martin was traveling northbound at the time when he ran off the road, releases from both departments stated. The body has been taken to the Medical Examiner's Office in Roanoke to determine the cause of death and the State Police release stated the investigation of the crash is continuing. Said Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith: "Please keep the Martin family in your prayers. This was not the outcome we had hoped for." ORIGINAL STORY As the search for a missing Stuart man has been expanded, a Patrick County deputy located another missing man from North Carolina after a traffic stop. Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith said his department has continued to search for Charles Edward Martin Jr., 56, of Single Shop Road in Stuart since his disappearance was reported to them on Tuesday. Weve been conducting aerial searches by airplane thanks to the assistance of a private citizen, said Smith late Friday. The Virginia State Police is now assisting with their helicopter units and will continue through the weekend. Smith said the Patrick County Patriots organization has supplied over a dozen volunteers who have been assisting in searches on foot while deputies and state police comb the roadways. We need the publics input on this because thats how this is going to be solved, Smith said. Somebody somewhere knows something. Smith asked the public to continue being vigilant and observant and if you see someone matching Martins description or his vehicle, call 911, or 276-694-3161. Martin, who was described by the Sheriffs Office as someone who never missed a day of work where he was employed at Stuart Forest Products, had not been seen since Jan. 15. By Tuesday morning his employer, several of Martins family members and Patrick County deputies searched his residence, but did not find Martin or is champagne-colored 2005 Ford Explorer with Virginia tags USP-6569 with a Washington Redskins logo on the back glass. In a release, the Sheriffs Office described the disappearance as suspicious and an investigation was begun. Meanwhile, on Wednesday a missing North Carolina man was found by Patrick County Sgt. Winfred Hill after a routine traffic stop. According to a release from the Patrick County Sheriffs Office, Hill was on routine patrol when he noticed a vehicle on Jeb Stuart Highway traveling about 20 mph. He followed the vehicle for a while and eventually pulled the driver over. Larry Smith, 75, of 1643 Longview Drive in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, told Hill that he had spent the night in his vehicle and was lost, the release stated. Hill made contact with Smiths family in Winston-Salem and family members drove to Patrick County to pick up the missing Smith, the release stated. Smith was found by Hill at 6:36 a.m. and the family told officers that Smith suffered from multiple health issues, the release stated. Said Sheriff Dan Smith: This was a tragedy in the making that was avoided because of Sgt. Hills actions. Lee Enterprises, the parent company of The McDowell News, announced that Eric Mayberry has been named president of its North Carolina Media Group and vice president of sales for its Carolina region. Mayberry leads the Lee regional sales organization throughout the state, including Lee newspapers in Hickory, Statesville, Morganton, Concord, Mooresville, Winston-Salem and Greensboro. Lee said Mayberrys primary mission is enhancing and expanding the newspapers digital sales and marketing efforts. Those areas have become a pivotal part of Lees overall companywide digital transformation in recent years. Mayberry said digital sales and marketing challenges facing the media industry are foremost on his mind. The rapid rate of change we all face every day is not limited to newspapers, he said. Television, magazines, radio are all dealing with the same issues around securing and gaining audience as media continues to evolve. Mayberry said that the best and most exciting thing about our news organization (Lee Enterprises) is that we are evolving much faster than our peers. Our approach to digital delivery of news is a cornerstone of our greatness, he said. We are still the No. 1 destination for news and information in our region. The difference, he said, is that we also own the best digital marketing and advertising agency arguably in America. We have to do a better job about telling that story and how we can help local and regional businesses put their message in front of anyone in the nation, Mayberry said. The key to accomplishing those goals, he said, is investing and developing in local relationships that help shape how we all live and work. We are here to help businesses grow and find new customers, he said, and we are here to lead in the communities we serve. Chris White, president of Lees East Media Group, said in a statement that Mayberry is a skilled executive with extensive digital sales and marketing experience, and is uniquely qualified to lead our operations in the fast-growing region as our company continues its digital transformation. His dynamic leadership and extensive experience will enhance our sales team and help advertisers reach more consumers through our innovative products and services. Mayberry most recently served as president of two Lee newspapers in Virginia: The Daily Progress in Charlottesville and The Freelance Star in Fredericksburg. Mayberry joined Lee in 2019 as vice president of sales for the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska. His career also includes vice president of sales for Gatehouse Medias Illinois group and regional vice president of sales for Digital First Media. He is a former vice president of sales for The News Journal Media Group in Delaware. A number of citizens met on Thursday night on the campus of Mitchell Community College in Mooresville to express their concerns about the ongoing fight in the area centered around protecting the local environment, in particular the presence of coal ash in various locations across Mooresville. I was very proud to see the level of interactivity that we had tonight, Ava Dandurand said. It makes me really happy to see that people actually do care and to see these people not only come, but also speak out and want to work together is encouraging and inspiring. Dandurand, an 18-year-old student at Mitchell, organized the event with the help of Maddy Koch of Appalachian Voices seeking to find other members in the community that shared her interest in fighting for the environment on a local level. The interaction that they got was more than they could have hoped for and, was often, very passionate. Many of those in attendance were there to express their concerns about the studies that have found that areas in Mooresville have cancer rates three times higher than the national average in certain diseases such as thyroid cancer. I just think that when you see a problem that you need to be part of the solution, a Mooresville resident said during the meeting. Ive been a part of community meetings all over the state and to see this kind of engagement, this kind of concern, is really pleasantly surprising, Koch said. People spend a lot of time talking about really large, international issues like climate change, but to see a group of people really show their concern about their local community is really inspiring. Its hard to find people tapped into local issues like we saw here tonight. The discussion centered around the coal ash concerns went on for well over an hour as the residents in attendance shared their stories and some of the data they had collected in their own studies. Other topics were discussed as well, including the concerns about the high amount of construction in Mooresville, the traffic it causes, and how all of it could impact the environment in the area in the long run. We always have to make sure that as growth occurs, that there is consideration for the environment, another resident said. Following the meeting, many of the attendees stuck around to chat with others about their experiences and how the fight can be taken going forward. I hear all these stories and its hard for me to just sit back and do nothing, Dandurand said. Something in my heart tells me that what is going on is wrong and I want to do something about it. I think tonight was a great first step. Fentanyl overdoses have been on the rise in the past 10 days in not just Butte-Silver Bow County, but other Montana counties as well, including Cascade, Custer, Flathead, Lake, Lewis & Clark, Missoula, Ravalli and Yellowstone. Butte-Silver Bow County Sheriff Ed Lester is urging residents to not use any pill or prescription drug not prescribed to them. If you find pills or substances that you are unsure of, do not touch them without the appropriate personal protective equipment, advised Sheriff Lester. Fentanyl is absorbed through the skin and handling it can be harmful. Anyone who thinks they may have ingested fentanyl or are suffering from an overdose, call 911 immediately. Signs of a potential overdose are: Small constricted pinpoint pupils Falling asleep or loss of consciousness Slow, shallow breathing Choking or gurgling sounds Limp body Pale, blue, or cold skin Lester noted that this information is not just for the general public, but first responders treating overdose victims. WAPELLO A Feb. 16 public hearing to receive comments on a proposed maximum property tax of $705,121 for Fiscal Year 2024 was approved by the Wapello City Council on Thursday. The proposed maximum tax would represent a 3.71% decrease over the current $732,304 effective property tax. The council developed the citys FY24 preliminary budget during a Jan. 12 budget work session. A public hearing on the budget proposal is expected to be held on March 16. Anticipated General Fund expenditures in the proposed budget total $1,679,608, while projected revenue is $1,718,903. In other action, the council approved the December treasurers report and agreed to purchase a used concrete breaker from United Rentals, Muscatine, for $6,250. City clerk/public works director Mike Delzell said he had been searching for a concrete breaker for quite a while. He learned about the availability of the machine after receiving a call from United Rentals. Council member Tony Hammer also reported he had recently talked with Louisa County Chief Deputy Brandon Marquardt and learned two new nuisance complaints had been filed against local property owners in the city. Hammer also indicated at least one nuisance complaint had recently been resolved in court with a fine and an order to the owner to clean up the property. Keck Memorial Library will apparently be seeking a part-time employee to begin working there sometime in February, Hammer reported. He said the person hired would work between 10 and 12 hours per week. In final action, the council gave the go-ahead for local businesswoman Rondalyn Weyrick to submit a grant application to help fund a mural on the west wall of the old theater building at 325 Van Buren St. Delzell said Weyrick intended to form a committee to help with planning the mural, but the councils approval was needed to submit a proposal to the Paint Iowa Beautiful Grant Program. The grant award would be a supply of paint provided by Diamond Vogel, Orange City. CHICAGO In more than 140 cities across the United States, ShotSpotter's artificial intelligence algorithm and intricate network of microphones evaluate hundreds of thousands of sounds a year to determine if they are gunfire, generating data now being used in criminal cases nationwide. But a confidential ShotSpotter document obtained by The Associated Press outlines something the company doesn't always tout about its "precision policing system" that human employees can quickly overrule and reverse the algorithm's determinations, and are given broad discretion to decide if a sound is a gunshot, fireworks, thunder or something else. Such reversals happen 10% of the time by a 2021 company account, which experts say could bring subjectivity into increasingly consequential decisions and conflict with one of the reasons AI is used in law-enforcement tools in the first place to lessen the role of all-too-fallible humans. "I've listened to a lot of gunshot recordings and it is not easy to do," said Robert Maher, a leading national authority on gunshot detection at Montana State University who reviewed the ShotSpotter document. "Sometimes it is obviously a gunshot. Sometimes it is just a ping, ping, ping. and you can convince yourself it is a gunshot." Marked "WARNING: CONFIDENTIAL," the 19-page operations document spells out how employees in ShotSpotter's review centers should listen to recordings and assess the algorithm's finding of likely gunfire based upon a series of factors that may require judgment calls, including whether the sound has the cadence of gunfire, whether the audio pattern looks like "a sideways Christmas tree" and if there is "100% certainty of gunfire in reviewer's mind." ShotSpotter said in a statement to the AP that the human role is a positive check on the algorithm and the "plain-language" document reflects the high standards of accuracy its reviewers must meet. "Our data, based on the review of millions of incidents, proves that human review adds value, accuracy and consistency to a review process that our customers and many gunshot victims depend on," said Tom Chittum, the company's vice president of analytics and forensic services. Chittum added that the company's expert witnesses have testified in 250 court cases in 22 states, and that its "97% aggregate accuracy rate for real-time detections across all customers" has been verified by an analytics firm the company commissioned. Another part of the document underscores ShotSpotter's longstanding emphasis on speed and decisiveness, and its commitment to classify sounds in less than a minute and alert local police and 911 dispatchers so they can send officers to the scene. Experts say the tight time pressure could encourage ShotSpotter reviewers to err in favor of categorizing a sound as a gunshot, even if some evidence for it falls short, potentially boosting the numbers of false positives. "You're not giving your humans much time," said Geoffrey Morrison, a voice-recognition scientist based in Britain who specializes in forensics processes. "And when humans are under great pressure, the possibility of mistakes is higher." ShotSpotter says it published 291,726 gunfire alerts to clients in 2021. That same year, in comments to AP appended to a previous story, ShotSpotter said more than 90% of the time its human reviewers agreed with the machine classification, but the company invested in its team of reviewers "for the 10% of the time where they disagree with the machine." ShotSpotter did not respond to questions on whether that ratio still holds true. ShotSpotter's operations document, which the company argued in court for more than a year was a trade secret, was recently released from a protective order in a Chicago court case in which police and prosecutors used ShotSpotter data as evidence in charging a Chicago man with murder in 2020 for allegedly shooting a man inside his car. Michael Williams spent nearly a year in jail before a judge dismissed the case because of insufficient evidence. Evidence in Williams' pretrial hearings showed ShotSpotter's algorithm initially classified a noise picked up by microphones as a firecracker, making that determination with 98% confidence. But a ShotSpotter reviewer who assessed the sound quickly relabeled it as a gunshot. The Cook County Public Defender's Office says the operations document was the only paperwork ShotSpotter sent in response to multiple subpoenas for any guidelines, manuals or other scientific protocols. The publicly traded company has long resisted calls to open its operations to independent scientific scrutiny. Fremont, California-based ShotSpotter acknowledged to AP it has other "comprehensive training and operational materials" but deems them "confidential and trade secret." ShotSpotter installed its first sensors in Redwood City, California, in 1996, and for years relied solely on local 911 dispatchers and police to review each potential gunshot until adding its own human reviewers in 2011. Paul Greene, a ShotSpotter employee who testifies frequently about the system, explained in a 2013 evidentiary hearing that staff reviewers addressed issues with a system that "has been known from time to time to give false positives" because "it doesn't have an ear to listen." "Classification is the hardest element of the process," Greene said in the hearing. "Simply because we do not have control over the environment in which the shots are fired." Greene added that the company likes to hire ex-military and former police officers familiar with firearms, as well as musicians because they "tend to have a more developed ear." Their training includes listening to hundreds of audio samples of gunfire and even visits to rifle ranges to familiarize themselves with the characteristics of gun blasts. As cities have weighed the system's promise against its price tag which can reach $95,000 per square mile per year company employees have explained in detail how its acoustic sensors on utility poles and light posts pick up loud pops, booms or bangs and then filter the sounds through an algorithm that automatically classifies whether they're gunfire or something else. But until now, little has been known about the next step: how ShotSpotter's human reviewers in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay area decide what is a gunshot versus any other noise, 24 hours a day. "Listening to the audio downloads are important," according to the document written by David Valdez, a former police officer and now-retired supervisor of one of ShotSpotter's review centers. "Sometimes the audio is compelling for gunfire that they may override all other characteristics." However, a recent study found humans tend to overestimate their abilities to identify sounds. The 2022 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Forensic Science International looked at how well human listeners identified voices compared to voice-recognition tools. It found all the human listeners performed worse than the voice system alone, saying the findings should lead to the elimination of human listeners in court cases whenever possible. "Would that be the case with ShotSpotter? Would the ShotSpotter system plus the reviewer outperform the system alone?" asked Morrison, who was one of seven researchers who conducted the study. "I don't know. But ShotSpotter should do validation to demonstrate that." 50 facts about guns in America What to know about guns in the U.S. The first firearm reached the New World in 1492 Record climb in background checks during the COVID-19 pandemic Americans purchased more firearms in 2020 and 2021 than at any point in the nation's history The Second Amendment is at odds with modern politics Protection cited as a primary reason for ownership More Americans want stricter controls Ban of bump stocks upheld by the Supreme Court The leading cause of death for children in the U.S. is guns Only certain states require background checks 2016 saw record-breaking gun manufacturing Firearm ownership triples the rate of self-murders Up to 36 states have Stand Your Ground law 3 out of 10 Americans own a gun There were nearly 700 mass shootings in 2021 The National Rifle Association formed in 1871 Bipartisan support against gun owners with mental illness 44% of Americans know someone who was shot Concealed and open carry Nonmailable Firearms Act of 1927 banned shipping firearms through USPS America has more guns than people States with more guns have higher firearm fatalities Almost 3,000 US mass shootings since Sandy Hook Higher police officer deaths in gun-friendly states Eleven states allow students to carry concealed guns on campus Vermont adolescents can own a handgun States exempt from federal gun laws 22 adolescents are shot daily in the US 39% of parents don't think kids know where their gun is stored More than a third of non-owners believe they will own a gun at some point in their lives More than 320,000 children in US have witnessed mass shootings President George Washington's pistols worth $2 million Domestic violence is a leading cause of adolescent shootings States with the most restrictive firearm regulations see fewer deaths by guns Gun-Free School Zones Act made it illegal to carry a firearm near schools Washington D.C. gun ownership was banned from 1975 to 2008 Demographics of gun ownership National Firearms Act of 1934 was passed in response to gang violence There are more than 2,000 US gun shows a year Montana has the highest percentage of gun ownership Several East Coast states have the lowest percentage of gun ownership and licenses issued 58 were killed in largest mass shooting The Federal Firearms Act of 1938 required a license to sell firearms Seven states and Washington D.C. have assault weapons bans Gun purchases contribute to wildlife conservation efforts The 1993 Brady Act introduced FBI background checks There are loopholes in background checks Alcohol abuse heightens gun violence Gun Control Act of 1968 was the first to prohibit gun sales to certain groups A city in Georgia requires that every household must own a gun Remington Arms is the oldest gun manufacturer in the US Should the city of Napa receive a $15 million California grant to transition homeless residents out of encampments and into supportive housing, the city is planning to lease the Motel 6 on Solano Avenue for that purpose. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register. Amid calls from community members and business owners to not move forward with the lease, the Napa City Council unanimously approved the $15 million grant application to Californias Encampment Resolution Funding Program on Tuesday, though councilmembers noted they werent voting to approve the Motel 6 project, and that it would need to come back before them should the city receive the funding. That grant funding would pay for a roughly $6 million, three-year lease of the property, said Molly Rattigan, the citys point person on homelessness, at the Tuesday meeting. It would be matched with a comprehensive staffing plan which ensures theres two staff members on site at all times that mirrors whats available at the citys south Napa shelter. The proposal also includes two security guards, Rattigan said. Rattigan also noted that homeless residents were housed at Motel 6 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and part of the hotel is currently being used for COVID-19 respite for those who don't have another place to shelter or quarantine. Should the city receive the state funding, the city would need to prioritize closing down encampments on state property, such as property owned by the California Department of Transportation like areas along Highway 29, according to Rattigan. The citys application also prioritizes areas around the Napa River, Napas various creeks and Kennedy Park. It is really only with increased shelter capacity that we're really going to be able as a city to effectively address unsheltered encampments, Rattigan said. The goal of the program would be to serve 120 individuals over the course of the program, Rattigan said, with about 65 residents on site to fill 66 rooms at any one time. The anticipated award announcements are April 30 this year, and anticipated project implementation would begin in June 2023, according to the staff presentation. The growing number of homeless people living in encampments across California remains an issue the state and the city of Napa are attempting to solve by providing housing and supportive services that, in theory, will give them the support they need to enter back into the systems and flow of greater society. But another reason why cities need spaces for homeless individuals is theres a legal restriction through a 2018 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Martin v. Boise case on clearing encampments unless they can offer an alternative shelter. The state of California and HUD operate off of a Housing First model, and the thought is that you get someone into shelter or into housing, and then you open up the ability to work on the other underlying issues that might cause the unsheltered homelessness, Rattigan said at the meeting. So that could be use of drugs, that could be mental health issues, that could be connecting them with income, with jobs, with housing support services and really, truly providing the wrap-around support to keep someone stably housed and a productive member of our community. The proposal met with significant resistance from some business owners and Napans who live near the Motel 6, with some noting that people weren't comfortable at businesses in the area already. Mark Van Gorder, a former Napa council member, said he wasnt happy to see the continued encroachment of homeless encampments. But he also said hes talked with some of Napas unhoused people, and its hard to hear their stories. Theyre young people, a lot of them, Van Gorder said. Theyre not all drug addicted, theyre not all alcoholics, and then a lot of them dont even necessarily have mental problems. Theyre just going through tough times. So I dont want to sound like we need to get rid of the homeless people. Van Gorder concluded that he was hoping homeless services locations could be moved further away from schools. The councilmembers, for the most part, said they supported the application, but they sympathized with the business owners. Councilmember Mary Luros said she agreed the current situation was untenable, but ultimately she'd rather have people off the street and getting services. On July 6, 1885, the first article in Steads expose was published. Stead revealed how thousands of girls, most of whom were between 13 and 15 years old, were bought for sex by prominent London men, including a well-known member of Parliament, a cabinet minister, a doctor and a clergyman who obtained a 12-year old virgin for 20. As soon as it hit Londons newsstands, the story went viral. Stead already had a reputation as a fearless editor who advocated Government by Journalism and didnt shy from sensationalism. The Gazettes reporting was front-page news in the U.S., with The New York Times covering the scandal and the reaction by English authorities. Instead of working to swiftly shut down the illicit sex trade and identify those involved, Londons city solicitor ordered police to seize copies of the Gazette and to arrest vendors for selling copies of the paper. Despite or because of the attempted censorship, copies sold well above their cover price. Thousands waited outside newspaper offices for their chance to buy each new installment. Those who could get their hands on a copy learned about how women recruited young girls, and how the authorities who knew about it failed to intervene. Stead interviewed women who explained how they enticed girls to enter the homes of wealthy men with promises of meals, money and jobs. Looking out for pretty girls who are poor, brothel keepers and professional procurers recruited orphans, shop girls, servants and nursemaids to visit gentlemen. The police knew all about them long ago, Stead added, noting that officers were discouraged from pursuing leads, while prosecutors intimidated potential witnesses. Stead interviewed some of the men who paid for the girls. They assured him that the maidens willingly sometimes eagerly consented. As the member of Parliament told Stead, I doubt the unwillingness of these virgins it is nonsense to say it is rape. The victimized girls told a different story: They were lured with the promise of a better life. They had no idea that the employment agencies they used were actually fronts for prostitution. Once the girls consented to go into the gentlemans house, there was no going back. According to Stead, those who resisted were told that they could choose either to be raped and paid, or raped and then turned into the streets without a penny. Napas Kohls department store wont be moving from downtown Napa to Soscol Avenue after all. Im sorry to say it didnt go through, Gary Van Dam, a broker with Strong & Hayden commercial real estate, said on Tuesday. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register. Its disappointing, Van Dam said. A lot of time and effort went into, securing the Kohls lease. He was referring to a September 2020 announcement that Kohls planned to relocate its Napa department store from Parkway Plaza and lease a new 55,000-square-foot building at 333 Soscol Ave. The department store was to be the anchor tenant of the development named Soscol Square. Once Kohls had vacated its downtown space, that would have cleared the way for a $250 million redevelopment of the Parkway Plaza. Those plans included 120 apartments, a 210-room hotel and 35,000 square feet of commercial space for lease. Parkway Plaza, within the northwest corner of Main and First Streets, is owned by Coombs Street LLC of San Ramon. Ronmor Developers Inc. of Canada is the developer of the 333 Soscol Ave. project. In September 2020 a representative from Ronmor said the Kohls lease on Soscol Avenue was in process. Were hoping by this fall to have something concluded with the Kohls lease, said Doug Porozni, vice president at Ronmor, at that time. I dont see anything in the way right now to prevent us from doing that. The Kohls logo was featured on the Soscol Square leasing site map as of May, but by September, the logo was gone. Commercial leasing websites currently advertise that more than an acre of space at the property is available for lease. Porozni declined this week to comment about the loss of Kohls as an anchor tenant at 333 Soscol Ave. A representative from Kohls could not be immediately reached to comment on this story. Van Dam said he could not share other details about the failed lease. However, he did say that the 55,000-square-foot space at Soscol Square originally intended for Kohls could be subdivided. In fact, hes in active discussions with one group of potential tenants that could take over the building, said the realtor. Large multi-use project planned for Kohl's site in downtown Napa Zapolski Real Estate announced plans to move Kohl's department store to a new location and build a $250 million housing, hotel and commercial project in downtown. Locals hoping that an REI, Nordstrom Rack, Hobby Lobby, Dicks Sporting Goods or Macy's will come to Napa will be disappointed. Napas population is too small to draw those larger retailers, said Joe Fischer, senior vice president of real estate at Strong & Hayden. Napa has always been and will always be a tertiary market for national retailers, he said. With larger markets surrounding Napa Valley, such as Solano and Sonoma counties, were just never going to be a top finisher with these national retailers. A drive-thru restaurant, either Chick-fil-A or Raising Canes Chicken Fingers, would also have been part of Soscol Square. However, Chick-fil-A was dropped from the project. Ronmor never said why exactly, but the restaurant faced opposition from several city residents, including members of the citys LGBTQ community. Later, the City Council denied a Raising Canes Chicken Fingers drive-thru citing the importance of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions created by idling cars. At that time, Porozni said Ronmor wasnt willing to move forward without a drive-thru because such a restaurant would be the financial centerpiece of Soscol Square. Fischer remembers Ronmor "being very forthright that these in-line tenants, including some quick-serve restaurants one with a drive-thru made the whole puzzle work. He explained that Ronmor likely considered Kohls a loss leader a term in the shopping center business for an anchor lease on very favorable terms. Developers will do a loss-leader deal if they know they can bring in a number of 'in-line' and 'shop space' tenants that are more profitable, and all the tenants together 'as one basket' makes a new planned shopping center actually workable," said Fischer. While Kohls and a drive-thru wont be part of Soscol Square, Van Dam did confirm two smaller tenants to open Soscol Square: Sourdough & Co. and Juice It Up! Sourdough & Co. currently lists more than 50 locations on its website. The company is based in El Dorado Hills. Juice It Up! is a franchised raw juice and smoothie bar company with nearly 100 locations open and in development, according to its website. If Kohls isnt leaving downtown, what does this mean for the Parkway Plaza redevelopment project? That hasnt been announced. Jerry Hunt, a representative of Coombs Street LLC, did not return a phone call to comment on this story. As of 2020 Zapolski Real Estate, the former owner of Parkway Plaza, maintained a financial stake in the redevelopment of Parkway Plaza, according to Andrew Mazotti, a director at Zapolski Real Estate. Mazotti could not be immediately reached this week to comment on this story. As for the future of a Kohls in Napa, downtown or otherwise, Fischer isnt optimistic. In the end, the existing Kohls will go away within the next three to six years and exit the market as it is now retrenching its new store strategy (by focusing) on smaller units in larger demographic areas, he said. It's frustrating, said Fischer. Brazil's president in China called for abandoning the dollar Artsakh's Ombudsman expresses dissatisfaction to OSCE chairman for attitude of international community Ararat Mirzoyan will go on a working visit to Uzbekistan Police and demonstrators clash on the 12th day of demonstrations in France Anahit Manasyan had a phone conversation with the Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh he 12th protest against pension reform takes place in France MFA: Shushi is Artsakhs integral part in territorial, cultural, economic, historical aspects An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 occurred in southeastern Turkey Charles Michel explains his activeness in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations normalization process Armenia PM to Bujar Osmani: This visit is good opportunity to get familiarized with complicated situation South Korea bans its citizens from traveling to Armenia-Azerbaijan border region Karabakh President convenes working consultation, security challenges discussed OSCE Chairman-in-Office: I am here to find out if there is possibility to build bridges between Yerevan and Baku Armenia PM chief of staff: Azerbaijanis are already in Yerevan, we have ensured their safety Chairman-in-Office: OSCE toolkit provides mechanisms to assist peace process between Armenians and Azerbaijanis Osmani: We are ready for any efforts to achieve positive dynamics between Azerbaijan and Armenia Armenia FM: Replacing army with guards on Azerbaijan border should be part of final settlement Armenia MFA: Rumors about OSCE Minsk Group activities termination are greatly exaggerated 168.am: Who is the Azerbaijani already rendered ineffective in Armenia? What does he say in video? Armenia village youth tell how they caught Azerbaijani Armenia Investigative Committee issues statement on murder of security guard, 56, in Syunik Province Azerbaijani who crossed border into Armenia is caught by locals, found in Achanan village territory 2nd Azerbaijan soldier found, detained in Armenia Armenian health minister: Wounded soldier in critical condition due to Azerbaijan provocation has stabilized Which Armenia company is put on US sanctions list? Premier: Armenia ready for reopening of transport links, delimitation of borders Pashinyan: We are ready to withdraw troops to safe distance along Armenia-Azerbaijan 1991 border Armenia to have trade attache in Germany Azerbaijan MFA accuses France foreign ministry of smear campaign and unfair position Armenia PM: It failed to deploy border guards without escalation of tension Newly elected Armenia ombudsperson announces her priority objective in this capacity Armenia deputy PM, US Deputy Secretary of Treasury acknowledge high level of cooperation between both countries Newspaper: Karabakh soldiers who showed necessary resistance to Azerbaijan military are rewarded Armenia FM, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office tete-a-tete kicks off (PHOTOS) Armenia deputy PM, USAID official discuss opportunities for deepening cooperation Mher Grigoryan, Todd Robinson exchange views on ongoing democratic reforms in Armenia Armenia FM to Derek Hogan: Provocation near Tegh village was another manifestation of Azerbaijan aggressive policy shamshyan.com: Murder in Armenias Syunik Province, 6 gunshot wounds found on body of security guard, 57 US State Department on Armenias Tegh village incident: Use of force to resolve disputes is unacceptable MFA: France deeply concerned about violence that took place near Tegh village of Armenia Legal entity from Armenia on list of those subject to US export restrictions Russia MOD: 4 ceasefire violations recorded in Karabakh EU monitoring mission in Armenia not present in the area when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia National Security Service Border Guard Troops commander dismissed Armenia MOD: Tegh village incident that led to undesirable consequences was due to deployment adjustment Mayor of Frances Lyon expresses unconditional support to people of Karabakh Pashinyan: Armenian side had recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan Criminal proceedings launched into Armenia soldiers being killed, wounded by Azerbaijan near Tegh village Chairman-in-Office: OSCE supports continuation of Armenia-Azerbaijan direct contacts MFA: Russia asked Armenia to explain information about participating in joint military exercises with NATO Zakharova does not disclose details of Russian, Turkish FMs talks on Armenia-Turkey relations Russia MFA spox: CSTO mission deployment details can be talked about when Armenia is ready Zakharova: Russia favors complete unblocking of Lachin corridor Russia MFA: Other players engagement will lead to Armenia-Azerbaijan relations destabilization EU calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to intensify border delimitation talks, until then to respect 1991 line Russia MFA spox: Yerevan, Baku accepted proposal to hold another bilateral talks Pallone: This is another senseless provocation from Azerbaijani forces against Armenia Zakharova: Russia Border Guard Service, army took measures to de-escalate situation near Armenias Tegh village Armenia deputy defense minister on possible Azerbaijan provocations again: Nothing can be ruled out Armenia MP: Azerbaijanis demanded not to do engineering work, our soldiers responded, battle started from that Marukyan: This is continuation of attacks carried out against Armenia in May and November 2021, in September 2022 About 100 killed in airstrikes in rural Myanmar Criminal proceedings to be launched against Armenia opposition MP Mher Sahakyan Armenia MP: Army corps commander was there, talks were to be held but Azerbaijan resorted to provocation Mher Grigoryan, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State discuss security issues in Armenia, region Parliament observes minute of silence in memory of Armenia soldiers who died yesterday Newspaper: How Europe reacts to yesterday's provocation by Azerbaijanis? Anahit Manasyan is elected Armenia ombudsperson Armenia MOD: No significant ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan recorded at night MOD: 3 of wounded Armenia soldiers in satisfactory condition, other 3 in moderate, severe, critical condition RA MOD announces names of soldiers killed by Azerbaijani Armed Forces As of 10:15 p.m., the situation on the frontline is relatively stable. RA Ministry of Defense The destruction of Artsakh and Syunik is a key issue for Turkey and Azerbaijan. David Babayan Suren Papikyan interrupts his working visit and returns to Armenia Azerbaijans provocation is another encroachment on the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia. MFA Azerbaijan MOD publicizes data on own losses during latest Baku provocation Russia MOD: 2 ceasefire violations recorded in Karabakh The reason for Azerbaijan's aggression is not being sanctioned by the international community. Edmon Marukyan Four Armenian soldiers killed, six wounded because of Azerbaijani provocation. MOD Video shows how Azerbaijani soldiers approach and open fire at Armenian soldiers Armenia National Assembly cancels special session Legislature deputy speaker on Azerbaijani infiltration into Armenia: Not case where accountability is implied Azerbaijanis opened fire in direction of Sotk Armenia MOD: Azerbaijan army continues provocation, uses mortars Azerbaijani shooting resumes in direction of Armenias Tegh village Haykakan Zhamanak: Armenia Special Army Corps commander wounded in skirmish MOD: Armenian side has casualties and wounded, according to preliminary data Shots fired at Tegh village area, Armenia has casualty Armenia parliament vice-speaker: Turkey border shall be open for 3rd countries citizens at summers beginning Armenia lawmaker: Azerbaijan has violated mutual understanding on Karabakh issue Sargis Khandanyan: Armenia does not play football on CSTO issue Armenia Prosecutor General submits petition to parliament for consent to prosecute opposition MP Ruling force MP: Before sending mission, CSTO must record Armenia territorys occupation Photo traps of Armenias Khosrov Forest State Reserve capture grizzly bear again Peskov calls information about Egypt president's covert shipment of rockets to Russia sensational lie The Washington Post: Egypt planned to secretly send up to 40,000 rockets to Russia, leaked US document says Earthquake hits Iran-Turkey border zone, also felt in Armenia Sharm El Sheikh-Yerevan flight that landed in Turkey arrives in Armenia capital Bortnikov: Terrorists want to destabilize the situation in Caucasus 15 more people from Karabakh transferred to Armenia medical centers, 10 patients return The term "peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan" is deceptive, as it is only a framework agreement with general words, maybe one page, which will become the basis for negotiations, Thomas de Waal, a leading researcher at the Carnegie Endowment, an expert on the Karabakh conflict, told NEWS.am on the Power Factor program. According to him, everything depends on Moscow and Baku. He suggested that there are behind-the-scenes negotiations going on, about which there is little information. Of course, there are calls from the West to unblock the road in the Lachin corridor, but everything depends on Baku's demands to Nagorno-Karabakh and above all to Russia, he said. There are claims of Azerbaijan about the regime and transparency of the road. De Waal thinks that this issue can be solved, but there is a more ambitious agenda of Aliyev on various issues. There is a common understanding that Nagorno-Karabakh will not become an independent state, that this issue is already closed by war 2020, this is the end of the principles of the OSCE Minsk Group, the expert noted. In the EU there was an understanding that such an agreement could be the beginning of a process in which the so-called rights and guarantees of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh would be discussed, maybe what is meant is the replacement of the Russian mission with an international mission with guarantees from Baku in the issue of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, he said. According to De Waal, in the current situation this is not possible, because a framework agreement is possible in an atmosphere of good will. In addition, the question of which countries can assume the role of an international mission in Nagorno-Karabakh is a key and complicated one. An international mission is the logical solution to the issue, but he does not see resources at the moment, and Baku does not want it. There was a small hope in Brussels that during the bilateral meetings between Aliyev and Pashinyan it was possible to come to this and in this situation, maybe the Armenians will make concessions regarding the transport communication with Nakhijevan. The only leverage Armenians have left is the refusal to provide it, he said. In Brussels, they were close to an agreement. De Waal thinks there were no problems of principle there, but the Armenian side is afraid that if they agree, their last card will be played. Pashinyan agrees that Nagorno-Karabakh will not secede from Azerbaijan, but the issue of status and, more importantly, security guarantees will be decided in the future. Aliyev, as in 2020, chose the moment, thinking that the world is preoccupied with other issues, in this case Ukraine, that Russia has weakened and both it and the West do not have the resources to pay enough attention to what is happening around Nagorno-Karabakh. Aliyev is also concerned about the future departure of his most important ally, Erdogan. This explains the reasons why crises are happening now, the expert noted. The reports on the meetings between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Sochi, on the one hand, and in Brussels and Prague, on the other hand, show that the issues are about the same: the communication breakdown, the signing of a peace treaty and compromises, Sergey Markedonov, a leading researcher at the Center for Euro-Atlantic Security at the Institute of International Research at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, said in an interview with NEWS.am on the Power Factor program. But there are some details and nuances. The West would like the framework agreement to be sooner, because then it will be possible to raise the question about the legitimacy of deployment of peacekeepers, the necessity and urgency of the 102nd base in Armenia, he said. Moscow is saying that let us first carry out some work on the ground - the unblocking of communications, delimitation and demarcation - and to postpone the Karabakh issue until it loses the urgency it has now, Markedonov stressed. Moscow proposes to hurry slowly, and the West proposes to accelerate these things, Markedonov added. Since last year, according to his expert assessment, there is a new reality in the process of settling the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Until 2022, the settlement of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan was not a point of serious confrontation between Russia and the West. Ukraine Transnistria, Abkhazia were, but Karabakh was not. Now we see a growing competition of these negotiation formats and peacemaking initiatives. The French president accuses Putin of destabilizing the Caucasus, saying that Russia is using its influence to dictate the will of the countries of the Caucasus. This has not happened before. In 2021, after the first round of trilateral talks, with the participation of the head of the European Council, Michel called Putin. But now the expert can hardly imagine the internationalization of the peace settlement. How will Macron and Putin send peacekeepers together if according to Macron all Russia does in Caucasus is destabilization, added Markedonov. He noted that somewhere Russia's position is not clearly articulated, somewhere Moscow's dependence on Turkey and Azerbaijan in the conditions of sanctions and confrontation with the West is noticeable, the Armenian society is worried and the search of alternative security mechanisms is underway. The two chambers of the French parliament adopt a resolution condemning Baku, but then the speaker of one of the chambers in Yerevan says that we will not recognize Artsakh, and it is not Paris's task to spoil relations with Azerbaijan. The same European Parliament resolution is only recommendatory in nature. Instead, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen called Azerbaijan in Baku an important partner on all agendas, Markedonov emphasized. He believes that Russia and the West have become hostages of the Ukrainian conflict, it is very much in the way. Maybe the Western countries are not so blatantly saying that Russia should be squeezed out tomorrow, but if we carefully read all the press releases from the meetings in the West, the impression is that there are no Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh at all. If we talk about the delimitation and demarcation of the borders, the Russians know about them better. The West is not ready to see that, concluded the political analyst. It is sad to see people self-identify as Indigenous in order to make it advantageous for their careers. I'm starting to think folks who have not grown up on a reserve, or have proof of their family ancestry, should have to take a DNA test. What former judge and (former) UBC professor Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is (accused of doing) was nothing more than robbing Indigenous people. I say robbing because it can take an opportunity that was meant to include First Nations people by giving the chance to be part of a system that was originally designed to discriminate against them. Another thing, being married to an Indigenous person should not qualify anyone (to be Indigenous) either. L. Busch Photo: The Canadian Press Kenyana Dixon is comforted during a rally for her brother Tyre Nichols at the National Civil Rights Museum on Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. Nichols was killed during a traffic stop with Memphis Police on Jan. 7. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP) Five Memphis Police Department officers have been fired for excessive use of force, failure to intervene and failure to render aid stemming from an arrest during a traffic stop of a man who later died in a hospital, officials said Friday. The police chief said Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith were involved in the Jan. 7 arrest of Tyre Nichols, 29, who was Black. The Memphis Police Department conducted an internal investigation into the arrest of Nichols, who died three days later, and the discipline came after the probe's conclusion, authorities said. The five officers who were fired are all Black, according to the Memphis Police public information officer. The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also is looking into the force used in the arrest. Nichols family, along with protesters who have rallied at a police station and the National Civil Rights Museum, have pushed for the release of police body camera footage and have called for officers to be charged. Relatives have accused police of beating Nichols and causing him to have a heart attack. Authorities have said that Nichols experienced a medical emergency. Nichols was arrested after officers stopped him for reckless driving, police said. There was a confrontation when officers approached the driver, and he ran before he was confronted again by the pursuing officers, who arrested him, authorities said. He complained of shortness of breath and was hospitalized. Officials said a cause of death has not yet been determined. Relatives have said that the officers who pulled over Nichols were in an unmarked vehicle and that he experienced cardiac arrest and kidney failure from the officers beating him. Memphis police chief Cerelyn CJ Davis and Mayor Jim Strickland said Tuesday that video footage of the arrest will be released after the police departments investigation is completed and the family can review it. The city leaders are arranging a meeting early next week with Nichols' family, according to a joint statement from both Strickland and Davis. 'Global indecision is killing our people': Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak wants Ukraine's allies to 'think faster' on weapons delivery. File photo: AFP Ukraine on Saturday blasted the "global indecision" of its allies after Germany refused to supply its vaunted Leopard tanks to bolster Kyiv's fighting capacity in the nearly year-long war with Russia. On Friday, some 50 nations agreed to provide Kyiv with billions of dollars' worth of military hardware, including armoured vehicles and munitions needed to push back Russian forces. But German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that despite heightened expectations, "We still cannot say when a decision will be taken, and what the decision will be, when it comes to the Leopard tank." "Today's indecision is killing more of our people," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. "Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster," he said. Several allies echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in saying the tanks were essential to Ukraine's fight with its much larger neighbour. In a joint statement the foreign ministers of the three Baltic states urged Germany "to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine now. "This is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly," said a message tweeted by Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics and endorsed by his Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts. "Germany as the leading European power has special responsibility in this regard." In Berlin, hundreds of people demonstrated outside the Federal Chancellery building calling for Germany to send tanks to Ukraine. Berlin has been hesitant to send the Leopards or allow other nations to transfer them to Kyiv. Reports earlier in the week indicated Germany would agree to do so only if the US provided its tanks as well. Washington has said providing its Abrams tanks to Ukraine is not feasible, citing difficulties in training and maintenance. But expectations had grown ahead of Friday's Ukraine Contact Group meeting of around 50 US-led countries that Germany would at least agree to let other countries operating Leopards transfer them to Kyiv's army. In its daily report Saturday, Moscow's forces said they had carried out "offensive operations" in the region and claimed to have "taken more advantageous lines and positions". Russia also said it had held a training exercise on repelling air attacks in the Moscow region, using an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. Ukraine's defence ministry reported 26 air strikes and 15 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems Saturday. (AFP) New Delhi [India], January 21 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Vehere, a leading cyber network intelligence company empowers governments and enterprises with actionable intelligence for a safer cyberspace. The organization has established more than a decade-long reputation with the world's top-ranking defense and intelligence communities to provide the best defense against nation threats. Law enforcement agencies worldwide use Vehere's Network Intelligence Analytics technology for Signals Intelligence. Such a signature product of Vehere is its Satellite Traffic Analytics solution that is built on its Gladius-X tech-stack. It analyses satellite systems data to track and respond to hostile threats. With time, this solution has attracted a great deal of attention from global security communities because it comes with a plethora of advantages apt for adopting a strong stance against emerging digital threats and espionage. Vehere's Satellite Traffic Analytics solution with its multi-service tactical analytics, enhanced visibility, ability to uncover hidden insights in unknown signals and wide coverage has equipped the concerned organizations with seamless visibility to threats on large scale data. These myriad of benefits have led defense and intelligence communities to rely heavily on Vehere's products. Speaking on how Vehere has made a significant impact on National Security, Praveen Jaiswal, the founder of the organization, said, "We are proud that Vehere has played a crucial role in boosting the security postures of nations. Over the years, the leading defense and intelligence communities have believed in Vehere's technology and implementation to safeguard their borders from external adversaries." Vehere, established in 2006, is a pioneer in building technologies that improve the security postures of nations and enterprises. It is among the fastest Cyber Network Intelligence organizations, headquartered in San Francisco and Kolkata, with a presence in major cities including Dallas, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and New Delhi. For Vehere's Satellite Traffic Analytics solution, please visit: https://vehere.com/national-security/satellite-traffic-analytics/. To know more about Vehere, visit the following website: https://vehere.com/. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 21 (ANI/NewsVoir): The Indian jewellery industry has found its direction towards an organised way of working and is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. Combined with the fast-evolving landscape of jewellery retailing, new challenges are being thrown at leaders daily who demonstrate new levels of preparedness, agility and nimbleness to navigate their organisations to new levels of success. Recognizing many such new areas of excellence in retail jewellery industry leadership is the second edition of Retail Jeweller MD & CEO Awards, held in partnership with presenting partners Achal Jewels and Shiv Narayan Jewellers and associate partners Mehta Gold and TJ Impex in JW Marriott, Mumbai, on the 4th of Jan 2023. "I am delighted to be here at the Retail Jeweller MD AND CEO Awards, the first of its sort. The jewellery industry needs these accolades. The jewellers work hard, they are fantastic at what they do, and I am so pleased that this platform is being afforded to them; it is high time the industry gains recognition for its leadership excellence," Nawaz Modi Singhania. The MD & CEO awards envision bringing to the fore exemplary achievements of entrepreneurs, founders and C-suite executives in the Indian jewellery industry. The award attempts to bring focus to the growing influence of leaders to effect change and set off a new culture of performance across different realms of business. The gala event saw a select gathering of a far-sighted and progressive crop of retailers to support the more significant cause of these awards. From an industry standpoint, these awards are a pioneering initiative as they celebrate business leadership excellence in an industry that has historically been under-represented in the world of business. The leadership excellence awards strive to draw attention to not only individuals but also the entire industry. The platform showcases the exceptional successes of these new-age leaders and offers inspiration to industry peers. The awards highlighted many new areas of achievement, such as workplace development, community development, customer experience, omni-channel retailing, women and youth leadership, value creation for shareholders and more, in which creative and pioneering leadership is opening up new paths from which the whole industry may benefit. The award categories create a new framework and key areas of focus for modern jewellery retailers who strive to take their retailing standards to the next level. The Retail Jeweller MD & CEO Awards 2023 recognise all these key transformations and the new level of accomplishment they demand from leaders in the gems and jewellery industry. The industry needs a platform to share the special successes of these new-age leaders. Speaking at the awards, Vikas Mehta, Director of Achal Jewels, said, "Polki category is seeing unprecedented growth. Along with the retail industry, manufacturers are also growing. As an organization, we are focused on research and development which is allowing us to offer unique products and great value to our retail partners including corporates and family jewellers, to support the growing demand in the market." Talking about the great legacy of the company, Tushar Agarwal, Managing Director, Shiv Narayan Jewellers, associate partner for the awards said, "Our company history goes back to a time when my father's great-grandfather was the lead jeweller to the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Usman Ali Khan. Our aspiration is to build on that rich legacy of expertise and craftsmanship for today's market. Our collections are modern renditions of a glorious past." Identifying the 2023 Awardees To identify the 2023 Awardees, a focused team at the Retail Jeweller brought to bear its deep understanding of the industry, gained over one and half decades of interacting with jewellers large and small in every corner of our country, and tracking trends local, regional, and national. This core competence, as well as informal, targeted research, underpin the selection. Award categories and Awardees of 2023: Best Strategic and Integrated Marketing of the year Winner: Ajoy Chawla, CEO of Tanishq Best Omni-channel Brand of the year Winner: Mithun Sacheti, CEO of Caratlane Best Digital/Social Media Marketing of the year Winner: Sunil Nayak, CEO of Reliance Jewels Visionary Leader of the year Winner: Ghanshyambhai Dholakia, Founder & MD of KISNA by Hari Krishna Group Emerging online commerce of the year Winner: Keerthana Grandhi, MD of Vaibhav Jewellers Lifetime achievement in Retail Winner: Shobana Choksey, Founder & CEO of Shobha Shringar Jewellers Women leader of the year Winners: Vaishali Banerjee, MD of Platinum Guild International & Shail Kapoor, President of Kashi Jewellers Leading Regional chain of the year - Central Winner: Gaurav Anand, MD of Anand Jewels Leading Regional chain of the year - North Winner: Kamal Rastogi, MD of Kamal Jewellers Best customer experience of the year Winner: M. P. Ahammed, Chairman of Malabar Gold & Diamonds Best Workplace and People Welfare and Development Winner: Saket Keshri, MD of Ratnalaya Jewellers Leading Regional chain of the year - South Winner: G.R. Ananthapadmanabhan & G.R. Radhakrishnan, MDs of GRT Jewellers Best family-managed business Winner: Aman Talla, MD of Talla Jewellers Young leader of the year Winner: Joita Sen, Director of Senco Gold & Diamonds Leading Regional chain of the year - West Winner: Milan Shah, MD of Kalamandir Jewellers Leading Regional chain of the year - East Winner: Brahmananda Meher & Achyutananda Meher, MDs of Arundhati Jewellers Special contribution to the industry Winner: Shrikant Zaveri, MD of TBZ - the Original Best CSR impact of the year Winner: Joy Alukkas, MD of Joyalukkas Emerging E-Retail Start-up of the year Winner: Shristi Ghunawat, CEO of Tangerine Bio Jewellery Exemplary value creation for shareholders Winner: Rajesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director of Kalyan Jewellers Emerging Retail Start-up of the year Winner: Manideep Yechuri & Kalyan Kumar, MDs of Vega Sri Gold & Diamond This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) New Delhi [India], January 21 (ANI/PNN): Disha Publication bagged two awards in two different categories in the recently held PVLF People's Choice Publisher Awards 2023 supported by the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) and powered by Nielsen Book Data. The awards are an initiative to acknowledge and appreciate the outstanding work done by publishers under different domains. The Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) is India's largest representative body of publishers with its membership spanning the entire country. FIP is affiliated to the International Publishers Association, Geneva as the only representative body of Indian publishers, and bestows various Awards for Excellence in Book Production. Nielsen Book Data is internationally renowned for providing 100 per cent reliable results with their BookScan Data. Disha Publication secured Second position in the 'Education' category and Third position in the 'Test Prep' category of publishers. The awards were presented by K Sreenivasan Rao (Director, Sahitya Academy), Ramesh Mittal (President, Federation of Indian Publishers) and Andre Breedt (Managing Director, Nielsen Book) at Hotel Claridges, New Delhi on January 14, 2023. These awards are significant because they are completely data-driven, declared solely on the basis of authentic data collected and compiled by Nielson. Disha Publication has been at the forefront of setting standards of excellence in designing study material that caters to the rapidly-changing needs of aspirants all over India. In the past years, Disha has emerged as India's leading publisher and distributor of print and digital learning materials with strength in Competitive Exam Books and School Books. It produces books across diverse categories of national, state and regional level competitive exams. Disha publishes books both in English and Hindi, and has started to work with other vernacular languages as well. The company has published more than 800 titles across a wide range of exam categories including UPSC & State PSC, JEE, NEET, SSC, Defence, Railway, etc. Last year, Disha was awarded the "Best Exam Prep Company of 2022" by BW Business World. Disha has partnered with the most sought-after authors and educators who are renowned in their respective fields. The company is working towards helping India realise its dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy in two ways: first, by educating and enabling the youth to enter different professions and intervene at various stages of nation-building; and second, by contributing to further increase the current 9.5 billion USD worth of the Indian Publishing industry in the global market (Nielsen). "It is a matter of great honour to have received awards that speak for their own authenticity and significance. It motivates us to further accelerate our efforts and contribute to the nation's developmental goals," said Deepak Agarwal (Director, Disha Publication) on the occasion. To know more about Disha and explore its wide catalogue of books, https://www.dishapublication.com/ This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], January 21 (ANI/PNN): In India, business ventures and entrepreneurship have accelerated since the government started encouraging startups. To support Indian entrepreneurs, the prime minister designated January 16 as "National Startup Day" last year. The inaugural National Startup Day 2023 Summit and Bharat Startup Awards were hosted in Bangalore just a few days ago, on January 16, 2023. Such a fortunate occurrence gives them more self-confidence, motivation, and dedication to expanding their firm both domestically and abroad. Many young business owners participate in this event to receive accolades and appreciation as well as to connect with like-minded peers and talk about the challenges they overcame along the way to their meteoric success. The event was sponsored by the International Brand Equity Magazine along with the MSME Promotion Council and the Asian Startup Ecosystem Leaders' Club--the ASEL Club. Tanveer Ahmed and Dr E. Muthuraman, Chairman of the MSME Promotion Council, were the featured guests at the event honoring the business entrepreneurs. 50 renowned startups, founders, and leaders from across India were honored with IBE Bharat Startup Awards for their rapid expansion. Dr Muthuraman lauded these young leaders and promised to help all entrepreneurs in any way he could, referring to them as the "stems and roots" of India's evolution from a "developing to developed country." The "Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2022-2023" (South India) was presented to Dr Madhusudan Shastri B.V. for his SM Designing Solutions to advance the Indian economy as well as gain recognition abroad. Dr Madhusudan Shastri B.V. was born and raised in Mysore, Karnataka, India. He completed both a BBM (Bachelor in Business Management) and an M. Com. Because he had a keen interest in marketing and business. After acquiring 8 years of significant knowledge and experience in business development, consulting, and marketing, he is currently the Co-Founder and Marketing Director of SM Designing Solutions. His company has worked with more than 400 clients worldwide, in 195 countries, 5 states, 10 districts, and many more, including Global Alliant Inc.-- USA, US India SME Council-- USA, Kaveri Kannada Sangha-- USA , AKKA-- USA, Siak Ventures Pvt Ltd-- Hyderabad, India, and Acschem-- Singapore. The Karnataka Traders Chamber of Commerce (KTCC) presented SM Designing Solutions with the 2021 Karnataka Business Awards for best IT company in Mysore. On December 23, 2022, he received an "Honorary Doctorate" in Business Marketing from the World Human Rights Protection Commission (WHRPC), approved by Government of United States of America, State of New York Department of State International Organization at Dusit Thani Dubai (UAE). He also received numerous other awards for expanding his business across the globe, including the ICONS OF ASIA 2022 Award for Contribution at the International Level in New Delhi, India. He believes that this is just the beginning of a long and fruitful career, and that his achievements will continue to grow with each passing year. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) New Delhi [India], January 21 (ANI/Mediawire): Air India, India's leading airline and a Star Alliance member, has launched an attractive initiative - offering discounts on its flight tickets across the airline's domestic network in the run-up to the celebrations of India's 74th Republic Day. The offer, which has been rolled out this morning, will be valid till 23rd January 2023 and will be available for sale on all Air India booking platforms, including through the airline's authorised travel agents. These discounted tickets will be available in Economy Class and applicable for travel across the domestic network in India from 1st February to 30th September 2023. Starting from an incredibly low one-way fare of Rs 1705/-, the discounts will be available on over 49 domestic destinations. Whether it's the dream holiday tour with family or any business visit, one can grab these heavily discounted tickets on Air India's wide domestic network. Some of the one-way discounted fares on the domestic network are as under: For further details log onto our website www.airindia.in or contact our call centre at 1860 233 1407 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. Vihaan.AI is Air India's transformational roadmap over five years with clear milestones. It will be focussing on dramatically growing both its network and fleet, developing a completely revamped customer proposition, improving reliability and on-time performance. The airline will also be taking a leadership position in technology, sustainability, and innovation, while aggressively investing in the best industry talent. Vihaan.AI is aimed at putting Air India on a path to sustained growth, profitability and market leadership. Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising 30 companies across ten verticals. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission 'To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust'. Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Sixty-six per cent of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation, and art and culture. In 2020-21, the revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $103 billion (INR 7.7 trillion). These companies collectively employ over 800,000 people. Each Tata company or enterprise operates independently under the guidance and supervision of its own board of directors. There are 29 publicly-listed Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalisation of $314 billion (INR 23.4 trillion) as on December 31, 2021. Companies include Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, Tata Consumer Products, Titan, Tata Capital, Tata Power, Tata Communications, Indian Hotels, Tata Digital and Tata Electronics. This story has been provided by Mediawire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/Mediawire) Tollywood star and 'RRR' lead actor NTR Jr has been in the global limelight after the pan-India movie's wins at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. Now, in more good news for the talented actor (especially after the BAFTA snub for 'RRR'), the website of the influential American publication 'USA Today' has shortlisted NTR Jr as one of the hottest contenders for a Best Actor Oscar. The website has predicted that NTR Jr's Komaram Bheem performance in 'RRR' will not go unnoticed by the Academy when it gets down to vote for the shortlists. Previously NTR Jr was also mentioned by 'Variety' among their unranked predictions for the 2023 Academy Awards, and now 'USA Today' has predicted that the Man of the Moment will be among the nominees for Best Actor. That's good news for the film and its maker, S.S. Rajamouli, despite his recent statement that he makes films to earn money and not just to win awards. On the work front, NTR Jr will begin shooting for his upcoming 30th and as-yet-untitled film, now only known as NTR30, directed by Koratala Siva of 'Janatha Garage' fame. The film will hit the cinemas on April 5, 2024. The actor also has NTR31 on the cards which will be helmed by 'KGF' director Prashanth Neel. --IANS pvn/arm ( 235 Words) 2023-01-20-22:32:04 (IANS) Hollywood star Jason Momoa declared, "I'll always be Aquaman," at the Variety Studio at Sundance. In the new documentary "Deep Rising," which investigates companies that are extracting metals from the deep seafloor, Momoa is at the Park City festival serving as the narrator. In order to discuss his future in the DC Universe, in which he has played Aquaman in multiple films, Momoa recently met with James Gunn and Peter Safran, the new heads of the DC Studio. "It's very, very wonderful," Momoa said in the meeting with Variety. "I'm in the house of Warner Bros. and they are liking a lot of stuff I'm doing. We got a lot of good things coming." According to Variety, a US-based news outlet, one thing to look forward to is Momoa's second 'Aquaman' standalone film, 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.' Additionally, there are reports that Momoa would portray the superhero Lobo in the upcoming Gunn and Safran-created DC Universe. In response to these reports, Momoa declined to confirm them but did state that "there might be other characters" coming from him down the line regarding DC. "The beautiful thing [about 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'] is me and my partner wrote the first treatment for it and it was about a 55-page treatment, and a lot of it has to deal with me talking to the U.N. about what's happening with the melting ice caps," Momoa said. "There's no far-off galaxy coming to destroy us or aliens from another place. It's us ruining our planet. We need to get it together and save our home." Momoa concluded, "I'll always be Aquaman. Ain't anyone coming in there and taking a shit. There might be some other characters, too. I can play other things, too. I can be funny and savage and charming." As per a report by Variety, climate change themes in the "Aquaman" films are directly related to Momoa's Sundance documentary "Deep Rising." The actor stated that he is willing to take part in more environmental films. (ANI) Photo: The Canadian Press Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly arrives for the first day of the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. The federal government says Canada will help guide a peace process aimed at resolving the ongoing crisis in Cameroon where years of fighting and strife have displaced nearly 800,000 people. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Andreea Alexandru The federal government says Canada will guide a peace process aimed at resolving the ongoing crisis in Cameroon where years of fighting and strife have displaced nearly 800,000 people. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says there is an agreement by groups in the west-central African country to enter a process to reach a comprehensive, peaceful and political resolution of the conflict. Joly says in a release that Canada will help the groups as part of its commitment to promote peace and security and advance support for democracy and human rights. She says civilians are bearing the brunt of the ongoing crisis, with more than 6,000 deaths since 2017 and 600,000 children do not have full access to education. Joly says the groups include the Republic of Cameroon, the Ambazonia Governing Council and the Ambazonia Defence Force, the African Peoples Liberation Movement and the Southern Cameroons Defence Force, the Interim Government, and the Ambazonia Coalition Team. According to the United Nations, there has been continued fighting between state security forces and armed groups that has led to the killing and displacement of civilians, including attacks on schools and children. Canada has accepted the mandate to facilitate this process, as part of our commitment to promote peace and security and advance support for democracy and human rights," Joly said Friday. The agreement to enter a formal process is a critical first step toward peace and a safer, more inclusive and prosperous future for civilians affected by the conflict." A government source said there were earlier meetings in Toronto and Quebec to allow for the negotiations to take place between the different groups. The source said Canada is the only facilitator of the peace process. Actor Shah Rukh Khan, on Saturday, revealed that he hadn't sneaked into a movie theatre for a long time to see fans' reaction but would love to go for Pathaan. During an #AskSRK session on Twitter, a user asked the 'Dilwale' actor, "Have you ever sneak into a theatre to watch your own movie to see the reaction of the fans." To which the actor replied, "No haven't done that for a long time....also haven't had a release na....for #Pathaan maybe it's that kind of film that should be watched in an audience packed hall." https://twitter.com/iamsrk/status/1616746356475056129 SRK will be returning back to the cinemas after a hiatus of 4 years with his upcoming action thriller film 'Pathaan' which is all set to hit the theatres on January 25, 2023. Earlier several actors opened up about sneaking into a cinema hall to seek genuine reactions from the fans to their films Recently, actor Aamir Khan during the promotion of his family entertainer film 'Laal Singh Chaddha' said, "I walk around in different theatres to watch the audience's genuine reaction to the film. The audience doesn't know that I am present in the hall. For the first week, I visit different cities and different halls to get the unfiltered reaction of the audience from the projection window or from the side doors." Helmed by Siddharth Anand 'Pathaan' also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham in the lead roles. Apart from this, the 'Chak De India' actor will also be seen in director Rajkumar Hirani's upcoming film 'Dunki' opposite Taapsee Pannu and in filmmaker Atlee's action thriller film 'Jawan'. (ANI) It's quite evident by now that Deepika Padukone is portraying a spy in 'Pathaan' and has been paired with Shah Rukh Khan, who's also playing a spy with a license to kill, in the adrenaline-pumping action entertainer. While Deepika looks drop-dead gorgeous in the songs of the film which have become instant chartbusters, she also looks incredibly sassy as a gun-toting spy in 'Pathaan.' Recently, 'Pathaan' director Siddharth Anand revealed that Deepika has pulled off a jaw-dropping solo action sequence in the film in which she has manoeuvred the notorious Gattling gun! Siddharth said, "There is nothing more cool or sexy than a woman wielding a powerful weapon on screen. As a film buff, I have always loved women doing sick action sequences and so, when we got Deepika Padukone in Pathaan, we wanted to present her in her most badass self - a gorgeous, gun-toting, femme fatale spy that people have never seen before!"He added, "In one of the action sequences of Pathaan, Deepika wields the Gattling gun and you have to see the sequence to believe how legit she is as a bonafide action superstar! She steals the show in this scene and I'm sure people will cheer the loudest for her every time she does action in Pathaan."Earlier, talking about Deepika and her impact in the film, Shah Rukh said, "You need someone of the stature of Deepika to be able to pull off a song sequence like Besharam Rang and then you know, to be able to do action, where she takes a guy and pulls him right over herself and beats him, she's tough enough to do that too. That kind of combination could have only been achieved with someone like Deepika. It's quite a layered character for an action film heroine so to say." Recently, the trailer of 'Pathaan' was showcased on the grand Burj Khalifa in Dubai. 'Pathaan' is a part of Aditya Chopra's ambitious spy universe and has the biggest superstars of the country Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham in it. The film also stars Dimple Kapadia and Ashutosh Rana in pivotal roles. It is set to release on January 25, 2023, in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. (ANI) Even as the countdown has begun for the release of superstar Shah Rukh Khan's much-awaited spy thriller 'Pathaan', the hype around it has reached the provebial crescendo. Shah Rukh Khan, on Saturday, organised an 'Ask Me Anything' session on Twitter to engage with his fans directly. While the superstar replied to many of his fans online, the highlight of the interactive session was when the Bollywood actor casually mentioned South heartthrob Ram Charan while responding to a fan. The star's curious fans wanted to know if he would go to any Telugu theatres to see how the South audiences would react to his upcoming movie and he replied in the most fun manner! A fan, on Twitter, asked SRK, "Hi Sir, Will you visit any theatre in Telugu states on the movie release date?" And he replied to him saying, " "Yeah if Ram Charan takes me!" Check it out: https://twitter.com/iamsrk/status/1616747215804063744 Well, this isn't the first time the two superstars have engaged in a banter online! When the 'Pathaan' teaser was released, Ram Charan came to Twitter to wish the entire team luck. He wrote, "Wishing the whole team of Pathaan all the very best! Shah Rukh Khan sir looking fwd to seeing you in action sequences like never before!" Shah Rukh Khan responded to the wish in his trademark style saying, "Thank u so much my Mega Power Star @alwaysramcharan. When ur RRR team brings Oscar to India, please let me touch it!! (Mee RRR team Oscar ni intiki tecchinappudu okkasaari nannu daanini touch cheyyanivvandi! ) Love you. " Coming to 'Pathaan', the film is a part of Aditya Chopra's ambitious spy universe and has the biggest superstars of the country -- Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham -- in lead roles. The film also stars Dimple Kapadia and Ashutosh Rana in pivotal roles. It is set to release on January 25, 2023, in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. (ANI) Taking to Instagram, Sara shared a video which she captioned, "Happiest Birthday Sushant I know what making other people smile meant to you. And while you're watching over all of us, up there next to the rising new moon, I hope we've made you smile today too. Shine on. Jai Bholenath." https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnrc2WkjC2Q/ In the video, Sara could be seen cutting the birthday cake along with small children around her singing the "Happy Birthday" song. Soon after she dropped the video, fans flooded the comment section with red heart emoticons. "I am touched with this gesture, the kids look so happy," a fan commented. Another fan wrote, "Happy Birthday sushant sir miss you." A fan commented, "Happy Birthday sushant we really miss you a lot." Sara made her big Bollywood debut with director Abhishek Kapoor's romantic drama film 'Kedarnath' opposite actor Sushant Singh Rajput in the year 2018. Sushant made his Bollywood debut with 'Kai Po Che' and was known for his kind gesture, and always treated his fans with utmost pleasure, he gathered a lot of popularity after his biggest success 'M.S Dhoni - The Untold Story'. His last big-screen appearance was 'Chhichhore' which was released in 2019 and was a blockbuster hit. The actor passed away in 2020 at his Bandra residence which created a lot of controversies. The CBI was brought to investigate the actor's death from various angles. Post demise, his Patna residence was turned into his memorial with the late actor's telescope, books, guitar and other personal things. On the work front, Sara will be next seen in director Laxman Utekar's upcoming untitled romantic comedy film alongside Vicky Kaushal and in a thriller film 'Gaslight' opposite Vikrant Massey and Chitrangada Singh. (ANI) A major research conducted on the Danish population indicates that premature birth before 34 weeks of pregnancy is associated with lower performance in math and language exams as a teenager compared to those born at 40 weeks. The study, published in The BMJ, however, found no substantial difference in later brain (cognitive) function in babies born between 34-39 weeks and those born at 40 weeks. And the researchers acknowledge that cognitive outcomes are not predetermined at birth but are heavily influenced by social circumstances. It is estimated that around 15 million infants are born preterm, before 37 weeks of pregnancy, worldwide each year. The final weeks of pregnancy are significant for fetal brain development, and preterm and early-term birth are thought to have a negative impact on later brain function. However, previous studies have been relatively small, primarily limited to one measure, or didn't sufficiently adjust for other factors that could have influenced the results. To more accurately determine the impact of gestational age--the duration of pregnancy in weeks--at birth on long-term cognitive function, the researchers analysed data for all full siblings born in Denmark from 1 January 1986 to 31 December 2003. A total of 1.2 million children were born in this period, of whom 792,724 had at least one full sibling born in the same period, which allowed the researchers to take into account hereditary factors such as maternal intelligence. Using nationwide registry information, the researchers analysed gestational age at birth, along with their exam results in written Danish language and maths at age 15-16, and separately, the results of intelligence tests taken by 227,403 brothers aged around 18, at mandatory military conscription. Potentially influential factors, including sex, birth weight, parental age and educational level at birth, number of older siblings, and shared family factors between siblings were also taken into account in the analysis. The researchers calculated how far an exam result was above or below the average grade, and compared this score for siblings at each gestational age to the score for siblings born at term. Overall, 44,322 (5.6 per cent) of the 792,724 children were born before 37 weeks. Of these, only those born before 34 weeks had significantly lower than average maths scores than those born at 40 weeks, and grades progressively decreased with increasing prematurity. For written language, however, only children born at or less than 27 weeks showed a significantly lower-than-average grade. Analysis of military conscription intelligence test scores, measured in IQ points, also showed markedly lower test scores for those born before 34 weeks. For those born after 34 weeks, there was a less than 1-point reduction in IQ, compared with those born at 40 weeks. But there was a 2.4-point IQ reduction for those born between 32-33 weeks, a 3.8-point reduction for 28-31 weeks, and a 4.2-point reduction for those born at or before 27 weeks. This is an observational study, so the researchers can't establish cause and acknowledge some limitations. For instance, smoking during pregnancy was not recorded before 1991, and test results may differ from real-life outcomes such as lifetime income. But they say the study has the advantage of a large sample size and their sibling comparison design most likely accounts for other factors such as maternal smoking. Results were also similar after further analyses, such as including children who did not take exams, suggesting that the findings withstand scrutiny. While underlying reasons for these findings are still not clear, the researchers suggest that as low cognitive ability is linked to decreased quality of life and early death, their findings "stress the need for more research into how these adverse outcomes can be prevented." They add: "Cognitive outcomes are not, however, predetermined at birth but are heavily influenced by social circumstances and nurturing, and this is why early intervention is warranted for children born early preterm." In a linked editorial, Canadian researchers acknowledge that cognitive deficits in early life could have a lifelong influence on a person's capacity and capabilities. However, they say that although parents and clinicians should be aware of potential educational and cognitive difficulties associated with preterm birth, "parents should be reassured that the magnitude of these differences is not always substantial, particularly for those born at later gestations." And they suggest that sibling comparisons have caveats and that since the causes of preterm birth are complex and poorly understood, "efforts to identify and improve on other socio-environmental factors could be a more successful approach to mitigating any associated neurocognitive deficits." (ANI) Tamil Nadu government has come up with strong measures to ensure safety in firework factories in Sivakasi and other areas of the state. This comes after three persons died on Thursday in two separate fire mishaps in Sivakasi, in which more than 11 people were also critically injured. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has already announced a solatium of Rs 3 lakh for the families of the dead and an amount of Rs 50,000 for the injured. The Chief Minister's office has directed the Virudhunagar district collector and district superintendent of police to ensure that the fire units work properly and that mishaps donot take place. Sources in the Virudhunagar district administration told IANS that there will be a thorough investigation by the district authorities in each of the more than 3,000 firework units in the district. It may be noted that Sivakasi, which falls in Virudhunagar district, is the firework capital of India with most of the fireworks across the country being transported from this small town. It's to be noted that the Sivakasi fireworks industry has an annual turnover of Rs 6000 crore and the government is keen that with such a huge revenue, the industry must be able to ensure security aspects at a higher level thus preventing any further explosions while mixing during making the firecrackers. L.R. Subramanian, owner of a fireworks unit in Sivakasi while speaking to IANS said, "The recent accidents are really tragic and unfortunate. Of course, sometimes people are a bit careless leading to such major fire accidents. Monthly monitoring by the district fire and safety department is important to ensure that all security parameters are maintained in the firework units." Sources in the Virudhunagar district administration told IANS that the government does not want any further such accidents and to ensure that the huge money-spinning industry is secure and safe. --IANS aal/uk/ ( 323 Words) 2023-01-20-20:10:03 (IANS) At a time when the CPI-M, reduced to a zero in terms of assembly presence after the 2021 West Bengal polls, is struggling hard to regain its mass base in the state, a message from Dr Aleida Guevera, daughter of legendary Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, in Kolkata on Friday came as a spirited inspiration for the student leaders of the party. Attending a felicitation programme conducted by Jadavpur University's arts faculty student's union, which is controlled by CPI-M's student wing Student's Federation of India (SFI), Aleida Guevera, a top physician and human rights activist, advised the students to keep the flag of struggle for the proletariat interest high. She was accompanied by her daughter and economist Estefania Guevara. Aleida Guevera spoke in Spanish which was instantly translated by one of the SFI activists in Bengali. "As my father believed that one should not concede defeat in the struggle in life. You will have to fight and move towards the path of victory. So, comrades move ahead. Study more and fight more. Be a good professional in your respective area. Never retreat. Always be with people even whatever height you achieve. Always be in touch with the mass. You have to be united in your proletariat struggle. That was a lesson from Commadante Che Guevara," she said after the colour felicitation programme with the "Hasta La Victoria Siempre" tune playing in the background. Her speech received accolades from the students present on the occasion who shouted revolutionary slogans like 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido (The people united shall always be victorious)'. On Thursday, she attended a programme at Chennai organised jointly by CPI-M and National Committee for Solidarity with Cuba, where she stressed on Cuba-India solidarity in wake of constant US attacks on the country through various aggressive measures. She also said that the love that she received from the people of India for just being the daughter of Che Guevara was simply unforgettable. --IANS src/vd ( 348 Words) 2023-01-20-20:14:01 (IANS) Nitish Kumar, who is on a Samadhan Yatra told reporters in Nalanda, "When I was the Railway Minister, we used to give numerous jobs to people. When Rail Budget was presented in Parliament, there were discussions across all newspapers". "I want a separate Railway Budget to be presented in the House. It has a lot of importance," Nitish Kumar added. Kumar again raised the issue of demanding special status for Bihar. Development work has been done in Bihar Sharif, he added. "I have always been listening to the problems of people since the time I was an MLA. I keep visiting places, sitting with people and addressing their issues. We have always been demanding special status for Bihar," CM Nitish. The government is in the process of finalising the Budget document to be presented on February 1. The formal exercise to prepare the annual Budget for the next financial year commenced on October 10. Budget 2023 is likely to be the last full budget of the Modi government in its second term with the next Lok Sabha elections due in April-May of 2024. (ANI) Talking to reporters outside the ED's zonal office here, Pradhan said: "I had received a letter from the local ED office yesterday, in which they have asked me to appear on January 17. As I received the summon letter yesterday, I have appeared before the ED officials today." He said that the ED officials told him that they will give another date to discuss his involvement in the case. However, the ruling party MLA did not disclose anything about the case for which he was summoned. According to reports, Pradhan has been allegedly associated with a company that was involved in mining business at Talcher and has evaded tax. --IANS bbm/vd ( 145 Words) 2023-01-20-22:30:05 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday laid to rest all speculations that President Droupadi Murmu may address the joint session of both houses of Parliament at the start of the Budget session in the new Parliament building, saying the address will take place as per convention in the Central Hall of Parliament. "The new Parliament building is still under construction. During Budget Session, the Hon'ble President will address Members of two Houses in the existing Parliament House Building," Birla tweeted. The new Parliament building is expected to be ready by the end of this year. The President addresses a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament at the Central Hall at the beginning of the Budget session every year. --IANS ans/vd ( 141 Words) 2023-01-20-22:46:02 (IANS) Photo: Pixabay A Richmond nurse has been disciplined after his regulatory college found him guilty of sleeping during his shift, failing to administer medication on time, and not properly assessing a patient who removed their urinary catheter, which could have had dire consequences. Dacanay, a former licensed practical nurse from Richmond, was also accused of unethical conduct by the B.C. College of Nurses & Midwives (BCCNM) for not following the institute's guidelines regarding patient assessment and documentation, and disrespecting colleagues. Dacanay has voluntarily agreed to public reprimand and terms that will limit his nursing practice. He is subject to a two-month suspension of his nursing registration and is prohibited from being the sole regulated nurse on duty, supervising nursing students or orienting new staff. Meanwhile, Dacanay will have to develop a learning plan to improve his professional communication, ethics, documentation, and administration of medication. The plan will be shared with his employer and BCCNM. The college is one of 18 regulatory bodies empowered under the Health Professions Act to regulate health professions in B.C. It regulates the practice of four distinct professions: nursing, practical nursing, psychiatric nursing and midwifery. Similar legislation in other self-regulated areas such as the legal and notary public professions also allows citizens to know about discipline issues in the public interest. Congress' national spokesperson Jairam Ramesh on Friday said that the party's 'Haath Se Haath Jodo' campaign will take place for two months, starting on January 26. Addressing a press conference in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, Ramesh said that the door-to-door canvas of Congress would reach every house in the 10 lakh polling booths of the 6 lakh villages and 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. "The 'Haath Se Haath Jodo' campaign will be held from January 26 to March 26. The Congress workers will do door-to-door canvassing and will reach out to every single house in 10 lakh polling booths of 6 lakh villages and 2.5 lakh gram panchayats," Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said. Under the rubric of Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyaan, the party aims to cover about 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, 6 lakh villages, and over 10 lakh polling stations to hand over this letter. Congress leader and general secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh in the national capital on January 13 briefed mediapersons about the Bharat Jodo Yatra's follow-up programme Haath Se Haath Jodo, from January 26 to March 26, and said that during the programme party workers will go door-to-door and handover Rahul Gandhi's letter to people. During the follow-up campaign, the party is mulling distributing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's letter and a chargesheet, listing failures of the BJP government, among the general public. On Thursday, Congress leader and Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyaan in-charge RC Khuntia said that it would be a "serious matter" if any Congress leader or officer bearer or the MP does not take party in the campaign. "Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyaan is the biggest campaign of Rahul Gandhi and Congress, in such a situation, even after getting information about the campaign, if any Congress leader, office bearer or MP does not participate in it, then it will be a serious matter," RC Khuntia said during a review meeting held at Rajasthan Urban Development Minister Shanti Kumar Dhariwal's residence in Jaipur. He further added that during the campaign, every worker and office bearer of the Congress will go door of the electorate of the area and inform them about the schemes of the State government and the ideology of the Congress. He said that the message which was given to the common people during the Bharat Jodo Yatra will now be taken to every house under the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyaan. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on January 4 launched 'Haath se Haath Jodo Abhiyan' in Dharamshala's Kangra district, calling the campaign an extension of Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra. CM Sukhu asked the party workers to orchestrate strategies for Abhiyan's advertising, involving print and electronic media in its promotion, including creating Whatsapp groups at the village level. (ANI) During these searches, cash amounting to Rs 10,16,000, mobile phones, SIM cards and diaries with incriminating content were seized, an NIA official said. The NIA on January 7 filed a charge sheet against five accused including a Pakistan national in the matter. Punjab Police's former Head Constable Gagandeep Singh, who planted the bomb at the court complex on December 23, 2021, was killed as it suddenly went off. Six others were injured. The case was initially registered at a Ludhiana police station, but later, it was taken over by the NIA. "During investigation, it has been revealed that Pakistan-based ISYF/KLF terrorist handler Lakhbir Singh Rode had planned to execute IED blasts at various locations in Punjab. In order to execute this plans, he, in association with Pakistan-based smugglers, recruited India-based operatives to smuggle IEDs and to carry out blasts to cause maximum casualties and to strike terror among the general public," the NIA said. It said that in furtherance of the conspiracy, Rode, with the help of Pakistan-based cross-border arms-explosives-narcotics smuggler Zulfikar alias Pehalwan, Harpreet Singh alias Happy Malaysia, Surmukh Singh alias Sammu, Dilbagh Singh and Rajanpreet Singh, formed a terror gang to carry out blasts and smuggled weapons into India. Rode used the smuggling channels of Pehalwan and his associates to deliver the IED to Gagandeep Singh. --IANS atk/vd ( 265 Words) 2023-01-20-23:06:04 (IANS) The Election Commission has appointed six categories of observers in three election-bound states - Tipura, Meghalaya, Nagaland - to closely monitor the poll process and related aspects. Election officials said on Friday that to conduct the election, freely, fairly, fearlessly and inducement free, six types of observers have been appointed from among the in-service and retired IAS, IPS, IRS and other Central government officials. They are general observers, police observers, expenditure observers, micro observers in each polling station, special observers for the special circumstances, and counting observers. The Commission on Friday appointed three Special Observers and asked them to proceed to Tripura immediately to take stock of the situation, ensure proper deployment of the Central Armed Police Force, intensify enforcement measures and report back to the Commission. The three Special Observers are Yogendra Tripathy, retired IAS officer of Karnataka cadre, Vivek Johri, former Director General of Police of Madhya Pradesh and B. Murali Kumar, IRS officer, who was Special Observer in Assembly elections of Gujarat (2022) and West Bengal (2021). Meanwhile, the Election Commission would formally issue notification on Saturday for the February 16 polling in Tripura and the filling of nomination papers would start immediately. The last date of filing of nomination in Tripura is January 30 and the scrutiny of nomination papers would be done next day and the last date of withdrawal of the candidatures would be February 2. Elections to the 60-member assemblies in Meghalaya and Nagaland would be held on February 27. Counting of votes would be held in all three states on March 2. --IANS sc/vd ( 276 Words) 2023-01-20-23:08:04 (IANS) Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister and Congress leader Sachin Pilot during his interaction on Friday with college students has been told that he was called "Corona". Pilot was speaking during the inauguration ceremony of the library at the Maharaja College. He also made a lot of sarcastic remarks without naming Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. He said: "I have seen and learned a lot from my late father in politics. In the political arena, I have seen him winning over the elders. When you stand on issues on public sentiment, then people clap. Insulting others and saying small things is not a good thing. You all know what was said about me." A video has also gone viral on social media which shows Pilot interacting with the students at Maharaja College. Pilot asks students: "What was said about me?" The students in a loud voice said "Corona". Pilot again asks: "Tell me what was said earlier about me?" The answer came "Nikkama". Pilot further is seen asking the youths: "While being the state Congress president, did you see any shortcoming in the hard work? Did you see any slide in the struggle?" The youths replied "No" every time. While the video is garnering many eyeballs, the comments are believed to be an indirect attack on Chief Minister Gehlot. On Thursday, a video of CM Gehlot's pre-budget conversation with employees' organisations surfaced in which without naming Pilot, the veteran Congress leader compared his junior party colleague to 'Corona'. During the conversation on Wednesday, when the leader of the contractual employees, Shamsher Khan complained to the Chief Minister on not meeting anyone, Gehlot interrupted and said: "You are right... but now I have started meeting, I had met last Monday. What happened was that Corona came first and then came a big 'Corona' inside our party." "For the last five days, I have only given speeches on issues. No personal allegations have been made against anyone. It is very easy to make personal criticism, abuse, and speak harsh words. It is very important to balance and use the boneless tongue behind the 32 teeth. The word that comes out of the mouth never comes back," he said. Pilot further said: "This party has given us a lot. Let us continuously work to strengthen it. For the first time in 2014, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi made me the state president. At that time we were left with only 21 MLAs. But we have worked together." --IANS arc/pgh ( 431 Words) 2023-01-20-23:16:03 (IANS) According to sources, BJP President J.P. Nadda and General Secretary, Organisation, B.L. Santhosh is likely to address the meet. "Several issues related to women were discussed in the meeting. Issues like safety, participation in upcoming elections, and G20 Summit were discussed as well as taking government policies among the public, specially women, and enhancing the participation in the 2024 Lok Sabha election," a source said. "We are looking for guidance from our party President. Our Prime Minister always work and support for the empowerment of women," the source added. --IANS dr/vd ( 121 Words) 2023-01-20-23:18:03 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh police in Jaunpur arrested two persons for allegedly slapping a Child Development Project Officer during a discussion on food grains distribution, it said on Friday. According to the Superintendent of Police (SP) in the city, the arrested persons had assaulted the complainant officer Rita Singh during a discussion on the distribution of food grains. "Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) Rita Singh gave a complaint that two people assaulted her during a discussion on the distribution of food grains. We have registered a case in the matter and both the persons have been arrested," said SP City, Sanjay Kumar said. The matter pertains to an incident dated Thursday afternoon when the dispute between the CDPO and an Anganwadi worker in the Muftiganj development block office of Kerakar tehsil rose to such extent that the man standing next to the officer slapped the Anganwadi worker. The entire incident had created a stir in the office. Meanwhile, when the family of that Anganwadi worker came to know about the incident, they hurried up to the office where the worker's son allegedly slapped the CDPO over her cheek and misbehaved with her. The present outpost in charge SP Pandey caught hold of the man and handed him over to the Kerakat Kotwali. More details are awaited. (ANI) Amidst fresh snowfall tourist footfall increases in Shimla and they are seen more excited than before. "We have come here to see snowfall. We had come for one or two days but eventually planned to extend as more snowfall has been forecasted here for the next 2-3 days," a tourist Damanpreet said. Amid the ongoing winter season, where the citizens in hill stations of the country are continuously facing difficulties in accomplishing day-to-day tasks, the tourist footfall in certain regions has also increased thus widening the smiles of the tourism dependents. However, to boost tourism during the prevalent cold wave conditions here, the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) has decided to offer 40 per cent discounts on its properties for visiting tourists. The higher reaches in Lahaul-Spiti, Chamba, Kangra, Mandi, Kullu, Kinnaur, Sirmaur and Shimla districts have received fresh snowfall during the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, fresh snowfall continued to happen in Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti and Shimla districts throughout the day. Director of the tourism department and MD (HPTDC), Amit Kashyap on Friday informed about the steps undertaken by the state for the tourists. Amit Kashyap said, "The tourism department has given directions to the authorities and is also appealing to the tourists to follow the advisory of the authorities to avoid any inconveniences." "Despite being a lean tourist season, the department of tourism is expecting a good footfall of tourists in the region," he added. "Nearly one crore sixty lakh tourists visited Himachal Pradesh in 2022. A large number of people came to visit the place after the Covid-19 pandemic and the tourism department also gave a major thrust to the advertisement. The next two to three months in the state are lean tourism months but even in the next three months we are expecting a good footfall of tourists," he said while terming the year 2022 "a very good year" for tourism in the state. "Be it snow or any weather-related warning, the deputy commissioners and India Meteorological Department (IMD) issue advisories in the state. I would request the visitors to follow those advisories," he added. Meanwhile, heavy snowfall also continued in the Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh. Parts of two National Highways in the district-- NH 305 closed at Jalori Pass and the NH that goes beyond Manali to Rohtang Tunnel-- were also closed due to snowfall. "There have been continuous rainfall and snowfall in the entire district for the last 18-20 hours. NH 305 closed at Jalori Pass, 18-20 inches of snow has further accumulated there. Another NH that goes to Rohtang Tunnel is closed too. Also, 45 other roads have also been closed due to snowfall," Deputy Commissioner of Kullu, Ashutosh Garg said yesterday. "275 roads are closed in snow-prone districts of the state and 330 electricity supply schemes disrupted due to the fresh snowfall in the last 24 hours," the State Emergency Operation Centre said on Friday. Notably, the Kufri and Mashobra areas of Shimla has also been covered under a white layer of snow. The head of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Himachal, Surender Paul said to ANI on Thursday there can be a slight relief from the "dry spell" and the rain or snowfall is unlikely to occur on Saturday and Sunday (January 21 and 22). "...There will be slight relief from the dry spell. Between January 21 and 22, there is unlikely any rain and snowfall," IMD Head Surender Paul said on Friday further adding that the snowfall is expected on days thereafter with a heavy fall on Tuesday and Wednesday (January 24 and 25). (ANI) The Kerala government on Friday attached the properties of the state general secretary of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), Abdul Sattar, including his house in Kollam. The development came after the Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the government to attach properties of PFI leaders as part of the recovery of damages caused by them during a protest in September 2022. The High Court gave an ultimatum to the Kerala government that it should complete the recovery proceedings from the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) immediately. The Court also directed the government to submit the report on or before January 23 after completing the proceedings. The court had also made it clear that there is no need to issue any notices for recovery proceedings. On December 23, the State Government tendered an unconditional apology before the High Court for not complying with its direction of recovery of damages from the banned PFI and its Secretary. The government informed the Court that they would seize the items found by the registration department before January 15 at that time. They also submitted that there was no wilful failure to execute the court order. The High Court on September 30 had ordered PFI to deposit Rs 5.20 crore within two weeks towards the damages caused to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) in the violence that erupted during the illegal "flash hartal" conducted by the PFI on September 23. The Court also ordered at that time to make PFI State Secretary Abdul Sathar an accused in all the cases registered in the state in connection with the illegal hartal. If Rs 5.20 crore is not deposited within two weeks, the state government can initiate recovery proceedings, the Court said earlier. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the All India Conference of Director Generals/ Inspector Generals of Police at the National Agricultural Science Complex, in the national capital today. The government on Friday informed that the conference would be held in a hybrid format. About 100 invitees including DGP of States/UTs and Heads of Central Armed Police Forces and Central Police Organizations will attend the Conference physically while the remaining invitees will participate virtually from across the country. As per the information, a wide range of issues including Cyber Crime, Technology in Policing, Counter Terrorism challenges, Left Wing Extremism, capacity building, and Prison Reforms, among others will be discussed at the conference. The conference is a culmination of extensive deliberations involving police and intelligence officers from the district, state and national levels on identified themes. Best practices from States/ UTs under each of the themes will also be presented at the Conference so that States can learn from each other. Since 2014, the Prime Minister has taken a keen interest in the DGP conference. The conference has started discussions on futuristic themes in policing and security, to ensure not only safety in the present times but also to develop the capability to meet emerging issues and challenges. The Prime Minister has also encouraged the organisation of annual DGP conferences all across the country since 2014. The conference was previously organised at Guwahati in 2014; Dhordo, Rann of Kutch in 2015; National Police Academy, Hyderabad in 2016; BSF Academy, Tekanpur in 2017; Kevadiya in 2018; and IISER, Pune in 2019 and at Police Headquarters, Lucknow in 2021. (ANI) The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Friday issued notices to all the state chief secretaries to identify madrassas which are being attended by non-muslim students as well. "We have received complaints from various places about non-Muslim students attending madrassas funded or recognized by the government. We have issued notices to all state chief secretaries to identify such madrassas and shift non-Muslim students from these madrassas to the schools," NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo said while talking to ANI. "The Uttar Pradesh Madrassa Board had made an objectionable and silly statement that it will continue to admit non-Muslim students in madrassas. Hence, we have written to Special Secretary Minorities that giving Islamic education to non-Muslim students is a violation of Article 28(3) and asked them to reply within three days,' he added. Madrasas, as institutions, are primarily responsible for imparting religious education to children. They are of three types "Recognised Madrasas", "Unrecognised Madrasas" and "Unmapped Madrasas". Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Council Chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed on January 7 urged the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to reconsider their letter, urging states and UTs to inspect the recognized madrasas admitting non-Muslim children. "Non-Hindus also go to Sanskrit schools," he said. "Child Protection Commission's letter has come to notice. I want to say that we are providing modern education to children under NCERT syllabus and only religious education is not being imparted in madrasas," Iftikhar Ahmed Javed said. Replying to the child rights panel's letter, demanding an inquiry into Madrasas, and inducting non-Muslim students, Iftikhar said, "Non-Muslims are studying in madrasas and non-Hindu children are studying in Sanskrit schools. Children of every religion are also studying in missionary schools. Even though I myself studied at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), NCPCR should reconsider their letter." Earlier in December, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) wrote to the chief secretaries of all states and union territories and directed them to conduct a detailed inquiry of all recognized madrasas admitting non-Muslim children. The NCPCR also recommended the Chief Secretaries admit all non-Muslim students in the said Madrasas to formal schools subsequent to the inquiry besides the mapping of all unmapped madrasas. The letter undersigned by Chairperson-NCPCR Priyank Kanoongo had said based on various complaints received, "...it is noted that children belonging to Non-Muslim community are attending Government funded/ Recognised Madrasas." The Commission's letter said: "However, it is also learnt that those Madrasas which are funded by the Government or recognised by the Government are imparting both religious and to some extent formal education to children." "Further, it is also learnt by the Commission that some State/UT Government/s are providing them with scholarships too" "This is a clear-cut violation and contravention of Article 28(3) of the Constitution of India which prohibits educational institutions from obligating children to take part in any religious instruction, without the consent of the parent." "It is pertinent to mention that the Constitution of India makes it an obligation of the State to provide free and compulsory education to all children without any discrimination or prejudice and ensure that children go to neighbourhood schools for availing formal education as per Section 6 of the RTE Act, 2009." The statutory body constituted under a Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005, aimed at protecting child rights, said: "Conduct a detailed inquiry of all Government Funded/Recognized Madrasas who are admitting Non- Muslim children in your State/UT. "The inquiry should include physical verification of children attending such Madrasas. "Subsequent to the inquiry, admit all such children in schools for availing formal education.It also ordered the undertaking of "Mapping of all Unmapped Madrasas in your State/UT and admit any/all children into Schools for availing formal education with immediate effect." The Action Taken Report by the states and UTs were to be shared with the Commission within 30 days from December 8, 2022. The NCPCR letter referred to the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 wherein Article 21- A, mentions providing free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. "Consequent to the 86th Amendment in Constitution of India, for implementation of the "Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years, the RTE, Act was passed by the Parliament of India in August 2009. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has been mandated to monitor the provisions and entitlements contained in the RTE Act, 2009," it added. (ANI) As part of its agenda to create terror, communal hatred and unrest in society and to further its agenda of establishing Islamic rule in India by 2047, the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) formed secret teams called 'Service Teams' or 'Killer Squads' to carry out killings of its 'perceived enemies' and targets. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) made these revelations in a charge sheet filed on Friday before a special court in Bengaluru pertaining to the killing of BJP's Yuva Morcha district committee member Praveen Nettaru on July 26 last year in Bellare village of Sullia Taluk in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district. Nettaru was killed in full public view with lethal weapons to create terror among the people at large and especially among members of a particular community. The charge sheet, which was filed against 20 PFI members, further mentions that "these 'Service Team' members were given arms as well attack training and surveillance techniques training in order to identify, list out and to mount surveillance on individuals and leaders belonging to certain communities and groups". "These 'Service Team' members were further trained to assault and kill identified targets on the instructions of senior PFI leaders," said the NIA in the charge sheet. In furtherance of conspiracy meetings by PFI members and leaders held at Bengaluru city, Sullia Town and Bellare village, said the charge sheet, adding "the head of district Service Team Mustafa Paichar was instructed to recce, identify and target a prominent member of a particular community". "As per instructions, four persons were recced and identified and among them, Praveen Nettaru, who was a BJP Yuva Morcha member, was assaulted and killed on July 26 last year in full public view with lethal weapons to create terror among the people at large and especially among members of a particular community," mentions the charge-sheet. Of the 20 chargesheeted PFI members, six are absconding and rewards have been declared for information leading to their arrest in the case. The accused persons have been charge-sheeted under various sections of 120B, 153A, 302 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 16, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and Section 25(1)(a) of Arms Act. Mahammed Shiyab, Abdul Basheer, Riyaz, Mustafa Paichar, Masud KA, Kodaje Mohammed Sherif, Abubakkar Siddik, Noufal M, Ismail Shafi K, K Mahammad Iqbal, Shaheed M, Mahammad Shafeek G, Ummar Farook M R, Abdul Kabeer CA, Muhammad Ibrahim Sha, Sainul Abid Y, Shekh Saddam Hussain, Zakiar A, N Abdul Haris, Thufail MH have been chargesheeted in the case. Among the chargesheeted accused, Mustafa Paichar, Masud KA, Kodaje Mohammed Sherif, Abubakkar Siddik, Ummar Farook MR and Thufail MH are currently absconding and rewards have been declared for information leading to their arrest. The case was initially registered on July 27 by at Bellare Police Station of Dakshina Kannada district and re-registered by the NIA on August 4 last year. The Home Ministry in September banned the PFI, its associates, and affiliates for a period of five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 by declaring it as an unlawful association. Besides involvement in Nettaru's murder, the PFI cadres are also accused of involvement in several terrorist acts and the murder of several persons, including Sanjith (Kerala, November 2021), V Ramalingam (Tamil Nadu, 2019), Nandu (Kerala, 2021), Abhimanyu (Kerala, 2018), Bibin (Kerala, 2017), Sharath (Kamataka, 2017), R Rudresh (Kamataka, 2016), Praveen Puyari (Karnataka, 2016), and Sasi Kumar (Tamil Nadu, 2016). (ANI) In high drama ahead of the Erode (East) assembly bypoll scheduled to be held on February 27, O Panneerselvam on Saturday said that his faction would contest on the AIADMK's two-leaves symbol. "O Panneerselvam faction of AIADMK to contest in Erode East assembly constituency by-election. I have full rights over AIADMK's two-leaves symbol as I am the party's coordinator," OPS said here while addressing the media. As per the July 11 general council meeting of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, E Palaniswami has been elected as the interim general secretary of the party. With the ECI not yet ratifying the AIADMK's July 11 general council meeting which abolished the dual leadership formula and appointed Edappadi K Palaniswami as interim general secretary, records with the poll agency still show expelled leader O Panneerselvam as the coordinator and EPS as joint coordinator. However, the case related to the appointment of Edappadi K Panalaniswami as interim general secretary at the party's general body meeting is before the Supreme Court and the order is reserved. The Election Commission on Wednesday announced a bypoll to the Erode (East) constituency in Tamil Nadu on February 27. The counting of votes will be done on March 2. The filing of nominations would start on January 31 and end on February 7. Talking about the two-leaves symbol which still holds sway among the people, OPS said that he is ready to sign the B-form to get the symbol. With the party's leadership issue now pending before the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India (ECI), the AIADMK's official candidate won't get the Two Leaves symbol unless OPS and EPS sign on the B-form. Panneerselvam further said that if the Bharatiya Janata Party or one of its allies wants to contest the elections, his faction would support the party. "If BJP decides to contest the Erode East Assembly constituency bye-election, we will support it since it is a national party," he said. The statement from OPS came a day after Edappadi K Palaniswami showed its interest to contest the elections. In the 2021 Assembly polls, M Yuvaraja of Tamil Maanila Congress contested unsuccessfully on AIADMK's two leaves symbol against Everaa. In the 2021 local body polls, the BJP decided to contest alone. The Erode (East) bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA Thirumagan, the great-grandson of social reformer 'Periyar' EV Ramasamy and son of former Union minister EVKS Elangovan. The bye-election will be an acid test for the AIADMK as the constituency falls in its bastion of western Tamil Nadu, where the DMK is making efforts to make inroads. Meanwhile, DMK, the ruling party led by Chief Minister MK Stalin, has assigned the Erode East seat to Congress which is looking to retain the constituency, which is one of the 25 seats allotted to it in the DMK's Secular Progressive Alliance. In the last elections, Congress won the seat defeating the Tamil Maanila Congress. (ANI) Thousands of devotees were seen taking a dip in the holy Ganga on the ghats of Varanasi. They were also seen offering prayers to Goddess Lakshmi, Ganesh and the Sun and remembered their ancestors and the departed souls of the family. Women were seen singing devotional songs with earthen lamps and performing rituals. Mauni Amavasya is an auspicious day in the Hindu religion. It falls on the month of Magh as per the Hindu calendar. On this day people observe Maun Vrat, in which they dedicate and try to connect their inner selves to God. It is also believed that during the Magh month of the year, the holy rivers in Hinduism turn into nectar. So the devotees take a bath in this nectar as it leads to enlightenment in life. For this year 'Magh Mela' also called as 'Kumbh Mela' or 'Magh Kumbh Mela' is organised in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj from January 6 till February 18. The fair is held at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and mythological Saraswati rivers. With an aim to facilitate devotees visiting, the district administration has deployed police personnel to water ambulances at the ghats. Also, the Uttar Pradesh Police is using body cameras to strengthen security further and keep a vigil on suspicious objects and persons at 'Magh Mela' underway in Prayagraj. (ANI) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat will be on a five-day visit to Jaipur and will participate in various programs and meetings related to the Sangh from January 25 to 29. According to the information from the Sangh's Jaipur province office, the RSS Sarsanghchalak will participate in the Republic Day program of Keshav Vidyapeeth in Jamdoli on January 26 and will unfurl the flag. On January 27, he will hold a meeting of department-level union workers of Jaipur province. Similarly, on January 28 and 29, he will also attend the meetings of Sangh workers. During this, the preparations for the centenary year of the Sangh will also be discussed. Jaipur Sanghchalak Mahendra Singh Maggo said, "In the meetings, there will also be discussions on activities on social change such as family enlightenment, village development, cow service, social harmony, and environment." He said that this is a regular stay of Sarsanghchalak, which happens once in two years in each province. "The province gets to host Sarsanghchalak once a year and Sarkaryavah for the second time. During this, various works going on in the direction of social change are discussed," said Mahendra Singh Maggo. Bhagwat will address a meeting at Shaheed Minar ground in Kolkata on 23 January, the 126th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. As per sources, Bhagwat will address the program organized by Sangh, Sangh chief can give an important message on sensitive issues like amended citizenship law, and birth control bill. Preparations for this meeting are going on in full swing. According to Sangh sources, Mohan Bhagwat will talk about Netaji's ideology, and vision, and how he fought for the freedom of the country. Thousands of volunteers from across the state will participate in the program. (ANI) The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Delhi Police on a bail plea of accused Sharafat Sheikh in an NDPS case. He sought a regular bail on the grounds of parity and merit of the case. This case is connected with the seizure of 3 kilograms of heroin in July 2020. Justice Yogesh Khanna issued a notice to Delhi Police Crime Branch on Friday and asked them to file a reply. The next hearing will be on April 6. The present case was registered in 2020 and the petitioner along with his son was arrested from Mumbai in August 2020. His son has been granted bail by the Delhi High Court. Sharafat Sheikh has moved a petition through advocate Urooj Ahmed Khan. It has been stated that the investigation has been completed and a charge sheet has been filed. The petitioner has been in custody since August 2020. The petitioner has stated that he was not aware of the alleged offense. No recovery was effected from the petitioner. The only evidence against the petitioner is the call details record (CDR) and disclosure statement of other accused persons. His earlier bail was dismissed by the trial court on December 17, 2022. While dismissing the bail plea of Sharafat Sheikh had observed that the petitioner is involved in 85 criminal cases including NDPS Act cases and stated to be convicted in one NDPS matter and convicted in various other matters. The petitioner has contended that trial court has not appreciated the present case on its merit, rather, dismissed the bail application while observing his previous criminal record. Moreover, the trial court has granted regular bail to the co-accused persons namely Wasim Sheikh and Mohd. Faisal on a similar role. Therefore, it would not be justified to deny the bail of the petitioner only on the basis of his previous antecedents without discussing the case of the petitioner on merit, the petition stated. It is also submitted that as per the prosecution case, the role of the petitioner is identical to his son namely Wasim Shiekh who is also the co-accused in the present case and has already been granted regular bail by this Court. As per the prosecution, on 23.07.2020 acting upon a tip-off, the crime branch arrested the co-accused namely Rafiq who brought the heroin from Mandsaur, MP, and Rajasthan and supplied it in Delhi, along with his associate Nasir in a car. Both the accused person was apprehended and 3 Kg of the heroin was recovered from the possession of the accused Mohd. Rafiq alias Peer Ji alias Ibrahim. According to the prosecution story, the alleged disclosure statement of both the above-mentioned accused persons and per their disclosure statement, the name of the petitioner came to the surface in the present case along with his son namely Wasim Shiekh and Faisal who is also the co-accused in the present case. As per the disclosure statement, they had stated that they are working for the petitioner as well as his son Wasim and he used to deliver heroin to the petitioner procured from Mandsaur, MP. It is also submitted that except for the disclosure statement, there is no incriminating evidence against the petitioner to connect him with the present case in any manner, fact of the matter is that the petitioner is remotely not connected with the present case, it is not in dispute that the petitioner and other co-accused namely Nasir Hussain, Wasim, and Mohd. Faisal lives in the same locality. (ANI) The Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK) would not contest the upcoming Erode (East) bye-election scheduled to be held on February 27, citing that the election is a "waste of people's tax money and time". The party has also decided not to even support any other political party in this election. PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss, in a statement, said that the party does not support the elections if it is necessitated following the death of an MLA or if an MLA joins another party. The statement came after PMK had a high-level meeting headed by party founder and leader Ramadoss where he and senior leaders of the party participated. "PMK has a stand that a bye-election is not needed if an MLA dies or any MLA joins another party and makes the seat vacant since it's a waste of people's tax money and time," the statement said. The party also opined that instead of conducting another election which causes a "waste of people's tax money and time", an MLA can be announced by the same political party from which the MLA won before. The Election Commission on Wednesday announced a bypoll to the Erode (East) constituency in Tamil Nadu on February 27. The counting of votes will be done on March 2. The filing of nominations would start on January 31 and end on February 7. The Erode (East) bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA Thirumagan, the great-grandson of social reformer 'Periyar' EV Ramasamy and son of former Union minister EVKS Elangovan. Former Congress leader and Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) founder, G K Vasan, whose party candidate was a runner-up in the 2021 Assembly election from this constituency, also withdrew from the race in support of the AIADMK, putting the BJP in a quandary either to support ally AIADMK or go solo. The bye-election will be a litmus test for the AIADMK as the constituency falls in its bastion of western Tamil Nadu, where the DMK is making efforts to make inroads. Meanwhile, AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, involved in an acrimonious leadership tussle with another former CM E Palaniswami, on Saturday announced to field his party candidate for the February 27 by-poll in Erode East Assembly constituency. This will be the first bypoll in Tamil Nadu after the DMK-led alliance won the 2021 Assembly polls. (ANI) The women of the Naxal-hit area of Bihar's Gaya are becoming self-sufficient by cultivating lemongrass and mushroom. Earlier, where opium was cultivated on barren land, now lemongrass crop is flourishing. Today, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is coming to meet these women. The area of Bankebazar block of the Gaya district of Bihar once had a stronghold of Naxalites. Even today, there is an occasional Naxalite activity in this area. But in present times the women of this region have started writing their own destinies. Earlier, where opium was cultivated on barren land, and now the lemongrass crop is flourishing with the help of the Sarv Seva Samiti organization. With the help of the organization, women are being trained to cultivate lemongrass and sell its products. Women are also participating actively in this. The women who were earlier unemployed and whose economic condition was very bad, are now becoming strong by cultivating lemongrass and mushrooms and their financial condition is also improving. Pratima Devi, a resident of Azamgarh village of Bankebazar block, told ANI, "Earlier we had no work and the condition of the house was also very bad. But we were given training in mushroom and lemongrass farming by the organization. A good income is being generated and the condition of the family is also improving. Many types of products are being made by cultivating lemon grass. Initially, only a few women were associated with it, but at present, about one thousand women have joined. Now we are getting good income. Earlier our area was known for Naxalism, there was no development, but now we are making many types of products and we are also getting good income by selling them in the market." Rajni Bhushan, the district manager of Sarv Seva Samiti, said that Bankebazar block is considered to be a very remote area. "It is about 70 kms away from district headquarters Gaya. Most of whose land is barren and the area is surrounded by mountains. After this, we contacted the agriculture department and started cultivating mushrooms and lemongrass on barren land. For this, we connected the women of the area. At present, more than 1,000 women are associated with this farming and they are earning well, she informed. The land which used to be barren before is flourishing with the cultivation of lemongrass. Many products including oil, soap, sanitiser, and phenyl are being made from lemongrass, which is being sold. Women are getting an income of about 12 thousand rupees in 2 months. Once lemongrass is cultivated, the crop keeps flourishing for 5 years. If its products are sold in six months, there is an income of about 40 thousand rupees. It is our endeavour to involve more women in this work so that their economic condition improves and their standard of living rises. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is scheduled to visit the area and meet the women in the area under his ongoing "Samadhan yatra". (ANI) The government has initiated the process of talks with the armed militant outfit Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO) after its self-styled commander-in-chief Jiban Singha Koch and a few other leaders came out from the jungle to join the mainstream. The talks will be held with the central government the Assam state Government and members of the KLO, dates of which are being finalised. A senior official of Assam police said that Jiban Singha Koch is now in Guwahati. "The government has initiated to start talks with KLO," the police official said. Earlier, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that it was big news that Jiban Singha Koch has returned to the mainstream. "He joined the mainstream a few days back. Let him take rest for some time then he will start discussions with the government," Sarma said. Recently, Koch along with nine other leaders, and members of the outfit surrendered before the security forces in the Longwa region in Nagaland's Mon district. The KLO has been demanding a separate state for the Koch Rajbongshi community. The community is spread over parts of north West Bengal and Assam has been demanding for a separate stee of Kamtapur. In a tweet in December 2022, the Assam chief minister had said," In Continuation with Govt of India's efforts to bring lasting peace in the region, I welcome the desire of KLO leadership to join mainstream at an early date to resolve all issues through political dialogues. Govt of Assam would fully reciprocate this goodwill measure." (ANI) While dismissing the bail application of accused Deepak Khanna, Rohini court rapped Delhi Police for filing an evasive and vague reply. The court said, "It appears that Investigation Officer (IO) is not opposing the bail application. The approach of the investigating agency appears to be non-serious." The reply on future bail applications are directed to be supervised by the concerned DCP. Additional Sessions Judge Sushil Bala Dagar on Friday said, "Further it is pertinent to mention that the reply which has been received to this bail application today is quite evasive, vague and non-specific on all grounds. It appears from the reply that the IO is not opposing the bail application. "The investigating agency ought not to have such a non-sensitive approach. It shocks the judicial consciousness of the Court that such evasive non-specific, vague grounds are being made in the reply. The approach of the investigating agency appears to be non-serious," the court further said. Accordingly, in case, in future any application is moved in this matter, DCP is concerned to personally supervise the same and any response sent to the Court should be routed through the Office of DCP to reflect his supervision and application of mind over the investigation, the court directed. The court noted that the allegations against accused Deepak are grave in nature. "The investigation is still in the initial stages. The accused himself has given two versions to theinvestigating agency as mentioned in the bail application i.e. at the first instance, he stated that he was driving the vehicle and later on he is taking the defence that he was not driving the vehicle. Whether he was present inside the vehicle or not is yet to be investigated," the court noted. The Court further said that the arguments of Counsel for the accused regarding his GPS location or CDR are not tenable which seems to be his defence and the matter is still at the initial stage. "It is not necessary that at all times a person would be carrying his mobile phone with him which is still a matter of investigation. The question of the presence of the accused/ applicant or whether he was not present can not be ascertained at this stage. The accused/ applicant cannot seek parity with the other co-accused," the court said. During the hearing, the IO orally submits through APP for State that one witness namely Sahil whose statement under Section 164 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has been recorded has stated that co-accused Amit was driving the vehicle. On inquiry, whether the alleged witness Sahil has mentioned whether accused Deepak was present in the vehicle or not, IO submitted that alleged witness Sahil has not made anymention about accused Deepak in his statement and an investigation in this regard is still going on. The allegations against the accused/ applicant are grave in nature. Owing to the aforesaid observations, the seriousness and gravity of the allegations levelled against the applicant or accused, the present bail application of accused/ applicant Deepak Khanna stands dismissed and accordingly disposed off, the court recorded in the order uploaded on Saturday. In this matter, two out of seven accused are on bail. Ankush and Ashutosh has been granted bail. The other five accused including Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Manoj Mittal, Krishan and Mithun are in judicial custody. They are to be produced in court on January 23. (ANI) Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has called out Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar for "peddling lies". In his tweet, Ramesh said, "Rajeev Chandrashekhar, as Minister concerned with regulating social media, you've misused it atrociously to peddle lies on me and my colleague P Chidambaram. We won't take it lying down, meanwhile, I wanted to call you out for what you really are. Will Twitter have the guts to expose you?" This was Ramesh's second tweet in response to Chandrashekhar alleging the Congress leaders had pushed for foreign vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier on Friday, Ramesh tweeted in response to Chandrashekhar's tweet, "This is total bull****, Mr Minister. Let not your ambition to climb the greasy pole make you more of a liar than you are." Chandrashekhar, who is the current Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology on Friday tweeted, "Just to remind all Indians, that Pfizer tried to bully Govt of India into accepting conditions of indemnity And Cong trio of Rahul, Chidamabaram n Jairam Ramesh kept pushing the case of foreign vaccines during Covid." Chandrashekhar shared a video along with this tweet in which the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla is seen being questioned by reporters about the efficiency of vaccines. The video showed the reporters consistently questioning the CEO as to why he kept the fact a secret that vaccines do not stop transmission. The video showed the CEO not responding to any of the questions from the reporters. (ANI) A 61-year-old man is facing felony charges after his 12-year-old relative was grazed by a bullet that discharged from a gun he was removing from his pocket early Friday morning at a South Side gas station, Chicago police said. Martin Guest, of the 8800 block of South Ridgeland Avenue, was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a loaded weapon. He also was charged with a misdemeanor count of endangering a child, police said. Advertisement Around midnight Friday, the boy and Guest were at a gas station in the 1400 block of East 87th Street when Guest attempted to remove a handgun from his pocket, and the weapon discharged grazing the boy to the left hand. Earlier police said the boy was a relative. Guest was scheduled to appear for a bond hearing Saturday. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday appealed to the youth to identify new ways to take the nation to greater heights while staying connected with the country's age-old values and traditions. Singh visited the National Cadet Corps (NCC) Republic Day Camp at Delhi Cantt and gave away Raksha Mantri Padak and Commendation Cards to cadets for their exemplary performance and devotion to duty. This year, the Raksha Mantri Padak was awarded to Under Officer Tinggeuchile Nriame and Cadet Avinash Jangir. The Raksha Mantri Commendation Cards were awarded to Captain Pratap Keshari Harichandan, Cadet Under Officer Jenny Francina Victor Anand, Cadet Fiza Shafi and Cadet Sehwag Rana. In an inspirational address to around 2,000 cadets, who are participating in the camp, Singh exhorted them to identify new ways and strive to help the nation move forward on the path of development at faster pace. He, however, urged them to stay connected with the country's age-old values & traditions and work in the field of their choice with humility. Emphasising the need to mould oneself according to the changing times, Singh said, no stone is being left unturned by the Government to equip the nation to deal with challenges that may arise due to the fast-evolving global security scenario. He, however, maintained that while changing with time is essential, staying connected with the country's glorious past is equally important. The aim is to build a strong and prosperous India, rooted in its culture and traditions, he said. Singh urged the cadets to focus on character building as much as they pay attention to gaining knowledge and earning wealth. With their hard work, dedication and values, he expressed confidence that the cadets will touch heights of success and bring laurels to the country. "The path of India's progress goes through the youth. The stronger our youth is, the stronger our country will be," he said. He appreciated the NCC for transforming its cadets into a well-rounded personalities by inculcating the qualities of a leader, soldier, artist and above all a good human being. "Unity, discipline, truthfulness, courage, harmony, leadership and teamwork taught at the NCC have always been the guiding light of our country. Some of the most important qualities the NCC imbibes in its cadets are determined to achieve a desired goal, team spirit and getting rid of the fear of failure. This not only helps young minds to create their own path but also gives a new direction to society. There is a need to keep working on these qualities as it makes a person perfect & complete in the longer run," he told the cadets. Describing the country's fool-proof security infrastructure as one of the best examples of teamwork, Singh asserted that the while the Armed Forces are protecting the nation from all kinds of threats; scientists, engineers, civil officers and others are providing all support by moving shoulder-to-shoulder with them. "If there is ever a need to fight a war, the whole country will be behind our Armed Forces. It is the result of teamwork that India has defeated its enemies in the past and won many wars," he said. As part of the event, a colourful cultural programme was presented to by NCC cadets. He also inspected the Guard of Honour presented by a contingent of NCC cadets drawn from the Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force wings of NCC. He commended the cadets, drawn from all 17 directorates spread across the country, for their performances, terming it as a symbol of India's unity in diversity. He visited the 'Hall of Fame', which has an impressive collection of alumni photographs, models and other achievements of NCC over the past 75 years. Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, DG NCC Lt Gen Gurbirpal Singh and other senior civil and military officials were present on the occasion. (ANI) Banbasa police station was adjudged among the top-3 alongside Odisha's Aska and Bihar's Arwal police stations in the annual ranking of police stations across the country. Union Home Minister Mr Amit Shah honoured Banbasa police station at the ongoing top security summit at the National Agricultural Science Complex of New Delhi. Uttarakhand Director Gerneral of Police (DGP), Ashok Kumar said it is, indeed, a matter of pride to be among the top 3 in a country which has an estimated 16,000 police stations. He added that this was the first time at a police station in Uttarakhand featured among the top 3. In 2017, two Uttarakhand poliuce stations -- Banbhulpura and Rishikesh -- had ranked inside the top-10, at the 6th and 8th places respectively. Again, in the 2018 rankings, Munsiyari police station of Uttarakhand was at the 9th place. The ranking of police stations is an annual exercise by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Police stations are judged on 165 different parameters, including crime control, crime rate, investigation and disposal of cases, infrastructure and public service delivery, among others. About 20 per cent of the total points accrued are also based on the feedback received from the citizens about a particular police station. (ANI) HDFC Bank on Saturday donated Rs 5 crore to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami Kedarnath Utthan Charitable Trust. Country Head of HDFC Bank Akhilesh Kumar Rai called on Chief Minister Dhami at Chief Minister's residence on Saturday and presented a check of Rs 5 crore to him. Circle Head of HDFC Bank Bakul Sikka and Gaurav Jain, Government Relations Head were also present on the occasion. Rai also assured financial cooperation for the help of landslide-affected people in Joshimath. Speaking to ANI, Dhami informed that as many as 270 families have been shifted to different locations so far. "Except for one area, the situation is normal everywhere else. There is a bitter cold, so admin has been directed to arrange for heaters, warm clothes and medicines," he said. He said that eight institutions are carrying out surveys and their report will come soon. "Committee formed and it's talking to all stakeholders. Talks are also being held about the location for rehabilitation. Talks were also held about compensation. Eight institutions are carrying out surveys there. Their report will come soon after that we will take the necessary steps," added Uttarakhand CM. Meanwhile, Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana said that reports have been received that in a few areas cracks in buildings have widened, days after Joshimath, which is facing land subsidence, in Uttarakhand received heavy snowfall. Khurana said that teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and police are on alert if any tragedy arises due to heavy snowfall in Joshimath. Stating the condition of the relief camps in Joshimath he said that the team is working to provide all necessary facilities to the family. "Due to heavy snowfall in Joshimath, reports have been received that in a few areas cracks in buildings have widened. Our team is working to provide all the necessary facilities like heaters, hot water, and others," said Khurana. He said that an executive-level engineer is present in the camp to monitor electricity problems in the relief camps. Earlier on Friday, Secretary of Disaster Management, Ranjit Kumar Sinha briefed the media about the rehabilitation and relief work being done in Joshimath and informed that an amount of Rs 4 lakhs has been allotted as immediate assistance to the affected eight tenants at the rate of Rs 50 thousand per family. He informed that more than Rs 3.27 crores have been distributed to 218 affected families in Joshimath as an advance relief. (ANI) Over 1.90 crore pilgrims took the holy dip in 'Sangam' to attain salvation on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya during the ongoing Magh Mela in Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, informed the government on Saturday. As a mark of respect, the Yogi Adityanath government showered flower petals from a helicopter, increasing the enthusiasm among the devotees. To ensure that the auspicious tradition of a month-long 'Magh Mela' and holy bathing at the Sangam takes place smoothly, the Yogi-led state government made all efforts by providing strict security amidst hygienic surroundings to all the devotees. On the banks of Sangam-- the confluence of holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna, and the mystical Saraswati, more than 12 bathing ghats were made, and the devotees were comfortably bathing to gain virtue. In order to manage the organisation of this Magh Mela, which extends over an area of 700 hectares, as many as 194 magistrates and 98 sector officers were deployed. Due to the continuous monitoring of Magh Mela by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the enthusiasm of the devotees was visible despite the severe cold and poor weather conditions. Magh Mela officer Arvind Singh Chauhan said, "Due to the special crowd management during Mauni Amavasya, more than 1.90 crore devotees had conveniently taken a holy dip in the Sangam by noon; by the evening, this number is probably going to exceed two crore." On the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, flower petals were showered on the devotees by helicopter, which was highly appreciated by the pilgrims as it honoured the divine festival. The state government has ensured all arrangements, including security and convenience of the devotees who visit and stay on the ghats of Sangam for the month-long Kalpvas during the Magh Mela. 'Magh Mela' also called as 'Kumbh Mela' or 'Magh Kumbh Mela' is organised in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj from January 6 till February 18. The fair is held at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and mythological Saraswati rivers. With an aim to facilitate devotees visiting, the district administration has deployed water ambulances at the ghats. The Uttar Pradesh Police is also using body cameras at 'Magh Mela' underway in Prayagraj. Mauni Amavasya is an auspicious day in the Hindu religion. It falls on the month of Magh as per the Hindu calendar. On this day people observe Maun Vrat, in which they dedicate themselves to remaining mute and try to connect their inner selves and God. It is also believed that during the Magh month as per Hindu beliefs the river water turns into nectar. So the devotees take a bath in this nectar as it leads to an enlightened life. (ANI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the Centre has decided to send a proposal to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) nominating Charaideo Maidam of Ahom Kingdom as World Heritage site. The Assam Chief Minister also informed that out of 52 tentative sites across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen Assam's Charaideo Maidam. Earlier, on January 16, the chief minister had written a letter to PM Modi informing him that the government of Assam had submitted the World Heritage Nomination Dossier of the cultural heritage site of Moidams - the Mound Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty in Charaideo' (Assam) to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), for onward submission to UNESCO for their evaluation in the current year cycle of 2023. "Moidams (or Maidams) represent the late medieval (13th-19th century CE) mound-burial tradition of the Tai Ahoms in Assam, which lasted almost 600 years. Out of 386 Moidams explored so far, 90 royal burials at Charaideo are the best preserved, representative, and most complete examples of this tradition," CM mentioned in the letter. "There is currently no World Heritage Site in the category of cultural heritage in North East India. This important dossier has been prepared in technical collaboration with the ASI. I would like to request that the Government of India supports our efforts and forwards the aforesaid nomination dossier to the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO", the letter further stated. (ANI) Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak on Saturday lashed out at the Samajwadi Party, alleging that there was 'mafia rule' in the state before 2017. Speaking to reporters after flagging off the 'Run for G20' walkathon with CM Yogi Adityanath in state capital Lucknow on Saturday, Pathak said, "The Samajwadi Party gives shelter to goons and mafias. They don't have any development agenda for the state." "Before 2017, there was mafia rule in the state and today, the state is experiencing development like never before," he added. He said the upcoming investors' summit will prove to be a milestone in the development of Uttar Pradesh. "Today, UP is the safest state for investment. Investors from all over the world are coming to our state. The day is not far when the state will mark its own unique identity at the international level as a top investment destination," the Deputy CM said. On the possibility of a 'third front' taking shape in the country against the ruling BJP, the Deputy CM said similar efforts to cobble up an Opposition alliance were made in the past but failed. "In the past, too, top Opposition leaders of the country had tried to come together for a Third Front. 'Jan Morcha', 'Janata Dal', and the 'National Front' are some failed examples of rainbow coalitions against the BJP. Those behind such efforts are only in politics to grab power. For the BJP, however, development is paramount, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Nation First'," Pathak said. The Deputy CM further said he was confident that the BJP will win the Ghazipur seat in the next Lok Sabha elections. "This district belongs to Veer Abdul Hameed. Goons and mafia used to rule here under the SP, but today, there is development. The lotus will bloom in Ghazipur in 2024," he added. (ANI) Delhi Police recently filed a supplementary charge sheet against three accused persons in the Sagar Dhankar murder case. The charge sheet is pending before the metropolitan magistrate. Out of these three accused, Ankit Dabas and Jodinder alias Kala were earlier absconding in the matter and a reward was declared on their arrest. These accused were arrested in December 2022. Metropolitan magistrate Shama Gupta has fixed the next date in the matter for January 24. Delhi police have filed the supplementary charge sheet against Ankit and Joginder after their arrest in the same section as against the other accused including Olympian Wrestler Sushil Kumar and others. The third accused was not arrested. Police have filed a supplementary charge sheet against him without arrest. Police have invoked section 30 Arms Act. A charge sheet had already been filed against Sushil and the other 17 accused persons. The matter is at the stage of prosecution evidence. Additional Sessions Judge Shivaji Anand on Saturday adjourned the hearing for January 31 as the public prosecutor and investigation officer were present today. The court on October 15, 2022, framed charges under sections of murder, attempt to murder, rioting, unlawful assembly and other sections including criminal conspiracy against the accused in the junior wrestler Sagar Dhankar murder case. The court also had framed charges against two accused persons Ankit and Joginder. The court had framed charges against the accused persons under sections 302, 307, 323, 109, 148, and 149 reads with 120B. The court had also framed charges against accused persons under section causing hurt and robbery in relation to the incidents that happened in Chhatrasal stadium. In relation to the incidents of Shalimar Bagh, the charges were framed under sections of Kidnapping, causing grievous hurt, criminal conspiracy including rioting and Unlawful assembly against 10 accused excluding Sushil Kumar. The court had also directed to frame charges in relation to the incident that happened at Model Town under sections of criminal conspiracy, rioting and Unlawful assembly against 15 accused persons excluding Sushil Kumar. Sagar and three others were allegedly abducted and beaten up in Chhatrasal stadium on the night of 4 May 2021. Sagar had succumbed to injuries during treatment in the hospital and Sonu Mahaal was grievously injured in the incident. (ANI) While talking to ANI, Zulfikar Mullah, one of the demonstrators, said, "The situation escalated after the police lathi-charged. The police said the demonstration was causing jams in the area and asked us to disperse." Another demonstrator, Sheikh Munirul said, "The authorities did not listen to us. They simply lathi-charged us. They broke our hands and some people also lost their mobile phones. We did not throw bricks. It was a peaceful protest." The members of ISF had blocked the road over the incident in Bhangar. ISF MLA Naushad Siddique was also detained during the protest. On Friday, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and ISF workers clashed in the Bhangar area located in the South 24 Parganas district in the state. Bricks were hurled at the police by the protesters when the police tried to disperse the crowd today. (ANI) Union Jal Shakti Minister and Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Saturday held a review meeting of preparations going on in his parliamentary constituency, ahead of the G-20 annual summit under the presidency of India. The meeting was held at Circuit House in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, wherein the Union Minister gave directions to the officials regarding the upcoming G-20 summit. Jodhpur parliamentarian took the review of beautification process, mock drills being conducted by police in the city, which is one of 80 cities holding G-20 meetings this year. "It is definitely a matter of good luck that India is getting the chance to chair the G20 group this time. Over 43 Heads of Delegations, including 20 representatives from member countries, 14 representatives from international organizations like the World Health Organization, World Bank, etc., and nine representatives-- invited by the hosting country, will be participating in the global event," Gajendra Shekhawat told reporters here, adding that there will be more than 200 meetings throughout the year, discussions will be held on different topics. He said that it is fortunate for Jodhpur for getting the opportunity to host such a global event. "Generally, such meetings were limited to the capital of the country or some big cities, but, this time PM Modi took the initiative and ensured that these types of meetings should be conducted at 80 different places across the country," Jodhpur MP said, adding that we are fortunate for getting the opportunity to host such a global event. Union Minister urged the people of Jodhpur to extend a welcome to the people coming to visit the city during the mega-annual summit. "This important meeting that is going to be held in our country, when the country is presiding over it, definitely it is a big opportunity for us through which we can showcase our city, culture and civilization in front of the world," he added. The G-20 Summit to be held this year would be one of the highest-profile international gatherings to be hosted by India, according to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). As India took over G20 Presidency for the year 2023 from Indonesia, all eyes are set on India as New Delhi would set the agenda that would create an environment of better cooperation between the global south and advanced nations as it stands non-partisan and enjoys the trust of both. The agenda will likely be cooperation for sustainable and equitable development for shared global peace and prosperity and capacity building to face emerging global challenges. (ANI) With just 397 days left for the general elections in 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party is making all out efforts to win the Lok Sabha elections for the third consecutive time. After PM Narendra Modi urged the participants at the National Executive meeting to connect with people and not worry about votes, the party's Minority Morcha plans to start a minority-centric programme to connect with minority voters, especially Muslims, at the grass-root level. After PM Modi issued directions at the BJP National Executive meeting to reach out to minorities, the party has started making plans to woo them. BJP has identified 60 Muslim-majority Lok Sabha constituencies where 5,000 minority members in each constituency will be connected with the party. National President of BJP Minority Morcha, Jamal Siddiqui said, "The 'Muslim Outreach Programme' has already started but PM Modi after reviewing the programme has advised us, that there is a need to intensify it." He said that the party needs to reach out to people coming from different sections of society, Pasmanda Muslims, Bohra Muslims, street vendors, small businessmen, educated people, doctors, engineers, Sufis etc. "Bharatiya Janata Party Minority Morcha has planned that we will connect the minority community with us on a large scale and reach out to them because the Prime Minister has strictly said that without worrying about the vote, we have to connect with the people, listen to their problems and give them the plans of the government," Jamal Siddiqui told ANI, adding that information has to be spread to the people about the benefits of government's schemes. "For this, we have identified 60 Lok Sabha constituencies, dominated by Muslims, Christians and Sikhs and other minority communities. About 5000 people from different sections in those constituencies, which are Pasmanda Muslims, Bohra Muslims, Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers or other business classes, will be connected with BJP," he added. As per BJP Minority Morcha's national president, the party will conduct a 'Scooter Yatra', believed to be conceptualised by PM Modi, with the connected 5000 like-minded members in each constituency to reach grassroots voters. "Our effort is that under the leadership of PM Modi, India should be united and ideal (EK Bharat Shrestha Bharat). In the party's 'Scooter Yatra' Bharatiya Janata Party's workers, supporters, and people who admire PM Modi, will be included and we will reach every class by scooter. This outreach programme will be concluded with a 'Sneh Sammelan'," Siddiqui told ANI. After the Sneh Sammelan, the party's booth and Panna committee will start the work of verification of the constituencies of those 5000 active minority workers. There are 60-70 per cent minority votes in the constituencies and the party will discuss the shortcomings in the selected constituencies and will make a strategy to erode the shortcomings. Apart from the outreach programme, Sufi conferences have also been planned in all 60 Lok Sabha constituencies. Launching a scathing attack on the Congress party, BJP Minority Morcha national president said, "Sufi ideology is an example of Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb but Congress has weakened it and Congress has done the work of giving strength to the terrorist separatist ideology. If we talk about Kashmir, the maximum number of Sufis used to be in Jammu and Kashmir, Congress did the work of ending it. If Sufiyan was strong, there would have been no terrorism there. Sufiyana ideology is linked to Indian culture. The Prime Minister has emphasized that Sufi ideology should be linked." "After connecting 5000 members from each of the 60 parliamentary constituencies, the BJP Minority Morcha has decided to hold a big convention, with a gathering of over 3 lakh people, in Delhi after four months i.e. in April or May, which is likely to be addressed by PM Modi," Siddiqui said. Jamal Siddiqui said that the National Executive meeting of the BJP Minority Morcha may be held in Chhattisgarh or Rajasthan on February 1-2, the place is yet to be decided. "A to-do list has been made for the National Executive meeting of Minority Morcha, it will be discussed. There will be a consideration and will be approved followed by implementation," he added. (ANI) A former Robbins and Dixmoor police officer possessed child pornography during the time of his employment as officer and was fired from both positions including after a grooming incident with juveniles, prosecutors said Saturday. Tory Bridgeforth, 37, of Chicago Heights, appeared before Cook County Judge Susana L. Ortiz, who set bail at $1 million during a hearing that was livestreamed on YouTube. Advertisement Bridgeforth was ordered to have no contact with anyone under the age of 18, including his 12-year-old daughter. Mr. Bridgeforth constitutes a danger to any children whatsoever ... his own, children who are virtual, children on the internet ... these are disturbing images, Ortiz said before setting bail. I do consider them to be crimes of violence. Advertisement Bridgeforth has been charged with possession of child pornography videos of victims under 13, possession of child pornography videos of victims under 18, and possession of child pornography images of victims under 18, a statement from the Cook County sheriffs office said. When police arrested him on Wednesday, he had three cellphones, two of which he declined to give passcodes for, prosecutors said. On the one that was forensically examined, about 19 videos of prepubescent and pubescent child victims were found, as well as 15 images dated from June of 2021 through September of 2022, prosecutors said. Of significant note, he was employed as a police officer when he possessed files of child pornography, the prosecutor told Ortiz. Bridgeforth worked for the Dixmoor Police Department from 2021 to 2022 and the Robbins Police Department in 2019, the sheriffs statement said. Prosecutors said he was terminated from both positions. Bridgeforth told police he used his cellphone to view child pornography and when investigators examined his phone, there were more than 35 sexually explicit images and videos of children as young as 8, the statement said. For a significant period of time, over a one-year period, if not more, there were videos depicting children engaged in sexual activity being sent to and from email addresses and phones numbers and IP addresses that are connected to the defendant, Ortiz said. Bridgeforth was still working as a police sergeant with Robbins when in December of 2019, he was investigated, though not charged criminally, for grooming and contributing to the delinquency of minors, prosecutors said. Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy > In the July 2019 situation, Bridgeforth responded to a police incident in which he made contact with three kids aged 12 and 13. He picked them up the next day and brought them to a vacant home where he gave them, juice, edibles, alcohol and cannabis before taking them home, prosecutors said. Advertisement An attorney who represented Bridgeforth asserted that he has three children, including a 12-year-old daughter who he cares for and who needs a father figure, volunteers for a hurricane relief program, has an associates degree and attended the police academy. He has no violent history and has one disorderly conduct conviction from 2018. This is all a misunderstanding, the attorney said of the allegations against Bridgeforth. The charges stem from a probe by the Cook County Sheriffs Police Internet Crimes Against Children unit, that received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which found the materials on an email account. After executing search warrants, they found the email belonged to Bridgeforth, the statement said. Bridgeforth, who could not be reached for comment, is due back in court in Markham on Tuesday. rsobol@chicagotribune.com Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena on Saturday launched the '100 Days to Beat Plastic' campaign at Baansera, Sarai Kala Khan in New Delhi. Lieutenant Governor also administered an oath to the people not to use plastic in daily life. The unique campaign is initiated by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to make the MCD area "Plastic-Free" with people's participation. The 100 days campaign would culminate on April 22, 2023, on International Earth Day. The LG also unveiled the mascot of the campaign-Nivaran Dadi. He also visited the exhibition of products made from plastic waste. Addressing the event, The Lt. Governor said, "I have a vision that Delhi should become a clean and beautiful city and all efforts are being made to attain this objective. MCD and PWD roads are being cleaned, though a lot of work is still to be done." Giving an idea to combat plastic pollution, he said, "If we stop taking plastic bags from vegetable vendors, shopkeepers and others, then this problem will start ending automatically." LG further said, "Now there is no need to discuss the ill effects of plastic. It is well known. No initiative is successful without public participation and I am happy to note that RWAs and Market Traders Associations have taken the initiative to make Delhi a plastic-free city. We will definitely be successful in this endeavour. Delhi faces the problem of water-logging every year for which plastic is also largely responsible." He also said, "Delhi is moving towards the goal of a zero waste city. We have so far declared 120 RWAs/GHSs as zero waste colonies. The height of landfill sites is also decreasing. We all need to work unitedly to make Delhi a better city." On the occasion, the MCD Commissioner Gyanesh Bharati said, "Delhi generates 11,000 tonnes of waste daily, out of which about 10 per cent is plastic waste. The corporation has done a lot of work since single-use plastic was banned. However, due to the lack of alternatives to plastic, there is a problem in implementing this ban completely." During the programme, a detailed presentation on the action plan of the '100 Days to Beat Plastic' campaign was given. Under this initiative, MCD has planned various activities including the intense inspections of all shops and markets to seize the banned single-use plastic, plogging drives with the Brand Ambassador of campaign-Plogman of India, distribution of cloth bags, the opening of more Vikalp stores, wall art and Installations related to Plastic, awareness and outreach events to combat single-use plastic. It is hoped that when the 100 days campaign ends, Delhi will be ready for use of alternatives to plastic. During the campaign, MCD will focus on making markets, parks, and hotel/banquets plastic free in a strategic manner. Under the campaign, MCD will promote segregation at source, and doorstep pickup of plastic and Dhalaos will be used for Reuse, Reduce & Recycle (RRR) facility in each ward. MCD will conduct an inspection of every shop, factory, and commercial enterprise and stickers of declaration of SUP Free Area will be put in these areas. Plogging drives will be held in identified locations and Reverse Plastic Vending Machines will be installed at high-footfall locations. Government institutions, community centres, parks, and offices will be declared SUP-free. MCD plans to open at least one Vikalp store in each market to discourage the use of Plastic bags. To implement the ban on single-use plastic and discourage the use of plastic cutlery in hotels and banquets, MCD will encourage the introduction of alternatives to plastic. Monthly inspection will be done by MCD and SUP-free certification will be made as a mandatory compliance. Through this campaign, MCD has set the target to make all the parks SUP Free. MCD has decided that name boards made of shredded plastic will be used in all MCD Parks and an appropriate number of dustbins will be installed in each park. The Public Health Department of MCD will modify the license terms to include - no usage of single-use plastic, especially plastic cutlery in hotels, eateries and restaurants. Extensive mapping will be done of all malls in Delhi to ban the SUP and declare them SUP Free. Mall Authority will be asked to issue an instruction for prohibiting the use of SUPs on entire premises. MCD will target to make schools and universities SUP-free premises. Every day "No use of banned SUPs" pledge will be practised in all schools. (ANI) The incident took place right opposite Madhuloka bar in Rajajinagar which comes within the Malleswaram traffic police station limits of Bengaluru. Police said that on Friday evening a speeding car rammed into a bike after which the biker was thrown off his bike and fell a few feet away. The driver of the Fortuner car did not stop and rushed away from the spot. "The biker has suffered minor injuries and has been admitted to a hospital for further examination," police said. Onlookers who spoke to the cops stated there were 4 people inside the car including the driver. The driver also tried to run over those who tried to stop his car. The entire incident has been captured on CCTV camera which the police have accessed. A case has been registered and further investigation is underway. (ANI) Chief Electoral Officer V Shashank Shekhar called on the political parties to follow the procedures and guidelines of the Election Commission of India. He also directed them to maintain proper record and submit their daily expenditure reports to Election Expenditure Monitoring (Nodal Officer), under DEO's on time. The CEO also briefed the representatives of political parties to adhere to the ceiling limit of Rs 28 lakh expenditure for each candidate. The general observers, Central and state agencies will be monitoring their expenditure, therefore, he urged all the political parties to take the matter seriously. In the meeting, Election Expenditure Monitoring, Nodal Officer, CEO Office, Hiazu Meru informed that all the parties have been asked to submit the name list of star campaigners before the day of filing nomination. The CEO also appealed to the political parties to curb fake news in social media and report to their respective DEOs. The Assembly Elections in Nagaland are slated to be held on February 27. The results will be declared on March 2. (ANI) Azmi's personal assistant received a call. The person who made the call allegedly hurled abuses on the call and threatened to kill Abu Asim Azmi. The Colaba Police Station in Mumbai has lodged an FIR against the unknown person under sections 506 (2) and 504 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). "FIR lodged at Colaba Police Station in Mumbai against the unknown person under sections 506 (2) and 504 of the IPC. Further investigation is underway," said Mumbai Police. Further investigation is underway. (ANI) "Please ask Upendra Kushwaha to talk to me. He has left us a lot of time, I don't know what he wants. I was not in Patna so I'm not aware of it. He is currently unwell, I'll meet him and discuss this," Nitish Kumar during his Samadhan Yatra in Gaya told reporters. Earlier some speculations about the party's Parliamentary Board President Kushwaha joining the opposition BJP aired in the State after some of the BJP's Bihar unit leaders visited Upendra Kushwaha, while he was admitted in hospital. Incidentally, earlier on Thursday JD-U MLC Sanjay Singh put up posters across the city, removing the photograph of Upendra Kushwaha from it. The posters contained photographs of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar followed by party national President Lalan Singh, Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Building Construction Minister Ashok Chaudhary, Water Resource Minister Sanjay Jha, as well as ministers Lesi Singh and Sumit Singh and almost all top leaders of JD-U- except Kushwaha. (ANI) Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday informed about the union government's plan to set up a modern floating jetty at the Biswanath Ghat soon. "This will create a smooth platform to transport both cargo and passengers via waterways which in turn will transform the local economy," said the Union Waterways Minister in Biswanath. Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal said, "It gives me immense pleasure to share this news with you that the Union Government has drawn up plans to set up a modern floating jetty at the historic Biswanath Ghat. Once functional, this jetty will act as a catalyst of change and realisation of the vision of PM Narendra Modi about Transformation via Transportation. The rich history of the Biswanath Ghat - as a confluence of the spiritual, economic and social points of importance - will get a further boost. The new jetty will be instrumental for the smooth passage of passengers to commute as well as for the local economy to flourish as the farmers and traders will be able to transport and export our fantastic produce to the world market via waterways." "Under the visionary leadership of PM Narendra Modi, the Act East Policy has worked wonders for the economic revival of the region in the global trade map. By re-energising our traditional routes of trade via the river Brahmaputra, we have a tremendous opportunity to regain our glory as an important hub of trade in this part of the world," he added. The Senior BJP leader also attended two party meetings at Biswanath and Tezpur today where he interacted with the party workers. As the first person from the Northeast region to represent at the apex Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee, Sarbananda Sonowal was accorded a warm welcome by the party leaders and workers. Sonowal expressed happiness at the heartfelt gesture by the party workers. After interacting with the party workers about the work done to strengthen the organisation, Sonowal called upon the party workers to commit to the cause of nation-building with complete dedication. Speaking on the occasion, the senior BJP leader, Sarbananda Sonowal said, "Since the time of its birth, the BJP has always worked towards holistic development of the country with the utmost commitment. The sincere work of the party workers and love for the party by people across all sections of society has made it possible to become the largest political party in the world." Sonowal mentioned that under the dynamic leadership of PM Modi, the country is scaling new heights of development and progress which has further consolidated the love and support of the people for the party. "We are fortunate to have a leader like Modi with whom we can work towards building our nation. We all know how the country was reduced to a non-performing nation with heights of corruption, nepotism, and inefficiency until 2014. Due to the lack of interest by successive governments towards the sincere development of the Northeast, the region was plagued by distress, violence, insurgency, corruption and hopelessness staring at every youth," he said. Mentioning the BJP's historic mandate in 2014, Sarbananda Sonowal said, "With PM Modi's passionate and infectious dedication towards nation-building, the country has witnessed a rejuvenated growth trajectory that it has never experienced. With the tectonic policy change from Think to Act East, Modiji ensured that the development in Northeast India gets top priority as it is poised to act as the New Engine of growth in the new India. With his visionary mottos like 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas', Modi has provided an opportunity to every person in this country to become an equal stakeholder in the development of this new India. This is a perfect example of good governance." "Under his leadership, India has become not only a powerful country on the global stage but its renewed place as a country of immense importance can be experienced with the hosting of prestigious G20 meetings in Assam along with the rest of India. The vision of PM Modi ji is to make India an Atma Nirbhar Bharat by the end of the Amrit Kaal in 2047. With our sustained and sincere effort to this cause, we will be able to do this," he added, (ANI) A case was registered under Ranirbazar Police Station, wherein the convict, Ratan Debnath, was charged with 302, and 324 sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). On April 15, 2021, Ratan Debnath owing to a family dispute killed his wife namely PratimaDebnath (41) by using an axe and also assaulted both his sons. The Investigating Officer SI Mithun Saha of Ranirbazar Police Station thoroughly investigated the case and submitted Charge Sheet which subsequently ended in conviction, officials said. (ANI) Reacting to alleged protests by a rightwing outfit in Assam against the release of Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'Pathaan', Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said he doesn't know Shah Rukh Khan neither is he aware of the movie 'Pathaan'. Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Sarma said, "Who is Shah Rukh Khan? Why should we care? We already have many Shah Rukh Khans?" "I have not heard about any movie by the name of 'Pathaan' and neither do I have any time for it," he added. He said people should instead talk about the release of Assamese film 'Dr Bezabaruah 2'. "We should rather focus watching the Assamese movie Dr Bezbaruah part 2, which has been directed by Sanjive Narain," he said. He ensured that he will act if any incident of law-and-order violation is reported. "Action will be taken, if law and order is violated. But, so far, I have not received any complaints from the cinema hall owners or the makers of the film. If there's been any incident, Shah Rukh Khan, himself, should have called me up. If he does so, I will look into the matter," the Assam CM further said. Several rightwingers allegedly stormed into a cinema hall in Assam's Narengi on Friday, vandalising property and burning down posters of 'Pathaan'. Earlier, on January 5, members of the same rightwing outfit allegedly created a ruckus at Alpha One Mall in Ahmedabad's Vastrapur, wrecking property and tearing down posters of the movie. 'Pathaan' has been mired in controversy ever since Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra objected to one of its songs -- 'Besharam Rang'. Mishra had said, "The costumes in the song, at first glance, are objectionable. It is clear that the song of the film 'Pathaan' has been shot with a dirty mindset." Helmed by Siddharth Anand, 'Pathaan' starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, is scheduled to release in theatres on January 25. (ANI) NCP leader Ajit Pawar, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, told ANI that the alliance partners feel they should contest bypoll to Chinchwad and Kasba Peth Assembly constituencies. "I doubt this bypoll will be go unopposed," he said. Pawar's remarks came in the wake of reported suggestion of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde that the election should be unopposed. He is learnt to have said that there is a tradition in Maharashtra that if a sitting MLA dies and his close relative is fielded by the same party, then rival parties do not field their candidates and referred to the Andheri East bypoll held last year. The Election Commission on Wednesday announced the schedule for the bye-elections to two assembly seats in Maharashtra. The election in Kasba Peth and Chinchwad was necessitated following the death of BJP leaders Mukta Shailesh Tilak and Laxman Pandurang Jagtap respectively. The bypoll would be held on February 27 and the results would be declared on March 2. "MVA and other supporting parties would be meeting on January 23,24. Senior leaders of all parties would be present. We would discuss it," Pawar added. Pawar further said that some party workers from two constituencies have met him and expressed their willingness to contest the bypoll, adding that they would also be meeting senior party leader Sharad Pawar. Kasba Peth MLA Mukta Tilak died on December 22 last year and Chinchwad MLA Laxman Jagtap passed away on January 3 after a prolonged illness. (ANI) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday attacked the Central government stating that the Centre's public debt is more than Kerala's. The Kerala CM inaugurated the Investors Meet today. He claimed that the public debt of the Central Government is greater than the public debt of the State of Kerala. The Investors Meet is being organised by the Industries Department of Kerala which was attended by around 10,000 newly registered entrepreneurs from all over the state. While claiming on public debt, Kerala CM further said, "Some people are trying to create an impression that Kerala is drowning in debt. The public debt of the Central government is greater than the public debt of the state. Kerala's debt was 29 per cent of the state's GDP in 2016 and rose to 37 per cent in 2021. But in 2016, the central debt was 47 per cent of the GDP. This was increased to 59 per cent in 2021." He also alleged that propaganda is also going on that Kerala's revenue comes entirely from the Centre. He said, "This is to mislead the state. This meeting is going to silence such people. The state government has done various things to boost the industrial environment in the state." "There is an allegation that our state is not a good state for industries. It is a baseless allegation. Some are propagating that there is no industry in Kerala. Some media also support this. This Investors meet is an answer to that allegation," he added. Vijayan also criticised Kerala's Congress-led opposition for not attending the meeting today. Kerala Opposition Leader VD Satheesan and MLAs from the Ernakulam district were invited to the program, but he didn't come. On that, CM stated, "Everyone should stand together for the development of the state. Such views can be seen in other states. Party and political differences should not affect the development of the country. It requires broad-mindedness and dedication toward the state." For not attending the meet, Kerala Opposition Leader VD Satheesan issued a statement in which he said, "The government's claim that one lakh industrial enterprises have been started in the last year and more than two lakh jobs have been created is a green lie. The government is trying to mislead people by giving fake figures." "According to the latest report of the Reserve Bank, Kerala is the state with the least number of industrial units in South India. Capital investment in industrial units was Rs 4.5 lakh crore in Tamil Nadu while it was Rs 76 lakh crore in Kerala. While Tamil Nadu created 26 lakh jobs in various industrial units, Kerala's employment declined to 3.34 lakh. Kerala is lagging behind in terms of small industrial units in South India. The Department of Industries is trying to make the enterprises that individuals start on their own by taking loans directly from banks to the account of the government," he added. Satheesan further said, "The government is sitting with its hands tied doing nothing for the industrial development and economic progress of Kerala. The opposition abstained from the entrepreneurs' meeting held in Kochi in protest against the government's action of presenting baseless figures to sow dust in the eyes of the people." (ANI) Chinese FM holds phone talks with Indonesian counterpart Xinhua) 10:23, January 21, 2023 BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Friday held a phone conversation with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi. As a major country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia is also an important partner of Belt and Road cooperation, Qin noted. China-Indonesia relations are facing new development opportunities currently, the Chinese diplomat said, adding that he stands ready to work with Marsudi to follow the strategic guidance of the two countries' heads of state to push for a closer and stronger China-Indonesia community with a shared future. China encourages more quality Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in Indonesia, and hopes Indonesia to provide more safety guarantee and policy facilitation, Qin said. For her part, Marsudi said China is an important partner of Indonesia on bilateral and multilateral levels, and Indonesia is looking forward to the development of bilateral ties and will strengthen exchange and cooperation with China. Indonesia attaches great importance to and will try its best to ensure the security of Chinese projects and personnel, said Marsudi, adding that Indonesia welcomes the arrivals of Chinese tourists as early as possible. Indonesia, who holds the ASEAN presidency this year, will be dedicated to promoting the development of ASEAN-China relations and expects continuous support from China, she said. Qin said China fully supports the work of Indonesia as the rotating presidency of ASEAN and believes that Indonesia will reflect its leadership in achieving a greater development of the ASEAN community with a shared future and the East Asia cooperation. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Sheng Chuyi) Cook County inmates join in on a prayer led by The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Jan. 21, 2023 at the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago. (Shanna Madison / Chicago Tribune) Jesse Jackson Sr. visited the Cook County Jail Saturday morning to speak to a gymnasium filled with inmates. Despite a voice growing quieter in an eight-year battle with Parkinsons disease, the civil rights leaders message of hope rang clear. Advertisement I want you all to plan to get out, Jackson said. The 81-year-old shook the hands of dozens of the 241 incarcerated men and women in attendance as he was pushed in a wheelchair around the drab white room that became suddenly filled by a bands joyful gospel music. Advertisement Visiting the jail after rescheduling his annual Christmas Day trip, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition founder led inmates in pledges focused on accountability and change. Jackson was at first seated as he spoke, but rose to ask detainees to promise to care for their families, focus on leaving jail, get training for jobs and stay away from guns. His son U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, who on Jan. 3 was sworn in for his first term in Congress, held the microphone and gave an arm for support as his father spoke. [ With another son of Rev. Jesse Jackson likely headed to Congress, a storied and complicated political dynasty adds a new chapter ] We want to make sure that just because you dont have money doesnt mean you dont have equal rights to justice, the younger Jackson told detainees. The congressman called on them to reclaim their voting rights, fight for livable wages and focus on looking forward instead of shame. Behind these cinder blocks, there is good news for those who are poor and locked up: You wont be here long, he said. The speakers of Jacksons coalition shared consistent messages of hope, self worth and individual responsibility. Many inmates shouted their accord in call-and-response. Others got up to dance as the band played Kirk Franklins Melodies from Heaven. Do not stay where you are, activist Afrika Porter told the incarcerated women filling one half the gym. This is only a minute. This is not it for you all, my beautiful queens. Advertisement Inmates dance to live music on Jan. 21, 2023 at the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago. (Shanna Madison / Chicago Tribune) Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy > The warm messages stuck with 23-year-old Paul Jones, who is incarcerated at the jail ahead of a February trial on a weapons charge. It made me feel good about myself and my living situation, Jones said. He often gets sad about his incarceration, he added. It made me feel very uplifted and just gave me hope that Im going to be home soon, and that this is not the end, Jones said. Visits like Jacksons make it a better day for everyone in the jail, Cook County Jail Executive Director Jane Gubser said. It does make people hopeful. When people are hopeless, disasters happen, especially in jail, Gubser said. The jail has added educational programs and an in-person voting site as part of its efforts to make similarly-focused humanistic reforms, she added. [ Bishop Tavis Grant named Rainbow/PUSHs acting national executive director: Its a tremendous opportunity to do some building and be creative ] Bishop Tavis Grant, who took over as Rainbow/PUSHs acting executive director in September, acknowledged Jackson now faces a daily battle with Parkinsons after the event. The longtime collaborator of Jacksons said he was proud to see his civil rights leader friend struggle to stand. He still has the willpower, still has the thirst and the passion to fight at all costs, Grant said. Advertisement jsheridan@chicagotribune.com Ghosh further said that West Bengal Chief Minister had proposed that there should be a coordination team between Opposition parties and a joint program in other states, especially in BJP-ruled states, but Congress didn't respond (to it). "They're trying to move alone," TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said while talking to ANI. "Congress has failed in many state polls and in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. So the scientific methodological Opposition mechanism should be made according to WB CM Mamata Banerjee's proposal. Hope Congress understands this," Ghosh added. "Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan' will begin on Jan 26 - a house-to-house campaign to spread the message of the Bharat Jodo Yatra to common people," Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal told reporters. (ANI) Officials said that the arrested man has been identified as Seitz Thomas Esroh, a resident of California. He was supposed to travel by Air India flight no AI 880 Bagdogra to Delhi. During the screening of hand baggage, CISF personnel noticed a suspicious article in the bag and then found an iridium satellite phone. The CISF officials immediately informed the nearest Bagdogra police and handed over the accused to them. Although, the accused claimed that he arrived in India for drone surveillance training at the Indian Army base in Lachung, Sikkim. The police authorities produced the accused person before the Siliguri ACJM court today. Later the honorable court issued a release order of the person on condition, officials said. (ANI) Addressing a press conference, the Assam CM said, "We want to reduce the number of Madrasas in the state in the first phase." "We want to put general education in Madrasas and start a system of registration in Madrasas," he added. He also said that they are working with the minority community and they are also helping in it. "We are working with the community on this and they are also helping the Assam government," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, Assam's Director General of Police (DGP) Bhaskar Jyoti Mahant said that discussions were underway for bringing reforms to madrasas in the state. Addressing a press conference in Guwahati on Monday, the Assam DGP said, "Madrasas are running properly in Assam. Today, we interacted with 68 people running madrasas." He said they discussed merging small madrasas with the bigger ones. "Discussions were also held on how to bring about further reforms to madrasas, set rules and form boards. We also talked about merging small madrasas with bigger ones," he said. He added that surveys were being conducted in this direction. "About 100 small madrasas have merged with the big ones. Surveys are also being done in this direction," he added. (ANI) A Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to man accused of dragging DCW Chief near the AIIMS on January 19. The bail was opposed by the Delhi police and it was submitted that if this happened to DCW chief, then it can happen to anyone. Metropolitan magistrate Sanghmitra of Saket District Court granted bail to accused Harish Chander after hearing the submission of Delhi police and counsel for the accused "I am of the view that no useful purpose will be served by keeping the accused behind the bars," the court said. The court granted bail to the accused subject to furnishing of a bail bond in the sum of Rs 50,000 with one surety in the like amount. In the present case, the FIR has been registered under sections 323/354/341/509 IPC and Section 185 Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. While granting bail, the court said, "No doubt that the nature of accusations is serious and is a relevant consideration at this stage of deciding the application of bail, however, it is not the only test or factor to be considered. The court observed, it is the basic principle of criminal law that the accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. It would be impermissible for the court, at this stage, while deciding the bail application, to subject the accused to a premature trial. The court said that in the present case, all the offences barring one are bailable in nature. Further, all the offences are punishable with imprisonment for a term less than 7 years. During arguments, the court specifically asked the Investigating Officer regarding the need for any custodial interrogation of the accused for the purpose of the investigation to which she has replied in the negative. The court noted that the accused has no previous involvement in any other offence. Further, the apprehension of the State that the accused might threaten the compliant and the witnesses, and may tamper the evidence, is mere an assertion made not proved. Even otherwise, this apprehension can be taken care of by imposing reasonable conditions upon him, the court said. While granting the bail, the court has imposed the condition that the accused shall not commit the offence similar to the offence of which he is accused of. The accused shall not directly or indirectly try to contact, meet or threaten the complainant, her family members or the witnesses in the present case. The court also directed that the accused shall not make any inducement or cause any threat to any person acquainted with the facts of the case. The accused shall not tamper with the evidence. That the accused shall join and cooperate in the investigation and shall make himself available as and when asked by the IO, the court further directed. That the accused shall submit details of all the places of his residence as well as all his contact details to the IO concerned. It was submitted by the counsel for the accused that the provisions under which the present FIR has been registered are bailable in nature except section 354 IPC. As regards section 354 IPC, it has been submitted that the accused has not assaulted or used criminal force against the complainant, thus, the said section is not attracted against him. The counsel also submitted that the CCTV footage of the said incident is already uploaded by the complainant on her social media platform. It is clearly seen in the video that she herself had approached the accused and then had gone to the driver's side and tried to pull out his car keys. It was also submitted, the accused, under the impression that he could be looted by someone, drove the car further. It has been further submitted that this is a staged act performed by the complainant to show her power. The counsel for the accused also submitted that the evidence in the present matter is already in possession of the complainant and the investigating agency. The accused has already been interrogated. No further recovery is to be effected from the accused. Further, accused comes from a normal family, has clean antecedents and is ready to join the investigation and undertakes to abide by all the conditions, if any, imposed by the court. Investigating Oficer/SI Komal has stated in her reply that on January 19, the accused had approached the complainant and asked whether he could drop her. There is an allegation against the accused that he started staring at her and after several minutes, he again approached her. Upon refusal, he started making lewd gestures at her. Further, there is an allegation that he started driving the car while her hand got stuck in the car's window and pulled her along for several metres. It was further submitted by the IO that accused has been interrogated and statement of the complainant has also been recorded u/s 164 Cr.P.C. It has also been submitted that the investigation in the present case is at the initial stage and there is an apprehension that accused might threaten the victim. Additional public prosecutor (APP) submitted that the car of the accused has been impounded at the spot. His MLC was conducted which shows he was drunk. APP further submitted, the complainant holds a constitutional post and was performing her official duty when the alleged incident took place, thus, sections 186 & 332 IPC are also attracted in the present case. He further submitted that if such incident can happen with the Chairperson of the Delhi commission for Women, it can happen with anyone. Therefore, his impact of release upon the society must also be considered. APP also submitted that the investigation is it the initial stage and all the public witnesses are yet to be examined. There is an apprehension that the accused might threaten the witnesses. (ANI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday congratulated the teachers of Sehore district for making every class of the district a smart class with public cooperation. "The teachers have contributed Rs 4.25 crore of their hard-earned money and provided 1630 Smart TVs to 1552 schools in the district. The public representatives and the administration of the district have also fully cooperated in the initiative. It is an exemplary example of the cooperation of society with the government in the development of the state. It will inspire the entire state," said Chouhan. Chouhan was addressing the program at Nasrullaganj in Sehore district, and said, "Today I have come to congratulate and thank the teachers of the district. I announce a four percent increase in their dearness allowance." CM Chouhan said, "The state government is starting CM Rise Schools in every 20 to 25 km radius, which will be centers of modern and high-quality education. Buildings with all facilities like modern labs, libraries, smart classes etc are being constructed for them. The cost of each building is around Rs 35 crore. Students from nearby villages will go to these schools by buses." "The government is providing all possible help to the children for their education. Meritorious students are provided with laptops for securing 75 percent and above marks in class 12th. Now the government is thinking of giving laptops to meritorious students of class X as well. The government is also paying the fees for higher education. Medical and engineering education has been started in the state in Hindi. One should study English but it should not be compulsory," he added. "Chief Minister Study Centers are being opened in schools for additional study support to the students. Soon there will be recruitment of 1,14,000 government posts in the state. The government will also provide training facilities for it," the Chief Minister added. On the occasion, CM Chouhan also honored the donor teachers, public representatives, and social workers. He interacted with the students and gave satisfactory answers to their questions. Besides, he told them the importance of Pranayam by performing it from the stage. He also honoured the meritorious students. (ANI) Describing the opening of 117 'Schools of Eminence' as a revolutionary step for ensuring golden future of the students, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday said it was a giant leap forward towards becoming a real frontrunner in field of education. While addressing a gathering during opening of Schools of Eminence here, the Chief Minister said Punjab was shown front ranking state in education only on paper during the stints of previous governments. However, he said now the state will really lead the country in imparting quality education to the students. Mann said the government schools were striving for basic infrastructure and manpower but the previous governments misled the people by presenting forged figures. The Chief Minister said as these governments ignored an important sector like education so the state was left behind in this field. He said several students were forced to leave their education in between thereby ruining their bright future. Mann said due to lack of resources and laxity of previous governments, girls were not able to pursue their education. The Chief Minister said these 117 Schools of Eminence being set up in 23 districts of state are temples of quality education. He said the purpose of setting up these schools is to give wings to the dreams of the bright students of government schools. Mann envisioned that these schools will enable the students to compete with their convent educated peers in various competitive exams across the country. The Chief Minister said that these schools are being set up to cherish the aspirations of our great freedom fighters. He also announced to name these schools on great martyrs and national leaders who had laid down their lives at altar of their motherland. Mann said that this initiative will be a real tribute to these iconic leaders who steered the country to freedom. The Chief Minister emphasised that these schools will groom the students for futuristic needs and emerge Punjab as role model in education sector across the country. He envisioned that the day is not far when these government schools will provide better education than the private schools. Mann said the parents of students will now prefer to send their children in these schools than the private schools. The Chief Minister said such schools have already revolutionised the education sector in Delhi. He said now it is the turn of Punjab where this model will be implemented successfully. Addressing the gathering, Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains said this is the dream project of the Chief Minister. He said with every passing day, Punjab is witnessing new reforms in education sector. Bains said these schools will help in opening the doors of competitive world for the students of government schools. --IANS vg/uk/ ( 465 Words) 2023-01-21-19:42:01 (IANS) Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday heaped praise on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar. Chief Minister Shinde was invited by the NCP patron to the annual general meeting of Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI), Pune. Shinde praised Pawar saying, "Sharad Pawar's experience helps the state and nation and his contribution cannot be ignored." Along with Pawar, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, and several other NCP leaders, including Jayant Patil, were also on the dais. With farmers and businnessmen connected to the sugarcane industry in the audience, the CM said, "We regularly receive guidance from Pawar Saheb and his contribution to the nation and the state cannot be ignored. He always guides us for the benefit of the common people of the state, irrespective of who is in power." He added, "I seek his advice and guidance. He often calls me up and gives his suggestions on various issues pertaining the state and its people. His contribution to the corporate sector is also invaluable." Speaking to reporters after the event, CM Shinde also opened up on the political row over the MoU his government inked during his recent visit to Davos. Shinde said, "After reaching Davos, we could sense the immense enthusiasm of investors when it comes to investing in our country and the state. Many MOUs were signed after investors voiced confidence in our infrastructure. We didn't just sign the MoUs, they will be follwed up on and implemented. Many heads of state and industry chiefs, too, showed an interest in investing in our state." (ANI) The Trinamool Congress on Saturday said it will contest alone in the upcoming assembly polls in the north-eastern state of Tripura and will field the party's own candidates in all the 60 assembly constituencies there. The decision was taken at a meeting between the Tripura Trinamool Congress leadership and the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at the latter's office at Camac Street on Friday, said the party observer for Tripura, Rajib Banerjee. "Our prospects in each of the seats were discussed at the meeting. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee are the principal assets of the party and hence we have decided to move alone," Rajib Banerjee said. He said that the Tripura Trinamool Congress leadership has submitted a total of 120 names as prospective candidates, two names for each constituency. "The party's top leadership will finalise the names of the candidates and announce the final list of candidates shortly," Rajib Banerjee said. The polling for the 60-seat Tripura assembly is scheduled on February 16. Rajib Banerjee expressed confidence that the party's performance in the upcoming assembly polls will be much better than "what it was in the past". It was learnt that both Mamata Banerjee as well as Abhishek Banerjee will visit Tripura and campaign on behalf of the party there for the assembly polls. According to Banerjee, the Left Front-Congress alliance in Tripura will not be a factor for Trinamool Congress' efforts to take on the ruling BJP there. According to him, neither Congress nor Left Front got any relevance after both being reduced to zero in terms of assembly presence after the 2021 West Bengal polls. "Rather, this alliance in Tripura will indirectly help the BJP by dividing the opposition vote," he said. --IANS src/pgh ( 301 Words) 2023-01-21-20:32:02 (IANS) A group of retired judges, bureaucrats and armed forces veterans on Saturday released a statement rebutting the BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as 'delusions of British Imperial resurrection'. "Not this time. Not with our leader. Not with India. Never on our watch!" read the letter. "Yet again, the staple, dyed-in-the-wool negativity and unrelenting prejudice of the BBC toward India has resurfaced as a documentary, 'India: The Modi Question'. This production, the BBC claims, has been 'rigorously researched according to the highest editorial standards', and 'examines the tensions between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority and explores the politics of India's PM Narendra Modi in relation to those tensions' and 'a series of controversial policies implemented by him'," it said. "So now we have the archetype of British past imperialism in India setting itself up as both judge and jury, to resurrect Hindu-Muslim tensions that were overwhelmingly the creation of the British Raj policy of divide and rule. Not only is the BBC series, judging from what we have seen of it so far, based on delusional and evidently lopsided reporting, it presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India's existence as an independent, democratic nation, a nation which functions according to the will of the people of India. Glaring factual errors apart, the series - which uses the words 'allegedly' and 'reportedly' repeatedly, (not 'factually') - reeks of motivated distortion that is as mind-numbingly unsubstantiated as it is nefarious," it added. A total of 302 eminent citizens signed the letter, including 13 retired judges, 133 retired bureaucrats and 156 retired armed forces personnel. The signatories include names like former Foreign Secretary Shashank, former Home Secretary L.C. Goyal, ex-RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, O.P. Singh, among others. They also said that the Supreme Court had upheld the closure report filed by the top court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) after years of painstaking investigation into the Gujarat riots. "So now we have a British media organisation, the BBC, which naturally thrives on sensationalism regardless of how false its basis, setting itself up to second guess and dismiss the verdict of the apex of the Indian judiciary, the Supreme Court. This alone exposes the BBC's malafides, and leads one to question the motivations behind this series," said the letter. "Instead of making a documentary titled 'India: The Modi Question', the BBC should begin by questioning its own bias against Prime Minister Modi (yes, their own too) and make a documentary called 'BBC: The Ethical Question'," the letter said. The letter also urged people to sign the petition. "Join us by signing this petition in the fight against BBC's series. We start it here and we end it here by demonstrating, through our overwhelming 'Satyagraha', our true might: our patriotism," the letter concluded. --IANS kvm/arm ( 489 Words) 2023-01-21-20:52:02 (IANS) Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets will conduct air combat exercise in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and other northeastern states amid the tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the eastern sector with China. The IAF said the Eastern Air Command will be conducting its annual Command-level exercise during the first week of February. This exercise, named POORVI AKASH, will be conducted after a gap of two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The exercise will involve activation of the Command's fighter, helicopter and transport assets towards routine practice of aerial drills, including joint exercises, an Air Force official said. Earlier, after tension erupted between India and the Chinese PLA in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang area in December last year, IAF aircraft had done patrolling of the skies in Arunachal Pradesh. The IAF official said that the Eastern Air Command had conducted a pre-planned exercise in its AOR on December 15 and 16, 2022. "That exercise was planned well in advance, before the developments in Tawang, and was not associated with these events. The exercise was conducted for the training of IAF crew," the official said. China has built many villages near the borders. Be it Uttarakhand, Ladakh or Tawang, satellite images show that China has constructed roads and villages on their side of the borders. The Chinese PLA is also increasing its troops in their area near the eastern border of the LAC. India has this vital information and forces are keeping a close vigil on the developments. A few days back, without naming China, Army Chief General Manoj Pande had said that there was slight increase in the deployment of adversary troops at the eastern border. India has also maintained adequate force deployment along the LAC, and is ready to deal with any situation, he had said. General Pande had also said the situation at the northern border remains stable but unpredictable. --IANS gcb/arm ( 330 Words) 2023-01-21-21:24:02 (IANS) An Effingham County judge on Friday temporarily blocked Illinois recently enacted ban on high-powered weapons and high-capacity magazines from being enforced on more than 850 people and a handful of licensed gun dealers. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed this week by attorney Thomas DeVore, a Republican who made an unsuccessful bid for attorney general last year, that argued the ban violated the state constitutions due process and equal protection clauses. Advertisement The Court finds the plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success in relation to the equal protection clause of the Illinois Constitution, Judge Joshua Morrison wrote in an 11-page ruling. The ruling only applies to the more than 850 people from across Illinois named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, as well as four licensed gun dealers, including one in the southeastern Illinois city of Effingham. The judge set a hearing for Feb. 1. Advertisement The Effingham County suit was among a handful of legal challenges filed in the week that followed Pritzker signing the weapons ban into law on Jan. 10. DeVore told the Tribune he was pleased with Morrisons ruling and believes that the judge like many people in the state of Illinois have had enough of this. If the General Assembly wants to pass a law then do it in the wide open, dont do it like thieves in the night and let everybody know what theyre doing and see what theyre doing and give them a chance to participate, DeVore said. And I think thats what the judge was trying to say and I look forward to this case as it continues. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate decried the decision in statements issued immediately after Morrisons ruling, which the governor said was not surprising but disappointing. It is the initial result weve seen in many cases brought by plaintiffs whose goal is to advance ideology over public safety. We are well aware that this is only the first step in defending this important legislation, Pritzker said. I remain confident that the courts will uphold the constitutionality of Illinois law, which aligns with the eight other states with similar laws and was written in collaboration with lawmakers, advocates and legal experts, he said. Jeff Barton of Effingham competes in a shooting competition at Accuracy Firearms in Effingham in 2019. The ruling only applies to four licensed gun dealers, including Accuracy Firearms in Effingham. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) Morrison in his ruling cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year that struck down New York states concealed carry law. The high courts 6-3 ruling in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen found that the plain text of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protected the right of the plaintiffs in that case to carry firearms for self-defense. Morrison said the defendants in the case Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch, Senate President Don Harmon and Attorney General Kwame Raoul did not follow the procedural requirements necessary for this legislation to stand up to the strict scrutiny that is required when restricting rights to avoid definitional irreparable harm. Advertisement Due to the speed with which this bill was passed, the effect to protected classes could not have been considered, nor could the legislature have studied if this was the least restrictive way to meet their goal, Morrison wrote. In the lawsuit, DeVore focused largely on procedural issues under the state constitution, arguing that the process by which the measure was approved violated a requirement that legislation be confined to a single subject. In the final days of the their lame-duck session, lawmakers took a bill that was initially about insurance and overwrote it with the weapons ban. While a common practice in Springfield, DeVore argues that its an abhorrent method of excluding the public from participating in lawmaking so they might have a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard to representatives. Morrison wrote that the defendants failed to comply with the equal protection clause of the state constitution because of how the legislature decided who would be exempt from the ban. Active police officers and prison wardens, for instance, are exempt from the ban under the law. The Court cannot find it logical that a warden of a prison (included in the exempted persons category) is necessarily better trained or more experienced in the handling of weapons than retired military personnel (not included in the exempted persons category), Morrison wrote. It also does not follow that a member of the National Guard would be less well trained or experienced in handling a firearm when they are not on active duty compared to when they are. But Morrison then said this argument could be considered moot if the Bruen decision is applied because that case made it a violation of the U.S. Constitution for the defendants in the Effingham County case to try and justify who can and cannot possess those weapons. Advertisement In a prepared statement, one gun control group on Friday decried Morrisons ruling. We strongly disagree with the courts decision which focused on meritless claims of procedural defects in the passage of the law and included a gross misreading and misapplication of the recent U.S. Supreme Court case interpreting the Second Amendment, John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in reference to how Morrison applied the Bruen decision. We expect Attorney General Kwame Raoul to be successful in (this lawsuit) and in defending this life-saving law against further unfounded legal challenges. The Illinois gun ban was spurred by the mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park that left seven dead and dozens injured. Signed by Pritzker hours after it was passed by legislators, it immediately bans the delivery, sale, import and purchase of guns that are designated in the law as assault weapons. Starting next year, people who possess guns covered by the ban must either register them with the state or face a misdemeanor for a first offense and a felony for subsequent offenses. The law also immediately bans the delivery, sale or purchase of large capacity ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns. As of April 10, current owners possession of large-capacity magazines will be allowed only on private property, at a firing range or a sport shooting competition or at a federal licensed gun dealer for repairs. Violations will be subject to a $1,000 fine. Also, devices that increase the firing rates of a firearm, known as switches, to convert them from semi-automatic to automatic weapons, are immediately banned, and someone in possession would face a felony count for each device. The new law also speeds up to July from January the existing requirement for universal background checks by federal firearm dealers or the Illinois State Police for private gun sales. It also modifies the states current red flag law that allows relatives and police to seek a court approved firearm restraining order to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, extending the duration of the orders from six months to a year. Advertisement jgorner@chicagotribune.com Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Imran Hussain on Saturday inaugurated the Urs Transit Camp, which would continue at the Burari Ground till February 5. The Delhi government has organised the camp for the pilgrims going to attend the 811st Annual Urs of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif. The 811th Urs camp is being organised at Delhi's Burari Ground after two years due to the Corona pandemic. F Y Ismaili, Chairman, Urs Committee, SDM, and the senior officers of various departments of the Government of Delhi were also present on this occasion. The Sufi Gallery-22 Chaukhat, displayed through electronic exhibition form in the Urs Camp, is the centre of attraction among pilgrims. On this occasion, Imran Hussain said, "Arvind Kejriwal government has been making adequate arrangements for the comfortable stay of pilgrims in the specially prepared transit camp to avoid cold. The government is prepared to provide all possible usual courtesy and amenities in the Camp." "In the Camp, all agencies like the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Mother Dairy, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Tourism, Railways information facility, Health Department, Food & Supplies Department, Police, etc. are available at one place in order to serve the pilgrims going to Ajmer Sharif to offer their obeisance and to pray for the fulfilment of their wishes and peace, harmony and tranquillity for one and all. Delhi government feels proud in serving as a host to such pilgrims" he added. The Delhi Minister also informed that around 80,000 pilgrims from different states of the country would attend the Urs camp at Burari Ground wherein the amenities available include camps for stay, drinking water, electricity, public conveniences, medicines, ambulances, Medical Facility, local shopping facility, railway information centre, bus parking and transport facility have been made available. The pilgrims putting up in the camp would be able to get all daily needs items under one roof. Special arrangements have been made for the senior citizens to stay in Urs camp. Proper arrangement of hot water has also been made for senior citizens. Apart from this, special care is also being taken for the differently-abled people in this camp so that they do not face any inconvenience. Imran Hussain further stated that keeping in view the safety and security of the pilgrims, their government has also deployed Civil Defence Volunteers and installed CCTV cameras at the camp. "For the convenience of Urs pilgrims, a bus facility has also been arranged to visit three shrines Dargah of Delhi i.e Matka Pir, Nizamuddin Dargah and Mehrauli Dargah," he said. A community kitchen has also been set up in the camp for the convenience of the Urs pilgrims, Hussain added. (ANI) Keeping buffers of trees or other greenery around waterways in Raleigh that are anticipated to experience increased future development could help slow rushing streams during wet conditions and keep them flowing during dry ones. However, as development expands and the climate becomes warmer and wetter, experts from North Carolina State University cautioned that these so-called "riparian buffers" would not be a panacea for managing water. "Buffers are good for watersheds -- there's a lot of literature that shows that they're great for water quantity and also for quality," said the study's lead author Elly T. Gay, a graduate student in forestry and environmental resources at NC State, adding, "But in the future, buffers in isolation may not be viable as the only option to mitigate negative consequences that increased development and more variable climate might have on water quantity; they need to be coupled with other management strategies." Forests can filter water, and they can also slow water down to prevent floods or keep water levels up during droughts, said the study's co-author Katherine Martin, assistant professor of forestry and environmental resources at NC State. Alternatively, stream flows can be more extreme in urban areas with more paved surfaces. Riparian buffers are one tool to help manage water in urban areas. "Urban hydrology is a lot more flashy," Martin said, adding, "When it rains, and you have an area with many buildings and roads, the rainfall immediately goes into the streams. There's not a lot of time for it to seep into the ground. In forests, the water is filtered through the soil and used by plants. It's a slower process of getting the water to the stream, even if it's not raining. That's important for aquatic species, so they have enough water. When stream levels are low, pollutants get concentrated." In the study, researchers projected average stream flow between 2017 and 2060 for the Upper Neuse River Watershed. This watershed starts in Durham, feeds into Falls Lake to supply water to Raleigh, and drains through to Goldsboro. They modelled the impact of three different scenarios for riparian buffers to see how they'd impact stream flow: They tested a "business as usual" scenario with existing forest or greenspace, which includes a 50-foot state-mandated buffer area, as well as many sites that were exempted. They also looked at a scenario with 50 feet of forested buffers throughout the entire watershed; and a scenario where forest buffers were extended to 100 feet. They also projected the impact of climate change on precipitation and temperature, and if low-intensity development were to continue to grow. "We modelled a higher greenhouse gas emissions scenario, but precipitation was not particularly extreme," said Martin, adding, "We were also interested in testing how expanded development would affect stream flow because of this link between increased impervious surface, and the impact it has on water quantity and quality." They found that on average, daily streamflow across the watershed would increase. They projected the average daily stream flow to increase by as much as 28 per cent in some areas without buffers. In wetter conditions, they saw that buffers linked with larger reductions in stream flow in some of the most developed areas. During dry spells, they saw that buffers had mixed results. In some areas, buffers were actually linked with reductions in daily stream flow during dry spells -- so the opposite of what they would hope to see. But, buffers did seem to help maintain water levels in areas at either end of the development spectrum: buffers helped maintain stream flow in an area of the watershed with the highest amount of future development, and they also helped maintain water levels in areas that are not yet developed. "We found that buffers can increase flow during the lowest flow events, and they can decrease flow during the highest flow events in more localized areas," Gay said, adding, "These localized areas are typically in the places with the highest levels of development -- we found buffers had the largest effect in those areas." However, researchers said the effects weren't as striking as they expected, and there was little difference when they compared the 50-foot and 100-foot buffers. "This suggests there is a role for buffers in mitigating extremes for stream flow, but it can't be the only strategy," Martin said, adding, "We need a comprehensive plan for the future if we want to maintain high water quality that includes not only riparian buffers, but more, and larger, green spaces, which have an abundance of benefits beyond just water." (ANI) The US on Friday (local time) recognized "Wagner" PMC as a "transnational criminal organization," said White House spokesman John Kirby. In a White House briefing, Kirby said that additional sanctions would be imposed against Yevgeny Prigozhin's military company, which will be announced next week. The US Treasury Department will designate the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group as a "transnational criminal organization" and will impose additional sanctions next week against the group and its support network across the world, the White House said. "These actions recognize the transcontinental threat that Wagner poses, including through its ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity," National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters on Friday, ahead of the Treasury Department announcement. Along with the new sanctions, the US has released newly declassified photos of Russian railcars travelling from Russia to North Korea back in November, in what the US believes was the initial delivery of infantry rockets and missiles for use by the mercenary organization Wagner Group in Ukraine, reported CNN. Kirby said that while the US does not believe the equipment has changed the battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, the US expects those kinds of weapons systems deliveries from North Korea to Russia to continue. Russia has also been receiving equipment, including drones, from Iran, as its military supplies have dwindled over the course of the war. "The arms transfers from (North Korea) are in direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolution," Kirby said, adding that the US has shared its intelligence with the Security Council's DPRK sanctions committee panel of experts. A senior western intelligence official echoed that assessment on Friday, telling reporters that the West is "certainly concerned that North Korea might plan to expand and deliver more military equipment or to sustain those deliveries," reported CNN. Meanwhile, the Justice Department announced charges Friday against Russian and British businessmen accused of helping a Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, hide his ownership of a luxury yacht in violation of US sanctions. Vladislav Osipov, a dual Russian and Swiss national, and Richard Masters, a United Kingdom national, both face charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit offences against the United States, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and money laundering reported CNN. The seizure, conducted by DOJ's Taskforce KleptoCapture, is one of the most recent moves by the US to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his closest allies over his war in Ukraine. It is one of several yacht seizures since the task force was established last March. "Corporations and executives have a choice: They can participate in the global effort to uproot corruption, sanctions violations and money laundering and enjoy the benefits of prompt and fulsome cooperation; or they can, as Osipov and Masters are alleged to have done, attempt to shield themselves and their clients behind a veil of fraud," Andrew Adams, the task force's director said in a statement Friday. Adams continued, "These men made their decisions, and now face the consequences of a failed attempt to profit through, rather than standing against, a sophisticated, transnational criminal enterprise." Masters, who ran a yacht management company in Spain, allegedly used a fake name for the yacht so that it would remain unnoticed by US institutions, allowing for what prosecutors say was "hundreds of thousands of dollars of transactions" for the yacht that otherwise would not have been permitted. Masters and Osipov, according to the indictment, also helped equip the luxury yacht with new internet, technology, weather forecasting, computing systems, satellite television and teleconferencing software - all from products made in the US. Osipov, who worked for Vekselberg, allegedly hid Vekselberg's ownership of the USD 90 million yacht using shell companies and conspiring to avoid US sanctions. Vekselberg's yacht was seized by Spanish law enforcement in April at the request of US officials, based on alleged money laundering, violations of sanctions statutes and bank fraud. Federal agents also searched several homes in the US linked to Vekselberg - who has close ties to Putin -- in September. According to the Justice Department, Masters was arrested in Spain on Friday and will be extradited to the United States. Osipiv has not yet been arrested. (ANI) The US crossed the threshold of its debt ceiling at $31.4 trillion and the Congress was yet to see any deal between the Republicans and Democrats on the issue as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen might stick to her note to the Congress on resorting to "extraordinary measures" to avoid any impact on the national economy and global financial markets. The US has reached its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, the Treasury Department announced on Thursday, with no obvious deal in sight, media reports said. Axios media network said that if the US government runs on a deficit, the Treasury Department will launch "extraordinary measures" to avoid any default on government securities and bonds. Yellen in a letter to Congress had said that the Treasury was instituting a "debt issuance suspension period" on Thursday and running through June 5. In addition, the Treasury will not be able to fulfill certain investments, including to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund. "As I stated in my January 13 letter, the period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty, including the challenges of forecasting the payments and receipts of the US government, months into the future," the Treasury Secretary was quoted by the Axios as saying. "I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the US," she added. On the big picture, these measures could be exhausted by early summer, Yellen warned last week. Congress last raised the debt ceiling in December 2021, when Democrats held unified control of Congress -- the Senate and the House of Representatives. Now, there is a vertical split in the Congress with Democrats controlling the Senate at 51-49 and Republicans retaking the House of Representatives at 222 to 203. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky) said on Thursday that he is "not concerned with a financial crisis". "In the end, I think the important thing to remember is that America must never default on its debt. It never has and it never will," McConnell said. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrats-New York), meanwhile, said: "Political brinkmanship with the debt limit would be a massive hit to local economies, American families and would be nothing less than an economic crisis at the hands of the Republicans." How the debt ceiling is different from a government shutdown. Government shutdowns come when Congress can't get appropriations bills passed before the existing ones expire. The most recent shutdown was in 2018-19 under Donald Trump's presidency, and featured a general stoppage of government services, including furloughs for federal workers. The debt ceiling requires Congress to raise the threshold to pay for already-appropriated spending. Raising the debt limit was generally not a big fight until the 1980s, but there have been repeated standoffs in the years, according to the Congressional Research Service. A debt limit impasse in 2011 led to the first downgrade in history on the US federal credit rating by credit rating agencies such as the most popular Moody's. How will the Treasury Department's extraordinary measures work in preventing a fiscal crisis, one might ask . Here's how: The Treasury Department can prioritise payments, including suspending payments to long-term programmes for government employees. It can repay the programmes after the limit is raised. In her letter to Congress last week, Yellen identified the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund and Government Securities Investment Fund as potential avenues for these extraordinary measures. Where do the negotiations on the debt ceiling stand now in the Congress? Democrats control the White House and Senate, but they'll need to strike some sort of deal with House Republicans. Status in the House: Some GOP members say they're firmly against any increase to the debt limit. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Tuesday that he wants to "set a budget, set a path to get us to a balanced budget and let's start paying this debt off," Axios said. What's White House stand? "As President Biden has made it clear, Congress must deal with the debt limit and must do so without conditions," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. With the Congress set to go into a recess over the weekend, it has to deal with an extraordinary situation by Monday when it reconvenes even as the Treasury Department resorts to extraordinary measures in prioritising payments so that payouts on retirement and disability funds of citizens is not jeopardised. --IANS ash/khz/ ( 761 Words) 2023-01-20-23:16:02 (IANS) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan alleged that the federal government is determined to drive him out of politics, reported The News International. He said that they trying their best to disqualify him ahead of the general elections. Refering to cases registered against him across the country, Khan said Thursday that fervent "efforts are being made to disqualify me from politics," in an interview with the UK-based broadcast. Khan said, "they are trying their best" to disqualify him ahead of the general elections in the country, adding that "new cases are being registered" against him every other day. However, he claimed, "There is absolutely no case that can disqualify me." Notably, Khan's government was brought down through a vote of no-confidence in April last year. Also, he had been disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Toshakhana reference on October 21, 2022. In August 2022, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf sent a reference to the ECP under Articles 62A, 63A, and 223, seeking the PTI chief's disqualification in light of the Toshakhana scam, reported The News International. The 28-page reference identified 52 gift items of Toshakhana received by Khan, violating the law and rules, taken away at nominal prices and most of the gifts were sold in the market, including some precious watches. The assessed value of the gifts has been put at more than Rs 140 million. The gifts were received between August 2018 and December 2021. Meanwhile, on October 11, the FIA booked the PTI chairman in the prohibited funding case as the agency ramps up the investigation into the matter. In the FIR, the federal agency alleged that the Abraaj Group transferred USD 2.1 million to the PTI account in the branch of a bank situated at Jinnah Avenue in Islamabad, reported The News International. On August 22, 2022, the ECP, in a unanimous verdict, announced that the PTI received prohibited funding. The case was earlier referred to as the "foreign funding" case, but later the election commission accepted the PTI's plea to refer to it as the "prohibited funding" case. The commission found that donations were taken from America, Australia, Canada and the UAE. The PTI received funds from 34 individuals and 351 businesses including companies, the ECP verdict stated. In addition to this, the federal government had moved the Supreme Court (SC) seeking to initiate contempt proceedings against Imran Khan for violating its May 25 orders, reported The News International. The ECP was also carrying out contempt proceedings against Khan and other PTI leaders. The electoral watchdog issued arrest warrants for Khan, Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry and others for failing to appear before the commission on January 10. Talking about the deepening crisis, Imran Khan said that the only way Pakistan could get economic stability is through free and fair elections, reported The News International. "The damage has been done. It is only going to get worse -- the longer this government stays," he added. The PTI leader feared that Pakistan could have a Sri Lanka-like situation. He was of the view that a government backed by popular mandate can steer the country out of the economic crisis. Khan said that he "does not feel safe", adding that he would use bulletproof screens in the rallies to avoid any further attack, reported The News International. In November last year, Khan was injured after a man opened fire at him in Wazirabad near the party's reception camp, sending the nearby participants of the long march into a panic on November 3. "There is no question of hiding," he said and vowed to go out for electioneering for the upcoming general election. (ANI) Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra concluded his official visit to Bhutan and reaffirmed close bonds of friendship between the two countries while conveying New Delhi's firm commitment to take India-Bhutan ties into new frontiers of partnership. The January 18-20 visit of the Foreign Secretary reinforced the long-standing tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries to discuss all issues of mutual interest, the Indian Embassy in Bhutan said in a statement. Elaborating on the visit further, the Embassy said that the two sides held wide-ranging discussions on the entire gamut of bilateral relations including development partnership under Bhutan's 12th Five-Year plan, energy cooperation, technology, trade and economic ties, and people-to-people contacts. "Foreign Secretary Kwatra reaffirmed the close bonds of friendship India shares with Bhutan and conveyed India's firm commitment to partner with Bhutan based on the priorities of the government and people of Bhutan, and taking forward the bilateral ties into new frontiers of partnership," the Embassy of India in Thimphu, Bhutan said on Thursday. The Bhutanese side shared their plans and expectations with regard to Bhutan's 13th Five-Year Plan in the context of ongoing transformation initiatives in Bhutan. According to the release, India and Bhutan share an exemplary bilateral relationship characterized by utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding at all levels, strong bonds of friendship and close people-to-people ties. During his high-level visit, the Foreign Secretary also met the fourth king of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchuck and called on Prime Minister Lyonchhen (Dr) Lotay Tshering and Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade Lyonpo (Dr) Tandi Dorji The Foreign Secretary also held bilateral consultations with Foreign Secretary Aum Pema Choden. Discussions were held by both sides on bilateral relations including development partnership under Bhutan's 12th Five-Year plan, energy cooperation, technology, trade and economic ties, and people-to-people contacts. Both Foreign Secretaries Co-Chaired the 4th India-Bhutan Development Cooperation Talks (Plan Talks). The Bhutanese side shared their plans and expectations with regard to Bhutan's 13th Five-Year Plan in the context of ongoing transformation initiatives in Bhutan Kwatra and his Bhutanese counterpart Aum Pema Choden jointly inaugurated key projects implemented with assistance from the Government of India, including the Citizen Service portals, National Single Window portal and Government Initiated Network Project under the Flagship Digital Drukyul Project. The two foreign secretaries also inaugurated educational infrastructure developed in 58 central schools across Bhutan. Kwatra on Thursday held a meeting with Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering and agreed to enhance cooperation between the two nations in various sectors, including energy and education. Lotay Tshering appreciated India's support for Bhutan's digital flagship program and central schools. Both sides also discussed strengthening trade-related infrastructure and exploring e-commerce platforms to expand Bhutan's reach in India's market. On his meeting with the Foreign Secretary, the Prime Minister of Bhutan said, "We agreed to enhance collaboration in sectors such as energy, education, and digital through increasing investment prospects in specific projects that will generate lasting positive impacts." "We discussed exploring newer areas of partnership in line with the evolving scenario in energy sector. We also touched upon the modalities of the 13th Plan, moving away from conventional planning system, and integrating the essential element of long-term perspective planning," the Bhutan Prime Minister said as cited in a statement released by his office. (ANI) Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi on Saturday arrived in the Bolivian Capital La Paz in the final leg of her four-nation trip. This will be her first visit to Bolivia, the external affairs minister had announced earlier. "Arrived in La Paz, the World's highest capital on my first bilateral visit to Bolivia. Looking forward to interacting with Foreign Minister & other dignitaries to review cooperation. Will join activities to strengthen ties between India and Bolivia," minister Lekhi posted on her official Twitter account. During her visit, the minister will call on President Luis Arce Catacora and hold meetings with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Hydrocarbons and Energies and other dignitaries and review cooperation between the two countries. Lekhi began her eight-day official trip by visiting Cuba on January 13-14. During her Cuba visit she met with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and discussed matters of bilateral importance and political and economic cooperation. The MoS highlighted the willingness of both countries to continue strengthening bilateral ties of friendship and cooperation, on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations on January 12. Lekhi later travelled to Guatemala from January 15-17 where she called on the President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammatte, and the Vice President. She also held detailed discussions with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Economy, Public Health and Social Assistance, and Energy and Mines on a range of topics. She interacted with the Indian community living there and appreciated their contribution in strengthening India-Guatemala relations. During her visit to San Salvador, from January 17-19, minister Lekhi called on President Nayib Bukele and had meetings with other ministers After the meeting, Lekhi had tweeted, "Delighted to call on Hon'ble President of El Salvador Mr. Nayib Bukele @nayibbukele and discuss with him full range of cooperation between our two friendly countries. Sincere thanks to him for sparing time despite extremely busy schedule. The MoS also addressed and interact with the Indian diaspora and participated in yoga events, besides participating in Indian film festivals in these countries. (ANI) China has been discriminating against defectors from North Korea by denying them COVID vaccines and thus putting their lives at risk, reported US-based Radio Network Voice of America (VOA). China has refused to provide treatment to refugees from North Korea, even after it lifted its COVID restrictions. Due to a lack of identity proof, the refugees are not provided treatment even if they face serious COVID symptoms. Seoul-based online daily, The Daily NK, quoted a source who said that North Korean defectors in China can't receive treatment even if they are infected [with the virus]. In absence of an identity card, they are not entitled to vaccination. North Korean defectors in China have not received even a single dose of vaccination since the start of the COVID pandemic, NK news reported, and are thus being left unprotected. One defector, in a telephonic conversation with Daily NK, said defectors cannot receive tests even if they are infected with the COVID virus, so they take cold medicines instead. "We can't go anywhere without a vaccination certificate, but since we have no IDs, we can't even think about getting vaccinated," the defector said. The defectors, when they try to escape to South Korea, are arrested by the Chinese police, VOA reported. The NK news source said that many defectors in China are expressing despair, talking of "bitter sorrow" about not being officially recognized by the Chinese government and how it would be "better to die than live like this". Some defectors have even died after suffering from COVID symptoms. Other defectors who have watched people die in vain are frustrated about the situation they are in. China, which is a close ally of North Korea, doesn't consider its defectors as refugees but sees them as illegal economic migrants. Under its border agreement with North Korea, China forcibly deports defectors. Once back in North Korea, defectors face possible torture, sexual violence, hard labour, imprisonment in political or re-education camps, or even execution by the North Korean state. Most North Koreans have been escaping from the northern border and moving into China and then to South Korea in search of a better life away from a regime that tightly controls every aspect of their lives. Defectors do not get protection from China. Instead, these defectors are forced to hide from Chinese police who would forcibly repatriate them back to North Korea, VOA reported. (ANI) As people in Afghanistan continue to live a life of grave challenges in the war-torn country, a US-based organization, Freedom House has released a report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan and stated that at least 90 per cent of human rights defenders said they had experienced violence and mistreatment. According to TOLOnews, a survey of 663 Afghan human rights defenders was performed between May and June 2022 which revealed the severe conditions, the human rights defenders in Afghanistan were subjected to, in the Taliban regime. "Afghan human rights defenders live in fear and face grave challenges, whether they remain in the country or have fled abroad," said the head of Freedom House, Michael Abramowitz. "The international community must redouble its support for these activists' tireless efforts to create a freer and more just Afghanistan." Time and again, several analysts have said that the activities of human rights defenders are essential to monitoring the actions of authorities governing the country. Before the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, the country was home to numerous groups and individuals who advocated for the rights and protection of all Afghans, including women, religious minorities, and marginalized communities, the Freedom House report said. "Every society needs human rights defenders to ensure justice and they play an important role in this regard," said Aziz Maarij, a legal affairs analyst, according to TOLOnews. Since the Taliban seized power in Kabul last year, the human rights situation has been exacerbated by a nationwide economic, financial and humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale. The Taliban dismantled the system to respond to gender-based violence, created new barriers to women accessing health care, blocked women's aid workers from doing their jobs, and attacked women's rights protesters. With the US troops' withdrawal from the country, large-scale violence has been unleashed creating political uncertainty in different parts of the country. (ANI) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will be chief guest on India's 74th Republic Day celebrations, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Saturday. President el-Sisi is visiting India from January 26-26 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the foreign ministry said. "This is for the first time that the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt has been invited as Chief Guest on our Republic Day," the MEA said. A military contingent from Egyptian Army will also participate in the Republic Day parade. During his visit, President el-Sisi will hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Modi and interact with the business community. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation that will include five ministers and senior officials. The 68-year-old leader is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on January 24 and his vist is expected to deepen the "time-tested" partnership between the two countries. President Sisi has previously visited India in October 2015 to participate in the third India Africa Forum Summit and in September 2016 on a State Visit. India and Egypt are celebrating 75 years of establishment of diplomatic relations this year. Egypt has also been invited as a 'Guest Country' during India's Presidency of G-20 in 2022-23. "President Sisi will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 25 January 2023 and President Smt. Droupadi Murmu will host a State Banquet in honour of the visiting dignitary the same evening. President Sisi will have a bilateral meeting and delegation-level talks with the Prime Minister on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest," the MEA said. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will call on President Sisi and the visiting dignitary will also interact with Indian business community at a business event on the same day, the MEA said. India and Egypt enjoy warm and friendly relations marked by civilizational, cultural and economic linkages and deep-rooted people-to-people ties. The multifaceted relationship is based on shared cultural values, commitment to foster economic growth, collaboration in the fields of defence and security and convergence on regional and global issues. The two countries work closely at multilateral and international platforms. Bilateral trade between India and Egypt achieved a record high of USD 7.26 billion in FY 2021-22. The trade was fairly balanced, with USD 3.74 billion Indian exports to Egypt and USD 3.52 billion imports from Egypt to India. More than 50 Indian companies have invested around USD 3.15 billion in diverse sectors of Egyptian economy, including chemicals, energy, textile, garment, agri-business, retail, etc. (ANI) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, and Sen. Dick Durbin tour the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago on Jan. 20, 2023. The museum is hosting an exhibit titled "Children of War," a gallery of Ukrainian childrens art. (Shanna Madison / Chicago Tribune) Making a brief visit to Chicago on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said while Ukrainians have suffered tremendously, Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine has inflicted extraordinary damage on his own citizens and military and that U.S.-led sanctions will take a dramatic toll on Russias economy. The question that one would really love to ask the Russians if we could speak more directly and clearly to them is, How is what Putin is doing in Ukraine, how has that changed your life for the better? Has it done a single thing that makes you better off? Blinken said. Advertisement Putin has already lost in terms of what he was trying to accomplish. What he was trying to accomplish was to erase Ukraine and topple (Ukraine President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, erase Ukraine as an independent country, subsume it into Russia. That has failed. That cant succeed, he said. Where that settles is a profound question, and what damage is done in between now and then, we dont know. But Blinken, speaking at the 10th anniversary of the University of Chicagos Institute of Politics, insisted that international coalition support against Russias aggression has grown consistently stronger in spite of a current dispute between the U.S. and Germany over sending tanks into Ukraine. Advertisement Germany has indicated it will not send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine, or let other countries with its tanks do so unless the U.S. agrees to send Ukraine its M1 Abrams tanks. The U.S. has said there are no plans to send the tanks to Ukraine, given the costs for training and maintaining them. We just sent Ukraine a large number of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, which are basically light tanks. The French have done some of the same. The British have actually sent them combat tanks. Others are looking to do that, Blinken said. They need to be able to maintain them and theyve got to be able to use them effectively. All of that goes into these decisions. Blinken said the U.S. government has sent Ukraine more than $30 billion worth of military support and about $60 billion in overall aid, including humanitarian assistance. Europeans have done much the same, he said. Blinkens comments came in an interview with the institutes founder, longtime Democratic political consultant David Axelrod. Blinken was a fellow at the institute in 2017. Earlier Friday, Blinken held a roundtable discussion with leaders from the Ukrainian diaspora at the Ukrainian Cultural Center and toured the Children of War exhibit of childrens art at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. I think the first reaction you have, if you have children, is: These could be my kids, Blinken, the father of two young children, said of the art exhibit. What if this was my kid? "Children of War" artworks from Ukrainian children on display on Jan. 20, 2023, at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago. (Shanna Madison / Chicago Tribune) And what Putin is trying to do with the daily assault is to anesthetize all of us to normalize this, for people to basically say, OK, this is happening and we just accept it, he said. Thats what we really have to avoid. We have to make sure that we collectively continue to make clear that, no, this is not normal. This is not acceptable. And if we allow this to go forward with impunity in Ukraine, then you open a Pandoras box, where would-be aggressors around the world will say, I can get away with it. Blinken, who is scheduled in coming weeks to go to China for high-level talks, also expressed concerns that China is taking a more aggressive stance in asserting sovereignty rights over the democratic engagement of Taiwan rather than continuing the current status quo relationship over the island territory. Advertisement They say, This is a sovereign issue for us. Our response: This is an interest to the United States and to countries around the world, he said. If something happens with the actions (China) takes, 50% of every container ship that is moving around the world every day goes through the Taiwan Strait, 70% or more of the computer chips manufactured in the world are manufactured in Taiwan. If that gets disrupted, the entire world economy will suffer. China, he said, was the leading world competitor to the U.S., but competition is one thing. Conflict is another. And its strongly in our interest to make sure that even as we compete very, very vigorously, we avoid competition veering into conflict. Blinken hailed U.S. foreign policy under the administration of President Joe Biden as one of reengagement and rejuvenation of alliances and partnerships after four years of a Donald Trump administration that led to uncertainty among allies. Were in a better place in the world than we were, he said. Still, he acknowledged the chaotic U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in February 2020, following a Trump agreement, was fraught with problems and is being subjected to a high-level review in advance of a likely investigation by the new Republican-led U.S. House. Still, Blinken said, Biden ended the longest war in American history and the result of that is that there will not be future generations of Americans going to fight and die in Afghanistan. I think thats a good thing. Advertisement Blinken also said warnings of a resurgence of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan have not been borne out and that the U.S. has been able to get terrorists there who pose a threat. But Blinken also noted the Taliban has been either unable or unwilling to make good on things they said it would do when it made human rights and other commitments to the U.S. and others in the international community after taking over Afghanistan. That, he said, starts with making sure that they were actually protecting the rights of all Afghans, including women and girls. That has been a dramatic step backwards and were working to deal with that as best we can. rap30@aol.com Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) top leadership has reviewed the legal challenges regarding Imran Khan's position as the party chief and has considered appointing him as the party's "patron-in-chief" to avoid the danger of him being removed as the party's chairman, Pakistan-based TV Network Geo News reported citing The News. Khan is currently facing criminal charges in the Toshakana case after Pakistan's Election Commission disqualified him from the NA-95 (Mianwali-1) constituency for allegedly filing incorrect statements of assets. The electoral body initiated proceedings against Khan last month after he was found guilty in the Toshakana scam. However, the PTI chairman approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the ECP's move to debar him from heading his party and secured a stay order in his favour, Geo News reported. LHC Justice Jawad Hassan, who was hearing the case, restrained the ECP from any adverse action against Khan and proposed that a larger bench should decide the case. PTI leaders on Friday discussed the case's legal aspects and considered appointing Khan as PTI's patron-in-chief. According to party insiders, the PTI has a backup strategy to fight the legal potential of Khan's removal from the PTI chairmanship. They said that even with the new appointment, Khan will have complete authority to oversee party affairs. They said there would be no need to amend the party constitution for the new position. The election commission will take up the case on January 25 after it was informed that the LHC had barred the commission from stripping Khan of his party's chairmanship, Geo News reported. Imran Khan, recently, alleged that the federal government is determined to drive him out of politics, reported The News International. He said they are trying their best to disqualify him ahead of the general elections. Referring to cases registered against him across the country, Khan said on Thursday that fervent "efforts are being made to disqualify me from politics," in an interview with a UK-based broadcaster. Khan said, "they are trying their best" to disqualify him ahead of the general elections in the country, adding that "new cases are being registered" against him every other day. However, he claimed, "There is absolutely no case that can disqualify me." In August 2022, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf sent a reference to the ECP under Articles 62A, 63A, and 223, seeking the PTI chief's disqualification in light of the Toshakhana scam, reported The News International. The 28-page reference identified 52 gift items of Toshakhana received by Khan, violating the law and rules, taken away at nominal prices and most of the gifts were sold in the market, including some precious watches. The assessed value of the gifts has been put at more than Rs 140 million. The gifts were received between August 2018 and December 2021. (ANI) In a sharp message to China to back off from interfering in the succession process of the next Dalai Lama, the Japanese Buddhist Conference for World Federation has placed on record its position that the Tibetan people must decide the successor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on the basis of Tibetan culture and history, and not China. The Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation is an umbrella organisation that brings together a number of sects of Japanese Buddhism, with millions of followers in Japan and other countries and the letter has strongly voiced objections over China's constant interference in Tibet's religious and spiritual matters. "His Holiness, Dalai Lama, the 14th turned 87 years on July 6, 2022. The issue of his future successor is gradually gaining attention all over the world. We the monks of Japan believe that Tibetan people must decide upon the next successor based on their Tibetan Buddhist culture and history", reverend Eihiro Mizutani, the Secretary General of Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation said in the letter while highlighting that China had no role in this. "PRC, which controls Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is working out the policy which would choose the Dalai Lama's successor under the Chinese government's leadership, based on the 'Tibetan Buddhism Living Buddha Reincarnation Management Law', enacted in the year 2007. However, the People's Republic of China's national policy is based on communism and is considered non-religious. The Japanese Buddhist Conference said, "Non-religious people deciding the religious leader is contradictory in itself". It further stated, "His Holiness Dalai Lama stated that 'forceful intervention in the approval process (of next Dalai Lama) by people executing political powers, who did not even acknowledge the very existence of previous or the future Dalai Lamas, is inappropriate'". The letter by Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation added that matters related to religion must be in accordance with religious values, hence people who do not possess those religious values, ought not to intervene in such matters. It is valuing the freedom of religious faith (belief). The relationship between Japan, India and the Tibetans is intertwined with Buddhism, which is one of the major world religions in Asia with a rich history. Buddhism originated in India in the 5th century BCE, and at its peak was one of the major religions in the subcontinent. However, it gradually witnessed a decline in India, and today, Buddhism accounts for an insignificant percentage of the population. Despite this, Buddhism remains an important part of India's cultural heritage and continues to influence various aspects of Indian society. Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation in a letter said, "In response to Indian PM Shri Narendra Modi's call made to His Holiness, Dalai Lama to convey good wishes on the latter's birthday, there was a voice of opposition by the Chinese government stating 'this is intervention'. However, is it not for China to hold back its intervention in matters related to Tibetan Buddhism?", believes the Japanese leadership It is said that "if religious oppression in Tibet is a fact, then it is a big challenge for human rights, a value shared by most of the countries around the world. His Holiness, Dalai Lama, is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and has been fighting against the Chinese government in a peaceful and non-violent manner." Japan has a long-standing and deep-rooted relationship with Tibetan Buddhism, and the issue of the Dalai Lama and the status of Tibetan Buddhism has been a topic of interest in Japan. The Design of the Tibetan Flag was also crafted by a Japanese Buddhist monk, Aoki Bunkyo, who was a military translator. Bunkyo added symbols of the rising sun surrounded by rays to the flag design. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the Dalai Lama's exile to India, Japan continued to assist the Tibetan government-in-exile. Japan was the first foreign country that the Dalai Lama visited in 1967. Subsequently, the Dalai Lama's Japan Representative office was established in Tokyo in 1976. One significant development that has strengthened the relationship between Buddhism in India and Japan is the high degree of appreciation that the Japanese Buddhist leadership has for the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is highly respected by many Buddhist leaders around the world, and his teachings have had a significant impact on Buddhism. Japanese Buddhist leaders have praised the Dalai Lama for his teachings and his efforts to promote peace and understanding. Monks of Japan firmly believe that Tibetan people must decide upon the next successor based on Tibetan Buddhist culture, tradition and history. Japan has also been critical of the Chinese government's policies towards Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, with many Japanese leaders and organisations calling for respect for the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people. In recent years, Japan has also provided support to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people through various means such as providing financial aid, offering asylum to Tibetan refugees and promoting human rights and religious freedom for Tibetans. The Japanese government has been actively engaging with the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and other international organizations to raise awareness about the situation in Tibet and to advocate for the rights of the Tibetan people. Japan has also been supportive of the efforts of the Dalai Lama to promote a peaceful resolution of the Tibetan issue through dialogue and non-violent means. The Japanese government has recognized the Dalai Lama as an important religious leader and has welcomed him to Japan on several occasions. (ANI) In order to complete its ninth review, which is lying pending from the IMF's side, Pakistan has sent an official email to the monetary body to look into the process, a senior official of the Finance Division said in a statement, according to the Pakistan-based news agency. Citing a confirmation made to The news, Geo News reported that the official also stated the government has shared the basic contours of the upcoming round of talks with the IMF Mission Chief Nathan Porter. While virtual conversations are set to begin on Monday, it is unclear if they would be formal or casual in nature. If official discussions begin, it will be a huge step forward, as informal talks have been ongoing for the past two and a half months. Pakistan could sink deeper into the quagmire especially if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme is not resumed within the next few weeks, reported Al Arabiya Post. The vicious grip on the economy gets complete as the exchange rate is primarily hit hard by a steep decline in the central bank's foreign exchange reserves, now shrunk to a near nine-year low of USD 4.34 billion. (ANI) Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi, during her diplomatic visit to Guatemala and El Salvador reviewed the entire bilateral relations of India with both nations and discussed ways to further enhance ties at a multilateral level. During her visit to Guatemala, which took place on January 15-17, Lekhi discussed cooperation in the fields of Science and Technology, Women Empowerment and Capacity Building in the interiors of Guatemala, the Ministry of External Affairs said in an official statement. She met with the Acting President of Guatemala, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Mario Bucaro, the Minister of Culture of Guatemala, Felipe Aguilar and several others. MoS handed over a symbolic key to the Foreign Minister for the donation of ten pickup trucks by the Government of India to the Government of Guatemala. To mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relationship, both Ministers inaugurated the bust of Mahatma Gandhi at the premises of the Foreign Ministry. During the meeting with the Minister of Health, both sides discussed growing bilateral cooperation in healthcare especially related to holistic healthcare and Ayurveda and the donation of essential medicines by India, the official statement read. MOS Lekhi also inaugurated the Indian Film Festival and participated in a Yoga Festival in Antigua. On January 16, she took part in a Business dinner hosted by the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations (CACIF) in the presence of top Guatemalan business leaders, following which she delivered talks on '50 Years of India-Guatemala Relations' at the University del Valle (UVG) in Guatemala City. MOS virtually inaugurated the bust of Mahatma Gandhi in the eastern Guatemalan City of Livingstone where around 80 families of Indian origin people reside, who travelled to Guatemala from Belize in the middle of the 19th century. She also interacted with the members of the Indian Community in Guatemala during her visit. The Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi visited El Salvador on January 17-19. During the visit to El Salvador, MOS called on Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador; and met with Alexandra Hill Tinoco, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mariemm Pleitez, Minister for Culture; and J. Miguel Kattan, Secretary of Commerce and Investment, the MEA said in a release. MOS discussed ways to further enhance bilateral relations, especially India's development cooperation with El Salvador, growing bilateral economic relations and collaboration at the multilateral level including at the UN. She also invited El Salvador to join the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). Both Ministers reviewed the whole bilateral relationship during their meeting with Minister Hill. They agreed that the next Foreign Office Consultations will be placed soon in New Delhi on a mutually agreeable date. Minister Hill praised India for supplying COVID vaccine and crucial medications to countries during the pandemic's difficult periods. To commemorate India's 75th anniversary of independence, both Ministers launched the Indian Film Festival at the University. MOS delivered a talk on '75 years of India's Growth Story' at Dr Jose Matias Delgado University in San Salvador. MOS also interacted with the members of the Indian Community and business leaders in El Salvador during her visit. The MOS's travel to Guatemala and El Salvador demonstrates the significance India places on bilateral relations with these nations. The visit is anticipated to give the bilateral cooperation a boost and strengthen people-to-people ties, the press release read. (ANI) The US Embassy and the United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF) on Saturday hosted the 2023 EducationUSA Alumni Fair here for students from India to explore the diversity of America's higher education opportunities. Alumni from 28 accredited US universities and colleges participated in the event organised at the American Center in the national capital, providing prospective students with an opportunity to interact directly with current students and alumni of US higher education institutes. Participants learnt first-hand experiences of those who had applied to and attended universities across America. Students got the opportunity to seek advice on the US university application process, scholarships, and funding from qualified advisers of the EducationUSA centre at the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) and learn about the student visa process from US Embassy officials. Ahead of the event, US Embassy Spokesperson Christopher Elms said, "We want students from India to explore the diversity of US higher education opportunities at the alumni fair. The United States welcomes Indian students, and we value their contributions to US campuses and communities. The strong and growing relationship the United States and India share is built on the exchange of knowledge and the lifelong friendships rooted in Indian students' time in the United States." Also speaking about the event, Adam Grotsky, executive director, USIEF, said, "Indian students who are studying or have studied at American colleges and universities are citizen ambassadors who can provide accurate, often deeply personal, and nuanced narratives of their academic, extra-curricular and cross-cultural experiences in the United States. Such occasions to interact with several students and alumni of different US universities, all in one place, help prospective students in India to gain a closer look at the opportunities, challenges, and returns that such educational experiences have provided to many like them." The American Center and Library present exciting educational and cultural programmes and exchanges for the country's youth. EducationUSA is a State-supported programme of the US Department and is the official source of information on higher education. Advisers at the eight EducationUSA centres around seven cities in India -- New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai -- provide accurate, current, comprehensive and unbiased advice on higher education opportunities in the US. United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) administers the EducationUSA programme and the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru and other Fulbright Fellowship programmes to scholars from India and the United States. The USIEF is headquartered in New Delhi and has a regional presence in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai. Among the US institutions that participated in the alumni fair were Carnegie Mellon University, Colleges of Contra Costa DePaul University Drexel University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Full Sail University, Green River College, Heller School, Brandeis University, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana State University, Johns Hopkins University (Including Carey Business School), Kirkwood Community College Miami University, Minerva University, New York Film Academy, New York University, Northeastern University, New York University (including Tandon School of Engineering and School of Professional Studies), Rochester Institute of Technology, The Culinary Institute of America, The Ohio State University, The University of Arizona, University of Chicago, University of Delaware, University of South Florida. (ANI) In a strong rebuttal to the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, more than 300 eminent Indians including retired judges, retired bureaucrats, and retired armed forces veterans signed a statement slamming the British national broadcaster for showing "unrelenting prejudice" toward India and its leader. UK's British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired a two-part series attacking PM Modi's tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister during the Gujarat riots of 2002. The documentary sparked outrage and was removed from select platforms. Eminent Indians signed the letter which lambasted the BBC series which the signatories say "is based on delusional and evidently lopsided reporting" that presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India's existence as an independent, democratic nation. "Yet again, the staple, dyed-in-the-wool negativity and unrelenting prejudice of the BBC toward India has resurfaced as a documentary, 'India: The Modi Question'. This production, the BBC claims, has been rigorously researched according to the highest editorial standards, and examines the tensions between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority and explores the politics of India's PM Narendra Modi in relation to those tensions" and a series of controversial policies" implemented by him," the letter read. The eminent Indians said this documentary is "a visibly motivated charge sheet against our leader, a fellow Indian and a patriot," adding that they cannot allow just about anyone to run amok with their deliberate bias. "Regardless of whom you, as an individual Indian, might have voted for, the Prime Minister of India is the Prime Minister of your country, our country. We cannot allow just about anyone to run amok with their deliberate bias, their vacuous reasoning hiding behind phrases like 'it was widely reported' or that 'there were pretty credible reports," they said. Eminent Indians pointed out that the glaring factual errors apart, the documentary reeks of motivated distortion that is as mind-numbingly unsubstantiated as it is nefarious. "This is demonstrated most vividly by its completely sidelining the core fact: that the apex judicial institution of India, the Supreme Court of India, has unambiguously ruled out any role of Shri. Modi in the Gujarat violence of 2002, while firmly rejecting allegations of complicity and inaction by the then Gujarat State government headed by Chief Minister Modi," the letter read. Questioning a key source of the BBC documentary, the signatories said, "there is nothing in the so-called British Foreign Office document - said to be based on a report from their High Commission in New Delhi, which was, in turn, said to be based on a report by their diplomat who visited Gujarat in 2002 that had not been earlier alleged by any number of media reports and commentaries in India in the years following 2002, apart from the allegations made by Sreekumar, Bhatt and Pandya." "All these allegations have been painstakingly dissected and dismissed by the Supreme Court of India. So now this resurrected accusation - contradicting the Supreme Court verdict - has to be believed only because a British media outlet has made it?" the eminent Indian asked. (ANI) Chinese-invested Hongshi Cement Industry, which is Nepal's largest cement company, has reached a stage of "drowning due to its internal disputes", EPardafas reported, adding that Nepalese investors left the board of directors after the economic situation of the industry was in crisis due to the "arbitrary decisions of Chinese investors". Further, according to the news report, Nepalese investors have said the economic situation of the cement industry is "very critical and can sink anytime". Hongshi Cement Industry was started with an investment of USD 350 million, the report stated, adding that Sharda Group and others had a 30 per cent stake in the cement industry in addition to Chinese investors. Sharda Group Chairman Shiv Ratan Sharda and fellow investor Bishwonath Goyal were the board directors of Hongshi. However, Nepalese investors left the board of directors as a crisis gripped the cement industry owing to the alleged arbitrary decisions of the Chinese investors. The report quoted an investor as saying that Chinese investors, for some time now, have been selling cement at a low price to capture the Nepalese market. He stressed that the amount is yet to be raised in the market and it was difficult to pay salaries to the employees, as per the news report. Nepalese investors left the board of directors of Hongshi as the financial responsibility of the industry fell on them, EPardafas reported, adding that NMB Bank has given a loan of 6 billion to the cement industry while Rastriya Banijya Bank Prabhu Bank, Everest Bank, and Nepal SBI Bank have also given huge loans to it. Banks have started holding serious discussions as the condition of the industry has worsened, EPardafas reported. Chinese investors have been selling cement at cheaper rates to capture the Nepalese cement market, the report said, adding that it is part of a strategy to remove other companies from the market. However, the Chinese strategy has weakened the financial situation of the Hongshi cement industry. The company's employees have started protesting due to non-payment of salary, EPardafas reported, adding that the Chinese-invested cement industry has not paid salaries to employees and truck drivers for six months. Further, as per the news report, there is also a complaint that the Chinese-invested cement industry has not fulfilled its commitment to locals at the time of its establishment. (ANI) After the mass protest against China's Zero Covid policy, Beijing took a U-turn and loosened up its strict restriction only to use them as a tool to kill and eradicate the Tibetans from Tibet, as per the Voice Against Autocracy. According to the latest report, 100 people alone have died in Lhasa due to Covid since Beijing lifted its strict policy restrictions, Voice against Autocracy reported citing Radio Free Asia. Beijing main's plan is to kill the Tibetans and bring misery to families. Interestingly, China has opened its all boundaries, allowing its citizens to travel and its tourism department announced that on January 1, 2023, a new round of its Winter Tour campaign to Tibet attracts more than 10 million Chinese from China. This package includes free tickets to Lhasa's Potala Palace and other major sites in Tibet and will run till March 13. The Covid-related deaths are only surging in Lhasa, Tibet and China. This tactic of spreading the covid virus in Tibet is aimed at not improving the economic situation but further spreading this virus in Tibet and eventually eradicating the Tibetans in Tibet. China's President Xi Jinping's covid policy that was implemented in territories under the PRC, there was a clear non-indifference in its application, especially in the occupied territories of Tibet, Voice Against Autocracy reported. Videos circulating on social media shared by Tibetans showed how even in the big cities of Lhasa and Shigatse there was a lack of staff, food, medical consumables and infrastructure. The ground situation in Tibet which saw Tibetans pushed to take their lives was validated when the mayor of Lhasa publicly apologized for the administrative handling even though the blame must solely lie with president Xi Jinping who remained staunch even after witnessing the failures of his covid policy. Tibetans through their social media platform had shared their inhumane situation in Tibet in light of the quarantine and others measures enforced due to president Xi's Magnus opus policy (zero-covid). And still, China did not accept the fact and even declined help from foreign nations including the sending of vaccines is totally ridiculous. This action and gesture by China, the CCP and its leader Xi Jinping clearly indicate to us that they do not care and revere the lives of the Chinese and other nationalities but give more impetus towards its reputation, reported Voice Against Autocracy. China had witnessed a huge protest in the past few months. The protest started after the Urumqi incident. Even China saw the protest by the workers in the Apple factory in Zhengzhou city protesting against the unpaid wages and forced application of strict surveillance in light of the zero-covid policy. (ANI) Former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Sanjeev Tripathi has slammed UK's British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for its documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it "prejudiced, biased and full of factual errors". He added that the documentary needs to be condemned by everyone. Speaking to ANI, Tripathi questioned the BBC's intent behind the documentary on PM Modi, which he said seems 'motivated'. He said the documentary features the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Godhra train burning incident, which preceded it, adding that the Supreme Court recently gave PM Modi a clean chit in the case. "This documentary of BBC, which claims to examine the so-called tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India, and in that context, talks about again the so-called controversial policies of Prime Minister Modi, is not only prejudiced but is also biased and full of factual errors," Tripathi said. He further said, "In this documentary, they have raised basically three or four issues: firstly it has talked about the Gujarat riots of 2002 which followed the train burning incident in Godhra as we all know that in this context the Supreme Court had set up a special investigative team. It has submitted its report to Supreme Court which has given its verdict." Speaking to ANI, Tripathi said, "It has very clearly held that Prime Minister Modi or the Gujarat government was not involved. They have completely exonerated him and all the charges levelled against him are not correct." Stressing that BBC taking up the same issues about which SC has given verdict seems "motivated", Tripathi said, "Once the Supreme Court has come out with that. Now, BBC taking up the same issues seems motivated. What is their intention, it is for anyone to guess. In this context, they have also quoted a report of a British diplomat whom they had claimed had visited Gujarat in 2002 and had submitted a report." He further said, "A foreign diplomat has neither any right nor any means to investigate any incident in India. If the British government wanted to know anything about that, they could have asked the government of India to give a report on that. So, again how correct that is and what is the authenticity of that and what could be the correctness of that report if there was any such report that is open to question." Former RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi said the Union government's policies aims at empowering all Indians and PM Modi has actively engaged with every Indian citizen. He stated, "This documentary is full of distorted versions, seems to be biased, it's prejudiced, seems to be motivated and needs to be condemned by one and all." "We all know that all the policies of the government of India are aimed at all Indians, irrespective of their religion, ethnicity and all that. As far as the policies of the government are concerned which BBC has claimed to have been controversial, PM Modi has actively engaged with every Indian citizen whether it is housing scheme or health scheme or in the field of education. It has benefited every Indian irrespective of his religion," Tripathi told ANI. Meanwhile, Former DGP Vikram Singh said the BBC has relied on those, who have no credibility, for its documentary on PM Modi. He said the BBC has no element of authenticity in the report of BBC. Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "BBC have come out with a shameless documentary on the 2002 riots. They have relied on those who have no credibility whatsover. They ignored the judgement of Supreme Court and the observations of the Supreme Court on the findings of the SIT numbering in about 452 pages." He further said, "It is a matter of extreme shame that BBC have sided with untruths and have relied on words like reportedly, presumably and have relied heavily on hearsay and some of the shady newspaper reports." Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "There is no element of authenticity or truth in the report of the BBC. This documentary brings shame not only to the producers but to the BBC itself because it is not worth the name on which this documentary is made. I wish the government of England prosecutes them for spreading falsehood and spreading lies." Former DGMO Lt General Ashok Kumar Chaudhry has slammed the documentary calling it a "planned agenda" and stressing that the publication cannot digest the growth of India. "The documentary was a planned agenda. It clearly shows they don't like India. BBC not working in a neutral way. They're not being able to digest that India is growing rapidly & are trying to mislead people. Muslims in India are the safest," Lt General Ashok Kumar Chaudhry told ANI. In a strong response to the BBC documentary, more than 300 eminent Indians, including retired judges, bureaucrats, and armed forces veterans signed a statement slamming the British national broadcaster for showing "unrelenting prejudice" towards India and its leader. (ANI) The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed deep concern over the amendment of the criminal law passed this week which aims to increase punishment for using derogatory remarks against religious figures. "The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expresses its deep concern over the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act 2023, which was passed unanimously in the National Assembly on 17 January," the HRCP said in a statement on January 20. "While the stated aim of this bill is to curb sectarianism, HRCP believes it is likely to exacerbate the persecution of Pakistan's beleaguered religious minorities and minority sects," the statement added. The HRCP said the proposed legislation increases the punishment for using derogatory remarks against "holy persons" from three years with a fine to imprisonment for life 'which will not be less than ten years'. "The proposed legislation increases the punishment for using derogatory remarks against holy persons--including the Prophet (PBUH)'s family, wives and companions, and the four caliphs--from three years with a fine to imprisonment for life 'which will not be less than ten years'," the group said. According to HRCP, the bill also makes the offence non-bailable, thereby directly violating the constitutionally guaranteed right to personal liberty under Article 9 of Pakistan constitution. "Given Pakistan's troubled record of the misuse of such laws, these amendments are likely to be weaponised disproportionately against religious minorities and sects, resulting in false FIRs, harassment and persecution," the statement added. Moreover, increasing the penalty for alleged blasphemy will aggravate misuse of the law to settle personal vendettas, as is often the case with blasphemy allegations, the rights group added. "At a time when civil society has been calling for amendments to these laws to prevent their abuse, strengthening this punishment will do the exact opposite," the HRCP said. The minority communities in the country, including Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Ahmadis, continue to live under clouds of fear and persecution by the majority community, according to Pakistan vernacular media. In 2022, scores of cases emerged where members of minority communities were attacked in cities and towns of Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for allegedly committing blasphemy. (ANI) The Boys & Girls Club of Dundee Township gifted U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi Friday with a photo of club members as a thank you for securing $2 million in federal funds for the clubs new Woodlands Impact Center in Carpentersville. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News) U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi joked Friday that he was glad to hand over $2 million to the Boys & Girls Club of Dundee Township because the ceremonial check was taking up too much space in his wallet. Club officials were more than happy to take that giant prop off his hands since it represents the money theyll be using for their new Woodlands Impact Center in Carpentersville. Advertisement Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg, helped secure the federal funding for the organizations newest venture, which will provide a place where 300 children can go after school to participate in educational programs for things like life skills and STEM training. Im so honored to be able to help, Krishnamoorthi said. I cant wait to see them after this program and what they are going to do. Advertisement U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg, presented a ceremonial $2 million check Friday to the Boys & Girls Club of Dundee Township, representing the federal grant that will be used for the organization's new Woodlands Impact Center in Carpentersville. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News) The Friday presentation attended by Krishnamoorthi and other dignitaries was held at the clubs High School Impact Center on the Perry Elementary School campus in Carpentersville. The new funds will be used for a similar center using the former Woodlands Elementary School at 770 Navajo Drive. Drew Glassford, Boys & Girls Club of Dundee Township CEO, said the club has 2,000 members in the six communities it serves, 90% of whom live below the poverty level and 92% of whom are minorities. Members attend nine elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school, Glassford said. The Woodlands center will serve students who attend Sunny Hill Elementary School, he said. The club had been trying to raise money to pay for Woodlands first phase but were struggling when they decided to send a contingent to Washington, D.C., to request $250,000 in federal funding for the project. Krishnamoorthi met with club officials last March and came out to meet with club members in person this past summer, he said. Its always the highlight of my day to meet young people, the congressman said. They are the most energetic, enthusiastic, candid and honest people youre going to meet. They were the reason Krishnamoorthi decided to seek far more money than the group had been requested, he said. It was their spark. They were just so excited and enthusiastic about the STEM field. I wanted to make sure they could realize their potential, he said. I decided to make it my mission to get some resources. ... I decided we needed to go all out. So thats what we did, and we did it in a bipartisan way. Advertisement Thanks to the funding, the club will be able to close on its purchase of the Woodlands property next week, Glassford said. Like the center at Perry, Woodlands will work with underserved middle and high school students so they have access to academic support, mentoring, counseling services and career pathway programs, especially in STEM-related fields, Glassford said. STEM science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills are the future of our country, Krishnamoorthi said. Artificial intelligence, quantum computers and robotics depend on todays children being educated in STEM, he said. We want to be innovators, he said. As Steve Jobs liked to say, Innovation is the difference between being a leader and a follower. We intend to be leaders, as a country and as a people. Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Members of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka has sought help from India in addressing their socio-economic problems, during External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar's two-day visit to the island nation. Jaishankar paid an official visit to Sri Lanka on January 19-20. In his fourth bilateral visit to Sri Lanka as EAM, he was accompanied by a four-member official delegation from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). "Jeevan Thondaman, Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development-led Ceylon Workers' Congress leaders and leaders of Tamil Progressive Alliance highlighted the socio-economic difficulties faced by people of plantation areas and sought India's support in addressing their problems," the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka said in a statement. The External Affairs minister's latest visit to Sri Lanka follows earlier visits to the island nation in January 2021 and March 2022. The interaction of minister Jaishankar with the leadership of the government of Sri Lanka provided an opportunity to review the whole gamut of bilateral relations between the two countries, the MEA said. He stressed his presence in Sri Lanka at a time when the country was going through multiple challenges sent a clear and strong message of continued support from the Government and the people of India to the people of the island-nation. On Friday, Jaishankar said full implementation of the 13th amendment in the island country is critical for achieving reconciliation with the minority Tamil community. "India has always supported both the political and economic stability of Sri Lanka. The President briefed me on the question of political devolution and his thinking. I shared with him our considered view that the full implementation of the 13th amendment and early conduct of provincial elections are critical in this regard," Jaishankar was quoted as saying in a press statement in Sri Lanka. The 13th Amendment provides for the devolution of power to the minority Tamil community which India has been pressing Sri Lanka to implement. This amendment was brought in after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987. Before Jaishankar's visit, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday said his government is discussing problems of the North and the Tamil people, in a step towards reconciling the island nation that has suffered three decades of war and insurgency. "We are discussing the problems of the North and the Tamil people. I called all the party leaders to the Parliament and said let us work to unite this country and restore harmony," Wickremesinghe was quoted as saying by the Sri Lankan President's media division in an address at the National Thai Pongal Festival on Sunday afternoon. In his address, Wickremesinghe said his government is hoping to fully implement the 13th Amendment to its Constitution not only in the northern part of the country but also in the South. (ANI) Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama on Friday lauded India's secular principles at the Indian Institute of Public Administration. Addressing IIPA, recalling his meetings with Indian Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru (several times), Indira Gandhi, and Lal Bahadur Shastri, he said, "India, a democratic country and all major world traditions live together. The secular principle is wonderful. Although I haven't had the opportunity of meeting Mahatma Gandhiji, later, I have the opportunity of meeting Indira Gandhi, Pandit Nehru of course, several times and Lal Bahadur Shastri. All these great leaders when we met, we talked, I really developed sincere respect." "So now, India is a 1000-year-old sort of thought for Karuna (compassion) and Ahimsa (non-violence). These two things really -- we human beings, not only human beings but animals who live on this planet also need Karuna and Ahimsa. So now thousand-year-old India's concert - Ahimsa and Karuna -- actually world need, humanity need these two - Karuna and Ahimsa," he added. Speaking about his stay in India, he said, "Wonderful to stay in the country..I am a guest of the Indian Govt..I appreciate it." The Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said he has no plans to return to Tibet since he was completely free in India. Dalai Lama had earlier said that he is the "longest guest" of India, who would never cause any trouble to his host. "Our brothers and sisters we particularly, say since I become a refugee and stay in this country, I learned Indian thought, Indian logic. Now later become a guest of the Indian government. My whole life I spent in this country. I really appreciate that first day I learned that ancient Indian thought. Now after my stay here as a guest of the Indian government then those knowledge is not just mere knowledge but a practical thing. Really wonderful," he said. It is pertinent to note that China wants to strengthen its position in the reincarnation debate on the next Dalai Lama. China also wanted global Buddhist support during the selection of the future Dalai Lama, Tibet Rights Collective (TRC) reported. Interestingly, China is using Gandharan Buddhism in Pakistan to lure Sri Lankan Buddhists to historical sites like Taxila and Gandhara to promote Pakistan as the originator country of Buddhism, just to achieve their aim. In the press statement, the Chinese embassy said, that the 14th Dalai Lama is not a "simple monk", but "a political exile disguised as a religious figure who has long been engaging in anti-China separatist activities and attempting to split Tibet from China" This is a narrative peddled by the Chinese Communist Party to portray the 14th Dalai Lama, who was forced into exile when his homeland was invaded by CCP, as a "splittist," reported TRC. This should be seen as another attempt by the CCP to strengthen its position in the reincarnation debate of the Dalai Lama. (ANI) Kate Hudson at the Critics Choice Awards on January 15, 2023. Kevin Winter/Getty Images Kate Hudson has been wearing the "naked" trend since the late 1990s. Her sheer outfits over the years have included mesh tops, maternity crop tops, and daring skirts. Many of her bold outfits have been crafted from lace, but she also seems to be a fan of mesh. Kate Hudson wore one of her first see-through outfits at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. Kate Hudson at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 10, 1998. Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images She covered a black bralette with a mesh top that hugged her body and tucked the latter into a high-waisted pencil skirt. Hudson also wore patent-leather sandals and her hair in loose curls. Then in 2000, she wore a glamorous halter gown with subtle sheer details to the American Comedy Awards. Kate Hudson at the American Comedy Awards on February 6, 2000. Steve Granitz/Getty Images The top of her blush-colored dress wrapped around her neck like a choker, while its bodice featured a deep, V-shaped plunge. The latter piece was also semi-sheer, as it was made from a thin fabric and decorated with strips of lace. Hudson put a sheer twist on maternity fashion in 2003 at the Venice Film Festival. Kate Hudson at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2003. J. Vespa/Getty Images She wore a gray, two-piece outfit that was embellished with silver sequins. Her bralette top was covered with a sheer, cropped overlay, and her knee-length skirt had a matching top layer that was see-through and reached the floor. For the 2005 premiere of "The Skeleton Key," Hudson walked the red carpet in a slinky gown that was almost entirely sheer. Kate Hudson at "The Skeleton Key" premiere on August 2, 2005. L. Cohen/Steve Granitz/Getty Images Her black Versace gown had a plunging neckline, black rhinestones from top to bottom, and swaths of sheer fabric that showed her skin. It was also backless. After taking a break from sheer fashion, Hudson returned with a semi-sheer dress in 2011. Kate Hudson at the British Fashion Awards on November 28, 2011. Dave M. Benett/Getty Images Stella McCartney designed the black dress Hudson wore. It was asymmetrical with a single strap up top and a netted panel on one side of its bodice. Versace dressed Hudson in sheer fashion once again for the 2012 Venice Film Festival. Kate Hudson at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2012. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Her form-fitting dress was crafted from a tan fabric that matched her skin tone, creating a "naked" illusion. It was also covered in thin slits held together with gold thread, adding more sheer detailing to the look. Story continues In 2015, Hudson attended the annual Saint-Tropez Gala in a black Julien Macdonald gown with cutouts and lace details. Kate Hudson at the Saint-Tropez Gala on July 22, 2015. Le Segretain/Hekimian/Getty Images The dress had a lace bodice with sequined straps, waist cutouts, and a floor-length skirt that sparkled up top and was sheer at the bottom. Always a fan of lace, Hudson wore the sheer fabric again at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Kate Hudson at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2016. Michael Tran/Getty Images Alexander McQueen designed her strapless dress. It had a corset bodice decorated with crystal broaches and a floor-length skirt that revealed her black underwear. Some of Hudson's sheer outfits have been more whimsical than daring. Kate Hudson at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 21, 2018. John Shearer/Getty Images At the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards, Hudson hit the red carpet in a pink gown printed with black hearts from Valentino. The long-sleeved dress had a ruffled neckline, a tiered skirt, and a black bow around the waist. A sheer element was added up top in the form of black lace covering her decolletage and neck. Hudson's see-through outfits have become a staple at the Venice Film Festival, so it was only fitting that she wore a vibrant, semi-sheer look in 2021. Kate Hudson at the Venice International Film Festival on September 5, 2021. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images For a screening of "Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon," Hudson donned a Valentino dress with a high neckline made from lace. The gown also had sheer balloon sleeves and a mesh bodice, the latter of which had strategically-placed lace covering Hudson's chest. Its tulle skirt, on the other hand, was opaque and reached the floor. She's also found ways to pair sheer tops with traditional trousers. Kate Hudson at a Valentino fashion show in Rome, Italy, on July 8, 2022. Jacopo Raule/Getty Images At a Valentino runway show in 2022, for example, she wore black pants, a matching bralette, and a see-through blouse on top. To complete the look, Hudson added long black gloves that reached her elbows. Most recently, Hudson walked the Critics Choice Awards red carpet in a sparkling gown with sheer sections. Kate Hudson at the Critics Choice Awards on January 15, 2023. Kevin Winter/Getty Images Her Oscar de la Renta dress had a halter bodice that was semi-sheer in front and deeply cut on the side, revealing part of her chest. The gown also had a tan, tulle skirt, which was sheer and contrasted with its shimmering top. Read the original article on Insider Hamzah Alsaudi, a San Francisco State student, disappeared Thursday during a "polar plunge" at Esplanade Beach in Pacifica, California, police said in a news release. At around 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 19, police were called to the beach for a swimmer in distress. Officials said that Alsaudi and two others went into the ocean, but while in the water Alsaudi, 22, was hit with a large wave that pulled him further from shore. The other two swimmers were able to make it back to the shore and called 911 for help, police said. Hamzah Alsaudi / Credit: Pacifica Police Department The U.S. Coast Guard sent aircraft and a surface vessel to assist in the search for Alsaudi, police said. CBS Bay Area reported that several other agencies, including a California Highway Patrol air unit and a drone from the San Bruno Police Department, were requested to aid in the search. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Alsaudi was a senior at San Francisco State majoring in political science with a minor in Arab studies, the college said. He was also a beloved member of the institution's wrestling team, said his school in a letter to the community shared on Friday afternoon and was a four-year letter winner in high school. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Gator community right now as we process this news," the letter said. "We remain deeply grateful to the Coast Guard, Police Department, and others for all they have done to help with the search." Suspect in Monterey Park shooting identified Stories of Inspiration | 60 Minutes Jacob Smith: The legally blind 15-year-old freeride skier | 60 Minutes In this Sept. 25, 2018 file photo, the United States' delegation Vice President Mike Pence, left center, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, center, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, far right, listens as President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly, at UN headquarters. Bebeto Matthews, File/AP Photo Trump is the only one who declared a presidential run for 2024. A lesser-known GOP candidate could benefit from declaring soon, operatives say. Others such as DeSantis and Pence have established brands and the luxury of time. Former President Donald Trump was champing at the bit to announce his 2024 candidacy for the White House. Aides even had to convince him to wait until after the 2022 midterms to do it. Turns out, he was the only Republican in a rush. More than two months have passed since the night Trump declared his third consecutive run for the White House, surrounded by the MAGA elite gathered in his gold-encrusted Mar-a-Lago ballroom. No other Republican has yet declared a run. As for President Joe Biden, he isn't likely to make his reelection campaign official until after his State of the Union speech on February 7, according to NBC News. Campaign insiders call this presidential campaign period the "preseason," the "trial balloon season," or the "incubation period." In other words, voters will see candidates talk about how they're considering a run, or hiring staff, or promoting their new books, or digging at each other subtly (or not-so-subtly) but not making official declarations. For some potential 2024 candidates, however, being second to declare after Trump would be helpful, and even smart, four GOP operatives told Insider. But being "next" might not mean a formal announcement this month or even in February. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could declare next, BJ Martino, who worked on Scott Walker's 2016 presidential campaign, told Insider when asked for his best guess. Both are in strong positions to sit down for tough TV interviews where they can take questions on domestic and foreign policy issues, he said. And both could take advantage the spotlight of a presidential run because they don't currently hold office, in contrast to governors and US Senators potentially in the mix. Story continues With only one candidate declaring at this point, the next person to make a run official has an opening to make a splash. "You want to have your own moment in the sun and not have your announcement coverage wrapped up in the person who went right before you," Martino said. "You want to make the announcement as much purely about you as possible." The next person to declare is likely someone who could benefit from the media attention and extra time in the field that would consequently help grow their fundraising, campaign pros said. The No. 2 to declare could work to "make some noise" by contrasting themselves with Trump, said David Kochel, owner at Red Wave Communications in Iowa who worked on Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush's presidential bids. Doing so would drawing the ex-president's ire and political fire, and therefore raise their own profile. They could enter the race while taking "well-placed swipes at Trump," receive a nickname from the ex-president, and "try to start a fight," Kochel said. "If they intend to really go after Trump it's a long-shot strategy, but it would make sense to do it earlier," he said. After the second person declares, insiders expect another lag. But there will be a tipping point this summer when the field is set, after several candidates jump into the GOP primary. At that point, says GOP strategist John Thomas, "Everybody is going to get out of the clown car within days." That's why announcing sooner could be a strategic value to some. Waiting carries the risk being drowned out by the spate of coverage on other hopefuls. "As long as the field is in a holding pattern there's time, but once the floodgates open everybody gets in, and then there is so much noise that it's hard to get through," Kochel said. Former President Donald Trump talks to supporters at Mar-a-lago on November 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. Andrew Harnik/AP Being second comes with heavy scrutiny The downside being on the early side of declaring, however, is that the next candidate will face a round of heavy scrutiny. Campaigns-in-waiting have been compiling opposition research on each other that they'll be ready to pitch to reporters. These will result in a slew of negative headlines for the next person who throws their hat in the ring. Jon Seaton, a partner with Camelback Strategy Group, said candidates should only enter the race once they are "ready to play," including having the fundraising infrastructure in place and anticipating the hits coming their way. "The next person to declare, whoever it is, needs to be someone who has a strong sustained infrastructure," Seaton, who worked on Lindsey Graham's 2016 presidential campaign, said. "It certainly helps if you are a current or recent officeholder. Once you jump in, that's the last day you have any control over anything." Ed Brookover, who managed Ben Carson's 2016 campaign, said another downside of announcing too early is not being able to raise enough money fast enough. Once a campaign goes into full swing, candidates will have to fork up money for travel and staff. "Before you get in at all you need to understand what your path to victory is," he said. Likely going in to the timing calculus is that Federal Elections Reports will be coming out at the end of each quarter, with the first one closing at the end of March, noted Sarah Isgur, who writes for The Dispatch and was deputy campaign manager for businesswoman Carly Fiorina's 2016 race. The closer a run gets declared to the start of a quarter, the more time candidates have to raise money and to potentially rake in eye-popping dollar figures that get widespread coverage. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis smiles as confetti falls after he is declared the victor on election night 2022. Getty Images DeSantis has the luxury of time It's unusual for Trump to be standing out on his own two months after making a run official, said Isgur, who assembled a timeline of past presidential cycles showing declarations are usually closer together. Ron DeSantis is unlikely to be next to declare a run. He already gets a lot of attention as governor of Florida. Funding-wise, he hit a record for a gubernatorial race in 2022, some of which he can parlay into a presidential bid. Topping it all off is that he consistently polls at the top of the pack. "DeSantis can almost march to his own schedule," Kochel said. "He's getting so much attention and so many mentions that he can buy almost as much time as he wants and shorten the window of getting attacked by Trump." Former Vice President Mike Pence also is starting from a position of strength, and has more time to declare a run, because he already is well-known among voters, Kochel said. Trump could have waited to declare a run for similar reasons, Brookover said. "We have two potential front runners in Trump and DeSantis, but they're kind of occupying the traditional presumed nominee lane together, which is somewhat of a new thing," Lauren Zelt, a Romney campaign alum who's now founder and CEO at Zelt Communications. Of course, DeSantis still hasn't said what he'll do. And as for Trump, there's always the possibility that he ends his campaign or succumbs to one of the many legal challenges he's facing. Biden, too, may not run. "We'll likely see some more people make formal declarations once the current president announces his reelection or not," Zelt said. "It just doesn't feel like campaign season until then." Regardless, Brookover said, candidates shouldn't base their timing decisions on what their future opponents might do. "Keep your eye on how long you believe it's going to take for you to get traction," Brookover said of advice he'd give candidates. "You have to assume that your opponent is going to be doing well. You can't build a game plan on someone else screwing up." Former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on November 8, 2022. Andrew Harnik/AP The field will be set by summer When it comes to planning a campaign, candidates don't have full control over their timelines. At some point, political groups in early voting states start sending out invitations for events, and being an official candidate when these gatherings are kicking off is typically a prerequisite. If candidates aren't declaring this summer at the latest, they probably aren't running. Up until this week, potential candidates steered clear of each other. "We haven't really had helmet-to-helmet contact between any of these candidates," Martino, who is also president of The Tarrance Group, told Insider. "Each are in their own camps doing their scrimmages, but they're not engaging with one another yet." The earliest "pokes" started this week, he said, when Haley took a dig at Trump's age on Fox News Channel's Bret Baier and Pompeo accused Haley in his forthcoming book of trying to topple Pence from the vice presidency. (Haley dismissed the accusation as "lies and gossip" during the Baier interview.) One of the biggest signs that campaigns are in full swing will be when such digs become open attacks, he said. Insider identified as many as 17 Republicans who are considering a presidential run, but the operatives interviewed for this story predicted the field ultimately wouldn't be as large as it was in 2016, though as many as 10 or 12 candidates could be in the field. It's widely accepted among Republicans that Trump was able to dominate in 2016 because he splintered the large field. Candidates who aren't gaining traction should get out, Kochel said. "If we go into the Iowa Caucuses with more than a dozen candidates," Kochel said, "then some part of the process has failed." Read the original article on Business Insider Five members of the Memphis Police Department have been fired after a man died after being arrested during a traffic stop. The department said in a release posted on its Twitter page on Friday that it concluded its review into the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols and determined that the officers violated multiple department policies, including excessive use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid. The Memphis Police Department is committed to protecting and defending the rights of every citizen in our city, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said. The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work that our officers perform, with integrity, every day. The five officers were hired by the department between 2017 and 2020, according to the release. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident that resulted in Nicholss death, and the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into his death. Officers arrested Nichols on Jan. 7 after they stopped him for alleged reckless driving. They approached him, and Nichols ran before the officers confronted him again and took him into custody, according to police. Nichols complained that he was experiencing shortness of breath and was hospitalized. He died Jan. 10. Nicholss family has said he suffered cardiac arrest and had a broken neck, among other medical issues, following the confrontation with officers, the Memphis-based CBS affiliate WREG reported. Davis and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland (D) said on Tuesday that the video footage of Nicholss arrest would be released after the departments investigation was completed and Nicholss family could review it. The Shelby County District Attorneys Office said in a statement on Friday that it is working with applicable agencies to determine how quickly it can release the footage of the incident and will do so as soon as we can. It said it must follow applicable laws and ethical rules to not jeopardize an ongoing investigation. Story continues Our office is committed to transparency and understands the reasonable request from the public to view the video footage, it said. Nicholss family has retained prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump as its legal counsel. All of the available information tells us that this was the tragic and preventable death of a young man deeply beloved by his family and community, Crump said in a statement upon being retained. He called on the police department to release the body camera and video surveillance footage from the traffic stop, which he said is the only way to determine how Nichols died. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Five Memphis Police Department officers were fired for excessive use of force, failure to intervene and failure to render aid stemming from an arrest during a traffic stop of a man who later died in a hospital, officials said Friday. The police chief said Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith were involved in the Jan. 7 arrest of Tyre Nichols, 29, who was Black. The Memphis Police Department conducted an internal investigation into the arrest of Nichols, who died three days later, and the discipline came after the probe's conclusion, authorities said. The five officers who were fired are all Black, according to the Memphis police public information officer. The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also is looking into the force used in the arrest. Nichols family, along with protesters who rallied at a police station and the National Civil Rights Museum, have pushed for the release of police body camera footage and called for officers to be charged. Relatives have accused police of beating Nichols and causing him to have a heart attack. Authorities said Nichols experienced a medical emergency. Nichols was arrested after officers stopped him for reckless driving, police said. There was a confrontation when officers approached the driver and he ran before he was confronted again by the pursuing officers, who arrested him, authorities said. He complained of shortness of breath and was hospitalized. Officials said a cause of death has not yet been determined. Relatives have said the officers who pulled over Nichols were in an unmarked vehicle and that he experienced cardiac arrest and kidney failure from the officers beating him. Memphis Chief of Police Cerelyn CJ Davis and Mayor Jim Strickland said video footage of the arrest will be released after the police departments investigation is completed and the family can review it. Story continues The city leaders are arranging a meeting early next week with Nichols' family, according to a joint statement from Strickland and Davis. Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who represent Nichols' family, issued a statement Friday saying they support the department's decision to fire the officers. This is the first step towards achieving justice for Tyre and his family. They must also be held accountable for robbing this man of his life and his son of a father, the statement said. The attorneys said they will continue to demand transparency and accountability and plan to review video footage to seek additional clarity about the circumstances leading to Nichols' death. 50 Cents famous Vitaminwater deal changed the course of Hip-Hop partnerships forever, and it continues to be the blueprint for artists today. 50 Cent's Rise To The Top Although the New York-bred rapper had the music game on lock during the early 2000s, using his career to land deals with brands like Reebok and his very own video game, 50 Cent still wanted more, setting his sights upon the beverage industry. According to Trapital, at the time, the Get Rich Or Die Tryin' rapper told his manager, the late Chris Lighty, that he wanted a water bottle deal, noting that there was a stark price difference between Poland Spring and other companies. The Famous Vitaminwater Deal What initially started as a test trial with Vitaminwater during a 2004 Reebok commercial, led 50 Cent to a 10 percent stake in his Formula 50 brand. Originally, he wanted to invest in the Vitaminwater brand alone. However, Trapital reports that its parent company, Glaceau, wasnt initially down. Then, all parties came to the final deal. From there, the rest was history. The companys sales reportedly grew from $100 million to $700 million within three years with help from 50 Cent. Whats more, his deal with Vitaminwater began in October 2004, and when Glaceau was sold to Coca-Cola in May 2007, the rapper got paid. People were talking about how much money I made, but I was focused on the fact that $4.1 billion was made, 50 Cent told Zack OMalley Greenburg in 2008, according to Trapital. I think I can do a bigger deal in the future. Paving The Way For Others Not only did he make a reported $100 million, but many of 50 Cents fellow Hip-Hop superstars were inspired by his business model in the years to follow. Flo Rida's Recent Win As previously reported by AfroTech, Flo Rida just walked away $82 million richer thanks to a lawsuit that he won against Celsius. The rapper filed a lawsuit in 2021 against energy drink company Celsius. Flo Rida was seeking $30,000 in damages because the company failed to uphold a 2014 contract. According to his legal team, Flo Rida should have received compensation in the form of stock options or a bonus, we reported. Story continues Before the win, Flo Ridas legal team revealed that 50 Cents influence was actually one of the reasons that Flo Rida wanted to sign the deal with Celsius in the first place. In Flos mind this was always a Vitamin Water type of deal, he was signing on to 1% of the company of a multi-million dollar endorsement deal and was hardly getting paid anything for it, Flo Ridas lawyer, John Uustal, previously told Insider. 50 Cent celebrated the rappers win via social media on Jan. 18. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 50 Cent (@50cent) @official_flo is a good dude, he wrote in an Instagram caption. Celsius was wrong and they are going to have to pay now. I was only drinking it because Flo was involved. Praise For 50 Cent Flo Rida responded to the praise by giving 50 Cent some flowers of his own. Love you my brother, always appreciated and a true inspiration to this situation in [the] way youve accomplished your ventures, said the Low emcee in the comments section of 50 Cents post. Public Enemys Chuck D ignores the more troubling side of hip-hop history in a new documentary (Getty) After a long and heart-wrenching break-up last year, my final task in the moving-out process involved lugging box-after-box of back-breakingly heavy, hernia-inducing vinyl records. Woeful, sure, but what really made all those heaves and humps solemn was that I actually find a huge chunk of those records mainly the hip-hop ones I bought as a young man and never sold to be absolute trash today. Vile, bigoted, offensive trash. Welcome to the life of grown-up music fans everywhere: concerned about cultural sensitivity and back pain in equal measure. It wasnt always like this. I cut my teeth as a DJ playing hip-hop. The first time I ever played a club was bottom-of-the-bill supporting turntable pioneer Grandmaster Flash. In a maverick move, during a misunderstanding about DJ equipment, he went out of his way to tell me I was a disgrace to hip-hop. Maybe he was right, ultimately. The stuff I played back then harked back to the golden age of politically charged and socially minded rap much of which forms the backbone of a new documentary out this week called Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World. Executive produced by Public Enemys Chuck D (and made by the BBC and PBS), its a four-part history of the genre set against the wider societal pressures of the era. It comes at the start of a big year for hip-hop, which will be celebrating 50 years since the first block parties in the Bronx, a date that will act as a peg for celebratory events, documentaries and more. Looking back at the good old days has been a quirky constant in hip-hop. Even back in 1986, one of the pivotal songs in raps development MC Shans The Bridge iconically began: You love to hear the story/ Again and again/ Of how it all got started/ Way back when. Fight The Power follows the old-school narrative pretty tightly. Theres no Cardi B. Theres no Lil Nas X. Theres also precious little actual hip-hop music, forsaken for the serious telly strings of most documentaries. Think Hans Zimmer not Ghostface Killah. As youd expect from a show produced by the leader of Public Enemy, Fight The Power has a really grounded sense of the politics that surrounded the genres rise. These are truths that should never be forgotten. Its a story of police brutality, neighbourhoods deliberately deprived of funding in a manner so cold it could be confused with ethnic cleansing, racism on every conceivable level and, perhaps most interesting, the lost generation of Black Americans stealthily imprisoned under a Clinton government trying to be tough on law and order. Black America has truly been on a truly transformative journey via hip-hop. As rap pioneer MC Lyte says brilliantly at one point: If you think world is bad now, imagine it without hip-hop. But if 2023 is a moment to take stock, then I think hip-hop itself is also due a reappraisal. For the sake of its legacy, if nothing else. Because its not just me and my stupid old records feeling awkward here. I worry after watching his documentary that an inveterate, dyed-in-the-wool hip-hop grandee like Chuck D cant seem to see that to most people living in the mainstream moralities of 2023, hip-hop resembles a dumpster fire. An alternative way to look at hip-hop right now is that its a genre tragically riddled with all sorts of problematic messes. Many having only revealed themselves in recent years, in an eerie vacuum of discussion or analysis. Take one of the genres founding fathers, Afrika Bambaataa. He used to be a genuine hero of mine. Nobody could be said to have forged hip-hop with his own hands more than him. Through his group, the Zulu Nation, the DJ and community leader channelled toxic gang culture into a positive, nascent, working-class art form called hip-hop. But in 2016, after several allegations of having sexually abused and trafficked minors as young as 12 dating back to 1980, he was disowned by the Zulu Nation. The group issued an open apology to those who had allegedly been abused by Bambaataa. Hip-hop as a wider culture has absolutely not processed or commented on this, and theres certainly no mention of it in the documentary which flashes his name and image in episode one like it aint no thing. The image of Bambaataa (with zero reference to his current ignominy) is one of several strangely thoughtless choices in Fight the Power that indicate a rather crass disregard for the values we live under today. Now you could say Im overly sensitive about this stuff, as a huffy mixed-race, pansexual Londoner with an ex and a hernia. But hate speech? Theres the 1986 clip of brilliant Queens-born rapper Roxanne Shante using the word retarded (like it isnt a roundly acknowledged ableist slur today), or the clip of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Fives The Message, which chooses to feature the line about a crazy lady, living in a bag who used to be a fag hag again a really odd choice on the part of the filmmakers, the insinuation in the rhyme being that her life turned to ruin once she started hanging out with those wretched gays (as if hip-hop doesnt have a prolifically bad reputation for homophobia, but more on that in a minute). Afrika Bambaataa is shown in the new documentary but without mention of the serious allegations against him (Getty) The documentary also features luminaries whose reputations most find weirdly toxic to the genre. People such as the influential hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who resigned from a host of companies in 2017 after being accused by more than 10 women of committing rape or sexual assault (a charge Simmons denies) in the documentary film On the Record. Or Dr Dre, discussed solely in Fight the Power as a genius svengali but not as many younger people know him the man who violently beat reporter Dee Barnes in 1991 while his bodyguard held back crowds with a gun. Lupe Fiasco offers comment as a talking head. It seems neither BBC nor PBS co-producers on the documentary are bothered by the fact he rapped about dirty Jewish execs who rob artists of their money in a 2016 freestyle. Then theres Run the Jewels rapper Killer Mike, who has a baffling affinity for Republican governor Brian Kemp who defeated prominent Black activist Stacey Abrams. Kemp has legislated to limit discussions around race in the classrooms of Georgia (the state he represents) and is widely believed to have suppressed Black voter rights. To be fair to the documentary, they did manage not to invite Kanye and his White Lives Matter T-shirt. It takes Fight the Power two hours and 41 minutes to mention misogyny. And swiftly it pivots away again but not before unfairly portraying veteran politician, activist and Selma marcher C Delores Tucker (who campaigned against misogynist hip-hop in the Nineties) as an aloof and meddling old lady. Its the only time hip-hop comes in for any criticism over the whole four hours, giving Fight the Power the feel of a corporate sizzle reel rather than an objective piece of television. #MeToo is never mentioned. Its a shame, given that the movements founder Tarana Burke grew up in the Bronx as a hip-hop fan. You could surely imagine any quality hip-hop analysis wanting her viewpoint, right? Hip hop in many ways is built on rape culture, Burke said in 2019, whilst talking about how hip-hops close-knit community has not recognised sexual violence as one of the multiple oppressions otherwise acknowledged. The absences are the real disappointment here. Both in the documentary and across the hip-hop establishment as a whole right now. No major contemporary female rappers are included, for example. No Nicki Minaj. No Doja Cat. No Megan Thee Stallion either, which is a shame because if anyone has a contemporary hip-hop story to tell, its her. Megans former partner, Canadian rapper Tory Lanez, was recently found guilty of shooting her in the foot after an argument in 2020. He reportedly shouted dance b**** while firing at her feet. Thankfully, the three bullet fragments missed tendon and bone. In the months before the trial, many rich, powerful members of the hip-hop boys club went out of their way to shame her, in support of Lanez. Fellow Canadian Drake alluded to Megan being a liar on his 2022 track Circo Loco (This b**** lie about getting shots, but she still a stallion), while 50 Cent shared a meme comparing her to the actor Jussie Smollett who was found guilty of lying to police about a fake hate crime last year. This was an example of what writer Andre Gee identified recently as a new frontier in rap misogyny, which has increasingly fed into a toxic online manosphere. Run the Jewels rapper Killer Mike appears in the documentary (Getty Images for Coachella) It may seem like things are getting worse, not better especially when you take into account how many young rappers such as Da Baby, XXXtentacion, Kodak Black and 6ix9ine have been linked to sexual violence in recent years. But I think its overdue for someone to point to some problematic moments from its most conscious, golden age stars too. Just look at KRS-Ones bafflingly paedophilic 13 and Good or Tribe Called Quests Georgie Porgie, which is perhaps the most jaw-droppingly homophobic piece of music ever recorded. And lets not forget Camron popularising the dreaded phrase no homo in his 2009 song Silky. This, of course, relates to a much bigger problem. It suggests that the hip-hop orthodoxy (as represented by this documentary) still sees gay and queer people through the prism of homophobia. Infuriatingly, it ignores the recent explosion of LGBT+ artists such as Lil Nas X, Mykki Blanco, Big Freedia, Cakes da Killa, Angel Haze, Kaytranada, Princess Nokia and hip-hop adjacent star Frank Ocean. None of these are mentioned. The only allusion to gay people I could see across four hours was the aforementioned fag hag. You might think Im pointing out all of hip-hops problematic zones because Ive got a grudge against hip-hop (not just because Grandmaster Flash dissed me a while back). You might think Ive got a personal prejudice against people who make hip-hop. You might be saying to yourself, I bet hed never write about problematic people in other genres, such as rock music. Like the allegations that David Bowie had sex with a 13-year-old. Or that Iggy Pop allegedly slept with a 13-year-old. Or that The Rolling Stones Bill Wyman married a woman he met when she was you guessed it 13 years old. Or that the late Radio 1 DJ John Peel got a 15-year-old pregnant, or that Eric Clapton expressed vile racist views, or that Van Morrison was a Covid sceptic (oh, wait, I did actually do that one). Contemporary female rappers, including Megan Thee Stallion, are notably absent from the documentary (Getty Images for Roc Nation) The honest truth is that Ive never cared about any of these artists and their music as much as I cared about hip-hop. Specifically Public Enemy. I struggle sometimes to remember my mums phone number but can instantly recite every line from their 1988 masterpiece It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. It was the second album I ever owned (the first was In the Jungle Groove by James Brown another deeply problematic founding father of hip-hop I struggle with on an hourly basis). Public Enemy gave me a passion and zeal for social justice, for music that had meaning and for words that had purpose. Its thus an irony that Ive ended up here fuming at a documentary produced by Chuck D, which blithely celebrates an art form that feels indifferent to marginalised people today. Even in an interview last week to promote the programme, Chuck told The Guardian: Thirty-three per cent of the worldwide hip-hop output is from women, and thats great. Not 50 per cent? That would feel significantly more great. If this show was supposed to be about hip-hop and politics, then wheres the gender politics? Wheres the queer politics? Wheres the moment denouncing ableism or a mention of hip-hops own problem of racism towards east Asian and southeast Asian people? In its 50th year, hip-hop needs to cultivate a sense of apology more than it needs a hagiography. It needs to be in a constant state of revolution, swinging punches at oppressors new as well as old and extending hands in solidarity, not batting them away. Shows like this feel like the equivalent of George Bush standing on a gunship in front of a banner declaring Mission Accomplished. This is the problem with giving high-profile documentaries over to the dramatis personae of any cultural or artistic strand, something BBC and PBS should reflect more on (I recommend two more recent fringe BBC docs as more timely alternatives: Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power or Cakes da Killas radio documentary, The Future of Hip-Hop). This isnt about airbrushing history or the people involved in that history. Its about being brave, proud and strong enough to point out mistakes. If hip-hop isnt secure enough to do this, then maybe its not the mighty art form we think it is. The Elgin History Museum received a Mayor's Award for historic preservation efforts in 2021 for its You Are Living History documentation project, which allowed residents to contribute recordings about Elgins recent past. Nominations are being accepted now for the 2023 awards. (Rafael Guerrero / The Courier-News) EYSO receives $10,000 grant for Starting Strings program The Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra has been awarded a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant for its Starter Strings program. National Endowment grants are presented to organizations that help bring support for the arts to underserved communities. Advertisement The Starter Strings program seeks to remove classical education barriers by providing free string instrument lessons to more than 70 students at Oakhill Elementary School in Streamwood and Ronald D. ONeal Elementary School in Elgin, the EYSO said in a news release. For more information, go to www.eyso.org. Advertisement Five new businesses open shop in Carpentersville According to the village of Carpentersville, five new businesses have opened their doors in the last few months. They are: MVP Nutrition, a vitamin and nutrition store at 720 Huntley Road. Their website is linktr.ee/mvpnutrition; iFixandRepair, a mobile phone repair store at 365 Lake Marian Road. Their website is ifixandrepair.com/stores/carpentersville-wm; Jerrys Hockey, a hockey equipment shop at 2257 Randall Road. Their website is www.jerryshockey.com; Ibarra Agency LLC, an insurance agency at 150 S. Kennedy Drive. Their website is ibarraagencyllc.com; Noc Noc Wood Pizza Bar, a restaurant at 115 N. Kennedy Drive. Their website is www.facebook.com/nonocwoodbar. Fox River libraries holding Black History Month events The Fox River Valley Public Library District is planning several events and programs to celebrate Black History Month in February. They include: An Adult Activities Center Book Club discussion of Bluebird, Bluebird by Atticus Locke will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, at the Dundee Township Park Districts Rakow Adult Activity Center, 665 Barrington Ave., Carpentersville. A music trivia program, From B.B. to Beyonce, will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, at Black & Gray Brewing Co., 311 Barrington Ave., East Dundee. The Academy Award-winning animated movie Soul will be presented at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 16, at the Dundee Library, 555 Barrington Ave., East Dundee. Registration is required. The Dundee Library Book Club will discuss Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, at the Dundee Library, 555 Barrington Ave., East Dundee. A reading challenge with prizes starts Wednesday, Feb. 1. To participate, go to frvpld.beanstack.org or call 847-428-3661. For more information, go to www.frvpld.info. Nominees sought for Elgin historic preservation awards Nominations for the 2023 Elgin Mayors Awards for Historic Preservation are due by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24. The honors include the Mayor George Van De Voorde Award to an individual who works to preserve Elgins heritage; the William Stickling Award for achievement in the adaptive reuse of industrial and commercial buildings; the Artisan Award for exemplary work by a contractor, craftsperson or artisan in preservation and restoration; and the Henry Jensen Award for extraordinary exterior and/or interior rehabilitation work completed within the past year. Awards will be presented at a reception/banquet starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, at Fridas Party Room, 219 W. Highland Ave. Elgin. For more information or to obtain a nomination form, go to cityofelgin.org/mayorawards or call Christen Sundquist at 847-931-6004. Advertisement Matt and Cynthia Gruel will perform love songs from the 1920s through 1960s in a free Feb. 5 concert at the Rakow Branch library in Elgin. (www.nostalgiaentertains.com / HANDOUT) Gail Borden Library District presenting Sunday concerts The Gail Borden Public Library District will be offering free Sunday afternoon concerts in January and February. Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem will present Impressions for Two Pianos, featuring works by Liszt, Debussy, Milhaud and Ravel, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29, at the main library, 270 N. Grove Ave., Elgin. Husband and wife duo Matt and Cynthia Gruel will sing love songs from the 1920s to 1960s at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, at the Rakow Branch, 2751 W. Bowes Road, Elgin. Flutist Anastasiya Squires, accompanied on piano by her husband, Stephen, will present a varied recital, including music from her native Ukraine, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, at the main library. To register to attend, go to gailborden.info/register, call 847-429-4597 or visit at any library location. Elon Musk wasn't lying last October when he told Bloomberg that 75 percent of the employees at his newly acquired toy, Twitter.com, wouldn't lose their jobs under his ownership, as The Washington Post had reported at the time. Turns out, it's closer to 80 percent. Of the roughly 7,500 people working there before Musk's takeover, CNBC reports Friday that barely 1,300 in total, and fewer than 550 full-time engineers, are left at the husk of a company, either through said layoffs or voluntary resignations. CNBC also notes that 75 employees are currently on leave, 40 of which are engineers, while the Trust and Safety team, which oversees content moderation for the site, has been culled to fewer than 20 full-timers. This news comes at the end of a seemingly ceaseless string of blunders since Musk announced an unsolicited $44 billion bid to buy the social media site last April. Aside from firing everyone that wasn't nailed down, Musk has reinstated numerous far-right and fascist accounts that had previously been permanently banned without so much as a second glance at the "moderation council" he was supposedly going to establish. He's made critical operational decisions based on Twitter polls and that's after trying weasel out of the deal to purchase Twitter in the first place on trumped up complaints regarding the prevalence of bot users and how easy it is to game Twitter polls. He's used the banhammer to silence critics ranging from journalists to college kids. Musk has brought in employees from his other, unrelated companies, including members of the SpaceX and Tesla teams; and fired employees for questioning his business acumen. His $8 blue check verification scheme has haltingly rolled out in fits and starts, this while ad revenue is reportedly down 40 percent as advertisers look to escape his sinking ship. His first interest payment on the $13 billion debt he leveraged to purchase Twitter, which is today valued at around $15 billion, is due at the end of the month. But Twitter isn't the only company shedding staff like water off a wet dog's coat. Google laid off 12,000 employees this week, Amazon disemployeed 18,000 people globally, and Microsoft eliminated 10,000 positions. Between the three, they've put about 70,000 people out of work in the last year alone. (Reuters) -Abbott Laboratories' Michigan plant, which was at the center of the U.S. baby formula shortage last year, faces a criminal investigation by the Justice Department, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Panicked parents emptied baby formula aisles at supermarkets last year as a recall of formulas by Abbott due to complaints of bacterial infections exacerbated a shortage that began due to pandemic-induced supply chain issues. The White House intervened to address the shortage. Attorneys with the Justice Department's consumer-protection branch are conducting the criminal investigation, the WSJ report said, citing people familiar with the matter. "DOJ has informed us of its investigation and we're cooperating fully," an Abbott spokesman told Reuters, without commenting further on the nature of the probe. The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In February 2022, Abbott, the biggest U.S. supplier of baby formula, recalled Similac and other infant formula products produced at the Michigan facility after reports of bacterial infections in babies who had consumed products made there. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration found "shocking" results during an inspection such as cracks in vital equipment, a lack of adequate hand-washing and evidence of previous bacterial contamination. The regulator and the company later reached an agreement that allowed the plant to reopen. (Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar) A standoff at the Motel 6, located at 1201 W. College Ave., resulted in the arrest of the 54-year-old Alabama man and his 55-year-old Milwaukee girlfriend A 54-year-old Alabama man and his 55-year-old Milwaukee girlfriend were arrested following a standoff at an Oak Creek Motel 6, police say. The arrests ended a lengthy standoff at the motel, located at 1201 W. College Ave., where Oak Creek Police were assisted by the Milwaukee Police Department, Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office and the FBI. At 3:33 p.m. Friday, police sent a tweet saying they were continuing to work on an "active threat situation" near South 13th Street and West College Avenue but added they "have the incident contained/isolated." At 7:08 p.m., police said the intersection was now open. According to a news release from Oak Creek Police, the incident began around 1 p.m. following "trouble with a customer." The customer refused to leave and remained in a room while threatening to harm employees and law enforcement, police said. The building and immediate vicinity were evacuated and after "lengthy negotiations," law enforcement were able to take both the Alabama man and Milwaukee woman in custody, police said. Oak Creek Police say criminal charges will be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office in the coming days. Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like/follow his Facebook page, The Redheadliner, and follow him on Twitter at @ES_Hanley. Contact Drake Bentley at (414) 391-5647 or DBentley1@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DrakeBentleyMJS. Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal. DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Couple arrested following standoff at Motel 6, Oak Creek police say Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) -A Washington, D.C., appeals court on Thursday declined to shield Donald Trump from the first of two civil defamation lawsuits by E. Jean Carroll, a writer who said the former U.S. president raped her nearly three decades ago. The district's highest local court, the Court of Appeals, said it did not have enough facts to decide whether Trump deserved immunity, after he accused the former Elle magazine columnist in June 2019 of lying about the alleged encounter. A ruling that Trump was acting as president, and not in his personal capacity, would have immunized him and doomed Carroll's first lawsuit because the government could substitute itself as the defendant, and the government cannot be sued for defamation. HOUSTON (AP) Abdul Wasi Safi kept documents detailing his time as an Afghan soldier who worked with the U.S. military close to him as he made the monthslong, treacherous journey from Brazil to the U.S.-Mexico border. He fled Afghanistan fearing retribution from the Taliban following the August 2021 American withdrawal, and hoped the paperwork would secure his asylum in the U.S. Despite thick jungles, raging rivers and beatings, he kept those documents safe. But after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass, Texas, in September, Wasi Safi was arrested on a federal immigration charge. He remains jailed at a detention center in Eden, Texas, and fears his asylum claim may be denied. Wasi Safi's brother, attorneys, military organizations and a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to free him say his case highlights how Americas chaotic military withdrawal continues to harm Afghan citizens who helped the U.S. but were left behind. He tried every way possible to save these certificates in the hopes that once he ... presents his appropriate documents at the southern border ... he would receive a warm welcome and his service would be appreciated and recognized, said Sami-ullah Safi, his brother. If sent back to Afghanistan, he could be killed by the Taliban, which since its takeover has killed more than 100 Afghan officials and security force members, according to a United Nations report. Its honestly just shameful that weve treated people that helped protect our country this way, said Jennifer Cervantes, one of Wasi Safis immigration attorneys. Wasi Safi, 27, had been an intelligence officer with the Afghan National Security Forces, providing U.S. forces with information on terrorists, said Sami-ullah Safi, 29, who goes by Sami. Sami Safi had been employed by the U.S. military as a translator since 2010, making him eligible for a special immigrant visa for interpreters and others paid by the U.S. government. The visa allowed him to move to Houston in 2015. Story continues But Wasi Safi was not eligible for that visa because he was not employed directly by the U.S. When American forces withdrew from Afghanistan, Wasi Safi went into hiding and learned that friends in the Afghan military had been killed by the Taliban. He was able to get a visa for Brazil and traveled there in 2022. But he realized he wasnt much safer as he and other migrants were beaten and robbed by gangs. In the summer of 2022, Wasi Safi began his journey to the U.S. When he crossed a huge river in the Darien Gap, the imposing and dangerous stretch of thick jungle between Colombia and Panama, Wasi Safi kept a backpack with his documents above his head, so they wouldnt get wet. When police officers in Guatemala tried to extort him and took his backpack, Wasi Safi endured their beatings until he got the documents back, according to his brother. On his journey, Wasi Safi suffered serious injuries from beatings, including damaged front teeth and hearing loss in his right ear. Zachary Fertitta, one of his criminal defense attorneys, said Wasi Safi has not received proper medical care while in detention. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for medical care if hes released. Sami Safi said his brother has become disillusioned since his detention, believing the documents he thought would save him are worthless. But Fertitta said those documents show hes clearly an ally, was trained by our troops, worked with our troops. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, last week sent a letter to President Joe Biden, asking him to pardon Wasi Safi for his immigration related charges. She said Thursday that his documents show hes an individual who obviously loved this country ... and was willing to die for this country. Republican Congressmen Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Michael Waltz of Florida, as well as more than 20 veterans groups have also called for Wasi Safi's freedom while his asylum claim is reviewed. The White House declined to comment on Friday, referring questions to the Justice Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Texas, which is prosecuting his case for the Justice Department, and Customs and Border Protection didnt immediately return emails seeking comment. During a news conference Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said he couldnt comment on Wasi Safis case but that the Defense Department is supportive of any efforts that we can make to ensure that were taking appropriate care of the countrys Afghan allies. Fertitta said Wasi Safis criminal case has to first be resolved before his asylum claim can be considered, and hes hoping that resolution doesnt include a conviction, which could imperil the asylum request. Nearly 76,000 Afghans who worked with American soldiers since 2001 as translators, interpreters and partners arrived in the U.S. on military planes after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. But their immigration status remains unclear after Congress failed to pass a proposed law, the Afghan Adjustment Act, that would have solidified their legal residency status. Fertitta said Wasi Safis case highlights the countrys broken immigration system and its failure to help Afghan allies. You have all of those things colliding at our border and its a very difficult problem to sort out, Fertitta said. Sami Safi said he remains hopeful. I am hoping that President Biden and those who have authority over this case step up and save his life. He has given enough sacrifice for this country. My whole family has sacrificed for this country, he said. __ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: twitter.com/juanlozano70 A week in, the response to Velma, HBO Max's new animated series, has hardly been the stuff of reboot dreams. The series is now the third lowest-rated television series on IMDB; HBO Max turned off comments on the shows trailer; and the South Asian community has been loudly voicing its concerns that while the show includes diverse characters, it doesnt further explore identity. But theres a resounding voice of critics saying the negative commentary might be misguided because Mindy Kaling, the voice of Velma and executive producer on the series, is being held to unfair standards as one of the only representations of South Asian women in the industry. She has become a lightning rod for this kind of criticism, said Lakshmi Srinivas, an associate professor of Asian American studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The new reboot of Scooby-Doo serves as the origin story of Velma who is now a South Asian bisexual teenage girl trying to solve the mystery of her mothers disappearance. The series received underwhelming reviews from reviewers and viewers. Critics gave the series a 50% positive rating and audience members gave it 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many users said they were disappointed that the show excluded Scooby, and that the story line didn't hold up to the original series. Critics had mixed reactions, with some who said the show was cheeky for its outlandish jokes and its engrossing story line, while others said the characters were unpleasant to watch, saying Velma acted selfishly and Fred was depicted as a helpless wealthy snob. Kaling and HBO Max did not respond to NBC News request for comment. One of the main points some South Asians take issue with in Velma aligns with a long history of what some say is Kaling cherry-picking the most negative stereotypes about South Asians while not properly exploring racial dynamics. The jokes on the show and her characterization are similar to most of Kalings characters in the past. Story continues Velmas body hair, masculine features and weight were quickly the dominating subject of jokes. In the first episode, Fred, Velma's white male crush, told her that she was a fashionably challenged loser [the students] depend on for group projects, and that he'd mistaken her for his housekeeper. In another scene, Velma said she tells the truth without a filter, like every comedian before #MeToo. Viewers criticized the line, saying it wasnt funny to make light of the social movement. Not a joke!!! one tweet said. The backlash toward Velma quickly shifted to backlash toward Kaling and her past projects, with viewers flocking to TikTok and Twitter to share their opinions. A few viewers came to Kalings defense, giving context to her influences and obsessions. You have to remember those two [Kaling and TV creator Shonda Rhimes] spent formative sexual years at Dartmouth over 20 years ago. Thats all there was, @RohitaKadambi said in a tweet. From Mindy Lahiri in The Mindy Project to Devi in Never Have I Ever to Bela in The Sex Lives of College Girls, some have pointed out that Kalings lead South Asian characters share similar qualities: self-deprecating humor, a disconnect from their culture, an obsession with sex, making inappropriate comments and a romantic affinity toward white men. Lahiri navigated her medical practice and a slew of white male romantic interests. Bela reminded viewers she was a sweaty Indian loser with acne and glasses, and Devi said her arms looked like the floor of a barbershop. Harleen Singh, an associate professor of South Asian literature and womens studies at Brandeis University, said placing the blame solely on Kaling is unhelpful and that the real issues are systemic. She is one [person]. We are collectively criticizing how people of color and bodies of color tend to always be representative of the collective and not the individual. But thats exactly what were doing to her by putting the burden on her having to speak for all of us, Singh said. In 2021, South Asian women made up 0.3% of onscreen representation in television and film, according to a study by the Nielsen company. South Asian men made up 2.3% of onscreen representation. To lay it all on one performer in popular media, who also has to go along with the conventions of Hollywood its not easy, because Hollywood itself has a problem with diversity, Srinivas said. Srinivas sees why the South Asian community feels incorrectly represented by Mindy, Devi, Bela or Velma. When her characters have become so popular with the mainstream audience, I think its understandable that the South Asian community feels somewhat outraged by this portrayal of a South Asian individual, she said. But she also said Kaling doesnt get everything wrong. Its not inauthentic to the experience of South Asian kids growing up in this society. They face a lot of discrimination and a lot of bullying in school. Their names are made fun of, their food is made fun of, so they might grow up with this terrible defensiveness about that culture, she said. They are very much the same as the characters Mindy portrays. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com A refugee worker from Sudan was shot by police while working at a pork plant in Oklahoma (Seaboard Foods) Workers at a pork processing plant in Oklahoma are shocked and outraged after a disgruntled immigrant worker from Sudan was shot dead by the police. Chiewelthap Mariar, 26, a refugee from Sudan, was shot by police officers while working in the Seaboard Foods meatpacking plant in Guymon on 9 January. Guymon Police was called into the factory to deal with an agitated and disgruntled employee, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said. A co-worker of Mariar, who requested anonymity, told The Guardian he was fired for filming parts of the incident on his cellphone. The eyewitness claimed that Mariar was sacked from his job by a supervisor on that day and was asked to finish his shift. He said Mariar was confronted by the supervisor on the shop floor and soon police arrived to escort him from the site. I witnessed the entire thing, from when they started arguing with him until he was shot, he told the newspaper. He had a company-issued band-cutter in his hand. When the police got to the plant, the guy was already working, minding his own business. In a statement, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said produced a knife and began advancing on officers. Officers attempted to de-escalate the situation before eventually deploying a taser. The taser was unsuccessful and Mariar continued advancing on officers at which point an officer fired his service weapon striking Mariar, it added. However, the eyewitness who also produced a video said he had a band-cutter in his hand while working before he was escorted out. They made him out to be a danger when they said he had a knife in his hand, when it wasnt. And thats wrong on so many levels, the worker said. He said they were asked to continue working and had them cover the scene with plastic. This company fired me for recording the truth they were trying to brush under the mat. They never asked me if I was OK. It was my first time seeing a guy get killed and then I get fired. Story continues A spokesperson for Seaboard Corporation, the parent company for Seaboard Foods, said in a statement: Following the incident, operations were ceased for the remainder of the evening and the following day, and we provided in-person counseling services for employees throughout the week, in addition to ongoing phone counseling services available 24 hours, seven days a week. Seaboard Foods said: We express our heartfelt sorrow to Chiewelthap Mariars family, coworkers, friends and those affected by his death following an incident at our Guymon processing plant involving the Guymon Police Department on Jan 9. Providing our employees with a safe work environment and their well-being is extremely important to us. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said they are investigating the shooting and agents will submit the report to the district attorneys office. The district attorney will determine whether or not to file charges against the officer involved. Gary Council members Tai Adkins 4th District, (left) and William Godwin, 1st District (right) wait in line on the first day of filing for municipal elections at the Lake County Voter Registration office in the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point on Wednesday, January 4, 2023. (John Smierciak / Post Tribune) (John Smierciak / Post-Tribune) A request Wednesday by one councilman to postpone a decision over a contract for a lobbyist for the Gary Common Council prompted the Board of Works and Public Safety to defer the matter until February. Councilman Darren Washington, D-At Large, asked the board to postpone the contract for Helios Consulting LLC as he awaits answers regarding the contract from Council President William Godwin, D-1st. Advertisement As a member of the council we are not aware, or the public is not aware, of the need for a lobbyist at this time, Washington said. The first time he became aware of the contract was when he saw it on the Board of Works agenda. Washington was appointed chairman of the Human Resources and Personnel Committee. Washington said he spoke to Godwin about his concerns and is awaiting a response. He said if the individual is lobbying for the council, the council should know who the contract is with and what the contract encompasses. Advertisement The public should be aware, Washington said. As chairman of the human resources and personnel committee, there needs to be some clarification. All council members should be aware of personnel the council possibly is hiring and have a say in whether or not a lobbyists services are needed. Godwin Wednesday afternoon in a response to questions submitted to him and Council Attorney Rinzer Williams via email said a comprehensive response would be supplied to questions concerning the contract. Godwin said Friday via email contracts under $25,000 do not require a council vote, but move forward to the Board of Works at the recommendation of the council president. Last year was the first year of the council having a lobbyist contract, Godwin said. Last year the lobbyist collaborated with legislators, local government advocates and others political subdivisions to help mitigate HB1002 regarding a business personal property tax that would negatively have impacted city revenue. As a result the council presented a resolution opposing the measure, he said. The Board of Works deferred the contract for Helios Consulting LLC to its Feb. 8 meeting. The contract calls for hiring Helios to perform consulting services for $4,000 a month. The contract term is Jan. 1 to May 31. The total expenditure is $20,000. Helios Consulting is owned by Bridgette B.R. Lane. Lane was a chief of staff during the administration of former Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson. City code allows the president of the council to act as a purchasing agent for purchases under $24,999. The code goes on to say, purchases in excess of $24,999 and not exceeding $74,999 will have the prior approval of the common council. Advertisement Terms of the contract calls for Helios to lobby the Indiana legislature on behalf of the Gary Common Council. The firm must also assist in the development of a long-term strategy to advance and protect the Gary Common Councils interest in state and local government relations, and develop public policy initiatives to further its strategic legislative agenda. Helios also is expected to represent the council before members of the Indiana State Senate, House of Representatives and various senate and house committees studying and concerning legislation impacting the Gary Common Council. The contract calls for the consultant to meet regularly with the council regarding the status of the legislative initiatives and other legislative interests and arrange meetings for the council with members of legislative or executive branches of state or local government as necessary and required. Washington said he understands the city needs a lobbyist and has one, but he questioned the councils need for lobbyist services. The executive branch needs to deal with issues like public safety and infrastructure that come through the state legislature. The only thing the council needs to try and do with the state legislature is make changes to Indiana code to enhance the councils responsibilities on the local level, or watch for changes to code that may take away the councils power. Godwin is not an executive. We are one of nine. If we are going to hire a lobbyist, that person should come before the council and explain to the council what they are doing, let us look at what legislation we want us to pass, he said. Advertisement cnapoleon@chicagotribune.com Activists across Atlanta are planning a string of events for the weekend in honour of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, 26, a protester who was fatally shot by police on Wednesday during an operation evicting demonstrators protesting the construction of a $90m police training centre in an area forest. Defend the Atlanta Forest, one of the groups opposing the construction of the sprawling Cop City development, said a vigil would be held inside the forest on Friday evening. Remembrances are expected to continue through Saturday. A Twitter account with unclear affiliation to the opposition movement was suspended for calling for a night of rage and reciprocal violence on Friday. Teran, known by fellow activists as Tortuguita, was killed in Wednesday, as a multi-agency task force moved into the South River Forest to clear out the encampments of protesters who have been fighting the Cop City project since 2021. The forest protester, who used they/them pronouns, was a kind, passionate, and loving person, cherished by their community, according to a Twitter post from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, another local group. They spent their time between Atlanta, defending the forest from destruction and coordinating mutual aid for the movement and Florida, where they helped build housing in low income communities hit hardest by the hurricane, the group added. Georgia officials say Teran fired unprovoked on officers after failing to comply with commands, while activist groups say this account is false or questionable. We have reason to believe the officer shot today was hit by friendly fire and not by the protester who was killed, Defend the Atlanta Forest wrote on Twitter following the incident. To our knowledge so far, we find it less than likely that the police version of events is what really happened, local organiser Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders told Democracy Now!. The idea that he was sitting in a tent and fired out of the tent at basically a SWAT team. Story continues Resident say they hear a blast off gunshots all at once, not one blast then a return of fire, Mr Kamau continued. Activist groups have called for officials to release the name of the officers involved in the shooting, as well as body camera footage of what happened. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, whose officers were involved in the taskforce raid where the shooting took place, will investigate the death of the activist, Fox 5 Atlanta reports. Seven others were arrrested on Wednesday on domestic terrorism charges in the raid that killed Teran, Fox 5 reports: Geoffrey Parsons, 20, of Maryland; Spencer Bernard Liberto, 29, of Pennsylvania; Matthew Ernest Macar, 30, of Pennsylvania; Timothy Murphy, 25, of Maine; Christopher Reynolds, 31, of Ohio; Teresa Shen, 31, of New York; and Sarah Wasilewski, 35, of Pennsylvania. Five others were arrested late last year on similar charges for their ties to the forest movement. The Cop City project, which is slated to open later this year, is paid for jointly by the city of Atlanta and the private Atlanta Police Foundation, which counts as donors and board members major corporations like Amazon, Chick-fil-A, and Delta Airlines. The facility, which is expected to feature a mock village with a full fake nightclub and convenience store for training scenarios, has attracted widespread local opposition, from groups ranging to civil rights protesters to environmentalists to native groups, who argue the facility is the latest reminder of how the Muscogee Creek were violently pushed off the forest land in the 1800s. TAMPA For months, Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige has played a cat and mouse game by evading formal notices in a human trafficking lawsuit, according to Manuel Dominguez, an attorney representing three former church workers. In a Tampa federal courtroom on Friday, Dominguez said the three attorneys in attendance representing Miscavige could end this now by disclosing where their client lives. This is just a game, and I dont think it should be, said Dominguez, a partner at Cohen Milstein in Palm Beach Gardens. U.S. Magistrate Judge Julie S. Sneed tried too, asking Miscavige attorney Joseph Terry for an address, with no success. The plaintiffs attorneys asked Sneed to declare Miscavige served, considering their 27 attempts between May and August to deliver court papers to the Scientology leader at 10 church locations in Clearwater and Los Angeles. After a 90-minute hearing on Friday, Sneed said she will take both sides arguments under advisement before issuing a ruling. The leader is a defendant in the case, along with several church entities. The three former members of Scientologys full-time workforce, the Sea Org, allege they were trafficked into the church as children and forced to work through adulthood for little or no pay. Valeska Paris and husband and wife Gawain and Laura Baxter, who filed the complaint in April, left the Sea Org in 2009 and 2012, respectively. On Sept. 9, Sneed directed the clerk to issue a summons for Miscavige through the Florida Secretary of State, an alternate way to serve a defendant when direct service is unsuccessful. But on Friday, Terry argued that attorneys for the former workers have not proven they have authority to serve Miscavige through the Secretary of State because they have not shown Miscavige is conducting business as an individual in Florida. Dominguez noted that Miscavige is very much engaged in business here in Florida and cited his appearance at a New Years event at the churchs Fort Harrison Hotel. He also referred to a Tampa Bay Times story that detailed Miscaviges Jan. 6 phone call with Clearwater interim City Manager Jennifer Poirrier to discuss the churchs real estate plans. Story continues But Terry, co-chair of Williams & Connolly LLPs First Amendment practice group in Washington, D.C., said Miscavige is a resident of California. He said any business Miscavige conducts in Florida is in the context of his corporate capacity with the church, not as an individual. Many of the former workers allegations stem from their time serving on Scientologys Freewinds ship, which operates in the Caribbean. Terry argued their claims do not arise from Miscaviges business in Florida but something that happened on a ship 15 years ago. Dominguez countered that Miscavige actively manages the Freewinds and his business in Florida is incidental to his clients claims. He said the other church entities named in the lawsuit are located in Clearwater and that the church itself is his agent, Dominguez said. He and Scientology are the same entity, thats the way this religion is run, Dominguez said. The five church entities named as co-defendants in the lawsuit already have been served and filed motions in July to push the lawsuit into internal church arbitration, where it would go before a panel of loyal church members. A judge has not yet ruled on the churchs request to divert the case out of the U.S. court system. In the meantime, Dominguez argued his legal team has gone to extensive lengths to serve Miscavige, including hiring a private investigator, researching public records and asking the attorneys representing the five church entities for Miscaviges mailing address. When process servers tried to deliver paperwork to the 10 church locations in Clearwater and Los Angeles, security guards refused to accept documents and said they did not know where the ecclesiastical leader of the organization lived or worked, according to court filings. In declarations filed in the case, former Sea Org members Aaron Smith-Levin and Mike Rinder stated Miscavige lives in a wing of Hacienda Gardens, a gated complex housing Sea Org members on North Saturn Avenue and Keene Road in Clearwater. But Terry said Smith-Levin and Rinder defected from Scientology more than a decade ago and didnt have direct knowledge of the leaders whereabouts. He also pointed to a Dec. 31 YouTube video where Smith-Levin was discussing a police response to a Scientology property in Riverside County, California, and stated Miscavige lives and works there. But in determining whether the court should declare Miscavige served through the secretary of state, Dominguez said whether hes a resident of Florida is not important. The court, he said, should look at the extensive attempts his legal team has made to find out where he does business. The law, he said, does not allow defendants to create an obstacle course to navigate. President Biden is entering the new year with approval ratings that are close to the lowest levels seen in his presidency, despite the shot-in the-arm the White House received from a relatively successful midterm election that saw Democrats hold the Senate and keep House losses to a minimum. A Reuters-Ipsos poll out on Thursday showed that 40 percent of Americans approved of Bidens job performance. It was a point higher than last months survey, but low enough to stir angst among Democrats reading for a 2024 reelection signal from Biden that is expected to come after the State of the Union address. I dont know if anyone wants to be hovering around 40 percent when theyre launching a reelection bid, said one party strategist. You, at the very least, want to be five or six points higher. Bidens approval ratings fall between those seen by his immediate predecessors, former Presidents Trump and Obama, at this point in their terms. In his third year of the presidency, Obamas approval rating hovered around 44 percent, according to Gallup. Trump, at the same point, had an approval rating of 37 percent. Obama went on to win reelection relatively easily over Republican nominee Mitt Romney, while Trump lost his reelection bid in a close race with Biden. The White House is dealing with a new controversy the discovery of classified documents from Bidens time as vice president. Some were found at his residence and some at his former office in Washington, D.C. Bidens aides have generally shrugged off political worries about the controversy while noting that the White House Office of Counsel notified the National Archives of the discovery immediately. Democrats have also suggested the public is more focused on the economy and pocketbook issues than the documents fight, especially with Trump facing his own classified documents controversy. I dont think youre going to see much of an impact, said Rachel Bitecofer, the political scientist and strategist. Story continues The public has spent years marinating in large daily scandal, Bitecofer said, reflecting on the Trump presidency. Theres massive scandal fatigue. But it promises to be a nagging issue with Republicans planning investigations to keep the subject in the public eye. A Quinnipiac University poll out on Wednesday showed that 60 percent of those surveyed said they believe Biden acted inappropriately in retaining classified documents. Thirty-seven percent of those polled say Biden should face criminal charges. The poll included Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. Democratic pollster Mark Mellman agreed that anybody running for reelection would like to have better numbers than Biden is seeing right now as he plots out a possible reelection bid. Theres no question Biden has to improve his numbers, Mellman said. Still, he added, theres a considerable amount of time left before the 2024 election to make those gains and much of the calculus is also dependent on Bidens opponent. Its not a referendum. Its a choice, he noted. If Biden runs against former Trump, for example, Mellman predicted he would win. Trump has announced his own new bid for the White House, though he has not held a series of public events since doing so and has kept his public comments limited to his Truth Social account. The former president is expected to face competition for the GOP presidential nomination possibly from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The White House has recent to feel confident about a second battle against Trump. A Club for Growth survey out this month showed Trump trailing Biden by 8 points in a 2024 race. That poll followed a USA Today survey from last month showing Biden beating Trump by seven points, 47 percent to 40 percent. When we do focus groups, even Republicans are kind of sick of Trump and the divisions he causes, said Margie Omero, a Democratic pollster. That comes out loud and clear. This week, a WPA Intelligence Survey also found Biden trouncing Trump in a match-up, but it showed Biden losing to DeSantis 45 percent to 42 percent. The economy is likely to play a major role in Bidens fortunes, with fears of a recession circulating amid large layoffs in the tech sector from Microsoft and Google. At this point, it could go either way for the President, the Democratic strategist said. Its dependent on a number of factors including the strength of the economy and other major events. But I think its more likely that he pulls this out and defies expectations, as hes done in the past. While some Democrats have expressed concern that the documents scandal could bring down Biden in much the same way that Hillary Clintons use of a private email server led to her loss in the 2016 presidential election, Bitecofer said she sees it differently. Thats not to say there isnt a scandal and it doesnt matter, she said. This is not going to be But her emails. This country was very different. With what weve been through scandal-wise, the bar is very, very high. On Thursday, the president sought to downplay the special counsel probe into the classified documents. I think youre going to find theres nothing there, a frustrated Biden told reporters in California, as he was surveying damage from the recent storms there. Im following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. Thats exactly what were doing, theres no there there. Mellman said the issues that come before Biden in the coming months will ultimately serve as the biggest indicator of the presidents standing. If the country goes into a recession, for example, itll be a tougher road to hoe for him. There are a lot of variables here that nobody can really predict, he said. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A bipartisan group of senators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on Friday. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) met with Zelensky in the presidential palace and received a briefing on Ukraines security situation, according to a release from the Ukrainian presidents office. The release states that Zelensky thanked the senators for helping arrange his visit to the United States last month, in which he spoke before Congress and met with President Biden, and said he felt strong support from the U.S. I appreciate the organization of this visit. I want to thank all of you, the entire society, all Americans, he said. He also expressed appreciation for the most recent aid package that the U.S. announced for Ukraine. The package sends $2.5 billion to support Ukraines defense efforts with armored vehicles, air defense systems and surface-to-air missiles, among other weapons and equipment. The release states Zelensky told the senators about the situation at the front lines of the conflict and the steps being taken to fight Russian forces. They also discussed strengthening sanctions on Russia and the possibility of recognizing the private Russian military group Wagner as a terrorist organization. The Biden administration placed new sanctions on Wagner on Friday over its role fighting against Ukrainian soldiers. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, further briefed the senators on the resistance to Russias invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian intelligence representatives and task force commanders told them about the status of Ukraines borders, the possibility of Russian troops taking further action, the eastern front and the effectiveness of air defense forces. The briefing also mentioned what Ukrainian forces need to better defend themselves against Russian airstrikes and protect critical infrastructure objects. Story continues We are concerned that these attacks will continue. You know that they were also on New Years holidays, in particular on New Years Eve. About 200 missiles and drones were launched then. They will not stop, Yermak said. Graham tweeted on Friday that all three senators had the same goal: Ukraine driving Russia out of its territory. He said the Ukrainian military needs tanks to achieve it. Western allies of Ukraine have discussed providing the country with tanks, but Germany, which makes the tanks, has been hesitant to provide them. Blumenthal tweeted that the trip shows Republicans and Democrats are united to give steadfast support to Ukraine. Whitehouse tweeted that U.S. support for Ukraine is unwavering. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Prosecutor Bernard Carter chats with deputy prosecutor Lindsey Lanham at the Lake County Government center in Crown Point, Indiana Wednesday January 18, 2023. Carter had high praise for Lanham who decided to pursue criminal prosecution after her sister Molley was murdered nearly four years ago. (Andy Lavalley for the Post-Tribune) (Andy Lavalley / Post-Tribune) Lindsey Lanham didnt plan on becoming a criminal prosecutor. In February 2019, not long before her sister Molley, 19, and Molleys boyfriend, Thomas Grill Jr., were brutally murdered outside of Hebron, Lindsey, now 25, had been accepted to New York Law School in Manhattan, part of her plan, after an undergraduate degree in finance at Loyola University in Chicago, to go into business law or securities regulation after law school on the East Coast. Advertisement She sat through Connor Kerners murder trial, conviction and sentencing in the deaths, still committed to her career path. She sat through the trial for co-defendant John Silva II and even talked to the Porter County prosecutors outside the Valparaiso courthouse while they waited for verdict, telling them there was no way she was going into criminal law. Advertisement Then Silvas trial, in June 2021, resulted in a hung jury. They couldnt reach a verdict. The decision affected Lindseys family and left her wondering what happened. Everything felt heavy, she said. Its hard to put into words. Now, Lindsey is on the other side of the bench, working as a Lake County deputy prosecutor and handling murders and other high level crimes. Thomas Grill Jr., 18, of Cedar Lake and Molley Lanham, 19, of St. John, were murdered on Feb. 25, 2019. (Provided by St. John Police) Its definitely traumatic. My little sister was a very strong person. I carry her strength with me, Lindsey said, adding victims and witnesses in criminal cases sometimes tell her she doesnt understand what theyre going through. And actually I do, and (I say), Heres how were going to do this because you have to get through it for this person. By the end of Silvas trial, Lindsey was in her second year of law school but decided it was time to change her focus to criminal law. Once I made that decision, I kept it a secret from my family. I wanted to make sure it was something I wanted to do, she said. Advertisement Around Thanksgiving in 2021, she talked to Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter and Chief Deputy Prosecutor Barbara McConnell and told them she was considering criminal law. Though she wouldnt graduate until May of 2022, Lindsey also had a job offer from the New York District Attorneys Office, to work in the Bronx borough starting in October. She began working part-time in the Lake County Prosecutors Office as a clerk, taking some of her law school classes and finals online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of May last year Lindsey had worked on some big trials in Lake County and liked the people she worked with. She returned to New York City for graduation. After about a week, I decided I wanted to come back to Lake County for at least a little bit, she said, adding she got the chance to work on a few murder trials, not an opportunity she would have had in the much larger New York office. Deputy prosecutor Lindsey Lanham at the Lake County Government center in Crown Point, Indiana Wednesday January 18, 2023. The murder of her sister Molley almost four years ago moved Lanham to pursue a career in criminal prosecution after graduating law school. (Andy Lavalley for the Post-Tribune) (Andy Lavalley / Post-Tribune) In November, after passing the bar here, Lindsey started working as a felony deputy prosecutor for Carter. She and Carter said in many ways, her personal history sets her apart for her career. I feel like, and maybe this is a bold statement, in our profession its easy to be desensitized because we deal with it on the daily, she said of the graphic evidence presented in court, including photos and recordings. I think it helps me put a little more feeling into it. Advertisement Carter was impressed with Lindseys work as a clerk and that continues with her initiative as a deputy prosecutor. Weve been blessed to have her in this office. She was a great catch for us, Carter said, adding Lindsey is well qualified. Wanting to be home, wanting to contribute to your own community, her sisters death hit home with her. Lindsey didnt let her parents watch her in court until December, when she was prosecuting a murder trial. The defense attorneys in the case were John Cantrell and Mark Gruenhagen, the attorneys who represented Silva when the jury couldnt reach a verdict. Lindsey, who said shes developed a good relationship with them and called them seasoned attorneys, won the case. That was very cathartic, she said. That felt good. Friends and family of Molley Lanham gather during a candlelight vigil in her memory on Friday, March 8, 2019. (Kyle Telechan/Post Tribune) (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune) Silva, now 22, of Hamlet, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, attempted robbery and welfare fraud. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 10 years on probation. His earliest release date, according to online records from the Indiana Department of Correction, is May 24, 2035. Advertisement Kerner, 21, of Valparaiso, was initially sentenced to 179 years in prison for the murders of Molly and Grill in what prosecutors said was a drug deal gone bad. The Indiana Court of Appeals trimmed 25 years off his sentence. His earliest release date, according to the IDOC, is Aug. 31, 2134. So far, Lindsey has handled three murder cases and one involving invasion of privacy. She has another murder trial scheduled for next month. Its just been an overwhelming opportunity, she said, adding her older sister, Lauren, is attending law school at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and likely will specialize in family law. Lindsey said she was lucky to have Porter County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Armando Salinas and Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Hammer prosecuting Kerner and Silva, and the two are role models for her as attorneys. Its just being upfront and honest. I want to make sure I do the same things, she said. Lindsey Lanham, left, and Molley Lanham. Lindsey Lanham decided to become a criminal prosecutor after a hung jury decision against a defendant charged for his involvement in her sister's murder. - Original Credit: Lindsey Lanham (Handout / HANDOUT) Attorneys in the prosecutors office, which Carter noted is the largest law firm in Lake County, all take new attorneys under their wing, something Lindsey saw when she applied for her job. The office, he added, also wanted to retain her because of her excellent work as a clerk. Advertisement Lake County as a community as a whole is benefiting from what she will bring to the table for us, Carter said, adding she has a bright future both in his office and in her ongoing legal career. Theres no doubt, he added, that her career will be what she wants it to be. A lot of clerks dont have the tenacity to say they want to work a trial, and not just any trial. She comes here and wants to do the murder cases. Thats very rare to have the tenacity and the nerves, Carter said. And she just stepped up on a number of cases. Other deputy prosecutors in the office also have lost loved ones to violence, indicating what theyve seen in life, including friends lost to drugs or prison, but fortunately, not as severe as Lindseys case, he said. Molley Lanham - Original Credit: Lanham family (Handout / HANDOUT) Youve got to have the interest and the love and the burning desire to make a difference, Carter said. Lindseys case is very exceptional and shes going to do a lot of good in memory of her sister and for the community. Lindsey, who enjoys ballet and recently danced in Indiana Ballet Theatres performance of The Nutcracker, said she plans to continue her career in criminal prosecution on some level, perhaps moving to the U.S. Attorneys Office at some point. Advertisement My sister would be very proud, Lindsey said. Yes, agreed Carter, she would. alavalley@chicagotribune.com Jeremy Weir found a note dated June 4,1983 inside a bottle in the Pearl River. WLOX Jeremy Weir found a note in a bottle dated June 4, 1983, floating in the Pearl River on Monday. Weir set out to find the man who wrote and left his phone number on the note. "Good Luck and Happy Hunting," was written on the bottom of the letter. A retired Mississippi teacher set out to find the owner of a 40-year-old message in a bottle that he found floating in the Pearl River in Mississippi on Monday. Jeremy Weir, a retired middle school principal, is a self-described treasure hunter. Weir said that he is "always hunting treasure (and by treasure I mean old bottles, old wood, sea glass, fossils, etc)," in a Facebook post on Monday. "Well while hunting this afternoon I found an old Grolsch bottle with a ceramic top in a big drift on the Pearl River," Weir wrote in the post. "I brought it home and started to clean it up and noticed something in it. I opened it and found a plastic bag with a note in it." Weir said that the note inside the bottle was dated June 4, 1983, and it told the reader to contact a man named David Blanks who lived in Jackson, Mississippi, and was 3 years old at the time the note was written. "Good Luck and Happy Hunting," the note said. Weir said in the post that with the help of his daughter he was able to find the man mentioned in the note and he plans to meet with him and his wife to return the bottle. Weir told the Sun Herald that he called the phone number on the note and reached Blanks' parents, who gave him Blanks' contact information. "So we called him and, of course, he was just astonished that we had found that bottle, 39 and a half years later," Weir to the Herald. "We talked with him and his wife, and told him what was going on." Blanks was "ecstatic" to hear that Weir had found the bottle and said that he didn't remember writing the note as a 3-year-old, the Herald reported. Read the original article on Insider They shut down a campus street for hours. Hundreds surrounded the public safety building to protest against university police and the handling of sexual assault cases. They packed an entire auditorium for a town hall meeting that stretched nearly nine hours long. This week, students demanded to feel safe on their Delaware State University campus. Now, they're starting to see the next steps from their school. "Your bravery and strength are clear and compelling," said President Tony Allen in a statement Friday evening, following the town hall that ended around 3 a.m. the same day. "Now is an opportunity for us to support you better and with the care and compassion you should expect." Allen outlined what he stressed to be "initial steps" for the Dover institution. These measures join the president's previously shared plan to pair university experts with a student coalition, the counseling center, police and the Title IX office to create sexual assault awareness activities and interventions on campus. Some new steps Assigning Deputy Chief Joi Simmons as the university's Sexual Assault Awareness officer . Allen noted she has extensive training in sexual assault education, investigations and survivor services. Upgrading security to include lighting throughout the main campus and DSU Downtown including the emergency blue lights system . Ensuring that the existing public safety escort service is fulfilling the needs of students. Enhancing camera use on campus and in the residence halls . Allen did not specify further where these cameras would be located. Extending counseling hours to Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon, through the end of February at which point Allen says DSU will reassess its regular hours. Additionally, virtual health services are available . This will join special support groups for students who are survivors or allies, he said. Allen also plans to convene the first in a series of mandatory sensitivity trainings for the entire university community throughout the remainder of this semester. Story continues More:Delaware State responds to protest cries with town hall meeting but closed it to public Still growing:Colleges are shrinking. But HBCUs like Delaware State are riding a wave of their own Why were Delaware State students protesting? A protester speaks on a megaphone, claiming campus police at Delaware State University are concerned more with students smoking cannabis than them getting sexually assaulted, during a protest at DSU on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Calls without answers, long times spent waiting for response, avoiding stairwells, fear of walking alone at night students had a lot to say about campus safety. And they found a megaphone to do it. Hundreds of students protested in Dover on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 18, calling for change within the Delaware State University Police Department. The protest pushed into the late afternoon. Students called for better response times, better training and more transparent handling of sexual assault cases by the Delaware State University Police Department. Several said they do not feel safe on campus. Others fear more sexual assaults are going unreported because they say they are not taken seriously. Background:Delaware State students protest for more action, better response from university police The university responded with a town hall meeting, set for 6 p.m. the next evening in the Education and Humanities Theatre. Media was barred from attending. Parents also told Delaware Online they were unable to attend. The meeting would end up stretching nearly nine hours in the night, several students said Friday. Ending by about 3 a.m., the packed house heard emotional testimony, firsthand accounts and cries that the meeting be a first step to more action. The university community now absorbs some early steps in what their president deemed a long-term effort. "I want to emphasize that these are initial steps, aimed at immediately improving our current practices," he wrote Friday evening. "We will work closely with the coalition as we build out our long-term plan." Have a story to share? Kelly Powers is a culture reporter for the How We Live team covering race, culture and equity for the USA TODAY Network's Northeast Region and Delaware Online. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (484) 466-9121, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Delaware State gives next steps for campus security after protest BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Brazil's northern state of Roraima on Saturday after the government declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami people in the Amazon, who are suffering from malnutrition and diseases such as malaria as a consequence of illegal mining. At the state capital, Boa Vista, Lula said the way the Yanomami are treated is inhumane. The immediate measures to be taken by the government are improvement in transportation and the employment of more doctors and nurses to work in the region, he said. The decree signed by Health Minister Nisia Trindade late Friday has no expiration date and allows for hiring extra personnel. It determines that the team in charge has to publish reports regarding the Indigneous groups health and general well-being. Lula also created a multiministerial committee, to be coordinated by his chief of staff, for an initial period of 90 days. The government team went to Boa Vista as many ill Yanomami have been admitted to specialized hospitals there. The Yanomami live in the largest indigenous area in Brazil, with more than 9 million hectares (22 million acres) and a population of around 30,000, in the northern area of the Amazon rainforest, close to the border with Venezuela. In recent years, specialists had sounded the alarm about humanitarian and sanitary crisis taking shape. The report Yanomami Under Attack, written by the nonprofit Socio-Environmental Institute, points out that in 2021 the region was responsible for 50% of the malaria cases in the country. The same report said that more than 3,000 children were malnourished. Illegal mining is the main root of the problems faced by the Yanomami people. Activists accuse miners of death threats, sexual violence and alcohol and drug abuse, especially against Indigenous children. The same report shows that the region had more than 40 illegal airstrips made by miners and that they had taken over some of the government health centers installed in the region. Story continues The mining activity changes the soil, creating puddles which are favorable for the malaria mosquito, and other diseases as well. Many miners also bring diseases with them. It's a sanitary and humanitarian crisis," said Estevao Benfica, geographer and one of the Socio-Environmental Institute researchers. Benfica also said there is lack of personnel and basic resources to identify malaria in its early stages, which worsens the situation. The high rate of diseases disables the Yanomamis to work in their land, creating a large community which cannot sustain itself economically. Another factor was the political approach during the years of former President Jair Bolsonaros government, when the number of health personnel decreased and four health units were shut down, leaving hundreds of Yanomami with no medical consultation. Earlier this week, the Health Ministry had already designated a team for a special health mission in the Yanomami region. Lula scheduled an emergency trip to Roraima state following a report by independent local news website Sumauma, featuring shocking pictures of malnourished children. According to the report, during the last four years of Bolsonaros government, the death of children age 5 or less had jumped 29% in comparison to the previous government. The same report shows that 570 Yanomami children died between 2019 and 2022 from curable diseases. (Bloomberg) -- Illegal mining will be eliminated in Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told journalists after visiting an institution for indigenous healthcare in Boa Vista, Roraima state, in the Amazon region. Most Read from Bloomberg Lula didnt give a time-frame nor specific details on what measures will be taken, but said the issue of illegal mining in Brazil will be solved. The poor health of local indigenous people surprised the president, he said, mentioning he saw children that seemed very weak. Thats inhuman, he said. Indigenous people living in the Amazon rainforest have been suffering from malnutrition and hunger as mining activities invade their territories and cause contamination of soil and river water. The government on Friday declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami population in Brazils Amazon, where an illegal gold rush is fueling a surge in destruction of their land. According to the Indigenous People Minister Sonia Guajajara, who was in Boa Vista with Lula, 570 Yanomami children have died during Brazils past administration, Estadao newspaper reported. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2023 Bloomberg L.P. Ukraine made an agreement about training its tank crews on German Leopard 2 tanks, even though the decision about supplying Ukraine with them has not been made yet. Source: Oleksii Reznikov, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, in an interview for Holos Ameryky (Voice of America) Quote: "There has been a breakthrough a possibility for the countries that have the Leopard tanks in their possession to start training missions and courses for our tank crews. We will begin at that and then will move further. I hope that after conducting its own covert internal consultations, Germany will make the decision about possible supply of the tanks. I am optimistic about this. The first step was made: we will start training programs for [Ukrainian] crews on Leopard 2." Details: Before the meeting of the Ministers of Defence at the Ramstein air base in Germany, Ukraine turned to its allies asking for modern Western tanks, but there have been no announcements about such a supply. Reznikov stated that the agreements about the training were made thanks to the recent decisions: Polands concerning Leopards, and Britains concerning Challengers. Within the framework of the Ramstein meeting, a gathering of the representatives of the countries that have the German-made Leopard 2 tanks at their disposal was held as well. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Brooke Shields arrives for the National Board of Review Awards Gala in New York City on January 8, 2023. (Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) Brooke Shields is speaking out for the first time about a sexual assault she experienced in her early 20s. The actress and model shares her story in Lana Wilson's new two-part documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, which premiered today at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Although Shields doesn't identify her assaulter in the film, she confirms it was someone she knew and was friendly with. "This is the first time I've ever spoken about what happened," Shields says as she tearfully recounts her story. At the time the assault occurred, the former child star was looking to re-start her acting career after stepping away from the spotlight to attend Princeton University. But her re-entry into Hollywood proved more difficult than expected. That was when her assaulter first reached out. "I had heard there was a movie being made, and I was in consideration," Shields recalls in the film. "It was the first time since college that any interested was sort of expressed [in me]." "We had a dinner," she continues. "I thought it was a work meeting. I had met this person before, and he was always nice to me." But the mood of the meeting abruptly changed midway through the meal, and she quickly began looking to make an exit. "I said, 'I have to get a cab,' and he said, 'Come back to the hotel I'll call you a cab.'" Following him up to his hotel room, Shields remembers being left alone for a period of time and feeling uncertain what to do. "I don't want to go over to the phone, because it's not my phone," she says. "I don't want to sit down, because I'm not staying." While looking out at the view of the beach with a pair of binoculars, her assaulter re-emerged. "The door opens, and the person comes out naked," she says. "I put the binoculars back and he was right on me." Brooke Shields shares her life story in the new documentary, Pretty Baby. (Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute) "It was like wrestling," Shields describes, adding that she was too scared of being choked or hit to think of fighting back. "I just absolutely froze. I thought: 'My one 'No' should have been enough. Stay alive and get out.'" Story continues During the assault, Shields says that she "disassociated" herself from her body, an experience she'd had earlier in her career on the set of the 1981 Franco Zeffirelli film Endless Love. While filming a love scene for that romance, Shields who was 15 when the film was shot remembers the late Italian director grabbing her toe and twisting it to capture the look of "ecstasy" that he wanted on camera. "It was more angst than anything because he was hurting me," Shields says in Pretty Baby. "I didn't want to appear stupid our untalented, so I just disassociated. It's like you're [instantly] zooming out: seeing a situation, but you're not connected to it. You instantly become. a vapor of yourself around something that's happening." (Zeffirelli also directed the 1968 film version of Romeo & Juliet that featured a brief nude scene with the film's then-underage stars, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. Both actors are now suing Paramount over the scene. When the assault ended, Shields recalls her still-nude attacker not even acknowledging what happened. "The next thing I know, the door is open and the person says, 'I'll see you around.' I just said 'Yeah,' and walked out, went down in the elevator and got my own cab. I cried all the way to my friend's apartment." Shields in the 1981 romantic drama, Endless Love. (Photo: Universal Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection) According to Shields, she later confronted her assaulter in a letter rather than discuss the incident publicly. "I said, 'That was a huge trust that was just blown up. How dare you? I'm better than that. I'm better than you are. That's the way I dealt with things. I wanted to erase the whole thing from my mind and body and just keep on the path that I was on. The system had never once come to help me. So I just had to get stronger on my own." Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter prior to the Sundance premiere of Pretty Baby, Shields said that she initially wasn't sure if she'd share her story when she sat down to be interviewed by Wilson for the film. "I had no idea I was going to say it," she explained, adding that the tenor of the #MeToo times made her realize now would be the right time to speak up. "I feel as a mother of two young girls that I hope that just by even hearing my incident that I can add myself to becoming an advocate. Because this is something that does happen every day, and it should not be happening. I felt that I had arrived at a place where I could talk about it. Its taken me a long time." Premiering on Hulu later this year, Pretty Baby features Shields reflecting on many of her high-profile relationships, including with Michael Jackson, who she says was never a romantic partner despite the intense public scrutiny of their years-long friendship. "We met when I was 13 and we hung out," she recalls in the film. "It was very childlike." Brooke Shields and Michael Jackson attend the 11th Annual American Music Awards in in 1984. (Photo by Barry King/WireImage) "We were just really friends," Shields continues. "But he always wanted to be sort of seen with me. If he would pick a restaurant, I would say, 'How did [the paparazzi] know we were here?' And then at one point, he said that we should adopt a child and raise a child together." The actress also indicates that Jackson lied when he told Oprah Winfrey that he and Shields were dating during a famous TV interview in 1993. "I called him [afterwards] and said, 'What are you doing?'" she remembers. "'I'm currently with my boyfriend in New York City! What are you doing?' I eventually lost touch with him." Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields premieres on Hulu later this year. OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) Burkina Faso's army has freed 66 women and children who were abducted earlier this month by Islamic extremists while gathering food in the country's northern Sahel region, according to a state television report Friday. National broadcaster RTB reported that armed forces had located the hostages during a military operation in Center-North region. The group included 39 children, with four infants among them. Authorities have said they had been out in the countryside gathering wild fruit near the town of Arbinda in Soum province when Islamic extremists kidnapped them on Jan. 12 and 13. Extremists have besieged towns around the West African country, preventing people and goods from moving freely. The town of Arbinda has been under jihadi blockade for years, making women more vulnerable to attacks if they try to leave, rights groups say. Jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has overrun Burkina Faso, killing thousands and displacing nearly 2 million people in the West African nation. The failure of successive governments to stop the fighting has caused widespread discontent and triggered two military coups in 2022. The military junta that seized power in September, vowing to restore security, is still struggling to stem the violence. Whats Quickly? Its where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com. The Republicans are determined to show the Democrats that they have the power to disrupt the financial security of this country. Then they will blame Biden who is in office. But they are the ones causing the crisis. When did these Republicans stop caring about this country and start to follow the con man? Trump does not explain how he will serve the country because he is still in never never land about the last election. Advertisement Every Republican who actively supports the violent overthrow of the United States government should be in prison, not running for office. Right? Thats quite the Mt. Rushmore of American political misfits you picture at the head of Thursdays Quicklies: Left to right, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, and Jim Banks. Maybe we should have a GoFundMe thing to raise money to buy Jim Jordan a suit coat, which he is obligated to wear when hes on the House floor. Apparently he thinks that appearing in just his rolled up shirt sleeves most of the time makes him look like a real Macho Man. Advertisement According to your warped sense of reality, anyone who thinks they can improve their lot in life that believes they can get a fair wage and benefits by negotiating as a group is lazy and doesnt want to work. Maybe that is why you were in the union but most people are not like you. They take pride in their jobs and appreciate the improved wages and benefits the union gives them. This is obvious to anyone who cares to look around and can accept reality. Also the reason you get decent wages in the region is because your employer knows they have to compete for employees with the better paying union jobs. Pending investigations of Democrats by Republicans remind me of the Grand Canyon. Congressional Republicans have given Democrats another get out of jail card. Until a decision is made to either seriously sanction or even oust NY Rep. George Santos, it will be difficult to investigate and criticize Democrats. Republicans have really backed themselves into a corner. Many in their party have committed corruption or activities that border on corruption. How can you chastise Democrats when you have remained silent about similar behavior within your own party? Lying, pushing conspiracy theories, tax fraud, misrepresentation, inciting an insurrection, impeachment, election fraud, mishandling of classified documents, defamation, etc. are just a few of the indiscretions Republicans have engaged in. They have refused to sanction their own people. As a result, investigations of Democrats will be as hollow as the Grand Canyon! Donald Trump has driven the biggest wedge this country has seen since the Civil War. Our country is so divided and this division will last many generations. Any time a Republican loses an election they claim that it was stolen. Examples include the governors race in Arizona, where Kari Lake believes she is the rightful governor, a New Mexico Republican lost an election and has sent armed men to shoot and kill Democrats who won their elections the attack on the Pelosis home, and the biggest one is the January 6th attack on our nations Capitol driven on by Donald Trump. And now with the Republicans controlling the House, the worst is yet to come. None of this would be happening if Donald Trump would have just been man enough and said I lost the election, but we knew how Trump really is. He will go down as the worst president in the history of our nation, and the American people will suffer greatly! In 8 years Reagan increased the national debt by 186%. The most by any president. Second place is Trump who increased the debt the most in one year 2020 by $4.2 billion. So stop thinking that Republicans care about the national debt. Its just more lies as usual. Read more at www.post-trib.com/opinion. YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The government of Cameroon and some separatist factions in the English-speaking regions of the country have agreed to enter into a process aimed at resolving a conflict that has killed over 6,000 people, Canada's foreign ministry said. "Canada welcomes the agreement by the parties to enter a process to reach a comprehensive, peaceful and political resolution of the conflict," foreign minister Melanie Joly, said in a statement on Friday. The statement said Canada had accepted a mandate to facilitate the process and the parties have agreed to form technical committees to begin work on confidence-building measures. The armed conflict, which began in 2017, stems from a perceived marginalisation of Cameroon's English-speaking community by the French-speaking majority in the central African state. Since then, factions of secessionist militias have been battling government troops in the two English-speaking regions in an attempt to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia. A 2019 national dialogue that granted special status to the two Anglophone regions, failed to resolve the conflict which has escalated. Nearly 800,000 people have been displaced, and 600,000 children do not have full access to education, Canada said. "The parties to this agreement are the Republic of Cameroon, the Ambazonia Governing Council and the Ambazonia Defence Force, the African People's Liberation Movement and the Southern Cameroons Defence Force, the Interim Government, and the Ambazonia Coalition Team. The parties further express the hope that other groups will join the process," the statement said. A spokesman for government did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Saturday. Spokespersons for the separatist factions could not be reached for comments. (Reporting by Amindeh Blaise Atabong; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Toby Chopra) Editors Note: Jack Becker is the editor of Caprock Chronicles and Librarian Emeritus, Texas Tech University Libraries. He can be reached at jack.becker@ttu.edu. Todays article about the earliest Americans is by frequent contributor Chuck Lanehart, Lubbock attorney and award-winning Western history writer. For almost a century, artifacts found near Clovis, New Mexico, were accepted by scientists as evidence the earliest American was Clovis Man, who once thrived on the Llano Estacado. However, a recent discovery indicates earlier humans may have lived nearby, sparking debate about when and how they got there. Fossilized human footprints found at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. In 1927, a cowboy found a mammoth skeleton with a spearpoint in its ribs near Folsom, New Mexico, triggering interest in digging for evidence of early man in the region. Five years later, excavation 200 miles south in Blackwater Draw near Clovis unearthed projectile points and tools supporting the theory early humans crossed the Beringia land bridge over the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska during the Last Glacial Maximum, a period of lowered sea levels during the Ice Age. Ancient travelers may have made their way southward through an ice-free corridor east of the Rocky Mountains in present-day western Canada as glaciers retreated. Researchers dubbed the subject of their findings the Clovis Culture, characterized by the beautiful, fluted stone spearpoints crafted by Clovis people and found at sites throughout the Americas. Clovis people believed to be ancestors of all Indigenous Americans spread across the continent between 13,500 and 11,000 years ago. Clovis people foraged and were skilled hunters of big game such as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, giant sloths and ancient bison. Map of the Clovis immigration. The Lubbock Lake Landmark is an archeological site which preserves evidence of Clovis Culture. Material excavated from an ancient river valley shows evidence Clovis Man killed and butchered giant Ice-Age beasts here. About 11,000 years ago, the Clovis Culture abruptly vanished from the archaeological record, and other hunter-gatherer cultures emerged. Their disappearance coincided with the extinction of ancient big-game animals. Story continues Did Clovis people over-hunt the huge mammals into extinction? Is there another explanation? Conclusive answers may never be found. After the discovery of Clovis Culture, most scientists accepted the notion humans first settled the Americas no earlier than about 13,000 years ago by walking from Asia to Alaska via a land bridge. There have been countless claims of earlier humans living as long as 130,000 years ago in the Americas, but virtually all have been called into question. Now, a new discovery may prove Clovis Man was not the first American. In the early 1930s, a trapper discovered a remarkable footprint 22 inches long and eight inches wide in the White Sands of New Mexico, west of the Caprock escarpment. The trapper thought hed found evidence of the mythical Bigfoot, but research confirmed the print was that of a giant sloth. A statue of Clovis Man by Reynaldo Reyes circa 1995. The find spurred further excavation at White Sands. In recent years, fossilized human footprints were found at White Sands National Park. According to a September 2021 report published in the journal Science, the impressions indicate early humans occupied North America between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago, thousands of years before Clovis Man appeared, transforming views of when and how the continent was settled. Dating from a time scientists think massive ice sheets walled off human passage to North America, the fossils seem to prove humans were living in North America before the Last Glacial Maximum closed migration routes from Asia. Scores of footprints of children and teenagers and a few adults formed by walking in soft prehistoric mud, were found near ancient Lake Otero, a 1,600-square-mile body of water that dried up about 10,000 years ago and now forms part of Alkali Flat in White Sands. Seeds from Ruppia grass, an aquatic plant, were found in sediment layers above and below the footprints. The seeds were carbon-dated, yielding remarkably precise dates for the impressions. "One of the reasons there is so much debate is that there is a real lack of very firm, unequivocal data points. That's what we think we probably have [at White Sands]," said Professor Matthew Bennett, an author of the study. Anthropologists believe the footprints may have been left by youngsters helping adults with a hunting technique seen in later Native American cultures, the buffalo jump, involving driving large game over the edge of a cliff. Butchering of animals began immediately, and fires were started to render fat. Footprints may have been left by teens collecting firewood, water or other essentials during the processing. Chuck Lanehart The White Sands discovery calls into question not only when humans first arrived on the North American continent, but how. If people were in the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximum, did they arrive through inland routes before the glacial doors slammed shut? Did they boat around icy areas of the coasts? Such questions are the subject of ongoing research at White Sands and elsewhere. These vestiges of the new oldest Americans were found just a couple of hundred miles southwest of the first discovery of Clovis Man, evidence the Llano Estacado was home to the earliest Americans, regardless of when or how they arrived. This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Caprock Chronicles: Footprints in the Sand: Was Clovis Man the first American? DiamondBack reduced the working week to 35 hours. Luke Viozzi/DiamondBack Covers DiamondBack Covers reduced its 40-hour week to 35 without cutting pay for workers. The decision has meant greater efficiency, safety, and staff retention, said CEO Ben Eltz. He thinks that blue-collar workers and their employers can both benefit from a shorter working week. In 2020, Pennsylvania-based manufacturing firm DiamondBack Covers reduced the number of hours its workers put in every week, but kept their pay the same. It's a decision that "almost pays for itself" through increased efficiency, safety, and staff retention, according to the CEO, Ben Eltz. The idea of cutting workers' hours without cutting pay, sometimes called the "four-day week", is gaining traction, but it's a movement that's often associated primarily with desk jobs. Eltz told Insider he thinks that blue-collar workers and their employers can also benefit from adjusting traditional working patterns. DiamondBack Covers, which makes heavy-duty covers for pickup trucks, employs about 115 workers at its factory in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. They work a 35-hour week but they get paid as if they had done 40. Eltz told Insider that DiamondBack Covers pays its production employees an average hourly wage of about $20. That's higher than the national average of $17.42 for such workers, according to the most recent Bureau for Labor Statistics figures from May 2021. Insider has viewed wages slips to verify the number of hours workers are paid per week by DiamondBack, and the hourly rate of pay. Eltz said the company introduced the shorter schedule after the pandemic forced the factory to temporarily close in March 2020. "When we came back from that shutdown, we had a huge backlog," he said. DiamondBack wanted to take on more workers but didn't have the physical space to do so. Before the pandemic, employees had done eight-hour daytime shifts and the company initially considered a standard shift that would run late into the evening. However, management were concerned about attracting workers for a night shift. Eltz didn't want DiamondBack to make "someone's life worse than it was before." Story continues Instead, the company decided to implement two shorter shifts, and keep pay at the same level. The first shift runs from 5 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., while the second runs from 11:15 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Each worker does one longer ten-hour shift each week, where they overlap with the other team. This means that DiamondBack has been able to hire more staff without asking anyone to "be here after dinnertime," said Eltz. After a four-week trial, more than 80% of employees said they'd prefer to retain the 35-hour week and managers observed increased efficiencies that "almost" made up for the shorter schedule. DiamondBack has shed its workers' least-productive hours, which typically came at the end of an eight-hour shift. It's physical labor so it's crucial that workers are "fresh" and "mentally awake," said Eltz. The extra efficiency doesn't cover the whole cost, but he said that's something DiamondBack is willing to offer as a "benefit" because it helped attract and retain staff. Fewer hours also improves safety, Eltz added. Retaining staff saves money because new staff have to be trained and it takes time for them to be as fast and efficient as longterm employees. US manufacturers have high rates of staff turnover averaging almost 40% in 2021, according to the Bureau for Labor Statistics. The figure for DiamondBack that year was just 10%, Eltz said. The shorter week also appears to help attracting new staff at a time when many factories have struggled to find workers. "We weren't immune," said Eltz, "but it seemed like things were much easier for us." Read the original article on Business Insider A promotion within the Charlotte Fire Department made history on Friday. Juan Pablo Soto is the first Latino firefighter at the department to be promoted to the rank of battalion chief. I hope that I can help not only the Latino population, but also the Charlotte community in general as the battalion chief, Soto said. Soto is the Charlotte Fire Departments first Latino battalion chief. He joined the Charlotte Fire Department more than two decades ago after moving to the city from his home country of Guatemala. On Friday, he was able to celebrate his well-earned accolade, while also reflecting on what it means for others in the city. Its bittersweet and sad, because I shouldnt be the first Latino, Soto told Channel 9. He received the recognition from Fire Chief Reginald Johnson at a ceremony on Friday afternoon. ALSO READ: Renderings of Charlottes first electric fire station released We have over 1,000 firefighters, the fire department has been around for a long time, the demographics of Charlotte for Latinos are pretty big, Soto said. In Charlotte, 14% of the population is Latino, but less than 1% of firefighters are of the same background. In his new role, Soto said he wants to recruit more Latinos to join the firefighter brotherhood. Soto said it was that feeling of family that convinced him to join the fire service after originally considering joining the military. You know that your brother will die for you if you need to, just like you will die for them if they need to, he said. That is something you dont find in many jobs. (WATCH BELOW: 6 firefighters from Saudi Arabia to embed with Charlotte Fire) A composition book. Illustrated | Getty Images Last year marked a turning point for artificial intelligence, with several new generative AI tools making a splash. OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot, an AI text generator, is one of the tools that quickly went viral after being released to the public for free last fall. While some reveled in the program's ability to write poems, news articles, and bizarre short stories, others wondered what it could mean for the future of writing. Almost immediately, educators began sounding off on the possible threat posed to their field. Could ChatGPT be the end of English class as we know it? 'Expect a flood' of cheating students Many educators have been vocal about the overwhelming wave of cheating that ChatGPT might trigger, particularly regarding the typical five-paragraph or formulaic essays assigned to high school and undergraduate students. "Expect a flood, people, not a trickle," warned Darren Hick, a philosophy professor at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, in a Facebook post. After discovering that one of his students submitted an alarmingly well-constructed essay they got from the AI tool, Hick vented about how ill-prepared educators are for dealing with AI text generators. "Academia did not see this coming. So we're sort of blindsided by it," Hick told The New York Post. He says unlike old-school cheating methods, such as asking a friend to do the work or paying someone else to write an assignment, "this is free and instantaneous." The fact that the software is in its infancy and will continue to learn and improve also makes the professor uncomfortable. "I feel the mix myself between abject terror and what this is going to mean for my day-to-day job but it's also fascinating, it's endlessly fascinating." Hicks believes that school administrators need to find a way to address what he is sure to be an onslaught of cheating as the technology grows more advanced. Some suggest that teachers return to the tradition of handwritten assignments. As far as his classroom goes, Hick expects to "institute a policy stating that if I believe material submitted by a student was produced by AI, I will throw it out and give the student an impromptu oral exam on the same material." Story continues ChatGPT will be 'the end of writing assignments altogether' Some teachers think it's too late to combat the threat of advanced AI text generators, leading to the inevitable demise of writing assignments. Daniel Herman has taught high school English for 12 years and is "astounded by what ChatGPT can produce." In an essay for The Atlantic, Herman wrote that ChatGPT "may signal the end of writing assignments altogether and maybe even the end of writing as a gatekeeper, a metric for intelligence, a teachable skill." He warns that the AI tool will "drastically change" the lives of him and his fellow educators. Herman used to preach that "a basic competence in writing is an absolutely essential skill," but he's unsure if that remains true. "It's no longer obvious to me that my teenagers actually will need to develop this basic skill. " High school teacher and author Ben Berman also thinks "high school writing, as we know it, is doomed." Instead of trying to combat the use of AI in schools by investing in anti-cheating software or resorting to handwritten assignments, Berman hopes that teachers "let this new technology disrupt the systems that encourage students to think of school as a game." Others fear that ChatGPT will kill traditional writing assignments in higher education as well. Author and former professor Stephen Marche called the undergraduate essay "the way we teach children how to research, think, and write" in The Atlantic, but believes the "entire tradition is about to be disrupted from the ground up." He predicts it will take at least a decade for academia to catch up: "two years for the students to figure out the tech, three more years for the professors to recognize that students are using the tech, and then five years for university administrators to decide what, if anything, to do about it." Kevin Bryan, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, tweeted in shock over ChatGPT's capabilities, declaring, "You can no longer give take-home exams/homework." After testing the tool's ability to write graduate-level responses, he concluded, "the OpenAI chat is frankly better than the average MBA at this point." AI is the future, and teachers should embrace it Despite the pervasive fear of AI phasing out writing, some educators believe that it will force them to reimagine the writing process. In a guest post for Inside Higher Ed, Marc Watkins, a University of Mississippi professor, wrote that students and teachers "will come to use this technology to augment the writing process, not replace it." Watkins said that it is imperative that educators "teach our students about these models, how to use them ethically, and what it will mean for their writing process." He warns against letting fear dictate educators' response to the tech. He asked, "What message would we send our students by using AI-powered detectors to curb their suspected use of an AI writing assistant, when future employers will likely want them to have a range of AI-related skills and competencies?" In an essay for Chalkbeat, Ben Talsma, a learning solution specialist for Van Andel Institute for Education, agrees that it is best to prepare students "for the world they'll inherit." He believes "it will become increasingly important for humans to edit AI-generated work" over the next few years. He recounts similar pushback from math teachers when the calculator first emerged and said it's human nature to fear technology that "renders previously important skills obsolete." Still, he remains convinced that if educators let their fears cloud their thinking, they will "ignore the history of technology and the possibilities offered by AI." New York Times columnist Kevin Roose urges educators to resist the urge to ban ChatGPT in their classrooms. "Instead, I believe schools should thoughtfully embrace ChatGPT as a teaching aid one that could unlock student creativity, offer personalized tutoring, and better prepare students to work alongside AI systems as adults." ChatGPT doesn't mark the end of English class, but it should make teachers rethink the traditional essay "ChatGPT doesn't mark the end of high school English class, but it can mark the end of formulaic, mediocre writing performance as a goal for students and teachers," writes Forbes contributor Peter Greene. Greene, who taught English for 39 years, said, "ChatGPT should kill a certain type of writing, of which the college admission essay is one conspicuous example." Greene believes "high school writing instruction has drifted in the direction of performative faux writing" and welcomes the end of the formulaic essay as "long overdue." Adam Stevens, a longtime teacher based in New York City, argues that the best way to discourage students from using ChatGPT to cheat is to move away from formulaic writing based on rubrics. "We've trained a whole generation of kids to pursue rubric points and not knowledge," he said in an interview for Chalkbeat. Instead, he encourages "assigning them work that is inviting them to explore things worth knowing." He believes ChatGPT is only a threat to educators who push rubric-based assignments over innovative approaches to nurture critical thinking. In a blog post, educator Trevor Muir wrote, "ChatGPT is not going to end English class, but I think it will change it." He also sees the rapidly advancing generation of AI tools as an opportunity for teachers to change the type of assignments they typically give students. "We all know that writing five-paragraph essays is not part of the daily routine for most adults. So maybe it's time that ship sails off into the sunset." You may also like Everything to know about the storm hitting the Northeast Judge fines Trump, lawyer nearly $1 million over 'frivolous' and 'bad faith' Hillary Clinton lawsuit T-Mobile data breach compromised 37 million users' information Haitians wait to be processed and receive medical attention at a tourist campground in Sierra Morena, in the Villa Clara province of Cuba, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. A vessel carrying more than 800 Haitians trying to reach the United States wound up instead on the coast of central Cuba, government news media said Wednesday. (AP Photo Ramon Espinosa) A controversial immigration plan announced by the Biden administration Jan. 5 is prompting a Palm Beach County Haitian-American congresswoman to urge her colleagues on Capitol Hill to pursue more action. U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat who represents a Palm Beach County district that also stretches south into Broward County, called on her party's congressional leaders to work with the Biden administration to cultivate a broader, country-specific plan. On the eve of a high-profile trip to the U.S. border with Mexico, President Joe Biden announced an initiative that would allow 30,000 immigrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the country and work legally for two years. Cherfilus-McCormick said each of the countries listed in the Biden plan needs its own specific provision. She said the nature of political instability is different in each of these countries and one population of immigrants may have an easier time entering the United States versus another group. In addition, she thinks many families will struggle finding a sponsor if they do not have loved ones or other close connections in the United States. She also said that she wanted to work with organizations or churches to sponsor some of these migrants as part of the current parole program, and that would be part of a larger plan to help connect families to sponsors that are required for the migrants to be in the country. Nonetheless, Cherfilus-McCormick said the administration's plan was a "good first step." But she added that Democrats are now working together to create policies that will help those who need political asylum and do not have the "luxury of applying at home." Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick speaks to the press and supporters during an election night party, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Cherfilus-McCormick, a health care company CEO, defeated Republican Jason Mariner in the special election to fill Florida's 20th Congressional District seat, left vacant after Democratic U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings died last April of pancreatic cancer. "We're trying to make sure that it's equitable for everyone who's seeking asylum, and it's equitable for everyone to have access to it," Cherfilus-McCormick said. "And that's where we're trying to make sure that we can get it right." For Cherfilus-McCormick, the administration's announcement also hit close to home because Palm Beach and Broward counties are home to large communities of Haitian-Americans. Story continues Haitian migrants wait to be processed and receive medical attention at a tourist campground in Sierra Morena, in the Villa Clara province of Cuba, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. A vessel carrying more than 800 Haitians trying to reach the United States wound up instead on the coast of central Cuba, government news media said Wednesday. The administration said its plan, part of a wider "border enforcement" action, is meant to create a more orderly process for people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti to come into the U.S. It requires prospective entrants to fill out an application while still in their home country, and also obtain a U.S. sponsor to help them settle in once in the U.S. But critics say this plan would not benefit those in immediate danger and need political asylum. Cherfilus-McCormick said she supports the parole provision in the Biden administration's plan, which provides work authorizations and legal status for people from the four countries once they have an eligible sponsor and pass background checks. But she said Congress needs to do more to ease the U.S. border crisis. U.S. Customs and Border Control reported that they took into custody or returned to their home country more than 56,000 Haitian migrants nationwide in 2022, which is up from 48,000 in 2021. Cherfilus-McCormick said with the number of people coming to the U.S., the Biden administration plan "creating a legal pathway to entering this country is a great opportunity." Republicans, who have castigated Biden for the border crisis for nearly two years, said the administration's plan speaks to failure. U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, said in a Fox News interview Jan. 6 that the Biden plan is "a little tiny Band-Aid on a very big bleedy wound, which is the whole immigration problem." Salazar said she's ready to work with Democrats and Republicans to push her bill, titled The Dignity Act, which is a 484-page comprehensive immigration reform measure that would allow undocumented immigrants to stay in the country and work legally if they have been here for five years and meet the program's requirements. It also includes provisions requiring immigrants to pass a criminal background check, pay back taxes and income taxes on new wages, and pay the government $10,000 over 10 years for illegally entering the country. "It's time for us Republicans and Democrats to sit down and fix the immigration mess that we have on the southern border," Salazar said. Democrats may face fire in 2024 for start-up Biden immigration plan Politically, immigration has been a main talking point in Florida and beyond. Gov. Ron DeSantis became a conservative media star last fall when he used Florida taxpayer money to send Venezuelan migrants in Texas to Martha's Vineyard in September, which prompted a national outcry from immigration advocates and Democrats. On New Year's Day, hundreds of Cubans landed in Dry Tortugas National Park, temporarily closing the remote, offshore park. With immigration remaining a political hot button and potentially a wedge issue again in 2024, Cherfilus-McCormick said that Democrats need to engage in this debate and "get it right." "It's one of the important issues that if you're trying to win the state of Florida, even South Florida, you have to get it right for not just the Caribbean community, the Haitian community, but also the Hispanic community," Cherfilus-McCormick said. "And I think they're [Biden administration] aware of it." Florida Immigrant Coalition President Tessa Petit said the Biden administration plan was a "quick fix" and "not the solution for the broken system." But politically, Petit said Democrats are presenting immigration as a humanitarian issue and Republicans are "stressing safety and security" by posing immigrants to be "a danger." Petit said the new immigration plan would benefit those with the advantage of having sponsors. That means there would probably be more Cubans coming in with this plan than Haitians without the infrastructure for passports or the capacity to find sponsors, she said. "They have chosen a one-size-fits-all approach without consideration for the countries of origin, which I consider is a slap in the face," Petit said. Stephany Matat is a journalist at the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: "Get it right": Biden plan may not help Haitians like other countries Many commuters and business owners are still too shaken up to talk about a deadly shooting in downtown Pittsburgh. The shooting that happened at the intersection of Liberty Avenue and 7th Street claimed the life of 23-year-old Eugene Nance. PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> Man shot, killed in Downtown Pittsburgh Thursday; 18-year-old charged with homicide Yesterday I heard some disturbing sounds and all these cars come flying down here, and I come to find out it was another senseless killing, said one man who visits town regularly, Will Smith. Police said on Thursday afternoon just before 2:30 p.m., 18-year-old Erique Collington walked up to another man and opened fire shooting him multiple times on a crowded city street before taking off running towards the North Shore, where police arrested him. PHOTOS: Police investigate after shooting in Downtown Pittsburgh The mayors office releasing a statement Friday offering their prayers to the family and friends of the victim and credited their increased patrolling in the area with a quick arrest: While we cannot stop every shooting from happening, we can do all that we can to take violent actors off the streets - just like our officers did yesterday. Many business owners and commuters are concerned and want a safer downtown. Open up some more centers like Shuman Center, theyve got to open up those centers quickly so those kids will have somewhere to go. The city is talking about a curfew, [we need to] have somewhere for those kids to go and get some counseling for them, said City Council President Theresa Kail-Smith. Kail-Smith also wants a center but not in the traditional sense, she believes a resource center would be more proactive than a detention center. If you can give them hope instead of a record and some kids I mean if you see what some of our kids are going through, said Kail-Smith. Kail-Smith said thats why she suggested a curfew to help get young people to the proposed resource centers if they need help or are without a safe place to go. Story continues The school district already owns buildings. They are partners with us. The county already has funding, they have shuttles. How can we collectively help reduce the violence in our city? Weve got to do it now immediately, Kail-Smith said Channel 11 News spoke with the family of the victim who asked for privacy at this time but did share a GoFundMe that they are using to help cover burial costs. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW TRENDING NOW: Man shot, killed in Downtown Pittsburgh Thursday identified Abandoned structure, once popular Beaver County speakeasy, left to burn itself out in fire Three years after Allegheny County woman disappears, police renew efforts to find her VIDEO: Austin Davis sworn in as youngest Lt. Governor in the country DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts Scientists conduct a solar spectrum experiment at a Chinese Academy of Sciences' laboratory in Shanghai. ZHANG JIANSONG/XINHUA China spent a record 3.09 trillion yuan ($443 billion) on research and development in 2022, a 10.4 percent year-on-year increase that came from the nation's accelerated efforts to enhance its innovation capability for more breakthroughs. The National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday that China's R&D expenditures accounted for 2.55 percent of the GDP last year, which is 0.12 percentage point higher than the previous year. That percentage of R&D spending is close to the average of 2.67 percent among OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) economies. It moved China to the 12th place globally, ahead of France's 2.35 percent and the Netherlands' 2.32 percent. "Despite multiple unfavorable factors, China's R&D expenditure continued to soar and injected strong vitality into the nation's innovative development. Notably, the investment in basic research continued to grow rapidly," said Li Yin, the chief NBS statistician. Last year, the country spent some 195.1 billion yuan on basic research, a year-on-year increase of 7.4 percent. "Accelerated efforts will be made this year to again beef up R&D expenditure, especially in some self-developed innovations, and meanwhile to improve the quality of the overall R&D, so as to offer stronger support for tech breakthroughs," Li said. According to China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), the country will scale up spending on R&D by more than 7 percent annually during the period to drive more technological breakthroughs. Consultancy McKinsey and Co said in a report that such a growth target will set the country on the path to becoming the world's largest spender on R&D. In the first three quarters of last year, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, China's largest electric vehicle battery maker, spent 10.58 billion yuan on R&D, representing a 130 percent increase. It was also the first time that the battery maker spent 10 billion yuan on R&D - in 2021, it had spent 7.69 billion yuan. "R&D investment will remain a priority for CATL. We will continue to invest heavily in the R&D of power batteries for more innovations to help drive the electric vehicle sector," said Meng Xiangfeng, an assistant to the company's chairman. Earlier this week, the State Council, the nation's Cabinet, together with several ministries,rolled out a number of measures to encourage foreign investors to set up R&D centers in the country. Foreign-funded R&D centers will gain support in establishing open innovation platforms, financing, and participation in national scientific and technological missions and programs, they said. Related departments and provincial-level authorities were also urged to pave the way for introducing overseas talent. "China has had a very clear and focused strategy over the past decade of investing in high-level research and development," said Maximilian Foerst, president and CEO of Zeiss Greater China, a unit of German optics company Zeiss. "In other parts of the world,research budget cycles often change with economic conditions. When the economy is not good, the government pulls back," Foerst said. But in China, there has been constant R&D investment, he said, adding that this may be one of the reasons why companies would like to increase investment in China. A staffing shortage and mass resignation has forced the shutdown of Godley City Hall. On Thursday, a series of white signs hung on the municipal buildings doors on West Railroad Avenue. One cites the closure as a result of a staffing shortage. Another requests packages be taken to the fire department across the street. The third tells residents with water and sewer emergencies to contact the police department, which could get in touch of the public works department. It lists three places to file complaints: the police department, the Attorney Generals Office and the Secretary of State. Thursdays scene outside the building in Johnson County was silent except for the whir of passing traffic and an American flag slapping against the chilly wind. Several city employees have tendered their resignations over the past month in the city of less than 2,000 just south of Fort Worth. The city administrator and secretary left Dec. 27, according to city council agenda documents. Jennifer Thompson, who serves on the city council, said the police chief, city attorney and court clerk have left their positions, too. And though the positions remain unfilled, there arent enough council members willing to meet to fill them. The city hall has been closed for two weeks, Thompson said, and all operations are down except for the fire and police departments. Thompson said Mayor Acy McGehee and council members Jan Whitehead and Maryann Matthews have not shown up to the past two meetings. The next council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 7 unless council members call a special meeting. Residents along Main Street said they had heard rumors but didnt want to repeat them. One resident who spoke with the Star-Telegram said she was worried about how residents were to pay utility bills. There is no one around to take or retrieve payments from a silver box posted by the city hall doors. With no court clerk, she worried how police were supposed to issue citations and keep everyone safe. Story continues In a Facebook post, Godley police said anyone who has been issued a citation would be contacted by the court clerk once the position is filled and that citations wouldnt go into warrant status. Council member Michael Papenfuss told the Star-Telegram in an email that since the city is small, City Hall is often the first place residents go to fix issues or get information. He said hes had multiple calls and texts from residents about water bills, Certificates of Occupancy, defensive driving, making pleas on tickets and water leaks. The City of Godley is currently going through some growing pains due to the rapid growth we have experienced; with proper land planning, transparency, adequate staffing, and updated procedures I feel this is something that we can overcome and learn from going forward, Papenfuss said in his email. Our community deserves open government and open doors, I truly hope that we are able to establish a quorum at our next meeting so that we can hire staffing to accomplish all of this. One firefighter told the Star-Telegram he didnt know anything, and another directed questions to city hall. Matthew Cantrell, the citys interim police chief, directed questions to the mayor, who directed the Star-Telegram to the interim city attorney. That city attorney, Nicole Corr with Wyatt Hamilton Findlay in Flower Mound, said via email that she couldnt comment because her practice had only recently begun its time with the city and hadnt had the opportunity to gather and review the information the Star-Telegram requested. Johnson County Judge Christopher Boedeker declined to comment on the situation, as did the Texas Municipal League. Johnson County Commissioner Rick Bailey, who represents Godley, said in the email to the Star-Telegram that The City is experiencing a little difficulty; the Mayor is on top of it. Whitehead, Matthews, and council member Roger Cornelison didnt immediately respond to emails requesting comment. By Mayela Armas and Luis Jaime Acosta CARACAS (Reuters) - Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group said on Saturday they will resume peace talks in Mexico next month, overcoming a recent impasse after the government recently declared and then called off a bilateral ceasefire. There was a first cycle of talks last year in Caracas to end the guerrillas' part in nearly six decades of war. The about-face on the ceasefire came after ELN said it had not agreed to it. The government blamed a misunderstanding of the ELN's position. Both sides held an emergency meeting in Caracas this week and agreed to hold the second round of negotiations on Feb. 13 in Mexico, one of the guarantor nations for the talks along with Norway, Venezuela, Cuba and Chile. "In said cycle, the issue of society's participation in peace building will be addressed. At the same time, a bilateral ceasefire will begin to be discussed and agreed upon," said a statement issued following the emergency meeting. Colombia and the ELN said they would jointly examine progress in implementing agreements reached during the first cycle of talks and agreed to keep communication channels open even when not at the negotiating table. For the ceasefire to work, "you have to agree on the rules of the game and protocols, and these protocols in turn cover the armed forces and the ELN. That will take time," said Pablo Beltran, head of the ELN delegation. Beltran said he hopes to advance "substantially in the agreement" at the next meeting in Mexico. The government has said ceasefires remain in force with another four groups: two dissident groups founded by former FARC rebels and crime gangs the Clan del Golfo and Self-Defenses of the Sierra Nevada. President Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 urban guerrilla group and who took office last year, has pledged to seek peace agreements or surrender deals with armed groups of all stripes. (Reporting by Mayela Armas in Caracas and Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Additional reporting by Johnny Carvajal; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by David Gregorio) By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Three Colorado police officers and two paramedics pleaded not guilty on Friday to homicide charges in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a Black man subdued by police, placed in a choke hold and injected with a sedative, though he was neither armed nor suspected of a crime. Attorneys for all five defendants entered pleas of not guilty to manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges. The arraignment was in Adams County, the jurisdiction where the killing took place. McClain, 23, was walking home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Aug. 24, 2019, when he was confronted by police responding to a report that he was acting suspiciously, although he was not suspected of having committed a crime. Police restrained the slight-of-built McClain in a carotid neck hold, commonly known as a choke hold. He was later injected with the powerful sedative ketamine, then lapsed into cardiac arrest and died days later at a hospital. In a video recording of the encounter from a police-worn body camera, a sobbing McClain could be heard pleading with the officers: "I can't breathe, please stop. I was just going home." A revised autopsy report issued in September 2022 concluded a ketamine overdose was the cause of McClain's death. The city of Aurora agreed in November 2021 to pay McClain's family $15 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit. The McClain case has drawn national attention following the 2020 killing of George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer, which sparked a summer of global protests over the mistreatment of African Americans and other minorities by U.S. law enforcement. A public outcry over the McClain death prompted Colorado's governor to order the state attorney general to review the case. A grand jury charged the five men in a 32-count indictment in September 2021, two years after the killing. The Colorado attorney general also determined that Aurora's police department routinely violated the law by engaging in racially biased policing and excessive use of force. Story continues An independent panel hired by Aurora's City Council found that the officers who stopped McClain had no apparent reason to suspect a crime was being committed and that an initial internal police investigation of the matter was flawed. The police officers charged are Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema. Rosenblatt was fired after he responded with a "Haha" text message to photos taken by uninvolved officers mocking McClain's death. In addition to homicide charges, the two paramedics under indictment, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, were charged with assault for their role in administering the drug injection. At the time charges were brought, the Aurora Police Association union, called the indictments "hysterical overreaction" and noted an initial probe cleared the officers of wrongdoing. "Sadly, Mr. McClain died due to a combination of exertion due to his decision to violently resist arrest and a pre-existing heart condition," the union's statement said. The judge ordered the case split three ways. Roedema and Rosenblatt are due to stand trial together starting on July 11. The two paramedics go on trial Aug. 7, and Woodyard, who administered the choke hold, will be tried alone starting Sept. 18. (Reporting Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Steve Gorman and David Gregorio) Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar, speaking at a press conference with housing advocates at Los Angeles City Hall in 2018. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) For the record: 9:35 a.m. Jan. 21, 2023: An earlier version of this column stated that Jose Huizar was the only one of several L.A. Eastside politicos to have faced criminal charges. In 2001, former L.A. councilmember Richard Alatorre pleaded guilty to felony tax evasion for failing to report about $42,000 he received from individuals trying to gain his influence while he was an elected official and sat on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. When news broke this week that former Los Angeles Councilmember Jose Huizar was going to plead guilty to federal racketeering charges for his role in a corruption scandal that rocked Los Angeles politics, I immediately thought of American Me. No, not the overwrought Edward James Olmos movie about the origins of the Mexican Mafia I'm talking about the long-forgotten book published in 1948 about Mexican American life in and around the Eastside. Author Beatrice Griffith, a social worker in barrios like Happy Valley, Belvedere and Maravilla, penned the best-seller to document the travesty of what she saw: a community of good people cheated out of the good life by racism and charlatans. Its a powerful, beautifully written expose of what Mexican Americans faced during the World War II era, alternating between short stories and street-level dispatches to address issues police brutality, housing inequality, underfunded schools, drugs that afflicted the Eastside then and sadly persist today. She rightfully pointed a finger at white supremacy as the culprit behind so many of the problems. But equally as villainous in her mind was one of L.A.s quintessential archetypes: the Eastside politico. In the fictionalized chapter, one Jose Villa smokes a pricey cigar and spits out bromides like Un pueblo unido es un pueblo fuerte (A united people is a strong people) while shaking down a shopkeeper who needed help freeing a wrongfully jailed son. In the nonfiction essay, Griffith deemed Villa's real-life counterparts sell-out artists who work both sides of the tracks to their advantage and thrive on the fears, ignorance, poverty and political isolation of their people. Story continues Such an individual, Griffith concluded, quickly hops on the bandwagon and beats his chest about the plight of my people, when it is to his advantage to do so. That describes many of the most prominent Eastside leaders in the 75 years since Griffith published American Me. Thats Huizar. Thats Huizars successor, Councilmember Kevin de Leon. Thats De Leons former council colleague Gil Cedillo. Thats Cedillos Roosevelt High classmate, former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Thats Villaraigosas former political advisor Richard Alatorre and his friend Richard Polanco. And their friend, Art Torres. Huizar, who pleaded guilty on Friday, and Alatorre, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to federal tax evasion for not reporting money he received from people trying to influence him when he was on the City Council, are the only ones to have faced criminal charges. But they and others of their ilk are philosophical compadres. Almost to a man and theyve almost all been men the Eastside politico has played an outsize, toxic role in L.A. Latino life. These native sons boast of rags-to-riches stories in front of media cameras and before audiences while amassing power that lets them enjoy bespoke suits, fancy dinners, campaign donations and other luxuries. They cycle in and out of positions in City Hall and Sacramento elected official, lobbyist, consultant, commissioner that let them stay in the political game for life. They dangle opportunities volunteer, canvasser, campaign manager, staffer to idealistic upstarts, padding the youngsters' resumes and sucking the reformist out of them. Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alatorre, right, congratulates newly named Police Chief Bernard C. Parks in 1997. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) Each cries a righteous cant of representation and selflessness that he trots out at public appearances and whenever people whisper that he's lost contact with his roots. When one of their own does something wrong, Eastside politicos make excuses and justifications or stay silent. Anyone who opposes them gets slimed as a traitor and outsider. Their continued scandals and rival cliques have made generations of Latino voters cynical about democracy itself, which allows the Eastside politico to survive, thrive and replicate. It's not just Latino politicians who embody these traits, of course. But Eastside politicos always cast themselves as above the fray, as the way forward for a city that's now majority Latino. So what have they brought to their constituents all these decades since Griffith so caustically called them out in American Me"? Neighborhoods that face the same issues of disinvestment and political ignorance she portrayed but the oppressors now are Latinos, not whites. No one embodied the rot of the Eastside politico more than Huizar and no one better personifies why this political stock character must finally die. Huizar wielded a biography straight out of "The Great Gatsby": a son of working-class parents who grew up in Boyle Heights, overachieved his way into prestigious colleges and became the first Mexican immigrant elected to the Los Angeles City Council. He was as comfortable at high-end parties in downtown Los Angeles as he was at the Quiet Cannon in Montebello for the annual banquets of the Federacion de Clubes Zacatecanos del Sur de California hometown associations from Huizar's native Zacatecas, the state where my parents were born and where hundreds of thousands of Angelenos have roots. He used this background to shield himself from critics who claimed he was allowing downtown L.A. and Boyle Heights to gentrify, and to fight back against federal prosecutors who maintained that he took millions of dollars in bribes to let all this development happen. When the proverbial jig was finally up, he wrapped himself up in Catholic iconography like any smart Eastside politico would. His travails loomed over the infamous L.A. City Council racist audio leak. Those on the recording fellow Eastside politicos De Leon and Cedillo, politica-in-spirit and then-council president Nury Martinez and then-L.A. County Labor Federation President Ron Herrera rationalized their peer's illegal actions and patted themselves on the back for doing so. I never criticized Jose Huizar, De Leon said, to which Martinez quickly replied, That's smart, before adding, Whats to say que Jose also didnt have debt at his kids school, and trying to figure out how to pay for college[?] With Huizars guilty plea, their defense of him seems stupider than ever and shows again that the one thing Eastside politicos defend above all else is their own. Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon, center, at the grand opening of campaign headquarters for his failed 2022 mayoral run. (Gary Coronado /Los Angeles Times) The progressive political winds now blowing across Los Angeles give hope that Huizar and his kind are numbered. De Leon is a political pariah for refusing to resign in the wake of the racist tape leak. The two newest Latino council members, Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez, ran as anti-politicos and have so far rejected the trappings of their predecessors: Hernandez favors woven Oaxacan bags instead of the Louis Vuittons that Martinez flaunted, while Soto-Martinez seems to favor his well-worn jacket instead of snazzy suits like Huizar. I hope they and other young Latino elected officials continue down this humbler path. However, the demise of the Eastside politico is something this paper has proclaimed before and always gotten wrong. It happened in 2009, when then-Times columnist Hector Tobar wrote that politicos wouldnt be able to unite the Latino Eastside behind a Cedillo congressional run. Tobar was right Cedillo lost. But Cedillo, then a state senator, won his old Assembly seat the following year, while De Leon took Cedillos state Senate seat. In 2002, the late Frank del Olmo opined that the ugly Council District 14 race that year between Villaraigosa and then-incumbent Nick Pacheco may have sounded the death knell for a worn-out Eastside political machine. That was nearly the same sentiment Del Olmo expressed in 1987, when Gloria Molina defied the Alatorre machine and won a council seat, leading the legendary columnist to hope that "internecine political battles like the one between Molina and [her opponent]" wouldn't become "routine." Sadly, they did. Villa, the fictional Eastside politico from "American Me," got no comeuppance. In his final scene, Griffith describes how he sits in his downtown office with a picture of himself "in a Mexican sombrero and charro costume shaking hands with the fat mayor who is all soft and smiling." Villa leans back in his chair, smiles after once again fleecing a Mexican merchant and repeats, Mi pueblo me mantiene. My people sustain me. This is something the Villas and Huizars and De Leons of the Eastside have said for far too long, with little pushback. Now, Huizar faces at least nine years in federal prison, and a recall campaign against De Leon is in the works. May the pueblo be ready to shut up the Eastside politico once and for all. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Russia has become increasingly dependent on Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine. Getty Images The US will designate Russia's Wagner Group a "transnational criminal organization." This opens "additional avenues" to pursue Wagner's weapons supplies, the White House said. The military contractor has committed "atrocities and human rights abuses" in Ukraine, it added. The military contractor that Vladimir Putin is increasingly dependent on to fight Ukrainian forces will be designated as a "transnational criminal organization," the White House announced on Friday. The Wagner Group, which is closely linked to the Kremlin, has about 10,000 mercenaries and 40,000 former prisoners deployed in Ukraine. Its forces were responsible for "atrocities and human rights abuses," according to National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. The new designation puts the Wagner Group in the same category as international drug cartels, organized crime syndicates and human traffickers, but stops short of deeming it to be a "foreign terrorist organization." It comes alongside a fresh package of sanctions and will open up "additional avenues" for the US to target the contractor's global business network that supplies weapons and cash to its mercenaries, Kirby told a press briefing. "We will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those who are assisting Wagner," he said. US officials also released an image, dated November 18, which they say showed rail cars travelling between Russia and North Korea to supply rockets and missiles for the Wagner Group. "The arms transfers from are in direct violation of United Nations security council resolution," said Kirby. Russia has become increasingly reliant on Wagner's mercenaries in Ukraine as more of its own forces are killed. On Friday the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said at a briefing in Germany that Russian casualties now totalled "well over 100,000" and had become an "absolute catastrophe for Russia." The Wagner Group's leader, longtime Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, has become increasingly powerful since Russia invaded its neighbor last February. He recently demanded credit for some of Russia's advances in Ukraine, signalling growing tensions between Wagner and the Russian defence ministry. Story continues Wagner has been notoriously brutal in Ukraine, both toward Ukrainian forces and civilians, as well as its own fighters. Russian prisoners sent to fight in Ukraine for Wagner say they've witnessed public executions of deserters and those who failed to obey orders. Wagner mercenaries have also been accused by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch of committing human rights abuses in a number of African nations, including the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali. Read the original article on Business Insider Cornwall Creek Flooding in Cheboygan County is shown. CHEBOYGAN In response to public safety and infrastructure concerns around Cornwall Flooding, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources plans to draw down the impoundment behind the dam later this year. Cornwall Flooding Dam was constructed in 1966 and has been a popular spot for fishing, wildlife viewing, kayaking and other recreation. In 2019, the dam was inspected and rated as being in poor condition, recommending immediate action be taken to improve the dams safety. Concerns over the aging dam have been reported from inspections as early as 2007, according to a DNR press release. The dam has been classified as a high hazard by EGLE, which means if the dam were to fail, it could cause serious damage to inhabited homes or infrastructure downstream. Failure would risk significant environmental degradation or possible loss of life. More:Cheboygan dam and locks project receives $3 million state grant; construction slated for 2024 More:U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to survey Cheboygan County streams for lampreys The dam is constructed out of concrete, which usually has a 50-year lifespan. Once infrastructure has passed this limit, it is recommended by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy that the structure be renovated, repaired or removed. According to Tim Cwalinski of the DNR fisheries division in Gaylord, the department has been seeking funding to renovate the dam in order to keep the body of water behind the impoundment, however, they have not been able to secure enough funding and must take action for the sake of safety. We've been looking for the enormous amounts of money it takes to renovate (a dam), it's a lot of money. It's over a million dollars. We've come up with some funds, but we can't come up with enough and we've been looking for three years. Even if we were going to renovate it, rebuild it, (we) still have to draw out a dam, you can't work it wet, Cwalinski said. So we're going to use some of the money that we still have to at least start the drawdown period and then try to see what happens. At that point, we'll probably then have to go for a phase two with trying to get more funds to actually take out the entire structure. We'd love to renovate it, but there's more funds out in the world for dam removals than there is for dam renovations and repairs. Story continues The Pigeon River is shown. Cornwall Flooding eventually empties out into the river. Over a period of roughly six to 12 months, the water from the 170 acre lake will be drained into the creek, which empties out into the Pigeon River. The DNR is in the process of hiring engineers for the draw down who will be able to provide a more accurate estimate for the time required to draw down the water levels. Cwalinski said they are hoping to begin the process in late summer or early fall. Once the DNR has hired engineers for the project, more will be understood about how the drawdown will impact the trail along the dam and the department will make plans to minimize disruptions. After that, the department will likely seek funding for full dam removal. Subscribe: Check out our offers and read the local news that matters to you As the water levels go down, the fish in the lake will likely fall to predators, make their way into the Pigeon River or die during the draining process. According to Cwalinski, the fish in Cornwall Flooding are not unique in terms of species and can be found in other fisheries. Without the necessary funding to renovate the dam, drawing down the impoundment is the safest option, though Cwalinski said they would have preferred to be able to keep the lake in place. The bottom line is, we don't want to get to this point, but we have to satisfy safety measures, Cwalinski said. Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey. This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: DNR to draw down water levels at Cornwall Flooding in Cheboygan in 2023 LONDON (Reuters) - The crowning of Britain's King Charles III this May will be celebrated with traditional processions, a concert at Windsor Castle, street parties, light shows and community volunteering, Buckingham Palace announced on Saturday. Charles, 74, automatically became king on the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth last September. The grand coronation ceremony for him and his wife Camilla will take place on Saturday, May 6. The crowning, the royal family's major set piece event for 2023, has so far this year been overshadowed by the monarch's son Prince Harry's tell-all memoir in which he has made accusations against the King and other family members. Publishing details of the coronation, Buckingham Palace said Britons, who have already been given an extra bank holiday on May 8 to mark the occasion, will be able to watch the ceremonies and a special concert, plus see iconic buildings lit up with projections, lasers and drone displays. "Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort hope the Coronation Weekend will provide an opportunity to spend time and celebrate with friends, families and communities across the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. Charles is also king and head of state of 14 other realms including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The formal ceremony will take place at London's Westminster Abbey and will follow the traditional pageantry used for anointing monarchs over the last 1,000 years. Following processions there and back, the King and queen consort will then appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace accompanied by members of the royal family. Buckingham Palace did not say which members, amid speculation about whether Harry will be invited, and if he is, whether he will attend, given his recent high-profile and stinging criticism of his family. Windsor Castle will host a coronation concert on Sunday May 7, which will be feature an orchestra playing musical favourites with some of the world's biggest entertainers and a special coronation choir, before buildings across the nation are lit up, Buckingham Palace said. Story continues There will be a public ballot for tickets to allow several thousand members of the public to attend. Street parties will be held on Sunday, with communities and neighbours encouraged to come together to share food. On Monday May 8, people will be encouraged to volunteer with charities, faith and community groups to pay tribute to the King's public service and try to create a legacy of voluntary work. "Their Majesties are looking forward to marking the occasion with the public throughout 2023," Buckingham Palace said. (Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Toby Chopra) [Source] Before you read: Relatives of those who recently died from COVID-19 in China are questioning the accuracy of their loved ones death certificates. Grieving families expressed their dismay on social media after seeing that the cause of death on their relatives' death certificates were filled in with alternative afflictions, such as pneumonia or heart disease. In China, hospitals are often responsible for preparing death certificates, but for those who die at home, such documents may be prepared by their local community clinic or even neighborhood committee. Police are also authorized to fill out death certificates in certain cases. More from NextShark: Train Passenger in Belgium Caught Wiping Saliva on Metal Bar Medical practitioners interviewed by the Financial Times admitted that they have been discouraged by local officials from including COVID-19 on the official documents either by direct order or deliberate overcomplication of procedures. According to a source identified as Wang, the hospital where her relative died instructed them to have the death certificate processed at a community clinic, where officials wrote viral pneumonia (unspecified) as the cause of death. They said we cant include Covid, she was quoted as saying. My mom was a little frustrated and questioned them can ordinary pneumonia kill people ... but we didnt want to argue with them, so we just agreed to write pneumonia. More from NextShark: Enough is enough: Oakland Chinatown leader calls on Newsom to declare state of emergency over string of violent crimes The alleged tampering of documents has resulted in many casting doubts on the official COVID-19 death tolls reported by authorities. Story continues "We have stopped classifying COVID deaths since the reopening in December," a doctor at a large public hospital in Shanghai told Reuters. "It is pointless to do that because almost everyone is positive." China recently announced that there were nearly 60,000 COVID-related hospital deaths in the first five weeks of its current outbreak. More from NextShark: Alabama judge who used mock Asian accent in courtroom suspended and charged The National Health Commission attributed the high death toll to the surge of omicron variant cases following the governments sudden pivot from its strict zero-COVID policy. While the figure is the largest death record in the world, observers believe that the actual toll number could be much higher, potentially reaching hundreds of thousands. As the latest figure only counted hospital deaths, some have posited that some of the undercounting could be attributed to deaths occurring in nursing care facilities or at home. More from NextShark: I hate Koreans!: Harlem man spews anti-Asian remark and punches senior woman, 76, in the head In addition to their skepticism about official death tolls, those who lost their loved ones to COVID-19 are saying the governments "zero-COVID" pandemic management in the past three years has betrayed their trust. Philip, a student who lost his grandfather to COVID-19 on Dec. 30, 2022, lamented to Reuters that the government has mismanaged the reopening of establishments in China. "It seems like they have all the power in the world and yet they did not do this well, he told the news agency. If it was a CEO of a company I think he would have to resign." He cited crowded hospitals, lack of effective medicine and not enough hospital beds for his frustrations. "The nurses and doctors were so busy, he added. They seemed to be constantly writing death certificates and giving copies to relatives. There were so many deaths ... it's a huge tragedy." Related stories: After the annexation, about 800,000 citizens of the Russian Federation illegally settled on the peninsula According to the Restate platform, apartments are sold for an average of RUB 169,000 per square meter ($2,300 at the official exchange rate). This is still more expensive than apartments in new business-class buildings in Kyiv, which are subject to drone attacks and missile strikes by the aggressor. According to the LUN real estate monitoring service, in January, it was possible to buy an apartment in the capital for an average of UAH 72,400 ($1,800) per square meter. Read also: Kerch bridge to be destroyed after liberation of Crimea, says intelligence chief Real estate in Crimea is likely to get even cheaper this year, due to a sharp drop in the number of transactions. The Ukrainian Armed Forces intend to de-occupy Crimea, and the United States is providing Ukraine with GLSDB missiles with a range of 150 kilometers, which will allow it to strike military targets on the peninsula. Apartments getting cheaper Over the past few years, housing on the peninsula has been rising in price, bought up by Russians who have always dreamed of an apartment by the sea and moved to Crimea after its occupation in 2014. Volodymyr Zelenskyyt's representative in Crimea, Tamila Tasheva, says that about 800,000 Russian citizens reside illegally on the peninsula. The growth of price was also observed in the first half of 2022. For example, in January 2022, according to Restate, housing in new buildings cost RUB 197,000 ($2,660), but in May it stood at RUB 199,000 ($2,690) per square meter. The market was preparing to overcome the psychological mark of RUB 200,000 per square meter in the fall when demand traditionally increases. But instead, prices went down. A 27% drop in the fall compared to the beginning of the year was recorded by analysts of the Crimean real estate consulting company REM Navigator. Russian statistics are lying, as the former Minister of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea, Oleksandr Liyev, has said many times before. But even Russian data has to admit that the peninsula is facing problems and real estate has started to fall in price. Story continues Read also: Russian radiation protection troops spotted in Crimea, says National Resistance Center The number of people willing to buy an apartment in Crimea has plummeted. According to the consulting company Idem, cited by Radio Liberty, in June last year, the number of transactions decreased by 52% compared to January 2022 and by 72% compared to the same month the year before. Obviously, this trend is still observed today. According to the Mir Kvartir website, there are currently about 33,000 properties for sale in Crimea. The same number was recorded in September last year. Usually, not only demand but also the number of offers decreases out of season. Serhiy Stepenko, managing partner of SV Development consulting company, says that no one wants to buy apartments in Crimea. Read also: Russian invaders plan to connect Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant to Crimea and Donbas Time to go home The Crimean real estate market stopped growing in May-June last year, just when the Russian occupation forces were forced to withdraw from the Kyiv suburbs under pressure from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In the spring of 2022, it became clear that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's plan to seize the capital and change the country's leadership had failed. Besides, later the Ukrainian army managed to de-occupy Kharkiv Oblast and the west bank of Kherson Oblast. But most importantly, attacks on military and infrastructure facilities, including the Crimean Bridge, began on the peninsula, which was previously considered inviolable. "Crimea will be de-occupied, so some Russians intend to move to other regions of their country," says Vasyl Yurchyshyn, director of economic programs at the Razumkov Center think tank. Read also: Navalny team reveals former Donetsk militia leader has luxury apartment in Dubai Real estate on the island is being put up for sale. Increasing supply and decreasing demand leads to lower prices. The Kravets & Partners Law Firm cites another reason for the drop. "Russians realize that they may lose their real estate, says Rostyslav Kravets, senior partner at the firm. Read also: Russia destroying Bakhchysarai Palace in Ukraines Crimea, says culture minister All purchase and sale agreements, construction of new buildings and their commissioning during the occupation of parts of Donetsk, Luhansk oblasts and Crimea may be declared null and void. Those who will buy apartments for a penny appreciate all the risks. He adds that buyers and sellers will probably have to re-register all the properties in accordance with Ukrainian law. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine A staff member checks tags on vials of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine at a packing line of Sinovac Life Sciences Co., Ltd. in Beijing, capital of China, on Dec. 23, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua] The Wuhan Railway Station in central China's Hubei Province is bustling with passengers amid the Spring Festival holiday travel rush. "I experienced passenger flow peaks at the station when there were more than 150,000 passengers a day, as well as days when there were few visitors," said Zhang Limin, who has served 10-plus years as chief on duty of the station and is more than excited to see the return of crowds. Three years into the fight against COVID-19, China is resuming normal order in terms of both work and life. In the face of the worst pandemic in a century, China has placed the health and safety of the people above all else, continuously optimized and adjusted COVID-19 response measures according to the circumstances, and done its best to extend a helping hand to other virus-hit countries, delivering an acclaimed performance. Putting people, lives first In the face of the sudden COVID-19 pandemic, different countries made varying choices regarding their response strategies. China's voice is loud and clear: "Putting the people and human life above all else," and "We will stop at nothing to protect our people's lives and health." On Jan. 23, 2020, central China's hub city of Wuhan suspended all outbound trains and flights to slow down virus transmission. Gyms and exhibition centers were converted into temporary wards. Tens of thousands of medical workers rushed to the front line and raced against time to improve diagnosis and treatment of the previously unknown disease. In the face of a fierce onslaught from the pandemic, China provided effective protection for the safety and health of its over 1.4 billion people. "All prevention and control measures taken by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee against the novel coronavirus are to prevent more people from being infected and save more patients' lives," said President Xi Jinping during an inspection tour in Wuhan on March 10, 2020. Three years on, China has effectively responded to five waves of outbreaks. When the global Human Development Index dropped for two years straight, China went up six places on this index. Over 90 percent of China's population has been fully vaccinated. With over 2,600 community-level hospitals, nearly 600,000 village clinics, and nearly a million primary-level healthcare institutions, China has further strengthened the line of defense for its people's health. Adjusting response measures per circumstances China withstood waves of outbreaks with low mortality when the virus was rampant. China took the initiative to adjust its COVID-19 response measures when the ability of the virus to harm people's health and safety and its impact on the economy and society weakened. The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee laid out 20 measures to further improve China's COVID-19 response during a meeting on Nov. 10, 2022. In December 2022, China announced 10 new measures to lift numerous COVID-19 restrictions. On Jan. 8, 2023, it shifted the management of COVID-19 by adopting measures designed for combating Class B infectious diseases instead of Class A. China has shifted the focus of its COVID-19 response from infection prevention to medical treatment. Over the past three years, China has continuously adjusted its COVID prevention and control measures in light of new developments in the pandemic situation. In China, a country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, different people have different demands. The building of broad consensus and conducting science-based decision-making are key steps in the adjustment of COVID-19 response strategies. Science plays a fundamental role in the fight against COVID-19. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, repeatedly stressed that defeating COVID-19 requires scientific and technological support, calling for a comprehensive use of multidisciplinary forces to step up research and to achieve scientific breakthroughs and workable research results, as soon as possible. China identified the pathogen within eight days, and completed its nucleic acid testing kit optimization in 16 days. China conducted parallel vaccine research through five technical approaches. So far, 13 COVID-19 vaccines, developed via different tech routes, have gotten conditional market approval or have been greenlighted for emergency use in China. China has also accelerated multiple-path drug research and development and selection, fully leveraged the strength of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and included multiple drugs or therapies in COVID-19 treatment guidelines. Booster vaccination efforts were also strengthened. Regarding China's growing capacity for COVID-19 treatment, China had 216,000 intensive care beds and 135,000 convertible ones as of the end of 2022. "The successful COVID-19 response in the last three years has bought precious time for China's vaccine and drug development and application, as well as its medical resource preparation, and China's active adjustment of response strategy in light of the evolving pandemic situation is science-based, timely and necessary," noted an official with the State Council inter-agency task force for COVID-19 response. Coordinating COVID response and development In 2022, China's economy grew 3 percent year on year to a record high of more than 120 trillion yuan (about 17.7 trillion U.S. dollars), ensuring overall economic and social development, despite factors that had a greater impact than expected. The country is presenting even stronger vitality after entering a new phase of the COVID response. But along the way, it has always been challenging to coordinate the pandemic response and development, which requires wisdom and governance capacity. Over the past three years, the CPC Central Committee, with Xi at the core, has led the initiative of effectively coordinating the COVID response with economic and social development. Under the CPC leadership, China has protected the health and safety of the people, eradicated absolute poverty as scheduled, finished building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and got the 14th Five-Year Plan off to a good start. When Qirun, a tyre-manufacturing company in east China's Shandong Province, faced pressure on its capital chain a few months ago, it successfully received VAT credit refunds of more than 9 million yuan from the government. "Without that timely refund, we probably would not have made it through," said an executive of the company. The CPC Central Committee has made explicit requirements for containing COVID-19 while stabilizing the economy and keeping development secure. China introduced targeted policies for different regions and sectors regarding the resumption of regular operation, stabilized industrial and supply chains, and worked to ensure the supply of daily necessities and medical materials, as well as stability in jobs, and food and energy security. Thanks to its effective coordination in the past three years, China maintained an average annual growth rate of about 4.5 percent, significantly higher than the world average. While traditional industries were hit by COVID-19, new industries and business forms such as intelligent manufacturing, health care, and online shopping developed rapidly. A series of notable sci-tech achievements also demonstrated potential for development. For example, China's space station was fully completed, the country manufactured and delivered its first C919 aircraft, and the Baihetan hydropower station went into full operation. China is not alone in fighting COVID COVID-19 is the most severe pandemic the world has experienced in a century and poses grave challenges to all humanity. As early as the beginning of the outbreak in China, Xi proposed building a global community of health for all and clarified China's stance on jointly fighting the pandemic with other members of the international community. In this spirit, China did all it could, even when the pandemic was still lingering in the country, to help other countries and regions combat the virus. Vaccination is vital in coping with the pandemic. At the virtual opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly in May 2020, China pledged to make Chinese vaccines a global public good, contributing to the accessibility and affordability of vaccines against COVID-19 in developing countries. So far, China has supplied more than 2.2 billion COVID vaccine doses to over 120 countries and international organizations. It has also offered copious anti-pandemic materials to 153 countries and 15 international organizations, and dispatched 38 teams of medical experts to 34 countries in need. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has acted in an open, transparent, and responsible manner in the global fight against the virus. It actively reported the outbreak to the World Health Organization (WHO), relevant countries, and regional organizations, released the genome sequence of the virus to the world as early as possible, invited WHO experts to China and responded to concerns from home and abroad through multiple channels. The number of severe inpatient cases peaked on Jan. 5, 2023, and has since declined with some fluctuations. Latest statistics show that nearly 60,000 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported in China's medical institutions over the past month or so, with an age of 80.3 years at death on average. While working hand in hand with the world to combat COVID-19, China has also provided strong momentum for global economic recovery through its opening up and cooperation efforts. Unity of 1.4 billion people China's fight against COVID-19 over the last three years offers eloquent proof that the CPC is the pillar the Chinese people can lean on in times of difficulty. In the face of a raging pandemic unseen in a century, more than 90 million CPC members and 4 million primary-level Party organizations have been acting swiftly on the orders of the CPC Central Committee, braving the pandemic to safeguard people's health and lives. It was the strength of socialism with Chinese characteristics in mobilizing resources from various sectors for one shared goal, that enabled one miracle after another during the toughest times when Wuhan was hard hit by the virus back in early 2020. Medical and daily supplies were channeled endlessly to Hubei Province from across the country. Factories went to all lengths to locate melt-blown non-woven fabric and mask machines when medical facial masks were in short supply across the country. Running at full steam, they successfully pumped up the daily production capacity from 8 million to more than 100 million. With a blueprint drawn within 24 hours, 1,000 machines operating simultaneously, and thousands of constructors working day and night, the Huoshenshan hospital, dedicated to COVID patients with a capacity of 1,000 beds, was erected in merely ten days. The 1.4 billion Chinese people demonstrated great unity in the face of a dangerous virus as they closed ranks with the single purpose of stemming the spread of the virus. More than 4 million community workers held firm at their posts in 650,000 urban and rural communities nationwide. Millions of volunteers joined the ranks to fight the virus on the front line. Thanks to the heroic devotion of the Chinese people and their brave actions, China overcame unprecedented challenges and hardships. Although the pandemic is yet to end, regular life is returning. "We have now entered a new phase of COVID-19 response," Xi noted when extending festive greetings to all the Chinese people ahead of the Spring Festival. "Tough challenges remain, but the light of hope is right in front of us. Perseverance means victory," he said on Wednesday. On Jan. 20, the Czech Defense Ministry denied media reports that the Czech Republic and Slovakia are ready to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The media reports claimed that the Czech Republic and Slovakia were willing to deliver to Ukraine the Leopard 2 tanks supplied by Germany. The Leopard 2 tanks had been delivered by Germany in exchange for Slovak and Czech T-72 tanks sent to Ukraine. No one has asked or invited the Czech Republic to provide these Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the Czech Defense Ministry said in a statement. The ministry also said that nothing of the sort had been discussed during the Jan. 20 meeting at the Ramstein Air Base, which gathered defense ministers from some 50 countries to discuss further support for Ukraine. The speculation that the Czech Republic would receive U.S.-made Abrams tanks in exchange for Leopard tanks is equally false, the ministry added. The Ministry of Defene of the Czech Republic has denied information about the countrys readiness to transfer Leopard 2 tanks received from Germany to Ukraine as compensation for the delivery of Soviet-style T-72 tanks to Kyiv. Source: A statement by the Ministry of Defene of the Czech Republic, as reported by European Pravda. Quote: "Foreign media have reported that the Czech Republic and Slovakia were allegedly ready to give up Leopard 2 tanks in favour of Ukraine. This information is not true. No one has asked or proposed that the Czech Republic send the tanks which, according to a previous agreement, it will receive from Germany as compensation for aid to Ukraine," the statement reads. The ministry said that nothing similar was discussed at the meeting of the Defence Contact Group at the Ramstein base, where representatives of five dozen countries discussed further military support for Ukraine. "Assumptions that the Czech Republic will receive American Abrams tanks instead of Leopard tanks are equally false," the agency said. Background: Earlier, German outlet FAZ reported that the Czech Republic and Slovakia could transfer tanks received from Germany to Ukraine, about 30 units. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that Western allies have not yet reached an agreement to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 main battle tanks at the Ramstein format meeting, but he instructed his ministry to prepare for "the day that may come." Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Leopard 2 tank "Foreign media reported that Czech and Slovakia are ready to opt out of Leopard 2 tanks in favor of Ukraine, the Ministry wrote. Read also: No agreement on Leopard tanks supply to Ukraine reached at Ramstein This information isn't true. No one has asked or offered Czechia to transfer these tanks. The MoD also claimed the issue wasn't discussed during the most recent Ramstein meeting on Jan. 20, at which the question of further military support of Ukraine was raised. "Speculation that the Czech Republic will receive American Abrams tanks instead of Leopard tanks is likewise untrue," the ministry added. Read also: Why we need Leopard 2A5 tanks Earlier, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote, referring to diplomatic sources, that Czechia and Slovakia are supportive of supplying German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine and are willing to send some of the vehicles received as a part of so-called "chain swap" to Kyiv. Polish President Andrzej Duda announced during his visit to Lviv on Jan. 11 that the Ukrainian army would receive a company of Leopard tanks supplied by an international coalition. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has also confirmed his countrys willingness to supply a small number of these tanks to Ukraine. Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Ukraine plans to form a Leopard tank brigade. Read also: Protest in Berlin after Germanys refusal to supply Ukraine with tanks Germany still plays a key role in the supply of these tanks, as it has to approve re-export of German-made weapons. Last week, German Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economy Robert Habeck said that Berlin would not interfere if Warsaw decided to transfer combat tanks from its stockpile to Kyiv. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany would continue to "carefully weigh every step" in supplying the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weapons, but has so far refused to directly supply Ukraine with the modern armored vehicles. Read also: Germany will greenlight Leopards for Ukraine if US provides Abrams tanks Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Dan Evans was overpowered by fifth seed Andrey Rublev in a straight-sets defeat at the Australian Open 2023 on Saturday. Evans had lived up to his 25th seeding by reaching the third round and went into the match as the underdog but had reason to believe he could cause an upset having won three of his six previous clashes with Rublev. However, the Russian crunched 60 winners compared with only 22 unforced errors in a quality display to win 6-4 6-2 6-3 and leave Andy Murray as the only British singles player remaining ahead of his meeting with Roberto Bautista Agut later. There is nothing subtle about the game of Rublev, he simply hits the ball as hard as he can, especially off the forehand, but he has done it consistently enough to stay in the top 10 for virtually the entirety of the last two years. Evans spends much of his time feeling like he is competing in a higher weight category as one of the smaller players on tour. Speaking after his second-round match, he said: Everybodys dealt the cards. Im sure some people would like to have a bit more skill and feel. Id like to have a bit more power. It is what it is. The 32-year-old did a good job of dealing with the big blows coming from the other end during the first set, and a backhand fizzed up the line in the seventh game gave Evans a break point. But Rublev saved it and, when the Russian created a set point at 4-5, this time Evans netted. Rublev, who has come as close as any of the Russian male players to criticising the actions of his home country, was taunted by several fans prominently displaying a Ukrainian flag during his previous match. Rublev completed victory in two hours and nine minutes (Getty Images) There was no repeat of that here and little to unsettle him, with Evans broken from 40-0 as Rublev opened up a 4-2 lead in the second set. Rublev was playing better and better, pushing Evans well behind the baseline and offering the British player only a few crumbs in terms of errors. Evans continued to battle but, although he saved three set points at 2-5, Rublev took the fourth and then opened up a 3-0 lead in the fifth. Evans had to save five break points just to stop the run of games against him at seven, and Rublev avoided any late hiccups, clinching victory after two hours and nine minutes. I found a penny awhile back. It was half hidden in the grit next to the curb by the Kroger store. I bent over, scooped it up, gave it a look. It had lost its shine, was scratched, rough to the touch, worn out. I had to squint to see it had been minted in 1932. It was almost my age. We had something in common age and looks. Now some folks wonder why an old gent would stoop to pick up a penny and risk falling on his noggin. Well, its because a penny is important. Its under attack and needs me to fight back. While our representatives in Washington dont do much more than carp at one another, a few found time to fuss about the penny. Theres a movement afoot to purge the penny from all that is pecuniary. In short, take it out of circulation. Its supposed to happen this year. Magee Advocates urging the purging of the penny say our penny is useless; we cant buy anything for a penny. I say we cant buy much for a dollar either if thats the measure. They claim it costs more than a penny to mint a penny. Could be. But lets not be penny wise and pound foolish. Theres more to the penny than meets the eye. But first lets look at the penny-snatchers claim that the coin is a drag on our economy. They quote a study funded by The National Association of Convenience Stores. Working from Federal Reserve data, the study found that handling pennies during a cash transaction takes two seconds and in a year, there can be 107 billion of such transactions. Whew. The study then concludes all this fussing with pennies takes time and thereby costs the economy $2 billion a year. Did you follow all that gobbledygook? I couldnt keep track of all the zeros. Thank heavens they didnt include the time it takes to find the dropped penny that rolls under the counter. Nor did they estimate the cost to us when the cents in a sale are rounded up to a nickel. But hang on, theres talk about nixing the nickel next! The mint loses on that, too but it still makes an annual profit of over a half billion dollars! Story continues The penny is more than a coin. Its an iconic piece of America a part of my growing up. Its like mom and apple pie. In 1936 Bing Crosbys crooning Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven put the song on the Top Song Chart for 10 straight weeks. You dont mess with stuff from heaven. And lets not forget pennies and the piggy bank. Plunkin pennies in that bank got me started down the right track. Arithmetic started to make cents. Pushin pennies around showed me how they could grow into nickels and dimes. When the bank was full, Id pour the coins out on the kitchen table and start wrappin em into those 50-cent paper rolls. At the same time Id keep an eye out for coins to add to my penny collection. Stuffing a penny into an empty slot in my Lincoln Head Cent Collection book was cause for high-fives all round. My motto was In for a penny, in for a pound! Those penny rolls stacked up on the table looked like the gold bars in the Fort Knox Gold Depository. I was a person of property. Id put the rolls in a sturdy sack, haul em to the bank, push em cross the counter, and watch the teller add to my passbook. I didnt forget Ben Franklins A penny saved is a penny earned. I remembered, Find a penny, pick it up; all day long youll have good luck. I found change in the cushions of the couch, in parking lots, under the bleachers at the ballpark. I always had a penny in hand for a treat. I could buy a Tootsie Roll for a penny, or a gumball, or a sucker on a stick. I could stick a penny in a slot, turn a crank on a vending machine and get a fist-full of peanuts. Wed put a penny on the track at the old Klinger Lake station and watch a train make it flatter than a pancake. Im looking at one right now. Its on the bookshelf, on top of my coin collection books, next to my old piggy bank. The past is part of the present. The penny and its big brothers, the nickels, dimes and quarters, were important parts of my growing up. They helped me understand trickle-down economics and the perils of deficit spending. The anti-penny crowd focuses on transitory extrinsic values like cost and convenience. They ignore the substantive intrinsic values. The penny is historic. Its been in our pockets, ready to serve since 1787. Its been counted, dropped and lost by our Founding Fathers. Lincoln is its patron. It is indestructible. Even when my young son swallowed one it survived and came out just fine at the other end. Finally, you might wonder about the cost of writing this column based on the imagined penny for my thoughts scale. The researchers at the University of Southern Californias Laboratory of Neuro Imaging think they have the answer. They conclude that the average person has 49 thoughts per minute. My thoughts, then, are worth forty-nine cents a minute and the three hours spent in researching and writing this column top out at $88.20. Hmm seems expensive. Ill have to think my thoughts faster next time. Dick Magee is a resident of Klinger Lake and a frequent columnist for the Journals opinion page. This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Dick Magee: A penny for my thoughts The work of Nikki Giovanni and Judy Blume transcends generations. The work of Nikki Giovanni and Judy Blume transcends generations. Its almost without fail that whenever you talk about a renowned, older work of art, someone will feel the need to qualify it by saying, It actually holds up well. As if to say good art expires or somehow becomes inconsequential once it reaches a certain age, and cant possibly stand as a pop culture document of its era as its supposed to. Its reductive. But this thought came to mind while watching Judy Blume Forever, a new documentary premiering at this years Sundance Film Festival that examines the life and social impact of the young adult author. As directors Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok explore in the film, Blume rose to fame with the seminal 1970 book Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret. Its a coming-of-age narrative about an almost-12-year-old girl fascinated by her changing body, her friends, boys, sex, faith and getting her first period. Its written in first-person and the titular character speaks candidly to her equally young and curious readers, asking the same burning, seemingly rhetorical questions that are on their minds. It was one of the few books of its kind to confront the things that kids werent allowed to think, much less say out loud. So, of course, they flocked to it. Judy Blume visits a school in 1977. She published her most famous work, Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret, Judy Blume visits a school in 1977. She published her most famous work, Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret," in 1970. Parents and other adults forbade it, even challenging and banning the book over the years since its publication. But kids needed this close dialogue with a young person who got it even though Margaret came from the mind of a then-32-year-old. That dichotomy is at the core of Judy Blume Forever, which pursues questions of youth, age and what makes a work as beloved by those both young and old as Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret, a book simultaneously of its time and timeless, as one person suggests in the film. A lot of that is answered through intimate interviews with Blume, now 84 years old. She reflects on being a young mother of two in white suburban New Jersey, increasingly miserable as a stay-at-home wife who began to realize she had a lot more to give than being a homemaker, which is what was expected of her and so many other women like her at the time. Story continues Writing books became a way to free herself as a wife and as her younger self whose innermost thoughts were stifled in a society and a home that didnt encourage them. It was also a way to further engage with her own kids, who were experiencing some of the same things she did at their age. Judy Blume's writing was beloved by fans and sometimes controversial. Judy Blume's writing was beloved by fans and sometimes controversial. So came other books including Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Blubber and Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself that pushed against the grain of censorship and the more common and accepted portrayals of girls and women. As Judy Blume Forever underscores, her books confronted cycles of female repression and puritanical frenzy that remain as relevant as ever when Roe v. Wade has fallen and the banned books list continues to be a source of debate. Blume fought for her own voice, along with that of women and young adults, through her books and in interviews, in response to the angry questions hurled at her by male journalists and politicians alike who accused her of being too obsessed with sex in her books. Perhaps thats why Judy Blume Forever features interviews with some of her biggest fans across various racial and class backgrounds including her now-grown-up readers, including sex educators, actors like Anna Konkle and YA author Jacqueline Woodson. Blume holds up a copy of Blume holds up a copy of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" as she reflects on her life and career in "Judy Blume Forever." Its an interesting thing to witness: a white female author who wrote almost exclusively white, binary characters resonating with queer, Black, Asian American readers and many others across the identity spectrum. Part of that is because not unlike today, authors who were queer and/or people of color were nearly absent from many schools reading lists. Presumably, Blume, like so many white authors still today, didnt feel compelled to contend with her own shortsightedness at the time. The devotees who grew up with her books, however, do reexamine this in the film, even though the author herself is curiously not asked about it. But even with the authors lack of cultural awareness in her books, her fans still cling to their themes from suicidal ideations, first loves and bullying to self-esteem. Their admiration for her work goes beyond whether it checks all the right cultural boxes as defined by society today. Even today, the most progressive teen and pre-teen voices can still read a line from one of her books that brings them a familiar comfort, as witnessed in several scenes in Judy Blume Forever. Nikki Giovanni underscores that Black women transcend even beyond this world in Nikki Giovanni underscores that Black women transcend even beyond this world in "Going to Mars: The Giovanni Project." This question of timelessness also reverberates throughout Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project from directors Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster, another documentary premiering at Sundance that traces the legacy of an acclaimed author. As the films title suggests, Giovanni, as widely known for her books as her poignant poetry, has always been a woman who sees herself beyond the limits of imagination. So, of course, Giovanni talks in the documentary about herself, and Black women in general, as otherworldly a long-held belief that far preceded the phrase Black girl magic. Theres a feeling that when Giovanni, a staple in the Black Arts Movement, proclaims this about herself, its not an affirmation as it is with the ubiquitous phrase, but rather an incontestable truth. Thats why when she speaks about herself whether its today at 79 years old or back in 1979 when she went toe-to-toe with James Baldwin, an equally forthright man 20 years her senior its measured, contemplative and far ahead of its time. The film offers a glimpse into the inner life of Giovanni, pictured here in 1972. The film offers a glimpse into the inner life of Giovanni, pictured here in 1972. Perhaps as a result, much of Going to Mars glides effortlessly from past to present to a future somehow clear as day in Giovannis eyes, telling both her personal history and that of the world in which shes lived. That includes the pain of her yearslong estrangement from her son Thomas, who more recently reentered her life with his wife and teenage daughter, Kai, all of whom fondly appear in the documentary. Theres also the story of Giovanni meeting her now-wife, Virginia, and navigating her own cancer diagnosis. Revisiting the conversation with Baldwin, the film reflects on Giovanni growing up in a Tennessee home where her father physically abused her mother, stating plainly that he was a man dehumanized by a white system and felt entitled to reclaim a sense of power through abuse. And what do you do with that, she pondered aloud to the If Beale Street Could Talk author in their 1979 conversation. Because Giovanni has always told us exactly who she is, it almost seems redundant at times to watch a documentary about her. Going to Mars gives us a third-party peek into the authors inner life, often revisiting her many collections of poetry, including 1968s Black Judgment, an unapologetic affront to the white lens on Black America. Giovanni, pictured in 1973 at age 29, addresses Blackness, womanhood, power and more in her writing. Giovanni, pictured in 1973 at age 29, addresses Blackness, womanhood, power and more in her writing. The documentary rightfully points to the poem Nikki-Rosa to underline Giovannis authority over her own narrative. Its words, uncannily cited by the films executive producer Taraji P. Henson in her narration throughout the film, are as empowered as ever: I really hope no white person ever has cause/ To write about me/ Because they never understand/ Black love is Black wealth/ and theyll/ probably talk about my hard childhood/ and never understand that/ all the while I was quite happy. In the culture even now, we talk about the problems with negotiating our Blackness, our womanhood and giving our power away to those who couldnt care less about it. Giovanni wrote about these topics years prior, in a world that was fighting the same battles we are today over equality, sexual freedom and misogyny both inside and out of the community. Thats why her other works, like 1983s Those Who Ride the Night Winds and even her more personal writing like 2007s Acolytes and 2020s Make It Rain, feel like such prescient material. Because, like Blume, Giovanni has always had a knack for speaking directly to an audience in need. And readers still need to hear it. As evidenced in this scene from As evidenced in this scene from "Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project," the author and poet still connects with packed audiences today. While its a little depressing that these battles for basic human existence are still germane today, its nice to see how many people are engaged with this struggle, that Giovanni remains at the forefront of the battle and that she attracts people from across generations. Just as Judy Blume Forever highlights the authors connection with new and old fans, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project goes to the authors still-packed readings where audiences nod their heads and laugh along with her as she quips and reads from one of her books. That type of engagement is immortal. Because everyone, no matter what age and how much time has passed, could use a reminder of who they are and where they need to go. China's development path is an inspiration for Africa: expert Xinhua) 10:25, January 21, 2023 KIGALI, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's development achieved through meticulous planning, the right mindset, and good leadership policies is an inspiration to Africa as the continent gears toward economic development and improved living standards of the population, an expert on China-Africa relations has said. Gerald Mbanda, researcher and publisher on China and Africa made the remarks earlier this week while speaking at a seminar on the implications of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for Rwanda in the Rwandan capital city, Kigali. "Africa's development will be on the right path following the footsteps of how China did it and is still doing it. China and Africa together are walking toward a shared future," Mbanda said. According to him, the western world has exploited Africa through the extraction of the continent's agricultural raw materials, and minerals and deliberate refusal of technology transfer of industries to Africa. "Africa lost in a westernized form of democracy whereby elections of new leaders are held every five years and the opposition has to oppose the ruling government even if there is nothing to oppose," Mbanda said. He pointed out that Africa could learn from China's development path which has propelled the country into a moderately prosperous society in all respects. "China has kept its rich cultural, social, political consciousness. When I visit a Chinese friend or restaurant, I am given chopsticks when having a meal, I envy their respect for their own culture. When you lose culture, then as a people you lose identity. Africa should borrow a leaf from Chinese culture," Mbanda said. According to him, China is leading the establishment of Free Trade Economic Zones in Africa to promote Made-in-Africa exports which will promote the development of industrial and manufacturing sectors on the continent. China-Africa relations have made historic achievements that impressed the whole world over the years. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 13 years in a row. Over the past two decades, China also helped African countries build a large number of infrastructure projects that have improved transport efficiency and energy supply in Africa. The event brought together Chinese embassy officials based in Rwanda, representatives from civil society organizations, members of academia and media as well experts on China-Africa cooperation. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Sheng Chuyi) Rescuers work at an avalanche site in Nyingchi, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on Jan. 20, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua] An avalanche that hit the city of Nyingchi in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has killed 28 people. The search and rescue operation came to an end at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The avalanche took place at 7:50 p.m. on Tuesday, blocking the highway at an exit of a tunnel connecting Medog County with Pad Township in Nyingchi, trapping people and vehicles inside. The emergency rescue headquarters for the incident said that more than 1,300 people, including firefighters, military units, grassroots officials and members of the public, took part in the search and rescue over the past few days, equipped with 236 sets of equipment. The mountains in the area are very steep and the roads are rough. The avalanche was triggered by powerful winds and rising temperatures on Tuesday, according to the emergency rescue headquarters. Watch: Duck-chasing dog rescued from icy canal in West Midlands This is the moment a dog was rescued by firefighters after falling into a freezing canal while chasing ducks. Bella had become trapped after plunging through the ice near Greadier Street, in Willenhall, West Midlands, on Thursday. The owner tried to rescue her pet but was forced to retreat because of the sub-zero temperatures. Fire crews were called to the scene at 10.50am and eventually managed to get the animal to safety. Read more: Reckless driver caught doing 128mph on dual carriageway in icy conditions Bella after being pulled from the freezing canal. (SWNS) Video footage captured the moment the dog was plucked from the icy waterway and reunited with her relieved owner who can be heard saying: "Hi baby, good girl." A total of 18 firefighters initially tried to use a ladder to rescue Bella before using an inflatable device to bring her safely back to dry land. The owner and dog were wrapped in foil blankets and warmed up in the back of a fire engine before crews left the scene at 12.25pm. Mark Cundy, watch commander at Bloxwich Community Fire Station, shared footage of the rescue and said both dog and owner were doing well following their ordeal. He said: "A great team effort from all mentioned crews using an inflatable ice path and Bella was pulled to safety. "Owner and dog are both well. Great effort by all!" A spokesman for West Midlands Fire Service added: "Keep your pup safe in winter weather. Avoid frozen rivers, lakes, ponds and canals. "If your dog gets stranded on ice, or falls into freezing water, never go in after them. Inland, seek help from the fire service by dialling 999 or 112." Read more: Fog warning issued for Sunday but UK is over the worst of cold snap Bella and the firefighters who rescued her. (SWNS) Temperatures plunged below minus 10C in parts of the UK this week amid snow and icy conditions. Forecasters have issued a further weather warning for fog this weekend but said the UK is over the worst of the cold snap. The Met Office said parts of England will be hit by difficult driving conditions while freezing temperatures could see untreated surfaces become slippery. The yellow weather warning will be in place between 2am and 11am on Monday and covers areas in the south and east of the country, with Yorkshire down to East Anglia expected to see the densest fog. An Effingham County judge on Friday temporarily blocked Illinois recently enacted ban on high-powered weapons and high-capacity magazines from being enforced on more than 850 people and a handful of licensed gun dealers. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed this week by attorney Thomas DeVore, a Republican who made an unsuccessful bid for attorney general last year, that argued the ban violated the state constitutions due process and equal protection clauses. The Court finds the plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success in relation to the equal protection clause of the Illinois Constitution, Judge Joshua Morrison wrote in an 11-page ruling. The ruling only applies to the more than 850 people from across Illinois named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, as well as four licensed gun dealers, including one in the southeastern Illinois city of Effingham. The judge set a hearing for Feb. 1. The Effingham County suit was among a handful of legal challenges filed in the week that followed Pritzker signing the weapons ban into law on Jan. 10. DeVore told the Tribune he was pleased with Morrisons ruling and believes that the judge like many people in the state of Illinois have had enough of this. If the General Assembly wants to pass a law then do it in the wide open, dont do it like thieves in the night and let everybody know what theyre doing and see what theyre doing and give them a chance to participate, DeVore said. And I think thats what the judge was trying to say and I look forward to this case as it continues. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate decried the decision in statements issued immediately after Morrisons ruling, which the governor said was not surprising but disappointing. It is the initial result weve seen in many cases brought by plaintiffs whose goal is to advance ideology over public safety. We are well aware that this is only the first step in defending this important legislation, Pritzker said. Story continues I remain confident that the courts will uphold the constitutionality of Illinois law, which aligns with the eight other states with similar laws and was written in collaboration with lawmakers, advocates and legal experts, he said. Morrison in his ruling cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year that struck down New York states concealed carry law. The high courts 6-3 ruling in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen found that the plain text of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protected the right of the plaintiffs in that case to carry firearms for self-defense. Morrison said the defendants in the case Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch, Senate President Don Harmon and Attorney General Kwame Raoul did not follow the procedural requirements necessary for this legislation to stand up to the strict scrutiny that is required when restricting rights to avoid definitional irreparable harm. Due to the speed with which this bill was passed, the effect to protected classes could not have been considered, nor could the legislature have studied if this was the least restrictive way to meet their goal, Morrison wrote. In the lawsuit, DeVore focused largely on procedural issues under the state constitution, arguing that the process by which the measure was approved violated a requirement that legislation be confined to a single subject. In the final days of the their lame-duck session, lawmakers took a bill that was initially about insurance and overwrote it with the weapons ban. While a common practice in Springfield, DeVore argues that its an abhorrent method of excluding the public from participating in lawmaking so they might have a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard to representatives. Morrison wrote that the defendants failed to comply with the equal protection clause of the state constitution because of how the legislature decided who would be exempt from the ban. Active police officers and prison wardens, for instance, are exempt from the ban under the law. The Court cannot find it logical that a warden of a prison (included in the exempted persons category) is necessarily better trained or more experienced in the handling of weapons than retired military personnel (not included in the exempted persons category), Morrison wrote. It also does not follow that a member of the National Guard would be less well trained or experienced in handling a firearm when they are not on active duty compared to when they are. But Morrison then said this argument could be considered moot if the Bruen decision is applied because that case made it a violation of the U.S. Constitution for the defendants in the Effingham County case to try and justify who can and cannot possess those weapons. In a prepared statement, one gun control group on Friday decried Morrisons ruling. We strongly disagree with the courts decision which focused on meritless claims of procedural defects in the passage of the law and included a gross misreading and misapplication of the recent U.S. Supreme Court case interpreting the Second Amendment, John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in reference to how Morrison applied the Bruen decision. We expect Attorney General Kwame Raoul to be successful in (this lawsuit) and in defending this life-saving law against further unfounded legal challenges. The Illinois gun ban was spurred by the mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park that left seven dead and dozens injured. Signed by Pritzker hours after it was passed by legislators, it immediately bans the delivery, sale, import and purchase of guns that are designated in the law as assault weapons. Starting next year, people who possess guns covered by the ban must either register them with the state or face a misdemeanor for a first offense and a felony for subsequent offenses. The law also immediately bans the delivery, sale or purchase of large capacity ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns. As of April 10, current owners possession of large-capacity magazines will be allowed only on private property, at a firing range or a sport shooting competition or at a federal licensed gun dealer for repairs. Violations will be subject to a $1,000 fine. Also, devices that increase the firing rates of a firearm, known as switches, to turn them into semi-automatic or automatic weapons, are immediately banned and someone in possession would face a felony count for each device. The new law also speeds up to July from January the existing requirement for universal background checks by federal firearm dealers or the Illinois State Police for private gun sales. It also modifies the states current red flag law that allows relatives and police to seek a court approved firearm restraining order to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, extending the duration of the orders from six months to a year. jgorner@chicagotribune.com Attorney Thomas DeVore speaks to a reporter after a judge granted a temporary injunction sought by Sangamon County against his clients Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. DeVore's clients were restaurants in Springfield that were continuing to operate without food permits.The restaurants were serving indoor diners Sunday in defiance of the mitigations that went into effect last week and their licenses were suspended. [Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register] An Effingham County judge ordered a temporary restraining order regarding the state's recently-passed assault-style weapons ban on Friday, securing a win for the moment at least for gun rights advocates. Judge Joshua Morrison wrote in his 11-page decision announced just before 5 p.m. on Friday that the state did not "follow the procedural requirements" in passing House Bill 5471, also known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act. The order would only apply to the more than the 850 defendants in the case. "This legislation has used criteria to choose who can and cannot the possess the weapons that without due consideration," the order reads. "Additionally, due to the speed with which this bill was passed, the effect to protected classes could not have been considered, nor could the Legislature have studied if this was the least restrictive way to meet their goal." Attorney and unsuccessful Republican candidate for Illinois attorney general Thomas DeVore had requested an emergency hearing on the matter, which was heard on Wednesday. He represented Accuracy Firearms of Effingham, who filed the case, three other limited liability companies and 862 individuals in the matter. The request for a TRO came as DeVore argued HB 5471, signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker earlier this month which banned dozens of specific types of rapid-fire handguns and rifles, .50-caliber guns, and attachments, had several procedural and constitutional violations. DeVore said action by the Illinois General Assembly on the bill violated the single subject rule and three readings clause, while also violating a state constitutional right of equal protection. The bill exempts current and retired law enforcement officers from purchasing or possessing any of the weapons banned by the bill. "What my clients are asking for is for you to enter an injunction today on their behalf that says during the pendency of this case, they maintain their rights that have been afforded to the tens of thousands of exempt persons in the statute," DeVore said. "No more. No less." Story continues Recent:Gun rights advocates file opening legal challenges to Illinois assault weapons ban Named as defendants in the suit were Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon, House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch, and Attorney General Kwame Raoul. Pritzker was not surprised but disappointed by the court's decision. "The Protect Illinois Communities Act takes weapons of war and mass destruction off the street while allowing law-abiding gun owners to retain their collections," he said in a statement after the decision was announced. "I look forward to the next steps in this case and receiving the decision this case merits. Harmon, who quipped that the state "will see you in court" during his closing Senate floor remarks, said Friday the ruling will be appealed. The AG office confirmed that it had filed a notice of appeal and would be seeking a reversal of the decision to the Appellate Court. A preliminary injunction has been scheduled for 9:30 a.m., Feb. 1. Illinois is the ninth state to pass a weapons ban. The challengers Legal challenges were promised even prior to the governor's signature of HB 5471 last week, which also set limits to high-capacity magazines and requires gun owners to register their weapons with the Illinois State Police by Jan. 1, 2024. Related:Federal lawsuit challenges Illinois semiautomatic weapons ban DeVore's suit was one of three filed recently, where he was joined with attorney Thomas Maag who filed in Crawford County and a federal lawsuit from the Illinois State Rifle Association. Maag filed the first suit on Jan. 13 on grounds the bill violated several amendments in the U.S. Constitution. In addition to claims it violated the Second Amendment, the suit says rights against self-incrimination and equal protection guaranteed by the Fifth and 14th amendments respectively were also violated. ISRA filed its federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on Tuesday with the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., the Second Amendment Foundation, a resident of St. Clair County and two Illinois gun stores. Their suit against Raoul, ISP Director Brendan Kelly, and several states attorneys and sheriffs claims similar violations of the Second and 14th Amendments, but also on the impact it will have on gun stores. Not being able to sell "large capacity magazines," which the plaintiffs claim are more accurately described as "standard capacity magazines," will cause these businesses to lose profits. HB 5471 sets the limit of rounds per magazine at 10 for long guns and 15 rounds of ammunition for handguns. "The real problem is that there are existing gun laws that do not work because they are not enforced, said Richard Pearson, executive director of the ISRA, in a statement. We would all be much safer if the police had the resources they need, and there were stronger consequences for the non-law-abiding citizens. Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell More:Can Illinois sheriffs refuse to enforce new gun law? The court system will have a say Dozens of county sheriffs, including Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell, issued statements saying they would not enforce the ban within their jurisdiction. Campbell said his office would not be not checking individuals to see if they had registered their weapons with ISP and called the bill unconstitutional. More:Sangamon County sheriff, others won't enforce weapons ban, gun registry The governor was critical of the sheriffs who said they would not enforce the ban, going as far as to call it "political grandstanding." What else is in HB 5471? Gov. JB Pritzker, flocked by legislators and gun safety advocates, signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 to ban assault-style weapons, attachments, and high-capacity magazines in Illinois. HB 5471 was the third and final version of the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which passed on the final day of the lame-duck session. It included amendments from Harmon to the earlier version passed by the Illinois House of Representatives under Senate Bill 2226. Most attention has been given to what weapons are banned, but the bill also includes a change to the state's Firearm Restraining Order Act. The bill upped the period a petitioner can request a FRO for a person posing a "significant danger of causing personal injury to himself, herself, or another" to one year from the previous six-month standard. One Republican, now former House Minority Leader and state Rep. Jim Durkin of Western Springs supported it. Several downstate Democrats, including state Sen. Doris Turner of Springfield, voted no on the bill. It passed in the House 68-41 and 34-20 in the Senate on Jan. 10. More lawsuits are expected to be filed in subsequent weeks. Capitol News Illinois contributed to this story. Contact Patrick Keck: pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.com This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Effingham County judge temporarily blocks Illinois assault weapons ban Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes tried to flee the United States a few weeks after her conviction for fraud last year, prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday. Holmes was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud last January for misleading investors about the effectiveness of her startup companys blood-testing technology. She was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison in November. Holmes has since appealed her conviction and filed a motion to be released from detention at an estate while her appeal plays out. But prosecutors said in a filing opposing her motion that Holmes has not shown clear and convincing evidence that she is not a flight risk, in large part because she allegedly planned a flight to Mexico after being convicted. Prosecutors said in the filing that Holmess legal defense has argued that she has a flawless pretrial record but does not mention her attempt to flee. They said the government learned on Jan. 23, 2022, that Holmes booked a one-way flight to Mexico scheduled for Jan. 26, but a return flight was not scheduled. The government then mentioned the trip to Holmess defense attorney, and the flight was canceled after that, prosecutors said. They said they expect Holmes will argue in reply to their filing that she did not actually leave the country, but it is difficult to know what would have happened without government intervention. They said the incentive for Holmes to flee the country has never been higher, and she has the resources to do so. Theranos received widespread publicity and large investments from numerous prominent figures as a result of Holmess claims that her technology could test for a wide array of conditions with a simple blood test only requiring one drop of blood. But prosecutors said she did not inform investors of defects with the technology. Holmes is due to surrender herself to custody on April 27. An attorney for Holmes did not immediately return a request from The Hill for comment. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Elon Musk was asked about the relationship between his tweets and Tesla's share price during his testimony in a Tesla shareholder trial. Carina Johansen/Getty Images Elon Musk took the stand Friday in a trial over his 2018 tweets about wanting to take Tesla private. The trial asks jurors to determine whether Musk knowingly led investors astray with his tweets. Musk testified with characteristic defiance, saying he didn't believe his tweets had market significance. Elon Musk briefly took the stand on Friday in a lawsuit that could cost him billions of dollars. The Tesla CEO testified in a civil trial in San Francisco about his tweets in August 2018, in which he'd claimed he planned to take his car company private with "funding secured." Musk is expected to continue his testimony on Monday. The shareholders suing him are also planning to call a number of other high-profile witnesses in the trial, including Tesla's former chief financial officer Deepak Ahuja, and Martin Viecha, Tesla's head of investor relations, an attorney for the plaintiffs confirmed to Insider. Musk has been known for his tendency toward combative testimony in the past from cracking jokes to taking digs at the opposing attorneys. Here are 8 stand-out quotes from his half-hour testimony: Musk still isn't a fan of British caver Vernon Unsworth, who he once called a "pedo guy": "He was not a diver." He's hazy on big names asking him to tweet less: On whether he remembers billionaire investor Ron Baron telling him not to use Twitter in July 2018 after his tweets about the Thai cave explorer: "He's not saying don't use Twitter. He's saying I shouldn't respond to criticism in the news on Twitter." He's dubious his tweets have an impact on Tesla's stock: "Just because I tweet something does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly." You probably didn't want to work for Tesla from 2017- 2019: "The sheer level of pain required to make Tesla successful in the 2017 through 2019 period was excruciating for me and for many others, I wasn't sleeping in the factory because I wanted to but because I had to." He made sure the jury knew short-sellers aren't traders who are short in stature: "Yes, I think most people don't know what short seller means. It's sort of - is it sort of a seller of small stature? Is it like medium and tall sellers? I think it's maybe important for I'll just explain." He really, really doesn't like short-sellers: "I believe short selling should be made illegal. It is a means for, in my opinion, bad people on Wall Street to steal money from small investors. Not good." He says people get how communicating on Twitter works: "Obviously, there is a limit if you've got 240 characters to what you can say. You can obviously be far more verbose in a legal filing and everyone on Twitter understands that." He'll never get to Inbox Zero: "I actually have like the Niagara Falls of email. So it's really difficult to remember every email." Read the original article on Business Insider Elon Musk took control of Twitter in late October. Getty Images Elon Musk disputed a tweet and said Twitter now has 2,300 "active, working employees". He said Saturday that only 10 people from his other companies were still working at Twitter. Some staff from other Musk companies such as Tesla and SpaceX were brought in when he took over. Elon Musk said that Twitter now has about 2,300 "active, working employees" as he rejected a report suggesting the headcount was far lower. He responded on Saturday to the Twitter account @unusual_whales after it tweeted a CNBC report claiming that only 1,300 people were still full-time employees. "The note is incorrect," Musk tweeted. "There are ~2300 active, working employees at Twitter," he wrote. "There are still hundreds of employees working on trust & safety, along with several thousand contractors." CNBC reported on Friday that Twitter's headcount was down to 1,300 active employees, including "fewer than 550 full-time engineers by title," compared with more than 7,000 before Musk took control. The outlet said its figures were based on internal records it had seen. CNBC also reported that approximately 130 people from Musk's other businesses worked at Twitter. Musk also took issue with that figure, tweeting that "less than 10 people from my other companies are working at Twitter." Dozens of Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company employees were brought in after he acquired the social media company on October 27. The next day engineers from Tesla were at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, meeting with Twitter engineers to ask about their work and some technical aspects of the platform, Insider reported. The tech mogul said he was on a trajectory to "fix" Twitter. His focus on the company has angered some Tesla shareholders, with one calling for Musk to find another CEO for the electric-car maker. Last month Musk polled Twitter users on whether he should step down as Twitter CEO, with more than 57% telling him to go. However, Musk is yet to announce who will be "foolish enough" to take over as "Chief Twit." Story continues Twitter and Musk didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, made outside normal working hours. Meanwhile, Musk testified on Friday in a civil trial in San Francisco about his tweets in August 2018, in which he'd claimed he planned to take his car company private with "funding secured." He is expected to continue his testimony on Monday. Read the original article on Business Insider GERMANY-ECONOMY-AUTOMOBILE-TESLA Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pictured as he attends the start of the production at Tesla's "Gigafactory" in Gruenheide, southeast of Berlin, on March 22, 2022. Credit - PATRICK PLEULAFP/Getty Images Elon Musk is on trial for a Twitter-related controversy dating back to 2018, and on Friday he defended his actions in a San Francisco court. The trial revolves around Musks tweets from August 2018 where he claimed that he had secured financing to take Tesla private, spurring a stock frenzy that many of the automakers shareholders claim ruined their shares. Musk said in court that it was difficult to link Teslas stock price to his tweets, and also said that his tweeting was the most democratic way to share information. Just because I tweet about something doesnt mean people believe it or will act accordingly, he said in front of a nine-person jury. The class-action lawsuit was brought on behalf of shareholders who owned Tesla stock during the instability in 2018, alleging that Musk used his platform to commit fraud Heres what to know: What happened in 2018? On August 7, 2018, more than four years before Musk bought Twitter, he tweeted that he had funding secured for a $72 billion buyout of Tesla, and that he would take the company private for $420 a share. A few hours later he followed up with a second Tweet that many believe made the deal sound imminent. Investor support is confirmed. Only reason why this is not certain is that its contingent on a shareholder vote, Musk tweeted. At the time of the tweets, Teslas stocks had been doing poorlyone of the most heavily shorted stocks on the marketand the company was experiencing widespread production issues. Musks Tweets caused an immediate surge and seemingly caused a rally in the companys stock prices for the next 10 days until Musk said that there would be no buyout. When Teslas shares climbed so high, it put short sellers at substantial risk of loss. It became clear that a deal wasnt and may never have been on the horizon and Musk ended up paying a $40 million settlement to securities regulators who also required him to step down as Teslas chairman. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged both Musk and Tesla with civil securities fraud and each party had to pay $20 million in fines. Story continues Not long after the buyout fiasco in 2018, Teslas production picked up and subsequently, so did its shares. The company was manufacturing enough cars that its stock soared, and in 2021 Musk became the wealthiest person in the world. His acquisition of Twitter last year knocked him out of that spot, but he remains one of the most influential billionaires in the world. The trial unfolds The trial began Jan. 17 with a nine-person jury selection. Musks legal team has argued that as a savvy businessman, Musk had been in preliminary talks with Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund as a potential investor. They said that Musk had spontaneously tweeted about the opportunity in an effort to be transparent. Former Tesla shareholders have already begun testifying that amid all the chaos that week in 2018, many of them sold off their stocks and saw significant dips in the shares they kept. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen is presiding over the trial and ruled that the plaintiffs cant bring up Musks $40 million settlement. The case rests on the plaintiffs argument that Musk knowingly drove up Teslas stocks and never truly had plans to take the company private. Some of Teslas top executives and board members from 2018 are on the witness list, including Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and media mogul Rupert Murdochs son, James Murdoch. Although the court adjourned for the weekend, Musk is due back in the courtroom on Monday. The trial is set to span three weeks, continuing through Feb. 1. Twitter CEO Elon Musk testified Friday that his tweets arent that big a deal as he made an attempt to defend himself against a class-action lawsuit claiming investors lost billions of dollars over one of his posted messages about taking Tesla private. Its difficult to say the stock price is linked to [a] tweet, he told jurors in San Francisco federal court. Just because I tweet about something doesnt mean people believe it or will act accordingly, he added, Reuters reported. Musk is being sued for alleged fraud over the fortunes that were lost when he tweeted in August 2018 that he was taking his car company private and had funding secured. The deal never happened, and investors who scooped up stock in a bid to profit from the plan lost money when it simply evaporated. Musk insisted on the witness stand that his tweets are truthful just simply short, even though he never took Tesla private and there was no evidence that he had secured funding. He wasnt asked specifically about the Tesla tweet, Reuters noted, but is expected to on Monday when he returns to the stand. Musk said hes generally providing information the public should hear but that theres only so much that can be conveyed in a short Twitter post. He also argued that his tweets arent that powerful, even though he has 127 million followers and a visible effect on those followers actions. Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018 Musks attorney said Wednesday that his client was rushing to an airport when he made a split-second decision to post the tweet after reading a news article saying that Saudi Arabia was considering investing heavily in Tesla. According to the shareholders suit, Musk illegally manipulated the stock price with his tweet, and he and Teslas board should be held accountable for an unspecified portion of billions of dollars in damages sustained by those who bought or sold the companys stock after the tweet. Story continues The suit is one of a mounting series of problems Musk is facing. Twitter income has reportedly plunged 40% over the same time last year as advertisers backed away from the social media platform. Musk bought the company in October for $44 billion. Musk is now also under fire for reportedly supervising the creation of a misleading video exaggerating the self-driving capabilities of Teslas, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The car is driving itself, says the intro to a video on Teslas autopilot system. The video shows a driver tooling around town with his fingers just barely touching or not touching at all the steering wheel. Yet Teslas own website warns Autopilot drivers to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times. The car company is under increasing scrutiny for a series of accidents that occurred in vehicles while they were in the Autopilot mode. Related... By Dawit Endeshaw ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Large numbers of Eritrean troops have left the town of Shire in Ethiopia's Tigray region where they fought in support of government forces during a two-year civil war, a resident and two humanitarian workers told Reuters on Saturday. The Eritrean forces' continuing presence in Tigray, despite a November ceasefire agreement between Ethiopia's government and Tigray regional forces that requires the withdrawal of foreign soldiers, is seen as a key obstacle to a lasting peace. The Tigray war is believed to have resulted in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of deaths and forced millions to flee their homes. It was not immediately clear if the troops' movements out of Shire, one of Tigray's largest towns, was part of an Eritrean withdrawal from the region or merely a redeployment. Witnesses and an Ethiopian official reported last month that Eritrean soldiers were leaving Shire and two other major towns, but many ended up staying behind. Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Shire resident said the Eritrean convoys were seen leaving the town from early in the morning until about 5 p.m. on Friday. "I have counted 300 cars," said the resident, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons. "They left with their heavy weapons too." A humanitarian worker in Shire, who also requested anonymity, told Reuters he had seen hundreds of cars packed with soldiers headed north towards the border. All Eritrean troops in the town seemed to have left by Friday evening, he said. A second aid worker said hundreds of Eritrean vehicles had left Shire but that some soldiers remained in the town. Redwan Hussien, the Ethiopian prime minister's national security advisor and a member of the government's negotiating team, did not respond to a request by Reuters for comment. Neither did Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesman Getachew Reda. Story continues On Saturday U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about the Eritrean troop withdrawal and "welcomed this development, noting that it was key to securing a sustainable peace in northern Ethiopia," according to a statement tweeted by U.S. Department of State spokesperson Ned Price. During the war, Eritrean troops were accused by residents and human rights groups of various abuses, including the killing of hundreds of civilians in the town of Axum during a 24-hour period in November 2020. Eritrea rejected the accusations. Eritrea considers the TPLF, which leads Tigrayan forces, its enemy. Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war between 1998 and 2000, when the TPLF dominated the federal government. (Reporting by Dawit EndeshawWriting by Elias BiryabaremaEditing by Aaron Ross, Helen Popper and Raissa Kasolowsky) Ukrainian Chief Intelligence Directorate believes that the escalation of the topic of a threat of a Belarusian attack on Ukraine is a Russian informational and psychological operation. Source: Andrii Yusov, representative of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, on air during the 24/7 national joint newscast Quote: "Conceptually, escalating the topic of an immediate military threat from Belarus, as the Main Intelligence Directorate has informed, is, in fact, a Russian informational and psychological operation. Of course, we know everything about dictator Lukashenko, about the regime in Belarus. But there are objective things: the number of strike groups, the readiness of forces and means, and other points that allow us to say that today there is no threat of a full-scale ground operation and participation on the side of Russia from Belarus." Details: Yusov promised that "if the situation changes, the relevant information will be shared," but assured that "even in the event of a change in the situation, Ukraine is ready and has worked out all scenarios." "It is in the interests of Putin and the so-called Russian Federation to escalate the issue with Belarus as much as possible. But even dictator Lukashenko doesn't really go along with it. We recently saw him leading Lavrov by the nose during a meeting, and on the one hand, he was talking about how much he loves Putin, and on the other saying that he did not see a threat from Ukraine, and that Ukraine was holding on. That is, dictator Lukashenko does not want to make suicidal actions," the representative of Ukrainian Chief Intelligence Directorate said. He also noted that the counter-offensive operation to liberate its lands is "really difficult" for Ukraine, but Ukraine can liberate its lands. Quote: "Ukraine is liberating and will continue to liberate its territories. Believe me, there is an absolutely adequate and sober assessment of the situation, and adequate and sober tasks for the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and an understanding of our abilities. Thus, we really can liberate our lands." Story continues Previously: On 19 January, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said that Ukraine "pleasantly surprises", because it does not go to provocations against Belarus, although "it is actively pushed". In early January, Ukrainian Chief Intelligence Directorate stated that Russia does not plan to end the war against Ukraine, but will continue offensive actions in different directions, in particular, "leave the north or east at the same time". Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Flash Greece is ready to welcome back Chinese travelers, after China's COVID-19 reopening, Greek Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias told Xinhua in a recent interview. "We are ready to greet our Chinese friends, travelers and tourists, in this new touristic season," he said in Athens on Thursday. The outbreak of the pandemic put the brakes on an impressive increase in Chinese arrivals in Greece in recent years. In 2011, just 70,373 Chinese tourists visited Greece, according to official data from Athens International Airport (AIA). However, following the launch of the first direct flight between Athens and Beijing in 2019, this number reached 217,600. On Dec. 22, 2022, a second direct flight was launched by Air China between Athens and Shanghai, which is expected to further boost arrivals. "For us, China and the Chinese market are very important in terms of tourism, but also culture, and we are very happy to have top-shelf relationships with the Chinese people," Kikilias said. The return of Chinese travelers to Greece will boost the Greek tourism industry's performance in the wake of the adversities of recent years, he added. Greece had an exceptional touristic season in 2022, and this trend is likely to continue in 2023, the minister said. An essential part of that equation is the Chinese market, he added. The Chinese hold a special place in the hearts of Greek people, and play an important role for Greek tourism stakeholders due to their unique characteristics compared to other visitors. They tend to travel off-season, and appreciate culture, Kikilias said. "They're deeply involved in finding out about our culture and our civilization, since in both countries culture and civilization go many centuries back," he said. With tourism accounting for about 25 percent of Greece's gross domestic product (GDP), Greece values Sino-Greek cooperation in the tourism sector highly. In March 2022, Kikilias and China's Ambassador to Greece Xiao Junzheng signed the Joint Action Program 2022-2024 to strengthen cooperation on tourism in the coming years. "Being able to connect again gives us bigger opportunities to be able to push forward on our joint actions," Kikilias said. "We cherish the (Chinese) people and of course we're happy to see joint actions in terms of culture, in terms of sports, in terms of commerce and of course in terms of tourism," he said. On the occasion of the Chinese Spring Festival, the Greek official sent warm wishes to the Chinese people. "We are very eager and happy to host them in Greece," he added. Four escaped inmates from the St. Francois County Detention Center in Missouri were arrested following a pursuit in Butler County on Friday night, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Officials said troopers from the patrol's Hamilton post stopped a Scion TC around 9:30 p.m. after observing a traffic violation on the State Route 4 bypass at State Route 129 in Fairfield Township. Troopers approached the vehicle and began talking with occupants, officials said in a release. "While troopers were talking with them, the vehicle fled the scene and a short pursuit ensued," the release states, adding the Scion came to a stop on Brooke Hill Court near Willow Brook Drive in Liberty Township. The four occupants fled on foot and two of them were quickly taken into custody, officials said. Law enforcement began searching the area for the two remaining suspects. West Chester police located and apprehended one of the suspects in West Chester Township around 2:15 a.m. on Saturday, the release states. The last suspect was taken into custody by deputies from the Butler County Sheriffs Office just after 9 a.m. The escaped inmates have been identified as Aaron Sebastian, 30, Kelly McSean, 52, Lujuan Tucker, 37, and Dakota Pace 26. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said five inmates escaped from the Missouri detention center on Tuesday. The fifth escapee, Michael Wilkins, was arrested Friday in Poplar Bluff, Missouri and taken back to the St. Francois County Detention Center by the U.S. Marshals Service and the St. Francois County Sheriff's Department. The last escapee captured in Butler County was found hiding in the backseat of a vehicle in a residential subdivision in Liberty Township, Jones said. "When people escape and they're trying to get away, they're very, very desperate and they do desperate things," Jones said. Jones said the vehicle driven by the escaped inmates is suspected to be stolen and it had stolen Kentucky license plates. He said it's unknown why the men were in Butler County. Sebastian, McSean, Tucker and Pace have been booked at the Butler County Jail, officials said, adding the incident remains under investigation and all four could face additional charges in Ohio. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Escaped Missouri inmates apprehended in Butler County after pursuit Jarrod Bowen scored twice in victory (AFP via Getty Images) Everton were plunged into further turmoil as their under-fire owners watched their underperforming team slump 2-0 at fellow strugglers West Ham. Chairman Bill Kenwright and majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri were both in attendance as two goals from Jarrod Bowen kept the Toffees rooted in the relegation zone and left manager Frank Lampards future in serious jeopardy. While Evertons fans made their feelings crystal clear again, unfurling banners reading Board Full Of Liars in the away end, their team simply capitulated. Such is the discontent surrounding the club that Evertons directors had been advised to stay away from last weeks home defeat by Southampton for their own safety. Thus, Moshiris appearance at the London Stadium felt hugely significant. It was the first time he had attended an Everton match in almost 18 months, and therefore the first time he had witnessed the team under Lampard. It may be the last, such was this feeble display which even made West Ham, themselves in a dreadful run of form, look almost competent. On the pitch two, after a tribute to Hammers co-owner David Gold, who died three weeks ago, two edgy teams played out a horribly cagey encounter. Everton fans showed their disgust at the board with a number of banners (PA) Everton keeper Jordan Pickford did not help the nerves when he miscontrolled his first touch of the ball, but Michail Antonio could not take advantage. Pickford redeemed himself when he made a fine save to tip over a swerving shot from Said Benrahma but West Ham, themselves on a run of seven matches without a win, soon made their dominance count. In the 33rd minute Emerson Palmieri lifted a high cross into the box and Kurt Zouma flicked it on for Bowen to prod home. Bowen appeared to be in an offside position but the goal survived a VAR review. The winger tucked the ball under his shirt in celebration partner Dani Dyer had announced they were expecting twins the previous evening. Lampard, meanwhile, would have been having kittens when, nine minutes later, Bowen who had not previously scored since October doubled West Hams lead. Story continues Antonio did brilliantly to skip past the challenge of James Tarkowski on the touchline, leaving him the simple task of pulling the ball back for Bowen to tuck away. West Ham stemmed their recent bad form to earn a crucial win (Getty Images) Yet even at 2-0 up West Ham almost allowed their confidence-shorn opponents back in before half-time, but Alex Iwobis low shot was deflected onto a post. In the second half Pickford palmed an Emerson drive onto the crossbar, Declan Rice fired across goal and wide and Bowen was denied a hat-trick by a timely Conor Coady challenge. It mattered little as West Ham comfortably held on, hauling themselves out of the bottom three and giving their under-pressure boss David Moyes some breathing space in the process while leaving Lampard fearing the worst. Igor Dodon, Former President of Moldova, leader of the Socialist Party, has called President Maia Sandu's statement about the fact that the government is considering revising the country's neutral status due to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, "dangerous". Source: Newsmaker, as reported by European Pravda Details: Dodon saw in Maia Sandu's statement signs that she "acts on the orders of overseas masters", seemingly against the country's interests and sovereignty. Quote: "Our citizens want to maintain neutrality and peace, as evidenced by numerous social surveys, and they will never agree to become cannon fodder for NATO in the war against Russia," Dodon said. Maia Sandus Administration has not yet responded to his words. Background: When Sandu was asked in an interview with Politico about the possibility of Moldova joining NATO, Sandu said that the Moldovan government is discussing how much the country is capable of defending itself and whether it should become a member of a larger security alliance. "And if we come, at some point, to the conclusion as a nation that we need to change neutrality, this should happen through a democratic process," Maia Sandu said. Moldova, according to its Constitution, is a neutral country, but cooperates with the Alliance, in particular by participating in peacekeeping forces in the partially recognized Kosovo. The country's representative took part in the December NATO meeting in Bucharest for the first time in December 2022. It is worth to note that the majority of Moldovan citizens would oppose joining NATO today. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! An ex-employee who opened fire in a Walmart break room in Indiana was killed in a shootout with police, according to authorities. Ronald Mosley, 25, shot and wounded one woman at the store in Evansville on Thursday night, cops said. The victim has not been identified. After officers responded, Mosley allegedly ran through the store exchanging gunfire with police. We cant stress enough that there couldve been a lot more victims last night, officer Taylor Merriss said Friday, according to NBC News. Walmart fired Mosley in May 2022 after he was accused of attacking four co-workers. He was charged with four counts of battery, and the case was later moved to Vanderburgh Countys mental health court. Hours before the shooting on Thursday, he attended a court hearing in the assault case, said Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers. Also before the shooting, Mosley penned a suicide note and expected to die Thursday night, according to Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin. Just before 10 p.m., Mosley walked into a break room, aimed at a specific woman and opened fire, police said. Another man, who Mosley was also targeting, ran out of the room and distracted the gunman, according to authorities. A second female employee ran to help the wounded victim and hid her from Mosley in a dark room. Bolin called her a hero. I have no doubt that he was going back to finish what he started and we would probably have a dead victim today instead of one thats alive, Bolin said Friday. The womans condition was not announced. The shootout with police lasted approximately 15 minutes. There were about 40 employees and 40 customers inside the store about 100 miles west of Louisville, Ky., according to investigators. With News Wire Services Adena Arriaga stepped up to the podium in front U.S. Judge James Wesley Hendrix and told him that a life sentence for the man who killed her nephew two years ago was the only punishment that would bring her family a sense of peace and justice. Luera Arriaga was one of more than a dozen of Chad Luera's family members who packed into Hendrix's courtroom earlier this month for the sentencing hearing of Alexander Yoichi Duberek, the 24-year-old San Diego man who dated Luera for a year before stabbing him 93 times then leaving his body on the side of a road in the Seth Ward area of Hale County. "All the makeup in the world couldn't cover the stab wounds behind Chad's ear, along his face, jawline, neck and his hands where it was evident that he was trying to shield himself from the knife-wielding monster that was the defendant," she said. Duberek faced up to life in prison after pleading guilty in September to a count of interstate domestic violence. He admitted to crossing state lines with the intent to stab Luera to death. Arriaga told the court that before killing her nephew, Duberek went to Chad's home where he lived with his parents and smiled as he looked them in the eye and shook their hands before taking their son into his vehicle where he kept the tools he bought hours earlier to execute his deadly plan. "The heinous crime the defendant committed in taking Chad's life as he did is evidence that he should never have the opportunity to live as a free man," Arriaga said. She described her nephew as the light of her family, who loved decorating for holidays, making meals for his family, particularly his chicken spaghetti, and even helped them with tech support. "We miss his laughter, his voice, his smile, his compassion, his loving ways," she said. She said Chad, who was 30 when he was killed, rarely left home and was a later bloomer. "Chad was just coming into his own," she said. "Chad suffered from anxiety. He wasn't a fighter and he hated large crowds and dark places. He didn't drive." Story continues However, she said her nephew had plans to travel and finally meet the many friends he man online in person. "He had so much to explore, to discover, to share with the world," she said. "Chad was robbed of the chance to do any of it. We mourn not only because Chad is no longer here. We mourn for all he could have been. We mourn because we'll never know what successes he might have accomplished, what dreams he could have realized." Before Arriaga delivered her victim impact statement, she and her family spent hours listening to an expert witness called by defense attorneys in a bid to spare Duberek the maximum sentence. A sentencing guideline resulting from a pre-sentencing report provided Hendrix with a suggested punishment range between 24-30 years in prison. Duberek's minimal criminal history and acceptance of responsibility were significant factors in the range. Duberek However, the report noted that a life sentence would be appropriate if the court found Duberek's actions were premeditated. Meanwhile, a separate provision allowed for a downward variance if Duberek could show that he was coerced or under duress when he killed Luera, whom family members said he planned to marry. For about two hours, Dr. Marti Loring, the director of the Center for Mental Health and Human Development in Georgia, testified about her opinion of Duberek's mental state, which she derived from reviewing the defense investigation and speaking with the defendant, his ex-girlfriend and his brother. She said during her interview with Duberek she saw signs that indicated he was on the autism spectrum, which would have made him more vulnerable to coercion or manipulation. She told the court that Duberek also suffered from a host of mental illnesses and admitted to gouging his arm with a screwdriver during episodes of self harm. However, she said her suspicion of Duberek's autism was not based on a formal diagnosis. Loring said Duberek believed he was threatened into a long-distance relationship with Luera, which began in September 2019. She said Duberek told her Luera convinced him that an internet group he identified as "Anons" would kill him and his family if he broke up with Luera or failed to keep him happy. Court records state Duberek traveled from San Diego to Plainview at least three times during the relationship to spend time with Luera. She said the stress of the forced relationship led to a mental breakdown months before the slaying when his father found him in the fetal position saying he couldn't take it anymore. She said he was taken to a hospital for treatment. Loring told the court that Duberek regretted killing Luera, saying he never planned to do it. Instead, he only wanted to scare Luera into ending the relationship and the threats against him. However, she said she believed Duberek entered into a dissociative state when the threat failed to convince Luera to end the relationship and Duberek began stabbing Luera multiple times. She compared the situation to someone experiencing battered spouse syndrome. However, Loring admitted the records she reviewed contained no documentation that corroborated Duberek's statements. Investigators did find a document in Luera's computer that contained a "termination agreement" that included a clause that stated both Duberek and Luera would be castrated if they ended the relationship. However, it was not clear who created the document. Loring said she didn't believe Duberek would pose a threat to the public if he were released from prison, and would do well on supervised release. Prosecutor Callie Woolam argued that none of the evidence showed Duberek acted under duress and said Loring's comparison to Duberek's actions to battered spouse syndrome was outlandish. She said Duberek's actions were cold, calculated and brutal. Woolam said there was also no evidence of the cruelty Duberek said Luera inflicted on him. She read multiple statements from Luera's friends, most of whom he met online, who described him as a gentle, caring and generous soul. She cited records that contradicted Duberek's characterization of Luera and showed Luera likely saved Duberek's life when he called Duberek's father in January 2020 after Duberek made suicidal comments during the mental breakdown. She noted that during his treatment, Duberek never mentioned he was being threatened into the relationship with Luera. However, she said even if Duberek was telling the truth, it didn't excuse nor mitigate his actions. She argued that Duberek could have ended the relationship himself and severed contact with Luera, since they lived about 1,500 miles apart. Instead, Duberek concocted an elaborate plan to kill Luera, the man he purported to love and even tattooed his name on his finger. On Oct. 31, 2020, Duberek flew to Lubbock and told his family that he booked a room at the Comfort Suites hotel in Plainview. However, investigators discovered Duberek never made a reservation at the hotel. Woolam said Duberek lied to Luera about when he would arrive in Lubbock to buy him time to prepare for the killing. Once he arrived in Lubbock, Duberek hired a ride to the Sam's Club parking lot in Lubbock where he bought a 2009 Toyota Camry for $3,000 cash. He then drove to a Walmart store in Lubbock where he spent more than $560 on what Woolam described as a "murder kit," a collection of tools he would use to kill Luera, which included new seat covers to cover up the blood, a gas can, a knife, a hatchet, a collapsible shovel, a head lamp, a flashlight, a backpack, bath towels, Febreze, water boots, shoes, a jacket, a change of clothing, and toiletries. Location data that investigators obtained from Duberek's Google account showed he reached Luera's residence in Hale Center about 10:09 p.m. Woolam said when Duberek picked up Luera, he told his parents about a date night he planned for the two of them that involved dinner and staying at a hotel. Duberek also convinced Luera to bring his electronic devices, which were never recovered. The Google records did not show any more movement until about 11:17 p.m. when it indicated he was on FM 400, about 4 miles north of the secluded spot where Luera's body was found. An autopsy showed Luera was stabbed 93 times, the documents state. Woolam said investigators believe the first stab wounds were in Luera's back, specifically his neck, indicating that Duberek managed to get Luera, who was much larger than him, to turn his back on him before attacking him. Duberek fled the scene in Plainview and drove to Houston, where he abandoned the Camry. The vehicle was found and a search of the vehicle revealed blood in the back seat area and on the trunk latch. The collapsible shovel Duberek bought at Walmart was still in the trunk. A DNA test confirmed the blood in the vehicle was Luera's. Duberek also erased his social media presence and lived off the grid for months, successfully evading law enforcement until he surrendered to police in California nearly five months after the slaying. Woolam told the court that a life sentence was appropriate in the case because that is what Duberek gave Luera's family when he killed him. But unlike Lura's family, Duberek's family will still be able to visit him in prison. Before Hendrix handed down the sentence, Duberek, who is being held at the Bailey County Jail, apologized to Luera's family for the pain he caused them, saying he realized it would be selfish to ask forgiveness. He said he was ready to accept his punishment but also asked for mercy. Duberek's attorney David Sloan, argued to the court that a sentence within the recommended guideline would satisfy the requirements for punishment. Sloan argued that a life sentence would disregard his client's decision to accept responsibility and spare Luera's family from going through a trial. He said it would also discourage other defendants from entering a guilty plea if they were going to receive the maximum punishment anyway. Hendrix told Sloan that was the risk defendant's take when they enter into plea agreements with prosecutors. Hendrix told Duberek that the 24-30 year sentence recommended to him was inadequate for the evidence before him. He said the record showed that he was already unstable long before he met Luera. And while he didn't dispute Loring's 40 years of experience, he found that her opinion was not credible since it was not backed by any documentation. He told Duberek that he couldn't ignore the premeditated nature of Luera's slaying, the multiple opportunities he had to abandon his plan. He said the fact that he successfully hid from law enforcement for months after killing Luera also discredited Loring's battered spouse syndrome comparison. Duberek also faces a murder charge in Hale County. Hendrix ordered that the life sentence he gave to run concurrently with the punishment resulting from the state charge, which ranged from five years to life in prison. This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Family of slain Hale County man say life sentence for killer Federal authorities have seized almost $700 million from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, mostly from shares of Robinhood that he owned. A court filing from Friday shows that the federal government seized more than 55 million shares of Robinhood stock along with tens of millions of dollars from each of several bank accounts. Bankman-Fried was arrested last month in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States to face charges including wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud as part of an alleged scheme to defraud investors. Prosecutors have alleged that Bankman-Fried used funds from investors for his own purposes to fund investments from his hedge fund, Alameda Research, buy real estate and to make political donations. He pleaded not guilty to all charges earlier this month. He has said he has not stolen any money, and FTXs customers should be able to get their money back despite the cryptocurrency exchanges bankruptcy declaration in November. Federal authorities have said Bankman-Fried used the money that investors intended to put into FTX to buy the Robinhood shares. The total value of the shares seized is more than $500 million. Five of the sums that officials seized were accounts held in the name of FTX Digital Markets, while three were for all money, assets and funds contained in three accounts for Binance, another cryptocurrency exchange. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. BRIGHTON, Colo. Two police officers, two paramedics and a former police officer pleaded not guilty Friday in the killing of Elijah McClain, 23, a Black man who died after he was placed in a chokehold and given a powerful sedative while in handcuffs. Officers Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema of the Aurora Police Department in Aurora, Colorado; former Aurora police officer Jason Rosenblatt; and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were charged with one count each of manslaughter and one count each of criminally negligent homicide as outlined in a 32-count indictment. The five will be tried in three separate trials later this year in Adams County District Court. Cooper and Cichuniec will be tried together, as will Roedema and Rosenblatt. Woodyard, who placed McClain in a chokehold, forcing him into unconsciousness, will be tried alone. The trials come more than three years after McClains death, which prompted months of protests that dovetailed with national demonstrations demanding systemic changes in police procedures following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Police stopped McClain, who was never charged or accused of any wrongdoing, in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Aug. 24, 2019, after he bought an iced tea from a corner store. That night, three Aurora police officers responded to a report of a suspicious person wearing a mask and waving his arms. McClain, a massage therapist, was wearing a ski mask and typically did so because of a blood condition that made him feel cold, his family has said. Police body camera video released later showed officers ordering McClain to stop. He responded that he was an introvert and to please respect the boundaries that I am speaking. After questioning McClain, the officers grabbed him. One of them said he believed McClain had reached for a holstered gun, and McClain was brought to the ground. Aurora police have said McClain resisted contact, a struggle ensued, and he was taken into custody. Story continues Authorities said officers applied a carotid control hold on McClain, a type of chokehold meant to restrict blood to the brain to render a person unconscious. Paramedics were called to the scene, and they injected McClain with the sedative ketamine while handcuffed, and police video showed him writhing on the ground saying, I cant breathe, please, and vomiting. An amended autopsy report released by the county coroner in September 2022 revealed McClain had died from a ketamine injection after being forcibly restrained. I believe this tragic fatality is most likely the result of ketamine toxicity, the coroner said in the report, adding McClain received a higher dosage than someone should have for his weight. Simply put, this dosage of ketamine was too much for this individual and it resulted in an overdose. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The Florida Department of Education says it banned AP African American History because it teaches students about activism, intersectionality and encourages ending the war on Black trans, queer, gender non-conforming, and intersex people, according to a document the department sent to The Daily Beast. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a request from the College Board to provide the class in high school classes in the state Wednesday. The move comes in the same week the far-right Republicanwho a judge just ruled violated free speech laws by firing a prosecutor for being wokerequested info on trans students from universities state-wide. DeSantis administration further made their anti-LGBTQ stance known in their explanation for prohibiting the class, simply listing Black Queer Studies as a violation of state law. A representative for DeSantis said the now-banned class lacks educational value and historical accuracy in a statement to The Daily Beast. The document further admonishes the teaching of intersectionality, claiming it is foundational to Critical Race Theory, without explaining how. The department also takes issue with topics advocating for reparationsa movement with the goal of helping recipients overcome generations of human rights violations. There is no critical perspective or balancing opinion in this lesson, the document says of one topic devoted to the Reparations Movement. The inclusion of acclaimed author bell hooks in the topic Black Feminist Literary Thought is also cited as a problem, apparently because hooks used the phrase white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. DeSantis hasnt been shy about his anti-woke stance, passing the STOP W.O.K.E. act in 2021, which banned the teaching of Critical Race Theory, even though the governor failed to prove its taught in public schools in the state. The Department of Education says it is willing to reopen the discussion if the College Board can provide a class that abides by state law and is historically accurate, although the departments statement doesnt provide specific details of what the class teaches that is historically inaccurate. Story continues As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value, the department said in a letter to the College Board. The department apparently doesnt want people to think DeSantis is against Black history, however. After all, according to department representatives, he specifically promotes teaching (some of) it. One example from his first term is HB 1213, passed and signed into law in 2020. This is a bill that requires all Florida students to learn about the Ocoee Massacre, Cassie Palelis, press secretary for the Florida Department of Education, said in a statement. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. By Sharon Bernstein (Reuters) - Florida's education chief on Friday defended the state's rejection of a proposed Advanced Placement course in African American Studies, saying the public schools already teach about racism and slavery, while lashing out at "woke indoctrination." The rejection of the course was the latest in a series actions by the administration of conservative Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on issues that strike a nerve in the country's culture wars, including outlawing some educational efforts regarding racism, slavery and LGBTQ rights. DeSantis is widely expected to seek his party's nomination for the presidency in 2024. "We proudly require the teaching of African American history," Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. posted on Twitter. "We do not accept woke indoctrination masquerading as education." The program, which is in the pilot stage, was developed by the College Board, a non-profit that administers Advanced Placement tests that help high school students gain college credits. Florida is one of several states that have banned public schools from teaching "Critical Race Theory," an academic framework that teaches that racism goes beyond individual prejudices and "is embedded in laws, policies and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities," according to the NAACP. On Jan. 12, Florida sent a letter to the College Board saying the AP course violated Florida law and lacked educational value. The White House on Friday condemned the move, with spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre calling rejection of the course incomprehensible. She noted that Florida was not banning AP courses on European history and said the action was of a piece with earlier moves by DeSantis, including banning teaching young children about LGBTQ issues. Diaz called the White House comments "lies" and released a chart showing the state's objections to the course. Story continues Among the concerns were readings about intersectionality, the idea that discrimination can impact an individual in multiple ways if people are members of more than one marginalized group, a section on Black Queer Studies, a discussion of Black feminism, and a topic called Movements for Black Lives. A section on whether the U.S. should pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people does not offer arguments against the idea, the chart says. It rejects a reading by 1960s radical Angela Davis, whom it called a "self-avowed" Communist. "As submitted, the course is a vehicle for a political agenda and leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material," DeSantis' spokesman, Bryan Griffin, said in a statement to Reuters. "As Governor DeSantis has stated, our classrooms will be a place for education, not indoctrination." If the course is amended to meet Florida's standards and comply with its laws, the state will reconsider, Griffin and Diaz said. The College Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Friday. But on Thursday, it said in a statement to Reuters that the course aims to "explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans." It is a humanities course and as such does not teach theory, the statement said. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Leslie Adler) In April of 1964, reports of unidentified flying objects were being made across the country. This April 18, 1964, Herald Post article, details a close encounter at Crosby School. Eight students reported seeing the object. I did not find any follow up articles reporting what the object may have been. Lucky Boy Hamburgers did offer an explanation in an ad on May 4, it was their LBX-1 flying hamburger. A May 4, 1964 ad by Lucky Boy Hamburgers offered an explanation to the mystery of the saucer sightings. Students sight flying saucer A flying saucer more like a monster has fluttered into El Paso while a rash of unidentified flying objects were reported in New Mexico. Eight students at Crosby School at 5411 Wren avenue saw the El Paso monster. In fact, one girl, 12, reported it to police. She said she saw it out a window of the school late yesterday. It didnt have any legs, said Kathy Boose. It seemed to be floating in the air, covered with something like a sheet. It was about 6 feet 5 inches tall, and sort of egg-shaped. Another girl, 11, told police she had seen it too, and said six more children had witnessed the monster. Police had theories the apparition might actually have been a weather balloon coming to earth, or some sort of parachute, or something else caught in the wind, though nothing was found on the school grounds. More:Does photo show UFO over FC Juarez Bravos soccer game? But suppose it was a monster? Unidentified flying object sighting had New Mexico State Police, radio and television stations, newspapers, local law enforcement agencies and military installations in a dither today. No less than six authentic spottings have been reported since Friday when Socorro policeman Lonnie Zamora sighted an egg-shaped object, which roared off the ground, leaving deep impressions and burned patches. In addition, telephone lines across the state hummed with activity as drunks, obvious quacks, publicity-hunters and well-meaning information-seekers got in the act. An Albuquerque television station offered a $10,000 reward for photographs of the object or objects thought by some to be prowling New Mexico skies. Story continues More:El Paso police Chief Greg Allen dies after leading department for nearly 15 years Shots fired at object An Edgewood man told state police he fired 12 .22 caliber pistol shots at an oblong thing, early this morning. With certainty, he told of hitting the UFO six times and hearing the bullets bounce from it. As he paused to reload, the man said the object moved silently northward. He was unable to determine whether shots 7 to 12 struck the thing. He described it as being a light green color, about 25 or 30 feet long, and silent. He said it hovered about 100 feet directly over his head. Investigating sate policemen said the man was completely sober. Edgewood is a community about 20 miles east of Albuquerque. A few hours earlier, a motorist in the Las Vegas area reported seeing a ball of fire that apparently landed near a radio station. Employees of the station said the man asked that his name be withheld because he was afraid of being laughed at. More:Rancher surprised at excitement over his debris discovery near Roswell 'There was definitely something there.' Police also received similar reports Sunday from a Santa Fe man Orland Gallegos who told of seeing an egg-shaped metal object near La Madera, about 50 miles north of Santa Fe. He told of seeing flames spurt from numerous jets aboard the bottom of the object as it took off. State Police Capt. Martin Vigil, who checked out the incident, said There was definitely something there. Other reports came from an Albuquerque motorist who saw a silver looking object near Truth or Consequences, two men driving in the La Madera area and a Socorro teenager. In both the Socorro and La Madera reports, burned land was found at the sites. Also discovered were paw prints, like a mountain lions, as well as landing gear marks, The Associate Director of Interplanetary Intelligence of Undefined Flying Objects said from his Oklahoma City office that pictures of a UFO sighted in 1956 by a shipboard radio officer were being mailed to Zamora. The photos were taken by T. Fogl, aboard the USS Ramsey off the California coast. The HUFO officer, Hayden Hews, said the object was almost identical in size, coloring, marking, characteristics and landing gears to the thing reported by Zamora. Either it was an awful good coincident or it is the same object, Hews said. Zamora, when contacted at this home early today, said he had not yet received the photographs. Meanwhile, military officials at Kirtland and Holloman Air Force Bases and White Sands Missile range continued efforts to investigate the sightings with no end in sight. Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Flying Saucer Sighting Reported By Eight Crosby School Students Jan. 20The Free Press NEW ULM A former teacher at Cathedral High School in New Ulm was charged Thursday for allegedly smoking weed with students. Brady Paul Waibel, 32, faces a felony for drug possession and three gross misdemeanors for contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Brown County District Court. A criminal complaint states a priest in the New Ulm Diocese called police Jan. 14 to report Waibel had been smoking marijuana with three of his students. One student was an adult, while the two others were minors. One student told police that he and the two others picked up Waibel one day in November and parked a car under a bridge. They then walked to a sandbar, where Waibel reportedly took out a blunt, smoked it and passed it to the students. Police say the student then reported instances of the three going to Waibel's residence to smoke and hang out between November and January. The two other students described trips to the sandbar and Waibel's house as well, according to the complaint. Investigators secured a search warrant and reported seizing raw marijuana, marijuana wax, a marijuana grinder and a bong from Waibel's residence. Police then arrested Waibel, who requested an attorney after being read his Miranda warning. A fourth student spoke with police on Jan. 17 and reported going to Waibel's house with another student on Dec. 3 to smoke, according to the complaint. Waibel's first appearance in court is scheduled for Feb. 14. Follow Brian Arola @BrianArola JEFFERSON CITY Two former lieutenants in Missouri government told a group of attorneys Friday that more lawsuits challenging the state's abortion ban, as well as ballot measures on the issue, were all but certain to be filed going forward. Their comments to the state's chapter of The Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian legal group, came a day after a lawsuit was filed challenging Missouri's abortion ban on the grounds of religious freedom, and as abortion rights advocates quietly prepare to potentially put the legality of abortion in front of voters next year. Andy Hirth, a former deputy general counsel under Democratic AG Chris Koster, said he believed Missouri's abortion ban could see a number of challenges from various legal angles including an argument that it violates equal protection of the rights of all individuals. "I do think personally the most likely challenge to have any success would be an equal protection challenge," said Hirth, adding that "I think there are going to be better and better arguments" filed that target potentially religious aspects of the law. He also outlined a theoretical argument in which the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the U.S., could be invoked to argue against abortion bans like Missouri's, which don't make exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, as being forced to carry a pregnancy as "a vestige of slavery." "The argument is less appealing outside of the rape and incest area, but I think that's an argument we may see, especially in states like Missouri that don't have exceptions," Hirth said. Missouri's abortion ban:Clergy challenge state law in court on basis of religious freedom Jesus Osete, who formerly served in the offices of two Republican officials, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Attorney General Eric Schmitt, was largely dismissive of that line of thought, saying it "always amazes me what law professors can come up with as arguments." He was also doubtful that the lawsuit filed by clergy in St. Louis "has legs," but acknowledged that a challenge arguing that the abortion ban is a violation of due process was likely. Story continues "I'm surprised it hasn't been filed," Osete said. "I don't think it's going to be the case yesterday. It's probably going to have to be filed in Cole County." (Cole County, where Jefferson City is located, is where lawsuits against the state and government entities are filed and fought.) Both said that in addition to lawsuits, the future of abortion law in Missouri could likely come through a ballot measure filed by abortion rights advocates in 2024, in which voters decide whether to amend the Constitution. A similar vote in Kansas last year confirmed the right to abortion under the state constitution, a route that other states with anti-abortion legislatures are now considering. "If all else fails ... there will be some sort of initiative petition filed," Osete said. House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat who has been an opponent of the ban, told reporters earlier this month that groups across the state were working behind the scenes to create a proposal for the ballot, but that the details of such a proposal, including what would go in place of the repealed ban, were still in flux. Under the current initiative petition process (which Republicans are aiming to make more strict in the coming months), a simple majority of voters would need to vote to approve the change and amend the state constitution. 'Don't see the political appetite' for additional restrictions Lawmakers have filed far fewer bills this session relating to abortion than in recent years, with the procedure now banned in all instances except for medical emergencies. Osete flagged several that had been filed including a proposal banning the import or export of mail-order abortion drugs. He also pointed to a separate resolution filed last year that would have, if approved by voters, changed the state constitution to say that "nothing shall be construed to create the right to abortion," preventing any future amendment repealing the ban. "What's stopping five members on the (state) Supreme Court, four in this case, from doing something like in Kansas where you do recognize a right to abortion in the state constitution?" Osete said. "Those are concerns the (resolution) would prohibit." Hirth pointed to existing concerns by doctors and attorneys with the abortion ban as currently written, with some health care providers declining to treat at-risk pregnancies because of legal liability. "No matter how good-faith your decision is, you can still be prosecuted, you have to hire a lawyer," he said. "The statute places the burden of proof on the doctor." More:After Missouri banned abortions, she was left 'with a baby dying inside.' Doctors said they could do nothing. Osete agreed that the Supreme Court ruling that led to Missouri's ban could create unintended legal consequences, and asked lawmakers to think carefully on proposing further restrictions that wade into unknown territory. "I think as we move forward in the legislature, we need to think very seriously about what legislation is going to advance the ball, not just from a normative standpoint but from a legal standpoint," Osete said, citing Justice Clarence Thomas' decision that pointed to several other key cases, including the right to same-sex marriage and contraception. Last year prior to the state's trigger law taking effect, Republican lawmakers filed a range of proposals that would have further restricted abortion. One proposal would have opened up lawsuits against those who aided and abetted women seeking to cross state lines to get an abortion; another could have been interpreted to make it illegal to treat ectopic pregnancies, which can be life-threatening to the mother. Thus far this session, those proposals are absent, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle aiming to improve health care access for new mothers and the governor aiming to address the state's dismal maternal mortality rate. "I just don't see the political appetite for something like that, for pursuing 'bounty' legislation," Osete said. Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier. This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri lawyers say abortion ballot measures, lawsuits are coming Photo: Getty (Getty Images) Roger Severino, the former director of the Office of Civil Rights at Health and Human Services under Donald Trump, told a group of more than 2,000 high school and college kids at the Students for Life annual conference Saturday that they can win the abortion fight by having tons of babies. You have to do your part, he said. Get married and have kidslots of them. Read more Students who support abortion rights, Severino added, are at a natural disadvantage because they dont reproduce. (Nevermind that the average abortion patient, according to the New York Times, is already a mother.) Politico reporter Alice Ollstein posted updates from the Washington, D.C., conference on Twitter Saturday, noting that students took a vote on what kinds of abortion bans theyd like to see now that Roe v. Wade was overturned, and one speaker made a very unfunny joke about the national diaper shortage. One leader at this conference just joked in a speech that they might be responsible for a diaper shortage because all of the babies of people unable to get abortions after the Supreme Court ruled last June will soon be born. Alice Miranda Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) January 21, 2023 Sunday will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Roe decision, and the anti-abortion movement apparently has no plans of taking their feet off the gas now that they got the opinion overturned. At the annual March for Life Friday, attendees chanted, One, two, three, four, Roe v. Wade is out the door...five, six, seven, eight, now its time to legislate, as leaders called on politicians to get down to the business of banning abortion through laws. We have to work very hard to make sure we keep our eye on the prize, that we dont say, Hey, Roe v. Wade is overturned. Weve done our work. Now its time to go home. I would say, to be transparent, that was a concern of ours, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, according to Ollstein. I think some people were a little bit frozen in time and not sure what to do. Story continues Of the state ballot initiatives post-Roe, in which voters in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont made clear that they want to keep abortion rights, Dannenfelser said conservatives need to simply up [their] funding game rather than abide by the will of voters. I think those ballot initiatives were a wake-up call that 50 years of work can be wiped out in a second unless youre ready to go with a real battle plan, she said. Needless to say, the overturning of Roe was never about sending the issue back to the states, as conservatives have claimed for decadesit was about getting the green light to impose their will on the whole country. More from Jezebel Sign up for Jezebel's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. A French delegation has delivered over 180 power generators purchased by French businesspeople to the city of Kharkiv. Source: Kharkiv City Council Details: Kharkiv City Council said that the French delegation arrived in Kharkiv with a humanitarian mission. As part of it, they delivered 181 generators, the purchase of which was funded by French private businesses. Some of the generators will be given to Kharkivs municipal repair service. On 20 January, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov met with Benjamin Rohrig, Charge d'Affaires at the French Embassy in Ukraine, to thank the French people for supporting the Ukrainian city. Quote from Terekhov: "We are very grateful that today you are once again saving Kharkiv, we really appreciate it. Over the course of the past 11 months, you have sent tonnes of humanitarian aid and medicine for Kharkiv residents. Now you have made a significant contribution to overcoming the energy crisis caused by Russian shelling. I hope that in the future we will rebuild our city together." Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! A Georgia college student is facing battery charges after police say he attacked a fellow student outside of a fraternity house. Statesboro officers were called to the Sigma Nu Fraternity House at Georgia Southern University just after 1 a.m. on Jan. 13 to a report of a man who hit his head on the sidewalk. Investigators learned the student was walking past the fraternity house when several people began speaking to him and approached him. One of the men, William Kroymann, then attacked the victim, causing him to fall and hit his head, according to witnesses and surveillance video. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The victim was taken to East Georgia Regional Medical Center. He was later transferred to Memorial Hospital in Savannah where doctors learned he had fractured his skull and had bleeding on his brain. The victim has since been released from the hospital and is continuing the recovery process at home. Kroymann was arrested earlier this week and charged with aggravated battery. He has since been released from the Bulloch County Jail on a $15,000 bond, according to jail records. TRENDING STORIES: Spokespeople with Sigma Nu Fraternitys national headquarters released a statement to Channel 2 Action News on Friday confirming Kroymann was a member of Sigma Nu, but has since been suspended from the Fraternity pending the outcome of an investigation. Sigma Nu Fraternity is aware of the arrest of a member of the Theta Kappa Chapter at Georgia Southern University following the alleged assault of another student. An investigation by local law enforcement is ongoing, with which the Fraternity is cooperating. The students fraternity membership has been suspended by the Fraternity and collegiate chapter, pending completion of law enforcement proceedings, the statement read. Story continues Police say surveillance video shows several people who saw the attack who have not yet spoken to law enforcement. Anyone with information on the incident should call investigators at 912-764-9911. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has confirmed that Manuel Terans handgun fired the shot that injured a trooper. Teran, whose friends called him Tortuguita, was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol troopers on Wednesday morning after investigators said Teran shot a trooper without warning. The trooper, who isnt being identified due to safety concerns, remains hospitalized with injuries to his pelvis. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Friends and fellow protestors of Teran have repeatedly claimed to Channel 2 Action News that they are peacefully protesting. The GBI says that forensic ballistic analysis confirmed that the bullet recovered from the troopers wound matches Terans handgun that was recovered at the scene. Mike Register, the Director of the GBI, said the protesters are not peaceful, but were violent on many occasions. Arson, attacking citizens, shooting police officers, using explosives, Register said at a news conference Wednesday. RELATED STORIES: Agents identified the gun as a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm. GBI Director Mike Register said several agencies raided near the proposed facility site Wednesday morning to clear the area of protesters who have been occupying the property for months. As law enforcement moved in, officers found Teran inside a tent in the woods. Officers gave verbal commands to Teran to come out, but they were not complied with. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Teran then shot a Georgia State Patrol Trooper. Thats when officers returned fire in self-defense, according to the GBI. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] After the shooting, seven of Terans fellow protestors were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism and criminal trespass. IN RELATED NEWS: An old Wikipedia page purportedly showed that a user named Anthony Devolder which could be an alias of George Santos began his stage life as a drag queen using a pseudonym, according to a report. Mr Santos, who represents New Yorks 3rd district, on Thursday strongly rebutted reports that he performed in drag competitions under the name Kitara while living in Brazil over a decade ago. The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag queen or performed as a drag queen is categorically false, he wrote on Twitter. The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results. I will not be distracted nor fazed by this, he wrote. However, a Wikipedia page accessed by Politico News from more than a decade ago, showed a user named Anthony Devolder who said he participated in drag shows in Brazil as a teenager. Politico reported that the page, which is currently blocked, said: Anthony Devolder startted [sp] his stage life at age 17 as an gay night club [sp] DRAG QUEEN and with that won sevral [sp] GAY BEAUTY PAGENTS [sp]. It stated that Mr Devolder was born on 22 July 1988 to a Brazilian family with a European background information that matches Mr Santos. The Wikipedia page has several spelling errors and was last edited on 29 April 2011. Mr Santos, who has repeatedly used Anthony Devolder as his alias elsewhere, remains under fire over a series of alleged untruths concerning his background, which arose from a New York Times investigation claiming he had fabricated a number of key details about his past. He is said to have given misinformation about his business career, educational achievements as well as the nature of his mothers death. He acknowledged that he has misleading information about critical parts of his biography, but justified it by saying other politicians do the same. Mr Santoss alias on Wikipedia claimed that he appeared on the popular Disney Channel series Hanna Montana which was also misspelled and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Story continues Last week, an old video surfaced on social media where Mr Santos was heard introducing himself as Anthony Devolder. My name is Anthony Devolder, Im a New York City resident, Mr Santos introduces himself, as seen in the video. Mr Santos was called by several fellow Republicans to step down after Brazilian drag performer Eula Rochard, 58, told the Reuters news agency that she had first encountered the individual she now alleges is Mr Santos at the first gay pride parade held in Niteroi, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, in 2005. She said she remembers seeing him compete in a drag beauty pageant in the same city three years later, much more flamboyantly attired on the second occasion. Hes changed a lot, but he was always a liar, Ms Rochard told Reuters. He was always such a dreamer. Mr Santos is the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican to be elected to the House of Representatives but has been criticised over his support for Floridas Dont Say Gay law banning the discussion of LGBT+ issues in the classrooms of the states schools. I am openly gay, have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade, and I can tell you and assure you, I will always be an advocate for LGBTQ folks, he told USA Today in an interview last October. GOP Rep. George Santos; Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana John Locher, File/Associated Press; Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images A Wikipedia user called Anthony Devolder made elaborate claims about his acting experience. The name is a known alias of GOP Rep. George Santos, who has made false claims about his past. The Wiki bio also said the user performed in drag, something Santos has denied ever doing. A Wikipedia user going by the name Anthony Devolder a known alias for embattled GOP Rep. George Santos made a host of fantastical claims about his acting record, saying he appeared in two successful Disney Channel shows and in a movie alongside Oscar-nominated actress Uma Thurman. The Wikipedia page featuring the user's bio, which was first reported Friday by Politico, has since been taken down but was still accessible in internet archives. The bio, which appears to have last been edited on April 29, 2011, is riddled with typos and misspellings. It also includes details that align with Santos, including saying the user was born on July 22, 1988, to a Brazilian family with a European background. It continues to say that "Anthony Devolder first startted his 'stage' life at age 17 as an gay night club DRAG QUEEN and with that won sevral GAY 'BEAUTY PAGENTS'!" Santos, who is openly gay, this week denied ever performing in drag after several people told media outlets, including Insider, that they used to know him as a drag performer in Brazil. The Wiki bio said Devolder "took his step into the begining of his carrer in witch he started in a few T.V shows and DISNEY Channel shows," including "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and "Hannah Montana." It also said "he taped his very first movie in 2009," which was called "THE INVASION" and starred "Uma Turman," apparently a misspelling of Uma Thurman. It's unclear what movie the bio was referring to. A movie called "The Invasion" came out in 2007, but it starred Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig not the "Pulp Fiction" actress. No "Anthony Devolder" or George Santos was listed in the cast on IMDb. Story continues A representative for Santos did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Santos has used the name Anthony Devolder in the past. In a recently resurfaced video, Santos introduced himself as Anthony Devolder at an event in New York City in 2019 that featured conservative commentators who were part of the LGBTQ community. He has also at various times listed his full name as George Anthony Devolder Santos. He also went by the name George Devolder in social media posts in 2020, CNN reported. Politico noted that if the Wiki bio was not written by Santos, that would mean it was written by someone who, more than a decade ago, used Santos' alias and biographical details. The bio is the latest development involving the New York congressman's fabrications and embellishment. Santos has been accused of lying about his work and education history, how his mother died, and his heritage. Read the original article on Business Insider A new report has found that while Republican Congressman George Santos was reportedly still married to a woman, he invited friends over to celebrate his engagement to a man. In a 2014 Facebook "engagement dinner" invitation, Mr Santos or Anthony Devolder, depending on the day invited his friends to celebrate his engagement to someone who wasnt his wife, The Daily Beast reports. "Good evening everyone! As you all may already know Pedro and I have decided to join our toothbrushes! Lol and a very few friends have been selected to share this special moment with us," Mr Santos wrote in the invitation. Mr Santos and his wife would not divorce until five years later. The Daily Beast learned of the invitation from Mr Santos old roommate, Greg Morey-Parker. Pedro Vilarva, the man mentioned in the invitation, also confirmed that Mr Santos planned the celebration. Mr Santos asked his friends to "join us on Sunday, 23 November at 8:30pm at La Bonne Soupe," a restaurant in Manhattan. I hope to see everyone [sic] of you there and be sharp and make it count," he wrote, including a winking face emoji. "I know there was no time for an written [sic] invitation but thanks to Facebook everyone has a whole weeks [sic] notice! Lmao for all of you that know me I can suck on timing! Thanks for sharing this very important day in our lives! See you all there!" Mr Vilarva told the publication that the engagement party "never happened" because he rejected Mr Santos marriage proposals. "He asked me 3x but I didnt accept it," Mr Vilarva told The Daily Beast in a text message. "There was never a party [or] anything in regards to it." The Independent has reached out to Mr Santos for comment. Mr Morey-Parker also told the publication that Mr Santos allegedly encouraged him to marry a Brazilian woman so she could get US citizenship, and mentioned he could make money on the deal. Mr Morey-Parker, who knew Mr Santos by his other name, Anthony Devolder, said the Republicans ever-growing list of lies are making gay conservatives "look bad." "Im a gay Republican a Reagan Republican, but I did vote for Trump in 2016," he told the outlet. "Can you imagine how hes making the Log Cabin Republicans feel? Hes making all of us look bad." Prior to being sworn in, Rep.-elect George Santos, R-N.Y., stands during the 10 round of voting for speaker in the House chamber in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Andrew Harnik/AP Rep. George Santos planned an engagement party for his boyfriend while he was married to his then-wife. Santos' ex-boyfriend told The Daily Beast that the engagement "never happened." Controversy has followed newly-elected Santos, who has been caught lying about his background George Santos, the embattled New York congressman, sent out engagement party invitations in 2014 to celebrate a marriage proposal to his boyfriend while he was apparently still married to his then-wife, The Daily Beast reported. "Good evening everyone! As you all may already know Pedro and I have decided to join our toothbrushes! Lol and a very few friends have been selected to share this special moment with us!" Santos wrote in a Facebook invitation to the engagement dinner in 2014, per the outlet. The Daily Beast reported it obtained the invitation courtesy of Greg Morey-Parker, Santos' former roommate, and the aforementioned Pedro Vilarva, Santos' ex-boyfriend. The invite requested guests join Santos and his supposed betrothed at New York City's La Bonne Soupe for a Sunday night dinner, per the outlet. "I hope to see everyone [sic] of you there and be sharp and make it count," Santos wrote with a winking emoji, per The Daily Beast. "Thanks for sharing this very important day in our lives! See you all there." Vilarva told the outlet that he rejected Santos' proposals and that the engagement party "never happened." "He asked me 3x but I didn't accept it," Vilarva told the Beast via text. "There was never a party [or] anything in regards to it." At the time of the planned event, Santos was still married to his ex-wife, Uadla Santos. The couple divorced in 2019 weeks before Santos launched his 2020 campaign, The Daily Beast previously reported. The news appeared to contradict Santos' claims that he had been "openly gay" for years; he did not previously disclose he was married to a woman, according to Insider. Pressure has mounted on Santos to resign amid reports that he lied about his education and work experience, once performed as a drag queen, which he has denied, and obscured the truth on his religious beliefs by claiming to be "Jew-ish." A spokesperson for Santos did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Read the original article on Business Insider Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty Two years into his mysterious marriage to a womanand five years before they divorcedGeorge Santos invited friends to celebrate his engagement to a man, The Daily Beast has learned. Good evening everyone! As you all may already know Pedro and I have decided to join our toothbrushes! Lol and a very few friends have been selected to share this special moment with us! Santos wrote in a 2014 Facebook engagement dinner invitation. The invitation was shared with The Daily Beast by Santos old roommate, Greg Morey-Parker, and the boyfriend, Pedro Vilarva, confirmed that the future congressman planned the celebration. At the time, Santoswho ran for Congress in New York as an openly gay Republicanwas already married to a Brazilian woman, according to public records. The New York City Marriage Index database shows the couple acquired a marriage license in December 2012, and as The Daily Beast reported last month, they divorced in 2019. The 87-Page Document That Should Have Sunk George Santos In the invitation, Santos asked guests to join us on Sunday November 23 at 8:30 pm at La Bonne Soupe in Manhattan. (Federal filings show that, seven years later, Santos campaign committee had spent a combined nearly $1,800 at the restaurant, a block away from Trump Tower.) I hope to see everyone [sic] of you there and be sharp and make it count I know there was no time for an written [sic] invitation but thanks to Facebook everyone has a whole weeks [sic] notice! Lmao for all of you that know me I can suck on timing! Thanks for sharing this very important day in our lives! See you all there, Santos wrote. Vilarva, who has described his relationship with Santos in previous interviews, told The Daily Beast the engagement party never happened because he rejected Santos proposals. He asked me 3x but I didnt accept it, Vilarva wrote in a text. There was never a party [or] anything in regards to it. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene laughs with Rep.-elect George Santos during a meeting of the 118th Congress. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Santos marriage and romantic history first came under scrutiny last month as an astounding series of lies he told about his backgroundfrom his education to his mothers deathbegan unraveling in the public eye. Story continues After publication of this story, Santos responded to say, I will not give comment to slanderous accusations made by a person of the likes of Gregory. The ex-wife, Uadla Vieira Santos, has not responded to questions from The Daily Beast. Morey-Parker also told The Daily Beast that Santos at one point tried to get me to marry some Brazilian woman so she could get citizenship. Morey-Parker, who is openly gay, said Santos told him he could make money from the deal. Court records in Queens County show that Santos ex-wife first filed for divorce in May 2013, and requested judicial intervention a month later. The case was discontinued that December, according to the records, but about six years later, in September 2019, the divorce went through uncontested, The Daily Beast first reported in December. Less than two weeks after the divorce was finalized, Santos filed the official paperwork to launch his 2020 campaign. Although Santos 2022 campaign bio mentions a husbandwho according to Santos was living with him and their four dogs on Long Islandthe aspiring public servant kept his previous marriage to a woman a secret during both of his congressional campaigns. I am openly gay, have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade, and I can tell you and assure you, I will always be an advocate for LGBTQ folks, Santos told USA Today last October, in response to criticism about his support for Floridas so-called Dont Say Gay Bill signed into law last year by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis. Despite his marriage to a woman, friends knew Santos, who also used the alias Anthony Devolder, to be gay. Anthony had more boyfriends than I can remember! said Morey-Parker, who said he went on one date with Santos and shared screenshots of Facebook messages from 2013 in which Santos was hitting on him. Im a gay Republicana Reagan Republican, but I did vote for Trump in 2016. Can you imagine how hes making the Log Cabin Republicans feel? Hes making all of us look bad, Morey-Parker said. USA-CONGRESS/ People demonstrate against Rep. George Santos in the Queens borough of New York City. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters A second former roommate, Yasser Rabello, said he lived with Santos in New York in 2013 and 2014, after Santos wife had first filed for divorce. But the marriage was unknown to Rabello. He claimed that Santos introduced him to the woman just once, but only identified her as a friend, adding that he never knew about the marriage until The Daily Beast broke the news late last month. Both men lived with Santos at the same time, in what they described as a crowded and at times chaotic apartment in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood in Queens. Among their roommates were Santos, his mother, and his sister, with other people coming and going, the men said, noting that Santos legal wife was living in Astoria, in another part of Queens. It was a difficult situation, Rabello said. There was always a lot of people there, with one bathroom to share with everybody. When I moved out, I wrote a letter to the landlord and told him how many people were living there. Later on, they were kicked out from that building. Both Rabello and Morey-Parker previously told Patch that Santos stole from them, and Vilarva, the ex-boyfriend, told The New York Times he believes Santos pawned his cellphone while they lived together in New York. I really dont care about material stuff, but he stole something that really had sentimental value to me, Morey-Parker told The Daily Beast, in reference to a scarf he says Santos purloined and later wore to a Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C. I had tried to kill myself, and my friend gave me that scarf and hat, and she was like, Now you have something physical to touch and know people love you, Morey-Parker said, adding that he had texted Santos while in treatment, and that Santos had known about the gifts significance. Watching him wear that scarf that means quite a lot to me just pisses me the fuck off. Rabello told The Daily Beast that Santos had introduced him to Vilarva as his boyfriend during a 2014 visit to Florida, where Rabello, a pharmacist, had relocated. He said Santos had always seemed like a pathological liar, and shared old Facebook messages where Santos claimed he had landed a job at CNN. Santos, who won a congressional seat in November, has seen his past lies and secrets come cascading down around him following a December expose in The New York Times. The reports have raised serious questions about the sources of his personal income, his campaign finance statements, ties to an investor with Russian connections, and unresolved criminal fraud charges in Brazilas well as false claims about his previous employment, his Jew-ish heritage, his mothers presence inside the World Trade Center on 9/11, and money raised through an unregistered pet charity. Those stories, among a slew of other scandals, have reportedly led to investigations into the congressman at the federal, state, and local levels. But with no immediate constitutional recourse available, voters, donors, and officials in both parties have been left to clamor for his resignationcalls Santos has so far resisted. This week, GOP House leadership awarded him seats on the Science and Small Business committees. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. BERLIN (AP) Germany has become one of Ukraine's leading weapons suppliers in the 11 months since Russia's invasion, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz also has gained a reputation for hesitating to take each new step generating impatience among allies. Berlins perceived foot-dragging, most recently on the Leopard 2 battle tanks that Kyiv has long sought, is rooted at least partly in a post-World War II political culture of military caution, along with present-day worries about a possible escalation in the war. On Friday, Germany inched closer to a decision to deliver the tanks, ordering a review of its Leopard stocks in preparation for a possible green light. There was still no commitment, however. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius rejected the suggestion that Germany was standing in the way but said, we have to balance all the pros and contras before we decide things like that, just like that. It's a pattern that has been repeated over the months as Scholz first held off pledging new, heavier equipment, then eventually agreed to do so. Most recently, Germany said in early January that it would send 40 Marder armored personnel carriers to Ukraine doing so in a joint announcement with the U.S., which pledged 50 Bradley armored vehicles. That decision followed months of calls for Berlin to send the Marder and stoked pressure for it to move up another step to the Leopard tank. There is a discrepancy between the actual size of the commitment and weapons deliveries its the second-largest European supplier and the hesitancy with which it is done, said Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, a Berlin-based senior analyst with the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank. Scholz, an unshakably self-confident politician with a stubborn streak and little taste for bowing to public calls for action, has stuck resolutely to his approach. He has said that Germany wont go it alone on weapons decisions and pointed to the need to avoid NATO becoming a direct party to the war with Russia. Story continues As pressure mounted last week, he declared that he wouldn't be rushed into important security decisions by excited comments. And he insisted that a majority in Germany supports his governments calm, well-considered and careful decision-making. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Scholz listed some of the equipment Germany has sent to Ukraine, declaring that it marks a profound turning point in German foreign and security policy. That is, at least to some extent, true. Germany refused to provide lethal weapons before the invasion started, reflecting a political culture rooted in part in the memory of Germany's own history of aggression during the 20th century including the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. No German chancellor, of no party, wants to be seen out front in pushing a military agenda you want to try all other options before you resort to that, Kleine-Brockhoff said. And therefore for domestic consumption, it is seen as a positive thing for a German chancellor not to lead on this, to be cautious, to be resistant, to have tried all other options. Scholz does face calls from Germany's center-right opposition and some in his three-party governing coalition to be more proactive on military aid; less so from his own center-left Social Democratic Party, which for decades was steeped in the legacy of Cold War rapprochement pursued by predecessor Willy Brandt in the early 1970s. Scholz decided early on that he does not want to lead militarily on Ukraine assistance, Kleine-Brockhoff said, though he wants to be a good ally and part of the alliance and in the middle of the pack. But the cautious approach drives allies crazy and raises questions over whether they can count on the Germans, Kleine-Brockhoff acknowledged. Berlin kept up its caution on the Leopard tank even after Britain announced last week that it would provide Ukraine its own Challenger 2 tanks. The hesitancy isn't just an issue between Berlin and Kyiv, since other countries would need Germany's permission to send their own stocks of German-made Leopards to Ukraine. On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Warsaw would consider giving its tanks even without Berlin's permission. Consent is of secondary importance here. We will either obtain it quickly, or we will do the right thing ourselves, Morawiecki said. British historian Timothy Garton Ash wrote in The Guardian and other newspapers this week that to its credit, the German governments position on military support for Ukraine has moved a very long way since the eve of the Russian invasion. But he argued that the tank issue has become a litmus test of Germanys courage to resist (Russian President Vladimir) Putins nuclear blackmail, overcome its own domestic cocktail of fears and doubts, and defend a free and sovereign Ukraine, and that Scholz should lead a European Leopard plan. Whether that will eventually happen remains to be seen. Scholz's government has insisted on close coordination with the United States, a possible reflection in part of the fact that Germany unlike Britain and France relies on the U.S. nuclear deterrent. On Friday, Scholz's spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, denied reports that Germany had insisted it would only deliver Leopard tanks if the U.S. sends its own Abrams tanks. He rejected the notion that Berlin is trailing others and insisted it is taking the right approach. These are not easy decisions, and they need to be well-weighed," he said. "And this is about them being sustainable, that all can go along with them and stand behind them and part of a leadership performance is keeping an alliance together. The U.S. has resisted providing M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing extensive and complex maintenance and logistical challenges with the high-tech vehicles. Washington believes it would be more productive to send German Leopards since many allies have them and Ukrainian troops would need less training than on the more difficult Abrams. ___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's new defence minister Boris Pistorius plans to visit Ukraine soon, he told a German newspaper, as Berlin faces pressure to allow the shipment of German-made tanks to Ukraine. "What is certain is that I will travel to Ukraine quickly. Probably even within the next four weeks," Pistorius told Bild am Sonntag in an interview published on Sunday. On Friday, Germany and Western allies reached no decision on whether Germany would agree to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, or permit other countries that have them to do so, despite Ukraine's pleas for modern tanks to boost its defence efforts. Asked about the tanks, Pistorius said in the interview: "We are in very close dialogue with our international partners, first and foremost with the U.S., on this issue." German sources have told Reuters they would allow German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine to help its defence against Russia if the United States agrees to send its own tanks. But U.S. officials have said President Joe Biden's administration is not poised to send its own tanks, including the M1 Abrams. Pistorius became defence minister last week, months into Germany's "Zeitenwende" - or new era of a more assertive foreign policy backed by more military spending - that Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Feb. 27, days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Pistorius also told Bild am Sonntag he would aim for Germany's military to take the lead role in the European Union. "Germany is the largest economy in Europe, so it should also be our goal to have the strongest and best-equipped army in the EU," he told the paper. (Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by David Holmes) ELKHART Some people have to ask for ketchup packets in their fast food order, but Josiah Vargas opened his sausage McMuffin order in the drive-thru and got way more than he'd requested. $5,000 more. Vargas recorded his discovery and his trip to a McDonalds in Elkhart to return the windfall. His TikTok video has been viewed more than 2 million times since its post earlier this week. The video shows him in his car in a McDonald's parking lot with small plastic bags of cash, surmising it was the stores bank deposit, and asking, "Why would you do this to me? Do you know how bad I want this money? Then he walks into the restaurant to return the large plastic McDonalds bag containing the bills, jokingly asking You guys laundering money out here? Indiana viral videos:Jordan's chicken spot video raises questions about inspections Store workers were thrilled with the return of the cash. Josiahs actions are an inspiration to us all and we are eternally grateful for him returning our bank deposit," store owner Estephan Awad told IndyStar in a released statement. McDonalds team members can be heard in the video expressing relief upon seeing the money. This is a blessing from God, one says. I really want to give you a hug. Vargas said he got more than that. In the video, Vargas shared that he got free McDonalds for a month and $200. Do good, people. Return $5,000 and get $200 and free McDonald's for a month, he said. Its a good trade value and maybe a viral TikTok. Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on Twitter: @cherylvjackson. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana man returns $5K to Elkhart McDonald's, goes viral on TikTok Soldiers and tanks are deployed to a preparedness enhancement drill simulating the defense against Beijing's military intrusions, ahead of the Lunar New Year in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan on Wednesday, Jan 11, 2023. China renewed its threats Wednesday to attack Taiwan and warned that foreign politicians who interact with the self-governing island are "playing with fire." - Daniel Ceng/AP A microchip maker whose owner is alleged to have links to the Chinese military has been awarded millions in UK government grants, The Telegraph can reveal. Lincoln-based Dynex Semiconductor, a company ultimately owned by Beijing-headquartered CRRC Corporation, was handed 3m in grants and support from the Government over the last decade. CRRC was in October accused by the Pentagon of being a Chinese military company and placed on a blacklist. The US has accused China of trying to modernise its army by ensuring its access to advanced technologies and expertise through what appear to be civilian entities, naming CRRC among them. Concerns have been raised in the past that Dynex's technology may have been transferred to China. Chris Cash, director of the China Research Group of MPs, said the disclosures around grants raised a question of whether UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) funding should be subject to more rigorous national security scrutiny. CRRC acquired a 75pc stake in Lincolns Dynex, which makes microchips, in 2008 to little fanfare. In 2019, it bought the remaining shares in the company it did not already own. Dynexs technology includes high power semiconductors and switches destined for trains, electric cars and industrial machines. Its technology also has applications for hydrogen power and nuclear fusion. CRRC, which has a public listing in Shanghai, is the worlds largest rolling stock manufacturer with a market value of around $20bn (16.4bn). It has 180,000 employees and investments across trainmaking and technology. The company is majority owned by the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, an arm of the Chinese state, according to Chinese company filings analysed by Datenna. Under CRRC ownership, Dynex has applied for, and been given, millions of pounds in research grants from the British Government to build advanced semiconductor technology. Its most recent grant funding was secured in February 2022 and runs until 2024. Story continues The majority of the Government funding was awarded by the Innovate UK agency, which receives taxpayer cash. The contracts include multiple research agreements with UK universities to study new types of semiconductors for electric vehicles, batteries and renewable power generation. After acquiring Dynex, in 2014, Dynex and CRRC announced they had built a factory in Zhuzhou that would develop insulated gate bipolar transistors in China, a first for the country. These transistors are small, light and highly efficient. China Railgun - The Telegraph In 2018, The Sunday Times reported on concerns, citing a former Dynex official, that the semiconductor companys technology had been transferred to China. In 2021, MPs of the Defence Select Committee cited the story in a report on foreign investment in Britains supply chain, and warned CRRC could have used know-how from the acquisition to develop Chinese navy railguns. Railguns use electromagnets instead of explosives to fire projectiles hundreds of miles 50pc faster than traditional guns. A spokesman for Innovate UK said: Innovate UK/UKRI carries out due diligence and risk assessment of applications for funding. Where risks are identified appropriate controls are applied, including seeking advice within the wider government if required to make an informed decision to award or not. Innovate UK has reinforced existing terms and conditions for business-led innovation grants, including the development of grant portfolio tools to enable appropriate company monitoring, for example to identify potential foreign ownership issues. Dynex and CRRC did not respond to requests for comment. Originally founded in the 1950s, Dynex employs around 250 people. Its direct parent is a Canadian company, but, according to its accounts, its ultimate parent company is CRRC. The accounts state the Chinese company has provided millions of pounds in investment and loans to pay for research. The UK has been tightening up its controls on Chinese investment in recent years as a result of national security concerns. Ministers have banned Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company, from Britains 5G mobile networks and the Government has also blocked the takeover of a chip plant in Newport by Nexperia, a Dutch company owned by China. Both Huawei and Nexperia have always denied posing any kind of security risk. Supt. Alberto M. Carvalho speaks at a September news conference about a major cyberattack on the Los Angeles Unified School District. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times) An intrusion into the computer systems of the Los Angeles school district began more than a month earlier than previously disclosed and likely exposed confidential information, including Social Security numbers, of more than 500 people who worked for district contractors, according to information filed with the state. As the district previously disclosed, the security breach does not appear to extend to the payroll records and Social Security numbers for the tens of thousands of district employees. An undisclosed number of students enrolled at some point from 2013 through 2016 and some employees during that period appear to have lost information that includes their date of birth and address. California school districts don't collect student Social Security numbers. The updated information comes by way of a "Notice of Data Breach" that the nation's second-largest school system was required under state law to send to potential victims. School district officials Friday did not provide information on the number of possible victims. In addition to having to notify victims, a notice letter must be filed with the state attorney general when the number of those affected surpasses 500 California residents, the mandated threshold for public notification. District officials had previously stated that there would be a small but not-yet-determined number of victims "outliers," as Supt. Alberto Carvalho described them. The victims would be notified and assisted, he added, while emphasizing that the overriding narrative was one of a worse disaster averted. Hackers made off with about 500 gigabytes of data a figure agreed on by both the hackers and the school system. That's a large haul compared with what an individual user would maintain, but a tiny fraction of the data under the control of L.A. Unified. Stealing data is only one part of an attack. The second part involves encrypting computer systems so that its users cannot get in, paralyzing the ability to conduct everyday business. Hackers managed to encrypt servers in the district's facilities division, but had limited success elsewhere, even though normal operations, including classroom instruction and record-keeping, were more difficult for about two weeks. Schools never had to be temporarily closed which has happened elsewhere when some school systems were attacked. Story continues L.A. Unified refused to pay a ransom and hackers responded by releasing the data they had onto the dark web, where other bad actors could use it for such purposes as identify theft. District officials have for months publicly characterized the attack as beginning and ending on Sept. 3 the Saturday of the Labor Day weekend. District technicians, when they noticed the attack, moved quickly and with substantial success to limit its scope. "In a very, very unique way, we stopped the attack midstream," Carvalho said at a news conference in October. "That's very unusual. What usually happens is the entity finds out about the attack after the information was captured, uploaded, and the servers the system [are] encrypted. ... I can tell you that there have been a number of systems in this country who have fallen victim to this same actor that were not so lucky." The follow-up investigation determined that an intrusion began as early as July 31. "Between July 31, 2022, and Sept. 3, 2022, an unauthorized actor accessed and acquired certain files maintained on our servers," states the required notice, which was filed with the state last week. State records list the span of the breach as beginning on July 31 and ending Sept. 3. On Friday, the district said the original one-day attack scenario remains correct. "The investigation revealed that the threat actor was engaged in reconnaissance on or about July 31, 2022," a district statement said. "The cyberattack began and ended on Sept. 3, 2022." For cybersecurity experts, the disclosure in the notice letter was no surprise. They had predicted that an investigation would uncover that the intrusion into the system began earlier than what had been announced. "Hackers are often inside networks for weeks or even months before they deploy the ransomware that encrypts the systems," said Brett Callow, threat analyst for the cybersecurity company Emsisoft. "This means there's a window of opportunity during which threats can be detected and neutralized before they become full-blown ransomware incidents." "In simple terms, a whole bunch of things happen before systems get locked," he added. "The hacker needs to do recon, to get into the network, to ensure they can get back in, to gain access to other areas of the network, to exfiltrate data, etc., etc. All of these steps require them doing certain things and those things can be detected if youre looking for them." A newly released Emsisoft report indicates that the annual number of known cyberattacks on school systems in 2022 was about the same as in other recent years despite "executive orders, international summits, increased efforts to disrupt the ransomware ecosystem, and the creation by Congress of an interagency body, the Joint Ransomware Task Force, to unify and strengthen efforts." But it is unclear if the attacks are causing increased harm, according to the report. "A decrease in the level of disruption caused by attacks or in the amount paid in ransoms could be regarded as a win even if the number of incidents had increased," the report states, while noting that data to draw such a conclusion was largely unavailable. The L.A. Unified data-breach notice contained unwelcome news for district contractors based on the ongoing investigation. "On Jan. 9, 2023, we identified labor compliance documents, including certified payroll records, that contractors provided to L.A. Unified in connection with Facilities Services Division projects," the notice states. "Those files contained the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of contractor and subcontractor employees and other affiliated individuals." Carvalho, who became superintendent nearly a year ago, said recently that the district was more vulnerable because of preventable lapses. These included failing to follow through with key recommendations of an internal cybersecurity audit that was prepared more than two years ago, he said. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Hartford school officials are mum on next step concerning an audit that showed alleged mismanagement of a schools student activities fund, but confirmed the individuals who ran the fund are, no longer active employees with Hartford Public Schools. Board of Education spokesman Jesse Sugarman would not say if that employee inactivity was through firing, resignation or suspension. He also would not say whether the matter has been referred to police, as the audit mentions possible criminality and sources close to the case have said it could be referred. Police spokesman Lt. Aaron Boisevert said the Police Department does not currently have an open investigation in the case. In response to questions regarding the audit case status, Sugarman, in an email, wrote only: I can confirm that the individuals who ran the fund are no longer active employees with Hartford Public Schools. " An audit by school officials into the alleged mismanaged funds at Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy done in 2022 by the Hartford Public Schools finance department concluded the schools fund was mismanaged overall, including by using money from the fund to pay for a teachers retirement party. The audit doesnt name the person who was under fire for allegedly mismanaging the money intended to pay for extracurricular and other student enrichment activities or the supervisor who should have been overseeing the fund by Board of Education rules. The audit was done in response to alleged irregularities found in a cursory review of the finances, a source said. The audit was referred to the citys Internal Audit Commission, an autonomous body set up by a city charter. The audits status with that commission couldnt be determined, but the commission is slated to address the audit at an upcoming meeting. Members of the Internal Audit Commission were involved in the audit as they conducted interviews. Among the audit findings were that the Student Activity Fund administrator allegedly used the fund to pay for at least part of a retirement party for three teachers at a local cafe and on at least eight occasions allegedly signed the signature of the principal and assistant principal on checks that required them to sign. Story continues The audit examined records for the fiscal year 2021-2022. The Student Activity Fund administrators conduct, rises to the level of gross negligence of (their) responsibilities,, the audits conclusion states. The audit also concluded the principal allegedly hadnt paid adequate attention to the fund. The fund is comprised of money raised and collected by students through fundraising activities, donations, class dues, athletics, yearbooks, field trips and activity clubs, the audit states. That money is used to pay for student activities. In addition to interviews, the financial team analyzed bank statements, receipts, signatures, approvals, invoices and more. Among the findings of the audit were: The fund had a $42,000 deficit, according to bank statements. There was no confirmation of where large sums of money deposited in 2023 from the 2021-2022 fiscal year were held during that gap. During a visit by the financial staff, the student activity fund safe was inspected and checks and cash totaling $1,500 was discovered that had not been deposited at the bank or recorded in the books. Cash receipts showed about $40,000 collected that year but some $30,000 was deposited in the bank. Various transactions recorded were deleted. There were missing receipts for cash collected. Deposited transactions were removed from the register. The final fiscal year statement from Bank of America showed an account balance of about $31,000, meaning the value of the account declined over the course of the year. A test of the cash disbursement process allegedly showed the fund money was being misused for various activities such as for staff appreciation incentives and a retirement party against the Student Activity Fund policy. Checks written for teacher events were allegedly disguised as student events in record-keeping, the audit says. Transactions for the retirement party costing $4,260 were allegedly labeled: Senior outing class of 2022. The signatures on the checks to a cafe where the retirement party was held were alleged to be those of the schools principal and assistant principal, but when shown the checks as part of the audit, neither recognized their signatures, the document says. Jan. 21The Hawaii Supreme Court on Friday ruled that incumbent Maui County Council member Alice Lee won reelection in the Nov. 8 general election, saying a challenge over disputed ballots would not have changed the outcome. The Hawaii Supreme Court on Friday ruled that incumbent Maui County Council member Alice Lee won reelection in the Nov. 8 general election, saying a challenge over disputed ballots would not have changed the outcome. Election results showed that Lee won the race for the Wailuku-Waihee-Waikapu seat with 22, 733 votesjust 513 votes more than challenger Noelani Ahia. Ahia, who ran on the self-proclaimed progressive Maui 'Ohana ticket, and dozens of voters in the district filed a complaint based on the more than 860 deficient mail-in ballots that were either unsigned, had a problematic signature or showed what they claimed were signs of possible tampering. The focus of the complaint alleged that Maui County Clerk Kathy Kaohu delayed mailing out a "notice-to-cure " to some of those voters to correct their ballotsspecifically the 215 notices the high court said were sent out Nov. 12, which didn't give the voters an adequate amount of time to resolve the issues and have their ballots counted. The high court, in a, noted that the 215 problematic ballots were received no later than Nov. 8 and that Kaohu should have mailed out the notices earlier. However, the court said those ballotseven if counted as votes for Ahiawould not have been enough to defeat Lee. "Based on the record, the court holds that the mistake by the Clerk to wait until November 12, 2022 to mail the notice-to-cure to the 215 voters would not change the outcome of the election, " the Supreme Court decision said. The decision was signed by four of the state Supreme Court's five justices. Associate Justice Michael Wilson, the lone dissenter, argued that another for the Council seat since Lee's 513-vote margin of victory is smaller than the number of ballots that still need to be verified. In addition to the 215 voters who were not given adequate notice to correct their ballots, Wilson said 463 ballots were not counted because the voter signatures bore signs that may have invalided them. Kaohu did not make a reasonable effort to determine the validity of those ballots, Wilson argued, so there are 678 total questionable ballots. "The election must be set aside and the clerk directed to hold another election in accordance with the presumption of validity that protects the most important right born by the citizens of Hawaii : the right to vote, " Wilson said. A German Leopard 2A6 tank fires at its target during the Strong Europe Tank Challenge (SETC), at the 7th Army Training Command Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, May 12, 2017. US Army photo by Spc. Nathanael Mercado Ukraine has repeatedly called for more heavy armor from Western countries, including tanks. Kyiv really wants the German-made Leopard 2 tank, but it hasn't been able to get them. These formidable main battle tanks would provide a massive firepower boost on the battlefield. Kyiv has pressed NATO and other European partners for more heavy armor, including fighting vehicles and tanks. A lot is on the way, but a couple of requests have hit roadblocks. Ukraine is getting many of the items on its wish list, but it hasn't been able to get its hands on the German-made Leopard tanks it wants. And for the time being, that doesn't seem likely to change. Some countries with Leopards have offered to send these tanks, but the problem is that sending them technically requires Germany's approval. And despite mounting pressure on Berlin to provide its own Leopards or at the very least allow others to send them, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not budged. Poland, one NATO country that has Leopards, indicated on Thursday that it could go rogue and take matters into its own hands if Germany didn't authorize anything. The country's president previously said he wanted to send the tanks to Ukraine as part of an "international coalition." US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday after a meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that Germany had not reached a decision on the Leopards. He emphasized though that the focus "is making sure that Ukraine has the capability that it needs to be successful right now." He added that he has "no announcements" on the American M1 Abrams tank, another much-sought-after weapon. A German official previously linked the delivery of the Abrams to a decision on the Leopards, but Austin said that is not the case. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who attended the defense ministers meeting Friday, dashed Ukrainian hopes of receiving Leopards, saying that "we all cannot say today when a decision will come and what it will look like," according to Politico. Story continues On a brighter note though, he said that he had instructed the German military to review its inventory of Leopard battle tanks so it can "act quickly" if a decision is eventually reached. Fast, mobile, and well-armed The Leopard 2 is Germany's main battle tank developed by defense firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. It was designed in the 1970s, succeeding the earlier Leopard 1, and can be found in the arsenals of nearly 20 different countries. The Leopard can travel up to 44 mph out to a range of 275 miles. It is armed with a 120 mm smoothbore cannon, a 7.62 mm machine gun, and automatic grenade launchers. Additionally, the tank has ballistic and mine protections, and it's seen operational experience in Kosovo, Syria, and Afghanistan. A Leopard 2A7 main battle tank of the German Armed Forces drives during a training exercise in 2019 Philipp Schulze/picture alliance via Getty Images "Thanks to its high power output, the [Leopard 2] moves with great speed even on rough terrain," Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, the manufacturer, notes on its website. "Its maneuverability, proven fire power and high degree of protection enable it to complete the most demanding of missions." Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters at a Thursday briefing that unlike the American M1 Abrams, which has a different kind of engine, the Leopard requires diesel fuel and is a "little bit easier to maintain." "They can maneuver across large portions of territory before they need to refuel," she said of Leopard and British Challenger tanks. Leopard tanks could help change a static situation Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Friday that the 11-month-long war is currently a "very, very difficult fight," going on to say that the front line is currently "static" with the exception of the battles around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Jeffrey Edmonds, a Russia expert at the Center for Naval Analyses and former CIA military analyst, said he doesn't believe that the Ukrainians want the battlefield to remain in such a static situation, although the Russians might like that so they could regroup and integrate new soldiers. "I think the Ukrainians want to, at some point, launch counteroffensives. And that's much more effective with heavy armor as much as you can get," Edmonds told Insider. "Especially modern systems, which probably have more penetrating power." A Leopard 2A6 main battle tank of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, participates in the NATO Iron Wolf military exercises on October 26, 2022 in Pabrade, Lithuania. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images Main battle tanks like the Leopards along with infantry fighting vehicles give Ukraine more opportunities to change the "static nature" of the conflict and take advantage of potential breakthroughs, Edmonds said, adding that they provide firepower, maneuverability, and "shock effect." If Leopard tanks make their way to Ukraine, they would join a squadron of UK-provided Challenger 2 tanks and other types of armored combat vehicles that NATO and European countries have recently pledged to send to Kyiv. The US alone is sending scores of Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and Stryker armored personnel carriers. As Western security assistance to Ukraine continues to ramp up in the early weeks of the new year and ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion it remains to be seen how European countries proceed with the Leopard question, but pressure to get these tanks to Ukraine is growing. "Arming Ukraine in order to repel the Russian aggression is not some kind of decision-making exercise. Ukrainian blood is shed for real," Poland's Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau said on Friday. "This is the price of hesitation over Leopard deliveries. We need action, now." Read the original article on Business Insider Lacey police arrested and charged a 16-year-old River Ridge High School student for bringing a loaded handgun to school Thursday. According to the Lacey Police Department, officers were called to the school for reports of a student acting suspiciously. Officers arrested a 16-year-old student who had a loaded gun and an unknown substance believed to be some sort of drug. Police said the incident did not require a lockdown or cause any disruption to the school day. The student was charged with two felonies and one misdemeanor. In a letter sent to families, River Ridge High School principal Serenity Malloy said there was no known intent for the student to use the gun. Layoffs from Silicon Valley giants are spreading, with Google announcing Friday it will cut about 12,000 jobs. Meanwhile, T-Mobile said a hacker stole data of about 37 million customers, and a poll showed nearly 30 percent of surveyed professionals said they used the new ChatGPT tool while at work. 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? Close Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Hillicon Valley newsletter Google to lay off 12,000 employees Googles parent company, Alphabet, will cut about 12,000 jobs, as tech companies across the board engage in mass layoffs. Over the past two years weve seen periods of dramatic growth, CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to Google employees on Friday. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today. After a rigorous review, Pichai said they would be cutting positions across product areas, functions, levels and regions at Alphabet. As an almost 25-year-old company, were bound to go through difficult economic cycles, Pichai added. These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities. The layoffs join tens of thousands of other jobs cuts announced by tech companies in recent weeks: Meta also dropped 11,000 jobs in November and thousands more were cut in late 2022 from Twitter, Netflix, Stripe and other companies. Read more here. T-Mobile hacker stole data on 37M T-Mobile said a hacker stole data on about 37 million customers after first gaining access to a company system in November, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) report filed on Thursday. Story continues The phone carrier said it first identified the bad actor on Jan. 5 and was able to trace and stop their activity within a day. Our investigation is still ongoing, but the malicious activity appears to be fully contained at this time, and there is currently no evidence that the bad actor was able to breach or compromise our systems or our network, T-Mobile said in the SEC filing. The hacker breached a single application programming interface on about Nov. 25 that contained data on customer names, billing addresses, emails, phone numbers, dates of birth, T-Mobile account numbers and plan information. However, T-Mobile noted that many of the 37 million accounts affected did not include this entire range of data. Read more here. NEARLY 30 PERCENT SAY THEY USED CHATGPT AT WORK Almost 30 percent of professional workers say they have used the artificial intelligence software known as ChatGPT while at work. A poll from the publication Fishbowl, which focuses on workplace trends and employee perspectives, found that 27 percent of professionals have used the program to help them with work-related tasks. Pollsters reported that those in the marketing and advertising industry have used it most commonly, with 37 percent saying so. The AI search tool launched to the public in November and has grown significantly in popularity since then as a free service. A user of the program can type in a question and the tool will respond with an answer in the form of an essay. Read more here. BITS & PIECES An op-ed to chew on: Social media must balance right of free speech with audience right to know Notable links from around the web: Tech Layoffs Shock Young Workers. The Older People? Not So Much. (The New York Times / Tripp Mickle) Tech Workers Fight for Iran Protesters as Big Tech Plays It Safe (Wired / Paresh Dave) ONE MORE THING Tension between Dems and Musk heat up Tensions between Elon Musk and Senate Democrats are heating up ahead of former President Trumps expected return to Twitter, which comes amid reports that the popular social media platform has seen a rise in hate speech since Musks takeover last year. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is raising concerns about Twitters opaque financing and whether foreign interests could gain enough influence over the digital town square ahead of the 2024 election to pose a national security threat. Musk, anticipating more criticism from Democratic lawmakers, on Wednesday predicted the Biden administration may try to weaponize federal agencies against Twitter. 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 Monday. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. While Congress biggest Donald Trump antagonists are household names to political junkies think Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin theres a lesser-known Trump adversary who may have been more effective than the others: Doug Letter. The former House general counsel was involved in every political brawl between House Democrats and Trump that has defined Washington politics for the past four years. Letter helped guide the work of the Jan. 6 select committee, played a critical role in both Trump impeachments and strategized the certification of Joe Bidens win before violent rioters upended those plans on Jan. 6, 2021. Before the Capitol riot, Letter spent years litigating the chambers effort to obtain Trumps tax returns and financial records, not to mention fighting the Trump administrations effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, among many more fronts of courtroom battle. In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO, the House's former top attorney described his tenure battling a former president who tested the limits of executive power at every turn, resisting efforts at accountability in ways that previous chief executives had not. But he has faith that his work helped to stem future presidential attempts to push constitutional boundaries, lending more power to lawmakers. I just feel like the Biden administration and future administrations are not going to act like the Trump administration, Letter said. Theyre not going to show such ignorance of our system and think that the executive branch can ignore the legislative branch. Thats not the way it works. Until the Capitol attack, Letter was convinced that his role in Trumps first impeachment wouldve been the pinnacle of a job already marked by extraordinary legal confrontations. That changed on Jan. 6. Letter was returning to the House floor from some basement vending machines when he ran into Speaker Nancy Pelosi being whisked from the Capitol under heavy guard. Dont go back up there, one official told him. An angry mob had breached the building. Story continues But Letter, in a panic, said he had to retrieve several giant binders that were full of sensitive strategy and scripts for the days proceedings. He opted to forgo evacuating with Pelosi and instead raced back to the chamber. I was the last person in before they locked the doors, Letter recalled. The attack on the Capitol led to the Jan. 6 select committee, where the Houses then-top attorney charted a legal strategy that Letternow describes as one of the hallmarks of his tenure. Through his work on that panel, Letter secured at least two streams of information that became a core element of the committees voluminous findings: Trumps confidential White House records and the Chapman University emails of attorney John Eastman, an architect of the then-president's bid to subvert the 2020 election. Letter also won court fights to obtain telephone records from Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward, who took part in Trump worlds plan to send false electors to Congress. And he helped direct the Houses strategy to hold certain Trump advisers in contempt of Congress, which resulted in prosecutions of Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon. We had a whole enormous number of people that, as we now know, were putting together this massive, not just a conspiracy, but a whole bunch of conspiracies, to attack our democracy, Letter said. Additionally, Letter played a role in the select committees decision to subpoena five sitting Republican members of Congress to testify before the Jan. 6 select committee, including now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He has moved on now that Republicans have gained the House majority, taking a new job as chief legal officer for Brady: United Against Gun Violence. That role bears a more significant connection to his Jan. 6 committee work than it may appear, in his view. Brady, he noted, had previously written a report that credited D.C.s strict gun laws with limiting the damage rioters caused; if they had been able to stockpile firearms closer to the Capitol, it couldve been much worse, the report said. And he still remembers the Capitol attack vividly. Letter said he was one of the last to leave the House chamber on Jan. 6, recalling the scene in which Capitol Police officers aimed their firearms at a rear door that the pro-Trump mob had attempted to breach. He finally evacuated at around the same moment one rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer. Letter doesnt remember hearing the shot. But that same evening, as he was processing his own trauma, he was still acting as an attorney representing a sergeant-at-arms official who had attempted to administer medical aid to Babbitt and faced questions about the incident from Washington-area law enforcement. Hed kept doing his job right after being evacuated from the chamber, too. Letter joined lawmakers at a safe location in the Capitol complex, where he continued to draft scripts to rebut potential challenges, should the House reconvene and continue the session (as it did later that night). But he noticed something else that bothered him a group of House Republicans were crowded 10 feet away and refusing to wear masks, despite the raging pandemic and the limited availability of vaccines at the time. Im not going to get killed by insurrectionists, he remembers thinking. Im going to die of Covid. One of the most interesting challenges for the House counsel, Letter said, is having to technically be the lawyer for every member of the chamber even those who would later battle the Jan. 6 select committee. Though the position is filled by the speaker, the House general counsel is often called upon to represent individual members in legal disputes. Letter remembers successfully representing Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) in a First Amendment case, even though she had also been considered one of Trumps enablers in the election gambit. But when lawmakers aim legal disputes at each other as when McCarthy sued to block Pelosi from implementing a system of proxy voting amid the pandemic, or when Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) sued to overturn House fines for refusing to wear masks on the floor Letter defaulted to representing the speaker and the institution as a whole. Overall, Letter says he believes his efforts helped empower the institution of the House by putting teeth behind its subpoenas and earning court rulings that reinforced Congress power to obtain information to support potential legislation. Republicans, who now hold the gavels of powerful investigative committees that Letter had previously aided, have fretted that some of the rulings during Letters tenure could cut against the Houses authority. One example the GOP notes is Democrats pursuit of Trumps financial information through his accounting firm, which resulted in a Supreme Court ruling that established a test for the type of private information Congress could request from a sitting president. While Letter acknowledged the criticism, he said he considered that case a major victory for Congress. The Supreme Court endorsed lawmakers sweeping power to demand information, he argued, and agreed they could obtain a presidents private information under specific circumstances, which the House ultimately met in that instance. Mostly, he said, the rulings he pursued all the way to the Supreme Court were a function of Trumps willingness to battle Congress more aggressively than any of his predecessors. But Letter hopes that marked a unique moment in history. I would hope that well go back to a system where there are nowhere near as many fights in court, he said. CPR, especially when done immediately, can double or triple a persons survival chances. (Getty Images) Worldwide interest in CPR, also known as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, skyrocketed following Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlins cardiac arrest during a game on Jan. 2, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). The organization reported a 620% increase in page views of its Hands-Only CPR webpages, a 145% increase in page views of its What is CPR? page and a 113% increase in page views of its CPR Course Catalog page. According to the AHA, about 90% of people who experience cardiac arrests outside of a hospital die. But CPR, especially when done immediately, can double or triple a persons survival chances. Dr. Comilla Sasson, vice president for science and innovation for emergency cardiovascular care at the AHA, and a practicing emergency medicine physician in Denver, tells Yahoo Life that CPR an emergency lifesaving procedure that helps keep blood flowing when the heart stops beating can extend the possibility that the person will survive once a medical professional attends to them. How do you know if someone needs CPR? A person needs CPR when experiencing cardiac arrest, Dr. Holly Andersen, a cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, tells Yahoo Life. They will collapse suddenly and not be responsive, breathe or have a pulse, she says. Dr. Jeremy Turlington of VCU Healths Pauley Heart Center tells Yahoo Life that if you see someone collapse, you should ask if they are OK, and if there is no response, that is when you should be concerned for a potential cardiac or respiratory arrest a lack of heartbeat or breathing. If the person is unresponsive, Turlington advises calling 911 immediately. If someone is with you, ask them to call 911 instead while you assess the person. First, ensure they're in a safe environment. Next, check for a pulse, preferably in the neck, at the side of the throat or the Adams apple. If you dont feel a pulse, you should start CPR. Although a person who needs CPR will typically be on the ground, if the person is slumped in a seated position, Dr. Evan Jacobs, associate vice president of specialty care for Conviva Care Center, tells Yahoo Life that you should lower them to the ground if possible before assessing them. Story continues That said, if you dont know how the person became unconscious and if there is an obvious injury to the head or neck region, avoid shaking or moving them excessively because there could be a spinal cord injury, Dr. Samuel Hahn, an interventional cardiologist at Yale Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. If the person still has a pulse, Jacobs says, they may not need CPR. This can happen in people with very low blood sugar who may faint, for example. How to perform CPR on infants According to Andersen, experts recommend performing CPR with breaths for infants. But first, call 911 or ask someone else to do so if available. Then, carefully remove any obvious obstruction in the babys mouth. To do CPR with breaths, place the infant on a flat surface. Ensure the head is in a neutral position and lift the chin, Andersen says. Take a breath, then cover the infants mouth or nose with your mouth, ensuring its sealed. Then blow a breath steadily into the babys mouth or nose, enough to make the chest visibly rise, she explains. Watch for the chest to fall, then repeat. After giving breaths, place two fingers pointed down on the babys breastbone, just below the nipples. Perform two compressions by pressing down on the chest per second or 100 to 120 compressions per minute, explains Andersen. She advises that each compression push the chest down by about one-third of the depth of the infants chest. After 30 compressions, give two more breaths, she says. Continue breaths and compressions in a ratio of 2 breaths for every 30 compressions. Sasson says you should continue CPR until the ambulance arrives or until the infants heartbeat and breathing return. How to perform CPR on children To do CPR for a child, kneel beside them as they lie on their back. With your hands out straight and fingers interlocked, use the palm of your hand to push down hard and fast in the center of the chest, Andersen explains. Do two compressions per second, pressing down about one-third of an inch deep into the childs chest. She advises that its best to have a song in your head while performing CPR, to keep the beat. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital put together a Spotify playlist of songs with 100 to 120 bpm, the right beat to perform CPR, says Andersen. You can find the playlist on this Spotify page. The hospital also has a video at HandsOnly.org that teaches you how to do CPR in less than a minute. You can also perform CPR with breaths for children by following the same steps as you would for an infant. However, instead of using two fingers to do the compressions, you would use the heel of your hand for children up to 8 years old and two hands for older children, explains Sasson. How to perform CPR on teens and adults Ensure the person is lying flat on their back before starting CPR. Kneel beside them and place the heels of your hands, one on top of the other, over their breastbone at the center of the chest, Turlington says. Using your body weight and not just your arms, with your shoulders directly over your hands, start doing chest compressions, he says. Turlington suggests pressing about 2 inches deep with each compression and allowing the chest to return to a normal position between compressions. Do the compressions at 100 to 120 per minute, which for reference is the tempo of the song Stayin Alive by the Bee Gees (or any of the other songs on the NewYork-Presbyterian Spotify playlist). Turlington says you should keep going until someone else comes to relieve you or if the person starts breathing on their own. In some cases, you can break a persons ribs performing CPR. Though unpleasant, Turlington explains, youre still saving their life. According to Jacobs, seniors are more likely to have rib fractures from chest compressions. If the person is thin or frail, he advises you to press their chest at 2 inches deep only. Also, chest compressions are tiring, notes Turlington. So, if you have help, switch places every minute or two to ensure each person gets a rest and can perform better during their turn. How does CPR actually work? During cardiac arrest, the heart stops pumping blood, and the person stops breathing, Hahn explains. However, notes Turlington, the lungs have a reserve of oxygen that can last for a few minutes after a person stops breathing. CPR works because it mimics the natural squeezing of the heart. By performing CPR, you push blood out of the heart to the rest of the body, including the brain, Turlington explains. When you release the compression during CPR, the heart recoils, and blood can fill back into the heart for you to pump out again with the next compression, he says. As you continue compressions at 100 to 120 per minute, blood continues circulating to the brain and other organs to maintain blood flow until medical help arrives to restore the contractions of the heart. However, after a few minutes, the stored oxygen runs out, and the person will need oxygen, Hahn says. Still, hands-only CPR is better than nothing and better than incorrectly performing full CPR with rescue breathing, he says. Hence, Hahn advises getting emergency medical services by calling 911 as soon as possible. Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Lifes newsletter. Sign up here. Web Summit 2021 - Day Three Valery Miftakhov, ZeroAvia CEO, speaking in Lisbon, Portugal. ZeroAvia on Jan. 19 2023 completed a successful hydrogen-fueled flight in the UK. Credit - Eoin Noonan/Sportsfile for Web SummitGetty Images Yesterday, the worlds largest-ever hydrogen-powered plane took off from an airport in the U.K., made a 10-mile circle in the air, and landed again about 10 minutes later. The plane, a Dornier 228 19-seat turboprop extensively modified by startup ZeroAvia, wasnt exactly a jumbo jet, but it still accounts for a significant step in the nascent world of zero emission flight. The previous record for largest hydrogen aircraft, also held by ZeroAvia, was for a 6-seat aircraft. On board, a pair of fuel cells converted hydrogen into electricity to run an electric motor on the planes left wing, aided by a lithium-ion battery that added extra power during takeoff. In case something went wrong with the zero-carbon setup, the planes other propeller was powered by a conventional kerosine engine. And to keep things simple, the test plane only had about 10 kilograms of hydrogen on board (22 lbs), enough to fly for about 30 minutes. In the target configuration for commercial [flights], were looking at 80 to 100 kilos of hydrogen on board. So significantly longer range, says Val Miftakhov, ZeroAvias CEO. This current plane is a stepping stone in the companys larger ambitions. Theyre currently working on a hydrogen power system for a 76-seat regional aircraft, which could be ready around 2026. The aviation industry produces about 2% of all humanitys carbon dioxide emissions, a share thats expected to grow as air travel expands, with many analysts expecting the sector to triple by 2050. Its critical to find sustainable alternatives. But the physical constraints that planes operate underthey have to be lightweight, refuel quickly, and carry enough stored energy on board to make it a decent distance before they have to refuel againmeans that making a green replacement is more difficult than, say, building electric cars. Story continues Some startups are working to develop fully electric, battery-powered planes, with some success, though many designs are relatively small. Alice, a battery-electric airplane developed by startup Eviation, which had its first short test flight last fall, can carry nine passengers. The largest battery powered plane, an electrified Cessna Grand Caravan first flown in 2020, can carry 14 passengers. Other companies are betting on so-called e-fuels, which use chemical processes to convert renewable energy into liquid fuels like kerosine, which then could be used by planes of any size, and many airlines are investing in scaling up this seemingly simple solution. But many processes to produce that fuel rely on organic feedstocks, and there ultimately may not be enough to go around. That leaves batteries and hydrogen as two longer-term clean energy solutions. Read more: Were Gonna Need a Greener Boat Miftakhov, a former electric vehicle charging entrepreneur, says that battery powered planes have a shot at decarbonizing the market for small, short-range planes, but that hydrogen is the only reasonable option for decarbonizing longer routes flown by bigger aircraft. If you do the math, there is actually a limitation on how much energy you can store in the battery, Miftakhov says. Youre not going to be able to run a 787 over the Atlantic on that energy source. Those longer flights account for the lionshare of the airline industrys emissions. In 2020, long flights of more than 4,000km (2,485 mi.) constituted just 6% of all flights departing from European airports, but accounted for more than half of total flight emissions, according to an analysis by Eurocontrol. The shortest flights of 500 km (310 mi.) or less, the ballpark range of those being targeted by battery-electric airplane companies, were about 30% of departing flights, and 4% of emissions. In order for battery-powered flight to compete beyond extremely short flying routes, says Miftakhov, batteries would have to store a lot more power, charge very fast, and last for thousands of battery cycles before they need to be replaced. These are at natural conflict with each other, he says. To move all these three by an order of magnitude each is a monumental challenge. Hydrogen, on the other hand, has enough energy density to power the largest planes, according to Miftakhov. (Though even compressed hydrogen takes up a larger volume on board a plane than conventional kerosine.) European aircraft giant Airbus, for instance, is working on developing large hydrogen engines, which it claims it will be able to demonstrate in the next four years. And unlike e-fuels, producing hydrogen doesnt require complicated chemical processesit can even be produced at an airport if need be. Eventually, I think its all going to be electric motors powered by hydrogen fuel cells, Miftakhov says. 15 to 20 years outobviously uncertainwell get the technology to a point when it can power some of the largest planes out there. Jan. 21On Friday, the University of Idaho provided what could only be described as an emotional and surreal moment for the entire Palouse track and field community. Jill and Matt McCluskey were present for the ribbon cutting and the official dedication ceremony for the new Lauren McCluskey Track inside the Kibbie Dome during the fourth annual Lauren McCluskey Memorial Open. Lauren McCluskey, a former University of Utah track standout, was murdered on Oct. 22, 2018, by a man she briefly dated. Lauren McCluskey grew up in Pullman and was a Washington state high school state champion in the high jump. She also set the 100-meter hurdles mark as a member of the Pullman High School track team. She would train at UI's facilities during the winter. One year after the passing of Lauren McCluskey, Idaho renamed the track meet the school hosts in her honor. Matt and Jill McCluskey donated $1 million to the University of Idaho's track and field program in February 2022, with the money earmarked for the resurfacing of the track. "This was Lauren's home track during the winter months. She was always welcomed here," Jill McCluskey said. "With this new track, Lauren will always have a presence in the Kibbie Dome." The track was finished on July 14, with the goal of turning the two-day meet that began Friday into a premier event. One year in and it's already brought in several high-profile college from around the region including Lewis-Clark State, Washington State, Utah, Whitworth, Linfield and Gonzaga. "As the athletes compete here today and in the future, my hope is that Lauren's light will shine through them as they compete with all their hearts for their schools," Jill McCluskey said, "as well as treat others with kindness and care." The family and those in attendance were able to take in the new 300-meter track with a Mondotrack Super X surface along with Wall 2 Wall commercial flooring. Story continues The surface includes UI branding with the words "Lauren McCluskey Track" in the center. The logo is the largest logo ever integrated into a track. "The University of Idaho played a small part in her journey, and we're proud that her legacy will endure here at the Lauren McCluskey Track," University of Idaho president Scott Green said. "Thank you to the McCluskey family for this donation and for making this game-changing surface a reality. We're looking forward to seeing records fall here in the Kibbie Dome." After speeches from Jill McCluskey and Green, UI athletic director Terry Gawlik unveiled a plaque dedicated to Lauren McCluskey. The plaque included a bronze silhouette of Lauren McCluskey with a short biography as well as a memorium that says, "May Lauren's light continue to shine through the current and future athletes who train and compete here, her home track at the University of Idaho." Pixley may be contacted at (208) 848-2290, tpixley@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @TreebTalks. WASHINGTON (AP) A surge in Cuban and Nicaraguan arrivals at the U.S. border with Mexico in December led to the highest number of illegal border crossings recorded during any month of Joe Biden's presidency, authorities said Friday. The extraordinary influx came shortly before Biden introduced measures on Jan. 5 to deter Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. U.S. authorities stopped migrants 251,487 times along the Mexican border in December, up 7% from 234,896 times in November and up 40% from 179,253 times in December 2021, Customs and Border Protection said. Cubans were stopped nearly 43,000 times in December, up 23% from November and more than quintuple the same period a year earlier. Nicaraguans were stopped more than 35,000 times, up 3% from November and more than double from December 2021. More migrants were also stopped from Ecuador and Peru. The influx from Cuba and Nicaragua made El Paso, Texas, the busiest of the Border Patrol's nine sectors on the Mexican border for a third month in a row. The city was overwhelmed with migrants who were released to pursue their immigration cases in the U.S. in the weeks leading up to Biden's visit on Jan. 8, his first to the border as president. The number of Venezuelan arrivals remained far below September highs, when the South American country was the second-highest nationality at the border after Mexicans. In October, the U.S. agreed to accept up to 24,000 Venezuelans on humanitarian parole, while Mexico agreed to take back the same number who entered the U.S. illegally and could be expelled under a pandemic-era rule to deny rights to seek asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Biden said this month that the U.S. would admit up to 30,000 people a month under humanitarian parole from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, allowing them to live and work for two years if they apply online, pay airfare and find a financial sponsor. At the same time, Mexico agreed to take back the same number from those four countries who enter the U.S. illegally and can be removed under the pandemic-era rule known as Title 42. Troy Miller, CBP's acting commissioner, signaled that the latest measures may be having the desired effect. Early data suggests the expanded measures for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans are having a similar impact, and we look forward to sharing the additional data in the next update, he said in a news release. By Steve Gorman (Reuters) - An Illinois judge temporarily blocked on Friday a newly enacted state ban on many semi-automatic firearms, a measure lawmakers swiftly passed after a gunman killed seven people and wounded dozens with an AR-15-type rifle at a July Fourth parade near Chicago. In granting a restraining order, state Circuit Court Judge Joshua Morrison sided with hundreds of plaintiffs who challenged the law on grounds that unconstitutional legislative maneuvers were used to win its adoption in the Democratic-controlled state General Assembly. The ban cleared the legislature earlier this month and was immediately signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker, also a Democrat, who had pushed for its enactment in the wake of last year's Independence Day massacre in Highland Park and other mass shootings around the country. In vowing to challenge the ban, the head of the Illinois State Rifle Association said the gun measure would hinder nearly 2.5 million firearms owners in the state. Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that legislative rules were circumvented when a bill to amend insurance codes was abruptly stripped of its contents and used as a shell for the gun measure, without hearings on it, the judge ruled. "The defendants in this case did not follow the procedural requirements necessary for this legislation to stand up to the strict scrutiny that is required when restricting rights to avoid definitional irreparable harm," Morrison wrote. He noted plaintiffs' assertions that the legislative tactics in question impaired a constitutional right to bear arms, a point that Pritzker and state Attorney General Kwame Raoul have disputed. Pritzker issued a statement on Friday saying he was not surprised by the ruling but was confident the law would ultimately survive judicial review. "Although disappointing, it is the initial result we've seen in many cases brought by plaintiffs whose goal is to advance ideology over public safety," he said. Story continues The new law bans selling many kinds of weapons that automatically load the next bullet after a shot, including semi-automatic rifles and pistols with detachable magazines. The law lists dozens of popular gun brands made by U.S. gunmakers. Rifles that hold more than 10 bullets and pistols that hold more than 15 are also banned, as are rapid-fire attachments and .50-caliber guns. People who already own such weapons will be able to keep them but must register them with state police. Eight other states and the District of Columbia have already enacted similar bans. Gun owners rights groups say the bans violate the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment "right to keep and bear arms" and that many law-abiding Americans have such guns for self-defense, hunting and sport. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Jonathan Allen in New York) (Bloomberg) -- The Indian government has asked social media giants Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.s YouTube to take down videos and tweets about a BBC documentary on 2002 religious riots in Prime Minister Narendra Modis home state of Gujarat. Most Read from Bloomberg Indias Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has issued directions for blocking multiple videos hosted on Youtube of the first episode of the documentary, titled as India: The Modi Question, Kanchan Gupta, a former journalist and adviser with the ministry said in Twitter posts Saturday. Indias Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday had dismissed the work as propaganda piece. Orders have also been issued to Twitter to block over 50 tweets with links to Youtube videos, Gupta added. Blocking of the content is allowed via emergency powers under Indias information technology rules and Youtube and Twitter have have complied with the directions, Gupta said. Google did not respond to an email seeking comment on whether it had received orders to take down the BBC documentary links, or if it had removed the videos on copyright violation. Twitter also did not respond to email queries. The South Asian nation has seen rising anti-Muslim sentiment as Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have pushed ahead with their Hindu nationalist agenda since first coming to power in 2014. Why Hindu Nationalism Keeps Gaining Ground in India: QuickTake More than 1,000 people mostly Muslims were killed in sectarian violence across the state after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was burned allegedly by a Muslim mob. Human rights groups blamed Modi for doing little to stop the violence, allegations that were denied by him and later dismissed by Indias Supreme Court. Story continues The BBC has restricted broadcast of the documentary in India, posting the film on social media would be a violation of Intellectual Property Rights, Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for Indias Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters at a routine briefing in New Delhi Thursday. --With assistance from Sankalp Phartiyal and Bibhudatta Pradhan. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2023 Bloomberg L.P. TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus new government to overhaul the judicial system, measures that opponents say imperil the country's democratic foundation. Israeli media, citing police, said some 100,000 people were out protesting. The protest followed another demonstration last week that also drew tens of thousands in an early challenge to Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox government the most right-wing in Israeli history. The government says a power imbalance has given judges and government legal advisers too much sway over lawmaking and governance. Netanyahu has pledged to press on with the changes despite the opposition. Protesters filled central streets in the seaside metropolis, raising Israeli flags and banners that read Our Children will not Live in a Dictatorship and Israel, We Have A Problem. This is a protest to defend the country, said opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who joined the protest. People came here today to protect their democracy. All generations are concerned. This is not a joke, said Lior Student, a protester. "This is a complete redefinition of democracy. Other protests took place in the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba. In addition to the protests, pressure has built up on Netanyahus government after the countrys attorney general asked Netanyahu to fire a key Cabinet ally following a Supreme Court ruling that disqualified him from holding a government post because of a conviction of tax offenses. While Netanyahu was expected to heed the court ruling, it only deepened the rift in the country over the judicial system and the power of the courts. Earlier this week, Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, vowed to continue with the judicial overhaul plans despite the protests. Opponents say the changes could help Netanyahu evade conviction in his corruption trial, or make the court case disappear altogether. On Friday, Netanyahu's coalition was put for a new test after a disagreement between Cabinet members over the dismantling of an unauthorized settlement outpost in the West Bank. Defense Minister Yoav Galant, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, ordered the removal of the outpost, upsetting a pro-settlement Cabinet member who had issued a directive to postpone the eviction pending further discussions. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said that the Kremlin had likely deployed air defence systems on tops of several Moscow buildings in order to create and circulate provocative imagery designed to ramp up anti-Ukrainian sentiment among the Russians. Source: ISW report from 20 January 2023 Details: On 19 and 20 January, images circulated on social media showing Russian officials installing air defence systems on the roof of the Russian Ministry of Defense building in Moscow and elsewhere near the city. The ISW believes that the Kremlin is likely mobilising its efforts to portray the Russian invasion in Ukraine as an existential threat so as to prepare the Russian domestic information space for a protracted war. Quote from the ISW: "The Kremlin likely deployed the air defense systems in Moscow to generate inflammatory images that portray the war as more threatening to the Russian public. It is unlikely, however, that the Kremlin believes that Ukraine would target Moscow and it likely engaged in this ostentatious play to support intensifying information operations to prepare the Russian domestic information space for a protracted war in Ukraine and further sacrifices. This demonstration is also likely a part of the emerging information operation to contextualize the war in Ukraine in the Russian mythos of the Great Patriotic War, which is likely meant to increase Russian support for the war effort and further mobilization by absurdly portraying Ukraine as threatening Moscow and the rest of the Russian heartland in a way to the way Nazi Germany did during its invasion of the Soviet Union." Background: On 19 January, photos and videos of Russian officials installing air defence systems on Moscow roofs and at other sites throughout the city began to circulate on social media. At least five air defence systems are known to have been installed. One photograph shows a Pantsir-S1 system on the roof of the Russian Ministry of Defence. One video suggests that an air defence system has been installed 10 kilometres away from the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Democratic senators Tim Kaine (Va.) and Joe Manchin (W. Va.) have both expressed support for an investigation into President Joe Bidens potential mishandling of classified documents. This news raises serious questions and the appointment of an unbiased special prosecutor to investigate the matter is the right step, Senator Kaine, and Hilary Clintons former vice-presidential running mate, told Fox News on Friday. Manchin had earlier called the initial reports about the discovery of classified documents extremely irresponsible and disturbing. Representative Katie Porter (D., Calif.), also expressed an interest in getting to the bottom of the case. Classified documents belong in classified settings. . . . Good oversight means youre willing to hold any rule breaker to account, she said. Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate the allegations that Joe Biden potentially mishandled classified documents during his tenure as vice-president. The Presidential Records Act mandates that all presidential and vice-presidential records must be transferred to the National Archives following the conclusion of an administration. A cache of classified documents was recently discovered to be in a garage at President Bidens Wilmington, Del., house in January 2023. Last November, a trove of classified documents was found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a Washington D.C. think thank. The extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter, Attorney General Garland said during the press conference announcing Hurs appointment. I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. . . . I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. But under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter, Garland affirmed. Story continues Against the backdrop of the unfolding drama, Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump in November 2022 over the latters possession of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida residence of Mar-a-Lago. More from National Review Wee 1 Tactical's JR-15 is about 20% smaller than a standard AR-15 rifle. Getty Images An Illinois gunmaker is again advertising its AR-15 rifle for kids, called the "JR-15." The gun sparked widespread condemnation when Wee 1 Tactical first unveiled it last year. A company spokesperson told Vice's Motherboard it will take orders for the rifle later in 2023. A gun manufacturer has launched a new marketing campaign for an AR-15 designed for children weeks after a six-year-old shot a teacher at a Virginia elementary school. The JR-15 is a .22 long rifle roughly 20% smaller than a standard AR-15 that weighs less than 2-and- pounds. It is geared toward "smaller enthusiasts," according to Wee 1 Tactical, the manufacturer that makes the guns. A new pamphlet includes a photograph of a young child aiming the gun while an adult helps position it. The promotional material references "American family values" and says that the gun is the first in a line of "shooting platforms designed to safely help adults introduce young enthusiasts to the shooting sports." The Illinois gun manufacturer sparked widespread condemnation when it unveiled the firearm in February last year. The new marketing material takes a somewhat softer approach than the earlier campaign, which promised that the gun "looks, feels, and operates just like Mom and Dad's gun" and featured cartoons of skulls and crossbones with pacifiers in their mouths. "Wee 1 Tactical has adopted this supposedly kinder, gentler marketing approach because it knows from experience that most Americans are shocked and disgusted by the idea of manufacturing semiautomatic assault rifles designed for grade schoolers," Josh Sugarmann, the executive director of the Violence Policy Center, said in a statement. "The company's persistence in selling assault rifles for children makes clear the need for continued vigilance by parents and communities as well as legislative action," Sugarmann said. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said at the time that the gun was "vile." The state later passed a law banning gun marketing toward children, and this week several pro-gun groups lost an initial bid to block the ban. Story continues Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted in support of the firearm last year, suggesting that children at the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, could have defended themselves with the JR-15. The gunmaker kept a relatively low profile following the first controversy surrounding the gun but is scheduled to appear at the 2023 SHOT show in Las Vegas from January 17 to 20. Wee 1 Tactical confirmed to Motherboard that the JR-15 would be at the show. A Wee 1 spokesperson told Motherboard that it had changed its marketing materials following feedback from "enthusiastic" retailers to make it "clearer in our marketing materials that our product is a training rifle designed with the safety and functionality to assist adults wishing to supervise the introduction of hunting and shooting sports to the next generation of responsible gun owners." The company spokesperson said they will be "taking orders for the rifle" later in 2023. Wee 1 Tactical did not respond to Insider's request for comment. Read the original article on Business Insider SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) A judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the new Illinois law banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. Effingham County Judge Joshua Morrison issued the order after former Republican candidate for attorney general Tom DeVore sued to block the law. DeVore said hes representing hundreds of people from dozens of counties who argue the law violates their constitutional rights. Morrisons ruling only applies to 850 plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit in Effingham County and four licensed gun dealers. Gov. JB Pritzker said he was not surprised by Morrison's ruling. Although disappointing, it is the initial result weve seen in many cases brought by plaintiffs whose goal is to advance ideology over public safety," Pritzker said. "We are well aware that this is only the first step in defending this important legislation. Pritzker said he remains confident the courts will uphold the constitutionality of the law. The Court finds the Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success in relation to the equal protection clause of the Illinois Constitution, Morrison wrote in his 11-page ruling. DeVore told the Chicago Tribune he believes that the judge like many people in the state of Illinois have had enough of this. If the General Assembly wants to pass a law then do it in the wide open, dont do it like thieves in the night and let everybody know what theyre doing and see what theyre doing and give them a chance to participate, DeVore said. And I think thats what the judge was trying to say and I look forward to this case as it continues. In his ruling, Morrison cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year that struck down New York states concealed carry law. That 6-3 ruling in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen found that the plain text of the Second Amendment protected the right of the plaintiffs in that case to carry firearms for self-defense. Story continues Due to the speed with which this bill was passed, the effect to protected classes could not have been considered, nor could the Legislature have studied if this was the least restrictive way to meet their goal, Morrison also wrote. Pritzker signed the law on Jan. 10 in response to the mass shooting that killed seven and injured 30 at the Highland Park July Fourth parade. The law bans dozens of specific types of rapid-fire handguns and rifles, .50-caliber guns, attachments and limits cartridges to 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for pistols. Attorney General Kwame Raoul's lawyers argued the restraining order should be denied in part because the merits of the lawsuit would fail in court. The record will show the legislation was read publicly three times, that it covers a single subject guns and that the plaintiffs show no evidence that the exemptions for possessing the restricted weapons are doled out unfairly. "The acts exceptions for professionals with specialized firearms training and experience, such as law enforcement and members of the military, easily survive rational basis scrutiny," the state's response said. OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) A judge has ordered the Canadian government to help bring home four Canadian men being held in Syrian camps. In a ruling late Friday, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown directed Ottawa to request repatriation of the men as soon as reasonably possible and provide them with passports or emergency travel documents. The Canadians are among the many foreign nationals in Syrian camps run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the war-torn region from the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Brown said a representative of the federal government must travel to Syria to help facilitate the return of the men once their captors agree to hand them over. Family members of the men, as well as several women and children, have been arguing in court that the government must arrange for their return, saying that refusing to do so violates their constitutional rights. A lawyer for six Canadian women and 13 children in the camps reached an agreement this week with the federal government to bring them home. Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang (3rd L, front), Egyptian Vice Minister for Tourism and Antiquities Ghada Shalaby (2nd L, front) and other guests attend a welcoming ceremony for the Chinese tourist group at Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 20, 2023. Ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year, Egypt received the first Chinese tourist group on Friday since the outbreak of COVID-19 three years ago. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai) CAIRO, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year, Egypt received the first Chinese tourist group on Friday since the outbreak of COVID-19 three years ago. During a welcoming ceremony for the Chinese tourist group at Cairo International Airport, Egyptian Vice Minister for Tourism and Antiquities Ghada Shalaby welcomed the Chinese tourists, expressing aspiration to see more Chinese tourist groups. Highlighting the attention Egypt pays to the health and safety of tourists, Shalaby said all workers in all Egyptian hotels and tourist facilities have been vaccinated and trained on the highest health and safety standards. Chinese tourists will find many Chinese products in Egypt that will make them feel at home, she added. Yehia Zakaria, chairman of the EgyptAir Holding Company, also welcomed the arrival of the Chinese tourist group, noting both Egypt and China boast of ancient civilizations steeped in history. According to Zakaria, the number of weekly flights between Egypt and China will be increased to 13 starting March: seven to the southern city of Guangzhou, three to the eastern city of Hangzhou, and three to Beijing. In his address at the welcoming ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang thanked the Egyptian government and people for giving a warm welcome to the Chinese tourists and wished for an ever-lasting friendship between the two countries. "It is believed that in the near future, the number of Chinese tourists and flights to Egypt will return to the pre-epidemic level," Liao said. Feng Jian, a tourist from the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, said it is his first time to travel abroad since the start of the pandemic. "I chose Egypt for my first trip, as Egypt, like China, is also one of the four ancient civilizations and I want to experience the culture of Egypt," he told Xinhua. Fu Bo, another tourist from Beijing, said he has always wanted to visit Egypt as he is interested in Egyptian history and culture. "I heard that the Egyptians are generally friendly to Chinese tourists, so I hope to visit Egypt more often," Fu added. China used to be the fourth largest source of tourists to Egypt in the pre-pandemic years. In 2019, Egypt received 13.1 million tourists, with its tourism revenues hitting a record high of 13.03 billion U.S. dollars before the pandemic badly hit the sector in the next few years. During the first half of 2022, however, some 4.9 million tourists visited Egypt, showing an increase of 85.4 percent compared to the same period in 2021, according to Egypt's official statistics agency. An Egyptian artist performs a traditional Egyptian folk dance to welcome Chinese tourists at the Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 20, 2023. Ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year, Egypt received the first Chinese tourist group on Friday since the outbreak of COVID-19 three years ago. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai) The phone belonging to British actor Julian Sands appears to show he was on the move heading into a mountainous area in southern California on the day he was reported missing. Sands, 65, was reported missing during a hiking trip in the Baldy Bowl area of the San Gabriel mountains on Friday (13 January), as searches by local authorities continue by helicopter and drones when weather permits. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department previously said that phone pings showed Sands to be heading to the Mount Baldy area two days after he was first reported missing. However, the US department has since clarified to the PA news agency that those pings were delayed and showed his movements on the day he went missing on 13 January. The development comes after the department said there is still no hard deadline for calling off the search one week after he was first reported missing in the southern Californian mountains. The US authorities said the incident was still being classified as a search and rescue operation, though snow, sleet and fog continued to hinder operations on foot. As of Thursday (19 January), visibility at high altitudes in the Mount Baldy area remained poor, with searches to continue when conditions permitted. We will schedule another ground search when the weather improves, and it is safe for our ground crews, a spokesman from the department told the PA news agency. No hard deadline for calling off the search for Julian Sands, say authorities (PA Archive) Earlier on Thursday, Sands family towed his car from a car park where it was discovered during the search. Mount Baldy residents noted the extreme conditions but said they would not rule anything out in the mission to find Sands. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department previously urged hikers to think twice and heed warnings, saying its search and rescue teams had responded to 14 calls on Mount Baldy and in the surrounding area over the last four weeks. That same day, The Independent revealed images sent from Sands to his grandson Billy in September, which show the father-of-three mountaineering. Additional reporting by Press Association Air search crews are continung to look for British actor Julian Sands more than a week after he went missing in California. Sands, who has starred in The Killing Fields and A Room With a View has been missing since Friday, 13 January. The 65-year-old is thought to have been hiking along the popular Baldy Bowl Trail in the San Gabriel Mountains the day he disappeared. This news report details the current situation as teams continue to search for the English actor. Click here to sign up for our newsletters. PARK CITY, Utah (AP) Marlee Matlin, Jeremy O. Harris and Eliza Hittman exited the premiere of a film playing in competition at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday night after the closed captioning device failed to work. Matlin, who is deaf, is serving on the jury alongside Harris and Hittman for films debuting in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the festival in Park City, Utah, this week. The jurors walked out collectively when they realized the situation, which happened during the premiere of Magazine Dreams. Variety first reported the news. Joana Vicente, the CEO of the Sundance Institute, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday that the closed captioning device, which relies on Wi-Fi, had been checked before the screening and was working, but malfunctioned nonetheless. Our team immediately worked with the devices in that venue to test them again for the next screening and the device worked without any malfunction, Vicente said. Our goal is to make all experiences (in person and online) as accessible as possible for all participants. Our accessibility efforts are, admittedly, always evolving and feedback helps drive it forward for the community as a whole. Accessibility at film festivals has been a major topic for years, and the incident once again spotlighted how organizers are trying to make changes to accommodate all fans. Vicente said her team has been working hard in that area, but acknowledged there is more to be learned. We are committed to improving experiences & belonging for all festival attendees, the statement read. We consider accessibility as one of the primary drivers of institutional excellence and this work is done in partnership with film teams. Matlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Vicente said she and her fellow jurors would see Magazine Dreams in the coming days. The Sundance Film Festival runs through Jan. 29. ___ The spelling of Hittman' has been corrected in this version. Jan. 21The University of Kentucky has been taking things one practice at a time, one play in practice at a time, one game at a time, one possession at a time. The Wildcats have elected to stack one successful basketball endeavor on top of another to climb back in the SEC race and get themselves in some kind of position for the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky is No. 39 in the NCAA's NET rankings. Tennessee is No. 2 and Alabama is No. 3 in the NET. UK will look to add another successful game against Texas A&M on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT at Rupp Arena. The SEC contest will be on ESPN. This will be the first trip to Rupp Arena in the Buzz Williams coaching era there. The Aggies are 13-5 and opened 5-0 in the SEC. Texas A&M beat Missouri 82-64 in College Station, and won 94-53 at South Carolina on Jan. 14. Kentucky lost at Missouri 89-75 on Dec. 28. UK also suffered a huge upset to South Carolina 71-68 on Jan. 10 at Rupp Arena. Transfers have been key in A&M's 5-0 SEC start with Dexter Dennis (Wichita State) slashing just shy of a double-double at 11.6 points, 9.6 rebounds a game, and Julius Marble (Michigan State) averaging a team-best 15.6 points a game. This could be an intriguing matchup in several ways. The Aggies have been starting two bigs and making things difficult defensively inside the 3-point arch. They have clamped down defensively in the first half, allowing South Carolina 18 points and Florida 12 points in the opening 20 minutes of each game. A&M survived 54-52 against Florida on Wednesday. Kentucky has been notorious for slow starts at home in SEC play, and another one of those against the Aggies could make for a daunting Saturday afternoon. Kentucky has been trying to avoid the pitfalls and build on a 12-6 mark, 3-3 in the SEC. "We're staying disciplined. We're focused on what we need to do," senior forward Jacob Toppin said Thursday in Lexington. "Winning every day, taking it day by day. So we're not trying to get complacent and get used to winning. We want to still have that chip on our shoulder and understand that, we got to be the chasers. We got to hunt and not be hunted. So everyone's locked in. Everyone's dialed into winning every day." That will be important as the Wildcats try for a third straight win, and continuing a strong push to the end of January. The late Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, left, speaks with attorney Gloria Allred in September 2018, 11 months after she filed what she thought was a confidential complaint with the LAPD alleging that former CBS chief Leslie Moonves sexually assaulted her in the 1980s. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore has apologized to the family of a former television executive who accused former CBS chief Leslie Moonves of sexual misconduct. The chief's apology came after disclosures that a former LAPD captain in 2017 shared information about Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb's allegations with CBS executives, including Moonves. The LAPD was rattled last fall amid accusations that the former commander, Cory Palka, provided special treatment to Moonves when he was in charge of the LAPD's Hollywood division. Palka allegedly worked to cover up Golden-Gottlieb's sexual assault report in 2017 and 2018, according to a November report from New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James. The disclosures prompted Moore to open an internal review into the conduct of a former member of his department. On Thursday, Moore and other LAPD officials met with Golden-Gottlieb's adult children and lawyer, Gloria Allred. "Chief Moore ... updated them on the status of the investigation, and apologized to them personally for the breach of trust by our former command officer when he shared information of their mothers crime report with CBS executives," LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz said in a statement Friday. Jim Gottlieb and Cathy Weiss spoke fondly of their mother, who died last July, during a news conference Friday with Allred at her office in Los Angeles. Weiss said she was thankful that her mother didn't live to see how her sexual assault complaint had been handled by the high-ranking LAPD officer. "She kept [the alleged sexual assault] secret for so many decades, out of fear, even though she was a staunch feminist," Weiss said. "She still was fearful about reporting, which is sort of ironic ... [because] decades later, when she came forward, she was almost silenced again." Weiss and her brother said they were pleased with their meeting with Moore and other LAPD officials. "We feel that they are taking this matter very seriously," Jim Gottlieb said. "The public in general, and especially people who file sexual assault complaints, need to have confidence that police will treat them as the victims they are without any hint of shaming, or worrying that their confidential report will be compromised in any way." Story continues It wasn't until the November release of the New York attorney general's report that Weiss and Gottlieb discovered the extent of the coordination between Palka, who has since retired, Moonves and others at CBS to bury their mother's allegations. In 2017, Golden-Gottlieb, then 81, accused Moonves of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1980s when they were colleagues at Lorimar Productions, the powerhouse television studio behind "Dallas" and "Knots Landing." On Nov. 10, 2017, Golden-Gottlieb drove to the Hollywood station and filed a report. She checked a box on the form that indicated that she wanted the information to be kept confidential, according to Allred. "I was so proud when my mom told me that she was going to report his conduct to the police," Weiss said. But over the next few months, the LAPD captain secretly provided Moonves and CBS executives with status updates on the LAPDs investigation into Golden-Gottlieb's claims as well as her police report, which included personal details about her, the attorney generals office said. CBS executives then began investigating the victims personal circumstances and that of her family, the report said. Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to bring charges in 2018 because the statute of limitations had expired. Moonves, through a spokesman, declined to comment Friday. He has previously denied the allegations of sexual misconduct. Palka was not available for comment. The LAPD internal investigation, which looks "at the overall administrative handling of the case," is ongoing, Muniz said Friday. "Chief Moore discussed [with the Gottlieb family] the investigative steps that were taken and at this point we dont believe [Palka] was able to influence the investigation." Allred said she requested the meeting with Moore on behalf of Golden-Gottlieb's children. The gathering allowed the family to "learn about [the department's] commitment to investigate and hold accountable those who may have violated any laws or policies of the LAPD," Jim Gottlieb said. There are indications the investigation is widening. "Los Angeles Police Department investigators are working with the United States Attorney General, the California Department of Justice, and the Los Angeles District Attorney on any open criminal investigations," Muniz, the police captain, said. Golden-Gottlieb lodged her complaint against Moonves when the #MeToo movement was reaching a fever pitch. In 2018, Golden-Gottlieb also shared her story with The Times. Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Lauren Goodger (Getty Images) Lauren Goodger has shared that she is ready to return to work and public engagements after a series of difficult events caused her to take a professional break. The former The Only Way is Essex star revealed that her newborn daughter, Lorena, died two days after her birth in July. In the months following, she and partner Charles Drury ended their relationship. They also share an 18-month-old daughter, Larose. Following this, Goodger took time away from the spotlight and cleared her Instagram of all posts. On Friday (20 January), she was a guest at the Inspiration Awards in London, where she spoke to journalists about her decision to attend the event. I feel like I've been through a hell of a lot and I feel like it was the right one for me to go to, she told Mail Online. I've been asked to do a lot of things, I'm coming back slowly. I took a break and now I am ready to come back to the industry in the right way. Continuing her response, Goodger explained that her difficult experiences have given her the desire to encourage others whove faced adversity. She said: Im very new to this, like I say, Ive been through massive trauma, Im not gonna sugarcoat it but everyone knows and I feel like one day I want to inspire other women. Lauren Goodger (Lauren Goodger/Instagram) Goodger credited her daughter Larose as something that continues to give her strength. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me, she told the publication. And I am a very strong person. I've been through a lot. And I feel like I want to be there. Im strong, independent and I want to inspire young girls and other mums that are going through similar things. Everything happens for a reason... life goes on. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands on 0808 164 3332 or email helpline@sands.org.uk. The helpline is open from 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday, and until 9.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. You can also find bereavement support at The Lullaby Trust by calling 0808 802 6868 or emailing support@lullabytrust.org.uk. To contact Petals to enquire about the charitys counselling services, you can call 0300 688 0068 or email counselling@petalscharity.org. A New York City law student has been missing for nearly two weeks, and his brother said his last known location was a gay bar in Manhattans Hells Kitchen neighborhood. Jordan Taylor, 29, a first-year law student at the City University of New York, was reported missing by his family on Jan. 8, according to his brother and the New York City Police Department. According to the NYPD, Taylor was last seen in the borough of Queens, where he resides, on the afternoon of Jan. 6. But his brother, Alton Taylor, told NBC New York that Jordans last known location, according to his phones location data, was The Q in Manhattans Hells Kitchen neighborhood in the early morning hours of Jan. 7, shortly before his phone and wallet were found in two different Manhattan locations. Alton said the details surrounding Jordans disappearance and the fact that none of his close friends have seen or heard from him in nearly two weeks are a cause of concern. I dont want to rule out a heinous foul play. Like, I dont want to think about it, but I cant rule it out either, he told NBC New York. For the full story, visit NBC New York. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com CANBERRA, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- More than 17,000 weapons were surrendered in the first year of Australia's permanent national firearms amnesty. The federal government on Saturday released the first annual report on the amnesty program, which allows Australians to hand in unregistered, illegal or unwanted weapons without facing punishment, revealing 17,543 weapons were surrendered in the first 12 months. The permanent amnesty was set up in mid-2021 following temporary programs in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 and again in 2017. According to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, there are approximately 260,000 illicit firearms in circulation in Australia. Among the weapons handed in between July 2021 and June 2022 were 8,140 rifles, 2,896 shotguns and 789 pistols. "It is an important measure to reduce the number of firearms circulating in our community, and keep Australians safe," the country's Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Saturday. HONG KONG SAR --News Direct-- Legend Capital HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 21 January 2023 - On 17 January 2023, GenScript ProBio announced its Series C round of financing of nearly USD220 million, led by Legend Capital, which marks the largest scale in the CDMO sector in China since the second half of 2022. Several active healthcare investment institutions also participated in this round. The parent company, Genscript Biotech Corporation, also invested approximately USD30 million in this round. The fund will help GenScript ProBio accelerate its manufacture capacity expansion and technology platform upgrading, enlarge footprint in the global market, strengthen quality and management system, deepen interaction with the broader healthcare ecosystem resources behind active investors, all of which will enable GenScript ProBio to enhance its leading position in the biologics and CGT (cell and gene therapy) CDMO space and become a top tier player on the global arena. GenScript ProBio, a subsidiary of GenScript Biotech Corporation, offers end-to-end biologics and CGT CDMO services based on its extensive experiences in drug discovery, process development and GMP manufacture. Since its inception, GenScript ProBio has undertaken more than 80 CMC and CMO projects worldwide in the biologics CDMO field, and helped its clients obtain more than 20 global IND approvals. As one of the earliest players in the field of CGT CDMO, GenScript ProBio has participated in over 60 CMC projects worldwide and over 20 IND filings. With strong technical strength, solid performance and an experienced team, GenScript ProBio has become one of the most influential CDMO service providers. Jafar Wang, Co-Chief Investment Officer of Legend Capital, said, We are highly optimistic about the global competitiveness of Chinese CRO/CDMO players. Even in a complex international environment, China's leading CRO/CDMO companies still have the opportunity to provide quality services to international customers and win significant market share. As an outstanding representative of China's biologics and CGT CDMO players, GenScript ProBio has achieved rapid growth in the past three years and won the extensive trust of customers at home and abroad. Looking forward, GenScript ProBio's technology accumulation, famous brand, global clientele, rich talent pool, comprehensive management system and strong financing ability will bring the company further to win stronger international influence. Legend Capital has more than 140 portfolios in the healthcare sector, and has established an ecosystem covering the whole value chain of biopharmaceutical industry, with plenty of cases and extensive experience in management best-practice sharing. We look forward to becoming a shareholder of ProBio who can create value, generate collaboration opportunities and growth together! Story continues Weihui Shao, the rotating CEO of GenScript Biotech Corporation, said, "GenScript ProBio has been growing rapidly, helping pharmaceutical and biotech companies around the globe to progress their pipelines, and attracting top-tier healthcare investors. Highly-efficient business planning and execution, comprehensive management system and solid talent base are the three driving forces for the sustainable growth of GenScript Biotech Corporation and GenScript ProBio. At the same time, given the increasingly strong innovation atmosphere in the biotech field, GenScript Biotech Corporation and GenScript ProBio will continue to stimulate innovation and create enterprise vitality. Through this round of financing, GenScript ProBio will be better positioned to participate in the commercialization process of global biologics and gene and cell therapy, and make a great contribution to the healthcare industry. GenScript Biotech Corporation will also adhere to the mission of Make Human and Nature Healthier Through Biotechnology, commit to promote business development, and contribute to the sustainable development of the healthcare industry and human society." Jiange Meng, Chairman of GenScript Biotech Corporation, said, "In the post-pandemic world where the investment environment is complex and volatile, we are glad to see that GenScript ProBio has attracted many top-tier investors. GenScript ProBio is a subsidiary newly incubated by GenScript Biotech Corporation. With the mission of Innovation through Collaboration, we have helped many biopharma and biotech companies to reduce R&D expenses and accelerate the product development processes. We will take this opportunity to further focus on the construction and optimization of the one-stop R&D and manufacture platform for biologics and gene and cell therapy, so as to make GenScript ProBio a stronger player in the new chapter of the industry." About Legend Capital Founded in 2001, Legend Capital is a leading VC&PE investor focusing on the early-stage and growth-stage opportunities in China, with offices across Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Seoul, Korea. It currently manages USD and RMB funds of over US$10 billion in commitments, and has invested in around 600 companies, covering technology, healthcare, consumer, enterprise service and intelligent manufacturing sectors. Rooted in China, Legend Capital participated in the rise of many world-leading companies by solid investment coverage and systematic post-investment value-add. Over the years, Legend Capital has also become a widely recognized name in bridging key resources in China and overseas through cross-border activities, and a valuable partner to Chinese and overseas investors. Legend Capital values long-term sustainable investment and incorporates ESG into its long-term development strategy. As a UNPRI signatory since November 2019, Legend Capital is among the first group of top VC/PE firms in China to join the initiative. For more information, please visit www.legendcapital.com.cn/index_en.aspx and follow us on LinkedIn @Legend Capital. Contact Details Ever Bloom (HK) Communications Consultants Group Limited Ms. Orianna Ou / Ms. Arina He +852 3468 8171 hkproject.list@everbloom.com.cn View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/led-by-legend-capital-genscript-probio-completed-nearly-usd220m-series-c-round-of-financing-959413654 A letter from an attorney representing Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi outlines steps the state took to void a decade-long partnership in which Planned Parenthood received grant funding through the state for HIV-related services, namely condom distribution and HIV testing in Memphis. The letter was sent to Tennessee Department of Health's general counsel about two months before Planned Parenthood and several nonprofits learned the state would no longer accept federal funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for HIV-related services. In the Nov. 16 letter obtained by The Commercial Appeal, attorney Alan Schoenfeld said the state's attempts to disqualify Planned Parenthood from the HIV funding and terminate a long-standing memorandum of understanding between the healthcare organization and the state health department were both unlawful and in violation of Planned Parenthood's constitutional rights. Abortion rights activists gather in front of the Lorraine Motel during the Bans Off Our Bodies Memphis rally with Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi on Saturday, May 14, outside the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn. Abortion rights activists rallied in opposition of the leaked draft Supreme Court majority opinion showing a majority of judges would rule in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade. The letter offers insight into the increasingly fraught relationship between the state and Planned Parenthood. "Regrettably, however, the Planned Parenthood has been a consistent target of unlawful efforts to disqualify it from government programs, for reasons entirely unrelated to the programs at issue," Schoenfeld wrote. The Tennessee Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter or the department's relationship with Planned Parenthood on Friday afternoon. Tennessee healthcare:Tennessee to cut off funding to nonprofits for HIV prevention, testing, treatment What we know:HIV funding stopped for Tennessee nonprofits The letter referenced a similar action to strip Planned Parenthood from federal funding in two separate attempts in 2012 and 2017. The later attempt occurred in Shelby County when former County Commissioner Terry Roland brought a motion forward to strip a $115,000 county grant meant for condom distribution through Planned Parenthood. The motion, at the time, was interpreted not as an indictment on condom distribution, but an indictment on abortion and Planned Parenthood. The motion failed in a 7-5 vote. Story continues Tennessee plans to fund HIV programs through metro health departments On Wednesday, community-based nonprofits, healthcare organizations and Planned Parenthood were formally notified of the state's decision to stop accepting some federal funding for HIV-related programming. The move was met with shock from organization leaders. The timing is mid-grant cycle, and it leaves small nonprofits, as well as Planned Parenthood, on the hook to come up with other funding strategies for HIV-related services. Most of the organizations provide direct service to lower-income Tennesseans. While the federal Ryan White Part B program remains unaffected, TDH plans to discontinue accepting funds from two other pots of money to pay for HIV-related services at nonprofits. According to the TDH website, those grants helped fund: "HIV counseling, testing and referral, HIV partner counseling and referral services, HIV health education and risk reduction programs, HIV prevention for positive individuals, public information programs, a toll-free HIV/STD hotline, capacity building programs, and a quality assurance and evaluation component." The state will still fund HIV programs through the states six metro health departments, located in Shelby, Davidson, Knox, Madison, Hamilton and Sullivan counties. "The funding for this HIV prevention program is very important and it's important that it is spent effectively and efficiently in the ways that best serve Tennessee," Gov. Bill Lee told reporters Friday. "We think we can do that better than the strings attached with the federal dollars that came our way and that's why we made that decision." Though CDC funding to community-based organizations will officially cease on May 31, the state health department has already scrubbed Planned Parenthood from its website as a listed free condom distributor. According to the internet archiving service the Wayback Machine, Planned Parenthood had previously been listed by TDH as a condom distributor. Tennessee and the South in general remain HIV transmission hotspots. Preliminary CDC data show 831 new cases of HIV were diagnosed across Tennessee in 2021 and 575 new cases were diagnosed in the first nine months of 2022. According to the federal agency, Shelby County is part of the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative because it is one of 50 local areas that account for more than half of all new HIV diagnoses across the country. AHEAD, which solely tracks HIV-related data, includes a data subset for Shelby County. According to AHEAD, Shelby County saw 232 new HIV diagnoses in 2022. The CDC has not returned a request for comment. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal covering issues tied to access and equity. She can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com. Corinne S Kennedy covers healthcare, real estate and economic development for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tennessee tried to cut Planned Parenthood from HIV program: Letter Liverpool and Chelsea continued their disappointing seasons as the injury-hit mid-table teams played out an uninspiring 0-0 draw at Anfield in the Premier League. Chelsea thought they had raced into a third-minute lead when Kai Havertz fired home from close range after a corner, only for VAR to rule the German offside. Liverpool seemed shorn of confidence as they looked to avoid three straight league defeats, only creating half chances with new signing Cody Gakpo missing the best of them in the opening period. The visitors introduced big-money January arrival Mykhailo Mudryk in the second half but, while he looked lively, the Ukrainian was unable to lift the Blues, who earned a point that leaves them 10th in the standings, with Liverpool eighth. Relive the action as Liverpool draw with Chelsea at Anfield: Liverpool vs Chelsea LIVE: Latest Premier League updates Liverpool draw 0-0 with Chelsea in opening Premier League clash of the weekend FT - Liverpool and Chelsea play out uninspiring goalless draw at Anfield and remain in mid-table 84 CHANCE! - Alexander-Arnold smokes a shot over the bar from inside the box (LIV 0-0 CHE) 60 SHOT! - Ziyech lifts a shot over the crossbar from the edge of the box (LIV 0-0 CHE) 38 CHANCE! - Thiago Alcantaras effort from range is smothered by Kepa (LIV 0-0 CHE) 32 SAVE! - Alisson palms away Badiashiles headed effort (LIV 0-0 CHE) 5 DISALLOWED GOAL! - Havertzs opener is ruled out for offside (LIV 0-0 CHE) 3 GOAL! - Kai Havertz pokes him a rebound off the post from a Chelsea corner (LIV 0-1 CHE) Liverpool FC 0 - 0 Chelsea FC FT Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:39 , Michael Jones Both Liverpool and Chelsea could find themselves 12 points away from the Champions League spots by the end of the weekend if Newcastle and Manchester United win their respective games. Thats a huge gap to close down but theres still half a season to play. FT Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:36 , Michael Jones Who will be the happier manager after that draw? Story continues (PA) (PA) FT Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:33 , Michael Jones With eight wins, five draws and six defeats from their 19 Premier League matches this season Liverpool have 29 points. It is their lowest points tally at the halfway stage of a Premier League campaign since 2014/15 under Brendan Rodgers (28). FT Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:29 , Michael Jones A point each sees Liverpool move up to eighth as they draw level on points with Brentford but have a better goal difference. Chelsea remain 10th in the table just behind the Bees. Graham Potter wont be too displeased. Taking a point away from Anfield is always a good result and his teams performance was better than recent games. Full-time: Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:26 , Michael Jones 90+5 mins: Andy Robertson brings the ball down the left side then knocks it across to Jordan Henderson. Henderson lets fly but his effort is deflected over to Darwin Nunez. Nunez blasts one at goal but Cesar Azpilicueta is on hand to block the effort out of play! The final whistle goes and the points are shared at Anfield! It ends goalless. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:23 , Michael Jones 90+2 mins: Brilliant defending! Mudryk goes on a fine run down the inside left and slips the ball into the box for Carney Chukwuemeka. He takes a touch before poking the ball at touch but that leaves Andy Robertson enough time to take across and get the block in! Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:22 , Michael Jones 90 mins: Theres going to be five minutes of added time to play. Even since Kai Havertzs disallowed goal this match has been lacking in thrills and spills. Will we see some late drama and a match-winning goal perhaps? Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:19 , Michael Jones 87 mins: Can one of these teams find a winning goal? Theres going to be plenty of time added on at the end of the 90 so there could be as many as 10 minutes left to play. Mo Salah flicks a pass into the middle of the box but cant find a teammate and the Blues clear their lines. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:14 , Michael Jones 84 mins: Chance! Liverpool bring the ball down the left wing and work it across the face of goal. It curls out to Trent Alexander-Arnold who drills one back towards the target but lifts it agonisingly over the crossbar! Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:13 , Michael Jones 81 mins: Trevoh Chalobah goes down injured and needs a bit of treatment from the medical team. He takes the mick getting off the pitch and the referee books him for time wasting. Graham Potter makes a few changes for Chelsea Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesar Azpilicueta all come on to replace Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, and Trevoh Chalobah. Jurgen Klopp also brings on Curtis Jones, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:08 , Michael Jones 78 mins: Mason Mount receives the ball on the right wing for Chelsea and spins it towards goal before cutting inside and looking to play Kai Havertz into the box. He slips the ball past Joe Gomez but Havertz cant beat Alisson to the loose ball and the goalkeeper leaps on top of it. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:05 , Michael Jones 75 mins: Trent Alexander-Arnold is introduced by Jurgen Klopp. He needs someone with more pace than James Milner to deal with the speed of Mykhailo Mudryk. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 14:03 , Michael Jones 72 mins: Conor Gallagher has had a good day today. Hes been a nuisance for Liverpool and almost gets his rewards with a pinpoint cross over to the far side of the box. Mykhailo Mudryk sneaks in behind James Milner and tries to control the ball instead of taking a shot. His first touch isnt great and the winger knocks it out of play. Big opportunity wasted by Chelsea there. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:59 , Michael Jones 69 mins: Liverpool push up the pitch as Joe Gomez brings the ball forward. He gives it to Harvey Elliott who flicks a pass over to Mo Salah on the right side of the box. Salah cant bring the ball under control as Marc Cucurella piles the pressure on him. The ball squirts loose to James Milner who runs onto a first time shot and smashes it well wide of the target. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:55 , Michael Jones 66 mins: Jurgen Klopp switches things up now and introduces Darwin Nunez to replace Naby Keita. Harvey Elliott drops into midfield with Nunez taking up a spot on the left side of the forward line. Chance! At the other side of the pitch Mudryk almost celebrates his debut in the perfect way. He dances into the box with the ball, weaves into space then drills a shot into the near side-netting! That would have been some goal. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:53 , Michael Jones 63 mins: Badiashile starts a move for Chelsea and gives the ball to Jorginho in the middle of the pitch. He flicks the ball on to Conor Gallagher who sends the ball out wide for Mykhailo Mudryk. Mudryks first touch is top heavy though and he knocks the ball into the penalty area where Alisson marshalls it out of play. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:51 , Michael Jones 60 mins: Chance! Mason Mount floats a cross field pass over to Hakim Ziyech who brings the ball under control and shifts inside from the right. He goes past a couple of defenders before hitting one with his left foot and lifting it over the crossbar! Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:47 , Michael Jones 57 mins: Here comes Mykhailo Mudryk! The Ukranian makes his debut for Chelsea as a second half substitute replacing Lewis Hall. What can the 22-year-old muster up for Graham Potters men? Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:45 , Michael Jones 54 mins: Mykhailo Mudryk is preparing to come on for Chelsea as Liverpool win a corner. James Milner delivers it into the middle but Trevoh Chalobah rises highest to win the initial ball. He nods it to Hakim Ziyech who scoops the ball away. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:44 , Michael Jones 51 mins: Stellar footwork from James Milner sees him weave in between Mason Mount and Marc Cucurella on the right wing before he loses possession to Lewis Hall. The play switches over to the opposite side of the pitch and Andy Robertson recovers the ball. He brings it to the byline before pulling one back to Cody Gakpo but the forward cant get a shot away and Chelsea work it clear. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:38 , Michael Jones 48 mins: Liverpool have come out quickly from the half-time break. Theyve camped themselves inside Chelseas half and are whipping crosses into the box. Elliott swings in the most recent effort but Trevoh Chalobah gets the ball down and boots it clear. Second half: Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:37 , Michael Jones Liverpool get the match restarted and send the ball back to Ibrahima Konate. He carries it into midfield and knocks a long ball up the pitch. He doesnt catch it right and overhits the pass but Kepa Arrizabalaga is off his line and has to worringly back track to make sure the ball is heading out of play. That could have been awkward for the Chelsea goalkeeper. HT Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:32 , Michael Jones Liverpools first and only shot on target in this match came in the 39th minute, through Thiago. Only against Newcastle (0) have they had fewer shots on target in a Premier League home game this season. The Reds have lost each of their last three Premier League games when level at half time, having lost just two of the 21 games they were level at the break in beforehand (W12 D7). HT Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:28 , Michael Jones This is Jurgen Klopps 1,000th game as a manager (270 with Mainz 05, 319 with Borussia Dortmund and 411 with Liverpool), coming 21 years and 327 days after his first (Mainz 1-0 Duisburg on 28th February 2001). Will he be celebrating with a win later on? HT Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:24 , Michael Jones (REUTERS) (REUTERS) (REUTERS) Half-time: Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:20 , Michael Jones 45+4 mins: Hakim Ziyech swings a corner into the Liverpool box but fails to pick out a teammate as the Reds head the ball clear. Conor Gallagher and Cody Gakpo then collide in the middle of the pitch going for a 50/50 ball. The referee blows the whistle and the teams head into the break on level terms. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:17 , Michael Jones 45 mins: Chance! Cody Gakpo flicks on a long ball and picks out Naby Keita. Keita switches the play out to Mo Salah on the right wing. He cuts inside and lets fly with a left-boot but fails to trouble the goalkeeper. Theres four minutes of added time to play at the end of the first half. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:13 , Michael Jones 41 mins: Close! Andy Robertson brings the ball through the middle of the pitch linking up with Bajcetic and Keita before sliding the ball over to Mo Salah on the right edge of the box. Salah looks to curl a pass back into Robertson whos continued into the box but a deflection off Badiashile takes the ball away from the left-back and allows Kepa Arrizabalaga to scoop it up. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:10 , Michael Jones 38 mins: Chance! This is better from Liverpool. Thiago Alcantara gets up the pitch and receives the ball on the edge of the penalty area. He checks to the right once, twice then hits one at goal. Theres a deflection but not enough to trouble Kepa Arrizabalaga who drops to his left and smothers the ball. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:05 , Michael Jones 35 mins: Stefan Bajcetic slips in midfield and lets the ball run through to Lewis Hall. The youngster tries to recover it with a lunging tackle and takes out the man instead. He collects a yellow card. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:03 , Michael Jones 32 mins: Save! Alisson comes to the rescue for Liverpool once again! Hakim Ziyech swings a free kick into the box from the left wing and picks out Benoit Badiashile. Badiashile meets the ball with a header and nods it at goal but Alisson drops low and palms it away! Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 13:01 , Michael Jones 29 mins: Mo Salah and Marc Cucurella come together as Salah flicks the ball over the Chelsea defender. Cucurella goes down and needs a bit of treatment from the medical staff. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:59 , Michael Jones 26 mins: Chelsea try to bully their way into the penalty area and send the ball to Conor Gallager who then drills an effort straight at Alisson. The Liverpool goalkeeper keeps it out without too much trouble. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:54 , Michael Jones 23 mins: Close! Chelsea send the ball over to Hakim Ziyech on the right wing and he threads one into the box to Kai Havertz who breaks away from his marker. Havertz lays the ball off to Mason Mount who passes it across to the arriving Lewis Hall but Hall blasts his effort wide of the far post. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:51 , Michael Jones 20 mins: Nearly! Mo Salah spins in behind Marc Cucurella as James Milner dinks the ball down the line. He recovers it and looks towards goal just as the offside flag gets raised. Chance! Lewis Hall dallies on the ball inside his onw half and has his pocket picked by Cody Gakpo. Gakpo then turns towards goal and laces a shot from range high and wide! Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:48 , Michael Jones 17 mins: Nice link-up play between Harvey Elliott and Stefan Bajcetic sees them feed the ball into midfield then through Chelseas middle line into the feet of Cody Gakpo. Gakpo flicks the ball behind Marc Cucurella and plays Mo Salah into space. He lays it back to James Milner whose cross is once again headed clear. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:45 , Michael Jones 14 mins: Oh hello! Thiago Silva plays a lovely diagonal ball up the pitch and floats it over the head of Ibrahima Konate to drop the ball into the penalty area. Kai Havertz is open and goes for a first time volley but his miscues his effort and hooks it wide of the near post. That was a beautiful pass from Thiago Silva though to set up the chance. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:42 , Michael Jones 11 mins: Ibrahima Konate runs into midfield with the ball but has no options. He attempts to pick out Harvey Elliott on the left wing but his diagonal ball is recovered by Hakim Ziyech. Thiago Alcantara presses up the pitch but Ziyech turns past him before getting brought down by the Liverpool midfielder. Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:39 , Michael Jones 8 mins: That offside goal was a close run thing and Chelsea will feel a bit gutted that its been ruled out. Liverpool need to sharpen up, theyve been shown that Chelsea can pose a threat so will have to be more solid at the back. Naby Keita flicks the ball up to Cody Gakpo who releases it to Andy Robertson. The Reds switch the ball over to James Milner whose cross is dealt with by Benoit Badiashile. NO GOAL! Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:36 , Michael Jones 5 mins: Drama! VAR takes a look to see if the goal is legitimate but Liverpool have got a reprieve. Kai Havertz is judged to be just offside as Thiago Silva turned the ball onto the post so the goal gets chalked off! GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea (Havertz, 3) 12:34 , Michael Jones 3 mins: Chelsea take the lead! Conor Gallagher whips the corner into the box and picks out Benoit Badiashile. He nods the ball down to Thiago Silva who flicks the ball onto the near post! The rebound comes to Kai Havertz who prods it home to put Chelsea ahead! Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:33 , Michael Jones 2 mins: Ouch! Andy Robertson puts in the first heavy challenge of the day and takes out Conor Gallagher with a late lunging tackle. The referee awards Chelsea the free kick but spares Robertson a yellow card. Chelseas free kick is worked out for the first corner of the game. Kick off: Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea 12:31 , Michael Jones Chelsea get the ball rolling and work it over to the left wing where its won in the air by James Milner. Hes playing at right-back Liverpool today with Trent Alexander-Arnold starting on the bench after a recent injury. Liverpool vs Chelsea 12:28 , Michael Jones Here come the teams. Whoever wins this one today will jump up to sixth in the table - until the rest of the weekends fixtures get underway - and will still be in with a chance of making the top four. The loser will be stuck in midtable and a long way back. Kick off is up next... Liverpool vs Chelsea 12:25 , Michael Jones The warm-ups are over at Anfield. Which way will this one go today? Liverpool have to be the favourites with their home advantage but neither side is in great form and it could go either way. (PA) (REUTERS) Liverpools dynamic duo 12:20 , Michael Jones Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez have scored 10 of Liverpools last 11 goals at Anfield in all competitions, excluding own goals. Nunez starts on the bench for the Reds today so can the likes of Cody Gakpo step up and find the target this afternoon? Liverpool and Chelseas decline detailed with chances to salvage gloomy season 12:15 , Michael Jones Liverpool and Chelsea meet each other in a crucial Premier League game on Saturday lunchtime. Both sides finished in the top four last season but are faring much worse this time round, sitting in ninth and 10th respectively and trailing fourth-placed Newcastle by 10 points. With Liverpool having gathered 28 points from 18 games and Chelsea on the same tally from 19 matches, both are tracking well behind 2021-22 when they each had 41 points at the halfway stage. Here, the PA news agency looks at the extent of their declines and their chances of recovery in the second half of the campaign. Liverpool and Chelseas decline detailed with chances to salvage gloomy season Liverpool vs Chelsea 12:10 , Michael Jones Mykhailo Mudryk is poised to become the second Ukrainian to make a Premier League appearance for Chelsea, after Andriy Shevchenko. If hes to make his debut today, it will come from off the bench. Liverpool vs Chelsea 12:05 , Michael Jones Graham Potter could emulate Ron Atkinson and Kevin Keegan by becoming the third English manager to win a Premier League away match at Anfield with two clubs. His Chelsea team arent in great form though so itll be a difficult task to accomplish today. (Action Images via Reuters) Liverpool vs Chelsea 12:00 , Michael Jones Jurgen Klopps side have let in 25 league goals, just one fewer than in the whole of last season. If they fail to win this game, Liverpool will have their lowest points tally at the halfway stage of a Premier League campaign since 2014/15. Blues lacking goals 11:55 , Michael Jones Chelseas tally of 22 goals is their fewest at the halfway stage of a Premier League season since 1995/96. Will their new 100m signing Mykhailo Mudryk help them resolve this problem in front of goal? (AP) Jurgen Klopp hints at future Liverpool plans for full throttle James Milner 11:50 , Michael Jones Jurgen Klopp has urged Liverpool to keep James Milner by saying his character and attitude make him uniquely valuable and suggested they have ideas for his future both as a player and a coach. The vice-captain has entered the last few months of his contract and has only started four league games this season but Klopp was impressed with his display in Tuesdays FA Cup win at Wolves and sees him as an excellent option for any match. Milner is also working to get his coaching badges and is taking some training sessions with younger age-group sides at the clubs Kirkby base. Milner is 37 but does not want to retire yet and, after eight seasons at Anfield, Klopp feels Liverpool has become the club the boyhood Leeds fan is most associated with. Klopp hints at future Liverpool plans for full throttle Milner Liverpool vs Chelsea 11:45 , Michael Jones Chelsea are without a win in five successive away league games - theyve drawn twice and lost three times in that run. Its their worst such run since 2015 which is increasing the pressure on manager Graham Potter. Liverpool vs Chelsea 11:40 , Michael Jones Liverpool may concede in nine straight Premier League games for the first time since May to October 2016. Theyve been uncharacteristically poor in defence this season with teams taking advantage of their high line to get in behind. Can Chelsea do the same this afternoon? Liverpool vs Chelsea team changes 11:35 , Michael Jones Jurgen Klopp makes three changes to the Liverpool side that beat Wolves in the FA Cup on Tuesday. Alisson, Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah come into the starting line-up while the fit-again Darwin Nunez is on the bench after missing the last two games. Chelsea make just one change to the XI that started their 1-0 win over Crystal Palace last weekend with Marc Cucurella coming in for Carney Chukwuemeka. Mykhailo Mudryk is on the bench. Liverpool vs Chelsea: Team news! 11:32 , Jamie Braidwood Liverpool: Alisson; Milner, Gomez, Konate, Robertson; Bajcetic, Keita, Thiago; Salah, Elliott, Gakpo Chelsea: Kepa; Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Badiashile, Hall; Gallagher, Jorginho, Cucurella; Ziyech, Mount; Havertz Liverpool vs Chelsea line-ups 11:30 , Michael Jones Liverpool XI: Team news Your #LIVCHE line-up Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 21, 2023 Chelsea XI: Liverpool vs Chelsea 11:25 , Michael Jones Chelsea have only won twice in 10 Premier League fixtures. They drawn three time and lost five during that run. Can Graham Potter turn things around this afternoon at Anfield? (PA) Liverpool vs Chelsea 11:20 , Michael Jones Should they be beaten today, Liverpool would lose their opening three league matches in a calendar year for the first time since 1953. It would probably mark a new low point in Jurgen Klopps time at the club. (PA) Liverpool and Chelseas decline detailed with chances to salvage gloomy season 11:15 , Michael Jones Liverpool and Chelsea meet each other in a crucial Premier League game on Saturday lunchtime. Both sides finished in the top four last season but are faring much worse this time round, sitting in ninth and 10th respectively and trailing fourth-placed Newcastle by 10 points. With Liverpool having gathered 28 points from 18 games and Chelsea on the same tally from 19 matches, both are tracking well behind 2021-22 when they each had 41 points at the halfway stage. Here, the PA news agency looks at the extent of their declines and their chances of recovery in the second half of the campaign: Liverpool and Chelseas decline detailed with chances to salvage gloomy season Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp set for managerial milestone against Chelsea 11:10 , Michael Jones Jurgen Klopp will mark his 1,000th match as a manager with Liverpools home game against Chelsea on Saturday. The 55-year-old German began at Mainz, where he took charge for the first time on February 28, 2001, just one day after being promoted from the playing staff, and beat MSV Duisburg 1-0 before going on to win six of his first seven games in charge as the club avoided relegation. After spent seven years at Mainz, whom he got promoted to the top flight, he moved to Borussia Dortmund where he broke Bayern Munichs Bundesliga stranglehold with back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012. He brought up his 500th managerial game with a 5-0 win over Freiburg on September 28, 2013, but eventually left Dortmund two years later. Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp set for managerial milestone against Chelsea Liverpool vs Chelsea 11:05 , Michael Jones Liverpool have lost just two of the last 15 Premier League meetings racking up six wins and seven draws during that run. The two sides could draw three consecutive league games against each other for the first time but the last time they met in the Premier League while both teams being outside the top eight was October 2015. Liverpool won 3-1 in what was their first league victory under Jurgen Klopp. I cannot explain it: Jurgen Klopp impressed by Chelseas big spending 11:00 , Michael Jones Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admits he cannot explain Chelseas unprecedented impressive spending. The Blues have spent over 400million since the consortium headed by billionaire Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over in the summer, with 140m of that outlay coming in the last 15 days with potentially more expected before the end of the month. That is a lot more than Liverpool, who after buying Benfica forward Darwin Nunez for an initial 64m which could rise to a club-record 85m with add-ons and youngsters Fabio Carvalho (from Fulham for 5m) and Calvin Ramsay (from Aberdeen for 6.5m), have added 38m PSV Eindhoven forward Cody Gakpo as their likely only January transfer. I cannot explain it: Jurgen Klopp impressed by Chelseas big spending Jurgen Klopp on Mykhailo Mudryk 10:55 , Michael Jones As part of his pre-match press duties for todays game against Chelsea, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was asked about his thoughts on the Blues new signing Mykhailo Mudryk. A really good player, incredible Champions League campaign, he said. Speed, technique, goals. Combines a lot. So, having him on one wing and [Joao] Felix on the other is interesting. Chelsea sort problems differently to us, so lets see. Liverpool vs Chelsea prediction 10:50 , Michael Jones A narrow victory for the hosts, though this is a tough one to predict given the woeful defensive displays from both sides of late. Perhaps the midweek FA Cup win will be enough of a reset, though, for Klopps team to find the organisation they need? Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea. Liverpool vs Chelsea predicted line-ups 10:45 , Michael Jones Liverpool XI - Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Konate, Robertson, Bajcetic, Fabinho, Thiago, Elliott, Salah, Nunez Chelsea XI - Kepa, Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Silva, Badiashile, Hall, Kovacic, Jorginho, Ziyech, Mudryk, Havertz What is the early team news? 10:40 , Michael Jones Both sides remain beset by injuries, with the visitors having it worse heading into this encounter. Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz are missing from the Reds attack, but Darwin Nunez could return. Roberto Firmino remains a doubt. Arthur, Virgil van Dijk and Kostas Tsimikas are the other absentees. Jurgen Klopp must decide whether to recall the likes of Jordan Henderson and Joel Matip after they were left out in midweek. Graham Potter is missing nearly a full potential 11, from goalkeeper Edouard Mendy through to suspended striker Joao Felix. The biggest other absentees are Wesley Fofana, Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic, though the loss of options such as Ben Chilwell, Reece James or NGolo Kante also make a big difference. The right-back is back in training but this game will surely be too soon to start, having suffered a setback last time out. Denis Zakaria, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Armando Broja are also sidelined. Mykhailo Mudryk is in line for his debut. How to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea 10:35 , Michael Jones Liverpool play Chelsea at 12:30pm GMT on Saturday 21 January 2023, with the game taking place at Anfield. The match will be broadcast live on BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate. Subscribers can stream the match via the BT Sport app across all devices or via the BT Sport desktop website. Liverpool vs Chelsea 10:29 , Michael Jones Good morning and welcome to The Independents coverage of Liverpool vs Chelsea. The two underperforming sides go head-to-head in the Premier League this afternoon knowing that three points could lift them up the table and back in the hunt for the Champions League spots. The Reds have been beaten by Brighton and Brentford in their last two league outings with Klopp admitting he didnt see the defeat coming against the Seagulls whilst Chelsea won their last league outing 1-0 against Crystal Palace thanks to Kai Havertzs second half winner. Both teams are languishing in midtable and could use the boost that a victory against one of the big six usually brings. Graham Potter is under more pressure than Jurgen Klopp but has to contend with injuries and suspensions. That means the Blues new signing Mykhailo Mudryk could make his debut and provide a bit of threat on the wings. Well have all the build-up, team news and updates throughout the morning so stick with us. On Jan. 22, 2023, more than a billion people globally will welcome the Year of the Rabbit or the Year of Cat, depending on which cultural traditions they follow as the start of the Lunar New Year. In the New York City public school district, Lunar New Year has been observed as a school holiday since 2015. The Lunar New Year is sometimes called the Chinese New Year, because it follows a calendar that was developed in China; but it is also celebrated in various parts of Asia, such as Korea and Vietnam. Tibetan and Mongolian cultures follow a similar calendar that will start the Year of the Rabbit about a month later, on Feb. 20. While this calendar is sometimes just called lunar, it adds an extra month every few years to stay in sync with the solar cycle, so its technically lunar and solar, or lunisolar. This means that the date of the Lunar New Year in the Gregorian calendar changes from year to year but always falls in January or February. The Gregorian calendar is the solar calendar used today in most parts of the world, including the United States. As a scholar of East Asian religions, I am familiar with the wide range of lunar and lunisolar calendars used in different religions and cultures, and especially with the religious significance of the East Asian lunisolar calendar. The lunisolar calendar that developed in China combines two categories: 12 earthly branches, each of which corresponds to an animal, and 10 heavenly stems, each of which corresponds to one of the five elements fire, water, wood, metal and earth and either the feminine yin or masculine yang force. While this lunisolar calendar brings people together, different countries and cultures have their own legends and customs surrounding the New Year. Even the animal associated with the year can vary. Year of the Rabbit or Year of the Cat? In most parts of East Asia, the new year that begins on Jan. 22 corresponds to the rabbit, and also to the element of water and the feminine yin force. The cycle takes 60 years to complete, so 60th birthdays across East Asia are times for special celebrations. Story continues However, the animal associations of the zodiac can vary: In Vietnam, Jan. 22 will usher in the Year of the Cat instead. The most recent Year of the Cat, in 2011, saw a baby boom in Vietnam because of the good luck associated with that zodiac sign. One explanation among scholars for why Vietnamese culture celebrates it as the Year of the Cat is that the earthly branch corresponding to rabbit is pronounced mao in Mandarin and meo in Vietnamese, which sounds similar to the Vietnamese word for cat. Year of the Cat in 2011, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Dragfyre via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA Another explanation comes from two variations of a popular legend about how the 12 zodiac animals were chosen. According to that legend, either the Buddha or the Jade Emperor, head of the Chinese pantheon, organized a race across a river to choose the zodiac animals and their order. In the Chinese version, the cat and rat were riding across a river on an ox when the rat, in its drive to be first, pushed the cat into the water so that the cat arrived last and was disqualified. The rabbit was crossing the river by hopping on stones sticking out of the water, but with one lucky leap it landed on a floating log that swiftly carried it to shore, so that the rabbit finished fourth. However, in the Vietnamese version which lacks a rabbit the cat could swim and ended up arriving fourth. Set of 12 ceramic zodiac figures, from the 8th century. From left, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Tang dynasty (618907), Metropolitan Museum of Art Rabbits in Chinese culture In the Chinese tradition, people born in particular zodiac years have some of their animals characteristics. Since the late 20th century, Chinese regions have seen birth rates spike during Years of the Dragon because dragons are powerful symbols of good fortune and success. Some animals carry strongly gendered meanings: the Year of the Tiger is widely seen as a good year for male births, but female tigers are stereotyped as overly aggressive. In Korea, the Year of the Horse is similarly perceived as a bad time for girls to be born. Conversely, the Year of the Rabbit is seen as a better year for girls because the rabbits qualities of kindness, empathy and patience are stereotypically feminine virtues. Moreover, rabbits have been associated with male homosexuality since the 18th century, and the word rabbit, tuzi in Mandarin, is a slur for male sex workers. The stigma surrounding homosexuality in Chinese cultures means that, for some people, having a boy in the Year of the Rabbit would be less ideal. However, some members of Chinese LGBTQ+ communities are rejecting this stigma by reclaiming the Rabbit God as a patron deity. The Rabbit God is not always understood as a god of male same-sex love. He can also be a symbol of longevity. Chinese lore holds that a rabbit and toad on the Moon work with the moon goddess Change to refine the elixir of immortality. Celebrating the Year of the Rabbit The Year of the Rabbit will feature rabbit decorations, rabbit-themed marketing, and an abundance of new pet rabbits. However, the celebration will remain the same as in other years. Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations emphasize family togetherness as well as good luck and prosperity for the coming year. In China, the Lunar New Year marks the worlds largest annual human migration, as people who work in big cities travel home to see their families for the two-week holiday. The new year officially ushers in the spring, so it is also called Spring Festival, or Chunjie in Mandarin. To start the New Year on the right foot, people get haircuts, clean their houses and wear new clothes. These new clothes, like most New Years decorations, are red, which symbolizes good fortune. New Years foods also aim to bring good fortune. Among the dishes commonly eaten at New Years are fish, because in Mandarin having fish, you yu, is a homophone for having a surplus. Eating a dessert of glutinous rice balls in sweet soup, known as tangyuan, represents the family being complete, because the word for round, yuan, also means complete. Family is the focus of New Year celebrations, which traditionally take place in the home of the husbands family. Adults generally give gifts of money in red envelopes to younger relatives who are still in school. On the second or third day of the new year, families often travel to the wifes family home to see the in-laws. The Lantern Festival, Yuanxiao jie, wraps up the festivities two weeks after the New Year begins with the first full moon of the year. As the name suggests, people celebrate with decorated lanterns, which often have riddles attached. In addition to guessing the answers to these riddles, people celebrate by eating tangyuan or similar round dumplings called yuanxiao, and watching dragon and lion dances. The global Asian diaspora means that Lunar New Year is now celebrated around the world, including in the United States. Chinese American, Korean American, and Vietnamese American communities will mark the beginning of the Lunar New Year with a variety of celebrations, some welcoming the Year of the Rabbit and others welcoming the Year of the Cat. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation has a variety of fascinating free newsletters. It was written by: Megan Bryson, University of Tennessee. Read more: Megan Bryson 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. A Massachusetts man minted nearly half $1 million in counterfeit bills, federal officials said. Hes just been sentenced to prison. The man, a 34-year-old resident of Quincy, a Boston suburb, admitted to participating in an illicit manufacturing operation that was based in his home, according to a Jan. 19 news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for Massachusetts. An attorney for the man could not immediately be reached for comment by McClatchy News. On a weekly basis, he admitted to bringing other individuals into his home to produce the fake bills, officials said. When investigators searched his home in 2019, they found inkjet printers and a paper shredder containing discarded counterfeit bills. The charred remains of counterfeit money were also found in his backyard, officials said. In sum, 4,000 counterfeit $100 bills were traced back to his residence using serial numbers, according to the release. To date, the government has recovered over $467,000 in counterfeit $100 bills traced back to the authentic bills found at (the mans) residence, officials said. The man was sentenced to 41 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release on Jan. 19, officials said. Dad dies snorkeling with family after passenger sees him floating face down, cops say Puppies rescued from certain death after discovered in plastic bag, Virginia cops say Officer punches woman repeatedly during fight about a McDonalds Big Mac, Ohio cops say A Macomb County man wanted in connection with a bank robbery in New Baltimore this week was arrested Friday in Vermilion County, Illinois, after a three-day search, according to WWJ 950 News Radio. New Baltimore police say Jacob Robert Edwards, 18, of Macomb Township, robbed the Huntington National Bank branch on Washington Street in New Baltimore around 3 p.m. Tuesday. Police then released a photo of the suspect as they sought to locate him. Indiana State Police sent an all-points bulletin at midnight Thursday telling law enforcement to be on the lookout for a black Ford F-150 that they believe Edwards had stolen from someone who was trying to help him on the side of the road. Early Friday, FBI officials in Springfield, Illinois, sought information about the suspect after a person matching Edwards' description was spotted in Vermilion County around 2 p.m. Edwards was arrested around 4 p.m. The FBI is seeking information on the whereabouts of bank robbery subject Jacob Edwards. He is believed to be armed and dangerous and located in the vicinity of Vermilion County in Illinois. Call 1-800-CALL-FBI. If you see this individual, do not approach; call 911. pic.twitter.com/EKvegn2ZMb FBI Springfield (@FBISpringfield) January 20, 2023 WWJ said that when police caught up with Edwards, following a car chase that ended in a crash from which Edwards fled on foot, the suspect pointed a gun at an officer who then shot him in the arm. It's unclear whether Edwards was taken to the hospital. According to WWJ, New Baltimore Police Chief Michael K. Mertens said that since Edwards is accused of committing felonies in multiple different states he's going to be charged and prosecuted at the federal level. More:Highland Township teen killed in crash with school bus More:Michigan football co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss fired This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Man, 18, wanted in New Baltimore bank robbery arrested in Illinois Florida lawmakers are pushing what would be the largest expansion of school choice in the states history this legislative session. The plan would allow for all Florida students to obtain scholarships to private schools, but some education advocates fear it will pull money out of traditional public schools. Pinellas County mom Melissa Ley said when her children were in traditional public schools, they struggled. We were looking at private school and at that case I was like, Im gonna go to work as a teacher just to pay to put my kids in a private school, said Ley. Because her children werent special needs and her familys income was too high, state scholarships werent an option at the time. READ: Somebody pushing an agenda: Florida Gov. defends decision to reject AP African American Studies Now, a new bill backed by the Speaker of the Florida House would open the scholarships up to all Florida students. Scholarship awards vary, but typically average around $7,000-$8,000 annually. The money can go towards expenses like tutoring and tuition to put students non-traditional public schools, like private schools and even home schooling. This bill in a powerful way provides both an entrance and an exit to all of our schools so we can match people up in the best way possible, Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) said. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] As of the 2021 school year, more than 188,000 Florida students received scholarships to attend schools other than traditional public schools. Andrew Spar, President of the Florida Education Association is concerned with no cap on scholarships, the legislation would open private school vouchers to all of Floridas 3 million plus students, no matter their family income. He said every dollar that goes with a student to a private school is money diverted away from public education. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] The financial impact that this could have on school districts is potentially huge. We just dont know at this point and we havent seen the fiscal impact, Spar said. Story continues The legislation requires special needs and low-income students be prioritized for scholarship awards. Well likely learn more about the estimated cost during the bills first committee hearing next week. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Darnell Calhoun, right, died Friday, Jan. 13, 2023 after a shooting in the Lake Elsinore area. The suspect in the shooting was in custody. A public memorial service is underway in Rancho Cucamonga for Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Darnell Calhoun, who was gunned down last week while responding to a domestic disturbance. The service started around 10 a.m. at Abundant Living Family Church, 10900 Civic Center Drive, and will be followed by private internment services. Members of the public showed their support ahead of Saturday's memorial by turning out along the 50-mile route of the procession from Murrieta Valley Funeral Home at 24651 Washington Ave. to the Rancho Cucamonga church. Personnel from the RCSD and the San Diego Police Department led the procession. Calhoun formally worked for the SDPD. It proceeded northbound on Washington, then eastbound on Kalmia Street to northbound Interstate 15; I-15 to Fourth Street in Rancho Cucamonga, then westbound on Fourth to Milliken Avenue; northbound on Milliken to Arrow Route, then westbound on Arrow to White Oak Avenue northbound; and finally, a westbound turn onto Civic Center Drive, into the parking lot of Abundant Living Family Church. The memorial service was set to be livestreamed via the sheriff's YouTube and Facebook pages. A viewing of the fallen lawman's casket was held at the funeral home Friday night, and a candlelight vigil was held Tuesday night outside the sheriff's Lake Elsinore station, where close to 150 people gathered to remember the 30-year-old deputy, including Sheriff Chad Bianco. "It takes a special kind of person to be able to come to work every day, knowing that you could sacrifice your life for someone else and leave your family behind," Bianco said. "Darnell was that kind of man, who came to workto protect people." Lake Elsinore Mayor Natasha Johnson said Calhoun's "sacrifice reminds us of the ultimate price our law enforcement officers are willing to pay to keep our families and our communities safe." Earlier this week, the fallen lawman's family released a statement thanking residents and others for their "outpouring of love and support." Story continues "While we are heartbroken, we also celebrate the gift of Darnell the husband, father, son, brother and deputy,'' according to the family statement. "His life, though cut short, is a blessing. Our faith in Jesus will carry us through this, and we know we will be reunited with Darnell once again." Calhoun was allegedly gunned down Friday by 42-year-old Jesse Navarro of Lake Elsinore. The deputy, who left behind a pregnant wife and two young sons, died after he was rushed to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where the suspect was also taken and remains in critical condition after he was shot by a deputy backing up Calhoun. A "Help A Hero" fundraiser was established for the slain lawman. As of Friday, $236,665 in donations had been made on behalf of Calhoun's family. The fundraiser link is at https://helpahero.com/campaign/deputy-darnell-calhoun. "He was a husband, a father of two young boys ages 2 and 4 and a third baby boy on the way," according to the Riverside County Deputy Sheriff Relief Foundation, which initiated the fundraiser. "He will be remembered as a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin, a son-in-law, a brother-in-law and a loyal friend." Bianco said Calhoun was fatally shot about 4:20 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 13, in the 18000 block of Hilldale Lane, near Grand Avenue, when he approached a residence from which a 911 call had been placed indicating there was adomestic disturbance. Calhoun was hit when Navarro allegedly opened fire from the residence, Bianco said. "The second deputy on the scene found Deputy Calhoun wounded in the street," Bianco said last week. "A gunfight ensued with the suspect, who was shot." Background information on Navarro was unavailable. Calhoun was assigned to the Lake Elsinore station after he laterally transferred from the San Diego Police Department just under one year ago. The SDPD posted a message last week saying personnel were "devastated to learn of the passing of Deputy Darnell Calhoun, an SDPD officer until 2022." "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and colleagues in SDPD and the Riverside County Sheriff's Office." Exactly one week prior to Calhoun's slaying, Deputy Isaiah Albert Cordero was laid to rest. The 32-year-old motorcycle deputy was shot to death on the afternoon of Dec. 29 by a convicted felon during a traffic stop in Jurupa Valley. The man was killed two hours later during a gun battle with deputies attempting to arrest him after a lengthy pursuit that ended on southbound I-15 in Norco. Cordero's had been the first deputy line-of-duty death in Riverside County in 15 years. This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Memorial, funeral held for slain Riverside County deputy BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Japan's visa service in China has resumed normal operations, according to the website of the Japanese Embassy in China. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the visa service at the Japanese Embassy in China was temporarily reduced for a period of time. It has now returned to normal in line with changes in the pandemic situation, according to a release posted on the website Friday. PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) Militants attacked a police checkpoint in northern Pakistan late Saturday, killing two officers and wounding another, authorities said. Police officer Tariq Khan said the gunmen fled after shooting three officers at the post in Zardad Dahri, which is in the Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He said two of the officers died before reaching the hospital while the third was being treated. The shooting came two days after a similar attack in Khyber district that killed three police officers and wounded two. No one claimed responsiblity for Saturday's attack. The outlawed Pakistani Taliban militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the Khyber attack. The group is separate from but allied with Afghanistans Taliban. The TTP restarted attacks in recent months on security forces in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Baluchistan provinces, both bordering Afghanistan, after its talks with the government failed. Miss Wales Darcey Corria is set to represent her country at the Miss World pageant in May. Darcey Corria/Instagram Miss Wales Darcey Corria has been hospitalized after a car crash in south Wales on Thursday. Her injuries include two broken bones in her neck, a Miss Wales representative told Insider Saturday. The accident comes just four months before Corria is set to compete for the Miss World title in May. Miss Wales has been hospitalized with serious injuries following a car crash in her home country. Darcey Corria, 21, was involved in an accident in Bridgend, south Wales on Thursday, a representative for Miss Wales confirmed in a statement to Insider on Saturday. The beauty queen, who is from the town of Barry, is currently receiving treatment for several injuries, including a broken pelvis and injuries to her neck. "The 21-year-old beauty queen and black rights advocate is in the University Hospital of Wales being treated for a number of injuries including a broken pelvis and two breaks to bones in her neck," the representative said. "She is receiving much love and support from her close family and is expected to make a full recovery." The accident comes just four months before Corria is set to compete in the upcoming 71st annual Miss World pageant in May. "While the accident will have an immediate impact on Darcey's preparation for Miss World in May, we are hopeful and confident that she will still be able to fly the flag for Wales thanks to her own personal determination, the love and support of her family and the incredible team of medics at UHW," a post shared by the official Miss Wales Instagram told its followers on Saturday. Darcey, who is mixed race and has Jamaican heritage, is an advocate for Black rights and has been actively involved in anti-racism legislation in Wales, according to an article the BBC published in May 2022. In an Instagram post she shared after being crowned Miss Wales that same month, Darcey wrote that history had been made. "I hope that my crowning moment shows little girls that they too can take up space and have their dreams come true," she wrote in the caption. Story continues According to the BBC, Darcey is the first person of color to be crowned Miss Wales since 1997. The outlet reported that she spoke about using her platform as Miss Wales to combat racism: "I think the Miss Wales platform is a great platform and if I can work with the Miss Wales brand, we could really be a force to be reckoned with in terms of tackling racism." Read the original article on Insider A Morristown woman, missing for two weeks, was seen last weekend in Newark with another missing woman, authorities said Friday afternoon. Imani Glover, 25, was most recently spotted in the area of Newark Penn Station on Sunday, according to a news release from the Morristown Police Department. Destiny Owens, 29, of East Orange, who was reported missing Dec. 24, is "believed to be in the company" of Glover and was seen with her over the weekend, the release stated. Law enforcement agencies in Morristown, East Orange and Newark have reported "multiple sightings" of the two women in the Newark area, according to the release. However, the search for both of them remains ongoing. Imani Glover, 25, of Morristown, was last seen in New York City Jan. 4. The Morristown Department of Public Safety shared news of Glover's disappearance on Facebook Tuesday afternoon. The same day, the East Orange Police Department advised Morristown authorities that Owens was missing from the H.E.L.P. Center, a homeless shelter in Newark, the release stated. Glover, who was reported missing Jan. 8, is 5-foot-3 and 160 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She has a tattoo on her left wrist featuring the word "Shantia" and another tattoo on the back of her neck. Owens is 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds. Owens was identified in a PIX11 News report this week as Glover's girlfriend. Connie Jackson, public information officer for East Orange, said other investigating agencies had indicated a relationship between Glover and Owens, but she could not confirm whether the two are a couple. Anyone with information on Glover's disappearance is asked to contact Detective Robert Edwards at 973-292-6646 or to email R-Edwards@morristownpolice.org. The public can also call the main Morristown Police number at 973-538-2200. To report information on Owens' disappearance, contact the East Orange Police Department Criminal Investigation Division at 973-266-5030. Kyle Morel is a local reporter covering Morris and Sussex counties. Email: kmorel@njherald.com; Twitter: @KMorelNJH This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Missing Morristown NJ woman seen in Newark with another missing woman Maia Sandu Read also: Russian missile warhead found in Moldova Now, there is a serious discussion about our capacity to defend ourselves, whether we can do it ourselves, or whether we should be part of a larger alliance, Sandu said. And if we come, at some point, to the conclusion as a nation that we need to change neutrality, this should happen through a democratic process. Sandu stressed that Chisinaus strengthening of its own defense, contrary to Russia's claims, is not a provocation against anyone, including against the unrecognized Transnistria a region of Moldova which hosts a Russian military base. Moldova is a peaceful country, she said. Read also: Missile fragments fall in Moldova local police Its not Moldova that started a war against its neighbors. Russian propaganda managed to convince part of our population that neutrality means you dont have to invest in your defense sector, that neutrality means you do nothing and you have no capacity to defend yourself, which is wrong. Read also: Poland, Moldova, and Baltics are all in Kremlin's sights, Polish official says According to the president, Moldova remains vulnerable to Russian hybrid warfare because of propaganda and disinformation. She noted that thanks to the courage and fortitude of the Ukrainians, her country hasnt faced military threats yet. Read also: Sandu convenes Supreme Security Council amid concerns of Russian invasion We are facing a range of risks, but none of it compares to the situation in Ukraine, and to the price that Ukrainians are paying, she concluded. On Jan. 19, Sandu said that Moldova had officially asked the allies to start supplying air defense systems and was counting on their support, after debris of several Russian missiles fell in Moldovan territory during Moscows air strikes on Ukraine. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Metro Council members, members and leaders of the Salahadeen Center, and other community members celebrate the unveiling of a historical marker on the Nashville Kurdish community on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023 Nashville recognized and celebrated its Kurdish community Saturday by unveiling a historic marker. Local Kurds considered the marker and a coinciding Metro Council resolution as a pivotal moment for the local immigrant community, which began to establish itself nearly 50 years ago. Most were fleeing persecution in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Many Kurdish people did not choose to leave their hometown. However, they chose to be American citizens. They chose to be Nashvillians because Southern values, the hospitality, is so in sync with the Kurdish values, Kasar Abdulla said at an event on Saturday celebrating the marker. About 20,000 Kurds live in Nashville, the largest Kurdish community in the U.S. Nashville celebrated the history of its Kurdish community with a historical marker along Nolensville Pike, which was unveiled Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. Nashville is home to the largest Kurdish community in the U.S. The Salahadeen Center, the local Kurdish mosque, opened in 1998 and is believed to be the first Kurdish mosque in the U.S., said Nawzad Hawrami, Salahadeen Center co-founder and vice president, at Saturdays event. The historical marker is located near the Salahadeen Center along Nolensville Pike. Sabina Mohyuddin, executive director of the American Muslim Advisory Council, said the Nashville region's Muslim population grew significantly with the influx of Kurds in the 1980s and 1990s. When I see and what we have here, for me as a Muslim, even though Im not Kurdish, I feel like this is home," Mohyuddin said. "And thats what it brings to the community. History of Kurdish community:Kurds in Iraq and Nashville hope trial brings closure three decades after deadly chemical attack Mayor John Cooper and Metro Council members attended the event Saturday and presented a resolution on the Kurdish community, which the council approved at its meeting Tuesday. Nashville Metro Council members present a resolution on Nashville's Kurdish community to coincide with the unveiling of a historical marker about the Kurdish community on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. Kurds fleeing horrific genocide and seeking refuge from political persecution have found a welcoming home and sense of community in Nashville, the council resolution stated. The resolution also said Nashville is pursuing a sister city relationship with Erbil, the capital and most populous city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville commemorates robust Kurdish community with historical marker LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) During seventh grade at Phoenix Indian School, Pershlie Ami signed up to go on what the school called an outing promoted as opportunities for Native American students to earn spending money off campus. They were opportunities for cheap labor. Ami said most people have no idea that the school staff would send students out to work, often doing menial tasks, for strangers whose backgrounds weren't checked. A family came and picked me up and took me to their home. The task that they wanted me to do was pick up dog poop in their house, Ami said during a listening session Friday in the Gila River Indian Community just south of Phoenix overseen by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. The session is part of a yearlong Road to Healing tour for victims and survivors of abuse at government-backed boarding schools. It is the fourth stop for the nations first and only Native American Cabinet secretary after previous stops in South Dakota, Oklahoma and Michigan. Ami, whos Hopi, is now 67 and living in nearby Laveen. She still remembers vehemently refusing to clean the house and the fallout. I got severely punished for not doing what that family had asked me to do. I was never allowed to go out on another outing," she said. "Then I started to wonder what happened to some of these kids that went out on these outings, that nobody ever followed up on them. Ami was one of several people who spoke during Haalands visit to Arizona before a large audience that included Gov. Katie Hobbs and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego. Several testimonies addressed issues in addition to abuse, such as losing one's culture and language. The session took place in the multipurpose room of Gila Crossing Community School, where artwork and banners reflected the heritage of the local tribe. This is one step among many that we will take to strengthen and rebuild the bonds with the Native communities that federal Indian boarding school policies set out to break, Haaland said before the session. Story continues Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support the schools. The stated goal was to civilize Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, which was often carried out through abusive practices. In Arizona alone, there were 47 federal Indian boarding schools and that number does not even include the religious and private institutions that received federal funding to run schools. My ancestors and many of yours endured the horrors of the Indian boarding school assimilation policies carried out by the same department I now lead, Haaland said. This is the first time in history that a United States Cabinet secretary comes to the table with a shared trauma. That is not lost on me. Haaland has prioritized publicly examining the trauma caused by these schools. In May, the Interior Department released a first-of-its-kind report pointing out 408 schools the federal government supported that stripped Native Americans of their cultures and identities. At least 500 children are known to have died at some of the schools. But when more research is done, that statistic is likely to rise. A majority of the speakers were descendants of boarding school survivors. They shared how their parents had a hard time learning how to be good parents because they were separated from their own some at a very young age. Ami, whose father also went to a boarding school, remembered how he would refer to himself as just a dumb Indian. I think he did eventually get rid of that image of being a dumb Indian, Ami said. "But he never stopped using that phrase in reference to himself. The vulnerability of victims has spurred tears at all of these sessions. However, Deborah Parker, chief executive of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and a member of the Tulalip Tribes, said there's a feeling of hope, too. There's a sense of encouragement. Yes, we can finally tell our stories and maybe we can begin to heal, Parker said. Those tears help cleanse emotions that we've been keeping inside of us for sometimes generations. Congress is planning to reintroduce legislation to establish a boarding school truth and healing commission, according to Parker. It would be similar to one established in Canada in 2008. If passed, it would have a broader scope than the Interior Departments investigation into federally run boarding schools and subpoena power. Meanwhile, a second report is pending in the school investigation launched by Haaland, who is a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. It will focus on burial sites, the schools impact on Indigenous communities and also try to account for federal funds spent on the troubled program. The Navajo Nation has rescinded a mask mandate that's been in effect since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, officials announced Friday, fulfilling a pledge that new tribal President Buu Nygren made while campaigning for the office. The mandate was one of the longest-standing anywhere in the U.S. and applied broadly to businesses, government offices and tourist destinations on the vast reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. The tribe at one point had one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the country and among the strictest measures to help prevent the spread of the virus. Nygren and Navajo Nation Council Delegate Otto Tso, who temporarily is overseeing the tribe's legislative branch, jointly announced the lifting of the mask mandate on social media Friday evening. They cited figures from tribal health officials that show there's a low risk of transmission, based on the seven-day incidence rate of 51 cases per 100,000 people. The number of positive cases overall during the pandemic still remains higher in the Navajo region than any other Indian Health Service region, except for Oklahoma. The Navajo Nation has tallied more than 2,000 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began. Nygren and Tso urged people to continue taking precautionary measures. Masks will still be required in schools, nursing homes and health care facilities, according to the latest public health order. Its time for the Navajo people to get back to work, Nygren said in a statement. Its time for them to be able to open their chapter houses to conduct local business and to receive services they are asking for and deserve. The news spread fast and comments poured in on social media. Some praised the action and others were sharply critical, including former President Jonathan Nez, who had sought a second term, and whose tenure was dominated by the response to the pandemic. Nez credited the mask mandate for the lower coronavirus rates and said he's praying that COVID-19, RSV and flu cases don't rise. Story continues But the new administration needs to be held accountable if we see a surge in new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, he wrote on Twitter. Enforcement of the mask mandate had been mixed on the 27,000 square-mile (69,000 square-kilometer) Navajo Nation. Most people wore masks at the inauguration for newly elected officials earlier this month, but neither Nygren or Nez kept one on the entire time. Brian Parrish, who oversees the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, said signage would be changed at the tribe's four casinos to indicate that masks now are optional. He said he suspected a large percentage of patrons havent returned because of the mask mandate but might now. Were ready to take this next step toward getting back to normal, he said late Friday. Priscilla Todecheeny, who works at the Red Rock Trading Post in Red Valley, Arizona, said signs regarding masks came down once the reservation reopened to visitors, and no one was kept from entering. But she's concerned about employees who had been wearing masks. I think it should still be in stores for our safety because we don't know if another person might have the virus or is carrying it, she said Friday. Diana DeChilly, who is Navajo, was in the hospital Friday with the flu when she heard masks no longer were required on the reservation. She said she'd rather keep hers on to prevent the spread of any illness, even when she's discharged. Im willing to bet a majority of Navajo people are going to keep wearing their masks, mandate or no mandate," she said. ___ Fonseca reported from Honolulu. Former US Navy Captain Royce Williams, now 97, who shot down four Soviet MiG-15s during a half-hour dogfight during the Korean War (Royce Williams/Facebook) A US pilot fighting in the Korean War has been keeping a secret for the last half a century. The now 97-year-old former naval aviator, Royce Williams, reportedly shot down four Soviet MiG fighters within the span of a half hour, but never told anyone about it until now. On Friday, Mr Williams received the Navy Cross, which is the branchs second-highest military honour, according to CNN. On 18 November 1952, Mr Williams was behind the stick of an F9F Panther while fighting in the Korean War. The 27-year-old pilot and a group of three others were assigned to patrol the extreme northern end of the Korean Peninsula, near the borders of China and the then-Soviet Union. At some point during their patrol Mr Williams flight lead suffered mechanical issues and was forced to return to an aircraft carrier in the sea of Japan. The leaders wingmate returned with him, leaving Mr Williams and one other pilot alone on the patrol. The men were not alone in the skies, however seven Soviet MiGs were then identified heading towards the patrol. During a 2021 discussion with the American Veterans Centre, Mr Williams said that the Soviet fighters "just didnt come out of Russia and engage us in any way before." The two pilots found themselves an unwitting vanguard as they were ordered by commanding officers to keep themselves between the MiGs and the US aircraft carriers. Mr Williams recalls four of the MiGs turning to fire on him and his wingman, which prompted him to return fire. He recalls damaging the tail of one Soviet fighter and sending it sailing toward the ground. His wingmate followed the plane down to report its location. After Mr Williams first volley with the Soviets, US commanders ordered him not to engage. "I said, I am engaged," Mr Williams told the American Veterans Centre. The MiG-15s were faster than the USs sole jet fighter, a fact Mr Williams knew. He assumed if he turned and ran they would catch him and shoot him down, forcing him to fight. Story continues A more than half-hour dogfight ensued, with Mr Williams using the Panthers considerable maneuverability to stay out of the Soviets gunsights while returning fire from his own 20mm cannon. By the end of the battle, Mr Williams had fired all 760 rounds of his cannon ammunition and downed four Soviet jets. He did not escape unscathed, however; the MiGs damaged and disabled his planes rudder and wing controls, which help the plane climb and descend. With his ammunition expended, Mr Williams limped back to the US aircraft carrier, though he still had a single MiG chasing him. Thankfully for Mr Williams, his wingman returned and scared off his pursuer. In the meantime, the aircraft carrier was on high alert and reportedly began firing on Mr Williams, thinking he was one of the Soviet MiGs from the dogfight. An officer on board quickly put a stop to that once they realised who it was. The ship was also forced to turn itself to align with Mr Williams, as he had lost significant control of his plane due to the damage it received in the dogfight. Once he was safely back aboard the ship, his crewmates counted 263 holes in his plane, which they ultimately shoved off the ship and into the sea due to the extent of the damage. While Mr Williams had an incredible story, it was one he would have to keep quiet; high-ranking naval officials and even the US President spoke with him and warned him not to speak of the dogfight as they were worried the direct military conflict between the US and the Soviet Union could kick off World War III. Mr Williams was first allowed to share his story in 2002 when documents pertaining to his dogfight were declassified. As more people learned about his story, he began receiving more invitations from veterans groups and others to share his memories, ultimately leading to the Navys recognition and decision to award him the Navy Cross. China's high-quality economic development boosts global confidence 10:59, January 21, 2023 By He Yin ( People's Daily China's newly released economic data presented the country's strong economic resilience and vitality to the international society. The world believes that China sees bright prospects for its high-quality economic development and will keep injecting strong momentum into the global recovery. Global media outlets reported that China's 2022 economic growth was beyond expectation and that the country has shown prospects of robust growth. It is believed that the largest force driving global growth will be China. Yachts sail on the sea in Sanya, south China's Hainan province, Jan. 13, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Ye Longbin) According to statistics released by China's National Bureau of Statistics on Jan. 17, China's economy increased 3 percent year on year to a record high of 121 trillion yuan (about $18 trillion) in 2022, after its successive breakthroughs of 100 trillion yuan and 110 trillion yuan in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The growth was faster than most of the major economies in the world. The continuous rising in both the total and per capita GDP of China indicates the country's progress in comprehensive national strength, social productivity, international influence and people's livelihood. The country enjoys a more solid foundation, higher quality and stronger momentum of its development. China is a country with more than 1.4 billion people, where new industrialization and urbanization are advancing continuously. It boasts a super-large market that enjoys the world's strongest potential, which is a powerful engine driving its economic recovery. According to statistics, China's retail sales of consumer goods stood at around 44 trillion yuan last year. In particular, online retail sales of physical goods reached nearly 12 trillion yuan. China is the world's second-largest consumption market and largest online retail market that enjoys obvious advantages in its super-large scale. As China enters a new phase of COVID-19 response and implements relevant policies, its economic and social vitality will be further released. International organizations and investment institutions are optimistic about China's economic prospects and have lifted their forecast for the country's economic growth in 2023. Financial Times noted that a resurgence in China's pent-up consumer and investment activity will support global demand. People visit a lantern fair in Yuncheng, north China's Shanxi province, Jan. 17, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Yan Xin) China is not only seeing a rise in its economic volume, but also an improvement in economic quality. Since the last year, the country has made economic stability its top priority and pursued progress while ensuring stability. Its new development philosophy enjoys strong support and its steps of high-quality development are firm and forceful. The added value of high-tech manufacturing enterprises above the designated size increased by 7.4 percent in 2022, 3.8 percentage points higher than that of all enterprises above the designated size. Investment in the high-tech manufacturing and high-tech service sectors went up by 22.2 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively. In particular, investment in electronic and communication equipment manufacturing surged by nearly 30 percent. New growth drivers show a leading role in economic growth. The latest World Intellectual Property Indicators report suggests that China ranks first globally in terms of the number of valid invention patents. This proves that China enjoys huge potential for high-quality economic development and will provide new opportunities for cooperation for the world. China seeks to improve development quality through the expansion of high-level opening up, which is valuable especially when economic globalization is facing headwinds. Tourists visit an ancient town in Xichang, Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan province, Jan. 18, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Li Jieyi) The country is steadily advancing opening up with institutional guarantees in the areas of management, standards, rules and norms, and protecting property rights and intellectual property rights in accordance with the law, so as to build a market-oriented and world-class business environment governed by a sound legal framework. According to recent statistics released by the General Administration of Customs, China's foreign trade in goods reached 42.07 trillion yuan last year. The size, quality and efficiency of the sector all improved, making China the world's largest trader in goods for six years in a row. The Ministry of Commerce said on Jan.18 that the foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 6.3 percent year on year to 1.23 trillion yuan in 2022. According to a survey recently launched by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, which involved over 160 foreign enterprises in China and foreign chambers of commerce, 99.4 percent of the respondents said they were more confident in China's economic prospects in 2023 and 98.7 percent would maintain and expand their investment in China. China will continue to be a promising land for global investment against uncertainties in the global market. The Chinese economy enjoys strong resilience, potential and vitality. The fundamentals sustaining its long-term growth remain unchanged. The high-quality economic development of China will surely provide new opportunities for the rest of the world. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Kou Jie) The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with two Patriot anti-aircraft missile launchers and a number of missiles. Source: the letter of the Minister of Defense to the Parliament, reports European Pravda Quote: "The Netherlands is participating in a cooperation project with the USA and Germany to supply Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine, including ammunition, training and spare parts for their maintenance. The delivery of this weapon system is a unique and complex operation. The cooperation involves the supply by the Netherlands of two launchers and a number of missiles," the letter states. The Netherlands will also help train Ukrainians to work with the Patriot systems. "Thus, the Netherlands, together with its allies, is responding to President Zelenskyy's urgent call to provide air defence against ongoing missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities," the letter says. In addition, 65 marines will train a total of 400 Ukrainian soldiers until April. This is happening in Great Britain. The Netherlands has a total of three Patriot anti-aircraft systems, the fourth is in reserve. The system can shoot down helicopters, manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, ballistic and cruise missiles from a height of up to 20 kilometres and at a distance of up to 60 kilometres. The Patriot system consists of a radar, a fire control centre and several launchers. Earlier, the Dutch government stated that they are potentially ready to discuss the provision of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, if Kyiv expresses such a request. Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren also stated that the Netherlands is ready to finance the transfer of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, which will be handed over by other allies just as they have already helped with the delivery of Soviet T-72s from the Czech Republic. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! (This Jan. 21 story has been corrected to change one of the main ethnic groups to Hausa from Fulani in paragraph 3) ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria will start its first national census in 17 years at the end of March, as authorities in Africa's most populous country seek updated data on the exact population and the size of different ethnic groups, an official said late on Friday. Nigeria's estimated population is more than 200 million and the United Nations expects that to double by 2050. That would make Nigeria the world's third most populous country, overtaking the United States. Census figures in Nigeria affect the sharing of oil revenues and political representation among the 36 states and 300 ethnic groups. Previous counts were discredited after disputes among the three main groups, the Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. Nasir Isah Kwarra, chairman of the National Population Commission, told reporters census counting would be conducted from March 29 to April 2, more than a month after Nigerians go to the polls to vote for a new president. Nigeria initially planned the census in 2021 but authorities postponed the process on the grounds of widespread insecurity, especially in the north where an Islamist insurgency and kidnappings for ransom have been raging. (Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Helen Popper) Jan. 21BISMARCK A recently introduced bill in the North Dakota Legislature would allow party hunting for deer, providing certain conditions are met. HB 1377 is described as follows in a legislative update on the North Dakota Game and Fish Department website: "Any member of a party of 10 or fewer may take or kill the number of deer which is equal to the number of valid deer licenses held by the participating members of the party. Each person in the party must hold a valid combination license to be eligible to party hunt." Authors of the bill in the House are Reps. Donna Henderson, R-Calvin; Mike Brandenberg, R-Edgeley; and Dawson Holle, R-Mandan. Senate authors are Sens. Larry Luick, R-Fairmount; and Janne Myrdal, R-Edinberg. The bill was referred to the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Minnesota allows party hunting for deer in most situations, but the practice has historically been prohibited in North Dakota. In other legislative news, a bill that would not have prohibited the use of firearms between .22 caliber and .50 caliber when big game hunting on private land, has been withdrawn from consideration. As of Thursday, Jan. 19, there had been 19 hunting-, fishing- or trapping-related bills introduced in the North Dakota Legislature. Herald staff report ROGERS, Minn. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has included $110 million in his proposed state budget to fund outdated hatcheries and public water access improvements throughout the state, the nonprofit MN-FISH Foundation fishing advocacy group said Thursday. The money would come out of the General Fund a first in many years and through bonding. "This is a great first step," Ron Schara, MN-FISH president, said in a statement. "Now, the Legislature needs to join with Gov. Walz and pass this historic reinvestment in fishing." According to MN-FISH, surveys and state licensing statistics reveal that 25% of Minnesota's population consider themselves anglers roughly 1.4 million people. Historically, Minnesota has made significant public access and fisheries-related investments, but that has not been the case over the last decade or so, MN-FISH says. Thursday's announcement demonstrates re-dedication to a very defining aspect of what makes Minnesota such a great state. Story continues "This is huge news," said Mark Holsten, MN-Fish executive director and former commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. "The main goal of MN-FISH since it was launched was to work on behalf of Minnesota anglers and improve the quality of fishing throughout the state." Herald staff report BISMARCK The North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department is seeking applicants for approximately $1 million in grants through the Land and Water Conservation Fund to be awarded to eligible projects in North Dakota communities. Applications will be available on the Parks and Recreation Department's website at parkrec.nd.gov/business/grants/land-and-water-conservation-fund starting Wednesday, Feb. 1, and continuing through Tuesday, Feb. 28, according to a news release from the department. The grant program aligns with the state's Main Street Initiative to build healthy, vibrant communities that attract and retain a skilled workforce by providing critical outdoor recreation opportunities. Eligible project sponsors include cities, counties and townships; park and school districts; state agencies; water management districts; and federally recognized tribes. The LWCF provides grants for outdoor recreation projects such as ball fields, pools, campgrounds, playgrounds and land acquisitions for park development. Some previously awarded LWCF grant projects can be viewed on the Parks and Recreation Department's YouTube channel series, Miles and Moments. The LWCF is a federal program funded by offshore oil and gas royalties that was created by Congress in 1964 to safeguard natural areas, water resources, cultural heritage and to provide recreation opportunities to all Americans. This 50/50 matching grant reimbursement program is administered at the state level by the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department and funded at the federal level by the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service. For more information, check out the Parks and Recreation Department website or contact Char Langehaug, grants coordinator, at (701) 328-5364. Herald staff report BISMARCK The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is offering 7,412 wild turkey licenses for the 2023 spring hunting season, 235 fewer than last year. Two of the 22 hunting units have more spring licenses than last year, eight have fewer licenses and 11 remain the same. Unit 21 (Hettinger and Adams counties) is again closed due to lack of turkeys in the unit. Spring turkey applicants can apply online at the Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov . The deadline for applying is Feb. 15. Applicants should note that a general game and habitat license is required when applying for a turkey license. The applicant has the option of having the general game and habitat license refunded if their turkey license is not drawn in the lottery. In addition, hunters 16 and older must possess a small game license, or combination license. First-time spring turkey hunters 15 or younger are eligible to receive one spring license valid for any open unit. To be eligible, the youth hunter must be 15 or younger on opening day of spring turkey season and never received a spring turkey license in North Dakota. The spring turkey season opens April 8 and continues through May 14. N.D. Game and Fish Department ST. PAUL The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is looking to fill 200 paid internships this summer and is seeking passionate and dedicated students interested in learning more about natural resource careers. In a news release, the DNR said summer interns "gain valuable training, build meaningful experience and share their knowledge and perspectives to help create a healthy, sustainable and inclusive Minnesota." The DNR has a wide variety of internship opportunities available throughout the state, including positions in fisheries, forestry, park operations, watercraft inspections, communications and more. Interns work 20 to 40 hours per week and are paid $15 an hour. To be considered for an internship, applicants must be enrolled students fulfilling an academic requirement or receiving academic credit. To apply for an internship position: * Go to the state of Minnesota careers website (mn.gov/careers). * Select "Search for jobs" from the toolbar. * Select "Search for jobs now" in the External Applicants box. * Select "View all jobs." * Filter by "Natural Resources Dept" in the Agency category and "Student Worker and Internships" in the Job Family category. Applicants will be accepted through Jan. 31. Positions will start in May and June. Herald staff report Ohio this month became the first state to ban the sale of ornamental Callery pear trees, also known as Bradford pear trees. It is now illegal to sell, grow, or plant the trees in Ohio because of its invasive qualities and likelihood to cause economic or environmental harm, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said. The white-flowered trees are spotted in early spring along highways, yards, and fields. >> Previous Coverage: Invasive trees banned in Ohio starting next year Callery pear often dominates young, regenerating forest areas and inhibits the growth and establishment of native plant species, Chief of the ODNR Division of Forestry Dan Balser said. Halting the further sale and intentional propagation of Callery pear will help reduce the further introduction of this environmentally harmful tree species. In 2018, Ohio gave landscapers, growers, and nurseries five years of notice that the ban was coming. The ban doesnt require existing pear trees to be removed, but the ODNR Division of Forestry encourages control and removal to benefit native forest ecosystems. For more information, you can visit ODNRs website here. According to a news release from the Atlanta Police Department, Jennifer Holder sustained self-inflicted injuries while resisting officers. Clayton County Sheriff's Office Jennifer Holder, 27, was caught on video spraying a fire extinguisher after a confrontation with airport staff. Witnesses say workers approached Holder after she skipped out on her dinner tab, according to reports. The Ohio-native faces six charges, including obstructing law enforcement, records say. A traveler was arrested at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Tuesday after police said she sprayed employees with a fire extinguisher. Ohio-native Jennifer Holder, 27, faces charges of obstructing law enforcement officers, two counts of simple assault, and three counts of simple battery following her run-in with flight attendants and police officers, according to Atlanta Police Department records. Witnesses said the incident began when Holder allegedly dined and dashed on her bill from Buffalo Wild Wings, according to Inside Edition. The Atlanta Police Department said in a news release officers responded to a report that a "suspicious female" was attempting to open secured doors inside the airport on Tuesday night. At some point, Holder got her hands on a fire extinguisher and unleashed plumes of chemicals in the busy area, according to the report. The incident was caught on camera and shared widely on social media. In the video, the woman can be seen arguing with airport staff and eventually spraying at least one of them directly in the face with the extinguisher. "She's a terrorist," the cameraman shouted. Police said they were able to apprehend the Ohioan despite her "combative" nature, according to the news release. She reportedly continued to exhibit erratic behavior in police custody. "Officers relocated the arrestee, Ms. Holder to the precinct where she continued to behave erratically and combative, by spitting and kicking at officers," officials wrote. Holder was taken to Clayton County Jail and is currently being held on a $19,500 bond and will be required to pay $3,150 in additional fees, jail records show. Story continues According to the National Capital Poison Control Center, fire extinguishers generally have "some risk for mild respiratory, skin, or eye irritation." However, intentionally harmful use may intensify these symptoms and would require medical attention. Three flight attendants were treated by emergency medical services after complaints or respiratory discomfort, and have all been cleared, per the news release. Read the original article on Business Insider Even in these divisive times, one thing unites Michiganders: Support for protecting and restoring the Great Lakes, access to clean drinking water and our Pure Michigan way of life. We have a generational opportunity to act on this support, and re-establish the Great Lakes state as the leader in protecting our water and communities. The list of needs is long, and the time may be short for the first pro-conservation majority in nearly four decades, but the following four actions can lock in gains for generations to come: First, the Michigan Legislature needs to establish access to clean drinking water as a basic human right. This means banning all water shutoffs, and requiring all water utilities to provide services scaled to ability to pay. It is surprising that this would be groundbreaking nationally, but Michigan can and should lead the way given the drinking water crises weve already endured and our location in the center of the worlds largest freshwater resource. Our water utilities have received unprecedented levels of financial support from the federal infrastructure and COVID-19 relief funds its time to leverage that support into ensuring that all have permanent access to drinking water. Mike Shriberg Second, the governor and Legislature should lean into implementing the Mi Healthy Climate Plan, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released last year. Its a bold, ambitious plan that would put Michigan on par with the states that are leading in the clean energy revolution,and the jobs that come with it, by decarbonizing our economy. Whitmer was stymied by a recalcitrant GOP-controlled Legislature in her first term, yet pushed forward with outlining an agenda that would put Michigan on a clean energy and climate justice pathway. There is no bigger threat to our future than climate change, yet the solutions can lead us towards justice, equity and prosperity. Third, the governor and Legislature need to revitalize the Polluter Pay law, which was once the strongest in the nation, but was gutted in the mid 1990s. We should ensure that taxpayers and underserved communities are not left footing the bill for corporate malfeasance, and that contaminated sites do not remain a threat to our health, environment and communities. For example, Michigan now finds itself at the center of the rapidly unfolding PFAS crisis, which is depriving communities of clean water, yet we lack effective tools to require cleanup. Breathing life back into Polluter Pay would set us up for another generation of leadership and prevent the water, health and justice crises of the future. Story continues A view of Lake Michigan at the Clay Cliffs Natural Area in Leland on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. Fourth, the Legislature should join Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel in supporting the shutdown of Enbridge Energys Line 5. The existential threat of this dangerous pipeline that uses the Great Lakes as a shortcut is not only that a spill would ravage the Straits of Mackinac if Enbridge wins in court, the rights of indigenous nations to enact their treaty-guaranteed fishing access, as well as to have sovereignty over their lands, would be diminished. Moreover, Enbridge only wins if they can ignore the governor and Attorney Generals orders to shutdown imagine the chain-of-consequences for resource protections that this would unleash. The Legislature has the power to stop Enbridge, and to bolster public trust and Indigenous rights for the long-term the time to do that is now. Michigans leaders have a unique opportunity to re-establish our natural resource and environmental justice protections for the next 40 years. Its time for the Great Lakes state to provide bold Great Lakes leadership once again. Mike Shriberg, Ph.D., is a visiting professor of practice & engagement at the University of Michigans School for Environment and Sustainability. Shriberg previously served as the Great Lakes Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Opinion: New Democratic majority should protect Great Lakes JERUSALEM (AP) A Palestinian militant allegedly tried to stab an Israeli in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and the Israeli shot and killed the Palestinian. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the Palestinian man as Tariq Maali, 42, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group later claimed him as a member. The health ministry said he was shot northwest of the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said the man arrived at the outpost and tried to stab an Israeli civilian. The military said he was armed with a knife and that the Israeli, a settler, shot him. The settler wasn't injured. Saturday's death was the latest in months of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Tensions have soared in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been conducting near-nightly arrest raids since last spring after a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis killed 19 people. Another 10 Israelis were killed in a second string of attacks later last year. Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment of Israels open-ended, 55-year occupation of lands they seek for their future state. Saturday's death put at 18 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the beginning of 2023. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israel in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, according to figures by the Israeli rights group BTselem, making it the deadliest year since 2004. Israel says most of the dead were militants. But Palestinian stone-throwers, youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations also have been killed. Palestinians have in recent years carried out a spate of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks but rights groups accuse Israel of using excessive force against Palestinians. Israel says soldiers, and in some cases civilians, face complex, life-threatening situations. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian man was killed by an Israeli on Saturday in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said, and the Israeli military said the Palestinian had earlier tried to stab Jewish residents. CCTV footage released by the Israeli military showed an individual running through the entrance gate of the Jewish Sde Efraim farm and being shot by an Israeli as he tries to advance further. The Palestinian was trying to commit a stabbing attack against the residents, a statement from the Israeli military said. The military could not confirm whether the Israeli was working as a guard for the farm at the time. Violence in the West Bank has surged over the past year, following stepped-up raids by Israel in response to a spate of Palestinian street attacks in its cities. At least 18 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since Jan. 1. (Reporting by Emily Rose, Ali Sawafta, Editing by William Maclean) Ukraines parliamentary committee on national security, defense, and intelligence summons top officials of the Defense Ministry to address journalists allegations that the ministry is buying food for the army at inflated prices. Ukrainian newspaper Zn.Ua reported on Jan. 21 that the Defense Ministry purchased food for the military at prices two to three times higher than it is sold at Kyiv grocery stores. This indicates a possible corruption scheme, according to Zn.Ua. The Defense Ministry has not provided any comments yet. The ministry allegedly signed an Hr 13.16 billion ($360 million) contract for food purchases in 2023, Zn.Ua reported. Regarding purchases by the Ministry of Defense, such inflated prices are not only for food, lawmaker Mariana Bezuhla, deputy head of the parliament's national security committee, said on Facebook. According to Bezuhla, who represents the governing Servant of the People faction, Ukraines State Audit Service and law enforcement are looking into Defense Ministry's spending. We are expecting loud conclusions, she said. Bezuhla praised Defense Ministry for doing a lot amid the war, however, said that mistakes and possible corruption shouldnt be overlooked. Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the head of the Presidents Office, confirmed that the audit is underway. If the allegations confirm, we should find those who signed this contract for Hr 13 billion, conduct an investigation and then make these people accountable, Podolyak said in a televised statement. On Jan. 21, Zn.Ua reported that it had obtained a 2023 Defense Ministry contract for food procurement from its sources in the military. The newspaper says the contract for a total of Hr 13.16 billion was signed on Dec. 23 and envisages food deliveries to Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy oblasts. The contract does not stipulate food supply to the front-line areas where the delivery alone can make any purchase more expensive, Zn.Ua said. According to the report, the Defense Ministry agreed to pay Hr 17 for one egg, while its price at one of the capitals stores is about Hr 7. Americans are obsessed with the threat posed by China to our interests and even to our national survival. Skilled analysts at the State Department, Pentagon, think tanks and universities are engaged in identifying the dangers posed by China and possible strategies for coping with them. Our intense focus on dangers risks overlooking the opportunities that exist for American-Chinese relations, which I would like to address here. Let's consider an extreme case of a Grand Bargain illustrating how monumental our opportunities may be. But of course there could be many lesser opportunities if we can't arrange a Grand Bargain. The Grand Bargain would rest on the fact that cooperation in achieving our mutual interests could provide so many benefits all around that they would greatly outweigh the conflicting interests which now get all our attention. Paul F. deLespinasse Just consider the resources a grand Chinese-American bargain could release to fund additional investment in projects at home and around the world. Between them, the two countries currently spend about a trillion dollars every year on military forces. This is more than half of the money spent by the entire world on military forces. Aside from Chiina, no other country poses a credible military threat to the U.S. and aside from the U.S. no country poses a credible threat to China. The two countries could not afford to disarm totally while the rest of the world remained armed. But the Grand Bargain could pick up an annual budget of half a trillion ($500 billion) by agreeing to cut Chinese and American military expenditures exactly in half. Since the reduction would be mutual it would not threaten Chinese or American military security. What could China and America do with half a trillion dollars every year? Are there any projects that are worth spending that much money on? Well, what about saving the planet, and all of its people, including Americans and Chinese, from a ruined climate? Story continues To protect us all, we must phase out our prevailing ways of generating energy. We must massively shift to renewable energy. This will cost immense amounts of money, and an extra half trillion dollars annually could accelerate this needed shift very nicely. This project would employ the best efforts of the world's skilled scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, many of whom live in China and the United States. The experts who would lose their jobs at the Pentagon and its Chinese equivalent could easily find new employment in this more constructive work. Although many details would remain to be worked out on the basis of experience, there are clearly two places where large amounts of extra money would be very beneficial. We could install tons of additional solar PV panels. We could also build large amounts of new grid to allow electricity generated by those PV panels to be conveyed where it is needed. If anything, building additional grid, up to and including a grid connecting the entire planet into a single system, should have an even higher priority than speeding up the installation of PV panels. There is no use producing PV panels whose electrical output cannot be fully used because of an inadequate or non-existent grid. Unless fusion power the possibility of which is still far from certain can be developed much sooner than even optimists now dream of, the world will move to run on solar energy sooner or later. But with the pace of climate degradation accelerating, later might not be soon enough. There is already a great acceleration in PV and grid building. But a Grand Bargain between China and the United States could dramatically increase that acceleration and, ultimately, save the world. This would be a result doing great honor to the people and leaders of both of our countries. If the United States and China were to cooperate in this project, who could stop us? Paul F. deLespinasse is professor emeritus of political science and computer science at Adrian College. He can be reached at pdeles@proaxis.com. This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Paul deLespinasse: A grand bargain between U.S. , China could save the world "Certain aspects of sleep may help to explain why some things go bump in the night," Betul Rauf, a researcher behind the study, told Insider. Stock photo/Getty Images A study in the Journal of Sleep Research found poor sleep correlates with paranormal beliefs. People with insomnia and sleep paralysis more often believe in ghosts, aliens, and an afterlife. The study's authors told Insider the results could improve health care, but there's more to learn. Reported sightings of ghosts, demons, and aliens are more common at night. Those who see them may have one thing in common, according to a new study published in the Journal of Sleep Research: sleep disturbances. "People report ostensibly paranormal experiences during the night," Betul Rauf, a PhD student at the Goldsmiths University Sleep Lab who led the study, told Insider. "For some, these experiences can be terrifying which may lead to increased anxiety, and this in turn can further disturb existing sleep problems. We see that this can cause a vicious cycle." Rauf and several other researchers were inspired to investigate the relationship between the belief in paranormal experiences on the quality of sleep "to offer an alternative explanation" when people perceive what they think is a ghost or demon at night. The research group conducted a survey of 8,835 participants who self-reported their demographics, sleep disturbances, and paranormal beliefs. They found that those who experience sleep disruptions like insomnia and sleep paralysis are more likely to endorse paranormal beliefs such as the soul living on after death, an ability for some people to communicate with the dead, and the existence of ghosts and demons. In particular, episodes of sleep paralysis and exploding head syndrome where an explosive crashing sound in your head jolts you awake as you're beginning to fall asleep or in the middle of the night were associated with the belief that aliens have visited earth. Sleep paralysis was also highly associated with the belief that near-death experiences are evidence of life after death. "It is important to note that we are only reporting on the correlations between variables and results require replication before strong conclusions can be drawn," Rauf told Insider, adding that a longitudinal study would help to prove her findings. "Although we do not provide any information about the direction of effects between variables, one possibility is that certain aspects of sleep may help to explain why some things go bump in the night. More research is required before this is clear." Story continues Should the findings be replicated, Rauf said, the insights could potentially provide healthcare providers with important information when faced with patients reporting experiencing paranormal phenomena. The increased correlation of paranormal beliefs may be indicative of sleep disruption, for example, making the information potentially helpful for diagnosing such ailments. "Reports of paranormal activity or anomalous beliefs could be mistaken as prima facie evidence for more severe disorders, such as schizophrenia, schizotypal personality disorder, or depression with psychotic features," reads the study. "The results provided here may encourage clinicians to assess for relevant sleep disturbances and parasomnias in addition to other forms of psychopathology. Clearly, accurate differential diagnosis could have important treatment implications." Two in five, or roughly 40%, of Americans believe ghosts are real and 20% say they have seen one, USA Today reported. Roughly 43% of the population believes in demons. Pew Research found belief in aliens is more prevalent, with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying there is intelligent life on other planets. Different cultures have long contextualized sleep disturbances with explanations that range from the scientific to the supernatural. In Egypt, sleep paralysis is believed to be caused by invisible trickster genies called jinn, while in Turkey, it is the karabasan mysterious spirit creatures that freeze sleepers in their beds. In Italy, the state is considered an attack by the Pandafeche, described as an evil witch or menacing, giant cat. Indigenous people of South Africa believe such sleep disturbances to be caused by black magic cast by dwarfs called tokoloshe. "People try to explain things happening through paranormal means when they can't find an explanation for things that are going on," Don Collins, a director at Fringe Paranormal, a paranormal investigator group in Ohio, told The New York Times. "Negative things are happening around them, they may tend to attribute it to paranormal activity." Read the original article on Business Insider One person is seriously hurt after being found with a gunshot wound in southwest Charlotte Saturday morning, according to MEDIC. Paramedics said they responded to the intersection of South Tryon Street and West Arrowood Road just past 8 a.m. They treated one person for a gunshot wound and they were transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. ALSO READ: 18-year-old killed in shooting at east Charlotte apartment complex, CMPD says It is unclear what led up to the shooting or where it exactly occurred. According to MEDIC, the person they treated was not shot where they were treated. A Channel 9 crew at the scene could see Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers blocking up part of the road and focusing on a tan car. It is unclear if the car has a connection to the shooting. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. (WATCH BELOW: Man arrested in 3-day string of armed robberies across Charlotte, CMPD says) By Marco Aquino and Fabian Cambero LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian police arrested over 200 people accused of illegally entering the campus of a major Lima university, while authorities in Cusco shut the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu and the Inca trail as deadly anti-government protests spread nationwide. Dozens of Peruvians were injured after tensions flared again on Friday as police clashed with protesters, with security forces in capital city Lima using tear gas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones, as fires burned in the streets. Some 46 people have been killed in the weeks-long clashes and another nine in traffic accidents related to the barricades set up amid the protests. Alfonso Barrenechea, with the crime prevention division of the prosecutor's office, told local radio station RPP that arrested 205 people at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos for illegally trespassing on the university's premises and for allegedly stealing electronic goods. A group of masked protesters stormed the campus late Friday and removed security personnel from the campus after taking vests and other equipment from them, the university said in a statement. In videos circulating online, an armored vehicle can be seen breaking down a door on the university campus to allow entry for security forces. In the Cusco region, the gateway to Machu Picchu, Glencore's major Antapaccay copper mine suspended operations on Friday after protesters attacked the premises - one of the largest in the country - for the third time this month. Airports in Arequipa, Cusco and the southern city of Juliaca were also attacked by demonstrators, delivering a fresh blow to Peru's tourism industry. Cultural authorities in Cusco said in a statement that "in view of the current social situation in which our region and the country are immersed, the closure of the Inca trail network and Machu Picchu has been ordered, as of January 21 and until further notice". Story continues The imposing Incan citadel is a major tourist attraction, with over a million visitors per year, though that number was reduced due to the pandemic. Protests have rocked Peru since former President Pedro Castillo was ousted in December after he attempted to dissolve the legislature to prevent an impeachment vote. The unrest, which until this week had been concentrated in Peru's south, has prompted the government to extend a state of emergency to six regions, curtailing some civil rights. (Reporting by Marco Aquino in Lima and Fabian Andres Cambero in Santiago; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Alistair Bell and Nick Zieminski) GRISWOLD The family of a severely injured Norwich man is accusing a state police trooper of failing to report an October vehicle pursuit in Plainfield that ended with a crash and their loved one in a coma. During a Friday afternoon press conference at the Comfort Inn in Griswold, Attorney Michael Jefferson, representing the family of 25-year-old Hakeem Thompson, also alleged the pursing trooper drove away from the crash scene without rendering aid to the former Bronx resident. "The (state police) pursuit protocol was ignored," Jefferson said. "(The trooper) rode past, looked at where the vehicle was in the ditch and took off." Marsha Thompson, mother of Hakeem Thompson, the Norwich resident severely injured in an October crash in Plainfield allegedly involving state police. Plainfield police and emergency personnel were dispatched at approximately 9:26 p.m. on Oct. 12 to the area of 137 Lathrop Road for a report of a single motor vehicle crash, according to department documents. What do Plainfield police and Thompson's family say happened? Police said they determined Thompsons 2002 Honda Civic exited a southbound lane of Interstate 395 onto Lathrop Road and a short time later struck a guardrail at the entrance to the Amazon distribution center and overturned onto its side into a culvert. Police said Thompson was initially transported to the Plainfield Emergency Care Center before being flown by medical helicopter to Hartford Hospital. Jefferson said Thompson was severely injured in the crash and remains hospitalized in New Britain with a stage-three brain trauma injury. CT state policeCT towns must decide: Rely on state police or build a police force with local officers? Thompson's father, Steven Thompson, said his son, a former Citigroup employee in New York, spent weeks comatose on a ventilator healing from multiple fractures and cuts. He said his son's prognosis is poor, despite being able to breathe on his own. "He's unresponsive to verbal communications and won't ever be able to feed himself or walk again," Steven Thompson said. "My son will not be able to live independently." Story continues Maria Myrick, whose daughter was engaged to Hakeem Thompson at the time of the crash, said her future son-in-law planned to join the U.S. Marines after a January wedding to her daughter. "Hakeem was always smiling, a go-getter," Myrick said. "It breaks my heart to remember seeing him hours before the crash smiling and laughing. And 12 hours later, I walked into a hospital room and saw his body, lifeless. But he's still fighting and we hope justice is done." Several family members and friends at Friday's gathering, also attended by NAACP Norwich Branch leaders, said Hakeem moved to Norwich about a year ago and had just gotten a new job as a casino security guard when the crash occurred. Mental health and CT policeA mental health expert is now embedded with some Conn. police departments. Here's why. What do videos show from Hakeem Thompson's crash? On Friday, Jefferson showed four videos short videos, including state police cruiser and body camera footage supplied to him by the Plainfield Police Department and videos from a business near the crash scene, that he said support his allegations. One video taken from Amazon center cameras, shows a vehicle, identified by Plainfield police as Thompson's, speeding down Lathrop Road with what has been identified as a state cruiser, flashing lights illuminated, a short distance behind. A second video shows the violent moment as Thompson's car flies into a ditch from Lathrop Road. The video appears to also show the cruiser's brake lights being engaged twice at the crash scene. Norwich police jail deathHow did Brenton Chambers die? Ruling on Norwich police custody death raises more questions The trooper's body and dashboard camera video show the cruiser, appearing to be traveling quickly, exiting onto Lathrop Road and its lights and sirens being activated near a car dealership. Neither the cruiser nor body camera footage includes specific "meta-data" such as time-stamps or trooper identification. None of the videos show the trooper exiting his vehicle and state police videos do not capture the footage of the crash or of Hakeem Thompson's overturned car. Jefferson said the first report of the crash was supplied by a passerby who spotted Thompsons damaged vehicle, approximately 45 minutes after he entered the culvert. Attorney Michael Jefferson at a Friday press conference in Griswold. Jefferson is representing the family of Norwich resident Hakeem Thompson, who was severely injured last year after a Plainfield car crash. Plainfield police Chief Mario Arriaga on Friday said his departments investigation of the incident appears to support Jeffersons contention that a state police cruiser was pursuing Thompson just before the crash. He said no troopers were at the crash scene when Plainfield police arrived. We later learned that state police attempted to stop (Thompsons vehicle) only after reviewing video surveillance supplied by local businesses, Arriaga said. Arriaga said his department has been in contact with state police officials and the case remains active. He said the same state police body and cruiser camera metadata sought by Jefferson has not yet been forwarded to his department either. Plainfield policeSterling needs help policing its 'Wild West.' Are Plainfield officers the answer? Thompson's family lawyer considers lawsuit or criminal charges Jefferson said he intends to file a civil lawsuit against state police and isn't ruling out pushing for criminal charges in the case. He and Hakeem Thompson's family said it's inconceivable to them, based on the video footage, that the pursuing trooper didn't know something had gone horribly wrong on Lathrop Road that night. "It's a straight road and there's no way he didn't see or hear something," Steven Thompson said. "He even slowed down on the same side of the road where it happened. He did not act professionally or with integrity." Hakeem's mother, Marsha Thompson, called her son a jovial, kind individual who made friends easily. "I did not expect this from police - you're supposed to be able to depend on them," she said. Marsha and Steven Thompson with Attorney Michael Jefferson. Jefferson is representing the Thompsons after their son, Norwich resident Hakeem Thompson, was severely injured last year in a Plainfield car crash. The Bulletin first reached out to state police about the circumstances of the crash on Nov. 11, requesting all documentation, as well as trooper body and cruiser camera footage, related to the incident. That request was forwarded to the state Department of Emergency Services & Public Protections Legal Affairs Unit. On Dec. 27, unit officials confirmed the incident is the subject of an open investigation, but have not made any of the requested materials available. We will continue to monitor the status of the investigation and will forward the materials as soon as they become available and are reviewed for public disclosure, a reply email to The Bulletins request stated. COVID-19 lawsuit in CTLawsuit against Plainfield claims COVID-19 policies violated First Amendment rights No accident report related to the crash was found at Troop D, which covers the highways in the Plainfield area. A separate Freedom of Information Act request was sent to Plainfield police earlier this month requesting any video footage obtained during the departments investigation. Jefferson, who is working with Stamford-based attorney Steward Casper, said he has a number of unanswered questions about the crash, including why Hakeem Thompson was being pursued from the highway in the first place and why the trooper waited until Lathrop Road to activate lights and sirens. "This is about holding police accountable, just like they hold us accountable - as they often do," Jefferson said. "They wouldn't let another trooper lie in ditch for 45 minutes. We don't even know the trooper's name." John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965. This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Crash by Plainfield Amazon distribution center leaves man comatose Some of the winning names of the MassDOT Name A Snowplow contest. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation's first snowplow naming contest came to an end, with 12 classes in kindergarten through eighth grade including two from Central Massachusetts having their creativity enshrined on the side of plows that will be used for the remainder of this winter. First graders at Reingold Elementary School in Fitchburg were among the kindergarten through fourth grade winners with "Plower Ranger," while eighth graders at Tahanto Middle-High School in Boylston won with "Blizzard Wizard" in the fifth through eighth grade category. Other winners included "Luke Snowalker," by third graders at Munger Hill School in Westfield, and "Sled Zeppelin," by sixth graders at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School in Shelburne Falls. The winning classes will receive a visit from the snowplow with the name they chose on the side, as well as a $100 gift card for school supplies. "The purpose of the contest has been to celebrate the snow and ice season and to help recognize the hard work and dedication of public works employees and contractors during winter storms," MassDOT said. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'Plower Ranger' and 'Blizzard Wizard' among students' snowplow names Jan. 20Lawmakers from both major parties are vowing to do something this year about the crime that worries and frightens New Mexicans. Just one week into this year's 60-day legislative session, more than 20 bills have been filed to crack down on crime, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has come out in support of ideas such as holding more suspected violent offenders in jail pretrial. As lawmakers weigh various get-tough measures, some progressive advocacy groups hope the Legislature does more to fight poverty, help children and the mentally ill and otherwise address the systemic problems that lead to crime instead of punitive policies that, they say, haven't worked in the past. "We would be disingenuous if we said there is an immediate solution to this problem," said Nayomi Valdez, director of public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. "We did not get here overnight. What we see of rising crime rates is systematic of failed systems. Many of the people who are incarcerated today are the children we failed decades ago." Polling has shown crime to be a concern for many. A KRQE News 13 poll conducted by Emerson College Polling in September found over 65% of the 1,000 New Mexicans surveyed believed crime had risen, including 54% of Democrats and more than 80% of Republicans. Almost half of those polled said they either knew someone who had been victimized by a home or vehicle break-in over the past year or had been a victim themselves. These concerns were on display during last year's gubernatorial campaign, as Republicans accused Lujan Grisham of not doing enough about crime and she responded with ads featuring Democratic sheriffs touting her support for law enforcement. Lujan Grisham, who was reelected in November, vowed in her State of the State speech Tuesday to boost police funding and back new gun control laws and other tough-on-crime measures. "We will not relent from our commitment to establish a 'rebuttable presumption' to make sure that high-risk violent offenders stay behind bars before trial," she said. "We'll tackle organized crime and the criminals who fund it through retail and commercial theft, smashing the syndicates that are terrorizing our business community. And we will continue to expand our police force to make sure our law enforcement has the personnel, training and tools to serve our neighborhoods effectively." Story continues Bills that have been introduced so far range from more stringent gun control measures to new penalties for those who possess a firearm while selling drugs to providing records of sales for catalytic converters, a car part that controls exhaust emissions and is frequently stolen for the metals it contains. There are also a few bills to fund programs to support behavioral and mental health and substance abuse programs as a way to address societal problems that can lead people to turn to crime. Law enforcement agencies and activist organizations have their own thoughts on what legislation they want to see passed before the session ends in mid-March. Some hesitated to say too much too soon. Others offered suggestions for lawmakers to consider. "I think we need to be in support of any legislation that deals with repeat, violent offenders, that deals with firearms when it comes to drugs and violent offenders, and I think we need to consider anything that has to do with pretrial release," said Santa Fe County Sheriff Adam Mendoza. Watching carefully Mendoza was hesitant to talk about specific bills but said he goes through them when they are filed and keeps track of those that may affect how he and his deputies do their jobs. He also likes to discuss bills with other sheriffs in the state, such as at the New Mexico Counties Legislative Conference, which ended Thursday. "We go through [crime-related bills] with a fine-toothed comb and ... brainstorm any issues, how these bills could be better, how we would want to approach the Legislature in reference to some of the proposed bills or for some piece of legislation that would benefit law enforcement," Mendoza said. Santa Fe police Chief Paul Joye said he kept his eye on the bills that were filed before the session started Tuesday, but added he would like to see what passes before considering the effect the legislation will have on his officers. He said he doesn't like to venture too far from the data when commenting on legislation. Ultimately, he said, lawmakers have the final say on how crime legislation is shaped. "If people don't like the laws that are being enforced or the way that laws are being enforced, there's a mechanism for that, and that's going through their Legislature," he said. Pitching preventive proposals Meanwhile, groups such as the ACLU and New Mexico Voices for Children hope legislators will focus on preventive, long-term measures that could chip away at the systemic problems that lead to crime. "It goes without saying we all share the goal of making our communities safe," Valdez said in an interview. Among other ideas, she said lawmakers should look at measures to reduce food insecurity and address mental and behavioral health problems and invest in creating more affordable and emergency housing for people who need it, including those who come out of prison and want to start their lives anew. "What we don't want is failed or outdated 'tough-on-crime' policies or over-incarceration," Valdez said. "We cannot afford to fall back on failed policies." Recent data provided by the child advocacy group New Mexico Voices for Children says 51% of families in the state struggled to pay for normal household costs while 35% reported children were sometimes or often not eating enough because they couldn't afford enough food. Another problem is many children in the state have parents who are incarcerated, which adds to the emotional, mental and financial toll they face, said Amber Wallin, executive director of the group. Lawmakers should look for ways to cut down on what are called adverse childhood experiences by improving economic security for families; providing protective measures for kids experiencing trauma; providing more tax credits for families, and supporting early childhood education and care programs, Wallin said in an interview. She also wants the state to look at the impact parental incarceration has on families. "In the long term, parental incarceration can take a devastating toll on kids," she said. Emily Kaltenbach, senior state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said it's important to delineate which crimes the state is trying to tackle rather than create a narrow approach to addressing all of them. "We tend to lump all crimes together," she said in an interview. "Are we talking about property crimes? Homicides? Drug crimes? There isn't one approach to crime that will address the concerns you see in our communities. "I understand people aren't feeling safe in some neighborhoods and communities. We have to take that seriously. But you can't just lock someone up forever and say, 'That's that.' And not everyone gets locked up forever." Those calling for more investments in social services acknowledge it's going to take time to let those programs work. "These are long-term solutions because these are long-term problems," Valdez said. "Anyone who attempts to frame them otherwise is not grounded in the reality of the situation." LONDON Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was fined by police Friday, for failing to wear a seatbelt whilst filming a clip for social media in a moving vehicle. Sunak became only the second prime minister in history to be hit with a police fine while in the U.K.s top job after his predecessor Boris Johnson, who was given a fixed penalty notice after it emerged that he had flouted Englands Covid restriction rules during the partygate scandal. It is also the second fixed penalty notice Sunak has received in less a year. He also paid 50 ($62) when he was serving as finance minister for attending a gathering to celebrate Johnson's birthday in breach of lockdown rules. It was one of several lawbreaking social events that took place in his home at No. 10 Downing St at a time when members of the public were prevented from seeing family and friends at risk of criminal prosecution. Filmed in the backseat of car, Sunak uploaded the video to Instagram on Thursday during a visit to Lancashire in the north-west of England, where he was raising awareness of government schemes to boost local investment. His lack of seatbelt was quickly spotted by eagle-eyed viewers and Lancashire Constabulary said Friday it was fining Sunak. The force did not say how much the fine was but in the U.K., a person can be fined up to 500 ($619) if they fail to wear a seatbelt unless there is an exception, such as for emergency services, in a taxi, or if a driver is reversing. A spokesperson for Sunak described this as a a brief error of judgment, according to Reuters. He fully accepts this was a mistake and apologises, they told reporters. Cat Smith, a member of parliament with the U.K.s main opposition Labour Party whose seat is in Lancashire, thanked police on Twitter for road safety campaigning all year round and also, reminding us that no one is above the law. The Labour Partys Deputy Leader Angela Rayner was less forgiving, tweeting Friday that Sunak, who pledged integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level, when he took office in October, was a liability. Story continues The fine caps a difficult week for the prime minister who this week faced criticism for traveling across the U.K. on army jets instead of using public transportation. However, members of Sunak's Conservative Party have defended their leader after his brush with the law. Of course it shouldnt have happened, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told British broadcaster Sky News Saturday. But I think, with these things, what people expect most of all is, you know, the individual concerned, whoever it may be, put their hand up, be honest about it, accept the mistake, pay the fine. (Sky News is owned by Comcast, the parent company of NBC News.) I dont think its something which would result in his resignation, Raab added. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Jan. 20Norman police are investigating a deadly shooting early Thursday in the 1200 block of 12th Avenue SE. Police responded to a 911 call about 1 a.m. The caller said he had shot a burglary suspect inside his business. "When officers arrived, they entered the business and found one deceased male," police reported in a news release. "They also contacted the caller, who remained on the scene and is cooperating with the investigation." The shooting remains under investigation by the NPD Criminal Investigations Division. Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the Norman Police Department at 321-1444 or Norman Crime Stoppers at 366-7867. Police agencies across metro Atlanta area are on high alert Friday night. From Atlanta to Cobb County to Dekalb County, We want to make sure that the community feels safe, said Dekalb County Police Chief Mirtha Ramos. Dekalb County Police Chief Mirtha Ramos said police agencies from all over the area are increasing their police presence after a Georgia State Patrol Office was shot by a man protesting the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. When one of us gets injured, or hurt or killed, we all feel it, said Chief Mirtha Ramos. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The center and the land it will be built on has been a focus topic for protestors claiming to protect the land. There have been several threats posted on social media encouraging people to vandalize anything tied to the project. TRENDING STORIES: Chief Ramos said its an all hands on deck approach, We want to make sure that all of our officers, are able to go home. We dont want anyone to get injured and thats really our priority right now. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer shot at a man as officers prepared to serve involuntary commitment papers on a person at a northeast Charlotte home on Saturday, CMPD Deputy Chief Tonya Arrington said. CMPD has not specified whether the man was injured in the shooting but said two people from the home were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Its not clear whether bullets fired by the police officer struck either person, but CMPD said no officers were injured. Officers received multiple calls for service from the home in reference to a domestic assault with a deadly weapon as they neared the residence in the 2700 block of Billings Park Drive around 1 p.m., Arrington said at a news conference. Thats a residential area off Back Creek Church Road in the Wyndam Place subdivision in University City. Officers observed a subject actively discharging his firearm towards the rear of the residence, she said. An officer observed this and discharged his firearm at the subject that was actively firing, and stopped the threat. Officers rendered aid to the subject of the involuntary commitment papers and another person in the home, Arrington said. . An officer saw a deadly threat, Arrington said. He engaged that threat, which he was able to stop immediately, and we were able to render aid to two individuals. It sounds like whatever was happening escalated, and officers responded accordingly, Arrington said. Our hearts go out praying for the officers involved who were at the scene, Arrington said. Were praying for the family dealing with somebody that was involved in a mental health crisis. Were praying for everyone involved in this situation. Police hadnt been to the home before or dealt previously with the person who was the subject of the involuntary commitment paperwork, Arrington said. A firearm was found at the scene, according to a CMPD news release. Officer-Involved Shooting in the University City Division https://t.co/WkWUprf7r0 CMPD News (@CMPD) January 21, 2023 Arrington said the investigation is ongoing and said the State Bureau of Investigation will investigate the incident. Police urged anyone with information about the incident to call CMPD police Detective Brad Tisdale at 704-432-8477 or the Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 704-334-1600. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. About 50 people gathered outside Wilmington City Hall Friday to light candles, leave flowers, share encouragement and mourn the presumed death of KC Johnson. About 50 people gathered outside Wilmington City Hall Friday to light candles, leave flowers, share encouragement and mourn the presumed death of KC Johnson. According to the Wilmington Police Department, Johnson, a 27-year-old transgender woman, was killed on the 1300 block of King Street on Friday. Johnson was last seen in the 1900 block of Tradd Court on Thursday, Jan. 12 and reported missing the next day. Police have charged South Carolina resident William Hicks, 26, with first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping in connection to Johnson's presumed death. More:SC man charged with murder in disappearance, presumed death of missing Wilmington woman The event was organized by the LGBTQ Center of the Cape Fear Coast and was followed by a candlelight vigil from Archie Blue Park to King Street, where police believe Johnson was killed. Hicks' arrest came the same day officials in Georgia announced the discovery of a body there, saying in a news release the Wilmington Police Department was the lead on the case. As of Thursday, WPD officials would not confirm if the remains are Johnson. Positive identification and a cause of death are awaiting an autopsy, officials said. Hicks is being held in jail in South Carolina without bail. According to reports, he appeared in Horry County court on Thursday and waived his rights to an extradition hearing. KC JOHNSON Caroline Morin, the center's executive director, believes Johnson's death is part of a nationwide trend where transgender people -- and particularly trans people of color -- have been disproportionately targeted for violence. Morin urged residents to support each other and was encouraged by the turnout. "I'm really excited, it's been a beautiful show of all the different types of folks who care about these issues," she said. "From people who don't have a connection to our community to allies with deep connections, the full spectrum of the community is on display." About 50 people gathered outside Wilmington City Hall Friday to light candles, leave flowers, share encouragement and mourn the presumed death of KC Johnson. Participants, many of whom didn't know Johnson personally, said they felt compelled to show solidarity with her family and Wilmington's LGBTQ+ community. Story continues "The more numbers the better for everybody," said Anna Hursley, a recently out transgender woman. "We're here and we're just trying to live our lives." Hursley, 40, said despite the fear she feels expressing her identity in public, she decided to come out last year rather than continue the "misery" of not being herself. About 50 people gathered outside Wilmington City Hall Friday to light candles, leave flowers, share encouragement and mourn the presumed death of KC Johnson. She said her sense of safety in Wilmington can be hit or miss, where there may be some welcoming allies at one bar or business and people hostile to her just across the street. Holly Wood said in recent years she's felt less safe in some normally LGBTQ-friendly areas of Wilmington and is now more reluctant to out herself to some people as nonbinary. With incidents like Pride Boys members disrupting school events, Wood said she believes extremists have been emboldened. More:Why do the US Capitol storming Proud Boys attend New Hanover school board meetings? "That's why we want to come out here and show support," Wood said. "To show anyone who might feel like they're dealing with things by themselves that they're not alone." Reporter John Orona can be reached at 910-343-2327 or jorona@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: LGBTQ+ community rallies around trans woman's suspected murder Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMC (Private Military Company), has written a letter to the White House ostensibly to find out about the crimes of his soldiers. Source: Prigozhin's press service Details: The oligarch published a laconic letter in Russian and English, addressing it to John Kirby, the coordinator of the US National Security Council. Quote: "Dear Mr Kirby, I have a question for you: can you name what kind of crime the Wagner PMC committed?" Note: On 20 January, it became known that the United States will soon impose additional sanctions against the Wagner Group, which joined the Russian military in the war in Ukraine. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! (Reuters) - The French arm of the Russian state-owned RT television network said on Saturday it was shutting down after authorities used European Union sanctions to freeze its bank accounts. Late last February, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union said it would ban Russia Today on the grounds it had been spreading disinformation about the war. RT (Russia Today) France appealed the ban but lost. Xenia Fedorova, the head of RT France, tweeted that French authorities had cited a ninth EU package of sanctions agreed last December. "The funds of RT France are frozen at the request of the general directorate of the Treasury ... our channel can no longer continue its activity," she said. In March, the European Union's Court of Justice on Wednesday rejected a RT France bid for a temporary reprieve. In a separate statement, RT France said 133 employees' jobs were at risk and called itself "a breath of fresh air" that had covered the war in a balanced way. It accused the French authorities of censorship and said RT France had never been condemned or sanctioned for any reason. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Alistair Bell) The Prosecutor General's Office has no doubts about the involvement of Iranian officials, as well as legal entities and individuals, in the production and supply of drones to Russia. Source: Yurii Belousov, Head of the Department of Combating Crimes in the Armed Conflict of the Prosecutor General's Office, on the air of the national joint 24/7 newscast, as reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office Quote: "The prosecutor's office and investigative bodies have no doubts that Iranian officials, legal entities and individuals are involved in the production and supply of drones to the Russian Federation for the purpose of further use against our people. These are operational data and data of intelligence units, both Ukrainian and our international partners." Details: Belousov emphasised that Ukraine will prove the guilt of those officials and individuals in national and international courts, using evidentiary information. Quote: "And right now, the investigative bodies and the prosecutor's office are gathering evidence with which we will be able to convince the court of the involvement of those persons in these crimes." The prosecutor added that for this purpose, hundreds of investigative actions and hundreds of examinations are currently being conducted, and will be completed in the near future. He assured that there is sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of officials and individuals of Iran, as well as representatives of any other countries that assist Iran in the development or supply of these drones, their use in Ukraine, assuring that "we will be able to prove all this in the courts and all these persons will be brought to justice." Quote: "It is important for us to track the entire chain, from production to delivery and direct use. Of course, all these individuals who supply components, who assemble these drones, who teach Russians to use these drones and those individuals who directly launch them on our citizens, in our cities all of them must be identified. It takes time, it's hundreds, thousands of people. We already have information on a significant part of them. We hope that each of them will be identified." Background: On 20 January, Ivan Chyzhevskyi, Prosecutor of the Department of Combating Crimes in the Armed Conflict of the Prosecutor General's Office, stated that the Ukrainian investigation has not yet determined the origin of the combat drones that Russia has been using against Ukraine since September and which are considered Iranian. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Zorn State Rep. Dale Zorn, R-Onsted, will serve as Republican vice chair of the House Local Government and Municipal Finance Committee during the 2023-24 legislative session. He will also serve on the House Higher Education Committee. Zorn previously served as chair of the Senates Local Government Committee and as a member on the Universities and Community Colleges budget subcommittee. Im looking forward to continuing my work in these areas, Zorn said. Local governments play a critical role in providing the essential services the people in our communities rely on every day. The decisions made by the Higher Education Committee will impact the lives of young people and adult learners across our state. Additionally, Zorn has been named as dean of the Republican caucus by Leader Matt Hall. As dean, Zorn will offer mentorship, leadership and other guidance to his legislative colleagues. Zorn served in the House from 2011 through 2014 before being elected to the Senate, where he served the past eight years. Before he was elected for a first time to the Michigan House, Zorn held various roles as a public official in Raisinville Township and served as a Monroe County commissioner for 20 years, including four years as chairman. Zorn represents Michigans 34th House District, which covers most of Lenawee County. This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Rep. Dale Zorn to serve on education, local government committees PRAGUE (Reuters) - Retired general Petr Pavel held a 15 percentage point lead over billionaire ex-premier Andrej Babis heading into a Jan. 27-28 presidential run-off vote, a Czech Television poll showed on Saturday. The two are squaring off in a second round vote starting next Friday after Pavel narrowly won over Babis in the first round of the election last weekend, although neither scored a majority of votes. The poll showed Pavel leading with 53% compared to 38% for Babis with 9% undecided. The expected turnout could hit 84% in the poll next weekend, the highest ever in a Czech presidential vote, the survey found. The post does not carry executive authority but has significant powers in appointing prime ministers, central bank chiefs and nominating judges for the constitutional court. Presidents also have a limited say in foreign affairs. Both Pavel, a former general who held a senior NATO military job, and combative opposition leader Babis, who served as prime minister from 2017-2021, would likely be more pro-Western than retiring incumbent Milos Zeman. Pavel, 61, is strongly pro-Western and supports further military aid for Ukraine as well as adoption of the euro. Babis, 68, who built a chemicals, farming and media empire now registered in trust funds, shares Zeman's warm relations with Hungary's Viktor Orban, who has been at odds with the European Union over the rule of law. Babis has also spoken in the past against Ukraine military aid and has touted ambitions to organise a peace summit while attacking Pavel in the past week for being pro-war. Pavel, endorsed by the centre-right government, has accused Babis of fear mongering. Some voters have also voiced frustration that both first round winners were members of the Communist Party prior to the end of its rule in 1989. Babis worked in foreign trade and was registered as a Communist-era secret police informant, which he denies. Pavel started his military career in the 1980s and enrolled in a military intelligence training course, which he completed after Communist rule collapsed. (Reporting by Michael Kahn and Robert Muller, Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise) Ron Klain oversaw the US Ebola response under former President Barack Obama. He's now a key surrogate for former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign. Mark Wilson/Getty Images Biden is preparing in case Putin decides to use nuclear weapons, his chief of staff said in October. Biden is "'very focused on being prepared in case Putin does it, and trying to figure out what we can do to deter him,'" Ron Klain said. Klain was interviewed by author Chris Whipple for his book on Joe Biden's White House. President Joe Biden has said he takes seriously the threat of Russian President Vladimir Putin using nuclear weapons, and he's preparing for it behind the scenes. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told author Chris Whipple, in an October interview, that the prospect isn't outside the realm of possibility. "'We're on a path that could lead to that outcome. We don't know what Putin will do, but tragically, it's not impossible to imagine,'" Klain is quoted as saying in Whipple's book, "The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House," released on January 17. Klain told Whipple at the time that Biden is "'very focused on being prepared in case Putin does it, and trying to figure out what we can do to deter him from doing it.'" Whipple conducted the interview with Klain on October 8, a couple of days after Biden spoke about Putin at a fundraiser in New York City and raised the prospect of "Armageddon." Biden suggested at the time that Putin was "not joking" about potentially using tactical nuclear weapons or chemical weapons because his military was underperforming in Ukraine, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Tarini Parti and The Associated Press. "We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis," the president said at the time. Whipple wrote that Biden "was preoccupied with the possibility that Putin might use a nuclear weapon" and shared CIA director Bill Burns' "belief that, in the Russian autocrat's calculus, the stakes in Ukraine were existential." Putin has repeatedly made nuclear threats since launching the unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, including as he escalated the war in September by announcing a partial military mobilization. Story continues "Those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the prevailing winds can turn in their direction," Putin said at the time. Burns, a former US ambassador to Russia, told Whipple in April that the CIA had done "a variety of assessments" on the likelihood of Putin ordering a nuclear strike. "'Given the kind of saber rattling that we've heard from the Russian leadership, we can't take lightly those possibilities,'" he said, according to the book. Analysts raised alarms at Putin's statements, but maintained the chances of him actually using such a weapon still remain low. Many top Russia experts have suggested that Putin's nuclear threats are largely designed to deter the West from continuing to provide Kyiv with security assistance. The US and its allies have provided Ukraine with billions in aid since the war began, including vital weaponry that helped Ukrainian forces repel the Russian invaders and make significant progress in a counteroffensive launched in August. Indeed, Western countries have not allowed Putin's threats to deter them from providing Ukraine with weapons, but with ongoing questions and concerns about the Kremlin's red lines they've also been cautious about sending certain types of arms and equipment. The issue has come up again in recent discussions surrounding a Western impasse on providing battle tanks to Ukraine. During a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the West should not allow the fear of provoking Putin to prevent it from supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine. "He's not going to use nuclear weapons," Johnson said of Putin, per The Guardian, making the case that doing so would put Russia in a "cryogenic paralysis" and turn countries like India and China against Moscow. "People argue that we should not escalate and should be wary of doing things that further provoke Putin," Johnson said. "How can we escalate against a guy who is doing all-out war against a civilian population?" Insider's Kelsey Vlamis and Lloyd Lee contributed to this story. Read the original article on Business Insider Nearly a year into its war with Ukraine, Russia has had little success on the cyber battlefield and that doesnt look like it will change moving forward. In the coming months, the Kremlin is expected to escalate its cyber operations as it continues to face major military setbacks in the conflict. However, that increase in cyber activity is likely to have a minor impact in the war as the Kremlin is met with stronger cyber counterattacks from Ukraine and its allies. There may in fact be no benefits for Russian forces in ramping up their cyber activity against Ukraine, said James Turgal, vice president of cyber consultancy Optiv, other than to make the point that they can cause chaos. Many experts feared that the Kremlin would carry out destructive cyberattacks on Ukraine and its allies. And over the past year, Russian forces have launched numerous attacks against Ukraine in an attempt to disrupt the countrys critical infrastructure. But the Russians underperformed expectations in the cyber space, a U.S. official said last year. Experts credit Ukraines enhanced cyber defenses for the Kremlins limited success. Russia was not expecting to be met with so much resistance from Ukrainian forces, which have been shoring up their cyber defenses for the last couple years with the assistance of the U.S. and the European Union. The Russians havent slacked off in cyberattacks, but theyve been unable to overcome Ukrainian cyber defenses, hence their resort to missile attacks on critical infrastructure, said James Lewis, a senior vice president and director with the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In recent months, Russia has carried out scores of destructive missile strikes on targets including Ukraines energy grid and water facilities. Those assaults have mirrored the Kremlins cyber offensives: Last year, Microsoft released a report that found that Russian cyberattacks were strongly tied and sometimes directly timed with kinetic military operations on the ground targeting Ukrainian services and institutions. Story continues Russian forces are likely to continue coordinating their cyber activity with their kinetic military operations as they try to boost the effectiveness and impact of their offensives. This strategy, however, doesnt always pan out as intended. One of the things that weve seen from combat operations over there is that its a lot harder to sync up cyber operations with kinetic military operations than I think some people gave it credit for, said Michael Daniel, president and CEO at Cyber Threat Alliance. Using cyber capabilities to cause disruption is easier if youre not trying to tie it to specific military operations because it gives you more flexibility in terms of choosing the time and place of where you try to get it to actually happen, he added. Turgal said Russias long-term strategy of how to win this war on both the kinetic and cyber fronts seems unclear after it has faced major setbacks in the last couple of months. We have seen over the last almost year that the use of one or both of those tactics together has not given them a victory, Turgal said. Looking beyond Ukraine, experts expect Russian forces to expand their cyber activities to neighboring countries and perhaps directly attack European Union and NATO member countries a move the Kremlin has been accused of making already. Last year, several NATO countries, including the U.S., were hit with cyberattacks that were reportedly carried out by a Russian-backed hacking group. Jason Blessing, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said he expects Russian forces to launch cyberattacks against countries primarily located in Central and Eastern Europe but also more broadly in the West. He also anticipates Russia will go after companies that are supporting Ukraine economically and militarily. I think whats more likely to happen in the short term is that businesses providing direct support and aid to Ukraine are much better targets because disrupting them disrupts supplies to Ukraine, he said. However, Blessing expects those attacks to be low-level and unsophisticated just enough to create disruption to business operations. None of Russias cyberattacks have yet reached the level where NATOs Article 5, which states that an act of war against any member nation will trigger a response from the full alliance, would be triggered, and he predicts the same will be true going forward. So, its more a widening of the conflict than sort of a vertical escalation in cyberspace, he added. Despite Russias failure to unleash destructive cyberattacks against the West, particularly the U.S., government officials and experts all agreed that the U.S. needs to remain vigilant this year, as it has over the last year. This month, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly warned the U.S. against potential Russian cyberattacks as the war in Ukraine drags on. Easterly said although the Russians have yet to launch massive cyberattacks against the U.S., we cannot assume that wont happen going forward. It looks like its not going to end anytime soon. We need to continue to be vigilant, keep our shields up, and ensure that we are putting all those controls in place, Easterly said during a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Lewis, who agreed with her statement, said that regardless of what the Russians decide to do this year, the U.S. needs to increase [its] cyber defenses. We need to be as vigilant as we were last year, he added. The threat of Russian cyberattacks may not abate even if the war between Russia and Ukraine comes to an end. If Russian troops are forced out of Ukraine, the Kremlin could decide to scale up its cyber activity to disrupt and undermine the Ukrainians beyond the end of a traditional conflict. If the war ended I could see the Russians making extensive use of their cyber capabilities to try to destabilize the Ukrainian government and continue to sort of foment separatist interests on the eastern side of Ukraine, Daniel, of the Cyber Threat Alliance, said. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Russian sabotage group tried to cross the border in the Sumy Oblast At about 5:00 a.m., a group of six Russian soldiers headed from Russia into the direction of the border settlement of Yunakivka, but turned back after drawing fire from Ukrainian defenders. Read also: Russian strike hits houses in Kyiv Oblast, impact blows out windows This was not the first Russian attempt to infiltrate Ukraine via the border in Sumy Oblast, the governor noted. Local Territorial Defence Forces found and eliminated another enemy sabotage group near the settlement of Vysoke in Sumy Oblast on Dec. 23. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Ukrainian military near Bakhmut In the northeast, near Kreminna, Ukraine has probably made small gains and successfully defended itself against a Russian counterattack, the MoD writes. Read also: Capturing Soledar and Bakhmut wont help Russia turn the tide, White House says According to British intelligence, in Donetsk Oblast, on the Bakhmut axis, Russian military and Wagner forces are likely to regroup in the town of Soledar after capturing it earlier in the week. In the south, in Zaporizhzhya Oblast, both sides have concentrated significant forces, exchanging artillery fire, but avoiding large-scale offensives. "However, there is a realistic possibility of local Russian advances around Bakhmut," the MoD added. Read also: Russians do not completely control Soledar, are not succeeding in Bakhmut, says US intelligence In the first weeks of 2023, Russia focused its efforts on trying to capture the town of Soledar, and combat is ongoing in that area. According to Ukraines Ministry of Defense, Russian troops have deployed almost all of their main forces to the Donetsk sector. Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi said that Russia was using Wagner units in that section, in addition to regular Russian military. On Jan. 18, the UK Ministry of Defense reported that Ukrainian defenders may have retreated from Soledar on Jan. 16 and taken up new defensive positions west of the town. Read also: NATO chief says situation near Soledar and Bakhmut shows Ukraine needs more help However, the Ukrainian military insists that Soledar is not wholly under Russian control, and is still contested by Ukrainian forces. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine A 17-year-old boy was wounded in a Russian attack on the village of Studenok in Sumy Oblast on Saturday, 21 January. Source: Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, Head of Sumy Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram Quote: "The enemy started firing on the territory of the Esman hromada [an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories ed.] of the Shostkynskyi district today, around 13:00. The Russians fired on the village of Studenok with mortars. 10 mines exploded on the streets of the village, near the homes of local residents. Enemy explosives also hit one of the houses, it was completely destroyed. A 17-year-old boy was in it at the time of the attack. Miraculously, he survived, the boy with numerous shrapnel wounds was saved by the doctors of the Hlukhiv hospital." Details: Zhyvytskyi added that the boy's life is not in danger at the moment. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! (Reuters) - The private Russian military group Wagner plans to send the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in fighting in the captured town of Soledar to territory held by Ukraine, a website linked to the group's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin reported on Saturday. Wagner said on Jan. 11 it had captured Soledar, and Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region said earlier this week they were in control of the salt-mining town, where intense fighting has taken place. The RIA FAN website - part of Prigozhin's media holdings - quoted a Wagner commander as saying the mercenary company would send the bodies from Soledar to Ukrainian-held territory in four or five convoys totalling about 20 trucks. Saturday's report did not say how many bodies would be returned to Ukrainian authorities, but said Ukraine's forces had suffered heavy losses in Soledar. It said Prigozhin had made clear that soldiers' bodies should be returned to Ukraine in a "dignified" way, but gave no further details about the planned operation. Ukrainian authorities said during the fight for Soledar that Russian forces sustained heavy losses. Prigozhin, who previously shunned the public spotlight and denied connections to Wagner, admitted in September that he founded the mercenary army, which has played a major role in the conflict. He has described Wagner as a fully independent force with its own aircraft, tanks, rockets and artillery. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Helen Popper) A Del Paso Heights Elementary School teacher faces as many as 17 counts of lewd acts with a child and one count of possession of child pornography after he was arrested Friday. Kim Kenneth Wilson, 62, was served a search warrant Wednesday for his residence and multiple locations, according to a news release from the Sacramento Police Department announcing the arrest. Numerous pieces of evidence were found during the searches, which led to Wilsons arrest. He is currently charged with three felony counts: one for lewd acts on a child under 14, a similar charge involving force or violence and a count of possession of child pornography, according to jail records. Its not known if Wilsons victims were students in his class or had attended Del Paso Heights Elementary, which has about 450 students. Wilsons name remained on the schools website on Saturday; the directory says Wilson taught fifth grade. According to Sacramento police, Twin Rivers Unified School District Police Department received a lewd conduct report in 2019 that reported an incident involving Wilson and a juvenile victim. The report said the incident occurred at Del Paso Heights Elementary School in 2014. Twin Rivers officers contacted the victim and her family and conducted a preliminary investigation. During their investigation, Twin Rivers officials identified Wilson as a possible suspect, according to Sacramento police. At that point, Twin Rivers law enforcement forwarded the report to Sacramento police. Officers said department records show that the case was suspended, but it wasnt clear why. The agency said Friday is reviewing the circumstances surrounding that investigation. Sacramento police said they received a report from a separate juvenile victim alleging that Wilson had sexually assaulted her in 2014. This case was assigned to detectives in the sexual assault and child abuse unit and is being actively investigated. Wilson, who is being held at the Sacramento County Main Jail, is ineligible for bail. Hes expected to appear in court on Tuesday, according to jail records. Anyone who may have been victimized by Wilson or anyone with additional information related to this investigation should call Sacramento police at 916-808-0170. The collapse of FTX took an allegedly dangerous turn this week, as attorneys for founder Sam Bankman-Fried claimed that a driver crashed a car into the barricade at his parents' homeand that the car's occupants made threatening statements. According to the letter, which was sent by Bankman-Frieds attorneys to U.S. Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday, a driver recently crashed a black car into the metal barricade outside the home in Palo Alto, California, where he's currently residing on house arrest. Three unidentified men allegedly got out of the vehicle and told a security guard something to the effect of, You wont be able to keep us out, before driving away. The date of the alleged incident was not specified in the letter. FTX Token FTT Pumps 32% After New CEO Says Exchange Could Be Revived Bankman-Fried was released from custody by a New York judge via a $250 million bond agreement on December 22, following his arrest in the Bahamas and extradition to the United States the week before. The former FTX CEO relocated to his parents home in Northern California and remains under home detention as his trial proceeds. The disgraced crypto mogul hired the law firm Cohen & Gresser to defend him against charges levied by the United States Department of Justice following FTXs collapse in November. Mark Cohen, who submitted the letter with fellow attorney Christian Everdell, previously defended former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. According to the New York Post, the cost of securing the 3,000-square-foot homewhich is estimated to be worth between $3 million and $4 millionnear Stanford University is around $10,000 per week. Bankman-Frieds parents reportedly hired a private security firm for 24/7 protection. His lawyers have fought to keep the names of the bond co-signers (besides his parents) private, citing security concerns. In a separate letter to Judge Kaplan, the attorneys claimed that his parents had received a steady stream of threatening correspondence, some threatening physical harm. Several publications have petitioned the court to reveal the names. Story continues Given the notoriety of this case and the extraordinary media attention it is receiving, it is reasonable to assume that the non-parent sureties will also face significant privacy and safety concerns if their identities are disclosed, Bankman-Frieds attorneys wrote. FTX was one of the worlds most popular cryptocurrency exchanges until early November when it faced a liquidity crisis, apparently due to missing funds tied to trading losses suffered by its sister company, Alameda Research. Both firms filed for bankruptcy soon thereafter. Bankman-Fried has been charged with eight counts of fraud and conspiracy by the U.S. Department of Justice, along with charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He pleaded not guilty to the DoJ charges earlier this month. A man who was convicted of multiple offenses including sex trafficking and forced labor of students at Sarah Lawrence College has been sentenced to 60 years in prison. A release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York states that Lawrence Ray, the father of a student attending the college in New York, subjected a group of college students and others to sexual and psychological manipulation and physical abuse. He began around 2010 after moving into his daughters dorm room at the school and continued for a decade. He used sleep deprivation, verbal abuse, physical violence, threats of criminal legal action and other tactics to control his victims, according to the release. Larry Ray is a monster, said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. For years, he inflicted brutal and lifelong harm on innocent victims. Students who had their lives ahead of them. He groomed them and abused them into submission for his own gain. Through physical and psychological abuse, he took control over his victims minds and bodies and then extracted millions of dollars from them. The indictment against Ray and evidence shows he got his victims to give false confessions to harms they purportedly did to him, his family and his associates and used extortion to get payments through multiple methods. Rays victims drained their parents savings, opened credit lines, asked for money from acquaintances, sold real estate ownership, performed unpaid labor for him and engaged in prostitution as a result of his manipulation. The release states Ray forced one female victim to engage in commercial sex acts to pay for damages she did not owe and sexually groomed her. He also took sexually explicit photos and used them to force her to continue to engage in sexual acts. Ray also forced three female victims to perform extensive unpaid physical labor, sometimes in the middle of the night, as a result of physical and psychological abuse. Story continues Ray laundered the money he received from his actions through an internet domain business and evaded taxes on them, according to the release. He was ultimately convicted of numerous charges in April, including racketeering conspiracy, violent crime in the aid of racketeering, extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, tax evasion and money laundering. Ray was also sentenced to a life sentence of supervised release in addition to the 60-year sentence. He was ordered to give up more than $2.4 million, which is the amount he received from the sale of a GoDaddy portfolio and the North Carolina residence where the forced labor occurred. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The situation on the frontline in Ukraine is generally in a state of stalemate. However, there is a credible possibility of a local advance of Russian troops around Bakhmut. Source: European Pravda, quoting the UK Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine as of 21 January 2023 Quote: "In recent days, the heaviest fighting has focused in three sectors. In the northeast, near Kremina, Ukraine has likely made small gains and successfully defended against a Russian counter-attack," the statement said. Around the Donetsk Oblast, in Bakhmut sector, Russian and Wagner proxy forces have likely been reconstituting in the town of Soledar, after capturing it earlier in the week. In the south, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, both sides have massed significant forces, which have conducted artillery exchanges and skirmishes, but have avoided any large-scale offensive effort. British Intelligence has previously reported that one of Ukraine's two main supply routes to Bakhmut is now under increasing pressure. Background: The Federal Intelligence Service of Germany (BND) is alarmed by the high losses of the Ukrainian army in the battle for the city of Bakhmut. At a secret meeting this week, the BND reported to members of the Bundestag that the Ukrainian army is currently losing a three-digit numbers of soldiers every day in battles with the Russian invaders. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! A continued investigation into dogfighting in Sussex County has led to the arrest of a sixth man after state officials said four dogs were rescued from his home. The arrest comes after Delaware State Police and the Delaware Office of Animal Welfare raided a Seaford residence earlier this month, on the 26000 block of Lonesome Road. The man, who is from Laurel, was identified as the person who fled the scene where five men were arrested and 13 dogs were saved, according to officials in a news release from the Delaware Office of Animal Welfare. More:1 dog dies, 13 others saved following investigation into dog fighting. 5 men are charged Animal Welfare officers recently obtained a search and seizure warrant for the Laurel mans home and took four more dogs. Two of the dogs were chained up behind the home with injuries consistent with dog fighting, officials said. In total, 18 dogs have been rescued from this investigation. Three other dogs have died, and two have been adopted, the Office of Animal Welfare said in a statement. The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information regarding this case should contact OAW at (302) 255-4646. Contact reporter Cameron Goodnight at cgoodnight@delawareonline.com or by calling or texting 302-324-2208. Follow him on Twitter at @CamGoodnight. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Sixth man arrested in Seaford DE dogfighting ring, more dogs saved A winter storm reached New England and blanketed parts of New Hampshire and southern Maine with snow overnight Thursday and into Friday morning. The regions first notable snowfall of 2023 brought 2 to 6 inches of snow to most areas in New Hampshire and Maine before lunchtime, according to meteorologist Nikki Becker of the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. A wintry mix that began Thursday evening turned to snow within a matter of hours, beginning around midnight for a number of towns and cities throughout the region. It started raining and snowing around 7 p.m. last night and then it changed to sleet and rain about an hour later, Becker said Friday morning. That lasted for about an hour and changed to all rain till around 9 p.m. Then around 9 p.m., it was a rainy and snowy mix all the way until midnight, then after midnight it was all snow. A winter weather system that has stretched from Colorado to the East Coast this week is expected to taper off. AccuWeather senior meteorologist John Gresiak told USA TODAY on Friday that The heaviest snow is going to be across the mountains of the Northeast, from the Adirondacks over to the Green and White mountains and into Maine, though snowfall is likely to slow into Friday night. And across the country, snow impacting Utah and Arizona was expected to spread into Colorado and New Mexico throughout Friday, according to AccuWeather. Friday's winter weather forecast: As storm moves east, snow returns to Utah, Arizona and other states What are the snow totals in the New Hampshire, Maine communities? Snowfall totals called into the National Weather Service beginning early Friday indicated towns and cities perched along the New Hampshire and Maine coastline received lesser amounts of snow than others in the two bordering states. Early morning reports from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, detailed roughly three inches of snow, while over the bridge in Kittery, Maine about two inches of snow had been called in. Story continues At 7 a.m., according to Becker, Dover, New Hampshire had gotten just under six inches of snow, while neighboring Durham had over four inches an hour later and Great Bay received three-and-a-half inches. Around 5 a.m., Kennebunk, Maine had about four-and-a-half inches. Becker added that reports of total snowfall were higher in northern areas and communities further inland, with some receiving between six and eight inches, mainly because those municipalities had less of a wintry mix coming down at the beginning of the storm. Flooding advisory issued at beach areas in NH and Maine While high winds had not been recorded by meteorologists, a coastal flooding advisory was issued by the National Weather Service for the Portland, Maine, area down to the southern Maine coastline. Peak high tides were occurring shortly after 9 a.m., Becker added. How has the storm affect roads? Roads made slick by the storm led to New Hampshire State Police responding to close to 40 weather-related incidents before 7 a.m. Friday. In one instance, though no injuries were sustained, a car rolled over on Interstate 93 northbound in the central part of New Hampshire. Remember to leave yourself extra travel time to get to your destination this morning and clear the snow and ice from your vehicle prior to driving, New Hampshire State Police posted in social media. The Maine Turnpike Authority announced late Thursday evening the speed limit was reduced to 45 mph in some places, at the request of Maine State Police Please travel with caution and adjust your speed for conditions. No over limits permitted, the turnpike authority stated. The New Hampshire Department of Transportation reported just one early crash on Interstate 95 on Friday with a traffic impact. The accident caused the right lane of the road to be closed temporarily. Contributing: Ashley R. Williams, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Winter weather: NH, Maine see snow, slick roads in 2023 storm This refurbished grain silo in Montana was the most beautiful Airbnb I've ever stayed in. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider This month, I spent one night in a refurbished grain silo on an 80-acre homestead in Montana. The home, one of five on the property, was built from what used to be a functional silo on a farm in Idaho. Modern and simple, the silo was by far the best and most unique Airbnb experience I've ever had. In my time spent traveling, I've called many places home for a night or two. My recent stay near Kalispell, Montana, felt like a return to my childhood. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider I've napped in a minuscule sleeping pod in Thailand, on the top bunk of a camper van in Switzerland, and in a tent in a Panamanian rainforest. Each location has been extraordinary, topping the one before it. But my recent stay near Kalispell, Montana, just a few hours from Helena, where I grew up, felt different. It felt like coming home. In many ways, the little Airbnb a tiny home constructed out of a former grain silo was a return to my roots: My grandparents owned a farm outside of Kalispell, just 15 minutes from the silos, and I spent many days in my childhood stomping around in the nearby fields and river. This month, I returned to the area as an adult, nearly 10 years since my last day on my grandparents' farm prior to its sale. The silo offered a stay that felt new and nostalgic at the same time and though I didn't have a long stay, it was one of the most stunning Airbnb experiences I've ever had. My silo was one of five Airbnbs called the Clark Farm Silos located on the outskirts of Kalispell, Montana. The Clark Farm Silos are made up of five Airbnbs located outside of Kalispell, Montana. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider The Clark Farm Silos are owned by a fourth-generation Montanan and situated on his family's 80-acre farm, property manager Alyssa Helland told me. The silos are just a few miles from Kalispell and Flathead Lake, the largest lake in Montana and a bustling tourist destination. When they bought the silos from a working farm in Idaho in 2020, they were still filled with grain so they had to be emptied out, disassembled, then transported and rebuilt on the farm. After about a year of work and $400,000 worth of renovations, the Airbnbs opened in the summer of 2021. Story continues The family had kicked around ideas for other Airbnbs, but settled on silos or, as they call them, the "big ol soup cans" for how they seamlessly blend into the landscape, Helland said. "It's beautiful out here," Helland continued. "The farmland's beautiful. The mountains are beautiful. He didn't want to take away from that." Each structure looks out over the Montana's striking Swan Mountains. From the silo's front porch, guests can see Montana's Swan Mountains. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider The view from the front porch was remarkable, and with a massive window on the building's facade, guests could enjoy the view even from indoors. Looking out at the Swan Mountains from the patio tugged at my memory, reminding me of the view from my grandparents' farm and made me long for more time there. A few yards from the house was a fire pit, with wood stocked on the patio for burning, but with the weather dropping below freezing, I thought it was too cold and I was too short on time to use it. The silo was split between two floors, with the living space, kitchen, and bathroom on the ground floor. The silo's living room was on the main floor. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider Between the ground level and the loft where the bedroom is the silo had plenty of space. I brought my parents along on this trip, and even at just 430 square feet, the space didn't feel too cramped with three guests. The kitchen was small but had all the necessities for a one-night stay. The kitchenette was small, but I didn't feel like anything was missing. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider The kitchenette came stocked with all the necessities for a single night: plates and bowls, cups and mugs, a microwave, and a small, vintage-style Frigidaire. There wasn't a dishwasher or a built-in stove top, but there was a portable electric burner that guests could use in a pinch. Upstairs, there was a large bedroom with a king-sized bed. The bedroom offered guests a stunning view of the Swan Mountains. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider Since my parents came with me to this Airbnb, I let them sleep in the upstairs bedroom instead of on the futon downstairs. The bedroom was chic and modern without sacrificing the silo's cozy, natural aesthetic. From the bed, guests have the best view of the mountains, besides the front porch. The couch pulled out into a futon, which was where I spent the night. The silo's couch folded into a futon for guests to use. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider It wasn't the best sleep of my life, but that's to be expected with these kinds of foldable beds a futon is a futon, whether it's in a gorgeous home or not. The silo was decorated with thoughtful, outdoorsy touches. The silo featured Western and outdoorsy decor. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider The owners designed the silo with a minimalist, cozy flair, Helland said. As I walked through the silo, I found that rang true. Throughout the house, photos from Glacier National Park lined the walls. A Western novel by Louis L'Amour sat on a side table, waiting to be picked up. A Pendleton blanket from the brand's national park collection was draped over the couch. The bathroom was even stocked with products from Public Goods, a direct-to-consumer company that offers "healthy and high-quality sustainable goods." The bathroom was stocked with products from Public Goods. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider The bathroom was small but chic. The shower had the exposed siding of the silo, which I thought was a neat touch. All the products in the bathroom were made by Public Goods, including the "tree-free" facial tissues. When I woke up early the next morning, I was thrilled that the hosts had left out some local coffee beans. The coffee was sourced from a local roaster. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider According to the Airbnb's listing, local company Maven Coffee roasts the beans exclusively for the Clark Farm Silos. I ground the beans the night before, so I had them ready to go when I woke up at 5:30 a.m. the next morning. The Airbnb offered both a French press and a pour-over coffee pot; I used the latter to make a cup of coffee that I wish I had more time to savor. Overall, I wished I had more time at the silo and hope to come back in the summer to hike, sit around the campfire, and sip pour-over coffee on the porch. My one regret from my recent Airbnb stay: that I couldn't have spent more time there. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider My stay at the Clark Farm Silos felt like I was on vacation and in my own home all at once. The cozy little silo was a return to my roots and I can't wait to go back. Read the original article on Insider A woman who works at Washington Technology Magnet School on Rice Street in St. Paul was shot and injured Friday afternoon when a fight erupted between two groups of teenagers at the school, police said. About 3:30 p.m., St. Paul police were called to the North End school at 1495 Rice St. on a report of a gunshot injury. When officers arrived, they found a female staff member with a minor graze wound to an earlobe. She was treated by medics at the scene. Police said that staff at the school broke up a fight between two groups of teenagers and told one group to leave school property. As the group left, shots were fired toward the remaining group and the woman was struck. A statement released by the school district said the building was locked down at about 3:20 p.m. after reports of shots being fired near the school. Parents were called to pick up students who remained in the building, according to a statement released by Erica Wacker, director of communications for St. Paul Public Schools. Evening activities have been canceled for tonight. One staff member was injured during the incident and treated on-site. Police, who recovered shell casings at the scene, said they are investigating and have not yet determined whether the teens involved in the fight were students at the school, which serves grades 6-12 with a college preparatory curriculum focused on math and science. Related Articles Florida health officials circumvented traditional regulatory channels to draft a report recommending gender-affirming health care be excluded from coverage under Medicaid, a state employee alleges in an exchange included in new court filings. Floridas Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which controls most of the states Medicaid program, wrote in a June report that available medical literature provides insufficient evidence that puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries are safe and effective treatments for gender dysphoria and therefore excluded them from Medicaid coverage because they are experimental and investigational. The ensuing state rule, which took effect in August, bars transgender youths and adults in Florida from using Medicaid to help pay for any procedures that alter primary or secondary sexual characteristics when those procedures are used to treat gender dysphoria, stripping more than 9,000 transgender Floridians of access to critical health care. But new court documents filed late Friday by plaintiffs in a case challenging Floridas Medicaid exclusion include allegations from an AHCA employee that state health officials did not follow customary procedures for developing generally accepted professional medical standards (GAPMS) in creating the June report. Documentation of an email exchange between Christopher Cogle, the chief medical officer of Florida Medicaid, and Jeffrey English, an AHCA employee, show evidence of tension within the agency over the GAPMS recommendation on treatments for gender dysphoria. Cogle in the June correspondence inquired whether the AHCA has a standard operating procedure for GAPMS recommendations, to which English responded in the affirmative, adding, If you will excuse me, I feel obligated to include this information: I was not informed or consulted, did not in any way participate, and did not write the GAPMS concerning gender dysphoria treatment. Story continues That particular GAPMS did not come through the traditional channels and was not handled through the traditional GAPMS process, English wrote. I do not cherry pick data or studies and would never agree to if I were so asked, he continued. All I can say about that report, as I have read it, is that it does not present an honest and accurate assessment of the status of the current evidence and practice guidelines as I understand them to be in the existing literature. Most major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), agree that gender-affirming health care for transgender youths and adults is medically necessary and have denounced government efforts to insert politics into medicine. The AHCA report in June acknowledged that groups such as the AMA and AAP support the use of puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries to treat gender dysphoria but said that none of those organizations rely on high-quality evidence. Their eminence in the medical community alone does not validate their views in the absence of quality, supporting evidence, the report said. English in his message to Cogle said he apologized if I come across as a bit agitated about it, but as the GAPMS guy around here, lots of assumptions have been made by those who do not know me well. Im a different sort of person than the author of that report, English wrote. I cant speak for them. I conduct myself and my work with integrity and I do not play favorites, yay or nay. Full stop, period. English did not immediately respond to The Hills request for comment. The AHCA did not respond to The Hills questions about how it developed its GAPMS recommendation for gender dysphoria treatment or why the report was not drafted using the agencys standard operating procedure. Court documents filed Friday also show the AHCA determined as recently as 2016 that it cannot categorically exclude the prescription of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria in transgender youths under Medicaid, though the agency admitted at the time that it was unable to determine whether puberty suppression therapy is considered a health service that is consistent with generally accepted professional medical standards. The filings further revealed that the court denied a state request to compel two of the plaintiffs in the case challenging the Medicaid exclusion to submit to psychological testing, finding the state failed to provide evidence that its selected medical expert is not a transgender denier or skeptic. The request applied only to plaintiffs Susan Doe and K.F., both of whom are transgender youths under 18, and not to the cases two other transgender plaintiffs, who are in their early to mid-20s. Florida health officials have been broadly accused by medical professionals and LGBTQ advocates of publishing intentionally misleading and false information about gender-affirming health care for transgender youths and adults to push a conservative political agenda. In addition to instituting a state Medicaid policy explicitly excluding coverage for gender-affirming health care, Floridas Board of Medicine whose membership consists of doctors appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in October voted to begin drafting a rule to ban puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries for transgender youths under 18. In April, the state Health Department issued a guidance suggesting gender-affirming health care including social transition, which can include changes as simple as using new pronouns should not be accessible to minors. At least 10 medical experts whose research was cited in the guidance told Vice News in August that their work was being misrepresented. In a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, transgender adolescents and young adults reported increased life satisfaction and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety after receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy for two years. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Pennsylvania State Police are investigating after a bomb threat was made against a mall in Butler County. According to police, a worker at the McDonalds at the Clearview Mall received a call at around 5:01 a.m. Saturday. The person at the other end of the anonymous phone call said, A bomb was left in the building. The investigation is ongoing. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW TRENDING NOW: UPMC doctor accused of driving drunk, causing fatal crash appears in court Coroner: Both drivers killed in 2-vehicle crash in Westmoreland County Butler County man accused of stealing from 5 area stores, returning merchandise for store credit VIDEO: Local anti-abortion advocates march through Bridgeville DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts Insider's reporter stayed at a castle in Italy for three nights and was surprised by the experience. Joey Hadden/Insider I've stayed in many hotels and Airbnbs, but until recently, have never slept in a castle. I paid $360 to spend three nights in the tower of Castello di Roncade on a trip to Venice, Italy. The 16th-century castle has a winery and surprised me with its size, restored rooms, and elevators. During a recent train trip through four European countries, I booked as many unique accommodations as I could find. One was a 16th-century castle in Italy called Castello di Roncade. The author in front of Castello di Roncade Joey Hadden/Insider Rapunzel was locked in a tower. Belle fell in love with a beast among enchanted clocks, tea cups, and candle sticks. Cinderella swept the chateau that her step-mom took over. Everything I know about castles comes from fiction. More specifically, I grew up watching Disney movies about princesses and princes living lavishly or, perhaps more often, being trapped inside grand castles with protective walls and dramatic architecture. But until recently, I had never seen a castle in real life, aside from the one at Disneyland. So when I was looking for one-of-a-kind lodging with my partner during a recent train trip through four countries in Europe, I was excited to find Castello di Roncade outside of Venice, Italy. I saw the castle on Airbnb, which is known for having an array of unique accommodations, but ended up booking it through the company's website and paid $360 for three nights, including daily breakfast. I was eager to find out what castles are really like outside of the movies and magical stories. Here's how my stay went, and the surprising things I learned about living a real life fairy tale. One of my biggest surprises about Castello di Roncade was learning it isn't technically a castle. It's actually a villa, but looks so much like a castle, that it became known as one. A shot of Castello Di Roncade from the outside. DeAgostini/Getty Images When my partner and I arrived at the castle, I thought Castello di Roncade looked completely authentic with its medieval walls and turrets. But while speaking to a representative for Castello di Roncade, I learned that it's actually a Venetian villa that was built in the 16th century to be used for an agricultural company with products like fruits, vegetables, and wine. Story continues Originally named Villa Giustinian for the Venetian aristocrat who built it, I was told by the same source that locals often referred it to as a castle because of its walls and towers, which were built for decoration rather than defense. In 1930, Baron Tito Ciani Bassetti bought the villa to live in with his family and transformed its grounds into a vineyard and winery, according to the company's website. When the family purchased the property, they decided to change the official name to Castello di Roncade, the representative said. Then, in the 1980s, Vincenzo of the Ciani Bassetti family opened up accommodations in the castle's towers and the main villa, according to the same source. I was surprised and impressed to find that a villa could look so much like a castle and even gain a formal reputation as one. When I arrived, I didn't anticipate that the main building would be under construction. The villa seen from outside the walls before restoration (L). A close-up of the villa during the restoration process. DeAgostini/Getty Images, Joey Hadden/Insider To me, castles in movies look like they could stand the test of time with their spires and solid walls. But in reality, according to The Foundation Experts, a restoration and repair company in Canada, old buildings often need to be restored to stick around for hundreds of years. When we checked in at Castello di Roncade, I expected to see a lavish facade on the main building, but the exterior was under restoration. According to the representative from Castello di Roncade, work was being done to add new plaster on balconies, columns, and arches, as well as attempts to resurface historic artwork that once decorated the facade. The same source told Insider that the restoration work began in 2020 and was set to be finished in 2022. But due to some delays, it's taking longer, according to the same source, who added that they hope it will be completed in the spring of 2023. I was also surprised to learn that there was a working winery on the castle's property. The winery building (L) and inside the wine cellar (R). Joey Hadden/Insider I previously always thought of castles as a means to protect royalty. But when I booked my accommodation at Castello di Roncade, I learned that the property served a different, more unexpected purpose it's a working winery with 270 acres of vineyard, according to its website. When the Ciani Bassetti family bought Castello di Roncade in the early 20th century, they established a winery with the same name, according to a representative for the company. My stay included a tour of the wine cellar. I've never been on a winery tour before, and don't drink, so I didn't know what to expect. But I found it fascinating. My tour guide led us and a couple from Colombia, who were also staying on the property, into a dimly lit room full of several rows of gigantic wine barrels more than I could count. The air overwhelmed me with thick smells of wine and wood. As I walked down a narrow path between two rows, I was shocked by how massive the wine barrels were. Just one barrel on its side towered over my body. I was surprised to find out that this old cellar was built 500 years ago, according to the Castello di Roncade representative, who also said that wine is the castle's main business and produces 400,000 bottles a year. I stayed in one of the castle's towers. I thought it was much shorter than the Rapunzel-like building I pictured in my mind when I booked it. The tower the author stayed in (L) and a view out the window of her room (R). Joey Hadden/Insider When I booked a room in one of the castle's towers, I wondered if I might feel a little like Rapunzel tucked away at the top of a tall, medieval structure. But Castello di Roncade's towers were built for decoration rather than defense, and mine was only three stories tall, a representative from the company told Insider. So in reality, it didn't tower high above the countryside like I imagined it would. Our room was on the top floor, and while it wasn't positioned as high as I expected, I still had a nice view of the property. I enjoyed waking up in the morning and looking out the window to the sounds of birds chirping. I was also surprised by the 16th-century tower's high-tech interior. It had an elevator and energy-saving technology. High-tech features inside the tower. Joey Hadden/Insider Since castles are typically historic, I was surprised by the high-tech features I saw inside my tower. While the tower was built along with the rest of the castle in the 16th century, the representative from Castello di Roncade told Insider it was restored in 2021 to serve as accommodations for guests. Before that, the tower stored wine, according to the same source. Inside the building, I expected to walk up three flights of stairs, but the tower had an elevator. I thought this made my stay more relaxing. Additionally, inside the room, my room key had to be inserted into a slip near the door to use the lights. This is an energy-saving feature I've seen in modern hotels, but I never expected to find it in a castle, and I appreciated it. Inside my tower room, I was surprised by how modern it looked. Aside from exposed brick walls and a beamed ceiling, nothing about the room screamed "castle" to me. The bedroom in the author's accommodation. Joey Hadden/Insider Based on castles I've seen in movies, I thought my room would look frozen in time with classical, regal decor like a knight's suit of armor or ancient paintings. But aside from the exposed brick walls and beams, I thought the room looked and felt pretty modern. This is because the building was renovated in 2021, according to the Castello di Roncade representative, who added that the exposed beams were part of the original building before restoration. I also thought my room was larger than most hotels I've booked. The 480-square-foot suite came with two sitting areas, a bedroom with a queen-sized bed, a walk-in closet, and a bathroom. While my room was recently restored, the representative also told me that other accommodations on the grounds were restored in the 1990s and 2010s. While looking at photos of all the rooms online, I thought that these other rooms included more of the decor I was picturing, like tasseled pillows and sparkling chandeliers. If I stay at Castello di Roncade again, I'll try out one of them. While staying in a castle wasn't quite as enchanting as I pictured it to be, I thought Castello di Roncade gave me a unique, memorable experience. The author stands in front of the tower she stayed in. Joey Hadden/Insider My stay at Castello di Roncade didn't completely match up with the fantasy in my mind of castles I've seen in movies or books I read growing up. But maybe that's a good thing. I stay in unique accommodations when I travel because I want to be surprised during my adventures. I never thought I'd find myself taking an elevator in a tower to explore the grounds of a villa that looked so much like a castle, it was named one. And ultimately, it still felt like staying in a castle to me. Whenever I reflect on my trips, I find that the unexpected moments become the most memorable. And my stay at Castello di Roncade certainly gave me a lot of surprising moments I won't soon forget. Read the original article on Insider On Monday night, a thief broke into the administrative office at the Tukwila Community Center and stole an iPad, laptop, and charging cable, according to Tukwila Police. Police nicknamed the suspect the Phantom Pooper after they left behind some DNA evidence in the sink. The suspect also left behind digital evidence when they merged the stolen laptops Apple account to their personal account. Needless to say, we do not see a lengthy or prosperous criminal career in the field of hacking for the suspect, the police report says. Said suspect is encouraged to (wash his hands with soap) then come down to our station to return the stolen items and discuss his options to save everyone some time. Protesters, demonstrators and activists gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as the justices hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, a case about a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, on December 01, 2021. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The Supreme Court marshal said Friday that she interviewed the justices after the draft Dobbs leak. "I spoke with each of the Justices, several on multiple occasions," Marshal Gail A. Curley said. On Thursday, the court said it did not have a "preponderance" of evidence to identify a leaker. The head of the investigation into the leak of a Supreme Court decision overturning the national right to an abortion said Friday that she interviewed the justices themselves, "several on multiple occasions," but found no evidence implicating them or their spouses. The statement comes a day after the Supreme Court issued a report concerning the unauthorized release of the draft Dobbs decision, asserting that it was unable "to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence." A draft of the opinion had been leaked to the press in May 2022. A month later, the Supreme Court issued its final 6-3 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, prompting several states to impose strict restrictions on the termination of a pregnancy. In the statement issued Friday, Supreme Court Marshal Gail A. Curley said she had spoken to all the justices during the course of her investigation, some more than once. "I followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the justices or their spouses," Curley, who has served as head of security for the court since June 2021, said in the statement. "On this basis, I did not believe that it was necessary to ask the justices to sign sworn affidavits." That is in contrast to how the court's staff was treated. According to the report issued Thursday, investigators spoke to 97 court personnel, all of whom were required to swear to the truth of what they were saying. "At the conclusion of the initial interviews, each employee was asked to sign an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, affirming that he or she did not disclose the Dobbs draft opinion to any person not employed by the Supreme Court," the report stated. Some, the report noted, had indeed "admitted to telling their spouses about the draft opinion or vote count, so they annotated their affidavits to that effect." Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com Read the original article on Business Insider Activists and lawmakers on both sides of the abortion issue are marking Sundays 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling by seeking to reenergize supporters and refocus their goals after the landmark decision was struck down by the Supreme Court. The courts ruling last June in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which overturned Roe, drastically altered the landscape for both the pro- and anti-abortion movements. Each side is using Sundays anniversary to remind supporters whats still at stake and highlight how the battle over abortion rights has shifted from the courts to Congress and the states. With a divided Congress for the next two years, and a 2024 presidential race that will certainly bring surprises and some uncertainty for the nation, heres what we do know: The key battles for reproductive access will be fought at the state level for the next two years and beyond, said Rob Bonta, attorney general for the state of California. The split Congress means federal action on abortion is unlikely for the next two years. But officials at all levels of government acknowledge it is an animating issue for millions of voters that will linger well beyond the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The people really spoke in the last election to make clear, you know, that they think Roe was rightly decided, a senior Biden administration official said. They dont want a national ban. They do want national protection. And so, yes, we will continue to take up that mantle and fight for it. The anti-abortion movement is also crafting a new state-based strategy, as its leaders come to terms with the fall of Roe. After all those years, finally that moment came true. And while we prepared, nothing really prepares you for a reality in this area, Marjorie Dannensfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, one of the countrys leading anti-abortion groups, said during a call with reporters on Wednesday. This is week one of the very beginning of a new life for our movement. Story continues Dannenfelser said with a new focus on states, the legislative goals for abortion restrictions will be as ambitious as possible. SBA leaders said they are targeting Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Nebraska as places where they see the opportunity to enact strong pro-life protections. This year also brought a significant change to the annual March for Life rally on the National Mall, which anti-abortion groups have held every year since 1974 to protest Roe v. Wade and call for its end. With the original goal of the march achieved, anti-abortion leaders are at something of a crossroads. While this year marks our most significant victory, the human rights abuse of abortion is far from over, sadly, said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Defense and Education Fund. To reflect the new reality, the March for Life on Friday took a detour to pass by the Capitol on the way to the Supreme Court. The organization also has five state-level marches planned, and by 2030 aims to have one in every state. The march has historically drawn top Republicans to address the crowd, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former President Trump. But in a sign of how this year is different, only two Republican lawmakers spoke: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), a co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus. When youre in a battle, its important to keep your focus on what the mission is. But every step of the way its also critical that we celebrate victories along the way, and boy did we get a victory just a few months ago when Roe was overturned, Scalise said. Anti-abortion advocates are pushing hard for a national abortion ban, putting pressure on Republican lawmakers to embrace even stricter limits on when and how women can access the procedure. In his remarks at the march, Scalise highlighted two bills the new GOP House majority passed in its first week neither of which was a national ban. Putting an early marker down on the 2024 GOP presidential primary, SBA said any candidate who does not support federal restrictions should be disqualified from winning the nomination. But after a public backlash resulted in the GOP winning far fewer seats in the midterm election than expected, the party is divided on the best path forward. Some Republicans are unveiling plans for national 15-week abortion bans, while others want to avoid the issue completely and leave it up to the states. On the other side of the issue, abortion rights activists are making their own plans, and acknowledging the long road ahead. Were at a time where we cant keep doing the same things in the same way as a movement and expecting different results. This is a time and a moment for us to drastically rethink how we want to show up in this movement, Oriaku Njoku, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds, said during a press briefing. NARAL Pro-Choice America is using the anniversary to launch a program to train state and local activists who want to organize their communities, highlighting efforts in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. Vice President Harris will mark the anniversary of Roe with a speech in Florida, the third most populous state in the country and one that is central to the fight over reproductive rights. In her speech Sunday, Harris will make the case for national legislation to protect reproductive rights, and she will draw a contrast between the Republicans extreme approach to reproductive health and that of the Biden-Harris administration. Harris has emerged as the White Houses foremost public advocate for reproductive rights, meeting with hundreds of activists, medical workers, state and local lawmakers and advocates over the past year and traveling around the country to push back on abortion bans. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last year signed into law a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, though abortion rights advocates are concerned he will back a more restrictive law this year as he eyes a 2024 presidential bid. Harris and advocates are hoping to use the enthusiasm and outrage among those who support abortion in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision to put pressure on state lawmakers and governors weighing more restrictive policies. Florida right now is really the epicenter of access for many patients in the south who are facing full out abortion bans, said Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. The [midterm] elections are over, but its our state legislatures and governors that will be deciding what priorities to focus on for their constituents. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo on April 23, 2021. Seated from left: Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Standing from left: Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Image The Supreme Court could not determine who leaked a draft abortion ruling last May. Yet the 20-page report has raised concerns about the rigor of the court's investigation. "I'm still disappointed that they didn't find out," one legal expert said. The Supreme Court on Friday revealed that the justices cooperated in its investigation into a leaked draft ruling of a major abortion case, but weren't asked to speak under oath, following widespread speculation about the scope of the probe. "During the course of the investigation, I spoke with each of the Justices, several on multiple occasions," Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley, who conducted the investigation, said in a statement. "The Justices actively cooperated in this iterative process, asking questions and answering mine. I followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the Justices or their spouses," she added. "On this basis, I did not believe that it was necessary to ask the Justices to sign sworn affidavits." The 20-page report released by the nation's highest court on Thursday spurred skepticism, given its ambiguity about whether the justices were scrutinized. Investigators perused cell phones and laptops, forensically examined printers, and interviewed 97 of the court's employees, including law clerks, who may have had access to the draft opinion. Yet those individuals went unnamed in the report and there was no mention that the justices were among them. Friday's statement appeared to answer that question. Still, the eight-month-long investigation ultimately came up empty, and the leaker's identity remains unknown, raising concerns about the court's determination to finding the leaker. The report also comes amid public discussion that it could have been one of the justices themselves, especially since the court has also come under fire over another alleged breach of a 2014 decision, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores. A former anti-abortion leader has claimed he had advance knowledge of the ruling, but the author of the opinion, Justice Samuel Alito, has denied the allegations. Story continues "It gives me more assurance than I had yesterday," Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, told Insider. "I'm still disappointed that they didn't find out. Everybody is. So they should keep digging." The report's inconclusive findings also showed the constraints of a court investigating itself, as opposed to a third party launching an independent probe, court observers said. "The court did as much as they could given their resources, but the decision to keep this internal prevented them from doing a full blown, thorough investigation," Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law, told Insider. Had the court been serious about the investigation, "they would've brought the FBI in," Blackman said. "I think they were committed, but not enough to involve the FBI to actually, really get to the bottom of it," he added. An executive-branch investigation may have led to the justices speaking under oath, a line the Supreme Court marshal did not cross, according to her statement. But the delicate and fraught nature of the matter could explain why, according to Tobias. "They're going to be more forthcoming if they're not under oath," he said of the justices. "It would be an insult to them, I think, they would think. To some extent, they're her boss, right?" The unprecedented leak last May penetrated the often blocked-off world of the Supreme Court, prompting some of the justices to publicly condemn it at the time. The court did so again in an unsigned statement on Thursday, labeling the breach "a grave assault on the judicial process." The draft opinion, which showed the court was ready to overturn nearly 50 years of constitutionally protected abortion rights, provoked national outrage at an institution that had already been declining in public trust. The leak further eroded that trust, and shattered it within the institution. And while the report, along with Friday's clarification, offered at least some transparency into the investigation, it failed to restore trust, according to observers. "There will continue to be suspicions that have bad effects on all interpersonal relations among justices and between justices and clerks and staff," said Richard Pierce, a professor at George Washington University Law School. Congressional lawmakers have vented about the court's unsuccessful investigation to find the culprit. House Republicans, now in the majority, previously called for their own probe into the leak. Some GOP senators have sounded the alarm about the possibility of future leaks. "This is inexcusable," Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri tweeted on Thursday. "And it means brazen attempts like this one to change the Court's decisions - from within - will become more common. Someone ought to resign for this." But it's uncertain whether new evidence will come to light anytime soon. The Supreme Court's marshal did not note any new leads in her report. While they may be at a dead-end now, some legal experts think that might not be the case forever. "People like to talk, and so somebody may leak the name of the leaker," Tobias said. "That could happen." Read the original article on Business Insider Tarik Namik, 45, operated a sophisticated and lucrative criminal enterprise. (National Crime Agency) A car wash owner who was revealed as the leader of a large-scale people-smuggling gang has been caught after fleeing the UK. Tarik Namik, 45, operated a sophisticated and lucrative criminal enterprise transporting Kurdish migrants from Iraq and Iran into the UK, the court heard. In December, he was sentenced in absentia for eight years at Manchester Crown Court after failing to attend a hearing and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Authorities detained Namik at Manchester Airport on Friday when he arrived on a flight from Turkey. Tarik Namik (R) and Habil Gider. (National Crime Agency) Namik - who ran a car wash in Stockport - headed up the organised crime group which became subject of a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation in 2017. Working for him were Hajar Ahmed, 39, of Manchester, and Soran Saliy, 32, of Stoke, who would help co-ordinate the UK leg of the operation. Habil Gider, 54, of Stoke, would act as an escort for some of the migrants once they were in the UK, while Hardi Alizada, 32, of Nottingham, travelled out to Europe to co-ordinate from there. The gang used complicit lorry drivers usually from Turkey, the court heard. Recordings found on Namiks phone suggest that he may have been involved in smuggling at least 1,900 migrants from the Balkans into France or Germany during a 50-day period, charging around 1,800 (1,548) per migrant. The group would then offer two separate means of getting to the UK, which would incur extra cost. The first, escorted facilitation, would see individual migrants collected by complicit lorry drivers in France or Belgium and hidden within their lorry, sometimes within the wind deflector above the cab, then met by an escort usually taxi-driver Gider once they had arrived into Dover. Hajar Ahmed is seen at a car wash. (National Crime Agency) Gider would then take them on to their final destination. The other method would be to conceal larger groups of migrants in the back of a lorry, also driven by a complicit haulier, to be released once the driver was safely through border controls. Once here, the migrants would claim asylum. Story continues Gider was caught red-handed carrying out a trip in November 2017, after his car was stopped by the NCA driving north on the M26 in Kent. An Iraqi-Kurd woman was sitting in the rear she had just arrived in a lorry into Dover. Namiks operation was finally dismantled in April 2018, when he, Ahmed and Saliy were arrested by officers from the NCA. Alizada was arrested in Nottingham in February 2019 and charged in connection with his role. All five admitted charges against them during a series of previous hearings and were jailed for a total of nearly 24 years. Namik, of Oldham, is due to appear at Manchester magistrates on Saturday and is then expected to be formally sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Monday. This reporting was supported by the International Womens Media Foundations Reproductive Rights Reporting Fund. SABINE COUNTY When condoms were distributed at a career fair five years ago, West Sabine High Schools seventh and eighth graders took handfuls and tucked them inside their jackets and pants pockets. It set field trip chaperone Carnelius Gilder into a panic. Gilder had driven the students to a church in the area to attend the career fair. Students had attended it in previous years with no problems; Gilder was taken aback to see a vendor giving away contraception for the first time. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We cannot bring these home, Gilder, now West Sabine school districts superintendent, recalled thinking. These are junior high kids. And were in a church. Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Caroline Covington / The Texas Tribune In rural Sabine County, a part of Deep East Texas near Louisianas western border, Gilder knew many parents who would light up his phone if students came home with condoms from a school-sanctioned field trip. So before the students got back on the bus, Gilder told all of them to empty their pockets. West Sabine High School students havent been back to the career fair since. The school district now organizes its own health fair, which parents attend, and school officials can decide whether contraception will be offered to the students. East Texans believe in and have a great deal of morality, said Gilder, who graduated from West Sabine High School in 2002. And, well, you have to include the parents. In Sabine County, pine trees outnumber the people. To commute between Pineland and Hemphill, the two towns that anchor the county, residents drive down a road that winds through a national forest. The towns are dotted with churches that loom large in daily community life. Bible scriptures are printed on plaques in local stores and even in Gilders office. Story continues Research has shown access to contraception and comprehensive sex education prevents unplanned pregnancies. But for sexually active teens trying not to get pregnant in Sabine County, its hard to access either. Sex education in Texas is taught amid tight parameters and bureaucratic strings. Texas schools have to offer health class at the middle school level, but parents must opt their children in to any lessons about sexual health. And when teachers do touch on sex education, state law requires them to stress abstinence as the preferred choice before marriage. Even if teens in this region want contraception, its nearly impossible to get without parental consent. In small towns like Hemphill and Pineland, parents have eyes and ears everywhere, making teens reluctant to go to the local Brookshire Brothers or dollar store to purchase condoms. They could go to a family planning clinic, which provides contraception at little to no cost, but only clinics funded through the federal Title X program do not require parental permission and a federal judge in Texas ruled last month that the program violates parents rights and state and federal law. As Every Body Texas, the nonprofit group that is the states Title X administrator, awaits guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on how to proceed, it informed Texas providers this week to require parental consent out of precaution. Today, family planning programs are few and far between, thanks to funding cuts by the Texas Legislature in 2011. No family planning clinic exists in Sabine County. To get to the nearest one, teens in the region must travel to an adjacent county. Meanwhile, Texas has one of the highest teen birth rates in the country. And in 2020, Sabine Countys teen birth rate was three times the statewide average. Nearly 7% of Sabine County teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 gave birth that year, compared with about 2% statewide. Note: Rates are the number of births out of every 1,000 teen girls ages 15-19. Deep East Texas includes the following counties: Angelina, Houston, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Newton, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity and Tyler. (U.S. Census Bureau and the Texas Department of State Health Services / Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy / Caroline Covington / The Texas Tribune) Evolving health education standards In Texas, abstinence became the cornerstone of sex education in the mid-1990s when conservatives demanded sweeping changes to health textbooks, insisting sex education was an inappropriate topic for teens. Then-Gov. George W. Bush signed a law forcing school districts that offer sexual education to emphasize abstinence until marriage. The law allowed health educators to discuss contraception with students only if they spent more time emphasizing abstinence. In 2009, the state removed health class as a high school graduation requirement, further minimizing the importance of health education. As a result, less than a third of Texas high school students took a health class between 2016 and 2020, according to an analysis of state course enrollment data by Healthy Futures of Texas, a nonprofit that works to reduce teen pregnancies. In 2021, state lawmakers made it even harder for students to learn about safe sex. Now, parents must give written permission before their children can learn about human sexuality, family violence, child abuse or sex trafficking. Texas is one of only five states in the nation, along with Nevada, Utah, Mississippi and North Carolina, to have such a requirement for sex education and the only state requiring parental permission to teach about child abuse. Students whose parents allow them to attend sex education classes are still taught that abstinence is the preferred choice of behavior. But, for the first time in more than 20 years, the Texas State Board of Education in November 2020 voted to overhaul the middle school health curriculum standards. These students should now learn about contraception and sexually transmitted diseases, conversations previously reserved for high school health classes. Keven Ellis, the Lufkin-based chair of the State Board of Education, called the new requirements a good middle ground between comprehensive sex education which prioritizes accurate and exhaustive information about contraception, sexual health and sexually transmitted infections and an abstinence-only class. Schools were scheduled to adopt these new standards by August of this year. But in Sabine County, as well as many others in East Texas, schools are sticking with an abstinence-based curriculum for middle school students. Tenaha High School students fill in the blanks of their Choosing the Best Life workbooks on Nov. 11, 2022, as an instructor from a nonprofit that provides abstinence-based sex education reads out information on STDs. Tenaha ISD is in Shelby County in Deep East Texas. (Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune) Every few years, the Texas State Board of Education sets standards about what is to be included in teachers lesson plans, whether its social studies, math or health. These standards are known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS. But no state agency tracks whether districts employ these standards. Students eventually take annual standardized tests on core subjects like math and science, but there is no such test for health. Theres no guarantee that every single TEK is taught to every single student, Ellis said. In the state of Texas, Im sure some TEKS get skipped over, hopefully inadvertently, but probably in this case a little less inadvertently. When new health requirements for schools come from the state capital, districts turn to their school health advisory councils to advise their local school boards about how to implement them. The councils, made up of parents and administrators appointed by the local school boards, are there to ensure that local community values are reflected in their school districts health education instruction. School boards tend to listen to their suggestions. Inside a classroom at Hemphill High School this fall, members of the local advisory council struggled to navigate the new state requirements about sex education. Have we been able to decipher the bill yet? Cecily Bridges, a Hemphill school nurse and the councils chairperson, asked during the meeting. She turned to Stephen English, Hemphill Independent School Districts superintendent, for an assist. Not really, English replied. Its hard to interpret what were required to do, Hemphill Middle School principal Jeremy McDaniel interjected. At the end of the meeting, Bridges instructed committee members to read through the new laws and the updated curriculum before the next meeting. And she said shed reach out to the districts education service center for guidance. Across the rest of religious and conservative Deep East Texas, some districts are choosing not to offer sex education to middle school students. Students walk to class in between class periods at Tenaha High School. (Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune) I dont care for the school to be teaching the kid sex ed. Thats my job, one parent said during the health advisory council meeting for Chester ISD in nearby Tyler County in April. Ill do that. If a district is not complying with state standards, the only recourse would be for a parent to file a complaint with the school board. But that puts the responsibility of tracking district curriculums on parents who, in Deep East Texas, would often prefer to avoid sex education altogether. In Hemphill, a town of less than 1,000 people, churches outnumber medical clinics. Wednesday night church services are part of the weekly rhythm. And religion has long been entangled in debates about sex education. Some parents in this region clam up when the words sex education come up, said health educator Ashley Cook. Shes trying to get into the Hemphill schools to teach students about child abuse, teen dating violence and sex trafficking as part of her Lufkin-based nonprofit, Harolds House. A homemade billboard along Farm to Market Road 83 outside of Hemphill on Dec. 30, 2022. In this region of the state, religion is entangled in community life and conversations about sex education. (Annie Mulligan / The Texas Tribune) But even Cook has to reassure school officials and parents that she will stick to euphemisms like private parts, even for middle and high school students. I dont say the biological terms, Cook said. The schools are a little concerned about that, so Im careful about how I use my language. Inconsistent sex education Because sex education is voluntary, its not clear what Texas students know about sex and contraception. According to a 2016 survey, 58% of Texas school districts teach abstinence-only sex education while 17% teach an abstinence-plus curriculum that includes information about contraception. The remaining 25% teach no sex education at all. Tenaha ISD in Shelby County about 50 miles north of Hemphill invited nonprofit Excellent Teen Choice to deliver abstinence-based lessons to students. On a Friday morning in November, Excellent Teen Choice educator Eric Love, 47, launched into a class about sexually transmitted diseases as he stood before 10th graders at Tenaha High School. Did anybody know you could have sex and catch a disease? Isnt that cool? Love said sarcastically, his eyes wide and hands gesticulating wildly. For 45 minutes, the high-energy instructor enthusiastically told students about the signs and symptoms of infections like gonorrhea, HPV and chlamydia. Students followed along in workbooks. To demonstrate how widely the diseases can spread, students ran around the room collecting as many signatures as they could on index cards. Love then explained that each signature represented someone they had sex with. Eric Love, who provides abstinence-based sex education through the nonprofit Excellent TEEN Choice, speaks about STDs to students at Tenaha High School on Nov. 11, 2022. The nonprofit is funded by the states Abstinence Education Program. (Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune) Two students, unbeknownst to them, had tiny Xs printed on the corners of their notecards. That X, Love said, meant the student had a sexually transmitted disease. Its living in their body and theyve been transmitting the STD to other people, and they just dont know it, Love said. He then had the two infected students stand at the front of the room and read the names on their cards. Now those students were infected, too, Love explained. I need you guys to understand the way this happened, Love said. Although this is a game, its not a game in real life. Love understood this personally. His half-sister became pregnant when she was in high school, an experience that inspired Love to educate young people about the consequences of premarital sex. As students returned to their desks, Love flashed images on a screen at the front of the room. One showed pus-filled bumps on a male penis that made some students jaws drop. Another pictured an infected cervix, the narrow passageway between a womans vagina and her uterus. A student cocked his head and remarked that the fallopian tubes resembled frozen Tyson chicken wings. Tenaha High School ninth-grader Karina Corpus reacts to examination photos of people infected with STDs like gonorrhea, chlamydia, HPV and HIV during a program run by Excellent TEEN Choice. (Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune) Before students went on to their next classes, Love returned to his main point: abstinence. It is our hope, our aim that you all will listen to this message: The best decision for your health, for your life, for your childrens lives is to save sex until marriage. Ninth grader Jasmine Santos said she was ignorant about STDs before the lesson. Now that I understand what can happen, Ill probably say no [to sex] until marriage, she said. Studies show abstinence-only sex education or no sex education at all correlates with high teen birth rates. Medical experts, meanwhile, have championed comprehensive sex education. When Brittany Henson, 33, attended Hemphill High School, she and her mother never talked about safe sex. The school district wasnt teaching sex education, either. The gaps in her sex education were a byproduct of how little the town and the community had discussed the subject, Henson said. That is the culture of Hemphill. It is Lets not talk about it. Its not a problem, said Henson, whose family has lived and worked in this town for generations. People feel like its so wrong to talk about it. And like if you talk about it, Oh, let me grab my shirt and button it all the way up to my neck because you shouldnt be talking about these things. Without formal sex education, Henson turned to other students. Their information was often incorrect. So, result? Hey, you got a baby, she said. Henson was in her junior year of high school when she got pregnant. She was on birth control but wasnt taking her pills consistently and didnt know that would raise her risk of pregnancy. She was, by no means, an anomaly. Five other girls in her high school class also got pregnant before graduation, she said. Valerie Polk stands in front of a cabinet containing several types of contraception at the clinic for the Jasper Newton County Public Health District. Its the only clinic in the region that has historically been able to prescribe birth control to minors without obtaining parental consent. (Annie Mulligan / The Texas Tribune) Contraception access Over the years, Valerie Polk has gotten very comfortable with subterfuge. Polk works at the only clinic in the region that has historically been able to prescribe birth control without parental consent, and shes had to find creative ways to help young people protect themselves. Shes met students off the highway, at the post office, on the bleachers during a high school football game and in the checkout line at the local Brookshire Brothers. Once, in 2017, Polk wrapped contraceptive pills inside a Walmart bag and slipped the bag to a teen cashier at the local grocery store. The cashier laughed at Polks stagecraft before accepting the bag and putting it out of sight. Valerie Polk, a public health worker at the Jasper Newton County Public Health District, describes the challenges of getting contraception to patients in a rural area. We do what we have to do to get our patients taken care of, Polk said. Polk has worked at the Jasper Newton County Public Health District for more than 25 years, providing health services to residents in Jasper and Newton counties as well as other nearby areas, including Sabine County. The Jasper Newton County Public Health District is a federal Title X health care provider, one of 156 such clinics in the state. That has allowed Polk to give anyone birth control, free of charge. The Title X program has been one of the only ways minors in Texas can access birth control without parental consent. But last month, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas ruled that Title X violates parents rights and state and federal law. Legal proceedings are ongoing, but the states Title X administrator has instructed Title X clinics to stop giving out birth control to minor patients without proof of consent for now. The ruling has left Polk and her team in a bind. Starting this week, they now began requiring parental consent. This isnt somewhere weve been before where we really cant help someone, Polk said. This is a new era for us. I just hope the ruling is overturned sooner rather than later. Already, over the past decade, the number of Title X clinics in the region has fallen, further impeding sexually active teenagers who want to avoid becoming pregnant. In 2011, there were four federally funded clinics in Deep East Texas. That number has been sliced in half, with just two clinics within a 100-mile radius of Sabine County. The Jasper Newton County Public Health District runs both those clinics with one in Jasper and the other in Newton. In Lufkin, a health care hub about 50 miles away from Sabine County, the Angelina County and Cities Health District suspended its contract with Title X in 2021, citing onerous requirements and paperwork. While the health district still provides contraception, teens must be 15 or older and have parental consent to receive it. Polk shows a nondescript package containing 12 free condoms available for anyone at the Jasper Newton County Public Health District clinic. (Annie Mulligan / The Texas Tribune) In 2011, in an effort to stop state dollars from flowing to Planned Parenthoods health care clinics, Texas legislators cut funding for family planning services by two-thirds from $111 million to $37.9 million for the 2012-13 budget. Within three years, more than 80 clinics across the state shuttered, including those that were never affiliated with Planned Parenthood. Some of the clinics that closed were also Title X providers. Every Body Texas, which has administered the states Title X funds since 2013, has tried to rebuild the network of family planning services. But restarting services brings up a host of challenges. Its a lot easier to close. Its a lot harder to reopen a clinic, said Stephanie LeBleu, the groups acting deputy Title X project director. We still see the legacy of that choice to cut family planning funding throughout the state. The Title X program has faced its own politically motivated attacks in recent years. Under the Trump administration, clinics that provided abortions or made abortion referrals were disqualified from the program. Adding to the barriers to contraception access, the teens Polk wants to serve dont even seem to know that Title X exists. Some teens who want birth control dont know where to go for it. Few have formally been taught about sex. Those who have were instructed to abstain. The Bible Belt says, No, were not going to talk to our kids about birth control, Polk said. Were not going to talk about premarital sex. English, the Hemphill school superintendent, said contraception was not covered in the districts sex education curriculum and he doubted students could access it if they wanted to. Polk and her team have tried to get into the public schools to educate students about their options for contraception. But thats been nearly impossible, she said. It may not be the superintendent, it could be the school board. It could be some parents that are going, Oh, no, youre going to tell my child about sex, Polk said. What students do learn, Polk said, is often inaccurate information that comes from social media platforms like Snapchat or TikTok. Brochures sit on a shelf at the clinic for Jasper-Newton County Health District in Jasper on Dec. 19, 2022. (Annie Mulligan / The Texas Tribune) So Polk and her team do what they can to make themselves known in their community to address the misinformation. Outside of work, they wear health district T-shirts to raise its visibility. And when teenagers come in for appointments, Polk asks them to tell all their friends about their services. Some doctors are also filling the gap left in education and access. George Fidone, a Lufkin pediatrician, said he speaks openly about sex with his adolescent patients and prescribes contraception on a weekly basis but only with parental permission. Ive had too many kids come in with their parents, and the parents think theyre coming in for a sore throat, Fidone said. And the kid will give me a look. And Ill know that look is Im pregnant, and I need help with this. Another thing that keeps teens from accessing birth control is that Texas is one of just two states that do not cover contraception through the Childrens Health Insurance Program, the insurance plan for low-income families. Also, state-funded family planning clinics require parental consent before minors can get contraception. Even a teenager who has had a baby cannot obtain birth control without parental consent. Brittany Henson spends time with her son Leo and daughter Bremyiah at their home in Hemphill on Dec. 30, 2022. Shes raising her children in the town where generations of her family have lived and worked. (Annie Mulligan / The Texas Tribune) Teen pregnancy When Henson was a junior in high school, she bought an at-home pregnancy test from the local dollar store and took the test in her parents bathroom. But after the two pink faint lines emerged, signaling she was pregnant, she didnt call her mother. She didnt call her older siblings who had already left home. Instead, she initially kept quiet about her pregnancy. She took herself to and from doctors appointments. She continued to make straight As and work her job as a cashier at Brookshire Brothers. She said she even competed in the state track meet while five months pregnant. I just didnt want to deal with the disappointment. I wasnt ready for that, said Henson, who was an all-star athlete and a straight-A student. I felt like I had the weight of not only my family, but the weight of my community. Hemphill and West Sabine school districts work with pregnant students to provide accommodations to get them to graduation, including homebound services late in the pregnancy. But teen moms are less likely to finish high school. Just over half of 20- to 29-year-old women who were teen moms have high school diplomas, according to a 2018 report from Child Trends. But after Henson gave birth to her daughter, she kept a firm grip on her dreams. She drove straight from the Jasper Memorial Hospital delivery room to the school athletics office to rejoin the school basketball team. She would go on to graduate high school on time and attend Sam Houston State University on a track scholarship. Henson now lives in Hemphill. Shes worked as a nurse at the Sabine County Hospital. Her daughter, Bremyiah, now 16, attends the same high school she did. Bremyiah, 16, and her mother, Brittany Henson, in their home in Hemphill on Dec. 30, 2022. Brittany and Bremyiah speak openly about safe sex conversations Brittany wishes she had when she was her daughters age. (Annie Mulligan / The Texas Tribune) Bremyiah is dating now, but Henson says she feels OK about it. She fiddles with a silver ring on her finger, emblazoned with the word Mom in cursive. She hopes shes given her daughter the information to make the right decisions. The mother and daughter talk about safe sex and contraception. Bremyiah doesnt want to get on birth control, but Henson hopes her daughter can come to her if she changes her mind. Last year, Henson drove Bremyiah to the gynecologist for the first time, an appointment where her daughter could get basic reproductive information from a doctor. What am I going here for? Bremyiah asked as they were getting ready. Im not having a baby. Thats the point. Its to keep you from having a baby, Henson said. We gotta learn, we gotta learn. Sixteen-year-old Bremyiah holds a ring she bought for her mother. (Annie Mulligan / The Texas Tribune) Reporter Eleanor Klibanoff, video journalist Jinitzail Hernandez and data visualization fellow Caroline Covington contributed to this story. Disclosure: Planned Parenthood, Sam Houston State University and Walmart Stores Inc. have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here. This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune, a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org. An animal keeper shows a domino cockroach at Hannover Zoo. Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images The San Antonio zoo annual fundraiser lets you name cockroaches, rodents, or plants after exes. The roaches, rodents, and veggies are then fed to the zoo's animals and you can watch. The not-so-special people can also get a card letting them know the animal food was named after them. A Texas zoo lets you name a cockroach, rodent, or plant after your "difficult" boss or ex that did you wrong and then witness it fed to animals. The San Antonio Zoo will host its annual Cry Me a Cockroach Fundraiser on Valentine's Day. The fundraiser will be used to "support the zoo's vision of securing a future for wildlife in Texas and around the world!" The opportunity to donate and name a critter or plant after your ex is open between now and Valentine's day. A donation of $5 will get a veggie named after an ex, $10 will get a cockroach named after their not-so-special someone, and a $25 donation will get a rodent. San Antonio Zoological Society (@SanAntonioZoo) January 21, 2023 As part of their donations, participants will also get a digital Valentine's Day card and an optional card sent to their ex-partner that says they had named a cockroach, rodent, or veggie after them and had fed to an animal at the zoo. The zoo is also offering a $150 upgrade for anyone whose ex-partner, boss, or bestie really made 2022 "difficult," to create a personalized video of the rodent, veggie, or cockroach being fed to an animal. The zoo has limited this upgrade to the first 20 purchases. According to the zoo, the most popular names last year were Jacob and Sarah. Read the original article on Insider New York-based Thinx is known for its "bloody" ads posted around New York City to promote its absorbent underwear. Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images In a class-action lawsuit announced in November, plaintiffs accused Thinx of failing to tell customers their period underwear contained potentially harmful PFAS. Thinx has agreed to settle the suit and pay up to $5 million as a result, reports say. A spokesperson for Thinx denies claim that their products contain PFAS. Thinx will pay up to $5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the brand of failing to inform customers of potentially harmful chemicals in their underwear. The New York-based period and incontinence adult apparel company has agreed to pay $4 million for consumers' claims and any court-approved attorney fees, and an additional amount up to $1 million to cover any more valid claims, NBC News reported. In the lawsuit, which began more than two years ago NPR reported, plaintiffs said Thinx's period underwear contain PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are synthetic chemicals used to make food wrappers and workout clothes grease- and water-resistant. In December, the settlement received preliminary approval from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and plaintiffs learned of the settlement just days ago, NPR reported. The company denied the allegations and made it clear that the settlement was not an admission of guilt, according to NBC. "We take customer health and product safety seriously," a company spokesperson said in a statement obtained by NBC. "We can confirm that PFAS have never been part of our product design. We will continue to take measures to help ensure that PFAS are not added to our products. The first report of Thinx underwear potentially containing the chemicals was in January 2020, from Sierra Club magazine columnist Jessian Choy. In her column, Choy said she mailed her Thinx underwear to a nuclear professor who discovered PFAS in the crotch of the item. An editor's note attached to Choy's story Friday suggested the class-action suit as a result of Choy's investigation into the toxicity of her own Thinx underwear. Story continues "As part of the settlement, Thinx has agreed to undertake numerous measures to ensure that PFAS are not intentionally added to the products at any stage of production, which speaks directly to the concerns of Plaintiffs and class members," an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement obtained by NBC. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure to high levels of PFAS can lead to increased risk of certain cancers, changes in liver enzymes, and increased cholesterol levels. Thinx was founded in 2013 and considers its underwear "the first period innovation" in 76 years since the invention of the menstrual cup, according to its official site. Ten years later, period underwear are still a small part of the menstrual care industry although more companies have come forward to compete with Thinx. The class-action lawsuit isn't the first issue Thinx has faced since its 2013 launch. In 2017, founder and former CEO Miki Agrawal was accused of acting inappropriately at work in an article in New York Magazine's The Cut. Former employees alleged Agrawal commented on their breast sizes, changed clothes in front of employees, and often spoke about her sexual desires at work, according to the report. Amid the shocking accusations, Agrawal stepped down from her CEO role in 2017, The New York Post reported. Thinx customers who purchased underwear between Nov. 12, 2016, and Nov. 28, 2022 can submit a claim before April to potentially receive a $7 refund for each purchase up to three pairs of period underwear or a voucher for 35% off a single purchase of up to $150. Read the original article on Business Insider An adult male Polar Bear Dennis Fast / VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images A polar bear killed a mother and baby in Wales, Alaska, earlier this week. The remote community is raising money for the memorial of the deceased. The attack was Alaska's first fatal polar-bear mauling in more than 30 years. A remote village in Alaska is banding together to process their grief after a mother and baby died in a polar bear attack. The bear killed 24-year-old Summer Myomick and her 1-year-old son Clyde Ongtowasruk on January 17 after it chased multiple residents of Wales, Alaska. According to reports from Sky News, the pair were walking from a school to a health clinic when the bear, which a snowstorm had camouflaged, mauled them to death. At one point, the bear chased local residents who had been trying to scare it away into the school before the school's principal, Dawn Hendrickson, slammed the door in the charging bear's face, Sky News reported. A map showing the location of Wales, Alaska Google Maps/Insider "The polar bear was chasing them and tried to get in as well. Just horrific. Something you never think you would ever experience," Susan Nedza, the chief administrator of the Bering Strait School District, told Sky News. Only 160 people live in Wales, Alaska, and a GoFundMe has been set up for the family of the deceased. The GoFundMe notes that Wales is only accessible via a small passenger plane, and a portion of the funds raised will go toward assisting family members in getting to the small, remote village on the western coast of Alaska, close to Russia on the Bering Strait. The fundraiser describes the fatal mauling as an "unfathomable tragedy and heartbreak." This fatal bear attack is the first of its kind in over 30 years. In 1993, a polar bear killed a man farther north of Wales in Point Lay. Biologists later said the animal showed signs of starvation, the Anchorage Daily News reported. According to the Associated Press, Alaskan scientists have found that changing sea-ice habitats have increased polar bears' land occupation, raising the likelihood of encounters with humans. Polar bears in the US are only found in Alaska, which is home to an estimated 4,000 and 7,000 of them, according to the US National Park Service. Read the original article on Business Insider WEST PALM BEACH A judge has sentenced a 25-year-old Palm Springs-area man to 10 years in prison in the October 2020 death of a 22-month-old boy. Ernest Jenkins pleaded to one count of aggravated manslaughter of a child during a hearing Jan. 18 before Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd. Prosecutors dropped a second charge of child abuse. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office arrested Jenkins after investigators alleged that he pushed the boy when he refused to get into a shower to bathe, causing injuries that led to his death. The arrest:Man faces criminal charges in October death of 22-month-old Palm Beach County toddler Teen found fatally stabbed:Semmie Williams' defense team requests two-part trial in 2021 death of 14-year-old boy Tracking homicides:Palm Beach County homicides down 15% in 2022; most victims go unnamed On Oct. 7, 2020, paramedics brought the toddler to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach with multiple injuries, including bruising, bone fractures and internal issues, according to Jenkins' arrest report. He underwent several medical procedures but died days later. Jenkins told investigators the boy was injured when two dogs got loose and attacked him. However, the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office determined that the child's injuries were not consistent with Jenkins' statement. Jenkins later told investigators he "scooped" the boy "a little too hard," causing the child to fall. The medical examiner classified the toddler's death as a homicide, one of at least two that year that involved a child under the age of 5. The Florida Department of Children and Families reported 382 deaths involving children ages 5 or younger in 2020, including 21 cases in Palm Beach County. The DCF total included causes such as drowning, trauma and natural deaths. Shepherd credited Jenkins with just over two years and three months of time served in jail as he awaited trial. Story continues She also ordered that Jenkins' prison term be followed by three years of probation, that he complete a parenting class within 30 days of his release and that he either obtain gainful employment or show proof that he is searching for a job. Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him atjwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on Twitter at@JuliusWhigham. Help support our work:Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: South Florida man pleads guilty in 2020 manslaughter death of child REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who has spent more than two years as President Joe Biden's top aide, is preparing to leave his job in the coming weeks, according to a person familiar with Klain's plans. Klain's expected departure comes not long after the White House and Democrats had a better-than-expected showing in the November elections, buoyed by a series of major legislative accomplishments, including a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a sweeping climate, health care and tax package that all Republicans rejected. The personnel change is also a rarity for an administration that has had minimal turnover so far. No member of Biden's Cabinet has stepped down, in stark contrast to Donald Trump's White House, with frequent staff turmoil and other crises. The person familiar with Klain's plans was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the development, which was first reported by The New York Times. The White House did not return calls or emails seeking comment on Klains expected exit. Spending the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden did not respond to shouted questions about when his chief of staff is expected to depart. Klain sent an email to White House staff on Friday, which was the second anniversary of Bidens inauguration. Although much work remains ahead, as we look back on these two years, I am awestruck at what this team has done and how you have done it, he wrote in the email, obtained by The Associated Press, and noted that he bought cake to mark the occasion. He added: These cakes are my small way of adding my personal thanks to those of the President, the Vice President and the country for your service and outstanding achievements. Now that Republicans have regained a majority in the House, the White House is preparing to shift to a more defensive posture. GOP lawmakers are planning multiple investigations into the Biden administration, examining everything from the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to U.S. border policy. Republicans are also pledging to investigate the president's son, Hunter Biden. Story continues Klain's departure also comes as the White House struggles to contain the fallout after classified documents dating from Biden's time as vice president were discovered at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at his former institute in Washington. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter. Biden's lawyer said Saturday that the FBI searched the Wilmington home on Friday, locating six additional documents containing classified markings and taking possession of some of his notes. Among those on the shortlist to succeed Klain include Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president; Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; and Anita Dunn, a White House senior adviser. Dunn has publicly ruled out interest in the chief of staff job but would be the first woman in the post. She played a leading role in shaping Bidens political and communications strategy, including the ultra-MAGA framing of Republicans that helped Democrats exceed expectations during the 2022 midterms. Zients has returned to the White House since running the COVID-19 response team in a low-profile role to ensure the administration is appropriately staffed for the remainder of Bidens first term. Ricchetti, a former lobbyist, followed after Klain and senior adviser Bruce Reed as Bidens final vice presidential chief of staff. Walsh, Boston's mayor before joining the Cabinet, earned praise from Biden as recently as Friday for his job performance. Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, is in his second stint as agriculture secretary after serving in the role for the entirety of the Obama administration. He volunteered for Biden during Biden's ill-fated 1988 presidential bid in Iowa. Klain, a longtime Democratic political operative, has overseen a West Wing that has been largely free of the high-stakes drama that permeated the upper echelons of the Trump administration. Klain has been an outspoken proponent of Bidens agenda via Twitter, where he frequently engages with reporters to defend the presidents record. His social-media use has run Klain into trouble at times. In October, he was found to have violated the Hatch Act, which bars government officials from political activity when acting in their official capacity, when he retweeted a message from a political group last spring. At the time, the White House said Klain got it wrong this time and he promised to be more careful with his Twitter account. The Indianapolis native has served under Biden for decades, including as chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Biden was its chairman. Klain also worked on judicial picks in the Clinton White House, helping with the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsberg for the Supreme Court. With all due respect to my predecessors, Im sure this is a higher priority for me. Klain said in an Associated Press interview last month in which he discussed the importance placed by Biden of seating judges on the federal bench. The fact that (the president) makes it such a priority, makes it a big priority for me. Klain helped lead then-Vice President Al Gores legal team during the 2000 elections Florida vote recount in the race against Republican George W. Bush. Actor Kevin Spacey portrayed Klain in HBO's Recount, an account of the events that determined the presidency. He was also tapped during the Obama administration to lead its response to the Ebola crisis a background that came in handy as the Biden White House took on the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of his presidency. The father of three is married to Monica Medina, an assistant secretary of state. ___ Balsamo and Miller reported from Washington. Former president Donald Trump with his former CFO Allen Weisselberg at Trump Tower in 2017. Evan Vucci/AP Donald Trump questioned whether his former CFO not paying taxes was "even a crime." Allen Weisselberg, 75, has been sentenced to five months for his role in a Trump Organization tax dodge scheme. Trump said that Weisselberg, who pled guilty, was "a casualty of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time." Former President Donald Trump questioned whether not paying taxes is "even a crime" as he lamented that Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's former CFO, has been jailed. "He didn't pay taxes on the use of a company car - does anyone? The use of a company apartment - does anyone? Or the Education of his grandchildren - Wow! Are these things really criminal, or even a crime?" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday. Trump said that Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty in August to 15 felony counts, including a scheme to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny, and criminal tax fraud, was "a casualty of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time." Weisselberg, 75, was earlier this month sentenced to five months for his role in masterminding a Trump Organization tax dodge scheme. The scheme saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes for him and a small group of other second-tier executives. The plea deal also requires Weisselberg to pay more than $2 million in back taxes and penalties. Weisselberg will serve his sentence at New York City's notorious Rikers jail, which depending on good behavior, could be cut down to roughly 100 days, his lawyer has said. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a press statement after the sentencing that Weisselberg "used his high-level position to secure lavish work perks such as a rent-free luxury Manhattan apartment, multiple Mercedes Benz automobiles, and private school tuition for his grandchildren all without paying required taxes." Weisselberg was sentenced days before the Trump Organization was hit with a $1.6 million fine during the company's sentencing for its December conviction on payroll-tax fraud. Story continues The former CFO remained loyal to his former employer throughout the trial, continuing to insist that Trump himself did nothing wrong. Trump also faces a $250 million fraud lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, as her office alleges that he "falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to further enrich himself and cheat the system." Read the original article on Business Insider via Fox CNN host Don Lemons fashion choices infuriated Tucker Carlson on Friday eveningso much so that the Fox News host likened Lemons style to self-harm. To help drive home his oddly specific fashion frustrations about Lemon, Carlson patched in longtime Republican operative and self-described fashion guru Roger Stone. He showed up at work the other day dressed like John Fetterman. Kind of a homeless vibe, he was wearing a hoodie with a suit coat, the Fox News host said to open the segment while concluding that Lemons outfit must be a cry for help. Carlson then welcomed Stonewho has a storied history of publishing a best and worst dressed list each yearto opine about Lemons wardrobe. I have produced an international best and dressed worst list, Stone said. The provocateur further declared that the CNN host should now be prepared to find himself in Stones worst dressed list. You are right. This is sartorially wrong from every point of view unless, of course, youre running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Stone quipped. Stone then floated the theory that Lemonwho recently donned a white blazer and white t-shirtis angling for an acting role in a Miami Vice remake. Roger Stone Threw a Fit After Not Getting Pardon, Called Ivanka Abortionist Bitch But then Carlson had to take it a step further. There is bad taste, but then if you continue along the spectrum, you get to self-harm, and that is where he is. He is hurting himself, the Fox News host said before comparing Lemons fashion decisions to cutting oneself. (A CNN spokesperson didnt immediately return The Daily Beasts request for comment on Friday evening.) Stone responded by calling the world of high fashion a slippery slope and then took issue with another one of Lemons outfits missing a formal bowtie. Roger Stone Claims Hes Being Censored on Trumps Free-Speech App Nobody would wear shorts and a jacket unless, of course, you were in Bermuda. So either it is a reach out for a new constituency, or it is a senatorial cry for help, Stone added. Story continues Stone has long billed himself as a go-to fashion expert, but his critics argue he has no idea what hes talking about. Mens fashion editor Derek Guywho appears from time to time in The Washington Post and writes for the fashion blog Put This Onhas been far from impressed with Stones fashion choices over the years. Guy has joked that a Stone pocket square looked like a hotel napkin, one of his dress shirt collars was giving birth to a tie, and the dirty trickster should be found guilty of tampering but innocent of tapering. Roger Stone Found Guilty Of Tampering But Innocent Of Tapering pic.twitter.com/fgCJjlvw9b derek guy (@dieworkwear) November 15, 2019 Guy once summarized his thoughts on Stones self-proclaimed fashion expertise. Roger Stones attire comes off as clownish. He claims to like classic menswear, but his actual style is festooned with too many gimmicky elements, Guy wrote. Cutaway collar, exploding pocket squares, lapel chain, goofy glasses, etc. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. STOCKHOLM (AP) Turkey on Saturday canceled a planned visit by Swedens defense minister in response to anti-Turkish protests that increased tension between the two countries as Sweden seeks Turkey's approval to join NATO. A far-right activist from Denmark received permission from police to stage a protest outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm where he burned the Quran, Islams holy book. A separate pro-Kurdish demonstration was held later Saturday in the Swedish capital. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the scheduled Jan. 27 visit by his Swedish counterpart Pal Jonson no longer held any importance or point, because Sweden continued to allow disgusting demonstrations against Turkey. Jonson tweeted that he had met Akar on Friday in Ramstein, Germany, where they agreed to postpone the meeting in Ankara. Relations with Turkey are very important for Sweden and we look forward to continuing the dialogue on common security and defense issues at a later date, he wrote. The bid by historically nonaligned Sweden and Finland to join NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been held up by Ankara, which has accused Sweden in particular of being soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Turkey considers security threats. The Swedish government's efforts to improve relations with Turkey have been complicated by demonstrations by pro-Kurdish activists, which have infuriated Turkey's government. On Saturday, anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan added to the tensions by staging a Quran-burning protest outside the Turkish Embassy. Surrounded by police, Paludan carried out his protest while making disparaging remarks about immigrants and Islam. About 100 people gathered nearby for a peaceful counterdemonstration. In a separate protest later Saturday, a few hundred pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO activists marched through downtown Stockholm. Demonstrators waved flags of various Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. The PKK is considered a terrorist group in Turkey, the European Union and the United States, but its symbols aren't banned in Sweden. Story continues The protesters also held up flags with the face of imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and walked over a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Swedish officials have stressed that freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Swedish Constitution and gives people extensive rights to express their views publicly, though incitement to violence or hate speech isn't allowed. Demonstrators must apply to police for a permit for a public gathering. Police can deny such permits only on exceptional grounds, such as risks to public safety. Turkish officials condemned the Quran-burning protest and Swedish authorities for allowing it. Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of freedom of expression is completely unacceptable. This is an outright hate crime, Turkeys Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In another statement, following the pro-Kurdish protest, Ankara said that Sweden was in clear violation of the joint memorandum signed between Turkey, Sweden and Finland in June by not preventing terror organization propaganda." Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogans spokesman, called the Quran-burning a hateful crime against humanity, while Erdogans nationalist ally, Devlet Bahceli, said parliament wouldnt ratify Swedens NATO membership under these conditions. Sweden has a far-reaching freedom of expression, but it does not imply that the Swedish Government, or myself, support the opinions expressed, Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom tweeted. About 100 people gathered outside the Swedish Consulate in Istanbul on Saturday night, where demonstrators burned a Swedish flag and shouted slogans like hands raised against the Quran will be broken. A small group also gathered outside the Swedish Embassy in Ankara. Earlier in January, an effigy of Erdogan was hung from a lamppost during a protest by Kurds. Turkey denounced a decision by a Swedish prosecutor not to investigate and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the protest an act of sabotage against Swedens bid to join NATO. Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador earlier this week and canceled a visit by the speaker of the Swedish parliament in reaction to the incident. All NATO members need to ratify in their parliaments the accession requests by Sweden and Finland, which were made after Russia's war on Ukraine prompted the Nordic countries to drop their longstanding policies of military nonalignment. While Turkey says it has no objection to NATO's growth, it won't ratify the bids until its demands, which include extraditions of alleged terror suspects, are met. ___ Zeynep Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul. United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was fined on Friday for not wearing a seatbelt while filming a video discussing an economic program. The Lancashire Police, located in northern England, tweeted that the department issued a fixed penalty to a 42-year-old man from London following the circulation of a video on social media showing him not wearing a seatbelt while being a passenger in a moving car. The tweet did not identify Sunak by name. The BBC reported that the prime ministers office said in a statement that Sunak fully accepts that he made a mistake and apologizes and plans to pay the fine. Passengers who do not wear a seatbelt when one is available can be fined up to 100 pounds. In the video posted on Instagram, Sunak discusses a second round of allocations being released from the countrys Levelling Up Fund, a social program that provides funding for projects that improve local communities. He announced that more than 2 billion pounds was being released to support projects from more than 100 local communities throughout the country. Sunak was previously fined in April along with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson for breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules in attending a birthday party for Johnson in June 2020. The BBC reported that fixed-penalty fines need to be paid or contested within 28 days of being issued. Those aged 14 and older are responsible for wearing a seatbelt, and drivers are responsible for passengers under 14 years old, according to the BBC. Exceptions exist for passengers who have a doctors certificate for a medical reason or who are riding in a police, fire or other rescue service vehicle. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces will train on Leopard-2 battle tanks in Poland, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov was quoted as saying on Friday, even though allies failed to reach an agreement to supply the German-made vehicles to Kyiv. Reznikov spoke to Ukrainian-language Voice of America after attending a meeting at Ramtsein Air Base, Germany, where Ukraine's partners did not take a decision on handing over the tanks. Germany, which makes the Leopard tanks, would have to approve any transfer. Reznikov described the training development as a breakthrough, attributing the success to efforts by Poland. "We will start with this and then we will move further," Voice of America quoted him as saying. Reznikov, echoing earlier comments by Ukrainian officials, said he hoped Germany will reach a decision on the tanks. "I see this in an optimistic way," he added. "Because the first step has been taken - we will start training missions on the Leopard-2." Earlier Reznikov had tweeted his gratitude to the German government and people for their military aid and hospitality. Next to a photograph of himself with German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, he wrote, "We had a frank discussion on Leopards 2. To be continued." (Reporting by David Ljunggren and Elaine Monaghan; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler) Reznikov said that the countries achieved Read also: Ukraines ambassador to the U.S. explains how Western notions of Ukraine have changed over course of full-scale Defense ministers of Ukraines international partners gathered at the U.S. Air Force Ramstein base in Germany on Jan. 20, discussing the ongoing and future efforts to equip Kyivs troops with modern weapons. Reznikov added that some countries announced their aid packages behind closed doors, suggesting they were not publicly announced. Some countries also outlined their (military) aid packages today, but it was done behind closed doors, so not everything can be said today, said Reznikov. The only thing I can say is that it gives me additional reasons for optimism, because we are talking about a major boost to Ukraines Armed Forces, security, and defense sector. Read also: Protest in Berlin after Germanys refusal to supply Ukraine with tanks Regarding the Leopard-2 tanks, the minister said that countries have achieved a positive breakthrough. He explained that today's meeting participants agreed that countries with Leopard-2s in service could begin training Ukrainian tank crews. Read also: Berlin ready to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine once allies reach consensus, says German defense minister Reznikov also had a frank discussion with his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, which explicitly included the subject of tank transfers. Read also: No agreement on Leopard tanks supply to Ukraine reached at Ramstein Congratulated German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius of the appointment to his new position, he said in a Twitter post. We had a frank discussion in Leopards-2. To be continued. I also thanked the German government and the German people for their military assistance to Ukraine and hospitality at Ramstein. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine KYIV (Reuters) -A tearful Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended a memorial service on Saturday to commemorate seven senior officials killed in a helicopter crash, a fresh blow to a nation already grieving its many war dead. Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his deputy and five other high-ranking ministry officials were killed on Wednesday when their French-made Super Puma helicopter plummeted amid fog into a nursery near Kyiv. Another seven people were killed, including one child, in the crash. Officials are still investigating the cause. "The indescribable sadness is covering the soul," Zelenskiy wrote in a Telegram post on Saturday. The helicopter went down just days after at least 45 people were killed in a Russian missile attack that partially levelled a block of flats in the southeastern city of Dnipro. On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are fending off an unrelenting Russian onslaught in the east, where Moscow has expended massive resources for incremental advances 11 months into its full-scale invasion. Zelenskiy issues a daily video address in which he usually discusses the war, but on Saturday he talked only about the death of Monastyrskyi. "My condolences to all relatives and friends. It hurts to think about it, it hurts to talk about it," he said. "We are losing people every day, whom we will always remember and regret we can't bring back," he added, talking of "how many bright people are taken by wartime". Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, paid their respects to the victims' relatives inside the hulking Ukrainian House cultural centre in Kyiv. A crowd of mourners snaked outside toward Independence Square. Kyrylo Budanov, the military intelligence chief, described Monastyrskyi's death as "a huge loss". "If not for (Monastyrskyi), everything could have been completely different," he told Ukrainian media, referring to the resistance Ukraine mounted after Moscow's Feb. 24 assault. Story continues "He is a true hero of this country." Monastyrskyi had been flying to a location near the frontline, a police spokesperson said on Thursday. (Reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Yuriy Kovalenko and David Ljunggren; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Frances Kerry and Daniel Wallis) (Bloomberg) -- Most Read from Bloomberg No decision was made on the provision of Germanys Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine at Fridays meeting on Friday at Ramstein Air Base, although Berlin ordered a review of its tank inventories that could be a prelude to an offer. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also had no news to share on M1 Abrams main battle tanks from the US. Even so, Austin warned that Ukraine needs advanced weapons before an expected new Russian offensive. We have a window of opportunity here between now and the spring, whenever they commence their operation, Austin said. Some Ukrainian officials criticized the allies indecision over tank donations, but defense minister Oleksii Reznikov said he expected Kyivs troops to start training soon on Leopard tanks in Poland. (See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.) Key Developments Austin Warns US Allies Time Is Short Before Russian Offensive German Tanks to Kyiv Are Stuck as US Resists Sending Its Own Russia Boosts Air Defenses Around Moscow Amid Drone-Strike Fears Scholz and Macron Pledge to Strengthen EU in Response to Russia Russian Billionaire Yacht Helpers Charged in US Sanction Scheme Europes Need For Russian Gas Seems to be Dwindling On the Ground Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian attacks in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the past 24 hours, the armed forces general staff said on Facebook. Russian troops also fired at Ukrainian-controlled territory with mortars and artillery in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in the south, causing civilian casualties, it added. Russia in the past day fired seven missiles and carried out 15 air strikes, the general staff said. Ukraine has likely made small gains and successfully defended against a Russian counter-attack near Kremina in the northeast in recent days, the UK defense ministry said. Story continues (All times CET) German Defense Chief to Visit Ukraine Soon (12 a.m.) German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has announced that he will travel to Ukraine as soon as possible. What is certain is that I will travel to Ukraine quickly. Probably even within the next four weeks, Pistorius told newspaper Bild am Sonntag. Regarding the decision on the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine Pistorius said: We are in very close dialog on this issue with our international partners, first and foremost with the USA. In order to be best prepared for possible decisions, I instructed my ministry on Friday to check everything to such an extent that we do not lose unnecessary time if the worst comes to the worst. Russias RT Says Its French Unit Will Close (6 p.m.) RT France, a unit of the Russian television channel RT, said it was closing after the French government froze its bank accounts. Under the guise of the 9th package of sanctions against Russia, which doesnt target our channel but our shareholder and parent company, the Treasury has decided to freeze RT Frances accounts, making it impossible to continue operating, it wrote in a statement published on the Twitter account of Xenia Fedorova, the channels president. Minister Says Ukraine Will Train on Leopards in Poland (3 p.m.) Kyivs troops will train on German-made Leopard tanks in Poland, a breakthrough reached during the Ramstein allies meeting, Ukraines defense minister said. Oleksii Reznikov told Voice of Americas Ukrainian service in an interview that his countrys tank teams will begin training soon. So far, the battle tanks havent been offered by Germany for deployment - but Reznikov said he was very satisfied with Fridays outcome and that some new packages were agreed but not announced. We will start with that, and we will go from there, he said. I have a hope that Germany in a quiet pace of its internal consultations will reach the decision that the transfer of tanks is possible. Ukraine Collects Proof of Irans Drones Supply to Russia (4 p.m.) Kyiv has evidence to prove the involvement of Iranian officials and other individuals in the production and delivery of drones to Russia and the use of drones against Ukraine, Yuriy Bielousov, head of the military crimes department of the Prosecutor-Generals Office, said in a television interview. An investigation is to be completed soon and prosecutors will then seek to take the matter to Ukrainian and international courts, he said. Zelenskiy, Wife Attend Service for Interior Minister (1 p.m.) President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, attended a ceremony in Kyiv for Ukraines Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, his deputy Yevhen Yenin, and ministry staff killed Wednesday in a helicopter crash east of the capital. Thousands of people paid their respects during and after a procession from the ministrys offices to Independence Square, according to ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko. A separate memorial for three pilots killed in the incident will take place at a helicopter base in the Chernihiv region. The cause of the crash, which also killed children near a kindergarten, hasnt been determined. Ukraine Official Calls Tank Impasse Huge Disappointment: CNN (10:10 a.m.) Germany indecision on whether to send its main battle tanks to Kyiv is a huge disappointment for all Ukrainians, Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk told CNN. In an interview Friday, Melnyk praised the UKs recent decision to pledge its Challenger 2 tanks, adding he hoped the move might prompt other countries to follow suit. That might be a trigger, hopefully, for other countries but unfortunately not for Germany yet, he said. Separately, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak urged allies to think faster and said indecision is killing more of our people. Baltic Nations Push Germany Again on Leopard Tanks (8 a.m.) The foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia again called on Germany to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine, after no decision on the issue emerged Friday from the allied donors meeting in Germany. Germany as the leading European power has special responsibility in this regard, Lithuanias Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Twitter. US Charges Two Men in Yacht Sanctions Case (11:30 p.m.) Two men were charged by US authorities with helping operate Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselbergs yacht in violation of sanctions imposed four years ago. Vekselbergs $90 million, 255-foot vessel called Tango was seized by Spain at the behest of the US in April, a high-profile victory for the Department of Justics KleptoCapture unit, formed to track down the assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs and others close to President Vladimir Putin. Russian Vladislav Osipov, 51, and Richard Masters, 52, of the UK, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, the department said Friday. Theyre accused of facilitating a scheme of sanctions evasion and money laundering. Masters was arrested in Spain on Friday at the request of the US and a warrant for Osipov remains outstanding, according to the statement. Austin Warns US Allies Time Is Short Before Russian Offensive (8:23 p.m.) Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said time is running out to give Ukraine the advanced weapons it needs before an expected Russian offensive in the spring, as both the US and Germany hold out against Kyivs requests for their most powerful battle tanks. Austin said allied officials agreed at a meeting in Germany on Friday they would ensure that Ukraine gets the weapons it needs and the training to use them properly. He sought to play down any discord over whether to provide heavy tanks, which have been a key demand as Ukraine looks to blunt Russian forces in the east. Read more: Austin Warns US Allies Time Is Short Before Russian Offensive US Labels a Wagner Criminal Group (8:45 p.m.) The US dubbed Russias Wagner Group a transnational criminal organization in a new effort to blunt the mercenary companys powerful role on the battlefield in Ukraine and around the world. New sanctions will be coming next week against the group, which the US now believes has about 50,000 personnel deployed in Ukraine, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. The Treasury Department designation will given the administration new authority to impose financial restrictions on Wagner and those who work for it. The move marked the latest effort to disrupt the group, which has continued to gain prominence and power around the globe despite a raft of US, UK and European Union sanctions. The groups leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is considered a major ally and supporter of President Vladimir Putin and his war effort in Ukraine. North Korean Munitions Aiding Russian Effort (6:28 p.m.) North Korean munitions and equipment have been delivered to the Wagner group to support their effort on behalf of Russia in Ukraine, according to a senior NATO official. While the amount of material thats been delivered wont change the battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, allies are concerned North Korea could deliver further military equipment. The NATO official also noted changing tactics by Russia, including building up of more defensive infrastructure such as new trench lines in northern Crimea. In addition, the Russian military also appears to be attempting to maintain shorter logistics lines, though this will make them more dependent on Russian territory to enable logistics, the official said. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2023 Bloomberg L.P. Key developments on Jan. 20: The highly-anticipated meeting at the Ramstein Air Base ended on Jan. 20 without reaching a consensus on sending powerful German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Germanys new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters after the meeting that a decision has not yet been made on whether or not Germany would transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. We still cannot say when a decision will be made, and what the decision will be, when it comes to the Leopard tank, Pistorius told reporters at the sidelines of the meeting at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany. Pistorius said that Germany wasnt alone among Western allies in resisting the transfer of Leopards to Ukraine, denying accusations that Berlin alone was blocking the tank deliveries. Pressure has been mounting on Berlin to send some from its own stocks to Ukraine, or clear ways for its allies, such as Poland, to export the Leopards to Kyiv. "I'm very sure there will be a decision in the short term, but I don't know how the decision will look," Pistorius said. However, Pistorius said that Berlin could move "straight away" if it decides to supply Leopards to Ukraine, as he has already asked his ministry to look into Germany's tank stocks. On Jan. 20, defense leaders from some 50 nations met at the Air Base to discuss further support for Ukraine, whose soldiers are braving deadly Russian assaults in the eastern Donbas region. The latest Ramstein meeting came amid Ukraines months-long pleas for Western tanks, which would give Kyiv a major equipment advantage on the battlefield against Russia, which relies on Soviet tanks. Story continues President Volodymyr Zelensky heightened pressure on Western nations on the eve of the Ramstein meeting, saying that against thousands of tanks of the Russian Federation, the courage of our military and the motivation of the Ukrainian people are not enough. Zelensky added that many countries including Poland, Finland, Portugal, and Spain were ready to provide tanks but needed permission for the equipment transfer from Germany. "We are all waiting for the consent of a country that has the rights to certain relevant licenses," Zelensky said at the Jan. 19 news conference, without naming Germany. While Germanys decision regarding tanks remains stalled, Pistorius on Jan. 20 announced that his country would provide Ukraine with a 1 billion euro ($1.1 billion) military assistance package. Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, who attended the Ramstein meeting in-person, said there was still an "optimistic breakthrough" about the possible transfer of tanks. In comments to Ukrainian news outlet Liga, he said that defense leaders agreed at the meeting that countries with Leopard 2 tanks could begin training Ukrainian troops to speed up the transfer process. "Of course, while the decision of the German side is important, we have received an understanding that there are no obstacles to the training of our crews by partner countries, to the training of our military on Leopards," Reznikov told Liga. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov threatened that the West would "regret" supplying tanks to Ukraine. The next Ramstein meeting is scheduled for mid-February, according to Reznikov. Anticipating counteroffensive in spring At the Ramstein event, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Ukraine could have an opportunity to renew a counteroffensive toward spring to liberate more territories. Austin said that the allies were focused on ensuring that Ukraine has the necessary capabilities and defenses to succeed on the battlefield. He didnt reveal more details on the timeframe of the possible counteroffensive. Austins prognosis comes a few weeks after Ukraines military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview that Kyiv was anticipating the hottest fighting in March and a major push in spring. Ukraine has not yet reacted to Austins comments about its counteroffensive plans. Ukraine had a series of successful counteroffensive operations in 2022, from a surprise push in the northeastern Kharkiv Oblast to liberating the southern regional capital of Kherson. Ukraine has so far liberated about 40% of territories that Russia had occupied since February, according to Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi. However, U.S. Army General Mark Milley said, also at the Ramstein, that it would be very difficult for Ukraine to push Russian forces from the entire country. Deadly Bakhmut assault On the battlefield, Russian forces appear to be advancing toward the city of Bakhmut. Russian-controlled militants in Donetsk Oblast said they had captured the village of Klishchiivka, which sits 10 kilometers south of Bakhmut, Russian state-controlled news outlet TASS reported. Ukraines General Staff has not commented on Russias report about Klishchiivka. However, it mentioned Russian attacks on Klishchiivka in its morning briefing. Russia recently claimed to have seized the salt-mining town of Soledar, which would help its forces encircle Bakhmut from the north. Ukraine hasnt confirmed the capture. Military experts, however, said that it would be difficult for Russia to encircle Bakhmut from the west, predominantly controlled by Ukrainain forces. Months into Russias desperate bid to capture Bakhmut, both sides are reportedly suffering high casualties. On Jan. 20, German newspaper Der Spiegel published a report that the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, is concerned about Ukraines casualties in the battle for Bakhmut. At a secret meeting with German lawmakers specialized in security, the BND reportedly said that Ukraine was losing a three-digit number of troops daily and that it was worried about significant consequences that would come with Russias possible capture of Bakhmut. Capturing Bakhmut would allow Russia to threaten attacks on key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk Oblast, including Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Ukraine has not reacted to German intelligences report about its possible casualties. Wagner Group The U.S. is due to designate Kremlin-controlled Wagner mercenary group as a "significant transnational criminal organization" in the coming days, the White House said on Jan. 20. The shadowy organization, made up of contractors paid to fight wars outside the army, is known for its brutality and has left evidence of war crimes in conflicts worldwide. The Wagner has been participating in the battle for Bakhmut and led Russia's assault on Soledar in early January. White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. plans to impose sanctions against Wagner and its international support networks. The U.S. asses that there are around 50,000 Wagner mercenaries, made up of 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts, currently in Ukraine, according to Kirby. These actions recognize the transcontinental threat that Wagner poses, including through its ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity, Kirby said at a news conference. The White House's announcement comes a month after Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the world to recognize Wagner as a terrorist organization. Ukraine suffers the most from its criminal activities, but it is a significant security threat in Africa, and across the globe, he said on Dec. 20. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held an emotional meeting Saturday with the families of those who died in a helicopter crash earlier this week. Zelenskyy spoke with family members of seven of those killed in Wednesday's crash in the Brovary area of Kyiv, the capital city. The helicopter carrying Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi and other top officials slammed into a kindergarten building in the residential suburb, killing him and about a dozen other people, including a child on the ground. Monastyrskyi, who oversaw the countrys police and emergency services, was the most senior official killed since Russia invaded Ukraine. His death, along with the rest of his ministrys leadership and the entire helicopter crew, was the second major calamity in four days to befall Ukraine, after a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the southeastern city of Dnipro, killing dozens of civilians. At the somber service in Kyiv, Zelenskyy and his wife laid flowers on each of the seven coffins draped in the blue and yellow flags of Ukraine. Zelenskyy then spoke briefly with the families, as a small orchestra played a mournful adagio. The cause of the crash isn't known, but Zelenskyy said earlier that it happened because the country is at war. That view was repeated by Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of Ukraines parliament, speaking after the service. All this would not have happened if not for this terrible and undeclared war which the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine," Stefanchuk said. "Therefore, we must remember this and not forget these people. Because for Ukraine and Ukrainians, every lost life is a great tragedy. Russia's war in Ukraine, which started nearly a year ago, is in a state of deadlock, with Ukrainian forces likely achieving small gains in the northeast, near the town of Kreminna, while Russian forces have likely been reconstituting in the eastern town of Soledar after taking it earlier in the week, the U.K. defense ministry said Saturday. Story continues There is a realistic possibility of local Russian advances around Bakhmut, an eastern city whose capture would give the Kremlin a long-awaited victory after months of battlefield setbacks, the U.K. ministry said. Fierce battles for Bakhmut have been raging and three civilians were killed by Russian shelling in that area of the eastern Donetsk region, the deputy head of Ukraines presidential office reported on Saturday morning. In total, five civilians were killed and 13 wounded by Russian shelling over the past 24 hours in Ukraines east and south, where active fighting is ongoing, Kyrylo Tymoshenko said in a Telegram post. Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks in Bakhmut and other parts of the countrys embattled east overnight, the military said in a Facebook update Saturday morning. A 60-year-old woman died after Russian shells hit her home in the northeastern Kharkiv region, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said in a Telegram update. He added that four other people were wounded in the province. One woman was also killed in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where Russian forces launched more than 160 shelling attacks overnight, Gov. Oleksandr Starukh reported in a Telegram post. He said that 21 cities and towns were targeted, and two other civilians sustained injuries. Russia's defense ministry said that troops conducted an exercise to repel a mock air attack near Moscow. The ministry said the exercise used S-300 mobile surface-to-air batteries, but didn't give a precise location for the drill. The exercise follows reports from social media that Pantsir S-1 anti-aircraft missiles had been mounted on buildings in central Moscow, including the roof of the riverside defense ministry command center. The ministry hasn't commented. Russia's air-defense capability has come under question after drones allegedly from Ukraine attacked two air bases deep inside Russian territory. ___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Over the course of 20 January, Ukrainian aircraft struck four Russian anti-aircraft missile systems. Source: Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs on Telegram Details: The Interior Ministry said that Ukrainian aircraft carried out 18 strikes on concentrations of Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment, and four on Russian anti-aircraft missile systems. Meanwhile, the Russian forces conducted seven missile strikes (including three on Kramatorsk and Huliaipole) and 15 airstrikes. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Ukrainian troops have conducted training in Kyiv Oblast to counter Russian airborne assault and destroy reconnaissance and sabotage groups in urban areas. Source: Serhii Naiev, Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Details: Naiev said that a joint training session has been held for the troops performing tasks in the Chornobyl zone to protect critical infrastructure facilities. Units of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the National Police have taken part in the exercise. Quote from Naiev: "The unit commanders were performing a task to counter the capture of an important state facility. These training sessions were conducted in accordance with the units' combat training plans and will continue to be conducted in the future to improve [our] defence potential. We have adopted this approach from the leading NATO member states. Its effectiveness lies in the fact that every unit, every serviceman works to acquire the capabilities to perform a whole range of tasks." Background: Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, considers the scenario of a Russian landing in Kyiv or on the territory of Ukraine as "unrealistic" in general. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! John Moore/Aris Messinis/Getty Images; Rachel Mendelson/Insider Volunteer trainers in Ukraine have accused a US volunteer of being an underqualified "war tourist." They allege he improperly trained soldiers and may have endangered lives. He denies the claims. The story paints a messy picture of the role of foreign volunteers in Ukraine. On a sweltering day in June, soldiers from Ukraine's 47th Assault Regiment went into battle against advancing Russian forces in Bakhmut. The city in eastern Ukraine has been the center of intense fighting since summer, with mercenaries from the Russian private military contractor the Wagner Group at the forefront of attempts to capture it. Thousands on both sides have been killed on a front line that has barely moved. The relentless fighting has been compared to World War I, with trench warfare and house-to-house fighting. On that day in June, Brian Wang, a 35-year-old US citizen, found himself amid the carnage. Wang, a firearms instructor originally from Pittsburg who now runs a firearms school in California, was one of the thousands of foreigners who volunteered to go and help Ukraine after Russia invaded in February. Some joined to fight with the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine. Others with relevant skills, like Wang, volunteered to train Ukraine's soldiers. While entering a house in Bakhmut, two Ukrainian soldiers were ambushed by Russian troops. The first Ukrainian died on the spot. The second was shot several times, including in the abdomen. Wang stepped forward to try and save him. The second soldier did not survive. And what happened next has become the subject of a fierce debate between a group of US military veterans in Ukraine and Wang and raises questions about the role of foreigners in Ukraine, war tourism, and what rules of conduct apply in warfare. Ambush in Bakhmut Sons of Liberty International is a nonprofit security-contracting firm composed of veterans primarily from the US and Canada who went to Ukraine as volunteers to train the country's soldiers. Story continues Two SOLI instructors alleged to Insider that Wang, who was not affiliated with SOLI but worked to train the same unit as them, took on more responsibility than he was qualified for and may have endangered the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. "I definitely feel like he would be a war tourist," Erik Inbody, a 29-year-old SOLI instructor and retired Marine, said about Wang, using a term to describe thrill seekers in a war zone. Erik Inbody, former U.S. Marine Corps infantryman (L), Matthew VanDyke, head of the non-profit Sons of Liberty International (SOLI) (C) and former U.S. Army combat medic Jason (R) on the balcony of a hotel room in Lviv, Ukraine, on May 1, 2022. Scott Peterson/Getty Images The deaths in Bakhmut are the source of most of the contention. According to a newsletter written by Wang at the time, which Insider has viewed an archived version of, he was not supposed to be involved in the action that day. Wang traveled to Bakhmut with the battalion but was left behind the line at the camp because the battalion commander deemed him not experienced enough to be in the heat of battle. "I was a liability, and he didn't want me getting hurt," Wang wrote. While he was doing laundry, Wang said a dark-green SUV suddenly pulled up and he heard a Ukrainian soldier shout, "De medyky?" meaning, "Where are the medics?" Wang wrote that at that point, "My war had become real." He said he responded: "Ya tut! Ya tut!" "I'm here! I'm here!" More muscle than the pork ribs Wang, by his own admission, decided to take charge of rescuing the wounded Ukrainian soldier. Wang is not a trained medic and not in charge of leading the unit. It is not clear whether any of its senior commanders were present. He went on to detail his efforts to save the soldier along with a squad medic nicknamed Wolf. Wang described a scene from the fog of war: In a chaotic blur, the two performed a needle decompression on the soldier, a procedure to treat tension pneumothorax, in which air becomes trapped between the chest wall and the lung after chest trauma. A needle catheter is used to release the trapped air, and an audible hiss is heard. An ambulance evacuating wounded soldiers from the battlefield to the field hospital during heavy shelling in Siversk, in Donetsk, Ukraine on July 05, 2022. Narciso Contreras/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The soldier was eventually loaded into a van to be rushed to a hospital, accompanied by Wang and Wolf. The situation was desperate, Wang wrote: The soldier "was dying, and there was nothing we could do about it." Wang described how they decided to perform another needle decompression and said he was unsure and "timid" because the soldier "had so much more muscle than the pork ribs we normally used." "I doubted myself then as the needle and catheter didn't want to move, and I pressed harder, hearing and feeling it go through the chest wall," he wrote in his blog. "I was afraid my needle would puncture something else inside his lungs, and I was too timid to sink the catheter all the way in." Wang said he then decided to perform CPR. "The CPR was no longer about Kot now, " Wang wrote, referring to the dying soldier, "it was for Wolf., it was for me. It was the most I could do and the least I could do." Insider obtained screenshots of a Signal group chat in which Wang discussed the situation in the immediate aftermath. Wang confirmed the authenticity of the screenshots. In the Signal conversation, Wang described performing chest compressions on the dying soldier. Another member of the Signal group, who multiple people, including Wang, have identified as a combat medic named Will, responded: "Brianchest compressions don't work in tac med. I've taught you this." CPR is not recommended to be used on the battlefield under the Tactical Combat Casualty Care training, according to guidelines from the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. "In combat, futile attempts at CPR may interfere with caring for casualties who have a chance to survive and may interfere with the unit's ongoing mission," the guidelines say. Wang said that performing CPR in that instance was appropriate, as it was a final resort to try and save a dying man. "Everybody's improvising in combat. That's just the nature of the beast," he told Insider in a phone call. "Every step of the way, there were delays because people were doing their best and they didn't know what to do. And we didn't have a mature medical evacuation plan." Ukrainian soldiers walk to the frontline in Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 16, 2022. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images In the phone conversation with Insider, Wang defended his involvement in the death of the Ukrainian soldier. He did not respond to follow-up queries from Insider about why he took charge instead of Wolf, whom he described as a medic in his newsletter post. A wider tapestry of issues The SOLI instructors said the Bakhmut deaths were just one part of a wider tapestry of issues caused by Wang's inexperience and overzealousness. Inbody, who was working on training members of Ukraine's 47th Assault Regiment along with Wang and other SOLI instructors, said that he soon became concerned with Wang's behavior and training methods. "He's a shooting instructor in California, so that gives him some marksmanship ability," Inbody said. "So he definitely could help, as long as he would have stayed within his scope of expertise." Wang does not deny the facts as described by SOLI but told Insider it was misrepresenting him and taking facts out of context. "I think he has good intentions. It's just that there are some personality flaws," Brandon Boisvert, a 29-year-old SOLI instructor from Canada, told Insider of Wang. "He tries to be kind of like this jack-of-all-trades-type person, and the problem is that he doesn't understand where his information is either outdated or if it's just incorrect information." At the time, the 47th was a battalion of about 350 people, a combination of preexisting soldiers and civilians with no experience. It has since become a brigade. While the US has declined to send any active-duty troops to the frontlines, it's estimated thousands of American veterans and civilian volunteers have gone to Ukraine. The US Defense Department has said it "is not affiliated with any of these groups" and recommends "that US citizens not travel to Ukraine or depart immediately if it is safe to do so," The New York Times reported. Foreign volunteers who go to Ukraine cite a variety of reasons for joining the fight. Being on the right side of history and fighting for the principles of sovereignty and democracy are among them. While many of the foreign volunteers in Ukraine appear to have provided invaluable support, either through fighting or training, some reports have painted a picture of inexperience and war tourism perhaps propelled by good intentions but nonetheless unhelpful. An American veteran working to train soldiers in Ukraine told The New York Times in July that he and others had encountered some "would-be trainers with overinflated resumes and, in some cases, no military experience at all." 'I'm a tool. I'm a vehicle of transferring knowledge.' The SOLI instructors Inbody and Boisvert said Wang went beyond his designated firearms-instruction responsibility of teaching soldiers military tactical training straight out of a handbook, which they said he did not have experience in. Volunteers of a unit called "Obukhov" take part in weapon training in a district near Kyiv, Ukraine on October 21, 2022. Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images For example, they said Wang taught Ukrainian soldiers to keep the barrels of their firearms pointing up instead of down when not in use, which they say is unsafe. They also said that Wang, on one occasion, endangered trainees by leading them into an area marked with a sign warning of land mines. Wang did not deny any of the allegations but said there was nothing wrong with his methods. He argued that pointing barrels up was safe and said he knew the land-mine-marked area was a training area that did not have land mines in it. Inbody told Insider he and other SOLI instructors sat Wang down to raise their concerns with him over his actions and training methods but said he was not receptive to the feedback. Wang confirmed that conversation happened but said he did not feel that Inbody or other SOLI instructors had a right to criticize him. "Just because he has an opinion doesn't make that opinion right," Wang said. "And also, just because he has an opinion doesn't make that opinion binding on my behavior as a professional trainer." Wang countered that SOLI members were attempting to "character-assassinate" him and said that it did not matter whether he had previous military experience. He said he had completed the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program while in college. He also worked with Tactical Combat Casualty Care instructors over the years as part of his work at his firearms-training school. The SOLI instructors said they raised concerns about Wang with the unit's leadership but that they were ignored. They alleged that Wang was protected from criticism because of his friendship with a Ukrainian woman who's the unit commander's girlfriend. Wang rejected that idea, saying his friendship with the battalion leadership was evidence of his good character. The unit commander declined to speak with Insider. SOLI continues to train soldiers in Ukraine and has raised concerns about Wang returning. Wang said he planned to go back soon and that he had spent his time back in California fundraising and planning for his return. "I'm a very good teacher. I'm a very smart teacher," Wang said. "A good teacher can teach any material. You can hand me a user manual I will review the user manual, and I will teach. Then I will present it as a presenter. I'm a machine. I'm a tool. I'm a vehicle of transferring knowledge." Read the original article on Business Insider Ukrainian troops will shortly start their training on the Challenger 2 tanks in Britain. Source: Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, in the Radio Svoboda broadcast on 20 January Quote: "The crews are about to start their training in Britain. The heavy artillery systems crews are already training. Tankers will arrive soon as well." Details: Prystaiko states that training will not take long since, as British instructors say Ukrainian troops are highly motivated and learn very quickly. "It takes five weeks to train infantry here. We have trained 10,000 and have started to train 20,000 more since the beginning of the new year. It is hard to estimate how many tankers we will need to train. Moreover, they are also artillerists, mechanics, commanders," Prystaiko said. "I think a month, a month and a half will be enough. If needed, training will be prolonged, as it was earlier," he added. Prystaiko also stressed that the tanks are already being prepared to be sent to Ukraine. "The tanks we are supposed to be supplied with are already being prepared to be sent to Ukraine," the ambassador revealed. Background: On 14 January the British authorities officially confirmed that Ukraine will be supplied with Challenger 2 tanks. The UK Defence Secretary confirmed the supply of 14 tanks. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! A UPMC doctor accused of driving over the speed limit while under the influence and causing a fatal crash appeared in court for the first time Friday. PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> UPMC doctor charged with DUI, killing another doctor in July crash Joseph Yanta is charged with causing the crash that killed his coworker in July 2022. Another UPMC doctor, Doug Rockacy, was killed in the crash on Wexford Bayne Road in Pine Township. A judge in Pittsburgh Municipal Court made it known that his kids know both the Yanta family as well as the Rockacy family and ultimately recused himself from overseeing Doctor Joseph Yantas preliminary hearing. Yanta walked into court with his wife and attorney in silence. They blended in with Dr. Rockacys family, including his wife and two kids. Attorney Jonathan Stewart was by their side. Douglas Rockacy was a beloved father, husband, family man, said Attorney Jonathan Stewart. He was also cherished in the medical community too. He was a distinguished member of that community. This has been particularly hard not just on the family but on those he worked with as well and this is just an unspeakable tragedy. According to the criminal complaint, Yanta was driving nearly 130 miles per hour when he lost control. His Tesla went airborne and crashed into a creek. Detectives say Rockacy was ejected from the passenger seat. Ultimately, Dr. Yanta decided to drive while under the influence, said Stewart. Of course, they would say allegedly, but we believe that to be the case. And not only that, but to drive at an excessive rate of speed. As you can imagine the family is really upset because this is not just negligence, but really criminal conduct at this point. People who were with Rockacy and Yanta that day said they were at a golf outing all day. Police said they went to Cencis Pizza in Wexford afterward, and surveillance video shows they continued to drink there. The criminal complaint states Yantas blood alcohol content was a .172, an hour and a half after the crash. Story continues The family wants to see Dr. Yanta held accountable for his actions, said Stewart. No comment, said Defense Attorney Michael Sherman. Yantas attorney, Michael Sherman, asked the judge to recuse himself. Stewart believes the judge did the right thing. The District Attorneys Office had to recuse themselves for similar conflicts, and thats why the Attorney Generals office has stepped in to perform the prosecution, said Stewart. I believe whats happening here is the wheels of justice are working the way theyre supposed to, and I do believe were going to get ultimately the outcome that were looking for. The new date for Yantas preliminary hearing is Feb. 24. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW TRENDING NOW: Man shot, killed in Downtown Pittsburgh Thursday; 18-year-old charged with homicide Abandoned structure, once popular Beaver County speakeasy, left to burn itself out in fire Three years after Allegheny County woman disappears, police renew efforts to find her VIDEO: Austin Davis sworn in as youngest Lt. Governor in the country DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts State economic development officials agreed Friday to provide a northeast Iowa beef processing company with $1.5 million in tax credits to help with a $48 million expansion that will double production. The Iowa Economic Development Authority Board approved providing Upper Iowa Beef, a processing plant in Lime Springs, with about $863,000 in tax credits, based on high-quality job creation, and nearly $650,000 that refunds sales and other taxes the company will spend expanding and equipping the plant. Upper Iowa Beef, which purchases cattle from about 400 area cattle producers, said it expects it will create 172 jobs with the project, 33 of which will meet the state's high-quality wage and benefit requirements. Upper Iowa Beef, a northeast Iowa meatpacking plant, received $1.5 million in state tax credits to help with a $48 million expansion of the Lime Springs operation. In November, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Upper Iowa Beef would receive an $8.8 million grant to expand meat processing. The company said it expects the project will double the plant's slaughter capacity to 800 cattle a day and push employment to 350 people. Upper Iowa Beef was one of about 30 projects in November that received a total of $223 million in federal grants and loans, seeking to add competition in the meatpacking industry that's now dominated by giant meatpackers. Vilsack, former Iowa governor, said the initiative will help boost the income to cattle and other livestock producers, who will have more places to sell their animals. Another Iowa project also received U.S. Department of Agriculture assistance in November. The new owners of Pure Prairie Farms received a $38.7 million loan and a nearly $7 million grant to reopen and expand the shuttered plant in Charles City. The company expects the project will create about 400 jobs. Upper Iowa Beef now sells products to customers in 22 states and seven countries. Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Upper Iowa Beef gets state tax incentives for $48 million expansion MIAMI (AP) Venezuelas government has freed a former spy chief who spent nearly five years in prison for leading a movement of loyalists to the late leftist President Hugo Chavez in challenging the rule of his handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro. Miguel Rodriguez Torres departed his homeland Saturday to live in exile in Spain, according to someone close to Rodriguez Torres who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the release hadn't yet been announced by the Maduro government. He was accompanied by former Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who had been working behind the scenes to secure Rodriguez Torres' freedom, according to the person. Rodriguez Torres is a former army major general with deep ties inside Venezuela's military, which is the traditional arbiter of the country's political disputes. He cut his teeth as revolutionary stalwart by partaking in a failed 1992 coup led by Chavez, who was a tank commander at the time. But he ran afoul of Maduro, by questioning the socialist leader's stubborn adherence to rigid foreign exchange controls blamed for soaring inflation and a cratering currency. Never embraced by Maduro's traditionally conservative opponents, who despised him for leading a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2014 while serving as interior minister, Rodriguez Torres nonetheless galvanized a small if combative movement of onetime loyalists. Maduro, who, unlike Chavez, never served in the military, immediately viewed him as a threat. In March 2018, he was hauled away by agents from the Bolivarian intelligence service he once commanded while delivering a speech at a hotel ballroom in which he called for free and fair elections. Later, he was charged with multiple crimes, including treason and leading a barracks rebellion. But he never admitted his guilt and spent most of the past five years at a military prison in Caracas. ___ Follow Goodman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APJoshGoodman A Danbury Superior Court jury found a 46-year-old Bethel man guilty of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 16, according to the Division of Criminal Justice. Nathan Shupp, 46, appeared in court on Thursday and was found guilty of fourth-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor, officials said. According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Shupp inappropriately touched the girl between August 2018 and February 2019, and placed her in a situation in which her morals and health were likely to be impaired, officials said in a statement on Friday. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 30 in Danbury Superior Court, officials said. From his hospital bed in California, George Giorgetti continued his letter to his sister Norma in November of 1940. Here, he was recovering from his wounds sustained when the U.S.S. Brush hit a mine off the coast of North Korea. The letter was mailed to Norma at St. Anthonys Convent in Steubenville, Ohio where she was a nun known as Sister Coletta. George Giorgetti received a Purple Heart on Nov. 13, 1950, for his wounds sustained in the explosion on the U.S.S. Brush in the Korean War. I want to thank you Norma for all the prayers youve said for me and thank everyone else who had ever said any prayers for me. As I now know Norma those prayers were the only thing that really saved me. To be truthful with you like Ive told everyone else, that I was never really seriously hurt. For some reason or other and only received 2nd-degree burns and the two sailors sitting between both died from burns. The explosion threw me into the air and some way or other I landed underneath the mess table and behind the ice cream machine. I never lost consciousness and had time to say. My mother, my confidence, many times but anyhow after I said that ejaculation the fire went out as if someone blowed it out and I do know that no one aboard the ship put it out as it was at least 5 to 10 minutes after the fire went out before any came down to get us out. The ship was in complete darkness and had the fire continued to burn, Id hate to think of what would have happened to me but I can imagine. Oh well its all over and hope I never have to go through another episode like that. If hell is anything like that I strictly dont want anything to do with it, matter of fact I dont want anything to do with that place anyway. Well what do you hear from home? Have you talked to mom lately? I certainly didnt want anyone to hear about this accident as I knew how you people would worry as I know you, mom and all the rest of the family would always think the worse, but take it from me I really havent suffered too much. The suffering I did I appealed it for the poor souls in purgatory. Well Norma I guess I close for now. Madonna [his wife] was up yesterday and shell be up again Sunday. The hospital is 35 miles from San Francisco but closer than Japan huh? Love George. P.S. Send my mail to 9901 Fulton St. as I may get leave pretty soon. Thirteen men were killed on the U.S.S. Brush and 31 were injured. Giorgetti received a Purple Heart for his wounds sustained in the explosion. Giorgetti returned to duty and served in the Navy until April 18, 1961, when he retired as a Chief Petty Officer with 20 years and 7 months of service. The 41-year-old then when to work for NASA as an Aerospace Engineer Technician before retiring in 1983. George and his wife Madonna retired to Sun City West, Arizona. They were married for 54 years when she passed away on Oct. 9, 2004. Five months later on March 27, 2005, 85-year-old George died. The man who had witnessed the worst of two wars was at peace now forever. Doug Stout is the Veterans Project Coordinator for the Licking County Library. You may contact him at 740-349-5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org. His book "Never Forgotten: The Stories of Licking County Veterans" is available for purchase at the library or online at bookbaby.com & Amazon.com. This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Veterans column: Newark's Giorgetti survives the Korean war Jan. 20WILLMAR The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in west central Minnesota has fallen sharply, according to the weekly situation update released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Health. No deaths related to COVID-19 were reported in the 11 counties tracked by the West Central Tribune . From from Jan. 8 through Jan. 14, 178 new confirmed cases were reported, a drop of 73 cases from the week before. The state's report of new cases is an undercount, because at-home test results are not included. In west central Minnesota, nine people from area counties were hospitalized, a decrease of 15 from the week before. Stearns and Kandiyohi counties each had three people in hospitals; Meeker County had two and Pope County had one. In all cases, the numbers in weekly updates are preliminary and may change as more information is received. The state's current death toll attributed to COVID-19 is 14,085, an increase of 54 from last week's report and an average of more than seven deaths per day. The state's cumulative number of cases is 1,747,751, including reinfections. New cases in the past week totaled 2,646, an average of 378 new cases each day. The daily average was about about 120 fewer cases per day in the previous weekly update. The omicron variant of the coronavirus accounted for 100% of reported cases last week and for all cases since May. People who have tested positive for COVID-19 again more than 90 days after an initial lab-confirmed positive test are considered to have a reinfection. New cases reported in the area last week Big Stone, 2; Chippewa, 6; Kandiyohi, 28; Lac qui Parle, 7; Meeker, 14; Pope, 4; Redwood, 11; Renville, 4; Stearns, 93; Swift, 3; Yellow Medicine, 7. The state reported 398 people hospitalized with COVID-19, as of Jan. 17. That includes 361 people hospitalized in medical units, 122 fewer than the week before, and another 37 in intensive care units, four fewer than the week before. Hospitalizations had a seven-day average of 40 in ICUs and 396 in medical units. Both daily averages are lower than in the previous report. Story continues As of Jan. 17, 4,007,530 Minnesotans, 72%, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 68% of the state's population, 3,782,463, have completed the vaccine series. The number of people listed as being up-to-date with their vaccines, meaning they have had booster shots, is 1,292,253, which is 23.2% of Minnesotans. For ages 6 months through 4 years, up to date means a complete primary series. For ages 5 and older, up to date means a complete primary series and a bivalent booster dose when due. In June 2022, the department began providing a weekly update, replacing the daily updates that began in spring 2020. The updates are released each Thursday at 11 a.m. and include data received as of 4 a.m. the preceding Tuesday. When the report refers to numbers from last week, it refers to information gathered from Sunday through Saturday the week before the information is released. A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered former President Donald Trump and his attorneys to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions for a lawsuit Trump filed against Hillary Clinton and many others over claims the 2016 presidential election was rigged. Under the 46-page order, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who is based out of West Palm Beach, said Trump and his lead attorney in the case, Alina Habba, are individually and jointly liable for $937,989.39 in legal sanctions, covering the defendants attorneys fees and costs. This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it, Middlebrooks wrote in his order Thursday. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim. The lawsuit had named as defendants Clinton and some of her top advisers, as well as former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials involved in the investigation into whether Trumps 2016 presidential campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the election. More:Judge throws out Donald Trump racketeering suit vs. Hillary Clinton ... and rips it to shreds More:Delray Beach firm says it has 'innovative' plan, state calls it a scam More:'Not a hint of misconduct': DeSantis broke law, judge says, but tosses ousted prosecutor's suit The lawsuit was previously tossed out by Middlebrooks in September, who called the suit a "political manifesto." On Thursday, Middlebrooks called Trumps lawsuit completely frivolous. Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries, Middlebrooks wrote. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. Middlebrooks wrote that claims by Trump and Habba were implausible, specifically noting that Trump's claim that Comey and Clinton conspired together to seek his prosecution "not only lacks substance but is categorically absurd." Story continues He said then the suit contained glaring structural deficiencies and that many of the characterizations of events are implausible. The suit was filed by Boca Raton attorney Peter Ticktin, who went to military school with Trump and considers him a friend. While the 76-year-old attorney didnt respond to an email for comment, after the lawsuit was filed in March he said Trump told him he was happy with the job we did. Trump attorney filed suit in Ft. Pierce, where judge Aileen Cannon is based Ticktin fought to keep Middlebrooks off the case. He took the unusual step of filing the suit in Fort Pierce, the northernmost outpost of the sprawling district that includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Trump appointee U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is the only judge based in Fort Pierce. Instead, the case was assigned to Middlebrooks. Over the objections of federal prosecutors, Cannon in September approved Trumps request and ordered that a special master be appointed to review thousands of documents, including hundreds labeled top secret, that were seized during a search of Mar-a-Lago, Trumps home and private club in Palm Beach. When Trumps Russian collusion case was assigned to Middlebrooks instead of Cannon, Ticktin asked Middlebrooks to step down because he was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton. Trump rebuked: Trump racketeering lawsuit against Hillary Clinton dismissed as 'political manifesto' Middlebrooks refused, saying he had never met Bill or Hillary Clinton. He noted that his 1997 confirmation was unanimous, which showed he had broad bipartisan support. Further, he said, courts have repeatedly ruled that judges shouldnt recuse themselves simply because a lawsuit involves a president who appointed them. He noted that Trump hadnt raised similar claims of bias when lawsuits he filed were assigned to judges he appointed. He also said he noticed that the suit had originally been filed in Fort Pierce. When I became a federal judge, I took an oath to faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all duties . . . under the Constitution and laws of the United States, he wrote. I have done so for the last twenty-five years, and this case will be no different. Contributing: Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post; Ella Lee, USA TODAY; The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump and lawyers ordered to pay nearly $1M for Clinton lawsuit Racial justice was at the forefront of President Bidens agenda when he took office. Yet despite the fact that he signed an executive order on advancing racial equity, critics say hes made little progress since his election, including on voting rights and police reform, two major concerns for Black voters. He now faces a GOP House that is set to take a radically different position on such issues. Still, the Biden administration has seen some success in passing parts of its racial justice agenda. Heres where key aspects of the agenda stand: Criminal justice reform One of Bidens major campaign pledges was to strengthen Americas commitment to justice and reform our criminal justice system. Part of that includes reducing the number of incarcerated people. Since 2021, Biden has pardoned only nine individuals for crimes ranging from possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine to second-degree murder while armed. But in October, he took another step forward by pardoning everyone convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law. The American Civil Liberties Union reports Black Americans are nearly four times more likely than white Americans to be arrested for marijuana possession. But the pardons didnt release anyone from jail there is no one in federal custody for simple possession of marijuana. Still, for those who had a felony conviction, the pardon will restore civil rights, including voting, that had been stripped away. And while the pardon doesnt erase the convictions from anyones record, it will make it easier for those convicted to apply for a job or rent an apartment. But other key aspects of Bidens criminal justice reform agenda have not passed: Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, and cash bail remains the standard for most states, though some have begun debating ending it. Biden has also not established his promised Task Force on Prosecutorial Discretion. The task force would look at how decisions are made on when to charge someone and with what crimes, both of which vary widely across jurisdictions. Because of that, some individuals end up with longer sentences, parole or probation, while others might be forced into taking a plea deal. Story continues White supremacy Black voters have consistently identified racism as one of the top concerns they want to see addressed. Part of that includes having white supremacy declared a national security threat. While that has not happened yet, Bidens Jan. 20, 2021, executive order instructed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to address white supremacists and other domestic terrorists. The goal was to improve the federal governments understanding of white supremacy, prevent groups from being mobilized and counter the use of the internet in recruiting domestic terrorists. In a report soon after, DHS identified white supremacists as the biggest terror threat to the United States. White supremacists will not have the last word and this venom and violence cannot be the story of our time, Biden said at the United We Stand Summit in September. But white supremacist-perpetrated violence has persisted. A white supremacist gunman attacked a supermarket in a predominantly Black area of Buffalo, N.Y., killing 10, in May. In June, 31 people affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front were caught on their way to a Pride parade in Iowa. Asian and Pacific American hate crimes Misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in hate crimes against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Attacks have been perpetuated against adults, students and AAPI businesses, according to Stop AAPI Hate. Biden took steps to address the increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in May 2021 when he signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Bill into law. The law aims to make reporting hate crimes at the local and state levels easier. It also directs the Department of Justice to appoint a designated officer to expedite the review of hate crimes related to COVID-19. It would authorize grants to state and local governments to create programs for preventing and responding to hate crimes. In its most recent data, Stop AAPI Hate reported more than 9,000 hate incidents against members of the AAPI community between March 19, 2020, and June 30, 2021. Verbal harassment and shunning were the top two types of hate incidents against members of the AAPI community. We heard how too many Asian Americans have been waking up each morning this past year genuinely genuinely fearing for their safety just opening the door and walking down the street, and safety for their loved ones, Biden said at the signing. The moms and dads who, when they let their kids out the door to go to school, were worried. For centuries, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders diverse and vibrant communities have helped build this nation only to be often stepped over, forgotten or ignored. You know, lived here for generations, but still considered, by some, the other the other. Its wrong. Its simply to use the phrase its simply un-American, he said. Racial wealth gap The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the impact of the racial wealth gap. During the pandemic, Black families were more likely than white families to face financial hardships and to have less access to resources, according to the Center for American Progress. So, on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, an incident in which a thriving Black business community was destroyed as a mob of white people killed hundreds, Biden announced his administration would take action to address racial discrimination in the housing market, a huge win for Black communities that have faced widespread discrimination in housing appraisals. According to a report by The New York Times, homes in majority white neighborhoods are appraised for $371,000 more than homes in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color a 75 percent increase since 2013. But Bidens plan also announced using the federal governments purchasing power to grow federal contracting with small businesses by 50 percent. Meanwhile, Bidens decision to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans was also a major step toward erasing the racial wealth gap. About 24 percent of Black adults have federal student loan debt, compared to only 14 percent of white adults, according to the CNBC + Acorns Invest in You Student Loan Survey. On average, Black college graduates owe $7,400 more than their white peers when they graduate, according to the Brookings Institution. Four years after graduation, Black borrowers owe an average of $52,726, compared to $28,006 for white college graduates. Still, advocates say upward of $50,000 forgiveness is needed to truly begin addressing the racial wealth gap. And now, Bidens loan forgiveness plan faces challenges before the Supreme Court. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. WASHINGTON (AP) The White House says President Joe Biden looks forward to sitting down with new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to discuss a range of topics, including perhaps the thorniest challenge confronting Washington this year: raising the nation's debt limit. One hitch: That statement Friday came with no actual invitation to the White House, and no date nor time for a meeting. Rather, the White House again emphasized that Biden is not willing to entertain policy concessions in exchange for lifting the debt limit, which is the nation's borrowing authority. The U.S. bumped up against that limit Thursday, and the Treasury Department has deployed extraordinary measures to stave off a potential default for at least a few more months. Like the president has said many times, raising the debt ceiling is not a negotiation; it is an obligation of this country and its leaders to avoid economic chaos, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in the statement released Friday evening. Congress has always done it, and the president expects them to do their duty once again. That is not negotiable. The top two Democrats in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, will meet with Biden on Tuesday, the White House said. McCarthy, R-Calif., and his new majority in the House have said they will push changes, such as overhauls to entitlement programs, in order for Congress to raise the debt limit. The promise revived the prospects of a major fiscal standoff like the one in summer 2011, which prompted the first downgrade on a portion of the federal governments AAA bond rating by Standard & Poor's. President Biden: I accept your invitation to sit down and discuss a responsible debt ceiling increase to address irresponsible government spending, McCarthy said on Twitter earlier Friday, after Jean-Pierre said at a briefing that she had no date to share about a meeting between Biden and the speaker. Story continues On the Republican proposals, Jean-Pierre said Biden "looks forward to learning more about those plans. His treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, also urged lawmakers to act expeditiously on increasing the limit, saying the Treasury Department does not collect enough in taxes to cover the spending that Congress has authorized. It's utterly essential that Congress raise the debt ceiling, and this has been the position of every treasury secretary, Yellen said told reporters while traveling in Africa. I would just say that really we cannot negotiate over whether or not were going to honor our obligations. Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report. The decision to charge Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter is stirring deep anxiety and debate among his peers. In an interview with The Times, New Mexicos First Judicial Dist. Atty. Mary Carmack-Altwies and special prosecutor Andrea Reeb said they interviewed actors who told them that Baldwin did not follow protocols prior to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie "Rust" in October 2021. "Weve spoken with several actors, A-list and less than A-list, and all have confirmed that when you are handed a gun, you need to look at it and make sure that its safe," Carmack-Altwies said. But many actors and creators are questioning the move to bring criminal charges against one of their own. Baldwin who authorities said discharged the prop gun that led to the fatal shooting could face a five-year prison sentence if a jury convicted him on one of the charges. Prosecutors also plan to bring involuntary manslaughter charges against weapons handler Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who has acknowledged she loaded the gun involved in the fatal shooting of Hutchins but didn't realize there was at least one live bullet among the inert dummy rounds. "We are very concerned about the precedent this might set," said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director of SAG-AFTRA. "Actors are not trained to be firearms experts." That sentiment is widely shared among the members of Hollywood's largest union. "To put pressure on an actor who is working is so wrong, it's scapegoating," said "Rust" cast member Frances Fisher in her first interview since the fatal shooting. She played the great-aunt of Lucas, the young boy lead in the western. "There's a certain amount of trust that happens on a set as well. We become a family very quickly," Fisher said. "And when someone says something to you, like, This is a cold gun, you trust them," she said, referring to assurances given by assistant director David Halls, according to an affidavit. Story continues Fisher said she would use only dummy weapons in future. "Real guns should never be used on a set," she said. Matthew Arkin, an actor who has been shot at with dummies or blanks for his part in an episode of the CBS show "Criminal Minds," argued that actors are at the bottom of the chain of command when it comes to weapons. "It's abominable, I think it's horrible," Arkin said of the pending charges against Baldwin. "A film set is an environment of experts and I'm supposed to be expert at the acting part, not the props, not the weapons." Lisa Ann Walter, who plays Melissa Schemmenti on the ABC sitcom "Abbott Elementary" and is a member of the executive committee at SAG-AFTRA, said actors shouldn't take the blame in gun accidents. "If you're requiring that an actor be in charge of armory or stunts, that's not what we're there to do," Walter said. She said she once felt safe on film sets with guns, but no more. "Things like this just make you feel like you never know what could go wrong," Walter said. "The training, the top-notch union crew and most importantly the time to plan the stunts and effects is absolutely integral to safety on the set, otherwise you get these tragic results." Walter is planning to raise a motion with SAG-AFTRA to ban the use of real guns and use fake weapons with effects done in post-production. She would like the rules to be incorporated into the upcoming contract negotiations this year with producers, she said. Fisher said she would back such a motion. Crabtree-Ireland said some members have told him "they may no longer participate in productions using real firearms because of the risk they would be exposed to criminal sanctions." After the "Rust" tragedy in 2021, many shows were quick to ban real guns from their productions and shift to toy guns known as airsoft guns. Dwayne Johnson, known as the Rock, was among the first high-profile performers to say he would not use a gun in the future. Although legislative attempts to ban guns from film sets have failed, Crabtree-Ireland said that there is interest in a move toward using more non-lethal replica weapons like airsoft guns. Other actors have chimed in with support for Baldwin. "No way in hell actor Alec Baldwin should be charged with any negligence whatsoever," Mickey Rourke said via Instagram. "Most actors dont know anything about guns especially if they didnt grow up around them." Some actors noted that safety procedures already in place have kept them safe in countless productions over the years using real guns. And there was also surprise that the assistant director, who is in charge of safety on sets, would get a lesser charge than the performer using a gun. Dave Halls, assistant director on "Rust," agreed to plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon in a deal resulting in a suspended sentence and six months' probation. He will be testifying against Baldwin, according to the prosecutors. However, some actors privately and publicly supported the charging decision, noting that Baldwin was more than an actor in the production: He was also one of its producers. "[I]nvoluntary manslaughter seems appropriate. He was a producer/authority figure on the production," actor Ethan Embry tweeted. Baldwin has said his role was limited to creative decision-making, not budgets or hiring, and that he was not to blame for the fatal shooting. This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice, said Baldwins attorney, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel, adding that his client relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Left: Jarvis Jay Masters in San Quentin Prison in California. Right: Oprah Winfrey (Photo illustration: Jack Forbes/Yahoo News; photos: The Campaign to Exonerate Jarvis Jay Masters, Vera Anderson/WireImage via Getty Images) A federal judge will soon decide the fate of California inmate Jarvis Jay Masters, a man sentenced to death in the 1985 murder of a correctional officer at San Quentin State Prison. In a case that has seen recanted confessions from other inmates, accusations of recrimination and the conviction of a man who was determined to have fatally stabbed Sgt. Hal Burchfield, Masters, 60, has steadfastly maintained his innocence. His legal appeals have also drawn the support of a high-profile backer: Oprah Winfrey. After learning of Masterss claims of innocence, Winfrey read the autobiography he published from behind bars, That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row. Moved by his story, she called him at San Quentin, and eventually decided to choose his memoir as a selection for her influential book club. I absolutely believe Jarvis is innocent, and I wouldn't have selected his book for the Oprah Book Club if I didn't, Winfrey told Yahoo News in an exclusive statement. In 2019, Winfrey helped connect Masters with a team of pro bono attorneys from Kirkland & Ellis, the largest law firm in the United States. It's a story that I believe the world needs to hear, Winfrey said. I can't imagine a greater miscarriage of justice than to be accused of a crime and to know that you did not do it. Winfrey with one of her latest book club picks, "That Bird Has My Wings" by Jarvis Jay Masters. (Courtesy of Oprah.com) Masters's early life was marked by misfortune and tragedy, growing up in Long Beach, Calif., with a violent and absentee father and a mother addicted to drugs. He was abandoned by the age of 5, was later abused by his foster parents and had to learn as a teen how to defend himself against other troubled youth shuffled in and out of the system. In 1981, at 19, Masters was sentenced to 23 years in prison for a series of armed robberies, crimes he never disputed having committed. It was in jail that Masters joined the Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) as a means of self-preservation. Racially segregated gangs are common in prisons like San Quentin, and can offer a measure of physical protection. But they also come with obligations, as Masters soon learned. Story continues Four years into Masterss sentence, a correctional officer, Burchfield, was stabbed to death with a home-made weapon. Rufus Willis, a leader in the BGF, quickly came forward and offered to testify against his fellow gang members in exchange for being granted immunity. Part of that deal required him to help collect further evidence in the case. According to court filings, Masters said Willis ordered him to copy notes he had compiled about the plot. Masters said he feared that if he didnt follow Williss orders he would be killed, so he did as he was told. In the notes submitted as evidence, Masters wrote about the creation of the weapon used to kill Burchfield, known as a San Quentin special the term used to describe a piece of a metal taken from a bedframe, sharpened and attached to the end of a tightly wound piece of newspaper. Once it had been assembled, inmates tied a string to it that allowed them to toss the weapon to other cells and locations inside the prison. Although investigators determined that Masters was not the person who stabbed the officer in the chest, the handwritten notes he had taken, known in San Quentin as kites, were used to link him to the crime. As noted in the filings, Masters claimed that he was targeted to take the fall for the crime because he had fallen out with the members of the gang. An aerial view of San Quentin State Prison on July 8, 2020, in San Quentin, Calif. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Five months after the officers murder, Williss account of the killing was used as the critical piece of evidence to convict Masters for his alleged role in making the weapons metal tip. Two other inmates and fellow gang members were also convicted in the officers murder; one of the men stabbed Burchfield and the other had directed him to do so. Both men were given a life sentence without parole. Masters, however, was sentenced to death in 1990. Since then, Masters, like all those being held on death row, has spent the majority of the last 20 years in relative isolation, working to appeal his conviction. As I sit in this 9- by 4-foot cell, day in and day out, I keep waiting, hoping the courts will finally listen, Masters wrote on his personal website. At the very least, I hope my story is a stark reminder that there are many innocent individuals behind bars. I am still fighting for my freedom but the problems in our justice system are much larger than one man. Masters has been consistent in his contention that he did not plan Burchfields murder. The two other inmates convicted of the crime have also since recanted their statements against Masters, but California courts have repeatedly upheld his conviction, which makes Winfreys involvement in the case that much more critical, according to Masterss lead attorney. Oprah is diligent, she's smart, she's businesslike, and she's committed. She wouldn't just tie her name to anything, Michael Williams, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, told Yahoo News. So the fact that Oprah Winfrey has looked into these facts, asked hard questions over many years, and said, 'Is this man really innocent?' I think that means a lot. While in jail, Masters has also undergone his own transformation. A year after being sentenced to death, he began to practice Buddhism. Since then, Pema Chodron, a renowned Tibetan Buddhist, has also become a close friend and de facto spiritual adviser. It was Chodron who told Winfrey about Masterss story, after reading his 2009 memoir. My decision to select Jarviss memoir was based on its power and the lessons it teaches about the devastating effect that trauma has on children who are deprived of love and subjected to the very worst of the American criminal justice system, Oprah said, noting that more than anything, it was his calming presence that impressed her when she talked to him on the phone. When I spoke with Jarvis, I was struck by how present he was and how he has been able to hold onto himself, despite his circumstances. Masters and the Buddhist teacher Ani Pema Chodron. (Courtesy of Free Jarvis: The Campaign to Exonerate Jarvis Jay Masters) In prison, Masters has seemingly found a new lease on life. Not only has he written his own autobiography and two other books, but a book has been written about him. Hes gotten married and divorced behind bars and gained legions of supporters and advocates through his devotion to Buddhism. I discovered that every bit of love I could conjure up meant that I didnt have to hate, Masters wrote on his page. The slain correction officers children have also had their own twisted fate. Burchfields oldest daughter, Marjorie Burchfield, who was 14 when her father was killed, says her life was thrown into disarray after his death, and that she spiraled into a world of drugs and addiction before she enlisted in the U.S. Army. Like her father, she eventually became a correctional officer, and she continues to believe that Masters is responsible for her dads murder. You can ask for forgiveness. You can become a Buddhist. I dont care [if] you were the pope, she told the Los Angeles Times late last year. You did the crime, you have to pay. But Burchfields youngest child, Jeremiah, who was just 2 years old when his father was killed, says he has studied Masterss case and has concluded he is innocent. He hopes his voice will be taken into account. Sometimes, the judge just looking at the support of the victims family does help, Jeremiah told the Times. In the years since Masters conviction, doubts about the case have continued to linger. In 2011, Marin County Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee determined that the evidence presented in Masterss appeal did not warrant a new trial, arguing that she had the scant ability to discern whether the other inmates recanted statements were true. In 2019, nearly 30 years after Masterss initial conviction, the state Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and death sentence. In November of 2020, Masters appealed his conviction and sentence again in federal court, with his lawyers arguing that allowing his death sentence to go forward would be a violation of his human rights under the U.S. Constitution. An opinion in that case is expected soon. The judge is said to be considering new evidence, including the recanted statements, as well as confessions from other inmates who said they were the ones responsible for making the metal tip of the weapon used to kill the officer. A guard stands at the entrance to the California State Prison at San Quentin on Jan. 22, 2007, in San Quentin, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) While the death penalty remains legal in California, no one has been put to death in the state in nearly two decades. Two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, imposed a moratorium on executions in the state. This month, officials took further steps to dismantle the practice by making permanent a successful pilot program that moved death row inmates into general population prisons across the state. The governor believes that the death penalty does little to ensure justice and has been tainted by racial bias. "The prospect of your ending up on death row has more to do with your wealth and race than it does your guilt or innocence," Newsom said last year. "Think about that. We talk about justice, we preach justice. But as a nation, we don't practice it on death row." Its also not lost on Williams that while Masters enters his third decade in isolation, nearly all of the legal officials who initially decided Masters's conviction and subsequent appeals have moved on, many to entirely new jobs, including Vice President Kamala Harris, the states attorney general at the time of Masterss first appeal. I'd really love to hear what Vice President Harris has to say about this case, Williams said. I think that there's probably been a paradigm shift in the way that she views the criminal justice system and some of the things that happened while she was attorney general in California. Harriss office did not return Yahoo News request for comment. _____ Cover thumbnail photos: Jack Forbes/Yahoo News; photos: Lincoln University, J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Neglecting China's contributions to COVID-19 fight exposes ignorance, prejudices 11:04, January 21, 2023 By Zhong Sheng ( People's Daily The international community has gained a deeper understanding of China's persistent efforts to efficiently coordinate COVID-19 response and socio-economic development, as the country implements its optimized COVID-19 control measures in a steady and orderly manner. It believes that China's economy will speed up recovery and inject a stronger impetus into global economic development. High-speed trains are ready to depart at Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province, Jan. 16, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Wang Wei) However, a few media outlets from the West are still holding political prejudices. They ignored China's achievements in the COVID-19 fight over the past three years and the huge contributions made by the country to the world, trying to smear China and sound a pessimistic tone about it. However, they cannot weaken the international community's confidence in China's economic development, but will only expose the ignorance and prejudices of these Western media outlets. No one knows the weight of another's burden. Over the past three years, the Chinese government has taken responsible measures and spared no effort to protect the lives and health of the Chinese people, to promote global solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 and to push for global recovery, making important contributions to the world. China's COVID-19 response philosophy has been consistent. It always puts people and their lives above everything and protects their lives and health to the maximum extent possible. Over the past three years, the country has effectively handled the impact of five rounds of global pandemic outbreaks and prevented widespread infections caused by the more pathogenic original strain and the Delta variant, keeping the death toll and severe cases to the minimum, which is very difficult for a big country with more than 1.4 billion people. Facts proved that China has secured maximum outcomes at minimum cost and reduced the impacts of the disease on economic and social development to the largest extent. In 2020, China's GDP grew 2.2 percent and exceeded 100 trillion yuan ($14.75 trillion), making China the only major economy that reported positive economic growth that year. In the same year, the U.S. and the eurozone saw their economies shrink by 3.5 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively. A year later, China saw a GDP growth of 8.4 percent, beyond the forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A flower fair is held by a river in Nanhai district, Foshan, south China's Guangdong province, Jan. 18, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Chen Diqing) Last year, the country's GDP went up 3 percent year on year to reach 120 trillion yuan, and the growth was higher than most of the world's major economies. China's average annual economic growth stood at 4.5 percent in the past three years, obviously higher than the world average and that of a few countries which have long resorted to the "let it rip" approach. As the world is facing growing downward pressure on the economy and weakening momentum for global trade, China is actively expanding opening up and providing high-quality products and services to the rest of the world. It has well played the role of a stabilizer for global recovery. Trade data are seen as a barometer of economic development. China's foreign trade in goods has continuously expanded, from 32.16 trillion yuan in 2020 to 39.1 trillion yuan in 2021, and to 42.07 trillion yuan in 2022. Its share in the global export market topped the world for 14 consecutive years, making the country a key factor in safeguarding the stability of the global industrial and supply chains. Thanks to its sound economic prospects and constantly optimized business environment, China will keep being a promising land for investment given the uncertainties in the global market. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 9.9 percent year on year to nearly 1.16 trillion yuan in the first 11 months of 2022, which has already outnumbered the whole-year figure of 2021 and set a new historical high. People join a lantern festival in Taijiang district, Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian province, Jan. 6, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Xie Guiming) German automaker BMW reported a net profit of nearly 3.18 billion euros in the third quarter of 2022, up 22.9 percent year on year. Its sales in China bucked the trend by 5.7 percent while the company saw an 11.1 percent decline in the European market. The Wall Street Journal said the remarkable performance in the Chinese market is one of the major factors driving the growth in BMW's profit. Many multinational corporations performed better in China than in their home countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight German multinational companies, including Siemens, BASF and Bosch, said in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in November last year that China is the world's second-largest consumption market and the most energetic market, and German companies' development in China is vital to Germany's economic development. Kevin Kang, KPMG China's Chief Economist, noted that China remains one of the key regions for the global supply chain layout of multinational corporations, due to the country's giant consumption market, efficient productivity, high-quality talent resource, complete industrial clusters and constant improvement of the business environment. At present, China is doing well in the COVID-19 response and seeing an accelerated resumption of work and life. As the country's domestic demand gradually picks up and relevant policies take effect, the Chinese economic vitality will be further released. China will keep working with the international community to better cope with the virus and better protect people's lives and health, so as to make greater contributions to promoting global recovery. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Kou Jie) A Bridgeport nan was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to 18 months in prison for a child exploitation offense, according to federal authorities. Michael Nastu, 63, also was sentenced to three years of supervised release. Authorities, citing court documents and statements made in court, said that Nastu used the Kik social media application in 2021 and initiated a chat with an FBI Online Covert Employee who was posing as a 14-year-old girl from Connecticut. Between March 31 and June 25, 2021, Nastu sent the (covert FBI employee) sexually explicit messages and several pictures and videos of male genitalia, and he attempted to entice the OCE to send him child pornography in return, according to federal authorities. However, though they had multiple text exchanges about meeting in person, Nastu never traveled to meet the covert FBI employee, authorities said. Nastu was arrested on June 30, 2021 and pleaded guilty in Sept. 2022 to attempted transfer of obscene materials to a minor, according to federal authorities. Nastu is free on a $100,000 bond and is required to report to prison on March 13, authorities said. The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com. A Florida woman allegedly shot and killed her terminally ill husband in his hospital room after the couple made a murder-suicide pact, police say. Officers responded to reports of a shooting at Advent Health Hospital around midday Saturday, the Daytona Beach Police Department said. They arrived to find 76-year-old Ellen Gilland confined in her husbands room after having shot her husband, 77-year-old Jerry Gilland. A three-hour standoff ensued before negotiators convinced Ms Gilland to come out and surrender, police said. She was arrested and charged with one count of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault. At her first court appearance on Sunday, Ms Gilland was ordered held without bond. Ellen Gilland has been charged with the murder of her husband at a Daytona Beach hospital (Daytona Beach Police Department) Based upon the nature of the charge, Mrs Gilland, I am going to hold you no bond on the murder charge and the remaining charges and then youll be set for a future court date, Judge Mary Jolley said. Daytona Beach Police said the couple from New Smyrna Beach made a murder-suicide pact three weeks ago, agreeing that Ms Gilland would kill her husband and then himself if his health worsened. Apparently because he was terminally ill, they had a conversation about it and they actually planned this approximately three weeks ago that if he continued to take a turn for the worst that he wanted her to end this, Daytona Beach police Chief Jakari Young said. Obviously, were unsure how she brought that gun into the hospital, but this was planned. Press release regarding the Advent Health incident. pic.twitter.com/QHoFqgGhGq Daytona Beach Police (@DaytonaBchPD) January 21, 2023 No one else was injured and Ms Gilland was not considered a threat to anyone else because she never left her husbands room. She never put the gun down, so she never specifically made a threat that she was going to shoot any of us, but she never put the gun down, Mr Young said. So we would have to assume that you know if we were to rush in there, we didnt effectively communicate that it could have turned into a shootout situation. A former Republican Party operative is predicting that certain weaknesses and one surprising flaw in particular may cost Donald Trump his chance to reclaim the White House in 2024. Trumps success efficacy on issues like immigration could play some role in whether he can snag the GOPs presidential nomination, said Tim Miller, a onetime Republican National Committee spokesperson, during a Friday appearance on MSNBC. But Trumps push to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and his acceptance of COVID-19 mitigation measures such as lockdowns in the early months of the pandemic, may make him most vulnerable, Miller told anchor Alex Wagner. He could get positioned as, Oh you went in with the establishment, with the medical establishment, and the elites, when [Florida Republican Gov.] Ron DeSantis ... zagged the other direction and listened to the people, said Miller. The prediction stunned Wagner. Wow, she responded. Wow. From the man who was advocating hydroxychloroquine [for off-label use], hes now too mainstream for the GOP. Watch the video here: Related... President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking about the farewell to the representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who died in Brovary, said that wartime takes away good people. Source: President's evening address Details: The President's address on 21 January was shorter than usual. He noted that he does not want to talk for a long time and wants to say only one thing. Quote: "Today there was a farewell to those whose lives were taken by the helicopter crash in Brovary. Denys Monastyrskyi, his colleagues from the ministry: Yevhen Yenin, Yurii Lubkovych, Tetiana Shutiak, Mykhailo Pavlushko, Mykola Anatskyi, Andrii Marynchenko... Guys from the crew: Oleksandr Vasylenko, Kostiantyn Kovalenko, Ivan Kasianov A woman and a child who were just going to kindergarten in the morning ... Olena Ponomarenko, her daughter Milana. ...Denys was a professional, genuine person, exactly what the Minister of Internal Affairs should be. We lose people every day, whom we will always remember and regret not being able to bring back." Details: He called on Ukrainians to feel "how many lives, how many good people are taken by wartime". "Blessed memory to all those whose lives were taken by this war! Blessed memory to all those who gave their lives for Ukraine! We are doing everything to drive out this war from our land," Zelenskyy said. Previously: On Saturday, 21 January, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with his wife, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and other officials took part in a farewell ceremony for the leaders and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who died as a result of a helicopter crash in Brovary. Background: Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Following a public hearing on the proposed redistricting of the Forest school zone, the Bedford County School Board reached a majority consensus not to move forward with redistricting. The boards intent is to relocate the countys preschool program from its current location at New London over to Thomas Jefferson Elementary, which Superintendent Marc Bergin said would free up three classrooms at New London, and not disrupt any students or families. However, the board also acknowledged something more permanent would have to be done for the long-term. We all know that its temporary, but it gives us a chance to kind of let the dust settle and see where we end up, said Chris Daniels, District 7 representative, after giving his opinion to relocate the preschool program and leave zone boundaries as they are. Under the proposed redistricting and boundary adjustment plan brought forward last year, some elementary students in the Forest zone would have been moved to Otter River, Big Island, Thomas Jefferson and Bedford elementary schools, which currently can take on higher student capacities. The board was presented with three potential courses of action: full redistricting as proposed, partial redistricting that would affect slightly fewer students, or no redistricting at all. The proposal drew mixed opinions from families who would be affected by zone boundary adjustments. While some said the redistricting was much needed to ease overcrowding in the ever-growing Forest zone, others raised concerns. Some petitions collected signatures and comments from parents opposed to redistricting, which were presented to the school board and division staff. The primary issues centered around transportation and the desire not to uproot students already settled in their Forest zone elementary schools. Most parents agreed adjustment is needed to address overcrowding, but not all were convinced the proposed redistricting was the answer at least not without some fine-tuning or alternative considerations, such as expanding the campuses of Forest zone schools or constructing a new elementary school within the zone. Some parents said Thursday that even if redistricting occurred, it would not solve the root of the capacity problem: exponential development in the Forest area. Amanda LeFoy, who said she lives in the Wexford neighborhood, suggested the school board adopt an enrollment model based on elementary school place availability for new, incoming students versus automatically putting them in the zone they move to. When a new resident contacts the county to register their child, the county would then tell them which elementary school has an available spot. It may be for their currently zone school, or they may end up being bused across town. If a spot opens up at their zoned school, then they can be notified and make a decision to take that spot or not, LeFoy said. Allie Bell said she currently lives about six miles away from her Forest zone school. Redistricting would require her to transport her kids 18 miles away, which would make it harder for her to juggle her work schedule. Kendra Kenny said she built her home in the Forest zone with the intent for her children to attend Forest-zone schools, echoing other parents who have said they came to the area specifically for this school zone. Lori Shellenberger urged the school board to approach Bedford County supervisors and staff to start working on plans to build a new elementary school in the Forest zone to address capacity needs for the long term. Sarah Mayhew said a lot of parents put their weight into what schools their kids are going to attend when they make a decision to live somewhere but she also encouraged her fellow parents to be open-minded about redistricting in the future. Mayhew said she understood parents concerns; she said her own children attended Thaxton before the small school got closed in 2016, and they had to start attending a new school. We have room at Liberty. We would love to have you! she said. We need to be open-minded about change. I know its hard. Ive been there. In the regular January school board meeting earlier this month, most board members agreed something had to be done to relieve immediate overcrowding at New London Academy, which is projected to reach 100% capacity next year based on enrollment prediction but several suggested waiting on making any changes at Forest Elementary School, which is projected to reach 86% capacity. The majority of the board agreed New London needs to be addressed immediately but they did not all think that redistricting was the best solution if just one school was the primary issue. Some felt they should target New London only and disrupt as few students and families as possible. Because the overall enrollment in Bedford County public schools is projected to trend downward over the next 10-plus years, District 5 representative Georgia Hairston said the capacity issues might resolve themselves if given time but New London absolutely needed addressing right away. District 1 representative Susan Mele said she favors waiting until actual enrollment numbers come in for next year before making changes at Forest Elementary School. District 4 representative Marcus Hill said he visited New London last week. Based on what he saw, the data that has been presented, and what he has heard from parents, he proposed relocating the preschool program from New London to Thomas Jefferson Elementary, which has more space. This would open up three classrooms at New London and cause no disruption for students and parents. He was not in favor of redistricting. Hairston is on the facilities committee, which gathered the capacity data used in developing possible options for how to address capacity issues. She likewise said the best decision now is to relocate the preschool. Now, this isnt over with. Were going to have to look at other options, she said. Were going to have to make some changes. District 6 representative and board chair Susan Kirby maintained her position as a staunch supporter of redistricting. She said she wants to see the Liberty and Staunton River zones fill up their schools. These areas have less development, lower enrollment overall and those schools have space, she said. A few speakers Thursday night, including Mayhew and former Bedford County school administrator Cherie Whitehurst, of District 7, said Liberty High School has great disparities in its facilities compared to other schools within the county, making it less attractive to many people. Whitehurst said school zones can impact property values, and speakers agreed Liberty faces dire needs, from outdated structures and equipment, to mold on its columns. We have to give attention to Liberty High School. Theres no question of that, Hairston responded. The board will take action on the capacity matter in its regular February meeting. A 270,000-square-foot Amazon facility in Council Bluffs that was expected to create jobs for 500 people is so far only employing about 70, a company official acknowledged this week. It serves as a supplemental fulfillment center, employing more than 70 people, and acts as a location to further supply our area facilities and help deliver the goods our customers have ordered within our markets, said Andy DiOrio, Amazons regional public relations manager, via email. Were happy for it to currently serve as (a) supplemental fulfillment center to help deliver items in the region. With regards to what it may be down the road, we do not speculate on future plans or (the) future footprint of our facilities. The center at South 24th Street and Veterans Memorial Highway, which was Amazons seventh facility in Iowa, opened for the 2022 holiday season to help with the heavy holiday volume, he said. The company had previously said it would open in July as a sortation center and had begun posting job openings by summer. Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh said the city was notified last year that the facility would open for the holidays but might close again until 2025. Were glad to see they opened up and would like to see them operate at full capacity, he said. The repurposing of the Council Bluffs facility, and fewer-than-expected jobs at it and several others, reflect the changes in online shopping that have occurred with the sudden onset and eventual waning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. outbreak forced people to do more of their shopping online, and the surge created a wave that led the shipping giant to add 500,000 employees in 2020 including 1,500 in Iowa. As stores reopened and then reduced restrictions, many people returned to shopping in person, causing a drop in the demand for Amazons services. Amazons workforce peaked at 1.6 million at the end of 2021 and remained at 1.5 million by the end of 2022, according to CNBC. The company began laying off workers late last year and is expected to trim about 18,000 from its payrolls. I think when they had all the increased shipping during COVID, they thought the demand would stay up where it was, Walsh said. I think they may have grown their footprint more rapidly than they would have if COVID hadnt happened. They just need to grow into their footprint. Walsh said he didnt think Amazon had asked for any incentives before committing to the project but benefited from a four-year property tax abatement for building in an urban revitalization district. Amazon paid $12.1 million for the 50.56 acres of land it purchased for its Council Bluffs facility and did a considerable amount of work removing the foundation of an abandoned cold storage project to prepare the site for construction. Amazon recently opened a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center near Highways 370 and 50 in Papillion, Nebraska. That facility was also originally expected to open in 2022, but the company told city leaders last year that it would remain idle until 2024. The Papillion fulfillment center currently employs about 300 people, but the company has said that it expects the center to eventually employ 1,000, according to a report in the Omaha World-Herald. Across the state in Davenport, the opening of a 2.9 million-square-foot fulfillment center under construction last year was also said to be postponed until 2024. Its possible that date will be moved up like the Papillion centers was, but the company was not hiring for Davenport as of Thursday. A Moline woman is to serve four years probation in connection with the death of her 15-year-old son. Jennifer Keim, 36, initially was charged with murder in the Nov. 3, 2020, death of her son, Joseph "J.J." Hammond. Prosecutors accused her of failing to provide, "appropriate hydration, nutrition and medical care (and) knowing that doing so created the strong probability of death or great bodily harm." The teen was born with cerebral palsy and was profoundly disabled. In front of a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd that filled all six courtroom pews and forced the bailiff to add rows of seats, Keim said J.J.'s death "tore my family apart." "There is pain that never goes away," she said. "There is not a day that goes by that my heart does not ache." Keim told the court in November of 2020 the spread of COVID-19 filled her with "overwhelming fear and panic." Her attorney, Jon Ruud, later repeated the effect fears about the pandemic had on Keim's decision-making. "We might not remember it well today, but in the fall of 2020 the world was on fire," Ruud said to the court. "We were told to not go to emergency rooms." Rock Island County Assistant State's Attorney Sean Williams asked 14th Circuit Court Judge Frank Fuhr to impose the maximum sentence of 14 years. He said Keim showed "a horrible lack of action" and pointed out J.J. weighed just 38 pounds at the time of his death. "Even during the pandemic, there were alternatives," Williams said. "Some action was required neglect caused J.J.'s death." Ashlei Hammond, J.J.'s stepmother read a victim's impact statement on behalf of the boy's father and their family. She said she didn't know if Keim didn't take J.J. to a doctor sooner " because of pride or fear or indifference, or a messy mixture of all three." "He deserved better than this," Hammond said. "Even if it was his time to go, he deserved to go peacefully and without pain But instead he sat in that chair and died slowly and painfully over a span of three days while everyday life just went on around him." Fuhr said he weighed the fact Keim pleaded guilty. "This is a tragedy," Fuhr said before he stated the sentence. "There is nothing anyone can do to bring J.J. back, and I'm sorry. I want to extend my condolences to J.J.'s father and stepmother." In September, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Keim on an amended charge of criminal abuse or neglect of a person with a disability, which is a Class 2 felony. Keim's husband, Justin Keim, 34, also is charged with neglect/abuse of a disabled person. Both Jennifer and Justin Keim petitioned for and received bond reductions, which allowed them to be out of jail while awaiting hearings. Rock Island County State's Attorney Dora Villarreal said the case was particularly "disturbing" for law enforcement and attorneys in her office, due to "J.J." Hammond's condition at the time of his death. The teen's weight was 38 pounds, she said. But family members, friends and neighbors said J.J.'s physical condition often was poor, even though his mother did everything she could for him. At the time of Jennifer Keim's arrest, childhood friend Christa Axnix said: "I know this family intimately. Everyone who knows Jennifer knows the hard work and dedication she put into keeping J.J. alive." His frequent bouts with respiratory infections made the Keims fearful, Axnix said, of taking J.J. to doctors' offices or the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. A New Haven man who federal authorities say crashed a car into a vehicle being operated by two DEA special agents has been charged by a Hartford grand jury with a fentanyl and crack cocaine distribution offense. Derrick Brock, also known as Dereck Brock, 36, is charged on an indictment with one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine base, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison on conviction, according to federal authorities. Brock has been in custody since January 10. Authorities, citing court documents and statements made in court, said that at about 5:20 a.m. on Jan. 10, DEA New Haven Task Force and New Haven Police Department members who were conducting surveillance encountered Brock in a minivan that was parked in New Haven, as Brock was suspected of distributing narcotics from the vehicle, and a check of the license plate information revealed no record. Then, when a law enforcement vehicle activated its siren and emergency lights in an attempt to stop him, Brock drove away at a high-rate of speed through stop sticks that successfully deflated the minivans tires before he crashed head-on into a vehicle being operated by two DEA special agents, federal authorities said in a statement. Brock ran from the scene, but was apprehended in the backyard of a nearby residence and a search of Brock and the vehicle revealed distribution quantities of fentanyl and crack cocaine. The two DEA special agents, and Brock, were treated at the hospital for injuries sustained in the crash, federal authorities said. The case is being investigated by the DEA New Haven Task Force, the New Haven Police Department, ATF and the Connecticut State Police. The DEA Task New Haven Task Force includes personnel from the DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, Connecticut State Police and the New Haven, Hamden, West Haven, North Haven, East Haven, Branford, Ansonia, Meriden, Derby, Middletown, Naugatuck and Waterbury police departments. The multidimensional crisis that Tunisia is going through continues to worsen day by day and social tensions are increasing amid multiple challenges including decline in foreign currency reserves and the political crisis that is weakening the power of President Kais Saied. Actually, analysts are predicting that the weeks to come are likely to be untenable for President Kais Saied. As the month of Ramadan looms on the horizon, nothing seems to be changing favorably in terms of the shortages affecting many food products, but also medicines. Tunisia is equally facing a shortage of basic food. This week Libya, a neighbor hit by a civil war since the overthrow of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and lacking a central government, sent hundreds of trucks loaded with sugar, flour and several staple food items. Saieds administration is also struggling to supplement the national budget short of $2 billion, but talks with the International Monetary Fund for the release of a loan have stalled over several conditions including bitter reforms which have met the wrath of powerful labor union UGTT. The Union has warned of worst days ahead. The Union and several social organizations rejected the 2023 budget as unbearable since it introduces new taxes. Tunisians are also struggling with soaring prices of the basic foodstuffs. The kilo of banana reached 10 dinars in Tunis, causing discontent among citizens. Even bread has increased in some bakeries. In Kairouan, some have not hesitated to increase the baguette price to 350 millimes, against 250 millimes previously. As the fasting month of Ramadan approaches, fear is mounting that the country will face a shortage of 1 million liters of milk per day. The shortage already stands at 600 thousand liters according to Anis Kharbeche, the Vice President of the Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries (UTAP). And the situation is not likely to improve as long as the country does not settle its disagreement with the IMF, since the fundamental source of shortages is the problem of availability of financial resources. Indeed, many Tunisian establishments are on the verge of bankruptcy and therefore do not have the means to purchase their supplies. Besides, the Tunisian economy is marked by weak growth, a record trade deficit and an abysmal budget deficit which risks to worsen during the first quarter of the current year with falling external debts. It should be noted that the country has a public debt whose outstanding amount is estimated at 110 billion dinars (35.5 billion dollars), including 66.2 billion dinars of external debt. For the 2023 financial year, debt service is estimated to amount to $2.1 billion, which currently represents almost a third of the countrys foreign exchange reserves, which only cover a little over 3 months of imports of goods and services, against 132 days in 2022. The decrease in the figures mirror the ongoing social and economic tensions taking place in the country whose democratic gains have dwindled under Saied. Actually, Tunisia has further slid into social and economic uncertainty since July 25, 2021 after President Saied seized all major powers, sacking then Prime Minister Hichem Mechchi and suspending the Parliament in a move he deemed important to redeem the country. Saied is disapproved by almost the entire opposition which has been demanding his resignation following the July 25, 2021 move, branded as a coup, and the low turnout during December 17 snap legislatives. During the poll, 11 per cent of voters only pitched out at polling stations to cast their vote, the independent electoral body announced after the elections. The opposition describes the low turnout as a blow to Saieds plans and calls on the former law professor to step down. The worsening situation prompted former President Moncef Marzouki, in exile in France, to call on the army to remove Saied that he had described as a political debutant, lacking ability to rule the North African country. I reject the power of the army, but I assume it is the duty of the leaders of this institution to overthrow this illegitimate president and hand over power to civilians, he told Al Jazeera in a recent interview. United Nations peacekeepers made gruesome discoveries of mass graves containing the bodies of 49 civilians in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after receiving reports of attacks on civilians by a local armed group, the UN said this week. Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, told the media that the graves had been uncovered in two villages in northeastern Ituri province, about 30km east of the town of Bunia. Peacekeepers launched a patrol to the area immediately after receiving reports of attacks on civilians by the CODECO militias over the weekend. This is when they made the gruesome discoveries, Haq said. Local authorities have said that CODECO Cooperative for the Development of Congo militants also abducted a number of women during the attacks on the villages. The UN is now calling for an investigation that would establish whether the mass graves and the attacks were linked. Haq added that the UN regional peacekeeping operation, or MONUSCO, was supporting the Congolese judicial system to investigate the attacks and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Ituri, a restive province bordering Uganda, has seen a spate of violence in recent weeks, after the killing of a teacher belonging to the Lendu community triggered reprisal attacks from CODECO, which claims to represent the ethnic group. The U.N. says more than 1.5 million people have been displaced in Ituri, and the attacks have hampered humanitarian efforts. Years of political instability, prolonged violence and humanitarian crisis have left people in Somalia highly traumatized, a new health study said, as the countrys military officials reported Thursday that 69 al-Shabab militants were killed in two separate military operations in southern and central Somalia. Mental or psychological disorder is prevalent across Somalia, with the cases about 77% higher than 40% reported in a previous study by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the joint study by the United Nations, Somalias health ministry and the countrys national university. There is a high prevalence and wide range of the various mental disorders (76.9%), substance abuse disorders (lifetime, 53.3%; current, 50.6%) and poor quality of life in both non-clinical and clinical populations, the study said. The data were collected in late 2021 in three towns that host internally displaced persons who have been impacted by conflicts, and droughts which forced the pastoral communities to migrate to urban locations in search of food, water, and safety. Conflicts and clashes have brought about mental illness because we face many of these challenges in our country, a young person in Kismayo who was interviewed for the study told the researchers. The study was published just as the Somali military announced that in a joint operation conducted by the National Army, allied clan militia and international partners in the Middle Shabelle region, at least 49 militants were killed. Government soldiers reportedly also seized weapons from the terrorist group. On Tuesday, January 17, the militants launched a deadly attack on a nearby Somali military base, killing at least seven government soldiers, including a commander. Presidents and directors of institutions working in economic and social development in Al-Quds hailed, Friday in Rabat, the central role of Bayt Mal Al-Quds Acharif Agency in coordinating efforts to support the inhabitants of Al-Quds and preserve the citys Arab-Islamic identity, in implementation of the social and humanitarian missions of the Al-Quds Committee, chaired by King Mohammed VI. A statement by the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Asharif Agency said that the participants in the second consultative meeting, organized by the Agency on the sidelines of the silver jubilee celebrations of its structuring and effective start of operations in 1998, called on Arab and Islamic countries to support the Agency with sufficient financial resources to fund its projects in Al-Quds. They stressed the importance of everyones contribution to the consolidation of the achievements of the Arab and Islamic institutions operating in Al-Quds, headed by the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Asharif Agency, in its capacity as the executive body of the Al-Quds Committee, which is part of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The participants also highlighted the Agencys experience throughout a quarter of a century of work and activity and its great expertise and interaction with the rapid societal transformations that Al-Quds is undergoing as well as in assessing the challenges, saying that the indicators of the economic and social situation in Al-Quds remain worrying and point to the imminent danger facing the Maqdessi society in general due to the political stalemate and the unstable security situation, the statement said. The meeting was attended by the director in charge of the management of the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Asharif Agency, Mohamed Salem Cherkaoui, Ambassadors Samir Bakr, OIC Under-Secretary General for Palestine Affairs, Said Abu Ali, Arab League Under-Secretary General for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories, as well as Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, Chairman of the Supreme Islamic Committee in Al-Quds and Bishop Suhail Dawani, former Bishop of the Anglican Church in addition to a host of religious, social, academic, media and cultural personalities from Al-Quds. Morocco is a neighbor and a strategic partner for Spain and Europe, Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said on Friday, stressing that Spain, Europe and Morocco share vital interests. Morocco is a neighbor and a strategic partner for Spain and Europe. We share with Morocco, among other things, the management and channeling of illegal immigration, the fight against jihadism, the commitment to co-development and an interest in Africa, Albares said in an interview with Spanish national radio RNE. Spanish top diplomat noted that without Moroccos cooperation, Spain and Europe cannot dismantle jihadist cells and arrest terrorists. Albares said further that the next Moroccan-Spanish High-Level Meeting will be a very important moment in relations between the two countries, assuring that Rabat and Madrid have begun a new phase with much more solid foundations. We have many vital interests which must be managed jointly. The High-Level Meeting is part of the Spanish-Moroccan roadmap adopted last April, during the visit of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, to Morocco, he said, adding that since then, all the bilateral working groups have been set up. Trade between the two countries has increased by 31% to reach almost 10 billion euros, making Morocco Spains main trading partner outside the EU, excluding the United States and the United Kingdom, Albares said. He added that all migratory routes from Africa to Europe have grown significantly, between 60 and 150%, while those arriving in Spain have decreased by 30%, thanks to Moroccos collaboration. On the basis of the new roadmap, the two countries have committed themselves, among other things, to dealing with issues of common interest in a spirit of trust and consultation, while reactivating the working groups created between the two countries to relaunch multi-sectoral bilateral cooperation. A Waterbury man was arrested in connection to an attempted armed robbery at a liquor store in Griswold in December, according to the Connecticut State Police. Troopers arrested Charlie Snowfly, 42, of Waterbury on Thursday and charged him with second-degree criminal attempted robbery, illegal use of a facsimile firearm, first-degree threatening and second-degree breach of the peace. The charges stem from an armed robbery attempt at JC Spirits Shop on Main Street in Jewett City, a borough of Griswold. Police responded to the store on the evening of Dec. 30, 2022, for a reported armed robbery attempt. A store worker told police that a man wearing a black mask, winter hat, winter jacket and jeans entered the store and demanded money from the cashier. The man, later identified as Snowfly, allegedly displayed what appeared to be a firearm in his waistband, according to the arrest report. The firearm was later determined to be fake. The worker told him to hold on and walked to the back of the store before she ran out of the building through the back door, according to the warrant. Snowfly was then seen on surveillance video following the worker for a few steps before turning and running out of the store. He did not steal anything from the store, the warrant said. In the security footage, a man matching the suspects description could be seen entering a building on Main Street. Detectives went to the address, an apartment, on Jan. 2 and knocked on the door of the building and were met by a woman. The woman allegedly told police the lease was solely in her name, but a friend named Charlie was also inside the apartment, according to the warrant. Detectives asked Snowfly to come to the door and speak with them to talk about an attempted armed robbery they were investigating, which he did, the warrant said. He was shown a photo of the suspect and was asked if he recognized the person, which he said he did not. He then explained he was only there a few days and lived in Waterbury, according to the warrant. Police said they asked the tenant to come to speak with them in the hallway and she agreed, according to the warrant. She allegedly told them that Snowfly had been there for about three weeks and had been staying with her the night of the attempted robbery. She alleged that he went out around 6 or 9 p.m. and came back in a hurry shortly after, the warrant said. Detectives told her they suspected Snowfly of committing the attempted armed robbery and asked to look around her apartment for evidence. According to police, she agreed and they conducted a walk-through of the apartment, the warrant said. While searching the unit, police allegedly found several items of interest that appeared to match the items of clothing worn by the suspect in the JC Spirit Shop surveillance video. The items included a black Nike hoodie, black hiking boots and orange work gloves, according to the warrant. The tenant allegedly told police that the gun Snowfly used in the attempted robbery was underneath the drawer in the bathroom, the warrant said. Police searched the area and allegedly found a plastic gun that was similar to the one seen on security footage in the robbery, according to the warrant. Police applied for a warrant after obtaining a statement from the tenant. Snowfly was served an arrest warrant on Thursday and was held on a $150,000 court-set bond and presented in Norwich Superior Court the same day. Mired in corruption cases, members of the European Parliament adopted a resolution that disrespects Moroccos judiciary and flouts the rights of rape victims. The resolution turned a blind eye to the decision of the judiciary to indict three Moroccan journalists on rape charges while rehashing biased statements of NGOs that emptied the charges of their penal content to focus on the job of the three men in jail. Omar Radi, Soulimane Raisouni and Taoufik Bouachrine all faced their rape victims at court as the trial was in no case about their job as reporters. The logic governing the European Parliament resolution condemning the arrest of the three journalists is permeated by a call for impunity. Just because the three men are journalists, should they be immune from standing before a judge for a criminal code matter relating to rape? The European Parliament did not bother to mention that Omar Radi was accused of rape by his colleague, Hafsa Boutahar, who submitted her evidence. Most of the members of the European parliament- so staunch in defending gay rights- ignore that Soulimane Raissouni received a jail term for sexually assaulting a man. No European Parliament mentioned the ordeal of at least 8 women who endured physical and emotional abuse in the news room by editor in chief Taoufik Bouachrine, who subjected them to sexual assault in his office. The resolution and its urgent character shows the extent to which a European Parliament is stumbling to distract from the corruption case many of its members are involved in which came to be called Qatargate to which anti-Moroccan circles are enmeshing Rabat. Since they cannot issue a resolution against Qatar due to their dependence on its gas, they picked Morocco as an easy scapegoat to the detriment of instrumentalizing human rights as a tool for political pressure and foreign interference. The majority of MEPs who voted in the resolution against the EUs most stable Mediterranean partner did so out of pressure to distance themselves from unfounded allegations of corruption involving many of their colleagues to which some circles insist on involving Morocco with no hard evidence. By meddling with the decisions of Moroccos judiciary, the European Parliament not only shows disdain for a key Moroccan institution but seals bluntly a failed attempt to interfere in Moroccos domestic affairs. Mired in corruption and lack of legitimacy before many EU citizens, the EU Parliament has given an open podium to pro-separatist and Algeria backed voices to spit their venom against Morocco. Following the example of French-Algerian Karima Delli, another MEP of Algerian origins Salima Yenbou (EELV), who voiced their strong rejection of a resolution condemning Algeria citing the risk of politicizing human rights, has staunchly defended and welcomed the resolution against Morocco. Algeria where a crackdown on free voices and the media is taking place with the closure of the countrys last free Radio M and the arrest of its director Ihssane Kadi is a non-news for the EU and the European Parliament. In Algeria you cannot practice journalismI am facing a death sentence for doing my job, said Abdou Semmar an economic journalist in exile. The European left has never condemned Algeria and the EU gives it everything in return for its gas, said MEP Thierry Mariani. He deplored that the resolution echoed biased reports of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and ignored the essence of the rape accusations. It is not the job of the European Parliament to stick its nose in Moroccos judiciary, he said. In response to the resolution, the Moroccan parliaments two chambers will hold a joint plenary on Monday to discuss the latest positions of the European Parliament on Morocco, announced Saturday the speakers of the House of Representatives and the House of Advisors in a joint statement. It was Jan. 9, 1942 when Orrin Boody Browns number got called up to fight in World War II. The Opelika native had just graduated from Auburn, then Alabama Polytechnic Institute, the summer before with a degree in Aeronautic Administration. He had also become an aviation cadet for the U.S. military. However, just one year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Brown was called on to serve as a bomber. He would go on to fly 30 missions across the European theater from December 1943 to July 1944. But if you ask Brown, the title of bomber is a bit of a misnomer. I really wasnt a bomber boy, Brown, now 102, insists with a sly grin. I was a Carpetbagger. Its a small but significant difference that caught Atlanta-based aviation photographer John Slemps eye. Brown is the last living Carpetbagger, and Slemp wanted to include his story in a new photography book called Bomber Boys: Flight Jacket Art. It was a story I hadn't heard personally, Slemp, 66, told Opelika-Auburn News. I had no knowledge of the Carpetbagger unit until I learned of Brown, and it fit into the broader narrative of exploring all these different units that were part of the whole effort to end the war. Slemps book examines WWII military folk art in high-definition photos, specifically the art painted on the flight jackets that fighter pilots and crew wore. But the book goes even further, also exploring the details of WWII veterans stories, including Browns. These were ordinary men and women who did extraordinary things in extraordinary times, Slemp said. They don't consider themselves heroes although some of their actions were certainly heroic, and I'm sure you can understand the difference. They were spectacular human beings and answered the call of duty when it became necessary. The Carpetbaggers were created at the urging of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in January 1944. Though part of the U.S. armed forces, Browns squadron, the 801st, had been reassigned from submarine patrol to work alongside the Royal Air Force in highly secretive missions. Nicknamed the Carpetbaggers, Browns squadron flew dangerous night missions behind enemy lines dropping supplies and secret agents called Joes and Joesphines into German-occupied Europe. Over the course of 30 missions, Brown never dropped a single bomb. The carpetbaggers were part of the then-newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. It wasnt until 50 years after the war was over that Brown could openly talk about his role. It was top secret designation, so, of course, nobody was aware of it at the time, Brown said. And by the time 50 years had passed nobody really cared. Which is why people are now talking about these formerly secretive operatives. Slemp's book shows Brown as he currently stands, a proudly photographed senior citizen with a knowing smile. His head is topped with a cap from his time in the military; instead of a bomber jacket, he is wearing his military dress coat. Brown is some distance age-wise from the young man on a mission that he once was, but the stories stay with him. Bomber Boys: Flight Jacket Art gives a snippet of the history he was a part of. The aircraft were painted black, and the Joes, as the agents were called, had very little contact with the crews prior to their insertion into enemy territory, Slemp writes about Browns missions. The planes belly turret was removed and a special plywood covering was created, through which the agents were dropped at the appropriate moment. Today, Brown shares openly about cruising at 600 feet in the dark and dropping agents he had barely said a word to in flight. The missions that we flew were highly clandestine, he said. We were sworn to secrecy. Brown is just one of many men and women featured in Bomber Boys: Flight Jacket Art. Slemp began working on the project in 2014. He began reaching out to people he knew to see if anyone had any WWII flight jackets he could photograph. The beat-up leather coats with their hand-painted art work intrigued him. It's a very American thing, as far as I can tell, Slemp said. None of the other countries, none of the other members of the various services and other countries had artwork on their jackets. The guys who wore these jackets, they loved them. They really sported those jackets. Both families and Museums from across the country began to reach out to Slemp to offer their assistance with his photography efforts. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum let him photograph 13. The National Museum of the United States Air Force contributed actor Jimmy Stewarts jacket. The jacket that William Alsbrook of the Tuskegee Airman wore is photographed as well. Slemp recounts stories of families driving from New York and Iowa to Atlanta to let him take pictures of the jackets their fathers, grandfathers, and uncles all proudly wore. The jackets are history and art, all combined cultural artifacts, if you will, in one unit, so to speak, Slemp said. They're also essentially walking billboards of a man's combat record. And once I started learning the symbology and what it meant not only to the outsider but to them, it became much more apparent that there were some wonderful stories here, some of which had been told, some not. For Browns part, he didnt have a leather flight jacket to share for the book. But his story as a Carpetbagger was more than enough for him to be featured. Its just the latest honor for a man whos living room wall already holds the Congressional Gold Medal and the Belgian Cross. When asked about Slemp choosing to honor him in Bomber Boys: Flight Jacket Art, Brown simply said in a quiet voice, Im proud of it. I appreciate being included. Not the one-way ticket lol Reply Thread Link Maybe she wants to have hah breakfast with pink champagne and talk to Mexicans she don't know! Reply Parent Thread Link Oh no, the woman who continued to have children during her trial and requested a leaner sentence so she can watch her children grow up bought a one way ticket to Mexico for herself? Add more time to her sentence tbh. Reply Thread Link I had no idea she had children! I cant picture her as a parent for some reason Reply Parent Thread Link Can you imagine that voice trying to coo a baby to sleep?? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I dont remember hearing about this last January. So they know shes a flight risk yet shes still at home because of her strategically planned pregnancy. Im not saying I agree with it but Ive heard about and seen plenty of marginalized women giving birth while incarcerated, shes not special. At least the crypto scam guy has an ankle monitor. Shes gotten away with so much, she should be awaiting her appeal behind bars. Reply Thread Link What also irks me is that her partner-in-crime got more time and found guilty on 11 charges, while she was found guilty on four. And she was the CEO! She put those white woman's tears to work and got away. Reply Parent Thread Link Those tears are the biggest con of them all. I dont even know if she feels any remorse Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I wonder if the judge is an old white guy. They seemed to eat up her con like a Wurthers Original. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link How is someone who bought a one way ticket out of the country out on bail, wtf? Reply Thread Link This plus the fact that her passport was confiscated in 2018 so what was she planning on using to get into Mexico? And her husband/bf went to South Africa once he got to Mexico so wouldn't this mean Mexico was just a stop over to SA? Or better yet Namibia, which is next to SA and has no extradition treaty with the states? His five week trip to SA could've been him dismantling whatever setup they made for her. Ugh, why is no one answering any of these questions? What is wrong with these lawyers! Reply Parent Thread Link I don't know much about law, especially in the US, but I thought even with a suspended sentence or whatever the equivalent they were expecting was, there are limits on travel. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link And her husband's family is SO wealthy, they no doubt could afford to support her and the children hiding abroad for the rest of her life. Reply Parent Thread Link i fucking hate this demon Reply Thread Link I can't believe she's out there doing whatever until the end of April. Have they confiscated her passport? This is nuts. Reply Thread Link Says it was confiscated in 2018 as part of her original bail. Reply Parent Thread Link Ty bb! I just totally missed that! Reply Parent Thread Link She must have a fake or an in... she is adored (idk why or how) by a lot of powerful and shitty people men. Edited at 2023-01-21 04:30 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link It's in the post! Literally the second Tweet. ONTD truly, truly, does not read. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Your icon is gorgeous! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link but Davila has recommended a minimum-security prison camp in Texas ooh I thought she was going to go to the same prison near my hometown where felicity huffman and lori loughlin took their jail vacays and where allison mack is currently chilling. Reply Thread Link yes! I just found out when I was looking up the prison because I thought thats where they were sending elizabeth holmes lol Reply Parent Thread Link Allison Mack is at Santa Rita?! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link From WaPo: The filing was in response to a motion made by Holmes, 38, to loosen restrictions placed on her region of travel. To do so, Holmes has to prove that she is not a flight risk, a requirement prosecutors say she failed to meet. Holmes posted a $500,000 bond secured by her parents home, her motion said, and has been living on an estate in California with a reported monthly upkeep of more than $13,000, according to the prosecutors filing. She justified her request for the expanded travel based on her partners work commitments, and also recorded his salary as $0 despite asserting that her partner pays the monthly bills rather than her, the prosecutors document said. Her attorneys argued in their motion that Holmes has strong ties to her partner and family, including her son and soon-to-be-born child, that incentivize her to comply with her conditions of release. Also lol: Holmess partner, William Evans, did end up taking the trip to Mexico and returned to the United States from South Africa more than five weeks later, court documents said. I wonder if it was truly necessary to be away >5 weeks. Reply Thread Link Mexico isnt South America either Reply Parent Thread Link It says South Africa, which has me more confused. Maybe he didn't stay in Mexico for the 5 weeks? Reply Parent Thread Link I know shes evil but if she had succeeded her parents would have lost their home. How shitty. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link She justified her request for the expanded travel based on her partners work commitments, and also recorded his salary as $0 despite asserting that her partner pays the monthly bills rather than her, the prosecutors document said. What?? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Lmao her lawyers lawyering in the article being like "it was booked before she was convicted, she wasn't going to go, she just hadn't cancelled the flight yet" Sure Jan lol Reply Parent Thread Link 5 weeks is a long time to be away from your child when your just going on some fun vacay. Hell even if you're working that's a long time, and he's rich so he can def fly back and forth. I want to know what's going on with their relationship lol I bet those kids will have a new step mommy within the year of her going to prison lol Reply Parent Thread Link There's so much shady things in this article. Did the lawyers not follow up on any of these weird answers. Like How has someone with $0 income paying 13k a month upkeep and other bills? Why was he gone for 5 weeks? Why did he go to South Africa? What tf was she planning on using to get into Mexico? And why a one way ticket? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link She justified her request for the expanded travel based on her partners work commitments, and also recorded his salary as $0 despite asserting that her partner pays the monthly bills rather than her how is she allowed to get away with this bullshit Reply Parent Thread Link Amateur hour. If she wanted to go to Mexico, there got to be a dozen more clever ways to do it, then booking a one-way ticket in a way that the government notices. Reply Thread Link I'm picturing her travelling along the US-Mexico border, stereotyping every Hispanic person she comes across and asking them "tunel? tunel?!?" (meanwhile being tailed by 3 federal agents without her knowing). Reply Parent Thread Link Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ Reply Thread Link Edited at 2023-01-21 02:56 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Not only is she a liar and absolutely nuts, shes dumb as hell too. Reply Thread Link normally women with that trifecta are hot tbh but she looks like Zuckerberg in a blonde wig Reply Parent Thread Link Add another 11 years to her sentence and make Jen Shah her bunkie. Reply Thread Link Under another special exemption, the commission also allowed Bulgaria to export to Ukraine diesel products refined locally from imported Russian crude oil. Sofia has secured itself from Brussels an exemption, allowing it to take shipments of Russian oil delivered by sea. Bulgaria has become the third-largest purchaser of Russian oil in the world. Russia has been hit by waves of Western sanctions for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, including its energy sector, a major source of revenue for the Kremlin. On December 5, 2022, Russia's ability to sell crude oil got harder when it was blocked from transporting its black gold by ship to the EU. Moreover, that same day, an EU cap on the price of Russian oil exports of $60 per barrel took effect. Data suggests the latest measures are having an impact. Russian oil exports have fallen to a two-year low, and the price of Russian crude has slipped to levels not seen since the start of its full-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. But while nearly all of the EU is cutting its deliveries of Russian oil, Bulgaria, also a member of NATO, appears to be bucking the trend. As 2022 ended, Bulgaria had become the third-largest purchaser of Russian oil in the world. Bulgaria is not defying sanctions. Sofia has secured itself from Brussels an exemption, allowing it to take shipments of Russian oil delivered by sea. The measure had widespread support across the political spectrum in Bulgaria, with Kiril Petkov, the former prime minister of one of Bulgaria's most pro-Western governments ever, lobbying for it. Russia's Refinery All of the Russian crude oil delivered to Bulgaria ends up at the Neftochim Burgas refinery, which is said to be the largest such facility in the Balkans. The refinery, located in the Black Sea port of Burgas, is also owned by LUKoil, Russia's second-largest oil producer. Bulgaria is heavily dependent on Neftochim Burgas, with every car and truck in the country said to be fueled by its gas and diesel. The money from the sale of fossil fuels is unequivocally a major contributor to the Russian state budget. Since 2006, more than 60 percent of Russia's federal budget revenues have come from sales of oil and natural gas with the share from oil some five times higher than gas. But the latest data shows Western sanctions are starting to bite. Russian crude oil exports fell in December 2022, according to numbers from S&P Global Commodity Insights. The amount of Russian crude oil being loaded at the country's ports at the end of 2022 averaged 2.65 million barrels per day. That's down about 14 percent from the previous month, November. "The main buyers are China and India with more than half, and in December [2022] the third-largest buyer of Russian oil in the world was Bulgaria," said Kostantsa Rangelova, an energy expert at the Sofia-based Center for the Study of Democracy, in an interview with RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service. (Turkey previously held the position as the third-largest buyer.) The increase in Bulgarian oil purchases is due to the exemption it received in June 2022 from the European Commission, allowing it to keep importing crude oil and petroleum products from Russia by sea until the end of 2024 despite the EU-wide ban in force since December last year. Under another special exemption, the commission also allowed Bulgaria to export to Ukraine diesel products refined locally from imported Russian crude oil. "In May 2022, there was a significant increase in these imports compared to the typical levels of previous months, and since then they have remained at these elevated levels up till the latest available data from December," Rangelova said. The data published by S&P Global shows that, in December 2022, Bulgaria imported about 150,000 barrels of Russian oil per day. "The capacity of the refinery in Burgas is 140,000 barrels per day and it can operate up to 10 percent above this capacity. The data for December of 150,000 barrels per day coincides with 100 percent processing of Russian oil," said Rangelova. Since the beginning of 2022, LUKoil has processed more than 7 million tons of crude oil at the Burgas refinery. This is almost twice as much as in 2021, when about 4.2 million tons were processed. Hard Times For LUKoil This status quo, however, might not last forever, with LUKoil coming under increasing pressure globally -- and in Bulgaria. The Russian oil giant is recalculating its business across Europe. On January 9, the company announced it had reached an agreement to sell its ISAB oil refinery in Sicily. That came days after it announced it could sell its businesses in Romania and Moldova, including gas stations, a refinery in Ploiesti, Romania -- where it also owns a wind farm -- along with oil depots in both countries. In Bulgaria, politicians are watching keenly to see if LUKoil can finally pay up. As part of the EU's exemption, the Russian company vowed to pay local taxes from the revenue generated inside Bulgaria. That's something LUKoil has not done for years, with officials long suspecting the company was cooking the books. Since at least 2006, the company has regularly reported yearly financial losses with few exceptions. In 2020, that loss was a whopping 500 million lev ($292 million). No declared profits mean no income taxes paid into Bulgaria's state coffers. Generating revenue will soon be even harder for LUKoil. Under the EU exemption, the Neftochim Burgas refinery cannot export fuels or oil products from February 5 -- with the exception of deliveries to Ukraine. The refinery is also allowed to export byproducts that cannot be safely stored in Bulgaria and could pose an environmental hazard. Only allowed to sell the diesel in Bulgaria or ship it to Ukraine, Neftochim Burgas has suggested the ban could be a death knell for its business, perhaps prompting the Bulgarian parliament to prepare for a possible government takeover. On January 13, Bulgarian lawmakers decided that the state can now take control of the refinery, in a vote aimed at protecting critical infrastructure and ensuring fuel supplies for the Balkan country. ADVERTISEMENT LUKoil Neftochim did not respond to requests for comment by RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service. Energy expert Rangelova, however, suggested that the company could look for ways to skirt the fresh EU ban. "It is very easy to play with how exactly to label the fuel that is exported, and with a more creative mixing of the products, there really won't be any change," the Bulgarian analyst said. There is also the question of whether LUKoil remains loyal to the Kremlin. An investigation by the German daily WELT published on January 18 found that Bulgaria, with Petkov at the helm of the government, had provided Ukraine with crucial support in the early days of the Russian invasion, including shipments of diesel from the Burgas refinery. "Bulgaria became one of the largest exporters of diesel to Ukraine and at times covered 40 percent of Ukraine's needs," former Finance Minister Assen Vassilev told WELT. Today, with it feeling the sanctions pinch and its market shrinking, LUKoil might not be in such a charitable mood. By RFE/RL More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: In recent weeks, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have been hotly discussing the possibility of establishing a trilateral natural gas union among the three countries. The union, proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is an alliance that aims to coordinate efforts to transport Russian gas through the territories of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (Xabardor.uz, November 29, 2022). According to Russias plans, the gas union would include cooperation in the transportation, export and processing of natural gas supplies, among other cooperative measures. After publicly announcing the proposal on the tripartite union, the presidents of the three countries exchanged views on the arrangement in their respective bilateral formats (Gazeta.ru, December 12, 2022). However, Russias proposal has provoked some controversy and discussion in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, with a number of differing opinions being expressed on the matter (Inbusiness.kz, December 9, 2022). In 2021, gas exports from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan amounted to 7.2 and 2.38 billion cubic meters, respectively, with a significant volume of overall gas production being used mainly for domestic consumption. The gas that is not used domestically is exported primarily to China (Rus.ozodi.org, December 13, 2022). Given these circumstances, the necessity of such an alliance for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan comes into question, with the answer girded in Moscows need to save its energy sector from the current Western sanctions regime. As the Kremlin understands that such a proposal will cause a wave a concern with its partners in Central Asia and the international arena, it has given various explanations regarding the need for the gas union. Previously, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak alleged that Uzbekistan had expressed interest in the idea of an energy union. According to Novak, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan have had a single gas transportation system since the time of the Soviet Union, and through the establishment of the proposed union, gas exports to additional markets, namely China, could be developed (TASS, November 29, 2022). Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov later clarified, however, that the proposed gas union would not involve an exchange of political demands (Vedomosti, December 10, 2022). Additionally, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov promised that no geopolitical games would be involved in the creation and utilization of such a union (Gazeta.ru, December 12, 2022). Related: EIA Inventory Report Pushes Oil Lower Nevertheless, though Astana and Tashkent initially expressed positive reactions to the project, more negative feedback soon began to be voiced officially in both countries relating to the lack of economic and political certainty regarding the projects ultimate goals. Therefore, on November 30, 2022, Kazakhstani Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vasilenko argued that it was too early to discuss the creation of any sort of gas union. At the same time, he added that Kazakhstan would not allow its territory to be used to circumvent Western sanctions and that the project should be studied by experts who could assess the potential risks posed by sanctions before such a decision was made (Rus.ozodi.org, December 13, 2022). In addition, according to Kazakhstani Minister of Energy Bolat Akchulakov, the three countries involved have been discussing the technical capabilities of gas transmission systems only in bilateral formats. He added that the issue of a tripartite gas union has yet to be discussed trilaterally (Darakchi.uz, December 13, 2022). Furthermore, on December 7, 2022, Uzbekistani Minister of Energy Jorabek Mirzamahmudov asserted that gas imports should be carried out only through commercial trade agreements and not through any alliance or union. The Uzbekistani official further contended that political conditions should not be imposed within such an arrangement, adding that Tashkents interests should never be jeopardized (Kun.uz, December 11, 2022). Yet, despite the surge of negative reactions, Russia has stubbornly kept the proposal on the table. To that end, official Russian statements have emphasized that demand for gas in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is increasing as domestic consumption grows and their exports obligations expand, and as such, they should discuss the possibility of increasing the supply of Russian gas with Moscow (Gazeta.uz, December 9, 2022; Kun.uz, December 11, 2022). Notably, speaking at the conclusion of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on December 9, 2022, Putin shared his confidence in the projects potential mutual benefits for all parties involved. When it comes to the technical details of the project, Russia is confronted with special financial and infrastructure challenges as a consequence of the Wests sanctions regime. Most notably, it will be necessary to modernize gas transportation infrastructure and even build new gas pipelines. Furthermore, it will be necessary to build a separate gas transmission system through the territory of Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan, the costs of which are still not known. The expected cost of developing internal infrastructure in Russia to supply more gas to Central Asia is estimated at around $4.16 billion (Gazeta.uz, December 9, 2022; Kun.uz, December 11, 2022). Objectively, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan may have interests in cooperating in improving their capabilities for exporting natural gas supplies and in attracting additional financial support to develop this infrastructure. Nevertheless, the fear of blowback from Western sanctions is most likely what predetermines the cautious policies of Astana and Tashkent regarding no alliances or unions. In addition, all three of these countries do not have the overall capacity to cover the costs of such expansive infrastructure development, especially due to the current sanctions regime against Russia. Ultimately, it seems that the union idea was initially proposed to save Russia from Western sanctions. As it is known, Europe is ending its dependency on Russian gas, and Moscows ultimate goal may be to form this alliance as a means of still transporting its gas to Europe via Kazakhstani and Uzbekistani territory. Even so, Astana and Tashkent strongly oppose such an arrangement. Thus, uncertainty regarding the potential political motivations for the Russian-proposed tripartite gas union leaves little room for serious consideration of the economic benefits such an alliance might bring. ADVERTISEMENT By The Jamestown Foundation More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A New Fairfield man pleaded guilty on Thursday to attacking his roommate and sexually assaulting her as she died in their home in 2017, according to the Division of Criminal Justice. Steven Flood, 37, pleaded guilty to charges of murder, two counts of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of third-degree larceny in connection to the death and assault of his roommate in May 2017, officials said. Susan Guido, 55, was found dead in her home at 26 Candlewood Road in New Fairfield on May 2, 2017, after police responded to the home for a welfare check, according to court records and media reports. Investigators learned that on May 1, 2017, Flood argued with Guido. During the argument, he punched her in the head. After she fell to the floor, he proceeded to stomp on her head, according to the Division of Criminal Justice. As she was dying from her injuries, he sexually assaulted her, officials said. Records show Guido had significant injuries to her head. Flood later fled the scene in her car after stealing her jewelry, the Division of Criminal Justice said. Police found Flood near the Massachusetts line in Union on May 4, 2017, where he had been camping more than 90 miles away from the house. He was in possession of Guidos car and was arrested on larceny charges, records show. Three weeks later, Flood was charged with murder, intentional cruelty to persons, murder during the commission of a felony, two counts of sexual assault and murder with special circumstances a crime punishable by life in prison without parole, records show. He has been in custody since May 5, 2017, and is being held at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, according to records. Flood is scheduled to be sentenced on March 29 in Danbury Superior Court. Despite the agreement to establish the route and guarantee the security of transport connections, the two sides have failed to come to an agreement on how to implement it In the background of Azerbaijans ongoing blockade of the only road in and out of Nagorno-Karabakh lies the fate of another critical transportation route: the would-be Zangezur Corridor. In the ceasefire agreement that ended the 2020 war, Armenia agreed to guarantee the security of transport connections between Azerbaijans mainland and its exclave of Nakhchivan, allowing unobstructed movement of persons, vehicles and cargo in both directions through Armenian territory. More than two years on, though, the two sides have failed to come to an agreement on how to implement that. It remains the issue on which the two sides are farthest from compromise, and as the process drags on Azerbaijan continues to threaten force if Armenia doesnt allow the route to be set up. The Zangezur Corridor is a historical necessity, President Ilham Aliyev said in a January 10 television interview. It will happen whether Armenia wants it or not. For Baku, the promise of the corridor and the geopolitical advantages it would bring helped convince it to stop its offensive in the 2020 war and accept the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the territory. Those peacekeepers are now effectively keeping Baku from completing its victory and retaking control of all of its territory in Karabakh. Two years on from the November ceasefire, we see that the primary benefits for Azerbaijan to compensate for the Russian deployment of peacekeepers namely the transit route across Armenia has not taken place, Laurence Broers, an analyst of the Caucasus at Chatham House, told German newspaper Der Spiegel. This may result in Baku feeling that it needs to scale up the pressure on Armenia. That scaling up came on December 12, when a group of Azerbaijani government-backed protesters began a demonstration on the Lachin Corridor, the road in and out of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani officials have consistently drawn parallels between that road and the would-be Zangezur Corridor. While the details of the negotiations over the transportation routes are secret, Yerevan regularly accuses Azerbaijan of demanding an extraterritorial road over which Armenia will have no sovereignty. It rejects the term Zangezur Corridor on the grounds that the word corridor implies this extraterritoriality. Azerbaijan, for its part, says that it does not claim the territory that the road would go through but insists on no Armenian presence on it, even passport or customs checks. Depending on who you talk to, they are almost there or they are far apart, one foreign diplomat familiar with the negotiations told Eurasianet on the condition of anonymity. Baku says were there, we have made all the concessions that the Armenians want, there is no question of extraterritoriality, lets just move ahead. And the Armenians are saying no no no, there are important issues that need to be sorted out. What Azerbaijanis expect, one senior government official told Eurasianet on condition of anonymity, is a dedicated road with no entrances or exits, leading from the western edge of its mainland to the eastern edge of Nakhchivan. It would be accompanied by a railroad line and electricity transmission lines. The only security presence, the official said, should be officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the body that is specified in the 2020 agreement as being responsible for overseeing the transport connections. Any Armenian officers should be at least 2.5 kilometers distant on either side. The official said that in the negotiations over the 2020 ceasefire there was a verbal agreement clarifying that unobstructed meant no checks at all from the Armenian side. But Armenia is trying to play a game now, it won't work, the official said. (Armenia has denied the existence of a verbal agreement, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called it an absurdity.) That Baku is proposing full Russian control over the route puts Yerevan in a bind, the foreign diplomat said: Of course the Russians cant be against the FSB controlling everything, so the Armenians feel cornered. The diplomat added that the negotiations for now appear to be focused specifically on the railroad. While the 2020 ceasefire agreement identifies the FSB as the body that is supposed to control the transportation routes, Armenia doesnt want that any more and needs reassurances about who would be conducting controls on its territory, the diplomat continued. Armenia-Russia relations have soured to a great degree. And from an Armenian perspective, they are saying We need to have sovereign control over this. We can have certain arrangements [with the FSB] but the fundamental authority controlling that railroad has to be Armenia. Someone can do it on behalf of Armenia. A spokesperson from Armenias Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment for this article. Armenia wants either sole control of any road in Syunik or joint control with Russians, said Benyamin Poghosyan, an analyst in Yerevan who has been involved in expert-level discussions between Armenian and Azerbaijani analysts on issues including transportation. Armenia says that unobstructed does not mean the absence of Armenian officers, Poghosyan told Eurasianet. ADVERTISEMENT Armenias hard bargaining on the transportation issue comes as it is increasingly distancing itself from Nagorno-Karabakh and focuses on shoring up its sovereignty within its own borders. Officials in recent months have made repeated references to Armenias 29,800 square kilometers of territory. It is not the government of Armenia that should decide the fate and relations of Nagorno-Karabakh. The people of Karabakh should decide for themselves, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on January 11. By Eurasianet.org More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Nebraska lawmakers introduced 812 bills during the first 10 days of the legislative session, the window for legislation to be filed for consideration. Sarpy County's delegation -- made up of state Sens. John Arch of La Vista, Carol Blood of Bellevue, Jen Day of Chalco, Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue and Rita Sanders of Bellevue -- introduced 54 bills as well as four resolutions. Legislative Bill 769, filed on the final day for introductions, Wednesday, Jan. 18, would make $60 million from the state's cash reserves available to help Sarpy County develop a new sewer system. The Unified Southern Sarpy Wastewater System is expected to cost $250 million and generate more than $37 billion in new net spending over 30 years, according to a recent study. Holdcroft was the primary sponsor of the bill, and Day and Sanders joined as co-sponsors. Other highlights from Sarpy County senators include: Sanders' LB 71, which would require that public schools disclose instructional materials to parents and allow parents to request that their child be excused from certain lessons or activities. Sanders introduced the bill alongside other Republican Sens. Joni Albrecht, Tom Briese, Lou Ann Linehan and newly elected Education Committee Chair Dave Murman. Day's LB 127, which would end life without parole sentences for minors in Nebraska. She said Nebraskas neighbors all have moved away from the practice. The bill would not require that youths be given parole but would allow them the chance to have a parole hearing, during which they could make a case for having turned their lives around. Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas do not allow a life sentence option for minors. Minnesota and Missouri have no juveniles currently serving life without parole sentences, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. Under the bill, juveniles convicted of a Class 1A felony could get a maximum sentence of up to 80 years and a minimum sentence of no more than 40 years. That would make them eligible to be considered for parole in 20 years. Current law provides for a maximum of life in prison and a minimum of at least 40 years. Sentencing youth to life without the possibility of parole is a closed door on the future, when we know how much young people are capable of change, said Anahi Salazar, policy coordinator at Voices for Children. Nebraska lawmakers passed the current sentencing law in 2013, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that barred states from requiring life sentences for juveniles. Lawmakers at the time rejected efforts to set the minimum at 30 years, with some arguing that would not be enough for the seriousness of the crimes involved. Blood's LB 211, which would create a circuit breaker program to help property taxpayers with limited incomes. It would provide refundable income tax credits for homeowners or renters with federal adjusted gross incomes of $100,000 or less for married couples or $50,000 for individuals. The income limit for farm and ranch land owners would be $350,000 or less. Holdcroft's LB 274, which would allow disabled military veterans with disabled veteran license plates on their vehicles to park in spots designated for handicapped or disabled people. Such spots currently are reserved for people with limited mobility. Day's LB 391, which would provide criminal and civil immunity for individuals who end their pregnancy either intentionally or unintentionally. Day has opposed previous attempts to restrict abortion access in Nebraska. Blood's LB 413, which would adopt an interstate compact that would help teachers maintain their licenses through multiple states. Holdcroft's LB 457, which would require Nebraska ballots to have serial numbers and at least three anti-counterfeiting features, such as watermarks, holographs and taggants, which are chemical or physical markers used to track and identify items. The bill also would require video surveillance of polling places to track ballots from the time they are handed to voters until they are sealed in boxes to be taken to the local election office for counting. Day's LB 558, which would require that all public school employees be paid at least 70% of the statewide average hourly wage. Day's LB 675, which would allow Nebraskans to present a wide variety of identification documents to vote. Along with state, federal and tribal IDs, the bill would allow IDs issued by high schools and colleges, IDs issued by counties and other local governments, Social Security and Medicare cards, birth certificates, adoption certificates, naturalization certificates and records issued by hospitals or nursing homes. The bill would not require people voting by mail to present ID. Find a list of bills brought by Sarpy County senators at omaha.com/community/sarpy. Find a complete list of bill introductions at nnebraskalegislature.gov. John Arch LB 461 Change, transfer, and eliminate provisions relating to the materiel division of the Department of Administrative Services and procurement of services and personal property LB 708 Require the Office of Probation Administration, the State Court Administrator, the State Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services to enter into a memorandum of understanding for the sharing of data regarding data relevant to students who are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court Carol Blood LB 5 Provide for compensability under Nebraska WorkersAo Compensation Act for mental injuries resulting from workplace violence LB 6 Prohibit conditional use permits and zoning exceptions for delinquent property taxpayers LB 7 Provide a statute of limitations for exposure to hazardous or toxic chemicals LB 8 Change provisions of the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Act and provide for certificates of title and liens for abandoned mobile homes LB 9 Change independent expenditure reporting requirements and require electioneering reporting LB 10 Change motor vehicle and property tax exemptions for disabled veterans LB 11 Change provisions relating to domestic abuse protection orders LB 12 Create the Nebraska Human Breast Milk Bank LB 13 Require coverage of human breast milk under Medical Assistance Act LB 38 Provide an income tax adjustment relating to federal retirement annuities LB 39 Require disability impact statements for certain legislation LB 40 Adopt the Riparian and Water Quality Practices Act LB 211 Adopt the Property Tax Circuit Breaker Act LB 280 Adopt the Interstate Massage Compact LB 413 Adopt the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact LB 559 Provide for electronic filing of statements of financial interests and require additional elected officials to file such statements under the Nebraska Political Accountability and Disclosure Act LB 560 State intent to seek federal funds under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 LB 561 Adopt the Cosmetology Licensure Compact LB 639 Change provisions of Nebraska WorkersAo Compensation Act relating to rules and regulations, case progression standards, and summons and eliminate requirements to distribute copies of certain materials LB 735 Create a work group and establish the Nebraska Stewardship Program under the Nebraska Apiary Act LR 1CA Constitutional amendment to require the Legislature to reimburse political subdivisions as prescribed LR 5 Legislative Resolution to ratify an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to regulation of child labor Jen Day LB 64 Require the Department of Health and Human Services to provide notice in certain cases of child abuse and neglect LB 65 Change provisions relating to the complaint tracking system and disciplinary action under the Child Care Licensing Act LB 78 Redefine massage therapy under the Massage Therapy Practice Act LB 84 Change provisions relating to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program LB 85 Provide for express lane eligibility under the Medical Assistance Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program LB 90 Change provisions relating to tax incentive performance audits LB 126 Change provisions relating to homestead exemptions LB 127 Change sentencing provisions for crimes committed by a person under eighteen years of age LB 391 Provide criminal and civil immunity for pregnancy outcomes LB 558 Require payment of a minimum wage for all school district employees LB 675 Change provisions relating to elections and identification documents LB 676 Create the Nebraska Diaper Distribution Grant program LB 677 Create the Nebraska Knowing is Doing Something pilot program LB 678 Change provisions and definitions of the Nebraska Fair Employment Practice Act relating to disability LB 679 Create the Holocaust and Genocide Education Training Grant Program and provide duties for the State Department of Education, State Board of Education, and Commissioner of Education LB 680 Change provisions of the ParkinsonAos Disease Registry Act LR 16 Recognize January 9-15, 2023, as Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures Awareness Week LR 26CA Constitutional amendment to remove provisions regarding marriage from the Constitution of Nebraska Rick Holdcroft LB 274 Provide for persons with disabled veterans license plates to park in handicapped parking spaces LB 457 Require video surveillance of voting and provide requirements for paper ballots, vote scanning devices, and vote tabulating equipment LB 480 Change medical lien provisions LB 580 Change provisions relating to agricultural or horticultural land receiving special valuation LB 590 Change the personal needs allowance for eligible aged, blind, and disabled persons LB 730 Adopt the Fair Access to Financial Services Act LB 769 Authorize use of the Critical Infrastructure Facilities Cash Fund to develop a sewer system LR 15 Congratulate the Gretna High School football team on being the runner-up in the 2022 state championship game Rita Sanders LB 2 Create the Commission on Asian American Affairs LB 3 Change provisions for tax levies for bonds issued by political subdivisions LB 4 Change homestead exemption provisions relating to qualifications, application requirements, and penalties LB 43 Require hearing officers and judges to interpret statutes and regulations to limit agency power and maximize individual liberty LB 71 Change provisions relating to parental involvement in and access to learning materials in schools LB 297 Adopt the Personal Privacy Protection Act LB 583 Provide for foundation aid and special education supplemental aid under the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act LB 771 Provide for the Department of Veterans' Affairs to award grants to qualifying postsecondary institutions The Omaha Police Department mishandled an internal investigation that led to the firing of Capt. Kathy Belcastro-Gonzalez, an arbitrator concluded in a decision that has led to her partial reinstatement. The arbitrator found that the city violated its labor contract with the Omaha Police Officers Association by not giving Belcastro-Gonzalez proper notice before police interviewed her as part of the investigation last year. As a result of the decision, the city has vacated Police Chief Todd Schmaderers firing of Belcastro-Gonzalez in 2022, while she was suing the city in federal court. She eventually prevailed in her court case in September when a federal jury found that Schmaderer had passed her over for promotion to deputy chef in retaliation for her having filed a gender discrimination and harassment complaint with the Mayors Office in the past. The city is expected to appeal that ruling. The arbitrators decision, issued earlier this month, does not mean that Belcastro-Gonzalez is back to work on the police force. She is back on paid administrative leave, the same status she held last year during the botched investigation. And Schmaderer might fire her again. The arbitrator determined that we could not consider the two interviews of Katherine Belcastro-Gonzalez that took place in February of 2022, Deputy City Attorney Bernard in den Bosch said by email. When a party is the subject of an internal investigation for inappropriate conduct, we believe that it is important to give that person an opportunity to respond to the allegations. The police department intends to re-interview her on the allegations of her inappropriate conduct. After that interview, the chief will consider the interview and the rest of the investigation and make a decision. An attorney for Belcastro-Gonzalez, Ted Boecker, said that there is no merit to the citys claims and that he hopes the city will just allow her to return to her position without any further harassment. We think that this entire process is retaliatory, Boecker said. Any further investigation from our perspective would seem to us to be in retaliation for the verdict that Kathy obtained against the city and Chief Schmaderer. Its unclear if Belcastro-Gonzalez would want to return to actively work for the Police Department. She is currently working as associate director for security at Creighton University, a job she took in May. She could not be reached for comment for this article. Belcastro-Gonzalez was put on administrative leave in January 2022 because of an internal affairs investigation regarding alleged violations that the Police Department did not disclose at the time. According to court documents, the city alleged that Belcastro-Gonzalez forwarded emails, containing confidential personnel information, from her city email account to her personal email account. Schmaderer recommended in May that Belcastro-Gonzalez be fired. Her termination took effect in July. As a member of the Omaha Police Officers Association, Belcastro-Gonzalez was covered by that unions collective bargaining agreement with the city. She filed a grievance alleging that her rights under the contract had been violated. The arbitrator ruled that the city violated certain provisions of the collective bargaining agreement in the interview process. The city failed to give Belcastro-Gonzalez specific information about the allegations against her in its notice to her to appear to be interviewed. The city also did not give her notice that another person, the city labor relations director, would be present during the interview. The arbitrator concluded that because of the violations, it was as if the interview never happened, and the city must start over in their investigation, Boecker wrote in a subsequent lawsuit. The arbitrators decision left the door open for the city to take disciplinary action against Belcastro-Gonzalez. The police unions contract with the city requires that any disciplinary action must be imposed within 100 days after the alleged violation. But the arbitrator ruled that the time between the February 2022 interview and the arbitrators decision should not count toward the 100 days. So theres another opportunity to properly notice her in and to re-do the interview, in den Bosch said. Boecker filed a lawsuit in Douglas County District Court this week challenging the arbitrators decision about the 100-day time period. Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of January 2023 WASHINGTON When Joe Biden stepped to the lectern in the shadow of the Brent Spence Bridge in northern Kentucky this month, he couldn't stop showering praise on the state's senior Republican senator, who had fought to repair the ramshackle span for decades. It was quite a contrast to the clipped introduction delivered just a few minutes earlier by that senator, Mitch McConnell, who referenced Biden only in noting that the president had signed the bill to finally fix the aging bridge. By temperament and manner, the two men whose relationship in Washington has been scrutinized, analyzed and satirized for years are decidedly mismatched. Biden is tactile, gregarious and gaffe prone; McConnell is tactical, often grim-faced and rarely utters an unscripted word. But with the new days of divided government underway, the Biden-McConnell relationship will become more important. McConnell's experience in cutting deals and the political capital he retains among Republican members could leave him much freer to negotiate with the White House on thorny matters such as government spending and the debt ceiling than new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose ranks have already issued hardline demands on the debt that the White House says are nonstarters. Both Biden and McConnell see political imperatives in strategically cooperating. McConnell, who fell short of regaining the Senate majority last November, will have a far more advantageous political map in the 2024 election cycle and wants to demonstrate that Republicans can govern responsibly. Meanwhile, central to Biden's case for reelection is promoting his policy accomplishments and selling a record of competent governing punctured somewhat by recent discoveries of classified records at his former office and Delaware home. Look, I got elected by the people of Kentucky, McConnell said in a radio interview Tuesday with Louisvilles 840 WHAS. I don't view my job, even though I'm the Republican leader of the Senate, as objecting to everything just because Joe Biden might sign the bill. When asked about McConnell after the Kentucky bridge visit, Biden pointed to their joint efforts in the Obama administration to ward off federal fiscal calamities. I've had a relationship with Mitch McConnell for years, Biden said. We've always been able to work together. McConnell's acceptance of the White House invitation to attend the bridge event surprised even some of those close to him. He was among those who greeted Biden on the tarmac at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Then McConnell joined Biden in the armored presidential limousine, known as the beast, where the two men talked foreign policy and how to keep the international coalition united on Ukraine. Having McConnell ride with the president was not planned in advance, according to an official familiar with the interaction, but it wasn't a surprise, either. On the one hand, it's easy to overread it, said Scott Jennings, a veteran Kentucky-based party strategist with close ties to the Republican leader. McConnell had long said he would be more than happy to work with Biden on policy things that are within what he considers the 40-yard line in American politics, and building a bridge in Kentucky is right in the middle of that field. Jennings continued: On the other hand, I do think there's a message in that whole event, that there is a basic threshold of governing responsibility that people expect out of a political party, and I do think the Republicans sort of got judged as failing that threshold at the end of the Donald Trump presidency and with some GOP Senate candidates last year. Biden and McConnell have demonstrated in the past that they could capably govern when others couldn't. Their deal-making through a trio of financial agreements prevented what could have been major economic and political catastrophes. Those agreements temporarily extended the Bush tax cuts in 2010, lifted the debt limit in summer 2011, and in late 2012 avoided the fiscal cliff that would have hiked tax rates and enacted steep spending cuts, risking a recession. Obviously, I dont always agree with him, but I do trust him implicitly, McConnell said in a farewell tribute to Biden on the Senate floor in December 2016. He doesnt break his word. He doesnt waste time telling me why Im wrong." Biden also has found McConnell trustworthy. In a February 2011 speech at the McConnell Center in Louisville, Biden lavished the highest of praise for a congressional leader: Mitch knows how to count better than anyone else I have ever known. Over the years, the interactions between the two men has turned, at times, deeply personal. McConnell was the sole Republican senator to attend the funeral of Beau Biden, the presidents elder son, who died from glioblastoma in 2015. The following year, an emotional Biden presided over the Senate as McConnell, then the majority leader, surprised him by leading the renaming of legislation to bolster cancer research at the National Institutes of Health in Beau Bidens honor. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said of the two: "There is a personal relationship that transcends isnt the right word, but that is different from their philosophical leanings. And my experience has been that personal relationships count in this setting. Photos: Biden visits the border for the first time BLOOMINGTON A Normal man has died after a two-vehicle crash on Friday evening in McLean County. Conner M. McHale, 29, was pronounced deceased after a crash on Route 24 at North 2480 East Road, between Gridley and Chenoa, according to a news release from McLean County Coroner Dr. Kathy Yoder. Preliminary autopsy results indicate McHale, the driver and sole occupant of a pickup truck, died from multiple blunt injuries due to a collision with a sport utility vehicle, the news release said. Toxicology testing is pending. Illinois State Police Trooper Rodger Goines said Saturday that ISP Troop 5 responded to the crash at 7:22 p.m. Friday. Preliminary information indicates McHale was driving a Dodge truck north on 2480 East Road, approaching Route 24, when, for unknown reasons, he disregarded a stop sign, entered the intersection and struck a Ford SUV traveling west on Route 24, according to a statement provided by Goines. Both vehicles left the roadway and overturned. McHale was pronounced deceased at the scene, and the driver of the SUV was transported to an area hospital with serious injuries, Goines said. The crash remains under investigation by the McLean County Coroners Office and the Illinois State Police. Today in history, Jan. 21: Vietnam draft evaders pardoned, and more 1924: Vladimir Lenin 1942: Pinball 1950: Alger Hiss 1954: USS Nautilus 1976: The Concorde 1977: Jimmy Carter 2010: Citizens United 2012: Newt Gingrich 2017: Tornadoes 2017: Women's Marches 2020: Coronavirus 2021: Anthony Fauci 2021: Joe Biden NORMAL Police are investigating reports of gunfire early Saturday morning just blocks from the Illinois State University campus. Sgt. Rob Cherry with the Normal Police Department said officers were called at 3:04 a.m. Saturday to the shots fired report in the 100 block of East Cherry Street. He said an officer near the scene at the time also heard the shots. Cherry said police found evidence at the scene that showed a weapon had been discharged. He said no injuries have been reported. There was no suspect information available as of Saturday morning. Cherry asked anyone with additional information to call NPD at 309-454-9535. Today in history, Jan. 21: Vietnam draft evaders pardoned, and more 1924: Vladimir Lenin 1942: Pinball 1950: Alger Hiss 1954: USS Nautilus 1976: The Concorde 1977: Jimmy Carter 2010: Citizens United 2012: Newt Gingrich 2017: Tornadoes 2017: Women's Marches 2020: Coronavirus 2021: Anthony Fauci 2021: Joe Biden BLOOMINGTON A man has been charged for violation of the Illinois Violent Offender Against Youth Act, a Class 2 felony, in Bloomington. Tony L. Jackson, 50, no address given, was convicted in 2011 of domestic battery resulting in bodily harm to a victim under the age of 18. According to court documents, Jackson failed to report his address change with the Bloomington Police Department on Dec. 27, 2022, through Jan. 18, 2023, as required by law. Jackson was previously convicted for violation of the Illinois Violent Offender Against Youth Act in 2016. He was given a $20,000 personal recognizance bond, meaning he would not have to post bond to be released from the McLean County Jail. He was also ordered by the court to report his address to BPD upon his release. His next court appearance is an arraignment at 10 a.m. Feb. 10. Updated mug shots from The Pantagraph Bryant Lewis Derek Roesch Justin M. Mata Marcus D. Wesley Phillip Tinch Trisha L. Hanke William B. Givens David L. Oliver Kenneth E. Funk Jordan R. King Holly M. Isaacson Kenneth L. Minton Tony L. Jackson Britley L. Hilger Jasmine L. Smith Jackie S. Claypool Noah R. Demuth Brandon L. Parsano Alexander N. Williams Carlos Sanchez-Solozarzano Jaylin S. Bones Jordan R. King Dominique M. Banks Austin T. Daugherty Sandra M. Lewis Samantha E. Morris Nolan C. Love Nikkita L. Sandefur Katlin M.B. Wilson Eli C. Garozzo Tysean T. Townsend Curtis J. Byrd Noral K. Nelson NORMAL More than three decades after his own youth ended too soon with a wrongful conviction and years of imprisonment, Yusef Salaam offered some encouragement for the next generation. The question came from 16-year-old Bradley Ross-Jackson, president of the Bloomington-Normal NAACP Youth Council: What advice would Salaam, one of the so-called Central Park Five who were wrongly convicted in the 1989 rape of a jogger, have for young African American men striving for social and racial justice? "The biggest advice I think I can give young African American men, in particular, is to never stop believing in yourself," Salaam told Ross-Jackson during the question-and-answer portion of Illinois State University's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Dinner, held Friday night in the Brown Ballroom at the Bone Student Center. "The change that you seek you are the answer to that question," said Salaam, part of the group now known as the Exonerated Five. Salaam spoke for roughly an hour to a sold-out crowd, sharing his journey from New York City teen to Public Enemy No. 1, through exoneration and transformation into not only a figure for social and racial justice, but also a family man. "What I want you to do is remember this," Salaam told Ross-Jackson. "Live in the past, present, future tenses of yourself. "I say that, because you can't change your past, but you can learn from it. Never forget to be present in your present. But remember that the future that we seek, if we can't see it, we can't be it." He told Ross-Jackson to "dream the imaginary dream." Salaam was 15 when he and four other Black and Latino teens Raymond Santana, 14; Kevin Richardson, 14; Korey Wise, 16; and Antron McCray, 15 were coerced into confessing to the rape of a 28-year-old white woman. All served prison time before being exonerated in 2002. Matias Reyes, a murderer and serial rapist already in prison, would later confess to the crime. The men received a multimillion-dollar settlement from New York City. Ken Burns made a documentary about them, 2012's "The Central Park Five," and Ava DuVernay directed a Netflix series, "When They See Us." The 'womb' of America In a prepared speech, Salaam said, "On April 18, 1989, I went to sleep to the American Dream. And by April 19, 1989, I was awakened to the American nightmare." Salaam explained how, in prison, he went through a "rebirth" process. "It is not until you go into the womb of America, the place many call the 'belly of the beast,' but I call it the 'womb' because it is not what happens to you, but what happens inside of you that makes all the difference." He said, "You see, at 15 years of age, they looked at the color of my skin and judged me by it and not the content of my character." Salaam said he felt, as a prisoner, he was meant to be forgotten and "pushed into the margins." But, invoking spiritual and biblical imagery, he said, "I'm going to let you know that the Central Park Jogger case is a love story between God and His people a miracle of modern times. "It is the story of a people who have been buried alive and forgotten." "Instead of a social death, we've been able to emerge like the phoenix from the ashes. Because, as they built the fire to consume us, they forgot the owner of the heat." Born on purpose During his speech, Salaam talked about finding purpose in himself. He said, six months into his sentence, "An officer walked up to me, and he asked me a question that, kind of, was like a regular question, but not really. He said, 'Who are you?'" Salaam explained that the question sparked a journey of soul-searching through poetry and reading, eventually finding strength in his name and its spiritual meaning. He said his parents named him Yusef Idris Faadu Salaam. Breaking down the individual parts of his name based on their Arabic and biblical meanings, Salaam said his name is actually a phrase. "My parents named me on the seventh day that I was born, 'God will increase the teacher with justice and peace.' "I was in prison when I found this out. I was in the womb of America, the belly of the beast," he said. Salaam looked out at the crowd and offered some words of wisdom. "Even now, even if you're struggling with anything right now, know that you were born on purpose. And know that you have a purpose." A calling Salaam, whose newest book is titled "Better, Not Bitter," tours the country giving speeches. In one such speech, in 2013, someone asked his advice, as they often do. Salaam said, "In 2013, a young girl stood up and, in an audience, she said, 'I'm a cadet.' She said, 'I'm 13, and I want to become a cop. What advice can you give me?'" Instead of immediately saying "Don't become a cop," Salaam said he took a moment to think. "I was taught to think five times before responding," he said. Instead, Salaam shared his experience with her, he said. "I told her what Dr. King said. Dr. King reminded us that when we find our purpose in life, 'Do it as if God Himself called you to do it at this very moment,'" Salaam said. He continued, "Dr. King said, 'If your purpose in life is to be a street sweeper, sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted pictures.'" Salaam said, "I told her about the nobility of what it meant to find your purpose at such a young age." Legacy Salaam said the Netflix series about him and the other Exonerated Five brought them back together. It helped to create a "sacred brotherhood" between the men, he said. And while Salaam said they are all living their own individual lives, he is "trying to 'live full,' so that I can die happy." He closed the evening by saying, "It's legacy time. It's time to ensure that our children's children's children's children know everything they need to know in order to continue the great work of breaking generational curses." The Associated Press contributed. Photos: Yusef Salaam appears at Illinois State University NORMAL Fulfilling a long-held dream, Elia "Luc" Ballantini is on his way to Fiji with the Peace Corps. "It's Fiji. Where else on Earth would you want to go?" he said. Ballantini, 22, is among the first Peace Corps volunteers heading back overseas for service since March 2020, when over 7,000 volunteers were recalled from more than 60 countries because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ballantini will be in Fiji for two years. After touching down in Los Angeles, Ballantini took some time on his way to baggage claim to speak to The Pantagraph about his decision to join the Peace Corps and what he's expecting from his journey. "I guess everyone says follow your dreams," he said Friday. "I've wanted to do this ever since high school, and it goes by in a blink of an eye. And here I am." Helping the world Ballantini graduated from Normal Community High School in 2018 before attending Heartland Community College and, later, graduating from Ball State University last year with a degree in business. A Peace Corps recruiter approached him before his junior year of college, he said. He applied in 2021 and was accepted mid-2022. "Fiji was one of the first ones that I had in mind," Ballantini said of the potential destinations. "But it didn't open up until, I think, June or July from COVID restrictions." He said his business background, among other things, helped him choose this specific program. "They had the community economic development," Ballantini said, "and that was really the main thing I wanted to do from the get-go." On its website, the Peace Corps describes its initiatives in Fiji as part of a Community Economic Empowerment Project that places volunteers in rural, indigenous villages to support the goal of socioeconomic growth. Primary areas of work include helping community groups enhance their ability to lead projects, supporting the development of income-generating businesses and helping residents master personal money management. Ballantini explained: "It's mostly helping out communities and villages with basic financial information, like financial responsibility, opening a bank account, saving money." Besides the work, he is approaching the experience hoping to grow his horizons, he said. "It's life-changing going clear across the world, leaving everything behind to help communities," he said. "It's a whole other world out there." He said he looks forward to "changing my perspective and getting to help the world a little bit." Goal-oriented While Ballantini attended Ball State, he lived with his aunt, Connie Lodde, in Indiana. "I think he looked at the Peace Corps even before he came to my house," she said. "It's something that he had been looking at for quite some time," Lodde added. "I do know that he every decision he made, he kept the Peace Corps in mind. He kept on track very well." Volunteering and service have always been themes in her nephew's life, she said. Lodde and her husband were involved in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America mentorship organization when Ballantini was younger. But it was especially his parents who fostered the passion; Lodde said they were highly involved in charity work, including in Jamaica. "Volunteer work has always seemed pretty noble to me," Ballantini said. "I've been wanting to do that since high school." As for choosing which organization to work with, he said: "When you've got an amazing program like the Peace Corps it'd be stupid not to think of them." Lodde said Ballantini's father, Terry, had always involved his son in doing good works. "It's in his DNA, I guess," she said. A leap of faith Since 2017, including during school breaks, Luc Ballantini had been working with his father at Normal Gadgets. But Terry Ballantini didn't know until late 2022 that his son wanted to volunteer overseas. "When he said that he wanted to do this," Terry Ballantini said in a phone interview Friday, "he was going down the path of teaching English." After Luc Ballantini decided on the Peace Corps, his father thought likely destinations might be southern Africa or South America. "When he said 'Fiji,' I go, 'OK. Well, that's a little nicer,'" Terry Ballantini said. "That's spot-on Luc." Luc Ballantini said his motivation for service came from home. "It is 100% the fault of my dad," he said. "He has always been one for volunteering. He'd go on mission trips to Africa I've always had that idea in my head." When a Pantagraph reporter shared this information with Terry Ballantini, the father became, understandably, emotional. "You're going to make me cry," he said. "I've already cried this morning, once, when I put him on the plane." Both father and son find this stage of Luc Ballantini's life particularly significant for a notable reason: Luc Ballantini was born in Kazakhstan. Terry Ballantini said he could not have children. In the early 2000s, one of his co-workers was researching international adoption, and the idea stuck. In those days, he said, an adoption agency would share short videos, about a minute long on a VHS, with prospective families hoping to adopt, along with a small profile. Terry Ballantini and his then-wife were sent one video. "The first tape we saw was Luc," he said. "(We said) 'We love him. He's it. He's everything.'" The father said their journey to parenthood was a "leap of faith." They headed to Moscow and then to Kazakhstan, met 9-month-old Luc and, eight weeks after starting the adoption process, brought him home. Now, in a reflection of that "leap of faith," Luc Ballantini is taking the next steps in his life. "I'm over-the-moon proud of him," Terry Ballantini said. "It's hard to describe because I love him so much. He's my sunshine; he's my heart. I'm so proud of him." What's next? Terry Ballantini said his son's schedule and permanent placement were still up in the air, though Luc Ballantini was expected to receive a briefing Saturday in Los Angeles. "They take off, they have a week of training on the island," he said. "And then they go to live 10 weeks with a host family. "After the 10 weeks, they get placed in the villages." Terry Ballantini said his son might have to adjust to the electrical capabilities of Fiji. According to the Peace Corps' webpage on life in Fiji, "many rural communities do not have access to electricity, but most have at least a few hours of electricity a day provided by a generator." So Terry Ballantini sent his son off with a couple of solar chargers. "Right now, I feel like I overpacked," Luc Ballantini said as he heaved his luggage through Los Angeles International Airport. "It's heavy as hell I guess we'll figure out once I get there." One area on which Luc Ballantini's father and aunt agreed: He'll have to adjust. "I think the sleeping thing, getting up early," his aunt said, "that'll be the hardest part for him." She worried that he might arrive in Fiji and find that he was missing something he needed, but felt sure that he would grow used to the environment. "He's pretty adaptable," Lodde said. "He's a minimalist. He's not one who needs a lot of stuff." "... I think everyone's extremely proud of him," she added. "He'll do good things." Close Six-year-old Jolie Elder, of Bloomington, strikes a pose as a 360 Photo Booth revolves around her for a video selfie at the Elegant Bridal Expo on Sunday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington. Her mother, Annie Elder, said her daughter will serve as the flower girl for a relative's upcoming wedding. The photo booth was set up by Selfie Space out of Peoria. Owner Renee Waller said they attend weddings, plus host small events at their "Selfie Museum" in Peoria. Her business first opened in August. From left, Zach and Taylor Lee, both of Bloomington, pose before a "Marry Me" selfie wall prepared Sunday by Selfie Space, of Peoria, while attending the Elegant Bridal Expo at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington. Their wedding date is planned for Aug. 21, 2024. The Copy Shop, 302 E. Washington St., Bloomington, displayed several wedding services Sunday at the Elegant Bridal Expo in Bloomington, as shown in this table arrangement of stylishly-printed invitations, guest books, menus and table number signs. From left, Jessica Gibson, manager for Janet's Cakes & Catering in Bloomington, chats with potential customers aside Jessica Newnum while tabling Sunday at the Elegant Bridal Expo at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington. FLOWER POWER: 200 brides fix up plans at Bloomington wedding expo Brides, grooms, bridesmaids and flower girls were busy preparing Sunday for "the big day" at the Elegant Bridal Expo, which returned for the 11th time that afternoon to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington. Ashley Peecher, owner of the Springfield expo company, said they brought out 15 extra vendors this year, for a total of 60. She expected 200 "Very Important Brides" to attend, for a total of 700 visitors. Peecher said it was her 72nd expo her company has organized in the Twin Cities, Champaign, Peoria and Springfield. She also said she looks forward to helping brides plan their weddings, as well as promoting local businesses. Six-year-old Jolie Elder, of Bloomington, strikes a pose as a 360 Photo Booth revolves around her for a video selfie at the Elegant Bridal Expo on Sunday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington. Her mother, Annie Elder, said her daughter will serve as the flower girl for a relative's upcoming wedding. The photo booth was set up by Selfie Space out of Peoria. Owner Renee Waller said they attend weddings, plus host small events at their "Selfie Museum" in Peoria. Her business first opened in August. From left, Zach and Taylor Lee, both of Bloomington, pose before a "Marry Me" selfie wall prepared Sunday by Selfie Space, of Peoria, while attending the Elegant Bridal Expo at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington. Their wedding date is planned for Aug. 21, 2024. The Copy Shop, 302 E. Washington St., Bloomington, displayed several wedding services Sunday at the Elegant Bridal Expo in Bloomington, as shown in this table arrangement of stylishly-printed invitations, guest books, menus and table number signs. From left, Jessica Gibson, manager for Janet's Cakes & Catering in Bloomington, chats with potential customers aside Jessica Newnum while tabling Sunday at the Elegant Bridal Expo at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington. At approximately 1 a.m., New Haven officers said they found a male gunshot victim inside a vehicle at 296 Whalley Avenue after receiving a report that an individual was shot in the parking lot of the store-front retail location. An ambulance took the unidentified victim to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Shortly after, police said another man walked into Yale New Haven Hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot injury. New Haven police said a preliminary investigation indicated that the two shootings are related. Detectives from the New Haven Police Departments Major Crimes Division and Bureau of Identification are leading the investigation. Police ask anyone who has information or was a witness of the shooting to contact the department by calling 203-946-6304 or the anonymous tip line 866-888-8477. Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is optimistic that Ghana will get the approval of the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout by March this year. Ofori-Atta said a debt profiling deal from the Paris Club under the G20 Common Framework and a successful Domestic Debt Exchange Programme are prerequisite to getting approval from the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Im confident that well get approval for the IMF deal we have a deadline of end of February for the Paris Club. So, we need to be able to do that and in between that we would have completed our Domestic Exchange Programme and, therefore, to be able to go to the [IMF] board in March for this to be executed, Ofori-Atta told George Wiafe on the PM Express Business Edition on Joy News. T-bills are sacrosanct Meanwhile, Ofori-Atta has allayed fears that treasury bills will be affected by the governments debt exchange programme. He said treasury bills will for ever remain untouchable as far as the debt exchange programme is concerned. Ofori-Atta said the government has conducted a debt sustainability analysis which does not include T-bills. We cant afford to touch it. Let me assure you, treasury bills will for ever remain sacrosanct. Treasury bills are exempted completely. We have done the sustainability analysis. We are not including treasury bills. That is how government funds its operations, he told George Wiafe on PM Express Business Edition on Joy News. So far, the government has been meeting with various stakeholders to build consensus on the debt exchange programme Building consensus is key to a successful economic recovery for Ghana. Pending further stakeholder engagement with institutional and individual investors, recently invited to join the debt exchange programme, the government is extending the expiration of the DDE to 31 January 2023, a tweet from the Office of the Finance Minister said. Individual bondholders This week, Ofori-Atta met the Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF) to address members concerns about the programme. The government has set up a technical committee through the Ministry of Finance to address concerns raised by the IBF regarding the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme. The IBF has been intensifying calls for the government to exclude individual bondholders who have collective investment schemes from the entire debt restructuring exercise. Ghana announced a domestic debt exchange programme in December 2022 and said that external restructuring was being negotiated with creditors. The programme has already been extended three times. The Finance Ministry had previously extended the registration deadline for the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme to 30 December 2022 from the original 19 December 2022 and extended it further to 16 January 2023. The new deadline is 31 January 2023. Source: Asaaseradio 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 Top officials of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and officials of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) have reached an agreement to exempt individual cocoa bondholders from governments Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) and to roll over cocobonds for another 180 days. The two institutions, COCOBOD and BoG, reached the agreement at a meeting on Friday (20 January 2023). The meeting was also attended by managing directors of banks who hold cocoa bonds for individual cocoa bondholders. The move was to allay fears that holders of individual cocobonds will be affected by the governments debt exchange programme. There were earlier media reports that the government had rolled over cocoa bills maturing today (20 January) without the consent of investors. But sources at the meeting say it was made clear that COCOBOD holds enough liquidity to settle all individual bondholders. According to the sources, the banks were shown figures indicating that COCOBOD is well on course to meet and possibly surpass the production target for the year: an estimated 850,000 tonnes of cocoa. The government has this year paid interest on two different bonds that matured on 3 January and 16 January, and the state is yet to default on its short-term instruments. Source: Asaaseradio 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 retired Ghanaian pilot who is an individual bondholder has pleaded with the government to exempt, as a matter of importance, all individual bondholders from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). Speaking to Asaaseradio.com on condition of anonymity, the retired pilot said the domestic debt exchange programme announced by the Ministry of Finance will rob individual bondholders of their livelihood, especially pensioners like him who hold individual bonds. This unilateral inclusion of domestic bondholders is in breach of the Tenth Commandment, which states that you shall not covet your neighbours house nor anything that is for your neighbour. Domestic bonds are being included because the government is coveting our monies, just because they see it, the retired pilot said. Choosing bonds over T-bills The retired pilot noted that the reason why most people in his circle opt for bonds is that when you decide to keep your money in an account it will finish quickly. You can decide to buy either Treasury bills (T-bills) or bonds with it [instead]. When you go to the bank, the bank will convince you to buy bonds rather, and the reason they give you is that bonds yield more profit than T-bills. So, more often than not, you decide that keeping your monies longer in bonds will rather benefit you. So you agree and buy the bonds instead of T-bills, he said. Now the government has messed us up. Even those whose bonds will mature this year cant get their monies, but the government is still issuing T-bills and paying higher interests. Bond rates are max 20%: T-bills now are over 30%, the pilot added. Protecting bondholders In a related development, the New Patriotic Party strategist and senior partner at Africa Legal Associates (ALA), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has posted a series of tweets commending those leading the conversation and consultations with the Finance Ministry with the aim of getting the government to exempt individual bondholders from the debt exchange programme. Those mobilising to lead the voices of individual bondholders deserve our utmost commendation for speaking up for a big number of people who otherwise would have had no organised voice like institutional investors. But lets be careful about the dangers of a no-compromise stance, one of Gabbys tweets said. At least, lets see, possibly, all pensioners, not just institutional investors, individual pensioners who are bondholders, fully isolated from this exchange programme. I said earlier, whatever can be done to ease the burden on individual bondholders in this exchange programme must be done, said Otchere-Darko in a second tweet. DDEP modifications On Saturday 21 December 2022, the government modified its GHC137.3 billion domestic bond exchange programme to include individuals. The debt exchange programme is among efforts the government is making to restructure the national debt. The government took the decision to restructure domestic debt as a step towards securing approval from the management and executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a US$3 billion loan-support programme that will help stem Ghanas economic crisis. A press release issued by the Ministry of Finance said that, in addition to extensions previously set out, the government was expanding the type of investors that can participate in the exchange to now include individual investors. Other modifications to the debt exchange programme include the setting of a non-binding target minimum level of overall participation of 80% of aggregate principal amount outstanding of eligible bonds. The ministry also said it is offering accrued and unpaid interest on eligible bonds, and a cash tender fee payment to holders of eligible bonds maturing in 2023. There would also be eight new instruments to the composition of the new bonds, making a total of 12 new bonds, one maturing each year starting January 2027 and ending January 2038. The ministry said the modifications would be set out in full detail in an amended and restated exchange memorandum, expected to be published in the week of 26 December 2022. Conforming changes (including adding and modifying defined terms) in respect of the above amendments and modifications to cure ambiguity, omission, defect, error or inconsistency may be included in the Amended and Restated Exchange Memorandum. the ministry said. The government has further extended the deadline for voluntary participation in the debt exchange programme, first from 19 December to 30 December 2022, then to 16 January and now to 31 January 2023. Source: Asaaseradio Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced that the results for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for School and Private Candidates, 2022, will be released on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. The Ministry of Educations Public Relations Officer (PRO), Kwasi Kwarteng had in an earlier interview said the results would be released on January 19 but the Council in a statement issued said it was currently conducting post-examination activities having successfully conducted the examination at 2,023 centres and completed co-ordination and marking exercises. A total of 553,408 candidates, including 1,132 private candidates, wrote the examination, which ended on Friday, October 21, 2022. WAEC urges suspected cheats to respond to invitations. It said investigations were ongoing into examination irregularity cases detected during and after the conduct of the examination. "For a quick resolution of malpractice cases, the Council appeals to affected school authorities and candidates to respond with dispatch to its invitation," the statement said. "Candidates are informed that their refusal to honour such invitations shall not impede the Council from making a final determination on the cases in question. "The Council urges the public to disregard all information circulating on social media indicating that the results have been released, among others. Parents and candidates should remain calm as the Council works towards the release of results". Read the entire statement below; BASIC EDUCATION CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION (BECE) FOR SCHOOL AND PRIVATE CANDIDATES, 2022 UPDATE ON THE RELEASE OF RESULTS The West African Examinations Council wishes to inform the public about the date for the release of results for the BECE for School and Private Candidates, 2022. Having successfully conducted the examination at 2,023 centres and completed Co- ordination and Marking exercises, the Council is far advanced with post-examination activities. Investigations are ongoing into examination irregularity cases detected during and after the conduct of the examination. For a quick resolution of malpractice cases, the Council appeals to affected school authorities and candidates to respond with dispatch to its invitation. Candidates are informed that their refusal to honour such invitations shall not impede the Council from making a final determination on the cases in question. The Council urges the public to disregard all information circulating on social media indicating that the results have been released, among others. The target date for the release of results for the BECE for both School and Private Candidates, 2022 is Wednesday, 25th January, 2023. Parents and candidates should remain calm as the Council works towards the release of results. 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 Fifteen out of 30 patients with kidney failure conditions at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital passed away last year, a Physician Specialist at the hospital, Dr Emmanuel Akatibo, has disclosed. He said due to the lack of a dialysis centre at the hospital, the patients, who were at the end stage of the disease, could only be referred to the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) for the treatment, but all of them passed away. Since I started working in the hospital in March 2022 as the only Physician Specialist, the hospital has recorded more than 30 kidney failure cases, made up of chronic and acute kidney failures where the patients needed either a long-term renal replacement therapy or short course of dialysis to allow time for the kidneys to recover, Dr Akatibo said. Dr Akatibo, therefore, appealed through the Daily Graphic for the establishment of a dialysis centre at the hospital to provide services for kidney conditions. The regional hospital is a major referral facility which receives cases from across the 15 municipalities and districts in the region. The hospital also receives cases from the North-East Region and neighbouring Togo and Burkina Faso. Dr Akatibo said: What is very worrying is the fact that some of the patients who reported to the hospital were very young unlike the notion that the disease affected only the elderly some of whom needed kidney transplant to survive. He noted that referring kidney patients to the TTH was bothersome to the patients because of the attendant cost, distance, budget for an accompanying relative, among other inconveniences. When the kidney patients are referred to the TTH, they feel that they have been sentenced to death, he said. Dr Akatibo said a patient had to go through three dialysis sessions a week at GH350 per session aside from other medical expenses. He explained that some of the patients could not continue paying for treatment, and died along the way, while those who pressed on were compelled to reduce the recommended three times of treatment a week to either once every week or once every two weeks. A patients inability to adhere to the three times a week dialysis treatment made it very difficult to achieve optimum treatment, which often worsened their condition, he explained. Staffing Dr Akatibo indicated that the hospital already had the critical human resource to manage a dialysis centre. He said the hospital already had critical care nurses, physician specialists with interest in kidney diseases and other medical officers who could effectively manage the dialysis centre. Dr Akatibo said setting up a dialysis centre was capital intensive, saying looking at the prevailing economic situation in the country, it would be very difficult for the government to solely fund it. He, therefore, appealed to individuals, corporate entities, religious bodies and benevolent outfits to help the hospital establish the centre to serve kidney patients. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A former employee of GN Bank Ghana, Philip Sarpiah, has staged a one-man protest to appeal to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to restore the banks operating licence. The emotionally charged Sarpiah, who was wielding a megaphone, sang gospel songs and prayed with tears running down his cheeks while making passionate pleas to the President. He wielded placards which read Nana we are suffering, our PF is still not paid since 2019, 6,000 ex-staff of GN Bank are crying for jobs and There are no jobs, please give Nduom a chance to bring back GN Bank. Aged about 45, he said, he worked for the bank for eight years before the revocation of its licence in 2019, as part of a financial sector clean-up initiated by the government. I passionately appeal to Your Excellency as the Father of the Nation, to consider all the factors, especially the plight of the former employees and our dependants, and with the powers graciously vested and entrusted in you by the ordinary citizens such as myself, to bring back GN Bank to restore our livelihood, he said in a petition he presented to the Presidency in Accra Friday (Jan 20, 2023). Mr Sarpiah, who was the Head of Operations and Coordinator of the banks Micro Enterprise Business (MEB) department, said the revocation also cut short his dream to contribute to the building of a model financial institution with unique characteristics. One-man march The lone protestor who was fully clad in a GN Bank branded African print, marched from the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange in Accra through the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue (Circle to Accra), to the Farisco Traffic Light at the Graphic Road intersection, through the Kojo Thompson Avenue to the Liberia Road. He proceeded to the Cedi House, the National Theatre, the Head Office of the Ghana Revenue Authority and finally to the Black Star Square where the petition was received by a Presidential Staffer, Adu Asabere. The police were present to provide him protection and also ensure free traffic flow. About eight police personnel, including three females, dressed in riot and crowd control gear, walked briskly behind Sarpiah who kept a fast pace along the route, accompanied by the media. There were other police personnel in full gear on pickup trucks and vans, while others were stationed at various points along the route [Watch video attached below]. 6,000 employees According to Mr Sarpiah, before its closure, the bank provided employment for more than 6,000 youth, a significant number of who had only senior high school qualifications. He, however, lamented that many of them had failed to secure jobs and were now living under very terrible conditions. Mr Sarpiah said the model of the bank was to build wealth, provide jobs and life improvement opportunities for ordinary citizens in cities, towns, villages, communities, hamlets and markets which led the institution to establish branches at certain locations even before they became regional capitals. In line with the unique model of the bank, 300 branches of different sizes were established across the country because the shareholders had a vision to establish an indigenous community bank that would stay for decades to better the lives of indigenes, he added. Mr Sarpiah, therefore, called on President Akufo-Addo to use a more progressive and human-centered approach to address some of the operational challenges the bank faced which was perceived as a risk to the financial system rather than the outright closure. Source: graphic.com.gh Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Tamale High Court presided by Justice Daniel Obeng, after hearing the Savelugu parliamentary election petition filed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the 2020 election, Muhamed Abdul-Samed Gunu has dismissed the case. According to the judge, evidence showed that there was no over-voting in the 2020 parliamentary election as claimed by the NPP candidate but rather administrative human errors which did not affect the outcome of the results to warrant the court to annul the results. The Court however awarded a cost of GHS 40,000 in favor of the 2nd respondent, Abdulai Jacob Iddrisu, the National Democratic Congress(NDC) Member of Parliament for the Savelugu constituency. The court again awarded a cost of GHS 20,000 in favor of the 1st respondent which is the Electoral Commission. The Savelugu New Patriotic Party(NPP) parliamentary candidate for the 2020 parliamentary election filed a petition at the Tamale High Court challenging the validity of the election of Abdulai Jacob Iddrisu of the National Democratic Congress(NDC) parliamentary candidate for the Savulugu constituency of the Northern region under the parliamentary elections held on December 7, 2020. The respondents of the petition are the Electoral Commission( 1st Respondent) and Abdulai Jacob Iddrisu(2nd Respondent) in the case. Mr. Gunu in the parliamentary elections held on December 7, 2020 polled 19,478 votes while Alhaji Abdulai Jacob Iddris, the NDC candidate secured 19, 577 votes. The petitioner Muhamed Abdul-Samed Gunu is claiming that the purported election of the 2nd respondent as Member of Parliament for the Savelugu constituency is invalid, owing to widespread malpractices and irregularities which affected the outcome of the impugned election. The NPP Savelugu parliamentary candidate said the overarching of aspiration of the 1st respondent is to conduct elections that are free, fair and transparent in order to reflect the will of the people, protect the rights of candidates and inspire confidence in the democratic experiment that the republic has conducted under the fourth Republican Constitution since 1992. He said the elections were vitiated by gross and widespread electoral malpractices that substantially and materially affected the results of the election as declared by 1st respondent in favour of 2nd respondent. The petitioner said that there manifested an egregious violation of neutrality, transparency, and fairness at the D/A primary polling station at Kadia, which substantially and materially affected the results of the election as declared by 1st respondent in favor of 2nd respondent when 1st respondents officer, a ballot box issuer surreptitiously inserted several already printed ballot sheets, not the situated ballot boxes. The petitioner says that when valid votes cast at polling stations, where voting was carried out in accordance with the law and in compliance with the regulations governing of the conduct of the 2020 parliamentary elections, are collated, petitioner herein is the lawful winner of the 2020 parliamentary election for the Savelugu constituency. He added that in consequence of the above-stated constitutional and statutory violation, infractions, irregularities and malpractices, 1st respondent declared results for the parliamentary elections far in excess of the actual votes validly cast, thereby subverting the sovereign will of the electorate contrary to the preamble and Articles1(1) and 42 of the constitution, 1992. The NPP parliamentary candidate for the Savelugu constituency prays that the Tamale High Court declares that Abdulai Jacob Iddrisu, 2nd respondent herein and National Democratic Congress(NDC) parliamentary candidate on account of votes that ought to have been validly declared is not the validly elected Member of Parliament for the Savelugu constituency. In a related development, the Tamale High Court presided by Justice Daniel Obeng, has dismissed the Zabzugu parliamentary election petition which was filed by Mr. Umar Alhassan of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He awarded a cost of Gh 20,000 to the Electoral Commission as well as Gh Gh 40,000 to Mr. John Bennam Jabaah, the New Patriotic Party(NPP) Member of Parliament for the Zabzugu constituency. Both the New Patriotic Party(NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are satisfied with the outcome of the parliamentary election petition involving Zabzugu and Savelugu. There was however massive security beefed up at the Tamale High Court premises over the Savelugu and Zabzugu parliamentary election petition. Source: dailyguidenetwork.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Uber driver behind a viral audio that accused some police officers of deliberately planting narcotic substances in his car has been remanded by a District Court in Accra. Patrick Asiedu was put before the Court on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, after he was arrested on January 17. He is expected to reappear before the court on Tuesday, 31st January 2023, Police said in a statement on Friday. Patrick Asiedu in a viral audio painted a vivid picture of his alleged encounter with four police officers and accused them of planting wee and cocaine in his vehicle in a bid to extort money from him. In the audio tape, the man in question introduced himself as Dr Patrick Asiedu and claimed that he was only exonerated by a fingerprint test and his brother who is a soldier. He was later arrested. Police said their investigations, so far, have established that the man who has been arrested and is in police custody, is indeed called Patrick Asiedu, but he is an Uber driver and not a doctor. The investigations show that the entire story narrated in the audio tape is false and a total fabrication by the suspect, police added in a statement. Police also said the supposed military intervention and the alleged fight between the police officers and the military described in such dramatic detail in the audio tape are all false and a figment of the suspects imagination. Equally false are the vivid descriptions of having been taken to the Accra Central and East Legon Police Stations as well as the Narcotics Control Commission. The claims of fingerprints being taken are also untrue. Patrick Asiedu, the suspect, however, alleged that he had once witnessed a similar incident and that his narration in the viral audio happened to one of his passengers. Meanwhile, in another audio tape that has come to the attention of the Police, the suspect alleges to have met with the Inspector-General of Police. We wish to categorically state that this claim is also false and should be disregarded. Investigations are still ongoing and suspect Patrick Asiedu who is currently in police custody will be brought to face justice. Source: dailyguidenetwork.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 West Hartford police said Saturday that a 16-year-old girl who went missing on Thursday has been reunited with her family. The teen had told her parents she would be back in 15 minutes when she stepped out of her West Hartford home at around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19, according to police. But 16-year-old had not been located until Saturday, police said. Later Saturday, police said, As a result of diligent investigative efforts, (the teen) has been located and is being reunited with her family. Thank you to our partners in traditional media, and thank you to everyone on social media for sharing this story. nana akomea says the term for individual bondholders as far as the domestic exchange programme is concerned is too harsh The government has further extended the deadline to register for its domestic debt exchange to January 16, 2023, in order to secure internal approvals from the financial sector, the Finance Ministry said in a statement late on Saturday. The ministry also announced a change to the debt exchange, with eight additional instruments to be created. Ghanas government, in a bid to mitigate an economic crisis, has negotiated a staff-level agreement for a $3 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has said that its board will approve the deal only if Ghana undergoes comprehensive debt restructuring. 3. In addition to the foregoing extensions, the Government announces the following modifications to the Invitation to Exchange, which are set forth in further detail on the Term Sheet attached as Annex A to this press release: i. Offering accrued and unpaid interest on Eligible Bonds, and a cash tender fee payment to holders of Eligible Bonds maturing in 2023; ii. Increasing the New Bonds offered by adding eight new instruments to the composition of the New Bonds, for a total of 12 New Bonds, one maturing each year starting January 2027 and ending January 2038; iii. Modifying the Exchange Consideration Ratios for each New Bond. The Exchange Consideration Ratio applicable to Eligible Bonds maturing in 2023 will be different than for other Eligible Bonds; iv. Setting a non-binding target minimum level of overall participation of 80% of aggregate principal amount outstanding of Eligible Bonds; and v. Expanding the type of investors that can participate in the Exchange to now include Individual Investors. 4. These modifications will be set forth fully in an Amended and Restated Exchange Memorandum which is expected to be published during the week of 26th December 2022. Conforming changes (including adding and modifying defined terms) in respect of the above amendments and modifications to cure ambiguity, omission, defect, error or inconsistency may be included in the Amended and Restated Exchange Memorandum. 5. As set forth in the Exchange Memorandum, the Government reserves the right in its sole discretion to extend the timetable for the Invitation at any time and to make amendments to the Invitation at any time. Any Eligible Holders whose Eligible Bonds are held on its behalf by a broker, dealer, bank, custodian, trust company or other nominee must contact such entity if it wishes to participate in the Invitation, as such entities may establish an earlier deadline to receive instructions to tender Eligible Bonds. 6. In making this decision to extend and the modifications described herein, the Government considered feedback from the financial sector in relation to the need to secure internal approvals. Further, this extension affords the Government of Ghana the opportunity to consider suggestions made by all stakeholders with the aim of adjusting certain measures acceptable within the constraints of the Governments Debt Sustainability Analysis. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Convention People's Party (CPP) has outdoored radio presenter Captain Smart as a member of the party in line with plans to reactivate the energies of some prominent Ghanaians towards the "Grand Mobilisation Drive" of the party. He was unveiled by leaders of the CPP at the party headquarters at Asylum Down in Accra on January 19, 2023. The Chairperson of the CPP, Nana Akosua Frimpomaa led the event, which said she was an occasion for the party to "reactivate the energies of some prominent Ghanaians towards the Grand Mobilisation Drive". Captain Smart whose real name is Blessed Godsbrain Smart, at the ceremony said he first joined the party in 2006 and contested the Ashanti Regional Chairman position in 2007 but lost. The outspoken radio presenter, said he was an inactive member but after 16 years of inactiveness, he was now reviving his membership. Captain Smart is the host of the radio programme Onua Maakye, which is aired simultaneously on television on Onua TV and on radio on Onua FM, both media outlets under Media General group. In a speech, he said the decision to reactivate his membership of the CPP was long over due. "I am happy to be home and it feels good. There is no going back. I am back to contribute my quota, bringing all my experiences so that together, we can make Ghana great," he said. He was given his membership card at the event. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is working diligently to regain its electoral authority in the Central Region in the 2024 election, a leading member of the party, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Ekumfi has said. According to him, though, the party lost nine out of the 19 parliamentary seats it held before the 2020 election to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), it had resolved to go all out to regain the seats in the 2024 election. "Unity is key to the party's cohesion, and Central Region is central to the electoral fortunes of the party. "If you have a drop of parliamentary seats from 19 to 10, it simply means internally, there must be something wrong, particularly when the President had an urge over his competitor in 10 constituencies. "This is why I find the meeting useful, particularly when individuals came to openly express their grievances after which the chairman called for unity," Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi stated. Bury Differences Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi gave the assurance in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after the Central Regional Reconciliation Engagement to resolve differences ahead of the 2024 election. The forum, which would be replicated nationwide, was put together by the party on the theme: Reconciling the Rank and File of the NPP in Central Region to Break the 8. It brought together scores of party stalwarts including national, regional, and constituency executives, former appointees, and Chief Executive Officers, among many party faithful. Going forward, Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi charged the regional leadership of the party to bury their differences and work at strengthening the grassroots and the party structures to help retain power in the 2024 general election. Later, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, the Minister of Transport, briefing the media after the meeting, called on the rank and file of the party to channel their energies into promoting party peace, unity, and harmony. He also urged them to desist from actions that sought to ruin their electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 polls. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Samuel Pyne, the mayor of Kumasi was unable to hold his anger following persistent heckling from a former General Secretary of the People's National Convention during a panel discussion on Asempa FM. Sam Pyne was making a case for the National Cathedral and criticizing Okudzeto Ablakwas "campaign" against Reverend Kusi Boateng, a member of the Board of Trustees of the cathedral project. He first sought to dismiss claims of double identity against Reverend Kusi Boateng, as alleged by Ablakwa, by using himself as an example. My baptism card has Samuel Kwabena Sakyi. My O level certificate has Samuel Pyne. My A level has Samuel Cobbinah Pyne. They wrote the Kwabena like how Fantes does theirs. I never used my A-level for training college. I used my A-level, he said. He then moved on to justify why it is appropriate for the government to build a cathedral for the country. He rebuffed the notion that the cathedral is a promise of the president to his God and therefore should not be built with state funds. I support the Cathedral 300%. I have contributed to the project because I know God and what God has done for me. The NDC started desecrating that project from the first day. Theyve not seen anything good with it. They argue that the cathedral is the presidents personal wish so he should fund it, why dont they say same about Free SHS, he said. Atik Mohammed, the former PNC scribe, also a panelist then interjected: the Free SHS is for the public so he can use the public money." Sam Pyne fired back is the cathedral for his father or when he is leaving office he will go with it.. Despite repeated calls by the host of the show for Atik Mohammed to desist from heckling, Sam Pyne, Atik continued with Sam Pyne occasionally lamenting about how it was affecting his presentation. Meanwhile, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said that the National Cathedral could cost the country $1billion. He is concerned particularly by the amount of public funds dedicated to the project despite earlier government communication that it will be funded by the Christian community. My analysis is that this project is more than a billion dollars, it is more than a billion dollars by the time we are done paying for the recklessness of president Akufo-Addo, he said in an interview on Accra-based Radio Gold (January 18). Source: Ghanaweb.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Leader and founder of the Ghana Union Movement (GUM) Rev. Christian Kwabena Andrews has urged Ghanaians to reject the current NPP government and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and opt for GUM heading into the 2024 elections since they have both failed Ghanaians. The GUM party placed third in the 2020 general elections after its establishment in 2019. Addressing a press conference held at the party office in Accra last Wednesday, Rev. Andrews, the 2020 Presidential candidate of the GUM also known as Osofo kyirabosom assured Ghanaians of GUMs commitment to change the economic fortunes of the country if the party was given the nod by the electorate in the 2024 general election to form the next government. Look at all the major sectors and nothing is working due to the bad leadership of these parties, NPP and NDC, especially the current handlers of the economy, he added. He noted that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement with the government would further worsen the economic conditions of Ghanaian, saying we should have looked at home-grown solutions to resolve the current economic challenges faced by the country than going to the Bretton Woods institution. Measures Rev. Andrews further stated that his party had outlined proper measures to tackle some of the current economic challenges faced by the country which the party would implement when given the opportunity by Ghanaians to take up the governance of the country. "We plan to revive all state-owned enterprises to help solve unemployment among the youth and also review our educational curriculum and most importantly run a minimal size of government and I believe some of these things will help us solve most of our current problems facing us as a country," he concluded. Rev. Andrews reiterated his call on the current administration to cut the large size of government to save the country some money. He, however, commended the government for the Gold for Oil project, saying it was a good initiative but suggested that the same agreement should be signed with local companies on the countrys oil fields to get the cheapest transaction the state was looking for. Background Meanwhile the General Secretary of the party, Kojo Gold Arhinful, also used the opportunity to outline the partys programme line-up in the build-up to next years general election. Mr Arhinful said GUM was formed on November 21, 2019 with the aim of creating jobs for the citizenry. He noted that the party had only a year to prepare for the 2020 general elections which he said they gained about 105, 548 votes and placed third. GUM is coming again stronger and better in the coming 2024 general elections should God grant us the opportunity, he stated. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A former Communications Director of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Adomako Baafi, says it is disingenuous to blame Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for Ghanas economic challenges simply because he heads the Economic Management Team (EMT). Adomako Baafi, speaking in an interview with Okay Fm, said the EMT is merely an advisory body the final buck for economic decisions always stops at the Presidency. Baafi also pointed out that most of Bawumias challengers for NPP flagbearer such as former Trade Minister Alan Kyeremanten and Agric Minister Dr Afriyie Akoto were also on the EMT yet no one blames them for the economic woes. This, he said, is a sure sign that the Veeps critics are being disingenuous. The economic management team is just an advisory body; they dont implement anything. And even if it is so, Alan Kyeremate was part of the Economic Management Team, the agriculture minister (Dr Afriyie Akoto) was also part of the Economic Management Team. All the people who are contesting for the flagbearership position of the NPP were part of the EMT. The work of the EMT is a team work so Bawumia cannot blamed if things are not going well, he said in the Twi. Adomako Baafi also took on other arguments against the candidacy of Bawumia, with some recent claims that he has not been in the party long enough to be flagbearer. Former NPP General Secretary and aide to Alan Kyeremanten, Nana Ohene Ntow recently said Bawumia only became a card-bearing NPP member in 2008, insinuating he hasnt been around long enough to become the leader of the party. Adomako Baafi retorted that the number of years one has served in a party should not matter in the selection of a presidential candidate and that the most important factor that is to be considered is competence. He added that Bawumia has proven that he can lead Ghana through the way he assisted President Akufo-Addo in winning power for the NPP and consequently in implementing policies that have benefited Ghanaians [digitalisation, gold-for-oil among others]. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Sofo maame Florence Obinim has has lost her calling! The gospel musician is now a high-class slay queen focusing on how to glam up and look seductive. Florence Obinim has shocked social media users as videos of her are surfacing on the net wearing contact lens and nose ring. Florence Obinim has not been in the media for a long time now. According to reports, her husband has relocated her and their children to Spain. Florence Obinim therefore has been hiding and hasnt done anything to call for media attention as her and her husband have formerly done. But she has made a huge comeback slaying like never before. The woman of God is seen looking fancy in contact lenses and nose ring. Shockingly, she is seen in a video preaching the world of God. Watch the video below; View this post on Instagram A post shared by (@mari_gyataa) Source: instagram/ghanacelebrities 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 GRANVILLE A Whitehall man was sentenced to 5 years in prison for committing a string of residential burglaries in the village of Granville. Daniel F. Valastro, 32, was one of two men arrested on July 24 after police had received a report earlier in the day of a burglary. Valastro and an unidentified 18-year-old man had broken into two other homes in the neighborhood. They were still in the area shortly after the crimes were reported. Valastro was on parole at the time of the incident with previous felony convictions. In 2019, Valastro was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison in Saratoga County Court on a charge of aggravated criminal contempt. He admitted to pushing a woman a woman out of a first-floor room motel window in order to hide her from authorities. There was an order of protection prohibiting from having contact with her. He was sentenced in 2016 to 2 years in prison after being convicted in Washington County Court of felony third-degree rape. He also must serve 5 years of post-release supervision following this latest prison term. School officials and lawmakers are worried a new mandate requiring that all school buses purchased after 2027 be electric could be expensive and impractical. Most districts are nowhere near ready to engage in this conversation and neither are our utility companies, said Hartford Superintendent of Schools Andrew Cook on Friday. Cook added that school officials really dont know the life expectancy of these zero-emissions buses and how they are going to function in a rural environment in colder weather. He said the state should consider making the phase-in slower. Cook made his comments at the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES Legislative Breakfast, which was held virtually because of the weather. He serves as chairman of the Chief School Officers Advocacy Committee. Legislators also expressed concern about the mandate. We really need to know how this is going to be implemented, how were going to be able to make this work safely and effectively and transport our children to school, said Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Horicon. Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, R-Ballston, said she has been talking with some people about the same issue and has concerns that the EV buses will cost about three times what diesel buses cost. Its going to be a big budget buster for a lot of school districts, she said. There are also concerns of how long the battery will last in some of the rural districts. The battery is draining as the buses are heated up, Walsh added. State aid Cook outlined other legislative priorities for 2023 including fully funding Foundation Aid, expanding eligibility of free breakfast and lunch to all districts and increasing state aid for career and technical educator salaries. Cook said he believes the state should revisit the formula for Foundation Aid, which is the basic grant that school districts received based upon a districts population and wealth. They want to continue the hold harmless provision, so districts would continue to get a minimum increase regardless of what was calculated under the formula. The cost of educating a student in todays environment is very different than what it was when the Foundation Aid formula was originally enacted, he said. Salaries and health insurance costs continue to rise and there are other priorities as well, according to Cook. Educators have to address the learning loss as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social and emotional needs of students. Roger Catania, a member of the Board of Regents for the Fourth Judicial District, said the board shares many of the priorities of local school officials. The Regents are proposing a $3.4 billion increase in education funding, including $2.7 billion more in Foundation Aid. Each district would receive a minimum of a 3% increase. They are also seeking to allocate $1 million to a process to research changing the formula. We want to make sure the formula, which is based on some old information, is updated and improved to continue to address equity statewide for the years to come, he said. The Regents are also interested in universal lunch and breakfast and redesigning pre-K education. Career, technical education Career and technical education was also a big topic at the session. Cook said another issue that has been a priority for many years is to increase the funding for career and technical educators. The state currently only pays aid on $30,000 of the cost of a CTE instructor. Cook said that figure has not been raised in many years and the average salary now is $65,000. The cap has limited the number of students school districts can send to career and technical education programs. Guest speaker Andrea Crisafulli, president of Crisafulli Brothers Plumbing and Heating, said some of the companys employees are BOCES graduates and she believes it is a critical pipeline for future workers. She said school leaders should encourage more students to go into the trades. Too many students may have been pushed into the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. A lot of students arent cut out for college and the trades are a viable option for them, she said. She pointed out that people can start at her company making $20 per hour. At their three-year mark, theyre making closer to $60,000. Theyre buying homes. Theyre buying cars and in many ways, theyre ahead of curve from students who went to college and came out with a four-year degree, she said. Shae Grignon, a former trades student who graduated from Ballston Spa, said she was in 11th grade and had no idea what she wanted to do until she was exposed to the construction trades program. That led to a job after graduation and many opportunities. For me and thousands of other students, our future starts here, she said. Other priorities Cook said another priority is to allow for universal free breakfast and lunch programs. During the pandemic when the meals were free, demand skyrocketed. Now, the number of meals being consumed has dropped to pre-pandemic levels and even lower, according to Cook. Also, school officials are looking for some more flexibility in teacher certification requirements. So, for example, people from other states with teaching degrees can more easily get certified in New York. We are having a very difficult time in identifying highly qualified individuals for every position in the district, he said. They also would like the state to provide flexibility so retirees could work for the school district without capping their salary. Retired administrators have been a lifeboat for many local schools. A couple of school districts in Washington County would not have been able to open without this provision to hire individuals to come back and work, he said. Districts are also asking the state to increase the threshold, from $100,000 to $250,000, for capital projects that they can undertake without a voter referendum. Cook said Hartford just completed one of these small projects. For $100,000, we were able to replace six sink units in our elementary school and thats it, he said. State Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Horicon, on Tuesday praised the Assembly for implementing a system to livestream committee meetings. This is a major step forward, Simpson said in a news release. Livestream broadcasts can be viewed at the time of the meetings on the Assembly website nyassembly.gov. Livestreams, however, are not archived for future viewing. Until these meetings are archived, allowing the public to view them at any time, we still have some work to do, Simpson said. Stefanik backs FIND Act U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, is an original co-sponsor of legislation to discourage financial institutions and other service providers from refusing to do business with companies that lawfully sell guns and ammunition. The Firearms Industry Non-Discrimination (FIND) Act, which U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Michigan, introduced Jan. 12, prohibits the federal government from contracting with corporations that restrict customers from selling lawful guns or ammunition. According to the Congressional Sportsmens Foundation, many companies such as banks, insurance companies, search engines, third-party payment processors, and social media sites have restrictive policies, which result in gun and ammunition sellers doing business with more costly service providers. The legislation HR 53 had 80 co-sponsors, all Republicans, as of Jan. 19, including Stefanik, who was an original co-sponsor. In other regional political news: Campaign cash Area state legislators are starting out the next campaign cycle with cash leftover in their campaign funds from the 2022 election, according to new semi-annual reports filed with the state Board of Elections. As of Jan. 13, Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, had $57,573 in his campaign fund; Sen. James Tedisco, R-Glenville, $35,292; and Sen. Jake Ashby, R-Castleton, $37,889. Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, had $18,021 in her campaign fund, as of Jan.13, and Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Horicon, $14,798. Renewable energy cost State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, on Wednesday introduced legislation to direct the state to conduct a full cost benefit and technical analysis for the feasibility of renewable energy methods in New York in comparison with other methods of electricity generation. The legislation has four co-sponsors, all Republicans. While the city mourns the loss of beloved and influential entrepreneur Anthony Griffin, his daughter Mariah Griffin is mourning her dad, whom she affectionally recalls as her Bubba. She stayed by her fathers side the entire time he was in the hospital, until he died a month ago today on Dec, 21. He was 61. While he was in the hospital, the two took their last picture together. So my dad was my everything. He was my best friend. He was my heart. My father was very strong, and he was really, really all about doing the right thing. And he always spoiled me [for] my whole entire life. He called me about 10 times a day, she said. His legacy of living to do the right thing is what Mariah Griffin, her family, and community members will miss the most, they said. Anthony Griffin received numerous awards and recognitions for his positive work in the community. He also overcame being a one-time drug dealer who moved throughout the city, until he was caught by police. Serving time twice in the 1980s, he promised to live a better life for good and converted to Islam. He kept his word and became known as the business entrepreneur and owner of Anthonys Fashion store, which was a staple retail and design shop in the city for over 32 years, those who knew Griffin said. Along with his numerous community endeavors Griffin also is known for the successful clothing company, Heaven or Hell, which he launched in 1995. He has said he created the clothing line to remind himself and others that although we have choices, we must make the right choices, desiring the person who wore his garments to let the line of Heaven or Hell, Freedom or Jail, Good or Bad, Up or Down, Sunshine or Rain, Life or Death mentally inspire every minute of their lives. Picture of a young Anthony Griffin wearing his popular Heaven or Hell clothing. Griffin truly understood the power of how making one decision can change your life for the better or the worst, those who knew him said. Griffins clothing brand took off, locally and nationally from 1995 to 2003, and was shipped all over the world to community members, celebrities, and dignitaries, according to Mariah Griffin. His nephew, Roger Griffin, was one of those Anthony Griffin asked to help him with the clothing company, said that working with his uncle was always a good experience and he recalls him always being a hard worker. He showed me the retail business in the 90s. And then he started Heaven or HellWe started a little warehouse, off of Airport Road. We used to go box up stuff and send it out, Roger Griffin said. Roger Griffin recalls meeting a lot of Hip-Hop artists through his uncle, as the clothing brand grew in popularity, but said he also learned the business. I met a lot of rappers. When he had the brand out, I met Fat Joe, I met all the Wu Tang Clan. He just showed me the business. I learned how to buy clothes in bulk. I used to go and order for the store, Roger Griffin said. Once I learned how to do it, I took over andwe used to go to the little shows in New York and Las Vegas. He had his [vending] booth in Las Vegas, one in August, [one in] February. Roger Griffin also said that his uncle was strict when it came to vending, as he wanted everything perfect and this helped him to carry that same work ethic with him, as an entrepreneur today. He always said think big. Think big. He always directed me to just want more in life, not to just settle for less. Thats what I learned, Roger Griffin said. Celebrities, such as Queen Latifah, P.Diddy, Tracey Morgan, and others have reached out to Mariah Griffin, after hearing the news about her fathers death, she said. Understanding the love and support of her father from the community, she is hosting a celebration ceremony to honor Griffin from 3 to 7 p.m. today at The Artists Collective, 1200 Albany Ave. The ceremony already is at capacity, due to COVID-19 restrictions, she said. Mariah Griffin said that she hopes that those who attend her fathers celebration of life ceremony will understand that her father is loved and that he loved those who love him. Flyer for the Celebration of Life event for the late Anthony Griffin on Sat. Jan. 21 hosted by his daughter, Mariah Griffin. His main thing was to serve the community and help these young men and young women understand that you have a choice to make. And every choice you make, good or bad, has a consequence, she said. She also said that she appreciates the love and support she has received from the community. We know life is short, and I was his caretaker. I took good care of him and helped him with everything that he ever needed help with. So when my dad died, I feel like [theres] a big hole in my chest. And its a big void in my chest. I listen to those voicemails [he left me] constantly. And Its hard, she said. Griffin has three additional children, who live in Atlanta, Georgia and two granddaughters, Ahmel Green and Alani Griffin, who he adored, Mariah Griffin said. My dad always told me Allah has the most amazing plan for you. And I believe that hes still taking care of me, because things [have] just been happening, left and right. And I constantly say thank you Bubba. He calls me BabaWe have such a close relationship and hes always been there for me, she said. Among some of the many accolades earned by Anthony Griffin are recognition in June 2015 from the Hartford Adult Education Center, where he facilitated weekly programming for adult students, and Community Service honors in 2019 from the Hartford Enterprise Zone Business Association. In 2003, Anthony Griffin was appointed by Imam W.D. Mohammad as a business consultant on behalf of the Islamic community of North America. In 2004, Griffon launched ANT. or Affection New Thoughts, Business Concepts, through which he directed a successful youth entrepreneurship 15-week course to teach youth practical entrepreneur skills and partner them in local apprenticeships, with some landing permanent job positions. From 2020 to 2021, the elder Griffin also directed and facilitated a successful youth entrepreneurship summer program in conjunction with Capital Workforce Partners and Blue Hills Civic Association, among numerous other endeavors. OCEAN CITY Citing recent news reports, Mayor Jay Gillian said his city accepts all residents, guests and students, regardless of race, creed or orientation. In his weekly message Friday afternoon, Gillian suggested recent news stories depicted Ocean City as anti-LGBTQ based on the words of a few individuals months ago. He did not indicate what news outlet he meant. Its heartbreaking to see this kind of reporting, and I feel obligated to respond on behalf of the community, Gillian wrote in his message to residents. Ocean City accepts and supports all of its students, residents and guests without regard to race, creed or sexual orientation especially in the schools. The stories generalizations do not reflect the character or attitude of Ocean City as a whole and are contrary to our core values. This week, Philadelphia Magazine published an article with the headline Is Ocean City, New Jersey, the next anti-LGBTQ Town? In it, writer Victor Fiorillo describes a recent visit to the shore resort, and also cites a September rally at City Hall attended by three school board candidates supported by the organization Moms for Liberty. Gillian did not say that was the impetus for his comments Friday, however. He faulted all news coverage on the issue in a text message Friday. A recent Philadelphia Inquirer story by Amy S. Rosenberg said the new school board alarms the LGBTQ community, and a Press of Atlantic City report on Joseph Clark being named the vice president of the Board of Education this week included background on the controversy, which coincided with the 12-member school boards 6-6 deadlock that left the choice of vice president up to the Cape May County superintendent. Joseph Clark to return as school board vice president in Ocean City OCEAN CITY The Cape May County superintendent of schools has named Joseph Clark vice presi Questions of sexuality and gender, and how they are taught and tolerated in schools, were at the forefront of the race for the Board of Education last year. Gillian uses his weekly message to update visitors and residents on city projects, list upcoming events and otherwise pass on messages to residents, for instance about the deaths of community members. In this weeks message, he also touched on the deaths of humpback whales in the area. Ocean City has not had a whale wash up on its beaches in several years, but there have been recent incidents in the neighboring communities of Strathmere, Atlantic City and Brigantine. Gillian joined calls for a moratorium on work underway on offshore wind power projects. We are monitoring the situation with the recent whale deaths in our region, and will continue to gather facts from the appropriate agencies in an effort to determine the cause and if there are any actions we should take locally to address this matter, Gillian wrote. In the meantime, I believe there should be a pause in offshore wind activity in the ocean until we are assured that this is not a contributing factor. He also updated residents on a beach replenishment project underway downtown. Ocean City honors Dr. King, calls for unity OCEAN CITY Speakers at Ocean Citys observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day called for a I want to remind everybody that beach access is restricted in the areas where the Army Corps of Engineers is working on the current replenishment project. For your own safety and to allow the contractor to operate its heavy equipment unhindered, please do not cut through the work area to get to the ocean, Gillian wrote. And do not disregard the instructions of the personnel monitoring access to the work site. Police will strictly enforce these restrictions. Daily updates on which beach access points are closed are available at www.ocnj.us/BeachReplenishmentUpdate. The current work is part of a $21.5 million project U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, bringing sand from the Great Egg Harbor Inlet onto the citys beaches. The work continues 24 hours a day, weather permitting. More sand is planned to be added later in 2023 to the south end of Ocean City, as well as to beaches in Strathmere and Sea Isle City. Philadelphia disc jockey Jerry Blavat known as The Geator with the Heater and long a summer fixture at Jersey Shore clubs and halls died early Friday morning. Blavat, 82, died from myasthenia gravis and related health issues at VITAS Inpatient Hospice at Jefferson-Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia, according to a statement from his family. On behalf of our family, we would like to thank all of you, Jerrys friends from near and far, for the outpouring of prayers, love, support, respect, acknowledgment, and appreciation for what he meant to all of you, especially in such a difficult time for our family, the family said. We know how much he was loved by you, his loyal fans and friends, and we know The Geator will live on in our hearts forever. But for us, our grief is truly indescribable in losing the man well forever call Daddy. Blavat was suffering from medical issues related to a shoulder injury and had to cancel an upcoming show at the Kimmel Cultural Campus in Philadelphia due to his health, according to his website. He was a fixture in South Jersey. His bar, Jerry Blavats Memories in Margate, celebrated its 50th anniversary last summer. Memories has been a destination for fans of classic rock n roll and doo-wop. Blavat, who was also known as The Big Boss with the Hot Sauce, was a major influence in promoting oldies music on local radio stations WTKU-FM 98.3 in Linwood and WVLT-FM 92.1 in Vineland. A Philadelphia icon, he gained local fame hosting live dances in the area, leading to his own independent radio show, on which he introduced many acts in the 1960s. Since the 1950s, Blavat hosted dance parties in Wildwood at venues such as the Starlight Ballroom and Lighthouse Pointe Marina. Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron said Blavats death was a huge loss. He seemed like a teenager who would never age and would always be around, Byron said. Its a tragedy. He was a music institution throughout the Philly and South Jersey areas. One of Blavats last South Jersey appearances was Sept. 30 at the Avalon Community Hall, for an event sponsored by the Avalon Lions Club, according to Eileen Donovan, 75, who is the Avalon Lions president. Donovan, who lives in Cape May Court House, said she has been listening to Blavat since she was a 14-year-old girl living in Philadelphia. Over the decades, Donovan has attended Blavats dance parties at Chez Vous in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, during the 1960s, Memories in Margate since the 1970s and La Costa Lounge and the Oar House in Sea Isle City in recent years. She was on the board of directors for the Avalon Performing Arts Council when it hosted Blavat five times between 2016 and 2021. I feel like I lost a family member. I really do, Donovan said, adding one woman would purchase four tables of 10 people each for every one of his Avalon appearances. Blavats shows were always a destination for people who lived in and visited the borough, said Scott Wahl, Avalons public information officer and business administrator. He was a DJ who also was a performer. His energy was second to none. Nobody did what Jerry Blavat did, Wahl said. Nobody related to and cared about the audience like Jerry. Before Wahl worked for Avalon, he was a program director for four different radio stations, and two of his stations aired Blavats show at one time. The addition of Blavats radio show to an oldies format would exponentially increase the audience, Wahl said. Hammonton's Mount Carmel Italian festival begins 142nd run this week HAMMONTON This town of less than 15,000 residents expects to see a surge of about 70,000 v His act wasnt for everybody, but it was for a lot of people, Wahl said. Paul Kelly worked with Blavat for 14 years as program director at WTKU and then as president and general manager of Longport Media. Over the last few years, I got the opportunity to know Jerry a bit more on a personal level, and he was just the sweetest guy, Kelly said. He understood his importance in so many peoples lives in this area, and at the same time, he was very humble about it and was very thankful for the opportunity to be on our air as if he was some sort of unproven newbie. Blavat had such an incredibly loyal audience, who not only listened to his radio show but who would come out to each of his gigs any time he was appearing live, Kelly said. We always knew that if we needed to get people to come to any event, if we booked The Geator, wed have a great crowd. Describing what Jerry meant to his listeners isnt easy to do because he meant so much to so many. Some people have been listening to him since he first hit the air in 1960, and for those people, he was a companion or a friend, Kelly said. A big part of what made Jerry so successful and so important to so many people was that he made himself so accessible to his fans, Kelly said. He was more than just a voice on the radio or a face on the TV, he was a real person that you could go out and meet and have a great time with, Kelly said. Dave Coskey first met Blavat in 1981 but started to know him on a more personal level when he served in a marketing role for the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers from 1996 to 2005. He was an indelible part of the Shore for many years for so many people in so many ways. There are people who have been following him for decades at Memories, Coskey said. He had a very special relationship with fans over the years that seemed to get stronger as time went by. Coskey, who was the former president and general manager of Longport Media from 2011 to 2018, said Blavat told him that during the 1950s, he would stay on a boat in Stone Harbor with another Philadelphia guy, the late broadcaster Bob Horn, best known as the original host of Bandstand, which later became American Bandstand. Blavat would appear at the old Avalon Theatre on the Avalon Pier while Horn showed up at Starlight Ballroom, where Blavat would become a regular in later years, Coskey said. I doubt there is a venue or a gymnasium in the South Jersey or Philly area where Jerry did not do a dance party at, Coskey said. GALLERY: A look back at Jerry 'The Geator' Blavat UPPER TOWNSHIP Several people turned out for the reorganization of the township Planning Board Thursday, usually a low-key affair on a January school night. One big difference this time: The board agenda included a discussion about the Ocean City Winery, a controversial proposal for a residential neighborhood in the Beesleys Point section of the township. Several neighbors have objected to the plan, saying it will disrupt their community. But the Planning Board will not have any say in the plans, according to attorney Jeffrey Barnes, named board solicitor for 2023 at the same meeting. Im not 100% sure why its actually even on the agenda, but since I see a lot of familiar faces, we can briefly address it, Barnes said. This board has absolutely, unequivocally no jurisdiction over that application whatsoever. Despite that assertion, board member Ted Kingston had questions about the winery, and its status as preserved farmland, citing plans for a building at the site. Upper Township winery drops planned tasting room UPPER TOWNSHIP The latest proposal for Ocean City Winery, a controversial plan for a forme I mean, theyre not preserving it as a farm if theyre using it for something else, Kingston said. Isnt there a conflict there? Barnes said that was an interesting question but was not a planning or zoning issue. The owner of the property, Mike Halpern, and his attorney have maintained that the decision on the winery plans rests with the Cape May County Agricultural Development Board, under New Jerseys right-to-farm legislation. Colin Bell, an attorney representing the winery, said the application was set to be heard by the county board Feb. 27. The vineyard will need the county boards approval of a site-specific agricultural management plan. Fight continues over Upper Township winery plan UPPER TOWNSHIP The state Agricultural Development Committee dismissed an appeal related to Once approvals from that board are in place, Bell said, the next step will be to apply for a license from the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control to produce wine. The county board has already declared the property a commercial farm, and a state board has declined to hear an appeal of that designation. There are already grapes growing on the property, which was a Christmas tree farm for years before Halpern bought it. It was when it was still a Christmas farm that the former owner sold the development rights, applying to have the property listed as preserved farmland. That means it cannot be developed as a house or anything other than an agricultural use. The neighbors opposing the farm have not given up. Several attended the Planning Board meeting Thursday, voicing their continued opposition to the plan, despite Barnes assurance that there was nothing the board could do about the matter. Township officials have said they would like the application to come in front of the Planning Board to have the site plan reviewed. The township has hired its own attorney, Frank Corrado, to represent it in the matter. In comments to the Township Committee about the winery plans early in the process, many neighbors focused on the inclusion of a tasting room on the property. They raised concerns about noise from events and the potential for intoxicated driving. In December, Halpern amended the plan, dropping the tasting room entirely. Two neighbors spoke Thursday about pesticide use, saying the chemicals sprayed on the grapes drifted onto nearby roads and yards. Maria Busz and Rae Jaffe said homes in the neighborhood rely on well water. None of us are anti-farming. We know the use of pesticides is sometimes a necessity, Busz said. But she said most board members would not want to see a cloud of chemicals when they entered their backyard, showing a photo of an anti-fungal agent being applied to the grapes. In previous interviews, Halpern said the neighbors called in multiple complaints to the state Department of Environmental Protection about chemical use. In each case, he said, investigators found he applied the chemicals as allowed and had the required permits to use them. Gary Pavlis, a wine and grape expert who works with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension and has been following the winery issue, described the situation as classic NIMBY, or not in my backyard. This has come up before with other wineries, and with farms in general, he said. Sometimes people arent aware what a farm does. There have been concerns raised with other wineries in the region, he said. A Google search for the phrase Neighbors oppose winery brings up millions of pages, and stories about controversies from California to Massachusetts. Decades ago, New Jersey eased rules on wineries, leading to a boom in the industry in Cape May County and throughout the state. According to the New Jersey Wine Growers Association, there are now 50 licensed wineries in New Jersey, with an economic impact of $4.5 billion. Pavlis held out hope for peace in the neighborhood, even as neighbors put out No Winery signs and Halpern countered with a similar sign saying no whining, placed near a warning that the vineyard is under video surveillance. Im hoping in the end we can work this all out, Pavlis said. At the start of the meeting, the board named Christopher McGuire chairman for 2023. Plea in SC seeks to quash all FIRs registered against documenter in various states over the poster The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday granted interim protection from arrest to filmmaker Leena Manimekalai in multiple FIRs lodged against her for depicting Hindu goddess Kaali smoking a cigarette in a poster of her documentary. A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha said no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner either on the basis of FIRs registered or any FIR which may have been lodged, or may be lodged in connection with the same matter. The top court also issued a notice on the filmmakers plea, who was represented by advocate Kamini Jaiswal. The petitioner sought a direction to quash all the FIRs registered against the filmmaker in various states over the poster of her documentary titled Kaali. The FIRs have been registered in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand on complaints against the poster. The petitioner also sought action against those who issued threats to her on social media. The plea contended that the petitioner did not attempt to offend the religious sentiments of any person. The petitioner submitted multiple FIRs amounts to infringement of her constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to freedom of expression. IANS 189 prisoners who are serving sentences in various prisons in Maharashtra will be released from prison on January 26 after being exempted from the sentence under a special amnesty. Amitabh Gupta, additional DGP, Prison Department, said that they are being released on the basis of good behavior, and this scheme is being implemented by the government to mark the Swatantra Amrutmahotsav To mark the 75th anniversary of India's independence, the central government is celebrating 'Swatantra Amrutmahotsav'. On this occasion, an initiative has been taken to release several prisoners who are serving punishment for different crimes (except for serious crimes) but who have behaved well in prison and have changed themselves. As many as 189 prisoners in Maharashtra will be released under this initiative of the central government. Additional DGP (Prisons) Amitabh Gupta said that the proceedings have been completed and the detainees will be released on January 26. On August 15, 2022, 203 state prisoners were released last year. Due to this initiative, criminals will get a second chance to live better lives. There are about 44 thousand prisoners in various prisons in the state. Meanwhile, convicts convicted of serious crimes are not included in this special amnesty. Number of prisoners to be released Paithan Open Jail: 4 Thane Central Jail: 11 Aurangabad Open Jail: 13 Mumbai Central Jail: 4 Sindhudurg District Jail: 4 Taloja Central Jail: 15 Nagpur Central Jail: 41 Yerwada Central Jail: 22 Yerawada Open Jail: 1 Yerawada Women's Jail: 2 Kolhapur Central Jail: 9 Amravati Central jail: 13 Nashik Central Jail: 35 Washim District Jail: 1 Wardha District Jail: 2 Kolhapur District Jail: 2 Yavatmal District Jail: 1 Chandrapur District Jail: 2 Bhandara District Jail: 3 Akola District Jail: 3 However, party will hold a combined rally with Congress in Tripura going to polls next month The CPI-M on Friday said that it will not take part in the concluding events of Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) in Kashmir. However, as per reports, it will hold a combined rally in Tripura, which goes to the polls next month. The CPI-M has decided to duck the concluding celebrations of the Yatra because when it began in September from Kanyakumari and reached Kerala, it was not given enough importance and thats now being touted as the reason for not taking part in Kashmir. However, the CPI will take part in the event in Kashmir. For the CPI-M, Kerala is their last bastion after being wiped out from West Bengal, where they ruled for over three decades and in Tripura also, they now live on past glory. A media critic said the CPI-M national leadership just cannot ignore the feelings of the Kerala unit, as here the CPI-M and Congress are the traditional rivals. So its quite natural for such things to happen. Just see, next door in Tamil Nadu, the CPI-M and Congress are together in the DMK-led political alliance. Gone are the days when the CPI-M could survive on their own as they had West Bengal and Tripura in their kitty, and now they no longer are the force what they were. Hence in politics, all such alliances happen, said the critic. IANS Its a week of tributes to strong, creative women. There are the recently passed real-life icons Naomi Judd, (whose daughter Wynonna is leading The Judds Final Tour) and Claudia Chapman Bell, whose friends from the old New Haven rock scene are paying tribute at Cafe Nine. There are also the complex female fictional characters in Wife/Worker/Whore. This week marks the first shows of the year at many area theaters and rock clubs are roaring, too, with a release party for One Time Weekends new album at Arch Street. Here are some of the top things to do and see this week in Connecticut arts. A Celebration of the Life of Claudia Chapman Bell Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven Claudia Chapman Bell was a key member of the New Haven rock scene when it was making a lot of noise in the 1970s and 1980s. She wrote a local music column; she played bass in the band The Plan and Bell System; she photographed bands; and she married one of the scenes key movers and shakers, Craig Bell (who had moved East and started a record label after playing in the legendary Ohio band Rocket from the Tombs). Claudia Bell died in September from cancer. A celebration of her life is being held at Cafe Nine (which she mostly knew in its previous incarnation, Blubartz) on Jan. 22 at 2 p.m. Her former bandmates and many others will perform. Admission is free. cafenine.com. Brentano String Quartet Morse Recital Hall, 470 College St, New Haven The Brentano String Quartet, has performed around the world and has been the Quartet in Residence at the Yale School of Music since 2014. Their latest program at Yales Morse Recital Hall includes works by Antonin Dvorak, William Grant Still, Charles Ives, George Walker and Robert Pete Williams as well as classical arrangements of American spirituals. Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. $33 and $38, $13 for students. music-tickets.yale.edu/events. Step Afrika The Shubert, 247 College St., New Haven The African-American dance troupe Step Afrika! specializes in the dance technique known as stepping, bringing together age-old and modern percussive dance styles with stories, songs and audience participation. Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Shubert in New Haven. $39-$79. shubert.com Jimmy Greene Quartet Side Door Jazz Club, Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme St., Old Lyme The great local saxophonist Jimmy Greene performs on Jan. 27 and 28 at 8:30 p.m. at the Side Door, one of the best jazz rooms in the state. His soaring, uplifting sound is captured on such albums as Beautiful World volumes one and two and the recent While Looking Up. $25-$45. thesidedoorjazz.com. The Judds The Final Tour Total Mortgage Arena, 600 Main St., Bridgeport The Judds final tour has Wynonna Judd honoring the life of her mother and longtime singing partner Naomi Judd, who died last year. Also on the tour are Ashley McBryde and Martina McBride. Share the legacy of Naomi Judd on Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Bridgeports Total Mortgage Arena. $29.50-$639.50. totalmortgagearena.com. One Time Weekend Arch Street Tavern, 85 Arch St., Hartford The local groove band One Time Weekend has a new album, Fire It Up!, and is holding a release party for on Jan. 28 at 9 p.m. at Hartfords Arch Street Tavern. Its the bands second album and they describe it as a head-banging, shred-funk experience. archstreettavern.com. Wife/Worker/Whore Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main St., New Britain The opening show of Hole in the Wall Theaters 51st season, Wife/Worker/Whore is a new play written and directed by Kirsten Easton-Hazzaa transposing the lives of a newlywed, a female police office and a high-class call girl to explore the nature of prostitution. It runs Jan. 28 through Feb. 11 at the Hole in the Wall in New Britain. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. plus a matinee on Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. $25, $20 students and seniors, pay what you can on Feb. 3. hitw.org. Reach reporter Christopher Arnott at carnott@courant.com. According to police, the accused and the victim had a financial dispute, which prompted the men to summon him to a hotel in Fatima Nagar on Thursday night and abducted him on the spot Four men were detained on Friday for reportedly kidnapping a 39-year-old man and demanding Rs 8 lakh in ransom from the victim's family, according to Pune City Police. The apprehended suspects have been named as Dattatraya Waringe (39), Mahesh Jadhav (32), Subhash Sonjari (40), and Ravi Ankushi (40), all of whom reside in Talegaon Dabhade. According to police, the kidnappers were apprehended and the victim was freed within 14 hours of the incident. The accused and the victim had a financial dispute, according to police, and the guys summoned him to a hotel in Fatima Nagar on Thursday night. According to authorities, they abducted him on the spot. The guys allegedly phoned the victim's relatives and demanded Rs 8 lakh in exchange for his release. Patil's family members travelled to Talegaon Dabhade with fake cash notes, per police orders. A squad from Wanowrie police station and the crime section set up a trap and apprehended the suspect. Late MLAs husband Shailesh has been vocal about contesting from the assembly seat The city unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will find itself on a sticky wicket while declaring the candidate for the Kasba assembly constituency for the impending bypolls with a family member of the late MLA Mukta Tilak expressing his willingness to contest. Shailesh, Muktas husband, wants to contest the bye election if the party considers his candidature. Our family would be interested to contest the bypolls since there is pending work that needs to be completed in this tenure. However, the partys decision would be accepted whether its in our favour or not. But this is what our family wishes since it would give us an opportunity to carry on pending development work, which is the need of the hour and couldnt be completed due to the long illness of my late wife, Tilak told Mirror. There are many aspirants who want to contest the election from the Kasba Peth segment. It has been reliably learnt that they have approached the party high command in this regard. As the seat fell vacant due to the demise of BJP MLA Tilak, the Election Commission, earlier this week, announced the bypoll. BJP leaders Hemant Rasne, Ganesh Bidkar and Dheeraj Ghate are among the contenders. They said if the Tilak family is given an opportunity, it should start from the civic polls since it would serve as a good platform to start, the assembly would not be as easy to manage. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) city unit president Prashant Jagtap said if the BJP gives ticket to someone from the Tilak family, then the party might consider not fielding a candidate. The MVA leaders would meet and take a call on the further course of action. The meeting is scheduled for next week. All will depend on what the MVA collectively decides, Jagtap said. Inmates belonging to certain categories to walk free from Yerawada jail under special remission policy The forthcoming Republic Day will see a total of 23 jail inmates walk out of the bounds of the Yerawada central jail as part of the special remission policy for maintaining good conduct. It may be mentioned that the Centre has directed all state governments to remit sentences of certain categories of prisoners who have consistently maintained good conduct during their term in prison. In this regard, the Maharashtra government has approved special remission for 189 prisoners across the state. The decision has been taken after taking into consideration the behaviour of prisoners during the sentence period. In this view, the Yerawada central jail has approved the release of a total of 23 prisoners on the occasion of Republic Day. Subsequent to their release, the Pune police will keep a close tab on their activities. A Yerawada central jail official said, We have already informed the 23 prisoners about their release on the occasion of Republic Day under special categories. The jail authority has also apprised family and relatives of the concerned prisoners. He said that women constables will accompany women prisoners to their homes if their family members or relatives fail to turn up. Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) Amol Zende said, We are just monitoring the activities of the prisoners who are set to be released on Republic Day. We are also concerned that the released prisoners do not break the law again or get involved in any criminal activity. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Swati Sathe said, The list of the prisoners has been finalised while keeping the guidelines in mind. The inmates and their family members have been informed. As per the guidelines, the following categories of prisoners are eligible to be released: Women convicts of 50 years of age and above, who have completed 50 percent of their total sentence period (without counting the period of general remission earned) Transgender convicts of 50 years of age and above Male convicted of 60 years of age and above, who have completed 50 percent of their total sentence period Terminally ill convicts Physically challenged/disabled convicts with 70 percent disability and more, who have completed 50 percent of their total sentence period Convicted prisoners who have completed two-thirds (66 per cent) of their total sentence period Poor or indigent prisoners who have completed their sentence but are still in jail due to non-payment of fine imposed on them by waiving off the fine. Persons who committed an offence at a young age, that is between 18-21 years and with no other criminal involvement /case against them, who have completed 50 per cent of their sentence period. Besides, certain categories of prisoners are not permitted special remission. These include convicts on death row or where the death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment. Besides, prisoners convicted for terrorist activities; prisoners convicted for dowry deaths; prisoners convicted for counterfeiting currency notes; prisoners convicted for offences of rape, human trafficking, and crimes under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act; prisoners convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, prisoners convicted under the Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act are not eligible. In addition, prisoners convicted for corruption, offences against the state, and under any other law that the state government/UT administrations consider appropriate to exclude are not eligible. A system coming through Saturday could give the Quad-City region its first snow of an inch or more for January, and only the second 1-inch snowfall for the meteorological winter season that runs from December through February. Meteorologist Jim Hladik of the National Weather Service, Davenport, said a system would move into southwest Iowa sometime after 5 p.m. Saturday and get to the Quad-Cities late Saturday or early Sunday. The system is part of one of those that have been moving out of the Pacific and onto the West Coast, particularly California, he said. This one is coming out of the southern plains at us, Hladik said. As of Friday night the forecast was for 1-2 inches of snow in the Quad-City region. We cant rule out higher amounts in some areas, Hladik said. However, the winds will be on the light side, maybe 5-10 mph, so there wont be any blowing or drifting snow, he added. The high temperatures both Saturday and Sunday are expected to be in the middle 30s. The overnight low Saturday into Sunday is expected to be about 26 degrees, while the low temperature Sunday into Monday is expected to be about 20 degrees. The last time the Quad-City area received more than 1 inch of snow at one time was on Dec. 26 when 1.1 inches fell, according to National Weather Service, Davenport, statistics. On Jan. 5, the area received a snowfall of six-tenths of an inch, and that is all for the month except for four days on which a trace of snow was recorded. Rainfall for January had totaled 1.63 inches on Thursday, which is .58 of an inch above normal. Hladik said the Weather Service was watching for the possibility of another system moving through the Quad-Cities on Tuesday, but its still too far out to determine any kind of track or precipitation amount. Lawmakers from two states that border the Mississippi River, Illinois and Iowa legislators discussed their different approaches to getting the job done. Held at Bally's Quad Cities Casino & Hotel, the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce hosted a legislative forum Friday, Jan. 20. Lawmakers representing the Quad-Cities participated in the hour forum, being asked questions about business and economic growth, attracting and retaining people, and building a community where people want to live and work. In one of his first public speaking events in the Quad-Cities since taking office, U.S. Democratic Representative of Illinois' 17th Congressional District Eric Sorensen said even with differing opinions and perspectives on both sides of the aisle, he hopes to come together with lawmakers to bring results and solutions to their constituents who depend on them to get the job done. "So many people have told me that they feel this disconnect between their local community and Washington D.C.," Sorensen said. Sorensen, a former WQAD meteorologist, hopes to build upon the trust he has gained from people over the past 20 years. When the weather was at its worst, he said, people trusted and relied on him to provide answers and help. Sorensen, along with U.S. Republican Representative of Iowa's 1st Congressional District Marianette Miller-Meeks, both hope to address the ever-changing needs of energy and climate. Miller-Meeks said addressing climate needs should be done in a thoughtful manner that wasn't detrimental to agriculture and needed flexibility among states to figure out the different climate needs and ways to address them. "All of us want a cleaner and healthier planet for our children and grandchildren," Miller-Meeks said. Tying his answer to stimulating economic growth, Sorensen wants to invest more in electric vehicles, saying they are healthier for the planet and that creates more jobs and can attract businesses to the region when the government is investing in the energy and climate sector. Iowa State Republican Sen. Scott Webster, a former Bettendorf alderman, said his strategy to help with economic growth was listening and befriending senior lawmakers to help promote and bring those ideas to committees to help get them across the finish line. A freshman state lawmaker, Webster emphasized the importance of needing to befriend the longtime lawmakers, sharing the story of when he first joined Bettendorf City Council and thought on Day One he was going to do "everything the way I wanted to do it.' By Day Two, Webster said, Bettendorf City Administrator Decker Ploehn shared that he can't do everything on his own and needed to find three friends to get things done. "As a freshman person, you have to build relationships with people to the point where they trust you and they understand that you're not just standing up for every little issue all the time," Webster said. Another freshman lawmaker in the Iowa Statehouse, Rep. Mike Vondran said his priority is helping further economic and workforce development. Vondran said he planned on doing "a lot of listening" from colleagues and constituents to understand what challenges they were facing and how lawmakers could help address those issues. "We need to open ourselves up to some new ideas and some new thoughts and new tools," Vondran said. Illinois State Sen. Mike Halpin, D-Moline, said he planned to continue what he accomplished while serving in the Illinois House of Representatives. Halpin said his priorities were making sure to provide a stable environment and the tools needed to invest back into infrastructure, education and higher education. Other Illinois lawmakers who highlighted wanting to invest in higher education included Illinois House Republican Dan Swanson, who now represents portions of Rock Island County that includes Moline, East Moline, Coal Valley, Colona and Silvis, and Illinois House Democrat Gregg Johnson. Other lawmakers participating in the forum were Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie and Republican Reps. Norine Hammond and Travis Weaver. Iowa lawmakers included Republican Sen. Chris Cournoyer, Republican Reps. Gary Mohr and Norlin Mommsen, and Democrat Rep. Monica Kurth. Iowa GOP Rep. Luana Stoltenberg was not able to attend. The chamber plans to hold another forum with the mayors from the Quad-Cities on Friday, Feb. 10. DES MOINES Cybersecurity is the focus of a slate of bills in the Iowa Legislature as lawmakers hope to provide resources to schools, local governments and other entities to respond to cyberattacks. A new technology committee in the Senate was formed this year, and the Houses technology committee is considering bills criminalizing ransomware, creating a cybersecurity unit in state government, and seeking to develop cybersecurity professionals in the state, among other things. Cyberattacks attempts to access, damage or destroy a computer system have been on the rise in the past year. Attacks increased by 28% globally in the third quarter of 2022, according to CheckPoint, a cybersecurity company. Schools, health care settings, banking and utilites are common targets of cyberattacks, according to CheckPoint. Chris Cournoyer, a Republican from LeClaire who chairs the new Senate Technology Committee, said she wants to look at finding measures that will arm schools and local governments with the tools to defend against attacks. Its really important that we pay attention to it at the state level, she said. And make sure that were providing the [Iowa chief information officer] the resources that he needs to go out and support those local governments. When it comes to the private sector, Cournoyer said she wants to address technology concerns without hamstringing businesses ability to function. I want to be able to responsibly use technology to protect the rights of our citizens, the privacy of our citizens, without tying the hands of our business and technology sector, she said. Because we want to continue to attract businesses and tech in the state. J.D. Scholten, a Democrat from Sioux City that sits on the House Economic Growth and Technology Committee, said he hopes the committee passes legislation that is flexible and can react to the rapid pace of technology challenges government is facing. Some of the bills are 10 years too late, he said. What I don't want is to have this as a bill that we see in several other areas, where were trying to adjust things from 1992 legislation, he said. Technology is going to be ever-evolving, and we need to make sure that we keep up with the times. Challenges In a presentation to the Senate Technology Committee last week, two security experts said while Iowa is in a relatively strong position on cybersecurity, challenges exist with collaboration between the public and private sectors. Both private industry and the public sector struggle with finding people with the expertise to respond to their needs, Doug Jacobson, the director of Iowa State University's cybersecurity center, told the committee. Communication between the two areas also could be improved, and private businesses arent always granted access to the same information as governments, he said. Smaller organizations can also have a difficult time getting funding or accessing resources during a cyberattack, said Aaron Warner, who runs Iowa City-based cybersecurity firm ProCircular. Those FBI case agents carry 30 cases probably a million dollars is an average amount of ransomware that theyre dealing with, so that small accounting firm in Clarinda is going to have great difficulty getting access to those cybersecurity resources, he said. Ransomware One bill passed out of a subcommittee last week would make it a crime to launch a ransomware attack, punishable by up to a Class C felony. Ransomware a type of software that disables a computer system until a sum of money is paid is not currently a crime in Iowa, and advocates said its an important first step in adding protections for businesses and government organizations. Major school districts were disrupted in ransomware attacks last year. The Cedar Rapids school district paid a ransom after suffering a cyberattack last summer, though it did not disclose the amount paid. A hacker group claimed to have stolen troves of data from the Davenport district, and a spokesperson said the hackers demanded a ransom but it was not paid. Sheila King, the chief information officer for central Iowa's Heartland Area Education Agency, said schools are among the top target for ransomware attacks. "Having penalties for violators seems like a reasonable thing," she said. "We see this as a top issue for the education community." Mollie Ross, the vice president of operations for the Technology Association of Iowa, said the bill is a good start for protecting Iowa businesses, as well. Ransomware is a crime on the federal level, but attacks often come from international sources, and prosecution is difficult. Still, Ross said, the law could act as a hindrance from someone building ransomware or launching an attack in Iowa. Anything we can do to help prevent those attacks from happening in the first place is a good start, she said. Right now ransomware is technically legal in Iowa, which is pretty outrageous, I think everyone would agree. Some other states have made it illegal for government organizations to pay a ransom after suffering a ransomware attack, but Warner urged lawmakers not to limit options for responding to attacks. Its not a time to be taking options off the table, particularly if youre a school district that has students that start tomorrow, and in order to make that happen you have to pay a ransom, he said. Cybersecurity unit Another bill that cleared a subcommittee would create a cybersecurity unit within the state Office of the Chief Information Officer which would collect data and report on cybersecurity breaches in the state. That bill received some pushback from lobbyists for local governments and utilities during a subcommittee meeting last week over concerns that it would limit their ability to react to a cyberattack and would require the reporting of confidential data. The terms of the bill give broad reporting requirements to government entities that experience a cyberattack, requiring them to report the date of the incident, the date it was discovered, what data was accessed or obtained, a list of agencies that will be notified, and additional information to the extent available. Doug Struyk, a lobbyist for the city of Des Moines, said he was concerned other provisions of the bill would give the OCIO too broad authority over how local entities can respond to a cyberattack. When you read this in its entirety, it appears to be giving the cybersecurity unit the ability to manage and coordinate a response of a political subdivision to a cybersecurity event, he said. The Area Education Agencies of Iowa are registered in favor of the bill. King said it would create a support system for public entities in responding to attacks. Any time in our public system that we can add expertise or structure to supporting cybersecurity, it seems that that is a reasonable approach and could be a good thing, she said. County, city essential purpose Another bill, which is receiving a subcommittee next week, would require cities and counties to protect against cyberattacks as part of their legally defined essential purposes. The bill would allow counties broader freedom to spend public funds on cybersecurity without requiring a public vote to take on debt, said Lucas Beenken, public policy specialist for the Iowa State Association of Counties. We think thats very important because of the timeliness of making those investments if theyre necessary, he said. Not having to wait for approval next election, special election, whatever the case may be. Sometimes these things need to happen quickly. Establishing a cybersecurity simulation training center A cybersecurity simulation training center would be established at Iowa State University under another bill being considered in the House. Dubbed CySim for short, the center is proposed to be a cybersports complex that would train students using simulations, challenges and scrimmages to respond to cyberattacks, according to the ISU website. It would also be a resource for businesses, state agencies and other government bodies, according to the bill. Warner said he was excited about the program because it would train cybersecurity experts that could fill the need seen across the state. Every single person in this program is a potential employee/resident in the state of Iowa, Warner said. Theyre all very highly compensated because theyre in huge demand. Theyre exactly the kind of people that we want to recruit here in the state of Iowa. It has been 75 years since the first blast began to reveal the likeness of Lakota leader Crazy Horse in the granite on Thunderhead Mountain in southwestern South Dakota. Over the years, as the sculpture began to take shape, so did the mission of the Crazy Horse Memorial. We are excited to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Crazy Horse Memorial, said Crazy Horse Memorial CEO Whitney Rencountre. We would like to honor the work of all those who have contributed to Crazy Horse Memorial: past, present, and into the future. Today the mission of Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation is to protect and preserve the culture, tradition, and living heritage of the North American Indians. The foundation demonstrates its commitment to this endeavor by following these objectives: Continuing the progress on the worlds largest sculptural undertaking; Providing educational and cultural programming to encourage harmony and reconciliation among all people; Acting as a repository for Native American artifacts, arts, and crafts through The Indian Museum of North America and The Native American Educational and Cultural Center. Establishing and operating The Indian University of North America. Our events throughout the year will be mission-focused and will build on the dream of Crazy Horse Memorial through the work of the Mountain, The Indian Museum of North America, and The Indian University of North America, Rencountre said. As part of the 75th Anniversary Celebration, on June 3, the 37th Annual Volksmarch will be held and admission will be waived for hikers bringing at least three cans of food. On June 4 the Memorial will hold a public event to honor the 75th anniversary of the Memorial. Crazy Horse Memorial has progressed through many changes since the June 3, 1948 dedication of the one-of-a-kind educational and humanitarian project. What began as a dream turned into a friendship sealed with promise and continues to unfold as a story unlike any other. Transitioning from the time of Chief Henry Standing Bear communicating the importance of the project to sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski's unwavering commitment to fulfilling a promise, to matriarch Ruth Ziolkowski's determination to advance the foundation's mission, the story has now entered its fourth era. Today, Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation is governed by a diverse board of directors, which includes Native and non-Native members. The Foundation is led by Rencountre, Crow Creek Hunkpati Dakota, and supported by talented staff. In a statement, the board of directors and the leadership of Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation said they are committed to carry on the dream. They said the passion for progress in all aspects of the foundation's mission "to protect and preserve the culture, tradition, and living heritage of the North American Indians" is strong as is the desire to keep the promise Korczak made to Standing Bear. It is an honor to recognize 75 years of heart poured into this story being carved in stone. Dad said the Mountain Carving is the smallest part of our Mission, which seems like a statement of irony, yet it is one of absolute truth, said Monique Ziolkowski, artistic and historical advisor to the Crazy Horse Memorial. The most substantial piece of this project is countless individuals that contribute in various ways to Crazy Horse Memorial and in turn the many lives impacted by Crazy Horse Memorial. We are forever grateful to all of you who have shared of yourselves, in any way, to our story. We are blessed to be on this journey with you. To learn more about Crazy Horse Memorial, to plan a visit, and for information about making a contribution, call 605-673-4681 or visit crazyhorsememorial.org. To stay up to date on the latest news and events, follow Crazy Horse Memorial on Facebook (/crazyhorsememorial), Twitter (@crazyhorsemem) and Instagram (@crazyhorsememorial); and follow The Indian Museum of North America on Facebook (/imnacrazyhorse) and Instagram (@imnacrazyhorse). One of the owners of the Grand Gateway Hotel, who allegedly sprayed a chemical at protesters, wants her triple assault case moved to another venue, claiming she is unable to get a fair trial in Pennington County because of media coverage. An attorney representing Connie Uhre, 75, requested Friday that a Pennington County judge move her triple simple assault case to Fall River County, arguing that media coverage and social media posts have tainted the jury pool. The Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City and Uhre received national media attention following racist comments in March 2022, multiple protests against the business and two federal discrimination lawsuits. "This is pretrial publicity times ten," Shawn Tornow told Magistrate Judge Scott Bogue Friday afternoon. "It would be unreasonable to not change the venue." Tornow submitted a six-page brief on Dec. 14 asking the court for a change of venue accompanied with a 42-page affidavit in an effort to prove that the social media involvement and media interest in the case has made it impossible for Uhre to have a fair trial in Pennington County. The affidavit included clippings from the Rapid City Journal and other local media, as well as social media content including a Facebook message apparently to Uhre that states, in part, "I hope every single business you guys own burns to the ground." Tornow appeared on behalf of Uhre, who is facing three misdemeanor counts of simple assault after she was arrested on May 27. She faces up to one year in a county jail and a $2,000 fine for each count if convicted. She has appeared in court herself thus far. In multiple videos from demonstrators at the NDN Collective picket line boycott event, Uhre could be seen getting out of her vehicle in the Grand Gateway Hotel parking lot and spraying at least three demonstrators with Pledge, a cleaning spray. At least one demonstrator was sprayed directly in the face. In one of the videos, Uhre tells the Native American demonstrators that the spray substance is "bug spray." NDN Collective held the protest and boycott in response to comments Uhre made following a shooting on March 19, 2022 at the hotel involving two young Native American men that ultimately resulted in a murder case after the injured man died. After the shooting, Uhre posted comments on Facebook saying she would not allow a Native American to enter our business including Cheers (a bar on the property) because she cant tell who is a bad Native or a good Native. The comments have since been deleted. The situation garnered local and national attention and ultimately led to the U.S. Department of Justice filing a federal discrimination lawsuit against the parent company of the Grand Gateway Hotel, the Retsel Corporation. It alleges that Uhre and her son, Nicholas Uhre, discriminated against Native American customers in violation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The lawsuit alleges that on at least two occasions on March 21 and 22, the defendants turned away Native Americans who sought to book a room in the Grand Gateway. NDN Collective President/CEO Nick Tilsen announced March 23, 2022 that the organization filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit against the Retsel Corporation for denying services to Native Americans. At the time, Tilsen said NDN Collective sent Sunny Red Bear, then racial equity campaign director for the collective, to the hotel to book a room and she was denied. They then sent director of operations Alberta Eagle to book rooms on behalf of the organization. He said Eagle was denied and removed from the lobby. Red Bear, now action organizer at NDN Collective, is one of the alleged victims in the simple assault case against Uhre. She was present in the courtroom on Friday. She told the Journal that she and the other victims were not notified of the defense's motion for a change of venue or of the hearing. "We don't have a copy of the motion or anything. Just not being informed of what is happening. These are our rights and our rights are still being violated," she said. Red Bear also told the Journal that she feels Uhre should have to face the community and that her lawyer didn't have a solid case for moving the case. "Social media is a powerful tool, but you can't tell on social media who's for it and who's against. So there's gonna be people that are supporting her as well," Red Bear said. "He just didn't have anything solid. It was a lot of assumptions being made." Tornow added during his argument for the case to be moved to Fall River County that the community takes cues from leadership, citing Mayor Steve Allender's public comments following the incident. Allender was outspoken in his opposition to Uhre's comments about Native Americans. Such statements pitted people and communities against each other, tying race into virtually every community issue and every attempt to address and resolve such issues, Allender said at the time. Connie Uhres statements are wrong and harmful not only to Native Americans but also to Rapid City businesses and the community at large. Such comments erase the progress that has been made over the last 60 years or so. Allender, local businesses, law enforcement and county and tribal officials issued a joint statement condemning Uhre's comments at a meeting within days of the posts. "Much work has been done to build a level of trust, to forge relationships and partnerships, and to address major issues involving Rapid City and our Native American community. However, such racist and hateful statements as expressed by a few individuals only reinforces long-standing feelings of distrust and threatens the relationship of the Rapid City community with its Native American residents and visitors," a portion of the statement read. The state argued Friday that any issues with prejudice could be worked out during jury selection and coverage spanned the state meaning a change of venue to Fall River County would not affect the outcome. Bogue did not make a decision on Friday, stating he would take the motion under advisement. Its an interesting issue, the whole question of social media, he said. Jacob Weasel was in a fight with a mountain. Hurricane-force winds bombarded him with snow and brought the wind chill down to 50 below. Standing at over 19,000 feet, staring up at the Autobahn the 1,000 feet of notoriously icy slope between high camp and the summit of Denali he was about to lose. Despite pleading with his guides to let them continue, and after 18 days of sleeping on the ice, it was the closest he'd get to the top of North America's tallest peak. But Denali, coming in at 20,310 feet, wasn't Weasel's first nor his highest adventure at altitude. The spry and fit young Monument Health trauma surgeon and member of South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe had successfully climbed Mt. Rainier (14,411 ft.), Cloud Peak (13,171 ft.), Grand Teton (13,775 ft.) and a handful of 14-ers in Colorado. He summited Cotopaxi (19,347 ft.) and Chimborazo (20,549 ft.) in Ecuador within 48 hours of each other, and bagged Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft.) in Tanzania checking off that continent's tallest peak. So, it wasn't for a lack of capability, training or experience Weasel's group was turned around on Denali, and it wasn't a lack of grit either. In fact, Denali was not only the first time he's ever been turned around on a mountain, it's one of the only times Weasel's ever been turned around by any challenge period. But the crushing defeat set in motion another dream that only time or success can stop. "I came away from that experience, being let down to that degree and knowing that I was fully capable of summiting that mountain," he said. "I came away from that experience knowing in my heart that I was going to be the first Native American to summit the 'Seven Summits' the highest peak on each continent." The seven summits are a bucket list goal for many adventurers. American businessman Richard Bass was the first person to complete the seven in 1985. However, Bass climbed Australia's Mt. Kosciuszko (7,310 ft.) as the highest point in the Australasian continent, a point disagreed on by Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner in 1986. Messner argued that the Carstenz Pyramid (now known as Puncak Jaya) was higher than Kosciuszko and should be the agreed-upon summit for that continent. The disagreement resulted in the "Messner List" and the "Bass List," with the one peak difference. Most mountaineers agree with Messner's List, although some summit Kosciuszko as well just to be safe. Messner's generally accepted "Seven Summits" are: Kilimanjaro; Mount Everest (29,032 ft.) in Nepal; Aconcagua (22,838 ft.) in Argentina; Denali; Mt. Elbrus (18,510 ft.) in Russia; Vinson Massif (16,050 ft.) in Antarctica; and Puncak Jaya (16,024 ft.) in Indonesia. Scalpels and ice picks Laden with a 60-lb. pack and dressed for summer amidst freezing temperatures, Weasel treks up and down the hills in his neighborhood to prepare himself for the grueling, frigid, weeks-long ascent he's soon to face. He's already made his mark on the world by being, as far as anyone knows, the first Lakota Sioux surgeon in history. But this spring, the 36-year-old Rapid City doctor will make an attempt to be the first Native American to summit Mt. Everest the highest peak on earth, situated in the Himalayas on the border between China and Nepal. The plan is to leave after Easter and be back by early June, climb and weather conditions permitting. Weasel trains 15-20 hours a week with a mix of cardio and weightlifting focused on the muscles used in mountaineering legs, back and core. Using his knowledge of medicine, he trains in cold exposure as well, going from his sauna outside to the freezing temperatures in order to activate the body's natural adaptation ability. But as a child, mountain climbing was never on his radar. A professor-turned-friend regaled him with his own experience of climbing Mt. Rainier in Washington state. The spark was lit and has since grown to an inferno. For many, mountaineering is a sport of glory, a desire to push the reaches of the human body and mind for bragging rights. But Weasel wants to set an example for others, especially Native youth. He also wants to generate support for the charity he founded. "[I] really want [the expedition] to serve as an inspiration for the native kids, that whatever their dreams are for their life, they're equally capable as anybody else to dream big dreams and see them come to reality. That's really what my heart is through this whole thing," he said. "If it weren't for the fact that no native person has ever summitted, I probably wouldn't be doing this. But I feel like there needs to be somebody first to do it, so why not me?" It's the wider implications and goals of his climb that keep the support of his wife. Mountaineering is a dangerous sport, but it also requires time spent away from home a sacrifice for both of them. For her, it's equal parts excitement and fear, he said. He believes if it were just about him wanting glory, she wouldn't support it. Life of medicine While sitting in the pews at church dressed in his Sunday best and listening to the sound of his father's voice fill the hall, Jacob Weasel's lifelong journey into medicine began. As his father's sermon drifted into the hearts of his congregants and past his 16-year-old ears, Weasel began to pray. He had a vision. He was in a room shrouded in a white coat, Weasel said, he appeared to be talking to a patient, telling them he couldn't do any more for them, but said he believed there was someone who could. He prayed for them. They were healed. He immediately told his father he'd been called into medicine. Weasel was born at the Indian Health Service Hospital in Gallup, New Mexico, a town of around 20,000, marked by a stunningly alien red rock landscape. He's the middle child of three, with an older brother, John, and younger sister, Jordan. His father, Dobie, is Assiniboine from the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana, while his mother, Jamie, is Lakota Sioux from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, where Jacob is an enrolled member. He grew up in a middle class, predominantly Hispanic community in Albuquerque, New Mexico. When he was 12, the family moved to Omaha, Nebraska. At 16, Weasel was selected for a summer research program at Creighton University. It was a summer break that would repel most teenagers: hours spent in the library doing research and learning lab techniques first-hand, but it was the first door opened after his calling into medicine. The studying landed him a national award and the opportunity to present his findings at a conference in Aventura, Florida. His dedication and success that summer netted him a full-ride scholarship to Creighton for his undergraduate studies. He studied theology and philosophy with a minor in health administration and policy before landing a spot at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's College of Medicine. It's an interesting dichotomy theology and medicine two fields which can seem so diametrically opposed, and yet, Weasel said, are so connected. At the heart of the matter is the search for truth. He's had the opportunity to study medicine and the miracle that is the human body, calling our fragility and importance an intriguing paradox. "I think that they're equally aimed at ascertaining what is true in the universe, and then come at it from different angles," he said. "There are certain questions that science has a very hard time answering, and there are other questions that religion doesn't really try and address because they're in separate fields. What I have found is that in that pursuit of truth is where that reconciliation is found." Things weren't always smooth. In the first few weeks of medical school, when the stress of getting in melted away and the enormity of the workload began to settle in, he said his classmates began complaining. Some wanted to quit. He reminded them how they'd fought to get that far and how many others were behind them fighting for the same thing. Weasel didn't want to give himself an easy out, he said, and not wanting to be turned around, he dug in. Family of faith Jacob met his wife, Lauren, while she was in college at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. Lauren began attending his father's church, and despite being a few years older, they fell in love, he explained with a boyish grin and a star-struck flash in his dark eyes. Married for well over a decade now, the couple has three children: sons Leighton and Judah, 15 and 13, and daughter Isabelle, who just turned 12. They built a stunning home on the south side of Rapid City and spend their free time hiking and fishing, watching movies, and enjoying family life with their goldendoodle, Kona. They're regulars at Fountain Springs Church and have worked to integrate themselves into the local community on all fronts. He gets the most satisfaction in his life by being a husband and father, something he said is also his biggest challenge. The commitment and dedication to each other and their family has allowed them to invest in a healthy marriage, putting in the effort to lead a life and relationship of intention. "Nobody's going to care about what mountains I climb one of these days," he said. "The things that matter are the legacy and the example and the lessons and values that I hand onto my children, and the life that I build with this woman that I vowed to dedicate my life to." The Weasels brought their children to the Black Hills for a visit during his third year of surgical residency in Des Moines. The decision changed their future. Standing amongst the pines and looking out over the landscape, the area's sacred power drew them in. "[We] fell in love with the Black Hills, and coming here... it kind of felt like I was returning home to a place I'd never lived," Weasel said. But it was the place he was supposed to have grown up; his parents had planned to move to Gallup only briefly to have his older brother at the IHS hospital there, but liked the warmer weather and proximity to family. They had set up housing at Lakota Homes in North Rapid, but never moved in. Building bridges Weasel's mother would tell him stories of how she was treated as a young native woman in South Dakota. How she was followed around the mall. It's important to recognize the trauma in this community a recognition needed before healing can begin, he said. But also not to hold on to the past at the expense of the future. Part of his goal in coming to Rapid City aside from serving the Native community is to be a bridge of healing between cultures. He serves as faculty for three different medical schools, including as the Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion with the University of South Dakota College of Medicine. The unique position he's in a Native American and a surgeon affords him a perspective not many others have. "Anytime I take a patient to the operating room, it is plain as day to me when I make an incision that the things that seem to separate us are only millimeters deep," he said. His Native upbringing and the near-miss of growing up in Rapid City all culminated in the founding of the Wopila Project, Weasel's nonprofit centered on spreading gratitude and encouraging generosity. Right now, it is working to build a playground at Lakota Homes for the children that live there. "There's so many kids that live in that development, but they don't have a permanent playground structure. I've talked with some of the families and they have to take their kids maybe a mile away to go and play, and that's difficult, especially in the winter," Weasel said. "[I'm] just wanting to show those kids that they're seen and that people care about them." The playground would also have seven pillars, one with each of the traditional Lakota values. The name "wopila" comes from the Lakota, meaning "out of all you've been given and all that is, you in turn give back to others." It's a philosophy integral to his very existence. Weasel's Everest expedition is aiming to raise $100,000 for the playground, plus an additional $75,000 to fund three women's health centers in rural Nepal, a country where a staggering 90% of women lack proper OB/GYN care. None of the funds he raises goes toward funding his climb or travels. But he is open to gear sponsorships for the trip, and is always open to any help offered. A life of significance Lying on the operating table, a young car crash victim with catastrophic bleeding in her abdomen was about to die. But Weasel and his team held the end off a day at a time. He repaired the near-fatal damage and allowed her to leave two days later. He'd given her more time. In 2018, Weasel signed on to be an emergency and trauma surgeon with Monument Health in Rapid City. He does everything from consults to emergency surgeries like appendectomies and gallbladder removal, but he also sees the violent side with shootings, stabbings and suicides. The best part of the job, he said, is connecting with people and having the privilege to walk with them through some of the most painful moments in their lives. Weasel was driven from a young age by two ideas: time and what it means to lead a life of significance. "I found that significance was only found in service to others," he said. "I wanted to do something that would be able to serve people and also afford them more time more time with those that they love doing the things that they love and experiencing all that this world has to offer." Seeing the realities of time come crashing down on his patients motivates him to keep living life with the time in front of him. "I've had too many encounters where I meet the greatest people that have worked their entire lives with the aim being the RV trip around the country or putting that sailboat in the water or taking that trip whatever it is and then getting to a point in their life where they get diagnosed with an illness that prohibits them from ever realizing those dreams," he said. "Working forever towards a goal that will never be realized... seeing that dream die... [I] just didn't want to be another one of those individuals." The idea of "running from zero," a concept he learned from his pastor at church, is something everyone can apply to their own lives. He implores people not to let fear stand in the way of big dreams, but to run towards something no matter how small. Attitude for adventure Jacob Weasel has no shortage of big goals. Besides his Everest attempt this spring, he's planning a summit of Aconcagua in Argentina next January, and then wants to work on a visa to climb Mt. Elbrus in the Caucasus region of Russia. He has his sights set on an explorer's grand slam reaching both the north and south poles and wants to learn to sail to be the first native person to circumnavigate the globe. "When you experience something that elicits equal parts of wonder as much as it elicits fear something that is as terrifying as it is awe-inspiring that begins to border on an experience of the divine," he said. "I find that God reveals Himself in different ways, and one of the ways is through His creation, both in the natural world as well as in different cultures on this planet." He wants to do it all bike ride across the United States, hike the Pacific Crest Trail, and ride a motorcycle from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina raising money for charity the whole way. It's getting closer to God through His creation and showing his children how to dream big dreams and live without fear. "I think that humans have this amazing ability if we learn to believe in ourselves," Weasel said. "I feel like you'll learn more in a week struggling on a mountain than you would in a year otherwise being within the comfort and safety of your home." The obvious danger, all too apparent for a trauma surgeon, is about risk mitigation, he said. He's likely one of the few trauma surgeons who rides a motorcycle, and one day plans to take up wingsuiting (skydiving using a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit). Denali's summit still stands on the horizon for Weasel, and though it's no longer just a 1,000 feet away, he will return. But he's saving it for the last of the seven summits. For more on the Wopila Project or to donate, visit wopilaproject.com. The Montana Historical Society is loaning 20 Charles M. Russell paintings to the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls as the Helena museum is undergoing extensive renovations, officials said Friday. They said this loan is part of an ongoing collaboration between the two entities. It just makes sense to loan these paintings to the C.M. Russell Museum so they can be enjoyed by the public while were undergoing upgrades to our current facility, MTHS Director Molly Kruckenberg said in a news release. She noted the 66,000-square-foot addition to the Montana Heritage Center will allow the Helena museum to almost triple the size of its current Russell gallery when it reopens in 2025. The loan includes some of Russells most iconic paintings, including Laugh Kills Lonesome, a 1925 oil on canvas; York, a 1908 watercolor; and Caught in the Act, an 1888 oil on canvas. The new exhibit at the Russell Museum will open March 17. They will join some of the 1,000 Russell creations owned by the C.M. Russell Museum, a nonprofit which holds one of the worlds largest Russell collections. Charlie would have deeply appreciated this collaboration between friends, the C.M. Russell Museum and the Montana Historical Society, C.M. Russell Museum Executive Director Tom Figarelle said in the release. He said this art, exhibited with those already in the Russells loaned and permanent collection, will be the largest-single venue of Russell Masterworks anywhere. We are proud of this, but we are particularly thrilled to advance our relationship with MTHS during their transformative project, Figarelle said. Russell, who died in 1926 and spent his adulthood in Montana with a home in Great Falls, captured the spirit of the American West through his work that includes oil paintings, watercolors, sculptures, and writing. Known internationally as the original cowboy artist, his work celebrates Indigenous culture, grand landscapes and wildlife scenes. The C.M. Russell Museum, 400 13th St. N. in Great Falls, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday through April 30 and then switches to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday through Sept. 30. The governors office announced Friday that Amazon Web Services is planning an investment of $35 billion by 2040 to build multiple data centers in Virginia. That announcement said numerous localities are under consideration for data center campuses. Those locations will be chosen at a later date. New campuses will combine expandable capacity to position AWS for long-term growth in the commonwealth. AWS is an Amazon subsidiary that manages the companys cloud platform services. Amazon is among the largest private-sector employers in the state. The first AWS data centers and operations facilities in Virginia were established in 2006. Amazon later announced its second headquarters, HQ2, in Arlington in 2018, pledging 25,000 direct jobs at the site. The planned data centers are projected to bring more than 1,000 jobs to the state. AWS has a significant presence in Virginia, and we are excited that AWS has chosen to continue their growth and expand their footprint across the Commonwealth, said Gov. Glenn Youngkin in the announcement. Virginia will continue to encourage the development of this new generation of data center campuses across multiple regions of the Commonwealth. Youngkin said those areas offer robust utility infrastructure, lower costs, great livability and highly educated workforces, adding that they will benefit from the increased tax base and services provided to their communities. Pending approval from the General Assembly, AWS will be eligible for a Mega Data Center Incentive Program. It includes up to a 15-year extension of Data Center Sales and will use tax exemptions on qualifying equipment and enabling software. AWS will also be eligible for a major employment and investment custom performance grant, pending approval from the assembly. The grant is worth up to $140 million for site and infrastructure improvements, workforce development and other project-related costs. Roger Wehner, director of economic development for AWS, said the company has already invested more than $35 billion in Virginia since 2006. Virginia is a world leader in innovation and cloud computing, thanks to its investment in a robust, highly-skilled workforce and emphasis on long-term public and private partnerships, Wehner said. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the assemblys Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission to secure the AWS data centers. Top five weekend events: Lunar New Year, Jim Gaffigan & Poe Birthday Bash Lunar New Year at Children's Museum of Richmond Jim Gaffigan Poe Birthday Bash Israeli and Jewish Film Festival Moon Market at Stone Brewing Its still hard for Nigel Crooks to believe thats really him on the police body cam footage. Im wild, yelling Shoot me, Shoot me, he says. Im throwing, yelling crazy things. Hed been off his medications for weeks, a mix-up by a health care agency. He was hearing things nobody else was, seeing things nobody else saw. He received a charge of assault and battery on a health care worker. Its what, until a few years ago would have meant a fast trip to jail and if convicted, up to 12 months behind bars. A few days later, bonded out of jail but, Crooks said, still delusional, he stole a bike by threatening its owner: robbery by the threat of physical violence, a felony that can mean up to 10 years in prison. But Crooks is now among the scores of Virginians with mental illness who are working with a different way of being judged through a special kind of court docket. Its called a behavioral health docket, and Richmond is one of 18 localities around the state where it can be a promise to people with mental illness who get into trouble with the law and to their neighbors that there is a kind of judgment that can make things better for the future. It took Crooks months to get there, months of being back on his medications and stable but during which, when he went to court, all he says he heard was what a terrible person he was. Im feeling more stable, trying to stay stable while hearing these people say I need to go to prison, Im a bad person, he said. It was tough to hold things together: The depression that is part of his bipolar disorder darkened his life. Medication itself isnt enough, you know, he said. But the behavioral health docket comes with more than a judgment and a deferral of any sentence. Crooks and other participants in the program follow tailored plans, usually involving required therapy sessions, monitored compliance with medication, and work or mental health day programs. And with that, comes something more. I have hope now, Crooks says. A new approach Crooks is assigned to the behavioral health docket of Richmond Circuit Court one of only two in a circuit court, which deals with felonies, the crimes that land you in state prison for anywhere from a year to a lifetime. Richmond also has dockets in general district court and juvenile court. Its the only such juvenile court docket in Virginia. The first dockets started in 2018, with local funding: $25,000 launched Newport News docket; Richmond kicked off its effort with a $400,000 appropriation, budget documents show. Over the years, the introduction of more evidence-based programming and a broader range of services has had an impact. In 2020, the first year the state court systems administrative agency began tracking the dockets, only a relatively modest number of those referred ended up being accepted: 98 out of 227; last year, more than half were, or 185 out of 334. A total of 105 individuals successfully completed all requirements the docket team demanded, well up from the 44 who did so in 2020. They spent longer in the program, too 372 days on average, compared with 312. The percentage who were removed from the docket, basically for not sticking with their program whether because of a relapse, a new offense or simply not participating in therapy or consistently taking medication, declined from 26% to 21.5%. Theres a lot more than court involved, says Judge Jacqueline McClenney, who handles the docket in Richmonds circuit court. Its a treatment program and a change for McClenney, who very much considers herself a member of the team thats helping Crooks find a path back to recovery. In the past, people with mental illness who committed crimes would wait for trial in jail or out on bond, with no certain way of getting any treatment while they did. In court, they might be found not guilty by reason of insanity, which usually meant a trip to a state mental hospital and a chance for treatment. Conviction and jail time didnt necessarily offer that. A not guilty finding meant it was up to the individual often not able or willing to recognize his or her illness to find care in a badly underfunded public system. The behavioral health program generally takes more time than most sentences people with mental illness face generally across the state, although not in McClenneys court, misdemeanors can mean up to a year in jail but that more typically mean no more than a month or two behind bars. Its not an easy program, McClenney says. Its not a free pass. Thats not all of who I am But it does mean judgment. One of the harder things to deal with when you see things or hear voices that others dont, or the blackness is so deep that youd think youd be better off dead, is the judgment of others. When people look at you, and pass judgment, then that becomes your judgment of you, Crooks says. That can trap you in illness and in isolation that can seem inescapable. But the judgment thats a central part of the behavioral health docket can be a way out of that trap, he says. I did those things; I have remorse for them, he says. But judgment now means I can say thats not all of who I am. In a way, the courts judgment is like an essential step when recovering from an addiction, said Jul Branch, another participant in McClenneys docket. I cant forget what I did, she says shes charged with robbery by threat for taking two airplane models from an ABC store when she was so intoxicated she cant remember doing it. A friend showed me the body cam; I couldnt recognize myself, she says. I was saying things that just didnt make sense. But while she cant forget what she did, the fact that it is subject to judgment in court means she has a chance to move forward and not let that particular bad day define her for the rest of her life. Bad days She has had more than her share of bad days. A tough childhood, strained family and romantic relations tipped her toward depression, she said. Drinking made it worse. But the start of the pandemic was a breaking point. She was furloughed from her job through the spring and summer of 2020. Talking to her therapist through a video connection wasnt the same as face-to-face conversation. The nights out drinking with friends, and the illusion that it was just a normal part of social life, werent possible, she said but drinking at home was. Alcohol and isolation fed a deepening depression. I called my mother I said if it wasnt for my son, I didnt want to be here, she said. Id drink and use and hope that meant I wouldnt wake up in the morning. Crooks, too, was having a bad time. He was homeless for part of 2021 and had bounced in and out of hospitals. Without his medications that summer, he was seeing things and hearing voices. At one point in early September, Crooks said, two Richmond police officers spotted him in a delusional frenzy and they took him to Richmond Community Hospital for a mental health evaluation, holding him under the states emergency custody order law, which allows people in a mental health crisis to be detained against their will for up to eight hours. To reach that point, a magistrate has to find theres a substantial risk that the person is about to hurt himself or others or is so out of it that he or she could walk in front of a bus. And an evaluation necessarily involves a urine test. Crooks was in handcuffs. When a hospital staffer reached for his pants zipper to take a sample, Crooks said he shoved him with his shoulder in order to back the staffer off. Thats formally assault and battery, and the staffer said he was pressing charges. Suddenly, Crooks wasnt someone who needed help in a crisis. He was an offender and says he spent the next two days in jail, still delusional, until he bonded out. He was eventually sentenced to 12 days in jail: His appeal to circuit court was one of the cases that brought him into the more than yearlong behavioral health docket. Three days after he bonded out of jail on the assault charge, he took the bicycle, he said. Still so delusional that he didnt understand that he had robbed someone by threatening them, he said he returned the bike to the owner when he was done using it. A different feel to court Thursday mid-afternoons are quiet in the Newport News courthouse, except for the one second-floor courtroom where a judge and a public defender turned judge along with prosecutors, mental health workers, probation officers and public defenders pioneered the behavioral health docket approach. The basic idea then, as now, is simple: Its better in the long term for a judge to make sure a person is following a treatment regimen over a year or more than for that offender to spend a month or two in jail for what are typically misdemeanor offenses such as trespassing, simple assault or vandalism. In Newport News, theres plenty of cheerleading, counseling and there can be sanctions when people dont stick with the program. On a chilly overcast winter Thursday, a tall, heavyset man, with a footlong beard, was the first to approach the bench. How are you today? asked Judge Rian Lewis, smiling broadly. Im here, he replied. Im glad you are, she said, still smiling. I know weve got that paperwork issue, were trying to get that fixed for you. Youve been working with staff and I really appreciate that. Its been three months, youre doing everything weve asked of you, so Im thinking its time to move to phase 2. The deputy sheriff stepped over with a slip for the mans next court appearance and a form. Id like you to write something, about insights youve had in these three months, Lewis said. Long or short, you can handwrite or type I would like it to be at least three sentences. She smiled again, as if to take away any sting from what might seem a homework assignment. When one participant didnt show up, and phone calls by her caseworker and the public defender before and during the docket session couldnt turn up any sign of her, Lewis had to wrap up that days session with a sigh and a show cause order. It wasnt the stiffest penalty technically, she could have issued a warrant for the womans arrest and a return to the process that would see her doing time for her offense. Instead, the order was a kind of second chance: Show up, and say what happened, and try to get with the program. It was, like the docket itself, about hope. I am the person I always wanted to be But it is hope with work. Branch was reminded of this at her own job: As a newly promoted house manager at the recovery home where she lives, shes responsible for looking after her fellow residents and helping them stay on track. Its a 24-hour-a-day task of being an exemplar. Thats not the hard part. I feel like I am the person I always wanted to be the behavioral health docket has helped me become a productive member of society, she said. I was isolated, not part of society before. She was reminded of the hard part, though, because shed been having trouble connecting with one young woman who suffers paranoid delusions. I think Im a good communicator, but the feedback I got was that she thought I was too aggressive, Branch said. Since Branch is studying to become a licensed substance abuse treatment practitioner, she thought one of her textbooks might help. What it said was that it doesnt work to tell people with paranoia that they were wrong about what they saw and felt, which was exactly what Branch was trying to do. Instead, the idea is to rebut the paranoid beliefs with facts yes, the doors are locked at night, and dont forget that phone number you can call if you feel a threat. My job is to make her feel safe and protected and heard, Branch said. But it is different from her job as a participant in the behavioral health docket. There, court and the treatment program are all about confronting truth truth about yourself. It also can mean the hard task of dropping people, places and things that were triggers for Branchs drinking or for Crooks spins down to depression or up into mania. It means acknowledging triggers weaknesses, in short and learning how to keep them from setting you down paths of delusion or substance abuse. It means learning to trust, an odd mirror image to the way the judgment of the court is a way to keep the judgment of family, friends or strangers who see you being strange become the way you judge yourself, she said. Trust means being able to listen and accept advice from others, without letting their judgments necessarily become the way you judge yourself. Learning this is no snap of the fingers. Even after months in the program, Crooks says hes still working on it. Im fearful. I know what happened. Ive seen that body cam footage; I am fearful of that happening again someday, he said. I dont know how people will react; when I walk down the street, I know I am on bond. I dont have liberty. I walk down the street differently than you, he said. In my building, if I see someone else on the elevator, Ill take the stairs. But he feels hes making progress. Before, I was going nowhere, he says, tapping first his right palm on a table, and then right next to it, his left. Now, I feel I am gaining traction, he says as his hands now mime walking forward. How gas prices have changed in Richmond in the last week How gas prices have changed in Richmond in the last week Among health care workers, theres a culture of not seeking help for their own anxiety or depression, said Clark Barrineau of the Medical Society of Virginia. Concerned that receiving counseling could threaten their careers, doctors and nurses often choose to tough it out, causing them to burn out or retire early. Companion bills gaining approval in the House and Senate are designed to fix the issue. Senate Bill 970 and House Bill 1573 would change the mental health questions the state asks on licensure applications. Subcommittees in both legislative bodies have voted unanimously in favor. Currently, the Virginia Board of Medicine asks doctors seeking licensure if they have any mental health condition or impairment that affects their ability to do their job. The problem with the current wording, Barrineau says, is that it implies a condition and an impairment are one and the same. And its hard to define condition. Health care workers tend to avoid counseling or therapy, afraid theyll be diagnosed with anxiety and lose their license. A Virginia doctor, Lorna Breen, died by suicide in 2020. Her brother-in-law, J. Corey Feist, told Congress that Breen was convinced she would lose her license or face ostracism from colleagues if she received mental health care. Theyre not getting the help they need, Barrineau said of health care workers in the state. Our providers are not taken care of themselves. To remedy the situation, the bill calls for licensure applications to ask if the applicant has any reason to believe he or she would pose a risk to the safety or well-being of the patient or client. Applications would also ask if the applicant is able to perform the functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. The bill is marked as emergency legislation, meaning it would go into effect immediately after its passage. It would affect all types of health care workers in the state, including midwives, dentists and pharmacists. The measure does not stop health systems from asking invasive questions on their credentialing applications. But the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association has pledged to follow suit. Hospital systems within the VHHA are in various stages of implementing the new wording, according to a spokesperson for the association. How gas prices have changed in Richmond in the last week How gas prices have changed in Richmond in the last week Gov. Glenn Youngkin is making a high-powered push to change how state government operates in downtown Richmond, potentially reshuffling the tenants in newly renovated Old City Hall and scrapping plans for a new office building to take employees displaced by the eventual demolition of the James Monroe Building. On Friday, the governors team unveiled a consultant-driven plan to consolidate state offices in the Richmond area and reduce space for state employees in a work environment reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and opportunities to work remotely. The administration also has budgeted a half-million dollars subject to General Assembly approval to hire another consultant to produce a master plan by fall to help transform the Richmond skyline and downtown. The impetus for this are changes in the workforce, said Secretary of Administration Lyn McDermid, who carried out Youngkins new telework policy for state employees who had become accustomed to working from home during the pandemic. The administrations plan met with immediate concern among some legislators and General Assembly staff because of the uncertainty it raised over plans to move the Division of Capitol Police and the Division of Legislative Automated Systems into Old City Hall under a longstanding deal to divide the building between legislative and executive branch agencies. Both agencies are critical to the daily functioning of the assembly and the Capitol Square complex. Im afraid there are changes afoot that may scuttle some plans that we already made, said Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, chairman of the Senate Finance Capital Outlay Subcommittee, which oversees projects involving state buildings and real estate. Deeds directed the Department of General Services, an arm of the states executive branch of government, to report to the subcommittee on proposed tenants for the Gothic late 19th-century national historic landmark, renovated at a cost of $71 million almost a half-century after preservationists stopped the city from demolishing it. The building is scheduled to be completed in May, but its not clear who will occupy it under Youngkins new plan. General Services Director Joe Damico told the subcommittee that the buildings tenants are to be determined. Right now, the administration is looking at the possible tenants, said Damico, adding later that the tenants should be an integral part of a larger administration initiative to consolidate state government operations in Richmond. That came as a surprise to House Clerk Paul Nardo, who has helped to oversee an ambitious package of projects approved in 2016 to build a new General Assembly Building and renovate Old City Hall because of mounting safety and health concerns in both buildings. The package also includes a 500-vehicle parking deck expected to be finished in April and a tunnel to connect the new assembly building to the Capitol by next years legislative session. Originally, Nardo said the goal was to bring all legislative agencies into one building, but that changed in 2018 after legislators reduced the height of the new General Assembly Building by two floors to cut about $30 million off the price tag in the face of cost overruns because of political delays. As a result, the assembly and then-Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, agreed to house the Capitol Police and legislative systems division in the renovated Old City Hall. Under the deal, he said the legislative and executive branches each would occupy half of the building with their agencies. What they do with their half of the building is up to them, said Nardo, who was reelected clerk last year after Republicans regained the majority in the House of Delegates. The renovated building will include advanced communication networks for Capitol Police to monitor security at the Capitol, the surrounding public square and other state office buildings in the seat of Virginia government in Richmond, he said. The Department of Legislative Automated Systems is the front line in the assemblys battle against cybercriminals who implanted ransomware in the legislative computer system more than a year ago and temporarily shut down websites for a number of legislative agencies just before the General Assembly convened DLAS is fundamental to the operations of the legislative branch, Nardo said. They need to be close by. They have to be in Old City Hall. The Youngkin administration hired JLL, a national consultant, to conduct a two-phased evaluation of the states pending capital projects and potential efficiencies from consolidating the state workforce and operations in Richmond and the surrounding area. Together, the two contracts will cost the state $890,000. In the first phase, Damico said the consultant confirmed that it is not cost-effective to keep the 24-floor Monroe Building, which McDermid called an eyesore on Richmonds skyline. But he said JLL also found that it would not be cost-effective for the state to construct a new building on property it owns at East Main and North Seventh streets, where the consultant agrees that the old Virginia Employment Commission building should be demolished, beginning this spring. The state plans to proceed with a plan approved last year to demolish the eastern portion of the Pocahontas Building, which the assembly is occupying next to Capitol Square until it can move into its new home at East Broad and North Ninth streets this summer. The state still plans to construct a new building there to house the Virginia Supreme Court and the expanded Court of Appeals by 2028. The legislature was supposed to be in its new home for this session, but the move was delayed last year because of supply-chain disruptions to obtain safety, IT and other operating systems to equip it in time. Completion is now expected this spring at a cost of $225 million. Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar expects it to be ready for operation by July 1. Its not a simple move, she told the subcommittee. Kaine to run for Senate reelection Im a servant. I love Virginians. Im proud of what Ive done. Ive got a whole lot more to do, Kaine said. In the second phase of its work, JLL will develop a plan by May to consolidate existing executive branch owned and leased buildings in the states real estate portfolio in Richmond. McDermid wants to take advantage of lower leasing costs after the pandemic reduced needs for space to house state employees. The study recommends shrinking work space from 261 square feet per employee to 210 square feet, which it estimates would reduce the state office footprint by 875,000 square feet in the Richmond region alone. Separately, Youngkins proposed budget includes $500,000 to hire another consultant to produce a master plan by fall for all state government properties across Virginia. The House and Senate would be involved in the planning process with an eye toward money to implement it in the two-year budget the governor will propose in December. The administrations ambitions include transformation of the Richmond metropolitan area. How do we help to revitalize downtown? McDermid asked. Close 05-31-1967 (cutline): City Hall is backdrop as crowed gathers at ground-breaking for its replacement. 08-31-1979 (cutline): Peeling paint, fallen plaster are signs of deterioration at Old City Hall. 06-27-1967 (cutline): A bulldozer works today around a heavy vault, uncovered near Ninth and Broad Streets during the excavation for the new City Hall. The present City Hall is in the background, across the intersection of 10th and Broad Streets. The vault is at the site of the former headquarters of Home Beneficial Life Insurance Co., which moved in 1950 to the 3900 block W. Broad St. The building later housed the city Department of Public Utlities. Other buildings in the block housed a different office of Home Beneficial, now located a block west; a fire station, and Richmond Motor Co., now at 4600 W. Broad St. The Life Insurance Company of Virginia is in the background. 08-13-1970 (cutline): Richmond's old City Hall just wasn't built for the modern age symbolized by the aircraft which seems about to hit it, so the new marble facade at left is rising to replace it. The slick newcomer is due for completion in mid-1971, but fate of its venerable granite neighbor across Broad Street is still, like the jet, up in the air. 01-15-1961 (cutline): Basins were once installed in City Hall Offices. Workers who tended fires had to wash their hands. 10-28-1984 (cutline): Richmond's Old City Hall was praised, criticized at national conference. 02-08-1959: Old City Hall 05-04-1950 (cutline): Part of overflow crowd that attended housing project hearing at Richmond City Hall. 03-14-1952 (cutline): Richmond's City Hall shows its age--Coffman (left), Smorto point to latest crack in base. 10-14-1968: Repairs at Old City Hall building. 10-06-1989: Old City Hall from above 10-06-1989: Old City Hall 12-15-1975 (cutline) Ornate staircase is one of many 'treasures' in Old City Hall. Despite National Historic Landmark designation, future is cloudy. 05-31-1967 (cutline): Mayor Crowe, Vice Mayor Mundle, City Manager Edwards and School Board Chairman Calkins crossing Broad St. with shovels over their shoulders, toward site of new City Hall. Each will have a shovel--two chrome-plated, plus two old ones (with the dirt of '88 still on them), used in the groundbreaking for present City Hall. 06-24-1983: Old City Hall 01-15-1961 (cutline): Twisting stairway leads to City Hall tower. Sightseers haven't climbed them for years. 01-13-1984: Workers in close ducts at Old City Hall. 02-05-1984: Old City Hall From the Archives: Richmond's Old City Hall A look back at Richmond's Old City Hall. 05-31-1967 (cutline): City Hall is backdrop as crowed gathers at ground-breaking for its replacement. 08-31-1979 (cutline): Peeling paint, fallen plaster are signs of deterioration at Old City Hall. 06-27-1967 (cutline): A bulldozer works today around a heavy vault, uncovered near Ninth and Broad Streets during the excavation for the new City Hall. The present City Hall is in the background, across the intersection of 10th and Broad Streets. The vault is at the site of the former headquarters of Home Beneficial Life Insurance Co., which moved in 1950 to the 3900 block W. Broad St. The building later housed the city Department of Public Utlities. Other buildings in the block housed a different office of Home Beneficial, now located a block west; a fire station, and Richmond Motor Co., now at 4600 W. Broad St. The Life Insurance Company of Virginia is in the background. 08-13-1970 (cutline): Richmond's old City Hall just wasn't built for the modern age symbolized by the aircraft which seems about to hit it, so the new marble facade at left is rising to replace it. The slick newcomer is due for completion in mid-1971, but fate of its venerable granite neighbor across Broad Street is still, like the jet, up in the air. 01-15-1961 (cutline): Basins were once installed in City Hall Offices. Workers who tended fires had to wash their hands. 10-28-1984 (cutline): Richmond's Old City Hall was praised, criticized at national conference. 02-08-1959: Old City Hall 05-04-1950 (cutline): Part of overflow crowd that attended housing project hearing at Richmond City Hall. 03-14-1952 (cutline): Richmond's City Hall shows its age--Coffman (left), Smorto point to latest crack in base. 10-14-1968: Repairs at Old City Hall building. 10-06-1989: Old City Hall from above 10-06-1989: Old City Hall 12-15-1975 (cutline) Ornate staircase is one of many 'treasures' in Old City Hall. Despite National Historic Landmark designation, future is cloudy. 05-31-1967 (cutline): Mayor Crowe, Vice Mayor Mundle, City Manager Edwards and School Board Chairman Calkins crossing Broad St. with shovels over their shoulders, toward site of new City Hall. Each will have a shovel--two chrome-plated, plus two old ones (with the dirt of '88 still on them), used in the groundbreaking for present City Hall. 06-24-1983: Old City Hall 01-15-1961 (cutline): Twisting stairway leads to City Hall tower. Sightseers haven't climbed them for years. 01-13-1984: Workers in close ducts at Old City Hall. 02-05-1984: Old City Hall Virginia Congressman Donald McEachin died on Monday at age 61, weeks after winning a fourth term representing all of Richmond, parts of Henrico and Chesterfield counties, and the Tri-Cities area in the 4th Congressional District. McEachin's death was sudden, but his illness was not. He had been suffering from the after-effects from the successful treatment of colorectal cancer eight years ago. We are all devastated at the passing of our boss and friend, Congressman Donald McEachin," Tara Rountree, the Democratic congressman's chief of staff, said in a statement on Monday night. "Valiantly, for years now, we have watched him fight and triumph over the secondary effects of his colorectal cancer from 2013," Rountree said. "Tonight, he lost that battle and the people of Virginias Fourth Congressional district lost a hero who always, always fought for them and put them first." McEachin, who was elected twice to the House of Delegates and served nine years in the Senate, had just defeated Republican Leon Benjamin on Nov. 8 for the second time. His fourth term was scheduled to begin in January. Until a new representative is elected, our office will remain open and continue to serve our constituents," Rountree said. His wife, Colette, is Richmond's commonwealth's attorney. McEachin, a lawyer who lived in South Richmond, also leaves behind a son and two daughters. The family asks for privacy at this time," Rountree said. "Arrangements will be announced over the next few days. McEachin, who stood 6 feet 5 inches tall, revealed in 2018 that he had developed a fistula an abnormal connection between the bladder and colon as the result of cancer surgery. He lost 60 pounds and underwent a number of surgeries to correct the condition, which he treated as temporary and not an obstacle to his work in the House of Representatives. McEachin was first elected to congress in 2016 after a court ordered redistricting of the 4th District as part of its response to alleged racial gerrymandering of the 3rd District by General Assembly Republicans. The 4th District now includes all or part of 15 cities and counties, stretching from Richmond to Brunswick, Greensville and Southampton counties. It gets about three-fourths of its votes from Richmond and from eastern Henrico and eastern Chesterfield. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd, hailed McEachin's legacy as "a trailblazer in Virginia politics" as the first African American to run as the nominee of a major party for attorney general in 2001, ultimately losing to Republican Jerry Kilgore, and as the third to be elected to Congress from the state. (John Mercer Langston, elected in 1888 to represent the 4th District, was Virginia's first African American in Congress. Scott became the second 105 years later.) "Donald was a thoughtful and principled legislator and respected by people on both sides of the aisle," Scott said. Before serving in Congress, McEachin had a long career as a personal-injury lawyer and co-owner of the McEachin & Gee law firm in Henrico County, but he also has a masters degree in divinity from Virginia Union University. He did not lead a church, but helped at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Beaverdam. Theres ministry in the church, and theres ministry outside of the church, he said in 2018. U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin Born Aston Donald McEachin Oct. 10, 1961, in Nuremberg, Germany. His father was an Army veteran and his mother a school teacher. Graduated from St. Christophers School in Richmond in 1979. He would also graduate from American University with a degree in political science and from the University of Virginia School of Law. He also received a master of divinity from The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. Founded McEachin and Gee Law Firm in 1990. Served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1996 to 2002 and 2006 to 2008 and the state Senate from 2008 to 2016. Elected to U.S. House on Nov. 8, 2016. With wife and Richmond Commonwealths Attorney Colette McEachin raised three children. McEachins priorities in Congress included protecting the Affordable Care Act and women's reproductive rights, combating climate change and promoting environmental justice, and preserving Black cemeteries. He introduced the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, a measure that would provide $3 million annually to preserve and restore Black cemeteries. McEachin took personal pleasure in leading a successful effort to rename Fort Lee after Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg, the Army's highest ranking minority general when he retired in 1981, and Lt. Col. Charity Adams. Gregg was a lifelong friend of the congressman's father, a U.S. Army veteran. "It's a great day in Virginia," the congressman exclaimed after a congressional naming commission announced its choices in May to replace the former Confederate general's name on the sprawling base outside of Petersburg in his district. On Twitter Monday night, Gov. Glenn Youngkin wrote: "It's so sad to learn of the passing of @Rep. McEachin. A valiant fighter until the end, he admirably served Virginia & worked tirelessly to improve the lives of his constituents & Americans. Suzanne & I are thinking of his family, friends & community during this difficult time." U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, in a statement late Monday said: Tonight, I am mourning my friend, colleague, and mentor Congressman Donald McEachin. He was a good man who endeavored to make others feel important and heard whether in the courtroom, the General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, or simply in a quiet moment. "He brought his passion for people, his sense of humor, and his abiding faith in God to his work every day and he was a relentless advocate for those who needed a voice, our natural resources, and the people he represented." U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in a statement said: Up until the very end, Don was a fighter. Even though he battled cancer and faced other trials in recent years, he never lost his focus on social and environmental justice. Tonight, Virginia has lost a great leader and I have lost a great friend. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a former Richmond city councilman and mayor, recalled first meeting McEachin in 1985 and attending a party for his wedding to Colette. "Our kids were the same age, we shared a statewide ticket with Mark Warner [in 2001], and weve been together in the Virginia federal delegation for years," Kaine said in a statement. "I was last with him on election night three weeks ago, celebrating his win." "He was a gentle giant, a compassionate champion for underdogs, a climate warrior, a Christian example, an understanding dad, a proud husband, a loyal brother," he said. It is with profound sadness that we join the people of Virginia and the McEachin family in mourning the loss of our dear friend and colleague, the honorable Congressman Donald McEachin. Congressman McEachin was a tireless advocate for the people of Virginia and our nation. He dedicated his life to advancing Americas working families, creating economic opportunities, and promoting environmental justice for all. He leaves an unparalleled legacy of excellence and integrity, and we will honor that legacy with our continued dedication to the issues which he championed," said Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty, in a statement. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a close political ally, said called McEachin "a progressive champion" and "a true public servant who, in sickness or in health over a 22-year career, always put the people first and never stopped working for and loving his community." His imposing frame was eclipsed only by a fundamentally kind and generous spirit, and the legacy of his many contributions to the welfare of this city will live on." 17 inmates from recent prison riot in Chihuahua still on the loose Mexico City, Mexico Out of 30 inmates that escaped from a Mexico City prison on January 1, 17 remain fugitives. On Friday morning, the Undersecretary of Public Security, Luis Rodriguez Bucio, said 17 of the inmates who escaped from Cereso No. 3 are still out there. To date, nine of the escapees have been recaptured while a total of four died in clashes with police days after their escape. Rodriguez Bucio said that the brazen January 1 prison break that took place at the prison in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua was intended to release a gang leader. That criminal gang leader, who was identified as Ernesto Alberto Pinon de La Cruz, was killed January 5 during a clash with police in a recapture attempt of escaped prisoners. The now-deceased gang leader headed Los Mexicles, a criminal group related to the Caborca Cartel, a splinter of the Sinaloa Cartel that operates in Sonora and Chihuahua. He was serving a sentence of more than 200 years. US deports former Mexican officer considered key suspect in Ayotzinapa case Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua The National Institute of Migration (INM) has reported on the arrest of Alejandro T who was wanted by Interpol and the FGR for his involvement in the Ayotzinapa case. According to the Ministry of the Interior of Mexico, Alejandro T was deported from the U.S. and returned to Mexico Wednesday after being arrested by US authorities in December. He was returned to Mexico after being seized on December 20, 2022 by the CBP when he entered the United States irregularly. It was later determined that he did not meet the requirements to be granted asylum. Alejandro T is considered a key suspect in the Ayotzinapa case since he was a police supervisor in Iguala, Guerrero, when the 43 students went missing in September of 2014. The National Institute of Migration (INM) says that at noon on January 18, he was handed over to INM Federal Agents at the San Jeronimo-Santa Teresa international crossing in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. He is being charged with organized crime and kidnapping related to the Ayotzinapa case. He has had an outstanding arrest warrant since 2015. A bill to allow terminally ill patients in Virginia to end their lives medically was defeated Friday by a Senate subcommitee in a 5-4 vote. Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, broke with party lines in the Democratic-controlled panel by voting against the measure. Senate Bill 930, sponsored by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, would allow patients near death to request a drug resulting in their death, avoiding a painful end. Hashmi called the choice to die a "personal decision made by the individual, their families and their physician." Opponents worry the law could be abused. One doctor testified that predicting the date of a sick patient's death is inexact. Under the bill, patients would be eligible for medical aid in dying, also known as physician-assisted suicide, if they are mentally capable of making the decision and unlikely to live more than six months. A person wishing to die because of old age or disability would not be eligible. The patient would have to make two separate requests 15 days apart, and health care staff must also present options for hospice care. The doctor filling out the death certificate would list the underlying illness as the cause of death. Health care workers would not be required to participate, and those who do would be given immunity from prosecution. The bill also would make it illegal to coerce a patient into choosing medically aided death. Richard Morgan, a Charlottesville resident, was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer in 2019. Despite receiving chemotherapy and participating in clinical trials, Morgan says his condition is incurable. He can delay death, but he can't stop it. When his time comes, he wants to avoid significant pain. "This bill is not about life or death," he said. "It's about allowing me to terminate my life ... to give me a peaceful death, which I call a celebration of my life." Terminally ill patients generally don't want to die, he said. But they're already dying, and they want to avoid suffering. Morgan served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. A boyhood friend and fellow pilot, Bob Knapp, was exposed to Agent Orange and later died of Leukemia, Morgan said. Kapp's death was "grueling," and Morgan hopes to avoid a similar fate. His daughter lives in Oregon, which has legalized medical aid in dying. Though he could move there, he would prefer to die in Virginia, near his family and friends, Morgan said. Ten states and Washington D.C. allow patients to choose medically aided death, according to Compassion and Choices, a group the practice. Dr. Tom Eppes, a family physician in Virginia, expressed concern with the bill. For one, he said it's hard to predict when a person's death will occur. For another, he worries a patient might make the decision to die during a temporary fit of depression. Anti-depressants need up to eight weeks to treat a patient, but the bill allows a person to choose death in about two weeks. He also worries that health insurers will decline to cover expensive cancer treatments when medically assisted death a much cheaper option is available. "Abuse is a real threat," said Tom Intorcio of the Virginia Catholic Conference. There are 66 known emperor penguin colonies, of which half have been identified via satellite images. Credit: British Antarctic Survey Scientists have discovered a new emperor penguin colony in Antarctica using satellite mapping technology. This new colony makes a total of 66 known emperor penguin colonies around the coastline of Antarctica, with exactly half having been discovered by satellite imagery. The team studied images from the European Commission's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite mission, which were compared to and confirmed by high resolution images from the Maxar WorldView-3 satellite. They identified the colony from the birds' guano stains which are brown in color, and easier to identify alongside the ice and rock. The new site, at Verleger Point West Antarctica, houses around 500 birds and is located at 74 42' S, 136 11'W. Emperor penguins need sea ice to breed and are located in areas that are very difficult to study because they are remote and often inaccessible and can experience temperatures as low as 60C (76F). For the last 15 years, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists have been looking for new colonies by searching satellite imagery for their guano stains on the ice. Lead author Dr. Peter Fretwell, who studies wildlife from space at BAS says, "This is an exciting discovery. The new satellite images of Antarctica's coastline have enabled us to find many new colonies. And while this is good news, like many of the recently discovered sites, this colony is small and in a region badly affected by recent sea ice loss." Emperor penguins are known to be vulnerable to loss of sea ice, their favored breeding habitat. With current projections of climate change, this habitat is likely to decline the most recent projects suggest that, under current warming trends, 80% of colonies will be quasi-extinct by the end of the century. Copernicus Sentinel-2 is one of the satellite missions that the European Space Agency develops and operates on behalf of the European Commission's Copernicus environmental monitoring program. Sentinel-2 has been collecting images of Antarctica since 2016 following the request from SCAR, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Maxar Technologies is a commercial satellite provider. The featured image that confirmed the find is a 30 cm resolution WorldView-3 image of the site dated 18 October 2021. Provided by British Antarctic Survey Sustainability, climate-smart crops, variety and quality evaluation, harvest tips and more are on the agenda for the 43rd South Carolina Peanut Growers meeting. The meeting is scheduled for Jan. 26 at the Santee Conference Center, 1737 Bass Drive in Santee. Registration is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. The meeting opens with a welcome from Richard Rentz, chairman of the South Carolina Peanut Board, at 9:40 a.m. The morning session includes a peanut market update from Dell Cotton, manager of the Peanut Growers Cooperative Marketing Association, and a peanut variety and quality evaluation by Maria Balota, an Extension specialist from Virginia Tech University. David Jordan, professor of crop science and Extension specialist from North Carolina State University will talk about research results from North Carolina. Warren White and Josey Peele of Amadas Industries will discuss principles of peanut harvest. Kendall Kirk, Clemson precision agriculture engineer, will give an update on precision agriculture in peanut research. The morning session ends with an update from South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers. Following lunch, Eric Coronel, sustainability director for the American Peanut Council will talk about peanut sustainability in the United States. Richard Owen, president and chief executive officer of the American Peanut Council will give updates from the American Peanut Council and the American Peanut Research and Education Society. Bob Parker, president and chief executive officer of the National Peanut Board, will give an update from the Board and Nathan Smith, Clemson Extension economist, with give a market outlook for 2023. Dan Anco, Clemson Extension peanut specialist, will talk about how to tell when runner peanuts have reached maturity. Also during the afternoon session, Anco will provide information about the Clemson University/South Carolina State University Climate-Smart Commodities project. This project provides incentives to South Carolina farmers, enabling them to implement selected climate-smart production practices. Peanut yield contest awards will be announced during lunch. Prize drawings will be held immediately following lunch before the afternoon session starts. Prizes this year include a $5,000 voucher to be used towards a piece of equipment or parts. Growers must visit the Kelley Manufacturing Company booth for entry and be certified as a peanut grower with a Farm Service Agency farm number. Grand prize from Amadas is the use of a new 4-row or 6-row Amadas peanut digger/inverter for the 2023 harvest season or $10,000 towards the purchase of a new Amadas self-propelled peanut combine or $5,000 towards the purchase of a new Amadas 4-row or 6-row pull-type peanut combine. To be eligible, growers must be 2022 commercial peanut growers who intend to plant peanuts in 2023. Growers must be present to win. Continuing education and pesticide credits will be available, as will newly updated copies of the Peanut Money-Maker 2023 Production Guide. For more information contact Dan Anco, Clemson Extension peanut specialist at 630-207-4926 (cell) or email, danco@clemson.edu. JOHNSONVILLE, S.C. Pitch Landing, depending on to whom you speak, is a menace, a problem, a great place to fill up a fire truck with water, a source for fond memories, no place to make memories anymore or a key element for future tourism development. Pitch Landing, described as a smaller landing suited to serving a one- or two-person boat, is on Lynches River off Huggins Road northwest of Prospect Crossroads. While the landing itself is on private property, it is accessed from North Pitch Landing Road, which residents have asked the County Council to abandon and close. "I don't' think there's a wrong side, I don't think there's a right side," said Florence County Councilman Jason springs who represents the district in which the landing is located. "I'm here today to close Pitch Landing," said Florence County Sheriff T.J. Joye, who said it has become a magnet for drugs, drinking and shooting. "Syringes piled up around the landing, beer cans, trash it is a mess." "I'm not out to close landings, but I'm out to keep the citizens of this county safe. This is not a safe place," Joye said. "It's open all times of night. My daddy used to tell me if you're out past 12 o'clock, you're up to no good." The sheriff said it was on patrol deputies' check lists, but with 804 square miles to patrol the agency didn't have the manpower to station a deputy there full time. Some who spoke recalled fond memories of the landing being the center for water recreation in that part of the county. "I also have memories of Pitch Landing from when I was a kid, but it's not the same place it was even a few years ago," said Kelvin Hanna, whose family owns the landing. "His house was struck by a 9 mm round," Joye said. "Mr. Hannah called me that night and I met him early the next morning." "Shots rang out and we heard something hit the back of our house," said Karley Hanna. A family member went to check on the bullet and found it originated at the landing. Karley Hanna said there were men at the landing who were drinking and shooting beer cans off a log. "He [the family member] told them they hit the back of the house and they got into a car and left," Karley Hanna said. Karley Hanna said the family has had to call sheriff's deputies to the landing in the past to remove homeless people who had tried to make the landing their home. "If Pitch lLnding remains open the vision we have for our future will be unattainable," Karley Hanna said. "Pitch Landing hasn't been family-friendly in a couple of decades." "I understand the problem needs to be addressed," said Barry Frick with River Ratts an outfitting and river tour company and with Friends of the Revolutionary River an organization that's developing Lynches River as a tourist draw for the county. Frick said Lynches River has about a landing every five river miles, or so, which makes it ideal for tourist paddles as well as safety. Frick said river rescues work best when the rescuers travel down river when possible, but on that stretch of river water levels, a swamp and a beaver dam all pose challenges that make Pitch Landing an ideal put-in or take-out for rescue operations. It is also an ideal place for Johnsonville firefighters to access water for their tankers when the need arises, said Ken Hanna, whose family owns another landing along the river. Were the fire department to lose access to the landing and the water it could cause insurance rates to increase in the fire district, Ken Hanna said. Frick, who lives at and operates River Ratts out of Indigo Landing, said he worked with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to resolve similar issues at his landing. "I put up signs at Indigo Landing that it closes at 6 p.m.," Frick said "If you don't close the road and take care of the landing it'll solve the problem." Frick said there were other issues involved. "There is state land only accessible by this road," Frick said of 16 state-owned-acres of land along the river's bank. "Across the river from this 16 acres is 400 additional acres owned by the state." "I pick up at a lot of landings. When I drop someone off I have my tongs and bucket with me. I personally have not been to this landing in years but I hate to lose any of our landings." Frick also argued that to close the landing would not solve the drug problem, only move it elsewhere. "We need to take care of the drug problem where it's at and not move it," Frick said. The river guide offered to help keep the area cleaned up and to install signs at the landing something Florence County Commissioner Kent Caudle offered to support with the donation of 4x4 posts he had remaining from one of his previous projects and to provide some of his county discretionary funds to pay for the signs. Ken Hanna offered to lend a hand to Frick to install the posts and signs. "I grew up at Pitch Landing. I wasn't there in the '60s and '70s but I was there in the '80s and '90s," Springs said. Even back in the day litter was an issue. "I remember every Sunday we were down there as a kid somebody cut a foot on a beer bottle," Springs said. "I can't count the number of people I've talked to on both sides of this thing, and every time I hang up the phone, I've sided with them," Springs said. "I didn't sleep last night," Springs said of the stress and emotions tied, for him, to the issue. "We'll never get Pitch Landing back to where it was," Springs said. "Each time I've gone down there I've been disheartened." He also pointed out that the council was being called on to close the road and not the landing. If the body voted to close the road and, two months or so later decided that had been a mistake, re-adopting the road would be extremely expensive and difficult to do. Drug paraphernalia and beer cans are problems to be found at many of the county's landings, he said. Springs said he hoped the landing situation would bring the community together for a common cause. If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). Rounding up some recent notable reads | Main | Warranted or unwarranted disparity?: noting different punishments for disrupting different government branches January 20, 2023 Citing prior "attempt to flee the country," feds urging that Elizabeth Holmes start her prison sentence in April If producers are thinking about developing Season 2 of The Dropout, a legal filing today by federal prosecutors provide some dramatic materials. This CNN article, headlined "Elizabeth Holmes made an attempt to flee the country after her conviction, prosecutors say," provides these details: Elizabeth Holmes made an attempt to flee the country by booking a one-way ticket to Mexico departing in January 2022, shortly after the Theranos founder was convicted of fraud, prosecutors alleged in a new court filing Friday. Holmes was convicted last January of defrauding investors while running the failed blood testing startup Theranos. In November, she was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison. She has appealed her conviction and does not start her prison sentence until this spring, a waiting period that prosecutors described as generous and due to her being pregnant. The claim that she tried to leave the country last year surfaced as part of a new filing from prosecutors arguing that Holmes should begin serving her prison sentence rather than living on an estate reported to have $13,000 in monthly expenses for upkeep. In the filing, prosecutors argue Holmes has not shown convincing evidence that she is not a flight risk, as her lawyers have stated, and used the alleged 2022 incident to support their concerns that she could pose such a risk. The government became aware on January 23, 2022, that Defendant Holmes booked an international flight to Mexico departing on January 26, 2022, without a scheduled return trip, the court filing states. Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight with defense counsel was the trip canceled. The filing adds that prosecutors anticipate Holmes will reply that she did not in fact leave the country as scheduled but said it is difficult to know with certainty what she would have done had the government not intervened. Now, in the wake of her sentencing, prosecutors say the incentive to flee has never been higher and Holmes has the means to act on that incentive.... The court filing includes an email from one of Holmes attorneys to the prosecution, claiming that the travel reservation was made before the verdict. In the email, Holmes attorney claims the former Theranos CEO hoped the verdict would be different and that she would be able to make this trip to attend the wedding of friends in Mexico. In an earlier court filing, Holmes attorneys argued for her release from custody pending appeal, saying she was not a flight risk or a threat to the community. Holmes has been ordered to turn herself into custody on April 27, 2023, at which point her prison sentence will begin. There are not two systems of justice one for the wealthy and one for the poor there is one criminal justice system in this country, prosecutors stated in the filing. They argue that under that system, the time has come for Holmes to answer for her crimes. Some prior related posts: January 20, 2023 at 08:02 PM | Permalink Comments "The court filing includes an email from one of Holmes attorneys to the prosecution, claiming that the travel reservation was made before the verdict. In the email, Holmes attorney claims the former Theranos CEO hoped the verdict would be different and that she would be able to make this trip to attend the wedding of friends in Mexico." Then why was the trip one-way? Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 22, 2023 2:02:08 AM After guilty verdicts in Federal white collar criminal cases that I have worked on, I have seen defendants with no prior criminal history taken into custody, handcuffed in the court room and taken to jail for several days (even over a five-day Thanksgiving weekend), pending a new bond hearing. The defendant's family had to pack and clean out his hotel room, since he had been taken to jail. This woman has gotten special handling. Posted by: Jim Gormley | Jan 22, 2023 4:35:23 PM Contrary to the prosecutor's assertion, there are indeed two different systems of justice. Any of my clients who did something that foolish would have had their bond revoked, pregnant or not, and waited for sentencing in custody. Some of my judges also would have had things to say about choosing to get pregnant while being federally prosecuted, and held it against her at sentencing. Posted by: defendergirl | Jan 23, 2023 12:48:22 PM Judges who accuse a woman of thoughtlessly getting pregnant while being federally prosecuted and thus choose to enhance a sentence are as ignominiously idiotic as are their publicity-hound prosecutors, and the comments to the big deal one-way to Mexico. She has two children. OK, she defrauded a few bigshots. Give her a civil penalty, as they have so many banks. She's obviously a bit of a nutter, so give her some slack. Posted by: fluffyross | Jan 23, 2023 2:20:32 PM fluffyross -- I emphatically deny that I paid you to write that comment in order to illustrate how far the defense side will go to make excuses for fraudsters and thieves. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 23, 2023 3:05:42 PM Perhaps I am naive, but I think Holmes's explanation of the plane ticket is reasonable. The government has her passport, so she could not have absconded to Mexico, even had the prosecution not discovered the ticket. However, I am not sure if she meets the standard for remaining free pending appeal, even if that had not happened. Posted by: Marc Shepherd | Jan 23, 2023 3:17:39 PM "Some of my judges also would have had things to say about choosing to get pregnant while being federally prosecuted, and held it against her at sentencing." Name names. If that is true, it is appalling. Not because the particular judge may be correct in his/her intuition about the reasons for the pregnancy, but because it simply is wrong. If a woman gets pregnant while on trial, guess what, judge, she has that f'in right, and you have zero business harming her for it. Posted by: federalist | Jan 23, 2023 3:36:02 PM Federalist: I have to practice in front of these judges so I decline your invitation to name names. But some definitely view it as an attempt to manipulate and get a lighter sentence. I have also had a judge several years ago give a client charged with illegal reentry less time because he spoke English and was married to the mother of his children! Posted by: defendergirl | Jan 23, 2023 4:46:50 PM defendergirl -- I had a case in which the convicted defendant, a lawyer who was laundering money for a drug ring, brought his angelically beautiful ten year-old daughter to his sentencing in order to win sympathy from the judge when the girl broke down in hysterical (and sincere) sobbing. Using a child in this way and causing her such suffering so the parent might benefit was one of the most perverted and disgusting things I've ever seen. It contributed in part to my assessment of how low defendants will go. How do you live with these creeps? Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 23, 2023 5:18:44 PM Based on the timing, Holmes appears to have become pregnant AFTER her conviction. She is entitled to do this, but obviously it was done with the knowledge that she would very likely be going to prison for a very long time. Posted by: Marc Shepherd | Jan 23, 2023 6:05:29 PM Defendergirl, it's pretty sickening that attorneys are fearful of criticizing judges. "But some definitely view it as an attempt to manipulate and get a lighter sentence." Maybe it is, but it's something they have a right to do, and the judge really shouldn't be using it against them. Theranos wanted a kiddo--it isn't really possible in prison--although the BOP rape scandal counsels otherwise--ok, people, here's a hypo, does a prisoner have the right to use deadly force to stop a rape? Posted by: federalist | Jan 24, 2023 10:48:59 AM Someone here had asked for an update to the City of Parma v. Nowak: Petitioner's reply brief: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/253012/20230124104502039_Reply%20in%20Support%20of%20Certiorari%20Novak%20v.%20Parma%2022-293.pdf My question--why does the prosecutor still have a law license? Posted by: federalist | Jan 24, 2023 11:19:30 AM Bill Otis: How do I live with these creeps? Well, first, everyone deserves a vigorous defense. Two, no one is just the worst thing they have ever done. Someone can be a good father/husband/wife/child and also commit a crime. Three: most of my clients never had a chance. Some were given alcohol and drugs by parents starting at ages younger than ten. And/or grew up in grinding poverty in redlined neighborhoods with under-resourced and failing schools. And/or cycled through the state system multiple times without proper diagnosis and medication/treatment for mental illness, PTSD, illiteracy, dyslexia, low IQ, and trauma. Lastly, Jamie Dimon and the other big bank CEOs and companies blew up our entire economy selling subprime mortgages and hurt thousands of families. They knew they were doing it. None of the big guys who are "too big to fail" were prosecuted. The hypocrisy and lack of evidence-based practice in the system is mind-boggling. But ultimately, I am aware of the helping hands I got that my clients did not get. At every step where I could have fallen, someone was there for me. My clients usually did not have that. I am not so arrogant as to think I could never have stood in their shoes. Everyone has a story. Posted by: defendergirl | Jan 24, 2023 9:28:35 PM Very well stated defendergirl. Posted by: Fat Bastard | Jan 24, 2023 11:49:49 PM defendergirl -- So they don't act for themselves, don't make their own decisions, have only sickness not malice, have only want not greed, are never actors but only acted upon? Sorry, I don't believe it. That's because it's not true, as I think you can't help knowing. P.S. What do you think of a white collar defendant who brings his grade school daughter to his sentencing so the judge will see her weeping and suffering? Your kind of guy? Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 2:59:52 AM defendergirl -- One more thing: It's true, as you say, that everyone has a story. This great country has millions upon millions of stories of people who faced the hardships you discuss but, instead of turning to crime, resolved to better themselves through rectitude, honesty and industry, and became givers rather than takers. Are their stories irrelevant? Avoiding crime just isn't that hard. Four easy steps, really: Stay clear of dangerous drugs, don't steal stuff, be straight with the people you encounter, and resolve your gripes without violence. It's not that hard. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 3:22:00 AM Bill Otis writes "It's not that hard." Says a white man of privilege. Posted by: anon | Jan 25, 2023 10:38:19 AM Since when does someone's race have anything to do with whether their observation has merit--attack the observation, not the observer. Doug, this comment should be deleted--racism should not be tolerated in here. Posted by: federalist | Jan 25, 2023 11:16:20 AM federalist -- Thank you for that, but I personally would leave anon's comment up. It's too illuminating to take down. What it illuminates specifically is that, when the fruitcake Left has to confront the truth that it's easy to make the decision not to steal or lie or become violent -- and that the huge majority of people of all races and economic standing make that decision routinely -- the Left has nothing to offer but its pathetic wail of RACISM!!! Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 1:26:13 PM anon -- If you're waiting for me to apologize for being white, you'll be waiting a long time. If you're waiting for me to apologize for having made something of my life, rather that being the sort of grifter, slug and child rapist you idolize, you'll be waiting a long time for that, too. But do keep posting your race-huckstering BS. As I was telling federalist, it's wonderfully illuminating about what the pro-criminal side really thinks. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 1:42:57 PM federalist: I believe Bill has recent posts at his substack in which he notes the skin color of a mayor and of most homicide victims and killers in DC. I would not describe those posts as based in racism, nor would I suggest that they be taken down. Believing that people of different races and different genders and different socio-economic status have different life experiences and perspectives strikes me as a pretty common and pretty benign belief, not one that is perniciously racist. But I tend to dislike how readily lots of people throw around the pejorative term "racism," and I also tend to be a lot more tolerant of a lot of different forms of speech that seem to bother people who are more "speech sensitive" than I am. If you are sincerely requesting that I censor "racist" speech here, federalist, I would welcome a more robust accounting of why you want me to play the role of speech police in this particular instance and whether you would like me to play a more active role in policing the comments more generally. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 25, 2023 2:44:37 PM Well spoken Mr.Berman. I could not agree more with you have just written. For what it's worth, I do not agree with the comments of anon. However, I do not agree with much of Mr.Otis said either. I think the 2 ideologies exemplify why I do not think our country will make it to the place where I know she is capable of going. Both ideologies are steeped in hypocrisy. It does no good for me to dwell on the hypocrisies in this post---nor could I as they are innumerable. federalist, I have told you before that you strike me as an intelligent person. You've said things that I'm sure others have found offensive. I think a part of you says them as a way to "own the libs." But you have a right to your thoughts and your speech---even if it may be deemed offensive by others. Personally, I have no problem with it because, to me, it is harmless. I will close this post by saying that I don't think you, Mr.Otis or anon are part of the solution this country needs. You may think so, but I could not think of anything that is farther from the truth. The other day I read some words by the late Dr.King that I find, for some reason, relevant. They were from a eulogy that he did for the Reverend James Reeb. I think what appealed to me the most about his eulogy is his statements about "what" killed James Reeb. That "what" is still here and the future of our country likely depends on how we respond to that "what." I don't think, as a matter of fact---I know, that no one side has the answer to that "what." It is going to take Mr.Otis, anon, federalist, myself, and a lot of other committed Americans who are able to see beyond their partisan beliefs to figure out, and fix, this "what." In any event, I will cease my own mini-rant (which is nothing more than my opinion) and share his words with you all: "These beautiful words from Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet so eloquently describe the radiant life of James Reeb. He entered the stage of history just thirty-eight years ago, and in the brief years that he was privileged to act on this mortal stage, he played his part exceedingly well. James Reeb was martyred in the Judeo-Christian faith that all men are brothers. His death was a result of a sensitive religious spirit. His crime was that he dared to live his faith; he placed himself alongside the disinherited black brethren of this community. The world is aroused over the murder of James Reeb, for he symbolizes the forces of goodwill in our nation. He demonstrated the conscience of the nation. He was an attorney for the defense of the innocent in the court of world opinion. He was a witness to the truth that men of different races and classes might live, eat, and work together as brothers. James Reeb could not be accused of being only concerned about justice for Negroes away from home. He and his family live in Roxbury, Massachusetts, a predominantly Negro community. [They] devoted their lives to aiding families in low-income housing areas. Again, we must ask the question: Why must good men die for doing good? O Jerusalem, why did you murder the prophets and persecute those who come to preach your salvation? So the Reverend James Reeb has something to say to all of us in his death. ****** Naturally, we are compelled to ask the question, Who killed James Reeb? The answer is simple and rather limited when we think of the who. He was murdered by a few sick, demented, and misguided men who have the strange notion that you express dissent through murder. There is another haunting, poignant, desperate question we are forced to ask this afternoon, that I asked a few days ago as we funeralized James Jackson. It is the question, What killed James Reeb? When we move from the who to the what, the blame is wide and the responsibility grows. James Reeb was murdered by the indifference of every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. He was murdered by the irrelevancy of a church that will stand amid social evil and serve as a taillight rather than a headlight, an echo rather than a voice. He was murdered by the irresponsibility of every politician who has moved down the path of demagoguery, who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. He was murdered by the brutality of every sheriff and law enforcement agent who practices lawlessness in the name of the law. He was murdered by the timidity of a federal government that can spend millions of dollars a day to keep troops in South Vietnam yet cannot protect the lives of its own citizens seeking constitutional rights. Yes, he was even murdered by the cowardice of every Negro who tacitly accepts the evil system of segregation, who stands on the sidelines in the midst of a mighty struggle for justice. So in his death, James Reeb says something to each of us, black and white alikesays that we must substitute courage for caution, says to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered him but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murder. His death says to us that we must work passionately, unrelentingly, to make the American dream a reality, so he did not die in vain. ****** God still has a way of bringing good out of evil. History has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of this fine servant of God may well serve as the redemptive force that will bring new light to this dark state. This tragic death may lead our nation to substitute aristocracy of character for aristocracy of color. James Reeb may cause the whole citizenry of Alabama to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed, this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience. So in spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. As preceding speakers have said so eloquently, we must not become bitter nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence; we must not lose faith in our white brothers who happen to be misguided. Somehow we must still believe that the most misguided among them will learn to respect the dignity and worth of all human personalities." Posted by: Eric A. Hicks | Jan 25, 2023 3:17:41 PM Doug -- You say that I have "recent posts at [my] substack in which [I] note the skin color of a mayor and of most homicide victims and killers in DC." You are absolutely right. And Baltimore and Chicago, among other places. When attacks on the criminal justice system are made dozens of times daily that it's racist because it disproportionately punishes blacks, what choice do I have? I would strongly prefer that race be subtracted from the discussion, but when the Left uses it as a cudgel every single day, well, they made that choice, not me. Yes, blacks are disproportionately involved in the system. That's because, as a group (which tell us zip about individuals), they commit more crime and, by approximately the same proportions, are more frequently crime victims. Those are the facts. Everyone in the field knows them. (And the same is true of males and younger adults, while we're at it). Anon is just another Leftist whiner who'd like us to believe that whether you're a criminal is just a matter of the luck of your birth rather than a matter of the choices you make. Only I won't believe it, since it's just anti-American fabulism. I admire your refusal to censor, not merely for its virtues per se, but because it lets jerks like anon show themselves, and their "arguments," for what they are. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 3:22:23 PM Denigrating one's opinion due to his or her race is vile. People just don't realize it. Doug, if you're going to tolerate overt racism on your pages, that's your call. Defensible too. Posted by: federalist | Jan 25, 2023 3:22:49 PM federalist -- "Denigrating one's opinion due to his or her race is vile." Absolutely right. But the vileness may be worth it -- when someone attacks your argument by going after your race, he's telling you that that's the best he's got. A wonderful admission, that. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 3:31:16 PM Honest question, federalist: do you think claiming that someone has a different opinion because of racial realities inherently problematic? You suggest here it amounts to "overt racism," but it feels to me more like an observation. You read anon's statement as denigrating Bill's opinion, and I do think it is meant to express a kind of disagreement. But you would call this statement a form of "overt racism": "People who are white and wealthy are often going to find it a lot easier --- and may say it is a lot easier --- to avoid criminal entanglements than many other people." That is how I was inclined to read anon's statement, but maybe that is not a fair read (or maybe you think such a statement is racist). Again, to be clear, I tend to tune out most assertions of "racism" in all sorts of settings because the term seems mostly used to inflame rather than illuminate or inform. But I know you are often eager to be precise with terminology, federalist, so I am taking seriously your complaint of "racism" and I am eager to better understand what you think does and does not count as proper (and blog-comment permissible) statements about race. Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 25, 2023 3:59:28 PM Eric A. Hicks -- You seem to imply an equivalence between anon and me. When have I ever questioned someone's argument because of his race? Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 4:04:23 PM Mr.Otis, There is an equivalence as far you both believe that your ideologies are unimpeachable. I beg to differ. But, that's just my opinion. You both will recite a fact, but omit context, and then take that fact as your truth. Again, that's just my opinion. Someone else may differ. Posted by: Eric A. Hicks | Jan 25, 2023 4:16:03 PM Eric A. Hicks -- The question was whether I ever questioned someone's argument because of his race. Anon did. Have I? Do you think a person who questions another's views on that basis is equivalent to a person who refrains? Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 4:22:25 PM Mr.Otis, No, I have never heard you question a person's argument because of his race. As for the second part of your question, where I see the equivalency is that beneath the dispute is a deep-rooted partisan disagreement between the two of you. If there wasn't this partisan divide, then I would be more than willing to tell you that one who questions another view on that basis is not equivalent. Yet, I cannot omit this partisan divide between two men who both swear by their ideologies when answering your question. This is what I mean when I use the term 'context.' I would agree with you "but for" that fact. Posted by: Eric A. Hicks | Jan 25, 2023 4:39:16 PM Bill, do you think it possible that it may be easier for some rich white men to "stay clear of dangerous drugs" than for some others? Do you think only an "overt racist" would consider that possibility? You also note that "blacks ... are more frequently crime victims," which I think might make it at least somewhat harder to "resolve ... gripes without violence." Perhaps I am trying to hard to give a non-pejorative meaning to what anon said, but I just struggle with all the cries "racism" that emerge when there are other ways to understand the meaning and import of any mention of race. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 25, 2023 4:55:43 PM Eric A. Hicks -- I don't "swear" by any ideology. I was an AUSA for years under administrations of both parties. I was nominated by Trump to the US Sentencing Commission, but have come to have considerable doubts about him, to the point that I'm now on the outs with a chunk of former allies. I believe in enforcing democratically adopted law (a conservative position) but I also believe, for example, that it's not the state's business whether two men want to marry each other (I guess a liberal position). I think abortion should be permissible very early in pregnancy and in cases of rape, incest and need to preserve the life of the mother, but should be forbidden, e.g., when done for sex selection or to harvest body parts. So I guess I'm in the middle on that one. I also believe that facts exist irrespective of the attitudes of those who embrace them. You can be liberal or you can be conservative -- either way, (1) whether you turn out to be a criminal depends on the choices you make, and (2) blacks (and males and younger adults) tend to be involved with the criminal justice system because they commit more crime. It has nothing to do with my attitude. It has to do with the facts on the ground. But denying these facts has plenty to do with attitude. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 5:08:36 PM Doug, statements about race are ok--but we always need to be very careful about impugning individuals who happen to be a member of that race/ethnic group. What anon did was impugn Bill's argument/observation on the basis of his race, and that's sickening. Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment is offensive--as it racializes legal acumen. I have more legal talent in my pinkie than she has in her whole body, and how f'in dare she impugn my abilities? And given some of the drivel that has come out of her chambers and her Senate testimony, she's in no position to say anything about anyone's ability. I wasn't born wealthy, and I lived in some pretty rough areas--and I generally see eye to eye with Bill--so does my opinion carry more weight than Bill's--I've been assaulted on the basis of my race--so does that make my opinion more "authentic" than a so-called "Cosby kid's" opinion. I've walked the walk--filed a police brutality report when I was 16 years old after witnessing a rough arrest of a black guy on the subway. Does that give me more cred? This idea that somehow Bill's observation about obeying the law is subject to the "easy for you to say because you are white" is just awful. The proper response to anon is "f off, you POS." Bill's observations would be very at home in Caribbean or West African cultures. And life there can be pretty tough. It's just a garbage thing to do, and it's beneath contempt. That's why I refer to Sotomayor as the "wise [sic] Latina," and I know that it is a damned good shot. Posted by: federalist | Jan 25, 2023 5:10:17 PM Doug -- "Bill, do you think it possible that it may be easier for some rich white men to "stay clear of dangerous drugs" than for some others?" I can just give you my experience at Stanford Law School, which in the Seventies, was wall-to-wall with rich white men and also wall-to-wall with any drug you wanted (or in my case, didn't want). I've been told the same is true of Wall Street and Hollywood, cf. Harvey Weinstein. "Do you think only an "overt racist" would consider that possibility?" "Consider" the "possibility" is one thing. Making as a belligerent accusation, a la' anon, is a different thing. "You also note that "blacks ... are more frequently crime victims," which I think might make it at least somewhat harder to "resolve ... gripes without violence." Only with a very bizarre application of language could the legal and needed use of self-defense in response to a criminal attack be considered "resolving a gripe." Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 5:20:03 PM Mr.Otis, Your point is understood. One can indeed make the argument that Blacks disproportionately commit crime at a higher level than others and that inner-cities are inherently violent. I won't dispute that. But older Native Americans (and older African-Americans) may say, and many that I have interviewed have said, that the they have never encountered a group more inherently violent, dangerous and untrustworthy than White males based on their documented history in relation to those particular groups. I have seen the scars and have heard the stories. To those who harbor these beliefs your facts, while they do contain a residuum of truth, don't tell the entire story. The Black sharecroppers from the South that came to Chicago in the 40s and 50s have questioned your facts. This older generation will tell you first-hand (for those who are still living) how they were willfully victimized by the system (just listen or read the story of Clyde Ross) in that their entire life savings was taken by White slumlords (without any recourse available from the state or federal government). They were subsequently herded into these communities which (unfortunately) became what we know as ghettos. We can quote these tidbits of facts (or whatever you want to call them) all day. I don't get offended by these things because I deal with 'fact' but I am also clear-eyed about history and how an older generation of Blacks and Native-Americans may take issue with your belief (although I do not) because they will feel that it lacks context. Through it all, I fall somewhere in the middle of the road. I despise crime---no matter where it is committed. And I also believe that there must be accountability. I, however, cannot divorce myself from the reality that many crimes were committed against humanity for America to be the power she is today. So, while I won't deny your facts. I will also give credence to the other voices who have their own facts as well. Soemwhere within all of this, we will find the solution. I have far too many family members who have fought for this country, and what she can become, to believe otherwise. I Posted by: Eric A. Hicks | Jan 25, 2023 5:38:50 PM For the record, federalist, I do think lived experience provides a foundation for claiming (and often deserving) a certain kind of authority. Bill talks all the time about going to Stanford Law and being a DOJ lawyer, I assume because he thinks we should credit his legal acumen accordingly. Others might be inclined to say -- myself included -- that because Bill has only been a prosecutor and never been a defense attorney, his statements about defense attorneys merit less attention. You often make references to "'rats" which leads me to believe you think some people can and should be judged based on partisan affiliation. (And, interestingly, you decided here to talk up with lots of specifics --- including your reference to a "black guy on the subway" without reference to the race of the abusive officer --- your notable lived experiences that do impact the lens through which I see some of your comments.) I sense we all make conscious and unconscious statements and judgments that include proper and not-so-proper assumptions about lived experience, and I think discussing this out in the open can be beneficial for all. That said, race is, of course, a type of lived experience that is a lot more touchy for lots of historical and modern reasons. But I do not think it misguided to believe people have very different lived experiences based on their race and gender and class, and I do not think it is inherently "racist" to say that out loud or to state that one person's view of the world may be influenced by their race/gender/class-impacted experiences. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 25, 2023 6:19:57 PM Once again Mr.Berman, amen. To supplement what I said to Mr.Otis earlier about some of the older Black folks that I have interviewed, they will be the first to tell you that they have not had any problem sending an inner-city Black male to prison if they have sat on a jury and the evidence supported it. They have done this and not loss a wink of sleep because at their core they believe in the rule of law. What has always been the core of their disconnect is that they have never seen in their lifetime any true accountability within America for the her malevolent actions in relation to people who look like them. They have seen and felt the wrath of individuals and systems within America---all without any type of real accountability. Therefore, when one comes along and underscores the inner-city crimes trends---without once mentioning the historic crimes that have gone unpunished and how those crimes (according to this group) bear a relation to the condition of some the communities, you lose the ear and trust of this particular group. As for me, my grandfather was a staunch Republican his entire life and my Uncle was a lifelong Republican (until Trump). Some of my views were influenced by both of them and some by grandmother and aunt who were both Democrats. I have had a myriad of life experiences so I tend to view the world in accordance with my experiences. I have never been unwilling to step outside of my comfort zone and learn something different. In fact, I have learned from nearly every single person who has posted here. I try to have an open mind and not be so hasty to accuse someone of some form of discriminatory intent just because we differ in beliefs. Posted by: Eric A. Hicks | Jan 25, 2023 6:48:42 PM Doug -- "Others might be inclined to say -- myself included -- that because Bill has only been a prosecutor and never been a defense attorney, his statements about defense attorneys merit less attention." Because you have only litigated in behalf of defendants and have never been a prosecutor, I take it that, by identical logic, your statements about prosecutors merit less attention? Yes? No? Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 8:34:12 PM Eric A. Hicks -- There is such a thing as truth, and it doesn't change or wobble because of one's identity or perspective. Liberals take this for granted -- indeed they insist on it -- when pronouncing such truths as that Trump's behavior was inconsistent with the dignity of the office, or George Santos is a robust liar. The only time when the concept of knowable and reliable truth get questioned is when it's a truth they don't like, such as that blacks commit proportionately more violent crime than whites, or having more police and more proactive policing reduces crime. Perspective and experience is worth taking note of, but truth is truth regardless. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 8:44:25 PM Doug -- "Bill talks all the time about going to Stanford Law and being a DOJ lawyer, I assume because he thinks we should credit his legal acumen accordingly." "All the time" is an exaggeration, but I don't hide it, you bet. Why should I? I also don't hide that I was in White House Counsel's Office for GHWB and teach at Georgetown Law, just as you don't hide that you went to Princeton and Harvard and clerked for Guido. Why should you? Not everyone can earn those credentials, and neither you nor I has much occasion to take a lecture from people whose main ostensible qualification is the ability to offer race huckstering bile. The main reason I'll talk about my background, though, is that I think people should take responsibility for what they say and write. This is one reason I'll debate you (sometimes at length), but will dismiss drive-by insult artists like "anon" for the jerks they insist on showing themselves to be. Unfortunately, your comments section is littered with people too cowardly to say who they are. Not coincidentally, these very much tend to be the same people who sling epithets while abjuring anything that might be mistaken for an argument. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 25, 2023 8:58:51 PM Absolutely, Bill. I can only make second-hand observations about a lot of professional activities -- being a prosecutor, judge, senator, footballer (all types), dancer, and so many more. If I told you that I was hiring John McEnroe to comment on the US Open, you should rightly hope I was seeking his commentary on the US Open tennis tournament and not the US Open golf tourney. And I would give your advice on restaurants in Hawaii and Georgetown more attention than I would on restaurants in Columbus, Ohio. Of course, many people can make spot-on observations about activities/actors without any direct experience. Indeed, sometimes lived experience can itself be distorting -- eg, I suspect I may credit defense attorneys and law professors too much; you may credit DOJ prosecutors too much -- but even then the import and impact of lived experience can be evident and important to incorporate into one's assessment of a speaker's views and claims. Put simply, lived experience matters, and sometimes it matters a whole lot. I doubt you are really claiming otherwise. (And, of course, once we recognize and appreciate that lived experience matters, and sometimes matters a lot, then we cannot avoid talking about race and gender and class and religion and all the other factors that impact lived experiences). Posted by: Doug B | Jan 25, 2023 9:02:20 PM On identity, Bill, federalist and Tarls still remain hidden and that's just fine by me (and I do not consider them "cowardly"). Some of the Framers had their reasons for hiding their identity when working on the Federalist Papers, and I see no benefit from policing the various reasons people have for hiding their names (and I have also noticed you seem to have a lot of strange/fake names in the Ringside comments). Posted by: Doug B | Jan 25, 2023 9:11:40 PM race is immutable, lived experiences aren't. Race of cops--white. Guy was drunk and he called them pigs, and they bounced his head of the station walls. Doug your defense of anon is astounding---he referenced Bill's race and discounted his opinion on that basis. Just like the wise [sic] Latina. Posted by: federalist | Jan 26, 2023 9:08:24 AM Doug -- The difference with federalist and TarlsQtr is that you (and I) know who they are, so they may be anonymous to blog commenters in general but they aren't to the blog owner. Hence they can be, and are, responsible for what they write. And an even more telling sign is that they engage. There are commenters who are interested in discussing and different commenters interested in spitting. It's easy to tell that federalist and TarlsQtr are among the former. Ringside at the Reckoning does not require commenting under one's real name, but identifying yourself correctly to the owners, including me, is required. No one here is a Framer. The Framers, if discovered by the British, had a good chance of getting shot. No one here is going to get shot. What they're afraid of is having to deal with a counter-argument, or getting called on some BS or smear-job in their own argument. That kind of fear is unworthy and should be sharply discouraged. My parents taught me that if you write it, you sign it. I have never failed to follow that lesson. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 26, 2023 9:12:48 AM Perhaps if federal court judges had to deal with these issues . . . . https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/01/camp-of-the-aints.php Posted by: federalist | Jan 26, 2023 9:19:43 AM Everyone has made valid points. If I may expound on a point, what I believe that Mr.Berman was saying to you Mr.Otis is that you speak as if your truth is the 'only' truth and that the lived experience of others (which may have led them to a different truth) does not matter. The truth of Bill Otis, federalist or TarlsQ may not necessarily be the truth of the 80-year old Black woman raised in Atlanta, Brooklyn, Chicago, Watts, Mobile or Tampa Bay. Does that mean their truth is any less valid when it contradicts something within your truth? I think not. This is why lived experience matters. I may disagree with something one of you have said but what I will not do is tell you that your lived experiences do not matter in the conclusions you reach. For example, a promising young athlete who plays for a small college football team is involved in a car accident which robs him of his exceptional talent. He is still able to compete in his sport but not an elite level. This person tries out for another small college football team as a walk-on and in the end is among the final cut individuals cut from the team. The truth: he was not good enough to make the team. But I think simply allowing the narrative end there---that he not good enough---would deprive it of significant context, viz., that he did compete on an elite level prior to an accident. Posted by: Eric A. Hicks | Jan 26, 2023 10:10:24 AM federalist, your eagerness to cry "racism" based on a reference to race as part of a discussion of lived experience is astounding. We care so much about race and gender and class because, whether mutable or immutable, we know they impact lived experiences in so many ways both obvious and subtle, influencing people's self-identity and how the world judges others' identity and behaviors. So, as I see it, race and gender and class all are important topics for discussion as part of all discussions of lived experience, and especially here as they relate to crime, criminal enforcement patterns and sentencing. I read anon as suggesting that, in anon's view, it is easier for a white man of privilege to believe and opine that it's not hard to avoid drugs and violence and other criminogenic factors than it is for others. You may or may not agree with that statement, but to cry that this is "racism" that needs to be censored seem to me antithetical to free speech and acceptable discussion of crime and punishment issues. And I really do not mean this to be a "defense" of anon as much as an explanation for why I did not view the statement as a form of "racism" needed to be censored. But, as I said before, I tend to not be so sensitive about race --- and someone might reasonably say that is because I am white and male and privileged without me thinking such a comment is "racist" (or sexist or Marxist). Posted by: Doug B | Jan 26, 2023 10:10:51 AM Doug, anon basically said: "easy for you to say because you are white"--that is racism, as is Sotomayor's comment that a white guy just can't be as good as a wise Latina. This isn't being overly sensitive, it's just stating facts. Would you be ok with an OSU professor saying to a white student: "Your opinion can be discounted since you are a white male of privilege?" I would hope not. In a sane world, such a prof would be fired on the spot. My guess is that OSU would tolerate it--according to a lawsuit against it, it has tolerated far more egregious things. Your arguments are basically smokescreens. What anon did was ugly--and it's not so easily cabined to opinions--do so-called white privileged victims of crime by African-Americans be discounted when they ask for harsh sentences? Should judges like Olu Stevens get to criticize white crime victims who truthfully recount the effect of a crime on them? Do whites have less say in government policies because they are allegedly privileged? Less say in the education context? And the gist of my comments did not say that anon should be censored--i said upthread that not censoring him is defensible. His comment, however is not, and your "don't be so sensitive" is so weak. Posted by: federalist | Jan 26, 2023 11:30:21 AM And like I have said, I have walked the walk. My kids went to public schools in a big city where white students were the distinct minority. I even filed a report of police brutality. Check out what Olu Stevens did to a white family--it was disgusting. Posted by: federalist | Jan 26, 2023 11:32:34 AM federalist: do you think I should not tolerate a white student saying "I have a particularly informed perspective on inner city crime dynamics and juvenile justice because my white kids go to a school where there are mostly people of color?" I find it almost comical that you keep telling racialized anecdotes while attacking someone else for bringing race into the conversation. Notably, anon did not say Bill's perspective should be "discounted" because Bill is "a white man of privilege." She only said Bill's statement about the ease of avoiding criminal activity was said by "a white man of privilege." Maybe you know who anon is and know she harbors deep racist sentiments, but what she actually said was a comment on lived experiences not a direct claim that Bill's view should be "discounted" because of his skin color or gender or wealth. Perhaps a fair inference is that anon thinks Bill's comment should be "discounted" because of his race, but that is not what was actually said. Word matter, especially when one throws around loaded words like "racism." And I would be fine with a professor saying, as I often do, that people can and do tend to have very different opinions about crime and criminal enforcement and punishment based on their lived experiences that are shaped by race and gender and class and many other factors. If we cannot talk about these matters without people screaming "racism" and calling for censorship, then we will have all sorts of self censorship and research distortions and other like problems that already seem to harmfully interfere with our ability to do clear and sober analysis of these important and controversial matters. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 26, 2023 12:24:43 PM Missing the point--my walk the walk stuff is about being able to call out racism in all permutations--I've walked the walk in my life. So there's no possible basis to call me a hypocrite or overly sensitive. If someone said something like that to me, I'd tell them to f off. It's insulting, and it's based on race. As is this whole "privileged" BS? Olu Stevens looks a hell of a lot more privileged than the white family he abused. anon's quote was an attack on Bill's statement, and it was based on race, and it has the pernicious implication that somehow Bill's voice is less worthy than others because he is white--that's racism. As for your hypo--I would laugh a little and ask why he thinks that even matters. You can talk about these matters all you want--but you haven't identified how anon's comment is to be cabined? Would it be ok for a black woman in your class to tell a white man "so says a white man of privilege?" Like I said, as alleged in a federal complaint, OSU has tolerated far worse. And let's go a little further, would it be ok for a black judge to say to a white victim who says "the defendant could have chosen to live a law-abiding life": "so says a white man of privilege?" Would it be ok for a black prof to say that to a white student? This isn't "screaming racism"--this is identifying racism. It's not a big deal on a blog, but it can be a big deal elsewhere. A Supreme Court Justice, as a sitting judge, got away with linking the quality of judging with ethnicity. And the pathetic thing is that she is a bad joke. Posted by: federalist | Jan 26, 2023 1:12:57 PM Can only people who have "walked the walk" call out racism, federalist? My point is that your statement is just a variation on anon's point: lived experience matters and race is part of lived experience. You seem to think racialized experiences are relevant for judging the calling out of racism; anon seems to think race is relevant is for judging statements about the ease of avoiding criminal activity. And my hypo student is saying just a variation on your own comment, so I guess you are laughing a little at your own 11:32:34 AM comment and should ask yourself why you felt compelled to say that your "kids went to public schools in a big city where white students were the distinct minority." Posted by: Doug B | Jan 26, 2023 1:27:35 PM Anyone can call out racism--my point is, as I've said, is that I am impervious to the hypocrisy/overly sensitive smear--you trotted that sensitivity smear out, and it's also a rebuttal to the idea that referencing someone's race to put down their input is weak--if I made the same statement as Bill, and I were sneered at for being a privileged white male, my own personal history would make hash of that nonsense. I am perfectly happy to leave race alone when it comes to attacking/defending a particular idea--but when race is used to judge a comment, then it is more than justified to trot out my experiences with an emphasis on walking the talk when showing how wrong it is. You're attempting to make what I've said on these points more than what they are designed to do. Rhetorically, this allows you to ignore the plain as day point that anon's comment linked Bill's opinion to him being a privileged white male. If he or she thinks that judging statements on the basis of race (which you seem to concede) is acceptable, then that IS racism, and that impulse is not so easily cabined to criticizing blog comments. So Doug, when I was calling out criticism of Judge Sheindlin's decision about stop and frisk (the argument was that black criminality/arrest was at a higher rate--but does a higher rate of black criminality/arrest rate translate over to a higher rate of causing reasonable suspicion by innocent black people--was I being too picayune? Was I overly sensitive? (Bill probably remembers my comment at C & C on that point.) I don't like racism. It's ugly, and it is corrosive as hell. When we feel it is ok to casually sneer at someone's opinion due their race, we lose something. It's not ok. It won't ever be ok, and that it may happen to some white male who can take it doesn't make it ok or less offensive. You can try to miasma your way out of answering my points, but it's pretty weak. Posted by: federalist | Jan 26, 2023 2:05:33 PM Eric A. Hicks -- The truth is the truth regardless of one's experience or perspective. Blacks commit proportionately more violent crime in this country and are proportionately more the victims of violent crime. That is the truth, period. It doesn't change depending on who you are or what your individual experiences might have been. More police and more proactive policing were among the factors that contributed to the big reduction in crime in the 20 years following 1991. Period. When a criminal is incarcerated, he's not in your neighborhood endangering you and your neighbors. Period. This is the state of play regardless of any other consideration. In addition, however, if there were a different truth depending on the speaker, communication itself becomes impossible, because no one can have a stable grasp on what anyone else is asserting. If people want to add context to what they say, it's fine by me. But the concept of subjective and individualized versions of truth -- the concept you seem to endorse -- is nothing but solipsism. Finally, anon's snippy observation that it's "easy for me to say" that crime results from bad choices is just Internet garbage. The question is not whether it's easy to say or hard to say. The only question that counts is whether it's true. Anon is just taking a crack at me because I'm white, which is childish in addition to being, as federalist correctly notes, racist. I don't care about the racism smear; over the years, I've become used to how the Left operates. But the idea that truth can be discounted or dismissed because the race of the speaker makes it "easy for him to say" is false and poisonous. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 26, 2023 2:17:26 PM federalist says: "You're attempting to make what I've said on these points more than what they are designed to do." Perhaps, but that's because I see your comments as quite comparable to anon's in terms of how debatable statements should be evaluated (except you have attached the blunderbuss epitaph "racism" to what anon said and asked for censorship all while repeatedly conceding one's "own personal history" is directly relevant to evaluating statements about racial issues). As I see it, federalist, you are proudly and repeatedly asserting that your "own personal history" can and should influence how we assess your comments. But you attacked anon simply for suggesting that Bill's personal history can and should influence how we assess his comments. Can you not see the hypocrisy in saying over and over that your experience with race and class is rightly part of how we should judge what you say, but that it racism for another person to suggest that race and class is rightly part of how we should judge what others say? Key point is we are in this context talking about experience and opinions ("how easy it is to avoid criminal activity"), not clear factual statements. Do you really think how easy it is to avoid crime is the same for everyone and/or that everyone has the same opinion on that point? Because experience and opinions are often subjective are often influenced by "personal history," I think it better to own up to and address that reality than to try to avoid conversation about what folks really think on these matters (or about what should be rightly called a fact/truth and what is a matter of opinion). Posted by: Doug B | Jan 26, 2023 2:53:42 PM Doug and federalist -- I said, "Avoiding crime just isn't that hard. Four easy steps, really: Stay clear of dangerous drugs, don't steal stuff, be straight with the people you encounter, and resolve your gripes without violence. It's not that hard." Anon's response to this was, in toto, "Says a white man of privilege." She (assuming it's a she) doesn't say it was false. She doesn't even suggest it was false. She provides no reasons to think it was false. Indeed she provides no reasons for anything. Her only "response" was, "Says a white man of privilege." It's possible that she's too stupid to understand that white men of privilege say true things zillions of times a day. But very few people are that stupid. It's more likely by far that she just doesn't like what I said, but has no real argument to make against it, so she settles for a crack at my being "white" and "privileged." Several things to notice here. The first is that she successfully hijacked the conversation away from the fact that crime is indeed easy to avoid for a person of normal morals. She thus diverts the discussion from something that's actually important about sentencing and channels it to irrelevant personal characteristics of a commenter (me). That should tell you something about her faith in her non-existent argument. Does it? The second thing to notice is the implied deficit of being "white" or "privileged." But she makes no ARGUMENT that either of those things is bad. Which is just as well, since neither of them is. But she takes a crack anyway. Why is that? The third thing to notice is that she's disappeared. A drive by, race-oriented smear and then, BOOM, all gone. My goodness. Doug, I don't think you should kick her off -- indeed, as I've noted, I think it's wonderfully useful to have childish, nasty Leftists strut their stuff here -- but could you tell me what of intellectual value this adds? Because I'm not getting it. For all her comment shows, she's just an empty-headed smear artist who stays anonymous for good reason. But not, Doug, a reason you should value or defend. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 26, 2023 3:20:17 PM I didn't concede that---my point is that my experiences should insulate me from the slings and arrows of anon and his or her ilk--people who think like anon cannot think of me merely as a privileged white guy. It's just a shield. Should get people like anon to think twice before their blithe dismissal. I think I've made this point a number of times. Otherwise, I am more than content to just let my arguments do the talking. I don't care if it is easier for some than others to avoid crime (well not quite)--it's everyone's obligation to avoid victimizing others. Posted by: federalist | Jan 26, 2023 3:24:14 PM anon has not disappeared. Nor is she "too stupid." Nor is she an "empty headed smear artist." Anon does note how upset every white male becomes by the term "white privilege." Hit a nerve? Mr. Otis writes: "Avoiding crime just isn't that hard. Four easy steps, really: Stay clear of dangerous drugs, don't steal stuff, be straight with the people you encounter, and resolve your gripes without violence. It's not that hard." When you are a black kid without a father raised by a mother who tries to survive by cleaning houses, and who becomes addicted to drugs and prostitutes herself, and whose friends join gangs because there is no work and no hope, "avoiding crime" is indeed "that hard." And "resolving gripes" without violence is indeed "that hard." Like I say, easy for white privileged folks to say "not that hard." Posted by: anon | Jan 26, 2023 4:17:17 PM As I think I have already said, Bill, I read anon's comment as an observation that it is not that hard for a white man of privilege to avoid criminal activity than for some other people. She might actually mean that it is easier for a white man of privilege to avoid getting CAUGHT for criminal activity, and your previously referenced discussion of rampant drug activity at Stanford Law and Wall Street and Hollywood would certainly seem to bolster that "fact" since few persons with that pedigree are subject to criminal sanction for that drug activity. But, technically, you were speaking about criminal activity, not who gets caught. That, it turn, leads me to wonder whether you think it equally easy for someone who is raised around drugs and violence to avoid drugs and violence as someone who isn't. You say these issues are matters of "fact" so I am eager to here the basis for your "facts" and if you think other might see these "facts" differently based on lived experiences? federalist, seemingly is someone who may see the facts of crime avoidance differently, though I am not entirely sure what he means by the statement "I don't care if it is easier for some than others to avoid crime (well not quite)." Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 26, 2023 4:32:20 PM Decide all of a sudden to make another appearance, anon? How gracious of you. "Anon does note how upset every white male becomes by the term 'white privilege.'" You don't know and have no way of knowing what "every white man" thinks, or even just a tiny percentage of white men, so your grandiose statement is patently false on its face. Not that this has ever stopped you. "When you are a black kid without a father raised by a mother..." Hey wait, you Lefties have been bellowing for years that single parenthood is merely an "alternative lifestyle" and that criticizing it is just bigoted, Puritanical stuff from, ummmmmmmmm, married white males. Having second thoughts? Do tell. "...who becomes addicted to drugs and prostitutes herself..." Oh gads, anon, have you missed all the libertarian wisdom?? Drugs are an expression of freedom and prostitution should be legalized. Are you, like, bourgeoisie or something? Oh dear! "...and whose friends join gangs because there is no work and no hope." You can't walk one block in the city and not see "Help Wanted" signs all over the place. Work has seldom been easier to find, especially for entry level jobs. And the reason these thugs join gangs is that it's easier to get money by stealing it from some helpless old lady, or selling smack to a 14 year-old, than by working a regular job. It's not lack of hope. It's greed and a me-first attitude -- as if you don't already know this. "And "resolving gripes" without violence is indeed 'that hard.'" Ahhhhh yes, an apologist for violence. That's so wonderful! But if a point be made of it, the huge majority of people, black and white alike, resolve their gripes WITHOUT violence, as you full well know. The small minority who don't are bullies, thinking they'll get their way because they're bigger and stronger than the person they're attacking. Oh, and BTW, wanna tell us your name and background, Ms. anon?? No? Still too yellow? Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 26, 2023 4:47:39 PM Doug -- "As I think I have already said, Bill, I read anon's comment as an observation that it is not that hard for a white man of privilege to avoid criminal activity than for some other people." How 'bout letting her speak for herself rather than re-casting her words in a way you think is more defensible? But if a point be made of it: Temptation afflicts us all, white and black, young and old. What enables human beings to avoid it is not their surroundings. It's their conscience -- something that, oddly, never seems to get discussed or even acknowledged in discussion of crime. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 26, 2023 4:56:08 PM Bill, are you asserting "surroundings" have nothing to do with criminal activity or how hard it is to avoid criminal activity? Is that what you are claiming to be "fact"? Do you have support for this "fact"? Do you acknowledge that there is a lot of research indicating "surroundings" influence and impact criminal activity? Indeed, isn't one underlying theory of "broken windows policing," which I think you support, that disorder (e.g., broken windows) helps generate and sustain more serious crime? Posted by: Doug B | Jan 26, 2023 5:13:01 PM Doug -- This is just classic you: "Bill, are you asserting that "surroundings" have nothing to do with criminal activity or how hard it is to avoid criminal activity?" Is that what I said? No -- it's the formulation you manufactured and then tried to stick in my mouth as something I said. If you want to know what I said, it's not that hard. Quote me. "Do you acknowledge that there is a lot of research indicating 'surroundings' have a lot to do with criminal activity?" I acknowledge that you continue to refuse even to use the word "conscience," the better to makes excuses for rapes and muggings and the other atrocities criminals commit in the Holy Name of their "surroundings." Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 26, 2023 5:31:03 PM Once again, Bill, you are eager to avoid discussing basic questions about the implications of what you say. But I am quite used to you not providing support for so many of your assertions, so I am not surprised. And this has nothing to do with quoting, since I quoted you at least a half-dozen times asking for support about the claim you made about sentencing "from the Founding" and that likewise went without response. But, if you want to talk about conscience, sure. Do you think surroundings influence how humans develop a conscience? Do you think a conscience is fixed or can it evolve or develop based on education and experiences? And do you think these issues surrounding the nature and development of a conscience are matters of fact or of opinion? Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 26, 2023 5:42:21 PM Doug -- Glad that you've now discovered "conscience," the conspicuously missing ingredient in the defense bar's view of culpability. I look forward to more of it. Perhaps we can get something to replace the defense bar's anthem -- everybody's sick, nobody's bad. (An anthem I've noticed is subject to cancellation without notice when we're talking about Donald Trump and January 6 defendants). "Do you think surroundings influence how humans develop a conscience?" You bet. Surroundings are not the whole thing, but are important, yes indeed. Whether you have parents who are models, and who set standards you will be expected to follow without a bunch of excuse-making, counts for a lot. On the other hand, you have 18 years -- not a short time -- to mold your behavior, and after that, YOU are responsible, not your surroundings. "Do you think a conscience is fixed or can it evolve or develop based on education and experiences?" It evolves based on those things, and also based on introspection and an inner sense of rightness. I have seen this in children again and again. Human beings do have an inner compass; if they didn't, we'd all still be back in the jungle. Our moral surroundings are the most important ones, and they didn't just fall out of the sky. "And do you think these issues surrounding the nature and development of a conscience are matters of fact or of opinion?" Because some facts are hard ascertain (for example, facts about childhood development), does not mean they're not facts, or that one assertion stands on an equal footing with the next assertion. It just means that care and modesty is due in declaring a fact -- particularly from academics, who are wont brusquely to declare the authoritativeness of whatever "facts" they're publishing on SSRN. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 26, 2023 7:45:58 PM Thanks for the answers, Bill. You note important links between surroundings and a conscience, and so you would likely acknowledge that how easy/hard it will be to develop a crime-desistence conscience will be shaped by one's surroundings/upbringing. In turn, if you recognize that race/gender/class can often impact one's surroundings/upbringing, then you can see how one can readily be eager to note that race/gender/class may often impact how easy/hard it will be to avoid criminality. That is how I read anon's comment, and now it seems you agree -- though you are eager to focus the discussion on (hard-to-ascertain?) claims about the development of a conscience. So, I guess we are all roughly on the same page, unless I am misunderstanding your notion of conscience. Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 26, 2023 8:16:34 PM Mr.Otis, I am glad that anon spoke up. There are certain aspects of what she said that agree with and some that I disagree. For what it's worth, I don't think she's a racist at all. Additionally, if acknowledging that there is a such thing as universal truths and truths that exist other than my own makes me a solipsist, so be it. You surely do fit the more of that which you claim me to be, but that's your problem---not mine. I simply see that our communication on certain topics will be virtually non-existent because I, unlike you, can understand 2 fundamental truths about America: (1) This country was founded on crimes against humanity for which there has never been any accountability; and (2) Black males disproportionately commit more crime. I hear you often focus on the latter without ever mentioning anything about the former. In the words of William Faulkner, the past is never dead. It's not even past. Your type (yes, I used the word 'type' which I define, infra) highlights the present without ever acknowledging the correlations with the past. This is why I sent the speech by Dr.King. You constantly fail to acknowledge the 'what' that exists in this country and rather (more conveniently and more ideologically) and become fixated on the 'who' because it fits within the narratives that your 'type' puppets. And I must take this time to note, that you sure sound like a "Right-Wing" ideologue to me. You are no different than the many liberals I have encountered who think they know more about a given condition than those that are in that condition--you all are 2 sides of the same coin. Posted by: Eric A. Hicks | Jan 26, 2023 10:27:06 PM Doug -- Just saw the story below in today's NYT. If you or anon or defendergirl wants to tell me that this guy JUST HAD TO DO IT because of his surroundings and upbringing, feel free. But I'm telling you he did it out of bloodthirsty hate. Contrary to the moral vacation the defense bar believes is its mission, people make choices. The one this guy made earned him a death penalty prosecution EVEN FROM THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/nyregion/saipov-convicted-bike-path-truck-attack.html?campaign_id=57&emc=edit_ne_20230126&instance_id=83745&nl=evening-briefingi_id=171086462&segment_id=123609&te=1&user_id=97e470aaaf9cc8014c5c97aebe4559c9 Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 27, 2023 12:01:25 AM Eric A. Hicks -- You are perfectly entitled to think that Amerika stinks. You're hardly alone. And you're right that I don't wallow in the real and perceived sins you attribute to our country. Nor do I think that they justify crime, by blacks, whites, or anyone else. You are also entitled to think that there's no such thing as truth, but only your truth, my truth and the truth of the man behind the tree. I would only note that you express no such doubt or hesitation in your unequivocal condemnation of the country in which you have prospered. As for my "type" -- what's that, exactly? Stanford grad? Former federal prosecutor? Law professor? White person? Someone who thinks the USA is a force for good in the world? Someone who thinks adults make choices and are responsible for them? Guilty as charged to all such offenses, Your Honor. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 27, 2023 12:14:48 AM Bill, you create so many straw men I worry there is a fire hazard every where you go. I certainly have never said, nor do I think a sensible person could think I was trying to say, that a person's surroundings and upbringing means that they "JUST HAD TO" commit a crime. Rather, as the "broken windows" philosophy argues, surroundings can have an impact. I do not think people are compelled to do anything by their surroundings and upbringing, but I do think they are certainly influenced by surroundings and upbringing. Of course, you have already said that you believe the same thing, which is why this discussion has gotten so silly and why you are force to invent silly straw-man arguments rather than admit that we are on the same page (though we certainly have different views on how the law should respond to the realities we both recognize). I am disinclined to take this much further, especially because I wish you would spend your time trying to find some support for your claims about sentencing practice "from the Founding." Here I think you are just inventing facts, rather than just inventing straw men, but I am sincerely hoping you have some support for your assertion. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 27, 2023 12:35:50 AM Wow. Just wow. Bill makes a point--don't commit crimes. Anon responds by attacking and using race to do so. Notwithstanding Doug's feeble attempt to say that anon's comment really wasn't etc.--the gist is quite clear, and anon herself ups the ante with the "strike a nerve" nonsense. The "white privilege" meme is pernicious--it gives rise to the idea that somehow whites have to "check their privilege", learn how to be "allies" and all sorts of other nonsense. I reject that out of hand. Yeah, there are people who have it easier in life than others. So what? That fact has been around since the dawn of human history. And while it is possible in my mind to mitigate certain sentencing responses based on a young criminal's upbringing, the categorical imperative of not committing violent crime obtains. The inescapable fact is that anon has used race to attack a point of view. While it's not such a big deal in a blog foodfight, it is a big deal in other contexts. Would it be appropriate to respond to a white crime victim who wants the hammer dropped on some criminal by saying that it was his or her "white privilege talking"? Would it be appropriate for a college professor to openly refer to the speaker's race and say "easy for you to say." The answer, of course, is no. However, and I note Doug's silence on these points (as well as the lawsuit filed against OSU--a lawsuit that has disgusting allegations). Olu Stevens attacked a white family that was a victim of a heinous crime--were they privileged? And there were absolutely no consequences to "Judge" Stevens. And here Doug, you see how my walk the talk comments come in--one tactic that people have when they want to yap about "white privilege" (or the even more pernicious "white silence equals violence") is that when you bring up examples of non-privileged white people, you get accused of pointing out a speck, when there is a log. I don't care for any of it. I can tell you this--if some professor dared refer to my race in class when discussing my point of view, there would be serious consequences. Posted by: federalist | Jan 27, 2023 8:51:10 AM You give away the game, federalist, when noting "there are people who have it easier in life than others." Bill did not say "don't commit crimes," he said avoiding crime is "not that hard." In that context, I read anon's comment as a statement that, generally speaking, "white men of privilege" are likely to find it "easier in life than others" to avoid getting involved with drugs and property crimes and violence. You could have debated the substance of that notion, but instead you cried "racism" and called for censorship. You are certainly not the first, nor will you be the last, to cry "racism" and to seek censorship regarding the expression of ideas that you find concerning or provocatively articulated. But, as Bill notes, talk of race can distract or distort from other matters (though it has these blog comments going strong), and assertions of "racism" and calls for censorship are even more of an impediment to robust and open discussions. And it is because you were so quick to cry "racism" and call for censorship that I am disinclined to try to work through the range of different hypotheticals that you think anon's comments raise (obviously classroom discourse and blog debate are VERY different). Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 27, 2023 9:56:06 AM I don't "give away the game"--by remarking that some have life by the you know what . . . . And it does not follow that the unremarkable fact that some have life easier than others justifies casting aspersions on a racial basis. That's obvious, and it's telling that you have no answers to what I've raised. Anon criticized a statement based on the race of the speaker. And then she comes back with a "strike a nerve" garbage. There is no real substance to debate--don't commit crime is good solid advice for everyone on the socio-economic ladder, and the "easy for you to say, white guy" is a sneer, not a "statement that, generally speaking, . . . ." It IS racist also, as it links criticism to the speaker's race. Just like the "wise [sic] Latina['s] comment. Posted by: federalist | Jan 27, 2023 10:21:50 AM Bill Otis, Thank you for the humor on this Friday morning---it was needed. Regarding your post, I will invoke the spirit of James Baldwin. I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. To correct you, I don't think the country stinks at all. America is the greatest country on this planet and I love her. Thus, like Baldwin, I reserve the right to criticize her when I know that she is capable of so much better---notwithstanding any personal prosperity that I have had. This country---which includes my countrywomen and countrymen, have undoubtedly done things to make the world a better place and for that I eternally grateful. I am proud of all of my family members (and others) who have fought to preserve this Union. I am proud of country that has produced the likes of Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Viola Liuzzo, Medgar Evers, etc. It's a testament of not only what America is, but what she can be. And it is in this spirit of knowing what she can be that I will continuously criticize her. Another Baldwin quote is appropriate in this instance: "History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations. Personally, I have no problem at all with your stance on crime and the rule of law. Perhaps, if we had more people from the ilk of Bill Otis---that is, those dedicated to the rule of law , who are anti-crime and pro-incarceration---the needless and barbaric slaughter and genocide of Native Americans could have been prevented as could the murder and enslavement (not to mention the many other unspeakable crimes) towards African-Americans. But we did not arrest and incarcerate our way out of that era of lawlessness where these crimes were committed against humanity with impunity. So why is that the only viable solution now? Then again, I get it---there is no relation to those who slaughtered Natives or African-Americans and committed innumerable crimes against humanity in the name of America and those who foolishly commit street crime daily. There can't be any relation because to do that would suggest that the shame and disgust that we reserve for those contemporary committers of crime must also be reserved for those who have done far worse historically in founding this country and I think that, my friend, would tell us more about America than many of us (possibly, including you) would care to know. Have you ever seriously questioned yourself as to why the statistics on the reservations and inner-cities are what they are or wonder if it is a coincidence that these groups bore the brunt of the crimes committed to allow this nation we love to prosper? Then again, I get it: In the worldview of Bill Otis, it is permissible for the authors of such devastation to be innocent. When you were a federal prosecutor, how many times did you stand before the Court and argue that the defendant's 'history and characteristics' under 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) warranted a certain punishment for the defendant's contemporaneous actions? But yet, the 'history and characteristics' of a country should be completely ignored from a present perspective. Finally, I end this message as I started it---in the words of Baldwin: The crime of which you discover slowly you are guilty is not so much that you are aware, which is bad enough, but that other people see that you are and cannot bear to watch it, because it testifies to the fact that they are not." When you used the words, "guilty as charged," this is what came to my mind. Just know that if adults were truly responsible for the all of the choices they made, Bill Otis and Eric A. Hicks would likely not be in a position to call America home. Posted by: Eric A. Hicks | Jan 27, 2023 11:01:30 AM "Personally, I have no problem at all with your stance on crime and the rule of law. Perhaps, if we had more people from the ilk of Bill Otis---that is, those dedicated to the rule of law , who are anti-crime and pro-incarceration---the needless and barbaric slaughter and genocide of Native Americans could have been prevented as could the murder and enslavement (not to mention the many other unspeakable crimes) towards African-Americans. But we did not arrest and incarcerate our way out of that era of lawlessness where these crimes were committed against humanity with impunity. So why is that the only viable solution now?" Drivel. Posted by: federalist | Jan 27, 2023 11:42:29 AM OMG OMG, I apologize to anon and Doug. "White privilege" does exist, and we white folks need to check our privilege. Let's start with this guy: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/01/back-inside-the-laptop.php Posted by: federalist | Jan 27, 2023 11:44:48 AM Are you saying (or implying), federalist, that some privileged white guys seem to get away with a lot of suspect stuff? It sure seems like you are casting aspersions on someone based in part on the fact he is a "white man of privilege." Hmm, I wonder if anon might soon be eager to accuse you of "racism" and demand your comment be censored. :-) Jokes aside, for the record, you keep misrepresenting both what Bill said and what anon did. Bill did not say "don't commit crime" and anon did not "criticize" Bill saying "don't commit crime." Bill said avoiding crime is "not that hard" and anon commented on the fact that this statement was said by "a white man of privilege." Especially when accusations of racism are being made, I think it especially important to keep the basic facts clear (whatever you might want to imply about those facts). Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 27, 2023 2:24:37 PM Come on, Doug--"easy to say" is criticism in the form of snark. It's an attack based on race--which is why it wouldn't be tolerated in the classroom--although given what has been alleged to have occurred at OSU in a federal lawsuit, I am not so sure. As for Hunter, I am just casting aspersions--he's a dissolute and corrupt individual. I wonder if anon would think that Bogdan Vechirko is privileged. Posted by: federalist | Jan 27, 2023 2:41:38 PM Doug -- "You give away the game, federalist, when noting "there are people who have it easier in life than others." Bill did not say "don't commit crimes," he said avoiding crime is "not that hard." It isn't, as you know. This is not just why you and federalist and I aren't criminals. It's why the huge majority of minorities and poor people ALSO aren't criminals. The relatively small number who are simply make malicious choices the big majority, having greater care for their fellow citizens, decided against. But even if it were hard to avoid committing crime, you have to do it anyway, as federalist correctly notes. Many of the obligations of citizenship are hard -- paying boatloads in taxes and serving in the military, particularly in time of war. Too bad. You do it anyway. And if you don't do it, there should be consequences, not excuses. (With all apology to the criminal defense bar, otherwise known as America's Excuse Factory). "In that context, I read anon's comment as a statement that, generally speaking, "white men of privilege" are likely to find it "easier in life than others" to avoid getting involved with drugs and property crimes and violence. You could have debated the substance of that notion, but instead you cried "racism" and called for censorship." It's your pal anon who could have debated the substance, right? Did she? No, not a word. Instead, she just dismissed my argument because I'm a disgusting "white man of privilege" (as are you, and as if white men of privilege couldn't reach correct conclusions simply because they're white, which was the only thing resembling a "reason" she offered). "You are certainly not the first, nor will you be the last, to cry "racism" and to seek censorship regarding the expression of ideas that you find concerning or provocatively articulated." Censorship has become the brand name of Wokeism, as you can't help knowing. When was the last time the Young Republicans shouted down or harassed or threatened a campus speaker? Private blogs like this one don't have the same obligations. Many of them censor and yet more have, regrettably from my point of view, eliminated comments sections altogether. But something else and more revealing is going on here. Q: Why has the discussion been turned toward the alleged moral deficiencies of federalist and me? A: It's not to be nasty. There's a more designed purpose -- to divert attention from the moral deficiencies OF CRIMINALS. Remember the subject of this entry? I wouldn't blame you if you don't, since anon hijacked to thread to discuss my terrible, awful, really bad whiteness. The subject was the fabulous fraudster Elizabeth Holmes. But precious little has been said about her (fraud being no big deal to the defense bar), while lots and lots of race-linked bile has been poured on federalist. When you're having trouble going after the comment, you can always go after the commenter! Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 27, 2023 2:43:47 PM Bill, I couldn't have said it better myself. Posted by: federalist | Jan 27, 2023 3:29:42 PM Professor Berman is a distinguished professor for good reason: He is perceptive and inciteful. He correctly understands my comment as stating nothing more than "generally speaking white men of privilege are likely to find it easier in life than others" to avoid getting involved with drugs, property crimes, and violence. Posted by: anon | Jan 27, 2023 3:31:52 PM I actually do not think I am especially perceptive and insightful here, anon, I just focused on what you actually said rather than to react with cries of racism and seeking censorship of anothers speech. Notably, your comment made no mention whatsoever of any moral deficiencies or call anyone "disgusting" or "terrible, awful, really bad" (or say "easy to say" which federalist mysteriously quotes from some unclear source). And yet federalist and Bill seem so very quick (almost eager) to take offense at your statement of fact (as Bill is a white man of privilege). I generally do not think of statements of fact as racism, but maybe your statement is really one of those micro aggressions I have heard so much about. Perhaps Bill and federalism can recommend some sensitivity training that I can take so I can better understand what they view as censor-worthy racism. I seemingly dont get it, though maybe that is why they will encourage me to get some sensitivity training. Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 27, 2023 4:16:47 PM anon -- "Professor Berman is a distinguished professor for good reason: He is perceptive and inciteful." I couldn't agree more. He incites me all the time. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 27, 2023 5:26:33 PM Doug -- I never said anon is a racist or accused her of racism. I said her dismissal of my observation about avoiding committing crime is race-linked, which it unarguably is. It also lacks any stated reason to doubt what I said beyond a reference to my race and supposed privilege. I have noted now more than once that privileged white men say true things thousands of times a day, so simply to note their race and privilege is hardly to make an argument for dismissing their conclusions. Crime is easy to avoid. You know it and she knows it. This is the reason the huge majority of black people (and white people) don't commit crime. Those who choose crime are doing exactly that -- making a choice. She apparently spends her time trying to see that they never become accountable for it, which is why she has to pretend it's really their surroundings and not their decisions that mostly tell the tale. Finally, as if on cue, you make my point that anon succeeded, with plenty of help from you, in shifting the thread from any analysis of the convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes to the race and economic status of federalist and me -- which is none of her business in addition to being irrelevant to "Sentencing Law and Policy." Still, I freely let anon know who I am and what my background is, while she refuses and remains in the shadows. There's a reason for that, but I prefer to refrain from speculating about what it is. Maybe she could put up her client list to give us a clue. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 27, 2023 5:44:49 PM Oh good grief. Snarky "easy for you to say" criticism tied up to the race of the speaker--but-all-I was trying to do was point out the speaker's privilege. Nice. Posted by: federalist | Jan 27, 2023 6:10:55 PM First point with more to come: federalist called anons comment racism (and said it should be censored). Do you endorse or reject federalists cry of racism with respect to anons initial comment? Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 27, 2023 6:11:20 PM Doug -- I said anon's snippy comments about me were race-linked, which you conspicuously can't and don't deny. Beyond that, I'm not going to contribute to this thread's interest, which is becoming an obsession, in focusing on persons (conservatives, that is), rather than ideas. That's how the smearing of my wife got started. It was disgusting and reprehensible, and I'm not going down or near that path. Here's the IDEA: Crime is easy to avoid for both blacks and whites. Anon knows this and so do you. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 27, 2023 8:52:08 PM Bill: from the get-go, I have focused on the fact that federalist called anons initial comment racism (and said it should be censored). That's the idea that has me engaged in this thread, namely whether the comment merits that highly-pejorative label. I did not think so, and I now surmise you do not endorse this particular cry of "racism." 'nuff said. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 27, 2023 9:16:43 PM Doug -- The gist of anon's comment was that I am unable to discern whether crime is easy to avoid because I'm white. Her words were not racist in my opinion, but that idea is racist, because its core is that I'm intellectually handicapped because of my race. More importantly, her idea is false. To try once again to return to a subject relevant to sentencing: As I said before, you and she and I all know that crime is easy to avoid, which is why the great majority of people of all races avoid it. Anon refuses to admit this because admitting it would make her job of manufacturing excuses for hooligans more difficult. Diversions into personal attacks on federalist are irrelevant, unworthy and boring. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 27, 2023 11:36:10 PM Bill, I see a significant and important difference between asserting that someone is "intellectually handicapped" because of race/gender/class and saying that someone's perspective on the world is influenced by race/gender/class. I share your view that the former is false, but I consider the latter to be true because race/gender/class is a part of every individual's lived experience. More to the point I certainly do not think a comment suggesting another's perspective is influenced by matters of race/gender/class amounts to "racism" that needs to be censored. You seemingly found the "gist" (or the "core") of anon's comment troublesome. I likewise often find the "gist" of a lot of comments here troublesome, but that is a lot different than making claims about "racism" (and suggesting censorship). And I am certainly not making, nor asking you to make, any kind of "personal attack" on federalist. I simply asked whether you endorsed or rejected federalists cry of racism with respect to anons initial comment. I do not think answering that question calls for any personal comment, let alone an attack. But, as I have said before, I understand that many people are much more sensitive than I am when discussion turn to issues of personal identity. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 28, 2023 2:10:14 AM Using the race of the speaker to disparage the viewpoint (and disparagement was intended--the comment drips with "easy for you to say" dismissiveness) is racism. Posted by: federalist | Jan 30, 2023 12:56:22 PM Federalist, since learning that you believe Trump was "a great" president, I don't trust your judgment on any matter. Posted by: mary | Jan 30, 2023 3:26:21 PM "mary" (or whoever you actually are) -- If you have some high educational attainment, professional standing, broad experience or recognized achievement that would constitute at least the beginnings of a reason that federalist might care about your opinion of him, that's one thing. Instead, you're nothing more than a name (very likely a fake name) on the Internet. Why on earth should he care? Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 30, 2023 4:37:47 PM Trump made all the right enemies. LOL. Posted by: federalist | Jan 30, 2023 5:41:21 PM Mr. Otis, are you the attorney for federalist? Posted by: mary | Jan 30, 2023 6:46:47 PM Nope. Trump was a great president: (1) Armed Ukraine when Obama did not. (2) Middle East peace, 'nuff said. (3) Whacking Soleimani (4) Warp Speed (5) Spectacular judicial appointments (6) Renegotiated NAFTA (7) Drilling (8) Waxed Wagner Group in Syria (9) Opposed Nord-Stream 2 (10) Jawboned Allies to cover more of defense needs (11) Began the arming of Taiwan (12) Changed the debate on China (13) Border Stability Posted by: federalist | Jan 30, 2023 7:45:20 PM Doug--I think it beyond doubt that if I had said in a class something like "Qualified immunity has some basis in reality given the ever-changing and prolix rules of the game." and someone said, "Let's all note that opinion is being spoken by a privileged white male," there would be serious issues. Don't see how a blog post is really much different. Posted by: federalist | Jan 30, 2023 7:51:22 PM federalist, students do not get to speak in class behind a nom de plume so it is obvious beyond doubt that blog commentary is far different than classroom discussions. There are too many other obvious distinctions between classroom discussions and blog comments to list them all here (though one is that I have never had one student cry "racism" and call for the censorship of another student). Beyond the many class/blog differences, your analogy is also substantively off because your comment is about legal doctrine, not about lived experience. I trust you would think, in response to your QI statement, that it could be appropriate for someone to respond "Let's all note that opinion is being spoken by someone who has worked as a police officer" (or "who has worked for a law firm representing police officers"). In the end, federalist, I prefer commentary focused on the substance of opinions, not on the identity of the speaker (which, of course, is why your "'rat judges" talk reflects poorly). But lots of opinions are impacted (and assessed) by lived experiences, a point you fundamentally concede when you talk up your own "personal history." If and when folks bring lived experiences into a discussion, I hope they will do so in a respectful and productive way. But shouts of "racism" and calls for censorship do not seem to me to be a useful way to respond even if they do not do so to your satisfaction. Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 30, 2023 11:08:38 PM mary (or whatever your name actually is) -- "Mr. Otis, are you the attorney for federalist?" He doesn't need me and you can't afford me. Posted by: Bill Otis | Jan 31, 2023 3:29:18 AM Post a comment 3Q Discover high potential talents by using the 3Q indicators 24.2 36.24 826.63 25.69 125.49 35.66 UNIQLO4.5% 2.8% 26% 304 University Hill 206 1090 ChatGPT 90%AI 18% 16.57 817% 356 1iPhone 50 AIGPUTwitter AI ChatGPT 100 0.5% 1.11%53% TikTokIFC240 4% 154 CPI 16.61 2.34 DES MOINES Iowans on the food assistance program known as SNAP would have far fewer food purchasing options not being able to use the benefits to buy meat, nuts or canned fruits and vegetables under legislation proposed by Republican lawmakers. However, the bill may be amended eventually to include more foods, Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley said. For the time being, the legislation as written which has 39 House Republican sponsors, including Grassley would limit SNAP program users to only foods eligible for users of WIC, the nutrition assistance program for expectant mothers. That means SNAP users would be limited to purchasing WIC-approved foods like milk, juice, cereal, bread, rice, pasta, fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs and yogurt. But SNAP users would no longer be able to purchase with the aid many other foods, including meat, poultry, fish, canned fruits and vegetables and items commonly used in food preparation like butter, flour, spices and seasonings, sugar, and vegetable oil, and ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and other condiments. In addition to food banks and anti-hunger advocacy groups, among those registered as against the bill, according to state lobbying records, is Tyson Foods, the worlds second-largest processor of chicken, beef and pork with meatpacking plants in Iowa. Grassley said the legislation was designed to ensure accountability in Iowas assistance programs, like SNAP, to make sure they are sustainable. The food assistance program is funded by the federal government and jointly administered by the federal and state governments. According to federal data, Iowas share of the programs administrative costs in the 2020 budget year was $22 million, and its average administrative costs of $27.84 per case per month was 18th-lowest among U.S. states. Grassley said the legislation, which was one of 13 bills published by House Republicans as their priorities, will work through the legislative process and could be amended. Any legislation that would change Iowas SNAP program would require federal approval. Our goal is not just to eliminate swaths of things, Grassley said in response to a question about cutting meat and other categories of food out of the SNAP program. But I think there needs to be some level of accountability, and make sure that theyre really things that should qualify. If you dont lead a healthy lifestyle, that leads to more use of the (government-funded) services. The legislation, House File 3, contains other provisions that would add more levels of oversight and reporting, which proponents of such proposals say is needed to limit fraud. Critics of such requirements say they are extraneous because there is little fraud in the system now, and adding hurdles could lead to rejecting individuals who are in need of the assistance. Such proposals have passed out of the Iowa Senate in recent years, but have not been passed out of the Iowa House. Luke Elzinga, an advocate for anti-poverty policies and policy and advocacy manager of the nonprofit Des Moines Area Religious Council, criticized the legislation and said it comes at a time when food banks and food pantries in Iowa are seeing record numbers of people, while the number of Iowans enrolled in SNAP has been falling for years. Iowas average monthly SNAP participation of roughly 279,000 in the 2022 budget year was the lowest since 2008, according to federal data. (The bill) is a misguided and harmful bill that would severely limit food choices for Iowans on SNAP, kick people off the SNAP program, and increase hunger and food insecurity in our state, Elzinga said. There are a lot of Iowans struggling to put food on the table right now. We should be exploring ways to expand access to SNAP, not creating more barriers to receive assistance. The bill has not yet been assigned a subcommittee hearing, which is the first step in the legislative process. LONDON Google is laying off 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its workforce, becoming the latest tech company to trim staff as the economic boom that the industry rode during the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who also leads its parent company Alphabet, informed staff Friday at the Silicon Valley giant about the cuts in an email that was also posted on the company's news blog. It is the company's biggest-ever round of layoffs and adds to tens of thousands of other job losses recently announced by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and other tech companies as they tighten their belts amid a darkening outlook for the industry. Just this month, there have been at least 48,000 job cuts announced by major companies in the sector. "Over the past two years we've seen periods of dramatic growth," Pichai wrote. "To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today." Pichai said the layoffs reflect Google's "rigorous review" of its operations. The jobs being eliminated "cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions," he said. He added he was "deeply sorry" for the layoffs. Regulatory filings illustrate how Google's workforce swelled to nearly 187,000 people by late last year from 119,000 at the end of 2019. Pichai said that Google, founded nearly a quarter of a century ago, was "bound to go through difficult economic cycles." "These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities," he wrote. He cited the company's investments in artificial intelligence as an area of opportunity. There will be job cuts in the U.S. and in other unspecified countries, according to Pichai's letter. Tech companies that "not long ago were the darlings of the stock market" have been forced to freeze hiring and cut jobs in preparation for an economic downturn, said a note from Victoria Scholar, an analyst with U.K.-based Interactive Investor. "Digital spending is suffering, and ad revenues are falling with it," she wrote. Just this week, Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts, or nearly 5% of its workforce. Amazon said this month it is cutting 18,000 jobs, though that's a fraction of its 1.5 million workforce, while business software maker Salesforce is laying off about 8,000 employees, or 10% of the total. Last fall Facebook parent Meta announced it would shed 11,000 positions, or 13% of its workers. Elon Musk slashed jobs at Twitter after after he acquired the social media company last fall. Smaller players are making job cuts, as well. U.K.-based cybersecurity firm Sophos laid off 450 employees, or 10% of its global workforce. Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase cut 20% of its workforce, about 950 jobs, in its second round of layoffs in less than a year. Employment in the U.S. has been resilient despite signs of a slowing economy, and another 223,000 jobs were added in December. Yet the tech sector grew exceptionally fast over the last several years due to increased demand as employees began to work remotely. CEOs of a number of companies have taken blame for growing too fast. Yet those same companies, even after the latest round of job cuts, remain much larger than they were before the economic boom from the pandemic began. "I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here," Pichai wrote. While the tech layoffs are "shocking numbers," their effect on tech industry employment is "nowhere near as bad as what it seems," said John Blevins, an adjunct professor at Cornell University's business school. "These workers who were laid off will readily get new jobs," most likely at smaller tech companies, Blevins said. "They're coming with high credentials from these big firms. That knowledge will be transferred and will actually work to everyone's benefit." In their layoff announcements, both Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the importance of capitalizing on their advances in artificial intelligence technology, reflecting renewed competition between the tech giants sparked by Microsoft's growing partnership with the San Francisco startup OpenAI. Shares of Alphabet Inc., based in Mountain View, California, rose more than 4% Friday. The same devices used to take selfies and type out tweets are being repurposed and commercialized for quick access to information needed for monitoring a patients health. A fingertip pressed against a phones camera lens can measure a heart rate. The microphone, kept by the bedside, can screen for sleep apnea. Even the speaker is being tapped, to monitor breathing using sonar technology. In the best of this new world, the data is conveyed remotely to a medical professional for the convenience and comfort of the patient or, in some cases, to support a clinician without the need for costly hardware. But using smartphones as diagnostic tools is a work in progress, experts say. Although doctors and their patients have found some real-world success in deploying the phone as a medical device, the overall potential remains unfulfilled and uncertain. Smartphones come packed with sensors capable of monitoring a patients vital signs. They can help assess people for concussions, watch for atrial fibrillation, and conduct mental health wellness checks, to name the uses of a few nascent applications. Companies and researchers eager to find medical applications for smartphone technology are tapping into modern phones built-in cameras and light sensors; microphones; accelerometers, which detect body movements; gyroscopes; and even speakers. The apps then use artificial intelligence software to analyze the collected sights and sounds to create an easy connection between patients and physicians. Earning potential and marketability are evidenced by the more than 350,000 digital health products available in app stores, according to a Grand View Research report. Its very hard to put devices into the patient home or in the hospital, but everybody is just walking around with a cellphone that has a network connection, said Dr. Andrew Gostine, CEO of the sensor network company Artisight. Most Americans own a smartphone, including more than 60% of people 65 and over, an increase from just 13% a decade ago, according to the Pew Research Center. The COVID-19 pandemic also pushed people to become more comfortable with virtual care. The applications even reach into disciplines such as optometry and mental health: With the microphone, Canary Speech uses the same underlying technology as Amazons Alexa to analyze patients voices for mental health conditions. The software can integrate with telemedicine appointments and allow clinicians to screen for anxiety and depression using a library of vocal biomarkers and predictive analytics, said Henry OConnell, the companys CEO. Australia-based ResApp Health got FDA clearance last year for its iPhone app that screens for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea by listening to breathing and snoring. SleepCheckRx, which will require a prescription, is minimally invasive compared with sleep studies currently used to diagnose sleep apnea. Those can cost thousands of dollars and require an array of tests. Brightlamps Reflex app is a clinical decision support tool for helping manage concussions and vision rehabilitation, among other things. Using an iPads or iPhones camera, the mobile app measures how a persons pupils react to changes in light. Through machine learning analysis, the imagery gives practitioners data points for evaluating patients. Brightlamp sells directly to health care providers and is being used in more than 230 clinics. Clinicians pay a $400 standard annual fee per account, which is currently not covered by insurance. The Department of Defense has an ongoing clinical trial using Reflex. In some cases, such as with the Reflex app, the data is processed directly on the phone rather than in the cloud, Brightlamp CEO Kurtis Sluss said. By processing everything on the device, the app avoids running into privacy issues, as streaming data elsewhere requires patient consent. But algorithms need to be trained and tested by collecting reams of data, and that is an ongoing process. Researchers, for example, have found that some computer vision applications, like heart rate or blood pressure monitoring, can be less accurate for darker skin. Studies are underway to find better solutions. Small algorithm glitches can also produce false alarms and frighten patients enough to keep widespread adoption out of reach. For example, Apples new car-crash detection feature, available on both the latest iPhone and Apple Watch, was set off when people were riding roller coasters and automatically dialed 911. Were not there yet, said Dr. Eugene Yang, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington. Thats the bottom line. 7 statistics on how women used telehealth during the pandemic 7 statistics on how women have used telehealth during the pandemic Women are more inclined to use telemedicine than men during the pandemic Most women surveyed find telemedicine care comparable to in-person appointments More than a third of women skipped routine check-ups during the COVID-19 pandemic Women ages 50-64 opted for telehealth appointments the most during the pandemic Most women did not use telehealth appointments for coronavirus-related symptoms Patients are less likely to delay care if they have access to telehealth The majority of surveyed women would use telehealth between routine appointments Who has taken the ic out of the party of our fathers? asked John Temple Graves II, a Southern newspaper columnist, in July 1952. Graves had observed speaker after speaker at the recent Republican National Convention call their political foes the Democrat party. This must be their way of reminding us that the Democratic party isnt what it used to be, he averred. Graves was referring to the Republican practice of purposely misnaming the opposition by chopping the last two letters off its name, a habit that, more than 70 years later, not only continues, but according to the Associated Press last year, is on the rise. Advertisement The conservative columnist George Sokolsky may have been on point in 1956 when he wrote, When a political party is led to believe that it can downgrade its opponent by removing an adjectival suffix from its name, it reduces itself to childishness. But instances of the use of the childish ploy have not abated. Witness recent books by conservative writers with titles like Freedom Trumps Socialism: How the Democrat Party is Using Hitlers Playbook to Make America Socialist, The True And Detailed Racist History Of The Democrat Party: 1830-2020, and Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democrats like Harry S. Truman occasionally responded to the Democrat label by calling their opponents the Publican party, and others offered the Republicrat party. But Democrats never systematically pushed these misnomers, and theyve remained largely out of the public conversation. Advertisement Commentators have long sought to explain the infantile, but persistent and aggressive, Republican habit of labeling the Democratic Party as the Democrat party, among them William Safire, Hendrik Hertzberg, and Ruth Marcus. The New York Times Russell Baker did so twice, first as a reporter in 1956 and then as a columnist 20 years later. These analyses have been illuminating, but for the most part, they have not tracked the origins of this strange verbal tic, as the ic is hard to pin down with any precision, as Hertzberg wrote. Some have (incorrectly) fingered Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator and anti-communist zealot from the 1950s, as the coiner of the phrase, or have associated it with the right-wing extremists of the John Birch Society. In 1984, Safire interviewed Harold Stassen, a Republican politician from Minnesota, who claimed to have coined it in 1940, but Stassen provided no evidence of this to Safire at the time, and Ive found none in the record. Advertisement Advertisement So, what is the history of this strange locution? Tracking the origins of the missing ic provides an instructive window into the evolution of modern conservatism. For although Democrat party has been employed for at least seven decades, it has been a shifting signifier. Tracing the history of the phrase helps us understand how the Republican Party has defined itself by what it was not. The phrase has always been about othering the Democratic Party, but the meaning of the slur has shifted significantly in politically telling ways. This ic-y history begins in 1946, when its key popularizer, the improbably named Brazilla Carroll Reece, a veteran Tennessee congressman, was selected as chair of the Republican National Committee. Reece did not coin the term; Democrat party had been used by headline writers and politicians of both parties since the 19th century. Before 1946, however, the phrase did not have a straightforward connotation; it was sometimes used neutrally, sometimes positively, and sometimes negatively. Advertisement Advertisement Reece blazed the trail for the Democrat party or, equally frequently, the so-called Democrat party to become an insult. Journalists noted his characteristic use of the phrase. It was the Democrat party, as he calls it, wrote Ted Lewis in 1947. Advertisement Advertisement Reece did not, however, offer this renaming out of thin air. He built on two key Republican claims of the previous decade, both arising in opposition to Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal. The first was that, under FDR, the Democratic Party had dangerously radicalized. Frank Knox, the 1936 Republican vice presidential candidate, in a typical version of the critique, said the party had been seized by alien and un-American elements. The second claim was that the Democratic Party had lost touch with small-government traditions. This administration has lost all relationship to the Democratic party, Knox said, to the point where it no longer uses the word Democratic. (This doesnt seem to be truethe 1940 and 1944 Democratic Party platforms use the ic multiple times.) Advertisement In 1940, the Republican presidential candidate, Wendell Willkie, occasionally spoke of the Democrat party, but he did not do so regularly; nor did he use always the term in a derogatory way. In 1944, in the midst of World War II, when Republicans stepped up their criticism of FDR for ceding the party to the leftthe slogan Clear it with Sidney suggested that Roosevelt had allowed labor leader Sidney Hillman to determine party policythe GOP again did not use Democrat party in a consistently critical fashion. Indeed, critics of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party often used the shortened name in a positive way, as a symbol of the restoration of the preNew Deal party. This initial lack of coherence around the terms meaning shows why the definitional work that Reece did was necessary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the immediate postWorld War II moment, Reece expanded the antiNew Deal argument that the Democratic Party no longer is the historic Democratic party. In the context of the nascent Cold War, he did so more systematically, using the phrase Democrat party to signal that the party was not just no longer itself, but outside of the American mainstream and potentially subversive. The radicals who have stolen the Democrat party, he charged, act as if they are working for Moscow. In using the wrong name for the Democratic Party, a label that Democrats came to despise, Reece pioneered a tactic whose primary goal is to demean, upset, and annoy political opponents. The reporter Earl Mazo described the phrasemaker Reece as drawing applause at the 1948 Convention when he ripped into what he calls the Democrat party with lacerating wordage. As with others, like Sen. Joe McCarthy, who followed in his footsteps, Reeces main point, commentators noted, appeared to be humiliation. Nothing seems to annoy a Democrat more than to have his Democratic party called the Democrat party, wrote Fletcher Knebel in 1955. On the other hand, nothing seems to give the Republicans more pleasure than to shear this last syllable off the name of their adversaries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If this is an early ancestor of the tactic we now know as owning the libs, the irony is that, although Reece surely employed the phrase to annoy Democrats, he did so not as an enemy but as a self-proclaimed champion of liberalism, which he associated with the GOP. Reece wanted to reclaim liberalism from the New Dealers, not annoy liberals. Given how the Democrat party slur evolved, it is fascinating to note that Reeces critique of the party was that it was not sufficiently liberalthat, indeed, the Republican Party exemplified American liberalism. Advertisement Within a few decades, as the parties sorted ideologically into conservative and liberal parties, the Republican embrace of liberalism would come to seem absurd, but just after the war, liberalism remained, as the historian Gary Gerstle called it, a protean concept. Although Roosevelt tried to claim the term as synonymous with New Dealstyle politics, many ardent foes of FDR clung to the label. From the start of the New Deal, critics like Herbert Hoover, the man Roosevelt beat to become president in 1933, claimed that the Democratic Party had perverted the true meaning of liberalism, which he associated with individual liberty and limited government. Even though Reece represented the Taft wing of the GOP and was described as an out-and-out conservative when he took over the RNC, he saw himself and his party as representing true liberalism. Advertisement Advertisement For Reece, advocating liberalism was a means of outflanking the Democratic Party from both the left and the right simultaneously. Reece argued that the Democratic Party was unworthy of the name because of what he called its three discordant elements. First were the corrupt big city political machines. Second was the segregationist South, which rules by a racial dictatorship, a dictatorship which may aptly be described as Bilboism (a reference to Theodore Bilbo, the notorious race-baiting Mississippi senator). Finally, Reece highlighted the labor movement and the left, which he believed had asserted ideological control of the party, especially CIO-PAC, the nations first political action committee, which was associated with the left-leaning and fast-growing Congress of Industrial Organizations. Advertisement Although Reece said, I am not asserting that the democrat party is the communist party or the socialist party or the fascist party, or that as a whole it is devoted to un-American theories of government, he implied exactly this when he declared things like the American form of government will be ruined completely if Democrats are elected at the next election, or that the left calls the tune to which the administration dances, and the tune is strangely like the Internationale. And so, despite his protests to the contrary, Reece did use Democrat party for red-baiting purposes, to describe a party dominated by radicals, and to denominate its reactionary elements, as embodied by big-city bosses and Southern racists. Denouncing the Democrat party as dangerously left-wing, he also, with no fear of contradiction, labeled the Democrats the party of reaction and positioned the GOP as the liberal party of the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reece served only one term as RNC head, but he set an enduring template. In 1948, for the first time, the Republican presidential platform un-ic-ed its rival, referring twice to the Democrat administration. While he did not coin the term, Sen. Joseph McCarthy played the role of an accelerant in spreading it; the 1950s were the high point of the relabeling. In one 1953 address, McCarthy used variations of Democrat eight times (Democrat Party, Democrat ticket, Truman Democrat administration). Commentators noted the constant use by Senator McCarthy of Democrat party during the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, one of the first major televised political events in American history. In 1956, another Republican functionary, L. Richard Guylay, the RNCs public relations director, made it the Republican Partys official policy to refer to the opposition as the Democrat party because Democratic as an adjective is not descriptive of the party as it exists today. He insisted that GOP speakers exclusively use what one newspaper called this disrespectful epithet. (By 1956 this was a common line in the mediathat Republicans were being rude in not calling their opponents by the name of their choosing.) Every speech at the Republican National Convention that year was vetted to remove any mention of the Democratic Party. Reporters noted that the text of two-time former Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Deweys address that was circulated to press contained two smudges where party staffers had erased ic. An editorialist in Oregon said that it sounded to us like they were sneering or at least leering when they used the phrase. The GOP platform that year referred variously to Democrat administration, Democrat 84th Congress, and Democrat programs. Advertisement Advertisement By this time, the Democrat party epithet had shifted almost exclusively to critique the partys domination by the labor-leftwhat one columnist called its northern, radical liberals. But the Republicans had not yet abandoned liberalism. As President Dwight Eisenhower said in a statement quoted in the 1956 GOP platform, In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with peoples money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative. In 1960, commentators noted that one sign of Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixons newfound liberalism was that he stopped referring to the Democrat party. Advertisement The presidential election of 1964 was the key turning point. Barry Goldwater, the Republican standard-bearer, was a bold conservative, who, unlike Eisenhower, had no use for the liberal label. In his manifesto, The Conscience of a Conservative, he condemned Eisenhowers embrace of liberalism and used radical as a synonym for liberal. For example, in 1964, William E. Miller, Barry Goldwaters vice presidential nominee, who regularly called it the Democrat party, said that the liberal platform is a blueprint for socialism in America. When South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond switched parties shortly before that election, he said that if the Democrat Party won, Freedom as we have known it in this country is doomed. Sympathetic commentators said that there was now only one kind of Democrat: the liberal Democrat party. In other words, as liberalism came to represent progressive New Dealism, the Democrat party slur became a condemnation of liberalism itself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Interestingly, although the Reagan revolution of the 1980s succeeded where Goldwaters failed, Republicans didnt routinely drop the ic in that decade. The practice only reemerged with a vengeance in the 1990s when Democrats were once again in power. By this time, the Democrat party nickname was closely linked to the partys liberalism, now meaning excessive progressivism. The 1992 Republican platform denounced liberal Democrat tax-and-spend policies and even referred to the Democrat Party plantation. Republicans no longer claimed any connection to liberalism. Indeed, Newt Gingrich, who led the Republican counterrevolution of that decade, said his movement, like Goldwaters, was anti-liberal. It was precisely the partys connection to liberalismelitism, big government, progressive taxation, and so onthat the Democrat party slander was meant to highlight. Democrat liberalism is the root problem, claimed a letter writer to the Biloxi Sun Herald in 2005, explicitly connecting the slur to the offending ideology, in a clear about-face from its coinage by Reece. Advertisement Advertisement The last two Republican presidents employed the insult even more frequently than their predecessors. George W. Bush famously spoke of the Democrat majority in his 2007 State of the Union address. And after Donald Trump became president in 2017, he ramped up his usage of the phrase. Trump made his reasoning explicit: In 2019, he said the Democrat Party. Not Democratic. Its Democrat. We have to do that. And pretty much every ambitious Republican politician today follows his advice. There is an essential strangeness to the Democrat party calumny. Sure, excising the ic makes the party name sound awkward, but the noun democrat should hardly be a term of opprobrium in the United States. If the goal was to highlight that the Democratic Party was not truly democratic, why not say un-Democratic or anti-Democratic, in kinship with a technique that Trump, who has referred to the House Unselect Committee and the Department of Injustice, has so often employed? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that many critics of the New Deal were also critics of democracy. For example, in 1939, H. W. Prentis of the National Association of Manufacturers made the argument that too much Democracy was the greatest pitfall facing the American republic. Later echoed by the John Birch Society, this argument continues to be an article of faith among the modern right: The United States, it is insisted, is a Republic, not a democracy. This may be why, while highlighting and critiquing the anti-democratic tendencies within the Democratic Party, Reece, the original pioneer of the Democrat party slur, chose to do so by celebrating liberalism, not democracy. Misnaming is rude, and Democrats have a right to choose their preferred title. But even as they continue to reject the slur, perhaps they should point out what an odd insult it is, particularly at a time when the party employing the affront has proven themselves to be, at best, indifferent defenders of democracy. Why should anyone be afraid to be called a Democrat? Even without the ic? Western defense ministers ended their conference at a U.S. air base in Germany on Friday afternoon still unable to persuade Germany to send its best battle tanks, the Leopard 2s, to Ukraine. The failure marked a rare and potentially damaging jolt to what has been a rapid flow of Western armsand, still more unnerving, a solid show of Western unityto help the Ukrainian army fight off the Russian invaders. The whole episode signals just how much Europe has changed in the 11 months since Vladimir Putins invasionand also how much, in some ways, it hasnt changed. Advertisement Even just a few years ago, most Western leaders were content that Germanygiven its militarist past under imperial and Nazi rulerssought little role in foreign wars. Now President Biden, most European allies, and many members of Berlins government are upset that Germanys chancellor, Olaf Scholz, isnt seeking a role thats much bigger. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scholz, who took his post just two months before the invasion, has stepped up Germanys involvement in this war to a startling degree. Almost immediately after Russias troops crossed into Ukraine, he bumped up Germanys defense budget by $100 billion (which the legislature, the Bundestag, approved) and, in the months since, agreed to send many types of weapons to Ukraine. Germany is 2nd only to the U.S. as a supplier of arms and economic aid. But he balked at the Leopard 2 tanks. Advertisement His reasons are complicated: unease over nightmarish images from history of German tanks rolling through the plains of Europe (though now theyd be helping to stave off an invasion, not mounting one); the Social Democratic Partys fear of alienating Russia or of provoking Putin to escalate the war further; and public opinion, which closely reflects these fears, is evenly split over whether or not to send tanks. At the same time, Scholz stands alone among the party leaders in his governing coalition. Even the Green Party firmly supports sending Leopards to Ukraine. Scholz has replied to the pressure by saying he simply doesnt want to be the first to cross the line of sending tankssomething Ukraines allies havent done as yetand therefore wants the United States to send its top battle tank, the M1 Abrams, first. Advertisement Advertisement Germany wouldnt be entirely alone if it did send Leopards. Britain has agreed to send 14 of its Challenger tanks, which are very similar to the Abrams and Leopard. But Scholz insists on waiting for the Americans. If Western tanks help Ukraine overrun Russian positions, to the point of threatening Russian territory, Putin, facing an existential threat, could retaliate with tactical nuclear weaponswhich only the American nuclear arsenal could deter; therefore, American tanks should be involved in the fight. Advertisement Its a dubious argument; as long as U.S. or NATO troops arent fighting, I dont see how Putins red lines would be triggered by the provenance of the weapons that Ukrainians are firing. In any case, the problem here is that, as U.S. officials have noted, the Abrams doesnt make sense for the Ukrainian army. Its a maintenance nightmare; it runs on jet fuel and sucks up 3 gallons per mile (not the other way around); a separate, massive supply line would have to be set up, manned, and defended, just for these tanks. A few years ago, the U.S. Marines gave the Abrams a try, decided it wasnt worth the trouble, and sent them all back to the Army. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, heres a modest proposal for the Biden administration: Send Ukraine a handful of Abrams tanks, just as a symbol, if thats what it takes to prod Scholz to unleash dozens or hundreds of Leopards. (I suggested this to a U.S. official, who told me on background that, at $9 million each, the Abrams would be an awfully expensive symbol, and, more to the point, we wouldnt give Ukraine weapons they couldnt use. Still ) In the past week, Poland, the Baltic nations, and Finlandamong the 16 countries that have bought Leopards over the yearshave said they would send some of their Leopards to Ukraine if Germany refused to give them directly. By law, they would need Germanys permission to do so, but they have threatened to send the tanks regardless of whether Berlin grants it. Contracts for international arms sales generally forbid third-party transfers without the suppliers consent. Would Poland and the others break this agreement? Their defense ministers didnt repeat this threat after the meeting broke up on Fridaythough Boris Pistorius, Germanys new defense minister, said, in what may be a signal of compromise, Berlin would not stand in the way if other countries wanted to do this. He also stressed that Berlin was still weighing the issues pros and cons; a delivery may yet happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The clash is a big deal. The tank was invented toward the end of World War I as a way to break through the stalemate of trench warfareand trench warfare, augmented by ceaseless artillery fire, is one way to describe the savage fighting going on in eastern Ukraine. Both sides have used Soviet-built tanks throughout the war, but many of the vehicles have worn down, and, to gain an edge in the next round, Ukraine needs more tankspreferably modern, Western-built tanksespecially if Russia mounts an offensive in the spring. More generally, an army cant win, or even sustain a solid defense, fighting strictly on the defensive; it needs to mount a counteroffensive. In Ukraines case, it needs to do so in order to win back the territory its lostin part for its own sake, in part to bargain from a position of strength if peace talks ever take place. Tanks let soldiers unleash massive amounts of firepower while on the move. The Leopard, Abrams, and Challenger tanks have 120 mm cannons and can move at 40 mph while firing. They also have night visionwhich Russian tanks lackand laser range finders to allow for very accurate shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perhaps to compensate for the absence of a decision on Leopards, the Pentagon announced on Friday a new package of military aid to Ukrainethis one worth $2.5 billionincluding not only a lot more missiles, rockets, mortars, artillery rounds, and so forth, but also 59 Bradley fighting vehicles (on top of the 109 Bradleys previously sent), 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers, and 53 Mine-Resistant Armor-Protected (MRAP) vehicles (in addition to the 580 sent earlier). These arent tanks, but theyre armored vehiclesequipped with machine guns and anti-tank weaponsthat carry infantry troops at high speeds either on their own or alongside tanks. Military offensives are combined-arms operations, involving armor and infantry (as well as air power) fighting in tandem. Advertisement Advertisement In other words, no one could reasonably claim that the U.S. is holding back. Still, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who made a pitch for tanks before the meeting, has reason to be impatient. Whether the new tanks are Leopards or more Challengers, it will take a few weeks for his troops to train on them, and another few weeks to deploy them in the field and integrate them with other units. (Doing this with Abrams tanks would take a few months.) Meanwhile, the spring offensive, when those tanks would come in handy, could start rolling in a couple of months. The defense ministers did what they could on Friday; few expected them to resolve all the conflicts. The heads of stateBiden, Scholz, and the othersnow need to step in and make whatever deals are necessary.